About a year ago, I wrote about reCAPTCHA and thought it was an interesting alternative to the eye-crossing patterns and letters that many web sites use. I said “I’m not yet convinced it will work, but it’s an interesting idea.” Since then, I’ve come across reCAPTCHA on a number of sites and I really like [...]
Category Archives: Annoyances
Kill the Kill Switch
June 30, 2008 – 4:23 pm
Bruce Schneier recently posted a commentary on Wired titled I’ve Seen the Future, and It Has a Kill Switch. Looks like everyone wants to be able to control everything. OnStar will soon include the ability for the police to shut off your engine remotely. Buses are getting the same capability, in case terrorists want to [...]
Do Libraries Make You Sick?
June 10, 2008 – 10:37 am
A group of people in New Mexico claim that they are “allergic” to WiFi signals. They are trying to get WiFi removed from all public buildings and guess where they are starting? Libraries. So that’s why people aren’t going libraries! They don’t get headaches from trying to figure out our catalogs or navigate our poorly [...]
Can Libraries Drop DRM?
May 18, 2008 – 11:47 pm
The Free Software Foundation has an ongoing campaign against Digital Rights Management. They promote their cause over at defectivebydesign.org and I think it’s generally a good site to learn about DRM and how it is restricting digital freedoms. Recently, the group held a protest at the Boston Public Library where they demanded that libraries drop [...]
Kill the Kitten
September 23, 2007 – 10:53 pm
As I mentioned in a previous post, there’s a lot of interest among Ohio libraries in open source software. In the southwest corner, I’ve been getting questions on open source ILS’s, content management systems, public computers (e.g. Edubuntu), and wireless hotspots. Recently, several library organizations got together at the State Library to discuss how we [...]
