Re: [CODE4LIB] VPNs - free to low cost

[Tom Keays]

I mostly use VPN as an extra layer between man in the middle attacks (or as
a quick way to spoof being off-campus for testing proxy servers or Open
Athens). With secure HTTPS being a thing, the actual need for a VPN is
somewhat reduced, but I figure it can't hurt, especially since Tunnelbear
makes setting it up and using it simple.

Erich's security analysis of VPNs is something I'd not considered, but I
rather doubt it applies in this situation. Not saying a breach couldn't
happen, but for someone who only needs it for a short time once a month, a
VPN seems like a sufficient additional security option.

Good luck.
Tom

On Sat, Oct 7, 2023 at 9:21 PM charles meyer  wrote:

> Hi Erich and Tom,
>
> Thank you so much for sharing your helpful thoughts, experience with
> TunnelBear and links to trusted review sites.
>
> They are hard to come by for everything these days – consumer goods,
> electronics, etc.
>
> You wrote  If you want the privacy from tracking or surveillance, I
> wouldn’t use a free VPN service.”
>
> What would you use?
>
> How affordable is that option?
>
> I’ve since learned she’s been a victim of fraud on the net via Instagram
> and Facebook so she doesn’t want be found by these miscreants and wants to
> ensure her Social Security money isn’t drained from her bank checking
> account via unauthorized withdrawals.
>
> Would TunnelBear suffice under these circumstances?
>
> Hi Joe… Thank you for educating me re: what VPNs but what would you do/use
> if you were in this patron’s circumstances?
>
> Hi Tamara, since you don’t recommend using a VPN in these circumstances how
> would you suggest someone who isn’t a systems administrator and doesn’t
> have that training ascertain how to check that her public WIFI provided by
> a smaller public library is secure with a valid certificate?
>
> She logs on to the net with the library hotspot and types in her bank’s url
> (or click the bookmark in Firefox, Brave or Vivaldi) and is prompted for
> her user ID and password to her bank web page. Once in to that back she
> checks on checking account balance and for any unauthorized debits.
>
> She then needs to connect to the online credit card bank to log in so she
> can transfer funds from her local bank to the credit card bank so she can
> pay off her monthly credit card balance.
>
> Thank you so much.
>
> Charles.
>
> Charlotte County Public Library
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] VPNs - free to low cost

[Tom Keays]

Tunnelbear is  basic VPN with a friendly UI . It has a 2 GB free plan and,
last I used it, no ads. It is good for web based transactions and has
clients for Windows, Macintosh, iOS and Android. I’ve always been happy
with it.

https://www.tunnelbear.com/



On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 9:19 PM charles meyer  wrote:

> My esteemed listmates,
>
> Patron on living on modest Social Security alone is exploring if there’s
> any free to low cost ($5-10 a month) VPN for her once a month electronic
> payment of her bank credit card from her checking account using a free
> library hotspot.
>
> Her bank for her credit card has no brick and mortar locations.
>
> I wasn’t sure what others used as reliable tech sites for comparing and
> contrasting VPNs?
>
> Just Googling this, I found these sites but I’m not sure how a accurate any
> of them are?
>
> https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/best-free-vpn-wifi-hotspots/
>
> https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/hotspot-shield-vpn
>
> https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/surfshark-vpn-review/
>
> https://www.usnews.com/360-reviews/privacy/vpn/hotspot-shield
>
> Thanks so much,
>
> Charles.
>
> Charlotte County Public Library
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Animation detective

[Tom Keays]

And lest we forget, there's also WebGL, for which the most often used
library is Three.js. You frequently encounter mind-blowing WebGL/Three.js
animations on CodePen and Daniel Velasquez has a newsletter highlighting
different techniques.
https://offscreencanvas.com/issues/

On Thu, May 4, 2023 at 12:12 PM Panetta, Alyssa A 
wrote:

> Hi Charles,
>
> A lot of cool web animations happen directly within the code these days
> using CSS, SVG, and JS, so what you're seeing might not be created by
> external software -- it might actually be happening within the page's
> source code. If it is, using your browser's Dev Tools panel, you'll be able
> to get an idea of how it was done.
>
> Most simply, it could be a CSS animation, which you could inspect using
> the Animation tab:
> https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/css/animations/. If you're
> comfortable with CSS, you might try writing your own:
> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/one-dev-minute/getting-started-css-animations
>
> More involved animations (more than a rotate, flip, scale or translate),
> usually use SVG graphics and need some Javascript. When you inspect the
> element, if it's SVG, you'll see tags like  and . You'll see
> evidence of Javascript animations in the Sources tab. There's a great JS
> library for creating animations called GSAP: https://greensock.com/gsap/
> and if the site is using it, you'll see a Source that has "/gsap/" in its
> path. Here's a great introduction to SVG Animations with GSAP:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POBxxUkvHi4.
>
> To me, SVG + GSAP is the best and most interesting method of animating on
> the web, but it does have a learning curve, so I'd recommend getting
> started with CSS animations as a first step.
>
> Best,
> Alyssa
>
>
>
> Alyssa Panetta
> Web Designer/Developer
> University Libraries
> University at Albany
>
> 
> From: Code for Libraries  on behalf of Joe
> Hourclé 
> Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 9:09 PM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG 
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Animation detective
>
> >
> > On May 3, 2023, at 8:49 PM, charles meyer 
> wrote:
> >
> > My esteemed listmates,
> >
> > If I see animated graphics on a Web site, is there any way to look in the
> > page source code to detect which software created that animation?
>
> It wouldn’t be in the source code, unless the animation is actually a
> slideshow that’s being generated by JavaScript.  (Which is useful to allow
> people to speed up or speed down animations for analysis purposes)
>
> Most others will just tell you the file type, which won’t necessarily tell
> you what created the file.
>
> If you download it, and open it in an appropriate viewer, you can try to
> check if there is any metadata attached.  Sometimes the software will write
> something in there about who and what created the file.
>
> -Joe
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Current List Administrator?

[Tom Keays]

FWIW, the listserv info page is here.
  https://wiki.code4lib.org/MailingList
Eric's contact info is at the very bottom.

On Tue, Sep 13, 2022 at 11:40 AM Steven Turner 
wrote:

> As per the subject. I cannot find a name or email on the code4lib site.
> Can the current administrator, when you read this message, please contact
> me off-list with your info? Thanks so much.
>
> Steven Turner
>
>
> Steven Turner, MLIS
> Manager, Web Technologies and Development, Assistant Professor
>
> University Libraries
> The University of Alabama
> 416 Gorgas Library | Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0266
> office 205-348-1638
> steven.j.tur...@ua.edu | http://www.lib.ua.edu/
>
>
>
>
>
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] New WorldCat.org and "Web Visibility" product

[Tom Keays]

Thanks, Dan, for the heads up. I hadn't played with it until your post.

On Wed, Aug 24, 2022 at 6:38 PM Dan Scott  wrote:

> Yes, I could be wrong, in that perhaps only the libraries
> that are now labeled "Featured libraries" were displayed in the old
> WorldCat. In that case, the "All libraries" tab would be displaying more
> libraries (albeit with no possible interactions).
>

Le Moyne College holdings were previously discoverable in the old WorldCat.
Now we're relegated to the All Libraries tab. Ugh.


> The introduction of the Web Visibility subscription offer is new. I suppose
> a generous interpretation is that it should be less expensive than a full
> FirstSearch/Discovery subscription and thus accessible to more libraries.
>

We don't have a Discovery subscription, but do have several OCLC products,
including WorldShare ILL, cataloging and metadata services. So, this
development is quite disappointing. This won't be my fight (I'm actually
officially retired, although I'm still doing some occasional consulting
work) but this development might, arguably, be a reason to jump ship to
another ILL network. We've been considering Alma/Primo to replace our
current ILS and the Rapido ILL network has some technology advantages;
they're further along in CDL, f'instance. Can't speak to cataloging, but my
understanding is the shared cataloging module in Alma is completely
adequate. (I suspect our technical services librarian might disagree, but
not for reasons of record quality.)

Even though we never purchased the Discovery service, once upon a time,
OCLC configured it -- I think because we were also FirstSearch customers --
and it is still working, complete with links to our holdings, as was the
case in the old WorldCat. Perhaps its days are numbered...

Tom Keays

Re: [CODE4LIB] Accessibility auditing services?

[Tom Keays]

On Wed, Jun 8, 2022 at 3:19 PM Lolis, John  wrote:

> I haven't had any experience with them, but try
> https://accessibe.com/accessscan.
>

The accessibility Slack community have pretty consistently criticized
AccessiBe and other accessibility overlays as a harmful technology. You can
also find mainstream articles like this fairly easily and frequently.

"The National Federation of the Blind, America’s most powerful civil rights
and advocacy group for the visually impaired has launched a scathing attack
on web accessibility overlay market leader accessiBe, accusing the company
of engaging in “harmful” practices."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gusalexiou/2021/06/26/largest-us-blind-advocacy-group-bans-web-accessibility-overlay-giant-accessibe/

Deque is the real deal though.

Re: [CODE4LIB] Recommendation requests: VPN for off-campus testing

[Tom Keays]

Good tip about Cloudflare. I intend to look into them.

The NY Times published an article yesterday, associated loosely with a
Wirecutter review, that talks about being cautious about choosing a VPN
provider and about checking to see if the one you are looking at has been
recently acquired. They gave an example of PIA (which I've used in the
past) being acquired by a British security firm that has been called out
for adding malware in some of their products.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/technology/personaltech/are-vpns-worth-it.html
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-vpn-service/

The article closes with a suggestion to use the open source Algo and set it
up on your own Amazon cloud server.

https://github.com/trailofbits/algo


On Tue, Oct 5, 2021 at 12:02 PM Graeme Williams 
wrote:

> Cloudflare has a VPN called WARP which you can find at 1.1.1.1
>
> It's free, and it's simple to install.  There are versions for Windows,
> Linux, Mac, Android and Apple.
>
> You don't need to run it on a VM if you don't want to.  It's simple to turn
> on and off.
>
> Graeme Williams
> Las Vegas, NV
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 5, 2021 at 8:45 AM Julia Bauder 
> wrote:
>
> > I test off-campus access by using 4G on my phone. As a bonus, it means I
> > get to see how well the resource works on a mobile-sized screen!
> >
> > Julia
> >
> > _
> > Julia Bauder
> > Social Studies and Data Services Librarian
> > Grinnell College Libraries
> >  6th Ave.
> > Grinnell, IA 50112
> > 641-269-4431
> >
> > On Tue, Oct 5, 2021 at 10:16 AM Catherine Smith 
> wrote:
> >
> > > We are researching new methods for testing off-campus access of our
> > > E-Resources.  We currently use the HMA VPN on a virtual machine, but it
> > has
> > > become increasingly slow and unreliable.  Does anyone have a product or
> > > procedure that you are using the works well that you would recommend?
> > >
> > > Many thanks!
> > >
> > > --Catherine
> > >
> > > Catherine Smith, MLIS | she/her/hers
> > > Coordinator of Metadata | Assistant Professor
> > > University Libraries, Resource Acquisition & Discovery
> > > The University of Alabama
> > > Phone 205-348-1516
> > > clsmit...@ua.edu | https://lib.ua.edu
> > >
> > >
> >
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] The IP Registry

[Tom Keays]

Thanks Eric. I'm glad we only have to deal with one of these things.
Tom

On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 4:38 PM Eric Phetteplace  wrote:

> This is actually the same registry, MIT has not-too-helpfullly linked to
> the company's website and not the IP Registry itself, but you can get there
> with a few clicks. We subscribe to a few of their journals so I suppose we
> have to add an entry to the registry now.
>
> Best,
> Eric
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 1:32 PM Tom Keays  wrote:
>
> > Oh boy. MIT Press is migrating to a new platform and they want us to be
> on
> > yet another IP registry platform. From the email...
> >
> > *Sign up for PSI’s IP registry*, if you are not already registered.
> > https://www.psiregistry.org/
> > <
> >
> https://mit.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7caff40e82d72e9429c33df2a=2cb79f8b34=4349323911
> > >
> > .
> >
> > Does anybody have any experience with them?
> >
> > Tom
> >
> > On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 9:30 PM Fitchett, Deborah <
> > deborah.fitch...@lincoln.ac.nz> wrote:
> >
> > > In my experience, since we signed up, they do email us very
> occasionally
> > > to say “Oh we heard such-and-such an IP range is you, can you confirm?”
> > so
> > > we can login and say “No, no that hasn’t been our IP range for 10
> years,
> > > who on earth still has that on file?”
> > >
> > > --More precisely, we can say “No.” But at least that’s something.
> > >
> > > It’s… problematic that they’re maintaining ranges for institutions who
> > > haven’t signed up. I guess they’re thinking then there’s more incentive
> > to
> > > get publishers to come on board, since it is one of those services that
> > > will work best if most people are on board, and getting momentum when
> few
> > > people are on board is a challenge.
> > >
> > > I do really like the idea of the service. I come at this from having to
> > go
> > > through the “email/login to ALL the publishers to update IP ranges”
> about
> > > three times in not very many more years, it was painful and I remain
> > > traumatised. The idea of just being able to update a single place (or
> at
> > > least a single place for most publishers and a few outliers
> individually)
> > > is really appealing.
> > >
> > > I note a couple of their publishers are now using the IP Registry’s API
> > to
> > > stay updated with IP addresses, which seems like another great
> > development.
> > >
> > > Maybe it’s worth sending them feedback that if they provide IP
> addresses
> > > for institutions who haven’t signed up, they need to make it clear to
> > > publishers that these are non-verified and publishers should always
> > confirm
> > > with the institution before making changes.
> > >
> > > Deborah
> > >
> > >
> > > From: Code for Libraries  On Behalf Of Lolis,
> > > John
> > > Sent: Saturday, 5 December 2020 12:25 PM
> > > To: CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG
> > > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] The IP Registry
> > >
> > > It seems to me that they have a glaring omission in not notifying a
> > > registrant when someone submitted or modified an IP address range for
> > their
> > > institution. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
> > >
> > > As for *publishers* providing IP address ranges to update an
> > institution's
> > > IP range, *what are they thinking?*
> > >
> > > John Lolis
> > > Coordinator of Computer Systems
> > >
> > > 100 Martine Avenue
> > > White Plains, NY 10601
> > >
> > > tel: 1.914.422.1497
> > > fax: 1.914.422.1452
> > >
> > > https://whiteplainslibrary.org/<https://whiteplainslibrary.org>
> > >
> > > *When you think about it, *all* security is ultimately security by
> > > ignorance.*
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, 4 Dec 2020 at 18:09, Will Martin  > > w...@will-martin.net>> wrote:
> > >
> > > > They portray themselves as offering accurate IP ranges, when what
> > > > they've got amounts to some guess-work. They don't really have any
> way
> > > > to catch errors like the Choopa.net example Tom Keays gave, or the
> > > > consortium sub-range in mine. Unless, of course, the way they catch
> > > > those is to rely on people from the institutions to eventually log in
> > > > and correct those for them.
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] The IP Registry

[Tom Keays]

Oh boy. MIT Press is migrating to a new platform and they want us to be on
yet another IP registry platform. From the email...

*Sign up for PSI’s IP registry*, if you are not already registered.
https://www.psiregistry.org/
<https://mit.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7caff40e82d72e9429c33df2a=2cb79f8b34=4349323911>
.

Does anybody have any experience with them?

Tom

On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 9:30 PM Fitchett, Deborah <
deborah.fitch...@lincoln.ac.nz> wrote:

> In my experience, since we signed up, they do email us very occasionally
> to say “Oh we heard such-and-such an IP range is you, can you confirm?” so
> we can login and say “No, no that hasn’t been our IP range for 10 years,
> who on earth still has that on file?”
>
> --More precisely, we can say “No.” But at least that’s something.
>
> It’s… problematic that they’re maintaining ranges for institutions who
> haven’t signed up. I guess they’re thinking then there’s more incentive to
> get publishers to come on board, since it is one of those services that
> will work best if most people are on board, and getting momentum when few
> people are on board is a challenge.
>
> I do really like the idea of the service. I come at this from having to go
> through the “email/login to ALL the publishers to update IP ranges” about
> three times in not very many more years, it was painful and I remain
> traumatised. The idea of just being able to update a single place (or at
> least a single place for most publishers and a few outliers individually)
> is really appealing.
>
> I note a couple of their publishers are now using the IP Registry’s API to
> stay updated with IP addresses, which seems like another great development.
>
> Maybe it’s worth sending them feedback that if they provide IP addresses
> for institutions who haven’t signed up, they need to make it clear to
> publishers that these are non-verified and publishers should always confirm
> with the institution before making changes.
>
> Deborah
>
>
> From: Code for Libraries  On Behalf Of Lolis,
> John
> Sent: Saturday, 5 December 2020 12:25 PM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] The IP Registry
>
> It seems to me that they have a glaring omission in not notifying a
> registrant when someone submitted or modified an IP address range for their
> institution. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
>
> As for *publishers* providing IP address ranges to update an institution's
> IP range, *what are they thinking?*
>
> John Lolis
> Coordinator of Computer Systems
>
> 100 Martine Avenue
> White Plains, NY 10601
>
> tel: 1.914.422.1497
> fax: 1.914.422.1452
>
> https://whiteplainslibrary.org/<https://whiteplainslibrary.org>
>
> *When you think about it, *all* security is ultimately security by
> ignorance.*
>
>
>
> On Fri, 4 Dec 2020 at 18:09, Will Martin  w...@will-martin.net>> wrote:
>
> > They portray themselves as offering accurate IP ranges, when what
> > they've got amounts to some guess-work. They don't really have any way
> > to catch errors like the Choopa.net example Tom Keays gave, or the
> > consortium sub-range in mine. Unless, of course, the way they catch
> > those is to rely on people from the institutions to eventually log in
> > and correct those for them.
> >
> > I'm going to go ahead and update my institutions ranges with them
> > anyway, because I think I have to. But I'm not going to like them for
> > it.
> >
> > Will
> >
> > On 2020-12-04 16:49, Tom Keays wrote:
> > > A couple of years ago, when I was reviewing the IP set up for Scitation
> > > for
> > > my institution, I noticed it included an unfamiliar IP range,
> > > 216.155.128.000 - 216.155.128.063. This was not the first time I had
> > > encountered this range (although I don't have a record of what the
> > > previous
> > > vendors were where I found it). After spending some time investigating,
> > > I
> > > determined that it belonged to an internet hosting company called
> > > Choopa.net. Definitely a bogus listing for us.
> > >
> > > Anyway, when I first set up my account at The IP Registry, they also
> > > listed
> > > this range. When I told them about it and asked them how they got it
> > > and
> > > explained that it should never have been there in their records, they
> > > replied, "This IP range was supplied to us by a number of publishers
> > > who
> > > are using it to provide access."
> > >
> > > I don't really know how this range got listed as being valid for my
> > > institution. Was it there beca

Re: [CODE4LIB] The IP Registry

[Tom Keays]

A couple of years ago, when I was reviewing the IP set up for Scitation for
my institution, I noticed it included an unfamiliar IP range,
216.155.128.000 - 216.155.128.063. This was not the first time I had
encountered this range (although I don't have a record of what the previous
vendors were where I found it). After spending some time investigating, I
determined that it belonged to an internet hosting company called
Choopa.net. Definitely a bogus listing for us.

Anyway, when I first set up my account at The IP Registry, they also listed
this range. When I told them about it and asked them how they got it and
explained that it should never have been there in their records, they
replied, "This IP range was supplied to us by a number of publishers who
are using it to provide access."

I don't really know how this range got listed as being valid for my
institution. Was it there because individual social engineered somebody's
support team in order to get free access to online resources? I have to
assume so. I also don't know if The IP Registry got it from the e-resource
vendors and accepted it without question or the vendors got it from them,
again without question. Either way, it made me worry about trusting them
too far.

Tom

On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 2:33 PM Jeremiah Kellogg  wrote:

> Yikes, this does sound like we're being forced into a service whether we
> want to use it or not.  At our institution we're the default owner of a
> range of IPs we manage on behalf of a public library consortium that we're
> not actually a part of (so the consortium shouldn't be accessing our
> databases).  The IP registry had grabbed that range of IPs and included
> them in our profile, but had them pending verification from our institution
> that we actually owned them before making them available to publishers.  I
> ended up editing that range to exclude the consortium IPs, and then no
> longer had to verify the remaining range of IPs that were correct.  Now
> that I really think about this, had I not made those edits, our proxy
> server would have been excluded and we would have faced a situation where
> our students, faculty and staff were denied access to the services they
> should be able to access.  So we would have faced the opposite problem that
> you experienced, Will, where people would be denied access rather than
> given access they shouldn't have.  Either way, the only apparent way these
> problems can be fixed is by signing up with the IP registry and updating
> things ourselves... and that's kind of underhanded.  I'm not sure I'd worry
> too much about the legalities because it appears vendors, unlike our
> institutions, participate willingly, and if they're willing to take the
> ipregistry's word that our IP ranges are accurate that's on them.  It's
> just really frustrating to think that we'd face these kinds of problems due
> to an outside entity getting things wrong on our behalf, and the only way
> to fix them is by signing up with them and making corrections.
>
> I don't think I mind them selling our improved IP data to vendors because
> that's the kind of thing most free services need to do to pay the bills
> these days. I might be putting the work into it, but it's not so much that
> I feel like I'm putting more in than I'm getting out of it.  However, as
> you point out, Will, there doesn't appear to be a mechanism for opting out
> of their system, and that really stinks.  I haven't dug too deep, but I
> wonder if there's a way of setting things up with vendors who use that
> service to stop using it when we make such a request?  I think I'm pretty
> much on the same page as you, Will.  It's a great idea for a service, but
> being forced into it will understandably leave a bad taste in people's
> mouths, and it also casts a bit of shadow on the service's integrity.  I
> get that participation is important for this kind of thing, but I suspect
> there are better ways of getting people onboard!
>
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2020 at 6:02 PM Will Martin  wrote:
>
> > I am concerned by the fact that the IP Registry appears to have gone
> > around figuring out the IP ranges for schools based on public records
> > from the IANA and a bunch of vendor records.  I'm sure that was
> > difficult, and their site says it took four years.  When it was done,
> > they announced that 58% of IP ranges were wrong, and began selling the
> > service to vendors and telling them what our IP addresses are based on
> > their analysis.
> >
> > I claimed the account for my institution and discovered that there were
> > 26 vendors already pulling my university's IP ranges from the IP
> > Registry.  Unfortunately, the IP ranges were wrong.  To name a few
> > problems:
> >
> > 1) They conflated us with another school in the same university system.
> >
> > 2) They could not know that there are a couple of IP ranges that we
> > prefer to be treated as "off campus" even though they belong to the
> > University.
> >
> > 3) They had no way to 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Anyone attempted to use Raspberry Pi w/camera tomonitor building capacity?

[Tom Keays]

There's also Jason Griffey's Measure the Future project --
http://jasongriffey.net/mtf/. The project uses OpenCV with optical sensors
(again, not cameras) on networked Raspberry Pis. The repo hasn't been
updated since 2018 -- https://github.com/MeasureTheFuture

On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 1:57 PM Kun Lin  wrote:

> It seems like it is a device sensing the existence of wifi or Bluetooth
> device in the area. I do currently have the capacity to get number of
> device association via building’s wifi access points as I assume student’s
> phone is most likely already configure to connect to college’s wifi
> network.  I will be looking more into entry/exit sensor for a more precise
> head count.
>
> Thanks
> Kun
>
> From: Monica Maceli
> Sent: Thursday, July 9, 2020 10:39 AM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Anyone attempted to use Raspberry Pi w/camera
> tomonitor building capacity?
>
> I found the example I mentioned in case anyone is interested in the future,
> turns out it was a UCSD student project that they have now turned into a
> company -  https://waitz.io/  Currently, it looks like it is used in
> McGill
> and UCSD libraries and maybe others? They have done some product
> development on it, but under the hood each device is just a raspberry pi, I
> believe.
>
> They have a fancier algorithm for getting more accuracy, but I am just
> doing basic counting/deduping of any bluetooth-enabled devices in range of
> the Pi and then dumping the address data and just retaining the count for
> privacy purposes. So just using the onboard bluetooth chip with the pybluez
> python library, no additional sensors necessary, can scan the environment
> and tell you there are X number of devices in range with bluetooth on. Run
> and observed repeatedly you can then get a sense of the space's
> baseline and changes over time.
>
> To do entrance/exit detection external sensors are needed (wired to a Pi or
> Arduino), e.g. using PIR motion sensor or ultrasonic range sensor similar
> to the approach in the article Tom posted ->
> https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/12947 This is very straightforward
> if
> there is a dedicated entrance and exit. If it's bi-directional foot traffic
> you'd need a set of sensors to determine direction, e.g. in a meeting room
> to be able to say there have been 10 entrances and 5 exits so let's assume
> about 5 people inside. You could also get very fine-grained and use
> pressure sensors on each seat to tell if it's occupied or not (places like
> We Work do this).
>
> Kun - if you'd like to discuss further feel free to email me directly my
> contact info is in my signature, always happy to talk about sensor stuff!
>
> Best,
>
> Monica Maceli, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor
> Pratt Institute | School of Information
> 144 W 14th St, 6th Floor, New York, NY, 10011-7301
> www.monicamaceli.com | mmac...@pratt.edu
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 12:32 PM Kun Lin  wrote:
>
> > Hi Monica
> > Could you let me know what kind of sensor you are using? The bluetooth
> > scanner, are you referring to scanning for bluetooth device or it's a
> > bluetooth connection to your computer?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Kun
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 7:54 AM Monica Maceli  wrote:
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > I have been experimenting with entrance/exit sensors (pir and/or
> > > ultrasonic) combined with a Bluetooth scanner running on Pis to
> calculate
> > > relative space crowdedness for our campus.  Data is sent over wifi via
> > MQTT
> > > to a cloud Influxdb database w/ Grafana for data dashboard and
> alerting.
> > I
> > > don't have published code currently but I'd be happy to share and work
> > with
> > > others on this.
> > >
> > > I too felt that the cameras, while doable and probably more accurate,
> > would
> > > introduce too many privacy concerns.
> > >
> > > I got the Bluetooth idea from a project I heard about awhile ago, but I
> > > can't remember the original creator (I think a librarian had these
> placed
> > > in a library and a Redditor found a Pi and posted a "what is this
> thing?"
> > > post). Does this ring any bells?
> > >
> > > Best,
> > >
> > > Monica Maceli, Ph.D.
> > > Associate Professor
> > > Pratt Institute | School of Information
> > > 144 W 14th St, 6th Floor, New York, NY, 10011-7301
> > > www.monicamaceli.com | mmac...@pratt.edu
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 8:57 PM Tom Keays  wrote:
> > >
> > > > There was this write

Re: [CODE4LIB] Anyone attempted to use Raspberry Pi w/camera to monitor building capacity?

[Tom Keays]

There was this write up from 2017 in the C4L Journal. Not cameras, but
other kinds of sensors that didn't trigger any privacy concerns.

https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/12947

On Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 1:20 PM Goben, Abigail H  wrote:

> I think Griffey did http://jasongriffey.net/mtf/homepage/feed/index.html
>
>
> --
> Abigail H. Goben, MLS
> ago...@uic.edu
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries  On Behalf Of Kun Lin
> Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 12:02 PM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG
> Subject: [CODE4LIB] Anyone attempted to use Raspberry Pi w/camera to
> monitor building capacity?
>
> Anyone attempted to use Raspberry Pi w/camera to monitor building
> capacity? Any good resources on how to do that?
> Thanks
> Kun
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] zotero and extracting files

[Tom Keays]

I'd be curious too. If you get anywhere with this, please share.

That said, I know some publisher's pack a lot of structured data in meta
elements in the head and they often mark up the text in the body with
classes and IDs that Zotero and Mendeley may be able to parse. Plus, any
article with an identifiable DOI probably allows Zotero to pull citation
data from CrossRef's API.














https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S2590238519304102-fx1.jpg; />




https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590238519304102/pdfft?md5=1a3c2cef77147050f8976213df4a537epid=1-s2.0-S2590238519304102-main.pdf;
/>

Systematically Improving Espresso: Insights from Mathematical
Modeling and Experiment - ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590238519304102; />

On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 8:20 PM Mark Weiler  wrote:

> The Zotero browser plugin seems to have the ability to extract metadata
> (e.g., author name) and PDF from a publisher's page.
>
> From a screen reader perspective this is helpful as it avoids having to
> learn how to navigate publisher's pages.
>
> Anyone have time to talk about how this done via phone?
> mark
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4lib journal as epub?

[Tom Keays]

Oops... living the past. I meant Pocket, not Paper.

On Wed, Jul 10, 2019 at 11:13 AM Tom Keays  wrote:

> I used to try to convert articles to ePub so I could read them later, but
> over time, I've reverted to using Instapaper for that
> purpose. (Aside: Paper is perhaps a more robust alternative, although I
> haven't made the switch yet myself. I noticed that Firefox seems to use
> Paper for its in-browser reader.) In any case, Instapaper works well enough
> with Code4Lib Journal articles. With Instapaper, if anything is garbled and
> I still want to read it, I just go to the original and read it there
> instead. I also use an IFTTT applet that reads RSS feeds and saves articles
> automatically to Instapaper. That's pretty sweet.
>
> However, to actually answer your question, I came across a browser
> extension called EpubPress -- https://epub.press/ -- that looks pretty
> good. I opened up 6 articles from the current issue of Code4Lib Journal
> and followed the EpubPress wizard to select all of them to convert to ePub.
> It made a nice little booklet with a table of contents. Graphics and even
> tables were handled pretty well. Code was a bit of a mess (long lines
> wrapped awkwardly), but probably good enough. I guess if I cared enough, I
> might try editing them in Sigil.
>
> Tom
>
> On Mon, Jul 8, 2019 at 3:34 PM Sylvain Machefert <
> sylvain.machef...@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>> summer is fast approaching and with it is coming time to catch up with
>> C4L journals issues I have missed. I was looking for a way to get the
>> latests issues as epub and so far I have not found an easy way to do it.
>>
>> I have found the discussions on code4lib wiki that date back to 2014 :
>> https://wiki.code4lib.org/C4lMW14_-_Code4Lib_Journal_as_epub and the
>> associated github repository
>> https://github.com/jtgorman/c4l-journal-as-epub but the issue27.epub
>> example is generating errors in Calibre.
>>
>> The ruby code at https://github.com/LouisStAmour/journal2epub seems to
>> work better as the downloadable epubs at
>> https://github.com/LouisStAmour/journal2epub/downloads work fine but
>> they stop at issue 12, and as I am not really into ruby I have not
>> been able to install it. But as the latest update is from 9 years ago,
>> I am not sure it is a good idea to investigate into it.
>>
>> So to summarize : is anybody there reading C4L journal as epub? Would
>> you please share your method to get properly formatted epub from an
>> issue?
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Sylvain
>>
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4lib journal as epub?

[Tom Keays]

I used to try to convert articles to ePub so I could read them later, but
over time, I've reverted to using Instapaper for that
purpose. (Aside: Paper is perhaps a more robust alternative, although I
haven't made the switch yet myself. I noticed that Firefox seems to use
Paper for its in-browser reader.) In any case, Instapaper works well enough
with Code4Lib Journal articles. With Instapaper, if anything is garbled and
I still want to read it, I just go to the original and read it there
instead. I also use an IFTTT applet that reads RSS feeds and saves articles
automatically to Instapaper. That's pretty sweet.

However, to actually answer your question, I came across a browser
extension called EpubPress -- https://epub.press/ -- that looks pretty
good. I opened up 6 articles from the current issue of Code4Lib Journal
and followed the EpubPress wizard to select all of them to convert to ePub.
It made a nice little booklet with a table of contents. Graphics and even
tables were handled pretty well. Code was a bit of a mess (long lines
wrapped awkwardly), but probably good enough. I guess if I cared enough, I
might try editing them in Sigil.

Tom

On Mon, Jul 8, 2019 at 3:34 PM Sylvain Machefert <
sylvain.machef...@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr> wrote:

> Hello,
> summer is fast approaching and with it is coming time to catch up with
> C4L journals issues I have missed. I was looking for a way to get the
> latests issues as epub and so far I have not found an easy way to do it.
>
> I have found the discussions on code4lib wiki that date back to 2014 :
> https://wiki.code4lib.org/C4lMW14_-_Code4Lib_Journal_as_epub and the
> associated github repository
> https://github.com/jtgorman/c4l-journal-as-epub but the issue27.epub
> example is generating errors in Calibre.
>
> The ruby code at https://github.com/LouisStAmour/journal2epub seems to
> work better as the downloadable epubs at
> https://github.com/LouisStAmour/journal2epub/downloads work fine but
> they stop at issue 12, and as I am not really into ruby I have not
> been able to install it. But as the latest update is from 9 years ago,
> I am not sure it is a good idea to investigate into it.
>
> So to summarize : is anybody there reading C4L journal as epub? Would
> you please share your method to get properly formatted epub from an
> issue?
>
> Best regards,
> Sylvain
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Google Chrome privacy changes untenable

[Tom Keays]

I appreciate the information about the change in Chrome. I agree that there
are use cases, especially on shared machines, where it could be a big
concern. However, I have personally resisted getting upset, despite the
furor around me, because I don't feel it fundamentally changes anything for
me (except make it easier to be logged in the way I expect).

As someone who maintains two Google accounts (MPOW uses Google Apps and I
have a personal Gmail/Google account), having separate profiles in Chrome
meant I could run two browser instances side by side, each with their own
synced bookmarks and login state. Profiles work best when you're logged
into Chrome (although you can still get away being logged out, even in
Chrome 69).

I use a 3rd party password manager, so I don't sync passwords, payment
methods, or addresses through Chrome. I have a browser extension that
purges my browser history when I shut down the browser. I guess cookies
could be a concern -- sometimes database access through the proxy will get
a corrupted session and I have to purge the cookies out, but that happens
to my colleagues once in a while and I suspect they don't all use sync or
run multiple accounts. Again, I use a browser extension to delete cookies
or, rarely, bare metal delete the history, sessions, and cookies.

I confess being occasionally worried about what Google knows about me and
reading various articles about the change hasn't reassured me. One article
made a good point about the change making a mess of Chrome's previously
very reasonable (and readable) privacy policy. And it raises the issue
about Google not adequately notifying anybody that the change was coming.

Tom

On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 9:15 AM Adam Constabaris 
wrote:

> By way of an update, Google has made an announcement about this issue (and
> others, such as that currently, "delete all cookies" in Chrome 69 does not
> delete google-domain cookies):
>
>
> https://www.blog.google/products/chrome/product-updates-based-your-feedback/
>
> So, it sounds like they will be reverting the most egregious changes in
> Chrome 70.
>
> I am noisily resisting my urge to editorialize other than to note that they
> evidently got a *lot* of <> pushback on this before they announced
> the upcoming changes.
>
> cheers,
>
> AC
>
> On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 7:48 PM Sam Manderson 
> wrote:
>
> > Greetings library colleagues,
> >
> > I would like to propose the changes to Google Chrome make the use of the
> > application in a Public PC environment unconscionable from a user privacy
> > standpoint.
> > https://www.wired.com/story/google-chrome-login-privacy/
> >
> https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2018/09/23/why-im-leaving-chrome/
> >
> > Mozilla's 'Firefox' is a comparable web-browser which is in my view a
> good
> > replacement, and the values of Mozilla more closely align with broader
> > library values.
> > https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/
> > https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Sam Manderson
> > Librarian - Mobile & Outreach Services | Whangarei Libraries Whangarei
> > District Council | Private Bag 9006, Whangarei 0148 |
> > www.whangarei-libraries.com P 09 430 4206 | DDI 09 470 3002 | E
> > sam.mander...@wdc.govt.nz
> >
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] `APIs for Librarians` -- A thing I've been doing that I'd like to share with you all

[Tom Keays]

If I'm building an app using an API that allows the full range of CRUD
operators to be performed, there's going to be some authentication needed
to allow that. I'd enclose all that in, say, a PHP wrapper so the calls and
authentication details are safely hidden.

If the API is just read-only, like the LibApps APIs, then there is less
concern about exposing the keys. With LibApps, the "keys" are just
identifiers so you know what library, what service, etc.


On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 9:50 AM, Cynthia Harper  wrote:

> Would I be correct in my understanding that if you require hiding the data
> in POSTs, you cannot do that in straight browser Javascript, but would
> require some server-side coding?
>
> Cindy
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG] On Behalf Of
> Brad Coffield
> Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 9:33 AM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] `APIs for Librarians` -- A thing I've been doing
> that I'd like to share with you all
>
> Hi Randy,
>
> Good question. In this case, it does seem to be acceptable to use it in
> such a public way. They do seem to be rolling out changes to authentication
> for certain portions of their APIs. For instance, in LibGuides, if you want
> to work with AZ resources (typically your database list) you need to use
> oauth. "The LibApps v1.2 API uses oAuth 2.0 for authentication and supports
> the Client Credentials grant type." It supports GET and POST. Their other
> endpoints are all GET, and working with them in the above way is
> acceptable. My guess is because they are all GET, but I don't know.
>
> Have a good one!
>
> Brad
>
> On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 9:12 AM, Stern, Randy 
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Brad,
> >
> > This looks like a useful resource. I do have a question. Not knowing
> > much about Springshare APIs, I see that your example includes a line
> > of code
> >
> > $.getJSON('https://lgapi-us.libapps.com/1.1/guides?site_
> > id=foo1=foo2=1', function (result) {
> >
> > that seems to expose a key (foo2) to public viewing. Is that key
> > supposed to be a secret key that is not made public? Or is it OK to
> > have it publicly exposed?
> >
> > - Randy
> >
> >
> >
> > Date:Thu, 14 Dec 2017 08:46:40 -0500
> > From:Brad Coffield  bcoffield.libr...@gmail.com>>
> > Subject: Re: `APIs for Librarians` -- A thing I've been doing that I'd
> > like to share with you all
> >
> > Happy to hear it! If I can help at all, feel free to email me directly.
> >
> > Brad
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 2:03 AM, Patricia Farnan <
> > patricia.far...@nd.edu.au>
> > wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > This looks like a great resource for someone like me who isn't a
> > developer but wants to learn more about making use of APIs. Thanks for
> sharing!
> >
> > Patricia Farnan  | Application Administrator, Discovery Services
> > University Library  | St Teresa’s Library
> >
> > Telephone: +61 8 9433 0707 | Email: patricia.far...@nd.edu.au > patricia.far...@nd.edu.au>
> >
> > -Original Message-
> > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG] On Behalf Of
> > Brad Coffield
> > Sent: Tuesday, 12 December 2017 3:53 AM
> > To: CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG
> > Subject: [CODE4LIB] `APIs for Librarians` -- A thing I've been doing
> > that I'd like to share with you all
> >
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I want to help people easily use web APIs to enhance their library
> > websites and/or research guides. So, I made a site that has
> > copy/pasteable code along with instructions on how to implement it
> > (like what exactly to change in the code to make it work with their
> > libguides system, for example).
> >
> > It's a project in ongoing development and I wanted to share it with
> > you all
> > because:
> >   * You're nifty
> >   * Some (hopefully many!) of you might be interested in using
> > some of my code
> >   * Some of you might be interested in contributing new pieces to
> > the site
> >
> > Currently I have implementations for various Springshare products,
> > Quotes.net, and a variety of collections from the Internet Archive. I
> > have plans on making things for the New York Times, Wordnik, OCLC, and
> > Chronicling America (from LOC).
> >
> > Would love to hear comments. I hope you like it.
> >
> > https://www.bradcoffield.com/APIs-for-librarians/
> >
> >
> > Brad
> >
> >
> > --
> > Brad Coffield, MLIS
> > Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis
> > University
> > 814-472-3315 <(814)%20472-3315>
> > bcoffi...@francis.edu
> > IMPORTANT: This e-mail and any attachments may be confidential. If you
> > are not the intended recipient you should not disclose, copy,
> > disseminate or otherwise use the information contained in it. If you
> > have received this e-mail in error, please notify us immediately by
> > return 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Online suggestion form or box

[Tom Keays]

If you have LibGuides CMS, you could build a suggestion form using
LibWizard. You use the LibWizard interface to collect, read, and make
simple analyses of the submissions. You can optionally have it send a
notification to specified list email addresses. It has some optional
customization -- e.g., stylesheets, custom header.

We're not using it at the moment for this purpose, but it could work quite
well.

Tom

On Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 6:09 PM, Turner, Steven 
wrote:

> We use the KACE ticketing system, with forms from the website delivering
> input directly into KACE, which creates a ticket - while intended for web
> site issues and requests, it has been used to provide feedback and comments
> about the website.
>
> S
> Steven Turner, MLIS
> Manager, Web Technologies and Development, Assistant Professor
> University Libraries
> The University of Alabama
> 416 Gorgas Library | Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0266
> office 205-348-1638
> steven.j.turner@ua.edu |
> http://www.lib.ua.edu/
>
> [cid:image001.gif@01D21575.36CE1C80]
> 
> 
>
> On Oct 24, 2017, at 3:49 PM, Stuart A. Yeates > wrote:
>
> We're using https://www.zendesk.com/ for end user feedback. It's great.
>
> cheers
> stuart
>
> --
> ...let us be heard from red core to black sky
>
> On 25 October 2017 at 09:04, Jason Bengtson  mailto:j.bengtson...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I've used a variety of them in the past for projects . . . often through
> google forms. I haven't done it recently.
>
> Best regards,
>
> *Jason Bengtson*
>
>
> *http://www.jasonbengtson.com/ *
>
> On Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 1:52 PM, Beth Goodwin  mailto:goodwin.beth...@gmail.com>>
> wrote:
>
> Good Afternoon,
>
> Outside of the Springshare products, is anyone using a type of anonymous
> online suggestion/feedback form? A digital question and answer board?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Beth Goodwin
> Trinity International University
>
>
>
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] 2018 Code4Lib hosting proposal - Washington DC

[Tom Keays]

Has there been any movement on the proposal to host the 2018 Code4Lib
Conference somewhere in the DC area? Believe it or not, my boss is already
asking for a date and estimated costs for registration and accommodations.

Tom

On Mon, Mar 20, 2017 at 12:03 PM, Kim, Bohyun 
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> For next year’s Code4Lib conference, the DC team has put together a
> hosting proposal for Washington D.C.
> https://wiki.code4lib.org/2018_Hosting_Proposals
>
> We would love to hear what you think!
>
> Thank you,
> 2018 Code4Lib at D.C. Organizational Committee
> --
> Jaime Mears - Library of Congress (Chair)
> Boyhun Kim - University of Maryland, Baltimore, Health Sciences and Human
> Services Library
> Nick Kerelchuck - DC Public Libraries
> Joel Richard - Smithsonian Libraries
> Ben Wallberg- University of Maryland Libraries
> Kate Dohe - University of Maryland Libraries
>
>
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Can someone mention the Planet at the conference?

[Tom Keays]

You can also add the Planet as a channel in Code4Lib Slack. That's how I
follow it these days.

Tom

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 6:25 PM, Becky Yoose  wrote:

> Hey Bill,
>
> I can make a note on the MC announcements document to mention Planet and to
> solicit blogs.
>
> Thanks,
> Becky, who still mourns the passing of Google Reader
>
>
> On Mar 7, 2017 5:26 PM, "William Denton"  wrote:
>
> A small request:  can someone at the conference please encourage people to
> check out the Code4Lib Planet---it's full of a wide mix of interesting
> stuff, and there's new content all through the day---and say that anyone at
> the conference who wants their blog content to appear in it is most warmly
> welcomed?
>
> https://planet.code4lib.org/
>
> The "Would you like your feed to be added?" links takes you to the GitHub
> repository that has all the code that generates the site.  If someone can
> do all the necessary to submit a pull request, that's especially easy, but
> if anyone would prefer to add an issue there, or just email me, that's easy
> too.
>
> Keep on blogging!
>
> Bill
> --
> William Denton :: Toronto, Canada :: https://www.miskatonic.org/
> Caveat lector.
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Where will the link be to register?

[Tom Keays]

Expanding on Ray's question:

Will we be choosing the Pre-Conference options at registration? The schedule
timeline  currently links
to last year's options.

What is the hotel discount code? I'd like to have that now-ish so I can do
the hotel reservation after I successfully register for the conference.

Thanks!


On Wed, Dec 14, 2016 at 9:58 AM, Schwartz, Raymond 
wrote:

> Where will the link be to register?
>
> Ray Schwartz
> Head of Library Information Systems schwart...@wpunj.edu mailto:schwart...@wpunj.edu>
> David and Lorraine Cheng Library   Tel: +1 973 720-3192
> William Paterson University  Fax: +1 973 720-2585
> 300 Pompton Road Mobile: +1 201
> 424-4491
> Wayne, NJ 07470-2103 USA  http://nova.wpunj.edu/
> schwartzr2/
>

[CODE4LIB] C4L17 Hotel Rates?

[Tom Keays]

On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 7:49 AM, Whitni Watkins 
wrote:

> The conference will be held at the Luskin Conference Center at UCLA
> http://luskinconferencecenter.ucla.edu/, from March 6, 2017 - March 9,
> 2017.  More information about Code4lib 2017 will be coming soon.
>

Is it too early to get a ballpark idea on what the conference rates will be
for staying at the Luskin Center? I'm putting together a travel request to
attend the conference and here are the rates the website returned. The
rates without a conference code are way more than MPOW will reimburse.

03-05-2017 $ 269.00 USD
03-06-2017 $ 269.00 USD
03-07-2017 $ 375.00 USD
03-08-2017 $ 375.00 USD