Re: [CODE4LIB] Job: Senior Web Developer (Half-time with benefits on a pro-rated basis) at University of Maryland, Baltimore
On 10/3/14 1:21 PM, j...@code4lib.org wrote: > Senior Web Developer (Half-time with benefits on a pro-rated basis) > University of Maryland, Baltimore > Baltimore I was somewhat interested in this position, but the application website has scared me off. First, the application redirects to healthcaresource.com, whoever that might be. Second, I had to set a popup blocker exception to proceed. That's unnecessary bad design. Third and fatal, this third-party website wants the last four digits of my SSN. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Library Privacy, RIP (Was: Canvas Fingerprinting by AddThis)
Proxying has no effect on canvas fingerprinting. On 8/18/14 4:47 AM, Edward Spodick wrote: > So a question - should we start proxying AddThis.com and ShareThis.com > and their ilk whenever our proxy is being used, precisely to complicate > the tracking? > > -Edward > > On 17/8/14 12:25 am, Eric Hellman wrote: >> So, 2 points worth discussing here. >> >> 1. I'll bet you most proxy servers are not proxying AddThis.com or >> Sharethis.com. So there wouldn't be any effect of proxying on the user >> tracking they do. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Library Privacy, RIP (Was: Canvas Fingerprinting by AddThis)
On 8/16/14 8:38 AM, Dan Scott wrote: > I think the primary concern rises from users accessing the catalogue from > their own machine / browser, where services can easily and reliably > correlate web usage behavior of an individual over time across many web > properties. The annoyance of inappropriate (or overly appropriate) ads is one aspect of this concern; a potentially much bigger one is the privacy of amateur or professional investigative journalists. If someone looks at a lot of books and sites about terrorism, violent doctrines, and explosives, for the purpose of researching terrorists and terrorism, and if overzealous government agencies observe this pattern, they might flag the researcher as a potential terrorist suspect. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Hiring strategy for a library programmer with tight budget - thoughts?
On 8/15/14 12:44 PM, Kim, Bohyun wrote: > I am in a situation in which a university has a set salary guideline for > programmer position classifications and if I want to hire an entry-lever dev, > the salary is too low to be competitive and if I want to hire a more > experienced dev in a higher classification, the competitive salary amount > exceeds what my library cannot afford. So as a compromise I am thinking about > going the route of posting a half-time position in a higher classification so > that the salary would be at least competitive. It will get full-time benefits > on a pro-rated basis. But I am wondering if this strategy would be viable or > not. > > Also anyone has a experience in hiring a developer to telework completely > from another state when you do not have previous experience working with > her/him? This seems a bit risky strategy to me but I am wondering if it may > attract more candidates particularly when the position is half time. > > As a current/past/future library programmer or hiring manager in IT or both, > if you have any thoughts, experience, or ideas, I would really appreciate it. I definitely think it could work. But then, I just sent you my resume off-list, so I might be biased. :) -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Canvas Fingerprinting by AddThis
On 8/14/14 4:32 PM, William Denton wrote: > On 14 August 2014, Eric Hellman wrote: > > Another approach is Tor, both spreading the word about it and how to use > it properly, and also about running relays and exit nodes on the Tor > network. I run a relay myself, and encourage others to do so. > Institutions like libraries and universities should be running them---we > have the bandwidth and computing power and instituional heft---and I > wonder if anyone here is doing that are their work. Tor is a good thing, and I use it myself occasionally (more to add to the user pool and make personal identification harder than for anything else), but it won't completely stop canvas fingerprinting. I believe Tor blocks the WebGL API, which helps, but a certain amount of fingerprinting can be done using the W3C Canvas API, which is still allowed through. I've just posted a technical summary of canvas fingerprinting to my File Formats Blog: http://fileformats.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/canvasfp/ -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Canvas Fingerprinting by AddThis
On 8/13/14 1:22 PM, Eric Hellman wrote: > It seems that Code4Lib hasn't discussed this., though the news is 2 weeks > old. It seems that there are libraries using social share tools from > AddThis", a company that has been using a technology called "Canvas > Fingerprinting" to track users. > > In other words, it looks like libraries are giving away the user-privacy > store. > > For example, AddThis is used by my public library's Polaris catalog (BCCLS). > > I'd be interested to learn how widespread this is. It's pretty widespread in general, but I don't know how many libraries are using it, or why. It's a concern regardless of absolute numbers, because it targets people who are concerned about being tracked and have taken steps to make cookies less effective. (For example, I discard cookies at the end of each browser session, making long-term tracking ineffective.) It isn't "virtually impossible to block"; mapping addthis.com on the client computer to 127.0.0.1 (using /etc/hosts on Linux and Unix machines) does a nice job of it. But anyone who uses it really is betraying the user's trust. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Web application for crowdsourcing song identification
Thanks! Having a keyword (MusicIR or variants) to chase down certainly helps, and I like the term "nichesourcing," which is definitely what this project is about. On 7/15/14 7:38 AM, Jodi Schneider wrote: > Sounds cool, Gary. I agree with Brooke: the MusicIR community (J. Stephen > Downie & many others) would be a good starting point. > > The work I'm aware of goes the other way -- starting from scores. For > instance, here's the Bodelain's crowdsourced digital annotation project: > http://www.whats-the-score.org/ > > Andrew Bullen also did a talk in 2008 and Code4Lib journal article about > Optical Music Recognition: > http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/84 > You can get to a video from: > http://www.niso.org/blog/?p=5 > > On the crowdsourcing front, you might look at the nichesourcing approach to > get stuff to the right people: > http://www.cs.vu.nl/~guus/papers/Boer12b.pdf > > Let us know how it goes! -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
[CODE4LIB] Project for crowdsourcing song identification
As I mentioned in an earlier post, a group of us are working on a project to allow crowdsourced identification of sound clips. This was initially for one collection, but it looks like something that libraries, archives, and researchers could find useful. If there's interest, it could become an open source web application, backed by crowdfunding. I've posted to File Formats Blog to gauge interest: http://fileformats.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/crowdsrc/ If this sounds interesting to you, please comment there or reply to this message. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
[CODE4LIB] Web application for crowdsourcing song identification
I'm doing some volunteer work on a project for a basement sound engineer and publisher who has a large collection of recordings from conventions, and wants to crowdsource identification of them with the people who attend those conventions. The idea is that people would be able to log in to a website, see a list of short clips they can play, and enter identifying information such as song title, performers, and instruments. It occurs to me that this might have broader usefulness among libraries, archives, and researchers. If so, it may be worth expanding this into a bigger open-source project and seeking crowdfunding for developing it further, getting nice graphics, etc. (Crowdfunding for crowdsourcing just seems right.) On the other hand, the most common result when I come up with a great idea is discovering that someone else has already done it better than I could. Obviously there are copyright issues. That's why only logged-in users with a legitimate need can play the clips for identification purposes. There may be other protections as well, such as limited-time availability. So I'm interested in thoughts on this. Does it duplicate something that already exists? Would it be generally useful? -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] StackExchange reboot?
On 7/7/13 5:21 AM, Henry Mensch wrote: > On 7/6/2013 12:16 PM, Galen Charlton wrote: >> To give a concrete example, one question that would deserve an >> answer is why would a cataloger use a StackExchange (or a clone thereof) >> rather than AUTOCAT? > > I'm not sure I see a reason. One of the big problems, IMHO, with the > StackExchange model is their strict adherence to the model with which a > question is presented. It seemed to me that so many were trying to use > the LIS StackExchange space in a more open way than it was intended. It > looked, after a while, like so many people were being penalized for > failing to state their question in a specific way ... like when > Jeopardy! contestants are penalized for failing to put their answer in > the form of a question. That was what I ran into. Asking what software would solve a problem was strictly forbidden on the library SE. You had to already know what software you wanted to use and ask specific questions about its functionality. I decided rather quickly there was no point to it. The digital preservation SE looked more encouraging, but I think the interested community just wasn't big enough to meet the requirements. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib 2014: Save the dates!
On 7/1/13 8:00 AM, BWS Johnson wrote: > Salvete! > > > >> But please don't expect the conference itself to select the venue and >> complete conference package based on the sole requirement to keep room >> rates down. > > I never suggested any such thing. I kindly suggested that someone might > wish to see if the hotel would come down on its price. I stated the fact that > for that market during those dates, its cost is above its competitors. One of > my colleagues noted that government rates for that locality are substantially > lower, too. > As someone that has organised, or had a role in putting together many > conferences, I well realise that room rates are not the only factor. I > understand the dynamics in play in terms of meeting room space, proximity to > attractions, et cetera. > However, I felt that it would be a good idea to act when I perceived that > we were getting a raw deal. There's enough warning here that it would allow > for a change for everyone's benefit. Many times I've been able to secure a > better rate for my organisation simply by bringing in data and asking for a > better deal than the boilerplate. >From my own experience, I can confirm it's a waste of time to ask a hotel to come down on the rate after the contract is signed and the rate announced. All it can do is damage the relationship between the organizing group and the hotel. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
[CODE4LIB] Setting up Koha for a volunteer library
An non-profit club I'm associated with is looking into using Koha to catalogue its in-house circulating library of several thousand books. Right now there's no catalogue, and the circulation system is a paper sign-out book. As the resident library techie, I figure I should help somehow, though my experience isn't with ILSs or OPACs. The obvious first question is how to get all those books into the system using volunteer labor. Koha imports MARC records. A barcode scanner to get ISBNs is an obvious start, but possibly half the books are pre-ISBN, so they'll have to be entered by hand. The Worldcat API (http://xisbn.worldcat.org/xisbnadmin/doc/api.htm#getmetadata) looks like the thing for getting metadata from the ISBN, and turning the XML into MARC won't be hard. I'm willing to write some code to help them along, but to the extent that there are free tools that work, it makes sense to do them. Can anyone with similar experience offer suggestions? -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Wordpress: Any way to selectively control caching for content areas on a page?
On 5/28/13 5:30 PM, Wilhelmina Randtke wrote: > In a Wordpress site, is there a way to allow site-wide caching, but force > certain areas of a page to reload on each visit? > > For example, if on a specific page there is a huge navigational menu that > never changes, a map that rarely changes, and hours of operation which > change frequently (as often as holidays), is there a way to force only the > hours of operation to reload when a person revisits the page? I haven't used it myself, but Wordpress Super Cache looks as if it might be useful. http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/ -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com Files that Last is now available! http://filesthatlast.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Version 2.1.0 of JHOVE2 format characerization tool is released
Congratulations to the JHOVE2 development team! On 3/18/13 4:41 PM, Sheila M. Morrissey wrote: > *** Cross posted *** > > > > > The JHOVE2 development community is pleased to announce the release of > Version 2.1.0 of the open-source JHOVE2 format characterization tool. > > Version 2.1.0 of JHOVE2 includes 3 new format modules, 1 new identifier > module, 1 new displayer module, and several bug fixes and enhancements from > the Issues page on the JHOVE2 wiki. > > The new format modules included in this release are for the ARC, WARC, and > GZIP formats. > > The new Identifier module uses the UNIX "file" utility, giving JHOVE2 users > the choice of employing either DROID or file for identification of file > formats. > > The new XSLDisplayer module (which extends XMLDisplayer) can do XSLT > transformations on the XML output before displaying it. > > This release also reflects a new milestone in the JHOVE2 development > community. The new format and identifier modules are the contribution of > developers from institutions (Bibliothéque Nationale de France and > NETARKIVET.DK) beyond the original project participants (California Digital > Library, Portico, and Stanford University Libraries). > > Please see the release notes at https://bitbucket.org/jhove2/main/downloads > for detailed information about the release and for information about > configuring JHOVE2 to use the new identifier module. For information about > issues resolved in this release, known bugs, open issues, and enhancement > requests, please refer to > > [cid:image001.png@01CE23F7.787F0E50] JHOVE2 Issues page > > https://bitbucket.org/jhove2/main/issues?sort=version > > For detailed installation and configuration instructions please refer to: > > [cid:image001.png@01CE23F7.787F0E50] JHOVE2 User's Guide > http://bitbucket.org/jhove2/main/wiki/documents/JHOVE2-Users-Guide_20110222.pdf. > > > For detailed guidance on developing additional format modules please refer to: > > [cid:image001.png@01CE23F7.787F0E50] JHOVE2 Architectural Overview > http://bitbucket.org/jhove2/main/wiki/documents/JHOVE2-Architecture-v2-0-0.pdf > [cid:image001.png@01CE23F7.787F0E50] JHOVE2 Programmer's Guide > http://bitbucket.org/jhove2/main/wiki/documents/JHOVE2Programmer2-0-0.pdf > > Questions concerning the use of JHOVE2 and module development should be > addressed to > jhove2-techtal...@listserv.ucop.edu<mailto:jhove2-techtal...@listserv.ucop.edu>. > > Specific errors or suggestions may be reported to the JHOVE2 issue tracker at > https://bitbucket.org/jhove2/main/issues?sort=id. > > The JHOVE2 development community welcomes all interested members of the > preservation community to contribute to improving and extending the JHOVE2 > tool. > -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] jobs.code4lib.org and job locations
It works very nicely with Sage, which is what I use to follow feeds. Thanks! On 2/24/13 1:45 PM, Ed Summers wrote: > Hi Gary, > > Great idea, and it was easy to implement. For example you can now get > tag related feeds: > > http://jobs.code4lib.org/feed/tag/digital-preservation/ > http://jobs.code4lib.org/feed/tag/python/ > http://jobs.code4lib.org/feed/tag/web-archiving/ > http://jobs.code4lib.org/feed/tag/fedora-repository-architecture/ > etc ... > -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] jobs.code4lib.org and job locations
Definitely! I'd be more interested in job-category feeds than location, though. On 2/24/13 10:32 AM, Ed Summers wrote: And I'd > like to get location specific feeds set up for people who still use > feed readers to keep up with things. They do still exist don't they? -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] jobs.code4lib.org and job locations
On 2/24/13 2:14 AM, Ed Summers wrote: > If you happen to post jobs to code4lib.org you'll notice that you can > now add a location for the job. In fact you are required to fill it in > when posting. Much appreciated. I've often puzzled over where some of those jobs would require me to move to. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Ambra
That explains a _lot_. Thanks. On 2/5/13 3:20 PM, Cary Gordon wrote: > I don't know much about Ambra, but I do know that they moved about > three years ago to http://ambraproject.org/. > > I believe they are alive. > > Cary > > On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 6:19 AM, Gary McGath wrote: >> I may be asked to look into a scholarly publishing project based on >> Ambra. I'm a little concerned because it appears that the project isn't >> currently active. All of the activity on topazproject.org appears to be >> at least two years out of date. >> >> Is anyone currently working with Ambra, and can you make any >> recommendations? -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
[CODE4LIB] Ambra
I may be asked to look into a scholarly publishing project based on Ambra. I'm a little concerned because it appears that the project isn't currently active. All of the activity on topazproject.org appears to be at least two years out of date. Is anyone currently working with Ambra, and can you make any recommendations? -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Group Decision Making (was Zoia)
This sounds like a more constructive approach than creating a sweeping harassment policy. Perhaps we're getting somewhere after all. I don't think either the assumption that no Code4Lib members would intentionally harass people or the assumption that no Code4Lib members would spuriously claim to be harassed is safe. Any approach has to regard both as possibilities. I'm involved with a non-professional convention that has dealt with similar issues; it started out with a proposal of a seriously overblown harassment policy before coming up with a reasonable one. Organizations are generally poor at dealing with issues that are separately minor but add up to a concern. Official responses face the choice between overreacting and not doing anything. Building individual and cultural awareness is a better approach. This means building a culture in which people consider it safe and legitimate to respond to a perceived insult, and where the result hopefully is dialogue rather than official censure or threats (even as jokes) to beat people up. It means that when people notice this sort of thing by their presumed friends, they should consider it reasonable to take them aside and say quietly, "You came across as a bit of a jerk." At science fiction conventions I've often seen "BACK UP" buttons to encourage this kind of culture. As a computer person, I did a double-take on this at first (and it's good advice in both senses), but it's a constructive approach to a problem usually best dealt with on a person-to-person basis. Threats, stalking, and overt aggression are a different matter, of course; there it's necessary to step in and take definite action. On 1/28/13 10:55 PM, Fitchett, Deborah wrote: > Firstly, there seems to be an assumption (explicit by some, implicit by > others) that Code4Lib members wouldn't intentionally harass people. This is a > perfectly reasonable assumption and I'm more than happy to go along with it. > > > > I just want there to be a reciprocal assumption that Code4Lib members > wouldn't intentionally make spurious claims of having been harassed. That's > fair, right? We're all nice people. > > > > So, given that we're all nice people who wouldn't intentionally harass or > make spurious claims of harassment against each other, nevertheless sometimes > someone will unintentionally say or do something that (especially given the > concept of microagressions that Karen and I have alluded to and Kathryn > named) really hurts someone else. This is, whatever else you want to call > it, a problem because it decreases the feeling of community. > > > > So, how as a community should we respond when this happens? > > > > That's my question. It's the question I've been asking over and over, and > every time I’ve asked it people have derailed the conversation to their own > fears of being labelled *ist. This is an absolute straw argument. One thing > the code of conduct doesn’t include as a sanction is for admin/helpers to > stick a “Kick me, I’m a *ist” label on offenders’ backs. > > > > Can we stop worrying about being labelled *ist and start worrying about how > we're going to concretely demonstrate that we're not *ist? > > > > Deborah > > (Excuse the html format and bolding. But if one more person replies to my > email without replying to my actual question I might resort to all-caps. And > possibly quote liberally from > https://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/resources/mirror-derailing-for-dummies/.) > > > > -Original Message- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Gary > McGath > Sent: Tuesday, 29 January 2013 7:35 AM > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Group Decision Making (was Zoia) > > > > Establishing any principle has consequences beyond the situations people > immediately think of. In this case, the principle is that harassment is > defined by the emotions of the person claiming to be harassed. > > Compounding this by declaring that acts which are judged subjectively and are > insignificant in themselves constitute harassment because they "add up" > creates a situation in which anyone can be charged with harassment and no > defense is possible. You've said as much in saying "So excluding types of > situations from even being considered as problems is unnecessary." _Any_ type > of situation might be considered a harassment situation. > > > > Of course, not just any type will be. That would result in a situation where > anyone could bring charges and counter-charges on a whim, bringing the whole > system down. Wha
Re: [CODE4LIB] Group Decision Making (was Zoia)
Establishing any principle has consequences beyond the situations people immediately think of. In this case, the principle is that harassment is defined by the emotions of the person claiming to be harassed. Compounding this by declaring that acts which are judged subjectively and are insignificant in themselves constitute harassment because they "add up" creates a situation in which anyone can be charged with harassment and no defense is possible. You've said as much in saying "So excluding types of situations from even being considered as problems is unnecessary." _Any_ type of situation might be considered a harassment situation. Of course, not just any type will be. That would result in a situation where anyone could bring charges and counter-charges on a whim, bringing the whole system down. What happens in practice is that the people with the best connections or the greater skill in manipulating the system will use it to intimidate others. Here's an example: At IUPUI, a janitor was reading a book called "Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan." A union official, for reasons I don't know -- maybe he just didn't like the janitor -- brought charges of "racial harassment" against the janitor, because he was "offended" at seeing a book that even mentioned the Klan. The university's affirmative action officer told him: "You used extremely poor judgment by insisting on openly reading the book related to a historically and racially abhorrent subject in the presence of your black co-workers." It took intervention from the ACLU and FIRE before IUPUI dropped disciplinary proceedings and apologized. If harassment is in the eye of the beholder, then the janitor was "harassing" the union official simply by trying to learn about an "abhorrent subject." The official may have legitimately felt pain just from being reminded of the activities of the Klan in Indiana. Knowing there are lots of historical accounts of it might "add up." But the result, if it weren't for the determined efforts of some people, would have amounted to book-banning. Is that a path that library people should be starting down? On 1/27/13 8:34 PM, Fitchett, Deborah wrote: > I'm not creating any categories. Whether or not "unintentional harassment" is > "actual harassment", it's still worth bothering with. Even if it's "a minor > thing" it's still worth bothering with. Even if someone only harasses me "a > little" because I'm a woman, it still decreases my enjoyment of the community > we're participating in simply because I'm a woman and that's still worth > bothering with. > > Because all the hundreds of "unintentional" and "minor" and "little" bits of > harassment add up. They really, really add up, you know? That one time some > guy tried to rape me actually wasn't as impactful (for me personally; mileage > varies a lot on this kind of thing) as the hundreds of times guys merely > honked/whistled/catcalled when I'm walking along the street. > > No-one's trying to treat every situation as equivalent, except perhaps you. > The code of conduct allows admins/helpers/whoever to take the precise nature > of the situation into account and choose an appropriate response. So > excluding types of situations from even being considered as problems is > unnecessary - and it's *really* counterproductive, because those types of > "minor" situations, in the aggregate, are as great a barrier to the inclusion > of underrepresented groups as any single "major" event. > > Deborah > > -Original Message- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Gary > McGath > Sent: Monday, 28 January 2013 1:45 PM > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Group Decision Making (was Zoia) > > Miscommunication, error, and harassment are all legitimate concerns. > Sometimes one person says something and another person hears it as offensive > where no offense was intended. Sometimes people say things based on > assumptions that they should have questioned but didn't. > Sometimes they set out to dominate or hurt another person. These are three > different things, and treating them as equivalent is more likely to make the > situation worse than to help. > > Creating the category of "unintentional harassment" diminishes the nature of > actual harassment. If the statement "I was harassed" means only "someone said > something with good intent that made me feel bad," > then harassment is a minor thing, not worth bothering with. When words are
Re: [CODE4LIB] Group Decision Making (was Zoia)
Miscommunication, error, and harassment are all legitimate concerns. Sometimes one person says something and another person hears it as offensive where no offense was intended. Sometimes people say things based on assumptions that they should have questioned but didn't. Sometimes they set out to dominate or hurt another person. These are three different things, and treating them as equivalent is more likely to make the situation worse than to help. Creating the category of "unintentional harassment" diminishes the nature of actual harassment. If the statement "I was harassed" means only "someone said something with good intent that made me feel bad," then harassment is a minor thing, not worth bothering with. When words are stretched, they're stretched in both directions; if harassment has nothing to do with intent, then it's a relatively minor issue, and people who harass in the normal sense of the word can hide behind the dilution of the term. If the stretched meaning of the word becomes normal, they can say, "Hey, what's the big deal? All I did was harass her a little." Speech that "offends" simply on the basis that someone claims to be offended is a fourth category apart from miscommunication, error, and harassment. If it's a private conversation and someone says "Stop talking to me, hanging around me, etc.," that request should be respected regardless of the reason. But if we're talking about public speech, a requirement to stop amounts to granting anyone's emotions a veto on other people's public statements, and I've already discussed the problem with that. On 1/27/13 4:27 PM, Fitchett, Deborah wrote: > There's a reason the code isn't oriented around intent: which is that it's > perfectly possibly to think one's an upstanding equitable-minded person but > still make offensive comments that do in fact constitute harassment. This is > another thing I can say "been there done that" about, in various contexts. I > *thought* I was being respectful - but I wasn't. On at least one occasion I > was saying something racist; on at least another I was demeaning a friend. > Completely unintentionally, but if you accidentally step on someone's foot > it's still your responsibility to back off and say sorry the instant you > become aware of the fact. > > (There may not be a universal objective consensus as to what is or isn't > offensive, but nor is there a universal objective consensus as to what > someone's intent is. People say "I didn't mean to be offensive therefore I > didn't harass you" all the time, sometimes ingenuously, sometimes (as I did) > absolutely sincerely, and how are we to tell the two apart? Meantime someone > still got hurt.) > > So a code of conduct needs to allow for unintentional harassment in a way > that protects the person who got hurt without being unduly censorious to the > person who hurt. Which this code does: it says ~"If you're asked to stop > harassing behaviour you're expected to comply". Because if you didn't intend > offense then you'll want to stop as soon as you're aware you've offended. So > stop, and everyone moves on. You're not going to be banned for accidentally > stepping on someone's foot. > > If you persist or if your actions were really egregious then that's another > matter and that's why we need to mention other possible sanctions. But these > aren't things you're likely to do accidentally, so there's no need to be > stressed. > > Deborah > -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Group Decision Making (was Zoia)
I do not regard threats of violence as "humor," particularly in the context of discussing a proposal where vaguely defined "offensive" speech would be deemed punishable. Such policies seldom allow "I was only kidding" excuses for jokes, yet a suggestion about beating people to a pulp is permissible? That's a serious double standard. I do not need your permission to post to this thread or this list, Becky Yoose. On 1/25/13 11:01 AM, Becky Yoose wrote: > You know folks... > > ...when it gets to the point where no one recognized that Ranti's > comment about beating up someone might be an exaggeration - an attempt > a humor, if you will - to ask a real question (who do I report to if > I'm being harassed at the conference)... > > and > > ... if you had to explain that beating a person up will need to > involve the cops... > > and > > ... when multiple people posted multiple times, only to ask themselves > why they're posting in the first place... > > and > > ... when folks keep talking and talking and nothing seems to happen > with all this talking... > > and > > ... people rather post here and keep talking than actually do things, > like, for example, someone going to the github repo and editing the > anti-harassment policy or someone opening an issue/thread about > defining terms... > > ... it might be a good time to stop posting to this thread. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Group Decision Making (was Zoia)
I haven't been following the discussion slowly till someone proposed violence as a response to unspecified harassment. Now I'm worried. The policy which Ian quotes is based on the idea that no one must be offended, which is a deadly opposite to academic freedom and open discussion. What is "offensive"? With a policy like that, people must weigh every word they say against the possibility that someone somewhere might feel offended by it. For example, I don't think there is any good evidence for the existence of a deity. My saying just that could offend a lot of religious people. If I follow the policy, I must not express that view in any public space or online forum, including this one. I am already in violation of the policy; kick me out. "Non-verbal expressions" are included. Even a disapproving look could be considered "harassment." There can't be any free give and take of ideas without the possibility that someone will be offended. Too many people, especially in the academic world, prefer a nice quiet environment where no one says anything troubling to a free and open exchange of ideas. It isn't far from there to banning "offensive" books from libraries. On 1/25/13 9:23 AM, Ian Walls wrote: > My concern over the anti-harassment policy is part of the definition of > "harassment", particularly: > > "It includes offensive verbal comments or non-verbal expressions related to > gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, disability, > physical appearance, body size, race, age, religious beliefs, sexual or > discriminatory images in public spaces (including online)". > > I'm sure that no one in the community would intentionally "threaten another > person or group, or produce an unsafe environment", but the policy does not > seem to be oriented around intent, but rather the reaction of the person or > group who feels offended. People can be offended by all variety of > material, and there is no universal, objective consensus as to what is and > is not offensive. This translates roughly to: > > "I am offended by something you said, therefore you harassed me". > > This makes me uncomfortable, because even though I can control my own > behavior and treat others with respect, I cannot anticipate the reactions of > others with sufficient accuracy to compensate for the risk of the sanction. > Therefore for any interaction in Code4Lib under this policy, I have the > wonder if something I've said may be misinterpreted or read into in such a > way as to produce offense. Very stressful, and a deterrent to participating > in the community. > > Having a section of the policy to deal with misunderstandings and > inadvertent offense would go a long way towards alleviating my fear of > banned for what would appear to me as no reason. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Group Decision Making (was Zoia)
If it gets to that point it's the police who'll have to decide whether you were acting in self-defense or not. When things reach the level of violence or a clear threat, it doesn't matter what the convention policy is; it's a question of who committed a crime. Just what are we talking about, anyway? I haven't been following all the threads, since I'm not going to Code4Lib, but if we're talking about situations where people realistically fear violence and are preparing to respond with it, things have completely fallen apart. On 1/24/13 5:40 PM, Ranti Junus wrote: > My question has been addressed. Looks like I am allowed to beat first and > then report to Francis (my hero!) > I will leave up to Francis to decide how he would implement the sanction. > > > thanks, > ranti. > > > On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 5:36 PM, Francis Kayiwa wrote: > >> Ranti Junus wrote: >> >>> Let's talk the practical and the implementation. Kinda tired reading the >>> on >>> and on and on discussions. >>> >>> So, um, if I get harrased and I felt threatened, can I beat up that person >>> senseless first for self-defense, then report the incident to... to whom? >>> >>> There's on open question on the github [1] that I haven't seen been >>> discussed yet. At least, I haven't heard the input from this year's >>> organizer: "Do we require a duty >>> officer<http://geekfeminism.**wikia.com/wiki/Conference_** >>> anti-harassment/Duty_officer<http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Duty_officer> >>>> >>> >>> explicitly? >>> Is it fair/reasonable/workable to have conference staff be in that role?" >>> >> >> Let's make that me for this year. >> >> I hope you won't have to defend yourself or beat up anyone but do report >> that to me. I will make sure I am *very easy to spot* ;-) -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Group Decision Making (was Zoia)
A non-organization without a defined membership can't have votes on anything. At best it can have straw polls; the decision falls with the person or people running the service or activity. They can decide to go with the straw poll, but it's still their decision. On 1/24/13 4:37 PM, Shaun Ellis wrote: >> I am uneasy about coming up with a policy for banning people (from >> what?) and voting on it, before it's demonstrated that it's even >> needed. Can't we just tackle these issues as they come up, in context, >> rather than in the abstract? >> > > I share your unease. But deciding to situations in context without a > set of guidelines is simply another kind of policy. I'm actually more > uneasy about ambiguity over what is acceptable, and no agreed upon way > to handle it. > > I don't think the current policy is ready to "go to vote" as it seems > there is still some debate over what it should cover and exactly what > type of behavior it is meant to prevent. > > I suggest there is a set time period to submit objections as GitHub > issues and resolve them before we vote. Whatever issues can't get > resolved end up in a branch/fork. In the end, we vote on each of the > forks, or "no policy at all". > > Does that sound reasonable? > -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] OC/LC - Let There Be MARC
On 1/17/13 5:55 PM, Doran, Michael D wrote: > Okay, I promise that this is my last take on the topic: > > > > [cid:image001.png@01CDF4D2.0B32A3B0] > > > > Yes that *is* Roy wailing on guitar. > > > > Full resolution available from here: http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/oclc/ > > > > Admittedly a crude job, but (like all my graphics) done entirely with SnagIt > and PowerPoint, so no apologies. None needed! Mind if I use it in a presentation? -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Digital collection backups
Concerns have been raised about how expensive Glacier gets if you need to recover a lot of files in a short time period. http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/08/glacier/ On 1/10/13 5:56 PM, Roy Tennant wrote: > I'd also take a look at Amazon Glacier. Recently I parked about 50GB > of data files in logical tar'd and gzip'd chunks and it's costing my > employer less than 50 cents/month. Glacier, however, is best for "park > it and forget" kinds of needs, as the real cost is in data flow. > Storage is cheap, but must be considered "offline" or "near line" as > you must first request to retrieve a file, wait for about a day, and > then retrieve the file. And you're charged more for the download > throughput than just about anything. > > I'm using a Unix client to handle all of the heavy lifting of > uploading and downloading, as Glacier is meant to be used via an API > rather than a web client.[1] If anyone is interested, I have local > documentation on usage that I could probably genericize. And yes, I > did round-trip a file to make sure it functioned as advertised. > Roy > > [1] https://github.com/vsespb/mt-aws-glacier > > On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 2:29 PM, wrote: >> We built our own solution for this by creating a plugin that works with our >> digital asset management system (ResourceSpace) to invidually back up files >> to Amazon S3. Because S3 is replicated to multiple data centers, this >> provides a fairly high level of redundancy. And because it's an object-based >> web service, we can access any given object individually by using a URL >> related to the original storage URL within our system. >> >> This also allows us to take advantage of S3 for images on our website. All >> of the images from in our online collections database are being served >> straight from S3, which diverts the load from our public web server. When we >> launch zoomable images later this year, all of the tiles will also be >> generated locally in the DAM and then served to the public via the mirrored >> copy in S3. >> >> The current pricing is around $0.08/GB/month for 1-50 TB, which I think is >> fairly reasonable for what we're getting. They just dropped the price >> substantially a few months ago. >> >> DuraCloud http://www.duracloud.org/ supposedly offers a way to add another >> abstraction layer so you can build something like this that is portable >> between different cloud storage providers. But I haven't really looked into >> this as of yet. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Open source project questions
The software for this project is clearly just one part of an ambitious and interesting venture. The first question I'd ask is how you plan to assemble the programming team for this. Do you have the resources to hire core people, or will you be counting entirely on volunteers? Doing a big project on volunteer efforts is possible but difficult. Then you have to sketch out the technology in broad strokes, but with a little more detail than given here. A good starting point is to decide which OPAC you want to work with initially; that'll affect a lot of your technological choices. I don't think the hosting site will much affect the quality of developers you can attract, but Github is the "hottest" open source site right now, so it might offer some benefit. From a technological standpoint, I like Github; it has a number of features making collaboration and forking easier. Avoiding malicious code is a matter of finding people you can trust, whichever site you go through. On 12/7/12 2:58 PM, Donna Campbell wrote: > Dear Colleagues, > > I understand from a professional colleague, who referred me to this list, > that there are some experienced open source programmers here. I am in the > early stages of planning for a conference session/open source project in > June 2013 for a different professional library organization. Here is the > session title and description: > > Open Source Platform Project for E-book Lending > > Facilitate a discussion between interested collaborators of how to create > an alternative model that allows theological research libraries to > permanently own their e-books "without concern over rising licensing fees > or changing terms from aggregators and distributors." (Matt Enis, "Harris > County PL to Test DCL Ebook Model" Library Journal 137, no. 16 (October 1, > 2012):16). This is a preliminary step to construct a team to design or > tailor an ideal e-book platform akin to Douglas County Libraries > (Colorado) or Harris County Public Library (Houston, TX) where libraries > purchase to own e-books and lend to users as with print books > (one-copy/one-user) in a seamless fashion in their OPAC. We will assess > the human, financial, and technological resources that are needed to > create and maintain the platform. The platform would be library-owned and > library-managed and available to share with other ATLA member libraries. > System administrators, programmers, IT specialists, electronic resource > managers, and others who desire to make this project happen are encouraged > to attend. Different perspectives are also welcomed. > > I have corresponded with Douglas County Libraries but I also want to ask > this group if you have any suggestions for the following elements for a > successful project like this: > > 1. What kind of skill sets (esp. programming) should I be seeking? > 2. Where would the best place to host an open source project (e.g., > Sourceforge.net, Google, etc.) to draw expertise and to avoid malicious > code? > 3. What software/hardware would you recommend that would be a means to a > quality end-product as well as provide efficiency? > 4. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer
Re: [CODE4LIB] What is a "coder"?
Then why make the distinction at all? I always thought Code4lib was about communication between people who make code and those who use it, recognizing that these are by no means disjoint groups. I was recently a developer in a place that systematically discouraged communication between developers and users. It made for bad development practices. The value of Code4lib is that it's for creators _and_ users of code. This notion of a coders-only club seems to have popped out of nowhere. Let's bury it rather than arguing over who counts as a coder. On 11/29/12 8:46 AM, Michael Schofield wrote: > I anticipate coding--particularly for the web--to be part and parcel of > librarianship as a whole - and if that's not already the case, then in a few > short years. I already expect many of my coworkers to be HTML/CSS literate > just as everyone has been expected to be familiar with an Office Suite. So, > I'm not sure distinguishing who is and isn't a coder in the field is (or > will) be all that straightforward. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer
Re: [CODE4LIB] What is a "coder"?
On 11/28/12 10:02 PM, Mark A. Matienzo wrote: > Some discussion (both on-list and otherwise) has referred to "coders," > and some discussion as such has raised the question whether > "non-coders" are welcome at code4lib. > > What's a coder? I'm not trying to be difficult - I want to make > code4lib as inclusive as possible. The mission statement on the code4lib website says "The Code4Lib Journal exists to foster community and share information among those interested in the intersection of libraries, technology, and the future." I don't see anything either on that page or in the code4lib wiki implying that only "coders" are welcome. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer
Re: [CODE4LIB] extracting tiff info
On 11/19/12 4:31 PM, Kyle Banerjee wrote: > Howdy all, > > I need to extract all the metadata from a few thousand images on a network > drive and put it into spreadsheet. Since the files are huge (each is > 100MB+) and my connection isn't that fast, I strongly prefer to not move > them before working on them -- i.e. I'm using cygwin and/or windows. > > Just eyeballing these things, I see the headers contain everything I need > in purty rdf. What's the best way to extract this? I thought tiffinfo would > do the trick, but it's just giving me technical info. Of course I can just > parse the files with perl but I'm thinking there just has to be a slicker > way to do this. What's my best option? Thanks, I should mention JHOVE as another possibility. (Disclaimer: I wrote most of its code, but your using it doesn't affect my income.) It outputs metadata as XML or text, and the TIFF module is pretty stable. http://sourceforge.net/projects/jhove/ -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer
Re: [CODE4LIB] livestream suggestion
On 11/15/12 10:10 AM, Mike Smorul wrote: > Ustream and their more commercial Watershed offering is pretty nice and the > production software makes it pretty easy to switch between sources > (desktop, webcam, etc). The service charges per attendee minute, so if you > expect a lot of traffic, this may start to get pricy. You do have the > advantage us reusing their CDN though. I wouldn't touch Ustream. They use bots to detect copyrighted material and automatically shut off streams that are in "violation." The trouble is, the bots have no concept of having permission to stream copyrighted material. The Hugo Awards at this year's World Science Fiction Convention were cut off in mid-broadcast because of this. UStream apologized afterwards, but the damage was done. http://prometheus-unbound.org/2012/09/03/news-copyright-ruined-the-hugo-awards-livestream/ -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer
Re: [CODE4LIB] Job: Programmer for ecological and environmental metadata at UC Santa Barbara Marine Science Institute
I clicked that URL and got a page saying it had been disabled, perhaps because it was somehow considered spam. I'll try the email address directly; thanks! On 11/7/12 4:49 PM, j...@code4lib.org wrote: > Two Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) projects based at > UC Santa Barbara are seeking a programmer to create code for ecological and > environmental metadata in a specialized XML format. Metadata are maintained in > a relational database and will be exported as Ecological Metadata Language > (EML). The programmer will translate functional requirements into code design. > This is a temporary appointment and the project is expected to be completed in > approximately six months during 2013. > > > For the complete job announcement, see below, or http://goo.gl/yF9KX -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Just Solve the File Format Problem month: can you help?
On 11/2/12 3:57 PM, Huwig,Steve wrote: > You also missed this one... > > http://gdfr.info Did you actually find anything useful there? That project died without really accomplishing anything. I was one of the people working on it and have to share some of the blame. There were communication problems between Harvard and OCLC, as well as an over-ambitious design, and we just never got anything working. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Crappy AJAX
On 10/25/12 7:37 AM, Joe Hourcle wrote: > You didn't answer the question -- why would you not have some sort of > check on the AJAX application (or any application, web or otherwise) > to do at least minimal sanity checking on the result of an external > call? Because putting the onus of sanity checking on the web page isn't the best solution in this case. Of course, it should be set up to handle unexpected results sensibly in any case. > In the case of something requiring authentication, if it's a well > designed back-end, it should return some HTTP status other than 200; > 401 or 403 would be most appropriate. I've unfortunately worked with > ColdFusion in the early days before they added to allow you > to change the status code so that it was something other than 200. Which is exactly the point I was about to make before I read your second paragraph; the server, not the web page, should be fixed up to make things work sensibly. > I've also seen websites that cheat to install a 'handler' for all > requests by linking to a PHP script using Apache's 404 ErrorHandler > directive. This also has the side effect that search engines won't > index your site at all (as they assume it's all errors) > > In both of these cases, I'd say the service is poorly designed if you > can't easily identify a failure. You can send a login page along with > your 401 status, but you *should* *not* send a 30x redirect to a login > page, as then the actual status message is lost. (the content hasn't > been moved ... you just want someone to go to the login page ... the > HTTP specs don't forbid a Location field w/ a 40x status, although I > admit I've never verified that major browsers support it) I think we're in agreement here. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Q: "Discovery" products and authentication (esp Summon)
On 10/24/12 8:58 PM, Ross Singer wrote: > On Oct 24, 2012, at 6:06 PM, Gary McGath wrote: > >> On 10/24/12 4:00 PM, Ross Singer wrote: >>> On Oct 24, 2012, at 3:48 PM, Gary McGath wrote: >>> >>>> With AJAX, a resource can be brought up by refreshing part of an >>>> existing page rather than as a whole new page. If the page is expecting, >>>> for example, a JPEG image, and the request for the image is redirected >>>> to a login page because it's restricted, then the page won't get back an >>>> image, but instead will get back the HTML for the login page. The HTML >>>> tag can't do anything with this, and it will merely fail to >>>> display the image. >>>> >>> >>> What does this have to do with discovery interfaces? >> >> The issue is generic to any web application that has a mix of public and >> restricted resources and may encounter restricted ones at unexpected >> times, such as was being discussed with discovery interfaces. >> > The discovery interface knows what is restricted. > > That's why it's saying you don't have access to them until you log in. Agreed. >>> Also, why wouldn't your AJAX-enabled app be prepared for such an event? >> >> Are you asking how an AJAX-enabled application can handle such cases? > > No, I know how an AJAX-enabled application should handle such cases, > I'm saying why, if you're implementing an AJAX-enabled application, > why you think this would be an issue. Because I just don't see this being an issue. This has always been a tricky thing to explain; it's not just you, if that's any consolation. Someday I'll figure out how to make it clear on the first try. The point is that if a service redirects to a login page, it assumes the browser can display the login page. Normally this is true, but only if the resource would be delivered as a web page. AJAX components are received as elements, not pages. If you like, I can go into more detail off-list. This is really too much of a side technical issue to be worth taking up a lot of space on the list. > >> I'm not sure this is the appropriate venue for getting into the >> technical details, and I've encountered the problem without having >> managed to implement a solution, but I'll briefly cover how I'd attack >> the problem. >> >> If the resource redirects to an HTML login page, the Ajax code can't >> make any sense of that, so it can't be "prepared for such an event." > > Sure it can. I mean, no matter what, you're constrained by same origin > policy, so any 'login' is going to be something local, so it seems pretty > easy to account for. It's a matter of the difference between, for example, the src attribute of an tag and a web page. Again, I don't want to turn this into a full-fledged programming discussion on-list. > > Bringing JSONP and CORS into the mix doesn't really change anything, as I > can't imagine you're just blindly pulling in content from some external site. > >> However, if the response has an HTTP code indicating that authentication >> is required, the Ajax error handler can dispatch on the code and >> dispatch an event which is handled at the page's top level, forcing the >> whole page to redirect to the login. This is doable but a bit messy and >> reduces the value of AJAX. Giving an indication that not all resources >> could be loaded and providing the option to log in is cleaner. > > AJAX isn't some magical potion that eliminates the need to plan and engineer > your app. I don't think 'accounting for the web being a messy place' > reduces the value of AJAX. It means you have to earn your keep. You > know, as a professional software developer. I've been trying to respond to you seriously, but at this point you're really starting to sound like a troll. Addressing a technical issue by saying "you have to earn your keep" is no answer at all, particularly when you aren't paying me. >>> There are lots of things everywhere (not just library-related) that require >>> logins. The internet hasn't broken as a result. >> >> I'm afraid I don't understand how this relates to what I was discussing. > > Which goes back to how I don't understand what AJAX has to do with the fact > that some things aren't, by default, being displayed in discovery interfaces. > >> I didn't deny either of those points (though the Internet is always in a >> partly broken state). By "require login," d
Re: [CODE4LIB] Q: "Discovery" products and authentication (esp Summon)
On 10/24/12 4:00 PM, Ross Singer wrote: > On Oct 24, 2012, at 3:48 PM, Gary McGath wrote: > >> With AJAX, a resource can be brought up by refreshing part of an >> existing page rather than as a whole new page. If the page is expecting, >> for example, a JPEG image, and the request for the image is redirected >> to a login page because it's restricted, then the page won't get back an >> image, but instead will get back the HTML for the login page. The HTML >> tag can't do anything with this, and it will merely fail to >> display the image. >> > > What does this have to do with discovery interfaces? The issue is generic to any web application that has a mix of public and restricted resources and may encounter restricted ones at unexpected times, such as was being discussed with discovery interfaces. > Also, why wouldn't your AJAX-enabled app be prepared for such an event? Are you asking how an AJAX-enabled application can handle such cases? I'm not sure this is the appropriate venue for getting into the technical details, and I've encountered the problem without having managed to implement a solution, but I'll briefly cover how I'd attack the problem. If the resource redirects to an HTML login page, the Ajax code can't make any sense of that, so it can't be "prepared for such an event." However, if the response has an HTTP code indicating that authentication is required, the Ajax error handler can dispatch on the code and dispatch an event which is handled at the page's top level, forcing the whole page to redirect to the login. This is doable but a bit messy and reduces the value of AJAX. Giving an indication that not all resources could be loaded and providing the option to log in is cleaner. > > There are lots of things everywhere (not just library-related) that require > logins. The internet hasn't broken as a result. I'm afraid I don't understand how this relates to what I was discussing. I didn't deny either of those points (though the Internet is always in a partly broken state). By "require login," do you mean "automatically redirect a request for a restricted resource to a login page"? I find that's more the exception than the rule. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Q: "Discovery" products and authentication (esp Summon)
With AJAX, a resource can be brought up by refreshing part of an existing page rather than as a whole new page. If the page is expecting, for example, a JPEG image, and the request for the image is redirected to a login page because it's restricted, then the page won't get back an image, but instead will get back the HTML for the login page. The HTML tag can't do anything with this, and it will merely fail to display the image. There are ways to fix this with code that makes sure it's always the top-level page that redirects to the login page, but it can be a pain. On 10/24/12 3:22 PM, Kaile Zhu wrote: > Interesting, you mention AJAX pages. Can you elaborate why it would be > problem? - Kelly > > -Original Message- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Gary > McGath > Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 2:16 PM > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Q: "Discovery" products and authentication (esp > Summon) > > On 10/24/12 2:40 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: > >> Primo, by default, will suppress some content from end-users unless >> they are authenticated, no? Maybe that's what "restricted search scopes" >> are? I'm not talking about your locally indexed content, but about the >> "PrimoCentral" index of scholarly articles. >> >> At least I know the Primo API requires you to tell it if end-users are >> authenticated or not, and suppresses some results if they are not. I >> assume Primo 'default' interface must have the same restrictions? > > I've worked with library systems that redirect you to a login page when they > detect an attempt to access a restricted resource. I don't recommend this > approach; it may have worked OK 10 years ago, but it plays badly with AJAX > pages, which have become very common. > > > -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Q: "Discovery" products and authentication (esp Summon)
On 10/24/12 2:40 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: > Primo, by default, will suppress some content from end-users unless they > are authenticated, no? Maybe that's what "restricted search scopes" > are? I'm not talking about your locally indexed content, but about the > "PrimoCentral" index of scholarly articles. > > At least I know the Primo API requires you to tell it if end-users are > authenticated or not, and suppresses some results if they are not. I > assume Primo 'default' interface must have the same restrictions? I've worked with library systems that redirect you to a login page when they detect an attempt to access a restricted resource. I don't recommend this approach; it may have worked OK 10 years ago, but it plays badly with AJAX pages, which have become very common. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
[CODE4LIB] Where is NECode4Lib?
The web page for NECode4Lib says only that it's at the Yale University Library. The Yale library site says that it's housed in eighteen buildings, and I'm not seeing directions to any of them. The directions on the web page say only how to get to the Grove St. garage or the College / Wall St. stop. More exact directions will save me some aimless wandering on Friday. Thanks. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Event Registration System Question
On 10/18/12 6:08 PM, Brian McBride wrote: > Greeting! > > I was wondering if anyone out there has found or knows of a good open source > solution for event scheduling? We would need users to be able to register, > allow instructors to set enrollment caps, and basic email reminder functions. > Any information would be great! You might want to look at Zambia (http://sourceforge.net/projects/zambia/). It was developed for the Arisia science fiction convention where, as a program participant, I found it worked reasonably well. It's "Currently being generalized to handle other conferences/conventions," so I don't know whether it's ready for prime time yet or not. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] email to FTP or something?
On 10/17/12 11:46 AM, Nate Hill wrote: > Maybe someone can offer me a suggestion here... > I bought a nifty new gadget that records data and spits out csv files as > email attachments. > I want to go from csv > MySQL and build a web application to do cool stuff > with the data. > The thing is, the device can only email the files as attachments, it > doesn't give me the ability to upload them to a server. > Can anyone suggest how I can securely email a file directly to a folder on > a server? One possibility would be to create a Thunderbird add-on that would check messages as they came in and save attachments that met certain criteria. I can't find anything like that in looking at the existing listing of add-ons, but might be able to write one. Get in touch with me off-list if you're interested. What do you mean by "securely"? I'd guess you don't have much control over the gadget. Are you just concerned with separating the mail from the spam, or do you need to encrypt the files? The latter could be a problem. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Oral history app and server
On 10/10/12 11:42 AM, Gary McGath wrote: > On 10/10/12 9:19 AM, Mark Canney wrote: >> If you're not already aware of it, you ought to take a look at Stories >> Matter >> (http://storytelling.concordia.ca/storiesmatter/announcing-stories-matter-v-1-6e/about-stories-matter), >> an open source oral history database tool developed at Concordia >> University in Canada. SM allows archiving of digital video and audio >> materials, enabling oral historians to annotate, analyze, etc. > > > I just downloaded the Mac version to give it a try. The first thing > you're supposed to do is click the "New Project" button at the bottom of > the project list. There's an empty project list, but no "New Project" > button or any other way of creating a project. Very odd. > > The application is Flash-based, and I have a hate-hate relationship with > Flash, so it may have something to do with that. :) > Finally got the thing working, though I don't know what I did differently other than restart the application. This app doesn't offer the tight integration or voice transcription sought in the original proposal, but it could provide the core of a more modest solution made out of diverse components. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Oral history app and server
On 10/10/12 9:19 AM, Mark Canney wrote: > If you're not already aware of it, you ought to take a look at Stories > Matter > (http://storytelling.concordia.ca/storiesmatter/announcing-stories-matter-v-1-6e/about-stories-matter), > an open source oral history database tool developed at Concordia > University in Canada. SM allows archiving of digital video and audio > materials, enabling oral historians to annotate, analyze, etc. I just downloaded the Mac version to give it a try. The first thing you're supposed to do is click the "New Project" button at the bottom of the project list. There's an empty project list, but no "New Project" button or any other way of creating a project. Very odd. The application is Flash-based, and I have a hate-hate relationship with Flash, so it may have something to do with that. :) -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] What Wiki program to you recommend?
On 10/9/12 9:37 AM, Jill Ellern wrote: > Hey C4L folks, > > I'm about to work on a project to create a directory of all the local > libraries for the library employees in my area (public libraries, academic - > community colleges and university level, as well as small special libraries). > My thought is to include pictures as well as other info. I want to put it on > a Wiki but there are so many flavors. What would you recommend for such a > project? Do you know of any other regions that are doing this? I administered a Dokuwiki at Harvard and found it had some problems. History traces never worked right, and it was painful to put in preformatted text. I don't have enough experience with alternatives to recommend one, though. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Oral history app and server
Continuing on this part: My friend says that using any existing speech recognition software won't work at all well for transcribing interviews with a variety of people. All such software needs to be "trained" to the speaker's voice. A possible alternative is for a designated person to train the software and re-speak it into the speech recognition software. On 10/3/12 6:22 AM, Gary McGath wrote: > On 10/2/12 8:44 AM, Paul Orkiszewski wrote: >> - Processes the audio through speech recognition either in real time or >> post-interview, and populates the dbase record with rendered text (at >> whatever level of accuracy) > > You could do this piece with Dragon; see this post for some discussion: > > http://www.nuance.com/dragon/transcription-solutions/index.htm > > A friend of mine is an expert in this area and might be able to answer > some questions. -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer http://www.garymcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Oral history app and server
On 10/2/12 8:44 AM, Paul Orkiszewski wrote: > Hi 4libers, > > Does anyone know of something - a kiosk, an iPad app, a web application > - that: I don't know of anything like it out there, but let's look at what it might take. I've done some software work in connection with Harvard's Iranian Oral History Project. > - Initiates an oral history interview by getting demographic info and > permission to use and stream for scholarly purposes. I'm not sure what you're saying here. It sounds as if you're talking about automated correspondence with the sources. That would be a huge project in itself, so I assume you've got something more narrowly focused in mind. > - Goes through a standard set of questions (in our case stuff about the > Appalachian State experience) There are two pieces to this: Recording the responses and storing the relevant metadata. The recording probably shouldn't be tied to a specific device or application, since field work can involve a lot of different conditions. The researcher in the field would want something to enter the metadata (who, what, when, where); this would be a straightforward piece. > - Stores the metadata, permissions release, and pointers to the audio > files created for each question in a dbase record You don't say what the scope of the work is; from the way you're putting the questions, I'm assuming it's a small-scale project with one researcher doing the interviews and putting the information together. Even so, It's probably best to have the field work be a separate application from assembling the information in the database. If nothing else, once you're at this point there's more standard software that can be used. > - Processes the audio through speech recognition either in real time or > post-interview, and populates the dbase record with rendered text (at > whatever level of accuracy) You could do this piece with Dragon; see this post for some discussion: http://www.nuance.com/dragon/transcription-solutions/index.htm A friend of mine is an expert in this area and might be able to answer some questions. > - Provide a search interface, where the meatadata, demographic info > (within reasonable privacy limits), and the transcript (however garbled) > is searchable. I'd suggest basing something on Apache Lucene. > - Crowd source the improvement of the transcriptions over time This needs to be better specified. One solution is to put the text onto a wiki. If you're talking about integrating it into the application that does all the rest, it could get messy. > - Package the interface as an app, and set up a machine image on Amazon > EC2, such that when someone uses the image and points a browser to it, > it goes through a set up routine so that smaller schools and historical > societies can set up their own sites in the cloud. I haven't tried > streaming on a free tier EC2 server, but you get 30 GB of storage, so > you could get a fair number of hours of audio (depending on the > settings) before you have to start paying. This, I assume, is why you're talking about treating the whole thing as a single application. Putting it all together would be a huge chunk of work. Dragon's software isn't free, and I don't know of anything for free that does decent speech transcription, so that would be a stumbling block to making it available to other institutions. > > ? > > Anyone interested in trying it with me if there's nothing already out > there? I'm leaning toward iPad, so we'd need iOS, server admin, dbase, > and media expertise. I have newbie-but-getting-better skill in the last > 3. Zero skill in iOS. I'm available for freelance work and it sounds very interesting, but you've just outlined a huge project that would be a significant burden even for the LoC's resources. That's not to say it can't be useful as a blue-sky starting point for something more reasonable. If you have funding, let's talk off-list. If you just want to continue blue-skying the idea for a while, I'm glad to continue on-list (and I promise not to bill you for that :). -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developerdevelo...@mcgath.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib Journal - Call for Proposals
On 9/12/12 10:17 AM, Andrew Darby wrote: > Call for Papers (and apologies for cross-posting): > ... > Remember, for consideration for the 19th issue, please send proposals, > abstracts, or draft articles to jour...@code4lib.org no later than > Friday, October 12th. > > Send in a submission. Your peers would like to hear what you are doing. What are the preferred submission formats? -- Gary McGath, Professional Software Developerdevelo...@mcgath.com
