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The program is up for the ALA Virtual Conference! Take a peek and find which sessions you plan to attend.

Oracle is suing Google over the use of their Java API's in Android. This should be an interesting case. Google argues that while you can copyright a finished product, you shouldn't be able to copyright the computer language used to build the product - just like a novelist can copyright a book but nobody can copyright English. Oracle disagrees and says that if the language is unique enough, then it should be protected. They cite Klingon as an example. I read through Oracle's filing and it actually looks pretty strong. I didn't bother reading Google's because it's pretty clear that Google is missing the point that Oracle isn't upset that they used Java, but that they bundled all the extra API's. I really feel for the judge and jury having to hear this case. Oracle's brief isn't exactly light on the technical details...

This was a concept that I wasn't too sure if it wasn't ready for prime time or was simply a bad idea. Library patrons could sign up for a "Cloud" account and be given a thin client laptop that would access a Windows 7 image via Citrix which is "their" computer to install programs on or use as needed. However the initial outlay was $300,000 with $5,000 a year ongoing maintenance costs and considerable bandwidth requirements to stream an HD Windows desktop. Further it was limited to only laptops used in the library with a maximum base of 160 users. I honestly couldn't see this as a good idea because of the cost and limited use. It would be cheaper to rent out laptops and re-image when they are returned.

"A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden."

An interesting project that intends to combine Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) with Art to make STEAM and thus make these programs accessible to more students. While it has practical use at the pre-school and elementary level I can't see much use it would be for higher levels of education.

Tynker is a new computing platform designed specifically to teach children computational thinking and programming skills in a fun and imaginative way. The cloud hosted system is now available to teachers, schools and districts

Some relevant questions are asked about the recently unveiled PRISM Internet monitoring program of the NSA.

An interesting blog for a conference that took place in Telluride, Colorado, last month which looked at risk and rewards and encouraged innovative thinking. Some of the presentation resources are available here: http://rsquaredconference.org/program/resources

Logan College of Chiropractic University has finally released how much the president and his family are paid. If you remember, several months back, another Chronicle article mentioned hints of nepotism. What's totally outrageous is that the president at Logan is the 2nd highest paid president in MO, with only Wash U being higher paid. I have concerns over the impact this can make on Logan as a whole.

A positive article about how library use has increased for the public library of Burlington, Iowa. Much of the increase has been attributed to a new building with a single floor for books, several meeting spaces, and in general more programs and events as a result of the heavier patron count.

The Free Library of Philadelphia has a program in which free NOOK Simple Touch e-readers are loaned to patrons over the age of fifty. However, the NOOK is completely inaccessible to patrons who are blind. Library personnel had discouraged two blind patrons from even attempting to check out one of the devices. The library had also been issued letters from the Department of Education regarding the obligation of federally funded institutions to purchase accessible e-book readers and other technologies. It's not clear from the release what steps the library may have taken to remedy the situation or how it escalated to the point of a lawsuit.

A Berkeley port of Scratch, a tool for teaching kids to program with puzzle piece like functions/operators/etc.

This is a good read after looking at the previous Git flow.

I couldn't find a way to link directly to presentations or their materials. Probably the most interesting sessions I attended were: Solving the Complexities of Ebook Record Management in Millennium INN-Reach: Implementing Peer to Peer Functionality Between two INN-Reach Systems The Ebooks presentation was about checking for duplication, quality control, and making sure all the records an institution paid for are present and have valid links. There were a lot of good techniques that could be relayed to our members as a group of best practices. The Peer-To-Peer INN-Reach is a new product that allows two INN-Reach systems to share materials as if they were one. It was a done in Ohio as a response after one consortium added two public libraries and began to see their single INN-Reach server overwhelmed. From what I could tell it works well, with each INN-Reach server able to retain it's own loan rules and identity, but did require all the libraries and pickup locations to be added to both servers, which quickly would present patrons with a very long list of libraries to choose from. I wasn't very clear where the super-union webpac resided; whether on it's own server or produced from both of them. The users that were present seemed happy with it.

I love the idea of automatically pushing to production after a new commit is made to master.

This works amazingly well. The javascript we use to send text messages in the webpacs went from 8.5k to 4.3k. Also this works to combine multiple scripts and optimize them all together.

Not a particularly useful post I admit, but this was the first time I was interested in merging in a single commit from a remote repo rather than an entire branch. The git command 'cherry-pick' does just that.