j's scratchpad

Garrett shared some cool links in his weekly email, including news about Google’s search changes I read in The Boston Globe earlier. I’m just going to copy and paste from his email. How to Search For Certain Colors in Google Images  http://ow.ly/1owr (Source: neiljohnford) … Top 10 Electronic Reminder Services  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,234… (Source: ResourceShelf) Two new [...]

This article explains how undersea Internet cables work, a bit about where they go, the facilities handling them, and more about Internet infrastructure. There are also really fabulous pictures of Internet cables and neat widgets showing Internet traffic and mapping Internet routes.

Garrett suggests doing some spring cleaning on blogs, particularly those running WordPress. I’d be a lot more inclined to follow some of the suggestions, like updating software and going through old posts, had I access to the server and had this blog far fewer than 5,000+ posts.

Erica Smith, journalist, newspaper and multimedia designer at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a nifty multimedia website called Paper Cuts which lists all of the layoffs, closings and other news in the newspaper field. As of March 16, 2009, 5,046 plus jobs have been lost in the United States. For more info: http://graphicdesignr.net/papercuts/ Posted by [...]

The New England Technical Services Librarians are holding their 2009 Spring Conference called Working the Cataloging Landscape: Fishing, Mining, and Harvesting on Friday, April 17, 2009 at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass: NETSL Annual Spring Conference Program 2009: Working the Cataloging Landscape: Fishing, Mining, and Harvesting Friday, April 17, 2009 9:30 [...]

The Darien(CT) Library is holding the following talk on Thursday, March 26, 2009: Join us on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. at Darien Library in Darien, Connecticut, for: In the Foothills: A Not-Quite-Summit on the Future of Libraries At many Library conferences these days, we focus on technology so intensely that often we [...]

The New England News Forum at UMass Amherst, the Boston University College of Communication and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute are hosting a one-day collaboration called NEWSOUT: What to do when the newsroom lights go out: Options and strategies for New England communities on Saturday, March 21, 2009 at Boston University: “In the last [...]

The daily Boston Globe reports how various Boston area weekly newspapers are handling the economic downturn. Several have reduced page size and number of pages, some are limiting distribution, and one has gone back to being a weekly after a few weeks of trying life as a daily.

From the Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s weekly email detailing nifty events in the coming week: [MONDAY] THE FUTURE OF NEWS ================================= 3/9/09, 5:00-7:00 PM Austin West, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School Topic: The Future of News Guests: Russ Stanton and Jeff Jarvis — A public session of “The Internet: Issues at the Frontiers” [...]

At today’s Berkman Center lunch, Rebecca MacKinnon is presently giving an excellent talk about the Internet in China and what’s been happening online in that country lately. While the government seems to be opening up a bit, things aren’t always what they might seem. Internet censorship is a small part of the picture. China employs [...]