Scan This Book!

Here's a highly recommended article on the promise of digitizing the world's libraries called Scan this Book!. I'm not sure if non-members of tranhumantech can follow that link or not, so let me know if there's any problems. The article was originally published here in the New York Times, but that link ONLY works for paid subscribers. A bit of a sad note for an article that says that all articles ever published in all newspapers need to be fully readable online.

The Subtleties of Peer-Group Pressure.

Today I felt well enough to go outside for a brief sojourn while the rain was in abeyance. I decided on the local coffee shop because I wanted a decaf and our current (Second Cup bought) decaf tastes worse and worse to me with every cup I drink.

Anyway, I had a Cafe Latte at the local Cafe Despot and the cute lady behind the counter asked "So you want cinnamon or chocolate sprinkles on that?" Now, theoretically, she shouldn't give a damn. After all I am the one who's going to drink it, not her.

Still, I know from long experience that the lady behind the counter (and it doesn't matter which) almost invariably prefers it when you answer 'chocolate'. When you say 'cinnamon', she gets a pained look on her face and hands you the coffee with a barely-concealed frown. When you say 'chocolate', she beams at you and hands you the foaming beverage with a pleased expression.

As it is, I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but I don't think cinnamon belongs on a coffee drink, so I usually choose the former. It does make me wonder at the poor folks who want the cinnamon though, and keep getting the negative reinforcement.

Wikipediosis

Wikipediosis is an insidious disease which causes one to look for the 'edit' button to fix bad grammar and poorly-worded phrases in various news articles one reads.

Need an RSS Feed.

I've been following the Epsilon Delta (e_delta_rss) feed but its just moved to a new location at: "http://epsilondelta.net/feed" and no one has created a new syndication link yet. Can anyone help me out here?

LJ Stats.

I was a paying member of LJ for 1 whole year (364 days or 31,449,600 seconds). In that time, according to LJ's own stats (which may or may not be accurate -- but for now we'll assume they are) I bumped ahead of 52255 non-paying members to save 702 seconds total. The record was jumping 825 positions in line to save myself 13 seconds, although 40% of the time there were no non-payers in line to jump over.

Now, the registration for a year costs $19.95 (at least that's what it costs now -- I think I paid less). This is a cost of 2.84¢ for every second of gained priority. That doesn't sound like much, but then again it works out to a cost of roughly $100 an hour. Of course, I never got an hour. More like 11 minutes.

I might pay a lawyer that, but I don't see how LJ is worth it. After all, saving 702 out of 31,449,600 seconds ain't much. A simple ratio gives us .0022% improvement. (although I suspect a simple ratio is not the right stat, my brain refuses to give me a better formula right now). The best savings might have been 13 seconds, but my average was only something like 2 seconds saved per day. Seeing as I usually read at least a dozen pages of LJ a day (perhaps much more), that's less than 1/6 of a second saved per page view.  No wonder it isn't noticable.

Now, LJ gives other features for a paid subscription. Icons, for example, which I almost never use. They also let you change your layout. I never bothered. The only feature I miss is being able to create new syndication links, but that is something that folks are usually willing to do for me.

Hmm. So, is it any surprise that I didn't renew when my subscription ran out a month or so ago?

Sti Go Down Town.

Due to strangenesses of schedules, I'm heading to NDG where I shall spend the next hour or two sitting bored in a Cafe before meeting up with Taxlady for supper. Anyone feel like keeping me company, phone my cell for my coordinates.