spam, not what's for lunch

According to the latest report from Symantec’s MessageLabs, spam level is over 90% again (90.4%, to be precise), which means that one 9 out of 10 e-mails are spam. This is a huge increase compared to February, when the spam level was at 73.3%, and yes, it spells more trouble for social networks, which have recently been dealing with an onslaught of scams.

(brief article with charts of spam, virus, etc.)
http://mashable.com/2009/05/27/spam-social-networking/

Coding likes its 1999

Very interesting post on coding using HTML4 vs. HTML5 or XHTML.

http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2009/06/coding_like_its_1999/

SouthEast LinuxFest

SouthEast LinuxFest is in Clemson, SC on Saturday, June 13th. Free IT Athens will have a table in the exhibit hall alongside many other organizations such as Red Hat, Open Street Map, and various user groups. There is also a great selection of talks scheduled for throughout the day. One of our founders, Semmy Purewal, is
presenting a session about "Building Community-based Technology Centers
w/ FOSS".

For more information, about the event visit
http://www.southeastlinuxfest.org/

Quick project update

Quick project update:

I'm finishing up the Faculty Learning Committee on Emerging Technologies and I've accepted to be a member of the FLC for 2010 on Visual Learning (The Shift to Visual). I am really excited about that and hope that my group can make a small movie about visual learning (hint).

In the past 3 months l've done presentations on:

• Wordpress as a CMS
• Blogging Basics (Choosing a Blog platform)
• Metadata Beyond the Library Catalog (for Catalogers)
• Metadata 101 (for general audience)
• and Friday, presenting research-in-progress for the cataloging tools & training survey that a colleague and I are conducting.

I promise to get my slides up at some point in the near future; I really want to do audio with them. So, that is what I have been doing. I am waiting for some freelance $ and that will be used to fund either a new piece of computer equipment OR go on vacation. ;-) I have also applied to be an about.com guide. Has anyone done that? I've considered it off and on for years, but I always had so much freelance work that it was hard to keep up. Most of my freelance work has dried up, so it seems like a great time to participate.

Survey reminder!

We'd love a few more survey participants. Feel free to share.
------------------
Do you do metadata or cataloging training? Are you a trainee or a library or information science student? Archivist? Librarian?
We could really use your help -- 1 quick survey and help our research. Here is your chance to speak your mind about your training experiences!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=S6LEGThhanvSpjVMeVzwWw_3d_3d

the next google?

How many times are we going to hear, "google killer" or the "next google" I wonder? Anyhow, here is another one... the behind the scenes video is kind of cool. I've requested a guest pass/invite, so we'll see if I get to play around with it before it goes live.


"Wolfram Alpha, a new "computational knowledge engine" based on the work of Stephen Wolfram. Some have dubbed Alpha a "Google killer," but, in reality, it is very different from the standard search engines that we are all familiar with today."

Screenshots, video & more at readwriteweb:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/see_wolfram_alpha_in_action_-_video_and_screenshots.php

Apparently, google is also throwing out a new search engine next week.