I just listened to the February 17, 2010 podcast of the Library 2.0 gang. Two of the participants, Francis and Richard, I didn’t know, but I’m somewhat acquainted with Talin, Nicole and John. I was able to hear Talin speak once, and I was generally impressed with his thoughts and apparent technical management abilities. John I know of through his position at PTFS, and Nicole, everybody in the know just knows.

Random responses to some of the discussion topics:

> Open-source projects need a corporate sponsor or organizer (position supported mostly by John).

Well, I’m not going to try to do any kind of scientific citation, but I would like to suggest that has been the case some of the time, and for other projects not. OpenOffice may be a good example–Sun bought/picked up some obscure word processing project way back when, and turned it into the successful Star Office and OpenOffice. I think, if my memory is correct, JBoss is another example.

But then Mozilla Firefox is a counter example. While they have their own foundation now (and have had for some time, of course), and have gotten some funding here and there from corporate sponsors, they are largely self-grown.

Organization of any open-source project is probably a worthy study topic for some grad student. The <lack of> organization of Koha, for example, is at best an example of decentralized management. LibLime (LL) might have been a potential focus point for Koha at one point, but since they have moved to a de facto closed-source, proprietary system (LibLime Enterprise Koha, LEK) the True Koha Community now shuns them. PTFS as corporate leader? Well, hum, maybe. If it happens, that would only come after their purchase of LibLime, which a little birdie says might happen yet if LL has the problems the rumor mill says they might. How would PTFS handle LEK, and how would they treat Koha? If it were in the manner of Red Hat and Fedora, that would be a great, but if they were to become LL 2.0, and perpetuate the facade of an open-source Koha project, then that would provide no organizational structure either. This brings us to Sirsi, which I’ll use as a transitional discussion point.

> Talin didn’t get the air time of the other gang members, but I tried to listen carefully when he did speak. He mentioned several times that he was considering Sirsi’s possible involvement with open-source ILS projects. I don’t think it could possibly happen that Sirsi would ever have any positive organizational effect on Koha; they, especially with their Vista owners, would just be too much out of their league. Talin also mentioned his, what, happy thoughts with regard to open-source. I frankly hadn’t been aware he entertained such, but I haven’t been following Sirsi much lately, so maybe, but the open-source train, including Koha, is zipping right along and if Sirsi doesn’t want to have to make a running jump for the caboose they better stop thinking and get themselves to the station.

I’ll reiterate one of my previous complaints; one of the reasons we are unhappy with Sirsi is that we are tied to Workflows, which doesn’t run on Linux. The server runs on *nix, and Java Workflows (JWF) runs on Windows and Mac, so why the Heck doesn’t it run on Linux? That simple little thing right there raises my blood pressure 25%. I remember a year or so ago they were floating the idea of porting JWF to Linux, and wanted to know if there was any interest, and I thought, “Why the Heck do I need to express and interest? Just port the thing and be done with it!” And while you are at it, why not open-source Workflows? It’s not like you could use it as is with any other ILS, and I even rather doubt that any of the code would be of great competitive advantage to other developers, but it would give you something concrete to point to as your effort to be agreeable with others.

But to get back to the point, Koha could benefit from some structure, and it appears that may be coalescing around their New Zealand/Katipo roots, with the various support companies and users participating more-or-less equally, without a single, strong central figurehead. Nicole made a couple of quick references to this. Unfortunately, the community is certainly resource poor at this point, maybe it will become the little locomotive engine that could.

> Talin also mentioned they have been working more closely with sharing development snapshots with their partners. I’m not sure what the benefits are for the end users, but what happened with the Bluesocket partnership? That went south with hardly a word of explanation. And heck, even Microsoft, the second most secretive, closed source corporation in the history of the world, has developer confabs. None of that compares to Koha, where you can get up-to-the minute development code, alpha or beta releases, or the stable version.

> Confusion over vendor lock-in vs product lock-in? No, we understand the difference.

> What is the community crying foul about? News to me.

>Talin mentioned possibly collaborating with the open-source community on things like indexing, crawling and search. That, to me, means exposing the database contents in a way that’s easier, more comprehensive and more open than Z39.50 or SIP/NCIP.

1. Unpack and setup – fine

2. Install CD with Linux installer – brownie points++

3. Run GUI installer -

“Sorry, you must be administrator to install this product.”

>>>Bad Xerox. BAD BAD. We don’t do that on Linux without prompting for a root password.

4. Login as root. Bad Xerox. Run installer. Discover that I could have bypassed the auto installer as a regular user.

5. Run installer. Can’t find the device on the network. (Kevin suspects it’s defaulted to a different network address than what we use, but the directions to print out a configuration page with the default IP don’t work).

6. Call Xerox. Yes, they have a tech support telephone number. xerox++

7. On hold less than three minutes. xerox++

Tech support:

Serial number?

>>>”123456″

Name?

>>>”Kevin”

Company?

>>>”Wizzy Library”

Address?

>>>”12345 Oak Street”

State?

>>>”Missouri”

Long pause. Keyboard clacks away. What is your state?

>>>”Missouri”

Long pause. Keyboard clacks away. Missouri?

>>>”Yes. “M” “O”.

Keyboard clacks away. So that is Missouri, right.

>>>”Correct”

OK. What is your problem today?

>>>Kevin thinks “Xerox”. Kevin says “I have a new Phasar printer and I can’t configure it for the network”.

OK. What happens when you run the installer?

>>>”It’s fine up to the point where it looks for a new printer and can’t find it.”

OK. What is your operating system?

>>>”Linux”

Long pause. Keyboard clacks away.

So is that running on a Mac?

>>>”Goodbye.”

8. Click

Google news (the aggregator, not the original source) reports this morning that Sun Microsystems has just been purchased by Oracle. In my mind, Sun is/was one of the greatest computer companies of all time. The quality of their hardware, and of Solaris too, is, well, it’s just great stuff. The company was a prodigious source of truly great, innovative products, particularly Java and all the associated tools and IDEs. We don’t know what will happen to the company now, but it’s not likely to be anything good.

What then, of the products under the Sun umbrella? MySql is open source, so it will continue quite well, Solaris is open source, so the operating system will still be around. Java is/is not (circle one) open source friendly (?) so it will still be available, but the snag is now that Oracle will control it’s development. We’ll probably lose the hardware within a couple of years, and that will be a real loss. Ah, an ode to the funky colors–purple and indigo and teal! And the cool Cobalt Raqs–the square boxes! Now, no more.

Strange how things work in business sometimes. In a day of commoditized computers, all black and beige and made in China, the nameplate on a nice Sun Fire stands out, and sometimes I feel like it deserves a salute. A departing salute.

I want a 10″ screen, and some non-white, non-black, non-nondescript color. Red would work, and a decent blue or green would be OK. So that leads to the Asus Eee PC, and the 1000HE in blue looks really good, except it doesn’t have Linux installed, although other models do. I’m still looking, but I may be forced to buy a computer with Windows to get the hardware I want, and then install a decent Linux OS to get it to work right. Just irritates the heck out of me that I can’t buy both, or at least a computer without an OS at all. Why pay the $75-$125 premium to MS for something I don’t want?

May one million Pediculosis pubisies infest Sergy’s shorts.

I’m having trouble getting Java Workflows to run on Linux. It should be something easy, but here’s what happens:

>java -jar workflows.jar

1. That brings up the configuration window where you put in your server IP address, port, workstation, etc. Fine, that seems to work.

2. That brings up the login screen, where I’ve tried a couple of different known, valid logins. Fine, seems to work.

3. That brings up the Automatic Update Window, where you can choose to update the staff client or not. Using either selection results in the following, at which point it hangs permanently:

computer11:/home/jbisset/Jwf # java -jar workflows.jar
Exception in thread “main” java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: illegal component position
at java.awt.Container.addImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.add(Unknown Source)
at com.sirsi.platform.graphics.MenuBar.addMenu(Unknown Source)
at com.sirsi.platform.subroutine.Subroutine.addMenuFromToolbar(Unknown Source)
at com.sirsi.platform.screen.SirsiFrame.init(Unknown Source)
at com.sirsi.workflows.Workflows.main(Unknown Source)
.

Additional info:

computer11:/home/jbisset/Jwf # java -version
java version “1.6.0_01″
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_01-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0_01-b06, mixed mode, sharing)

Any ideas?

Apple

I needed to download QuickTime for Windows XP so I could load it on a couple of systems. The problem is that I was using my Linux workstation for the download, of course, and I intended to transfer it to a shared Samba drive, but no matter what clicky dance I tried on freaking Apple’s web site it would only offer me the OS X version of QuickTime. How completely obtuse is that? I hate companies that presume things about me based on my geolocation or operating system. Why couldn’t they have had the simple, rational inteligent option of permitting the downloading of either version? It’s not like the OS X version is going to run on Linux anyway, so gimme a choice. <insert lineage descriptor here>. Just another reason to avoid QuickTime altogether. Experiences like this are always on my mind when I make purchasing decisions.

AWE

They sure are, for not all the right reasons either. AWE makes the Early Literacy Station, which has become quite popular in sales to libraries. In short, it’s a standard Dell computer with about 35 standard children’s games loaded on it, with a custom interface to lock you out of the XP (I assume) OS. Fine. My quibble is with their pig-headed use of the image of the system on their web site. You see, we have a demo setup of the system for parents and we were going to do a little promotional poster and display it next to the computer. So we came up with a couple of bullet statements about how cool it is (?) and I was going to add AWE’s site pic of the system to our poster. Strictly in-house, one-time use of the image which should have been covered under the fair-use doctrine, and for promotion of AWE’s product. The <repeat lineage descriptor here> have used some scripting to prevent downloads of the image, so we had to use some generic clip art graphic to add a bit of color and visual interest to our poster. So to frell with AWE I added a statement to the effect that the system was way overpriced at $3,325, but the taxpayers paid for it so who cares. That’ll learn ‘em. Geez, are they afraid some competitor will take their image and rebrand it or something? They should be offering dozens of pics of their system with some reasonable usage clauses for promotion. What’s with knuckleheads that are so obsessed with secrecy?

I didn’t have time to take a good look at the code yet, but I suppose I’m fairly adept at downloading images that people try to lock out, so I may take some time and see if I can pull it off just to spite them. Maybe I’ll put some text on it like: “SUPERIOR Children’s Educational Station”, and a web link to some other vendor’s web site, and post it to Flickr. Or maybe I’ll just point out that it costs $3,325 to all the taxpayers I meet.

I don’t know much about this individual, but I understand she was important, as in VP level, and that she was well-liked by the community.

I can’t quite make up my mind what is going on at SirsiDynix. On one hand I think we simply have a company that is reorganizing, like competitive companies do sometimes, and that this process can be painful and disruptive and confusing, but results in a healthier company in the end.

<Graphic language advisory>
On the other hand, given that this process is getting a bit protracted, I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t a proverbial case of the chicken with it’s head freshly cut off–the body is flopping around on the ground giving the appearance of life, but the thing is dead.

On the other hand (I have three), maybe it’s somewhere in between–a well-intentioned reorganization has spun out of control and the powers are starting to lose control, but it’s not quite a lost cause yet.

For the sake of my editorial freedom and integrity I hope my online identity hasn’t yet been compromised yet; I try not to say much about myself to further that hope. And without being specific, I think it would be fair to say that I have a respectable formal education and some amount of practical experience in business and management, and here’s one observation that I can make with a high degree of confidence: Vista and Sirsi better get this damn thing wrapped up and put away and get back to the ILS business. If I cared to dig out some of my grad management books I’m certain that I could find lots of case studies where great companies didn’t survive reorganizations because they were poorly managed and drawn out. Koha* probably only has a fraction of the customers that Sirsi has now, but they have a great product that’s coming on strong and it seems they have their act together. Sirsi may still be great, and I still like it, but there are good, viable alternatives out there, and Sirsi already has some serious fence-mending to do with the customers.

And what’s with this “do not compete” form? Something to prevent defections of Sirsi’s talent to the competition? Just a tiny fear in the old boardroom?

*Just for clarification – so you know I know, Koha is an open source, GPL licensed library database product.  It’s an international effort, and we tip our hats to the New Zealanders-Katipo, who started it, but here in the states LibLime is the company that you go for support. Oh, I understand they’re hiring good ILS people too, just don’t sign that form before you’re told to clean out the desk!

Here’s how it’s going:

1. The Dummies book in hand, I came up with a really cool first name, and got through the registration process. I picked a default last name since it wasn’t obvious that I had a personal choice.

2. Downloaded the SL software, and except for extracting the file it didn’t require any installation, a la Mozilla Firefox et al. All good so far.

3. Read the hardware requirements list. PD stract. (Colloquialism meaning really strict). My work and home computers are pretty well spec’d; my home machine is a homebrew AMD dual-core 5000+ with four gigs of RAM. I got that particular MB just because it had fairly decent on-board video, but apparently neither that nor my work computer can cut it in the video department for SL. The home computer will start to run, but never is able to bring up a GUI window. I sent a couple of crash reports, but also realized SL specifies a separate video card, so I suppose I may have to snag one off the ‘net. The work computer, although being fairly good, isn’t nearly up to the standards of my home computer, but it will run SL for about two to three minutes at a time before it crashes. When it does it crashes the whole computer, not just the app or X. Sometimes it will just restart X, but it clearly isn’t quite right even after you log back in. Rude.

4. OK, so now I’m on SL, and playing newbie. Here are some things I’ve done:

a. Created myself. I’m wearing some white jumpsuit thing. Potentially dangerous. I’ll have to stay out of the biker bars until I get some jeans.

b. Contended with some dude for a car. We both couldn’t quite figure out how to get in the thing, but he figured it out first. NP, I just walked around some more and got another one.

c. Killed rats. Several I thought at first they were armadillos and tried to avoid them.

d. Made my way, after about 10-2.5 minute sessions interspersed with reboots, to the flying learning center. Here’s where it gets interesting (as if killing rats wasn’t). I’m in the center of this circle, and I’m getting these text prompts to tell me which buttons to click to fly. Well, that mostly works up and down, but if I try to turn around in there it all goes to he!!. As soon as I hit either the left or right arrows, I go into this maddening continual spin, which won’t stop unless I do a “Control C”. This also has the effect of locking up everything on the computer, although it manages to maintain the X display sort of. Now the first time I did this there was this fembot in the room too, and she was totally faced into a wall, and obviously unsure for a minute about what to do, so she couldn’t see me spinning around the room in the beginning, but then she got unstuck and booked when she saw my continual pirouette.

Comment: I really expected to see more people in SL, but it’s fairly deserted. Maybe that’s just because I’m still in the learning area?

We’re off to a grand start, but I think its going to have to wait for a new graphics card.

Thought: I wonder if there would be any value in a specialized SL controller? Gloves, helmet, maybe even sensor-impregnated suit? I’ve often postulated that its time for a major advance in computer input devices, something beyond keyboard and mouse and even most joysticks. I know a few companies are playing with next-gen devices, but except for the Wii controller nothing has made much of an splash yet.

]]> http://glowworm.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/second-life-the-beginning/feed/ 0 glowworm http://glowworm.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/photoshop/ http://glowworm.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/photoshop/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:32:41 +0000 glowworm http://glowworm.wordpress.com/?p=29 ]]> I’ve been tasked with buying two copies of “Photoshop”. Simple, right?  Go to a couple of websites, get prices, request a quote.

Well, not so simple. There’s apparently Photoshop 7.0, CS3, CS3 10, and innumerable variants thereof available for sale from the major retailers. OK, I obviously want the most current version of “Photoshop”, in some standard incantation, so I go the Adobe’s website to get a part number, so I can go back to the web merchants websites to search for The Right Photoshop.

Wrong.

http://www.adobe.com/education/purchasing/education_pricing.html

Contribute CS3      MAC      38040283
Contribute CS3     WIN     38040284
Creative Suite 3 Design Premium     MAC     19500129
Creative Suite 3 Design Premium     WIN     29500159
Creative Suite 3 Design Standard     MAC     19300021
Creative Suite 3 Design Standard     WIN     29300025
Creative Suite 3 Master Collection     MAC     19280026
Creative Suite 3 Master Collection     WIN     29280026
Creative Suite 3 Production Premium     MAC     19600053
Creative Suite 3 Production Premium     WIN     29600053
Creative Suite 3 Web Premium     MAC     19700025
Creative Suite 3 Web Premium     WIN     29700025
Creative Suite 3 Web Standard     MAC     19270024
Creative Suite 3 Web Standard     WIN     29270035
Photoshop CS3 Extended 10    MAC 19400063
Photoshop CS3 Extended 10    WIN   29400063

If training was available for the Gimp in my area, I’d send the users to that and not even mess with the $1,400 “Photoshop” software that I can’t even figure out how to buy.