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walt crawford

Mostly retired library person/researcher/writer/speaker. All original FF contributions CC0 (public domain).
walt crawford
This is just about as boring as I thought it would be (also a screencapture w/Windows Clipping Tool), especially since it's really only three pictures with some cropping done. Ah well: I've been as creative with my avatar as I have been with my screen names/user names across services.
Quick notes: the first one's quite recent and taken on a hike. The next two are older--a year or two--and also taken on a hike. The last two are in Seward and taken on a cruise several years ago (our most recent cruise). One of those two will possibly appear in the June American Libraries, perhaps. Maybe. - walt crawford
I like the hike one - Stephan!e•CogSc!L!brar!an
walt crawford
Since this will (probably/maybe) disappear in about 15 hours...my own comment on a Literary Controversy Involving Depressed Canines: I read all three "major" SF Magazines (well, they used to be major). So I've read some of the short fiction involved, and stories by one of the Leading Depressed Canines. One nominated author writes prose so...
I'm not sure what the word is, but I rarely abandon stories once begun, and have made an exception in his case. "Turgid hard SF" might be one way to put it. I still subscribe to that particular magazine because I haven't stopped yet; when $ comes to shove, it will be the first to go, because it's the last in terms of writing quality. - walt crawford
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Ta :) - Pete's Got To Go
walt crawford
Not being particularly emotional, I've not joined in some of these threads, but...my own egotistical issue here is that, without FF or a suitably active new LSW home, the next time I'm really discouraged about the stuff I'm doing, it may be easier just to chuck it all instead of coming here to gripe and mess around for a while.
Which I am not sure would be a good thing (chucking it all, that is). Also, I'll miss those of you who don't migrate to (frienf.it|lsw.org|other). Sorry I never got around to the mug shot (as in beverage mug--I would have used my ALA 100 coffee mug, only sold at ALA's centennial conference). Glad I got around to the essay. - walt crawford
I'll be around for moments of doubt. And silliness :-) - Pete's Got To Go
BTW: I don't normally post about Wednesday hikes/walks unless there's a reason, but that's why I wasn't here this a.m. This time--largely because yesterday's rain made many hiking areas muddy--it was the "three hills hike" in Sycamore Grove, and the hike started in a park 3/4 mile from my house. So, of course, I walked there instead of driving to the usual gathering point. - walt crawford
[Any time I can walk 3/4 mile instead of driving 3 miles, if no heavy carrying is involved: Easy choice.] The Ramblers--the mid-level of the group--did a new "no-hills hike" version, little vertical but 5.5 miles walking/hiking in all. Which meant for me, seven miles in all. That's a fairly good morning's hike. I can feel it. - walt crawford
walt crawford
Not sure where you'll find me. Pretty sure I won't be there--wherever--as often, unless frenf.it or thelsw.org actually takes off. Otherwise, some occasional mix of blog, g+, twitter, facebook, frenf.it, thelsw. Or maybe I'll start using my LinkedIn...nah. waltcrawford everywhere.
:-( - Stephan!e•CogSc!L!brar!an
:( - RudĩϐЯaЯïan
:-( - bentley
:-( - Galadriel C.
walt crawford
Jon Carroll's column in the S.F. Chronicle today is another one about The WELL, which he loves. Thought about it as a possible alternative spot--but, apart from the cost ($100-$150/year, it's owned by its members), it's explicitly non-anonymous (and *probably* fairly old-style conferencing). So, not a starter, I think.
Too bad, in a way: The WELL communities seem to love it. Enough to pay $100-$150 a year for it and write newspaper columns about it. (It's 30 years old! Let's skip right over the original name, which has much to do with Left Coast hippie-dippie "tools will solve everything" stuff.) - walt crawford
No pseudonyms allowed? - Meg VMeg
I was on the WELL waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when it was a BBS and I found it incredibly frustrating to navigate. It's nice to know, though, that they found a sustainable model that works for them. - Cecily
I tried The WELL years (decades?) ago, and, like Cecily, found it very frustrating to navigate. - vicster.
walt crawford
To avoid continued threadjacking: And now I see that Adobe *knows* that Acrobat Reader (AcroRd) keeps running for some unknown period after you've closed PDFs--including mulitple instances--although Adobe doesn't seem to acknowledge that the "not doing anything, just sitting here" readers may be chewing up 30-40% of CPU each....
There's even an Adobe-recommended "fix": "close your browser and wait five to seven minutes." Gee, that's REAL helpful. - walt crawford
Incidentally, we do NOT own PhotoShop in any form, and if somebody offered me a legit free copy, I think I'd turn it down. (My wife uses Corel PaintShop Pro. I use paint.net.) - walt crawford
walt crawford
And...another essay from a video person telling us that "just ask" is the way to get paid for creative work. Yep, that's working out just great so far. Refusing to cater same-sex weddings would yield a whole *hell* of a lot more revenue, apparently. Unfortunately, even if I owned a pizzeria, I could never do that.
walt crawford
The penalties of filing tax a little later than usual: it took the IRS all of 37 minutes to accept my TurboTax return. TurboTax had estimated two days; they're conservative.
Just to round things off: California was slow--it took another 46 minutes before it was accepted. Still, 83 minutes for the whole cycle isn't too shabby. - walt crawford
walt crawford
Wish me luck. I've been having so much trouble with Firefox lately, and finding that one publisher's OA pages display "wrong" there, that I'm trying out IE as my default browser for a while. (Chrome won't let me choose my own typeface.) We'll see how it goes...
Well, that was quick: IE really wasn't happy about my OA searching at all, at all. - walt crawford
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Cute. I looked; there's an extension for Chrome that would supposedly give me this control. Which it does...as long as I click on it each time I have a new page. Not really what I had in mind... - walt crawford
walt crawford
New post: The Open Access Landscape: 6. Chemistry. http://walt.lishost.org/2015...
walt crawford
The lessons of crowdfunding sites are that you need to be a gung-ho entrepreneur--and you need to Give The People What They Want. And apparently, at least at GoFundMe, they want bigotry--that Indiana pizza parlor is past the quarter-mill mark. (Damned if I'll link to it.)
Whereas, if I tried again to crowdfund research--say a full 2015 pass in early 2016 of gold OA publishing, goal $10K--I'd almost bet I wouldn't reach three digits, much less four. Maybe if I threw in some religious persecution aspect? - walt crawford
walt crawford
Oddly evil 4/1 stunt: Videopoker.com (run by the company that makes most video poker machines) has daily, weekly and monthly contests for small cash prizes. The daily normally has a 50-deal session as the basis for scoring, a different variation on slot poker each day. Today's daily contest has a 1,000-deal session. (Each deal is ten hands.)
I'm guessing the odds are much better than usual of winning one of today's prizes...'cuz relatively few people are going to make it through 1,000 deals once, much less the seven or ten possible times to get the best possible score. I know I'm not. - walt crawford
walt crawford
Sadly, found it necessary to Unfollow a library person in frenf.it--the damn animated avatar was driving me crazy. (Sent him a message to let him know why.)
walt crawford
Unity from division? Story about honorary consulates in the SF Bay Area in today's paper: the honorary consulates for Slovakia and the Czech Republic are married to each other.
walt crawford
Another topical post in The Open Access Landscape, this time the topic with the second largest number of articles. 5. Biology. http://walt.lishost.org/2015...
walt crawford
Bland comment of the day: I'm not sure I quite get how it is that people who dislike something (let's say X), where that something is, oh, a style of music, a particular food or a variety of that food, whatever, get angry about the existence of X or don't understand why anybody else can like X.
I dislike salmon, olives (except as oil), pickles, and eggplant (except as tempura)--but none of those cause me the slightest bit of anger, and I understand why lots of other people like them. On the other hand, I'm missing out on making lots of posts that appear to attract lots of comments, so maybe my attitude here is wrong. - walt crawford
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Laura: And I don't disagree (that I made your point for you). (As for emoticons, I don't dislike them, I just don't use them. Yet.) And you're welcome to shake your head at me that way any time you want. - walt crawford
walt crawford
I'll say it here without reference to any person known or unknown: As far as I know, at least in the U.S., there is no law requiring you to invite a jerk to speak or consult, or to attend a session at which a jerk is speaking. Nor, I believe, can you be sued for believing somebody is a jerk.
walt crawford
Oog. April 2015 Fast Company just arrived, with a cover photo of St. Jobs, lacking only the halo. I never realized that the authorized biography wasn't quite friendly enough to this apparent candidate for sainthood.
walt crawford
(Responding to, well, never mind): And just because Word is your only tool doesn't mean you *can't* produce an attractive, professional layout that's as good as most big-publisher typesetting.
walt crawford
A *pleasant* earworm from last Saturday's Safeway shopping, with pure 4-part harmony and wonderful plucked 12-string guitar. Finally found it, from Down Under: The Seekers, I Know I'll Never Find Another You. Only YouTube version with the Seekers member actually plucking the 12-string: https://www.youtube.com/watch...
Oh, the '60s! - Anne Bouey
walt crawford
Why I love good editors (and why Patrick Hogan's been a friend for many years): Just had a change in title for my Library Technology Reports suggested, to which I instantly agreed (and have changed it in the relevant blog posts). Old title: Idealism and Opportunism: The State of Open Access Journals.
New Title: Open Access Journals: Idealism and Opportunism - walt crawford
Which is clearly better. (I've never felt I was very good at book titles. I've always felt that a good editor would improve my writing and my titles. I've almost always been right.) - walt crawford
walt crawford
A little crazy-making: Finished a long, long SF/alternate world novel Sunday. OK, not great, now have to go back to first in the series. BUT: One character named "Magda." About half the time, her name appears as "Madga." The book was presumably written using a computer, and published by one of the Big Four. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
Which is to say: How does a semi-competent writer send in an ms. without even checking for something that easy to check for (the string "magda" does not appear anywhere other than in that name, AFAICT), and how does a big-publisher avoid even the most rudimentary copyediting/proofreading? - walt crawford
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It was particularly noticeable because it's set in 17th century Europe, and while "Magda" (prob. short for Magdalena) is a perfectly reasonable name, "Madga" sticks out like a sore heretic. - walt crawford
walt crawford
Huh. So if I wanted to volunteer to be Editor-in-Chief for Collaborative Librarianship, I wouldn't qualify. No biggie; I wasn't planning to volunteer.
It isn't a paid gig, so I am sure that all applicants will be considered. - Back to just Joe
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Iris: Oddly enough, I don't disagree. Never have. I'm not sure this should be one of those positions, but that's up to the journal's board. - walt crawford
walt crawford
New Open Access Landscape post: Arts & Architecture. http://walt.lishost.org/2015...
walt crawford
Side-effect of living in a community with good, easy recycling and an 80%-diversion goal: Getting a *plastic, no triangle/number, not recyclable* ad from Verizon with an embedded $50-off-smartphone gift card in the mail is really annoying, not convincing. The only ad mail I can't recycle.
walt crawford
Odd. John D's tweets (and post?) about the April C&I are (I believe) largely responsible for strong downloads--just under 1,600 so far, more than 800 in the first week. But all of the retweets about the OA Landscape blog series--and there have been a lot of them--don't seem to do much: under 600 views of the first series post so far...
...and under 200 of either topical post. The big post view, more than 1,500 so far this month? A four-year-old "signs of spring" post about photovoltaic milestones. I have not the slightest idea why. - walt crawford
walt crawford
Lazyweb question: Was there some sort of incentive in 2013 that lowered income taxes? (I ask because our draft 2014 return, done in Turbotax, shows us with significantly lower taxable income than last year--but just slightly higher tax.)
walt crawford
Thanks to DJF's retweet, I saw a bizarre instance of pointless gendering (blue and pink ear plugs)--and thought that, to make the ear plugs representative of retail culture in general, the pink ones should be significantly more expensive--and should be shoddily made so that they fall apart much faster than the blue ones.
walt crawford
The Open Access Landscape: 3. Anthropology - http://walt.lishost.org/2015...
from
It wasn't actually up "two hours ago"--it was scheduled for 8:05 a.m., and it turns out Wordpress doesn't deal with Daylight Savings Time; I just changed the time setting to UTS-7 instead of UTS-8, and forced the publication. Anyway: it's up now. (#s 4 and 5 are already queued...one Friday at a time. And I'll see, tomorrow I guess, if that frequently-retweeted DOAJ blurb for the *first* post yields big hit numbers.) - walt crawford
walt crawford
A little geekier than expected: Shari's Cafe & Pies (mostly west coast) sent out a $1 offer for a slice of pie to its club members, only good on 3/14/15, and yes, there was a pi in the crust of the pie-slice illustrated. NO geekier than expected: the Computer History Museum's having a special Pi Day celebration..and those in line by 9:26 a.m....
...will get free admission and, I think, a free slice of (pizza) pie. (CHM opens at 10 a.m.) - walt crawford
Oops. Wrong on the free slice of pie, but it will be available for sale. Meanwhile, the Exploratorium's doing a whole day of special pi-related stuff, but this Saturday's a free day anyway. (True admission: I won't take advantage of any of this...) - walt crawford
walt crawford
Last night, watching Stargate: Atlantis, Season 3, "Irresistible," we commented that we knew the guy with the pheromones and had seen him before. Turned out to be Richard Kind. Linda was convinced he was the father in The Wonder Years, but we'd also seen him in something more recent...
Checked this morning: Richard Kind's big series was Spin City (which we watched). So then checked Wonder Years. That was Dan Lauria and...well, the two do look a *little* like one another. Cosmic import: None. - walt crawford
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Never watched Spin City, but have very fond memories of Mad About You. - John Dupuis
walt crawford
So, to finish this spurt of FF posting (about time, given 29 days left): I avoid memes like crazy, but sure, #askmeanything. I might even answer.
When you were in high school, what did you think you'd do with your life? - Rochelle *boom* Hartman
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John: Damned if I know. Things that interest me. Feeling I can make a difference. Not really wanting to turn into a slug (not that my wife would allow that! if I give up on C&I, OA, etc., I'll become active in the local Friends of the Library). - walt crawford
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