Sunday, October 25, 2009
Muddiest Point Week 8/9
How do the ranking systems of different search engines -- f. e. yahoo or chrome -- differ from google's algorithm system?
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Muddiest Point (Readings Oct. 20)
Where does Google find the information for its indices of web sites-- on the individual servers?
Reading Notes, Week 7/8 (Oct. 20)
Brin and Page on Google
I don’t like much of Google’s pompous rhetoric in general; and you can’t expect the founders of Google to be more modest or critical about their company, but other than saying that Google is great, they didn’t really say much of any substance about the way the search engine works. In terms of understanding the inner life of Google, the text by Brin and Page, on the “Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” (text from Lis 2000) was more enlightening. Still, there is the fundamental problem of the lack of transparency about Google’s algorithm and the way pages are being ranked, which contradicts this rhetoric of openness and all-inclusiveness, which also glosses over the fact that, while Google may index millions of sites, a lot of other sites are missed by the way the pages are being ranked. Google “will never exhaust the store and meaning of the Web,” wrote Terrence Brooks in his text we read in Lis 2000, “The nature and meaning in the age of Google.” (Information Research, vol. 9. no. 3 (April 2004) I was somewhat puzzled about their statement that Google is pretty much everywhere where there is power, leaving out a critical piece of the chain, the phone and cable companies, the internet service providers, on which almost all access – and lack of access-- depends. So, aggregated on a screen at Google headquarters in Mountain View it may look as if Google is everywhere, but of course this is not true, certainly not in the US, and not in Europe, where a lot of people just do not have and can’t afford internet access through expensive providers. And the way they talked about lack of Google use in Africa, it just sounded as if it were one big market that can and should be conquered – not much of reflection about the many digital divides here as well.
How Internet Infrastructure Works
--Network hierarchy, connected trough POP’s, and NAP’s
-- the internet as a collection of huge corporate networks that all communicate with each other at NAP’s
-- they rely on backbones (fiber optic trunk lines) and routers to talk to each other
-- who pays for the backbones?
-- you can identify net and host through IP address
-- DNS (domain name servers) convert domain names into IP addresses
Andrew Pace, Dismantling Integrated Library Systems, Library Journal, 2/1, 2004
-Web is fueling changes in the ILS
--Problems with the inter-operability of ILS "Today, interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality. Some of us wonder if we may lose more than we gain in this newly dismantled world."
-- There are many vendors, many systems, in many libraries, only pieces operate together
-There are some attempts to start from scratch
-- Better systems costs more -- libraries save at the wrong spot
--Some of the best ideas have come from librarians
--open source is a possibility, but not fully developed(as of 2004)
-- the future lies in integration and re-integration
-- has this chnaged?
I don’t like much of Google’s pompous rhetoric in general; and you can’t expect the founders of Google to be more modest or critical about their company, but other than saying that Google is great, they didn’t really say much of any substance about the way the search engine works. In terms of understanding the inner life of Google, the text by Brin and Page, on the “Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” (text from Lis 2000) was more enlightening. Still, there is the fundamental problem of the lack of transparency about Google’s algorithm and the way pages are being ranked, which contradicts this rhetoric of openness and all-inclusiveness, which also glosses over the fact that, while Google may index millions of sites, a lot of other sites are missed by the way the pages are being ranked. Google “will never exhaust the store and meaning of the Web,” wrote Terrence Brooks in his text we read in Lis 2000, “The nature and meaning in the age of Google.” (Information Research, vol. 9. no. 3 (April 2004) I was somewhat puzzled about their statement that Google is pretty much everywhere where there is power, leaving out a critical piece of the chain, the phone and cable companies, the internet service providers, on which almost all access – and lack of access-- depends. So, aggregated on a screen at Google headquarters in Mountain View it may look as if Google is everywhere, but of course this is not true, certainly not in the US, and not in Europe, where a lot of people just do not have and can’t afford internet access through expensive providers. And the way they talked about lack of Google use in Africa, it just sounded as if it were one big market that can and should be conquered – not much of reflection about the many digital divides here as well.
How Internet Infrastructure Works
--Network hierarchy, connected trough POP’s, and NAP’s
-- the internet as a collection of huge corporate networks that all communicate with each other at NAP’s
-- they rely on backbones (fiber optic trunk lines) and routers to talk to each other
-- who pays for the backbones?
-- you can identify net and host through IP address
-- DNS (domain name servers) convert domain names into IP addresses
Andrew Pace, Dismantling Integrated Library Systems, Library Journal, 2/1, 2004
-Web is fueling changes in the ILS
--Problems with the inter-operability of ILS "Today, interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality. Some of us wonder if we may lose more than we gain in this newly dismantled world."
-- There are many vendors, many systems, in many libraries, only pieces operate together
-There are some attempts to start from scratch
-- Better systems costs more -- libraries save at the wrong spot
--Some of the best ideas have come from librarians
--open source is a possibility, but not fully developed(as of 2004)
-- the future lies in integration and re-integration
-- has this chnaged?
Comments Week 7 or 8 (Oct. 20)
Commented on:
http://preservingtim.blogspot.com/
And on:
http://jonwebsterslis2600blog.blogspot.com
http://preservingtim.blogspot.com/
And on:
http://jonwebsterslis2600blog.blogspot.com
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Assignment 4: Working with Jing
Exploring the World Digital Library
1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3998337729/?addedcomment=1#comment72157622557339392
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999108966/sizes/o/
3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999121772/
4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999129796/
5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3998371253/
6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999149030/
7. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999207116/
Link to my thriller on the World Digital Library:
http://www.screencast.com/users/Khering145/folders/Jing/media/867a7e7d-2926-49ac-8306-a3a4f0b128fe
1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3998337729/?addedcomment=1#comment72157622557339392
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999108966/sizes/o/
3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999121772/
4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999129796/
5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3998371253/
6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999149030/
7. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42354457@N07/3999207116/
Link to my thriller on the World Digital Library:
http://www.screencast.com/users/Khering145/folders/Jing/media/867a7e7d-2926-49ac-8306-a3a4f0b128fe
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Assignment 3: CiteUlike and Zotero
My citeulike url:
http://www.citeulike.org/user/khering/
The import from zotero/google books is called zotero, or file-import-09-10-03 (generic) and the one from citeulike is called citeulike_import
My three main collections are digital-preservation; audio-preservation; curating-oral-history plus additional tags.
http://www.citeulike.org/user/khering/
The import from zotero/google books is called zotero, or file-import-09-10-03 (generic) and the one from citeulike is called citeulike_import
My three main collections are digital-preservation; audio-preservation; curating-oral-history plus additional tags.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Week 5/6 (Sept. 29-Oct. 6)
Muddiest Point:
This is an issue regarding compression and preservation of different file types which I have encountered when working with multimedia files in an archive. Is it possible for a computer to detect previous versions of a file that was saved as a different file type? For example, if you download an image as a .jpg file, import it into photoshop, alter it, and then save it as a .gif file or .tiff file, can a computer theoretically detect that the .gif file used to be a .jpg file? Such a trail is important for preservation, because the extension might obscure the fact that a file might have been compressed in a lossy format before, so at first sight it might look as if a file is compressed in a lossless format, even though it has been compressed in a lossy format before...
Reading Notes:
This week was the week of networks, both in LIS 2000 and in this class, and I am feeling a bit networked-out. Like many people, I have become acquainted with LAN networks at work while crawling under tables to disentangle some amorphous cable masses to figure out why a printer got stuck. As far as I understand it, LAN networks still depend on hard wires (co-axial cables as we learned). What is important here is that LAN networks do not depend on leased telecommunication networks, which gives the owners more control. As far as I understood, ethernet is a technology that enables LAN (the history of ethernet was actually fairly interesting, too -- I was not aware it was invented by R. Metcalfe at XEROX.) The article on the variety of computer networks was dizzying -- I was particularly interested in MAN networks -- who has control over MAN's -- cities or towns or private companies? I didn't know that the internet is short for internetwork. I want to know more about the physical infrastructure of the internet -- where are the hubs located? Important is the mix of private and public networks, which politicizes the whole issue -- who controls the access to these networks? And how are libraries connected to them? Does the U of Pittsburgh have a CAN, by the way?
RFID
this was a very informative article with a pragmatic perspective on RFID -- as a technology, it brings advantages, but also new pressures to increase efficiency (and potential job cuts) -- I also found her reflections on the rationale of libraries to introduce new technology very enlightening: a technology becomes introduced, is around, and libraries have to adapt and deal with these changes -- with RFID it sounds as if the development is going in this direction, if libraries like it or not....
Commented on:
Kristine Harveaux-Lundeen.s blog and rsj2600's blog
This is an issue regarding compression and preservation of different file types which I have encountered when working with multimedia files in an archive. Is it possible for a computer to detect previous versions of a file that was saved as a different file type? For example, if you download an image as a .jpg file, import it into photoshop, alter it, and then save it as a .gif file or .tiff file, can a computer theoretically detect that the .gif file used to be a .jpg file? Such a trail is important for preservation, because the extension might obscure the fact that a file might have been compressed in a lossy format before, so at first sight it might look as if a file is compressed in a lossless format, even though it has been compressed in a lossy format before...
Reading Notes:
This week was the week of networks, both in LIS 2000 and in this class, and I am feeling a bit networked-out. Like many people, I have become acquainted with LAN networks at work while crawling under tables to disentangle some amorphous cable masses to figure out why a printer got stuck. As far as I understand it, LAN networks still depend on hard wires (co-axial cables as we learned). What is important here is that LAN networks do not depend on leased telecommunication networks, which gives the owners more control. As far as I understood, ethernet is a technology that enables LAN (the history of ethernet was actually fairly interesting, too -- I was not aware it was invented by R. Metcalfe at XEROX.) The article on the variety of computer networks was dizzying -- I was particularly interested in MAN networks -- who has control over MAN's -- cities or towns or private companies? I didn't know that the internet is short for internetwork. I want to know more about the physical infrastructure of the internet -- where are the hubs located? Important is the mix of private and public networks, which politicizes the whole issue -- who controls the access to these networks? And how are libraries connected to them? Does the U of Pittsburgh have a CAN, by the way?
RFID
this was a very informative article with a pragmatic perspective on RFID -- as a technology, it brings advantages, but also new pressures to increase efficiency (and potential job cuts) -- I also found her reflections on the rationale of libraries to introduce new technology very enlightening: a technology becomes introduced, is around, and libraries have to adapt and deal with these changes -- with RFID it sounds as if the development is going in this direction, if libraries like it or not....
Commented on:
Kristine Harveaux-Lundeen.s blog and rsj2600's blog
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