τεχνοσοφια

I am not certain if this is a good idea or not, but I decided to set up a "work blog" as I set off on my new path as a digital library architect. The lines between this blog and that blog are fuzzy — most lines are, in my eyes — so bear with me. I've never been a prolific writer — it's always a chore, an activity I simultaneously want to do more of, and do better, and also struggle mightily with. (It's the public school education? HAR HAR!) But even so, the posts here may slow yet more. Or maybe that will be true of the new blog. We shall see.

I've found that microblogging has largely filled the blogging gap for me; I'm more comfortable, somehow, posting smaller, more easily digestible "thoughtlets" via Twitter/identi.ca/Facebook. Perhaps I've succumbed to attention deficit disorder, flitting from one tiny undeveloped idea to the next. It's probable but I digress.

If you're interested, you can follow along as I grapple with questions about digital library architecture. Comments are most welcome, both here and there, as always.

Has it really been two months? Why, yes, it has. Oh me, oh my. I have tried to stick somewhat loosely to a schedule of writing here once a month[1], but alas, April came and went and I simply made no time to write.

That's not entirely true; I did plenty of writing:

I wrote code. After a year of working on the World Digital Library project at $MPOW, we went live on April 21st. The last few weeks were very busy for the development team, but I did find a few moments to breathe and blink.

I wrote microblog updates. After months of trying to figure out what microblogging is all about[2], it found its way into my daily routine. When time is short or thoughts arise fast and fuzzy, microblogging is a useful public scratchpad.

I wrote slides. The kind folks over at the College and University Section of the New Jersey Library Association invited me to be a panelist at the 2009 NJLA conference. The panel addressed recentish developments in open source integrated library systems. I spoke about the Evergreen ILS[3] and my co-panelists spoke about Koha and the Open Library Environment Project.

And, ever the dutiful technologist, I wrote documentation. And that will be the subject of my next post.

Notes

1. Here I extend my hand and then imagine you, whomever you may be, smacking it ever so gently [↩]
2. Wondered: Is it IM? Status updates? Blogging? And how is it related to these? Concluded: it's a little of each, and somehow it fits my status/vanity/sharing needs perfectly. [↩]
3. Hat tip to Equinox Software Inc.'s Karen G. Schneider for her kind assistance. [↩]

On Monday I woke up with a very mild and very annoying bronchial infection. Doctor Me prescribed two days of rest, relaxation, and chicken soup. Where "chicken soup" is "finally dropping the unreasonably expensive and embarrassingly outdated web hosting package at Speakeasy and transferring all of my domains and content to Dreamhost," that is. I am now paying less than a third of what I had been for a hell of a lot more features. And, I must say, administering DNS records, transferring files, and upgrading long-neglected software is rather amusing when you're loopy and feverish.

My experiences thus far with Dreamhost are very promising. I'm impressed but perhaps that's because I've been in the web hosting ghetto for so long. I understand there will very likely be downtime and sluggishness — that I can deal with. Being shackled to 1999 technologies for $30/mth, while my e-mails go unanswered, not so much.

I upgraded both Technosophia and my wife's blog to the latest WordPress release (2.3) from something ridiculous like 2.0.3. In doing so, I also switched to the svn upgrade configuration Ryan Eby detailed a while back.

I crossed my fingers and it turns out the unAPI server plug-in still works in WP2.3. Huzzah! Not sure if it works in the 2.1 or 2.2 branches, but I suspect it does.

It would be an understatement to say I've been enthusiastic about Ruby on Rails for a while now. Okay, I am downright fanatic — just look at that shrine to DHH in my closet; it's plain to see that I've drunk the (ruby red) Kool-Aid.

This is the first post in a series in which I hope to share my enthusiasm and explain just what it is that I love about Ruby on Rails. Not many folks in the library world seem to be using RoR — with a few notable exceptions — and so I thought it might be of interest to folks unfamiliar with or curious about Ruby and Rails to hear some impressions from a bright-eyed newbie.

Stay tuned, folks.

New year, new theme. Technosophia is now comin' atcha in day-glo green.

Drop me a comment if you notice any problems.