Mobile gear

1) Nokia N800 Internet Tablet with iGo bluetooth wireless keyboard
2) Motorola Razr V3xx with data plan
3) Borrowed Dell Latitude D620
4) Ipod nano 2nd generation (the thin one)
5) Extortionate hotel wifi prices

I find that the N800 with keyboard is pretty workable for email and for most web browsing, but for typing long-form stuff it leaves a little to be desired…it’s very possible, but I like to see a little more of the context of the line I’m writing than the screen can display. On the other hand, it is vastly easier to carry around than a six pound laptop…and has better battery life, usually about six hours on a charge. Also, while it’s theoretically possible to install Drupal on it, I’m finding that the LAMP stack sits more comfortably on the laptop. Or, rather, installs easily enough for me to figure out what’s going on.

Did some ALA business on my RAZR while waiting in line for Space Mountain. Didn’t feel I could type a sensible reply to the email from my speaker but spent half an hour considering my options.

Summary so far: I’m thinking the laptop will sit in the room while the N800 comes with me to conference sessions. And it is very strange indeed how killing time in lines changes with a data-enabled phone.

Mixed feelings on Disney

I see that my library association is having a program on Disney’s customer service at our annual conference in Anaheim, though of course I can’t prove it now that I mention it. We did in 2004 when we were in Orlando. It seems inevitable.

Having just used up the last of my two-day pass, and with the evening fireworks rattling my hotel room windows, I have a couple of thoughts.

The genius of Disney is not in the rides. I grew up near Cedar Point in Ohio, and went to Kings Island as well while I was growing up. Other places have more interesting roller coasters, and all of the major rides and activities are similar to the standard set at almost any theme park. Chicken and egg, I know. I’m just saying, there are a couple of big coasters, a couple of things that mime the experience of an out of control elevator, a log flume ride, a fake rafting trip, cars that run around on a concrete rail.

The genius is in repackaging the dreams you had or have as a kid and selling them to you one $9 hot dog and one $25 souvenir at a time. I know: I bought the $10 lightsaber. After walking around for a couple of hours puzzled by all the hoo-ha over movies that came out while I was a grownup. I happened to wander through Tomorrowland during the Jedi Academy show. Totally cheesy, totally campy, but the cheerful cast and the little kids standing up against Darth Vader totally worked for me on a visceral level. And the genius placement of kiosks and stores surrounding the theater closed the deal. Almost walked away, but my Inner Child would never have forgiven me.

I’m not sure that kind of emotional manipulation is a good model for library public service, at least for a non-profit.

On the other hand, having the people checking bags separated from the people taking your tickets by about fifty yards–so you get two modest lines instead of one monster–is pretty clever. Likewise the Illusion of Progress during the long, long line for Space Mountain, with strategically placed kinks in the line to make you feel like you’re closer to the end when, in fact, it’s still half an hour.

Just need to figure out how to create kinks during the wait for our proxy server to finish loading our database pages.

Auctoritas and Whuffie

Just finished reading Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom on my Nokia N800, and have been thinking about his delightful abstraction of personal worth and economics, Whuffie. The basic idea is that a person’s worth is derived from other’s opinions of them, and particularly influential people’s opinions…and what makes it hilarious and scary is that in the Bitchun Society a person’s moral worth can be constantly updated and checked. Sort of like an eBay seller’s rating, only affecting your choice of parking places and how strangers react to you. It’s an interesting amalgam of a bunch of stuff in the process of happening online, but it’s amusingly similar to one of the meanings of auctoritas in Latin. The most influential senators in the Roman Republic often had no official position but could sway debates and make policy based on their accumulated reputation for wisdom, good policy, and/or being a powerful ally (or dangerous enemy).

So, what’s this blog for? To give me a place to talk about ancient history, gadgets, ebooks, libraries, and whatever else seems worthwhile.