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Monday, November 17, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Large, Super-high Resolution Display
From NASA Ames Research Center:
The power to visualize highly complex information in a way that’s easier for the human mind to grasp is taking a giant leap forward with the advent of NASA’s new hyperwall-2 system unveiled today at Ames Research Center.
Developed by scientists and engineers in the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames, the 128-screen hyperwall-2, capable of rendering one quarter billion pixel graphics, is the world’s highest resolution scientific visualization and data exploration environment. The new tool enables scientists to quickly explore datasets that otherwise would take many years to analyze.
For more pictures, see
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2008/Hyperwall.html
For more information, follow the link to the related news release.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Libraries Build Communities
This was my second year volunteering with LBC. This time I tried an elementary school. After failing to find the group for Lampson, I got added to the Woodsboro Elementary School’s group. Six of us rode out to the school in a large taxi, and found a school roped off as a hardhat zone and all the classrooms, offices, and library in portables. One portable had running water, but no electricity anywhere else. We mostly did shelfreading by light from windows and doors, some repair and weeding. I got to do animals and vehicles, aviation, and space, so I was quite happy. Finished up in fiction, nice to switch to thicker books. Our school librarian was a gracious and appreciative hostess, even went out to the store for supplies and more cold water when Domino’s gave us pizza and bottles of soda, but no plates, napkins, or cups. Sorry that names have faded from too much input the rest of the conference, but I spent the day with a great group of people and rode in with a caring taxi driver who didn’t leave until we found the library within what looked like abandoned construction. Even with some confusion on how to get the return taxi, the SUV taxis were much better than having small groups of us in buses like last time.
Next time, I’ll be louder about finding my group, and print out directions. Taxis don’t usually go to schools and not all drivers have or use GPS. Our packet had directions from the school to Domino’s, but we got them to (mostly) deliver. This is the third year of LBC and it seems like the logistics keep improving, so thanks to the volunteers that set all this up and got the other volunteers like me on track!
Predictably Irrational - Daniel Ariely
Rather than rehashing, I'll refer the reader to Jami L. Haskell's post in her blog, Librarian Like Me.
The things that really stood out for me were people's reluctance to choose carefully among many choices - they choose the default. How the looks of the scale can influence how people answer questions - visually they interpret the middle of the scale as "normal" even if it isn't (how many times per day do you floss your teeth? 1-10). How we accept physical limitations but expect people to have mental superpowers. To encourage database use, let students know the real cost and that they need to use it or lose it (when the semester or college is over).
The things that really stood out for me were people's reluctance to choose carefully among many choices - they choose the default. How the looks of the scale can influence how people answer questions - visually they interpret the middle of the scale as "normal" even if it isn't (how many times per day do you floss your teeth? 1-10). How we accept physical limitations but expect people to have mental superpowers. To encourage database use, let students know the real cost and that they need to use it or lose it (when the semester or college is over).
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