The amazing internet

Joyce and I have both mentioned Richard Dawkins and his fantastic session last night. I wanted to add a post script.

The experience was made possible by the massive KAREN network, whose members include libraries, universities, research institutions and schools. KAREN connects to the JANET network in the UK.

The Dawkins presentation was high-definition video over the internet, and it never missed a beat. The size of the internet pipe? 2 Gigabits / second, Paul Reynolds tells me. With technology like that what wonderful discussions we can have – and it could have been a worldwide broadcast – if someone was prepared to stump up for the bandwith…

Wouldn’t it be great to have a broadcast event at the next Christchurch Writers festival??

 

News Flash

Not a book and yet available from a library!

The award for most obvious headline of the week goes to…The Washington Post who tells us “Libraries are not just for books” 

Really? I’m going to get myself down to that library and see if they have LPs for my gramophone yet.

If you are interested in the mysterious non-book holdings of the library, check out this info about our latest tech offering.

 

Golden Notebook project

A couple of weeks ago I joined the books & readers twine on Twine and today it paid off with this wee gem: the Golden Notebook project. This online project combines two of my great loves, really interesting literature and webby goodness. The project is based in the UK and is a collaboration between if:book London and Apt with funding by Arts Council England. Basically seven women are reading Nobel laureate Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook, the entire text of which is online so you can read along with them, and they are exchanging their comments / marginalia, online, which you can read. There’s a discussion forum for people to discuss the book and the comments made by the seven ‘readers’ and a blog which the ‘readers’ will be posting on. It only began a couple of days ago so go have a look – there’s a few posts already – and get involved.

What I find quite intriguing is the intersection between all the ‘voices’ involved – Doris herself, her characters, the seven ‘readers’ and all the unofficial online readers. Some of the ‘readers’ comments about the difference between reading in the physical book and reading it online are also interesting if you’re into that sort of thing. This project is really venturing into new territory, and I can’t help but draw parallels with Sword & laser – an online book discussion group where titles are chosen by the two hosts who also do regular podcasts about the books read, but also have online forums.

The project has certainly gotten me interested in re-reading the Golden Notebook as I’m certain that I have read it but actually can’t remember much about it. It is probably Lessing’s most famous novel, partly for its perceived feminist agenda, but my favourites of hers are the Canopus in Argos series. Technically they’re  science fiction, but like the best of the genre its more an exploration of ideas and humanity. I have read Shikasta about once a decade since my teens and always find it a realignment of my thoughts.

 

A Disheartening Read

The intellectual life of the British working classes

Here’s a depressing read for anyone interested in the future of libraries, reading and the younger generation (and not just that of the U.S.A.).

Far from the internet, email and all manner of digital resources leading to the development of enquiring and open minds thirsting for knowledge, Mark Bauerlein argues that it has led to the complete opposite. In The Dumbest Generation he chronicles how instead we have a nation of narcissistic, peer-orientated ignoramuses.

 

Tech-nostalgia

A couple of years ago a band called Alien Ant Farm had a minor hit with a song called “Glow”, the music video of which featured an Atari gaming unit getting into a rumble with a Playstation.  Needless to say the old-skool Atari was the victor.

Nostalgia for old-style games and software is common in people who grew up in the 70s and 80s when “videogames” were the new big thing and no visit to the fish and chip shop was complete without a 20c game of “Space Invaders”.  Despite the returning popularity of retro games and software it was still a surprise to find that a group of dedicated souls have just launched the Early New Zealand Software Database.  The aim is to collect and archive information about locally written software used on home computers such as Apple, Atari, BBC and Commodore in a database to which anyone can contribute.  The associated blog of the project, NZTronix, has all sorts of interesting snippets about the preservation of electronic games and links to great vintage game sites like Obscure Pixels. 

Prefer your gaming nostalgia in a non-digital format?  Then check out The video games guide : from Pong to Playstation 3, over forty years of computer and video games by Matt Fox, or Supercade : a visual history of the videogame age, 1971-1984 . Alternately get yourself down to Our City – O-tautahi for The Discrete Collector exhibition which features a collection of handheld video games amongst other collector treasures.  But be quick because the exhibition ends on 11 August.

Games-wise I was always fond of Galaga and Tetris. We also had a handheld game called “Astrowars” that I managed to “clock” so many times that to add interest I started playing it with my feet (ah, to have the free time of a nine year old again). 

What old games did you play at the fish and chip shop, or “spacies” parlour as a kid?  Ever get your initials on the high score tally?