Posting 3 -

My Microsoft puppy is waiting for me to write something profound…By this point in the week I think I might have used up anything that smacks of profound. I’ve been working on a nasty collection and development project for another class. I’ve been chasing down electronic resources on videos, both educational and instructional, about art. I think the hardest part is keeping focused. The web offers so many side tracks to be followed and I am usually willing to go anywhere. (Like did you know that there is a complete set of lyrics to “Be kind to our web-footed friends”?– scroll down-). The project has given me a small excuse to look at some really cool museum sites, which takes some of the sting out sitting in front of a computer monitor for 8-10 hours.

I love art, but don’t really have the money (nor the time) set aside for extensive travel to museums. It is amazing how various museums are starting to harness technology to give others a museum-esque experience from their home computers. All three of the museum sites (Smithsonian Art, Los Angeles County Museum, & Museum of Modern Art- MoMA) I listed in my collection recommendations offered viewers the ability to form their own collections, to zoom in on small details or some small film clip that expanded on the object. Smithsonian Luce collection was probably the most user friendly for the home explorer. I also noted that the sites all had podcasts or pod tours. You could down load a sound file at home and bring it with you to a particular museum. I think that you can also still rent the nasty headphones and audiotapes. I think I like the pod tour since it would allow you to more easily tailor your trip to your own interests versus the traditional audiotour.

MoMA and Smithsonian had some neat online games and exploration spaces for kids. The Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian has a small section of picture rollovers that is fascinating (okay, for me its fascinating). Makes me wonder if some of these things could be applicable to a library.

Laptop Envy

For a long time now, I’ve been suffering from laptop envy. Laptops seem to be everywhere I look. I see them at coffee shops, bookstores, lecture halls and classrooms. I envy others of their mobile computing abilities. From classmates who look things up quickly for in-class group assignments to my good friends who show off the latest youtube geek/nerd humor clip, I just look and think “wouldn’t it be great to have one.”
I also have a big practicality streak that has held me back. I have a very nice home setup. So the idea of owning a laptop has remained just that, an idea.
This week at work I finally got a laptop.
I always thought the mobility issue as the coolest possible feature. I was wrong; the coolest feature of my work laptop is the ability to run a dual system on a single machine concurrently. By concurrently, I mean that I am using Quark for Mac (a really great graphic design program) while also having/editing my Excel for PC timesheet, all on a single machine, a single screen. No more toggling. All of this is made possible through a program called VirtualMachine.
All of this computing power has me thinking harder, trying to be more cognizant of what I am doing and what program I am using. I tend to use a lot of shortcut commands. The base key for those commands differs from Mac to PC. This is my first week and I am still trying to call up a blank email using Ctrl+N or open a new tab in my PC version of Firefox with Option+T. Time and usage will help me break these old habits and develop new ones.
The only thing that gives me pause as to the whole laptop... it's a Mac Powerbook. Generally, each successive Mac release has proven more difficult for me to take down.

The Mac and I

Technology is pretty integrated within my life. I have a PC at home. At work I use a dual platform (Mac & PC) station and some fairly snazzy graphics and layout programs. My cell phone makes me happy, but not as happy as my iPod. With my lovely digital camera I can update my flickr account with photographs of finished knitting projects for my Ravelry account. I use and love technology, and so it’s pretty easy to overlook the fact that I don’t always understand it. When I start to get overconfident, my special hidden talent tends to rise to the surface.

I crash Macs. I crash Macs like nobody’s business.

It’s unusual since Apple has always prided themselves on Macs simplicity and user-friendliness. In passing conversations with Mac devotees I’m usually scoffed at until forced to reveal how many times my current work Mac has been reformatted in the span of 3 years. After one such reveal, a fellow student asked me to step away from her brand new Powerbook.

It is fascinating to me how crashing my work Mac changes my relationship with it. While working, the Mac is simply a machine. It displays only that which I command, nothing more and nothing less. However when it stops working in a predictable manner, it is suddenly transformed in my mind as an obstinate mystery, a box of beeps and flashing lights that I weep and plead with that the last auto-save was recent.

The most positive thing about the experience is that it keeps me fairly honest. I think maybe this mental transformation may be how people with less mediation might view technology, an object that may or may not have a will of it’s own, that may or may not be seconds from utter disaster. It’s a mindset that is easily lost as what was rare becomes an everyday necessity. My Mac reminds me of this fact daily.

Plus, it gives me a few good jokes.