i202 Fall 2009 School of Information, UC Berkeley

Light-hearted fare to celebrate the it-is-over-ness of our final: (cute cat images optional)
im in da syistam, improovin ur misundastandin ouf sveeloooneyus
Congrats and enjoy!
-joan

Google enters the fray of enterprise search with its GSA for enterprise use while Google Goggles and Bing goes head to head w/visual search innovations.   Note Bing's reliance on user-defined categories.  Vocabulary problem, anyone?

-joan

The Oxford New American Dictionary officials, in an armchair moment, captures some of our popular words in 2009.  "Twitterisms," unsurprisingly is a 'notable word cluster' but fails to win the top word.  Sure, language isn't static, but who should be the authority to rank 'tweeting' above 'unfriend'?  *grumble*

Top Word of 2009: Unfriend, But Twitterisms Abound

-joan

Amused by our classic armchair authority:
------------------------------Quote-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't – till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less."

202 in the Whitehouse:  a selection from Obama's recent email communications from guardian.co.uk on 10/26:

Quoted Text --------------------------------------------

To: VPOTUS <joe.biden@whitehouse.gov>

Re: Fwd: "Jonas Bros music never been used in torture, except maybe here in the White House" Hilarious stuff!!!

Yeah, I've read it Joe. I'm the one who sent it to you. You see the thing at the top where it says "Fr: POTUS"? That means me. Barack

-------------------------------------------- End Quoted Text

Samsung and LG joined together to promote a unified standard for delivering local TV content via existing frequencies to mobile devices.  This highlights the continual trend towards delivering geographically context-sensitive media services.

U.S. TV Body Approves Mobile Standard

-joan

While the Book Search battle is still waging, Google enters the eReader war by providing an eReader-agnostic, browser-based solution.

Google Online Bookstore Fuels eReader War

For those of us new to XML and want some instant(ish) gratification after learning the basic syntax.  The iGoogle Themes API is here.  Dynamic themes can change throughout the day to present a 'story line'.  You still have to make the images e.g. w/Illustrator though.  Enjoy!

-joan

This Economist article describes the use of bar codes in conjunction with mobile phone cameras to provide users with real-time, context-sensitive information. An example of this is the traveller photographing a barcode at a railway station with his mobile phone to obtain train timetables. Despite of varying bar code standards, the author suggests their free, open standard nature will encourage wider adoption.&#1