Having thoroughly enjoyed Cooking for Geeks (which I highly recommend), when I saw that a similarly novel approach to fitness was available I was all on board to enjoy this one as well. And…enjoy it I did. Bruce Perry’s approach in Fitness for Geeks is a comprehensive and quirky walk through a new way of imagining fitness. As the author quickly points out, things such as fitness, diets, ets are ejected from the discussion — not for lack of relevance but simply because they connote some popular distractions from the geeky approach proposed. The approach is unique…get into the mindset of the ‘geek’ (not the circus type ) and look at a different sort of approach to fitness and well-being. It is probably best summed up in the adage identified early on: if one is aware that they are observed or that the metrics are being compiled one intrinsically tends towards doing that little bit more, to keeping things within the bounds,or the like. Its a bit of a different approach indeed and for the geek in me I appreciated the new and novel ways that the author introduces to looking at taking care of self. Its not just abut the gadgets (of which there are many great ones recommended) but about a certain holistic approach that brings together a science and process.

This approach covers a wonderfully diverse series of topics and it’s not that the standard aspects of fitness that you would find elsewhere are dismissed — quite to opposite, they are brought together — the holistic approach as referenced — to appreciate how all pieces fit together. The arc of the books is not linear. I had a sense that you could jump in at any point and stay with the section and gain much as well. I did work through the book as a whole and enjoyed it immensely. The author has a great light and lyrical style. This probably rather unique in itself in the fitness area as things tend towards being rather didactic and perceived as so. It is the fun of engaging with this topic from this unique way that flavors the book. There are tidbits of things for everyone in this book and I am not quite sure who I would see it directed towards. I would recommend it to all and think that anyone that can approach fitness with a fresh and open mind will appreciate it. It is not trying to provide a programme by way of note, its more about planting thoughtful ideas in the mind that may take hold and inform your own approach to fitness and well-being. As the author states, ‘this is a book about fitness and nutrition for the independent of spirit and irrepressibly curious.’ I heartily agree.

A greatly enjoyable read. Highly recommended!

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Using Mac OSX Lion Server is one of those lovely, handy O’Reilly overview guides that take the place of manuals not supplied with products. In this one the Charles Edge Jr. aims his guidance towards relatively new server administrators — possibly even someone setting up a family server — and covers all the great basics of determining what hardware and software needs you might have and how these might be served with OSX Lion Server. The 200 page volume (it is definitely beyond a brief cover, but less than many of the exhasutive server admin manuals you might be used to) covers all the basic information and moves into some of the more specialised functions you might put an OSX-based server to such as working with streaming video or handling the backend on some of the glossy OSX’y tools such as iCal, or the Address book.
I appreciate that the author moves beyond the basics that I’d see on the screen. As he admits, the software is really designed to be very user friendly itself and guide most users through the intracies of server management, so much of the prose moves towards giving attention to the less than obviosu implications of making various decisions — looking behind the scenes at what choice may lead to and how the decisions pull together. Quite valuable and well presented in my opinion.
The challenge with all these version-based books is keeping them up to date. This is the first OSX server volume I have examined (and probably should have moved in this direction long before now — especially as we have a deployed XServe kicking around) and so I don’t have a feel for how this has transtioned from possibly earlier volumes on Leopard or Snow Leopard. As it is, the screen shots are (as always) a great boon and the book is clear and straightforward.
This is a recommended volume both for those called to upon to administer an exsting OSX server or similarly useful even if at the point of considering whether and OSX-based server will meet your needs. It is a superb reference manual foremost and specific topics of interest are esy to locate and helpful in isolation.

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Tibits Publishing’s latest Take Control volume provides a starter to power-user tour of Bare Bones Software’s BBedit. This short volume by Glenn Flesihman provides a concise, focused and well delivered guide to get the most out of BBedit — one of the most mature text editing environment available for OSX. The tone is direct, grounded in Flesihman’s deep personal experience with BBedit, is well illustrated and targeted exploration of three principal tasks: working with text, managing websites and using projects. The logical layout of the volume maeans it is helpful as  tutorial to gain immediate familiarity with BBedit, but also a solid reference source to be consulted when you need to do something specific.

I have long been a fan of BBedit much as the author of this volume. I have long thought though that I haven’t been using it to its potential. I much appreciated this book as it gave me new insight on using markdown, and how to more effectively use the very powerful document compare and manipulate functionality. The other big win for me is getting a better handle on the versioning control that BBedit offers. Fleishman offers, within a very compact and concise delivery, a volume packed full of valuable and immediately useful direction to maximize your use of BBedit.

It’s got all sorts of helpful tips throughout which have made the Take Control volumes so useful. Tasks are clearly identified and step by step discussions utilise a recipe approach to providing instruction in program fundamentals. The book covers all the main bases in the programme and after proceeding through it myself with a copy of BBedit open I feel I am far more aware of the more powerful aspects of BBedit and have a greater sense of how I may be able to use them myself for text manipulation. As I mentioned, I really like the tips provided and all the more so that many are dedicated to helping you work more efficiently with the programme.

This is a great book for novices and experts alike and is guaranteed to help you get more out of what is a crucial programme in the OSX arsenal.

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Well, it is the first book to hit the market and clearly was prepared with pre-release software for the specific purpose of getting a book to the market. Ironic I suppose after writing that to realize that the book itself is about getting books to the market. Ba-dum dum. I will avoid the larger discussion of the issues surrounding the marketing of books through a single source distributor in this review and stick to the structure, intent and delivery of the book itself. The first chapter of Publishing with iBook Author by Nellie McKesson and Adam Witwer walks the reader through a look at the specific menu items and tools featured on screen. It is relatively comprehensive and not too concise to the point of simply repeating the tool or menu item name. The short descriptions do give a little more description than the help screen in iBooks Author itself.

The second section of the book examines the components of Author’d textbook attempting to capture some of the new terms and concepts that Apple has introduced into this beast. It explains the assumptions that Apple has made and clearly identifies many of the constraints that this places on your creative intent, but does suggest the possibilities that exist. It is copiously illustrated with photos and screenshots as is the larger volume itself. The process of thinking in Pages –> Text –> Objects –> Layouts –> Publishing is logical and this book moves through these sections with a suitable amount of detail.

One of the biggest challenges, and I am avoiding saying criticism, is that the freshness of this app and the store itself that restricts the amount of hands-on experience that can provide the hints and tips that potential authors need. This is a great introductory volume and will get some one in a position to start playing about. In fact nothing to prevent taking existing eBooks that might had been previously authored and using them as a base in iBook Author to turn them into the next germination all-singing, all-dancing textbook. The program itself has severe limitations on how much of an automated ingestion process can be undertaken, but this book spells these limitations out clearly.

Clearly the use of a tool such as iBooks Author moves beyond what we have become more familiar with in authoring standards complaint eBooks in the ePub or mobi terms of reference and because it is a end-to-end close loop, it does offer some rich control over visually engaging and lavishly illustrated interactive textbooks. This book will get the uninitiated (myself included) up and running quickly and efficiently. I suspect that we will eventually see some new volumes emerge in the near future that will expand and build on this foundation to look at best practices and start to provide the real-world experience. In the meantime this is a very solid and good choice to gain rapid familiarity with this intriguing new software.

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This is an absolutely great book. Recommended on Amazon as I had purchased something G12 related in the past, I downloaded a sample chapter to the Kindle (a dangerous action at the best of times) and I was hooked. From Snapshots to Great Shots takes the very prudent and useful tact of assuming you already have the manual and want to go beyond … but here’s the rub, it doesn’t just go advanced … it bridges the gaps from manual and adopts a very practical and hands-on approach to taking great pictures. It doesn’t assume you just want to know how to use the camera…it teaches you how to use it to take great pictures. This may seem rather obvious but the approach of all too many manuals is simply directed at explaining every feature as opposed to identifying a use and explaining in simple, but applied terms how you accomplish it. 

What does this mean in practice? Well, what hooked me was a quick introduction and then an introductory chapter that identifies the first 10 practical things that you can do to get up and running with your new G12. Make the right adjustments to settings, charge your battery and get shooting. The chapters each are provided with solid exercise following to get you using the things you learn. The book is all about good solid advice based on the author’s own experience. The section on how the triangle of ISO, aperture and shutter speed combine to produce the desired image is probably the clearest most understandable explanation that I have found in any photography manual and this sets the tone for the approach taken by the author.

Although advice by the author is to make sure you read the first four chapters in sequence and then by free to browse and jump about, I found the entire presentation so compelling and chockfull of advice I could immediately put to use that I just grabbed my G12 and started shooting and following along through the book.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is well written and for me absolutely perfectly positioned to give the the advice needed to start using my G12 to its utmost. It is practical, fun and has give me a great new re-engagemwnt with photography.

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A quite thought provoking piece from James Cheshire at UCL on Fast Thinking and Slow Thinking Visualisation.

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Attended a great talk providing a overview of the establishment of the 18th Century Irish Hospital System in Ireland by Dr Susan Mullaney (RAMI/UCC) at the Edward Worth Library @ Dr Steevens Hospital in Dublin.

Mullaney is asking a basic question about the motivation behind the 1765 Act for Ireland calling for establishment of county hospitals to provide for the welfare of the people within 1 mile of the county town in each Irish county. Prior to the act there were a small number of hospitals in Dublin, Waterford, Cork (North and South) and Meath and Louth.

Specifically:

Waterford
Cork (North and South)
Louth and Meath

Dublin
Charitable Informary 1718
Dr Steeven’s 1733
Mercers 1734
Incurables 1744
Meath 1753

Mullaney presented some known background on two of the county infirmaries as background to the wider discussion.
The Louth Infimrary 1753 — 2 –12 beds 4 inpatients and 14 externs
The Meath Infirmary 1753 — 10 beds — free medicines and home visits
13 mos from 1 Oct 1753
82 inpatients
87 externs
5 incurables

Interesting note: these infirmaries were run on a subscription basis so only admitted those who were those curable and were loathe to report deaths as this was felt would ‘kill’ subscriptions.

Interesting to look abroad and realize that in England
London — 5 hospitals between 1720–45
In 18th C 29 in total in all English Provinces
13 prior to 1753
5 infirmaries in Scotland prior to 1800

France 2000 hispitals in late 18th
Paris Hotel Dieu 3500 patients (1772)

Conclusion: Ireland was surprisingly well served.

The Social Context driving the creation of infirmaries rested on:
Security of ascendancy
Penal laws
Breakdown of charitable systems
Life expectancy
60% earn less than £5
No poor law

Publick (sp) Infirmaries
Not exceeding more than 1 mile from the courthouse of the county towns
grand juries had to raise £50-£100 from local tax
Central contribution to infirmary was £100
Conrib/subscript pay for surgeons

Cork-Mallow
Dublin Excluded
Kildare-Kildare
Meath-Navan
Waterford excluded
Donegal-Letterkenny
Antrim-Lisburne
Mayo-Castlebar
Tipp-Cashel

Ethos of the infirmaries was to not admit incurables or those suffering from fever, smallpox, measles, TB…among others.
Max stay is 2 months — curable
Strict rules for admitted and for staff as well
If asked to help with work and refused — instant discharge

Donors of 20–30 guineas — Life governor/governess
Donor of 3 guineas governor for 1 year
Governors generally decided who was dmitted…unless full then surgeons could make decision
Down always kept a bed for emergencies
Medicines were always free until it was realised this was a huge draw on expenses.

Surgeons became primary care giver and not physician as had been the case
’satire and mockery on a human institution’

Why was this legislation passed in ireland?
state concern? hardly
political issue
security of assemdancy
template
disease control-was so rampant
impact of european ideas
dublin society

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#tweetsmart by Jesse McDougall adopts the premise that many people dismiss twitter as idle chatter and cannot fathom why they would want to engage with it. Although I have encountered many colleagues that personally are somewhat dismissive (and in many cases rightly so) I am not sure that business dismisses it as readily and certainly doesn’t do so as quickly as it once might have. However adopting the tact of proving a series of meaningful ‘projects’ to demonstrate how twitter can be used for building an online community piqued my interest and is something that I readily subscribe to. After reading this book however I am of rather mixed opinion and would caution that this book does seem targeted specifically at online marketing of a product or service. I find writing this review difficult as I was raised very strictly under the premise that if you don’t have anything good to say, then don’t say anything…but I will say a few things and some of them good.

The book is engaging and well written. I gather that it originally was title ‘#engage’ as most of the QR codes in the book refer to this original title. The tone is playful and almost somewhat sassy. The use of the QR codes for further information, for fun and as part of a larger projects itself is a useful demonstration itself. The promise of an easter egg buried somewhere in the book provides a concrete example of how to engage a following if only one reader at a time. McDougall seeks to provide ‘strategic, measurable and fun’ projects that ‘build an interested and engaged community for your business’. While the book is clearly aimed at business not at causes or organizations as suggested, I am left feeling that it is exactly what it claims not to be — a social media marketing manual — and that the author doth protest too much. Although there are occasional nods to why certain aspects could be seen as pure marketing and not genuine community building, I am not sure that they are followed though — eg. project 22:

'This project is designed to help you build a connection with your audience by promoting your investment in the area and community in which you do business. This project should not be used to create the illusion that you care about your community. You don’t want to put one over on your audience. So if you don’t care, move on. But, I’m sure you do care. You’re a good person. I like you.'

Unfortunately it stops here and the flippant retort to the question actually seems to diminish the real importance that commitment to community building demands. I wish that this were not the case. The world is really crying out for real solid advice on how to build and sustain online communities, but this is not the one. It does however provide an excellent selection of twenty five projects that are well described and outlined in a step by step manner.

I have some concern that although playful, most of the projects do not seem to adhere to the idea of community building — and if they do it, it is a rather tenuous one built around very superficial engagement. All are reasonable ways to pique people’s interest, have a little fun and possibly gain retweets through a specific offering,  but I guess I was also looking for discussion of the followup that would actually turn the communication into something constructive and ongoing. Perhaps I am being too judgmental, but simply offering give-aways through a variety of different twitter-based novelty acts doesn’t strike me as engagement. Especially as the author claims that he is abhorred by the idea of coupon campaigns and claims that this is the ‘ant-marketing how-to community-engagement book’. This is not to say that many of the ‘projects’ don’t connect Twitter to real world activity…whether treasure hunts or scavenger hunts and there is an aspect of this that moves beyond email spam.  I like that each project has a basic structure and premise and then in some instances there are ‘advanced strategies’. However, many of these projects don’t speak to building an online community with any longevity and this is where I am left somewhat wanting. I read back piece and the short teaser for the book and was intrigued, but I have a feeling my expectations were raised a little too high.

The author’s intent is stated to provide projects to carry out using twitter that are ‘strategic. measurable and fun’.  I would agree that all the projects are measurable and initially fun for both the marketer and for the customer, but I would question the long term strategy. They strike me as more tactical and deployable within  a larger scheme and in support of more active community building and these projects seem to be absent. To my sense, many of the projects here are the little gimmicks that I immediately filter out. I have had my email offers of similar tacts for years and have given me the cause to unsubscribe from such. So I was not being hooked. I really wanted to be though and read on.

Around the tenth strategy, things begin to speak more to engagement. Encouraging blocks of time around focussed discussion or web scavenger hunts are things I would note as concrete and innovative, unfortunately these seem to gain less discussion than the earlier projects.

I wish that I could be more supportive of this book. I subscribe to its premise that we need to develop effective ways to engagement in a meaningful discussion through development of communities of shared interest and twitter offers a great tool. However, I do think this is through concrete means of meeting customer’s needs in the commercial sense as well as providing a means to augment traditional or other online forms of communication and discourse.

If the preface was the only part I had read I would feel wiser for it. I found the personal anecdote relating to the author’s grandfather very heartfelt, but also very prescient. The conclusion that ‘the content of your communication is important—not what carries it’ is profoundly important. And this is where I feel compelled to leave it. It is about content and there there are some activities that twitter can enable as part of a larger stable of online activities to gain mindshare, but if you can’t meanignfully differentiate your content you won’t rise above the pack.

This is not to say that this book in inapplicable to all, far from it. To all the merchants and vendors out there who ask you to simply retweet their latest offer…here’s a fine read that shows how to instill some fun into the marketing process and quickly move twitter into an arsenal of tools to reach out to the butting community. I suppose my larger concern is simply that I got the impression from this books promotional material that it was stepping beyond twitter marketing gimmick to look to building effective relationships with a community (which could be absolutely non-commercial) and was intrigued by the prospect of considering such. If it hadn’t been promised.…Unfortunately for the product here, this content I feel is somewhat lacking. It tends towards a series of icebreakers rather than relationship-builders. So market it as such. It plays to heavily on community building in its own marketing and wants to be something it’s not.

This book is fine for the right audience and there is an audience for it. Call it an online marketing aid for twitter in small and medium business and it’s a fun and well written manual. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction by William Shotts jr is as complete as you might desire / imagine and delivers much more than it promises. This is simply the most fun, yet strikingly comprehensive, introduction to Linux that you could want. As the title states it focusses on interaction via the Linux command line yet delves into popular GUI’s at times and provides such comprehensive coverage that you will go from newbie to pro in no time. The author states plainly his intention that you progress linearly through the book and in that it is provides what I felt was a perfect pace. The chapters are bite size and deal with specific aspect of command line interaction. Appropriate commands and instructions are introduced and then put into practical use. It’s instructive both theoretically and with hands-on exercises.

The prose is so well crafted and so friendly and chatty, without being annoying, that you are simply carried along. I have to say, and it’s the last thing I would have expected to say about a Linux book, let alone a command line focused one, but this is a fun read! Seriously. I have used a wide variety of Linux and Unix manuals in my time, sometimes for reference and often for instruction, but this book is head and shoulders above them all. I can’t believe that it really delivers a compelling case as to why the command line can be your friend and also in the process makes you realise that how raw Linux power underlies the modern GUI.

This is a very comprehensive manual and takes you through to a relatively advanced level starting from scratch. It presumes no prior knowledge, and starts off with suggestions on how to deploy a flavor of Linux so you can play with it. As I mention, the chapters are perfectly manageable from the perspective of being able to mentally address a specific concept and despite the comprehensive nature, the volume moves you through at a solid and suitable pace.

I can’t recommend this book enough for novice and intermediate user alike. It offers excellent self-paced instruction and enforces the learning with well crafted exercises. It is clearly well crafted and thoughtfully devised and a superb investment.

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I had the privilege of chairing a symposium organized by the Irish Manuscript Commission which invited participants from a variety of Irish cultural institutions to discuss issues arising from the new Europeana Data Exchange Agreement. Presentations from Jill Cousins, Director of Europeana and her colleagues, Georgia Angelaki, Paul Keller and Lucie Guibault sought to bring clarity to the new agreement and the issues emerging from the online presentation of digital cultural artefacts.

Unfortunately I had to leave during what was shaping up to be a very lively roundtable discussion. The presentations laid bare some of the salient points that surround Europeana’s new DEA. The key points of the new agreement are changes to licensing that will open up metadata submitted by contributors to wider and most ominous to many contributors to commercial uses. Metadata submitted must be done under a CC0 license placing it entirely in the public domain. Thumbnails provided are not covered under the CC0 and the contributors have the opportunity to define their licensing. This has alarmed many past contributors who see their data suddenly becoming prey to commercial vultures and open to be radically reused with or without any attribution.

This symposium provided a forum for free and open discussion of these issues as well as the challenges presented by the online. I opened the session with a short welcome which I include here should you be interested:

“The DHO has been privileged to work with the IMC and Europeana over the past two years. We have facilitated some of the technicalities involved in the metadata aggregation process and many of you have worked with Niall O’Leary directly in this. Thanks to many of you who have shared your cultural objects with Europeana in the past. The nature of the relationship has I hope been mutually beneficial.

Europeana has been a powerful initiative during the past decade and we hope it will continue to take a leadership role in increasing the freedom of access to Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage. It’s a fluid world though and we are here today because Europeana is changing. The objective remains the same but Europeana is moving from the role of being solely a portal to your collections to service becoming a service platform – dedicated to increasing access to the metadata representing the contributed artefacts.

What does this all mean? Well, today we have an opportunity to find out and to interact directly with the folks from Europeana to get the answers we need to make our own decisions. Each of your own institutions has its own objectives and briefs and you have to make a decision as to whether these coincide or are furthered under the new Europeana offering and their new Data Exchange Agreement. It’s crucial that you do take the time to consider your own objectives around what is presented today and how it is best served in this changing cultural space. In this fluid world there are new challenges to how we do what we have done in the past. The way that we engage with our audiences have changed…your artefacts have become data (and metadata) and more importantly people (through such social media as facebook, flickr or twitter) look to new ways to connect with you. Likewise new services and applications — especially in the mobile arena mean that your cultural objects may find new forms of expression — either by your own efforts — or by someone else’s.

And this is a crucial observation. There is a challenge to how you have carried out your own curatorial and dissemination activities and how you have sought to meet your objectives — but this also provides new opportunities. Europeana offers an opportunity. What you have to decide is whether it is an opportunity that makes sense for your institution.

At the DHO we have spent the last couple years demonstrating some of the ways that working with metadata can positively change the user experience of the digital collection. We have engaged with Europeana and with many of you to explore how people engage with ever larger collections of artefacts. The magnitude of these collections challenges the traditional ways of browsing and in many cases denies the utility of the search function. We have chosen to demonstrate how cutting edge data visualisation techniques can provide a route to discovery. And we have been thrilled with the response. DHO:Discovery has been one our response to the challenges that we have seen Irish cultural institutions facing and we have seen similar efforts undertaken by many of yourselves.

Working with Europeana has been one of those responses many of you have undertaken and we have all shared their objective to provide access to Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage. Although Europeana remains committed to this objective their new DEA has asked providers to commit contributed metadata and thumbnails to the public domain. The new DEA is a response to the changes taking place in the cultural sector and we are all called upon to find opportunities in the changes taking place. This has huge implications for existing and future contributors who may worry about others making commercial use of their data. One of the obvious and positive responses here is to be open innovators and to seize the powerful opportunity for you to both share and to draw benefit from what others are sharing to create new ways of meeting your own objectives.

Current EU directives have waded into this nebulous area and have similarly challenged our perceived notions of who has the rights to objects that we present online. And again we come back to this question of how to deal with the challenge.

Today we are all here to ask the questions and the participants from Europeana have come to brief us and to attempt to respond to these queries.”

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