Arriving Somewhere

I grew up using Apples and Macs (after getting started on TI-994A and C-64). When I went to college in 1997 I bought my first PC and that’s what I’ve been using ever since. I dabble in Linux every now and then, but really M$ Windows has been my mainstay for ten years now.

Well, work recently set up a new Mac for me to replace the old clunker that had been gathering dust. When I came into work and saw it sitting there under my desk I had to stop and stare. It looked so sexy in its aluminum case. I suppose that’s what Apple is good at, packaging. So I started thinking, what’s really preventing me from using a Mac? I’m no lover of Micro$oft. I’ve just gotten really good at using it. But most of the tools I use now are open source and many have Mac versions, so… why not give it a shot?

So I had a look under the hood. 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors, 5 GB 667 MHz DDR2 RAM… wow, pretty darn fast. Compared with my P4 2.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM Dell that I’ve been using… perhaps I should take this thing for a test drive.

That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m challenging myself to practice what I preach (I’ve always claimed to be OS agnostic) and see if I can accomplish all of my work using this Mac. I’m sure it will be a rough transition – in fact I anticipate many hiccups – but other than a fear of the (somewhat) unknown, I have no good reason not to try. If you have any hints for this MacNovice, please let me know. I’ll be chronicling my efforts on this blog so that you can laugh at my dumb mistakes and offer help.

We’ll see how well this works.

I was browsing the various job search feeds I subscribe to and I started thinking about job titles. Sometimes library technology job titles can sum up well what the responsibilities are, but for the most part they don’t really say much except “this position has something to do with technology”. Add to that the fluid definitions of some title and it is all, well, really confusing.

My title is one of those that really ought to be changed because it has taken on a meaning that does not describe what I do at all. So, if I could give myself a new title? I’m thinking my first choice would be:

|1b4r14n 2.0

Although that might be bit too bleeding edge for some people. Or geeky. So my second pick is:

Information Alchemist

Yeah, I’ll have to run that one past my supervisor. I also considered “Bibliodominatrix” but the image of a librarian in black leather carrying a whip just isn’t my style.

hat tip: http://davidrothman.net/2006/11/16/librarians-should-be-sexier/

Just a quick note to let you all know that I’m still here! Work/School/Family always keeps me busy, but school in particular has been pretty intense the past few months. Well, now the semester is winding down and summer is almost here. I plan to get active on this blog again soon, post a couple times a week for now then pick up the pace come summer.

A few things:

• I submitted a paper to JCDL (title: Towards a Design Space for Categorized Overviews) and was rejected. Ah well, it was a fabulous learning process – my first time trying to publish at an academic conference! More on this later…
• I’m nearly finished with the grad degree… just two more classes to go!
• Just got back from Computers in Libraries 2007 (ton of bloggers there)… lots of stuff to write about: future of the OPAC, cool tools and sites to play with, met some cool people, kinda disappointed with the conference itself…
• Having a daughter rocks! I love her so much and want to hang out with her all the time!

If you want to keep up with me, the best way to do that is through my Facebook account: http://www.facebook.com/p/Jonathan_Smith/21202593 mostly cause it takes such little effort… (and I can’t stand MySpace)… but never fear, I’ll be blogging again soon.