The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa was accidentally formed in 1976 during operations at the nearby geothermal power plant. People started bathing in the lagoon and noticed that it had beneficial effects on their skin, especially for those with psoriasis. Public bathing facilities opened in 1987, followed by the full spa in 1999. Blue Lagoon has become the single most popular tourist attraction in Iceland.


Reykjavik Public Library


A beautiful day for horseback riding. Developed from ponies taken to Iceland by Scandinavian settlers in the 9th and 10th centuries, Icelandic horses are the size of ponies. They are good natured and have few diseases. Icelandic law prevents horses from being imported into the country and exported animals are not allowed to return.





Downtown Reykjavik


The Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran Church. State Architect Guðjón Samúelsson's design is said to resemble the basalt lava flows of Iceland's landscape. This landmark towered above the city and helped us navigate as we walked.

Due to the lack of trees, early settlers lived in sod houses. Most of the buildings date from the 1940's and later, when poured concrete became commonly used.

Library Cat

"I am the library cat," from LOLCats (tm).

One of these things is not like the other.

I've always had good experiences shopping on Amazon.com and especially like the recommendations it offers based on my previous purchases. I learn about new material from my favorite musicians and authors as well as being exposed to new things.

But once in a while something odd happens with the recommendations. Sorry, but I just don't see the connection here.

Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.

The quote is from Amelia Earhart.

Southwest lived up to my expectations. There were no delays or snags, and the staff was flawlessly efficient in helping my mother with the wheelchair at every stop. The flight crew had a refreshingly edgy attitude, too. There was an impromptu song and dance routine on the flyway and Captain Mike came into the cabin for quick trivia game. "Why is the sky blue?" he asked us. "How many wings does an airplane have? Don't think the obvious answer." As she finished the mandatory safety announcement, the flight attendant quipped, "For those of you not paying attention, good luck to you." Another flight attendant teased his partner, who was demonstrating the safety vest, saying, "If he can figure it out, you can figure it out." All in all, things went very well.




My sister volunteers at the Tucson Wildlife Center and gave us a fascinating tour.




Here are some photos from the Tohono Chul garden in Tucson. It was well worth the visit.




























Finally, the folks at the Pittsburgh Airport have their priorities straight. Next to a statue of George Washington is Franco Harris making The Immaculate Reception. All's right with the world!

Come Fly With Me

I don't fly often - maybe once or twice a year. But I'm always on edge, waiting to see what's going to go wrong; flight delay, gate change, missed connection. Some people at my workplace fly a lot. Today's lunchroom discussion centered on how the airline industry has lost its focus. The brother of one of my co-workers is a pilot who is rankled by the complaints. "Listen, I get you from point A to point B. End of story," he says. "That's the problem!" our president cried, "they think they're in the transportation business!" I returned to my Newsweek to find an editorial titled "How to Build a Happy Company" from a former AOL vice-chairman. He quotes Charles Forbes, founder of Forbes magazine, who said that "business originated to bring happiness." The editorial goes on to describe AOL's downturn when its corporate philosophy became centered on bigger financial returns rather than producing a quality product.

This reminded my yet again of the 'Parable of the Drill'. The gist of the parable is that all companies should be in the "happy business" no matter what else they do.

Next week my mother, my wife and I will be flying Southwest Airlines from Syracuse to Tucson. I've never flown this airline but, from what I've read, it's different. It's not only the amusing "Bags Fly Free" ad campaign (I do hope I see those guys with the painted chests). SW has always encouraged the public to tell them what it thinks. Their web site has a forum where passengers offer suggestions and lodge complaints, and they post the bad as well as the good. There's also a web community for posting pictures and videos and a Facebook page with more than 780,000 fans. On their YouTube page you can watch videos of how the painted-chest "Battle Cry" ad was made. Maybe this is their "gimmick" -- to seem hipper and friendlier than other airlines, but I think this company gets the Parable.

C'mon, Southwest, don't let me down. Make us happy!

Is Everybody Happy?

Back in December 2005, I blogged about the "Parable of the Drill" and keeping focused on the goal of making your customers or patrons happy.

In the October issue of Wired magazine, there's an interview with the founder of Netflix. He tells how the company was founded and why they conduct business the way they do. To help customers find movies they might like, they're encouraged to rate the movies they rent. This helps Netflix recommend other movies. They can also get suggestions from friends who use the service. Near the end of the article, he says, "When people connect with a movie, it really makes them happy, and that's fundamentally what we're trying to do. Today you love one out of three movies you watch. If we can raise that to two out of three, we can completely transform the market and increase human happiness."

This past week I got the chance to put this philosophy into action. I work for a library automation company located near Syracuse, NY. If you're in the library field, you know which one it is. Yesterday, I got a call from one of the libraries I work with. Their patrons where getting empty e-mail notices from the library. Each day, a computer program sends out hundreds of e-mail messages to notify people that their holds have come in, that their items are overdue or that they owe the library money. I checked the log files and, while the job had run successfully, I saw that the body of the messages was indeed empty. We discovered that the program that backs up the library's data each day wasn't working right and, because everything is linked together in this system, it was affecting the e-mails. One of our programmers was able to reclaim the missing data and replace it in the message queue. But the job wasn't scheduled to run again until the next morning. I considered running the job manually to send out the notices right away, although this would put a load on the system during business hours. But patrons had already contacted the library, wondering what was in the messages. I was afraid this would continue when people checked their e-mail that night. Sending the corrected message could help prevent more confusion. I talked it over with the library and we decided to run the job. It was late in the day and we were getting ready to head home. But we decided to do the right thing and help make the patrons happy. The job took 30 minutes to run, which made me a little late, but there were no more complaints from the library's patrons.

Call Me Old School

My wife and I went shopping for a new car recently. We'd narrowed our choices to the Honda Fit, and the hybrids Honda Insight, and Toyota Prius. The hybrids interested us, but the Fit was very highly rated, affordable and gets good mileage. We really wanted to like the Insight, even though it was more expensive than the Fit. It's bigger and scores off the charts on the environmental friendliness scale. But we both liked the Fit much better. The seats were more comfortable and the Insight has a weird divided back window we didn't care for. Our Jetta has a huge window and maybe we're spoiled. Also, the engine in the Insight turns off when you're stopped and there's a lag between the time you push down on the pedal and when the car starts to move. This was a deal-breaker for me. I've been driving VWs for years and like the way that, when you step on the gas, something happens immediately. (Cheap rental cars have always disappointed me in this area.) The Fit was spunky and moved right out. We like the roominess inside, too. This car was an automatic but also has paddle shifters, a new feature to me. These are levers, attached to each side of the steering wheel, that let you shift up and down through the gears without a clutch. Racing cars often use these because the driver can shift without taking his hand off the wheel.

I tried them during our test drive, working my way up, taching each gear higher than the automatic would have and moving back down on the exit ramps with no problem. But I'm not sold. Call me old school, but shifting requires a stick and clutch. It's just not the same. If you want to shift, then pony up the $800 to put a standard in the Fit.

Anyway, we're going with the Fit. We decided not to even test drive the Prius because it was the most expensive of the three and we really liked the Fit. My beloved VW didn't make the cut either. We were disappointed by the gas mileage of the Jetta and the Rabbit. So we're saving up to pay cash on the barrelhead for this car and figure we can do the deal in late fall. Although it may be sooner, depending on what caused the check engine light to come on in the Jetta today. Honda says no problem doing the custom paint job I want.

The Right Tool for the Job

My Dad always insisted that we use the right tool for the job. You don't open a paint can with a screwdriver, for example. The other day my wife and I got an e-mail invitation to a birthday party. It contained a link to RSVP, but since the invitation was a pdf file (basically a picture) the link was not clickable. We couldn't copy it and paste it into our browser either. Instead, we had to type it in the browser's address bar, but it was something like "www.invitation.com/hbntrxypytragkly/. Several typos were made. Once we reached the site, there was a list of all the other attendees and, in very tiny font, a link to RSVP. But first we needed to create an account with a username and password. Instead, we went back to the original e-mail, clicked once on the Reply button and sent, "Thanks, we'll be there." Done.

That was too much work and too many steps for something that should have been simple and straightforward. And I'll bet that it took the sender longer to create the account, compose the list of addressees, write and send the message than it would have been to do it straight from her e-mail address book.

Technology can often help make things easier and it's tempting to use a new tool because it's cool and different. But don't make me jump through too many hoops. My time is precious.

Don't just blog there -- say something.

The first rule of blogging is "have something to say." For the last two and a half months, I've been thinking about what to say and I've concluded that the purpose of this blog has changed.

Before I started my new job as site manager at Polaris Library Systems, I tried to blog whenever I ran across something that I thought would be useful or interesting to my readers. To find these tidbits, I spent at least half an hour each day doing current awareness activities; reading blogs, newsletters, RSS feeds, listservs, websites, etc. Things move fast in library technology and I felt it was critical to keep up as best I could.

The first two weeks at Polaris were overwhelming. The popular expression is "drinking from a fire hose." The site manager is the primary contact for Polaris customers and is the liaison between technical support and customer sites. I've been told that it takes two to three months just to get a handle on everything and six months to become really productive.

Polaris is a complex integrated library system (ILS) and the site managers come in contact with everything. The public library where I worked had been on Polaris for about a year and half, but I had only used a very small part of the system. Now I was trying to learn several new software programs, figure out the workflow and learn everyone's name. The biggest challenge was Structured Query Language (SQL), a key part of the job. If you want some information from the database, you can't just type in, "I want a list of the library's holds notices for items that are missing." A special computer language has to be used and the query must follow a structure. I was new to this and felt like I was back in high school geometry. But I did a SQL query last week that I couldn't have done two months ago.

For those first two weeks at Polaris, I didn't do my current awareness at all. Partly, I didn't need it for what I was doing and, after working intensively with a computer all day, I just couldn't face one in the evening. As my comfort level with the job has increased, I've gradually been reading my information resources more frequently. But I don't think I'm going to rely on them as a source for my blog posts.

In the past, I found things to blog about as a result of my current awareness activities. Since that's not a big part of my current job, I'm not running into them anymore. So the blog will change. Future postings will not be as frequent as they used to be and will cover other things that I'm interested in, such as folk music, acoustic guitars, books and who knows what else. I think so now, anyway.

A Good Day with Paul Harvey

In my previous career as television cameraman, I sometimes rubbed elbows with celebrities. In 1978, I had barely started my first job at WTAJ in Altoona, PA, when Paul Harvey came to town. While doing genealogical research, he discovered that some of his ancestors with the surname of Arendt came from the nearby town of Hollidaysburg. In front of the Blair County courthouse is a war memorial monument displaying the name of one of his forebears. Paul came to have a look. Since I was working solo that day and had no professional training as a journalist, I didn't know what to ask him. Our assignment editor told me, "Ask him why he thinks his approach has stayed popular even now when more journalism is becoming more investigative and hard-hitting." Paul replied that he always looked forward to coming into work each day and checking the wires to see what interesting things people had been up to. He was very gracious with his time and even posed for a photo with me, grabbing the microphone and, turning the tables, jokingly said, "How about me asking you some tough questions, now, Dave? What about your style of journalism?" I regret that I've lost the picture. But my mother still lives in Hollidaysburg and I sometimes drive past that monument and think about that good day.

My Brilliant Career, Part 2

Soon I'll be entering a new chapter in my library career. I'll be leaving Liverpool Library and, starting in March, working for Polaris Library Systems here in Liverpool. The position is site manager, which is similar to tech support, for the libraries that use their system. This will be the most challenging thing I've ever done. The job is very fast-paced and requires knowledge of SQL, which will be new to me.

I thought a long time about making this move. When I started my career in libraries, I told myself that I would take advantage of opportunities that presented themselves. Polaris has an excellent reputation among its customers and in the industry. They added 60 libraries last year and are expanding into Canada. I know several people there and they love it.

I feel lucky to have had to chance to work here. Many of the things I learned made me an attractive job candidate. I've experimented with new technologies and worked with some talented people. Daily reference work can be very satisfying and I'll miss the "regulars" who smile and wave when they come in. I've been full-time here for almost ten years. Everyone is happy for me but sorry to see me leave. This will still be my home library so I'll see the staff members regularly.

This blog will probably change, too. My blog content is automatically posted on the Liverpool Library's website, and I've tried to keep it related to libraries and technology. In the future, I may expand my posts into other areas that interest me. It may become more personal, too. Stay tuned!

Using Caution with USB Drives

USB drives, sometimes known as thumb drives or flash drives, are popular for storing and transporting data. They are small, inexpensive, and have much more capacity than floppy disks. But these characteristics also make them appealing to hackers.

An attacker can use your USB drive to infect other computers. He can install a malicious program, or malware, on a computer that can detect when a USB drive is plugged in. The malware then copies that malicious code onto the drive. When that USB drive is plugged into another computer, the malware infects that computer.

To help protect yourself, use passwords and encryption on your USB drive, and make sure that you have the information backed up. Keeping your antivirus and firewall up-to-date can also help you stay safe.

More USB security tips from the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team can be found here.

Downloadable Audio Books How-to

On Thursday, January 29, Daveman will demonstrating the OverDrive downloadable audiobooks service. The county libraries offer free audiobooks and music that you can download to your home computer, mp3 player or iPod. This demonstration will show you how to search the digital catalog, download the books, then transfer them to a portable player. We'll meet at 1:00 p.m. in the Carman Room. Please register using the library's online events calendar.

I'm Feeling Good, too!

Last month I told about a mysterious card and photo I received here at the library. I sent that post to the Feel Good Librarian, who uses her blog to talk about the rewards of being a librarian. She was kind enough to put it on her blog. Today I see that one of my heroes, Michael Stephens, has pointed to it from his blog, Tame the Web. I'm glad that story is making the rounds. I still feel good when I reread that post, and today I feel better than ever!

Another Day, Another Scam

Lately I've been getting e-mail messages that claim to be from Classmates.com, a social networking site that helps you contact your high school or college classmates. The senders are different, but they all say the same thing:

"With pride and joy we invite you to share a special day in our lives and join us for the Class Reunion on Friday, January 16th 2009. Bring the gang from Our High School back together again! Great party - from start to finish!"

I was suspicious of these right away because they don't mention a specific high school. Also, I graduated from high school in 1970. That's 39 years ago - not a typical reunion year. Finally, there's a link in these messages for more details that points to a video. It starts with "http://video.classmates.etc." This all adds up to bad news. Clicking this link could open your computer to a takeover. Never click a link in an e-mail message from a stranger. If you want to contact your high school friends, go to Classmates and set up an account.

Airline Ticket E-mail Scam

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has issued an alert for an e-mail scam targeting holiday travelers. The message looks like it has been sent from a legitimate airline and mentions an airline ticket and credit card balance due. Attached to the message is a file that appears to be a ticket and an invoice. Opening this attachment will install a malicious program on your computer. Always be careful with e-mail messages that contain attachments. There are more details in this article.