Today's post is a quote I found several years ago. It's not really a tech tip, but I've found it to be useful when thinking about how technology serves us. It also applies to library services, don't you think?

The Parable of the Drill

Nobody in the world needs a drill.

They need a hole.

So you’re not in the drill business. You’re in the hole business.
And, actually, nobody needs a hole, they need to hang art.
And nobody needs to hang art, they need a better-looking room.
And nobody needs a better-looking room, they need to be happier.
So Black & Decker is in the happy business.
And so is every other company!

Craig Kanarick
Co-founder of Razorfish

The webcam in the lab is tempermental. Most of the time it works OK, but sometimes it will display an error message that says it's not connected when it is. The computer is not "seeing" the camera and thinks it's not there. The solution is to unplug the cam's USB cable, wait a minute, then plug it back in.

I've been reluctant to put this in the toolbox because you have to crawl under the carrel and reach around the back of the tower to find the cable. There are two USB cables next to each other and the Ethernet cable is there too. If you accidentally disconnect the Ethernet, that would be bad.

If anyone really wants to know how to do this, I'll show you. In the meantime, I'm happy to do the unplugging. If I'm not here, the cam may be unavailable. Webcam images are sent via instant messaging programs, like Yahoo Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger. Patrons can still use these programs to chat.

Recently the new iMac at the Information Desk displayed a login and password screen. When this happens, restart the computer.

There are 3 ways to restart:

1. Go to the Special menu and select Restart.
2. At the login screen, click the Restart button.
3. Press and hold the power button on the rear of the iMac.

The login screen may have appeared because someone logged out. Logging out is not necessary on the iMac.

OnmiPage ProX, text scanner program in the lab, is having a problem but there's an easy way to deal with it. After the document is scanned it cannot be saved or exported as a Microsoft Word document. There's an issue with conversion errors. Instead, save the document as ASCII text. It's the first selection on the Format menu. Next, start Microsoft Word and open the text document. It can then be saved as a Word document.

Complete instructions are on the "How to Scan Text" Quick Start Guide at the lab desk.

If your bookmarks and favorites are out of control, try using a web content manager.
A content manager will let you save copies of web pages to a permanent storage site, in customized categories. They also provide search and browse capabilities to help you find them again. This article describes how they work and links to several. This article hypes ContentSaver, which is fee-based. But some of the others, like Furl are free and work on Macs.

A New Way to Use AutoCorrect

The AutoCorrect feature in Microsoft Word corrects common typing errors. You can also use it to automatically type words that you often use. For example, instead of typing "Sincerely" at the end of a letter, make a shortcut that will type the word for you. Here's how:

Open a new document in Microsoft Word.
Go to the Tools menu and select AutoCorrect.
In the "Replace" box, type sy.
In the "With" box, type Sincerely.
Click Add, then click OK.

When you type sy and press the space bar, the replacement text will appear.

When a patron tried to use the webcam today he got a message saying that it was not connected. The green light on the cam was off and when I checked the outlet strip under the carrell, the cam's power supply had been disconnected (accidentally, I'm sure). But after I plugged it back in, Yahoo Messenger still said the cam was disconnected. So I unplugged the webcam's USB cable in the back of the tower, plugged it back in, and viola! Live video. There are two USB cables that plug in the tower. I didn't know which one it was so I tried them both!

There was a question about restarting the Dell computers in the lab and on the floor.

To restart the Dells in the lab, go to the Start menu and select Shut Down. A window will appear with a pull-down menu. Choose Restart from the menu.

If the computer is frozen you can manually shut down by pressing the button on the front of the tower. To restart, press and hold the button until the green lights flash on the keyboard.

After the computer restarts, the login screen will appear with Patron in the login box. The password box is empty. There is no password for Patron login, so click OK.

The Dells on the floor can be restartedwith the green button on the front of the CPU, which is attached to the walls between the carrels. Press the button to shut down the computer, then press it again to restart it. If this method doesn't work, unplug the computer's power supply.

There are a lot of cables under the carrels and it can be confusing to find the right one. They will be labelled in the near future.

Today two of the Dells in the lab were not printing. The print spooling process seemed to be normal (the print screens appeared and the patrons entered their names) but the jobs did not appear on the print release station. After restarting the computers everything was OK. If this happens again, first find out if the computers on the floor can print. If not, then there is a problem with LPTOne. If they can print, the problem is likely to be the particular computer the patron is using.

During vacation I visited the Virtual Village at the Charlotte/Mecklenburg library in North Carolina. You can see my pictures here. They have several computers for video and audio editing as well as an experimental station where patrons can test new programs. There are 6 assistive technology stations with mouth controlled joysticks and screen readers. The most striking features are the bright colors, indirect lighting and unusual room dividers.