March 4th, 2008 Brian Herzog
I normally don’t participate in memes. However, I am me-too’ing Jessamyn’s tech-NOs post because I like the idea behind it.
A lot of librarians (and regular people) I know are hesitant to try new tech/web things because there is just so much out there and they feel they have to know about everything before they can try anything. That is absolutely not true.
Even though some people think of me as high-techy because I have a website and use flickr and bloglines, there is a lot I don’t know about (and a lot I don’t care about). My advice is to use tech tools to augment your life/work style, not change it; pick what you like and play with it, and ignore everything else.
So, to show off my low-tech side, here’s my list of tech-NOs:
- I do not have a microwave.
- I don’t use IM, except at work. And even there I’m more likely to phone or email than IM
- I do not have a cell phone. I have one telephone, and it has a curly cord that plugs into the wall. I do not want a cell phone, and, in general, cell phones irritate me. Also, I have the same answering machine I’ve used since college, and it records to an analog cassette tape. I do not have caller id, call waiting, or anything like that
- I do not have an iPod or other mp3 player. Why? I’ve never needed one. When I’m in the car I listen to the radio, CDs or tapes; when I go for a walk or hike or exercise, I think about whatever is on my mind
- I do not have cable or satellite television. I have a television with an antennae*, and a VCR and DVD player, and I use it mostly for watching movies
- My clocks have hands. I don’t like digital clocks, so all the clocks in my house (except for the one built into the stove) are analog. I wake up to an alarm clock with two metal bells on top (I also have a bird clock*)
- I do not have an ATV, snowmobile, or jetski. Instead, I have a mountain bike, cross-country skis*, a kayak, and hiking boots. I don’t like exchanging effort for pollution (although I do have power tools)
- I use an old-fashion twirly lawnmower. You know the kind I mean. It’s fun
- I really don’t play video games. Sure, I play minesweeper and hearts, but not World of Warcraft, Second Life (I know, it’s not a “game”), Guitar Hero, or any of the others. I’m interested in the phenomena of multi-user interactions in worlds like these, but I have no inclination to play them
- I do not care about twitter. I just don’t
- I write letters in addition to emailing. I have an antique Royal typewriter* that I love using, and I fear the day the ribbon runs out
- I do not use GPS. I like maps
- I do not use air conditioning. I like open windows and fans
- I have one credit card and I pay all my bills by mailing a check. I also enjoy going to the post office
I’m sure there’s more, but that’s good for now.
*In typing up this list, I realized that all of the *’d things were given to me by my younger brother. Thanks, Mike. And I still don’t want a cell phone.
See Also
Posted under Personal, Technology | 4 Comments »
February 12th, 2008 Brian Herzog
I’ve had a flickr account for less than a year. Last week, a group contacted me, asking if they could use one of my photographs in their upcoming publication.
This is the second time that this has happened to me (in less than a year!), so I’m guessing it is a common occurrence on flickr.
The first time it happened, I was almost awestruck: the editors of the Weird U.S. books and television show found me on flickr and wrote asking permission to use some of my photographs in their upcoming Weird Massachusetts book. The photographs they wanted were of Hammond Castle in Gloucester, MA. After exchanging a few emails, I think they’re also going to use some I took around Westford, MA, of the Westford Knight and an Edgar Allan Poe memorial.
In exchange, they’ve agreed to send a couple copies of the book for me and my library, and also come to my library during their book tour.
The more recent flickr contact from last week was from Schmap, publisher of, I think, electronic travel guides and maps. They specifically asked about some pictures I took in Omaha, of where I stayed and a couple local businesses.
I didn’t get anything in exchange for agreeing to that use, but that’s fine. Most of my pictures go up under a Creative Commons license, so I don’t really expect anything; just that other people aren’t blatantly and secretly using them for commercial use.
If you’re interested, I have a screenshot of the Schumap photo release webpage. Also, the text of their license agreement is below - very uncharacteristically of me, I actually read it. I found it interesting how tailored it was to pictures found on flickr - perhaps this is just another sign of how companies and legalese is shifting towards the Web 2.0 environment. It’s cheaper to use other peoples’ photographs than to hire your own photographers, and people who post publicly are likely willing to share for free.
TERMS OF SUBMISSION
THESE TERMS OF SUBMISSION (THE “TERMS”) REPRESENT A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU, EITHER AN INDIVIDUAL PERSON OR A SINGLE LEGAL ENTITY (“YOU”), AND SCHMAP, INC. (“SCHMAP”). BY CLICKING THE “SUBMIT” BUTTON, YOU CONFIRM YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS.
1. PHOTOS
The term “Photos” refers to one or more photographs and/or images licensed by You to Schmap pursuant to the Terms.
2. LICENSE GRANT
Subject to the terms and conditions herein, You hereby grant Schmap a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual license to include the Photos in the current and/or subsequent releases of Schmap’s destination/local guides.
3. FAIR USE RIGHTS
Nothing in these Terms is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use, first sale or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law or other applicable laws.
4. LIMITATIONS
The license granted in Section 2 above is made subject to and limited by the following express limitations:
(a) Schmap may only distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, and/or publicly perform the Photos pursuant to the Terms.
(b) Schmap shall be required to keep intact all copyright notices for the Photos and provide, reasonable to the medium or means of utilization, the name of the original author (or pseudonym, if applicable) if supplied, for attribution in Licensor’s copyright notice, terms of service or by other reasonable means, and a credit (implemented in any reasonable manner) identifying the use of the Photos in any derivative Photos created by Schmap.
(c) Schmap shall, to the extent reasonably practicable, provide Internet link(s) to your Photos.
(d) Schmap shall not sublicense the Photos.
(e) Schmap shall indicate to the public that the Photos are licensable to others under the Creative Commons license that you have assigned to the Photos prior to Schmap’s initial short-listing of your Photos, and provide a link to this license, where reasonably practical.
(f) Schmap shall continue to make its destination/local guides available at no cost to end users.
5. RIGHTS
You confirm that You own or otherwise control all of the rights to the Photos and that use of the Photos by Schmap will not infringe or violate the rights of any third parties.
6. NO OBLIGATION
Schmap shall have no obligation whatsoever to reproduce, distribute, broadcast, or otherwise make use of the Photos licensed by You to Schmap hereunder.
7. NO AFFILIATION
While the Flickr website and/or Flickr API have been used to short-list your Photos, Schmap claims no affiliation or partnership with Flickr.
8. MISCELLANEOUS
If any provision of the Terms is ruled unenforceable, such provision shall be enforced to the extent permissible, and the remainder of the Terms shall remain in effect. The Terms constitute the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the Photos licensed hereunder. There are no understandings, agreements or representations with respect to the Photos not specified hereunder. If there is any dispute about or involving the Terms or the license granted hereunder, You agree that such dispute shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict-of-law provisions. You agree to personal jurisdiction by and venue in the state and federal courts of the State of California, City of San Francisco. The license granted in the Terms may not be modified without the mutual written agreement of You and Schmap.
Tags: conditions, creative commons, flickr, licensing, photographs, schmap, sharing, terms, terms and conditions, web 2.0, weird massachusetts, weird u.s. See Also
Posted under Personal, Technology | 4 Comments »
January 22nd, 2008 Brian Herzog
My younger brother pointed out that I’ve never made anything for him, so for Christmas, I decided to knit him a Cleveland Browns stocking hat. This is how it turned out.
I had made hats before, but never with vertical stripes, so I had to make that part up on my own (and it took a few attempts to get it right). To knit each color/stripe I worked a different yarn end (2 white, 4 brown, and 2 orange) and then joined them at the top. It was a lot of yarn balls to work with, but it’s manageable.
I just made this hat up as I went along, but here’s pretty much what I did (A printer-friendly version of this pattern is also available [pdf, 80kb], and so are more photos):
Materials
Needles: 5 double-pointed #7 needles
Yarn: To find the right color orange, I used Caron Perfect Match 100% acrylic medium (4) yarn. Their 355-yard skein was plenty, and I got one in orange, one brown and one white. Before starting, I rolled the orange skein into two orange yarn balls, and did the same with the white. For the brown, I rolled four yarn balls. I kept them all in a bag, and the hat works easiest if you keep them from getting too tangled. Also, I brought up all yarn ends through the hat, so that as I worked, all the working yarn strands were inside the hat (instead of being between you and the work).
Pattern:
Brim:
I did the brim in a solid color to give myself a foundation to work from. I think it would be neater to have the colored stripes as part of the brim, too, but that felt a bit beyond me (nor did I attempt to knit a facemask).
- Cast on 90 orange stitches (20 sts on needle 1, 25 sts on needle 2, 20 sts on needle 3, and 25 sts on needle 4)
- Knit 1, purl 1 in the round for about 1-1/2″ to 2″, depending on desired height
- Knit three rounds in orange (this is so when the brim flips up, the joined-in colors of the stripes won’t show)
Hat Body:
Now it’s time to start the colored stripes. From now on, the hat is no longer knitted in the round. Instead, one row is knitted all the way around, then the next row is purled back.
- Knitted Row (odd rows):
- Start with needle 1 (which should have 20 sts on it). Knit 3 orange sts, then switch to brown. To do this, drop the orange yarn and pick up the first brown yarn end through the inside of the hat. To twist the brown to the orange, carry the brown around the right side and then over the top of the orange yarn before starting to knit. Knit 4 brown sts.
- Switch to white (drop the brown yarn and pick up the first white yarn end [again, through the inside of the hat] and twist the white to the brown [carry the white around the right side and then over the top of the brown yarn before starting to knit]). Knit 6 white sts.
- Switch to the second brown yarn. For every switch, be sure to twist the yarns (and for the first row, make sure you bring the new yarn though the inside of the hat). Knit 4 brown sts.
- Switch to orange and knit 31 sts (3 to the end of needle 1, 25 on needle 2, and 3 on needle 3)
- Switch to brown, k4
- Switch to white, k6
- Switch to brown, k4
- Switch to orange, k 31 sts (3 to the end of needle 3, 25 on needle 4, and 3 on needle 1)
- At this point, there should be sts on all five needles (3 orange on needle 5). Now it’s time to purl back.
- Purled Row (even rows):
- The first row was knitted, or worked on the “right side” (in this case, the outside of the hat). The next row will be purled, or worked on the “wrong side” (the inside of the hat). Hold the work so needle 5 is in your left hand, and purl the 3 orange sts from needle 5 onto needle 1. Then purl normally the 25 orange sts on needle 4, then the 3 orange sts on needle 3
- Switch to brown, p4 (again, be sure to twist the brown yarn with the orange)
- Switch to white, p6
- Switch to brown, p4
- Switch to orange, p31 sts (3 to the end of needle 3, 25 on needle 4, and 3 on needle 1)
- Switch to brown, p4
- Switch to white, p6
- Switch to brown, p4
- Flip the work over and continue with the Knitted Row directions above
- Continue knitting and purling consecutive rows until the hat body is about 7″ tall, or to desired height
- End having just worked a purl row
Decreasing the Hat Crown:
Normally, the hat pattern I use calls for decreasing 1 st PER multiple of 10 sts PER row. So, for a hat with 90 sts casted on, there are 9 multiples of 10 on each row, so we’d evenly decrease 9 sts per row (to decrease, just knit [or purl] 2 sts together). But in this case, since the stripes cannot be part of the decreasing (they have to stay the same width), all of the decreasing will be done on the orange sts.
To start with, I did all of the decreasing on needles 2 and 4, leaving the 3 orange sts on the ends of needles 1 and 3 alone until needles 2 and 4 were down to 3 sts each.
Another note on decreasing: I chose to randomly space my decreases on needles 2 and 4, instead of spacing them evenly. I tried doing it evenly on my test hat, but it was a pain. So for this part of the pattern, I’m not giving explicit instructions. I’ll tell you the number of sts to decrease in each row, and you space them out along that row however you like (just don’t put them all together).
- Starting on needle 1 (having just ended a purl row), k3 orange sts
- k4brown, k6white, k4brown
- Switch to orange, k3 (needle 1), decrease 5 (all on needle 2), k3 (needle 3)
- k4brown, k6white, k4brown
- Switch to orange, k3 (needle 2), decrease 4 (all on needle 4), k3 (needle 1)
- Flip work over to purl back
- Purl 3 orange sts (from needle 5 onto needle 1), decrease 4 (all on needle 4), p3 (needle 3)
- p4brown, p6white, p4brown
- Switch to orange, p3 (needle 3), decrease 4 (needle 2), p3 (needle 1)
- p4brown, p6white, p4brown
- Flip work over to knit
- k3 orange sts (needle 1)
- k4brown, k6white, k4brown
- Switch to orange, k3, decrease 3 (on needle 2), k3
- k4brown, k6white, k4brown
- Switch to orange, k3, decrease 4 (on needle 4), k3
- Flip work over to purl back
- Switch to orange, p3, decrease 3 (on needle 4), p3
- p4brown, p6white, p4brown
- Switch to orange, p3, decrease 3 (on needle 2), p3
- p4brown, p6white, p4brown
- Flip work over to knit
- k3 orange sts (needle 1)
- k4brown, k6white, k4brown
- Switch to orange, k3, decrease 3 (on needle 2), k3
- k4brown, k6white, k4brown
- Switch to orange, k3, decrease 2 (on needle 4), k3
- Flip work over to purl back
- Switch to orange, p3, decrease 2 (on needle 4), p3
- p4brown, p6white, p4brown
- Switch to orange, p3, decrease 2 (on needle 2), p3
- p4brown, p6white, p4brown
- Flip work over to knit
- k3 orange sts (needle 1)
- k4brown, k6white, k4brown
- Switch to orange, k3, decrease 1 (on needle 2), k3
- k4brown, k6white, k4brown
- Switch to orange, k3, decrease 2 (on needle 4), k3
- Flip work over to purl back
- Switch to orange, p3, decrease 1 (on needle 4), p3
- p4brown, p6white, p4brown
- Switch to orange, p3, decrease 1 (on needle 2), p3
- p4brown, p6white, p4brown
- Flip work over to knit
- At this point, there should only be 3 sts on needles 2 and 4. Continue decreasing each row by 2 orange sts, but now include the 3 sts on the ends of needles 1 and 3. After 8 more rows, there should be only 1 orange sts on each side
Finishing
Now all that’s left is to close off the top and weave in the loose ends.
- Break off all yarns, leaving about a 6″ tail. Pull them all out to the outside of the hat, through the top
- Slip one orange st to needle 1 and one to needle 3, and hold the needles parallel
- Pull the orange yarn through the orange loop, and slide the orange st off the needle. Leave orange end loose for now
- Using the Kitchener Stitch (below), bind together an off the 8 brown sts. Before starting, be sure to twist the brown yarn around the orange yarn
- Switch to white (twist white and brown) and continue with Kitchener Stitch
- Switch to brown (twist brown and white) and continue with Kitchener Stitch
- Twist orange and brown and pull orange yarn through orange loop and off needle
- Pull all loose ends (top and bottom of hat) to the inside of hat to tie off and weave in
This seems a lot more complicated written out than when I was knitting. If you have any trouble, or see any errors in my pattern, please let me know. Good luck. A printer-friendly version of this pattern is also available [pdf, 80kb].
Kitchener Stitch:
Tread yarn through tapestry needle. Hold needles parallel. Pull tapestry needle through first st on FRONT needle as if to purl & leave on needle, pull yarn through first st on BACK needle as if to knit & leave on needle. *pull tapestry needle through first st on FRONT needle as if to knit & slip st off needle, pull yarn through second st on FRONT needle as if to purl & leave on needle. Pull yarn through first st on BACK needle as if to purl & slip off needle, pull yarn through second st on BACK needle as if to knit & leave on needle*. Repeat from * to * until all sts have been used. Illustrated instructions available at http://www.knitty.com/issuesummer04/FEATtheresasum04.html and http://www.stitchdiva.com/custom.aspx?id=50.
browns,
See more patterns and projects on my Knitting page.
Tags: browns, cleveland, football, hat, hats, knit, Knitting, nfl, pattern, patterns, stocking See Also
Posted under Knitting, Personal | 2 Comments »
November 29th, 2007 Brian Herzog
For Thanksgiving, I drove from Massachusetts to my hometown in Ohio. It’s about a 12-hour drive, each way, and I found that 12 hours in the car means different things to different people.
Most people reacted with, “ugh, that sounds miserable” or “I could never sit in the car that long.”
I suppose I am lucky that I am an excellent sitter, but I also don’t mind driving distances like that at all. I enjoy traveling and seeing the country (though it is unfortunate that not much can be seen at 80 65 mph). But this trip also meant 24 hours of audiobooks.
For this trip, I listened to The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, and also Washington Schlepped Here, by Christopher Buckley. The last one was kind of walking tour of Washington, D.C., with history, humor and current politics all blended together, and the first two are the two books that come after Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. I was thoroughly entertained for the entire trip, and although I didn’t know much about The Golden Compass before, now I’m really looking forward to the movie.
But do you know what I like best about audiobooks?
This post is continued at this point on the other side of this blog
audio book, audio books, audiobook, audiobooks, driving, traveling
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Posted under Books, Personal | No Comments »
November 19th, 2007 Brian Herzog
I’m going to Ohio this week to spend Thanksgiving with my family, so I won’t be posting anything.
Except for this: the same patron who called in for Halloween trivia called in again, this time asking for Thanksgiving trivia. We found a fun turkey trivia quiz which is worth the few minutes to take it.
For you American readers, I hope you enjoy your holiday; for everyone else, enjoy the reprieve; for me, I’ll be enjoying about six audio books during the drive, not to mention my mom and dad’s cooking when I get there.
quiz, reference question, thanksgiving, trivia, turkey
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Posted under Library, Personal | 1 Comment »
