Made it into Jeff City and the Missouri River Regional Library about an hour and a half after bidding adieu to Sedalia. Filtered Wi-Fi (why does anyone even bother with this anymore?) and no dedicated power outlets for us microfilm researchers (you can plug into a power strip mounted on back of the reader table, but it's only energized-grrrr!-when the reader is turned on) serve to knock this one down from a 10 to about the 7.5 range in my book, unfortunately.
Oh, and that's the good part. Guess what you have to do to get the desired rolls of microfilm into your hot little hands so you can go to work. You've got to stop at the reference desk and have someone there get up, walk over and unlock a cabinet for you. I half-jokingly asked the reference librarian if anyone actually stole microfilm in this day and age. He replied-serious as a heart attack-that yes, they did. I suppose we'll have to take him at his word, but this has never been a problem in any other library I've ever visited (not counting UMKC's Miller Nichols Library, whose microfilm stacks, as I've reported here, used to be open but are now closed due to having been automated, not for security purposes).
You know, on second thought, make that a 6.5.
Monday, November 28, 2011
They call it Cyber Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad...
With apologies, of course, to the late great T-Bone Walker for mangling his song title above (sorry Bone, but my mom was a B. B. King fanatic so I grew up listening to his version of that).
Anyway...Once more, having prudently saved my vacation time until the use-or-lose last moment, I am off work and off on another adventure-not dodging spam and spyware on the information superhighway in search of treasure in the form of discounts, mind you, but rather dodging ditches and the occasional deer-fortunately, I haven't seen any of them this morning, though-on one of those other highways- U. S. 50 eastbound, in fact. I'm on my way to Jefferson City and the Missouri River Regional Library to chase down some more of that pesky historical data that hasn't found its way onto the Web yet. Halfway there seemed like a good place to stop for breakfast, so here I am at a McDonald's on Sedalia's main drag, and I thought I'd compliment the operator for making his or her location more laptop-friendly than many back home. For instance, take a gander at how easily I was able to plug in and thus use my "bad" battery, saving the two "good" ones for the Great Unknown that lies an hour's drive ahead:
Well..on to the capital. Further dispatches as the situation warrants.
Anyway...Once more, having prudently saved my vacation time until the use-or-lose last moment, I am off work and off on another adventure-not dodging spam and spyware on the information superhighway in search of treasure in the form of discounts, mind you, but rather dodging ditches and the occasional deer-fortunately, I haven't seen any of them this morning, though-on one of those other highways- U. S. 50 eastbound, in fact. I'm on my way to Jefferson City and the Missouri River Regional Library to chase down some more of that pesky historical data that hasn't found its way onto the Web yet. Halfway there seemed like a good place to stop for breakfast, so here I am at a McDonald's on Sedalia's main drag, and I thought I'd compliment the operator for making his or her location more laptop-friendly than many back home. For instance, take a gander at how easily I was able to plug in and thus use my "bad" battery, saving the two "good" ones for the Great Unknown that lies an hour's drive ahead:
Well..on to the capital. Further dispatches as the situation warrants.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
You can NOT be SERIOUS! (Sorry, John McEnroe)
And sorry to even be mentioning either the quasi-closed network at the North Kansas City Public Library or what I consider to be its least valuable component here once again, but whenever we come across something that could conceivably put you at risk, duty calls and we're obligated to point out the danger and suggest ways to protect yourself.
Well, your humble correspondent just has come across such a something while I was making my latest periodic scan of the local public library websites for changes. Seems NKCPL not only hasn't given up on flogging its Windows-only wireless printing capability, but it's now openly suggesting that you-are you ready for this?-enable file and printer sharing on your laptop just to make use of this dubious feature.
Memo to whomever is running the show up there: It just so happens that there's a dadgum good reason that file and printer sharing isn't enabled by default on a laptop running either Windows 7 or Vista, as you point out-having it enabled on a public network (i.e., any network other than the user's home network or one provided by his or her employer) is dangerous. And guess what else is dangerous? How about the user forgetting to turn it off after he or she is finished using your network and then going onto another open network with it still on?
Frankly, I'm still skeptical that enough people with laptops or other mobile devices either need or want to print away from home anymore (especially if they have to pay for the privilege) to justify NKCPL's continuing to offer this "service" in the first place. On the outside chance I'm wrong about that, however, here's a couple of alternate suggestions that won't open you up to an intrusion or malware attack.
First, in WIndows try printing to your default printer-even though it's not connected. Exactly how you'll proceed from here depends on whether the printer is usually directly connected to your computer (i.e., via a USB or parallel cable) or if it's a network printer. If it's directly connected simply go into the print queue (Start->Settings->Printers and Faxes, then double-click the printer in XP; Start->Control Panel->Printers, then do the same thing in Vista), click the "Printer" menu and then check the "Use printer offline" menu item. Then go ahead and send the jobs to the printer as normal. The jobs should begin to print automatically when you get home and reconnect the printer; if they don't you may need to manually uncheck the offline option to get them to start.
Unfortunately, unless the manufacturer has added it as a special feature accessible through the driver, the offline option isn't available for most network printers. In this case you can get away with sending the print job to the printer anyway, then going into the print queue as above and clicking the "Documents" menu. Click "Pause printing" to hold the job until you're back on your home network. Once you are, click "Resume" and the jobs should fire away; if not try the "Restart" option. I've never known one or the other not to work.
Second, if you have Microsoft Office installed, you should have a virtual printer available (in XP it's called the "Microsoft Office Document Writer") which will convert a print job sent to it into an Office document you can save for later printing. If you've bought the full version of Adobe Acrobat you can do the same thing by sending the job to the "Adobe PDF" pseudo-printer it installs on your machine.
And should anyone wonder why we Macintoshers don't really feel left out when it comes to these Windows-only pay-to-print-away-from-home installations, it's because we don't need them. We don't even need to buy the extra software Windows users do in order to exercise the second option above, owing to OS X's native PDF support.
Finally, if I am wrong about the demand for wireless printing up at NKCPL, here's hoping they'll take this as a cue not to stop offering it, but instead to fix it so users aren't put at unnecessary risk. Laptop users can print wirelessly at home or at work without sharing files; they can do it away from home as well. It's simple, folks: If your current solution can't accommodate that, do what good stewardship of public resources demands. Get tough with that vendor and demand that either they fix or replace what they sold you, or that they buy it back so you can purchase something else that works, and works right.
Well, your humble correspondent just has come across such a something while I was making my latest periodic scan of the local public library websites for changes. Seems NKCPL not only hasn't given up on flogging its Windows-only wireless printing capability, but it's now openly suggesting that you-are you ready for this?-enable file and printer sharing on your laptop just to make use of this dubious feature.
Memo to whomever is running the show up there: It just so happens that there's a dadgum good reason that file and printer sharing isn't enabled by default on a laptop running either Windows 7 or Vista, as you point out-having it enabled on a public network (i.e., any network other than the user's home network or one provided by his or her employer) is dangerous. And guess what else is dangerous? How about the user forgetting to turn it off after he or she is finished using your network and then going onto another open network with it still on?
Frankly, I'm still skeptical that enough people with laptops or other mobile devices either need or want to print away from home anymore (especially if they have to pay for the privilege) to justify NKCPL's continuing to offer this "service" in the first place. On the outside chance I'm wrong about that, however, here's a couple of alternate suggestions that won't open you up to an intrusion or malware attack.
First, in WIndows try printing to your default printer-even though it's not connected. Exactly how you'll proceed from here depends on whether the printer is usually directly connected to your computer (i.e., via a USB or parallel cable) or if it's a network printer. If it's directly connected simply go into the print queue (Start->Settings->Printers and Faxes, then double-click the printer in XP; Start->Control Panel->Printers, then do the same thing in Vista), click the "Printer" menu and then check the "Use printer offline" menu item. Then go ahead and send the jobs to the printer as normal. The jobs should begin to print automatically when you get home and reconnect the printer; if they don't you may need to manually uncheck the offline option to get them to start.
Unfortunately, unless the manufacturer has added it as a special feature accessible through the driver, the offline option isn't available for most network printers. In this case you can get away with sending the print job to the printer anyway, then going into the print queue as above and clicking the "Documents" menu. Click "Pause printing" to hold the job until you're back on your home network. Once you are, click "Resume" and the jobs should fire away; if not try the "Restart" option. I've never known one or the other not to work.
Second, if you have Microsoft Office installed, you should have a virtual printer available (in XP it's called the "Microsoft Office Document Writer") which will convert a print job sent to it into an Office document you can save for later printing. If you've bought the full version of Adobe Acrobat you can do the same thing by sending the job to the "Adobe PDF" pseudo-printer it installs on your machine.
And should anyone wonder why we Macintoshers don't really feel left out when it comes to these Windows-only pay-to-print-away-from-home installations, it's because we don't need them. We don't even need to buy the extra software Windows users do in order to exercise the second option above, owing to OS X's native PDF support.
Finally, if I am wrong about the demand for wireless printing up at NKCPL, here's hoping they'll take this as a cue not to stop offering it, but instead to fix it so users aren't put at unnecessary risk. Laptop users can print wirelessly at home or at work without sharing files; they can do it away from home as well. It's simple, folks: If your current solution can't accommodate that, do what good stewardship of public resources demands. Get tough with that vendor and demand that either they fix or replace what they sold you, or that they buy it back so you can purchase something else that works, and works right.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Random ramblings from the Golden Ghetto
Ever since discovering that the Johnson County Library has finally liberated its Wi-Fi, it seems I've been spending more and more time either at the Central Resource Library or on my way either there or back. Oh, it's not just that JCL is now doing a better job with Wi-Fi than KCMO's public libraries (and let's not even talk about KCK or the two local library systems still running closed networks, shall we?) but throw longer hours and free parking into the mix and it's a slam-dunk win for JoCo-driving distance and the price of gas notwithstanding.
So...how's this going over out there? Strangely, it doesn't seem to be drawing much more of a crowd. I don't think I've ever seen as many laptoppers there as I regularly do at KCMO's Plaza Branch, which despite being open similar hours and also offering free parking doesn't have anywhere near as many resources as JCL Central because it is a branch, not the main library. One wonders whether Plaza is more of a draw because it's in KCMO and closer to the urban core, and thus attracts laptop owners who come seeking only Wi-Fi and who perhaps, unlike their Johnson County counterparts, either don't have access to another broadband connection or can do better in the library than they can at home. Even if you can afford a faster connection, you can't buy one if no one will sell it to you.
And I share ath64's curiosity as to why the tablet revolution doesn't seem to have reached into public hotspots on either side of the state line. I thought I saw my first library iPad user out at Central last night...but alas, it turned out she was holding a tiny dry-erase whiteboard that from a distance, resembled you-know-what. Her tablemate, however, was equipped with a rather cute little Asus netbook.
Finally, speaking of curiosity, why has the tip someone passed on to ath64 a couple of years back that all of the Burger King locations in the metro were unwired turned out to be such a bum steer? On my way to or from JCL Central I've checked out several JoCo BKs, along with others in midtown and south KCMO. Not a single one lit up in the bunch. Too bad. Makes it harder to use those buy-one-get-one-free Whopper coupons.
So...how's this going over out there? Strangely, it doesn't seem to be drawing much more of a crowd. I don't think I've ever seen as many laptoppers there as I regularly do at KCMO's Plaza Branch, which despite being open similar hours and also offering free parking doesn't have anywhere near as many resources as JCL Central because it is a branch, not the main library. One wonders whether Plaza is more of a draw because it's in KCMO and closer to the urban core, and thus attracts laptop owners who come seeking only Wi-Fi and who perhaps, unlike their Johnson County counterparts, either don't have access to another broadband connection or can do better in the library than they can at home. Even if you can afford a faster connection, you can't buy one if no one will sell it to you.
And I share ath64's curiosity as to why the tablet revolution doesn't seem to have reached into public hotspots on either side of the state line. I thought I saw my first library iPad user out at Central last night...but alas, it turned out she was holding a tiny dry-erase whiteboard that from a distance, resembled you-know-what. Her tablemate, however, was equipped with a rather cute little Asus netbook.
Finally, speaking of curiosity, why has the tip someone passed on to ath64 a couple of years back that all of the Burger King locations in the metro were unwired turned out to be such a bum steer? On my way to or from JCL Central I've checked out several JoCo BKs, along with others in midtown and south KCMO. Not a single one lit up in the bunch. Too bad. Makes it harder to use those buy-one-get-one-free Whopper coupons.
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