Submitted by Tom Peters on September 19, 2006 - 10:52pm
Happy birthday to the ALA TechSource Blog, which turned one-year old today. My great colleague Lori Bell, of the Alliance Library System, commented to me that she thought my dog Max had emerged this year as my bona fide muse. I often think about library and information technology issues as Max and I take our daily, early morning walks through the neighborhood.
 So, to honor my muse, I asked Max which walk was his favorite during the past twelve months. He fondly recalled a May morning when an entire family of raccoons sauntered across the darkened street before our wakening eyes.
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Submitted by Tom Peters on September 13, 2006 - 5:55pm
Despite or because of its runaway success, the iPod/iTunes service from Apple has more than a few critics and enemies. Some musicians and music companies don't like the strategy of ninety-nine-cent pricing. It smacks of the cheesy dollar-store marketing mindset. I agree with the heat-wave gripes about Apple that Karen Schneider posted to this blog in July, and I can add a few more rants of my own.
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Submitted by Teresa Koltzenburg on September 11, 2006 - 7:16pm
If you've ever visited the user-outreach Mecca that is the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL)—either physically or virtually—then it's likely no surprise to you that the winner of the Talis-sponsored "Mashing Up the Library" competition is none other than AADL's very own John Blyberg (also of blyberg.net). John's entry, the Go-Go-Google Gadget (more information about it on blyberg.net here), "shows how simply library information can be integrated into the personalized home page offered by Google," says Talis's technology evangelist Paul Miller.
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Submitted by Michelle Boule on September 8, 2006 - 9:28pm
Every day companies are coming out with new tools to reach their users on the Web. Many companies have learned that rolling out products before they are completely formed—in beta or even in alpha mode—can save them development time and money. By giving their customers an early look at a product, companies are empowering customers to use the tool in new ways and are providing them with an opportunity to ask the company for functionality that product developers may never have considered.
Companies in Beta
Meebo, a robust, widely used instant-messaging (IM) service is still in an alpha phase. Meebo allows users to sign into more than one IM account with more than one IM provider at the same time, so all of a user's accounts appear together on the same screen. For people in restrictive IT environments, there are no downloads when using Meebo.
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