Informationoverlord

I like a bit of trouble on Christmas day, so as I sit here at 1.45am, I was shocked to see on the BBC site that the Library of Congress has decided (in its wisdom) to re-classify all Scottish Literature as, well, English.

The article uses the example of the classic novel The Thirty Nine Steps by Scottish author John Buchan which will now be listed under Adventure Stories - English.

They just mean in the English language you say? Well, no they don’t as ‘American literature’ (and yes we can argue whether this is often in English) remains untouched as do others.

LOC, why not just classify everything in a language under one heading and save space and time? Or make decisions that seem to demonstrate that you don’t understand the UK, or Britain and the countries that make them up. Maybe just following the lead of so many of your music stars, who have been coming here for years saying how much they like England when they mean Britain. I’ve Personally seen two bands who thanked a Glasgow crowd by saying how much they liked being back in England.

I have questioned whether Dewey (and by association the LOC cataloguing systems) are needed in current libraries etc, but I think whilst they exist the LOC should not be trying to remove/merge a culture’s literary history into another. Doing so makes them look ignorant and arrogant.

I used to use Remember the Milk (RTM) quite a bit last year for task managing, but lost interest a bit this year as it was too separate from other things. The ability to send tasks via Twitter was certainly something that rekindled my interest a bit, but now I am fully back on board with this fantastic Firefox extension Remember the milk for Gmail which lets you manage your tasks right within your Gmail account. You can add new tasks, complete, postpone, and edit tasks. But, even better, it also allows you to connect tasks to your Emails, Contacts or Google Calendar events.

Album of the year is never easy and this year in no exception: The Hold Steady, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, The Weakerthans … but this years winner has to be:

1. Grinderman - Grinderman: Nick Cave and selected Bad Seeds create a side project for some down and dirty blues based noise. Not an easy record, but this really shouldn’t be this good. Raw, funny, fuzzy, genius.

The rest of my top 20, in no particular order, are:

2. The Hold Steady - Boys & Girls in America: I have to thank JR for turning me on the THS. He named it as a favourite from last year (came out in US then and in the UK this year). Pub rock wrote large, THS are an everyman band. However, make no mistake they have the songs too.
3. Bruce Springsteen - Magic: Bruce rocks again. Like many I had worried that he another great rock album in him, but this is excelllent stuff. Not really a duff track on the whole thing.
4. The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour: Like the Hold Steady, a band with a habbit of writing catchy songs with quirky lyrics. Almost as good a Reconstruction Site, which I consider praise indeed.
5. Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade: An album about Earle’s move to New York. So this is a lot less angry than Revolution Starts Now. It is a marvelous record though
6. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero: NIN have always been a bit hit and miss but this may just be Trent’s best outing.
7. Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Calling: I had believed that MCC’s best days were well and truly behind her, but this album has pleasingly proved me wrong. Listen to Houston and One with the Song if you don’t believe me.
8. Ryan Adams - Lost Highway: This album just sounded better and better as the year went on.
9. Queens of the Stoneage - Era Vulgaris: The rock album of 2007. I Just like it.
10.Kate Rusby - Awkward Annie: Another artist returning to form after a couple of perfectly fine, but unexciting releases.
11. PJ Harvey - White Chalk: a short and quite dreery record on the face of it, but there is a beauty and power in the sparceness of this material not seen since Harvey’s debut, Dry
12. Public Enemy - How you sell soul to a souless people who have no soul: Pretty much a return to form for Chuck D, This album sparkles and helps remind you why PE were THE rap band.
13. Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta: Gypsy punk at its best. Fun bright, a good party band.
14. Jesse Malin - Glitter in the Gutter: Duet with Bruce Springsteen, and more great tunes from the man who Ryan Adams thinks is a genius.
15. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times: There are a couple of dire songs on this album , but the rest of it is really rather good, and has been one of the biggest ‘growers’ of the year for me.
16. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience, Grace: Still looking for the FF to make their ‘great’ record. This like their other albums contains some very good stuff, but still falls away a bit too much for my liking.
17. Funeral for a Friend - Tales Don’t Tell Themselves: Wales’ finest delivered there most focussed album to date.
18. Manic Street Preachers - Send Away the Tigers: No new ground, but more fun then recent offerings.
19. Rilo Kiley - Under the Backlight: Actually reminds me of early Liz Phair in places this record. Not a bad thing.
20. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand: A collection of old country/blues numbers reinterpreted by Page and Krauss. It works pretty well, with their voice complementing each other nicely. A good album to relax with.

The jolly folks at Pinsent Mason (Outlaw.com) last week decided to take a look at how Santa fairs on compliance with key EU and UK Legislation such as the Data Protection Directive ; the Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment Directive ; the Working Time Directive ;  and the UK’s Work at Height Regulations 2005; and Distance Selling Regulations.

Both funny and a good means of highlighting some of the key aspects of the legislation.  I bow down before you good outlaws.

I have sent a few eCards this year, in addition to my usual charity cards, and Abbie suggested a post listing a few options. Didn’t have much time, and it is UK (and cancer) focused, but here are a few. I choose Marie Curie myself, this year as I already give regularly to at least on of the other listed charities, but all well deserving of a few quid of your money.

MacMillian Cancer Support : Minimum £5 donation for as many cards as you want to send.
Marie Curie Cancer Care: £1.00 - one eCard, £5.00 - 10 eCards, £10.00 - 25 eCards, £17.50 - 50 eCards, £30.00 - 100 eCards
Cancer Research UK : Free but donate if you like.
Shelter - Homeless charity: Free, but donate if you like

Picking singles is the hardest thing these days, with track downloads, and I have no doubt missed some horrible pop tunes that should be on here, but this list is still pretty good. These are in no particular order, after the top 5, which have all been my favourite of the year at some point in 2007, and I still couldn’t decide who should have the overall crown.

1. Cassette - The Smartest Bomb : I am probably on a the few people that actually bought this, but I love it. It is very 80s in its sound, but it just really works for me.
2. Bruce Spingsteeen - Radio Nowhere : The first signs that the Boss was back and playing some classy, catchy rock again.
3. Funeral for a Friend - Into Oblivion (Reunion) :
4. Foo Fighters - The Pretender : Let’s make no mistake, when the FF are good, they are very good; and this single is true class.
5. Public Enemy - Harder than you Think : Not sure where they’ve sampled the horns from on this, but couple with Chuck D in full flow, this was one of the stand out tracks on PE’s last album.
6. Kings of Leon - Charmer : KoL do their best pixies impersonation
7. Groove Armada - Song 4 Mutya : I know, let’s right a tune about an ex-Sugababe and then get her to sing it too - madness. One of the best pop records of the year.
8. Ryan Adams - Two/Halloween Head : Great tunes, great songwriter, great album.
9. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black : Well, it looks like she may now have gone to rehab. personal problems aside, this song (from one of the best records of 2006) is still a great slice of 60s influenced soul.
10. Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running Whilst the album still disappointed me a bit, this is still great.
11. Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend : Yes, it is very annoying, but I still liked it despite myself.
12. Kelly Clarkson - Never Again : Pat Benatar reborn
13. PJ Harvey - When under Ether : John Peel would have liked it, I do.
14. Grinderman - No Pussy Blues : Well, precisely.
15. The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy : Whoahhh …
16. Jenny Owen Youngs - Fuck was I : A pleasant surprise as support for Aimee Mann.
17. McQueen - Running out of Things to Say : As I get further down this list, i know the feeling. A good honest all female rock band deliver a good tune.
18. Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Alone : Another one of those songs that i really wanted to hate this year, but it is so damn catchy that i sing it every time.
19. Queens of the Stone Age - 3s & 7s : Just a great rock song.
20. Good Charlotte - Keep your Hands off my Girl : I don’t like GC. No really. I think they suck. However, I had to admit that this song got under my skin for quite a while earlier this year.

Yes, it is the time of year where newspapers, magazines etc start to fill up with the ‘best of’ lists. I usually try and wait until post xmas to jam mine in, but have decided this year to start early and get it all out of the way before Christmas. So (because I know you care), over the next ten days or so I will list my favourite books, films, singles, albums, and anything else I can think of.

So let us begin …

Best Books of 2007

1. Arturo Perez Reverte - The Painter of Battles:

The book is about ex war photographer, Andrés Faulques, who is painting a huge battle scene on the interior of a watchtower, and the visit of the subject of one of his most famous (and award winning) photos - a Croatian soldier, Ivo Markovic. The photo changed both of their lives, but in different ways. It’s publication made Faulques a start, but caused the death of Markovic’s family, and began Markovic’s quest to learn about his photographer, to track him down, and to kill him.

This is a fascinating book, and through the discussions between the two protagonists we get some of the best material I have read about the realities of war (Perez Reverte was previously a war correspondent).

The rest (in no particular order)

2. Ian McEwan - On Chisel Beach : A great little book about a relationship, which is only spoiled by a needless last 10 or so pages
3. Lloyd Jones - Mister Pip : Well paced and likable read, but also let down a bit by the ending
4. Haruki Murakami - After Dark : A book about night, insomnia, love, all wrapped up in the usual Murakami style.
5. Pete Brown - Three Sheets to the Wind : Our intrepid explorer goes to America, Australia, Spain, the Czech Republic and more finding out why we like beer and why drinking is a social pastime. Oh, I should add it is bloody funny (as was his previous book, Man Walks into a Pub).
6. Jose Saramago - Seeing : The public become disillusioned with politics and stop voting (or vote with blank pieces of paper), the authorities declare a state of emergency to find out these trouble-makers. Along with Murakami and Perez-Reverte, certainly one of the best writers there is.
7. Markus Zusak - The Book Thief : Delightful and very readable novel about a young girl living in Nazi Germany. Oh, and the story is told by Death. Oddly it works, and is an original and moving piece of fiction, which almost took my book of year prize.
8. O Brafman & R.A. Beckstrom - The Starfish and the Spider : Toss up really between this and Wikinomics, but this got less hype and made more sense to me. The story of the Apaches is worth the price of the book alone.
9. Scarlett Thomas - The End of Mr. Y : ‘Going Out’ her novel of a couple of years ago, marked Thomas out as one of our young writers to watch, and this - very weird book, about a book and a dreamworld called the Troposphere - shows why.
10. Steven Hall - The Raw Shark Texts : And speaking of weird books … about a fish called a ludovician which eats away at your memories and personality to kill you - it is better than it sounds, really. If it helps, there is a cat called Ian in it…

This 10-minute video explains how to use the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR database. It covers both basic and advanced search features. You may use the table of contents to go directly to certain parts of the video, but this feature only works after the screencast loads completely. [Via TVC]

Law librarian Nina Platt, who maintains the excellent blog, Strategic Librarian, has started up another blog. This one is called The Law Firm Intranet. The idea is for it to cover anything related to intranets or knowledge management while Strategic Librarian will cover “strategic thinking, planning, library technology and other library management topics.” [Via TVC]

This excellent video parody of web2.0 to Billy Joel’s ‘We didn’t start the fire’ (here called ‘Here Comes Another Bubble‘) , even includes the line ‘wont you blog about this song’ … well, yes, I will. Made me laugh out loud.

I went to Online 2007 today (tues) to have the usual wander around and to catch a few talks that sounded like they could be interesting.

I sat in on “Benefits and Applications of RSS in Organisations” and “Strategies for using RSS and Web 2.0 as communications tools in the enterprise“. Sound good right?

They may have been if the titles better reflected what was said by the speakers - from Newsgator and EasyByte respectively, but they didn’t really do much more than plug the respective product of the vendors. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing at all wrong with this - but if you’re going to do this, let me know. Of course I expect you to plug your own product, but I don’t expect that to be the main thrust of the talk. Worse still, the guy from Easybyte - who was their CEO, Gustav Colliander - was unbelievably dull (sorry Gustav, sure you’re a lovely bloke) and was totally lacking in passion. If he doesn’t have passion for his product, why should I or anyone else??

Now, I have a lot of time for Newsgator, and indeed whilst not my rss reader of choice have used it to set several colleagues up with an rss reader over the past two years. Still Andre Bonvanie’s talk should have been entitled: “How Newsgator and Sharepoint can harness RSS in Organisations”.

Both talkers would also have done better to find out who in their audience used rss, sharepoint etc either before or early in their talks.

I have to confess I left these talks annoyed that we were not getting better, and yes it does lead to the ‘well, if you think you can better ….” line of thinking. Can I? who knows, but hopefully I could deliver a talk that at least matched my title. So, maybe I will see you at Online 2008 … and then maybe you’ll have the last laugh.

NB: The Panel Debate: The challenges of sourcing business information from BRIC countries and emerging markets, whilst not exactly saving the day, did at least go some way to doing what it said on the tin.

Been playing around with Powerlabs‘ natural language engine beta again today. At the moment it is just searching one data source - wikipedia.

There are five different search sets: Quotes, Business, The Arts, Sports and PowerMouse (not a search as such but an explanation of how they put together “something -connection - something” to produced results sets). Also, because it is only a demo, you are limited by what you can search for by a selection of question templates.

For example, the business search offers the following options:

Who did _________ Sue?
Who works for ______?
What does _______ make/provide?
Who Manufactures _______?
Who acquired ________?
Who did ___________ acquire?
Who does _________ own?
What did _________ announce?
What did _________ sell?
Who founded _______ ?

The search results bring back Powerlabs’ results next to Google’s searching the same data set, and gives you the chance to vote on which set of results is better, or if it is a tie. (you can also vote on the accuracy of individual items returned in the search in answering the question).

I think trying to find new ways of advancing search are always work a look. In my testing thus far, Powerlabs has faired ok, being as good as google in the majority of test searches I have conducted; although it missing out List of acquisitions by Yahoo in its results to the search ‘Who acquired del.icio.us?’ was rather disappointing (it was included in the google results)