Problems with printing? CSS solution

Technogeekery for librarians uses one of the many standard design templates provided by Blogger. Like all novice bloggers I assumed that once I had selected the template that I could quite happily forget about design and focus entirely on content. Not so! Over time I've modified the template to include a "list of contributors", an RSS feed, a blogroll and some images. The other day Walt Crawford wrote in Cites & Insights [PDF] about a problem he was having printing from librarian blogs including technogeekery. It appears that if you try to print out some of the longer posts that the left margin floats further to the right with each page printed. Who knew? I just write the stuff, I haven't had to print anything out... yet. So, I would like to apologize to all the readers that tried to print off posts from technogeekery and were less than satisfied with the result. The good news is, I think I've fixed it! This particular Blogger template and many others are created using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). These styles are code which may be embedded or linked to in your HTML code which tells the web browser how to display different parts of your code. For example, CSS could tell your browser to display all your headings in Verdana font and all the paragraph text to display in Times New Roman font. The benefit of CSS is that you can use one style sheet to markup your entire web site. If you want to make a change in style you only have to make that change in one location and it will change all your web pages. CSS are definitely worth investigating if you haven't already. Back to the printing issue. After some creative web searching, I discovered that the printing problem Walt describes relates to the Cascading Style Sheet used in my blog template. What I did was modify the existing CSS script to limit it to displaying on the screen. First I added in media="screen" to the existing CSS tag. At the end of this CSS sheet I added in code recommended on a Blogger Forum post. This code removes the side bar and moves the margin to the left. This should make it easier to print longer posts. Hopefully this will solve the printing problem. Why should libraries and librarians care? Well CSS is an excellent way to control how your library web sites appear. It helps with design consistency which can make your site easier to read and maintain. Our patrons may wish to print many of our content rich web pages. Using CSS to establish a print style allows your users to easily print out your content without you having to create a separate "printable" page. Note The CSS modifications work in my Blogger template context. They may not work in your CSS. Hopefully the following references will help you. References Cascading Style Sheets (Wikipedia) Re: "Print this page" script or "print this entry" script by redryder52 in Blogger Forum CSS for Printing (Web Design School Review) CSS Design: Going to Print by Eric Meyer of ALA: A List Apart

Mac Update: What do you mean read the manual?

When I got my Mac a few weeks ago I opened the box expecting to see a nice hefty manual that I would either have to pour through or ignore depending on how I felt. I was surprised to see what amounted to a few pamphlet sized handouts. The PowerBook user's guide is only 107 pages (including the index) and the "Welcome to Panther" guide (the Mac Operating System is also known as Panther) is only 24 pages... in colour no less! Being the experienced PC user that I am, I emotionally needed a monster manual that I could ignore and consult only if desperately needed. A quick trip to my local mega-bookstore resulted in "Mac OS X Panther Edition: the Missing Manual". I knew that there was something missing... :) Since then I've been happily ignoring the manuals and stumbling my way around the software and hardware. Then the inevitable happened. I ran across a question I couldn't sort out myself. "Can I unplug my Mac PowerBook from its power cord while it is turned on? Do I need to turn it off first?" I can hear the Mac users giggling. Whaaaat? How is a novice Mac user supposed to know these things. I've also never owned a laptop and so don't know what to expect from a PC let alone a Mac. So I grabbed my PowerBook user's guide and started at page 1. This is unusual for me to do... I like to skip to the pertinent parts but I was being patient. It is amazing how readable the user's guide is, way to go Apple! It's also amazing how much you can learn by reading the manual. Stunning revelations include:

• How to control the sound levels. Muting! Who'd a thought?
• Scrolling with two fingers using the track pad. Wow!
• One location for doing software updates (Apple - System Preferences - Update)! Cool. Don't think that there is a PC equivalent... but then again it has been a long time since I read a manual.

All that and I am only on page 30! Screen Captures I also wanted to determine how to do screen captures. I sorely miss my ALT-PrintScreen keyboard combination. I use this quite frequently on my PC to create screen captures to include in WORD or to create images for my web site. On a Mac, sadly, this is somewhat more involved. To view your shortcuts go to Apple - System Preferences - Keyboard/Mice - Keyboard Shortcuts. I like the fact that you can save a selection or a screen automatically to a file. In the PC world you need extra software to do this... I think. However the keyboard short-cuts are a bit awkward. I may try to come up with an alternate combination. Frozen programs and frozen computers PC users will be intimately familiar with the "Blue Screen of Death". This happens when your computer has had enough and locks up. Your only recourse is to reboot and hope. I became familiar with the Mac version called the SBoD or "Spinning Beachball of Death". I didn't know what it was but I did know what no cursor action means. What I didn't know was how the heck to get out of it! There's no handy reset button on my PowerBook (or so I thought). "The missing manual" to the rescue (pg. 686 if you're curious)!

• Clicking on the Dock to quit the item wasn't an option. Mild Concern.
• Clicking on the Apple menu and clicking force quite wasn't working. Butterflies starting to churn in stomach.
• CTRL-Apple-Power button didn't work. Panic set in.
• Hold Power button for 5 seconds. Whew, it worked.

For a while there it was touch and go but the manual saved my bacon and my sanity. I can't wait to see what else the manuals have in store for me. Hmmm, just realized I still don't know if I can safely unplug my laptop from the power adapter while it is running. Can anyone help? References Pogue, David. "Mac OS X Panther Edition: The Missing manual". 2003

Impact of technogeekery

I just read this in my Bloglines account. It's from the Associated Press Health Feed and the article is entitled "The Blind Struggle As Gadgets Proliferate" by Vicki Smith. I really hadn't thought of this before but I can see how this is a problem. "As technology has evolved, it's become lighter, smaller and more portable. For most people, that makes it more convenient. For millions of blind and vision-impaired people, it's anything but. Jay Leventhal, who is blind, still fumbles with the tiny controls on his iPod but has given up on the kiosk in his New York office building that lists all the tenants. For Leventhal, even laundry has become a task requiring the help of a sighted person. The washers he uses now take smart cards instead of quarters, issuing instructions on a digital screen that he can't read." It's worth a read.

Another New Librarian Graduates

Yes, it's that time of year again. A new crop of librarians are getting ready to graduate. Ordinarily I wouldn't pay much attention to this, but this year I know one of the graduates. My colleague and co-author of technogeekery, Allan Chan is attending class for the last time this weekend. I've been having fun watching Allan attend Library School for the last few years. It has brought back lots of pleasent memories. It's nice to be reminded of the excitement I felt when I attended my last class. I'm very happy for you. Congratulations, Allan!

Geographic meta tags: let people know where you are

People have been using the internet to obtain directions for destinations for a few years. I've been using MapQuest to help me find driving directions. It's easy, convenient and mostly accurate and if you're directionally challenged like myself... a real time saver. It was only a matter of time before the search engines got involved. Now you can do a keyword search for a business or location in your area using some of the major search engines and have it displayed on a map for you. You can even obtain driving directions on how to get to that location. Local search features are now available on Google Local (Canada or US), Yahoo Local (US only) and MSN Search's "Near me" (US only). Let me take you on a little tour of one of my favourite places. Give this a shot.

• Go to Google Local Canada.
• Type in Forks into the "What" window.
• Type in Winnipeg,MB into the "Where" window.
• This will give you a list of all possible destinations with the word Forks in Winnipeg,MB.
• Click on "Inn at the Forks".
• The map focuses in on the location for the "Inn at the Forks".

This is pretty slick... but it gets slicker. Underneath the map is the link to view larger map. Click this. To the left of the map is a sliding scale. Drag the bar all the way to the plus sign. This zooms in the map. Next click on the satellite link in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Nifty eh? Nice satellite photo but where's the Inn? Okay so it's not totally up to date. The Forks is one of the neatest shopping and tourist areas in Winnipeg. It's at the forks of two rivers, the Assinaboine and the Red. But that's not the point of all this. I have to admit to being not too sure about how these search engines are mapping these locations. Is it based on a massive database of addresses, like the yellow pages or is it based on geographic meta tags or is it a combination of both? Perhaps someone could enlighten me? However, that being said there is no doubt that incorporating geographic meta tags into your web page design is the way to go. It's also incredibly easy to do. The first thing to do is to determine your location's latitude and longitude (e.g. your library). You could borrow someone's GPS unit do do this but there is an easier and more entertaining way to do this. Multimap.com will allow you to zoom in on your geographic location by either entering your address or clicking on the map and zooming in that way. Try the map, it's fun. Don't have time? Type in your street address in the left-hand corner of the screen. Confirm your location on the map. Don't assume that you will be taken directly to your address. You may have to zoom around a bit until you find your exact location. Next look at your latitude and longitude at the bottom of the map. The numbers you want for this purpose are the ones in brackets. Jot this down. Now you are ready to begin building your code. First have a look at this example for my work web site. Explanation of code. Those of you up on the Dublin Core will recognize the DC.title meta tag. This refers to the title of the web site. Just put your title in place of the "University of Manitoba Health Sciences Libraries". ICBM is a hold-out from the old USNET coding but still a valid way to include location code. Use this in combination with the geo.position tag. Insert your latitude and longitude as shown in the example. The geo.region code is a combination of your country code (CA = Canada and US = United States) and your province or state code. More country codes Province and State codes

• Canada
• United States

The geo.placename is where you should include the name of your city or town and the long form of your province or state. Now it is just a matter of cutting and pasting this code into your web page. Open up your web page editor and place the tags in-between the "head" tags. Wait there's more! You can even do the same thing for your blog! feedmap is a blog search engine which will geographically place your blog on a map. Why? Why not. Once you have incorporated the geographic meta tags into your blog home page or template you can submit your feed or url using the submit page. Why should libraries care? I think it's important to take advantage of the location search engines and our patrons use of GPS systems to direct them to our location. Will it make an immediate difference on your statistics? Probably not. The way I see it, use any little trick you can to get yourself into the search engines and to where our patrons are looking for us. References GeoURL Want to know why it's called the ICBM address? Geo Tag Elements Very nice explanation of the tags. Thanks to ResearchBuzz for the idea!

Blogging by mental telepathy

There's audioblogging, podcasting, and screencasting, with all this technology it's a wonder they haven't come up with something that will allow you to blog by mental telepathy. I haven't posted much recently due to two impending presentations and an article deadline. I hardly feel guilty about this however because a new phenomenon has taken over my brain. I tend to think in blog postings! I come across an idea or two and I immediately start creating blog posts based on those ideas. Sometimes the postings are quite involved and at other times they end not fully formed. One problem is finding the time to put down what I am thinking on my computer. The other problem is actually remembering the brilliant post I created in my head. I'd really like to hear from other bloggers how they get their thoughts down before they loose them! Maybe audioblogging is for me. I'll have to think about this.

Philadelphia Plans First U.S. Citywide Wi-Fi Network

I'm extremly excited for Philadelphia. A citywide Wi-Fi network appeals to me as I am one of those people that likes to be connected to the internet at all times. When I am on the road, if there is a choice of hotels with or without Wi-Fi, the hotel with the Wi-Fi wins out for myself. The exponential growth of the information age has turned me into a person that feels naked when I am not on the internet. It's a feeling of being connected and empowerment. Ideally having a city wide hotspot gives everybody a fair shake to this feeling that I feel. Philadelphia Plans First U.S. Citywide Wi-Fi Network Tue Apr 12, 2:39 PM ET By John Hurdle PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The city of Philadelphia will become the largest U.S. Internet "hot spot" next year under a plan to offer wireless access at about half the cost charged by commercial operators, city officials said on Thursday. Last year, officials unveiled a pilot scheme offering users of Wi-Fi-enabled computers access to the Internet within a radius of about a mile of downtown's Love Park. Thursday's announcement expands the network to the city's entire 135-square-mile area, marking a U.S. first. The "Wireless Philadelphia" network is expected to be up by late summer 2006 and available to computer users paying up to $20 a month. Commercial Wi-Fi services run about $40 monthly. "People are watching all over the world to determine whether a city of 135 square miles can become one big hot spot," Philadelphia Mayor John Street told reporters. "People want to be connected and we think it is our obligation to provide that kind of access," Street said. The network, based on devices attached to city streetlight poles, is expected to cost the city $15 million to set up. The service will cost subscribers from $16 to $20 a month and will be available through a device costing about $80, city chief information officer Dianah Neff said. The city hopes the plan will get 80 percent of Philadelphia households connected to the Internet within five years, up from the current level of 58 percent. City officials estimate it will create 3,000 jobs, mostly by creating the type of city attractive to tech-savvy people who want to be connected to the Internet at all times. The plan is opposed by some city lawmakers who say the network will cost more to build than estimated and that the work should be given to telecom companies such as Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - news) or Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq:CMCSA - news) City councilman Frank Rizzo said the city government does not have the expertise or the money to embark on the project when it is cutting jobs and services to balance its budget. "I would love to see Philadelphia wireless, but it's not the government's job to do it," Rizzo told Reuters. But Gene Kimmelman, senior director for public policy at Consumers Union, a consumer watchdog group, said the plan will provide Internet access to low- and moderate-income communities for about half the rate charged by phone and cable companies, and will break what he called their monopolistic practices. "The government has every business assuring the provision of essential services to all its citizens, and in today's world having access to the Internet is as important as keeping your house or feeding your family," Kimmelman said. He said Philadelphia's costing is realistic and predicted that the program will be copied throughout the United States once it has proven workable. "It is an extremely important program, and we have every reason to believe it will go ahead," he said Original Article

Mac switch update

I've had my Mac PowerBook for two weeks now and I am still messing around trying to figure things out. The latest thing was trying to determine how to change my default browser from Safari to Firefox. It's not that I don't like Safari... it's just that I like Firefox so much and I haven't finished playing with it. Whenever I try to use the Mac help (which is frequently) it automatically opens up Safari and I immediately wish for Firefox. After two hours of trying to figure out how to change the default browser using the Mac Help and Apple Discussions I was totally frustrated and Googled it. A few pages in (I was that frustrated), I came across some useful instructions. It turns out that inorder to change your default browser setting you can't do this from the system preferences. Whaaaaat? To change your default browser setting:

• You have to open up Safari.
• Open the Safari menu.
• Click on Preferences.
• Default browser is the first option and there is a drop down menu of choices.
• Save your settings.
• Surf.

How counter intuitive is that! I know Apple wants you to use Safari but PUHLEASE this is very silly. [sigh] I knew it was too easy. BTW (by the way) final song count in iTunes was 1567 over 5 days worth of continuous music! :)

OPML: an easier way to grab RSS feeds

In my latest post I implied that blogroll can be used to teach patrons about RSS. The best way to teach patrons about the value of using RSS for current awareness is to get them started using RSS aggregators. Once you have taught them how to add feeds to their aggregators give them the opportunity to import a collection of RSS feeds that you have evaluated and found useful given their subject area. The file format used to create these importable collections is called OPML. OPML stands for Outline Processor Markup Language and is an XML format for outlines. Not that this helps me a lot because I don't know anything about XML! OPML apparently has many uses according to Wikipedia "the most common being to exchange list of RSS feeds between RSS aggregators." You can use Bloglines and most other news aggregators to create OPML files. I say files because you can create a file for each subject area or specific patron group so that content is tailored to their needs. Once the files are created it is a matter of loading this file onto your web site and linking to it or sending it via e-mail. Creating an OPML file using Bloglines.

• Open and login to Bloglines.
• Click My Feeds
• Click Edit.
• Scroll to the bottom of your list of feeds.
• Click Export Subscriptions. This will open up an OPML file of all your feeds.
• Save this to your computer using your browser's File - Save As feature.
• Load this file onto your web site or send it via e-mail.

If you don't want to create a list of all your feeds you can edit this file by opening it up in Notepad or your HTML editing software. Don't freak out. Editing this file is very easy. You just have to know where to put stuff and it's actually quite easy to figure out. The file will open up with the following code: Most of this first part can be ignored. You may want to change the text within the tags to something relevant to the subject of your OPML file. Claim your ownership of your OPML file. Add your name inbetween the tags. Next if you have put your feeds into folders in Bloglines you will see the title of that folder. You can remove or change your folder titles but you must be careful to also remove the subsequent tag. You have to be very carefull with removing this because it could mess up your file. For newbies don't bother attempting to remove these tags. For experienced HTML hand coders you know what I am talking about. The RSS feed "record" for lack of a better word consists of the following tag: - refers to the type of XML tag htmlUrl="" - refers to the HTML version of the feed (use the URL) e.g. htmlUrl="http://technogeekery.blogspot.com/" title="" - refers to the title of the feed e.g. title="technogeekery for librarians" type="" - refers to the type of outline item e.g. type="rss" xmlUrl="" - refers to the URL of the actual feed e.g. xmlUrl="http://technogeekery.blogspot.com/atom.xml" All together the record looks like: If you wish to remove a feed from your listing simply get rid of the listed record from Yes, I recommend newbies try this. You can also add in feeds by copying in the basic tag from above and simply filling in the blanks. Importing an OPML file It's my understanding that most news aggregators have the ability to import OPML files it is just a matter of determining how to do this using your aggregator. Bloglines instructions

• Download the OPML file.
• Open and login to Bloglines.
• Click My Feeds
• Click Edit.
• Scroll to the bottom of your list of feeds.
• Click Import Subscriptions. Browse to the OPML file and click Import.

Why go to all this trouble? When you are finished introducing your patrons to the joys of current awareness with RSS you can provide them with a bonus at the end. A list of pre-selected RSS feeds to have at their finger tips in a snap. How's that for a bit of swag? :) You can add your library's feed(s) to each OPML file you create! Good promotion technique. To try and encourage the less technologically savvy to easily use new technologies. It is far easier to import a specially created listing of RSS feeds than it is to go out and find them all on your own.

Blogroll?

You may have noticed that technogeekery now has a blogroll. It's over there on the right hand side. What is a blogroll? This is a listing of blogs that you regularly read and which may influence your blog. There are a number of ways to create a blogroll. If you are using Bloglines you can easily create a blogroll of all your subscribed feeds that you have made publicly available. If you are not using Bloglines Blogrolling.com offers some pretty nifty features. Bloglines

• Click on Account.
• Click on Blog settings. Give yourself a user name. You don't have to set up a blog to have a blogroll in Bloglines but you do need a user name.
• Click the radio button next to "Yes, publish my Blog and/or Blogroll".
• If you don't wish to create a blog leave the rest of the information blank.
• Click the "Save Changes button".

Your blogroll is accessible from the URL to the right of the screen. But wait you're not done yet! Now you have to get the blogroll into your blog. If you are using Bloglines for your blog software this is pretty easy. If you want to post it onto a blog using other blogging software follow these instructions. Click on the Share tab in Bloglines. This will open up the blogroll wizard. Under the section labled Blogroll you will see your username. Type in the name of the folder you wish to use as your blogroll (yes, you have a choice) or leave it empty and all your public feeds will be included in your blogroll. Link target refers to the location a clicked link from your blogroll will display. For example, when someone clicks on your blogroll do you want their link to open up in a new window or do you want the link to replace your blog. Leaving this blank will allow the link to open in the same window as your blog. To open the link in a new window or tab type in _blank. Click "Generate HTML" to proceed. Next you are presented with 2 pieces of code. The first code is simple javascript that you paste into your blog template. If you are uncomfortable with HTML coding it may take some fiddling around for you to find the correct location but keep trying. The second URL is for those of you using PHP based blog templates. Simply "include" the URL where you want it to appear and you are done! Pretty sweet if you are using Bloglines. Blogrolling.com Not using bloglines as your aggregator? Don't dispair. Blogrolling.com has a nice solution for you. Create an account and wait for the confirmation e-mail. Follow the instructions in the e-mail and log yourself in. Click to create a new blogroll. Give a name to your blogroll (this is just for administrative purposes). Again you can establish more than one blogroll if you choose. Type in the URL of the page where you wish to display your blogroll. Click create a new blogroll. Next you are presented with your "mission control". This is the administrative side of your blogroll. It's tempting to zoom into clicking on "add links" but take some time to examine the different "preferences" available to you. Once you've added links to your blogroll click on "code generator" to create the code you can then paste into your web sites template. If you are uncomfortable with HTML coding it may take some fiddling around for you to find the correct location but keep trying. Roll your own. You technogeeks out there also know that you can roll your own blogroll. I did and it's not that hard to do. Simply create an HTML listing of the blogs you are reading and put it up! There are some added features in Bloglines and Blogrolling.com that are quite useful to include in a blogroll but do require some additional handcoding if you are rolling your own blogroll. I'm lazy so I think I'll have one of them generate the code for me eventually. Why bother? Why establish a blogroll? For a personal blogger this is a wonderfull tool you can use to help place yourself within the blogosphere. Who influences your posting. What are the interesting blogs you'd like to share. Why should libraries care about blogrolls? This is a wonderful way to link your users to useful blogs and other institutional blogs that they may not know about. Remember how much can be learned from browsing. Blogrolls on library blogs also help place you in the library blogosphere and define your online community links. It can also serve an educational purpose when teaching users about RSS. But that's another post!

Help - Nifty library blogs wanted

I am co-presenting on "Blogging for beginners" at the Manitoba Library Association conference. I am hoping to provide the audience with interesting examples of the use of blogs in libraries. Specifically I am interested in locating examples from academic libraries. I have enough examples of libraries providing new/events/announcements to their patrons. What else is out there? In an interesting aside we will also be blogging this conference on the MLA Newline blog. Any tips for conference bloggers and blogging that the more experienced out there would care to share? E-mail me : IM me (MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ) my nickname on all is cacemlis

Geocaching: A possible explanation for missing library books

I have a good friend to thank for bringing this interesting use of technology to my attention. She told me that geocaching is her new hobby and I said "Whaaaaat"? According to Geocaching – The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt, geocaching “is an entertaining adventure game for GPS users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a GPS unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.” Who knew? I certainly didn’t! Intrigued by this use of technology? Check out the FAQ for more information. What stunned me even more was the number of cache sites available in my province, 166 and counting. Then I started thinking. Any librarian knows that there are certain books (academic or otherwise) which seem to go missing in the library at different times of the year. The books are still in the library according to the catalogue but they can’t be found anywhere. In our library during the beginning of the University year the latest CPS (reference copy usually goes missing for a week or so. It makes me wonder if cleaver students are establishing geocaches of key materials in our library and handing out the GPS coordinates to a select group of classmates. Maybe those aren’t cell phones glued to their ears. Maybe they are trying to disguise their use of a GPS unit. It could happen! It would at least explain why books turn up in the oddest of places in a library.

I got booted off my PowerBook

My husband and step-son just booted me off my PowerBook. Apparently I've been monopolizing it the last few days. Perhaps you've noticed a significant lack of posting? :) Since I last posted about my switch to the Macintosh OS I have received a lot of really useful information and encouragement from people in the blogosphere. Michael (you know who you are) e-mailed me some links. "I was lost in the internet and saw that you're about switch to Mac - congratulations. You can migrate a Microsoft Access database into FileMaker Pro using a few methods. Also, you can purchase VirtualPC to run Access (which sounds like a common solution). If you're having trouble adjusting and what not head over to SpyMac.com or Apple Support and Apple Discussions ." I have yet to use my PowerBook for database development but I'll be sure to report back how it goes. I'm leaning towards the VirtualPC solution. The Apple Discussions are incredibly useful and helped answer a lot of questions I had about the MacOS X (Mac Operating System ver. X also known as Panther). Karen A. Coombs aka Library Web Chic posted about me Leaving the Collective and supplied more interesting links which I haven't had time to go through and some words of encouragement. So what have I been doing? I'm embarassed to say but I have downloaded our entire music library onto the PowerBook. It took several evenings and a weekend worth of effort but we are now CD free. Did I mention to keep my technogeek husband content we also purchased a 20G iPod? :) Over 1000 songs and only 3 G of memory consumed. Why am I embarassed? Well the first thing I thought of doing was downloading our music library. Not terribly creative OR relevant to libraries. I also set up several userid's on the PowerBook. This was on advice found at the Tao of Mac on "How to switch to the Mac". An administrative ID and user id's for each of my family members with appropriate access rights to different parts of the computer. This was surprisingly easy to do. What wasn't easy to do was figure out how to share information between the users. Specifically I wanted to be able to share the iTunes music library and the iPhoto library. A trip to Apple discussions turned up this valuable document and in the space of an hour or so we were ready to go. iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer Sharing iPhoto Library I also spent the week gushing to all who would listen about my new PowerBook. Now it's your turn. I love my mac! :) If you are into photography, videography and collecting music you just can't beat the iLife '05 suite of products (iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD). They seamlessly integrate with each other. I built a slide show of my pictures from a road trip and put them to music using iMovie (in 5 minutes)! :) I had no idea what I was doing I just pointed and clicked and dragged. This is not something I would have attempted on my PC. I would have had no idea where to start! I also bought Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac. I wasn't too sure about downloading Entourage (the replacement for Outlook) so I didn't. My hesitation lies in the fact that there are native Mac programs which do similar work and I own a Palm PDA and with it comes the Palm desktop software, in addition we are using different calendering software at work. I'm not too sure how to syncronize all the different applications or if I even should. I think this needs some more investigating. Anyway, you can put your Office files (except for Access) onto your Flash drive and then pop them onto your Mac with an ease that astounds me. Access is not compatible with the Mac. If you have any databases developed you'd have to move them to something like FileMaker Pro or use the VirtualPC software (which I know nothing about at the moment). My favorite web downloads. Firefox works nicely on a Mac. Trillian (Instant Messaging software) isn't available which is a shame because I like it so much. A Mac software to allow you to connect to multiple IM accounts is Adium (sounds like stadium) software seems okay. iPodder for downloading podcasts is obviously originally intended for the Mac and plays nicely with iTunes. I took Karen Coombs' advice and purchased a two button mouse. I was really missing my right mouse button. It makes life so much easier and it's less of a learning curve. It's nice that the Mac is so adaptable. What has all this to do with libraries and librarians you ask? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Unless you are switching your library to Mac. I'll post about other technogeekery later. In SUMMARY... unless you like fiddling with the back end of your computers ... or are committed to software unavailable on the Mac .... move to a Mac. It's a rush to try something new, easy and heck let's admit it, it's totally cool and geeky.