Posts by James Green

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  • Hard News: Undie Wankers,

    Steve, it appears that the burning of couches in the middle of the street isn't at all an old tradition.

    Couches have been burnt occasionally for ages. It's the apparent need to burn at least one to give a party any legitimacy that is new.

    Somewhat relatedly, I presently find myself in a city of a similar size to Dunedin, whose main industries appear to be tourism and a university. Apart from being enormously warmer, it appears there is no less drinking than Dunedin, but that is more evenly spread over the days of the week. I did see some puke in the gutter just before, but last night (a Monday), I was enamoured with all the young people sitting in street cafes, and sometimes just on the street and in public spaces drinking and chatting merrily.

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

  • Hard News: A Real Alternative,

    Why is that? Is it just considered bad form to publicly discuss each other's research, in case there's a stoush?

    I think there is a difference between robust debate about research and coming rather close to questioning integrity:

    "[Bryder's] book's factual errors and selective quotations make it seem more like an exercise in polemic rather than academic scholarship."(Skegg)

    "I must assume that Professor Bryder misunderstands the scientific evidence about Green's study, because otherwise she would be guilty of deliberate obfuscation."(Skegg)

    "It seems odd to then present this as a new angle - especially since journalist Jan Corbett, apparently an important source for Bryder, more important indeed than local medical experts, had already raised these issues, and had been rebutted."(Brookes)

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

  • Hard News: A Real Alternative,

    ODT review of the book -- Confused offering adds little insight

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

  • Hard News: The conversation they want to…,

    Of course you could make the point that perhaps our online selves are who really are

    I used to be up with all the research on this a few years ago. There's some fairly good arguments that anonymity does crazy things to people online. There's a theory that I used to thing summed it up quite well (Disc: currently in transit and killing time, and haven't actually read the link)

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

  • Hard News: Screen Wars,

    Peter Gluckman

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

  • Hard News: The son that got away,

    Having built myself a PVR, I've never managed to see Nigel Latta. However, he brings balance to the (reasonable) force, without being a Rankin or a McCoskrie. I took a more optimist view than Steven of his comments posted above, and it may turn out that if he sees little evidence of 'good' parents being prosecuted he might change his mind. And I assume that as Lucy noted, he's not into the correction/discipline type of 'smacking' that others note.

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

  • Hard News: Detritus,

    Join with me now in saying EWWWW =IF($B310="incollection",(CONCATENATE("@incollection{",$A310,",author={",$C310,"},year={",$D310,"},title={",$E310,"},booktitle={",$F310,"},editor={",$G310,"},pages={",$H310,"},publisher={",L310,"},address={",M310,"}}")),"")

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

  • Hard News: Detritus,

    I, um, used that famous piece of bibliographic software, Excel <cough>, and a very long and dirty CONCATENATE to output my references in BibTeX. \citeA{embarrassed09}
    I wouldn't go as far as to say that I prefer Excel to Endnote, but I definitely prefer BibTeX to CiteWhileYouWrite (Endnote's intext integration).

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

  • Hard News: Detritus,

    Thanks for the interesting post Gordon. This reminds me of a few other things.

    The reason why catalogues interface with the library backend is to do with the current status of the book (how many copies, are the on the shelf, lost, cataloguing etc.). One way to get around this would be to have a stand alone search tool that only interfaces with the backend when you click on 'holdings'. I think some of the systems used to do this a little bit, as some of the systems have separate indexes for public searching.

    This perhaps comes back to price. I used to work in a library that used a Napier Computer System system. Why would a New Zealand company develop a library system; I'll guess that it was cheaper than dynix. (I don't know if NCS still produce a library system). The backend hardware was also often hilariously antiquated.

    I guess it's quite specialised software, and there is not an enormous pool of customers.

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

  • Hard News: Detritus,

    Library catalogues do have a history of being feral like that. I'm not really sure what it is. I'm not sure if it's changed, but Te Puna always used to redirect you to one of n servers, each with a different name, but search engines always manage to hide behind one name. This made it a biatch to bookmark, until I worked our the url that would put you in the queue to be redirected to a server.
    All of the academic databases have a similar expiration thing. I think it's because they keep your session search history live for 30 minutes, but most of the academic databases now also create pointable links that you can re-use later.

    Limerick, Ireland • Since Nov 2006 • 703 posts Report

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