The link for this is one of the coolest real-world systems I have ever worked with. It is an international library resource searching tool. You can literally search for books, videos, music, etc. (all that a library would offer) at your surrounding libraries; without even having to know if a library exists or where the library is in your area.

For example, I wanted to find a book on php programming; so I just typed in the keyword 'php' and it found me a list of potential books (and other resources). Then I clicked on the book I was interested and it listed to me all of the local library systems that I could get the book from.

The way it works is that it brings together all of the local library catalog systems together into one master system. So whenever I am out of town and I need to find a particular resource I can just search and find out what local branch I could swing by to take a look.

One of the other cool things I learned about libraries is that some of them offer live chatting services with their branch librarians (and this site hooks directly into those as well).

http://www.worldcat.org

I learned this trick about OpenOffice.org the other day and I wanted to write it down so I wouldn't forget. It came up when I wanted to number the sections of a document I was working on, but I ran into trouble because a single section would be more than one paragraph. Which meant I would hit enter at the end of each paragraph and the it would automatically assume I wanted the next section number to show up. Which meant every time I would start a new paragraph that wasn't a new section I would have to manually turn off numbering and then turn it back on and change the number when I needed it. This was rather annoying.

What I learned was that if you were using bullets or numbering and wanted to move to a new line without another bullet or number showing up; all you have to do is hold shift when you hit enter.

Needless to say this made my life easier. I am not sure if this works in Microsoft Office as well, because I don't have the means to test it easily.

The link for this week I think I remember hearing about a little while ago, but I heard of it again just the other day on a podcast. It is a free service by Google.

It is a replacement for American 411 directory service. You can call 800-GOOG-411 and basically do a voice activated Google search for local businesses.

I have not yet tried it myself, but I have put it into my phone in case I find myself looking for the nearest pizza shop or something.

http://labs.google.com/goog411

Well according to Novell and their latest user base survey for OpenSUSE 10.2; it is a young, tech savvy male.

I found this survey the other day and thought it was interesting to see the diversity (or the lack thereof) of a Linux user. However I would say that a survey of OpenSUSE isn't necessarily an accurate cross section of the Linux user. Simply because OpenSUSE is one of the more easy to use Linux distribution and therefore attracts a wider base of users than some of the more 'hardcore' distributions. And I would argue that there are more distributions that lean towards being 'geek only', than there are 'average joe' distributions (I don't think there are too many newbies diving into Gentoo). So in truth the average Linux user is probably more of a geek than this survey lets on.

I used to use OpenSUSE myself, until I discovered Ubuntu and Debian style Linux in general. I just became really fond of apt-get.

Here is the link to the survey results on OpenSUSE.
http://files.opensuse.org/opensuse/en/6/6c/
Opensuse_survey_102_data_final.pdf

There was an interesting question posed by Chess Griffin in episode 60 of his Linux Reality podcast. He was discussing a user feedback email in which the person described helping his Aunt convert to Linux. He began to speak generally about whether or not Linux was user friendly enough for an older generation and he casually posed the question 'When will Linux be ready for your grandma?'. Below is my response to his question. I decided to post it here for all to read.

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Chess,

You posed a very interesting question in episode 60 that inspired me to think (and subsequently write you an email). You said 'When will Linux be ready for your grandma?' and after thinking on that question it occurred to me that Linux is better suited for your grandma than any other major operating system today.

An Untouched Generation

I want to address why I believe Linux is better suited, but let's first extend the term from 'grandma' to 'older generation'. I would say around sixty years old and older which puts them being born in the mid 1940's or earlier. This means that they didn't grow up with a personal computer of any form in their household, because by the time they were eighteen to twenty-one (mid 1960's), the first successful home computer was still about ten years out ^{[1] [2]}.

Furthermore, their chances of having a career that would force them to interact with a desktop computer or even a mainframe would have been relatively slim considering that they would have been a good thirty years into the professional workforce by the 1980's. This means that they very well could have been retired by the time the first graphical desktop computer came into mainstream reality (Mac OS 1984, Microsoft Windows 1985 - 1992) ^{[3] [4]}.

I guess this is really my first major point in that one of the biggest struggles in Linux adoption for the average computer user is re-learning the interface (assuming they have someone who will install it for them). The average computer user sees the desktop environment experience as 'I got to click on the blue E on the desktop to get on the Internet' and 'To open Office I have hit the Start button'. Not, 'I need to find an icon for a web browser on the desktop to get on the Internet' and 'To open an office productivity suite I need to locate an applications menu on the desktop'. They have been so socially trained how to perform tasks on a computer in steps that they seldom realize or understand the concepts of what they are actually doing (in the sense that they can apply it as a general principal). With this older generation of people the chances of them having extremely limited or no computer experience is much higher than with a slightly younger group. So when you are showing them how to check email or write and print a letter; they wont have these preconceived images in their head of how it should work clouding their learning.

I have an example of this with my grandma on my mother's side who we have taught to check email with a computer. She used a Hotmail account through Internet Explorer and when I tried to make her email experience easier by configuring Outlook Express (so she would be one click away from her messages), she could not grasp the idea of having to use a different program. She had to click on a different thing in the Start menu, it looked different, etc. However when her computer became inevitably bogged down with malware and the like , I was able to switch her Internet button in the Start menu to Firefox (thus remedying most of the problems) without her even noticing the change in her webmail experience.

Safer User Experience

Another reason Linux is a better choice as an operating system for an older generation is that it is a safer environment. This point consists of several things.

The first is that they are not going to be able destroy their computer without root access. The way Linux is designed is better than Windows in that it won't let people who don't know what they are doing do dangerous things (I know Vista is trying to improve on this). Mac OSX also is UNIX based so it shares some of the benefits of Linux user permissions, however Apple has done a lot to obscure the line of separation to make a less intrusive user experience (i.e. an administrative user doesn't have sudo as much as they should). In this sense we are kind of producing a 'big brother' environment for them to work in, where they can't install anything new without your help. But chances are you already had this relationship in place, only it wasn't being policed (i.e. Who is your grandma going to call when she wants to try something new on her computer anyway?).

Secondly, their Internet (network) experiences will be a lot safer. It could be argued that Linux is a more secure operating system than Windows or Mac (and I would tend to agree). However the bigger point is that Linux is not nearly as targeted of an operating system as the more mainstream operating systems. Which is perfect for a computer user who is not accustom to dealing with spam or doesn't realize they shouldn't just download everything that the computer says is important. On Linux it is no big deal if a user is duped into opening an attachment that they shouldn't, because chances are it wont run on Linux anyway.

Easier Market Entry

The last point I have on why Linux is the better suited operating system for the older generation has to do with my experiences with my grandparents on my father's side when I talk to them about what I do for a living. They are in their eighties and any computer outside of kitchen appliances and a TV/VCR have escaped their life experience thus far. They therefore don't see or care to learn the value of having a computer in the house. But on the same token they do make an effort to go to my parents' house so they can see the latest pictures from the last email.

So they value what a computer can provide (i.e. the pictures of my brother's new baby in North Carolina), they just don't value owning one. Which fundamentally translates to that they don't value paying for one. And that is where the beauty of Linux and Open Source comes in. If I can take an old machine and grab the latest version of Ubuntu and stick it in their house, then all they have to invest is a little time and electricity.

Therefore, Linux has a lot easier market entry potential with this generation (over the other operating systems) because of its lower price point. I know I could never convince my grandparents to go out and buy a computer, but I do know that I could convince them to sit in front of a computer loaded with family pictures (especially since it didn't cost them hardly anything). It is perfect platform to enhance the lives of the people in this generation.

To wrap this up, now that I have spent some time in thought on this idea; I really think it could be another great arena for Linux and Open Source to continue enhance the world.

References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer#Computers_at_home
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_os#.22Classic.22_Mac_OS_.281984-2001.29
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows#History

The link for this week I heard of quite a while ago, but I never got to trying it out until very recently and I must admit I have been immediately hooked. It is a site where you can create your own search engine by specifying which websites to search. Therefore you only get results from the sites you specify as a resource.

For me it is awesome because I have been searching the web long enough to know what sites I tend to find good answers from when search for a particular topic. For example, I can setup a search engine for CSS and fill it with all of the sites I use as reference when I am coding CSS (and then another for php, C#, etc.). I have only got a small handful of search engines setup, but as I get more I will post them somewhere on my website.

http://www.rollyo.com

I just got a Nintendo Wii and I have been playing with the internet features of it and I must say I am very impressed with the version of the Opera web browser on it. It seems to render pages very well, including some very advanced Javascript. The zooming works really well with the wiimote and makes any page readable; even on the old television that I have.

There only a few drawbacks I have found with the browser. The first one is that when you are trying to watch video on the Wii from a website it is only able to download as much as it has space on its internal memory; which by default is 256MB. So if you are trying to watch a particularly long video it may freeze halfway through. You can expand this memory by purchasing an SD card for it, but I just got this thing on Monday so I haven't got a lot of accessories yet. The other drawback is that the Flash player for the Wii isn't completely functional. So some of the more advanced Flash elements do not work properly. You really can't blame Opera for that; Macromedia (and now subsequently Adobe) has always been very lax about releasing solid Flash plugins for non mainstream systems (i.e. Linux).

The reason the browser is a workout is that you will really wear your arm out trying to write an article like this using the wiimote, pointing at each character on the keyboard screen. I tried to write this whole article on the Wii, but I gave up after so long and just got out my laptop to finish it off. I guess one other drawback of the Opera browser on the Wii is that it doesn't have an enter button. Which in most cases wouldn't be a problem but some lazy (or unthoughtful) web designers don't put submit buttons with their forms, expecting that you should just be able to hit the enter key instead.

Overall the browser is awesome and I really like playing around on the internet while sitting on my couch with a remote control in my hand.

On a side note about Opera in general; I really think Opera is very well poised to take control of a decent market share of browser usage. Opera realizes that the future of web browsing is going to be very much filled with specialized devices and less with full size computers. And they already have browsers for many mobile and specialized devices. I mean if I could do all that I can with my laptop on something that fits in my pocket, I wouldn't own a laptop.

Microsoft is there only real competition in this market so far with the version of Internet Explorer that runs on Windows Mobile, but Opera already has a browser for Windows Mobile too, and I can bet that the Opera browser is nicer (if IE for the desktop is any indication of the mobile version).

The Clickable for this week is a service that I really enjoy. It is a browser based chat client that supports just about every chat service that I can think of. It is great for when you are on the road and still want to chat. It works really well in just about every browser I have tried it in.

They also provide there own chat service, which is nice because it has a web front to it that you can put into your website.

http://www.meebo.com

I am foregoing the 'Clickable' article this week because I am trying to roll out a new site look as well as focus on writing a few general articles. It will be back on track next week and hopefully I will be back to writing several normal articles a month. I have plenty of ideas that I want to write about, but it has just been crazy busy lately. Thanks goes out to my few regular readers for their patience.