IN THIS ISSUE:
Run a 5K
Links (IT, privacy, politics, science, how-to’s, fun)

RUN A 5K

I am looking for ways to add exercise to my life. I found a nice plan for working your way up to a 5K:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
I would like to try this out, but I think it will work better if others join me in the process, not necessarily locally, just in general. I have signed up on PledgeBank.com stating that if 11 other people join me I will do it. Please consider signing up here: http://www.pledgebank.com/fivekrun
Use password: running - to enter the site.

PledgeBank http://www.pledgebank.com is an interesting site where you can promise to do something, but only if X other people will do so as well. It helps solve the collective action problem with things where the action of one may not make much of a difference, but the collective active of many might. (My 5K run pledge is NOT a good example of what the site is really for.;) Check it out for some interesting examples.

And consider signing up to train for a 5K with me.:-) You have to sign up by Mon Aug 1st for it to count toward the pledge. Thanks!

LINKS

My department (the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University) has up to two tenure-track (open rank!) positions for people with expertise in social network analysis and/or computer-mediated communication. See the full ad here:
http://www.webuse.org/news/2005/07/29/job-openings-at-northwestern/

My paper on survey measures of digital literacy is in the Fall issue of Social Science Computer Review
http://www.webuse.org/news/2005/07/20/the-importance-of-digital-literacy-measures/

CFP: Information Seeking in Context 2006
http://www.hss.uts.edu.au/isic2006/

Pew Memo on Internet Term Awareness - If you know what RSS and podcasting mean then you’re more knowledgable than the average user
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/161/report_display.asp
Related discussion:
http://crookedtimber.org/2005/07/21/peoples-web-savvy-or-lack-thereof/

Detailed Pew report on Teens and Technology
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/162/report_display.asp

Celebrating a decade of Web developments - links to some retrospectives
http://crookedtimber.org/2005/07/24/celebrating-a-decade/

How Much Does Google Know About You?
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/07/18/google.privacy.ap/index.html

The serial number of your printer could be on all printouts
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/wp.php

What to do and what not to bother with if you’ve experienced ID theft - from someone who’s just gone through it
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/16/technology/16instincts.ready.html?ex=1279166400&en=24cd1773d1295659&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Online Private Eyes Draw Privacy Complaints
http://news.com.com/Online+private+eyes+draw+privacy+complaints/2100-1038_3-5790691.html?part=rss&tag=5790691&subj=news

Add an ICE (In-Case-of-Emergency) number to your cell phone
http://www.icecontact.com

Create Adobe PDFs from your browser using this free service
http://goffice.com/

Google Maps now allows Hybrid view. This means that you can have street names displayed on satellite images. Click on the Hybrid box in the upper right hand corner of the map for this view.
http://maps.google.com/

Example:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2240+campus+dr+evanston+il&spn=0.006704,0.014881&t=h&hl=en

(A propos Google Maps, note to advanced users of Firefox who like to customize their settings: Be careful about tweaking Tools>Options>Web Features>Enable JavaScript>Advanced. If you unclick “Change Images” Google Maps won’t work.)

Google Moon - be sure to zoom in all the way
http://moon.google.com/

Compare Internet phone services
http://slate.com/id/2121742/

Figure out the provider of a phone number (US)
http://www.telcodata.us/telcodata/telco

The F Word - “Feminism” today (also see quotes below under Today’s quote)
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2005/07/05/f_word/index.html

Christian Adoption Agency Nixes Catholics
http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8BBVON80.html

Engage - challenging anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism
http://www.liberoblog.com/

Online support for teen who comes out as gay on personal Web site and is then sent to program by parents for getting his sexual orientation changed
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/fashion/sundaystyles/17ZACH.html?ex=1279252800&en=d6ba3ccdce395e4b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Echinacea Useless for Cold Symptoms
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/07/27/echinacea-050727.html

Water ice in crater at Martian north pole
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMGKA808BE_0.html

Recall the link in the last issue about how to fold a shirt?

http://www.howtofoldashirt.net
Reader Lorrie Cranor investigated further and found the following resource that’s much easier to follow (also has commentary from experts):
http://www.readymademag.com/feature_14_foldem.php
Thanks, Lorrie! http://lorrie.cranor.org/

How to make a children’s book
http://degroof.home.mindspring.com/boardbook/boardbook.html

Infinite images (not really, but seems like it, pretty neat)
http://zoomquilt.nikkki.net/

Similar idea with photos (people staring at screens of people staring at screens of people staring.. you get the picture, now go take a look at it)
http://www.flickr.com/groups/infinite/pool/show/

Recent photos I’ve posted on Flickr (Budapest, Evanston)
http://flickr.com/photos/eszter/
(Please let me know if you have a Flickr account, I am interested in seeing photos of people with whom I have some connection.)

Rubik’s Cube solver
http://wrongway.org/cube/solve.html

Baby names resource on the origin, meaning, and history of first names.
http://www.thinkbabynames.com

The Yammys - Yahoo! Video Search Awards - submit your video
http://www.theyammys.com/

Thanks, Chris! http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/chunter/

Create your own flip book - FUN!:-)
http://www.fabrica.it/flipbook/

Acronym/Word of the day: RSS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29

There is an important note about last issue’s quote below.

Today’s quote:
“Valenti acknowledged that many young women are afraid of the word. ‘Part of me gets so angry at younger women who are nervous about feminism because they’re afraid that boys won’t like them,’ said Valenti. One of the reasons she started Feministing is because she
wanted to meet young women and tell them, ‘I’m a feminist. And despite what you may think, feminism is pretty fucking cool.’ In addition, Valenti added, ‘Part of me wants to say, “Yeah, someone’s going to call you a lesbian. Someone’s going to say you’re a fat, ugly dyke.” Suck it up.’ — from Rebecca Traister’s The F Word in Salon, July 5, 2005
Maybe one day (I’m not holding my breath) people won’t be freaked out anymore by someone considering them gay or lesbian when they are not.

Regarding last week’s featured quote (”I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas John Watson, Sr., 1943),
Shane Greenstein wrote to point out that it’s unlikely it is correctly attributed. I apologize for the mistake. Shane says: “Kevin Maney, recent author of a biography of Thomas Watson Sr., was unable to find any direct verification of that quote by Sr. Moreover, even if Sr. said it, he
certainly did not believe it for long, since Maney convincingly shows that Sr. deliberately invested in computing way way way past the point that would have been justified by the belief that there was room for only five computers.”
Thanks, Shane!
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/greenstein/

PS. If you write to me/send me links I won’t mention your name/quote you without permission so feel free to send stuff along. Subscription to ELIST is confidential.:)

IN THIS ISSUE:
Social bookmarking
Links (CFPs, IT, how-to’s, misc, geography)

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

I mentioned in the last ELIST that I started a Dashlog. I’ve given up on that due to several limitations of the service. I realized it makes much more sense to use a social bookmarking service. I’m using http://del.icio.us but there are several others. You can see a list here:
http://del.icio.us/webuse/social-bookmarking

What is social bookmarking? For a detailed description, check out this article: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond.html

In sum, such sites allow you to move bookmarks/favorites from your localized browser to the open Web. (It doesn’t have to be that open, some services allow some of the content to be private.) Why would you want to bookmark things publicly?
1. You can access your bookmarks/favorites from any network-connected computer.
2. You can see who else is bookmarking sites of interest to you and thereby find other sites of interest to you. It’s great. (Technically you don’t have to maintain your own list to be able to do this, but #1 is a good enough reason to use such a service.)

If you’re not happy with the frequency of ELIST issues (the lack thereof that is), feel free to check out my del.icio.us page any time, I post new links daily. You may still want to read ELIST though as the two don’t overlap 100%. http://del.icio.us/webuse

For those already using del.icio.us, you may find del.icio.us direc.tor to be a handy tool: http://johnvey.com/features/deliciousdirector/

When prompted for a password, just enter your del.icio.us username/pw.

Top links on del.icio.us: http://opencontent.org/oishii/
Popular links: http://del.icio.us/popular/
(I’m not sure about the difference, but the lists are not the same.)

Now onto a more general set of links. I have a huge backlog (social bookmarking services have made it much easier to find material of interest), I’ll just post some things now and will see whether I can get my act together to send out issues more often. Enjoy.

I hope you already know about the Web Archive (find no-longer available Web pages)
http://web.archive.org
For example, this is what my Web site looked like in 1999:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000819070255/www.princeton.edu/~eszter/
.. Now the Web Archive’s founder has a new archiving project in mind: he wants your files
http://slate.msn.com/id/2116329/

CFP: Computational Approaches to Analysing Weblogs (Stanford in March)

http://www.umbriacom.com/aaai2006_weblog_symposium/
[CFP means Call for Papers/Call for Proposals in case this hasn’t been clear]

CFP: General Online Research ‘06 (Bielefeld, Germany in March)
http://www.gor.de/index_en.htm

CFP: Special issue of the American Quarterly on Rewiring “The Nation”: The Place of Technology in American Studies
http://www.americanquarterly.org/index.php/papers/rewiring_the_nation_the_place_of_technology_in_american_studies/

CFP: Special issue of Information, Communication and Society on e-Relationships
http://www.webuse.org/news/2005/06/07/ics-special-issue-on-e-relationships/

Advice on conference paper submissions
http://crookedtimber.org/2005/06/07/the-political-economy-of-academic-conferences

How to Have Your Abstract Rejected
http://www-cad.eecs.berkeley.edu/~rupak/rejectedabstract.htm

Directory of Open-Access Journals - over 1,000
http://www.doaj.org

Journal of Community Informatics - free online
http://ci-journal.net/

International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu

Sloan Work and Family Research Network
http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/index.php

Doug Henwood’s Wall Street Book - free download
http://www.wallstreetthebook.com/

What Search Sites Know About You
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,67062,00.html

New domain .mobi approved for mobile phone optimized sites
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/07/11/phones.web.reut/index.html?section=cnn_tech

Google CEO Defends Privacy Policies
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5713639.html

The future of audience measurements
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/magazine/10NIELSENS.html?ex=1270785600&en=e9248309f26f3432&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

An alternative approach to suing fans who download a band’s music
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/view.html?pg=5

List of blogs linking to and discussing NYTimes articles
http://nytimes.blogrunner.com/

Blog about newspaper design
http://www.newsdesigner.com/blog/
Example: Austrian newspaper publishes photo montage on cover without
making clear that’s what it is
http://www.newsdesigner.com/archives/000603.php

Social statements through architectural objects
http://heavytrash.blogspot.com

Contest for best short story 50 words or less (deadline: Aug 1)
http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/microstory/

When negotiating, silence can mean $$
http://www.tradetricks.org/archives/001226.html

Postsecret - “an ongoing community art project where people mail-in [sic] their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard”
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Create comic-book art from regular photos
http://www.macmerc.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=209&page=1

Make your own ceiling pot rack
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/main/archives/002661.html

How to fold a shirt
http://www.howtofoldashirt.net/
[Takes a while to get, almost like a puzzle, but certainly quick once you get it.. not that my usual way of folding shirts is that tedious and the result is similar. It’s funny to watch though thus the link.]

How to make pizza (very thorough guide)
http://www.billyreisinger.com/pizza.php

How to draw the Rugrats characters
http://www.cooltoons.com/various/drawinglessons/index.html

Tips for better sleeping
http://www.bettersleep.org/OnBetterSleep/NSF_BSC_tips.asp

Train to run a 5K
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

Tim O’Reilly on self publishing books
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/6870

If you are even just remotely a fan of Star Wars (original episodes) then this link is for you!
http://www.storewars.org/
:-))

Major time waster of the week: game of untangling dots (should be especially of interest to social network researchers)
http://home.cwru.edu/~jnt5/Planarity/

Flickr - community photo site (like with social bookmarking, here, too, you can tag your photos so others can find them and you can find others’ photos regarding a theme using tags)
http://flickr.com
Mine: http://flickr.com/photos/eszter/

Toogle - generates ASCII images from the Google Image results
http://c6.org/toogle/

For really Web-savvy Firefox users who’ve got Greasemonkey installed, this Search Keys feature is quite helpful
http://www.squarefree.com/extensions/search-keys/
[For the not so super Web-savvy, worry not, I will be featuring detailed instructions for downloading/installing Firefox, Greasemonkey and other goodies in a future issue.]

Google Earth - Super fun! Not only for geography geeks:)
http://earth.google.com
[This requires that you download a separate program, it’s well worth it. I am serious, go download this NOW. Windows only.]

Fun with Google Maps (some of these require some amount of geekiness, but some should be of interest to most people)

Are you still using Mapquest or Yahoo! Maps? It’s time to switch to Google Maps if you’re in the US. It also covers metro areas in Canada and the UK now.
http://maps.google.com
Google Maps is more user-friendly. For example, you can click on the mouse and drag the map around. You can also switch to satellite view to see the actual terrain. You can also create a URL to the exact map you decide you want to share/print. Moreover, people have come up with lots of great features for it, read on for more.

** Create your own annotated Google map
http://www.gmaptrack.com/

For an example, see my Evanston and Chicago maps
http://www.gmaptrack.com/map/locations/285/548 - Evanston
http://www.gmaptrack.com/map/locations/285/547 - Chicago
[Click on one of the items on the right then zoom in using the bar on the left of the map.]

** Nice merging of Google Maps and Craig’s List rental/for sale
information (immediately see pictures of apts to rent/real-estate for sale on the map)
http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/
[unfortunately only available - for now? - for certain metro markets in the US]

** Annotate Flickr photos with Geotags
http://www.geobloggers.com/
.. how-to:
http://steeev.f2o.org/mt/2005/05/geotagging_flickr_with_google_maps_and_greasemonkey_part_2.html

** Google Maps and metro stations (requires varying levels of tech know-how including use of Firefox)
Chicago: http://www.holovaty.com/blog/archive/2005/04/19/0216
NYC: http://monkeyhomes.com/map/nycsubway.php
DC: http://monkeyhomes.com/map/dcmetro.php

** Interesting sights on Google Satellite
http://www.googlesightseeing.com/
Examples:
Area 51, Nevada
http://www.googlesightseeing.com/2005/04/08/area-51/
Honolulu Diamond Head State Monument
http://www.googlesightseeing.com/2005/04/07/honolulu/
Spaghetti junction in Atlanta, Georgia
http://www.googlesightseeing.com/2005/04/20/spaghetti-junction/

** Making your own customized Google Map tour
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000917034960/
[requires some amount of technical know-how, but not impossible]

Acronym/Word of the day: Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki
[”Acronym of the day” expanded to “Word of the day”, this way I can sustain it, perhaps.;)]

In this issue:
Another ELIST innovation
Links (conferences/politics/cool tools/misc)

Apologies, yet again, for taking so long to send out another issue. I’ve
been on the road _a lot_. It’s been fun, interesting and very valuable,
but also exhausting. Next destination: NYC & Princeton in ten days. Let me
know if you’re around and would like to meet up, I’ll have some free
time.

I’m thinking about trying something new again with ELIST. If you have
cravings for more regular Web site recommendations, you can check out the
DashLog I just started this morning:
http://www.dashlog.com/logs/eszter/
I will be posting links there as I find them. (Or I’ll try this for a bit
anyway.)
If you use an RSS reader, here is its feed:
http://www.dashlog.com/dash/feed.php?log=eszter

And now let’s proceed to this issue’s finds.

IMPORTANT Proposed Dept. of Commerce rules pose threat to research (they
are taking comments until May 27th)
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200505/msg00061.html

Free conference on Media Ownership, Research and Regulation
this coming weekend at UCSB
http://www.cftnm.ucsb.edu/conference/

Conference: Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication
http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac

ASIST Special Interest Group on Information Needs, Seeking, and Use (SIG
USE) symposium: Connecting Research and Practice: Special Populations
http://mail.asis.org/pipermail/siguse-l/2005-May/000150.html

Spam seems to annoy people less, although 6% (!) still respond to
solicitations by buying products.. we can thank them for the continued
deluge of unwanted email
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/155/report_display.asp

Blogs Continue To Gain Traction
www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/traffic_patterns/article.php/3502201
related Pew reports here:
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/113/report_display.asp
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/144/report_display.asp
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/154/report_display.asp

How to blog anonymously (more than using a pseudonym!)
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/blog-anonymously.php

The Village Voice on academic bloggers (I am quoted:)
http://villagevoice.com/arts/0515,edsuppdayal,62903,12.html

Center for International Media Action
http://mediaactioncenter.org/

Duke Law Center for the Study of the Public Domain
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/

Resources for the study of Social Capital
http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org

Social Capital, Quality of Life and Information Society Technologies
http://www.eurescom.de/socquit/

New reports from the UK Children Go Online project
http://www.children-go-online.net

World Development Report data query
http://devdata.worldbank.org/data-query/

Students Filibuster Against Frist at His Alma Mater
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05/10/princeton.filibuster/
.. more at this Princeton site:
http://www.FilibusterFrist.com

Oppose abuse of majority power
http://democrats.senate.gov/filibuster-form.cfm

Report Shows Three Times More Women Killed Than Men in Tsunami-Hit Area
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=8977

Oppose the blacklist of Israeli Academics
http://www.petitiononline.com/j141789/

Your Identity, Open to All
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,67407,00.html
… even worse: Bad Data Fouls Background Checks
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,66856,00.html

Class Matters - a focus on social class in the NYTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html?hp
… including some interactive features
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html

Cartoon about scandal regarding pharmacist who refused to sell
contraceptives
http://www.livejournal.com/community/feminist/1819547.html
.. here is some background on this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5490-2005Mar27.html
.. and a critique of the “conscience exemption” approach
http://crookedtimber.org/2005/04/18/conscientious-objectors/

Sex-Ed by Bush, can you pass the test?
http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/sexed/index.html

Mix multiple RSS feeds into one unique feed
http://www.rssmix.com/

Access all Google search options from one page
http://www.xtragoogle.com

Search Google and Yahoo! at the same time
http://yagoohoogle.com/

.. then again, there is always Dogpile, which gives you the “best of”
those two plus Ask Jeeves
http://www.dogpile.com

Yahoo! Creative Commons search - searches sites that display a Creative
Commons license
http://search.yahoo.com/cc
[of course, it’s important to proceed with caution as some sites may
claim a CC license even if they don’t have rights to all of the
content themselves]

Web Album Generator program new version out (recommended)
http://www.ornj.net/software/webalbum/

Make up to ten to-do lists (unlimited number of items each) for
yourself through this nifty little online tool
http://www.tadalists.com
.. I prefer the desktop Rainlendar though since it is
accessible offline as well
http://www.ipi.fi/~rainy/index.php?pn=projects&project=rainlendar

Online service to help organize to-do lists, trips, etc.
http://www.backpackit.com
(free version does not allow uploading files)

Dealing with life’s little annoyances
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/15/nyregion/15annoyances.html?ex=1268542800&en=5a77805b2fcc1e66&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland
.. of note:
http://www.bugmenot.com
(a NYTimes article instructs you on how to get around NYTimes registration)

Site devoted to people standing in line waiting for Star Wars Episode III
http://www.liningup.net/

If You Could Teach the World Just One Thing… scientists elaborate
http://www.spiked-online.com/Sections/science/sciencesurvey/

Parody of social networking sites
http://660.sixfoot6.com
click Sign In to move on to example page:
http://660.sixfoot6.com/home.html

In the “what will they think of next” cateogory (or “fun with the Web”)
http://www.netdisaster.com/go.php?mode=dino&lang=en&url=http://eszter.com/
(replace your favorite Web site at the end of the Web address for
other examples of dinosaur attack or just start here:
http://www.netdisaster.com )

Acronym/word of the day: Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
(I don’t promise to make this a regular E-LIST feature.. we’ll see)

Today’s quote:
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously
considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of
no value to us.” — Western Union internal memo, 1876

My latest musings:
http://www.esztersblog.com/