Home » Articles posted by James A Jacobs (Page 337)
Author Archives: James A Jacobs
More State of the Union Mashups
As we reported the other day (Remixes, Mashups in the news) there are several sites that have online tools for visualizing word use in the State of the Union speeches. Here are two more, one by Jason Giffey who is a librarian at University of Tennessee - Chattanooga.
- State of the Union Project by Brad Borevitz at onetwothree.net
- Tag Cloud for 2007 State of the Union, by Jason Griffey, Pattern Recognition (January 24th, 2007)
NLM’s document conversion tools aid exchange, use, preservation of digital information
Do you ever get a WordPerfect document and can't even read it? How about a .PCX or .PGM or .PNG file? These tools from the National Library of Medicine may be of interest to you! They help you convert over 50 file formats.
Electronic Document Conversion National Library of MedicineThe U.S. National Library of Medicine's (NLM) document conversion tools make the exchange and use of biomedical library electronic information easier for librarians, library users, and the general public. The DocMorph Web site and MyMorph software are two free conversion tools that allow users to convert more than 50 types of files into alternative, usable formats. The DocMorph Web site allows users to convert files into PDF, TIFF, text, and synthesized speech. The downloadable MyMorph software allows users to mass migrate files to PDF only.Continue reading
DRM-free authentication of government information
At FGI, we continue to wonder why GPO has never said that they will avoid using "Digital Rights Management" (DRM) tools to authenticate government publications. DRM technologies, which are designed for use by the entertainment industry to protect content from copying, are (or should be) antithetical to open, freely available, reusable government information. A different way to authenticate a digital document is with a "cryptographic hash."
[A] cryptographic hash algorithm is a highly complex math formula that can be used to create digital signatures and authenticate data to ensure it hasn't been tampered with. [NIST] is looking for "unclassified, publicly disclosed" algorithms that would be "royalty-free" and "capable of protecting sensitive government information well into the foreseeable future." -- NIST announces competition for new cryptographic hash algorithm, by Ellen Messmer, Network World, 01/23/07
Such "digital signatures" (each one essentially a string of numbers) could even be included in library OPAC records along with a link to the algorithm so that any user could verify the authenticity of any document using open tools that run on any platform.
- NIST Wants Comments on Draft ‘Hash’ Requirements, NIST. January 23, 2007
- Announcing the Development of New Hash Algorithm(s) for the Revision of Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180–2, Secure Hash Standard. Notice and request for comments., DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, National Institute of Standards and Technology, [Docket No.: 061213336–6336–01] Federal Register Vol 72, no. 14, January 23, 2007, p. 2861.
See also: Draft requirements for new hashing standard open for comment, by William Jackson, GCN, 01/23/07
Continue readingRemixes, Mashups in the news
Remixes (now more often called Mashups) are in the news this morning. The Wall Street Journal has an article about the Chirag Mehta's US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud.
- State of the Speeches -- Time Waster: Web Site Tracks a History Of Presidential Buzzwords by Aaron Rutkoff. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). Jan 22, 2007. [ProQuest link. subscription required] Also available from the WSJ by subscription here. And it may still be available without subscription here
Chirag has a story about the story on his blog: 'Blog for Tuesday, January 23, 2007. We covered the site earlier here: remix: US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud.
And the New York Times has an online application that is similar to Chirag's: The Words That Were Used.
Continue readingRegulations.gov to nearly triple number of rules posted
Regulations.gov to nearly triple number of rules posted, by Jason Miller, GCN 01/23/07.
Only about 36 percent of all federal documents that support agency rules are posted on Regulations.gov, but that will change over the next 11 months. Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, which runs Regulations.gov as part of the E-Rulemaking e-government project, expect by Dec. 31 that the number percentage of documents posted on the portal that suppor rules should jump to more than 90 percent.Continue reading
Latest Comments