Ideas for free, just for free

My first ever “paycheck” job was with the Pasadena Public Library, shelving books when I was in high school.

(You know—a paycheck job, where you got paid with an actual check, not cash from mowing lawns or babysitting. It had taxes taken out, and stuff. It was real.)

Even before that, I was a big user of PPL—I mean, you had access to all these books on all sorts of different subjects…for free. What’s not to love?

And wherever I’ve lived, I’ve always been proud to get a library card of whatever system was on offer—university, city, county, whatever.

Libraries are part of the foundation of a democracy—you need an informed electorate to make informed choices about who should enact the will of the people. Education is a cornerstone of this principle, and that’s why we have public schools open to all children in this country. (Yeah—I’m not going to go into the quality of the education here.)

But free access to ideas is also crucial, and that’s why we have all kinds of library systems in our country. They’re rethinking how they carry out their mandate in these days of e-books, videogames and DVDs, but they still are absolute wonderlands as far as I’m concerned.

(How easy or difficult a civic entity makes getting a library card says a lot about the society. In both Maidenhead and Putney (England), I had to show proof that I paid (actually extortionate) council (property) taxes in those specific jurisdictions before they’d grudgingly hand over a card. Here in Santa Clara County, all I needed was a photo ID—not even showing a local address. I got cards to six different library systems off the back of my Washington state driver’s license and me saying I lived here.)

So, I was interested to come across this compilation of libraries that changed the world. (The title claims 25, but I only count 22 listed. Um.)

What’s sad is that many of them have been destroyed—an awful lot of political and religious leaders seem to be afraid of collections of books and the ideas they represent.

What’s heartening is that four of the 22 shown are in the US, starting with the Library of Congress. When the invading British troops burned the initial library along with much of Washington, D.C., in 1812, Thomas Jefferson sold his entire collection of nearly 6500 volumes to begin the rebuilding of the national treasure.

I also love that Room to Read is taking the glorious opportunities of literacy and access to books to children in Asia and Africa.

Wear & tare

I love walking around ethnic markets, and there are a lot of them in the Silicon Valley. Various Latino countries, India, Korea, Japan, China—they’re all represented in large numbers around here.

(Europe and Africa would appear to not exist if you went by the types of grocery stores. Because I’m not counting Safeway for anything.)

For one thing—there are all sorts of foods I’ve never seen. And then there are various products that not only have I never seen before, I very often am completely clueless about what they might do.

I was in a Japanese store the other day, and did my usual, “Well, GAWWW-LEE!” wandering around.

I saw signs for “Kitchen Wear”, which intrigued me. 

There was so much “Kitchen Wear” that it was found in two aisles.

I was expecting things like aprons, and maybe checked trousers and clogs, but no. It was pans and storage containers and cooking utensils and the like.

(I was disappointed in the "drink", too.)

America, gonif!

Correcting on auto

It’s interesting to me—as a product manager & a, you know, human—how software “features” are often not actually “benefits”.

Take autocorrect for example. I’ve shared my bemusement with that feature before, especially since it’s incorporated into MS Word’s spell checker.

(Think on that for a mo—software engineers determining what people who write for a living should have by way of a dictionary.)

You know—the helpful little electronic toerag that claims you’ve entered something non-existent (like Aeneid), or else it just quietly changes what you’ve written to something else without asking your permission.

So of course you find memes like this popping up around the interwebs:

Autocorrect shows up in SMS software, too. The other morning it changed “Saturday” to “A Stuttgart” in a text I was sending.

I have no mother-forklift idea why.

Pas de Maru, Pt. 4

Voilà, le chat existentielle.

Yes—Henri le chatnoir is back, one of the major memes of this decade. (Well, Henri and Maru. If these two ever join up, humans are toast.)

Henri’s hawking his new book, in the way that only he can do:

You want to know how I found out about this? On Twitter, of course.

Gratitude Monday: Heart of the city

Gratitude Monday & I’m feeling thankful that I live close to San Francisco, one of the loopiest cities on the planet.

Well, when I say loopy city, of course I mean its residents. A friend & I drove through a chunk of the town on our way to a couple of Design Week events down at The Cannery, & the shift between neighborhoods is just fantastic.

As are the folks who live there.

(The tourons are pretty universal—they’re the same ones you’ll see at any tourist destination. But, damn, those San Franciscans are something.)

Look, I know that no city is really like any other city. But San Francisco? It’s definitely sui generis.

Bless its heart.