I can’t guarantee an online researcher/visitor has anything other than a browser and I sure as heck don’t want to walk them through installing something on whatever machine they’re using. I do enough tech support as it is.
Current plan is to have the web server do it, it’s just another thing on my plate that I need to figure out how to do.
We use it at my library/archive to convert EADs (XML finding aids) into something we can present to a human.
This change breaks something that’s been working for us without issue for over a decade, and it’s personally a PITA because I’m the only dev-adjacent person in the library and fixing this takes me away from other stuff. (I’m spread thin and we’ve been in a hiring freeze for 5 years. I love my coworkers but there’s so much work stuff I have to deprioritoze in order to do the important stuff, it feels unfair when a big corporation decides to break something on me.)
Prepaid cards have numbers that identify them.
Which, btw, makes perfect sense. As a shop that takes credit cards, I would want to know if someone has signed up for a subscription service with a prepaid card, since the card may run out, prematurely cancelling the service.
There’s a big database at the backend of the credit card processor that keeps track of all this stuff. The shop can tell a lot about you based on your card number.
We had a medical scare just yesterday. I was in the ER for 8 hours with my partner over a non-life-threatening but still emergency problem.
An ultrasound, cat scan, and much poking and prodding later, we still don’t know what is up. The AI was at least able to predict next steps (if A then discharge and follow up with PCP, if B then surgery this week, if C then emergency surgery), something the ER was too busy to do for several hours. It was reassuring. The AI also gave me (working) links to more thorough resources on the topic.
Yep. Good news on that front: libraries I’ve worked at just don’t keep records of what you’ve checked out after you’ve returned it, unless there was some sort of fine or something. Can’t give up data you don’t have and if the library avoids storing the data for anyone then it’s hard to accuse the library of selectively hiding data.
That’s so “Gift of the Magi” 😭
I know what I’m playing with tomorrow
Even teenagers sometimes prefer dead tree books to ebooks. Back when I worked in a public library, we could tell when a book was assigned reading because we’d suddenly get 10 requests for our 2 copies. The students had access to the ebook, they just preferred paper.
Probably, yeah. Tbh, it was not wanting an ice maker that was the biggest hang-up. We didn’t have a water line to the old refrigerator and I was tired of visitors trying to use the non-functional door ice maker on the old model.
There was Home Depot, Best Buy, and Lowes. I looked at their in-stock offerings online and only one of them had something that would work. I tried out a floor model, it seemed fine. I couldn’t spend too much time on the decision because I was playing host and didn’t want my house guest to worry about her food spoiling. (She has dietary restrictions and enough food anxiety as it is.)
I did buy a replacement refrigerator based on “no ice dispenser, fits in available space” on a Saturday when mine let out the magic smoke that morning. It was delivered the next day and worked out ok.
I would not get something fancier without doing research. This one was literally the only refrigerator that fit the bill at the store (weird-sized refrigerator alcove)
My bad. I should have linked directly to the one in the Miskatonic University archive. (it takes a while to load, but it does load for me, all the pages)
Am librarian. Here you go
My main use case is “hey, I need to make a change to this system I touch once a year. The documentation is thorough, dense, and I don’t know where to look. What button do I push to do Y?”
I had a nightmare that I was taking a full load of grad classes in a discipline I’ve not touched in 15 years, along with working full time. My dream character was weirdly optimistic about my time management skills.
The online card catalog my library uses recently added an “AI Research Assistant” feature. While debating whether to turn it on (we decided against), this blog post came up. tldr the assistant won’t return results for certain topics. The is Not Cool. That (and the fact the flipping assistant can’t even limit itself to suggesting resources available in our library) is a deal breaker, without even getting into other considerations.
That’s my partner. I just shop hungry and ask him to check the refrigerator for me while I’m out.
We also have a shared grocery app, which works nicely.
Students smoking where they shouldn’t is a PITA to me, a librarian, because it can set off some fire alarms.
I do not appreciate needing to help a less mobile coworker down the stairs to evacuate the building. I don’t like spending in the rain while we wait for the fire department to declare the “all clear”.
We don’t use spy pucks to tattle on students, though: we know what alarm was triggered and we know who checked out that study room. Or we know who came out of the single seat bathroom.
Edit: and generally students have been contrite when they return the study room key after the building was evacuated. Very “I didn’t do it but I’ll let my friends who were studying with me know…” and we’ve not had repeat offenders. Tbh, they’re [young] adults so as long as no one is hurt and I don’t hear about it I’m cool with it.
I learned about an expensive headset brand today. Their website was fun, their product is exactly what I want, and they have a 5-year warranty. The headsets come with spare ear pads. Never heard about them before today. I somehow trust they’re worth the price.
(Still ended up just buying new foam pads for my current $30 headset, but I was tempted.)
Vivaldi also has tab groups.