Friday, February 27, 2009

word 2007: further adventures

(Or, further evidence that Word 2007 was put together by usability geniuses.)

So I'm typing up a report, right, and this report has tables. I had several existing tables I wanted to add new rows to. Here's what I did.

Right click -> Insert -> Insert Rows Above.

Super! It did what I wanted it to do, mission accomplished, row added, didn't give it a second thought.

I come to another table, and found that I wanted to add more rows. I thought, 'no bigee', right-clicked, and...

Wait, where's the Insert Rows option?


Desperately I hunted around for it, like a blind boy who's lost his seeing-eye dog in a crowded pet store. After the initial panic wore off and logic clicked in, I figured, 'hey, noob, it's probably up in the Insert tab'. Of course it would be, I told myself. Like the old File, Edit, View, etc options on the menu bars of yore, surely everything that I could possibly want to Insert into a document should be there. Right?

Microsoft says, 'nein'.

"I'm sorry, fleshbag, we are unable to insert your rows at this time. Would you like to insert a calendar instead? We support calendars in many different formats, including pagan and Aztec solar charts. If none of these options are to your liking, we suggest thumping your chest with your fists and grunting, or partaking in some other activity that might amuse your inferior simian faculties."

Turns out, the Insert Rows function ONLY appears if your cursor is located at the END of a word, prior to right clicking.


Caption provided by Invisible Cat [who] Is Invisible.

Why? I've stopped asking why a long time ago. Now I just stare at the screen. And hope that one of the architects of this lumbering hate-machine feels the sting of my disapproval.

And then dies.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

#22 - "she has 1d20 hips"


Unfortunately, the podcast I wanted to put up here seems like it's only available for subscription via iTunes. However, it is also available as a downloadable audio file; grab it from here.

It's a D&D campaign starring the authors of two very popular webcomics from Penny Arcade and PVP... and Wil Wheaton. Yes, Wil Wheaton. Little Wesley Crusher's all grown up, donned a suit of platemail, and decided to go out and fight some goblins.

This is geekdom on so many different levels!

Friday, February 20, 2009

#21 - you-u-u-auatube!

Long have I waited for this day. Put on your headphones, ladies and gents.



And here is an extended version.


Did you know that this particular internet meme has actually skyrocketed the original members to international stardom? Here's a snippet from their wiki article that's particularly silly:

'Caramelldansen is known in Japan as "Uma uma dance" (ウマウマダンス), because of the song chorus misheard lyrics (soramimi) of "u-u-ua-ua", ウッーウッーウマウマ (u- u- umauma, "uma" is suggested to mean "yummy", "nice" or "horse" in Japanese). Also part of the misheard lyrics "Dansa med oss, klappa era händer" ("Dance with us, clap your hands") make reference to "Barusamiko-su Yappa irahen de" ("There isn't any Balsamic vinegar after all" in the Kansai dialect) so the song has a different interpretation in Japanese than the original Swedish lyrics.'

Over the past couple weeks, I was so enthralled by this mind-numbingly bopsy tune that I think I was humming it in my sleep. How's that for creepy?

As for library applications, I would love to see more librarians upload their slice of wacky pie to YouTube. Have you folks ever seen SJCPL's awesome library music video? It had librarians doing wacky things, to the tune of Madonna's Ray of Light.

Well, I just found out mere seconds ago that it has been pulled from YouTube, due to some revised copyright clause. Crikey!

However, I'm certain that people are still uploading Madonna's Ray of Light in its entire pirated glory.

I'm just sayin'.

#15 - sand! in a box! how novel

I've also made it to the NVDPL sandbox wiki! But it seems that several others have made it before me. Run! The fat one's got a red felt marker and he knows how to use it!

#14 - wiki

Back in SLAIS, we used wikis extensively on group projects that involved more than 2 members (which was, nearly every group project). It was a great way to author chunks of an assignment, post it, and then see what everyone else was up to in almost-real-time.

The Princeton BookLover's wiki is wonderfully laid out. And prizes for book reviewers? Hot dawg. Libraries can pretty much craft their own websites out of wiki's, but other off the cuff ideas include be an online book club discussion thingy. It wouldn't work, necessarily, for content that needed to be approved before publication, like book reviews or community event postings.

Hey, maybe one day we might even consider committee meetings via wiki eh? Eh?

Yeah, the painful optimism hat's coming off now.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

"like... like 'sorceress'"

I <3 Penny Arcade. Click on the pic to see it full sized.



My vote is for librarymans!

#8 redux - word.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's woken up in the middle of the night, cold with sweat and agonizing over the profound cosmic question of, "What would Optimus Prime do if he was a librarian (and a bus)?"

Behold! The answer to the universe!



With special thanks to ruletheworld, wikipedia, the 80's, and the 2006 winner of Unshelved comic's Pimp My Bookcart contest.