FREE in-home wireless broadband service

Yes, from our friends at Google. "Home installation is a simple matter of GFlushingTM the fiber-optic cable down to the nearest TiSP Access Node, then plugging the other end into the network port of your Google-provided TiSP wireless router." Too much technical talk? For an easy-to-understand explanation, be sure to click on the How TiSP Works link. Once your confidence is up, read the Press Release and the FAQs. Dang, the Mac version is still under development.

If you are still in a muddle, ask for the professional installation service.

Good ideas can always be improved upon. Aaron's thought was that Google could also host potcasts through this new service.

News and views

In the Legal News department, Senator Dan Kotowski (D-Mount Prospect) has proposed a more reasonable piece of legislation to help students deal with potential danger on the Internet. The Internet Safety Education Act would require school districts to provide education about Internet threats and risks. Imagine -- teaching, not blocking!

In the Fun Department, I've learned from Jessamyn about Archie McPhee's new temporary tattoos for librarians. Gotta get me some.
And for anyone who wants to know more about our visit from klezmer group Veretski Pass, you can stream the interview/performance they did for the WILL AM Focus 580 show. Hot music, amazing people!

In the I Can't Believe It Department, there's the incredible story of the hapless substitute teacher who may serve up to 40 years in prison for exposing children to pornography because she couldn't figure out how to shut off pop-up porn ads. Never mind that the computer she was using was a Microsoft Windows 98 machine running an outdated version of Internet Explorer, the school's license for its firewall program had expired, the machine's anti-virus software was expired and lacked any anti-spyware tools, or that the prosecution hadn't conducted a basic scan of the computer's hard drive with anti-spyware software.
Then there's the outcry over 2007 Newbery Medal winner The Higher Power of Lucky by librarian Susan Porter because she used the word "scrotum" on the first page of the book. The 10-year-old main character overhears the word being used when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog on the scrotum. Being 10, she naturally wants to know what it means. I wonder if this controversy plays out differently in rural areas where animal body parts are the stuff of everyday "normal" conversation.

Finally, in the Very Cool department, the Online Gargoyle has been named a finalist in the National Scholastic Press Association "Online Pacemaker" competition. Nice!

Shelving books would never be the same...

Check out the winners of Overdue Media's Pimp My Book Cart contest. Overdue Media is the company name for the two guys who create the Unshelved comic that appears each day on the library's home page.

What do you say we give it a shot next year? I'll go look for my soldering iron.

Any friend of Tom's is a friend of mine

How clever can one guy be? My husband delights in showing me David Pogue's technology blog and videos for the New York Times, which always crack me up. Pogue has been on a real roll recently. There's his post on "6 billion degrees of separation," in which he describes an effort to test the Internet's power by seeing whether or not a man can be located if people only have his photograph and first name. Then there's yesterday's post about faked photos of upcoming Apple products, with a link to the Worth1000.com contest to create nonexistent Apple products. Finally, there's Pogue's ode to the RIAA, sung to the tune of the Village People song "YMCA." All together now:

Young man,
You were surfing along,
And then, young man,
You downloaded a song,
And then, dumb man,
Copied it to your 'Pod,
Then a phone call came to tell you:

You've just been sued by the R.I.A.A.!
You've just been sued by the R.I.A.A.!
Their attorneys say, you committed a crime,
And there'd better not be a next time!

They've lost their minds at the R.I.A.A.!
Justice is blind at the R.I.A.A....
"You're depriving the bands! You are learning to steal,
You can't do whatever you feel!"