The iPhone in Libraries - Metro PDA SIG, Nov. 29th

The next METRO PDA Special Interest Group meeting will take place on Thursday, November 29, 2007, from 3:00-4:30pm at METRO headquarters, 57 East 11th Street, 4th floor.

The topic will be: The iPhone in Libraries - Apple's iPhone has been named "the invention of the year" by InformationWeek magazine. Is it really the handheld panacea it seems to be? Join the PDA SIG as we discuss the pros, the cons, and potential library applications for the iPhone and related devices. Linda Braun will on hand to demo her iPhone and share her experiences. If you have an iPhone, iPod Touch, or some other new & nifty handheld device, please feel free to bring it and share your experience as well.

To learn more about the PDA & Handheld Computing SIG, visit our brand new wiki.

Results of July Bar Exam Announced (Law.com)

By Thomas Adcock

Despite software snafus affecting some who took the two-day New York state bar exam in July, an all-time high passing rate of 88.2 percent was recorded by graduates of the state's 15 law schools who took the test for the first time, according to figures released today by the New York State Board of Law Examiners.

That figure surpassed the previous high of 86.7 percent, recorded in July 2006. A total of 10,907 candidates took the July exam, also a record high, according to the law board. (more. . .)

William Gibson: The Rolling Stone 40th Anniversary Interview

What are the major challenges we face?

Let's go for global warming, peak oil and ubiquitous computing.

Ubiquitous computing?

Totally ubiquitous computing. One of the things our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real, the virtual from the real. In the future, that will become literally impossible. The distinction between cyberspace and that which isn't cyberspace is going to be unimaginable. When I wrote Neuromancer in 1984, cyberspace already existed for some people, but they didn't spend all their time there. So cyberspace was there, and we were here. Now cyberspace is here for a lot of us, and there has become any state of relative nonconnectivity. There is where they don't have Wi-Fi.

In a world of superubiquitous computing, you're not gonna know when you're on or when you're off. You're always going to be on, in some sort of blended-reality state. You only think about it when something goes wrong and it goes off. And then it's a drag.

(more. . .)

[via Boing Boing]

SMARTPHONE EDITOR REVIEW: The Palm Centro on Sprint (PalmAddicts)

BOTTOM LINE
Despite a few shortcomings, the Palm Centro has the price, performance and pedigree to induce cellphone and feature-phone users across the chasm to smartphones. Unfortunately, the cockamamie advertising will never resonate with the Centro's target audience.


WHAT'S GOOD
* The Centro is a full-blown smartphone for only 99 bucks
* Its sports the freshest, funnest design that Palm had produced in years
* Sprint's EvDO network is faster then Verizon's, just as wide-spread and a lot cheaper
* Battery life is pretty good for a smaller device
* Palm Garnet OS is still the lowest learning-curve on the block
* Palm and Sprint are doing heavy multi-media marketing for this product


WHAT'S BAD
* While fresh for Palm, the design isn't as sexy as its competitors
* The pygmy keyboard is too small for larger hands to use, and older eyes to read
* The screen is sharp, but too small for contact lens wearers
* The Centro looks and feels toy-like, compared to competitive offerings
* Palm's & Sprint's marketing campaigns are off-target and obscure

(more. . .)

Pakistan Attempts to Crush Protests by Lawyers (NYT)

y JANE PERLEZ and DAVID ROHDE

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 5 — Angry protests by thousands of lawyers in Lahore and other cities on Monday demonstrated the first organized resistance to the emergency rule imposed by the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. But the abrupt arrests of many of them threatened to weaken their challenge.

The real test of whether the opposition to General Musharraf will prevail appears to be several days off: The leader of the biggest opposition political party, Benazir Bhutto, has pledged to lead a major protest rally on Friday in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjacent to Islamabad, the capital.

The Musharraf government’s resolve to silence its fiercest opponents was evident in the strength of the crackdown by baton-wielding police officers who pummeled lawyers and then hauled them by the legs and arms into police wagons in Lahore.

At one point, lawyers and police officers clashed in a pitched battle, with lawyers standing on the roof of the High Court throwing stones at the police below, and the police hurling them back. Some of the lawyers were bleeding from the head, and some passed out in clouds of tear gas. (more . . )