Library Books software for Gloucestershire

Harold Chu’s Library Books software for Mac OS X tracks your borrowings and reminds you when they need returning/renewing. I had messed with an earlier version but never managed to get it to connect to the local library service. A new version was in today’s MacUpdate listing but as Gloucestershire was not included in the preset UK libraries I had another go at getting it to work. Success 🙂

So if you live in [W:Gloucestershire], are a member of the library, have a Mac and a tendency to forget to return stuff this is what you need.

Install and run the Library Books software. It only appears as a star icon in the menu bar. Click on the star icon and select Preferences. Select the Logins section and click the + button to add a new library.
From the Library drop down menu select Generic Catalogue Systems – TalisPrism / Talis Catalogue System.

The Library Books Settings Pane
The Library Books Settings Pane

In the General settings add a Name and your Borrower numbet. PIN can be left blank.

In the Catalogue section add:
Catalogue host: http://www.searchourshelves.gloucestershire.gov.uk
Library Web Page: http://www.libraries.gloucestershire.gov.uk/
Date format: dd/mm/yyyy
Click the Save button.

That’s it!

Click on the Star icon and select Update and it will fetch a list of your borrowed items. The number of items are displayed next to the star. You can make the star change colour the day before an item is due to be returned and/or add the dates to iCal so that it will also remind you.

The software is free and no more late return charges 😉

Update: The details were sent to Harold Chu the developer who says that they will added to the Preset list in future versions.

The curious case of the missing "Badman" page

Question:

What do you get when you subtract….

This Google.co.uk search

from…

an identical Google.com search?

Answer:
The Dark Lord Badman’s Guide to Home Education – Arranging An Inspection

Remainder:

Missing page
Missing page

Update 28th July 2009:
This piece had a lot of visitors yesterday (but not a single comment ;-)) most of whom were from the UK. A couple of visitors from [W:Google] itself passed through – probably in response to this link.

Of course Google searches are dynamic things and this page itself is now appearing in the .com listing. So for the record here is a picture of the original listings.

Google search listings
Google search listings

Update 2nd August: Curiouser and curiouser.

Fun time with RevWeb

Runtime Revolution is about to hit version 4 which includes a plugin to enable software created with it to be run in your web browser. Get the plug in and install it!

Here is a little guess the number test game I made awhile ago but not specifically for the web. It seems to mostly work 🙂

[Update: Does not seem to like FireFox 3.5.1 on my Mac. Works with Safari, Opera and Stainless browsers]

There is a new version of the Revolution software called revMedia with which you can create your own stuff. You will need to sign up to get the Alpha Testing version. It is FREE. It is FUN.

This could turn into an all nighter 😉

Bing bong

A humorous (in a tedious seen it all before kind of way) email from my daughter concluded (it was her HotMail account) with the message:

Surfing the web just got more rewarding. Download the New Internet Explorer 8

…which was the funniest part of the email. A good laugh is what one would normally expect from Microsoft but…. their new Bing search engine looks like it could be worth taking seriously.

Mobile Spotify

A demo of Spotify on an Android mobile phone.

Perhaps once they finish that Spotify will start to iron out some of the glitches in their catalogue listings….

Only one of these tracks is listed correctly. There are no prizes for spotting it or identifying all the tracks 😉 But…. [W:Ravens], [W:Crows]…. Near enough 🙁

I would have reported the errors but Spotify have moved to a Get Satisfaction forum. Why would anyone think this was a good idea?

One Love in the global village.

Long before the Interweb had been thought of [W:Marshall McLuhan] had come up with the idea of the global village which followed on from [W:Network theory] which had explored social networks and developed the idea of [W:Six degrees of separation].

Now we have Playing For Change which records a musician singing a song and takes it around the world so others can contribute to the piece.