An article in Wired Science discusses a study which identified a connection between multi-tasking behavior (simultaneously watching TV, reading e-mail, browsing the web and talking on the phone) and an inability to concentrate. When self-identified multi-taskers were tested on a series of tasks, they performed worse than those who multi-tasked least. The tests measured the ability to ignore irrelevant information; to organize things in working memory; and, surprisingly, to switch quickly and readily from one task to another. Hm, that last one's a bit of a puzzle. Hat tip to Law Librarian Blog.
You know those annoying collections of distorted letters you have to decipher and type into a box in order to use a variety of internet services? What you're doing is proving that you're a human being, not a spammer's computer. And you may find them slightly less annoying from now on, because of an amazing example of human ingenuity. Luis von Ahn, who developed the security software, called CAPTCHA, calculated how much time people around the world waste deciphering the letters and typing them in and was appalled. Every day, 500,000 hours are spent on this irritatingly difficult activity. Von Ahn realized that people can do what the software that performs Optical Character Recognition (OCR) often cannot, read blurred or stained old print. So he invented reCAPTCHA and teamed up with the New York Times and the Internet Archive. The Times is digitizing its archives, and the non-profit Internet Archive is digitizing books.
Now, people are confronted with two images, the first is the typical distorted letters puzzle, the second is a word from the digitizing projects that has baffled the OCR. And actually, since it is a word, the second is easier to type than the first. So next time you curse the security software that stands between you and internet Nirvana, take pride in the fact that you are helping to digitally preserve the paper past! Thanks to NPR's All Things Considered for reporting this story.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a type of web technology that makes it easy to keep up with regularly updated blogs and websites, including nearly all news sites, and to set up customized news alert with Google news or similar sites. Right now, it may be the best current awareness tool there is.
Instead of having to visit all the websites you follow, RSS feeds send updates from all of the websites you select to one place. This is a great time saver and literally allows you to read or scan more in less time once you've got it set up. You don't have to be a techie to understand or use it. Popular RSS readers like Bloglines and Google Reader are easy to set up and use.
Today is RSS awareness day. To learn more about how it works and to see how the readers work, check out the brief overview at rssday.org.
