The word of the day: backup.

You can read it, I can read it, but usually the only way one learns is through experience. We lost all of Emma's .html this afternoon. (Those are the files that make her appear on our website and online catalog. They aren't part of her "brain.") So the fun began. I knew I had copies somewhere. On my laptop? No. On one of the big external drives at home? Nope. On, let's see, one of the six or seven flash drives wandering around the house? No, Un uh, nothing, not here, zip, zero, oh here they are! Lesson learned. (I really hate being organized.)

So long kittenhood...

We've been working on licensing Emma for the last few weeks. (I mean the parts of her code that I wrote, the parts that deal specifically with our library.) Not a lot of fun. To be honest, this was the first time I felt depressed or pessimistic about the whole project. Most librarians don't deal with this sort of thing; certainly not ex-brass players currently working as librarians. Anyway, we're done and she'll be licensed in a way that should be a "win-win" for everyone involved. This seems an appropriate place to mark the end of her "kittenhood." To celebrate, I'm going to get a good night's sleep.

Robot hummingbird passes flight tests - too cool!

My wife spotted this in the news, it's on both our Christmas lists.

"A prototype robot spy "ornithopter," the Nano-Hummingbird, has successfully completed flight trials in California. Developed by the company AeroVironment Inc., the miniature spybot looks like a hummingbird complete with flapping wings, and is only slightly larger and heavier than most hummingbirds, but smaller than the largest species."

Check out the video!

Emma wins 2011 Polaris Innovation in Technology John Iliff Award!

Wow! I'm speechless!

From the ALA website:

"The Polaris Innovation in Technology John Iliff Award honors the life and accomplishments of John Iliff, early adopter and champion of technology in public libraries. This award provides a $1,000 honorarium to a library professional or library that has used technology and innovation as a tool to improve services to public library users. David Newyear, adult information services manager of the Mentor (Ohio) Public Library is receiving the award for the creation of “Emma” the Catbot, an engaging artificially intelligent cat that engages library users and provides basic reference services."

After some discussion with Emma and with my wife Kristina, we've decided to donate the honorarium to One of a Kind Pets in Akron, a worthy cause.

A fun Sunday evening

The non-virtual cats and I have been having a fun Sunday evening. Our hot water tank is in its last stages and is leaking all over the downstairs. Since it's hooked into our geothermal, I don't want to just shut it off or close the valves. At least not until tomorrow morning after I call the guys that installed the water furnace. Anyway, cats and human alike are making regular trips to mop and replace soggy newspapers. The cats find this a welcome change from their routine and an occasion for wonder and delight. Water! But it's not in the dish or sink or shower! Can we play it in? Yes! Can we chase each other through it? Yes!! Can we leave trails of wet paw prints on every flat surface in the house? YES!!!
Between trips, I've been going over the logs and updating the old catbot brain. Last week MPL got a new Kent-SLIS practicum student, Amanda S. One of her projects is working on Emma, and she has some excellent ideas that we're already using. She's looking at Emma with fresh eyes and will make some real improvements in our bot.

Looks like the computer won

Yep, Watson won. Here's the story and some video:
IBM's Super Computer, Watson, Destroys Humans...At Jeopardy


Emma isn't interested in going on Jeopardy, by the way. She's a working library catbot. And I only have so much free time (meaning unpaid, off the library's clock) to program her.

IBM’s Watson AI takes on Jeopardy’s best contestants

Pretty cool! AI challenges the best human Jeopardy contestants:
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/13/ibm-watson-jeopardy/.

Who will win?