Cyberpunk Librarian

Discover sources of free, public domain and Creative Commons images you can use for your library’s website, print pieces, or social media! Dan navigates you through the world of images and how to stay on the right side of your library’s ethics policies. Links Pixabay Albumarium Compfight The yoga image I selected from Pixabay. Tokyo at night, a truly cyberpunk setting. Music Belly Dance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita Faraday by dustmotes Killing Bosses by Gumbel Myth by 505 Warm Steel by General Fuzz Credits Austin Powers Pure Pwnage: FPS Doug CS:S

We carry this wonderful computer around in our pockets, but we don’t really use it as much as we could! Join Dan as he spends a week living without a tablet and relying on his smartphone for his on-the-go computer! Links Recirculated: Circulating Ideas Transcripts – Help make Circulating Ideas available to a wider audience by funding their transcription efforts on Kickstarter! Motorola Bluetooth Keyboard Music Born Into It (Chillout Mix) by Redmann Pacific by Psychakelik Pedestrian Bellydance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita Sound Effects DTMF Tone Sounds Dail Tone UK Dialing Ringing Tone Phone Ringing 8x

The Cyberpunk Librarian podcast turns 30! (Well, 30 episodes.) Join Dan for something different and fun, an original story time done in the style of a radio show. It’s pulp sci-fi with a library twist as we blast off with Intragalactic Librarian! Side note: I’ve marked this episode as explicit because of a bit of language here and there. Nothing too offensive, but more swearing than I normally indulge in during an episode! Sound Effects All sound effect courtesy of FreeSound.org! https://www.freesound.org/people/soundslikewillem/sounds/190707/ https://www.freesound.org/people/Dpoggioli/sounds/196914/ https://www.freesound.org/people/Dpoggioli/sounds/196907/ https://www.freesound.org/people/soundmatch24/sounds/194312/ https://www.freesound.org/people/WillFitch1/sounds/144887/ https://www.freesound.org/people/VlatkoBlazek/sounds/261014/ https://www.freesound.org/people/Cracken56/sounds/233568/ https://www.freesound.org/people/kwahmah_02/sounds/249517/ https://www.freesound.org/people/barefor

When it’s your job to provide access to information for everyone, why not do the same about your job? Join Dan as he talks about how he keeps his coworkers up to date on what he’s doing! Links Phrase Express – Text expansion software for Windows. Evernote – Notes, online collaboration, awesome usefulness. Dynchronize – Easy folder synchronization for Windows. Also available as a Portable App. What I’m Working On – Updated weekly and on an as needed basis and shared with my coworkers via my email signature. Slides in Progress – My current queue of slides that need to be made. Episode 18: The Technogeneralist – Mentioned in the show. If you haven’t heard it, it might be worth a listen. Music Dream Blaze and Spontaneous Existence by Little Glass Men Bellydance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita

On this episode of Cyberpunk Librarian, Dan talks Minecraft and how you can do some cool stuff with it at your library! Links Minecraft – Buy and download the game! Minecraft Server – Because you can have your own world. Install Minecraft Server on Linux Install Minecraft Server on OS X Minecraft Wiki – Everything you need to know and far more that you probably don’t. Server.Properties – Configure your Minecraft Server. The Hunger Games… in Minecraft – See? I told you it was a thing. Coe’s Quest – Absolute loveliness and relaxation while playing Minecraft. (Season One, there are nine seasons.) Muse Farms – A build based Minecraft let’s play. Music Minecraft – The Song by Bobby Yarsulik Minecraft Everyday by Viktor Cepeda Bellydance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita Minecraft music from C418. Beautiful stuff!

Join Dan for an episode full of tips, tricks, tools, and techniques for creating better graphic design! After all, you don’t want a dumb looking sign in your library! Put some thought into your design and it’ll show in the end result! Links Books worth checking out Thou Shall Not Use Comic Sans – Amazon | WorldCat Graphic Design: The New Basics – Amazon | WorldCat Websites worth clicking Have a look at some beautiful examples of De Stijl. Behance Graphic Design Portfolios are great places for some ideas and inspiration! Smashing Magazine goes in-depth about design tips and tools. Hack Design will teach you about graphic and web design via email! The Design Blog is another fantastic place for ideas. Identifont will help you discover great fonts and replacements for fonts you don’t have. Library Signage gives you the good, the bad, and the OMG of library sign design. Software worth your while Office 365 Personal and/or Home editions will get you the latest versions of Microsoft Office d

Projects at work and projects at home! Join Daniel Messer, the Cyberpunk Librarian, for a look at some of the things he’s working on for money and for fun. Raspberry Pis, LAMPs, Minecraft, and more. After all, busy hands are happy hands! Links KnightWise.com community on Google+ Raspberry Pi Kiosk Screen Tutorial Cherokee Web Server – an easy to set up and use webserver managed through the browser PhraseExpress – an excellent text expansion app for Windows AutoHotkey – powerful scripting made easier Slide Code Generator for Polaris – my AutoHotkey script to generate slide codes for the Polaris PowerPAC Install LAMP stack on Ubuntu based systems Installing phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu based systems – Because I don’t speak SQL very well Coppermine – a fantastic, FOSS image gallery app for the web WordPress – my CMS of choice Anchor CMS – beautiful, simple blogging and content management Setting up a Minecraft server on Linux Notes To disable screen blanking and screen savers on Raspbian for R

Let’s step back from the tech for a bit from something fun and different! Join Dan for a look at the cyberpunk technology and tones of the Disney animated film Big Hero 6! Links Hatsune Miku – Information about the virtual idol singer, or idoru, from Wikipedia. Music Lei#4 by Gilo Robotomie by Tortue Super Sonic Bellydance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita

Raspberry Pis have taken the maker and geek world by storm! Little, inexpensive computers that can do so many great things? Yeah that has a lot of possibilities within the library! Join Dan and discover a project he’s working on that involves a Raspberry Pi. Notes Outline for what I’ve done for a digital shelf talker unit powered by Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi Model B  – uses a MicroSD and has four USB ports Using a kit I found on Amazon. Links in the shownotes The great thing about this kit isn’t just the case and plugs but also the WiFi plug. That’s what you really need for a project like this. Screenly OSE Managed through web browser Displays slides, MP4s, and websites as a digital signage solution Easier to use and set up than Xibo. I love it! OSE is the FOSS edition, there is a paid solution with more spiffs – check it out Using the custom image found on Screenly OSEs website, I flashed that to the SD card using Win32DiskImager – an open source app that is excellent for this

Sometimes you need to write stuff down. Maybe it’s a quick note. Or maybe it’s a book! Dan takes a fresh look at a familiar tool, Evernote. Notes What Did I Do? Keeping Track of Accomplishments Without Going Crazy, by Tyler Dzuba. Published on Letters to a Young Librarian. There are a few different versions of Evernote. The free version rocks, but there’s a premium and business version too. This handy chart will help you compare features. I’ll be speaking at TechPhx! If you’re in the Tempe, AZ area then come check out the conference and listen to me (and others) speak! Use promo code ATTENDMYSESSION to get 50% off the cost of admission! Music Bellydance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita We Are the Future by Nearfield Caught in the Beat by Broke for Free Air Born by Newton Balloon Typing sound effect courtesy of FreeSound.

Conferences have given styles, design, and form; and that makes it easy to figure them out. Join the Cyberpunk Librarian and find out how to get the most out of a professional conference, or almost any conference for that matter. Links Live Blog – WordPress plugin for easy live blogging, right there on the post page! Brought to you by WordPress and Automattic! Polly-Alida Farrington – Librarian, trainer, author, and all around awesome. Music Bellydance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita Electro Funk by Stanko-Beronja Jigo-Jitoku by DJ Jax Desire by PASCALB

As Dan recovers from the move we present Story Time, where downtempo meets writing. Discover why it’s important that Kindles have no covers and why one big monitor is better than multiple, smaller monitors. Links Kindles Don’t Have Covers or the Return of the Penny Dreadful It Only Takes One Music Narita Spaceport Lounge by Kevin Bryce Cohen Method by Tab & Anitek Tesseract by Daniel Messer Bellydance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita

A podcast about video making? Why not? Join the Cyberpunk Librarian for a look out how to make training videos for your staff and public! Discover the tools and design that’ll make a memorable video, not something that desperately needs an MST3K treatment! Links Software Camstudio – Free screencasting software for Windows. RecordMyDesktop – Free and open source screencasting for Linux Some information about Kazam and its latest updates. Kazam is another screen casting solution for Linux Kazam on LaunchPad – Check out your repo too. Chances are, it’s in there. An Ask Ubuntu discussion on Linux screencasting. Some good ideas here, chummers. Cheese – Sort of the de facto Linux webcam software for Linux. Windows Movie Maker – Free video editing and capture for Windows. Avidemux – Cross platform, open source video editing. OpenShot – Open source video editing for Linux. Corel VideoStudio Pro – Fantastic video editing for those on a budget. Camtasia Studio – Professional level screencasting s

It’s a podcast about podcasts as Dan talks about the things he does to design, prepare for, and record the show! Find out just how simple, or complex, it can be to make a podcast and pick up some ideas from the Cyberpunk Librarian and others! Links Check out these shows for ideas! Anything on the Radiotopia network Hello, Internet with Brady Haran and CGP Grey The Ihnatko Alamanac with Andy Ihnatko and Dan Benjamin What the Tech with Andrew Zarian and Paul Thurrott The Knightwise.com Podcast with Knightwise This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte and others Dave’s Lounge with Dave, one of the chillest people on the Internet Bad Voltage with four of the biggest geeks on the Net. Jono Bacon, Stuart Langridge, Jeremy Garcia, and Bryan Lunduke Welcome to Night Vale is one of the greatest story based podcasts to ever grace the online world On the Media with Brooke Gladstone and others. You should also dig on Brooke’s fantastic book The Influencing Machine The Linux Action Show with Chris Fisher a

Let’s take a break from long form, tech heavy shows with a shorter show and lighter commentary! An unabashed generalist, Dan takes you through how he maintains and learns a little about everything and why it’s important to specialize in generalization. Links Laura – Vincent Price Legacy Laura on the Internet Movie Database Isaac Asimov on Bill Moyer’s World of Ideas View from a Height by Isaac Asimov Vsauce on Ignorance and the Speed of Dark Music Solar Rush by Redmann As always, the title track is Bellydance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita

Ever want a big, digital sign in your library but didn’t want to have to pay big money to get it? Well if you have a couple old computers and a monitor, the Cyberpunk Librarian has the answer to your digital signage needs! Notes Getting up and running with Xibo What you will need A computer running Linux that will act as your server Another computer running Windows A monitor or flat panel HDTV for your digital displays The Server For my server, I ran Kubuntu and installed a LAMP stack. (LAMP is short for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.) For Ubtuntu based flavours, you can easily install LAMP via: sudo apt-get install tasksel sudo tasksel install lamp-server As it installs, it will ask for a password for MySQL. Give it one and write it down. Put that password someplace safe. You won’t need it all that often, but when you need it, you need it. Download the Xibo server Xibo client for Windows or Linux Installing and running Note: To make things easier to move around, rename, copy, and store; I opened

Join Daniel Messer as he goes cypherpunk and talks about keeping yourself secure and private online and in the digital world. Notes and Links Use a VPN. Private Internet Access ProXPN TorGuard Secure Browsing Use incognito or privacy mode Use Firefox over Chrome TOR Browser AdBlock Plus Privacy Badger Mobile ChatSecure – Secure chat with Google and XMPP (Android and iOS) TextSecure – Secure SMS and MMS (Android only) RedPhone – Secure calling (Android only) Cryptocat – Secure group chat (iOS only) Wickr – Secure chat with optional time bomb to delete after given time (Android and iOS) Connec+ +or – Secure browsing for Android Red Onion – TOR for iOS As an aside, Facetime and iMessage on iOS are end-to-end encrypted. Secure Email Hush Mail Bitmessage GPG Leave No Trace TAILS – The Amnesiac Incognito Live System Used by Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden. Runs on a flash drive (I wear mine around my neck) Completely anonymous,  as it goes around th

Something a little different, a little laid back for your summertime. Sit back, relax, and enjoy a couple of stories/essays from Dan. Find out how cyberpunk is no longer futuristic, and discover the true power of sharing. Links Knightwise.com – The podcast with hacks, tips, and tweaks for cross-platform geeks. Welcome to the Future, Welcome to Now – The first part of the storytime. Online Immortality – The second part of the storytime. So  as I mentioned in the podcast, these two essays will be part of my next book. If you have the interest, here are the other two I’ve written: All My Rattling On: Essays, Musings, and Rants on Libraries, Technology and Science Hyperlinked History: A Multifaceted Journey Through Time Music Kevin Bryce – On a Spinning Disc, Dragonflies Kevin Bryce – Slightly Randomized Trajectory Ryo Miyashita – Bellydance at Ebisu

On this episode of Cyberpunk Librarian we delve into what Dan uses, and by that we mean, what he really uses when it comes to the iPad and iOS. Links eReading Kindle GoodReader Zinio OverDrive News Flipboard Alien Blue Listening Spotify SomaFM RadioBOX Social Twitter Google+ Gave up on Facebook Watch Netflix YouTube (While you’re at it, check out the  VlogBrothers!) And finally… PlainText 2 Evernote Microsoft Remote Desktop Music Bacterial Love by Rolemusic Bellydance at Ebisu by Ryo Miyashita

On this episode of Cyberpunk Librarian, Dan goes into the benefits and mental cleansing that comes from working outside of your environment, both technologically and physically! Links The Secret Life of the Office –  Part of a fantastic series of documentaries by Tim Hunkin. The third series is basically the sequel to the first two series titled The Secret Life of Machines. Tim is one of my heroes who is not only a documentarian, but also an engineer and cartoonist. These series feature art and animation based off his original comics which informed and inspired The Secret Life series. Microsoft Remote Desktop for OS X – Seriously, I couldn’t do my job without it. Pixelmator – A Photoshop replacement for OS X. I love everything about this application. I screwed up the price, however as it’s US$30, not $15 as I said on the podcast. Sorry about that! Buy it through the App Store. TextWrangler – Because sometimes I just need to edit a little code, you know? Get it via their website or the App Store. Eit