NBL - Singapore Slingers

Ever dream of watching an NBA live but find such entertainment financially and geographically impossible? There is a nice alternative around town - NBL. A basket ball league with teams from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Check this out!

Picture taken from the first few rows of the stadium ok! Can you afford such seat in NBA games?

The players - look, they got the height, 1.9m to 2m.



Time out entertainment, kids playing slam dung. A tall dad carry his son so that he could do the slam dung. Notice the score board hanging in the middle of the court? It is just like NBA screens, the infrastructure is pretty professional! I find the strings of black speakers hanging from the screens particularly interesting - the whole thing (screen plus speaker) look like Octopus to me.


They also have cheer leaders giving out basket ball in addition to doing their classic cheer leading dance steps, my friend, the most eligible bachelor in town, Datuk Ji would love this.


Besides this, there are other entertainment such as "kiss cam" where the camera would zoom to a couple and the couple is requested to kiss in front of camera. They also invited a team from "do you think you can dance" to show their dance step during half time entertainment. You also have lucky draw, a chance to shoot at free throw lines to win prizes, nice music, funny sounds to boo the visiting team when they fail at their free-throws and interesting audience who try to distract the players when players throw their free-throws. Not forgetting a chance to hug the very cute and hairy mascot - Merlion, which I failed to take picture somehow.

Overall, quite a nice experience :)

check out their site for more : http://www.singaporeslingers.com

Innovative Advertisement

Saw this advertisement in SIM sometime back, but no time to post it here till now.

Basically, SIM placed several of such rubbish bins around its campus and its pretty eye catchy. The message? If you don't upgrade by signing up for their executive program, you would end up being a rubbish! keke ... interesting ... :)

Mashups

Mashups is essentially getting info from various sources and consolidate into a single place. iGoogle service is a kind of mashup. Mashup becomes so popular that techies invented the Mashup editor. Microsoft has a strong Mashup editor called Popfly.

Below is an interesting site on Mashup.

http://www.programmableweb.com/
http://www.popfly.ms/

Interesting reads on next generation of users

http://www.iabaustralia.com.au/Truly_Madly_Final_booklet.pdf

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=300

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123950-page,1/article.html

http://plcmcl2-things.blogspot.com/

http://www.educause.edu/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSeries/7495

http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/index.php?title=Welcome_to_the_Blogging_Libraries_Wiki

Innovative User Group Slides

There are many useful tips from these slides:

Europe
http://www.eiug.org/meetings.html
http://www.millennium-users.org/programme.php
The Europe & Irish user groups are particularly kind, they posted most of the slides to the public.

http://hkiug.ln.edu.hk/
Of course, HK group also did many interesting things there! :)
Some are viewable by public.

http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/aiug/reports/index.html
Australia Group has many practical implementation guides as well :)

http://www.innovativeusers.org/about/local.htm
Well, these belong to US sites, unfortunately, most slides need CSDirect password.

3M & Checkpoint

Interesting to read that 3M is working with Checkpoint to provide next gen library solutions.

--------------------

3M and Checkpoint Announce Strategic Sales and Marketing Alliance
Monday October 29, 9:00 am ET

- 3M to Distribute Checkpoint Products to Libraries Globally -

ST. PAUL, Minn. & THOROFARE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--3M (NYSE:MMM - News) and Checkpoint Systems, Incorporated (NYSE:CKP - News) today announced a global strategic sales and marketing alliance that expands each company’s commitment to the library market.

Under terms of the alliance, 3M Library Systems will become the exclusive worldwide reseller and service provider for Checkpoint’s line of library security and productivity products. Checkpoint will continue to expand its patron-based marketing services portfolio and continue selling those offerings directly to libraries worldwide.

This alliance is effective January 1, 2008; 3M and Checkpoint will immediately begin the transition to ensure seamless support for their library customers.

With the addition of Checkpoint security and productivity products, 3M will be able to offer libraries an even broader portfolio. Products include: (EM) and radio frequency security systems and accessories, self-service solutions, RFID systems, media storage solutions, personal computer management software, and other library products. In 2008, 3M will also be launching a new web based library productivity software solution from Checkpoint, called The Library Advocate.

“Our team is very excited to have the opportunity to make Checkpoint’s innovative solutions available to additional libraries and to support current and future customers with 3M’s extensive service capabilities,” said Rory Yanchek, business manager, 3M Library Systems, Track and Trace Solutions. “This agreement further expands 3M’s long-term commitment to the library community.”

Checkpoint’s portfolio of library security products, coupled with 3M’s extensive sales, marketing, and service offerings, will provide libraries around the world with even greater product choice and unparalleled service capabilities. Moreover, 3M and Checkpoint customers will continue to experience the same reliable service that they have come to expect over the years.

“We are confident that Checkpoint’s library customers will receive excellent ongoing service and support from 3M in the future,” said Michael Jermyn, general manager and vice president of the Patron Services Group at Checkpoint Systems. “We will continue to focus on building an exciting new generation of revolutionary patron services products for the library community. These innovative patron-based marketing services enable libraries to better serve the specific needs of their patrons by offering them the option to connect to providers of relevant expertise, events and rewards.”

A global leader in library innovation for more than 35 years, 3M Library Systems provides security, productivity and information management solutions that harness technology to enable a more human library, freeing librarians to spend more time doing what they do best – helping people. 3M also partners with libraries to support their technological advancement and ensure their success through numerous industry sponsorships and programs. For more information about the 3M Library Systems solutions, visit http://www.3M.com/us/library

LibX - Toolbar for Browser

I chanced upon a cool tool -

http://www.libx.org/

which essentially allows you to search library catalogue from the web browser tool bar. This is very much like the "Google" tool bar on the browser.

Another cool thing you can do with the widget is that you can highlight certain text in web page, eg. the ISBN of a book you found in Amazon. You can right click the highlighted ISBN and a menu with the option to search for the book would be presented.

Would probably take a look at this when we implement the DL.