Some people will remember predictions about ‘clothes of the future’ that would never need to be laundered because they shed dirt and wrinkles.  In fact, the 1951 movie “The Man in the White Suit” explored the unintended consequences of just such an invention.

I should point out that the movie predates me, so it’s no wonder I didn’t realize that it was nominated for both a BAFTA Award (1952) and an Oscar (1953)!  I’m going to have to track it down and watch it one of these days… but I digress.

The reality of today’s high-tech clothing-in-development includes “fabric which includes ‘firming active ingredients’, [which] is said to improve the elasticity and brightness of the skin.”  Cosmetotextiles like Eurojersey’s Sensitive Ultra Light Firming, if they prove commercially viable, will no doubt usher in a rash of similar products in fairly short order.  How soon will we see ads for overnight face masks that are really masks?  Ugh.

Other recently-introduced fabrics claim to “generate wellness and well-being to the consumer through state of the art cosmetic microencapsulation”, provide slimming effects, or deliver therapeutic substances, potentially including some drugs.

Another Eurojersey product, Sensitive Bodyware, is intended to keep the wearer fresh and comfortable all day, in part because of an interesting property of silver.  The precious metal not only adorns the wearer as jewelry, but also inhibits the growth of odor-causing bacteria, via a silver-based solution in this case.

Now, back to MY real world…

All this high-tech science is well and good, but spinners have been delighting for centuries in the softness of their hands after working with wool.  While some people may not appreciate lanolin’s scent, I think the fragrance and gleam of lanolin on a freshly-sheared fleece is pure luxury!

Silver, while pricier than grease fleece, is still not out of the reach of the average knitter.  There are several yarns currently on the market that include silver not primarily for its antibacterial benefits, but for its sparkle!

A few colors of Dream In Color Starry from SimplySocks.com

Closeup of Kraemer Sterling Silk and Silver from Yarn.com

A couple of superwash sock-weight yarns are Dream In Color’s Starry and Kraemer’s Sterling Silk and Silver.  Both are advertised as 2% silver, and while Starry is 98% merino, Kraemer’s yarn has 20% silk plus 15% nylon for abrasion resistance.  Both are in the $20 – $25 price range per skein, enough yarn to make a pair of adult socks, but who would want to hide that gorgeousness inside shoes??

Dream In Color "Starry" in Bermuda Teal

My favorite color – so far – is Starry in Bermuda Teal.  I also bought some Smooshy, the no-silver version, in the same color so I might be able to make a whole sweater.  One of these days, I’ll have to stop petting and admiring it, and decide what to make with it – you can bet it won’t be socks, though!

It’s called a QR code.  QR stands for “quick response”, which isn’t actually too helpful in explaining anything.  It’s really just a code meant to be read by a smart phone that will send you directly to a website (among other things).

They can hold a whole lot more information than a simple barcode, and are said to be accurately readable even if 30% of the code is obscured.

So what does that mean for you?  If you have a smart phone, presumably with a camera, and you have a data plan, all you need to do is install a free QR code-reading app, and you’re ready to go.  Just find a handy QR code, open your app, and center the code in the viewfinder square on your phone display.  You’ll probably see some little blinking dots reading the code, and then it will jump to a display with the website’s URL.  Tap it, and there you are!  The one above goes to my Delicious bookmarks.   You may or may not be interested in them, but I figured it was a safe place to send you.  Of course, it’s ideal if the target website is mobile-friendly!

QR codes can also send a text message or email message, share a phone number, open a map, display some text, and any number of other little tasks.   How about this one?

QR code for sample text

And since they’re readable even if incomplete, they can be ‘branded’ with a small graphic image…

Love this juxtaposition of old and new technology!

This one goes to my LibraryThing catalog.  Obviously, I made my own QR codes here.  It’s ridiculously easy.  Just go to a QR code generator like QRstuff or BeQRious and choose the kind of code you want to create.  Click the button and your custom code will be ready to download!  You can save it as-is, or open it in photo editing software.  The next big decision is what you’re going to put it on… some people have even knitted readable QR codes!

Seriously, though, what could this possibly have to do with knitting or fiber?  Well, I’m just waiting to see QR codes on yarn ball bands – instead of wondering if a yarn I have in my hand is available in other colors, how about scanning its QR code and going straight to the manufacturer’s web page for that yarn?  I could SEE any other colors, and decide about special ordering something my LYS didn’t carry – even if they didn’t happen to have a color card for that yarn!

Or maybe next time you give a knitted gift, you could attach a tag with a QR code for the care instructions… or maybe a personal message for the recipient.

Like knitting, the possibilities are endless – so go explore!

One of the many facets of my work life includes computer troubleshooting and answering questions, so this is something I address frequently.  I am dismayed to realize how many people give up on their computer, send it off to a repair place, and agree to pay a lot of money to lose everything on their hard drive.  Granted, sometimes a format and reinstall IS necessary, but many times, there are tools they can use to solve problems on their own.  And when that doesn’t do the job, it’s not that hard to save your stuff before you send it off for the big rebuild.  (Actually, reinstalling the operating system on a computer can be pretty straightforward as well, but there are so many variables, I’m not touching that here with a ten foot pole.)

Bear in mind that these are all things you can do on your own personal Windows-based computer.  If the computer you use belongs to someone else, or to your employer, it’s their responsibility, so don’t go messing with it without their permission!!  And you’ll have to be logged in with administrative rights to do most of this stuff.  Also, you bear the responsibility and the consequences of any actions you take.  I have never had any of these tools cause problems for me, but I can’t guarantee that there might not be some issues for you.  Got it?  End of disclaimer.

Preliminaries:  I am assuming (yeah, I like to live dangerously) that you are familiar with the usual procedures of downloading and installing software.  If you aren’t, surely you know someone who can help you.  It’s not rocket science, but it’s good to be cautious, and read before you click!  If you are uncomfortable with some procedure, stop immediately and back out carefully.  Then again, you’re probably better off than the person who rushes in where techies fear to tread.  But I’m not sending you to any of those places!  I am using Windows XP, so if you are running a different Windows version, the details might be a bit different for you.

So. Cleanup and speedup.  Start with Ccleaner. This is an excellent, reliable tool that is way better than Windows’ Disk Cleanup.  Download, install, and run the cleaner.  Besides the file cleaner, it can also clean up your computer’s registry.  They also offer a couple of other applications that I haven’t had occasion to use; Defraggler, a customizable defrag tool and Recuva to recover lost/deleted files.  I’d trust them, though, based on my experience with Ccleaner.

Be aware that you want to clean up all those unnecessary files before doing any scans!  There’s no point in scanning hundreds of megs of temporary files.

Next up, MalwareBytes AntiMalware.  ‘Malware’ is a general term that covers many types of malicious and/or annoying software that you probably never asked for.  Download MalwareBytes, install, update and scan.  This one is first on my list because it was the only one that removed a nasty browser hijacker for me a while back.  A couple of other well-known and reliable tools I would happily recommend are Spybot and Ad-Aware.  Unlike antivirus programs, you can safely install more than one anti-malware product.  So if you’re a belt-and-suspenders kind of person, have at it.  Again, download, install, update and scan.  Next time, remember to check for updates before you scan.

Defragmenting your computer’s hard disk can help speed up and optimize its performance.  You may or may not notice a difference, but it’s a good thing to do from time to time, especially if you’ve been deleting or uninstalling a bunch of stuff.  I frequently use Auslogics Disk Defrag.  It’s much faster than Windows defrag, and does a better job.  If it’s important to make sure you free up contiguous space on your hard drive (say, for example, that you need to create a new partition) go for JkDefrag.   Be sure to read the installation instructions – this one is not quite so automatic, but it’s very thorough!

If you don’t already have an antivirus program running (and if you don’t, you will soon be in BIG trouble), run, don’t walk, to get your very own AVG Free for your personal computer (not your company’s computer).  Again, download, install, update and scan.  It will automatically check for updates, so you don’t have to remember.  They also make a paid version with additional features that I like better than the other big-name antivirus programs that you buy off the shelf.

In conclusion, there’s one more built-in Windows tool that you should know about.  Click Start > Control Panel to see the ‘Add or Remove Programs’ utility.  If you see things in this list that you KNOW you are no longer using, and you KNOW WHAT THEY ARE, remove them.  DO NOT just remove stuff because you’ve never heard of it!  That way lies madness.

Now, after you’ve done all that, restart your computer.  Doesn’t it feel all nice and clean and safe?

But now, two new issues are up, with some great designs! Go have a look at the new Twist Collective and Knotions! I am enjoying them, and hope you will, too.

Most online magazines mimic their print cousins to some extent, with articles, patterns, and advertising. The big advantage to publishing online is that production and distribution are so easy and cheap. Depending on the format, that is. Some of the most feature-rich ones aren’t cheap at all, I don’t expect, but are still in a whole different cost class than print publication.

Fair warning: this is a long post with no pictures to liven it up, but I thought I’d get through it all at once instead of breaking it up. So go have a look at some of these sites and see if you agree with me or not! Oh, and the entries are in no particular order. (You should be proud of me. It’s not easy to do ‘random’ with as many years of library work under your belt as I have.)

Knitter’s Review
An online newsletter, not in the “usual” e-zine format, since it doesn’t feature patterns. For me, the strength of this publication is the yarn review archive. Other reviews include books and tools, plus some good how-tos. There are lots of polls which you may find interesting (“Do you believe in the curse of the love sweater?”), and various other information which is faithfully updated. Quality stuff, which you would expect, since it’s written by Clara Parkes, author of The Knitter’s Book of Yarn.
Weekly, through email subscription or RSS feed

Knitonthenet
Started in 2006, Knit on the Net is based in the UK. It took me a while to figure that out! That’s one of the great things about the Internet – many of those boundaries are now invisible or nonexistent. Too bad “free shipping in the UK” from an advertiser doesn’t do me any good. There are several patterns per issue, a few articles and reviews.
3 issues per year, irregular publication dates

Black Purl Magazine
“Featuring ethnic-inspired stitches and stories”, online issues began in 2007. It’s light on the patterns, but has had some interesting articles. “Ethnic” is interpreted very broadly, so you’ll find inspiration from Japan to Norway and back around again. I just wish the navigation on this site was a little easier.
Quarterly; companion newsletter and blog

Knitty
Probably the best-known of the online knitting magazines, and its reputation is well deserved. It features a wide variety of patterns from easy and/or classic to entertaining way-out-in-left-field. The only annoyance for me is that it’s hard to tell from some of their thumbnail pictures what those items are, so you may have to click on one to see if it’s a sweater or… whatever. Excellent articles cover a broad spectrum of knitting-related topics, from pattern drafting and color advice to spinning and fiber information, to basic and advanced techniques. Again, it can be hard to tell from the article titles in the right sidebar exactly, or even remotely, what they are about. So you go exploring, and maybe read good stuff you wouldn’t have read otherwise.
Quarterly; “Coffeeshop” forum and chat for registered members

Knotions
This is a fairly new entry in the field. At this writing, the winter 2008 issue is a week late going online, so I hope there aren’t any problems. There are some really nice patterns in the fall issue, and based on the preview of the winter issue, that trend of quality designs is continuing. A couple of articles, a couple of reviews, and some techniques round out the issue. I think this is a really promising site, and plan to keep an eye on it.
Quarterly (?), companion blog, RSS feed

The Inside Loop
Another recent entry, their third issue is up now. This British-based publication has fairly modest but pleasing content, with 8 patterns for sweaters and accessories in the current issue. I especially liked the article by Cindy Moore on rewriting vintage (OLD vintage, not 70s!) lace patterns, with several examples. Another article on charts, by Kate Blackburn, makes a good pairing.
Quarterly, companion blog

Popknits
Brand new on the scene, Popknits focuses on vintage patterns as inspiration for contemporary knitters. Their definition of vintage is 1970s and before… that’s a lot of territory, with lots of possibilities! I was interested to see a different Cindy Moore article, “Rewriting Vintage Patterns”. I happen to have an 1848 needlework book, so I think I might be able to use some of her tips to make sense of its instructions!
Quarterly(?); mailing list subscription, RSS feeds

MetaPostModernKnitting
Generally speaking, anything with the “postmodern” label will have me turning on my heel and heading off in the opposite direction, but I was intrigued by this new (second issue out now) online magazine. It’s predicting the future, not looking at the past. Very tied in to the fashion industry, it has color and design forecasts, plus a dozen patterns in this issue. I really like the line drawings that link to detailed pattern information – those simple sketches give you a nice sense of the project. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by the real-world patterns, as opposed to the avant-garde designs (also linked to on this site) that are only worn for a few seconds on the runway… but I will admit to a certain bizarre fascination with them, too! I’m a new regular visitor to this site.
Biannual; companion blog provides monthly updates between the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter issues

Twist Collective
I’m waiting with bated breath for their second issue! The premier issue lived up to its hype – it’s just beautiful. Its layout is much more like a print magazine, with careful styling and photography. Expect to page through advertisements. I don’t mind, since I think those can be interesting and inspirational, both online and in print. Of course, we now have broadband at home, so I might have minded a lot more if I had been paging through last year on dial-up! The other thing that is different about TC is that the patterns are not free. That’s certainly not a problem for me; I will buy a whole magazine for one pattern I really want, so will happily pay a few dollars for one enchanting pattern from this site. Especially when I know that the designers are actually getting a significant chunk of the money, not just the publisher.
Quarterly, monthly email newsletters to subscribers and companion blog

For spinners:

Spindlicity
This spindle-oriented ezine has been around for a little while, but has evidently undergone a revamping. Archived issues from Winter 2005 through Winter 2006 are available online, but I couldn’t find the 2007 or earlier 2008 issues, even on The Wayback Machine. Anyway, it’s here now, and is definitely worth a look! Even if you’re wheel-addicted, you will still want to explore. They don’t want any spinner to feel left out. Just prepare to be tempted by the gorgeous handmade spindles featured in articles and ads! There are patterns for projects (mostly small ones), some good tips and techniques, and profiles of interesting craftstpeople. But I think its real strength is the articles. The Fall 2008 issue focuses on silk, and anyone will come away with some new information.
Three times a year, February, June and October; companion blog and Yahoo! group

Knittyspin
This recent – ahem – spinoff of Knitty is just the quality you’d expect, and is in fact an extension of the spinning articles that Knitty has included for a long time in its flagship magazine. The two are intertwined, and link merrily back and forth to each other. It looks like there are plans to expand it even more, since the audience is expanding as more and more knitters are getting bitten by the spinning bug.

Well, that’s it for today… there may be new online knitting magazines out tomorrow (or yesterday) that I haven’t run across yet. If you find any, please let me know, okay?

]]> http://prairiespinner.com/2008/11/09/ezines-electroniconline-magazines/feed/ 0 http://prairiespinner.com/2008/09/21/an-audiophile-and-audio-files/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=an-audiophile-and-audio-files http://prairiespinner.com/2008/09/21/an-audiophile-and-audio-files/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:49:57 +0000 prairiespinner http://prairiespinner.wordpress.com/?p=274 Continue reading →]]> I am a big fan of audio books. I’ve always loved reading, which is how I got started working in/with libraries, but there are a lot of times in my life right now when I just can’t read… like when I am driving! Or knitting. Although I can read while knitting something really simple, if the book also does not require much concentration. (I wrote a while back about podcasts, which I tend to alternate with unabridged audio books.)

iPod Sock

I got an iPod recently, and since I read that the video screens can scratch easily, wanted to be sure to keep it protected. I realized that some of the demonstration yarn I spun during the Kansas State Fair would be just about enough for this little project, so I grabbed some double-pointed needles, knitted a 2×2 rib tube, and sewed it shut at the bottom. I used the tail end of blue yarn to crochet a little loop, and voila! had an iPod sock! I found a wonderful button that just matches the grape Kool-Aid color. Obviously, the yarn was spun from the Kool-Aid dyed Merino top that I spun and chain-plied into a substantial little 3-ply. I feel like I have to apologize or explain… it’s lumpier than my usual handspun, because I was paying more attention to the people than the fiber most of the time.

Anyhow, having the iPod meant that I had a few new things to learn about audio files. I try really hard not to get on my soap box about proprietary file types and software, because I don’t want to put anyone off exploring this great option!

So where do you find audio books? My favorite place is the OverDrive site in my state. As I’ve said before, “free” is well within my price range! OverDrive is a company that contracts with various libraries (city, regional, or state) which then create collections that registered borrowers can check out for free! Each contracting library decides on its own policies, but basically, you check out titles for a certain loan period, download the files to your computer, and can then listen to them on the computer, transfer to an mp3 player, or in some cases, burn to CDs. Go to this OverDrive search page, click on your country’s name under the “Search Libraries” heading, and see if there is a participating library in your area. Then contact them to find out how to get signed up.

Other places to download free audio books are LibriVox and the Gutenberg Project. These sites specialize in public domain titles, so you won’t find the latest best-sellers here, but you will find some great classics. The Gutenberg Project lists titles in an amazing array of languanges, including Maori and Sanskrit, to name just a couple!

You can, of course, purchase your audio books. I finally decided to go for a minimal subscription with Audible.com. There are many others out there, but I only have experience with Audible.

iPod in sock

Will all of these audio books play on my device? Ah, there’s the rub! Maybe, but maybe not. You know about the Windows/Apple war? If you have a Mac, you can’t run a lot of Windows applications, etc., etc. That conflict over market share rears its ugly head here, too. Apple’s iPods currently dominate the mp3 player market. But iPods don’t play Windows Media Audio files (.wma file extension). There are plenty of other mp3 players that will play .wma files, but they may or may not play nicely with proprietary software.

Here’s where I am really tempted to climb up on that soapbox, but let me just say that my suggestion is to look for audio books that are compatible with your device, and forget about the rest. Or, if you haven’t bought an mp3 player yet, do a little homework and find out what you really want to listen to, what your audio source will be, and let that be part of your decision-making process.

Any of these portable devices will play mp3 files. That’s the major ‘generic’ audio file type. There are a bunch of file types out there; I was annoyed to find that Audible uses a different one (.aa extension, presumably Audible Audio). OverDrive was, until recently, offering only .wma files, so iPod users were out of luck. But they have started carrying some mp3 files now, and I look for the list of titles to grow very quickly.

Be prepared to download and install free software to manage your new audio files. The vendor website will tell you if you need to install any software, and should have instructions. I currently use OverDrive Media Console, Audible Manager, and iTunes. See? I told you it was annoying. However, I am willing to put up with a bit of annoyance to listen to hours of lovely books!

Your new software should direct you through downloading audio files and transferring them to your device. A word to the wise: if you are paying for a subscription service or purchasing individual titles, try to find out for sure beforehand if your mp3 player is compatible with their files and software!

Ripping and burning… Of course, if you already have music or audio books on CD, you can rip them from CD and transfer them to your mp3 player. Some audio books, like selected titles from OverDrive, can be burned to CD so you can listen any time in your car. The software you downloaded to manage your audio files OR the software you got with your mp3 player or your computer should be able to do the trick.

Speaking of CDs, there’s yet another file type wrinkle. *sigh* Audio books on CD now come in mp3 versions. The standard for CDs has long been .cda (compact disc audio??), which is what your CD players know and play. New mp3 CDs don’t work in any but the newest CD players that are made to handle them. The advantage is that they have a much higher compression rate, so the same audio book would fit on fewer mp3 CDs than standard CDs. Of course, your computer knows how to play them, even if your CD player doesn’t!

Who knows what the future will bring? My take on this whole thing is that we’d better plan on flexibility. Changes in technology and format are coming faster all the time, and there’s no end in sight.

Oh, yeah, one more piece of advice. If you have some especially precious audio files (or any other kind of files, for that matter) be aware that as time goes by, you may need to convert those to newer file types and/or formats before it’s too late! Those 8-track tapes my husband still has in the closet aren’t doing him a bit of good.