General Chit Chat

[Montreal Wanderer]

I used to work in life science publishing Monty. The attitude of the large publishers towards institutional customers with regards to pricing models was terrible. I left one of the larger publishers for a small one and regularly had librarians contacting me for help on my previous employers' journals! I left publishing many years ago, but I'm guessing not much has changed...

Actually there have been some improvements, AT. The multinationals like Elsevier and Springer still gouge every cent they can but the academics are fighting back. Granting agencies like the National Institute of Health in the US are saying that if a researcher accepts their money the resulting publication must be made freely available to the public. Many more open access sites (such as PubMed and the American Institute of Physics) and institutional repositories are making research freely available over the internet. Academics are refusing to sign copyright over to the big publishers (sometimes because the granting agencies won't let them). Multinationals no longer control academic publishing the way they did and are becoming more reasonable with us to keep their market share. I hope you didn't work for Robert Maxwell!

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Good to hear Monty. The small publisher I went to work for was the first open access publisher and worked closely with Pubmed/NIH in those early days. I remember well our first conference in LA. I sabotaged the booth of my former publisher to promote open access You may have mentioned said former publisher in your last post

[Dujon]

Thanks for the run down, Monty. It seems then that I'm a late adopter - which fits my prevaricator profile.

I had no idea that libraries provided the on-line services that they do. A visit to my local library seems in order. If they do provide access to a similar program then it is possible that they have a different 'aggregation'.

Oh, happy days!

[Gooner Girl]

Its cold and raining and i don't want to pull on shorts and go to work. I'm feeling very sleepy and would far rather curl up in bed. Moan over.

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 2:58 pm !!!

Yer lazy mare.

Oi! I'd been chasing 2 toddlers round soft play all morning. Love to see you attempt that!

[Montreal Wanderer]

Thanks for the run down, Monty. It seems then that I'm a late adopter - which fits my prevaricator profile.

I had no idea that libraries provided the on-line services that they do. A visit to my local library seems in order. If they do provide access to a similar program then it is possible that they have a different 'aggregation'.

Oh, happy days!

It might depend a little on the size of your local library. Rural Australian habitations can be pretty small, or so my son who spend time in Oakey, Queensland tells me. He's going back to RAAF Richmond in January and sounds happier about that. My older son has just returned from a month's holiday in Oz going from Rottnest Island via the twelve Apostles to Sydney. He took some spectacular pictures but so far has been too tired to talk to me.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Sitting daydreaming at the keyboard while downloading a humongous file and unbidden into my thoughts protruded a vision from yesteryear: massed ranks of fans waving inflatable fish. When was that? Was that the seventies when it was de rigeur at certain clubs to go armed with blow up hammers/fish/giraffes/canaries/etc etc.?

[thebish]

Sitting daydreaming at the keyboard while downloading a humongous file and unbidden into my thoughts protruded a vision from yesteryear: massed ranks of fans waving inflatable fish. When was that? Was that the seventies when it was de rigeur at certain clubs to go armed with blow up hammers/fish/giraffes/canaries/etc etc.?

is that some kind of euphemism for taking a dump?

[BWFC_Insane]

Sitting daydreaming at the keyboard while downloading a humongous file and unbidden into my thoughts protruded a vision from yesteryear: massed ranks of fans waving inflatable fish. When was that? Was that the seventies when it was de rigeur at certain clubs to go armed with blow up hammers/fish/giraffes/canaries/etc etc.?

is that some kind of euphemism for taking a dump?

Why would he do that at his keyboard?

[Bruce Rioja]

Sitting daydreaming at the keyboard while downloading a humongous file and unbidden into my thoughts protruded a vision from yesteryear: massed ranks of fans waving inflatable fish. When was that? Was that the seventies when it was de rigeur at certain clubs to go armed with blow up hammers/fish/giraffes/canaries/etc etc.?

is that some kind of euphemism for taking a dump?

Why would he do that at his keyboard?

Paperless deposit?

[thebish]

Sitting daydreaming at the keyboard while downloading a humongous file and unbidden into my thoughts protruded a vision from yesteryear: massed ranks of fans waving inflatable fish. When was that? Was that the seventies when it was de rigeur at certain clubs to go armed with blow up hammers/fish/giraffes/canaries/etc etc.?

is that some kind of euphemism for taking a dump?

Why would he do that at his keyboard?

there's these things called laptops....

[Bruce Rioja]

Sitting daydreaming at the keyboard while downloading a humongous file and unbidden into my thoughts protruded a vision from yesteryear: massed ranks of fans waving inflatable fish. When was that? Was that the seventies when it was de rigeur at certain clubs to go armed with blow up hammers/fish/giraffes/canaries/etc etc.?

is that some kind of euphemism for taking a dump?

Why would he do that at his keyboard?

Bog scroll? Craps lock?

[Lost Leopard Spot]

You're all very amusing when you get together. No Bish, not a euphemism, but part of my job. I get given large (Terry Bite sized b*stards some of them) files that I have to do things with [sorry for the in-depth technical language I'm having to employ] and on occassion (in fact most of the time) my beefed-up-abacus-descendent tries to vomit the files back out. When this happens I wait for minutes at a time to see if it can manage it (daydreaming of doing another job usually) and then inevitably turn my computer off and then on again and start all over again.

[thebish]

You're all very amusing when you get together. No Bish, not a euphemism, but part of my job.

I knew it!!!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Sitting daydreaming at the keyboard while downloading a humongous file and unbidden into my thoughts protruded a vision from yesteryear: massed ranks of fans waving inflatable fish. When was that? Was that the seventies when it was de rigeur at certain clubs to go armed with blow up hammers/fish/giraffes/canaries/etc etc.?

is that some kind of euphemism for taking a dump?

Why would he do that at his keyboard?

there's these things called laptops....

Nah. Them there iPads are far more user friendly and intuitive for such an occasion

* Sorry BWFCI. Couldn't resist

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Just got a Humdinga-bite sized file I need to download... I might be a while.

[thebish]

Sitting daydreaming at the keyboard while downloading a humongous file and unbidden into my thoughts protruded a vision from yesteryear: massed ranks of fans waving inflatable fish. When was that? Was that the seventies when it was de rigeur at certain clubs to go armed with blow up hammers/fish/giraffes/canaries/etc etc.?

is that some kind of euphemism for taking a dump?

Why would he do that at his keyboard?

Bog scroll? Craps lock?

Ploppy drive...

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Data dump.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Geek alert...


mysql> FLUSH LOGS;

[boltonboris]

I've just been for a shit