memoryfailure electronic redundancy

Although I haven't been able to spend much time in here lately, the library carrel I have in the main library at Illinois has been one of my most treasured writing instruments.

Maybe it's just superstition, but I feel so much more focused in here. Writing sessions at home rarely last more than an hour or two. In the carrel, four hours or more are standard. The lack of wireless internet access probably contributes the most to these longer sessions. (Not that I waste time looking at frivolous blogs about moleskine notebooks, pens, and web 2.0 vaporware--it's all legitimate research spurred by citation requirements in the diss!)

Of course, there's more to it than lack of web distractions. As you can see, it's a spartan room, and small. Some people like to write at those tables in the library, looking up at everyone who walks by, but I need the walls. Even those half carrels with little dividers aren't enough (although I use those at the libraries in Bloomington-Normal when necessary)--actual walls are the best. The closer to a monk's cell the better I guess.

Note the pretty flowers left by previous occupant, as well as moleskine notebook (featured in earlier post) on the desk. Also, for some reason, two non-functioning lamps. And an inoperable clock. I think the less I do to make this space "my own," the more I'm able to keep it my superstitious productivity area.

Although there are windows that could be potentially distracting, as you can tell, it's not much of a view. The shelves contain journals on economics and business theory, so no temptations there either.

For the last several weeks, sprinklers have been installed in all the carrels for fire safety, and the screeching sound of cutting metal pipes has kept me far away from my carrel and the library. After Thanksgiving though, I'm hoping they'll be done, or at least moved on to somewhere out of earshot.

For some time, I've used the web developer toolbar for firefox to check out css code on other people's sites and debug stuff on pages that I've created. Just like I once used view source to learn to make web pages in the first place (it's a bit more difficult now that scripting languages and such are way out of my league).

In the course of trying to re-design the css for this blog (which uses drupal and thus creates css pages on the fly out of a whole host of locations from php files), I came across another suggested tool on a drupal forum: firebug.

Firebug sits at the bottom of my firefox browser by default (as opposed to web developer, which sits at the top) and takes up quite a bit more room when it's activated, but none when it's not. But it displays incredibly useful and timely information in all that space. For instance, at the left side of the screen you could see this:

a collapsible hierarchy of the html code of the site. Clicking on the code highlights the relevant display in the browser window above. Awesome! Even better, on the right side of the screen you get this:

display of the css code that's applied to the html code displayed in the left side of the window. Which, in drupal, is essential, since any part of the screen could be affected by a module's css, or the default, or the theme's, or whatever! What's more, you can click the "edit" button, and just start typing over any of the values, or type in some new ones and see in the above browser window how those code alterations change the display. Because editing in firebug doesn't actually edit the site's code (there's no entering of server passwords, at least I haven't looked for such a feature), you can mess around quite a bit, then put the code you want into your html and css files yourself. Really, the most useful new media writing tool I've come across in some time.

My dissertation topic, writing with computers, has had me focused on the digital for quite some time, and even prior to the diss I was always on the lookout for new digital writing software. I'm constantly thinking about better ways to take notes. How can I find them again? How can I insure that they'll reappear at a timely moment, ready to break me out of writer's block or remind me of an important point or argument? Paper seems useless for this--the various versions of digital butlers and librarians can stay constantly vigilant, reviewing archived material and comparing it with the new.

Yet, I've recently become a convert to the new geek trend--the paper Moleskine notebook. Although usually associated with the GTD philosophy of work, I'm finding GTD less and less useful--I'm simply not that busy. But, I do need to get sh-t done, and the moleskine is perfect for that quick note that turns the distracting idea into the motivating action plan.

After modding my moleskine for immediate pen access, I'm ready to write whenever.

Contrast this with my digital PDA, that I was reluctant to cart around at all times, and always reset itself if I forgot to plug it in.

Lastly, of course, there's that handy pocket in the back.

Haven't put anything terribly cool in there yet, but, as soon as I have something cool, there's a place to put it!

Currently though, my favorite thing about this notebook is its new name. I showed it to my advisor one afternoon, then at a reading group she saw that several people had them out, and said "look, you've got one of those mole books too." So, now I affectionately think of it as my "mole book," and lately, it's been a prime instrument of writing. Actual printed words go in it, and, more importantly, it directs and organizes my other (digital) writing work.

It seems Intel is horning in on one of my main dissertation questions. Of course, they come up with different answers (by asking some leading follow-up questions):

Since when does "delivering faster processing performance" function as a point on the timeline of a computer's "birth"? Or "amazing battery life"? Some rightly acknowledge the slipperiness of the term. It's certainly possible to argue that a computer becomes a computer with the connection of the CPU to the motherboard (regardless of the Intel logo's presence). But this too is a narrow perspective. What about the addition of a GUI, a monitor, a keyboard? Or maybe, going all the way back, just being hired for the job?

Larry David on the materiality of writing technology:

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