Destiny awaits or The Queens new computer system

Lime Green Knight says Destiny conversion will be "transparent".

The Lime Green Knight says that the conversion to Destiny will be "transparent". The Dots are wondering what that means. The Dots thought it meant "free from guile, candid or open", so that all of the "stakeholders", the librarians, the peasants, the village headmen and, yea, even the Dots, would be informed of all discussions. This is obviously not true since a meeting about the conversion was held last Friday and only Sage and Silver were invited...and only for part of the meeting. Then Silver found a different definition of transparent on the the WEB. According to that definition, transparent means you can't see what they are doing. That definition matches very well with the way the Black Queen operates. She definitely doesn't want people seeing what she does. Then there is the definition of transparent that is like window glass...you can see through the window and if it's very clean, you can't see the window glass itself. It's invisible. So maybe Destiny is also invisible, or as we say in the computer biz, "virtual". If Destiny is "virtual" then it would work with virtual servers, virtual networks, and a virtual student download from the Great Desert software. That must be it. That must be why the Black Queen and the Lime Green Knight keep saying we don't need to worry about network speed even though our networks consist primary of geriatric hamsters running on old squeaky wheels. Destiny, the Queen's new computer system, must be virtual. The Lime Green Knight said that the purpose of the meeting Friday was to "answer questions". Silver and Sage did ask a lot of questions however, neither Silver nor Sage can remember any answers being given. Maybe the answers are virtual as well.


If the Black Queen's operations were actually transparent, perhaps there wouldn't be quite as many of these "stakeholders".

Destiny

Are you findin' Destiny fair, Silver, Sage, Black Queen and Lime?
Remember taxpayers will pay for your share, if you think Destiny's fine.

The Black Queen invited Sage and Silver to an audience last week with IDEA, the Lime Green Knight, and the Lords of Folly and Destiny. Silver wasn't quite sure what the meeting was about. Silver and Sage discussed cataloging arcana to the dismay of the Black Queen who kept poking her blackberry imp in a effort to find out who this guy MARC is. Most of Silver's questions started out with "When...?" and were answered with "We'll decide that later." "Later, when?" "We'll decide that later as well." Silver suspects the answer is "After you leave the room." but then Silver always was something of a pessimist. The Lords of Folly had a Powerpoint but none of the slides seemed to have the answers to questions either. Then Silver and Sage were dismissed and the next group was admitted to Audience. According to IDEA, the Duchy is reluctant to consider allowing students to look at library catalogs from home citing "Security Issues". Possibly the Black Queen is afraid that this guy MARC is a terrorist? Possibly MARC is a member of dreaded DDC Underground, dedicated to classifying all of the knowledge in the world? Later Purple and Silver discussed the question of Security. Purple thinks the right approach is to equip all workstations with a Matthew Brady Security System, a black hood attached to the monitor, with drawcords like a theatre curtain. When a user is accessing secret information like library records they can throw the hood over their head and shoulders thus protecting the free world from knowledge of the existence of Books... in School Libraries.
Incidentally, if you think the DDC Underground is just another urban myth, you should read about their counterpart organization, Al Gebra.
In this busy holiday season, while celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah, don't forget to include Holiday, the Pastafarian winter holiday.
Happy Holiday!

Mysterious appearances in Dotland

Once again the SNEAC building is the site of uncanny occurrences. Bundles of curious metal cages have been appearing in unusual places, then disappearing and reappearing in other places. Some sort of structure is being built across the ceiling, going around the edges of the room, disappearing into holes in the ceiling even though no workers are ever seen. Is this some sort of Close Encounters thing? Are aliens building a mysterious device to trap the inhabitants of the SNEAC building? (Well, probably aliens are building it. Aliens do all of the construction in Arizona.) Silver thinks the new structure looks like a hamster run. Sage is hoping it's a track for an electric train. She thinks a nice train running around below the ceiling, blowing its whistle at crossing, would add a nice homey atmosphere to the place. Bringing the Dots back down to Earth, Black-and-Yellow Dot of Bombs and Engineering, says the new structure is cable runs for wiring. Of course, one of the other Dots heard a rumor that the SNEAC building is going wireless. Let's see. The SNEAC building is currently wired but doesn't have any cable runs. Now it's going to be wireless so they are installing cable runs for the non-wires. Makes perfect sense.

Holidays in Dotland

Dotland, and the rest of the SNEAC building, has been decorated for the holidays, Christmas tree and all. The Dots were invited to a Christmas party by the Black Queen but decided it wouldn't fit into their busy social schedule. (Actually, invitations from the Black Queen always make the Dots nervous and they have to go and lie down in a darkened room.) Blue is on a trip. Sage is immersed in arcane cataloging spells. Silver sits in her cubby all day poking at the Grand Union and muttering "That's not right.." under her breath. Purple and Turquoise are kept busy answering budget questions (But how can I be overdrawn when I still have checks left!) Maybe it's time for a looong vacation. What do you think?

What's happening in Libraryland?

IDEA would very much like all of the Duchy or at least the LibraryLand part of it to reside in the Province of Perfect, where all books and other things are perfectly cataloged , all libraries spend all of their budget but not a penny more, and all libraries have enough computers. Unfortunately, the Duchy is not being cooperative about being perfect. So IDEA and the Dots spent the day pondering some eternal questions.
Why are some libraries over budget and it's not even Christmas?
Why does the librarian who cares the most about perfect records get all of the really bad ones? Some librarians don't really care how it looks and the Grand Union never dumps really bad records on them.
Why have some library computers mysteriously (or maybe not so mysteriously) disappeared?
Why doesn't the Duchy have an official definition of a Teacher-Librarian, even though GoG insists that she created one? Is it possible that GoG's creations just melt away over time like snowflakes in the sun? Is the Black Queen hoping that GoG can make DotLand melt away over time?
Why can't even the Diva get Professional Learning credit approved by the Preventer of Professional Learning? (IDEA has been assured that the Preventer of Professional Learning will approve HER paperwork. Silver has heard THAT before.)
Well, that's enough deep thoughts for a Friday afternoon. It's time to go out and play!

News from Dotland

News! What News? Since nothing much new has been happening in Dotland, we'll talk about what hasn't happened.

• The call for a replacement of IDEA has not been made. (Actually, since the new one is supposed to be permanent and full time, it wouldn't really be IDEA. Maybe just DEA?) The original announcement that there would be a new Director attracted a lot of attention. However, those eager applicants holding their breath waiting for the promised announcement have long since succumbed to lack of oxygen. Librarians are assuring IDEA that she is not interim at all but permanent. This is not welcome news to IDEA who has been thinking deep green thoughts of spring and topsoil and petunias and seedling tomatoes.
• Silver's promised new robes have not yet appeared. Labor problems? A strike at the factory perhaps? The designer broke his favorite pencil and was unable to continue? Silver has given up and is making her own robes.
• Destiny (or Fate or Doom or Dynasty or whatever you want to call it) has still not appeared either. Maybe this is a good time to explain the meaning of strophe and antistrophe. Picture a Greek chorus consisting of Gog and the Lime Green Knight, in appropriate Greek robes, dancing off stage left singing "Des-tiny is coming to town...by Christmas" (to the tune of "Santa Claus is coming to town"). That's strophe. Now picture the Black Dot Queen (I don't think we want to picture her in Greek robes, though. Let's just stick to her normal black robes with the ermine trim.) dancing off stage right singing "I never ever said that at all!" That's antistrophe.

Well, that's the non-news for today. We'll see what doesn't happen tomorrow. (Space is always an issue in publishing. With so much not happening, some non-events are bound to be omitted. We apologize if your favority non-event was overlooked.)