Kudos to Microsoft for enabling an easy way to add them. No longer do we have to download fonts, insert symbols, or mess with virtual keyboards. There’s an add-in for Word 2007. Granted, it’s been around since 2001, but it’s much easier to use in the new format of Word. Östen Dahl originally wrote the plugin, which works for Word 97, 2000, or later.

Just get the uniqoder.dot file and save it to your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Startup folder.

Special thanks to Hans-Jörg Bibiko for providing the template, modifying it for Mac Word, and providing a nice, simple explanation on his website.

Visit http://email.eva.mpg.de/~bibiko/downloads/uniqoder/uniqoder.html to read more and to get the template.

Cnet has a good article about Chrome: Why I Switched from Firefox to Chrome. The author, Stephen Shankland, does some great comparisons and talks about the strengths and weaknesses of both browsers. It’s definitely worth a read and some clicks on the embedded links.

And definitely give Google Chrome a try. It’s a little different but you will probably like it.

A creepy treehouse is a place built by scheming adults to lure in kids. Kids tend to sense there’s something creepy about that treehouse and avoid it. Hence, a new definition: “Any institutionally-created, operated, or controlled environment in which participants are lured in either by mimicking pre-existing open or naturally formed environments, or by force, through a system of punishments or rewards.”

It’s an interesting take on that vaguely unsettled response we sometimes get from students when we try to be too cool, try too hard to seem fun and playful, when we make familiar toys unpalatably “educational.” Setting up an outpost in an attractive playspace with an ulterior motive is just . . . creepy.

Please visit the ACRLog and read her full article. It’s quite insightful and applicable in today’s “Library 2.0″ environment.

Pretty handy for those of us who use RSS feeds very much. Give it a try. It’s FREE!!

Last fall we implemented Meebo in a test mode as it were, to get the functionality of widgets on our web pages. One of the strengths of Meebo is their MeeboMe widget, which puts an IM window right on your web page, interfacing with the instant messenger at your own computer (in this case, at our Reference Desk). The drawback of Meebo is that it’s web based (a good thing), requiring you to always have a browser window open and dedicated to Meebo (a bad thing). If you’re on another tab in your browser, the only notification was the other tab’s favicon blinking, which is small and easy to miss.

Enter Pidgin. It’s a new and slightly improved version of GAIM, which is what we used at the Reference Desk before Meebo because it allowed us to connect with multiple IM accounts from one interface. And it’s open source.

With this Meebo plugin for Pidgin, you can just use Pidgin the way you normally would (complete with background running when minimized and popups when new messages come in) and still connect with your MeeboMe widgets. It’s the best of both worlds! I’ve tried it at our Reference Desk and on my personal computers and it works great!

As Chad put it, MeeboMe and Pidgin is like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups — two great tastes that taste great together!

Thanks, Chad!

There are some insightful references to the latest OCLC report and some related blogs.