In case you were wondering, "Proprietary software has more features. Period. Proprietary software is much more user-friendly" (p. 6). I also call your attention to the completely information-less graphs on page 4. Now, I'm not saying the whole thing is bogus, but, um, yeah. A whole lot of it is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
- Imitation lris
My favorite line so far is "From the point of view of the end user, the ILS workflows and the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) are invisible and are truly adaptable to the Internet." (p. 5) Edited to add: That would be the SirsiDynix ILS and OPAC. I would think that something that was "truly adaptable to the Internet" would have permalinks, but what do I know?
- laura x
I just shake my head... it's all I can do...
- holly
"We certify some third parties using actual tests to ensure that the customer experience is as seamless as possible."
- laura x
"more user-friendly" - Mwahahahaha!!! Laura, re permalinks (and also accessibility to search engines), at LIANZA09 Tim Spalding said that libraries shouldn't worry about Web 2.0 until they'd figured out Web 1.0. :-)
- Deborah Fitchett
my favourite bit is where Cliff Lynch calls GA PINES Evergreen development one of "the stupidest strategies ever undertaken" and doesn't cite his source. ah....
- tara
Also, it amuses me that the last page of the document is all contact information for SirsiDynix sales reps.
- laura x
Ok, gang...I've scraped the text of this thing, and have it as a Google Doc for markup/corrective purposes. If you want to help annotate, email me your preferred google docs email address and I'll add you: griffey at gmail
- Jason Griffey
Reading it some more, it's clearly *not* an authoritative study of OSS vs. proprietary software, it's an infomercial aimed at selling Sirsi-Dynix products to customers.
- josh neff, geek at large
The single oddest thing about this to me is the photo of the Asian woman with the braids at the bottom of each page next to Abram's name.
- s t e v e
Some S-D customer should sue them because THAT IS NOT WHAT STEPHEN ABRAM LOOKS LIKE!
- josh neff, geek at large
Iris, I am half-tempted to go through the entire document and put [needs citation] (à la Wikipedia) everywhere it needs one...
- Laura H.
oh my. i am no longer at a sirsidynix library, but i did attend the final codi (customers of dynix inc) conference in salt lake city in 2006, where we heard great pronouncements from the company about horizon 8/corinthian at the same time we were hearing worrisome rumblings from libraries on the leading edge of the rollout -- the prelude to a spectacular flameout that is still smoldering in a courtroom in new york. all i can think about are glass houses and rocks.
- Luke Rosenberger
There are lots of things to find hilarious about this screed, but for me, the cake is entirely taken by the ubiquitous asian woman.
- Imitation lris
Iris, you crack me up! Love the name and avatar!
- Laura B.
Cliff Lynch supports me in unspecified documents.
- s t e v e
and, who is the Asian woman in the footer? wtf?
- tara
Hush, y'all. Don't you know we're not supposed to question our profession's attempts at tokenization...er... diversity?
- cecily
I find the entire design hysterical. Not just the ubiquitous, random Asian woman, but the whole official report template they use, which is obviously intended to make this screed appear more credible, official and objective. Pish posh, we are not so easily fooled.
- marthalib
yeah, trying to pull an Australasian Journal of ILS Studies on *librarians* is kinda goofy.
- D0r0th34
this is starting to really piss me off, wtf like how fuck'n big is this son of a bitch file? Fuck this ctrl+alt+del adios MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!
- sofarsoShawn
HEEHEEHEE!!!! I got my partner with it!! HEEHEEHEEEEE!!!
- Bec Rowe @d0tski
Hey now, LG, Looney Tunes is frakking awesome. How about Disney buying Pixar? Oh, wait..... (and actually, that one hasn't worked out badly, so is there yet hope?)
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
++ Jandy -> How about Dreamworks buying Studio Ghibli?
- LogEx
*smacks MVB* How DARE you besmirch tinker toys!!! Oh, and what's up with fiddling with your name, you trying to make me get MDV and MVB confused?
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Men find thin, seductive women most attractive. In other news, Atlantic Ocean found to contain vast amount of water [Obvious] - http://www.fark.com/cgi...
I tend to object with this sentiment in part that, due to my experiences, some non-thin, gracile women are very seductive and attractive too.
- Terence