Each floor in New York City’s Library Hotel is devoted to one of ten Dewey Decimal Classification categories, and the six rooms on each floor contain books from a specific topic in that category. The hotel is near the New York Public Library, where hotel management would probably prefer people to check their books out from. According to one article, book lovers are leaving with more than the towels from their rooms. Perhaps they need to have their 6,000 books catalogued into the honor bar system. (thanks for the tip Mark!)

Every October I try to stop by the Bay Area Glass Institute‘s Glass Pumpkin Patch. It’s a fun event with glass pumpkins of all sizes and colors scattered about the grass. I wasn’t entirely surprised to find, as I was going through the MIT Glass Lab‘s pages, a link to their own Glass Pumpkin Patch. It’s a great fund raising idea for a glass shop, after all. But I was surprised to find that the connection was tight. BAGI was founded by an MIT alum and glass blowers from the Bay Area traveled to MIT to work on pumpkins for a September sale. It’s not just computer engineering that links the two locations together. (MIT link via Bifurcated Rivets)

If you’ve met a lot of stereotypical computer geeks, you’ve probably met your share of Leathermans. I see them attached to belts everywhere in the Sili Valley. Brand Channel has a feature on this versatile tool. Written by a writer based in South Africa, it gives a unique perspective on how Leatherman grew its business in that country by forming personal relationships with retailers and providing over-the-top customer repair services. It was a trip in an ailing Fiat devoid of tools that spurred engineer Tim Leatherman to spend seven years creating the popular multi-tool.

The first laptop I used regularly was a GRiD, not surprising since I was working there. I don’t recall the exact model, but I remember I loved its pointing device which was an Isobar. I haven’t seen one since and I have difficulty describing it to people. A web search revealed that the Outbound Notebook, a Macintosh portable “clone” (they could not legally sell the Mac ROMS so they were somewhat doomed), also featured this device. You can see the Isobar in the photos and there’s a description: “a metal tube located just below the keyboard. It can roll forwards and back, or slide left and right.” Because of the length of the tube, you could use either (or both) thumbs to control the movement, and you could press down for a mouse click. I became very accustomed to it and struggled with all subsequent portable pointing devices with the exception of IBM’s Trackpoint.

Butterflies of North America and Moths of North America are “works in progress” from the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center. There are detailed listings by state and even checklists by county. Photos and particulars about habitat and life cycle help you identify any flutter-bys you’ve seen in your travels. The extensive references list everything from the Peterson Field Guides to master’s theses.

The situation at the Sony Metreon in San Francisco continues to go downhill. Even Spiderman, currently crawling down the side of the building, can’t save the day because although the movie theatres are pulling in capacity crowds, that hasn’t translated into retail store sales. The customer-relations staff has been let go and Sony may hand over the reins to a mall management firm. The Discovery Channel store is looking bare with cutbacks on inventory, MicrosoftSF left in November, and Sony isn’t looking to duplicate this facility, once considered a model for future sites elsewhere.

(Administrative note: May archive not working yet because of a Blogger bug.)

This Japanese Sword Index has very detailed and thorough information about sword types, blades, tangs, even flaws. The interesting facts just keep going with details on swordsmiths and history. I was planning to link to this last week, but the ISPs data transfer quota had been exceeded, and I can understand why! Click early, but perhaps not too often.

American Airlines retired their last Boeing 727 Tuesday with a customary water cannon salute. Not knowing what that was, I dug up a page with photos of the water sendoff given to another 727 a couple years ago. It is similar to the effect done by fire boats. Passengers were also given commemorative plaques; perhaps airplane memorabilia collectors will be checking eBay in a few days?

MIT is still trying to get their paw back. You know that joke about the dog with a lame leg that walks into a bar? I think Tim the Beaver can relate.