Library of Congress to archive Twitter tweets

According to this CNN Tech story on April 14, 02010, the Library of Congress announced that it will be archiving all public tweets from Twitter. No doubt some Senators will go all Proxmire over this seeming waste of taxpayers' dollars.

The Bigger Picture, Visual Archives and the Smithsonian blog

Thanks to Peter Kurilecz on the Yahoo! PhotoHistory group, here's the Smithsonian Institution's photography and artwork blog, The Bigger Picture, Visual Archives and the Smithsonian.

Twittering in the ivory tower archives Manitoba style

As announced on ARCAN-L (02010 04 09):

The University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections is now on Twitter. Follow us at http://twitter.com/umarchives and receive frequent updates on new acquisitions, descriptions, digital collections, upcoming events, YouTube and blog uploads and more.

Smithsonian Institution Collections Blog

The Smithsonian Institution has a Collections Blog using Google Blogger/Blogspot. The first post was on December 23, 02009, which was also the first and only post of 02009, and by April 5, 02010 there were a total of 48 posts for 02010. Not a high volume, but very enlightening and entertaining.

Recommended: VMplayer for your virtual machine appliances

I've been trying out virtual macine software that allows me to run Linux distributions on a Windows PC. I discovered that Sun VirtualBox, which was the first one I tried, does not currently support the 64-bit edition of Windows even though the download page indicates it does. The latest release is version 3.1.6. build 59338, which appeared on March 25, 02010. Sun VirtualBox is open source and Oracle, which now owns Sun Microsystems, continues to maintain it. Versions prior to 3.1.6 may have worked on a 64-bit Windows PC.

As an alternative to Sun VirtualBox for those of you faced with the challenge of finding 64-bit VM software, I can recommend the free VMplayer from VMware. While it is not open source, it is a well-supported application and, according to the Web site, there are "over 200 supported operating systems including Windows 7, Chrome OS, Ubuntu 9.04, and many other versions of Windows, Linux, and more." VMware also offers a free Web browser virtual machine application called VMware Server. VMware Server offers many more options for setting up a virtual machine but in my one attempt to get one running, I had no luck. Also, you can only install EITHER VMware Player or VMware Server on a single Windows PC. The installation wizards for both will detect the other.

VMware's Virtual Appliances Marketplace is a good place to start with finding VMware compatible virtual machine appliances.

If you are looking for Linux operating system VM distributions, the best place to begin is with the Linhost VMware Repository.