LibraryHypnotismThing
I made a page that shows books as they enter the system, in real time. I did it as a test of some new code, not because I thought it would be a cool feature.
I find it hypnotic, both fascinating and will-depleting at the same time. I hope you do too.
http://www.librarything.com/test_recentbooks.php
It does put the lie to the notion that LibraryThing is all about J. K. Rowling and Terry Pratchett. In fact, the most popular stuff is a tiny fraction of the whole. People are putting some very interesting collections up!
Update: This week I will (briefly) emerge from my post-baby hole and get a whole bunch of work done, so thank you for your patience and stay tuned.
I find it hypnotic, both fascinating and will-depleting at the same time. I hope you do too.
http://www.librarything.com/test_recentbooks.php
It does put the lie to the notion that LibraryThing is all about J. K. Rowling and Terry Pratchett. In fact, the most popular stuff is a tiny fraction of the whole. People are putting some very interesting collections up!
Update: This week I will (briefly) emerge from my post-baby hole and get a whole bunch of work done, so thank you for your patience and stay tuned.
posted by Tim at 9:19 PM
26 Comments:
I like it. It sort of fades in, like something coming out of the fog.
I hope everything is good with your new baby.
Where getting flooded on my side of the Central Valley here in California. Somewhat like Elnino in 97.
It's interesting to watch it happen. You start wondering, who just imputed and where from. Not suggesting that you add all that. Like it the way it is. Thanks again for all your hard work.
oops, i missed the user names and such.
I thought about that. But LibraryThing is "open by default." You can make your library private, but it's public by default. Importantly, you don't need to provide anything other than a user name—no real names, no email, etc. not even to the site itself...
OK, this is really, really cool. I got a comment from you on a book I just added, and wondered to myself, "How did he do that?" Lo and behold, here it is, the explanation for the spookiness! So I checked it out, and am fascinated by it. Thanks for making it available!
This feature reminds me of a story I read about Amazon.com once.
In their early days, they programmed a feature into their system where every time a book was purchased, an alert went off. At first, this happened rarely, and people in the office cheered every time it happened. Then it started happening more frequently, and people cheered their growing popularity. Then it was going off practically every minute and driving everyone mad, so they finally turned it off.
I suppose this is a roundabout way of saying that I hope one day LibraryThing reaches a similar level of success. :)
Hmmm... doesn't seem to be working for me. It shows one to three books (and maybe refreshes once or twice more) and then the "Checking" indicator just freezes on and the list comes to a screeching halt.
Hitting refresh just starts the whole soon-to-be-frozen cycle over with a new book or two (and I'm sure hitting refresh probably exacerbates something else at Librarything, too).
But, gosh, I WANT it to work ... it sounds really nifty! Since it seems to be working for others, it must be some setting on my own computer (I guess?).
Douglas
"In the end, only kindness matters"
(particularly for that new sweet baby of yours!).
A cool IDEA, but four computers and five browsers later I finally saw the "recent books" actually come up, but with the same freezing problem mentioned elsewhere.
How many users do you want hitting refresh every 30 seconds?
If you can make it work for more of us this would be really great to have somewhere on the site.
hailelib
Hey, what browser are you using when it doesn't work?
Also, I wonder about the time these came in. Although it does around 400/hour on average, that wouldn't be true early in the am.
T
I am having the same problem. Internet Explorer 6.0
I am also still having the user with your books problem. (if I ask for recent it's all right if it has not loaded recently, but if I ask for it again it doesn't load)
I am accessing via a company network, and am wondering if it is causing the problems.
10 AM Pacific Time. working fine on Firefox. 3-4 books with each 'check'. Scrolling the display seems to have no effect.
I spoke too soon. After running for a while on the recent book page, Firefox is hanging up. I have to shut it down to even switch to another program.
How long?
After about 10 minutes this last time, things grind to a halt.
Tim, it did the same thing for me, Firefox 1.5.0.1 Windows.
It refreshed a few times, then crashed.
This was yesterday some time.
I had to reboot when I left this going for a while (I'm not sure how long it took, as I was away from the computer for some time and then came back to find it had ground to a halt) None of my programs would respond, even to shut them down; I had to use the task manager. I'm browsing with Firefox.
I think I may have a clue for you ... when viewing this feature in IE, it works as long as there are entries being made on during each "check."
If there are no entries made during a particular "check" period (i.e., "check" icon flashes briefly, but there are no new books shown), then the thing hangs up on the NEXT check (i.e., "check" icon appears and just stays there).
Don't know what it means, but I just thought it might help.
D.
"In the end, only kindness matters."
10:56 Pacific time, Firefox browser, ancient computer ;)
I watched about 20 entries come in then I hit the 'back' button to return here. No problems so far. I like it :)
It's lovely! Why not build a toy which *slowly* tiles the browser with cover pics (for new books with cover art)? That'd be a tasty screensaver...
Very nice! Will this be added to the Extras page when you're done testing it?
I suppose so. It's yucky that people are having problems. I can't replicate them on my side, and I'm not likely to have a full bug-testing lab anytime soon.
But I'll get at it eventually. It has put some similar plans on hold...
T
When I add a book, it shows it as 'Private library book' But I my catalog is public. ???
Santafe1
I've seen the failure in IE 6 under both Windows XP and Windows 2000. doogiewray's description of when it fails matches my experience - I can predict when it will fail/freeze by watching for a "checking" period where no books are added - the next "checking" box doesn't go away.
Please make http://www.librarything.com/test_recentbooks.php a permanent link. It is fun. Every so often I click on one, and then want to go back to test_recent.
Another idea (no hurry, do your important stuff first): In addition to listing users with common books, can LibraryThing just compare the last 50 books entered in everyone's library with the last 50 books entered in one's own library and list those with the most common. That would generate a list that may be closer to current reading. Only flaw would be those doing mass entry of their library. But it would be of value for established libraries and wanting to track current reading and buying habits (rather than older parts of the collections).
"... can LibraryThing just compare the last 50 books entered in everyone's library with the last 50 books entered in one's own library... "
Interesting idea. I wonder how entry order corresponds to "recentness." Most larger libraries, it seems to me, are organized shelf-by-shelf. Maybe people should tag their whole library "reading list" or "collection."
Does 'entry order corresponds to "recentness?"' Do not know. Assuming I am normal: When first entering my library into LibraryThing, it would not. As I'm entering in some other order. But now that I am done, my new entries reflect my new acquisitions. Any way to know the difference between building the library initially and adding to the collection of a built library? Maybe the frequency of added books?
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