Well now, why would Amazon be telling me that rather than purchase that book I could go to one of the Loudoun library branches and check it out instead? If you’re at all nerd-tastic you might recognize the name of the program “greasemonkey,” a Firefox extension that allows little locally-installed scripts to massage the way things are presented in your web browser. Loudoun has posted a link right on their main page directing you to instructions on how to install greasemonkey and the script itself on your copy of Firefox. Once you do it’ll automagically check to see if the item you’re browsing is available to be checked out (or reserved, in the case of the book I was looking at above) rather than purchased.
If you’re a total cheapskate frugal like myself it’s a great thing to have installed. It both checks the viability of checking the item out of the library rather than purchasing it and serves as a reminder that I should be doing that rather than buying it anyway…
Aside: as a programmer m’self I have to say I think it would have been nice if they gave some sort of credit to Carrick Mundell, the original author of the script. He doesn’t require it – didn’t even put any comments or copyright in his script, which he originally posted for free here – but it seems like the right thing to do.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
