cold fjord writes “Bexar Country in Texas has opened a new $2.3 million library called BiblioTech. It doesn’t have physical books, only computers and e-reader tablets. It is the first bookless public library system in the U.S. The library opened in an area without nearby bookstores, and is receiving considerable attention. It has drawn visitors from around the U.S. and overseas that are studying the concept for their own use. It appears that the library will have more than 100, 000 visitors by year’s end. Going without physical books has been cost effective from an architecture standpoint, since the building doesn’t have to support the weight of books and bookshelves. A new, smaller library in a nearby town cost $1 million more than Bexar Country’s new library. So far there doesn’t appear to be a problem with returning checked out e-readers. A new state law in Texas defines the failure to return library books as theft.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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First US Public Library With No Paper Books Opens In Texas
New submitter LordWabbit2 sends this quote from an AP report: “The Vatican Library and Oxford University’s Bodleian Library have put the first of 1.5 million pages of ancient manuscripts online. The two libraries in 2012 announced a four-year project to digitize some of the most important works of their collections of Hebrew manuscripts, Greek manuscripts and early printed books. Among the first up on the site Tuesday, are the two-volume Gutenberg bibles from each of the libraries and a beautiful 15th-century German bible, hand-colored and illustrated by woodcuts. … The Vatican Library was founded in 1451 and is one of the most important research libraries in the world. The Bodleian is the largest university library in Britain.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Finally here it is! The next MediaPortal 2 alpha release – dubbed Alpha 3 – is out the door. Although progress since Alpha 2 has been immense, please be aware that this is still an alpha release and therefore not meant to be used on a productive system. Make sure that you read the instructions at the end of this news regarding installation, upgrade and extension compatibility. Summary of changes Improved user experience: Added support for resuming playback, the resume position stored in central MediaLibrary Added support for more image formats that can be used inside MP2 Added audio album cover support for Titanium and Reflexion skin Added animated fanart backgrounds for Series and Movies Improved navigation, restoring focus now works better when returning to previous screen Fixes Fixed opacity mask rendering in SkinEngine MediaLibrary importer now only does refresh imports Updated plugins Updated OnlineVideos plugin is included in this release News plugin will now download default news feeds per country on first run Weather plugin updated for new API New plugins are available! New WiFi configuration plugin (included) WebRadio plugin to play your favourite web radio streams inside MP2! CEC remote plugin allows controlling MP2 ( Forum ) SlimTV plugin got a reworked miniguide ( Forum ) – Download: SlimTV – NativeTV or SlimTV – MPExtended from the new MP2 Plugins section on our website. The full change log is available here: MediaPortal 2 Alpha 3 change log Screenshots Installation Before installing MediaPortal 2, you need to make sure all requirements are installed. Then extract the downloaded .zip archive and simply run the .msi installer file. For screenshots refer to our installation wiki . Upgrade notes If you had an earlier version of MP2 installed you might not see your media items inside the libraries. The metadata for the media items have been extended (like the added geographic location support for images). Remove your existing share, then add a new one for the same location. Local cached online data will be kept (like covers and backdrops). Feedback & Support Discuss this release in the official release thread MediaPortal 2 Alpha 3 If you are looking for further information please check out MediaPortal 2 wiki first. We are heavily working to improve it. If you don’t find an answer there create a new thread in MediaPortal 2 forums . If you found a bug, please check our Issue Tracker & bug report forums first. If it has not been reported already, create a new thread. Download If you would like to support MediaPortal, we would be happy to receive a small donation ! The Team wishes you a lot of fun with this new release! .::. Download – MediaPortal 2.0 Alpha 3 .::. .::. Download MP2 plugins .::. .::. Post a Comment .::. 
First time accepted submitter marshallr writes “Technical Information Release TIR 13-10 becomes effective in Massachusetts on July 31st, 2013. It requires software consultants to collect a 6.25% sales tax from their clients if they perform ‘computer system design services and the modification, integration, enhancement, installation or configuration of standardized software.’ TIR 13-10 was published to mass.gov on July 25th, 2013 to provide the public a few working days to review the release and make comments.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.