Archives for category: praxis
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lots of interesting photo tech

Feb 29, 2008 //

Following up on the PictLens posting, I have two other cool bits of photo tech (admittedly the photos that you’ll see are not the best). First I give you a snowy RIT night:

A test of GPS tagging of an image on a Titan PPC
What makes this unique is not what you can see, but what’s buried in the metadata:

Latitude: N 43° 5′ 16.844″
Longitude: W 77° 40′ 36.637″

This photo was take by my phone (which now has an active GPS chip in it thanks to the excellent work of others) and my coordinates were then encoded into it’s .EXIF file header and uploaded directly from the phone to Flickr. The only thing that currently stinks in this process is that Flickr didn’t recognize the GPS data when I attempted to place this picture on my map.

Here’s the second picture:

The most technologically advanced penguin on the web (Eye.Fi test 1)

Alberto here is noteworthy because of the workflow that got him to Flickr. This picture was shot using my Kodak V705 and uploaded directly to Flickr thanks to the Eye-Fi Smart Media (SD/SSHD) card inside of it. Function both as memory and as a wireless modem, the Eye-Fi card routed the picture, via our home WiFi network, to the Eye-Fi site, and then pushed copies both to Flickr and the hard drive of the laptop I’m presently working on.

Both of these technologies have some interesting implications and tie into things that I’m working on at RIT, but I can’t quite talk about just yet. Soon though. Real soon.

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Categories photo, praxis

sweet annie liebowitz picLens is friggin cool!

Feb 21, 2008 //

PicLens version of my flickr site

My office mate just introduced me to the PicLens web browser plug-in. It’s pretty incredible. This cross platform plug in can grab a collection of photos, like those in my flickr account above, and converts them into an interactive (Apple aesthetic) gallery. The resulting user experience is elegant and totally engaging. Give it a try!

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Categories photo, praxis

in the meantime

Feb 20, 2008 //

So I haven’t been able to update the site on any consistent base in a while. Life’s been really busy. Unfortunately, as of late, it seems like I only have time to blog around major, and often tragic, events. So, quickly (with RIT’s quarter drawing to its close, I have a mountain of grading to do) here’s some good things:

  • My presentation at the American Anthropological Association’s national conference went well. It looks like I’ll get a journal publication out of it.
  • The quarter itself has gone pretty well, in particular a lot of strides have been made at setting up a publishing research lab here at the school. More on that soon.
  • Our (boy) cat Lewis, has made a full recovery after having two toes amputated because of a cancerous growth.
  • I got a new phone/pocket pc, which has helped me get organized.
  • I was a judge in a national variable data print competition.
  • The blog helped me reconnect with an old friend.
  • Dre and I are succeeding in getting out (and traveling) to see friends and family. At this rate, who knows, we might actually go on our Honeymoon this year.
  • I was awarded my teaching rank (black sash) in Kung Fu.

I’m sure there’s more, but my timer is going off, reminding me that it’s time to get back to grading.

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Categories personal, praxis

for the love of pete, backup your db!

Jan 30, 2008 //

Word to the wise. This past week I nearly lost eight years of my life — my WordPress mySQL database crashed and burned. Worse, I found out that my hosting company only keeps backups of the previous day’s data — so their backups of my stuff was corrupted as well.

Thankfully I had backed up my data in late August. That combined with the fact life has prevented me from posting much in the last few months, meant that I was able to reclaim any missing posts by looking at my previous .RSS feeds.

Moral of the story, install the WordPress Backup Plug-In and have it send you e-mail backups of your data on a regular basis. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

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Categories praxis

sad news at RIT on what should be a happy day

Nov 9, 2007 //

Early this morning 2 RIT students were killed, and one badly burned, in a house fire. The location of the fire was all but around the corner from 195 Merriman, where I used to live.

Many of our students are just learning about the deaths. This is difficult to deal with on any day. Today, as the inauguration day of our new Institute President, makes it even stranger.

For a teacher this is heartbreaking. I went into my 9.00am class not knowing the identities of the victims. I knew that I had students living in that area and worried that they might have been involved. I watched the clock and the empty seats, waiting and hoping that they were just late to the final class on a Friday morning. Thankfully, they were just late.

Colleagues and students in Engineering and Communications were not so lucky.

It’s 11.30am and the names are now available from the D&C. I didn’t know any of these students, but that doesn’t make it any easier. My heart goes out to their families, friends, and teachers. There really are no good words.

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Categories praxis
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