This is the season of deadlines. This and mid-September. But this one is worse. March 31st is an arbitrary date where a bunch of us have agreed to close our books before opening them up again. And that means things get very inflexible for a while. There are also thesis deadlines and grant deadlines. Systems of organization have been setup and now we must abide by them. But as Brian Massumi describes in his book "Parables for the Virtual", games are only interesting because there exists some that dance around the rules, not breaking them but inhabiting the fringes and giving themselves and their teams a slight but good enough advantage. If there were no rules there would be no fringes and no clear winners. I'm finding this out.
I'm heading out to San Rafael tomorrow morning to visit Kerner. I'm totally excited to see a large scale production studio. And I hope to learn something new about stereo rigs.
While I'm away the magical deadline will pass and I will breathe easier on April fool's.
A song for this post.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Articulate truth (day 213)
Aldous Huxley, Bill Joy, Jaron Lanier. What do those names have in common? They are all articulate and have all warned of potential pitfalls of technology. I'm not sure about Aldous but certainly Bill and Jaron have been called "Haters". That's what happens when you speak about the gaping security holes in technology development. There's always a new set of people being introduced to the tech of the day who will be enamoured with it. They will keep alive the belief that nothing can go wrong. Meanwhile the ones that have around long enough to start seeing the patterns and remember the old ways will start to question whether we are really better off. They will be called haters. But if you listen to them, they are all calmly stating that we must take a more measured approach with an aim to preserve what is most unique and beneficial to us, to the earth, to others. There are tremendous advantages to looking at where we are going and at least agreeing in part how we will get there. When people with so much invested in tech or in their own reputation speak out knowing they will be called haters, we could listen and form our own opinion.
Aldous spoke about the dangers of overpopulation, systems of organization, propaganda, and TV. Bill spoke about the dangers of nanotechnology, and Jaron speaks about the dangers of losing some very essential bits of our humanity by making ourselves fit the machine. I've just started Jaron's book "Your are not a gadget" and already I'm taken in by some of his descriptions which really parallel my own experience. Things that not many people talk about. Or at least not in that unapologetic tone. For example, he speaks about the random interaction delays on the iPhone. We all know what he's talking about but the way he talks about it doesn't finish with "but still, it's so amazing isn't it?". He talks about how these delays are a direct result of operation system choices we made a long time ago that don't favour human interaction which requires responsiveness. It's like all of sudden I can breathe because someone has given me permission to to say we deserve better. Or maybe it's that after watching so many Apple product launches and commercials I was starting to believe it was only my iPhone behaving this way. Everyone else was having this perfect wonderful experience. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone but it does require a good deal of indulgence.
I had a discussion with someone who is about the same age as I am about how we are both a little disillusioned with tech. We wondered if the younger generations whose formative years included desktops, laptops, iPhones will have this disillusionment earlier, later, or not at all. There might come a time for everyone where the promise of technology starts to feel repetitive. Just like there comes a time when a headline saying that in 50 years technology X will bring such and such a wonder doesn't grab you in the same way as it used to because you'll be dead in 50 years. The wonder will belong to someone else and they too will be promised even more.
Disillusionment is not such a bad thing. Just like any disappointment, it shows you where you were holding on to a certain result. It's always better to stay fresh and be ready to be surprised.
A song for this post.
Aldous spoke about the dangers of overpopulation, systems of organization, propaganda, and TV. Bill spoke about the dangers of nanotechnology, and Jaron speaks about the dangers of losing some very essential bits of our humanity by making ourselves fit the machine. I've just started Jaron's book "Your are not a gadget" and already I'm taken in by some of his descriptions which really parallel my own experience. Things that not many people talk about. Or at least not in that unapologetic tone. For example, he speaks about the random interaction delays on the iPhone. We all know what he's talking about but the way he talks about it doesn't finish with "but still, it's so amazing isn't it?". He talks about how these delays are a direct result of operation system choices we made a long time ago that don't favour human interaction which requires responsiveness. It's like all of sudden I can breathe because someone has given me permission to to say we deserve better. Or maybe it's that after watching so many Apple product launches and commercials I was starting to believe it was only my iPhone behaving this way. Everyone else was having this perfect wonderful experience. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone but it does require a good deal of indulgence.
I had a discussion with someone who is about the same age as I am about how we are both a little disillusioned with tech. We wondered if the younger generations whose formative years included desktops, laptops, iPhones will have this disillusionment earlier, later, or not at all. There might come a time for everyone where the promise of technology starts to feel repetitive. Just like there comes a time when a headline saying that in 50 years technology X will bring such and such a wonder doesn't grab you in the same way as it used to because you'll be dead in 50 years. The wonder will belong to someone else and they too will be promised even more.
Disillusionment is not such a bad thing. Just like any disappointment, it shows you where you were holding on to a certain result. It's always better to stay fresh and be ready to be surprised.
A song for this post.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Eating to help (day 209)
I had a wonderful Long Table Dinner at the Irish Heather in support of the Access Gallery who will be moving to their new location on Hastings between The Church of Scientology and SFU Harbour Centre. Could there be a more poetic location? I sat beside Michael Markowsky, a Canadian painter who recently came back to Canada after being in LA for 11 years (and who I just found out from his blog was just asked to be a War Painter!). It was great to meet someone new and share great food.
Then I got home and had to finish making a card for my nephew who's turning 2. It's 1am and I'm done. Done like a baked potato.
A song for this post.
Then I got home and had to finish making a card for my nephew who's turning 2. It's 1am and I'm done. Done like a baked potato.
A song for this post.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Ada girl (day 208)
It's been a bit harder to blog these days because I have many other duties in the evening, including making cards for my niece and nephew who are turning 4 and 2 this weekend. But even though it's late here I have to at least fulfill my duty to Ada Lovelace. Today is Ada Lovelace day, a day to recognize women in science. I made a pledge to blog about women in science.
Many have blogged about unrecognized women in science, overlooked because the people doing the looking just weren't looking for them. Rosalind Franklin comes to mind for me. In fact, reading the story of how DNA was discovered was an eye opener in terms of the cut throat nature of scientific discovery. She played a major role in the discovery of the double helix nature of DNA through her X-Ray analysis but much of her work went unacknowledged or attributed to her colleague Wilkins. She died before the Nobel prize was awarded for the structure of nucleic acids. I read the account of the discovery of DNA in the book "The Double Helix" written by the protagonist James Watson. There is another book written by Anne Sayre about Rosalind's story: "Rosalind Franklin and DNA". I recommend reading both.
I'd like to finish on an upbeat note. I've had my share of shocking stories as a woman in computing science but there have also been many supportive professors along the way -- Dr. Patrick Keast, and Dr. Michael Shepherd to name but just two. Dr. Carolyn Watters also made a big impression on me. She was the only woman prof in the department at the time and was different and interesting. I remember thinking then that if she could be there I could too. My PhD supervisor Dr. David Fracchia was and continues to be very supportive. I've made my own way through the maze of career paths and even though I am not in a computing science department I still look fondly on all the years spent there. I am grateful for all the help along the way.
A song for this post.
Many have blogged about unrecognized women in science, overlooked because the people doing the looking just weren't looking for them. Rosalind Franklin comes to mind for me. In fact, reading the story of how DNA was discovered was an eye opener in terms of the cut throat nature of scientific discovery. She played a major role in the discovery of the double helix nature of DNA through her X-Ray analysis but much of her work went unacknowledged or attributed to her colleague Wilkins. She died before the Nobel prize was awarded for the structure of nucleic acids. I read the account of the discovery of DNA in the book "The Double Helix" written by the protagonist James Watson. There is another book written by Anne Sayre about Rosalind's story: "Rosalind Franklin and DNA". I recommend reading both.
I'd like to finish on an upbeat note. I've had my share of shocking stories as a woman in computing science but there have also been many supportive professors along the way -- Dr. Patrick Keast, and Dr. Michael Shepherd to name but just two. Dr. Carolyn Watters also made a big impression on me. She was the only woman prof in the department at the time and was different and interesting. I remember thinking then that if she could be there I could too. My PhD supervisor Dr. David Fracchia was and continues to be very supportive. I've made my own way through the maze of career paths and even though I am not in a computing science department I still look fondly on all the years spent there. I am grateful for all the help along the way.
A song for this post.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Monday skirmishes (day 206)
I have a theory that half of us get to Monday raring to go. The other half are dreading the first half. Sometimes I'm the inflicter of pain and sometimes I'm the victim. Today I wasn't sure which one I'd be. It seemed like a pretty good day and by noon I was pretty much on top of my email but it became obvious I was outnumbered by the energetic Monday lovers. By the end of the day I was behind and it kept on coming past 9pm. I'm hoping tomorrow the Monday lovers take a breather. I'll catch up and give them a Wednesday worth any lover's Monday.
People in IDS are hard at work getting the Stereoscopic 3D Centre off the ground. I've been playing around with stereo 3D for about ten years but always on the CG end of things, the easy 3D where you generate the views rather than capture them. Because a big emphasis in the new S3D centre will be live action capture with a cinematic rig, I've had to get up to speed really quickly on video hardware for movie making which can get arbitrarily complicated it seems. A simple look at movie credit gives an idea of the complexity. Looking around for a portable capture system gave some relief. In a previous post I mentioned I had settled on a rig from Inition with some Sony cameras but I ended up changing my mind after speaking with Ari from Silicon Imaging. Their 2K Mini cameras with a matched field recorder seemed ideally suited to what we wanted to do. High quality cameras with a choice of lenses and the capacity for calibrating and recording on a mini touch screen. I'm totally looking forward to testing it out in the spring. At 7cm across, they'll be great for a range of shooting situations. And then once I have the footage, I'll go through the learning curve of editing S3D footage. I have a feeling this summer will be one interesting journey, starting with the Oboro residency in May.
But many Mondays until then. One at a time. One at a time.
A song for this post.
People in IDS are hard at work getting the Stereoscopic 3D Centre off the ground. I've been playing around with stereo 3D for about ten years but always on the CG end of things, the easy 3D where you generate the views rather than capture them. Because a big emphasis in the new S3D centre will be live action capture with a cinematic rig, I've had to get up to speed really quickly on video hardware for movie making which can get arbitrarily complicated it seems. A simple look at movie credit gives an idea of the complexity. Looking around for a portable capture system gave some relief. In a previous post I mentioned I had settled on a rig from Inition with some Sony cameras but I ended up changing my mind after speaking with Ari from Silicon Imaging. Their 2K Mini cameras with a matched field recorder seemed ideally suited to what we wanted to do. High quality cameras with a choice of lenses and the capacity for calibrating and recording on a mini touch screen. I'm totally looking forward to testing it out in the spring. At 7cm across, they'll be great for a range of shooting situations. And then once I have the footage, I'll go through the learning curve of editing S3D footage. I have a feeling this summer will be one interesting journey, starting with the Oboro residency in May.
But many Mondays until then. One at a time. One at a time.
A song for this post.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
One more night (day 204)
We just returned from the Cirque Eloize, the last Cultural Olympiad show we had tickets for. I guess that's it, it's really over. I managed to see the flame(s) before it went out on Friday. I missed the Canadian Mint pavilion and the Aboriginal Pavilion. I regret the latter especially. I heard it was amazing and I recently found out a good friend had worked on one of the video pieces. Many people have said they missed events that were 'right next store'. It's a strange phenomenon, this propensity to put off things that are right in front of us, as if mistaking proximity for eternity.
The Cirque's show was called Rain and hit a minor key, probably meant for a late fall kind of timeframe. This being so close to Spring, it was a little off cue. But the performers were great. I especially loved the giant hoola hoops they they used to roll around like spokes in a wheel. That looked like a lot of fun. The choreography was ok. Sometimes it played on gender stereotypes mixed with slapstick in a way that I found uncomfortable. There were no clowns which is really too bad. I love clowns. They ended the show by making it rain on stage which was fun and impressive. Overall I really enjoyed myself. I don't want to be too critical. I would go again for sure. It's nice to see actual human beings on stage, rather than stare at a screen. That's the real 3D.
As I checked in to FourSquare at the performance I got two badges: Explorer, and SuperUser. Steve thought I said SuperLoser. Maybe a bit of both. These artificial badges remind me of the "jetons" (French for chips as in poker chips) that my parents used to incite me to clean my room. I don't think it worked in the end but it was fun at first. I was a sucker for the gold stars at school though. I keep checking in FourSquare because I want to see what else could happen. I did make a new FS friend who noticed I checked in at the performance. Perhaps competition will change things.
Bacterial update: Just bottled another batch of Kombucha today. I wanted to add Chrysanthemum flowers for the secondary brew in the bottles but didn't have time to get them from Chinatown. Instead I cut two small chunks of vanilla bean and stuck them in two of the bottles. We'll see how that turns out. I'm also curious about trying cocoa nibs.
The Kefir grains are doing well and we are in a good rhythm. They are growing very slowly which is good. I don't need to get stressed out about what to do with them.
A song for this post.
The Cirque's show was called Rain and hit a minor key, probably meant for a late fall kind of timeframe. This being so close to Spring, it was a little off cue. But the performers were great. I especially loved the giant hoola hoops they they used to roll around like spokes in a wheel. That looked like a lot of fun. The choreography was ok. Sometimes it played on gender stereotypes mixed with slapstick in a way that I found uncomfortable. There were no clowns which is really too bad. I love clowns. They ended the show by making it rain on stage which was fun and impressive. Overall I really enjoyed myself. I don't want to be too critical. I would go again for sure. It's nice to see actual human beings on stage, rather than stare at a screen. That's the real 3D.
As I checked in to FourSquare at the performance I got two badges: Explorer, and SuperUser. Steve thought I said SuperLoser. Maybe a bit of both. These artificial badges remind me of the "jetons" (French for chips as in poker chips) that my parents used to incite me to clean my room. I don't think it worked in the end but it was fun at first. I was a sucker for the gold stars at school though. I keep checking in FourSquare because I want to see what else could happen. I did make a new FS friend who noticed I checked in at the performance. Perhaps competition will change things.
Bacterial update: Just bottled another batch of Kombucha today. I wanted to add Chrysanthemum flowers for the secondary brew in the bottles but didn't have time to get them from Chinatown. Instead I cut two small chunks of vanilla bean and stuck them in two of the bottles. We'll see how that turns out. I'm also curious about trying cocoa nibs.
The Kefir grains are doing well and we are in a good rhythm. They are growing very slowly which is good. I don't need to get stressed out about what to do with them.
A song for this post.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Hear it like it is (day 201)
Short post today. It's been a day of catch up because threads that could wait three days ago are urgent now. I've estimated that for every day that I'm away I get behind about 25%. There was so much fragmentation today that it's hard to write about anything coherent right now. If I could I'd just show a box of bouncing balls I'd call it a representation and be done.
I started a new audiobook after finishing The Lovely Bones (which I recommend btw...read by the author). The new book is actually a series of interviews of Joseph Campbell by Bill Moyers. He's not my favourite interviewer but Joseph is so fascinating it doesn't matter. I decided to listen to this after I read an article on the RWW blog that mentioned him in relation to creating better presentations. Turns out it's useful for a lot more than that. In fact, I'll have to think about how to apply it to so grounded a task as creating a presentation. You can listen to an excerpt of this on Audible.
I forgot to mention in my post a couple days ago that Jaron Lanier had recommended the book called "The machine stops". He says it's the best book on the internet. Turns out it's on Librivox a repository of public domain book recordings. I'm stoked that I'll be able to listen to it. Wouldn't it be nice if anyone could read any book out loud and post it online? You can if the book is out of copyright which is great (librivox is just that) but audiobooks in general are still very mainstream. Personally I would love it if I could buy a book and get the physical, digital, and audio version. Or at least get the other versions at a significant discount if I already own one version of it.
A song for this post.
I started a new audiobook after finishing The Lovely Bones (which I recommend btw...read by the author). The new book is actually a series of interviews of Joseph Campbell by Bill Moyers. He's not my favourite interviewer but Joseph is so fascinating it doesn't matter. I decided to listen to this after I read an article on the RWW blog that mentioned him in relation to creating better presentations. Turns out it's useful for a lot more than that. In fact, I'll have to think about how to apply it to so grounded a task as creating a presentation. You can listen to an excerpt of this on Audible.
I forgot to mention in my post a couple days ago that Jaron Lanier had recommended the book called "The machine stops". He says it's the best book on the internet. Turns out it's on Librivox a repository of public domain book recordings. I'm stoked that I'll be able to listen to it. Wouldn't it be nice if anyone could read any book out loud and post it online? You can if the book is out of copyright which is great (librivox is just that) but audiobooks in general are still very mainstream. Personally I would love it if I could buy a book and get the physical, digital, and audio version. Or at least get the other versions at a significant discount if I already own one version of it.
A song for this post.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Opening up to engage (day 200)
For the first time I'm opening up my laptop during a flight. Usually I'm quite content listening to a podcast or an audiobook or reading/reviewing papers. But I wanted to describe the last day at the conference before it lost its freshness. It wasn't likely that I would write after the flight came in at 1am.
I started the day in a panel about the city as a platform. The ideas centred around the management of information available and generated from a city. One statistic quoted by the moderator estimates that by 2012 20% of all data traffic will be passive sensor data (e.g. traffic, weather, seismic, energy, etc.) One of the applications they talked about is SeeClickFix where citizens are encouraged to submit information about things needing fixing in the city, such as potholes, graffiti, water quality. Ideas are voted on and automatically sent on to the city councilors that would be responsible for the issue. There are also mechanisms by which people can volunteer to help with the issues identified. They've seen an improvement in the speed of resolution and the engagement of the councilors with their constituents. A similar system was developed in Manor, a small city of 65,000 people just outside of Austin. They developed a game-like interaction to the submission of ideas for the city. When you submit an idea you get 1,000 InnoBucks, when you comment on an idea you get 100 InnoBucks. You can invest your InnoBucks in someone else's idea and if the idea gets realized, your stock pays out. Investing in someone's idea helps it get promoted up a hierarchy which eventually leads to city review and possibly implementation. This system has been quite successful and they are making it available to other cities.
It occurred to me that perhaps all citizens could be given the option to have a portion of their taxes be used for a program like this. So say 5% of your taxes get put into this application and you get to collectively decide where the money should be spent. For this to work it would need to also be matched with open government records and good estimates of costs involved. It's pie in the sky but it would probably give a much needed push to citizen engagement and a better understanding of the issues politicians face. It could even involve younger people that don't normally get a voice. Someone at the panel session pointed out that not everyone has access to the internet and for this to truly work equal access would be important. I agree but if we wait to develop these tools, we won't be ready when access is more universal. In the interim, there could also be other ways to contribute to the system that don't require internet access.
I attended two other sessions that were not as thought-provoking: one on designing effective mobile applications, and the other on Canvas vs. Flash, two competing technologies for motion graphics in the browser.
In the first session I twigged on the idea of the peer-managed address book. I seriously had never thought how ridiculous it is to manage all your contacts, when they could be managing themselves. I update my contact info and it gets propagated to all the address books that contain me. How trivial an idea and how useful. Facebook is implementing something like that to interface with the iPhone address book. I'm not sure I want Facebook to be the platform for this but I like the concept very much.
The Canvas vs. Flash panel was interesting and full of information but the consensus is that there is no perfect solution. Canvas is open which is great but it's not supported in Internet Explorer and does not have development tools. The Flash plugin is ubiquitous and has great tools but does not work on the iPhone and is not open and is not easy to debug. No one won this debate. It's a sad state of affairs that we can't all agree on open standards. I personally love the idea of Canvas and I'll try it out soon. The Adobe reps on the panel was quite comfortable (almost arrogant) with their lead in this market. I also learned that Internet Explorer 9 will not support Canvas but has good support for SVG, a vector graphics standard that's been on the verge of succeeding for a long time. I made a bet with someone from Adobe in 2002 that 5 years hence SVG would be the major vector graphics standard on the web. I believed. I wonder if he ever thinks about that bet.
It will be nice to get back to a more normal pace of life but I'm really going to miss the intellectual stimulation of this conference. I hope to come back next year.
A song for this post.
I started the day in a panel about the city as a platform. The ideas centred around the management of information available and generated from a city. One statistic quoted by the moderator estimates that by 2012 20% of all data traffic will be passive sensor data (e.g. traffic, weather, seismic, energy, etc.) One of the applications they talked about is SeeClickFix where citizens are encouraged to submit information about things needing fixing in the city, such as potholes, graffiti, water quality. Ideas are voted on and automatically sent on to the city councilors that would be responsible for the issue. There are also mechanisms by which people can volunteer to help with the issues identified. They've seen an improvement in the speed of resolution and the engagement of the councilors with their constituents. A similar system was developed in Manor, a small city of 65,000 people just outside of Austin. They developed a game-like interaction to the submission of ideas for the city. When you submit an idea you get 1,000 InnoBucks, when you comment on an idea you get 100 InnoBucks. You can invest your InnoBucks in someone else's idea and if the idea gets realized, your stock pays out. Investing in someone's idea helps it get promoted up a hierarchy which eventually leads to city review and possibly implementation. This system has been quite successful and they are making it available to other cities.
It occurred to me that perhaps all citizens could be given the option to have a portion of their taxes be used for a program like this. So say 5% of your taxes get put into this application and you get to collectively decide where the money should be spent. For this to work it would need to also be matched with open government records and good estimates of costs involved. It's pie in the sky but it would probably give a much needed push to citizen engagement and a better understanding of the issues politicians face. It could even involve younger people that don't normally get a voice. Someone at the panel session pointed out that not everyone has access to the internet and for this to truly work equal access would be important. I agree but if we wait to develop these tools, we won't be ready when access is more universal. In the interim, there could also be other ways to contribute to the system that don't require internet access.
I attended two other sessions that were not as thought-provoking: one on designing effective mobile applications, and the other on Canvas vs. Flash, two competing technologies for motion graphics in the browser.
In the first session I twigged on the idea of the peer-managed address book. I seriously had never thought how ridiculous it is to manage all your contacts, when they could be managing themselves. I update my contact info and it gets propagated to all the address books that contain me. How trivial an idea and how useful. Facebook is implementing something like that to interface with the iPhone address book. I'm not sure I want Facebook to be the platform for this but I like the concept very much.
The Canvas vs. Flash panel was interesting and full of information but the consensus is that there is no perfect solution. Canvas is open which is great but it's not supported in Internet Explorer and does not have development tools. The Flash plugin is ubiquitous and has great tools but does not work on the iPhone and is not open and is not easy to debug. No one won this debate. It's a sad state of affairs that we can't all agree on open standards. I personally love the idea of Canvas and I'll try it out soon. The Adobe reps on the panel was quite comfortable (almost arrogant) with their lead in this market. I also learned that Internet Explorer 9 will not support Canvas but has good support for SVG, a vector graphics standard that's been on the verge of succeeding for a long time. I made a bet with someone from Adobe in 2002 that 5 years hence SVG would be the major vector graphics standard on the web. I believed. I wonder if he ever thinks about that bet.
It will be nice to get back to a more normal pace of life but I'm really going to miss the intellectual stimulation of this conference. I hope to come back next year.
A song for this post.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Unusual instruments of inspiration (day 199)
Another long day keeping up with three lives: social network, sxsw, work. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do this full time. I'm not sure how other people are doing it and partying too. Again, I'm wondering about my gene pool.
Today I woke up too late for the first panels which sucked. Seriously my only excuse is a 2am bedtime and a totally blackened hotel room which let no daylight in for me to cue to. I thought the birds would wake me as they had done the morning before but the miracle of selective hearing had happened in the intervening 24 hours. You see there are these birds here called Grackles and they deserve their name. They can make sweet sounds but in a group they make a range of grackly sounds that are very distinctive. And when I say there are these birds, I mean there are LOTS of these birds. They line the telephone lines for long distances, perched side by side so the line looks like a thick black marker.
Too me so long to recap yesterday that I'm thinking I'm just going to do very quick highlights for today. I tried to go to a 'battery life in Africa' panel but ended up being at a 'twitter and Tolstoy' panel which had usurped the canceled Africa timeslot. The amazing thing is about this twist is that before deciding to go to the Africa panel I had made my way to another panel and at the very last moment changed my mind. Unfortunately the venues were almost as far away from each other as possible so I rushed over to the Africa panel, probably just in time to miss the person saying it had been canceled. But I wasn't the only one that was late and when we collectively realized that we were not in the right panel we left and talked in the hallway. I talked with this guy called Peter Vesterbacka who had two gadgets to show me. One was a solar-powered battery charger and the other was a golfball sized bluetooth interaction device called Blobo which has both orientation, force, and pressure sensors. Very cool. You can even drop and bounce this thing. And it's only $49. I was hooked. I tried to find them at the Trade show to see a demo but a dyslexic brain turned 402 into 204. I'll see them tomorrow. Anyway, as I was walking away I marvelled at the sequence of events that would have me meet this guy. Sometimes these types of coincidences are more visible and I become amazed for an instant.
Then I went to a conversation on democracy in the workplace and found out about WorldBlu from Traci Fenton. She was very impressive and I left the session thinking, "yes we can". Turns out there are many organizations (some large!) that are switching to a democratic way of operating. There are core principles they outlined on their web site to get started. Every year they have WorldBlu awards they give out, and they publish a WorldBlu list.
Then I went to the keynote which was an interview with Twitter CEO Evan Wiliams. I knew it was really boring and I was desperately trying to connect to the twitter feed but my iphone wifi receiver was just too weak to pick up an overloaded signal. I would have been a witness to a live backchannel lynching. Oh well. I also missed the leaving the room in a coordinated swarm. I just watched a bunch of people leave and just thought they had to be somewhere (wasn't a huge swarm). Slowly, the room emptied to about half full. It had been standing room only. I honestly don't remember much of what he said except he announced a new API feature (@anywhere).
Then I went to a talk by James Fowler on how networks influence our habits and emotions. I think I may have blogged about this before. The idea is that you are influenced by people up to thrice removed from you. So a friend of a friend of a friend being happy will increase your chances of being happy. Same thing for obesity. It's not news that we influence each other. It's surprising that it's more spread out than I assumed. The talk was good but I am triggered by evangelism and this had some of that. They wrote a book.
Then I went to see Jaron Lanier. That was a definite highlight. I arrived early to get a good seat thinking he would pack the house. He didn't. I'd say the (large) venue was about a quarter full. Fools, I thought. And miss out they did. He started and ended his talk playing unusual wooden wind instruments, one he claimed is a precursor to the computer. He asked us all to turn stop using our gadgets during his talk. He then proceeded on a meandering discussion of the state of social media and asset exchange. If the social network guy was an evangelist, Jaron was a prophet. There is something about the way he is that reminds me of Richard Stallman. A kind of slightly off genius quality. Anyway, while he was talking my mind was the most stimulated it has been in a very long time. I even got lots of unrelated ideas pop into my mind and it occurred to me that being in the presence of someone who has such a grasp of a wide-ranging set of ideas is enough to make anyone creative. Next time I'm feeling in the grey zone, I'm switching on a Jaron Lanier talk. Hopefully they'll put it online. Maybe I should say a few things about the content of his talk. There was so much there I'll just scratch the surface. He was riffing on his current thinking that he summarized in a book "You are not a gadget". (He was signing copies later on but there were no more left when I got there. Bummer.) Some highlights:
Okay that's it for today. So much for just highlights. One more half day tomorrow. I head back mid-afternoon.
A song for this post.
Today I woke up too late for the first panels which sucked. Seriously my only excuse is a 2am bedtime and a totally blackened hotel room which let no daylight in for me to cue to. I thought the birds would wake me as they had done the morning before but the miracle of selective hearing had happened in the intervening 24 hours. You see there are these birds here called Grackles and they deserve their name. They can make sweet sounds but in a group they make a range of grackly sounds that are very distinctive. And when I say there are these birds, I mean there are LOTS of these birds. They line the telephone lines for long distances, perched side by side so the line looks like a thick black marker.
Too me so long to recap yesterday that I'm thinking I'm just going to do very quick highlights for today. I tried to go to a 'battery life in Africa' panel but ended up being at a 'twitter and Tolstoy' panel which had usurped the canceled Africa timeslot. The amazing thing is about this twist is that before deciding to go to the Africa panel I had made my way to another panel and at the very last moment changed my mind. Unfortunately the venues were almost as far away from each other as possible so I rushed over to the Africa panel, probably just in time to miss the person saying it had been canceled. But I wasn't the only one that was late and when we collectively realized that we were not in the right panel we left and talked in the hallway. I talked with this guy called Peter Vesterbacka who had two gadgets to show me. One was a solar-powered battery charger and the other was a golfball sized bluetooth interaction device called Blobo which has both orientation, force, and pressure sensors. Very cool. You can even drop and bounce this thing. And it's only $49. I was hooked. I tried to find them at the Trade show to see a demo but a dyslexic brain turned 402 into 204. I'll see them tomorrow. Anyway, as I was walking away I marvelled at the sequence of events that would have me meet this guy. Sometimes these types of coincidences are more visible and I become amazed for an instant.
Then I went to a conversation on democracy in the workplace and found out about WorldBlu from Traci Fenton. She was very impressive and I left the session thinking, "yes we can". Turns out there are many organizations (some large!) that are switching to a democratic way of operating. There are core principles they outlined on their web site to get started. Every year they have WorldBlu awards they give out, and they publish a WorldBlu list.
Then I went to the keynote which was an interview with Twitter CEO Evan Wiliams. I knew it was really boring and I was desperately trying to connect to the twitter feed but my iphone wifi receiver was just too weak to pick up an overloaded signal. I would have been a witness to a live backchannel lynching. Oh well. I also missed the leaving the room in a coordinated swarm. I just watched a bunch of people leave and just thought they had to be somewhere (wasn't a huge swarm). Slowly, the room emptied to about half full. It had been standing room only. I honestly don't remember much of what he said except he announced a new API feature (@anywhere).
Then I went to a talk by James Fowler on how networks influence our habits and emotions. I think I may have blogged about this before. The idea is that you are influenced by people up to thrice removed from you. So a friend of a friend of a friend being happy will increase your chances of being happy. Same thing for obesity. It's not news that we influence each other. It's surprising that it's more spread out than I assumed. The talk was good but I am triggered by evangelism and this had some of that. They wrote a book.
Then I went to see Jaron Lanier. That was a definite highlight. I arrived early to get a good seat thinking he would pack the house. He didn't. I'd say the (large) venue was about a quarter full. Fools, I thought. And miss out they did. He started and ended his talk playing unusual wooden wind instruments, one he claimed is a precursor to the computer. He asked us all to turn stop using our gadgets during his talk. He then proceeded on a meandering discussion of the state of social media and asset exchange. If the social network guy was an evangelist, Jaron was a prophet. There is something about the way he is that reminds me of Richard Stallman. A kind of slightly off genius quality. Anyway, while he was talking my mind was the most stimulated it has been in a very long time. I even got lots of unrelated ideas pop into my mind and it occurred to me that being in the presence of someone who has such a grasp of a wide-ranging set of ideas is enough to make anyone creative. Next time I'm feeling in the grey zone, I'm switching on a Jaron Lanier talk. Hopefully they'll put it online. Maybe I should say a few things about the content of his talk. There was so much there I'll just scratch the surface. He was riffing on his current thinking that he summarized in a book "You are not a gadget". (He was signing copies later on but there were no more left when I got there. Bummer.) Some highlights:
- The current thinking of make information free and sell merchandise is flawed. It assumes that there is a special 'creative' class and a much larger 'lump' class that does nothing but lazily consume.
- Ted Nelson had it right with his Xanadu design. Unfortunately he was a terrible manager ("Imagine the worst possible manager, Ted is worse") and the idea never got anywhere. His model assumed everyone is a first class citizen and can be producer and consumer of information. They can make information available for free if they want to but there are no gatekeepers to keep them from publishing for a particular device. There is only one logical copy of every file.
- The 'walled garden' approach does not work. Why should we accept to have multiple devices each with their own formats and marketplace?
- Facebook is preventing young people from re-inventing themselves. They are so busy maintaining a representation of themselves that they don't have time and have too much at stake to change.
- To much 'meanness' and 'me-ness'. We need to design systems that are not so ego-driven.
Okay that's it for today. So much for just highlights. One more half day tomorrow. I head back mid-afternoon.
A song for this post.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
More for less (day 198)
A full day today. I was more familiar with the lay of the sxsw land so things were a bit more relaxed. One of the things I realized yesterday was that I couldn't really tweet and listen at the same time. I might be lacking that gene (or decade). So I decided to listen and take notes in Evernote of the moment that were more, well, notable. I retweeted a few things that agreed with my own observations -- a kind of second-hand or amplified tweet.
First a few comments I forgot about yesterday.
The next session was by Michele Bowman, on cartography. She presented a series of maps combined with data collection. The ones that stood out for me were:
Then I went to a conversation with Michel Gondry who is always a pleasure to hear. I'm not sure if he was kidding (probably) but he seemed to have a particular sensitivity to people leaving the room while he was talking. They showed a clip of his music video fully made from yarn, incredible (can't find the link but will post it when/if I do). The thing that stood out for me was his very relaxed manner and the way that he seems to fully inhabit a creative world. When asked by someone in the audience to answer the question "what would you do to someone who wouldn't stop talking during one of your films" he mumbled a few words about not doing anything to them but then quickly jumped in to an anecdote about having shushed a crowd during a performance where he was playing music with his girlfriend. He then expanded on this and said it might be nice to create 'shush' units that could be installed on the theatre seats and remote-controlled by the filmmaker.
Then I went to see Valerie Casey's keynote. It was a call for interactive people to be responsible to sustainable practices. She said many things that were interesting including "when will be stop thinking that less bad is good enough?" Implored people to employ systems thinking. Said that we are all operating at the pleasure of the systems we are part of.
I also saw a panel on crowdsourcing and emotional gaming, neither of which made a big impression. Plus it's getting late here. If I feel more generous tomorrow I'll add some comments.
A song for this post.
First a few comments I forgot about yesterday.
- A few more Ze Frank projects that were interesting: angrigami, re-enactment of baby pictures (can't find a link to this!), his suggestion that we all re-enact habitual childhood walks on Google Street View or Bing Street Level.
- Danah Boyd mentioned sharing more to gain privacy, in the context of celebrities. If they don't share enough they get more scrutiny.
- Robert Fabricant posits that people respond better to badges than graphs when it comes to personal information presentation. Someone in the audience asked how far the game metaphor is going to go. Will we wake up early and get 5 points, exercise and get 10 points, etc? It's starting to feel a bit like a Brave New World. I've been using FourSquare during the conference and I've unlocked one badge. It seemed kind of random and even though I am checking in to places it still feels a bit forced. Perhaps if I was competing within a group, I would be more motivated.
The next session was by Michele Bowman, on cartography. She presented a series of maps combined with data collection. The ones that stood out for me were:
Then I went to a conversation with Michel Gondry who is always a pleasure to hear. I'm not sure if he was kidding (probably) but he seemed to have a particular sensitivity to people leaving the room while he was talking. They showed a clip of his music video fully made from yarn, incredible (can't find the link but will post it when/if I do). The thing that stood out for me was his very relaxed manner and the way that he seems to fully inhabit a creative world. When asked by someone in the audience to answer the question "what would you do to someone who wouldn't stop talking during one of your films" he mumbled a few words about not doing anything to them but then quickly jumped in to an anecdote about having shushed a crowd during a performance where he was playing music with his girlfriend. He then expanded on this and said it might be nice to create 'shush' units that could be installed on the theatre seats and remote-controlled by the filmmaker.
Then I went to see Valerie Casey's keynote. It was a call for interactive people to be responsible to sustainable practices. She said many things that were interesting including "when will be stop thinking that less bad is good enough?" Implored people to employ systems thinking. Said that we are all operating at the pleasure of the systems we are part of.
I also saw a panel on crowdsourcing and emotional gaming, neither of which made a big impression. Plus it's getting late here. If I feel more generous tomorrow I'll add some comments.
A song for this post.
Alone in a crowd with content (day 197)
Crowds and crowds and lineups and free food and free drinks and loud music and people moving in streams. It reminded me of the dot com days but this time the crowd was much more mixed. Some from those days and some younger, and a mix of men and women. A big emphasis on social media. Almost too much. It's somewhat suspicious in its pervasiveness. Like we're praising at the altar. This too reminded me of the bubble ten years ago. A constant consumerism vibe with products being offered as we travel from venue to venue. Even the 'we can end this' campaign had to adopt a similar tactic to get attention. Because in a place where distraction is the mode of being, attention is currency. Very little eye contact. Most people had their eyeballs on their screens.
For me the most exhausting thing was being alone in a crowd. I didn't see anyone I knew but I laughed and was frustrated with them, and read their tweets. I felt strange about going to parties alone and this made the lineups that much more daunting. So I came home to my new hotel which is a far cry from the Hilton where I spent the first night. I asked Yelp to tell me where to eat and ended up at this Lebanese cubicle in a strip mall. Context is everything. Yes it's a 4 star in this neighbourhood, no doubt.
So what about content in this chaos? I'm happy to say there is some content. I attended a talk on design for awareness that had some interesting points about how to created a state of augmented mindfulness. It's too bad the talk was not well attended. From the tweets, I know that people were in the iPad panel. Robert Fabricant of Frog Design gave a great talk on how data collection and presentation can motivate people into making changes. He exemplified the challenge by showing someone craving fried chicken at time t, and not wanting diabetes at time t+x -- we are not temporally consistent in our desires. It is possible both want fried chicken and not want diabetes because they are not immediately and not completely correlated. That, and the fact that habits are physically compelling, make changing things really really hard. Fabricant talked of the design challenges in convincing people to collect data (if it's not automatic), convince them to spend time with the reporting, and then make sure they know what to do, and then help them make the change. Enough to keep designers busy for a while.
Also attended a talk by Danah Boyd, on privacy and publicity. She had lots to say on the equivalence of privacy and control. That people may be more public but it does not mean they want to be publicized. She also talked about the privilege of being able to share and the crowd's rejection of some, and the fear of some. Hiding is sometimes a necessity and in a pinch this is hard to do if you're all over the web. She didn't take any questions.
The last talk of the day was a conversation with Ze Frank which was entertaining, heart-warming, and bemusing. Ze is a funny man. I'd say he's joyful and human but sometimes his entertaining side gets the better of him. When he was in balance he was amazing. I'd say this talk/interview/performance was the best I saw today. I laughed and cried. I loved his 'children songs for adults series' -- one about being scared and another for when you're overwhelmed. I thought it was interesting that he made these in response to request from his followers and with the help of his followers in the case of the second one. There was a kind of vulnerability that I thought was really sweet...perhaps the best of social media. Someone in the audience asked him if there was a limit to the world going faster and faster. Were we going to reach a breaking point. He was very dismissive of her question which I found surprising. He switched into making fun at her expense. It's too bad. I think it's an interesting question because it begs all kinds of questions -- how are things faster? Are we doing more things? Thinking more things? Being asked more things? Are any of these things controllable? Is everyone's life faster? Faster than what? What happens if we refuse to go faster? There are so many directions to take this question. Perhaps it's worth a panel on its own. I think she asked the question to the wrong crowd.
A song for this post.
For me the most exhausting thing was being alone in a crowd. I didn't see anyone I knew but I laughed and was frustrated with them, and read their tweets. I felt strange about going to parties alone and this made the lineups that much more daunting. So I came home to my new hotel which is a far cry from the Hilton where I spent the first night. I asked Yelp to tell me where to eat and ended up at this Lebanese cubicle in a strip mall. Context is everything. Yes it's a 4 star in this neighbourhood, no doubt.
So what about content in this chaos? I'm happy to say there is some content. I attended a talk on design for awareness that had some interesting points about how to created a state of augmented mindfulness. It's too bad the talk was not well attended. From the tweets, I know that people were in the iPad panel. Robert Fabricant of Frog Design gave a great talk on how data collection and presentation can motivate people into making changes. He exemplified the challenge by showing someone craving fried chicken at time t, and not wanting diabetes at time t+x -- we are not temporally consistent in our desires. It is possible both want fried chicken and not want diabetes because they are not immediately and not completely correlated. That, and the fact that habits are physically compelling, make changing things really really hard. Fabricant talked of the design challenges in convincing people to collect data (if it's not automatic), convince them to spend time with the reporting, and then make sure they know what to do, and then help them make the change. Enough to keep designers busy for a while.
Also attended a talk by Danah Boyd, on privacy and publicity. She had lots to say on the equivalence of privacy and control. That people may be more public but it does not mean they want to be publicized. She also talked about the privilege of being able to share and the crowd's rejection of some, and the fear of some. Hiding is sometimes a necessity and in a pinch this is hard to do if you're all over the web. She didn't take any questions.
The last talk of the day was a conversation with Ze Frank which was entertaining, heart-warming, and bemusing. Ze is a funny man. I'd say he's joyful and human but sometimes his entertaining side gets the better of him. When he was in balance he was amazing. I'd say this talk/interview/performance was the best I saw today. I laughed and cried. I loved his 'children songs for adults series' -- one about being scared and another for when you're overwhelmed. I thought it was interesting that he made these in response to request from his followers and with the help of his followers in the case of the second one. There was a kind of vulnerability that I thought was really sweet...perhaps the best of social media. Someone in the audience asked him if there was a limit to the world going faster and faster. Were we going to reach a breaking point. He was very dismissive of her question which I found surprising. He switched into making fun at her expense. It's too bad. I think it's an interesting question because it begs all kinds of questions -- how are things faster? Are we doing more things? Thinking more things? Being asked more things? Are any of these things controllable? Is everyone's life faster? Faster than what? What happens if we refuse to go faster? There are so many directions to take this question. Perhaps it's worth a panel on its own. I think she asked the question to the wrong crowd.
A song for this post.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Going Sou' (day 195)
SXSW. I've heard of it. Now it's time to see what the fuss is about. I've shared my nervousness about it with some people. I've been to enough conferences to know that the big media ones are confusing and made for people who love the special kind of freedom that comes from chaos, drink, and unfamiliar surroundings. I can be that person. Or I can feel so lost that the only thing I can think about is getting back to my hotel room to read a good reference book. It seems to depend solely on the company I keep or don't keep.
I admit I have not done enough homework to even know where to go when I wake up on Saturday. Hopefully before then I'll have cozied up to the schedule and intuited the best coolest things to take in. The tools are there: fill up your my.schedule, gather info by pointing your iphone at coded designs, etc, etc. Being social is the what of this conference it seems. I'll be looking to my friend Alex for some tips, right after I load up my phone with the proper apps and have double-booked all the slots in my.schedule. Always better to start from a baseline before hitting up the experts.
And whatever happens, at least I get the sun for a sweet few days.
A song for this post.
I admit I have not done enough homework to even know where to go when I wake up on Saturday. Hopefully before then I'll have cozied up to the schedule and intuited the best coolest things to take in. The tools are there: fill up your my.schedule, gather info by pointing your iphone at coded designs, etc, etc. Being social is the what of this conference it seems. I'll be looking to my friend Alex for some tips, right after I load up my phone with the proper apps and have double-booked all the slots in my.schedule. Always better to start from a baseline before hitting up the experts.
And whatever happens, at least I get the sun for a sweet few days.
A song for this post.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Click away (day 194)
Sometimes one more click doesn't cut it. Sometimes the unreal nature of digital communications gets louder than the real connections they are supposed to represent. Emails come in. Some get answered. Others sit in uncomfortable silence unable to generate a coherent response or be discarded. As the life stream goes by they scroll off the screen and the silence becomes the response. Sometimes they come back and do not take nothing for an answer. Emails go out. Some are answers and wish to be final. Some are missives and wish to be answered but are forgotten until the response comes. Some are FYIs and are confused when they elicit a response. Whole days go by where the conversations with people in the flesh are greatly outnumbered by those with people never seen. Eventually, the immediacy of digital communication gets confused for the efficiency of information surfing. A manic clicking fest has left a mass of waiting and frustration. Many conversations are in the air. Typing them will always be slower and that's why there needs to be many in the air. It's not more productive, it's the same. Except for one crucial difference: sometimes all the answers come at once and trigger a slight panic at seeing the day's end without an empty daybox. It's the feed for the involuntary scroll out. The drama of the inbox never ceases. It's a soap opera with the same characters and different actors. Apparently younger people don't do email. The drama has no doubt mutated to infect another medium.
I needed time away from the the clicks. I'm back now. I think.
A song for this post.
I needed time away from the the clicks. I'm back now. I think.
A song for this post.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Alive in a cemetery (day 190)
Just got back from the fourth installment of Paul Wong's 5 Projects. This time it was at the MountainView cemetery. For some reason before I went there I had visions of Halloween with spooky soundtracks and disturbing images. It wasn't that at all. Turns out Paul has a fascination with death in a way that I can relate to. There were 16 works in total, each really interesting. Some highlights:
A song for this post.
- Vigil 5.2 - Video documentation of Rebecca Belmore's performance at the Talking Stick Festival in 2002. She wrote the names of the missing women in the DTES on her body and screamed out their names then ripped the leaves and petals off of flowers with her mouth. She also nailed her dress to a pole and ripped it free. Repeatedly. A lot of grief.
- 60 Unit; Bruise - First colour video from Western Front, 1976. Paul Wong and Kenneth Fletcher exchange blood. The video was shown at Kenneth's grave site. He committed suicide two years after the video was shot.
- in ten sity - an intense dance piece shot from above a padded room where bodies throw themselves about the room and each other. Dedicated to Kenneth Fletcher. It was projected on a petal-covered sheet underneath a tree. A lot of grief and frustration and energy.
- Burka - slide show of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. The slide show was projected on the wall, with a woman (mannequin) in a burka looking at it, lit from the inside. She is standing on what seems like traditional carpets but upon closer inspection there were woven guns and war machinery on them. The soundtrack is a machine voice. I wasn't able to quite make out what it was saying. It was interesting to see all the faces. Some looked very disconnected and dead even while alive. Others looked completely normal and happy.
- Hungry Ghosts - A five channel piece about death. Different types of deaths, rituals around death, talk around death, violent death, natural death. A really touching piece.
A song for this post.
Friday, March 05, 2010
The promise of compromise (day 189)
The search for a portable S3D continued yesterday and today. Some incredibly useful people helped narrow down the search including Michael Verity, Vic Love, and Chris Lakes. There is no perfect solution out there but in the interest of time and future intrepid field stereographers of the S3D Centre, I had to make a decision. I settled on a system by Inition which integrates lower end but narrow Sony HVR-A1 cameras on a side by side rig, a LANC sync method, and a 3D preview monitor. The total weight should be around 30lbs but I'm missing some info to give a precise number. I think this system will be a nice complement to the full-featured Kerner rig with Sony HDC-P1 cameras.
All this last minute shopping has made me realize how much I hate making decisions. Yes, I'm a director and making decisions should be easy by now but sometimes knowing that there is no perfect solution is really heart-breaking. Or knowing you don't have the right people for the job but strategically you still need to go ahead and hope the right people show up. And seeing everyone else's press releases on the same things you are working on and wondering how you'll ever stand out in the crowd. I find comfort in logistics but just like cooking, there's no point being precise without a plan for all the food to complement each other. This is where a good team comes in. And I do have a good team. Shout outs to Rob Inkster, Alexandra Samuel, Dawn Whitworth, Lynn Leboe, Shannon McKinnon, Morgan Brayton, Simon Overstall, Rick Overington, and Bobbi Kozinuk!
A song for this post.
All this last minute shopping has made me realize how much I hate making decisions. Yes, I'm a director and making decisions should be easy by now but sometimes knowing that there is no perfect solution is really heart-breaking. Or knowing you don't have the right people for the job but strategically you still need to go ahead and hope the right people show up. And seeing everyone else's press releases on the same things you are working on and wondering how you'll ever stand out in the crowd. I find comfort in logistics but just like cooking, there's no point being precise without a plan for all the food to complement each other. This is where a good team comes in. And I do have a good team. Shout outs to Rob Inkster, Alexandra Samuel, Dawn Whitworth, Lynn Leboe, Shannon McKinnon, Morgan Brayton, Simon Overstall, Rick Overington, and Bobbi Kozinuk!
A song for this post.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
A 3D you can lift (day 187)
bacterial update: I'm waiting for my tea to cool down so I can put the kombucha mushroom in it. It's important not to shock the mushroom. Usually I spend time worrying about things getting cold. It's amazing how long it actually takes for things to cool down. I've been underestimating all this time. Next time I'll plan a bit better. When I did a taste test today, I realized that I had to bottle the current batch before it went way too acidic. So it was a bit of a mad rush around the kitchen to get everything organized. I think this batch ended up with a bit too much yeast. It's not as good as the previous one. And the mushroom didn't form as quickly or get as thick either. Hopefully this next batch is a bit more healthy. I also realized that I need to buy a jar with a spigot. That way I don't disturb the mushroom formation when I need to test the pH. These used to be so popular in the early 80s because of Sun Tea. You'd think they'd be a dime a dozen. But a quick look at the Kitchen Store didn't yield any loot. The Happy Herbalist does sell some containers with spigots but they are twice as large as what I currently have. With the size of my kitchen I can't really fit anything bigger than a gallon jar.
I spent the day looking for portable stereoscopic 3D solutions. They are harder to find than I thought. Panasonic just came out with a twin lens solution but it's not really available yet and has limitations like fixed inter-axial distance. Still at 6.6 lbs it's an amazing solution for quick field work. Other than that, it's really a DIY market out there. I love the little Iconix cameras but the issue with those (besides the steep price) is getting small diameter matched lenses. It would be so great to have such small cameras to work with not just because of the lower weight but also to shoot in confined space or at close range. Love knows no bounds and I will find a way. I've also been looking the 3DFilmFactory rigs for smaller side by side setups. The ideal setup would be a system where everything fits in a backpack, is less than 30 lbs and runs on batteries. I remember seeing pictures of Ansel Adams and all the gear he use to lug up mountains in Yosemite. Not sure how much weight he had but it probably wasn't much more than that. I have to have some sort of defined shopping list by tomorrow morning. I've put out lots of leads out there, hopefully some of them pan out.
A song for this post.
I spent the day looking for portable stereoscopic 3D solutions. They are harder to find than I thought. Panasonic just came out with a twin lens solution but it's not really available yet and has limitations like fixed inter-axial distance. Still at 6.6 lbs it's an amazing solution for quick field work. Other than that, it's really a DIY market out there. I love the little Iconix cameras but the issue with those (besides the steep price) is getting small diameter matched lenses. It would be so great to have such small cameras to work with not just because of the lower weight but also to shoot in confined space or at close range. Love knows no bounds and I will find a way. I've also been looking the 3DFilmFactory rigs for smaller side by side setups. The ideal setup would be a system where everything fits in a backpack, is less than 30 lbs and runs on batteries. I remember seeing pictures of Ansel Adams and all the gear he use to lug up mountains in Yosemite. Not sure how much weight he had but it probably wasn't much more than that. I have to have some sort of defined shopping list by tomorrow morning. I've put out lots of leads out there, hopefully some of them pan out.
A song for this post.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
To spawn or not to spawn (day 186)
Recently a book review in the Globe and Mail caught my eye, and the eye of many others. It became one of the most shared articles for the week. The book? No Kids - 40 good reasons not to spawn. It caught my eye because I'm quite ambivalent about having kids but deep down I think "but everyone says it's so wonderful, am I missing out?" It was actually refreshing to hear a woman say "I had kids and I regret it". I haven't read the book and judging by the review it may be quite deliberately provocative. Still it's a voice that's not often heard.
Corrine Maier wrote the book in reaction to a policy push in France to promote higher birth rates. Apparently the policy worked. But the author claims many have been duped into procreation by a baby marketing drive. She is there to prevent that from spreading.
She took a pretty big beating in the comments section particularly because she apparently gave a copy of the book to her two children (who can read). I'm assuming they've been around her antics long enough not to pay too much attention. Love is in the details. Nonetheless, it will make for some good stories later on.
I think having kids is like winning the lottery. If you were happy before, you'll be happy after. If you were miserable before you'll be miserable after. Same thing when the bio-clock stops. There's no point agonizing over what could have been or resenting your own life. So, as much as I admire Corinne for having written the book, I think a pros and cons kind of list doesn't really cut it when it comes to kids.
For reference, here are the 40 reasons:
Corrine Maier wrote the book in reaction to a policy push in France to promote higher birth rates. Apparently the policy worked. But the author claims many have been duped into procreation by a baby marketing drive. She is there to prevent that from spreading.
She took a pretty big beating in the comments section particularly because she apparently gave a copy of the book to her two children (who can read). I'm assuming they've been around her antics long enough not to pay too much attention. Love is in the details. Nonetheless, it will make for some good stories later on.
I think having kids is like winning the lottery. If you were happy before, you'll be happy after. If you were miserable before you'll be miserable after. Same thing when the bio-clock stops. There's no point agonizing over what could have been or resenting your own life. So, as much as I admire Corinne for having written the book, I think a pros and cons kind of list doesn't really cut it when it comes to kids.
For reference, here are the 40 reasons:
- The desire for children: A false aspiration.
- Childbirth is torture.
- Don't become a travelling feeding bottle.
- Continue to amuse yourself.
- Subway-job-kids: No thank you!
- Hold onto your friends.
- Do not adopt the idiot language we use to address children.
- To open the nursery is to close the bedroom.
- Child, the killer of desire.
- They are the death knell of the couple.
- To be or to make: You shouldn't have to choose.
- The child is a kind of vicious dwarf, of an innate cruelty.
- It is conformist.
- Children are too expensive.
- You become an ally of capitalism.
- They will destroy your time and your freedom.
- The worst drudgery for the parents.
- Do not be deceived by the notion of the ideal child.
- You will inevitably be disappointed by your child.
- To become a merdeuf (soccer mom) - what horror!
- Parenting above all else - no thanks.
- Block your professional path with children.
- Families: They are horror and cruelty.
- Don't fall into an overgrown childhood.
- To persist in saying "me first" is a badge of courage.
- A child will kill the fond memories of your childhood.
- You will not be able to prevent yourself from wanting your child to be happy.
- Child care is a set of impossible dilemmas.
- School: a prison camp with which you'll have to make a pact.
- To raise a child, but toward what kind of future?
- Flee from the benevolent blandness.
- Parenting will make you soft.
- Motherhood is a trap for women.
- To be a mother, or to succeed: You must choose.
- When the child appears, the father disappears.
- The child of today must be a perfect child: a brave new world.
- Your child will be in constant danger from pedophiles and pornographers.
- Why contribute to a future of unemployment and social exclusion?
- There are too many children in the world.
- Turn your back on the ridiculous rules of the "good" parent.
Two songs for this post.
One for the adventure without kids.
One for the adventure with kids.
Same artist.
One for the adventure without kids.
One for the adventure with kids.
Same artist.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Kinda over (day 185)
I wonder why the Para-Olympics are treated so differently than the Olympics. I also wonder why women are not allowed to ski jump in the Olympics. Those two things seem like they belong in the same category. It didn't seem right to me that the closing ceremonies should be held, and the flame extinguished only to be lit again. I'm not sure of all the complexities of having the Para-Olympics but perhaps one solution is to fully integrate the two so they take place simultaneously. The whole party lasts a bit longer and both get the recognition they deserve. As it is, we're in a no man's land of Olympics. Closing ceremonies have happened but some Pavilions are still up and the Live sites are still there (at least the Yaletown one is). We have to wait for a couple weeks before the Para-Olympics start. The good thing is, we have a second chance at the closing ceremonies. Maybe theirs will have good music.
While we wait, a joke I heard from my friend Alex:
While we wait, a joke I heard from my friend Alex:
Mukmuk! Who's there? Miga. Miga who? Mukmuk! Who's there? Quatchi. Quatchi who? Mukmuk!Who's there? Sumi VANOC, it's just a jokeA song for this post.
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