Ploafmaster General

So InLight was fun last night.

It appears that the FCC is on the cusp of implementing Net Neutrality regulations that would prevent Internet service providers, or ISPs, (like Comcast or AT&T's mobile broadband) from charging more money to serve bandwidth-intensive content like video and other media. The ISPs don't like this, and these choice quotes underscore a fundamental problem of letting some industries run unchecked (all quotes from the BBC's coverage):

"...a new set of regulations that will limit customer choices and affect content providers, application developers, device manufacturers and network builders..." - Verizon

"...so it's still fair to ask whether increased regulation of the internet is a solution in search of a problem." - Comcast

"We are concerned the FCC appears ready to extend the entire array of net neutrality requirements to what is perhaps the most competitive consumer market in America - wireless services." - AT&T

This reminds me of a fantastic article I read on Rands In Repose back in March about the Brooklyn Bridge. I think this describes the ISPs fairly well:

When Brooklyn and New York’s population was booming at the end of the 19th century, the best way to get to and from Brooklyn was via ferries. As solutions were considered, I’m sure there were those who simply thought, “More boats!” These ardent defenders of the status quo were not engineers — they were the business. Their goal was not to build something great, but to make a profit.

AT&T and other wireless carriers will only increase their data capacity as much as they have to. Perhaps the FCC's new rules will light a fire under their collective butt.

Hot off the developing reels, check out the latest snap-action on my photostream.

Today Flickr announced a new Galleries feature. Now there's a way for users to create their own curated collections of photos from the site and add commentary to the group. I suppose it's essentially a specialized Set for other people's photos (up to 18). I think this is going to prove distracting while I attempt to get some homework done this evening...

A little Northside love (and a quick diversion to Carytown) on my photostream.

Can anybody be simultaneously insightful and entertaining the way Ze Frank can, especially about serious topics like health care? Fantastic:

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/29650554001?isVid=1&publisherID=293884104

Oh what the heck. Here are several more of my recent pics on Flickr.

Some fresh (well, freshly-developed, at least) shots up on my photostream.

Incredible! The BBC reports on IBM's research that has led to the imaging of a single molecule and its bonds! Just as fascinating (to nerds like me) is the imaging methodology:

Their version of the device acts like a tiny tuning fork, with one of the prongs of the fork passing incredibly close to the sample and the other farther away.

When the fork is set vibrating, the prong nearest the sample will experience a minuscule shift in the frequency of its vibration, simply because it is getting close to the molecule.

Comparing the frequencies of the two prongs gives a measure of just how close the nearer prong is, effectively mapping out the molecule's structure.

I seriously want to get each of these man-friendly reusable shopping bags.
(via drhastings)

Tomorrow, sadly, marks the end of a childhood institution, Reading Rainbow.

This is exactly the type of story I like to see: After years of decay, Union Hill has been rezoned to allow some commercial property under special circumstances. Let's hope this stems the tide of dilapidation and attracts more interest in what I think is an interesting and overlooked corner of the city.

Just a little bit o' fresh photography - Kodak Tri-X 400 push-processed to a little above ISO 3200;

So it seems as if Akida's West End location as been replaced by Hayashi Sushi.

I'm a big fan of Akida on Robinson St. in The Fan, but despite its superior ambiance, I always thought the West End location (conveniently close to my office) edged them out on the preparation/flavor front. So what I'm left to wonder is whether a) the West End Akida couldn't stay open, b) the operators of that location bought out the location, or c) something else I'm not considering happened.

Richmond Biz Sense reported the business license for Hayashi on 6/11, and the earliest review online that I can see is from July 17th. Oh yeah, and so far no website to be found.

Anybody know what happened? Anybody been to Hayashi? I may have to go there next week to give it a shot.

It's probably pretty clear that I never went to art school.

I've explained before how, in my formative years, I was on the fence deciding between my creative and analytical sides. Having chosen the analytical school and (so far) job path there's one are of my artistic life that seems to be missing - criticism. I've not, that is, participated in, dealt, received, nor studied formal art criticism (okay, so a really easy voice jury when I took singing lessons as a non-major...I don't think that counts). My photography class in the summer of 2008 was supposed to include two critiques but did not.

The thing is, I believe there's at least some value to deeper investigation of creative output. I just don't really know where to start and how far to go. On the one hand there's the high-minded bloviating found, tragically, all-too-often in the mainstream art world. On the other, there are comments like this post's title and scads like it that I see on Flickr every day that say little more than the obvious.

NOW...

I'm not suggesting that all verbose criticism is overwrought nonsense. Certainly complex and personal reactions to great art can elicit complex responses. I do not, additionally, dismiss all simple gut-reactions as empty commentary. It's still complimentary for somebody to suggest that your photo's composition is nice, or that the architecture of a concert hall has pretty windows. I guess I just want a middle ground.

I've been trying, as much as possible, to really slow down and examine photographs I see on Flickr before (if at all) commenting. On such occasion that I post something, I've tried to add something of value - some detail about how I react to the picture. There are plenty of "Wow, sweet" comments left in my wake, but when I feel like a picture is worth prolonged staring, I like to say why in a bit more detail than "Great angle and colors."

I'm not terribly worried about the grad-school-style diatribes because, frankly, I don't think I'm that intricate a writer.

Whoa...check out the new Terry Gilliam joint:

http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/13094

Vicky Christina Barcelona is Woody Allen's 2008 romantic comedy and, man, it was kind of a snooze.

Valerie's latest arrival from Netflix gave me mixed feelings; on the one hand I was looking forward to wading in a bit more to Allen's catalog, but I wasn't particularly excited about this flick going in. I don't think that later sentiment interfered with my viewing experience. I think, rather, that a number of elements of the film got in the way...

It was no help that the film started off giving me more than a few bad first impressions. Intrusive and awkwardly-voiced narration. Characters who are more concept than real. An image of Barcelona that I might see in a tourist guide. Add to all that a script that felt like it was written by an advertising copywriter and acting like a community theater audition, and you have a recipe for a mostly wasted movie.

Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz both acted quite well and saved it a bit, but I was repeatedly dragged back to negativity by cheesy scene transitions (an awkwardly jarring dissolve...oi) and Scarlett Johanssen's bland rendering of the screenplay.

Maybe I just need to bump Annie Hall to the top of my list to see what the real fuss over Woody Allen is about.

2/5

To have, to realize that two Coca Cola bottles are not identical and what makes them not identical is that they're not at the same point. They can't be at the same point in space. Since they're not at the same point in space they automatically receive - each one receives light differently than the other, so that it can be as fascinating as going to a museum to look carefully, attentively at two Coca Cola bottles, hmm? And something of that is implicit in a great deal of 20th century art.

John Cage in an interview with Terry Gross on WHYY's Fresh Air.

It's bad enough that there's paranoid ambiguity around whether you can photograph a Federal Reserve building, but now the Secretary of Homeland Security has suggested that continually photographing a vaguely-described "critical piece of infrastructure" is grounds for calling the cops.

Complete idiocy.

Okay, so here are my shots of Kodachrome that I'm willing to share with the world. It's not much, but 11 good pics from three rolls makes me happy.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Ch-ch-ch-changes! AGAIN!

So I put the WordPress blog back in place, but I've commented out all the CSS.

I didn't feel like tackling two things at once right now (learning EE and CSS) while I'm preparing to be a grad student. Also, I was tired of things like embedded objects showing up all screwy.

So, my RSS feed should work again, people searching for stuff should be able to find the pages they're looking for, and I have my nice, comfy admin panel back :-)

Maybe now I'll start hacking up the CSS a touch to gradually shape the page into the form that I want. We'll see. At this pace, I'll have columns in five years!

The camera nerd and the part of me that drools over beautiful engineering can’t resist staring at this page for far too long: A pictorial (appropriate, yes) history of Hasselblad cameras used in space.

Holy smokes…some news for which I’ve been waiting a few years: Sufjan Stevens is releasing a recording of The BQE, a symphonic piece he composed and presented only in a series of live performances in NYC back in 2007. I’ve heard only small portions via NPR and the Asthmatic Kitty website, but I’m glad to see he’s publishing the piece soon so I can hear it in its entirety. I’ll be pre-ordering as soon as I get the chance.

Oh yeah, and bonus! It will include a freaking VIEWMASTER DISC.