["Corona Heights View," via Curbed SF Flickr photog sirgious]
· The newly reopened Potrero Branch Library [Facebook/DPW]
· Supes vote tomorrow on soft-story retrofitting [SF Examiner]
· Interest stirring for those state buildings on the market [LAT]
· Lovely: mystery drink hangs from Mission tree [Snitch]
· New Tenderloin mural: "transformation and renewal" [FCJ]
Phagwah Parade in Richmond Hill, Queens. Photo via dogseat's flickr.
How odd is this? Google, which makes a bit of coin by making anything and everything available through its search engine to anyone and everyone, would prefer a little privacy when that information is about itself. Google has asked a federal court to keep sealed documents filed in the case between it (as owner of YouTube) and Viacom for another month.
Google’s request comes on the heels of Viacom’s asking for the records to be unsealed right away. Unsealed means the records will be publicly accessible--the ‘down and dirty’ of the Google/YouTube-Viacom battle can at last be revealed. According to Viacom, and entertainment lawyer Ben Sheffner, law requires that records, save for trade secrets, be unsealed once summary judgment has been filed for. Google, on the other hand, envisions a nightmare of inefficiency in processing the records, which might impede Google’s final arguments in the case.
What’s in the records is anyone’s guess. Some are hopeful there’ll be more embarrassing admissions, such as Google emails that indicate YouTube managers were uploading or condoning the presence of copyrighted material on YouTube. Or Viacom’s, where employees purposely uploaded Viacom content to YouTube to promote Viacom’s product.
If such things do exist in these records it will take a while to find out. During the three year battle hundreds of thousands of pages of information have been exchanged. It’ll take a while to shift through it all once its released--whether that’s now, as Viacom as requested, or in June, when Google prefers.
Image Credit: Carolyn Coles/Flickr
Earlier today Rebekah Json on Google Buzz asked me what I do when I’m “uninspired” to inspire my photography. I started thinking about it and realized that the answer was actually longer than a few sentences and so I decided to publish a post on five places that I personally go to find photographic inspiration. Inspiration is a huge part of producing creatively and something that I think about alot. That said, here are five of the primary places I go to find inspiration.
1. The photography of others on the web. I am a voracious consumer of other people’s photography. The internet, and photo sharing more specifically, have opened up vast libraries of images that simply were not accessible 10 years ago. I look at photos on the web every single day. I make friends and contacts on photosharing sites like Flickr with people’s whose work I admire and I’m constantly reviewing what other people are doing. Earlier today I posted a buzz about my friend Marc Evans and his work. The perfection of his neon imagery is hugely inspiring to me. It makes me want to spend more time and care on my own neon images. His work is an inspiration to me. But Marc is just one of many.
I’ve added a bunch of photographers as contacts on Buzz. There too, every day I see wonderful images. A few months ago I started seeing some of the first iPhone hipstamatic images show up on Flickr. I first noticed that by following the work of Anthony Valley.
I’m constantly inspired looking at the big beautiful images of Boston.com’s Big Picture blog. If you want to be inspired, follow other photographers and photography around the web, there is no shortage of talent out there from both pros and amateurs alike.
2. From photography books and museum or gallery exhibits. The web is great, but there is something about the printed page that just makes photographs look 1000% better. I spend a lot of time browsing and buying photography books. Sit down for an hour with William Eggleston’s Democratic Camera
Likewise, keep an eye out for museum or gallery exhibits. I remember the first time I saw Richard Misrach’s gignormous photos at a gallery in San Francisco. Seeing Robert Frank’s “The Americans” at the SFMOMA (for free) was one of the most inspirational exhibits I’ve ever seen.
3. From documentaries on photographers. You may not realize this, but Netflix is *chock full* of *great* documentaries on photographers. I’ve seen tons of these now. I’ve been publishing a profile a day on a different photographer on Buzz. Why? Because I learned about the importance of curating from a documentary I rented on Netflix about one of the world’s greatest curators (and photographers) Alfred Steiglitz. I’d also highly recommend “In the Real World” about William Eggleston or “The True Meaning of Pictures” about Shelby Lee Adams. But just do a search for photography on Netflix and you’ll find a treasure trove of great documentaries worth watching.
4. From other big thinkers. This may sound odd, but frequently I find inspiration from people who are not primarily photographers. Just watching people who live their life with excellence. Andy Warhol’s work ethic was phenomenal. Man that Jack Kerouac could type. But frequently this is closer to home. Maybe this is watching the personal excellence of a blogger/social media expert (and also photographer) like my friend Robert Scoble. Or watching the many many paintings by my friend tobakhopper and his zest for life that comes along with it. Recently I discovered Chris Guillebeau. He’s trying to visit every country in the world by April 7, 2013. He’s already visited 122 of the 192 total! Read his manifesto here. I love reading positive thinking bloggers like Seth Godin. Surround yourself with big thinkers, powerful generous people who are willing to share and people from the past who have achieved great things.
And also avoid the naysayers. Try to keep away the haters and assholes who only want to tear you down. Little thinking small minded mostly jealous individuals. Recently I found this song by Slim Thug “Dedicated to my haters.” As crazy as it sounds I can find inspiration for listening to a rapper prove his critics wrong by becoming even more successful.
5. From inside yourself. Ultimately you can find inspiration in many, many place in the world around you, but at some point you have to simply fall back on self-discipline. There are *definitely* times that I feel totally uninspired and do not want to go out and shoot. Maybe it’s raining, or maybe I’m tired, or maybe I’m just sick and tired of shooting San Francisco over and over and over again (as lucky as I am to live here in such a beautiful place). But sometimes you just have to accept uninspiration… AND GO SHOOT ANYWAYS. And you know what? You’ll find sometimes that the times when you were least inspired are when you capture some of your finest photographs. F8 and be there. Being there the optimal part.
There are lucky shots and situations around us every single day. Unless you are actually putting yourself out there to stumble across them you will miss them. So if you can’t inspire yourself, fake it, force it. Get out there anyways and you just might find that you stumble upon greatness. Afterall, the best photographs in the world have yet to be taken.
So there are five places that I go to find inspiration. How about you? Where do you go to find *your* photographic inspiration?
photo via flickr
Sarah Palin went to heart of Canada's oil and gas development sector this past week to congratulate Canada on finding the right balance between economic growth and energy security. She also touted her peculiar recipe for energy independence, which is, of course, Drill, Baby, Drill....Read the full story on TreeHugger
Image credit: tibchris/Flickr
Two tiger cubs were found dead in the Ranthambhore national park in India this weekend. Though an investigation is still under way, officials reported that early evidence suggests the cubs were poisoned....Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo via Flickr
Since 2000, China has reportedly purchased 141 rare white rhinos from South Africa--an amount that has drawn the suspicion from conservationists that the animals aren't being used for friendly purposes. Instead, it is believed that the rhinos are being farmed on wildlife reserves for the sole purpose of Read the full story on TreeHugger
About 6 weeks ago I asked the Bing Maps Product Management team about our presence at SXSW. A couple weeks later they gave me a panel. Then, they asked me to proctor it. Oh, and populate it. Hmm, this was a bit more than I was expecting to take on, but always up for a challenge I ran with it and now I’m proud to announce my panel for SXSW jam-packed with location all-stars. My panel is on Sunday, March 14 @ 9:30 AM. Here’s the scoop:
Augmenting Maps with Reality
Remember when the utility of an online map consisted of directions and gawking at satellite imagery? With the recent tide of location-based apps, maps is rapidly emerging as the gateway to socially exploring the world around us. But that’s not all. In this future focused discussion, we’ll explore the rise of maps as a social platform and it’s potential beyond.
Check out this lineup:
Dennis Crowley – foursquare - CEO & Co-Founder
Laura Diaz – NAVTEQ - Senior Manager, Partner & Developer Program
Kellan Elliott-McCrea – Flickr - Architect
Ryan Sarver – Twitter – Director, Twitter Platform
Proctor: Chris Pendleton – Microsoft – Bing Maps Technical Evangelist
I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when I met Ryan, I knew he was one of my own. And my wolf pack... it grew by one. So there... there were two of us in the wolf pack... I was alone first in the pack, and then Ryan joined in later. And six months ago, when I met Dennis and Laura, I thought, "Wait a second, could it be?" And now I know for sure, I just added two more wolves to my wolf pack. And now, finally, Kellan joined the wolf pack. Five of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Austin, looking for music with maps. So tonight, I make a toast!
I hope to see you at my panel…or, somewhere in the streets of Austin.
CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton
sjgardner's Flickr
All of the 55 NYPD cops charged with drunk driving since 1999 pleaded down to non-felony charges and almost every single one of them remained on the force. Although the NYPD can fire any cop "who causes serious physical injury to another person while operating a motor vehicle and is determined to be unfit for duty due to the consumption of alcohol," a Daily News investigation reveals that officers accused of drunk driving often keep their jobs after pleading guilty to lesser offenses like driving while impaired or disorderly conduct.
An NYPD spokesman said officers convicted of felonies are automatically fired, but those who plead down or are convicted of misdemeanors can be punished with suspension, loss of vacation days, alcohol counseling, and probation. Several cops have been accused of drunk driving in recent months, including Officer Andrew Kelly, who hit and killed a preacher's daughter, Detective Kevin Spellman, who hit and killed a Bronx grandmother, and other cops who crashed into a Tiffany's store and struck a parked car.
Some cops accused of drunk driving, like Officer Donald Haines, say they're lucky they're still on the force. Haines—who joined the NYPD although he had pleaded guilty to driving impaired in 1998—was charged with drunk driving for jumping a curb in Long Island in 2007. After refusing to take a sobriety test and a chemical test, he pleaded guilty to another count of driving while impaired and was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service and pay a $1,000 fine. "All I can say is, I still have my job and I'm very grateful," he said.
Others, like retired detective Daniel Massanova, were unrepentant. Five years before retiring with a pension in January, Massanova pleaded guilty to driving impaired after swerving into oncoming traffic and colliding with another car, injuring two women. He refused a Breathalyzer at the scene and was later found to have a blood alcohol level of .11. "Two girls hit me. ... They weren't two old ladies coming home from BINGO, you know what I mean? They were out drinking and drugging," he said. "If I was such a bad guy, why did I work the last 2-1/2 years in the chief of detectives office unsupervised and alone?" he asked. "I had a couple beers in me and I'm the bad guy because I'm a cop."
A Bronx cop claims a superior punched him for refusing to write bogus summonses. "I'm not going to give the bread deliveryman a ticket before going into the deli and telling him," said Officer Anthony Minoia, 46, who is planning on filing suit against the city for the violent incident. "I didn't forget what it was like to be a civilian before I got a badge."
Minoia, an Air Force veteran and Columbia University graduate, is the latest in a string of officers to accuse the NYPD of having quotas for summonses and arrests, pressuring officers to write false summonses, and manipulating crime stats so commanding officers appear to have a better grip on their precincts. "I'm not going to pull out my summons book and write a summons because my boss is telling me he's going to make it difficult for me if I don't," Minoia told the Daily News. "I don't use my powers to make a deputy inspector get promoted."
After 18 months of refusing to write summonses, Minoia says things turned ugly on Jan. 11. First, a supervisor accused him of taking too long of a bathroom break. Then he was informed that he had been transferred to a midnight shift. According to police reports, Minoia fainted minutes after learning of the transfer. The documents reportedly indicate that when Deputy Inspector Timothy Bugge tried to disarm him, Minoia grabbed the commanding officer's neck or collar. Minoia—who has been suspended for insubordination and getting into an altercation with a superior—rejects that version of the story, and claims that Bugge punched him.
If you liked the weekend weather you'll love today's forecast. More sun and a high in the upper 50s, or even lower 60s, is expected. If you're a fan of obscure weather facts, and who isn't, today marks the first time the temperature has reached 50 degrees for three straight days since early December. (We said it was obscure!)
A cold front will roll through town tonight but it shouldn't hinder the 50 degree streak. Look for tomorrow to be slightly cooler, the high will be in the lower 50s, and still mostly sunny. Wednesday will remain warm but lose some of the sunny luster as the next storm system approaches.
The second half of the week could be rather wet. The upper level circulation is going to direct lots of Gulf moisture towards the Northeast. Rain might begin as early as Thursday but is more likely on Friday through the weekend. Highs during the rainy spell are expected to be in the 50s.
As with many bloggers, we’ve been using royalty free images for many years. Many bloggers make use of images from Flickr and we have too but you can’t always find the right image there. I’ve even made a point to take more photos of people, places and things while traveling for later use in blog posts like the one to the right.
The stock photo site we’ve been using for several years recently decided to essentially double their prices (no matter how they spin it, that’s what they did) and it prompted me to ask the excellent people I’m connected with on Twitter for their suggestions on royalty free photography and image web sites. Here is a collection of 9 such sites that were suggested via Twitter or researched by TopRank. Which leads us to our poll for the most “blogger friendly” royalty free stock photo site:
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.For a list of over 100 free stock photo sites, visit this link.
© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | Poll: Best Royalty Free Stock Photo Sites for Bloggers | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com
How do you attract a flash mob of 150+ people to your restaurant? Offer the possibility of a Foursquare Swarm Badge, of course!
Last week, restaurant owner Joe Sorge attracted 161 Foursquare users at the same time to his burger joint in Milwaukee, AJ Bombers (pretty impressive considering there are approximately only 300-400 total Foursquare users in the area). Even more impressive is the fact that the restaurant more than doubled its typical Sunday sales, with an increase of 110% that day.
So how did he do it? If you haven't heard, Foursquare is a location-based mobile app that has been growing in popularity. Using the service, people "check in" at locations and earn badges based on a variety of factors, including frequency of check-ins, etc. In order to attract people to his restaurant to raise money for the Milwaukee Social Media Community to host an event at popular interactive conference South by Southwest (SXSW), Joe promoted the possibility of restaurant-goers earning the coveted Swarm Badge, which is awarded to users who check in at a location where over 50 other users are checked into at the same time. As a result, the restaurant raised over $500 toward the SXSW meetup.
In an interview with Joe, he explains that he came up with the idea when he realized how much of the restaurant's fan base was getting into Foursquare. He promoted the event primarily using Twitter, but also took advantage of Facebook fan connections as well. As a result, AJ Bombers attracted well over the 50 people required to award the Swarm Badge, and restaurant-goers generated a ton of buzz about the meetup via their social networks. Joe also created a video (below) and a Flickr set showcasing photos from the event.
This case study is a great example of business owners harnessing the power of social media sites and applications to attract customers. It's also testament to the growing power of location-based mobile applications. Joe paid attention to his customers to learn more about them, discovered their growing interest in Foursquare, then did his research about how he could take advantage of the new trend. The result was a carefully and successfully implemented promotion that afforded him new customers and additional buzz (and -- you guessed it -- the opportunity to create more content).
The lesson here is simple: Using social media for business works. Stay on top of and understand the latest trends, and most importantly -- be creative! Think about innovative ways you can use these applications to generate traffic to your website and/or your physical store.
Mobile and location-based applications continue to grow in popularity. Are you thinking about how you can use them to your advantage?
Already a Foursquare user? Measure your Foursquare mojo with our new Foursquare Grader tool!
| Join HubSpot to learn tips and strategies to monitor your company's brand and engagement in social media in just 10 minutes per day! Date and time: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 1:00pm ET Reserve your spot now to set up a solid routine to monitor your online presence! |
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The floodgates are slowly opening up for the brand new Canon Digital Rebel T2i (550D, Kiss X4). I'm sure Canon hopes this will have a "7D-like" impact on the market, but as always, only time will tell.
The first review is hot off the e-presses at Camera Labs. Included are multiple ISO comparisons between it and the Nikon D90 (which by the way dropped to $760) - check the pink "Results" tab and its text-based sub-tabs. They have two sets each, JPEG ISO crops and RAW ISO crops. Conclusions and a comparison to a variety of DSLRs in the verdict page which as usual, we won't reveal here.
The second review comes from the Camera Mother Land, Japan, by DC Watch Impress, with a vast variety of downloadable full-size JPEG samples (page-down a few times to get to the samples).
Next up, a dessert for the pixel-peepers out there! Neutral Day has published a three-way EOS comparison between the new T2i, the previous model T1i (500D) and the "uncontested" 7D. The full-size samples are available for download for evaluation purposes through flickr.
For more T2i/550D action, be sure to check the round-up at Foto Actualidad.
In terms of availability, the camera is not easy to find in-stock at the major retailers as you can see at the T2i stock status page. Some of the estimates seem to indicate that new supplies will be available within a couple of weeks, but it's not written in stone.
For the full gallery check out Flickr Friday - #5 on KeepInspiring.Me
I have always believed that pictures are great instructional tools. Put a picture in place of a word and what you get is an instant mental connection.
Photos, images, or pictures have always helped to tie in the loose associations of what we see around us, with what we are trying to learn. Maybe, not as much for us adults, but for children, an image based practical teaching approach is often recommended.
One of the more recommended places to search out images is Flickr. The large number of images that are hosted by Flickr are a virtual visual treasure.
Flickr makes all the public images easy to mine by providing the Flickr API (Application Programming Interface) for non-commercial use. Of course, that’s not for us, the common folk. What we are more interested in are what the developers have done with all that code.
Some of it has been turned into better ways to browse for images. And some into games. Call them picture games, photo puzzles or time-wasters, Flickr-based games are brief enough to be played in a trice and easy enough for kids and grandparents. The fact that they are very easy to play is what makes them appealing as teaching aids too.
Here are 10 Flickr based games that are wholesome fun. Stretch it a bit, and you could get a lot of visual learning out of it too.
Do you notice things around you? Noticings asks you to upload interesting photos to Flickr tagged with the word ‘noticings’. Users and their photos are given points on the basis of these uploads. The photos are imported from Flickr and geotagged. The rules of the picture game are very simple – for instance, you get points for being the first person to notice something in your neighborhood. Or for spotting a lost object somewhere.
Noticings is about noticing interesting things around us and having a bit of fun in the process. It’s almost as if the game tells us to pause in our every day and smell the roses.
Some of Sudoku’s popularity should rub off on this Flickr inspired avatar. Just like the original Sudoku game, you get a 9×9 grid. Instead of numbers, you get to use 9 unique images from a column on the left. The rules of Sudoku still apply.
You can get new images from a particular user’s photo stream or from pictures with particular tags, or a combination of both. Also customizable is the image size, and also the difficulty level of the puzzles. But Sudoku sometimes takes time; so hit the save my game button to come back to it later using a bookmarked link.
And if you miss the numbers, check out its namesake – Flickr Sudoku which uses number pictures instead of digits.
Thirty photos arranged in a grid in this picture game and you have to munch your way through the ones which are matched with the keyword on the top. Navigation is using the arrow keys on the keyboard. Get seven right and you move up a level. Munch one wrong and you use up a life.
The site says that your fun play adds to the visual relevance ranking system which contributes to image searching algorithms on the web.
Question Pile includes a collection of games based on Flickr but hosted on Facebook. Of particular note is Where Is This (You see a geo-tagged Flickr picture and you answer where the picture is from) and One Doesn’t Belong (Pick the dissimilar Flickr image from a set of four, based on tags).
Another is the Sliding Puzzle where you have to solve a photo puzzle which is very similar to the Sliding Tiles toy puzzle.
Inspired from the classic Hangman game, here you have to guess four letters of the tag at a time and get the four Flickr photos.
Each time you put in an incorrect letter, a part will be added to the hangman. When you guess a correct letter, that blank will be filled in. The picture game ends when the Hangman is complete or you manage to get the four letters of the tag.
A player is shown ten successive images and the whole point is to guess a common tag that ties all these images together. The game gets its name from the pace set by the game – the faster you guess the correct tag, the more points you get.
Choose to play it as a guest or register with a nickname. Registered players can save their games and their high scores. You can also choose to play it alone or within a group.
Quite simply, Memry is a memory game that uses Flickr pictures as cards. Enter a tag in the field box and Memry loads the images in a 4×4 or 6×6 grid (as selected by you). The images are face down and you have to show them using mouse clicks. The objective is to match each photo with its identical counterpart.
When you match all the photos, you can choose to see the originals at Flickr. Using some parameters, you can play using a particular photostream and in an advanced mode.
From the same guys comes this Flickr based picture game which takes a phrase that you type in and gives you images that go with it. The entire phrase is depicted is a series of images.
It’s basically a matching algorithm that treats each word in the phrase as a keyword and extracts corresponding images from Flickr. But the end result can be eye catching.
This game is from Big Huge Labs which has quite a lot of Flickr tools in its repertory. What you have is a Flickr photo, a hint of a few letters and a timer that’s on the run. Your job is to guess the title and enter it as fast as you can.
This game is fast paced and also lets you play against others that are online at that point in time.
This is more for teaching your little one, how to spell and having some fun in the process. Spell out a word in the field box and the Spell with Flickr spouts out the spelling with picture letters from Flickr.
You can click on each letter to get a new letter picture in its place.
AlphaLearnr is another similar Flickr mashup that can be used to teach children alphabets in a very easy way. Click on the alphabets and you get Flickr photos for that letter.
Are there other neat Flickr based picture games out there? We would love it if you could add a few more to this list. Drop some names in the comments and let us know which ones you really like.
em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!
For the full inspirational gallery check out Flickr Friday - #5 on KeepInspiring.Me. Be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
A dugong in an aquarium in Sydney, Australia. Photo by jo3hug via Flickr.
It must have required many lonely months out to sea to mistake this face only a mother could love for that of a fair maiden, but encounters with dugongs are indeed said to have been the inspiration for the myth of the mermaid. While the fictional fish-human hybrids were believed to have "called sailors to their death by encouraging them to jump overboard from their ships," Green ProphetRead the full story on TreeHugger
We spend a lot of time discussing the various capabilities of smartphones and the apps available for them, but the truth of the matter is that not everyone has a smartphone. In fact, the vast majority of people don't. Fortunately, though, "dumb phone" owners don't have to miss out on all the fun, thanks to the versatility of SMS.Continue reading Text Messaging Tricks Invigorate Your 'Dumb Phone'
Filed under: Cell Phones, Google, Social Networking
Text Messaging Tricks Invigorate Your 'Dumb Phone' originally appeared on Switched on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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