Photofocus:
The folks at Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain has produced a (free) comic book that explains copyright in both a clear and interesting way. Learn about the delicate balance between intellectual property and the public domain – the realm of material that is free to use without permission or payment.
Every “content creator” should understand the basics of copyright and this comic book is a clever and visually interesting way to do it.
Wired:
At a space shuttle launch, a front row seat is 3 miles away. If you want to get closer, you have two options: Be an astronaut, or be a camera. Photographer Dan Winters got a rare chance to explore the second option.In 2011, after NASA announced it would be ending the shuttle program, Winters received permission to document the final launches of the space shuttles Discovery, Endeavor and Atlantis. He’s compiled that work in the book Last Launch. A shuttle launch is a violent event, yet Winters captured them with the same stunning intimacy found in his portraits. And while he had unparalleled access to make that happen, the logistics were tremendous. At WIRED by Design, the photographer explained how he got the shots.
Both the above video and the Wired article are fascinating looks at both the technical and emotional side of photographing these last moments of history.
This is Colossal:
The game units have been designed and approved for use by the city of Hildesheim, Germany where they were installed two weeks ago. Rebranded as the ActiWait, the devices aren’t just a clever way to pass the time while waiting for cars, hopefully they disuade impatient pedestrians from darting through traffic.
Who said Germans don’t have a sense of humour and fun?
Six Colors:
Apple’s getting its lunch eaten by competitors, and the hits just keep on coming. The most recent numbers have Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV pulling ahead of Apple’s set-top box, and you know what? They should be. Right now, they’re better products: they have support for more services, they have more flexibility, and they’re cheaper.The Apple TV, on the other hand, hasn’t gotten a meaningful upgrade since 2010.
He’s not wrong. I used to recommend the Apple TV wholeheartedly but it’s far too long in the tooth now.
From Reuters. Fair warning – these are news shots and some are very graphic and disturbing but all are powerful.
Fascinating video. If you’re looking for a special treat for yourself or a wonderful gift to give this holiday season, you can’t go wrong with a bottle of Woodford Reserve Bourbon. One of my favourites.
TidBITS:
OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite has been out for a bit now and while it is working fine for many people, there are still a variety of complaints making the rounds on the Internet. Here then is a collection of five problems and solutions (or at least workarounds) that we’ve either experienced or had reported to us.
Not all of these will be applicable to everyone but some might help speed things up for you.
Popular Mechanics:
What a lovely video. What a delicate and sentimental homage to an elder statesmen of the land speed wars. What a beautiful, pastoral day, perfect for rolling out a… What uh…. What are they doing with the…. DEAR LORD. IT RUNS.
It’s called “The Beast of Turin” and it looks and sounds like the car Satan would drive. Thanks very much to Glenn Ramsey for the link.
Priceonomics:
To counterbalance its simplicity, the Slinky has an utterly complex backstory. The toy has dealt with a slew of uncanny circumstances — an inventor who fled to South America to join a religious cult, a seven-figure debt, a mind-boggling reemergence under unlikely leadership — and has somehow managed to persevere with very little redesign.
I don’t know how popular the Slinky is outside of Canada and the US but is there anyone who didn’t get one of these for a gift at some point? And how long did it take you (or your rotten little brothers) to break it?
Dan Frakes:
A couple months back, I tweeted that the iOS 8 share-sheet extension I really wanted was one that would let me send myself an email—in other words, to share the current thing via email, but to have the resulting email message pre-addressed to me.
Like Dan, I do this frequently on iOS and have been using and liking this little extension.
Jim and Shawn talk about drum loops, Home Screen apps, the CIA and David Lee Roth!
Sponsored by Backblaze (Visit the link for a free trial and then it’s just $5/month per computer for unlimited backup, and it backs up fast) and lynda.com (Start learning something new by visiting lynda.com/thebeard and get a FREE 10-day trial where you can access all of their 2,400+ courses).
Apple is throwing its support behind the second annual Hour of Code by holding free one-hour coding workshops at its retail stores, around the world. […]
Reuters:
An anti-discrimination bill championed by Alabama’s only openly gay lawmaker will bear the name of Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook, a native of the state who came out as gay in October.Democratic state Representative Patricia Todd said on Wednesday the technology giant was initially hesitant about having Cook’s name on her bill but later embraced the idea.
Very happy to see Apple changed their mind regarding this. The bill won’t pass though.
Revenues from online shopping on “Cyber Monday” surged 15.4 percent higher than last year, setting a new all time peak in U.S. ecommerce, with online mobile sales overwhelmingly driven by customers wielding Apple devices.
This doesn’t really surprise me that much. People seem to be very comfortable using their iOS devices for many things, including purchasing items from a variety of stores. This is something I see that sets Apple apart from its competitors—people have confidence in its products, which leads to confidence in doing other tasks, like shopping.
Petapixel:
This September, Airbus took to the skies to capture photos of five of its massive test and development A350–900s. The photo shoot was meant to celebrate the certification of the company’s latest twin-engine, wide-body jetliner.It was also probably one of the most expensive photo shoots we’ve ever come across.
At a cool $300 million for each of the five A350–900s, the cost of the subjects alone totals $1.5 billion dollars.
Any five element photo shoot is complicated. An airborne photo shoot is a thousand times more complicated. Doing it with five massive, quarter of a million-pound aircraft is utterly remarkable. Great video.
Eddy Cue:
“We feel we have to fight for the truth,” says Cue. “Luckily, Tim feels exactly like I do,” he continues, referring to Apple CEO Tim Cook, “which is: You have to fight for your principles no matter what. Because it’s just not right.”
Preach it, brother. I agree.
Colossal:
Ontario-based photographer Stephen Orlando is fascinated with human movement and uses programmable LED light sticks attached to kayak paddles, people, racquets, and other objects to translate that movement into photographic light paintings.
As I photographer myself, from an artistic point of view, these photos are fascinating. But the technical aspect of capturing the images in this way are equally interesting.
Twitter:
In our continuing effort to make your Twitter experience safer, we’re enhancing our in-product harassment reporting and making improvements to “block”.
This issue is a giant hairball for Twitter but one that has been long overdue for them to address. I’m looking forward to seeing this rolled out. I’m not looking forward to seeing how it will inevitably be abused.
I really like Amazon and Bezos for that matter. I hate the way the company continues to say how good it is without providing any kind of numbers to back it up. As much as I like them, the criticism is well founded.
Tech Republic:
Jonathan Zufi decided to take some of his thousands of photos of Apple products and collect them into a giant, self-published coffee table book. The result was Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple, a 350-page tome filled with gorgeous pictures of products from Apple’s 30-year history.
I don’t think it’s the ultimate gift (a working Apple I would be), but I have this book and it is gorgeous. It would certainly make a great gift for any Apple fan.
Medium:
Every day tens of thousands of high-speed optical recognition cameras silently snap digital photos of plates, capturing in milliseconds an image of each tag and sometimes the driver as well. They are difficult to see if you’re not looking for them, but the sleek devices can be found clamped to patrol cars and the vehicles of debt chasers as well as mounted along streets and highways and in parking garages and shopping centers. A single reader, once activated, works furiously without assistance, capturing thousands of plate scans per shift.But there are bugs.
We are being spied on in ways we don’t imagine, for reasons we can’t fathom and by “authorities” with little to no oversight.
The documents reveal that the agency worked behind the scenes for years, beginning after the release of the disco-inflected “Push Comes To Shove” single in 1981…
HAHAHAHA
“The last thing we wanted was to have another ‘Panama’ on our hands,” he added.
LOL!
“That being said, none of us could possibly have foreseen that For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge would indirectly result from our actions,” he added, solemnly shaking his head.
This is just classic. I love The Onion.
This is quite an article from former Google+ UX designer, Chris Messina.
[Via BGR]
The New York Times:
The technology, which has a microchip in the card and requires consumers to enter a PIN at checkout, has been required in Europe and some countries elsewhere for about a decade. Now, Americans retailers and banks are preparing for the wide release of the technology, in a wholesale security upgrade that will cost billions of dollars. The change will start next year and is expected to take several years to complete.
It can’t happen fast enough. Most of the rest of the world is already protected by this tech.
The Globe and Mail:
The first Shaw Fire log – Canada’s answer to what had been a sensation in New York since the 1960s – dates back to 1986; a way to broadcast content on a round-the-clock channel in Edmonton so employees could take Christmas off. Every year, Shaw’s vice-president of community programming invited his employees to his house for a party, and they taped a new fire log, which ran on a continuous loop over the holiday. It caught on elsewhere.
I’d be embarrassed to tell you how often this video plays on my TV during the holidays. Thanks to Lesley for the story link.
Use your iPad or iPhone to highlight and draw freehand on a PDF, sign a contract, make corrections, fill out an application, make comments on a presentation and much more.
A great app from a great company.
I really like Line 6 gear and software. This is one of my go-to apps for iOS.
From 1984.
If the XL1 was equipped with an 18 gallon fuel tank, and you did all highway driving, you could fill it up with an oil change and when the next change was due you could change the oil and keep driving without filling up for and additional 2,400 miles. But it comes with a much smaller fuel tank, because if it could go that long on a single tank chances are the fuel would foul before it got used. The tank is only 2.6 gallons to prevent fuel age related problems from happening. So fill ups are cheap.
The band’s latest album is out and on iTunes for purchase and download. I pre-ordered it and I’m enjoying most of the songs so far.