Would you trust facebook with your location?
Welcome to another slippery slope! Yes I do have a lamebook, err facebook account. I set it up to plant my flag, before anyone who also shares my name or those that would spoof me staked their claim. (metaphor overload).
I don’t use it and hope to never be put in situation where I must use it (multilevel marketing anyone!?).
Location based facebook is coming! A.k.a.: “Places” And of course based on their past history, you can be sure that facebook won’t overshare your information…
Check this out from Dan Gillmor at Salon.
What would Elvis do?
The government of Iran has issued a decree regarding Hairstyles for men. It’s true, there are certain hairstyles that do not conform to the Governments’ rules. Ponytails, mullets and elaborate spikes are outlawed!
Read more here:
Guerilla Christian Burial
This disturbed soil and cross appeared on public land within a park near my house. I wonder: What’s under this soil? Why here?
That’s one Red Tree on a Bright Day!
I’m not sure what kind of tree this is, but it’s RED and it’s Spring!
Photography Show Opens May 7
Myself and three other photographers, eleven photos by me.
Show runs through August 29.
Snailshell Cache
This collection of empty snail shells found in a meadow, Brighton New York. I wonder what animal / bird feeds on the captured snails here?
Marked Trees in the Middle of the Woods
A collection of trees in the middle of the woods are wrapped with plastic tape – sequential numbers designate a few trees in the midst of hundreds of specimens. This area is adjacent to Wetland Delineation BR-26 which is a U of R research project. What is surprising about these trees is their remoteness, no real paths lead here, bushwacking is required.
Map Battle: Verizon vs. AT&T near Storage B?
The Coverage Map controversy between AT&T and Verizon is interesting. AT&T charged in court recently that Verizon was misrepresenting their reach. The court found in favor of Verizon, as their advertisements state this is a map of AT&T’s 3G coverage, not their overall slower network.
(AT&T Drops Fight Over Maps in Verizon Ads By SAUL HANSELL @ NYT).
AT&T has responded in the media with their postcard flipping advertisements. I’m sure some folks don’t realize that Verizon is only comparing 3G coverage, but maybe it’s more than I think…
Both companies are expanding their service areas, and will continue to do so. But Verizon and AT&T shouldn’t forget that we also need our devices to work in the stone and metal buildings most of us work in.
We expect connectivity along interstates, airports and stadiums, but what about when we’re in the basement visiting our friends near Storage B?
Online Security and Photographic Privacy
Privacy and Technology; two words when mixed invoke fervor in some. As technology advances, and our use of the online medium becomes expected, we are distributing tiny bits of our traits outside our physical relations. If you carry a mobile device’ we are never truly offline. Does your phone go with you everywhere? Just in case… Your location, via GPS may be broadcast. Just in case…
Google CEO Eric Schmidt mentioned December 3 that we should have no expectation of privacy when we are online. Soon we may not expect privacy not just online, but offline as well. If we are moving with a mobile device – offline never exists.
A recent California law directed at paparazzi who chase celebrities for gossip video / photographs amends the expectation of privacy persons have in a public space. The new law states a person may have a ”reasonable expectation of privacy” or they may sue the photographer and the distributor of the illegal images.
Previously when a media outlet published an image, the outlet had no liability towards how the image was acquired. A paparazzi may have trespassed to get the photograph. The new law removes the First Amendment defense from the paparazzi and publishers who break the law to acquire content.
For nearly twelve thousand dollars, you can purchase a telephoto lens that will provide incredible magnification power.
Check out a cool Canon focal Length Comparison here, to see the effect of zoom and telephoto lenses.
If a paparazzi rents a room in a skyscraper hotel near a Celeb hotel and point the lens out the window is this trespassing – by law yes, as the Celeb would have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their luxury hotel. But the technology exists that a photographer could do this, easily.
I wonder when the gossip media empires will own their own surveillance satellite, zooming in on the rich and famous of the future from orbit?
Cell Towers and Cell Cameras
Irondequoit NY - November 2009 ©
Cell Phone Tower photographed with a Cell Phone Camera..
© G. Elyjiw
Cell Phone Tower Photograph on Cell Phone Camera Viewfinder
Broken Glass at the Glass Museum
Corning Museum of Glass - October 2009 ©
Fall Milkweed @ ‘The Meadow’
Brighton, NY – November 2009 ©
Three Exits
Ithaca, NY - October 2009 ©
Many Roosting Herons
These Herons roost here every night, this is only one place they sleep. Within a few miles, they number in the hundreds. For you photo geeks out there: this one’s at 3200 iso, noise prompts conversion to B & W.
Mobile Contact to / from the ‘Remote’
Technology users may soon use a device or a process to consciously reject information / data / content and contact.
A paid exit from electronic communication, cable / sat TV, for x amount of time. Filter stuff we don’t want. No news, no business, no sports, no friends or family (?). Where to draw the line, which friends / family?
No Service for the cell phone, no network for the laptop, no converter box on the cable less TV. No newspapers. No paper mail. How remote would the location be to have no contact? How far away would you need to go? Everest, The Amazon, Africa can all connect to a Satellite in space. Winnebago and other big RV’s have satellite antennas mounted on top. Park at he nearest Jellystone Park, hook up electric, water and sewage while watching 500 channels in the land yacht.
Electricity is key for longer than a few days…
Our need for constant contact is a new phenomenon of our behavior. Of course, I bring my phone when I’m out in the boonies and could turn an ankle. I would want to be accessible if one of my family or friends needed me. I’d rather have the cell signal than not.
But sometimes we need to have no signal. We need help filtering the stuff that we care about, but perhaps can’t do anything about. No politics for the poly junkie, no Yankees for the fan, no Perez for the celeb obsessed, no lamebook, no twits, no phone calls.
Clean the office, keep, recycle, trash.
Give your brain a break for a while; synthesize the stuff you have now.
