Lights, Camera -- Jamming

Researchers at the College of Computing at Georgia Tech may have found a way to thwart bootleggers with digital cameras. They developed a prototype device seeks out cameras and blocks them from taking pictures and video.

From Technology Review via Ratchetup

Patricia Rosas Sings Ave Maria in TJ

Watch the video

Patricia Rosas Sings Ave Maria as a birthday gift to a woman in Tijuana. June 22, 2006.

San Diego, California

The evening of the last day of my college reunion, I flew to California to meet up with Christelle and Carolina. Caro is now living in Paris but she grew up in La Jolla and came back to spend the summer with her lovely family. We ran around S.CA. and TJ with her family and friends.

5th Yr Reunion

Wow! I just had my 5th year college reunion. Good times, good times....

Bill Says Good-Bye

"Gates will be around for a while, training the two guys it will take to fill his shoes. Ray Ozzie, 50, who joined Microsoft just over a year ago, takes the top technical role. Craig Mundie, who at 56 is a 14-year veteran of the company, takes on a newly created title: chief of research and strategy." [Forbes]

MN WIFT and WCCO

The day Christelle left, I met with some Minnesota Women in Film and Television (MN WIFT) friends at WCCO in Minneapolis. We got to meet with the news director and other staffers to talk about the behind the scenes of the news operation. We toured the facility and engineering staff reviewed equipment and discussed preparations for a switch to HD. Then we hung out on the roof top garden, and of course took advantage of a little photo op with the beautiful Minneapolis skyline.

Christelle in MN

Yeah, fun, youpieeee! Christelle came to visit from Paris (Cergy). She assisted the French Dept at Carleton a couple years back and came now to see some of her students graduate. It was fun to have her around.

1080p May Not Be What It Seems

1080p May Not Be What It Seems: "Many of us are confused about 1080p, the highest resolution in the ATSC spec book for high-definition TV. TG Daily talked with Bill Whalen, Senior Product Manager at Hitachi, who explains that while lots of TVs can take in 1080p, by the time that video is displayed it's down-rezzed to either 720p or 768p. Whelan says 1080p LCD panels are still too expensive to produce and might be more practical in 2007 or 2008. He adds that it's important to consider how you'll be using such resolution:'If you watch TV in a distance that is less than three times the screen height of your TV, then 1080p is worth the wait. If the distance is greater than three times the screen height, then today's [720p/768p] HDTVs, such as 42' units, offer an incredible value.'Whalen wisely concludes that you should depend on your eyes when buying an HDTV set, not a bunch of numbers that often don't mean exactly what they seem."

JD Lasica on Network Neutrality

JD Lasica was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered talking about Network Neutrality. "Advocates on both sides of the issue say the neutrality bill pending in Congress will have far-reaching implications for all Internet users. That's an understatement. I give a perspective on how a dual-tier Internet would adversely impact video-intensive nonprofits like Ourmedia and the Internet Archive." [Interviewed on NPR]

Minnesota Sasquatch

Watch the Video

digImashaghen and Discovery Backus bring to you the recently de-classified footage of a Sasquatch tracking and sighting in rural Minnesota on February 19, 2006. The sighting occured on a wooden settlement just east of Backus, Minnesota. Snow cover facilitated tracking. A warning to the weak of stomach, the spoils of a Sasquatch hunt are revealed in this footage.

Nature Rendez-Vous on MN Stories

Sue Mueller's Super8 fishing movie is featured on MN Stories today. It has been called beautiful, trippy, invaluable, great etc... Check it out to see what you think.

Full
Edited

U.S. Wants Web Records

"The U.S. Department of Justice has quietly told Google, Microsoft and other major Internet companies that it wants them to keep detailed records of where people go while surfing the Web for up to two years.

The proposal, which would require congressional approval, could dramatically change how companies cooperate with law enforcement agencies investigating everything from terrorist networks to child pornography. Internet service providers such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast could also be forced to comply..." [Mercury News]

Docu-Ganda

In 'docu-ganda' films, balance is not the objective "The days when "documentary" reliably meant "inform the audience" - rather than "influence the audience" - are no more. The makers of such films today see their cinematic contributions as an antidote to media consolidation that, they say, restricts topics and voices to the bland and the commercial. As such, they feel little or no obligation to heed documentary-film traditions like point-by-point rebuttal or formal reality checks."