Month: February 2006

Categories
Photography

If you linked to a photo of mine on Flickr

In the next few days, I’m running an application that will download all photos I’ve embedded in my web pages and convert the Flickr address to one running locally in space I control. I will then be canceling my Flickr account. This move has been planned for some time, and wasn’t specifically based on the new Flickr community guidelines. However, these guidelines did help remind me that Flickr is, first and foremost, a community site. I don’t take photos to participate as a community; I take photos because I love photography. As terrific as I’ve found many people in the Flickr community, this isn’t the reason I originally used the service. As such, I no longer feel comfortable using this, or any community-based photo service.

I know that in several cases, some of you have linked to my photos at Flickr rather than copy to your sites. Unfortunately, this is going to break the images in your space when I delete the Flickr account. I may keep the account until the subscription runs out, but best bet is to replace the linked images with ones copied. I plan on giving anyone who wants it permission to duplicate any of my photos in their weblog. I won’t use a Creative Commons license; what I will do is spell out how and when the photos can be used. Copying to add to a weblog post is one of those uses.

Categories
RDF Specs

Proving yet again

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

…why Atom is the only syndication format to use (if you all persist in finding RDF too hard that is, and go icky poo with RSS 1.x).

Rogers Cadenhead:

In part to address his concerns (and some voiced by Palfrey), I launched a new site for the board and we’ve been working on a newly written specification that seeks to resolve long-standing issues with RSS that make it difficult to implement, such as a lack of clarity on whether an item’s description is the only element that can carry HTML. (The spec’s not official — it’s published to solicit public review for at least 60 days. I encourage people who are interested in it to join the RSS-Public mailing list.)

Winer has now decided that the board doesn’t exist and never had authority over the RSS specification, even though it has published six revisions from July 2003 to the present.

God giveth. God taketh away.

Categories
Weather

But it’s not spring yet

The first of the major Spring storms is hitting us, and will continue for the next few hours. It’s not even Spring, but we reached into the 70’s today, and should drop 40 or so degrees within the next hour or two. Can’t have two such strong systems meet without something bumping.

We have a tornado watch, but I’m more concerned about the hail. I called my roommate at work to see how the weather is where he’s at and he says they’re being hit hard with hail. He’s driving Golden Girl, so hopefully my car won’t suffer the consequences. Much.

At least we’re not getting the snow other places have received.

When I walked in Powder a couple of days ago, I chatted with a couple I run into from time to time and they told me about the birds they’ve seen this week. The pileated woodpecker is out and about, as was a flock of bluebirds. When I was there, I saw some form of small bird I can’t identify, as well as titmouse in addition to the usual cardinals, robins, jays, and so on. No, Spring is not waiting for the calendar this year.

Categories
Photography

Pale shadow

The second beta release of Adobe’s Lightroom was released today, and it is a significant improvement over the first. It runs faster and has a superior toolset, including the much demanded cropping tool. Adobe says it will also run on the new PC Macs, which surprised me.

Beta 2 also has the ability to add music to a slideshow. If you want to have music, check an option and then pick a playlist from iTunes. The music then plays in the background of the show.

I’ve been using the tool tonight to create slideshows of my orchid photos from the 2006 Missouri Botanical Garden Orchid show. This year’s theme is based on the classic children’s book, Wind in the Willows, and I’m using the soundtrack from the play based on the book. In particular the Overture and Carl Whidden’s Will I find New Dreams work amazingly well. Unfortunately, the exported versions of the slideshow don’t include either the fullscreen option or the music and the resulting slideshows suffer in comparison. Disappointing, because the shows are rather nice on my laptop.

I hesitated to put any online, but decided to publish one of the smaller ones, as a valentine to soften some of this week’s rough edges. You’ll have to pretend the photos are fullscreen, with Will I find New Dreams playing in the background. If you’ve never heard this song, it’s a wonderful song.

I’ve added a second Flash show, with photos adjusted more for the PCs. The song I mentioned is from a soundtrack album for Wind in the Willows. The eMusic page has 30 second snippets of the tune. iTunes also features the album. I love this type of haunting, almost melancholic music.

The song Member of the Gentry might bring a chuckle in light of some of the this week’s discussions.

Categories
Diversity

One last SxSW post

I discovered that the SxSW panel on Increasing Women’s Visibility on the Web: Whose Butt Should We Be Kicking is still happening, under Blogher management. One of the original panel members, Virginia DeBolt, is still on the panel, and it looks like a goodly mix of people will be featured.

I am disappointed that the original panel fell through, though I’m glad that Blogher was able to salvage it. As reticent as I am of meetups, this was one of the few events I was anticipating keenly this year. The fact that it fell through, and how it fell through was a disheartening event for me. Such is life, the world still turns or some such thing. Perhaps I’ll do something other during this time frame: travel to the UK or the Antarctica or some such thing.

I am still going to write up what I planned on discussing on the panel, but I’ll do this closer to the event. In the meantime, Tara Hunt, one of the new panel members, has a post related to the topic.