Rafman’s reflections on Google street view

Thanks to my brother Frank, I got a chance to read “IMG MGMT: The Nine Eyes of Google Street View” by Jon Rafman over on Art Fag City. Mr. Rafman, whose new book entitled Sixteen Google Street Views probably contains images similar to those in this essay, has a marvelous essay discussing the images he’s found among the Google images from street view. Highly recommended.

Eye Glasses

I need ‘em. I can see things at a distance quite easily but, when it comes to near vision, I carry 2.50 magnification reading glasses. In this context, because I’d read about Freeverse’s app, Eye Glasses, it was one of the first apps I acquired.

The Eye Glasses app is ideal for farsighted individuals, those with reading glasses or bifocals, senior citizens and anyone that just needs to see more clearly. Both for convenience and in Emergencies, the Eye Glasses app is one more task the iPhone can do — and it’s always in your pocket.

Eye Glasses uses the iPhone 3GS autofocusing camera to clearly display text or imagery. To use Eye Glasses, choose between 2x, 4x, 6x or 8x magnification and hold the iPhone camera about five inches away from the item you want to see magnified!

I’ve used Eye Glasses only a few times in the first 10 days of having it on my iPhone. Most of those instances have been for the purposes of play, but I imagine I’ll be glad to have it several times in the future (e.g., removing a splinter).

I was somewhat surprised to see that I couldn’t find an information button on the app’s screens. Probably that omission is by design, but I haven’t deduced why it was designed without that function.

Link to Freeverse’s page about Eye Glasses.

apps series

As a consequence of my recent acquisition of an iPhone (3GS, 32 gb, 3.1.2), I’m learning about apps. I thought I’d post irregularly about what I’ve found interesting among these products. I’ll have to see how the series evolves, but I expect that it’ll include both quick reviews, comments, observations about the genre, and such.

Although the posts will be associated with the technology category, I’m going to give the series a category of its own, also. In keeping with what I see as current usage, I decided not to capitalize the category name.

Of course, folks are welcome to critique my observations and reviews. Note, however, that I shall monitor comments and, as I don’t want the posts to turn into an advertising opportunity for spammers (even if they are pushing good products), I’ll tag anything that looks suspicious to me. So, to keep addresses off the blacklists, I recommend that developers limit comments about their products.

Security blogger: Don’t bank on Windows

According to Brian Krebs, who writes about computer security for the Washington Post, people—especially bankers—should not use computers that have a Windows operating system for banking transactions. He explained his reasoning in a blog entry entitled, “Avoid Windows Malware: Bank on a Live CD” that appeared 12 October 2009. Here’s his lead:

An investigative series I’ve been writing about organized cyber crime gangs stealing millions of dollars from small to mid-sized businesses has generated more than a few responses from business owners who were concerned about how best to protect themselves from this type of fraud.

The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don’t use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online.

Mr. Krebs’ recommendation is based on what he learned while investigating thefts of $10s to $100s of thousands around the US. He explained that all of the thefts had one common element: “They succeeded because the bad guys were able to plant malicious software that gave them complete control over the victim’s Windows computer.”

Mr. Krebs explains that he is not the only person making such recommendations and provides links to other agencies and individuals who have arrived at the same conclusion. He also offers solutions, but you should read them from this column. Get there by following this link.

Voting ends soon

Voting in Project 10¹⁰⁰ (i.e., “Project 10 to the 100th”), Google’s effort to promote good-doing works, ends tomorrow. Time to get over there and do the duty.

10^100th Voting

Project 10¹⁰⁰ (i.e., “Project 10 to the 100th”) is an effort by Google to promote good-doing works. I mentioned it in Dec ‘08 when I commented on a a story by Meagan Ellis of Materials World Magazine about a project by Edward Sazonov demonstrating the use of vibrations generated by passing traffic to charge a battery that would power a sensor and wireless transmitter. Project 10¹⁰⁰ received > 150,000 proposals for good-doing works, narrowed the proposals to nn, and is now soliciting public input about which ones to fund.

Last fall we launched Project 10^100, a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Your response was overwhelming. Thousands of people from more than 170 countries submitted more than 150,000 (or around 10^5.2) ideas, from general investment suggestions to specific implementation proposals. As we reviewed these submissions, we started noticing lots of similar ideas related to certain broad topics, and decided that combining the best aspects of these individual proposals would produce the most innovative approaches to solving some very pressing problems.

The finalists are not as specific as I thought they would be, but they are interesting. Go to Project 10 to the 100th to learn about the projects and vote. Here’s a link for my earlier post.

Texting, driving, dying, killing

The accompanying video was created by Welsh filmmaker Peter Watkins-Hughes as a cautionary about the risks of texting and driving. As a warning, on YouTube viewers are supposed to attest to being 18 or older to see it, because of the graphic depiction of death and injury.

I learned about the video from an interview with Mr. Watkins-Hughes that I heard as a follow-up story to a BBC report that originally aired 25 August 2009. Subsequently, I learned that National Public Radio published a report entitled “Video Highlights Danger Of Texting While Driving” by Elizabeth Blair about the video 1 September 2009.

Some of the commentson YouTube—at least the couple of dozen (out of thousands) that I read—show all-too-common snarkiness.

Imagine LA without TV

LA Times

Of course, I hope that the Mt. Wilson structures do not burn in the “Station Fire,” but it is a fantastic irony that the LA basin might loose it’s access to air-based television if they do. This fire reminds me of one that burned some of the same area when I was 11 and had just moved to the LA basin. There was a big fire in the La Cañada neighborhood and embers from it fell on the playground at Marengo School in South Pasadena (fewer than 10 air miles away). Some of the burned out embers that had been carried aloft by the convection were nearly the size of small limbs.