Unlimited uploads on Flickr?

Flickr says I've got unlimited uploads, unlimited bandwidth, and can make uploads private... all for $25/year... what a bargain.

I'm going to backup all of my photos there. (120+ Gb)

I'm going to geocode them all (some public, some private)

I'm going to make some of them public (probably most of them)

I'm going to sync it to ThumbsPlus and my local archive.

I expect to be done by Virginia's 2nd Birthday.

--Mike--

Focus

Focus
Originally uploaded by --Mike--

Yesterday, Anahlise was baptised.. and I was honored to be the photographer.

The D40 made the photography as smooth as butter.

Thanks to my loving wife Noran for prompting the purchase.

D40 first light

Virginia
Originally uploaded by --Mike--

I needed something that would actually focus quickly in indoor environments for a photo shoot tomorrow. My Nikon Coolpix 8800 is a great camera for the outdoors, but the contrast detect focus just doesn't cut the mustard indoors. This necessitated a move to a digital SLR.

I decided to go with the Nikon D40 because it's supposed to be a bit better than the newer D40x in most aspects. I'm very happy with it so far.

This is Virginia, who is now 18 months old. She was about 6 inches from the camera (inside the camera strap with me)... this shot wouldn't have been a possibility with the 8800... still needed a bit of luck, but it came out nice.

I'll practice more tomorrow, and work on getting comfortable with it.

So far, a VERY nice camera.

Why keep them all?

CSX 2550 Panorama

I've got at least 160 Gigabytes of photos and video... so many that I don't have them all in one place. (They don't fit on my laptop) To save space in the past, I resized and compressed all of the photos prior to 2006.

Now that I've gotten used to Hugin, I'm going through those photos that are on my laptop, and digging out the panoramas that I haven't been quite able to deal with before. Here is one of them.

The photos are lower quality that originally came from the camera.. and yet they still have sufficient quality to make this nice panorama.

It's fun making discoveries like this... I imagine I'll be doing this for as long as I live, finding new joys in the archive.

Isn't technology great when it works right?

War is a racket

War is a racket.

It's important to remember this, as we reach the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month... central time

11/11 11:11

Remember that they gave their lives to protect each other, and us from oppression.

Planet Bean

Planet Bean
Originally uploaded by --Mike--

Worth1000 has a photo contest going... this may be the start of an entry

Big Crane

Big Crane
Originally uploaded by --Mike--

This is a big HydroCrane which was unloading the counterweights from a tower crane at Randolph and State streets in Chicago, Illinois this morning.

I used HUGIN and Emblend to create a TIF, then Paint Shop Pro 10 to help tweak for a bit better contrast ratio.

Comments welcome.
--Mike--

VRM- the missing 90%

Doc Searls has a well intentioned, and necessary project going with the Berkman Center of Harvard University... he calls it VRM. The wiki there hasn't seen much use, so I thought I'd browse it... this page in particular got me to thinking...(go ahead... look and come back)

There's a lot missing from the diagram... everything before the ends of a transaction.

.... missing thought train goes here ... ;-)

90% of a possible transaction's value chain comes from intermediaries.. and they can't appear in the diagram which only considers the ending.

Unlike the internet, there is quite a bit of value in the middle of the network... my friends help me to decide which manufacturers have value, and evaluate their reputations. The Government prevents me from making transactions that are harmful to myself or society. Marketing folks help me learn of the existence of things I might want.

The relationship formed after an actual purchase is only a small part of the picture, it's time to look outside the box.

--Mike--

Treason and Enablers

I tried to reply to an email from my Congressional Representative, Peter J Visclosky... but it bounced...

so here it is... for your consideration instead...

Dear Peter:

I thank you for your courteous and timely reply. I understand the temptation to "let it slide" since the Bush-Cheney administration is sliding cleanly into lame duck territory… however I feel that threats to our democracy of this nature should NEVER get a pass.

The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance. We must ALWAYS PROSECUTE crimes of this nature. Congress is getting a low approval rating just because of actions like this… trying to take a pass, instead of doing what you swore to do… Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States.

I'm sad that you don't share my view.

--Mike--