unplug

Consider going a day without gadgets: a day of unplugging.  I'm in.*

Thinking about unplugging, I'm kind of sad that I don't do it more often.  Perhaps I should incorporate it more regularly, perhaps not 24 hours at a time, but at least set aside some regular non-computer time--perhaps something like sunrise to sunset on Sundays.  (Which would allow for family gchatting in the evenings.)

The whole point of this is to become more aware of the non-digital world.  There is so much beauty and complexity that surrounds me, but I spend the majority of my waking time staring at one two-dimensional thing: a computer screen.

* My rules for the day of unplugging: cell phone, laptop, and office computer all off for the sunset to sunset time period.

ADM

If you head to the main Princeton website, N's African Drought Monitor project made the "featured news" box.  Read the full article here.  Yay for him!

Brave Trailer

I've been anxiously anticipating Pixar's Brave since I saw the concept art forever ago.  The first trailer is out at disney.com/brave!  I love that Merida looks like she's not wearing any makeup (contrasted with Rapunzel in Disney's Tangled who has blonde hair and black eyelashes); they make it obvious that the story is not about her looks or her love life, which is really refreshing.  The clip is too short to make any final judgements, but thus far it looks like a story about a strong character who just happens to be a girl.  I'm stoked.

Joseph Smith papers

The Church History Department of the LDS church released the Joseph Smith papers online relatively recently and it's blowing my mind--N discovered the site today.  Take this journal entry, for instance: the page includes a photograph of the original document, a transcript, and notes on the historical context of the journal.  I'm getting an itch to run topic models on a giant church history corpus...

random stuff

These are just a few things that have been floating across my radar...the kind of links where I leave their tabs open for a few days because I don't want to forget about them yet for whatever reason.

Where Children Sleep - a documentary book with pictures of children from all over the world and where they sleep

25 Women-Run Startups - a list of startups with female founders and CEOs

a recent BBC video of an amazonian uncontacted tribe

and a shout out for the Liahona Children's Foundation

modesty

I'd like to highlight an excellent series of articles on fMh regarding modesty.

Modesty Part One of Four
Modesty Part 2 of 4: Between You and God
Modesty Part 3 of 4: Between you and your neighbors
Modesty Part 4 of 4: Just for you

yesterday's news

Yesterday an article by my coworker Jim was published in The GNOME Journal, entitled Introducing Shotwell: A GNOME Photo Manager.  The screen shots and the photographs in the screen shots are all mine!

Fillmore and Lombard released!

Last night we released Fillmore 0.1.0 (multitrack audio editor) and Lombard 0.1.0 (video editor) for GNOME.  I don't work on these projects, so I don't know as much about them, but I'm still really excited!

defaults

We were excited when Shotwell became default on Fedora 13.  And now it looks like we might be default on Ubuntu Maverick.  That would make us default on over 10 million machines.  It's shaping up to be a good year.

5/14: notes from the recent Ubuntu meeting where they discussed Shotwell versus other photo managers

speaking of balloons

In my last artist post, I mentioned that do balloon work, which tends to be along the lines of silly hats, funny animals, and weaponry, but I've done some bigger and more elaborate things too.

Inges Idee takes it to another level.  Piecewise construction is common to those that dabble in balloons, but Idee doesn't just use what's given him; he creates balloon-like forms that are kind of alive.

Take this balloonish creature for instance: holding a baby up in the air which elicits much more emotion than a simple twist tie balloon.  The difference is that there is gesture here and not just a figure's form.

I think there may actually be a person inside the balloon, but I can't tell, and I can't read his website well enough to figure it out (not in a language I can read).  Perhaps with further research I could determine it, but I kind of like leaving the mystery as-is.

He also covers other things in latex, like cars, and interior spaces, leading to really cool effects.

basic building blocks

Having realized I haven't posted on artists in a very long while, I'm going to share some of my recent findings over the next little bit.  First up: Legos.

Nathan Sawaya does what I wish I could do--build amazing things out of Legos.  I mean, my 6" spaceships are cool and all, but they aren't really art.  From renderings of photographs to cutesy sculptures and signs to compelling pieces, this fellow takes a simple child's toy and runs with it.

I think working with Legos would be similar to the balloon work I've done in the past--it's a fairly restricting medium, but you can still do "anything."  The art comes from what you do within those restrictions, incorporating them or using them to explicitly make a point.  The image I've included, for example, would be very different if made of clay, bronze or wood.  It takes a piecewise medium to have the same effect... you could do something similar with woven branches, brick, or balloons.  Legos are especially interesting because they are supposed to fit together and because they are so commonly associated with children.

two tarts

Each year, the Berkeley University Ward puts on a "Sub-for-Santa" dinner and actions off all sort of donations to the members of the Stake.  Donations range from music lessons to sailboat rides, handmade quilts to dates with cute girls in the ward.  And for dessert, a wide variety of fancy tasties are brought in and auctioned as well.  Proceeds go to buy presents for less fortunate kids in Oakland.  This year's event happened this past Saturday and was a blast.  We made over 9k total.

I liked the texture of the lighter tart better and am plotting to make a recipe combining the two: a light textured orange chocolate tart with an almond crust.  I'll experiment over the holidays.  The original recipes are below.

Shotwell 0.3!

Yorba has released Shotwell 0.3.0, a major update to our digital photo organizer.  Yay!  Check it out: http://www.yorba.org/shotwell/

yorba's new website

It's been a week of new, shiny things at yorba. First, our new website, then the blog, and then we got business cards! I'll be encouraged to blog for work as well, though less regularly than, say, this blog. I worry that I won't have interesting things to say or that I'll be completely unprofessional, but we'll just have to find out!

We Are Burma

Just a shout-out for the We Are Burma exhibition at the Leila Gallary at Cafe Leila. It's up until July 4th, so go see it if you can!

close the windows and open the doors

I'd been thinking about Ubuntu's destiny long before PC Authority's Top 10 disappointing technologies or the positive statements on Ubuntu's strong sense of self. But both articles relate to my thoughts on the destiny of Ubuntu, or Linux generally.

The public wants an OS that is familiar and easy-to-use. But right now only geeks use Ubuntu. How do we fix that? It needs to be accessible no matter where they go. What do I mean by that? That they can sit down to it in a FedEx-Kinko's, a public library, or a hotel computer room. That their friends have it. That their grandmas use it. It has to happen gradually of course, but it needs a little PR to get it started. I don't really like the idea of billboards and TV ads, but maybe that'd do the trick.

My vote is to donate a whole bunch of computers to public libraries, set up free classes, and hand out CDs. And make really nice, pretty posters for said classes. Have sessions to help people install Ubuntu on their own computers. Although the install easy enough that generally competent people shouldn't need hand-holding, sometimes they just need a date and time in order to actually sit down and do it.

This idea came about while teaching a senior citizens general computer use class. I wanted so badly to teach them how to use Ubuntu--they could totally do it. But when they'd go elsewhere and see nothing like it, it was like teaching them to fish for Salmon. In a river. In the fall. ...because Salmon wouldn't be there for a while because they only go upstream for spring/summer. They'd only have guppies in the river. Maybe some frogs. And they couldn't learn to fish for multiples species of fish because they're old. So they'd starve.

Anyway, Ubuntu needs more love. It also needs better applications for some things, but people are working on that. Like Yorba, for instance. And other places too. With time, with time.

They have online communities for people who care about this stuff. Maybe I should break down and join one. Get Involved!

tax day tea party

I just had to salute the tax day tea party. I didn't know about it in time to participate myself, but the fact that it happened made me really happy. I like the general shift in the republican party. It'll be nice for people who don't agree with big government to at least have more of a voice. I mean, ideally, the Libertarian party would stand on its own, but as long as we're talking ideals, I'll take sovereignty of a small tropical nation.