Atom Feed
July 15, 2004
Want to show video but still in a long-term relationship with ASCII? Try HasciiCam:
HasciiCam makes it possible to have live ascii video on the web. It captures video from a tv card and renders it into ascii letters, formatting the output into an html page with a refresh tag, or in a live ascii window, or in a simple text file.
July 14, 2004
We had a great day yesterday on vacation in Chicago, although it wasn’t particularly good in clearing items from our checklist.
We got off to a late start because after breakfast I had a conference call I had to participate in. So, it was 1pm before we really headed out. We walked along Michigan and came upon the Millennium Park, due to open on Friday. We couldn’t get a good enough view of the new Gehry concert shell, which looked twisty and interesting, but the site is interrupted by large photos of families from around the world, with just a few lines about each. The photos are great and the text was artfully written — a little for each that captures something significant. Nice.
And then there was this odd object.
It’s going to become a signature thingy for the city. Very cool. (My first reaction: Damn! Now Boston can’t be the one to have thought of this!)
Then we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. Omigod. After an initial contretemps at the bag checkin (Hint: Put your water bottle inside of your backpack because otherwise their weird aquaphobia means you have to drink all the water before they’ll accept the bag), we went to the second floor because we are suckers for the Impressionists. It is an amazing collection. Go figure how light becomes blur becomes clarity, and then get back to me on it. And I’m not usually moved by still lifes (still lives?), for no interesting reason, but I was transfixed by a particular Cezanne painting of fruit on a cloth on a table. I wanted to eat the colors. Fortunately, I was restrained by a Ditka-esque security guard who hosed my down with a water bottle before I could do any serious damage.
Unfortunately, my back started to go out, so I sat down while my wife continued on to the 15th century.
Then we went on an architectural boat tour, thanks to your bloggerific suggestion. Fantastic. The guide on this 90 minute session was incredibly knowledgeable, both in detail and in theme. It made the city even more beautiful. Well worth it.
We then headed off to “The People vs. Friar Laurence,” a production of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The theater was packed and the audience laughed its head off. We left at intermission because, well, we didn’t like it. The music was boring, and the big joke was that Shakespeare’s language is difficult. Haha. Got it. Now how about giving us some of Shakespeare’s language instead of Red Foxx allusions?
We wandered around looking for a place to eat – what a beautiful and open-hearted city – and ended up in the hotel restaurant where we actually had a lovely meal with friendly, unpretentious service. Then I did something I do once a year: smoked a cigar in the hotel’s cigar bar (but only after a bunch of salesguys had lit up because I didn’t want people blaming me for stinking up the place…yes, I am that much of a coward). Very nice, although here’s an important tip: The next morning, after brushing your teeth vigorously, your mouth will still smell like cigar, albeit with a minty aftertaste. Yech.
Well, I can either keep blogging or we can go out into Chicago…
David Akin of the Globe and Mail is moderating a workshop at next month’s Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in Toronto. Dan Gillmor, the Berkman’s Rebecca MacKinnon and Jeff Jarvis will be paneling. With that crew – and Jay Rosen in attendance – how could you go wrong?
PS: You know who I’d like to see on more panels on blogging and journalism? Ethan Zuckerman (another Berkperson). As his blog’s tagline says: “My blog is in Cambridge but my heart is in Accra.”
July 13, 2004
Picasa is a very cool product for people who take digital photos. It lets you browse through them in spiffy and useful ways. And it’s got some cool tools for sharing photos as well.
Does Google’s acquisition mean that Google is heading towards spiffier UIs? Client software? Photo-based social software?
(Congrats to the Picasa folks.)
My wife and I arrived in Chicago yesterday afternoon, prepared with suggestions from y’all about what to see and do. Thanks!
It was a beautiful day, so we set out down Michigan and walked along the lake shore. It is an odd and beautiful vista to see the skyscrapers hanging like a curtain behind the strip of beach. Then we walked through the Navy Pier, the mall-arcade-amusement park where I drank something blue and sugary. We continued along the shore and then headed back to the hotel.
Don’t hate us, but we passed a movie theater and on an impulse watched “Spider-Man 2.” Could we have done that at home? Technically, yes. But we wouldn’t have because, well, we wouldn’t have. We’re on vacation not to conquer Chicago but to have fun together. So back off!
We then wandered until we found an Italian restaurant — Bice — with outdoor seating and waiters who are working on perfecting their Italian accents. The atmosphere was fun, but our food was mediocre.
It is a beautiful city and it was a successful day, at least by our standards.
We have tickets tonight for a Romeo & Juliet variation by the Shakespeare company at Navy Pier, and we have tickets for Second City on Wednesday. Beyond that, we’re playing it by ear.
If I were John Kerry, here’s what I’d say about the gay marriage amendment in a debate:
There he goes again. George Bush — the uniter, not the divider — is using this issue as a wedge to drive Americans apart by making this complex question of morality, religion, states rights, and love into a simple yes-no, “you’re either with us or against us.” Americans are smarter than that, Mr. President. We can handle tough questions in all their complexity. And, frankly, it’s a failure of leadership and of vision that you can only see things in black and white.
Then I’d pants W.
July 12, 2004
Because I’m at an airport, I bought a copy of USA Today, a newspaper I am trying to be unashamed of liking. It’s actually as serious as most regional papers.
So, today the front page feature was on the political impact of same-sex marriage. My take-away from it is: Man, is this issue complex! There arent that many different positions one can take — it’s a relatively small matrix of civil union vs. marriage, state vs. federal control, ammendment vs. statute. But the reasons for supporting the box you happen to X are as complex as our attitudes towards sex multiplied by our beliefs in the role of the government, divided by how we think God is immanent in the world, to the power of our experience of our parents’ marriage times our view of our own marriage modula the marriages we see on TV.
Yet, Bush is using it as a wedge issue to force a divide that brings the wavering to his side. But with the fault lines on this issue are like the marbelizing of a windshield when it runs into a truck. For a significant percentage of us Americans, the attempt to reduce this to a simple yes or no — the attempt to use it as a wedge — will pull us further toward a candidate who recognizes that nuance is the only thing that lets us survive as a society.
I hope.
July 11, 2004
Norman Su, a Ph.D. graduate student in computer science at UC Irvine, is asking people to take an anonymous survey about blogging. The results will be published at an academic conference. The survey is available in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. It took me about 5 minutes to fill in. So, if you feel like it…
BTW, the survey has its own blog.
I know I must be the last person in America to hear about this, but on the plane ride on Saturday, they showed a clip from the Letterman show of a kid standing behind the President, yawning his way through a speech. The clip is really funny, and Letterman’s interview with the 13-year-old was charming. The kid said that he finds the clip “hilarious,” so you don’t even have to feel bad about laughing at it.
And, no, I don’t count this as a criticism of Bush. It was a political speech and the kid’s 13. Yawns happen.
My wife and I are taking 3 days of vacation in Chicago, starting tomorrow. I’ve been there many times on business, which means I’m very familiar with the airport and am fully qualified to operate the remote in the hotel rooms, and my wife hasn’t been there in 30 years or so.
So, we’re going to do the tourist thing. Outside of the obvious, any recommendations? (Three notes: Second City is closed the days we’re there, we don’t eat meat and we don’t much care for the blues.)
Joho the Blog uses WordPress blogging software.
Thank you, WordPress!
