It took me four hours to tag 3600 faces detected by Google Picasa, but now it is done. I have associated every face in my photo album with a name (save for those people who just happened to be in the photo, folks that I don't know, or folks that I can't remember their names). Also amended my backups script so I never have to do this again.
You know, I sometimes question the purpose of that function on Picasa. There is a similar one on iPhoto. When I look at a photo, I pretty much know who is in it. Are we all eventually going to have extreme dementia some day? In which case we'll all say "Thank you Picasa and iPhoto! For helping me remember the names of the people I love and cherish on my archaic computer machine. Maybe when the nurse decides to change my depends, they'll decide to visit me again like they used to."
I suppose it's handy for sorting by individual...
I don't wan't to get old.
It's all about meta-data.
Prior to the overwhelming popularity of digital photography, people wrote information on the back of their prints/polaroids. Things like "Josh, Age 4" or "Family reunion" or "1992." They did this because after taking a photo, and unless the camera burned the date and time on the photograph itself, the exact date and time of the photograph was lost. This was a reasonable system, because compared to today, people took considerably fewer pictures (How many used to be in a roll of film? 30? 40? Certainly less than the 500+ that fit on my camera today.), and developed their film much less frequently as well. Only a few good photos would come out of a roll, and those would get thrown in a drawer, or a folder, or maybe a photo album, and forgotten about.
Fast-forward to modern day, where digital cameras rule the world, everyone carries a camera phone in their pocket, and Star Trek was rebooted with hyper-tight lighting and lens flare and nobody walks anywhere. Embedded in every single photograph are at least thirty unique values embedded in every photograph. They even go so far as to assign your photos GPS coordinates so you know exactly where the photos were taken. This is for a few reasons:
So, Picasa and iPhoto make it brainless to organize your photos by date and "event," giving you the ability to sort, collate, preview, color adjust, edit, crop, collage, even send off your photos to make a printed book. Faces are just the next tool with which to organize your photos, an extra "tag" that your computer can easily work with to provide you a slightly more human-friendly way to deal with your photos.
It also gives you the ability to find fun and strange things about your photo collection. Like, why in the world do I have 300 more pictures of your fiancee than I have of myself, and 400 more than anyone else in my collection? Or, among the 150+ people that I tagged, who never appears in a photo with another person (and raises suspicion that those two people are the same person)?
ditto that... If I ever get old enough to where I don't remember all my friends names, I really hope I can just call it quits. That would be so sad... But I do wonder about the purpose behind that too, because it doesn't actually link with the persons google profile or anything like tags do in facebook. So if it just a way for google to say hey, we do this tag thing like facebook does too. so HA!
Allison's picks
After all the doom and gloom...and equations, lets read something light and fun!
The Third Policeman by: Flann O’Brien
200 pages
The Third Policemanis Flann O'Brien's brilliantly dark comic novel about the nature of time, death, and existence. Told by a narrator who has committed a botched robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him and his adventures in a two-dimensional police station where, through the theories of the scientist/philosopher de Selby, he is introduced to "Atomic Theory" and its relation to bicycles, the existence of eternity (which turns out to be just down the road), and de Selby's view that the earth is not round but "sausage-shaped." With the help of his newly found soul named "Joe," he grapples with the riddles and
contradictions that three eccentric policeman present to him.
The last of O'Brien's novels to be published, The Third Policeman joins O'Brien's other fiction (At Swim-Two-Birds, The Poor Mouth, The Hard Life, The Best of Myles, The Dalkey Archive) to ensure his place, along with James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, as one of Ireland's great comic geniuses.
Super Sad True Love Storyby Gary Shteyngart
331 pages
Author Gary Shteyngart might have the most memorable name, but the author of Absurdistan continues to roll out wild dystopian novels that unnerve you even while you're laughing. Super Sad True Love Story belies almost every word of its title, but it still plunges us into a satirical realm that we can recognize if we open our eyes widely. Restless, middle-aged, maladjusted Lenny Abramov and young Eunice Park, his somewhat reluctant old-fashioned love interest alternate as narrators, each of them projecting a slightly twisted view of an even more twisted reality. A refreshing satirical romp for hip fiction readers.
Remained by: Tom McCarthy
308 pages
A man is severely injured in a mysterious accident, receives an outrageous sum in legal compensation, and has no idea what to do with it.
Then, one night, an ordinary sight sets off a series of bizarre visions he can’t quite place.
How he goes about bringing his visions to life–and what happens afterward–makes for one of the most riveting, complex, and unusual novels in recent memory.
Remainder is about the secret world each of us harbors within, and what might happen if we were granted the power to make it real.
The Unnamed By:Joshua Ferris
336 pages
It's back.With those words Tim and Jane Farnsworth reenter a nightmare they know so intimately it needs no other description. "It" may not be found among an insurance company's diagnostic codes, but the Farnsworths, a couple made wealthy by Tim's single-mindedly successful legal practice, know it too well: Tim's compulsion, at any random moment of the day or night, to set out walking for hours at a time until he collapses in exhaustion. They've survived two bouts of this inexplicable illness, which began as mysteriously as they ended, and now, as Joshua Ferris's second novel, The Unnamed, opens, they are beset by a third. Ferris follows his character's condition as far as it leads him, far beyond where logic and loyalty usually take our lives, but always treats it with empathy, grace, and imagination. His language is as exact and poetic as his premise is fantastic, and by the story's end you feel the title refers not only to his hero's strange and solitary disease but also to those elemental but equally inexplicable forces that bind us together through the most difficult turns of
Chicago City Limits is coming to Anchorage! I think most of you know this by now, and some of you even have tickets! Anyway, my work and CCL is offering a workshop for the public. We emailed Jason at S.S. the info this afternoon, but as the class is limited to 30 people, i wanted to get the word out asap. If you're interested, call me up and give me money! Let me know if there are any questions.
Details:
SATURDAY, MARCH 12
1:00 - 2:30pm
CHICAGO CITY LIMITS IMPROV CLASS
Discovery Theatre Stage, Alaska Center for the Performing Arts
(must enter through security/stage door at 5th and G St.)
ADMISSION: $10
PRE-REGISTRATION RECOMMENDED
Class is limited to 30 people
Payment is required for pre-registration. To pre-register, call the
Anchorage Concert Association at 272-1471. Visa and Mastercard are
accepted. Minimum age for class is 15.
For those of you who don't have tickets yet. Or, since it's a NEW AND DIFFERENT SHOW EVERY NIGHT, want to go again, here is a discount code for the Saturday 9:30 PM showing of Chicago City Limits.
SPECIAL EMAIL OFFER -
Use secret code "FUNNY" for 50% off Saturday March 12, 9:30pm show!
(Offer expires 3/10 @11:59pm)
*Sorry to Josh for posting this in the WRONG SECTION. Wahhhhh!
So, now that I have seen all 10 of this year's best picture Oscar nominees, this is how I would rank them:
1) King's Speech
2) Black Swan
3) The Social Network
4) Toy Story 3
5) Winter's Bone
6) 127 Hours
7) The Fighter
8) Inception
9) The Kids Are All Right
10) True Grit
I still think Social Network is going to take home the prize and my favorite movie of the year isn't even on the list (KICK ASS!!! I LOVE YOU NICOLAS CAGE!!!).
Colin Firth and Natalie Portman are shoe-ins for the acting prizes, but for some real entertainment, catch all the Supporting Actor movies. To me, this is always the category with the most entertainment value and talent.
I had a dream. It was amazing.
We were all fighting zombies. Hordes of them. GreenMan loved his chainsaw, until it ran out of gas. Then he ran off solo to go get more gas. And never came back.
Johnny had a pistol, and was shooting 100% headshots. For whatever reason, he never ran out of ammo, or had to reload. I wanted his pistol.
kaiden, for whatever reason, had a mecha suit similar to Avatar or Matrix Revolutions. He was either swinging for the fences with the arms, kicking zombie field goals with the legs, or stomping zombies with the feet. He was unstoppable. He couldn't stop giggling at the fun he was having.
Scrotor had a double barrel shotgun under one arm, and a machine gun rambo-style under the other arm. He was apparently a master at reloading the shotgun with one hand while still going to town with the machine gun. He got caught up in his decimation of the zombie that he forgot to keep pace with the group. By the time we realized he was separated, and then tried to double back for him, we didn't have enough time and he was brought down by a horde of zombies, just as kaiden and his mecha suit got there. kaiden screamed in agony.
I remember myself killing zombies, but i dont remember actually having a weapon or tool with which to exact my vengeance. I don't remember a specific beginning or ending to the dream, either.
But we should all play Left 4 Dead and write our own.
"What are you doing!?" kaiden screams.
Kaiden steps out of the suit. The whirring of the servos and chirps of the on-board computer attracts the attention of some of the horde.
"No, no... no-no-no-no-no-NO." Kaiden puts his hands on his head and begins to pace frantically between the suit and his fallen friend. "Why? Why won't you respawn? Why won't... why won't you respawn? Why won't you..."
So I hear somebody in the backyard. I walk out. My cousin and my neighbors appear to be working on a damaged portion of my fence.
Josh: "What's... going on?"
Cousin: "Oh, I was talking with your neighbor. We know each other from way back, and she owes me a bit, so we decided we'd work towards fixing this section of fence. Besides, she's looking to move here sometime soon, and offered to give me a good deal on the house next door."
Josh: "Well. Thanks. How... how did you get to talking with her? And why are you here?"
Cousin: "You don't know? Josh, we talked about this. I'm losing my house. I'm going to have to live with you for a while."
Josh. "What."
Cousin: "Listen. We've got to finish this fence. Go back inside, and talk to your mother."
Confused, I go back inside.
Josh: "What's going on?"
Mom: "What do you mean?"
Josh: "Why is [Cousin] going to be living here? When did this happen? And why have I agreed to none of this so far?"
Mom: "It's the economy, Josh. It's hurting everyone. And it's just temporary, anyhow. You'll see."
Just then, my grandmother walks in the front door. Which is all the more curious, because I never leave it unlocked, and, in fact, don't have keys to it currently.
Grandmother: "Hi Josh. Are you excited?"
Josh: "What? Excited for what?"
Grandmother: "Well, for me staying with you, of course."
Josh: "This is the first time I've heard of this."
Grandmother: "We talked about this, Josh. After the economy turned, and your grandfather made a few bad investments, I ended up having to leave him. I don't have anywhere to stay, and your grandfather is losing his life savings over some venture capital thing he got roped into."
Josh: "What... Ok. I'm... Going to go figure this out. You can stay here for now. Don't touch anything."
I get in my car and drive. I remember vaguely hearing about my grandfather's latest scheme. I look up the location of the place he's trying to start, and drive.
I arrive to find a meeting going on, at what looks like a public exhibition to attract further investment. A gregarious, handsome man in a suit gives a presentation on how private nuclear waste disposal is a lucrative, low-risk investment that is a reliable source of income for early investors. I spot my grandfather across the room, but he doesn't notice me. I take a seat in the back. I look further on my phone, only to find that the business had been recently involved in a severe embezzlement scandal, and that it was being investigated for all manner of fraud and tax evasion.
The presenter takes a 5 minute break. While everyone is out enjoying coffee and snacks, I write the URL to the site I'm reading on the whiteboard, and then take my seat again. The presenter doesn't notice the URL on the board until somebody asks about it, but it's too late. People starting asking about the allegations, and the confidence man's momentum is lost. The meeting ends with angry shouts, and I head home.
I find that neither my grandmother or my cousin have taken up residence. The house is quiet.
I wake up, late, at 7:30am.
This one definitely felt like someone was trying to tell me something, but what, I have no idea. Maybe the constant threat of a collapsing economy weighing heavy on my conscience? Maybe my brain telling me that acting and behaving rationally will leave me empty and alone? Maybe Bob and Mark just reading the news while I was half-asleep?
Wow, I'm envious! That sounds like a pretty fantastic lengthened birthday celebration.
I have been seeing all these flight deals from DC to Vegas recently and thinking that I need to convince one of my friends over here to go with me for a weekend trip. I still haven't been able to get any of them to commit... (I have lame friends.)
CatLady! I need your help! Can you teach me how to make some mini pies (www.etsy.com)? WANT TOASTER OVEN SIZED PIE NAOW. Look at the adorable!
Sexretary, i can help! all it will cost you is MY BOOK BACK!!! Then you can have all the CatLady soup, stew, and pie recipes your little heart desires. Especially the ones without nuts in them!!!
MrFood, SHHHHHHH!!!! i really want my book back. And, actually you DO have to make the crust a little different otherwise the filling burns and the crust is doughy. HA.
I started using Google's RSS Reader yesterday and am currently being flooded with tons of news along with reddit and other funnies. Of particular interest (besides Fallout: New Vegas DLC comming to the PC, woot!) I saw this today: Google Vs. MS(Bing) (techcrunch.com) the nut of it is Google claims they caught Microsoft stealing Googles search results. Microsoft is claiming that users that have opted-in in IE to allow this, so it really wasn't stealing. Apparently there has already been twitter name calling and posts on their respective blogs. Should make for an interesting "fight"
One thing I did take away from this though, is check your settings! Programs like IE will have these things turned on automatically, with a small checkbox during the install that you have to uncheck to not allow data mining. I'm sure Google does the same thing with all their services as they have google-analytics and a couple of ad sponsoring agencies. This goes back to the geeky tech side of me in which i spout my love of Firefox and extension like Adblock Plus and NoScript. Noscript has lots of user interaction which not everyone will like, but AdblockPlus really does remove 90% of the ads on the Internet and has no interaction once installed and configured.
/end rant
Man to his wife: "OOOOOOHH YOU GOT PUNK'D!!!!!"
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/uk-border-http://www.wired.co...eed:+wired/index+( (www.wired.com)gle+Feedfetcher (www.wired.com)
My grandmother's computer has been hit by more viruses than I'll venture have ever been written. Being that the main thing she does on her computer is exchange email, read joke forwards, and browse bizarre and malicious sections of the Internet, it doesn't really come as a surprise. It's not necessarily her bad habits that adversely effect her computer, it's those of everybody she corresponds with. And those people are goddamn idiots.
In the last six months, myself, my uncle, or my father have had to rework her computer as a result of viral infections. Every time, my poor grandmother has to listen to our stilted, generic technical descriptions of what went wrong, how we fixed it, and how we made it better this time. For the last few months, however, I've been telling her that there's a different world out there. A better world. A world where she can browse the Internet without fear. A world with solid systems architecture, sane permissions frameworks, and actual capability for customization. I told my grandmother about Linux.
So now we're trying an experiment. I disconnected her abused Windows desktop, and gave her a relatively new Linux laptop. I set it up so that her login account can't break anything, configured her wireless mouse and keyboard, gave her all of her emails to work with, and increased the system font so she doesn't have to crane her neck just to read.
She's going to try it for a week and see what she thinks.
Something important hangs in the balance here. A critical element to my theology: the grandmother test. If Linux can pass the grandmother test (that is, if my grandmother can understand and use the system), then everyone else can too.
And then I can, hopefully, stop having to deal with Windows entirely. And start recommending Linux desktops for people rather than Windows.
Because if my grandmother can do it, so can you.
In case people didn't know, the Miners and Trappers ball (www.minersandtrappersball.org) is coming up fast on March 5th at the Egan Center starting at 7:30pm. I will be there for the Beard and Mustache competition. If people aren't doing anything, they should come out and cheer me on..
"There are two things the public should never see in the process of being made: sausage, and legislation."
While this is neither sausage or legislation, similar principles apply. One of the things I learned from my politicking is to always hold your deal-making skills and what you offer in the closest confidence possible.
Heinrich the rat has been contained by raising his cage too high to jump. But I woke up two nights ago with a garter snake wrapped around my leg. And now it is missing.
In better news, I have a Crock Pot! Please, Allison, share your tortilla soup recipes! And any other delicious soup. My usual standby is vegetable garlic miscellany and I need an alternative.
From Wikipedia:
"The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion. The liver is necessary for survival; there is currently no way to compensate for the absence of liver function long term, although liver dialysis can be used short term."
IT MUST BE PUNISHED INDEED.
On a side note, last night I went to a housewarming party with the intentions of having one beer so that I could get to bed early, and get to the office early in the morning.
Fast forward to this morning, I woke up slovenly passed out on my friend's couch, with another dude passed out on the floor.
Its just nerve racking to be screwing around on a machine that costs about $800k. To constantly be worrying that any false move and the thing will self destruct or some laser will fall out of alignment and the whole lab will be screwed until the maintenance guy can come around and fix the damn thing.
Plus its in such high demand that ever time I'm ever on the infernal machine I get at least two requests from other people in the lab to see if I need the whole amount of time I have booked, and can they jump on early if they can.
Then the data analysis is mind bogglingly complex and just hurts the brain after only an hour or two of looking at it. The individual scatter properties of different cell populations and different cell makers, and some cells that have various makers that you have to distinguish. Plus you have to hope to any god you choose that you even stained correctly in the first place so that any of this shit can actually make any sense.
I have yet to have a single GOOD day of running flow.
Email correspondence with a coworker, who we'll call "Qentamungus":
Subject: Who's next?
Check out [chick]'s ring finger.
Subject: RE: Who's next?
You sly fox you! Detective Qentamungus ;)
Subject: RE: Who's next?
Erik,
Not totally true, but thanks. She said, “I am in a good mood” and held it out to see. I took it from there. Did tell her not to expect flowers quite so often.
Qentamungus is also fond of saying, "Don't let this happen to you..." whenever a conversation discusses family, marriage, pets, etc. Awesome.
