No Snooze Alarm Needed

http://www.bagofnothing.com/2009/02/one-heck-of-an-alarm-clock/

Do We Care?

If you think Mexico and war zones are the only place where reporters, editors and yes photographers are killed think again. In recent years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, four journalist were murdered in the US, the most recent and well publicized, you might recall, was Little Rock, Arkansas anchorwoman Anne Pressly, 26, who was murdered in her home in October of 2008.

You might not remember the editor of the California, Oakland Post who was shot three times with a sawed-off shotgun after leaving a McDonald's resturant on August 2, 2007. His name was Chauncey Bailey. Within days Devaughndre Broussard, a former dishwasher at Your Black Muslim Bakery would be charged.

Bailey's murder might not have been solved if it were not for the work of a group of retired and out of work reporters who formed the The Chauncey Bailey Project with the help of foundations and the University of California, Berkeley. The group continued with an investigation of the bakery that Bailey had started and in the process they uncovered a link to the lead investigator in the case, Sgt. Derwin Longmire who had been close to Yusuf Bey IV and the bakery for years.

Several questions pop into my mind, maybe unfairly, why more national media attention was not given to Bailey's murder, he wasn't a pretty blonde, he was a black man looking into a once prominent business in Oakland's black community in the late 1960's that provided jobs to young African-Americans. Then there's the name of the business, Your Black Muslim Bakery, can any story be objectively reported that includes the word Muslim, and there is also questions of a connection within the police department and the bakery's owner.

I did locate a 60 Minutes broadcast on February 2008 and the publish date on this most recent followup story by New York Post writer Tim Arango is February 22, 2009, but do we really care?

Bitter Sweet

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Photographer vs Artist

You've seen the poster, the Andy Warhol-ish image of President Barack Obama with HOPE underneath designed by Shepard Fairey a Los-Angeles based street artist who, according to the February 5, 2009 Washington Post story, has a history of breaking rules. Fairey admits that he found the photograph, taken in 2006 by photographer Mannie Garcia who was on assignment for the Associated Press, using Google Images.

The AP claims it owns the copyright, credit and compensation is due, Fairely's attorney, Anthony Falzone, executive director of Stanford University's Fair Use Project argues otherwise. Other copyright and intellectual property attorneys are also weighing in pro and con.

What do you think?

Can't Never Did Do Nothing

What really drives individuals to grow and prosper is telling the two year old inside each of us "you can't."

Two stories, the first from the February 16, 2009 NY Times Technology section: "Could You Go to Jail for Jailbreaking Your iPhone?" Jailbreaking (I guess it's supposed to be more intimidating than hacking) simply put is centered around adding third party applications to a device. Apple's issue is that their copyright on the cell phone's software is violated when mere mortals, iPhone owners, find ways to go around the technical barriers meant to keep them from changing the phone's software. So, if you have paid your hard earned money ($100-$500+) for this must have gadget does Apple have the right to tell you how you must use your new toy through a user agreement? The story points out that user agreements would be governed by contract law, which would force Apple to sue users and prove actual damages, and the user could incur fines and jail time, resolution of this could eventually make its way before congress, and we know how well they solve problems.

Second story, The Register, February 16, 2009 19:42 GMT: "Apple sued over iPhone smooth scrolling" Picsel Technologies, a Glasgow, Scotland based firm specializing in mobile software solutions, is suing Apple claiming Apple is illegally using the display technologies Picsel developed and is infringing on its US patent. Hey, looks like karma to me.

My point in selecting these two stories is not to diminish the importance of copyright laws or protecting what one has created, after all I would not want anyone using my photos without my permission or better yet payment. However, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or any developer worth their salt has hacked or if you prefer jailbreaked because they saw something better, were possibly told it couldn't be done, or revolted against restrictions and limitation and like so many before them took the risks necessary to make things happen.

Can't never did do nothing does not solve our problems, take risks, provide new jobs, create new/improved products or hopefully make life better for everyone.

Innovation Meets Fashion

With all the reports and talk about job loss and the "sky is falling" scenarios these two stories give me hope about our future and remind me that it's not the government or the multi-national businesses alone that drive our economy, its the independent thinkers, inventors, entrepreneurs, and immigrants that create change. That is why I selected two stories on innovation from the Christian Science Monitor

The first story focuses on how the game of football has and can change as a result of new technology. "According to some inventors technology can make the game faster, more fair, and less dangerous for players."

TV viewers are already familiar with seeing the laser beams, the electronic version of the sticks and chains, how about a goal post that lights up when a touchdown is made, or a ball with a tracking device (imagine what that would do to point spreads and betting).

Other sports, baseball, hockey and basketball are also testing new technologies to improve their games, but who would have thought basketball would have something in common with fashion. In Australia a team is testing uniforms that display game information on small panels sewn onto the fabric and connected to an iPod-sized device. The uniform could show how many points a player has scored and track his or her personal fouls.

What does that have to do with fashion? A T-shirt from thinkgeek.com detects nearby wireless Internet signals, and the logo on the front of the shirt changes as Wi-Fi connection strength waxes and wanes, but requires you to tuck a AAA battery box under your belt (this could be a little dicey).

Younghui Kim worked in telecommunications for years and had "a really strong need to design something that could be felt or touched," she uses her background to design like a software engineer only using sewing machines and fabrics to bring fashion, technology and art together. Another fashion designer Anke Loh, from Chicago, collaborates with Philips to create textiles that emit and reflect light.

Technology is so much a part of our everyday lives we forget that these ideas would not have been possible five or ten years ago. The first portable computer I bought, around 1976, was a Compaq and it weighed 20-25 pounds. I carried it around to businesses who did not have a computer and setup databases to track inventory or did word processing for them.

My parents generation, World War II era, may be the only generation to see and experience such an excellerated pace of change which I find both exciting and sad at the same time.