Protocol 7

…geospatial hypermedia as the foundation for a new kind of computing: wearable, context-aware, sentient landscapes with embedded sensors and beacons.

While I was in college I spent the summers taking random classes at various colleges and universities, which is how I stumbled upon Geographical Information Systems (GIS). I took quite a fancy to GIS and after my summer training I created a private reading in GIS at Oberlin, attended GIS conferences (weird) and taught environmental studies students how to use various programs that implemented GIS. The private reading was done with a visiting professor, and once he left GIS just kind of fell to the wayside and I wasn’t sure I’d ever use it again. But with the emergence of the geoweb it looks like I may be able to jump into GIS again.

Succinctly put by Formant:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology becomes indistinguishable from a dating service.”

We got dressed up today and wandered around outside taking pictures to send to my mom and grandma to calm them down… this is what we were wearing when we got married. And I promise I won’t turn this blog into some newlywed shit. Huzzah.

The word is starting to creep out, so just to confirm… yes, I did get married. And apologies to everyone I didn’t tell, but it was a secret until it happened… even my mom didn’t know.

I arrived in New York City on the 26th to participate in the festive protests of the Republican National Convention. I’m also trying to get the word out about rnc mobnet, but I don’t know how to approach PR in an effective manner. There is another site that is doing pretty much the same thing… it’s quite cool: http://www.moport.org; they’ve done a good job letting people know about the site.

I’m feeling spread thin because of work… trying to finish projects in an acceptable amount of time is near impossible with all the support we have to do… from other people’s websites to troubleshooting network problems, to tech support. A bit frustrated as well, but I’m hoping some time with friends at the beach (post rnc plans) will restore my focus and energy.

I am excited to be in New York for the protests… tomorrow kicks off the beginning of the crazy days, and with all the creativity people have brought to the protests, I’m looking forward to being out there. The IMC convergence space is incredibly large and impressive… check out the nyc indymedia site for some good coverage for the protests. I was down there last night during the Critical Mass round up… things seem pretty co-ordinated and functional in terms of response.

Tonight we are going to go see The Fourth World War, where Amy Goodman will also speak. Correction: we are going to see it tomorrow. Nica just called from the theatre and both shows are totally sold out. Rad for the movie, sucky for us.

I woke up at 4am after falling asleep on the futon post-agadashi tofu, and spent 11 or so hours playing with *things* on the computer (most importantly xslt rocks!); when you dissolve into states such as the one I just mentioned, there is no way in hell you can tear yourself away from the computer until eating or peeing becomes such a pressing need that you are forced to deal.

I was forced to deal around 3:00pm this afternoon (hunger).

Ran down to Illegal Pete’s for a throw ‘em up, smack it down burrito and a beer. Plopped down outside at a table with a table-umbrella, whipped out McLuhan’s Understanding The Media (because it fits in my back pocket; older version of the book, not big pockets) and put Orbital: Blue Album (still) in my ears, thus creating a mobile bubble that keeps me semi-immune to the cavortings of people on Sunday.

And while I was sitting there, someone snuck up to the table and slipped a piece of paper under my ipod and snuck away just as quickly.

It did make me smile. It’s like Pleasantville. City of Heroes also makes me smile. It’s not like Pleasantville at all.

R.I.P. Banana

On the way up to my brother’s graduation last year, my mom and I stopped by a friend of hers in New Jersey, who happens to live in the greatest old farmhouse ever. By lucky coincidence, or because no one else wanted to sleep up there, I got the attic. These pictures don’t convey its creepiness, but it was indeed creepy. A story needs to be written about it…

You’re going to see a lot of random things popping up as I go through my archives. Just a warning…

Hedy Lamarr is my hero. Along with George Antheil she invented the first version of frequency hopping that proposed the use of a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. The idea was proposed to the Navy, though ultimately they were not interested claiming the system was too bulky. Antheil explicates the Navy’s reasoning:

“In our patent Hedy and I attempted to better elucidate our mechanism by explaining that certain parts of it worked like the fundamental mechanism of a player piano. Here, undoubted, we made our mistake. The reverend and brass-headed gentlemen in Washington who examined our invention read no further than the words ‘player piano. ‘My god,’ I can see them saying, ‘we shall put a player piano in a torpedo.’”

What a great image.