CHDK & GIMP

I found two downloads the photographers among you might like. Both are open source, stable, semi large, documented and petty easy to download. Sourceforge mirrors both as do several University sites. In the case of CHDK, Canon helps support the project and it doesn't void the warranty.

CHDK (Canon Hacker's Development Kit) is for several of the Canon point and shoot cameras. Its development is documented here. It resides on your SD card and only comes out to play if you call it up. It will allow you to save RAW files, extend your video time and have tighter control over your metering functions. If you don't enable it, your camera acts in its normal fashon, Point...Shoot.

GIMP GNU Image Manipulation Program is what the name suggests, a photoshop style tool. If you download it, be sure to get the documentation as it's not very intuitive unless you've worked with similar programs. The development path and an overview are here

A trained and discriminatory eye is necessary, but hey, free tools are gravy.

What They Are Watching

From Gizmondo

click image to enlarge

1,000 Channels

Farnsworth's Green Street Lab (x Sansome, S.F.)

The sign reads: In a simple laboratory on this site,202 Green Street, Philo Taylor Farnsworth, U.S. pioneer in electronics, invented and patented the first operational all-electronic "television system" on September 7, 1927. The 21 year-old inventor and several dedicated assistants successfully transmitted the first all-electronic television image, the major breakthrough that bought the practical form of this invention to mankind. Further patents, formulated here, covered the basic concepts essential to modern television. The genius of Green Street, as he was known, died in 1971. California registered historical landmark number 941. .....

I'm old enough to remember when TV was in black and white, carried channels 2 through 13, half of which were empty and the remainder had set operating hours, was tuned by a rotary click-stop knob that you had to get up to change and MTV had music on. Now we have the proverbial 1,000 channels with nothing on, containing all the ideology and product placement one can swallow. Thank-goodness this remote has an off switch. And I'm going to use it as soon as this bikinis on the beach show is over... Dang, we never did that when I was a kid, or at least not on television.

Green Street Edison (PDF added 7-17-09)

Ghost Song

The vocal was recorded in March 1969, in Los Angeles, as a birthday gift to Morrison. The story is that the session consisted of him, his bottle, a tape operator and Ray Manzarek. The tape was stored, Morrison died (along with addiction or mental instability, this is considered a great career move in many poetry circles) and the band broke up. About five years later the band reconvened, edited the tape and composed backing music for it. This became An American Prayer. (1978) I'm not sure if the video was contemporary with the music or made later as a marketing tool.

Is it poetry the caliber of Rimbaud, is it song sketches rescued through studio editing ? Patti Smith gives her opinion, you decide.

Cuauhtémoc

ARM Cuauhtémoc BE-01

On Monday, the Armada de Mexico ship Cuauhtémoc docked at pier 27. (Embarcadero x Battery) A training ship of the Barque class, it also serves as a goodwill ambassador to the ports it visits. It's 296.9' spared length, 220' 4" at the waterline, and can hold 186 officers and crew, with room for up to 90 trainees. When the time comes, it can raise sails on 3 masts and book.

Since it's on public display for the duration of its stay, it's decked out like a piñata. But underneath all the signs, fluffy yellow rigging protectors, and flags galore, is a tight, well built ship maintained in Bristol fashion.

Bastille Day

On either side of Kearny, along Bush, the alleys are full of people celebrating Bastille Day. Pourquoi ? Hot day, slow economy and a quick way to sell beer to lots of tourists. Laisser les bons temps rouler et lache pas la patate.

Ed Sanders

Yesterday I found a copy of Ed Sanders' Shards of God ( Grove, '70) on the hotel's share shelf. (check in, you have something to read / check out, leave what you've finished). The style, a pastiche of Burroughs and R. A. Wilson, written in extremis non soberus, hasn't held up well. The I-mouthed sauceroids have, in fact, left the building. (Time and place et al.) If you weren't there, you missed the fun. Dang.

Ed, in addition to being a counterculture chronicler, Fuggster, and conspiracy theorist, was also a working poet. Yes Virginia, poetry can be a career choice.( Useful accessories include a rich dad, rock band or teaching certificate and iron undies constructed of high self regard). In this video ( from Poetry in Motion: "82) Sanders shows his talking tie and finger synthesizer. You can see that Laurie Anderson developed in the same scene. The performance timing and technical contrivance are quite similar.