Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
As I get into photography I've picked up more and more RSS feeds from photography bloggers and photography magazines that have RSS feeds. One of the major topics I see all over the RSS feeds and discussion boards is photo theft. Amateur and semi-pro photographers all over the web are paranoid that people won't respect their copyright. So I find it hilarious from the same group of people that watermark their images and talk about posting only small images (many advocate only posting 700px at the maximum dimension) that they steal music to accompany videos on YouTube.
I'm going to pick on one photographer, admittedly a better photographer then I am to use as an example however, just look on you tube for similar videos...
As I said Jacob is far from the only culprit. Actually, Jacob's video is probably less problematic then these as his is more of an indirect ad showcasing technique then direct ad as some of these are.
Mostly my point is I find it very funny that people who make their living or part of their living off copyright are "borrowing" others work. I tried to select videos that are people advertising for business since advertising clearly isn't covered by fair use by any stretch of the imagination.
Katie has always been a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to just about everything. The last couple days she's been amazing us. She has started putting multiple words together mostly "bye-bye daddy," "up and down," "all done," "I go" but tonight she blew us away. She sang "twinkle twinkle little star" and then she hummed the next couple lines of the song. Will and I both looked at each other with our jaws dropped. Thats not supposed to happen until she's like 2. She's already trying to sing the alphabet. She mostly hums it but she sings some of the letters. She has such a big vocabulary for her age. She just totally amazes me.
Here is a quick summary: A group of 19 year olds were drinking on the American River in Sacramento. At the end of the day they leave the driver of the car they are traveling in is still drunk. As expected the driver crashes his car. He manages to do it badly enough to kill 2 of his 19 year old passengers. It is a sad story and sad ending.
Fast forward one year, the State Senate is going to outlaw alcohol on the river on major holidays. Which is actually an extension of the holiday ban on alcohol ban on the banks of the river. OK makes sense, the numbers support the 3 major holidays in question have big problems. Stupid statement by victims parents:
"If alcohol had been banned on the river that fateful day, Kendall (Lui) and Brian (Haight) would be alive today. We're sure of that," said Lui's mother Peggy Fong. Fong and Susan Haight, the other victim's mother, both spoke today during a news conference in support of the bill.
Last I checked it was already illegal to drink at 19 everywhere in the US. The American River doesn't count as international waters so the drinkers were already breaking the law. Also they got in the car with a drunk driver. The driver was underage and had been drinking. Driving while drunk is also illegal. Why would the kids (at 19 they are still kids) obey 1 new law but not the others?
I understand that the parents are hurting and that a lot of the people drinking on the river are of age I just think they are fooling themselves thinking that an additional law would have saved their kids.
Article on the Deaths: http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=24400
Article on the Bill: http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=29267
Some big changes are coming down the pipe. I can't quite post what they are yet since the details haven't been finalized but they are big changes. That is all...
Each frame was rendered on a monochrome Apple II and photographed using a specific color on a color wheel. One exposure of each color was taken on each frame exposing each frame to red, blue, and green channels. Each frame was rendered in 2 minutes. So that's 6 minutes a frame at ~30 frames a second that gives you 3 hours for 1 second of film. This guy was definitely ahead of his time.
Happy fathers day to all the other fathers out there...
I had a very busy weekend, however, that isn't what I'm going to talk about. I'm just here to say that I'm one lucky SOB. My wife and baby girl bought me a Canon EOS-3 for fathers day. The same day my Minolta SRT-101 came back from the service shop getting cleaned and refoamed.
I also sort of got a circular saw a few weeks ago that I thought was going to count as my father's day present.
I got to play with both my EOS-3 and my EOS-350D (Rebal XT) with my sister in-laws studio lights. I set them up both as hot lights and strobe units. The EOS-3 I drove them with the PC connection. The EOS-350 I drove the lights in slave mode with my Speedlight 550EX. It was pretty awesome!
I don't watch the new breed of reality talent shows but this story was interesting to me.
Singing salesman makes Cowell's jaw drop | NEWS.com.au
A MOBILE phone salesman from Wales has stunned the judges of a British talent show with his rendition of an opera classic.
Paul Potts, 36, sang Nessun Dorma – made famous by Luciano Pavarotti – for the judges on Britain's Got Talent TV show, who are searching for an act to perform in front of the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance and win $A250,000.
I don't know this guys story but I think the judges may not have it right. I'm sure this guy has formal training but I bet his life didn't quite go the right way talent or not.
I knew a associate professor of music who was loved by his students and had amazing talent. The dept head didn't like him and didn't like having another operatic vocal instructor so she didn't renew his contract. He had settled into the area fully expecting to stay at the university and had a wife and kids that had lives. He wound up with a Phd in music having been a professor digging ditches for CalTrans. He may very well still be digging ditches for CalTrans for all I know. The funny thing is he didn't take a big pay cut to move from being a associate music professor to digging ditches for CalTrans. I suspect listening to this guy sing that his story may be the similar.
Very cool flash tour of how a EF-500 F4L IS USM lens is made.
It seems that Connecticut school administrators are the same kind of dbags as the senators from Connecticut.
War and Censorship at Wilton High
Last Sunday night, as millions of Americans tuned in to the two Tonys—the final episode of “The Sopranos,” to see whether Tony Soprano lived or died, and the Tony Awards, celebrating the best in American theater—actor Stanley Tucci (who played “Nigel” in “The Devil Wears Prada") was in an off-Broadway theater, the Culture Project, watching high-school students perform a play about war.
The production, “Voices in Conflict,” moved the audience to tears, ending with a standing ovation for the teenage actors, still reeling from a controversy that had propelled them onto the New York stage. Their high-school principal had banned the play.
US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs
Amazing technology....
How Adobe's Photoshop Was Born | SiliconUser
Photoshop was not the result of an elaborate skunk works in the depths of Adobe. Rather, it was developed by Thomas Knoll and his brother, John.
An interesting photo essay on what various families around the world eat over a 1 week period and what it costs.
I upgraded pqbon.com from Movable type 2.66 to Movable type 3.53 after Ken pointed out that the upgrade was changed to be free for noncommercial use. The process was almost painless.
I originally didn't upgrade because I currently have 8 authors and 2 blogs on the system. While a few of the authors and one of the blogs is in active I didn't want to remove them from the database. Even if I did that still would have left me with more then 1 author. Originally the free noncommercial license for Movable type 3 only covered 1 blog and 1 author. It just wasn't high enough on our list of priorities to pay for an update when 2.66 was working more then adequately.
I just upgraded PQBON.COM from debian 3.1 to debian 4.0. Holler if you find any problems.
Along the way I uninstalled about 1GB worth of unused software.
The original source to this link was fark.
This is a story partially about boy dieing in a fire after running back in to save his brother. It is also about community and family. I was moved by the piece and the respect it showed for the people involved. Some would call it saccharin but I thought it was good.
Article pasted in extended...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.ci.fire24may24,0,3346090.story?coll=bal-home-headlines
From the Baltimore Sun
Fatal fire on Cecil Avenue
Boy, 13, died in bid to save his brother
Blaze destroyed a family created by generosity as much as by blood
By Stephen Kiehl, Doug Donovan and Abigail Tucker
Sun reporters
May 24, 2007
Davonte Witherspoon had made it out alive onto the Cecil Avenue sidewalk, free of the fire ravaging his brick-front rowhouse. That's when the 13-year- old boy, standing amid thick smoke and underneath flames that licked the morning sky, remembered who was still inside.
"My brother!" he said, according to a witness. "My nephew!"
Davonte had to go back in. Later this would not be surprising to anyone who knew the family. Davonte's brother, Tashon Thomas, 16, had muscular dystrophy and was in a wheelchair. The boys were devoted to each other. It was Davonte who carried Tashon up the stairs at night and Davonte who bathed him when their mother, Deneen Thomas, could not.
Also trapped inside the house Tuesday morning was Nijuan Thomas Jr., Davonte's 3-year-old nephew with whom he shared a bedroom in the front of the house. Davonte knew Tashon was there, too, and so he dashed back into the house through a rear door. No one could stop him.
"He went in that house to get his brother," said Inez Williams, who lives three doors away from 1903 Cecil Ave. She had witnessed the scene firsthand and recounted it yesterday. "He would not leave his brother."
Williams would not see Davonte again until firefighters carried his body from the smoldering home. Relatives said he was found on top of Tashon, perhaps trying to protect his brother from the flames that would take six lives, including five children. Fire officials could not confirm where, or in what condition, the brothers' bodies were found.
Yesterday investigators continued looking for the cause of the blaze on the city's east side. They have found no evidence that an accelerant was used to start the fire, said Baltimore Fire Department spokesman Rick Binetti.
A source close to the investigation said investigators were examining a couch in the front room of the first floor and considering the possibility that the fire might have been started on or near the couch by someone who was smoking.
A relative who left the house minutes before the fire began said that William C. Hyman, who was killed in the blaze, slept on that couch because he could not climb stairs. The other five victims have been identified by The Sun as:
� Tashon Thomas, 16
� Davonte Witherspoon, 13
� Melvin Beckett, 13
� Marquis Ellis, 7
� Nijuan Thomas Jr., 3
Tashon and Davonte were especially close. At age 7, Tashon was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. But he still had use of his hands, and he tinkered for hours with computers and radios and anything mechanical. Davonte loved to ride his bike and wanted to play professional baseball.
Both boys attended Lombard Middle School. Yesterday, the school sent a letter home to parents lamenting, "Two of our students are believed to have perished in a terrible fire."
Seven others were injured in the fire. Deneen Thomas, 43, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body, remained in critical condition; Oneika Ellis, 27, the mother of Marquis Ellis, was in good condition; and Amira Williams, 3, the granddaughter of Deneen Thomas, was in critical condition.
In many ways, the 13 people who found themselves inside the house Tuesday were a portrait of urban poverty in America: four generations under one roof, a foster child in search of a home, an ex-boyfriend who had nowhere else to go.
Some had criminal records. Some had endured violence. Several had health problems. But they all found a home with Deneen Thomas, who everyone called Miss Nina. She was well-known for offering shelter to people outside her own family. No one was a stranger to her.
At the barbecues she frequently hosted in her yard, "she cooked for the block," said her mother, 64-year-old Carol Howell. Miss Nina's kitchen pans were practically the size of table tops.
The family gathered yesterday at a house on Oak Hill Avenue, a block from the site of the fire. They spent the day planning for the burials - choosing obituary pictures, selecting casket colors, mapping out bus routes to the funeral home. With several families and the whole neighborhood affected, there were many decisions to make.
But 27-year-old Tiffany Howard was sure about one thing: She wanted the six people who died in her Aunt Nina's house to be buried together as a family, because that was how they lived.
"I want to do it all at once, because of the closeness of these family and friends," she said. "They weren't all related, but that is how they would have wanted it done."
Deneen Thomas had four children. Three lived with her - Davonte, Tashon and Chriseria Thomas, 20 - and one other son is in prison. That son, Nijuan Thomas, is the father of Nijuan Jr., who died in the fire. Deneen had been taking care of him.
She extended herself to others as well. Melvin Beckett, 13, was no relation to the family at all. Still, the tall, slim foster child came over to Miss Nina's to play video games with his best friend Davonte practically every chance he got, sometimes staying for long stretches, relatives said.
"Miss Nina's house was the place where he found happiness and peace," said Melvin's aunt, 41-year-old Marquietta Ladson. "He'd be gone days in a row. Weeks."
Melvin's mother was unwell, and for the past year or so he had been living with a woman in Edmondson Village, Ladson said. But he often ran away for weeks at a time, and Miss Nina's was where the aspiring basketball star frequently chose to stay. He was devoted to Davonte, but Miss Nina was just as much of a draw.
"That lady, Miss Nina, treated him like a son," Marquietta Ladson said. "Melvin loved Miss Nina. He used to say, 'I'm going to go stay with my mother,' and I'd say, 'What?' And then he'd laugh and say 'I mean Miss Nina.'"
Deneen Thomas' father, William Hyman, was a frequent guest at her home. Because of his health problems, she would often take care of him; in return, he would watch her children while she worked, most recently at a liquor store on Park Heights Avenue.
Katrice Thompson, 23, had recently been staying at the Cecil Avenue house with her ex-boyfriend, Rodney Alston. She is Deneen Thomas' niece, and her own two children stayed with another aunt a block away.
Katrice Thompson was in the house Tuesday morning but left about 6:45 a.m. to pick up her 6-year-old son and take him to school. About 7:20 she received a phone call: "Your house is on fire." She rushed back, but there was nothing she could do.
The smoke was so thick that it woke up Debbie Jones, sleeping on the second floor of her home three doors away. It was a balmy night and she had left the windows open. When she smelled the smoke, she yelled "Fire! Fire!" to alert her sister, Inez Williams, and children in the house.
When they reached the street, they realized the fire was in Deneen Thomas' house. They saw her standing at her second-floor window. They urged her to jump, but she paused, perhaps thinking of the children inside.
"Something exploded and it pushed Nina out the window," said Williams, 19. "She was still on fire when she hit the ground."
Neighbors rushed to cover her with blankets to put out the flames.
Like Davonte, Dominic Thompson, whose age was not known, had managed to escape the house as fire consumed it. He was Deneen Thomas' nephew and he had been staying in the house with his girlfriend, Oneika Ellis, and her son Marquis. Thompson was on the sidewalk when Davonte bolted back toward the house.
"Stay out!" Thompson warned Davonte, according to a witness. But the boy didn't listen. Thompson raced back into the house after him, and that's where he suffered a cardiac arrest. His condition was not known last night.
Yesterday afternoon, neighbors and relatives sat on their stoops and watched as city workers cleared the charred debris pile in front of Deneen Thomas' house. An orange machine with a huge claw scooped up blackened furniture, clothing and children's toys and deposited it all into a green Dumpster. Workers used shovels to scrape the final pieces from the black sidewalk. The acrid smell of smoke, which had finally dissipated after the fire, again filled the air on Cecil Avenue.
Stories of Davonte's heroism were repeated on stoops and corners throughout the neighborhood north of Green Mount Cemetery. Danielle Davis, Davonte's aunt, described him as Tashon's "caretaker."
"He would pick him up and carry him up and down the stairs," Davis said. "He was a big brother in a little brother's body."
stephen.kiehl@baltsun.com doug.donovan@baltsun.com
Sun reporters Annie Linskey and Gus G. Sentementes contributed to this article.
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