DDOT On the Case ...

Classic, only took 6 months for them to remove a wooden box that was accidentally cemented to a sidewalk ?

hmmm.

Amplify’d from www.tbd.com via Google Reader

D.C. Dept. of Transportation officials have finally managed to remove a wooden storage locker that had accidentally been cemented into the sidewalk on the 1200 block of H Street NE. And it only took ... six months. What took so long? For background on the odd story of this box, read this and this. Basically, DDOT and the Department of Public Works couldn't agree on whether the locker ought to be removed. DDOT declared that it violated public space laws, while DPW didn't think it was that big of a deal. And since the locker had been permanently affixed to the sidewalk during the H Street Streetscape construction project, it was going to take more than just a garbage truck to haul the thing away. Well at long last, DDOT spokesman John Lisle provided the above photo as evidence that the matter has been resolved. Lisle didn't know for sure what sort of equipment ended up being needed to do the job ... did anyone happen to see a jackhammer on this part of the sidewalk this week? "I'm glad DDOT finally removed this illegal locker," says ANC 6A commissioner Drew Ronneberg, who had been pushing the city to take action on the box since August.  "I was worried that it wouldn't happen before the streetscape work was completed." Read more at www.tbd.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/eXqUvP

A Picture Says a Thousand Word, But ...

It does not convey the sheer power of the emotion behind the picture as we look not only at the picture, rather we see the picture through the eyes of the photographer.

I was lucky enough last night to attend the opening of King Week here in DC at the DC Public Libraries. The opening featured some great live Jazz in addition to some pretty incredible photography.  The exhibit was put on by Critical Exposure.

Critical Exposure teaches youth to use the power of photography and their own voices to become effective advocates for school reform and social change.

By empowering young people to develop skills as documentary photographers and advocates, we expose citizens and policymakers to the realities of our current two-tiered education system as seen through the eyes of the students who confront those realities each day. 

It was a really powerful show and I found myself very emotional as I looked at their work and tried to imagine life through their eyes.  I think the organization is a great idea and I plan to not only donate, but see if I may be able to volunteer in some fashion.. I urge you all to take a look as well to see if you can help out.  

Below are a few pics I got of the work and the commentary to go along with it.  Look and read and see if you dont feel a lump in your throat ...

See, pretty powerful aren't they ?

Wait Apple Changed a Design to Make Way for Different Cases !

I'm shocked ! Dont they always do this. I mean they make a cut from licensing on every peripheral sold right ? Sounds like smart business to me, even as aggravating it is as a consumer.

Amplify’d from www.engadget.com

The leaks suggested that the Verizon iPhone would have have slightly relocated buttons, and it's true -- as you can see in the photo above, the newly revised CDMA antenna notch has pushed the volume and mute controls down a hair from GSM version. That means a lot of cases -- Apple's current bumpers included -- won't fit properly on the Verizon version, although many third-party cases feature an open slot for the buttons that might still work. Either way, we'd bet Apple and third-party manufacturers are scrambling to have compatible cases in stores before the February 10th launch date -- just make sure to check yours first if you're switching from AT&T. Read more at www.engadget.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/gOsxuR

FCC Continues to Ride Google's Ideas

Yesterday at CES, I was excited to sit in on the session with FCC Chairman Genakowski to see what he had to say about the past, present, and future of all things policy and FCC. I had no real preconceived notions about what we would hear, but I was curious if there would be talk about the recent passage of the Open Internet rules and some of the criticism they have received.

While Chairman Genakowski didn't touch too much on the recent rules, he did look to the future and some initiatives that the FCC is going to work hard toward in the near future. One of the major pushes Genakowski is concentrating on are what he termed "voluntary incentive auctions". The premise of these auctions is to allow broadcasters the ability to auction off some of their unused spectrum while they are not using it and would receive compensation for the amounts they give up. Think an on-demand commodity market for spectrum where it could be bought and sold when needs demanded for some and supply was abundant for others.

As I was listening, I kept having this nagging feeling that I had heard this before .. Then it dawned on me, this idea was the very same idea I had heard said by Google's Larry Page several yeas ago a a Google Talk in DC. I went back and looked through the archives of my posts and foundwhat I was looking for a post from May of 2008:

Something else that I thought was conceptually a pretty revolutionary idea by Larry, was a suggestion to totally revamp the spectrum bidding process. As it is right now, companies that get these spectrums, do so for a very very lenghty amount of time. Larry stated that spectrum should be auctioned off, almost down to the minute, as carriers had the need. Almost a stock exchange for spectrum.

It seems that the FCC has become a clearinghouse to push through ideas of industry partners like Google and Verizon, evidence this market idea and the recent Open Internet initiative that was basically a rewrite of the Google-Verizon tiered broadband approach they co-released last year, instead of standing on their own to create and enact regulations that are fair for everyone.

Sad.

Zumanity at the Mashable Awards

Last night we got a chance to take in the 4th Annual Mashable Awards in the Cirque d Soliel Zumanity Theater at t he New York New York Casino. It was an okay time, seemed like the crowd was tired and not a lot of energy.

During the show we got treated to a small slice of the Zumanity show by e cast and it was pretty cool. Check out the video of the action.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

750 Million Picture Uploads ...

This is truly an amazing number, especially from reading the text below, the average daily is 100 million .. which is a lot in and of itself.



I sat in a session at SXSW last year, with the engineers of Facebook, Reddit, and some other companies talking about how they have designed and built out their infrastructure. It was fascinating. Facebook, as we have read before basically has designed there own file system for the photo storage called Haystack. Its pretty amazing all these numbers and what heights we have reached.

Amplify’d from techcrunch.com

Facebook Users Uploaded A Record 750 Million Photos Over New Year’s

It doesn’t come as a huge surprise, but it’s still staggering to think about: over the New Year’s weekend, Facebook saw 750 million photo uploads from its users. That’s a lot of celebrating, and it sets a new Facebook record.

The stat was just tweeted by Facebook marketing director Randi Zuckerberg (who is also founder Mark Zuckerberg’s sister). We’ve reached out to Facebook to ask what the last record was, but I’m guessing it was set over Halloween, which has historically been the biggest day for Facebook Photos.

To give some context to that number, in July Facebook said that more than 100 million photos get uploaded every day (that average is higher now, obviously). Read more at techcrunch.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/eJRUSM