Categories
Photo A Day 2011

Project 365 Week 11

Another week, another set. I kinda like the way the “Alwyn Court Building” came out. “Looking Down 7th Ave” was a reject from earlier, but I dug it up after having nothing for that day. Now after fixing it up a little bit, I actually like it.

I’ll be making some tweaks to how galleries are presented on this site in the coming weeks. Still making some decisions, then I’ll start implementing.

Categories
Photo A Day 2011

Project 365 Week 10

Another week, another gallery.

Categories
Photo A Day 2011

Project 365 Week 5

Another week, another round of pictures. I’ll hopefully get better at posting these promptly at the conclusion of a week.

Categories
Around The Web Audio/Video

Atomic Tom’s “Take Me Out” Subway Video

Atomic Tom - Take Me Out

Here’s an interesting video that went viral over the past few days. Brooklyn based band Atomic Tom’s instruments allegedly were stolen. Their resolve led them to use their iPhones and film a music video on the subway using their phones as instruments. Or so the story goes. I’m not sure if it’s a viral sensation or viral marketing.

I’m a bit skeptical about this one. They claim it was one take, multiple cameras were present, iPhones were the sole instruments used. I don’t have the time to analyze it close enough, but the sound is a little questionable. The thing that really gets me is the quality of the vocal track. While you can hear some ambient subway noise in the background it’s hard to imagine the phone picking everyone up so clearly when they are all singing given the position of the microphone and pick up so little subway noise otherwise. The iPhone does try to reduce ambient noise as much as possible, but this just seems to be beyond what it would do. Of course they could have done a little post-production work there. They don’t really say what post-production entailed.

Playing an iPhone instrument for the length of a song especially given their performance also seems a bit difficult. All four not messing up would be impressive, especially on a moving train.

Regardless, this little viral marketing seems to be working. Over the weekend it’s views were still in the thousands. It’s clearly on the way to the 2 million mark as of this blog post.

At least one of the apps used is iShred: Guitar + Effects, which is pretty cool.

Categories
Tech (General)

MTA’s Fail Whale

Apparently the Fail Whale in tech is a disease lately. The latest obvious occurrence has been New York’s MTA with their MetroCard vending machines. I noticed on Monday walking into the station, the lines in front of the vending machines were insanely long (normally 2 people max, now 15+) and presumed just a large group of tourists. Then saw it when I got off at my stop (hmm… two stations overloaded with customers? Strange). This morning it was less but still crowded (I guess some people gave up), and learned the problem myself. Apparently they can’t process credit cards lately.

Many New Yorkers purchase an $81 30-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard,a s opposed to putting a fixed amount on a card. I suspect many do not carry $81 cash on them because we are a society that uses credit cards for convenience. So those people just pulled a couple dollars out of their wallet and bought a regular fare card with the intent to come back later. At $2.00 a fare this could provide a nice bump for the MTA, who I might add is cash strapped and looking to raise the fees after just cutting the bonuses from 20-15%.

Now regarding that bonus cut, that creates a whole new can of worms. For those who don’t know: if you purchase more than $7, you get a bonus. 20% always leaves a nice even number. 15% on the other hand leaves you with spare change. Leaving room for things like the MetroCard Bonus Calculator. What a mess. You could always put a few dollars on the card to clean it up, but then you loose the 15% bonus on that money. Over time that adds up. I’m sure many people just throw away the cards with change on it, but I find that somewhat silly.

Twitter seemed to survive the Chino Hills earthquake, so the MTA wins the Fail Whale award for today.

Categories
In The News Politics

MTA copyrighting subway maps

This is kind of disturbing. The MTA isn’t really a private company. As taken from their website (with my emphasis):

Since 1982 the MTA has been carrying out the largest public works rebuilding project in the country. Funded by federal, state, and local government and by the issuance of debt, the MTA’s most recent capital program has generated an average 31,760 private-sector jobs, $1.3 billion in wages, $100 million in state and local tax revenues, and $3.52 billion in economic activity annually.

That’s right New Yorkers… you by law paid for those maps, but by law you can’t have them.

There’s something seriously wrong when you have to pay for access to something paid for by your taxes. They should be given the choice of either giving up the federal/state/local funding, or release copyright into the public domain. The current situation is ridiculous.