Two Cents and a Thousand Words

Act now and get your very own digital MP3 player!

You don’t want to get stuck with one of those analog MP3 players.

Due to the… umm… overwhelming (?) public response to my last post and the encouragement to move on, I’ll do just that. Thanks to the people who did respond.

I don’t normally talk about personal issues on here, but I’ve been looking through a lot of my past journals and notes lately. I’ve noticed that I really enjoy having some sort of substance to reflect upon as I grow older (for example, reading my predictions about college from 2001 is quite hilarious). That said, I’d like to record an update on where I stand now (as well as a chance for people to catch up with what’s going on).

School

Yes, I’m still in school. In fact, I’m about a month and a half from graduation. After that, 18 years of schooling will be over… at least until I figure out that I want to keep going. But for now, it’s done.

The biggest project I have right now is my capstone. For those not at UMaine, a capstone project (required in some form by all graduates) is a work that ideally encompasses all four years of UMaining into some form of tangible work. For some majors the capstone is a research project; for some (as it is for me) it’s the development and presentation of some piece of work. If you’re still confused, it’s a senior project. There. The UMaine administration obviously finds it necessary to obfuscate the obvious.

I’ve dubbed my capstone “MultiMediaMagic”. It’s basically a real-time video conversion system for the Web. It would allow users to convert any form of video to a more Web-acceptable format, much like you can do with photo sites such as Flickr today. My capstone deliverable(s) will be a paper outlining how the technology could be implemented and – hopefully – a rudimentary working application of the system. While it may seem like a novelty today, I think it will have much broader applications as video becomes a more popular format of media distribution.

If you’re wondering what happened to my capstone idea last semester (Universal Data), well, it died. MMM took its place.

I’m also working on a photography project for my Theory and Practice of Photography course. I’m investigating signs of the past that appear in present Maine; the project involves traveling around the state and taking photographs (a horrible burden, I know) that would match the project. The final project is due at the end of the semester, but we have a preliminary portfolio review this week. I still have a lot of work to do for the project (in other words, a lot of places to go); the one issue with the concept is that it’s time consuming to drive at a time when I have other work to do. Regardless, it’s fun and it allows me to get off campus. It also allows me to lighten my pockets due to the $2.11 I pay for a gallon of gas. Yay!

My other classes are going well. There’s a lot of reading to do for my History of Mass Communication class, but we’re learning about some interesting topics. A fairly large amount of time has been focused on blogging and its relation to and effect on journalism. It’s quite interesting. My management information systems class is also going well; it provides a different (business) perspective of some of my favorite topics.

Sephone

I spent break working full-time at Sephone. It’s hard work at times, but I’m able to play with some things I normally wouldn’t do. Now I’m working 15 hours a week while classes are in session. It’s nice, too, because some of the work I’ve done is already being used online.

Social

I’ve been doing a lot with my friends lately, too. We went to see a wonderful production of Fiddler on the Roof on Saturday, and I’m hoping that I’ll get to go see the Romeo and Juliet ballet at the MCA on Saturday. We also took an overnight trip to Portland a couple weeks ago to eat at On the Border and IHOP. On March 31 we’ll be going to see Gavin Degraw (a very nice early birthday present). I should really just set up camp in the MCA.

Semsym

Unfortunately, everything I’ve listed doesn’t leave a lot of time for my personal Web projects. I have some really great ideas that I want to start, but I think they’ll have to wait until the April Rush is over with school. I feel bad for the people who signed up for an e-mail over at gre.gario.us – but then again, they’re not getting spam. My top candidates for projects right now have to do with blogs, pictures, trash, Abraham Lincoln, newspapers, maps, forwards, and more (though not all projects involve all of those). Intrigued yet?

The end… for now.

I’d like everyone reading this to comment. You can do so anonymously if you like, or, if you’d rather, e-mail me, IM me, or tell me in person. I’d just really like to know what everyone thinks.

What are your three biggest gripes? Anything. The three things that bother you most.

I’ll be thinking about this one over the next week or two, and I’ll post my answers. I’d like to hear what you all think.

My one issue with Firefox is that it doesn’t seem to be good with bookmarks under pressure. I’ve lost mine twice, including once a few minutes ago as I was catching up with my favorite sites. I probably lost about 200 links. Maybe it’s somebody’s way of relieving me of the duty I had placed upon myself to look through the ~150 I had in the dreaded Unsorted folder.

What gets to me most is that I should know to back up. But do I? No.

While I was talking with Jess last night, she told me that the link to my blog wasn’t working from my home page. I went to see, and it worked on my computer; I wasn’t really sure what to think. This morning I came back and loaded up my morning links (including my blog) to find that my domain had expired yesterday, and Mom e-mailed me to let me know this morning, too. Whoops. Thankfully, the wonderful people at RegisterFly.com, along with having great rates for domains, allow a 30-day grace period for re-registering a name. So fear not, loyal readers, the site is set to go until February 24, 2006!

Amazing what you get with a $50 hotel room these days.

I don’t usually post links on here anymore since I’ve started using del.icio.us, but sometimes I come across a link that’s just too good to go unnoticed.

As a photography enthusiast, I’m always looking for other people’s work. I also sometimes have a need for a certain type of photo; while I was drafting prototypes for Semsym, for example, I wanted a picture of a handshake. I’m definitely not alone in my need for these sorts of pictures; the world of stock photography is devoted to that very area. Many of the major competitors like Corbis and iStockPhoto.com offer royalty-free shots but require you to pay for the photos. While this is probably not that big of a deal for a large company, I was looking for something to just put on one of my small sites. The Creative Commons movement is great, too, but the searching functionality leaves a bunch to be desired. Flickr is promising due to the volume of CC-licensed images on there, but there’s a large majority of simple everyday tourist-like shots and snapshots on there.

About a year ago I had the idea for FreeShots, a public domain stock image gallery that would, quite simply, be free. Why would people put images on there? The same reason why people contribute to Wikipedia and other sites: you give and you use. People share their photography to get noticed and to allow other people to use their work; for very simple, everyday shots especially, it’s not about compensation. Compensation, in fact, may be a simple thanks or mention of the original author in the derivative work.

Enter stock.xchng, a Hungarian site that beat me by about 3 years. The site has over 117,000 stock photos available for no cost, many of which have no usage limitations (ie, are in the public domain). The site is moderated, so all new submissions must be approved before they are displayed to the public (done to maintain the quality of the images put on the site). I’ve submitted a few photos, and they’re currently pending approval. The site literally has just about anything you could ever want, and it’s used by people worldwide. It’s a wonderful resource. You might want browse my profile there to see the shots I’ve listed (if they’re approved). I intend to contribute a lot.

To: hotline@mpaa.org
From: justin@justinrussell.com
Subject: Anti-Piracy Hotline Report

Good morning,

I would like to make you aware of an instance of piracy I’ve noticed lately online. I truly believe that everyone both within and outside the entertainment industry should the protection granted to them by the copyrights that are rightfully theirs.

Upon visiting a couple of my favorite online news sites, I read a story {1} about how the MPAA has been promoting anti-piracy with the phrase “You can click, but you can’t hide,” even going as far as to place it prominently on the domains of services that you have deemed as infringing. I am requesting some form of documentation that you have cleared the rights to use this modification of the popular saying, “You can run, but you can’t hide,” used, for example, in the copyrighted works of A Flock of Seagulls {2}, Hunter S. Thompson, and John Perry Barlow {3}. I would also like to know if you have received clearance from Boston.com to use the “You can click, but you can’t hide” phrase used as a headline to a March 8, 2000 column {4}.

Please cease from infringing the rights of copyright holders. Piracy (“the unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material”, as defined at dictionary.com {5}) is unethical, illegal, and hurts content creators.

Thank you.

Justin Russell
http://www.justinrussell.com

Sources:
– {1} http://www.boingboing.net/2005/02/11/who_did_mpaa_rip_off.html
– {2} http://www.oz.net/~davester/AFOS/Lyrics/YouCanRun.html
– {3} http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/run.html
– {4} http://www.technologyfront.com/journalism/2000/03/dm-03-08.html
– {5} http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=piracy

P.S. I’ve never pirated a movie, and now I hate you even more.

While wading through the *sigh* 280+ links to gre.gario.us on del.icio.us and mulling over the translations of things like “quello che mancava, veramente tosto!” and “vítima do próprio sucesso” (and praying they weren’t trashing the site), I happened to notice that four people had del.icio.used justinrussell.com (see here) and one person had linked the still-under-construction Semsym (here). One of the justinrussell.com fans dubbed me a “social software dude” (a title I take as a compliment), and I promise that the Semsym fan won’t be disappointed. I’ll have that site up probably in the next couple of days, so stay tuned.

Can someone help me out with this? Does this screenshot from Virgin and its contrast between the video being shown and the top two reviews signify a) sacrilege, b) how far music has come in 20 years, or c) the sad state of music today?