Futurist

There are 391 posts filed in Futurist (this is page 37 of 40).

Smiling in passport photos

Don't dare smile

I just had two sets of passport photos taken, one at work and one at the local Costco. Both photographers told me not to smile in my photographs: that they could get rejected by the State Department’s passport processing if I were smiling. I thought that was ridiculous but to hear it from two photographers made me wonder.

Checking the Internets, I see there are differing opinions on whether this is a legitimate requirement. A few web forums say smiling is (and is not) allowed. The U.S. Consular Services in Canada office (where one would expect to find the official word) says you may smile if you wish.this is because smiling breaks the facial recognition software. Now, I would think any facial recognition software that can be defeated by the bad guy smiling isn’t worth much. I chalk it up to more security theater.

Interestingly, the Costo guy asked if my photograph was for a U.S. passport or a Canadian one. Apparently you can still smile in your Canadian passport photographs. No wonder Canadian travelers get better welcomes than Americans.

Facebook’s facial recognition creeps me out

Wouldn't you like to know?

In a process known as tagging, Facebook users have long been identifying the friends that appear in the photographs uploaded to the social networking site. Tagging involves someone selecting the area of a photograph in which a person appears and then associating the person’s name or Facebook profile to that area. It’s all been a manual process, though an easy one.

I noticed today that one of the photos in my collection I purposefully have not tagged showed up on my Facebook page today: a photo of my son on his bike. Facebook had found this untagged photo and was asking me who he was. Apparently Facebook has implemented facial recognition software.
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Evil lair to become B&B

Remember the evil MT.Net lair I diabolically schemed to purchase? The winning bidder, Richard Neal of Mint Hill, intends to turn the former Frying Pan Shoals lighthouse into a bed and breakfast. Curses!

A Mint Hill man hopes to turn an abandoned tower standing 60 feet above the white-capped waves of the Atlantic into one of North Carolina’s most distinctive vacation getaways.

The tower’s 5,000 square feet of living space includes seven bedrooms, a kitchen and a rec room. Guests would come by boat or helicopter. They could expect fabulous views of sunrises, sunsets, sea turtles and even migrating whales.

While I am intrigued with the idea of spending time on this rusty outpost just for the fun of it, I find the best thing about beds and breakfasts is the neighborhood around them. When you get to Frying Pan Shoals B&B, what are you going to do? Can’t go for a walk. Can’t shop at the quaint stores nearby because nearby is 25 miles away. However, if you like to fish you’ve got a great place to do it. Also, I think it would make a great recording studio. Or pirate radio station!

Or … an evil lair. Sigh.

Update 29 July: You can follow Richard’s progress (and book a reservation) here.

What the BP oil disaster has shown me

Deepwater Horizon burns

It’s now been three days since BP capped the Deepwater Horizon well and so far this temporary solution seems to be holding. The pause in the gushing oil has provided me an opportunity to think about what it means.

One thing I’ve learned is just how recklessly desperate the world is for oil. This drives a greed-filled drive to meet that demand, no matter what the environmental cost. I thought the wildcatting days depicted in the movie There Will Be Blood were over but that is apparently far from the case. I had no idea before the disaster that tens of thousands of oil rigs are drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Another thing I now know is how oil is killing us. Petrochemicals make our modern world: the things they do for us are truly miraculous. At the same time they’re poisoning us. How did we get in this dilemma and how do we get out of it?

This disaster has not only deeply wounded the Gulf of Mexico, it has wounded the concept that we can continue our dirty-energy lifestyle as long as the wells don’t run dry. But they will eventually and that’s a fact. A disaster like this one must never be allowed to happen again.

We’ve had our warning shot. The next one might be fatal to us all.

Fairview Road and high-speed rail

There has been lots of discussion about how the Southeast High Speed Rail project will affect downtown Raleigh. One proposed route would close a grade crossing at Fairview Road. Some have suggested that the neighbors near Fairview Road might prefer that Fairview Road stay open.

I don’t live in right next to the tracks but I do live close enough to cross at Fairview every now and then. About half the time the crossing is blocked: the trains at the nearby Norfolk Southern yard frequently stretch across the road as their freight is assembled. It’s gotten to the point that I simply assume the road will be blocked and that I’ll have to wait. As far as I’m concerned, closing an already-congested crossing wouldn’t be that big of an impact.

Then there’s the noise. All day and night, the trains sound their horns as they move back and forth across the road. I live a mile away from this crossing and even from here they sound loud. I don’t know how the folks at Roanoke Park deal with it. Living right next to the tracks, the trains must be deafening. Closing the crossing would mean the trains would no longer sound their horns. That sounds like a plus to me.

Will the high-speed trains bring change? Sure they will. But they’ll bring more good changes than bad ones.

Could Raleigh’s greenway paths be fiber paths?

Capital Area Greenway

I was thinking again (I know, I know. I should stop that bad habit) about Raleigh and the potential for a municipal Internet network (or a Google one). It occurred to me that the miles and miles of greenways Raleigh enjoys would make the perfect place to run a fiber backbone across our city. We’ve got greenways stretching into every corner of our city and more are being built and stitched-together every year. Why not make burying conduit part of every greenway construction project going forward?
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Sen. Hoyle’s anti-competition broadband bill expected to die

Internet hero

It turns out that no news is good news for Sen. David Hoyle’s anti-competition broadband bill, H.1840 (and formerly S.1209). The bill, which would block North Carolina municipalities from offering a choice of Internet services to their citizens, is stuck in the Broadband Connectivity House committee.

This committee is chaired by Rep. Bill Faison, who appears to be none too keen on letting this bill see the light of day. Rep. Faison learned first-hand the dangers of this scheme when it was pitched last year as H.1252. Faison is also not happy that Hoyle tacked his municipal broadband moratorium language onto one of Faison’s bills.

So, what have I learned about this? It’s good to be the chair of the Senate Rules committee, but it isn’t necessarily successful in getting bad bills passed. Also, it’s good to have two houses of government. Thirdly, don’t let the media hear from only one side. And, finally, sometimes otherwise good people like Josh Stein wind up disappointing you, even after you’ve stood in the rain all afternoon helping to get them elected.

Change in slide presentation strategy

Inspired by the fast-paced slide presentations by Larry Lessig, I’ve decided that the presentations I create will be built like a video, not like a lecture. Slides will illustrate my talks like pictures illustrate the words in a book. The idea will be to use the power of emotion that images produce to emphasize whatever point I’m making. Visual presentation will be used to reinforce the verbal presentation.

I have a few months until my next GPS presentation at Conn Elementary so now might be a good time to practice this new technique.

Hoyle guts H1840, puts his moratorium in

Sen. David Hoyle (D-Gaston)

Sen. David Hoyle, frustrated that S1209, his municipal broadband moratorium bill, is going nowhere, has gutted H1840, an e-NC sunset bill championed by Rep. Bill Faison, and inserted Hoyle’s moratorium bill in an effort to spite Rep. Faison.

Stay classy, Hoyle!

Muni broadband moratorium put in another bill

For those watching the municipal broadband moratorium bill you have another bill to keep track of.

The Senate Rules Committee attached the broadband study and moratorium as constructed in S 1209 and dumped it into H 1840, which has to do with extending E-NC authority.

I asked Sen. David Hoyle, chairman of the Rules Committee, why he was sending over a bill that has already passed the Senate.

“I’m sending it over with something the House likes,” Hoyle said. “I can’t get a committee hearing on the broadband.”

Update 25 June: Hoyle didn’t actually gut H1840. What he actually did was much worse.

via Muni broadband moratorium put in another bill.