forest farm -maine

Currently trying to finish a (hypothetical/academic) proposal for digitizing and preserving a collection of papers and ephemera belonging to Scott and Helen Nearing -of The Good Life fame. One of the wrinkles is that an important part of the Nearing's legacy are the stone buildings they built by hand (themselves and assistants), on Stratton Mountain in Southern Vermont, and in Harborside on the coast of Maine. As well as being landmarks to the couple, the architecture and slipfrom masonry construction techniques were idiosyncratic; simple and functional solutions, though longevity being questioned now.

Anyhow, we considered a way to represent them in the digital archive and as well as storing high quality digital stills we investigated the process of creating 3D digital models of the structures. Deri Jones & Associates assisted us with some of the pricing and technologies. Not surprisingly the cost of surveying and 3D recording of old houses depends on their complexity and access. The optimum situation is to have a clear traverse around the whole house in about 3 survey stations and clear views through the windows to allow accurate location of the scans inside. An example of this type of scanning is the below project done by Deri Jones & Assoc. on some old houses in Friuli, Italy, taking one day to record. Imagine using the data to rebuild a full size 3D replica at some point in the future... good stuff.

peazip

PeaZip is a free file and archive manager, based on solid and proven Open Source technology of 7-Zipfree winrar winzip 7-zip alternative for handling mainstream archive formats, and other great Open Source tools (like FreeARC, PAQ, UPX...) for supporting additional file formats and features, in order to provide an all purpose zip utility featuring a powerful unified GUI that, unlike most of other classic file archivers like i.e. WinZip and WinRar, is natively portable and cross-platform.

Only found this app recently and it really delivers. Does exactly what it says; "All in one utility to extract, create and convert all most popular archive formats (130+). Easy to use GUI with Drag&Drop" -yup.

jason scott says "backups are important" -and much more

For the last few years, historian and archivist Jason Scott has been involved with a loose, rogue band of data preservation activists called The Archive Team. As major sites with brand recognition and the work of millions announce short-notice shutdowns of their entire services, including Geocities, Friendster, and Yahoo Video, Archive Team arrives on the scene to duplicate as much as they possibly can for history before all the data is wiped forever.

Change of pace for a second. For a digital archives class I recently watched this talk which touches on a lot of areas about which you (the reader of this electronic communication) might be interested. Or should be. URL shorteners, generated by a third-party that may disappear at any moment? Not great for historians/archivists/you.

Or what if blogger.com disappeared tomorrow, like Geocities did (at one time the 3rd most trafficked domain). Lot of good stuff. Jason Scott is not a finesse guy but that is part of the charm. He believes whole heartedly in the value of history, text, output, and is working to rescue that shit. Extreme geekery ahead, good stuff. 44 mins.

make your own lightbox in 30 seconds

1. Open Powerpoint.
2. Hit F5
3. Fold laptop open and flat.

orvis -new website

Looks like Orvis just refreshed their site. A more lifestyle-y frontpage, simplifying the choices to shop/adventure/protecting nature and blogs. See the old site here. Lot more whitespace once you get inside. And, they are highlighting a guy who reconditions Wagoneers... sweet.

burton.com -now THAT is a search window

Burton Snowboard's 2011/2012 site went live the other day, and is simpler visually than in years past (come back duct tape graphics!) -but check out the new search feature. Using some kind of instant search coupled with a predictive text feature, it also boasts a massive search bar once you initiate search. Well played. My gripe with a lot of library websites is that it is often hard to find the search/catalogue option, this would be an great overlay.

why are post office directories useful?

Richard Rodger, Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh, and Chris Fleet, the Map Librarian for the National Library of Scotland talk about the historical Post Office Directories of Scotland and how [the website] AddressingHistory is combining the Directories with maps [i.e. georeferencing].


Slightly underwhelming video but bang it out then check the website... Very cool to see how groups of people (cobblers, bakers... whoever) congregate in sections of the city then move over time.

flash drive w/ EB preloaded from duracell

Saw this in the impulse items zone of the checkout aisle at Shaws and grabbed it. Was $7 for the 1G with The Family Encyclopedia from Encyclopedia Britannica (EB if you want to get nerdy. I do) preloaded with a one time install license (mac/pc).

They have a bunch of others w/ software installed. Nice non-slip covering and goof on the copper and black Duracell colors.

does what is says on the box

Sony SD memory reader. Quickly transfer your images, video or data to or from either [Sony proprietary -ed.] Memory Stick Pro Duo™ or bog standard SD memory cards; for PC or Mac. $10 at Target. Plus cher elsewhere. Has just improved my life, oh... at least 18%.

3 tech nuggets

So, you found a great youtube video but only want a snippet... or want to stop it right before the swearing starts to post on your blog... No problem. (N.B. this wont work with Vimeo yet)

1. Find the video you want to chop (youtube).
2. Chop the good part (tubechop).
3. Share.



Motherboard on buddy's PC died. Or you are upgrading to a new machine. Use the old harddrive as an external drive to get at the data... you can attach it to your new machine with this DriveMate. Caveat; some have noticed surging if AC power not plugged in first. More forumtalk at NewEgg.



Quick backstory; Gale and another entity Ebsco are two huge, competing pay services for electronic versions of journals, newspapers and reference materials that are subscribed to by corporate and educational facilities (including public libraries of a certain size). It is sort of like a Murrays Toggery vs. Nobby Clothes Shop thing in the library world.

Missed this a month ago and just tried it recently... AcccessMyLibrary is a free iPhone app that locates libraries within a 10mile radius and authenticates you for access to the Gale databases to which that library subscribes. The initial screen is a google map that also supplies the address/phone etc of the library picked btw. Thought this unicorn-phone app was very slick, though the ensuing displayed database pages are not optimized for the iPhone; that will come no doubt. But, it is free access to immense amounts of vetted info. Get this app.

3 free tech nuggets

You may know these already, but if not they are wicked useful. And free.


Switch audio file converter. For Windows or Mac. Convert audio files from many different file formats to mp3, wav or wma and more.


Audio Hijack. Record any audio. Freeware (for Mac) records for up to 10 minutes and is great for snagging movie dialogue to add to mixes etc. The old logo was much cooler...

VLC media player. Multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols. Put a copy on a USB stick and carry this free dvd player (also takes dvd screenshots).

sin

This Chevelle (?Camaro?) was parked outside the door this morning. Is the name plate referring to the addition of a tailfin and induction hood? Think it is a 1970?? (single headlights). Edited these straight digital photos with a crafty online tool, Tiltshift Generator.