Shaminder Dulai's Page

Pretty cool if you ask me, I'm just wondering what took them so long.



Anyone whose been online over the last five years can tell you that the illustration is nothing more than a tag cloud, but in print it's a bold move. It's nice to see print taking chances and playing with typography, now let's take it a step further.

Although I do have one nit-pick about the continuation, deliberate or not, of the blue and red colors being used to define the two parties. Why are we still perpetuating red states and blue states? I mean we all know it's just states and fly-over states (zing!).

If you're wondering how they did it, John Schwenkler used the web app "Wordle to pull out the most prominent words from the official McCain and Obama campaign blogs" (And yes, McCain's most prominent word was the name of his rival, go figure)

I bookmarked this on Delicious, which in turn was feed to my twitter, but it's just too big to leave it at that.

The Las Vegas Sun is hiring and if you're wise, you'd apply.

For one there aren't many places hiring, but bigger than that, the Sun is one of the few papers that "get's it" in terms of multimedia. And currently, IMHO, it's one of the quickest growing papers. Remember Roanoke about five years ago? That's the Sun today.

Just look at all those multimedia positions just ripe for the taking. I personally know at least a dozen of you out there that would be perfect for this.

Go apply!

You'll get to work with Rob Curley, Zach Wise, and my fellow Spartan and friend Kyle Hansen.

I'd apply myself, but I've already got something bigger cooking for my plate.

It's my 333 post here on SLR!

Why does that matter?

Wow, way to be a jerk, but if you must know it doesn't really. But 3 is my lucky number and thus 333 posts is kind of something special for my neurosis.

You happy now? Feel like a big man taking all the wind out of my sail?

I hate you.

And... end scene ;)

333 posts! Wooo!



Later!

I wrote about Photosynth last year, with great excitement and at great length I might add (with too much length and excitement some of you might add) and after all this waiting and not seeing anything come out of it, I'm now getting all excited for the next evolution of this software.

The idea of a individual documentation being universally chained and bound to create a richer, deeper and more informative tapestry is exciting. And the new transition structure and ability to navigate "key frames" (my term, not theirs) around public images opens up whole new methods for structure and navigation. Plus now you don't just point at stuff and zoom around, now you actually walk though it in near real-time.

(Awesome!)

Check it out in the video below (I'd say more, but I really can't add to anything I didn't say last year.)



If that video wasn't enough for you, check out the SIGGRAPH 2008 conference paper the team submitted for all the jargon filled goodness.

Oh MS, I have a sneaking suspicion you're just using this as tech demos that will be implemented in other products (MS Live Maps anyone? Google Maps street view killer perhaps?)-- why do I let you rile me all up and get excited? Why?!

Interactive Narratives is back!



It's back and thank goodness! After the fall of MultimediaShooter I was itching for a place to see multimedia on a consistent basis.

Five years ago, IN founder Andrew DeVigal was snatched up by the New York Times and the web site slowly stopped seeing updates. But now its back and it's taken on a social media twist.

Now any registered user can post multimedia and share what they find directly m with the masses.

I experimented with trying the same thing on Ning, but it failed to take hold, and for a while was playing with Pligg, a digg clone, but I could not have come near anything like this on my own. The social media aspect adds whole new dimensions and will hopefully ensure that it doesn't go away again.

I'll go into more details another time, for now, take a look and tell me what you think.

Later

Well I stayed longer than I thought I would (but I'm not complaining), but now it's time to move on. My ABQ chapter is officially in the books.

Whenever I go somewhere new, I always end up taking lots of pictures, noticing tons of things and writing a ton... I've been stepping aside, pulling over and writing a lot of notes about everything I've been thinking these last weeks. (I have a feeling another blog bug is incubating.)

Here's a few of the things I've been writing about that I was able to find on scrapes of paper in my pockets.

-East side... somehow I've moved over a thousand miles and I've managed to move from the foothills on the East Side San Jose to the foothills in the east side of ABQ. Somethings never change.

-Room with a view... I have a balcony (too bad I don't smoke) that looks out on the back of a tree.

-Creepy-crawlies... so there are scorpions here... like in the house... I just caught one today (a few weeks ago) in my roommates room... damn it! Okay, I'm fine with cockroaches, ants, flies and mosquitoes, but damn it, stuff that has poison or can kill me, I'm not so sure I want to play. And if that wasn't enough, there's also giant (freakin' huge!) spiders, these other spiders that burrow into your skin and lay eggs, which hatch and eat you from the inside, and snakes. I hate snakes, they're a stick with a mouth, that's all, they're designed to only do one thing-- bite stuff.

(post pic of the logo on the man hole cover)

-It seems people here really really love their state flag. I've seen the logo everywhere. EVERYWHERE! I was at Walgreen's and saw it on a packet of dental floss!

-Did I miss a memo... There are Hooters everywhere... I don't get it, why are there so many, I've already seen two and it's only been a week and I haven't even gone everywhere yet. Before this I've seen maybe one my entire life. I wonder if ABQ is a hot bed for hot wings. It must be. There's also a lot of car washes, you'd think it's the national pastime. And speaking of cars, there are so many versions of the license plates as well, I have no idea how many, but it's a lot.

(...POST GOOGLE MAP THING FROM ABQ TO GULF HERE...)

-Where's the ocean... there are a lot, I mean a lot, of sushi restaurants in ABQ. I have no idea why, but I'd be a little leery of eating sushi in a place that's land locked in early direction for at least 10 hours. I like sushi and all, but I really don't think I'll be having any while I'm here. Also what's the deal with naming things The Ocean or Beachfront? Why are you taunting me ABQ?! I already miss the ocean, I've checked how far it is to the gulf of Mexico, about 10 hours... that's the same as going to LA... maybe...

-Speaking of funny names, there are some strange street names around here. There's a whole section named after states, other parts have streets that stop and start again a few blocks later (there's a chunk of buildings in between... like Brokaw back in San Jose), there are streets that cross themselves (I had to do a double take) and around the University of New Mexico there are streets named Harvard, Yale, Stanford... It's like the city has decided to openly taunt UNM students about the schools they couldn't get into.

- A familiar face... this is actually pretty sad, but when I was walking around the University of New Mexico on my second day off, I saw a Pita Pit and actually was a little excited to see something from back home.

-I'm not to excited about the ethonal in my gas in New Mexico. I'm pretty sure it's hurt my fuel economy, but more than that, I just think the corn lobby in this country is out of control.

-Smile... there are cameras everywhere, as in at every intersections which monitor both red light runners and speeders. Hey, it's almost like being back in Milpitas.


-Just not as blue without you... We don't have the same shade of blue skies up here as we have back there in San Jose. The light is very different up here. The sunsets are a more golden red, the skies are brighter, and high noon is pretty much all day.


Photographing up here is interesting, during the day the light is harsh, very harsh. It's like constantly being in Alex Webb mode. The contrast you get is off the charts, we just doesn't get such vibrant color and rich deep blacks like this in San Jose. Then during magic hour, the light is so brilliant you just want to pull over and watch the world around you. You can't ask for a more perfect light, I wish I could show you, but somethings just can't be captured in photographs. I think I get why people travel now.

-Lightening... on Thursday (during my first week) I was sent out to cover a high school football game and on the way I saw some lightening during the day. I've never seen lighting during daylight hours. My first thought, "wow, that was awesome!" Then it delayed the football game three hours and while I was waiting in the rain, large balls of hail struck me in the back of the head... it actually kind of hurt...

-Insane in the mem-rain (you do better!)... It's monsoon season and it's rained everyday I've been here (it's gotten drier in the last week), sometimes for as little as ten minutes, other times all night. Oh and the size of the raindrops is insane. They actually hurt a little when they hit you, it's like the clouds watched the rain fight from the Matrix sequel and took it as a challenge.

-Thar she blows, or, Blown away... ABQ is in the high desert and that means windy conditions. Just now I was driving home and it was like a tornado outside. I'm not exaggerating, rain was horizontal and there were tree leaves and dust and I think I saw a cow (she was hitchhiking to Wisconsin... and would not shut up about it!). It was something I've never experienced before, but watching the trees sway to such violent extremes was a beautiful feast for the eyes.

-"Speed hump"... That's what they call speed bumps here... my roommate's friend has lived here nearly ten years and he still giggles every time he sees the signs.

- Smelly cars... The car I've been driving smells like ribs. And you might think that ribs are a tasty item so it can't be that bad, well sir you are an optimist. Don't ever change, you'll need that when you're older.


-Blow up your own piece of the American pie... I was sent out to a town over the east hills, about 30 miles outside of Albuquerque, to cover a soccer game and on the way I kept seeing signs advertising wholesale fireworks, and it's open year round! Sweet, come visit, we'll b!0w $#!t up, all year round!

- Another mini-rant... Here's a long held pet peeve, radio stations should not be allowed to broadcast anything with a police siren in it. It was barely tolerable when it started showing up in radio edits of hip-hop and rap music, at least there I was able to anticipate it. But yesterday I experienced the siren sound in an advertisement for car parts, I can't remember what the connection was but every time the faintly audible sound kicked in I started checking my mirrors. Seriously, isn't that like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater? Cut it out lazy radio guys.


-Amish-Nerdy-Weasel-Stomping-Day... Weird Al is on tour? What? That's what the radio said. I had no idea you could tour on other peoples music... then again the man did write the best version of "Trapped in the closet" at least a year after everyone else gave it a shot.

-Speaking of the radio... ABQ radio sucks! I've never felt the need for an iPod until now. Well at least the company car has an MP3 player, time to go buy some CDs for burning.

-And if you're wondering Ryan, I haven't tried the red chile or the green chile... I know, I'm a bad friend.

You see that man in the picture to the left. That's officer D. Guzman. He is an asshole. The kind of cop that gives good cops a bad name.

Read the story and check out the video. And then try not being outraged like I am right now.


This is outlandish and should not be tolerated. I urge you all to contact APD to complain, contact their leadership directly and contact your regional and national NPPA leadership to urge them to file a formal complaint with APD.

This is bulls*th!

While in ABQ I dealt with the cops here on many occasions and I wish I could say this was a rare mistake, but it was more like something inevitable. Out of every city I've worked in: San Jose, Oakland, San Fransisco, Santa Cruz, Hollister, Los Angles, Houston, DC, New York, Miami, Orlando and many others... I can say without a doubt that the APD beat cops are the worst. Rude, self-righteous, arrogant and looking for any excuse to cuss you out, arrest you or in this case beat you.

I don't want to say every officer I've encountered has been this way (I can remember two that were pleasant and professional) but from my experience, 98% of them were bullies with a badge.

The issue I think isn't with the leadership within APD or with training, the issue is that like many police forces around the country, ABQ is facing a shortage of officers. Adding to the pressure is a voter mandated quota to have a certain amount of new officers on the streets each year. This had lead to the department, IMHO, hiring anybody with a pulse that's willing to do the job. The result is a lower quality of officer and well, you saw the video.

A disgrace.

Life magazine staffer, Magnum agency member and founder the International Center of Photography, Cornell Capa, died Friday at his home in Manhattan.


He was also the younger brother of Robert Capa, but in many ways he'd made a name for himself outside of his shadow. Like his brother he had started with war photography, but soon left it, saying:

"two war photographers in the family was too much," the younger brother concentrated on "opening the door to worlds that people would not have seen otherwise," with a portfolio that ranged from scenes of political oppression to candid shots of Marilyn Monroe. He coined the term "concerned photography" to describe an emotional engagement with his subjects that often blurred the border of journalistic objectivity.

“I am not an artist, and I never intended to be one," Capa said. “I hope I have made some good photographs, but what I really hope is that I have done some good photo stories with memorable images that make a point, and, perhaps, even make a difference.”

Check out his Magnum page for a slideshow of his work.

Old friend and SJSU alum Ivan Kashinsky recently had a story published on Time magazine's Web site. Ivan documented Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer who represents 30,000 Ecuadorians in a lawsuit against the oil giant Chevron.

The lawsuit alleges that Texaco, acquired by Chevron in 2001, left behind oil waste pits during the eighteen years in which it drilled in the region and that this has contributed to a higher rate of cancer and other ailments among the settlers and indigenous people who live there.

Take a look! I thought it was worth mentioning, besides his work always inspired me so why not share it.