Bob Bonniols Blog-O-Rama

Sat, 14 Feb 2004 23:22:52 GMT

Another beauty from Cory Doctorow...

This isn't to say that copyright is bad, but that there's such a thing as good copyright and bad copyright, and that sometimes, too much good copyright is a bad thing. It's like chilis in soup: a little goes a long way, and too much spoils the broth.

From the Luther Bible to the first phonorecords, from radio to the pulps, from cable to MP3, the world has shown that its first preference for new media is its "democratic-ness" -- the ease with which it can reproduced.

(And please, before we get any farther, forget all that business about how the Internet's copying model is more disruptive than the technologies that proceeded it. For Christ's sake, the Vaudeville performers who sued Marconi for inventing the radio had to go from a regime where they had *one hundred percent* control over who could get into the theater and hear them perform to a regime where they had *zero* percent control over who could build or acquire a radio and tune into a recording of them performing. For that matter, look at the difference between a monkish Bible and a Luther Bible -- next to that phase-change, Napster is peanuts)

For More of this talk: http://craphound.com/ebooksneitherenorbooks.txt

Mon, 05 Jan 2004 18:18:15 GMT

Thanks Xeni !

Mars moblog: amazing photos beamed home from NASA Spirit
Now *that* is a photoblog. Chronologically indexed gallery of interplanetary snapshots from this weekend's Mars landing. The first images sent back are of limited quality -- and only in black and white -- because data transmission rate from Spirit's antenna back to Earth is limited. Higher-res color images are expected to be relayed back from the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey Spacecraft later today, according to Mission Control. At left:

"This mosaic image taken by the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has been further processed, resulting in a significantly improved 360 degree panoramic view of the rover on the surface of Mars."

Link to NASA's Mars moblog, link to full-size, 360-degree composite panorama image. Link to AP story with details on how NASA's coping with bursting web traffic for the online images (= 1300 web servers around the world!).

Mon, 05 Jan 2004 18:05:20 GMT

From one of my favorite sources, and a fabulous author to boot: Cory Doctorow...

Kuleshov and reframing: is it illegal to frame a picture?
My co-worker Jason Schultz has written a great LawGeek article about the way that copyright and the Kuleshov effect (in which art can be made to mean opposing things throught framing or recontextualizing) interact. The US courts have handed down some jaw-droppingly stupid rulings on this matter, as it turns out, in relation to a company called Albequerque ART.

ART specialized in buying up books and art-cards, cutting them up and glueing them to tiles, then selling the tiles. This seems pretty straightforward: if you buy the book, you own it -- you should be able to glue the pages to anything you care to and sell them on, provided that everyone concerned knows that you're not selling the original deal, and provided that you are actually buying and cutting up actual books, and not just buying one copy and scanning it and running off fresh copies from your laser-printer.

ART got sued by various people, and the courts handed down rulings that said that while framing a picture isn't an infringmenet of the author's copyright over derivative works, that really, really outre frames that change the context do -- the next time you think about getting a New Yorker cover framed for the toilet wall, think again:

The court cannot agree that permanently affixing a notecard to a ceramic tile is not recasting, transforming or adapting the original art work. Placing a print or painting in a frame and covering it with glass does not recast or transform the work of art. It is commonly understood that this amounts to only a method of display. Moreover, it is a relatively simple matter to remove the print or painting and display it differently if the owner chooses to do so. Neither of these things is true of the art work affixed to a ceramic tile. Moreover, tiles lend themselves to other uses such as trivets (individually) or wall coverings (collectively).

Link

Mon, 15 Dec 2003 20:08:39 GMT

Hilarious...

Monday, December 15 12:01 AM EST

God Considers Smiting Bible Pirates
By Kristian Werner

Vatican City - God did not rule out smiting as a final measure against those who share his most famous work, the Bible, on the Internet. This marks the first time a deity has spoken on IT-related questions since Steve Jobs was temporarily Enlightened when touching the One True iMac some years ago.

Authorized Version?

Citing misuse of His word, misquotation, and putting hardworking Bible printers out of work, God said he would now start hunting Bible pirating around the globe. "I have to defend both my world-famous brand - the Bible and its distinctive likenesses - and the livelihood of those who create and distribute legal copies of it. Sure, they live not by bread alone, but website hits - someone else's website mind you - don't pay the bills for these folks."

Since large portions of the Bible are many centuries old, many people believe the work to be in the public domain. Not so, said God. "Look, most copyright laws are based on something like the author's lifetime plus, let's say, 15 years. News flash: I'm still here."

" I am a jealous God," He said, "but I am by no means unreasonable. If the person will stop distributing My copyrighted materials, there will be no further consequences. Like I've said before: hate pirating, love the pirate."
Ironically, some of those most likely to be hit by these measures are among God's biggest fans. The Reverend Alfred Jackson is a minister at the church of St. Cecilia in Kansas City. In his spare time, he maintains the Bible study website "eChapter and eVerse," which cross-references large parts of the bible with commentary from clergy and laypeople from around the world.

God said that 'spreading the Gospel' was not a valid defense for distributing copyrighted materials. "Rev. Jackson has published at least 35% of My word electronically, where anyone with an internet connection can download it. Thrice did I call on him to repent; thrice did he ignore me or refer me to the EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation]."

Jackson said he had had several emails from someone claiming to be the Deity, but had first dismissed them as pranks. When he received the second 'cease and desist’, Jackson contacted the EFF and asked for advice.
Marie Dang, an attorney with EFF said smiting was clearly an unreasonable response to alleged copyright infringement. "I realize that legal text often spells out all the details and ramifications right from the start. But mentions of smiting and damnation are hardly suitable for a first letter," said Dang.

Atheist Still Unconvinced after Meeting with God

God Releases Behind the Ear Upgrade

Responding to widespread criticism over perceived misuse of omnipotence, God said people had misunderstood Him. "I repeat: Smiting would only be a last resort against the unrepentant. True, neither My Son nor I thought of electronic piracy when I sent him to earth. However, we have decided to include it as a 'sin' for purposes of forgiveness. I don't know who put in that 'damnation' stuff."

When asked what His next step might be, God was reluctant to discuss specifics. He stressed that He would consider the effect of His actions on the meek. "Let's make one thing clear," He said, "I may be omnipotent, but I'm not crazy: It's not like I think I'm Jack Valenti."

Wed, 10 Dec 2003 23:28:27 GMT

LDI show in Florida... 1st impressions

Colleen and I spent a VERY productive week at LDI this year, connecting and reconnecting with the vendors, manufacturers, other designers, and producers who make our lives increasingly interesting year to year.

The overwhelming trend this year was media serving solutions for live applications, in almost every case based around leading lighting desks. High End systems rolled out it's Catalyst 3 Media Server, which works with any DMX based desk, but which is tied most closely to the Whole Hog consoles. The new Cat3 software featured quadruple active layers being sent out. Color correction, image shape manipulation, and numerous effects were available in realt time thru the lighting console controls. All parameters fell where you would expect; color correction of media was achieved using the same pots you would dial up your colors on an automated light. Likewise for beam shaping. Clips could be called up at the touch of a button by storing them in beam palletes. This revision was a ground up rewrite, and we found it to be quite intuitive. Obviously High End is fully committed to this convergence of video and lighting, showing this further through the rollout of the DL-1 fixture. The DL-1 is a 5500 lumen LCD projector with the pan and tilt capabilities found on other High End Systems automated lights. A nice feature on this unit was the hardware dimming iris, allowing for the elimination of video black in black out conditions. This fixture is a revolution in our opinion. Arguments can be made that it was perhaps not bright enough, but it was apparent from the enormous crowds waiting to get up close with it, that this product has been eagerly awaited by the end users, and it is certainly the first of what will be many options. Vari*Lite and Martin Professional indicated that the rollout of similiar fixtures in their product lines will be coming sooner rather than later. The mergin of automated lighting and projection has begun in earnest.

Vari*Lite Production Systems rolled out their DX Media Server, based on the Virtuoso DX console. This solution, superficially similiar to Catalyst, took full advantage of the power and flexibility found in this 'cadillac' of lighting desks. The additional capability for users to import 3D objects into the server environment and map video on to them set it apart.

4th Phase Lighting / LSD were showing the M-Box media server, originally designed by LSD to serve up to their 'near miss' fixture the M light several years ago. The software has now been made independent of the light fixture, and seemed roughly equivalent in capability to the Catalyst server.

ANother GREAT serving solution was being offered up by David Hersey Associates (DHA), famous for their many fabulous gobos. The DHA server was called the 'Hippotizer' and came in several shockingly low priced configurations. The middle and top end solutions were DMX control based, and the server was quite robust. It comes preloaded with the entire DHA gobo catalog in digital format, as well as thousands of great motion based clips from various stock sources.

Various LED based innovations also ruled the day, led by Barco's COMPLETELY innovative M-Pix imaging product. Colleen and I decided to term these ULR or ultra low resolution imaging. The M-Pix are a larger LED based pixel system that can be used for video or lighting applications. The effect is wonderful, bright, and textural, and it comes at a CONSIDERABLE lower coats than most LED video panel solutions. Best of all, the Mi-Pix modules can be constructed into three dimensional shapes that can then be 'screens' cheaply and easily. BARCO has constructed a 6' by 4' by 3' version of the BARCO 'eye' symbol and wast streaming it with video that wrapped around it. It was truly stunning to look at.

Other notable products that 'came out' at the show were ETC's new Revolution Moving Light. Based on the superior optics and light selivery of the Source 4, the Revolution has been built to be affordable in tighter budgets, and to feature totally silent operation. Different modules were easily added or subtracted from the base chassis to extend the capabilities of the fixture. In the "oh my god, it's soo simple, yet SO cool' department was ACT enterprices/City Theatricals indexing cheesborough. We all know how much we've wished we had easily locking off angle rigging hardware, and this was it. Operating like any normal Cheeseborough, the clamp could be set in a total of 32 different locking configurations for those oddly shaped staging requirements. Mmm good.

As more of the myriad things we saw rise to the top of my brain, I'll post more here. Suffice to say the enormous combination of automated lighting and video has taken hold firmly, and LED sources will be showing up in more and more of our work very soon...

Oh, did I mention we were named Projection Designers of the Year ? hee, hee

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 01:16:55 GMT

oh my god... can it have been more than a month....

For shame. Next week Colleen and I will be lecturing, presenting, and sampling at LDI in Orlando. The week after that, some well deserved down time. We are feverishly working on Pat Graney's piece, The Vivian Girls, living in the world of Henry Darger. Wedding Banquet has come and is running. It went well, certainly had it's rough patches, but oddly, as so often happens, friction brings about better work. SO it was here.

Thu, 02 Oct 2003 00:40:18 GMT

I just found out I won a 'Triangle' award for my lighting of the Broadway Concert in North Carolina... The Triangle are theatrical awards given for regional theatre productions in North Carolina. Small potatoes, but hey, it's my birthday and I just find out ! No complaints. AND the show DID IN FACT kick major ass...

Thu, 02 Oct 2003 00:23:09 GMT

Some good press for Parsifal !

Seen in Seattle: Something old, something new. Last week there was lots both old and new at the Seattle Opera. The company's former home has been renovated into the newly named Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, after a $127 million rebuild that made the auditorium narrower by 32' and greatly improved the acoustics (thanks to acousticians Jaffe Holden). Schuler & Shook served as the theatre consultants (Todd Hensley, project manager), working closely with the primary tenants, the Seattle Opera and the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Built in 1927, the hall has gone through several renovations, with this one stripping everything back to the shell of the auditorium. The room now seems more intimate and has a bright color palette of reds, greens, and blues that evoke its Pacific Northwest environment.

Parsifal. Photo: Chris Bennion.

The first Seattle Opera production in the new hall is Wagner's Parsifal, in a new and critically-acclaimed production directed by Francois Rochaix, with sets and costumes by Robert Israel, lighting by Michael Chybowski (making his Seattle Opera debut), and sweeping projections by Seattle's own Bob and Colleen Bonniol of Mode Studios. Their images covered the full width of the stage and were projected via a double bank of eight Digital Projection Thunder 10K units provided by Scharff Weisberg and hung on a double row of truss backstage for rear projection as one large seamless image. The hyper-realistic images provided a dramatic backdrop for Israel's more abstract sets that included a surprising raked deck 35' wide that raises like a drawbridge into a vertical position, and a 77' tall tower built in two pieces: the bottom half rises from the trap room while the top piece rolls onto it from offstage. The two pieces create a towering staircase that eventually collapses with great panache back into the trap room.

The color palette for the sets and costumes ranges from beige to darker earth tones, in contrast to the bolder colors of the projected images. Chybowski's lighting seems to have taken full advantage of the new Electronic Theatre Controls lighting system in McCaw Hall, using a very large rig of conventional and automated fixtures. The moving lights, including Martin Mac 2000 units hung both overhead and backstage were rented from Christie Lights, along with large format Chroma Q scrollers used on the Digital Projection projectors. Given that the length of Parsifal is just about five hours, patrons of the opera had ample time to contemplate the new hall, and the verdict is that they like it. Robert Schaub, technical director for the Seattle Opera (and part of the Eddy Award-winning team for their innovative Ring Cycle) worked closely with the consultants throughout the renovation period and says, "On opening night of Parsifal we finally heard the acoustics in a full house. There was an element of excitement in that, and the production received a standing ovation that was several minutes long." This is one opera house that is definitely of the 21st century, yet a perfect home for opera of any era. --Ellen Lampert Greaux

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 23:25:11 GMT

When a system of 'meaningless' symbols has pattern in it that accurately track, or mirror, various phenomena in the world, then that tracking or mirroring imbues the symbols with some degree of meaning - indeed, such tracking or mirroring is no less and no more than what meaning is. - Douglas Hofstadter (author,philosopher)

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 19:37:01 GMT

If you are reading this, and you live in California, than for gods sake get out there and vote. I know it's been a long, stupid, side show exercise, but this recall vote represents nothing less than a subversion of republic...

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 19:31:04 GMT

Today is my Birthday. My last birthday before I will forever be a father. Happy birthday to me !

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 19:08:08 GMT

SonicVision Reaches for Stars

By Michelle Delio | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1

02:00 AM Sep. 30, 2003 PT

NEW YORK -- Hundreds of people saw the light -- and the music -- here Monday night, thanks to a supercomputer running Linux, a team of video artists and one of the world's biggest virtual-reality simulators.

SonicVison, a new show by the American Museum of Natural History and MTV2, blends technology, music and animations displayed on a 6,550-square-foot digital dome into a brain-melting fiesta of sounds and sights.

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Set to open to the public Oct. 3, SonicVision features a musical score with tracks from Radiohead, Coldplay, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie, the Flaming Lips, Stereolab, Fischerspooner, Boards of Canada and Moby.

Viewers watch as spiders spin webs that mutate into swirling mosaics. Aliens dance while fireworks explode. A volcanic explosion descends, sweeping the audience into space, where whirls of melting color mutate into hundreds of blinking eyes, which then morph into wheeled machines on the dome's 69-foot-wide, 38-foot-high ceiling screen.

The music was mixed into a seamless presentation by Moby, who said he long has been interested in space and astronomy. Moby began work on SonicVision six months ago.

"When friends asked me to describe the SonicVision show, I've had a really hard time because it is completely different from anything else I've seen," said Moby.

For decades, the museum's Hayden Planetarium delighted city school kids with its classic constellations-on-the-ceiling space show. Older kids went to the Friday night performances, which featured lasers zipping around the planetarium's dome accompanied by the tunes of Pink Floyd. It was the ultimate in late-20th-century cool.

But recently both the planetarium and its laser show had started to feel less cutting-edge and more like one of the museum's collected antiquities.

So out with the old and in with the new. The planetarium has been redesigned and renamed. It's now the Rose Center's Hayden Space Theater, a 4 million-pound structure billed as the biggest and most powerful virtual-reality simulator in the world.

SonicVision doesn't feature lasers. Instead, visitors get to really see, feel and hear the music via huge 3-D visualizations generated by the museum's supercomputer.

Its new supercomputer, that is. Halfway through the preparations for SonicVision, staffers realized the museum's 78-processor supercomputer system was just too sluggish to process the 9 terabytes of data that make up the SonicVision show.

Happily, Sun Microsystems donated some hardware, adding 40 servers to the planetarium's existing 78-CPU cluster computer. The system now boasts 72 Intel Xeon processors running Linux and 46 SGI MIPS processors running the Irix operating system.

"Ever since the Rose Center opened in 2000, we had the idea of creating a new kind of music show that would take advantage of the Hayden's unparalleled technology and visual display system," said Ellen Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History. "SonicVision updates the popular laser show genre just as the Hayden Planetarium's digital dome has revolutionized the presentation of planetarium content."

The planetarium's dome was designed to display data in three dimensions. It works great with star shows, but it really excels with abstract imagery. Some people at the press preview clutched at their seats or companions during the show, fighting off the feeling that they were going to catapult into some alternate Matrix-type world.

The visuals were created by a team of 19 digital animators, including employees of Curious Pictures, a producer of television shows for the Cartoon Network, artists Alex Grey, Perry Hall and Darrel Anderson, and video jockeys Bionic Dots, Benton C., Madame Chao, Atmospherex and Vishwanath Bush.

Video jockeys use moving images and audio clips to create art, manipulating visual and sound data in the same way DJs mix records.

The animators for SonicVision used an assortment of scientific visualization applications and standard animation programs including Filmbox, Maya, XSI, Shake and Virtual Director to create the imagery for SonicVision.

Sound analysis applications were used to make the images move in time with the music, which is piped through two 24-channel digital audio players and several hundred strategically placed speakers.

Five hundred low-frequency shakers under the seats and on the floor of the theater produce interesting vibrations that certainly add to the experience of watching the images as they are projected by seven high-resolution video projectors mounted on the planetarium's walls.

SonicVision cost about $600,000, not counting a $1 million donation of hardware and software from Sun. The show is now a permanent part of the museum's offerings and will be presented on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Fri, 15 Aug 2003 18:06:13 GMT

From Cory Doctorow (a wicked writer) on Boing Boing:

Trademark-holders don't have to be bullies
I've written an editorial on trademark law that's very timely, given that today is Fair and Balanced Friday.

There aren't many areas of business wisdom more fraught with superstition and dread than trademark lore. Trademarks exist, mainly, to prevent consumer confusion, but for many business people, they're important competitive assets. They're the company's good name, upon which it trades, and companies have a duty to their shareholders to defend those good names. And defend it they do, even if the defense is so odious that it makes the company synonymous with litigious bullying.
Ask a lawyer for a 100 percent assurance of trademark protection and he'll give you plain advice: pay me to send a nasty letter to everyone who utters your name without due care and specificity, or I can't guarantee you that your mark won't slip out of your fingers and into the public domain. He won't be lying: 100 percent certainty is the kind of unrealistic objective that requires extraordinary, self-defeating measures to achieve.
Ask a security consultant to eliminate 100 percent of the shoplifting in your store, and he'll tell you to cavity-search all customers on the way out. Sure, it's effective, but if you want to stay in business, you'll need to consider trading off smugly complete certainty for a cheaper and more friendly 95 percent (or even 75 percent!) solution: say, magnetic door-monitors and a couple of plainclothes rent-a-cops in the aisles. Your legal counsel works for you: he's capable of giving you the same kind of 95 percent solution that your security outfit is -- and if he isn't, maybe it's time to seek better counsel.

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posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:33 permanent link to this entry

Bob Bonniols Blog-O-Rama

SonicVision Reaches for Stars

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