State of the Art

Flickr Superstar Profiled in Times Magazine

I’ve been keeping a secret for a while now, and it’s time I just let it out, so here goes: I totally don’t follow the whole Flickr thing. I check out images there from time to time, but I don’t know who the big stars and major personalities are. By now I should be an upstanding member of the Flickr community, since I write about photography, but instead I spend all my spare time working.
    So I was really interested in a piece in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine by Vigrinia Heffernan about Rebekka Guoleifsdottir, describes as “one of Flickr’s most popular photographers.
    The point of the story was that some savvy photographers have learned how to perfect a “Flickr style”—images that look good in thumbnail form, with fulsome digital manipulation—and how to work the social networking aspect of the site to make herself more popular.
     As the piece points out, Guoleifsdottir, who lives in Iceland, isn’t shy about posting images of herself (above, for example). She eventually became so popular on Flickr that she was hired to do a Toyota ad campaign.
      I’d be interested in hearing from Flickr members if they believe there is particular style of photography that defines a new aesthetic. Do film images really get shouted down because they seem out of focus? Is it wrong to game the Flickr system in order to become popular? (Analog artists have been doing that forever.)–David Schonauer

"I'm not a screamer"

Some news stories beg a photograph for verification. Such is the case with the alligator that strolled into Sandra Frosti's kitchen in Oldsmar, Florida. Fortunately someone had the presence of mind to snap several pictures of it before it was removed (our favorite shot is at left).

"I was in my bedroom and I heard a noise. And I walked in and he was in the kitchen," Frosti told ABC News. "How about that? But I'm not a screamer, so I just went 'Oh my God' and I ran to the telephone."

After reading this, what I'd really like to see is a picture of the unflappable, 69-year-old Frosti. But all Google Image searches of her name lead back to photos of the interloping gator. However, Frosti's voice has been immortalized in a clip of her 911 call about the gator's intrusion that has become a big internet hit.

During the call, the dispatcher asks Frosti if the animal might be an iguana. “Oh-no, no, no, no, no,” Frosti answered matter-of-factly. "It's huge." And the photos bear her out.

But on a much sadder note in the Animals Gone Wild department, the grizzly bear that appeared in the Will Ferrell film "Semi-Pro" reportedly lashed out and killed one of his trainers yesterday. Of course, this story also begs a photo — one of the bear's publicity stills is at right. — Jack Crager

"Get Your Glossy Online"

The above line is from an anonymous reader who posted it — after the words "Save a tree" — as a comment to an interesting piece about the future of magazines. The story was in the New York Observer but you can read it here. (Save a tree, get your pink paper online.)

Among the magazine insiders commenting on the future of print media are Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter (who envisions a new "electronic book" in our future world), Esquire editor David Remnick (who imagines more innovative printing practices), and Wired editor Chris Anderson (who sees magazines staying the same for awhile). Go figure.

Editors at many print magazines (including American Photo) may take comfort in the facts that a) a new medium doesn't necessarily kill an old one; b) nothing looks better than a picture printed on decent paper; and c) people don't usually take their computers to the bathroom or curl up in a tub with them.

Swimsuit Model Audition

The great sports photographer Walter Iooss — who has shot more than his share of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issues — once said that "with models like these, you can't go wrong." Here's a chance to test his theory. As a clever promotional gimmick, Taco Bell has set up a virtual swimsuit model website called directdaniella.com. The model, Daniella (left) is a gorgeous (but not always cooperative) woman who will pose in a setting of your choice, and you can test your ability to capture her moves. For comparison's sake, the home page links to SI's swimsuit website as well. Happy shooting. — Jack Crager

Photoshop For Free

In the never-ending circus to attract Web-based imaging customers, Adobe has tossed a thousand-gallon hat into the ring with its new Adobe Photoshop Express, now available for free in a beta version. First-look bloggers warn that this is Photoshop Lite — not the full-fledged imaging tool used by pros but a simple, free photo-editing version for newbies.

Meanwhile, rival tech giant Google is upping the ante with an API to enhace its Picasa Web Uploader service. As Adobe and Google — two companies who have snared market share in several imaging sectors with user-friendly designs — battle it out, Bill Gates and company must be fuming. May the friendliest imaging interface win. — Jack Crager

"Sponge-Worthy?"

Last week while spring-cleaning at home we discussed the demise of Polaroid film, set to be discontinued by year's end, but we made the decision to hang onto our nifty little Polaroid instant camera — "hey, you never know what will happen with this technology so let's not toss it just yet" — while we contemplated whether to snarf up some Polaroid film while we can. It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine stockpiles boxes of Sponges and then has to decide whether subsequent dates are "Sponge-worthy." (If you need an explanation for that ... never mind, you're too young.)

Then we saw a piece in yesterday's New York Times Magazine that officially reminded us how, for instant-camera film, time is short.

The piece is in the Consumed column by Rob Walker, a personal friend (I hired Rob eons ago as a reporter for a Texas newspaper and I've steadily watched his writing career ascend ever since). Each week the column is all about trends in marketing and consumption, sometimes not in that order, and Rob rightly points out that Edward Land's invention of Polaroid instant pictures led to its modern digital ancestors — which rendered it obsolete.

The High Cost of Printing: A Liquid Comparison

Everyone complains about the cost of inkjet printer ink, but have you ever sat down and figured out what you’re really paying? How does ink, as a commodity, compare to other valuable liquids? If I asked you how much you pay for a gallon of gas, I bet you’d know. Can you guess what a gallon of inkjet ink costs?
     My coworker Russell Hart and I sat down with our pencils to do the math. Now, this was a pathetic sight, because Russell and I are decent writers and editors, and Russell is also a very good photographer, but at math we are, um, rusty. We worked hard at it, though, and we were only dealing in rough approximations anyway, but feel free to check our findings.
     Russell checked the price of a 13ml cartridge of color ink for a Canon Pixma printer, which was about $15. That means a full liter would be about $1,170, which means a gallon of the stuff would cost roughly $4,000. 
    “Yikes,” is what I said when we figured that out. When you pay that much for ink, it gives you a whole new perspective on things—like crude oil.

Frans Lanting's Amazing Chimps--on TV and online

Nature photographer Frans Lanting is in the spotlight with a new project that has just been launched online at National Geographic’s website. The story, called “Almost Human,” is about an unusual group of chimpanzees in southeast Senegal who are making scientists redraw the boundaries between apes and humans.
    Lanting traveled to Senegal with filmmaker Chris Eckstrom, who shot video footage of the chimps. That video work will be included in a NOVA-National Geographic TV special called “Ape Genius,” which airs tonight at 8:00 pm on PBS. You can bet I’ll be watching. (Later I’ll be going out to try to take a decent picture of the full lunar eclipse on the east coast.)
    You can find an interview with Lanting (shown here with his  wife and partner Christine) about the chimp project by going here. As he notes, the Fongoli chimps—so named because of a stream in the area—have been observed sharpening sticks into spears, with which they kill bush babies for food. This tool-making behavior has stunned scientists. The area is not the dense forest in which chimps are usually observed; rather, it is a savanna-woodland, much like the open terrain in which humans evolved. It’s a fascinating piece.—David Schonauer

Science As Art: Can You Guess What This Is?

I think science and art may be two different ways of describing the same thing. Take, for instance, the beautiful, intriguing image  above. It is a nanoscale depiction of 12 bromide atoms. It was made with a new kind of scanning probe microscope. Do not, repeat not, expect me to tell you how these things work. You can go here and here for more ine formation on the science side. I settle for looking at it, and the image below, on an aesthetic level. That 13 nanometer x 13 nanometer image shows the results of layering diindenoperylene and copper-phthalocyanines on a single gold crystal by molecular beam. Wow. To paraphrase Duke Ellington, if it looks good, it is good. --David Schonauer

Metadata: The Eyes Have It?

We recently came across a blog claiming that Canon has filed for a patent to "take photographer's copyright protection to the next level," according to PhotographyBay.com.  The method? Iris watermarking — that is, the iris found in your eyeball.

The idea is that a photographer can register "biological metadata" contained in an image of his or her own iris, then use it to protect the copyright of photographic images. According to the report, the proposed invention "makes it possible to protect the copyright of photographic images by reliably acquiring biological information of a photographer for the purpose of personal authentication."

Confused? Intrigued? We're both. And we wonder if this is for real.

The Personal Hot Spot: The Future of Me

I just read about a cool service being offered by Avis: For a charge of $11 a day, your car will come with a new device called Autonet Mobile WiFi router. The gadget is the size of a paperback book, plugs into an AC power adapter, and delivers encrypted WiFi within a 100-foot radius.
    I haven’t used this, so I can’t testify as to how well it works. One review says the service isn’t as fast as cable or DSL, but it does work seamlessly as your car travels from cell tower to cell tower, better than current proprietary mobile broadband services. Multiple users can log on from different computers and surf away. You can also take it into your hotel room, plug it in with supplied AC power cord, and avoid paying those troublesome $10-a-day Internet service charges.
    Sounds like a good things for photographers on quick assignments. But more interesting to me is the future that gizmo’s like this promise: A world where everyone walks around in her or his own personal hotspot, each of us plugged into whatever information or entertainment source we want, all the time.
--David Schonauer

Campaign Visuals In the Age of Facebook

Stephen Ferry is a freelance documentary photographer based in New York City and Bogotá, Colombia. Ferry's work has received numerous prizes and honors, including two World Press photo awards. In more than 20 years of international travel, Ferry has concentrated on long-term reportage on issues of historic change and human rights. His 1999 book, I Am Rich Potosí: The Mountain that Eats Men (Monacelli Press), documented the lives of silver miners in Potosí, Bolivia, over an eight-year period. Since 2000, Ferry has focused his work on Colombia, carrying out assignments for GEO, National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and The New York Times. He is currently based in Bogotá and is dedicated to long-term coverage of Colombia's civil war. In this Q&A with guest columnist Michael Shaw, he discuss his image (shown here) taken January 7 at a campaign stop in Rochester, New Hampshire.

Michael Shaw: Given the range of campaign images I've been looking at lately, this one you made the other weekend, just before the New Hampshire primary, is substantially different. This has a completely different kind of energy.

Stephen Ferry: It seems a little funny talking about my own work this way, but of all the photos I shot in New Hampshire, I think this one speaks to something new and essential going on. Although Obama was the subject, it says less about him than about this social moment in time. Specifically, it seems to me there's a "Facebook zeitgeist" in this campaign.

MS: What do you mean?

SF: First of all, it's about equalizing. Notice how his smile and her smile are lit by the same kind of light. Both are subject to the same cameras that are in everybody's hands nowadays. That, to me, speaks to the Facebook experience. Once they are posted there, all photographs are equal on Facebook. The only way they differ in importance has to do with how many people connect to them.

The Photo as Evidence: Female Life on Mars?

With the economy melting down and Heath Ledger dying, I nearly missed this photo, which apparently has been shooting around the Internet. Have you seen it? This unlikely report says it was taken on Mars by the Spirit Rover, which has been prowling around the Red Planet for a while. Lots of people think it's a female alien. Others think it's a rock. I'm suspecting some photo manipulation.
--David Schonauer

Media Watch: Tears for a Fallen Firefighter

Everyone tells me newspapers are going away, and I hope it isn’t true. As I posted yesterday, information has become a niche commodity, but newspapers still allow us to look outside our own interests to see things we didn’t know we were interested in. In that regard they differ from other media, such as magazines. (The axiom is that newspapers bring the world to you, while magazines bring your world to you. I suppose that means that personal media like Flickr allow you to bring yourself to the world.)
     I got to thinking about all this when I looked at the Metro section of the New York Times on my train ride into Manhattan this morning. I thought I would spend the trip reading about the results of the New Hampshire primary, but instead my attention went to Nicole Bengiveno’s photo of Jessica Martinson at the funeral of her husband, Lt. John Martinson of the FDNY, who was killed while fighting a blaze in Brooklyn last week. You can read the story here.
     Papers all over the country bring their readers this kind of local news every day. The pictures and the stories create something greater than the parts—newspaper don’t just provide information, they are something more visceral; they form the texture of our time. To look at today’s newspaper, or a newspaper from a particular day 50 years ago, is to know what that day felt like to people.
      I don’t get that feeling when I get news stories off the Internet, frankly. The texture of the news is torn up by that medium, which compels users to constantly choose what they want to see and read. I suppose it's old-fashioned to believe in the value  of confronting worlds that you don’t think you’re interested in.—David Schonauer

In the Future, Will Anyone See Your Photos?

This week we’ll all be eagerly reading reports about the important business the nation is conducting as Americans prepare to choose what kind of nation this will be in the future. No, I’m not talking about the presidential primary being held today in New Hampshire—I’m talking about the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Already we know that Blu-Ray has won the election over high-def DVD formats. Comcast is promising nearly unlimited choices of on-demand entertainment, which will come as a surprise to all those analysts who have been writing off the cable industry. Consumer electronics and photography have essentially become part of the same technological world, so we expect to hear some news about out special world coming out of CES as well.
     Now, however, let me come to the point of this meandering post: I have a gnawing suspicion that the wonderful technology that is offering us so many choices will in fact be the death of photography—or at least photography in one particular sense: That we make pictures so that other people can see what we have seen. It may be that in the future no one will really look at your pictures. You may be the only one who cares about what you have seen. And even you might not be that interested.

Picture-Perfect Peterson

Bryan Peterson has one of the best photographic eyes in the business, bringing a brilliant editorial style to his work for corporate clients such as Citibank, Microsoft, American Express, and, perhaps most visibly, UPS. Peterson has also written several very good photo how-to books. Now you can tap into his expertise and experience from the comfort of your computer--through Peterson's own online workshops, known as the Perfect Picture School of Photography. Don't be put off by the silly name (though if you don't get perfect pictures, you get your money back) or the awkward, redundant school slogan ("It is here where creativity is not only fostered, but encouraged"). Peterson, samples of whose work I've included here, has created a simple but effective Web-based teaching template, backed up by ample photographic talent that includes himself.

Pain Beams and Other Studio Upgrades

I’ve been scanning tech sites this morning and I’ve turned up several interesting articles that I think photographers could apply to their own workspaces.
    For instance, all photographers need state-of-the-art security to guard all that expensive equipment. And the latest in security is having your very own pain beam. This is not vaporware I’m talking about—you can get it now. The device, shown here, is technically known as ADS, for Active Denial System. It stops intruders by flooding them with waves of intense, intolerable pain, described as being akin to “stepping into a furnace.” The ADS uses microwaves that create a burning sensation—but here’s the great part: It doesn’t do any lasting damage, because the burn only heats the outer portion of the skin. I’m getting one for my home today. Hope my 14-year-old son doesn’t forget about it when he comes home from school.
      What if you are on the wrong side of some high-tech weaponry? Say, for example, you have a studio in Manhattan and a dirty bomb goes off. You’ll be happy to know that Radiation Shield Technologies of Miami, Florida has acquired patents for Demron, the world’s first nuclear radiation-blocking fabric. As far as I can tell from these articles, the Demron is not effective against pain beams, however, so you're good there.
      On a far less dangerous but far annoying front, there is good news for all of us who have ever parked our cars in giant parking lots and then forgotten where they are. You can try hitting the alarm button on your key remote, but your car sounds like everyone else’s. Now Chevrolet has developed K.I.T.T.Y., The Loc8tor, which allows you to program any sound you want into your car alarm. A camera shutter click? (Too subtle.) A motor drive sound? (Too old-fashioned.) I’d go with Angelina Jolie’s voice saying, “Here I am, Dave. Come get me.”
      Life isn’t all about security of course (unless your studio is in Manhattan). Your work area also needs comfort and entertainment options, especially for edgy clients. Got your back there too, my friends: This article lists the 33 best beer pong tables now available.
      Finally, if none of this appeals to you, I can offer one last piece of good news: Apple has now officially raised the ration of iPhones available to individuals from two to five.
--David Schonauer

Pack Your Bags

A few weeks ago when I was at the APA's Assistants Hexathlon I had a lengthy discussion with a few professional photographers about vital skills assistants need (and often lack). An indispensable one is being able to identify and properly pack equipment. Great idea for a story, I thought...especially for the new college edition of Popular Photography I'm editing (fyi).

Leave it to photographer Chase Jarvis to beat me to the punch (which I forgive him for, since now I can make him help me with the story). He has not one but two new videos up at his blog (a 30-minute advanced one and a shortened "basic" one) that explain the ins and outs of packing, shipping, and protecting your equipment while shooting around the world (as Chase is wont to do).

Chase (we're on a first-name basis, if you hadn't noticed) also now has an iTunes podcast of his videos, which include behind-the-scenes looks at his shoots, his speeches and interviews, and something called "Frames" where he takes every single image from a shoot and makes them into a ridiculously watchable slideshow.

Not surprisingly, this multimedia investment has paybacks not only for Chase's fans but also for his business, which is now regularly shooting both still and motion for clients. To get all the details, you'll have to check out our special feature on photographers as directors in the upcoming Hollywood issue (March/April) of American Photo.

~Miki Johnson

New Nutopia Magazine

I've been following photographer Platon's Nutopia Forum for more than a year now, and I'm excited to see them making good on one of their many goals for the year: launching an online magazine. Available at NutopiaForum.com, the magazine is a simple, straightforward showcase for talented photographers of varying ages, accomplishments, and specialties. For more details, see my write-up in the November/December issue of American Photo, part of our "Emerging" feature. The magazine and its photographers deserve your attention.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: © Grace Doherty, from issue 1 of the Nutopia Forum magazine.)

Coming Up: Terabyte Thumb Drives

The price of memory has dropped fast over the years, and flash drives are now available with lots of gigabytes of capacity--something that once seemed unimaginable. So try to imagine this: low-cost thumb drives with a terabyte of memory. Researchers at Arizona State University they can make that happen. The key is new nano-technology that, the reseachers say, is 1,000 times more efficient than flash memory. Wired news has the full story. According to the story, this discovery comes just as the limits of flash memory are being approached.
--David  Schonauer

New Poll: Halle Berry Sexier than iPhone

The Zogby international polling firm has released the results of a new study, and the results may offer a few clues about the future of humanity. I believe the results also hold implications for photography.
    Among the findings: Despite all the lusty hype over the iPhone, people say they still find other people more attractive than the fetishistic gadget. In the poll, 27 percent of respondents said Halle Berry was most attractive; Scarlett Johanssen got 17 percent of the vote, and Patrick Dempsey got 14 percent. The iPhone tied with Derek Jeter at six percent.
    What do these results mean, besides the fact that most people hate the Yankees? In terms of imagery, at least, I think we can safely say that content is still king. For now, at least, what we see (or who we see) in pictures is still more important to us as a species than the technology surrounding the image.
     Of course, as a species we are evolving. The poll also showed that a surprising 24 percent of Americans said that the Internet could serve as a replacement for a significant other. And in other news, an artificial intelligence researcher in the Netherlands says that by 2050 humans will be having sex with robots, who presumably will be made to look like Halle Berry and Patrick Dempsey.
--David Schonauer

PhotoShelter Town Hall: New Stock and Old Arguments

PhotoShelter's new "town hall" series, which premiered in New York September 14, is ostensibly designed to bring together photographers and art buyers to talk about where the industry is headed, especially as it applies to the online realm. But we all know that it's also a convenient forum for them to introduce their new photographer-friendly stock agency (full exclusive report at popphoto.com), the PhotoShelter Collection.

And it certainly didn't hurt their cause to include in the "roundtable" discussion Roy Hsu, a photographer and president of the Stock Artists Alliance, which is leading the charge against Getty's announcement a few weeks ago that it would offer $49 "web use" licenses for images from all of its collections, including its top tier Rights Managed images. A number of photographers' organizations have joined the effort to have Getty rescind the offer, including ASMP, APA, EP, and U.K. and Canadian groups.

What started off with PhotoShelter CEO and founder Allen Murabayashi gently prodding Getty and Corbis employees in the audience with "we know you're out there," ended up as a full-blown airing of grievances against Getty. Photographer Kareem Black, who was also on the panel, has been represented by Getty for years and said he has watched his checks "go down over the years." "They believe in quantity rather than quality," he complained. "Someone's making money, but the photographers aren't."

Concept Camera Watch: You Throw It!

The finalists and the winner of the BraunPrize 2007 design competition have been announced. This little camera, designed by Franziska Faoro, was one of the finalists. Called the Triops, it is equipped with three fisheye lenses and reacts to motion and sound. As Engadget says, "If you throw it in the air or yell at it, it'll take a snap." (So will most photo assistants, for that matter.) The pictures it takes are all 360-degree panoramics. Can the Triops "meld the experience of taking a photo with the photo itself," as promised?  I dunno. But I bet my 14-year-old  could break it  in under  5 minutes.
--David Schonauer

Fun Photo Things You Can Really, Really Do

Well, we've just wrapped our November/December issue of American Photo and sent it to the printer, which means...we've have lots of time on our hands to waste. And there is no better way to do that than by cruising the Internet for fun photo tips. And there is no better place to look for ridiculously amusing things to do with pictures than Photojojo.com. This blog is just  full of useful projects and online tricks. Some of my favorites:

Seriously Cool Imaging Technology

Ok, so I know I'm, like, months late on this one. But just in case there are a few people living under rocks who haven't seen the TED Conference demo of Microsoft's Photosynth program by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, I'm putting it out there. I'm especially fond of the part where images taken of a place can be arranged spatially; so, for instance, a panorama actually appears in 360 degrees rather than as a long strip. According to the YouTube comments, this kind of thing has SO been done before (by Apple, of course), but I still think the header applies: Coolest Imaging and Social Technology EVER!

~Miki Johnson

Why Your New Cameras fight Inflation

I ran across an interesting idea on techdirt, which is fast becoming a favorite blog for me. I've been talking to a lot of photographers lately who are complaining about how  much it's  costing them to stay technologically current--new D-SLRs, new lenses, computers, new everything! What really ticks people off is when they buy some new piece of high-tech, only to see the price of that item slashed after a couple of months when version 2.0 arrives on the scene. (Lots of unhappy iPhone early adopters out there...you know who you are.) Techdirt points out that technology is a "constant deflationary force"--not just because prices keep dropping, but also because the quality of the products keeps rising over time. I urge you to read this and remember it the next time you get crazy about replacing equipment.
--David Schonauer

I'm Still Going to Wait...Oooh, Maybe Not

Amid a bunch of announcements about new iPods, Apple also let it be known today that the price of an 8-gig iPhone is dropping to $399. (The company might be doing away with the 4-gig version.) I resisted the lovely device when it debuted, and I've been holding out ever since, even when photographers like Doug Menuez dropped by and let me play with his. I swear I'm going to hold out...if I can...must not buy...an iPhone...but I want one so bad.
--David Schonauer

Digital Railroad’s New Research Feature

Last night at midnight, the beta version of Digital Railroad’s new Research Network feature rolled out online. I got a preview of it yesterday from DRR chief Evan Nisselson, and I must say that as an editor I’m excited by the possibilities in it. Essentially, it’s an online image research engine that allows buyers to send out calls for particular types of images through the Digital Railroad network of photographers. And it’s all done in real time, so if I’m looking for a cover photo for an upcoming issue on restaurants in Paris, and I need that picture by Friday at 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, I can put out the request and DRR members can look through their archives for just the right image, then upload it to me. This is great for time-conscious image buyers—think of all those websites out there that need what they need when they need it.  It gives photographers specific, targeted ideas, increasing the chances of a sale. Over time, I think it will also show trends in photo requests, so that photographers will know general types of images to put into their portfolios. This is a logical step in the automated-marketing concept that DRR has been pushing effectively for the past few years.
--David Schonauer

San Fran Power Outage Causes TypePad Hiccups

The State of the Art blog was down briefly this afternoon due to the power outage in San Francisco. The blogging software we and thousands of other bloggers use, TypePad, comes from a San Francisco company called Six Apart. The affected area, caled SOMA for South of Market, happens to be at the epicenter of American Internet commerce, and where companies such as Craigslist, Yelp and others call home. Incidentally, just last week New York had a similar explosion, caused by rainwater hitting a steam pipe, that could cost area businesses millions of dollars. In any event, if you have trouble commenting just ping me at editor@popphoto.com.

--Jay DeFoore

Nude Britney Can be Totally Infectious

I saw this news a couple of weeks ago and meant to post something about it, but then Paris went to jail and I forgot. This info could save your computer. At the very least it’s an interesting perspective on the current visual culture. A recent report from McAfee’s SiteAdvisor group rated the computer-virus risks of about 2,300 of the web’s most popular search terms. Contrary to what you might think, it seems that searches for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were actually more likely to send you’re a virus than searches for Paris Hilton. Far more hazardous, however, were searches for nude pictures of Britney Spears. Such searches were even more hazardous than searches for “free porn.”

Going further, the report showed that searches for Brad Pitt or Jennifer Aniston resulted in more viruses than searches for Angelina Jolie. If you’d prefer not to read the report itself, go here.
--David Schonauer

The Future of Media, Without Copyright

If you haven't seen this video on youTube yet, do so now. I can't say who produced it, but it is an interesting take on where media will be going in the next fifty years. (Here's one hint: at  some point in the not-to-distant future the United States Secretary of State—Internet guru Lawrence Lessig—will outlaw copyright entirely.  You think that's scary? Google also will buy Microsoft, thus consolidating its grip on the universe. The narrator even sounds a little like Dracula. But you know what? It all sound plausible.
—David Schonauer

Smile, You May Be on Camera

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