Kendrick Hang's Website

some upcoming photowalks and meetups

2009-01-23T16:34:00.001-05:00

My fellow volunteer organizers and I wanted to extend a general invitation to some of the events our photography group, Washington Photography Meetup, is hosting in the upcoming weeks.

Photowalk: Newseum
Saturday, January 24, 1:00 PM
Check out the gallery of Pulitzer Prize winning photographs and take an abstract look at photographing the halls and exhibits.
Details and RSVP at photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/9553437/

Photowalk: Scotts Run Nature Preserve
Sunday, January 25, 8:00 AM
Photography of water, ice and fog (if we're lucky).
Details and RSVP at photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/9541793/

Quarterly Weekend Meetup: Q1 - Center for Digital Imaging Arts
Saturday, January 31, 2:30 PM in Georgetown
Meet other local photography enthusiasts, share your some of your latest work. The feature for this quarterly will be a speaker from CDIA, presenting a short workshop (tentative topic is HDR photography) and describing courses and programs that CDIA offers.
Details and RSVP at photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/9451167/

Photowalk: Arlington National Cemetery
Saturday, February 7, 9:00 AM
Focusing on the Changing of the Guard ceremony and photographing around the grounds.
Details and RSVP at photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/9547374/

Photowalk/Roadtrip: National Museum of the Marine Corps (Quantico)
Sunday, February 8, 10:00 AM
Museum photowalk and practice with low light photography.
Details and RSVP at photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/9549855/

Monthly Weeknight Meetup: Feb - Teaism Penn Quarter
Wednesday, February 11, 7:00 PM
Bring five of your recent photos to share over dinner.
Details and RSVP at photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/9525845/

Photowalk Series: Night Photography / Photostitching
Thursday, March 5, 6:00 PM at the Lincoln Memorial (Details and RSVP)
Thursday, March 12, 6:00 PM at the Jefferson Memorial (Details and RSVP)
Thursday, March 19, 6:00 PM at the Washington Monument (Details and RSVP)
Thursday, March 26, 6:00 PM at the U.S. Capitol, West Front (Details and RSVP)

Photowalk/Roadtrip: Colonial Williamsburg
Saturday, March 21, 8:00 AM
Practice your travel photography in historic Colonial Williamsburg.
Details and RSVP at photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/9544208/

All are welcome: novice or professional, film or digital. It's all about photography, without the attitude. If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post or send me an email.

And a quick plug for some of the other great photography meetup groups in the area too...

Shutterbug Excursions
Photowalk: Washington National Cathedral
Saturday, January 24, 1:00 PM
Details and RSVP at www.meetup.com/shutterbugexcursions/calendar/9472751/

Fort Washington Photo Safari Group
Meet and Greet: Smithsonian American Art Museum
Sunday, January 25, 4:00 PM
Details and RSVP at www.meetup.com/FtWashPSG/calendar/9560256/

DC Social Flickr Group
January Meetup
Saturday, January 31, 2:30 PM at Buffalo Billiards (Dupont Circle)
Details at www.flickr.com/groups/dcsocial/discuss/72157612782569733/

Shutterbug Excursions
Photowalk: Chinese New Year Parade
Sunday, February 1, 1:15 PM
Details and RSVP at www.meetup.com/shutterbugexcursions/calendar/9471759/

Fort Washington Photo Safari Group
Photowalk: Smithsonian Kite Festival
Saturday, March 28, 9:30 AM at the Washington Monument
Details and RSVP at www.meetup.com/FtWashPSG/calendar/9545723/

Hope to see you out at some of the events!

2008 dc apa film festival selections announced

2008-08-28T05:35:00.005-04:00

It's official: the films for the Ninth Annual DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival have been announced! The 2008 festival press release follows, with links to the films added for easy browsing.

August 21, 2008 - Washington, D.C. APA Film Presents the 9th Annual DC Asian Pacific American (APA) Film Festival Sept. 25 through Oct. 4, 2008 at locations throughout the Washington, D.C., area including Landmark's E Street Cinema, Navy Memorial Theater, Goethe-Institut, and Freer Gallery of Art. The festival will showcase 14 features and over 45 short films. A complete schedule of films and descriptions is available at http://www.apafilm.org.

The Opening Night Presentation on Sept. 25th is Amal, a complex drama involving a family’s dispute over their father’s will and his connection to a humble auto-rickshaw driver in New Delhi, India. Director Richie Mehta and lead actor Rupinder Nagra are scheduled to attend.

On Sept. 27th, the festival presents a day of programs at the Freer Gallery of Art, including the documentary The Siamese Connection about Chang and Eng, the famous conjoined twins of the 19th Century from Thailand; and Long Story Short, profiling Larry and Trudie Long, a popular Chinese American husband-and-wife nightclub act of the '40s and '50s.

Several other documentaries will make their DC premieres. Maui Boyz follows ten local men from Maui as they live, work and play according the "Aloha Spirit" of Hawaii. Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet, a Nobel Prize nominee and wheelchair-bound doctor, is the tenacious star of Flying on One Engine (SXSW 2008), traveling to India every year to perform hundreds of free operations for children with facial deformities. A pair of documentaries investigate the human rights struggle of Korean comfort women who were forced into military sexual slavery during World War II (Behind Forgotten Eyes, The House of Sharing.).

A number of films feature ensemble casts of new and veteran Asian and American actors, including the romantic comedy Kissing Cousins (starring Samrat Chakrabarti, Gerry Bednob (40 Year Old Virgin), Jaleel White, and David Alan Grier); and Filipino drama Santa Mesa (starring Jaime Tirelli (Bella, Girlfight), Melissa Leo, and introducing Jacob Shalov).

Two programs will be presented in partnership with the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Anne Kaneko's Against the Grain explores the lives of working artists amidst political and economic unrest in Peru; and Sita Sings the Blues is a modern retelling of the Ramayana through spirited animation and blues music.

The Closing Night Presentation is Killing of a Chinese Cookie, Derek Shimoda's offbeat documentary that ponders the life and meaning of the fortune cookie in American pop culture.

The 2008 DC APA Film Festival and is supported by Scion Motors, Prudential, and a number of private corporations and nonprofit organizations. The DC APA Film Festival is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts service organization. For more information, visit http://www.apafilm.org, or email apafilm [at] apafilm.org. For press and media inquires, contact Anna Petrillo, anna [at] apafilm.org, (202) 330-5496.

dc photo meetups, july-aug 08

2008-07-18T07:53:00.001-04:00

As some of you may already know, I'm a volunteer organizer for the Washington Photography Meetup group here in town. Just wanted to take a moment to share some of our upcoming events for anyone who might be interested.

Sunday Quarterly - Crystal City
Sunday 20 July, starting at 3:30p
I'm starting a new Sunday Quarterly Series that provides a downtempo forum for photographers around town to meet, share recent work, trade ideas, and just kind of chill with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and talk about anything and everything photographic that comes to mind.

Details and RSVP here: photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/8352785/

August Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 13 August, starting at 7p
Bring five of your latest photos (in print or in digital form) to share over dinner at Teaism Penn Quarter. Meet other local photographers, get feedback on some of your latest work, talk about the latest photographic news, and discuss local events such as upcoming gallery openings and new locations and events to photograph around the area.

Details and RSVP here: photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/8310058/

Photowalk - Monuments and Memorials at Sunset and Night
Friday 22 August, starting at 6p
Trevor Carpenter from photowalking.org is in town and we are co-organizing a sunset shoot with him at the Lincoln Memorial then photowalking down the National Mall to the Capitol to shoot some of the scenes and buildings as night falls.

Details and RSVP here: photo.meetup.com/62/calendar/8353079/
And RSVP on Yahoo-Upcoming: upcoming.yahoo.com/event/779437/

About Washington Photography Meetup
Established in 2003, the Washington Photography Meetup group is for the photography enthusiast; young and old, novice to professional, film or digital. Our group is not only a photography club in the traditional sense, but a social outlet for people here in the DC area who are interested in getting together to meet, have fun, and share their enjoyment of photography.

Our meetup group is meant to get you out shooting, discussing, and sharing. Each month, we want to help everyone flex their creative muscles with our monthly meetups, photowalks, and museum and gallery outings.

Washington Photography Meetup is organized entirely by kindly volunteer contributors. If you're interested in volunteering as an organizer, if you have ideas and want to help organize a specific event for our local photographic community, or if you have any general questions, feel free to send me a message.

Ken

p.s. If you haven't checked it out already, the DC Social Flickr Group has a series of can't miss meetups, photowalk outings, and happy hours. And not to mention, an awesome group of flickrites :)

perspectives on rain

2008-07-15T00:15:00.004-04:00

And now for a sharing moment from Ken…

I used to feel quite melancholy on rainy days. I'd have to begrudgingly wake up to dim gray skies, gripe in traffic about how people can't drive when it's raining, and considered my day a loss. But one day not long ago, the skies dumped down rain on me while I was dayhiking on North Seymour Island in the Galapagos. Being in a protected national park, there were no buildings to shelter me from the rain, and the boat was at least 30 minutes to an hour from coming to pick us up. But this time, uncharacteristic of me, I laughed and let the rain fall on me. While most everyone else was standing on water's edge complaining to the tour guide about the boat not being here faster, I got into the water with Alicia to check out some of the marine iguanas and Sally Lawrence crabs that were climbing the rocks and tried taking some pictures with her new waterproof camera.

Moments before the storm:

Alicia on the beach:

Me on the dinghy after it picked us up (click on the photo for an interesting dialogue in the comments):

Upon getting back to the schooner and having an Ecuadorian Pilsener beer, I felt glad that I didn't let the rain bring down my first day in the Galapagos. But surely, I was only happy because I was on vacation, right?

So that was this past March. A month later in April, I went downtown to the National Mall for the Earth Day celebration, camera in hand, ready to check out the exhibits and photowalk around the concert. Again, clouds rolled in and the downpour began. No umbrella on hand, no poncho in my backpack, and this time, I'm carrying my camera and lenses, which are not waterproof. My Crumpler camera bag is waterproof, but I figured when they say waterproof, they generally mean misty rain, not sheets of rain.

I stowed my camera and looked up to see a scene of chaos that no camera could capture. Some people sprinting full speed toward the museums, some opening their arms to the sky, some starting a game of football, and some just doubled-over laughing with their friends. And then there was me, by myself, fully soaked and getting even more so by the second, walking slowly and listening to the combined crunching and squishing noise the gravel was making at my feet, looking around, and laughing to myself, in that relieved, freeing laughter sort of way, knowing that rainy days don't have to be bum days for me anymore. I was so glad to be out, even glad to be in the rain to witness the spectacle. The rain tapered off a little bit and I got my camera back out (carefully, with a plastic bag around it) to see if I could at least try to capture the notion that rain can even make the day more fun and in a sense, even can bring down inhibitions.

For example, these people probably wouldn't have jumped into this fountain at the National Gallery of Art if it were just a regular sunny day:

Note the unused umbrellas in the lower left:

I recall these guys commenting that it's probably drier in the fountain than it is in the torrent of rain:

Not shown are the people who offered me a beer from their cooler at the top of the steps at the National Gallery of Art, West Building. And the security guard who was kind enough to look the other way while I was drinking it.

I haven't had a gloomy rainy day since. Now, when I see rain coming, I think of the two particular experiences above (and it's nice having some pictures of them) and wonder what will be my next rainy day story. My more recent memories of rainy days include laughing with coworkers about how the rental car company wasn't going to appreciate us bringing our car back after driving it through a hailstorm, looking at the flood of neat rainbow pictures in the DC flickr pool after one recent rainstorm, and today, writing this entry, recognizing that the rain itself has helped me find an element of peace in my life that I didn't have before.

artomatic 2008

2008-05-12T20:52:00.003-04:00

Artomatic 2008
May 9 through June 15, 2008
Capitol Plaza I
1200 First St., NE (intersection of First and M Sts., NE)
Washington, DC

Take Metro's Red Line to the New York Ave-Florida Ave-Gallaudet U station and use the M St. exit. Turn right on M St. and walk one block to the big building at the corner of First and M, NE.

Sunday: Noon to 10.00p
Monday and Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday and Thursday: 5.00p to 10.00p
Friday and Saturday: Noon to 2.00a

Admission is free, but donations are welcome and encouraged.

So yeah, I am exhibiting this year! It's my first time showing at Artomatic and my first time exhibiting my prints in public. (I still consider myself very much a photographer in learning.) Artomatic is a month-long, unjuried community art show/festival that features nearly 1,000 local artists in what I like to call artistic sensory overload.

My photography display is on the 9th floor, SE quadrant, area C6 (9 SE C6).

Photo by Jess Hang

I made this informational poster (two 11 by 17 inch sheets mounted on foamcore) to hang to the right of my display. It's kind of a introduction to my display and a key to all the photos I chose to share/show.

Finally, shoutouts to everyone who I've met in the photography community this year who have given me their feedback and encouragement as I've been learning, some of whom are exhibiting at Artomatic this year (Artomatic spaces listed below). Definitely take a moment to stop by their displays: their talent really inspires me and I assure that you will enjoy seeing their work.

Matt Dunn on the 11th floor, SW quadrant, area D7
Karman Lee on the 9th floor, SW quadrant, area B5
Adrienne Moumin on the 6th floor, SW quadrant, area B7
Paul Oberle on the 8th floor, NW quadrant, area A2
Paivi Salonen on the 8th floor, SE quadrant, area D6
Davin Tarr on the 11th floor, SW quadrant, area A6
Jack Whitsitt on the 8th floor, SE quadrant, area D6

then and now

2008-04-13T15:38:00.002-04:00

Another silly post with no original content on my part, but with two entertaining videos. The first is an episode from MinisodeNetwork on YouTube that features Janet Jackson as Willis' girlfriend. So that was then.

And this is now. Janet Jackson tries (really hard) to teach Larry King how to dance.

influences from the 1970s

2008-04-13T14:07:00.003-04:00

No original content in this post. Just had a few videos to share...

I saw this Amy Winehouse video for Tears Dry on Their Own while I was on travel in Ecuador.

I recognized the background layer in Tears Dry on Their Own from Ain't No Mountain High Enough, vocals by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, instrumentation by the Funk Brothers. One of my favorites.

And then there's Amy Winehouse's single Rehab.

Some people say it's derived from Easy Reader, performed by Morgan Freeman in The Electric Company.

I can hear the similarities in the melody, but I can't say for sure if it is a derived work or not. One tidbit of related news though: a new version of The Electric Company is returning to PBS this fall.

washingtonpost.com redesign, round 3

2008-02-17T23:44:00.007-05:00

Last April, I wrote a full-length post here on this blog on what I thought was wrong with the washingtonpost.com redesign. Two days later, I wrote a follow up on this blog containing my posted comment to washingtonpost.com editor Jim Brady. Shortly after that post, I wrote a short follow-up on Edward Tufte's Ask E.T. forum topic on the redesign. The text of my post in the Ask E.T. forum appears below.

You might appreciate seeing this marketing piece on Apple's website that profiles both Mr. Jim Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com and Ms. Jenn Crandall, the producer of OnBeing. It sheds a lot of insight as to why washingtonpost.com is the way it is today.

http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/washingtonpost/

A couple of things to put into perspective... washingtonpost.com is an entity separate from The Washington Post newspaper, both part of Washington Post Newsweek Interactive (WPNI). Obviously, the web site draws from the work of the print newspaper as well as from its reporters, but from what I've read in the corporate information, washingtonpost.com is there to cull highlights from the paper for the web and provide web-only features. What I'm saying here is that the organizational hierarchy probably plays into the organization of the website. Hence, the washingtonpost.com logo is not the same as the masthead of the print paper and we see that the "print edition" or "today's paper" as it's labeled now has always seemed kind of detached from the remainder of the page.

Second, I'm sure we're all aware of the pressures that traditional newspaper organizations face. Subscriptions are decreasing, ad revenue is decreasing, and as a result, newsrooms are shrinking. I get the feeling that washingtonpost.com has become the experimental proving grounds to find a new revenue source to make up for lost traditional revenue. In the words of one of my friends in the news industry, "we're trying anything and everything to see what sticks.

Hence, they are trying to work all sorts of media into washingtonpost.com. Not all of it is bad, but of course, the problem is as Mr. Tufte stated, the Washington Post is a news organization -- that is its reason for existence. The fanciest multimedia and the neatest interface can't make up for a lack of depth in the content, which is going to be the trend if they continue to shrink the newsroom.

-- Kendrick Hang (email), April 12, 2007

The marketing video has changed since then, but the spirit of it is still the same. And if you go to washingtonpost.com right now, you will still see two logos: one for washingtonpost.com and one for the Washington Post. I have a correction to my above post though: the parent company is not Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), but rather The Washington Post Company. WPNI is in charge of washingtonpost.com and newsweek.com, while The Washington Post Company is parent to The Washington Post, WPNI, Express, Newsweek, Slate, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, and Kaplan (the educational services company), among other ventures.

Now, in this week's Washington City Paper, a story on what I mentioned above: One Mission Two Newsrooms. In addition to the story, the City Paper made a video to show how geographically separated washingtonpost.com is from The Washington Post.

My point still remains the same: why should readers care and have to differentiate what the corporate organization of The Washington Post Company is? Why are there two navigation structures on their website: one for washingtonpost.com and an alternate structure for the print edition of Washington Post (under the link Today's Paper)? To us, it's all one single newspaper. If I spot an article in the Food section on Wednesday, I have to figure out if it appears in the Arts and Living section on the washingtonpost.com main page or if I have to go under the Today's Paper link to find it the Food section under the print edition Washington Post.

Maybe this is just a classic problem in DC. Is the Washington Post just a reflection of the turf wars and bureaucratic infighting that is so common in so many workplaces around the region? This is definitely not the first time I've encountered multiple people or divisions in an organization vying for influence without regard for the greater organization. I will admit however that integration, within organizations and within the context of design is quite challenging. However, I still believe in the bottom line: people external to an organization, particularly customers and users, should not have to be exposed to the bureaucracy within the organization, especially in the form of design.

licensing versus certification

2008-02-17T23:08:00.004-05:00

The following is a short, informal piece I wrote for a class last year while we were debating whether or not software engineers should be licensed. The debate continues in real life as the software industry as a whole is trying to find agreement on the issue of whether or not software engineers should be licensed.

In casual English, licensing and certification have similar meanings. However, in the context of the debate on whether software engineers should be licensed like traditional Professional Engineers (PEs), licensing and certification have very distinct meanings.

The following are definitions from Knight and Leveson (2001), ACM Task Force on Licensing of Software Engineers Working on Safety-Critical Software. The notion of licensing is to have some authority grant permission to an individual to engage in an activity that is otherwise unlawful.

Similarly, certification assures that an individual meets a minimum set of requirements.

Licensing and certification differ primarily in the permission to act. Licensing is mandatory and is a state or federal activity (usually state) while certification is voluntary.

The local governments in Texas and provinces in Canada are licensing software engineers today as PEs with legal rights. Meanwhile, other professional organizations in industry are in the business of certification. For example, the IEEE has the Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) program, the Project Management Institute has the Project Management Professional (PMP) program, and of course many are familiar with the gamut of technical certification programs like the Microsoft Certifications.

My point is, if we software engineers are going to discuss/debate this topic and be understood, we should aim to be precise in our wording. It's the only way we can all understand what someone really is saying instead of making assumptions and implications. I know, this sounds like an advertisement for good requirements analysis and specification techniques.

Now for the alarming part. If one takes note of the Texas PE exam requirements one will find that their exam has little to do with software engineering as it is typically treated in academia and in industry. Searching around on their website, I found Texas Board of Professional Engineers meeting minutes (pdf) (2005) where they decided to use the IEEE CSDP certification exam for licensing software engineers as PEs in Texas until a better exam comes around. From the minutes, "IT WAS MOVED AND SECONDED (Frailey/Rodriguez) that the Board accept the CSDP examination as an interim substitute for a PE exam in software engineering, until such time as a national exam is provided by NCEES and reconsider the licensure of software engineers."

To me, this is not a real confidence builder in their system of licensure -- I just think Texas jumped the gun a little. Before we as a software community have understood what the implications of licensing are and before we decided on what the best means of licensing are, Texas already started issuing licenses to legally allow people to do things, while considering to use a minimum certification exam to allow them to do it. One would like to think that if licenses are being issued to people who are trusted to do something safety-critical like design software for an aircraft system or a medical device, they should know more than the minimum requirements. The Texas exam, and any exam really, determines a minimum level of knowledge, but it does not determine competence or mastery.

References
IEEE Certified Software Development Professional Program. Retrieved May 30, 2007, from http://www.computer.org/certification

Knight, J., Leveson, N. et al. (2001, August). ACM Task Force on Licensing of Software Engineers Working on Safety-Critical Software. Retrieved May 30, 2007, from http://www.acm.org/serving/se_policy/safety_critical.pdf

Microsoft. Microsoft Certifications Overview. Retrieved May 30, 2007, from http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/default.mspx

Project Management Institute. Certification Project Management Professional Overview. Retrieved May 30, 2007, from http://www.pmi.org/info/PDC_PMP.asp

Texas Board of Professional Engineers. Examination Information. Retrieved May 30, 2007, from http://www.tbpe.state.tx.us/lic_exams.htm

Texas Board of Professional Engineers. (2005, August). Minutes, Industry Advisory Committee, August 16, 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2007, from http://www.tbpe.state.tx.us/minutes/ind_81605.pdf

spring 2008 dc film festivals

2008-02-13T08:42:00.004-05:00

10 February 2008
Our City Film Festival
Ok, the one-day Our City Film Festival came and went and I missed it. But I like the concept of the festival: to feature films that feature DC. I'll keep an eye out for it again next year.

6-16 March 2008
DC Independent Film Festival

11-22 March 2008
DC Environmental Film Festival
In it's 16th year, the DC Environmental Film Festival will be screening 115 films at over 45 different venues around town over the course of 11 days. I checked out the listing of films and there are many that I would love to see, including: All In This Tea, Ansel Adams, Darwin's Natural Heir (a biopic on E.O. Wilson), and Galapagos: Born of Fire. I will miss seeing the films this year (I'm hoping some of them will be released on DVD) as I will be out with my camera in the Galapagos! Although I will not be retracing the voyage of HMS Beagle, I will be wandering from island to island on this wooden schooner:

Photo credit unknown. (This photo was all over the web without attribution.)

24 April - 4 May 2008
Filmfest DC International Film Festival
From their website: "Films will encompass a global range of cultures, music, and politics from over 30 countries. Festival highlights will include the cinema of Latin America and Politics on Film."

16-23 June 2008
Silverdocs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival
Still accepting submissions from filmmakers, the regular deadline is this Friday 15 February.

If you want to keep an eye out for the fall film festivals, some links to follow: DC Shorts Film Festival (September), National Geographic All Roads Film Festival (October), DC APA Film Festival (September-October), Latin American Film Festival, Reel Affirmations (October), and the Washington Jewish Film Festival (December).

potomac primary voter info

2008-02-11T20:11:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of Maria F., voter information for tomorrow's Potomac Primary, Chesapeake Primary, or Mid-Atlantic Primary. Whatever you want to call it, the info for Va., D.C., and Md. is below.

Virginia
Voter registration status
Polling place locator

District of Columbia
Voter registration status
Polling place locator

Maryland
Voter registration status and polling place locator

ocean of the streams of story

2007-11-06T19:43:00.000-05:00

I read a short passage this morning that stuck in my head all day, maybe a sign that it was meant to be shared.

…so Iff the Water Genie told Haroun about the Ocean of the Streams of Story, and even though he was full of a sense of hopelessness and failure the magic of the Ocean began to have an effect on Haroun. He looked into the water and saw that it was made of a thousand thousand thousand and one different currents, each one a different color, weaving in and out of one another like a liquid tapestry of breathtaking complexity; and Iff explained that these were the Streams of Story, that each colored strand represented and contained a single tale. Different parts of the Ocean contained different sorts of stories, and as all the stories that had ever been told and many that were still in the process of being invented could be found here, the Ocean of the Streams of Story was in fact the biggest library in the universe. And because the stories were held here in fluid form, they retained the ability to change, to become new versions of themselves, to join up with other stories and so become yet other stories…

Rushdie, S. (1991). Haroun and the Sea of Stories. New York: Penguin.

I've read this excerpt before, but the language and the allegory really struck me today.

my photo policies

2007-11-05T00:21:00.000-05:00

After several years of having an informal policy in my head regarding the rights to my photos, I decided to finally put it in writing. These policies apply to any photos I publish on the Web, particularly those appearing in my Flickr photostream. Each photo in my photostream will have a (c) or (cc) designation noted beneath it.

Photos designated as "(c) All Rights Reserved" are fully copyrighted. No reproduction or distribution without prior permission is allowed. However, if you appear in a photo, you are welcome to a copy of that photo for your personal use -- my way of saying thanks for being in the photo -- ask me if you would like an original full-resolution file or a print (my complements).

Photos designated as "(cc) Some Rights Reserved" are licensed as "Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives" (English, legalese) through Creative Commons. Everyone is welcome to reproduce and distribute, without modification, for non-commercial purposes as long as attribution (name credit) is provided. This is my way of contributing to the spirit of the web and sharing some of my work for the world to use, for free.

After taking Pfaffenberger's class in college I know this policy is not very enforceable on the Web, where copying is easy and rampant. Plus, I know that copyright laws were written in an era prior to the Internet and information age, so interpretations can sometimes get hazy. Theoretically, it should still hold up in court if someone out there steals one of my photos for their benefit. It's amazing how one's view of copyright changes when one shifts from being a consumer of intellectual property to becoming a producer of intellectual property (IP).

The thing is, I'm not really one of those people who defensively hoards their IP. I feel like if I'm posting something on the Web, I'm doing it because I want to share. This is why I never have and probably never will put watermarks on my photos. Watermarks put ugly clutter into the photo and it doesn't really protect the photo because someone can just crop it off or work some photo editing magic on it. There is no way to prevent copying. If I really wanted to prevent people from copying something I created, I wouldn't put it on the Web. What I don't want to happen is someone taking my stuff and claiming it as their own and/or making a profit off of it.

Flickr Community Manager Heather Champ phrases this all a little more succinctly at the bottom of her About page.

dc adaptation of dickens' christmas carol

2007-11-03T09:56:00.000-04:00

If you live in DC, you've probably heard about A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre being a Washington tradition. If you haven't enjoyed the tradition, I highly recommend it, although this year's show is being held at the Lansburgh Theatre because Ford's Theatre is under renovation. I found a really interesting variation on our local tradition in the paper this week though.

Christmas Carol 1941 is a local adaptation of Dickens' story. It will be performed this season at Arena Stage (on the Southwest Waterfront). The description from the website:

In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Washington, D.C. prepares to celebrate Christmas. The Schroen family keeps the holiday spirit alive in spite of shortages, a housing crunch and a son who wants to enlist despite his mother's fears.

Ensconced in his G Street office, Elijah Strube doesn't care about the holiday or battling tyranny. He can only think about making lots of money. After three local spirits take him on an incredible journey across time, a reformed Strube is committed to serving his community, country and fellow man. Featuring everything from a high-energy USO dance to White House fireside chats, this fresh take on Dickens' classic tale by James Magruder (Broadway’s Triumph of Love) breathes new life into a beloved story. With original songs by Henry Krieger (Dreamgirls) and Susan Birkenhead (Jelly’s Last Jam), this holiday event is magical family entertainment.

If you've read this far, here's the gem: Arena Stage is offering a one-day sale of its tickets for this production. Half price tickets for shows Nov. 16-25 are available this Sunday, Nov. 4! Regular prices are $55-74. No service fees if you go to the sales office in person. If you go online, the promotion code is CAROL50. I found this deal in the November 2 Washington Post, Weekend section.

Although it might sound like it, I'm not affiliated with this production, but I am excited about going to see it. (If you'd like to meet up to go see it, I welcome one and all to join me.) Plus for those who know me, you know I'm a big into supporting anything and everything local :)

tasting notes from california and virginia

2007-11-02T00:32:00.000-04:00

The last time I featured my wine tasting notes was in May 2005, when I wrote about Gibbston Valley (New Zealand) and Veritas (Virginia). I've only been tasting at wineries three times since then: once in Central Virginia in the fall of 2005, once in Napa, California this past summer, and most recently a few weeks ago here in Northern Virginia (Purcellville). I need to be going more often!

A list of the few of the bottles I enjoyed enough to buy and recommend…

Villa Mt. Eden 2005 Grand Reserve Chardonnay, Santa Maria Valley, Calif.
Winemaker Mike McGrath describes it as, "An affable cream-hazelnut aroma wafts along bearing flowers and ripe fruit. The juicy, ripe fruit flavors gradually introduce butterscotch wafers and toast. Lively and clean, the overall effect is an attractive, enjoyable quaff that urges a repeat sip." I'm not much of a chardonnay person (not into oaky or buttery wines), but I really liked this one. I actually picked up this bottle at Conn Creek in Napa Valley, their sister winery.

Rutherford Hill 2003 Sangiovese, Napa Valley, Calif.
Tasting notes from the winery: "Sangiovese, also known as Brunello or Sangioveto, is the primary grape in the famous Chianti appellation in Italy. Sangiovese was brought to California by Italian immigrants, many of whom settled in the Napa Valley. With the many micro climates that exist in the Napa Valley, Sangiovese thrives and produces great wines. Rutherford Hill’s 2003 Sangiovese shows the full potential of this varietal. Ruby in color, this wine has an aroma profile of strawberry jam, ripe plums that open up into cherries with notes of hazelnut and caramel. In the pallet, the wine is smooth with alcohol and acids existing in complete harmony with the tannins to create finesse in the finish. In other words, 'Alzi il vostro vetro a questo vino!'" This is where I learned that Sangiovese is the same grape that Chianti is made of, but one can only call it Chianti if it comes from the Chianti region in Italy. Wine lesson aside, this was a really nice wine.

Frank Family Vineyards Rouge Champagne, Napa Valley, Calif.
"A blend composed predominantly of Pinot Noir with a dash of Chardonnay both grown in Napa Valley, Rouge is a fun, festive, fruit driven champagne. First scents of strawberries and lychee tickle the nose, followed by essence of orange zest and then the sparkling fruit flavors enchant the taste buds." Any wine that has hints of lychee has me sold, but the winemakers did an artful job of blending the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Breaux Vineyards 2002 Nebbiolo, Virginia
"This bold Italian varietal grows on the mountainside at Breaux Vineyards and gives way to earthy flavors of tar, tobacco violets and licorice while plum and smokey cherry round out the finish." By far one of the most interesting red wines I've ever tasted. I've had one other Virginia wine with hints of tobacco and it was not-so-great, but this one was fantastic.

Breaux Vineyards 2006 Viognier, Virginia
"Beatiful tropical aromas and flavors. Orange blossom, honey and freshly sliced pineapple dominate the palate. crisp acidic finish." This is truly one of the best Viognier wines I've had, possibly one of the best whites. The other Viognier I would highly recommend is...

Horton Vineyards, 2006 Viognier, Virginia
"A bold, spicy, aromatic wine with intense peach and vanilla flavors." Like I said, one of the best whites I've ever tasted.

It's not really well-known yet (although some newspapers have picked up on it before), the Viognier grape is Virginia's gem. After tasting the Horton Viognier last year, I went on a round-the-world tasting by way of my local wine shop. I tried Viogniers from France, California, Washington, and New York. None held a candle to Virginia's. If you haven't tried a Virginia Viognier, it's worth a try.

Just remember to take the advice given to me by Jim Prager, the proprietor of Prager Winery and Port Works, the very first time I went wine tasting: it doesn't matter what anyone has to say about a wine. Taste it yourself and if you like it, that's all that counts.

minimizing losses on a late project

2007-11-01T23:32:00.000-04:00

The following post is the text of a short paper I wrote for a course in Software Systems Development. The writing style is a little formal for a blog, but I wanted to share because I believe the advice is sound, not just in terms of the citations, but based on my real-world experiences as well. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that I've been working in software for over a decade...

Although software engineering practice focuses on establishing good project plans from the onset, sometimes it becomes necessary to consider what happens when a project becomes late and over budget. In the case where a project is nearing completion (and one has come too far to cancel the project), there are some project management strategies, specifically relating to project monitoring and control, to minimize the lost revenue for the project.

Monitoring and controlling the staffing level in the project is essential for stabilizing the development cost. Personnel shortfalls are common in projects, so common that Boehm (1991) considers it one of the top 10 risks on any software project. However, according to Brooks (1974), one must resist the temptation to add staff to the project or risk it becoming later, and as a result, more expensive. Adding staff generally increases the communication overhead between project team members and it takes time for new staff to familiarize themselves with the project (Brooks, 1974). The only case where adding staff might help accelerate the project towards completion is where new team members are already familiar with the tasks to be performed, thus reducing the learning curve to understand how the project operates (Glass, 1998).

With a stable development staff working on the project, it is also important to monitor and control the project’s requirements. Wallace and Keil (2004) consider “scope and requirements” to be one of four major risk categories on a project. Scope and feature creep needs to be controlled through the customer and controlled within the development team as well. Using a Requirements Traceability Matrix, the project manager should monitor the development team’s effort to ensure everything being done in the design, implementation, and testing activities is traceable to a stated requirement. Tracing work being performed by the development team back to requirements helps to limit any extra work beyond the stated requirements being done (Wallace and Keil, 2004), which would further delay the project and increase the cost. Glass (1998) also suggests reducing the initial project scope if it is possible with the customer – deferring or eliminating some requirements or features to make the task more feasible.

Despite the pressures of a project being late and over budget, the project manager should continue to monitor and control the project processes, particularly quality control. Glass (1998) suggests that projects often fall behind schedule because there was not enough time originally allocated in the schedule and that 85 percent of project managers extend the schedule as a result. Although extending the schedule may result in revenue loss, conducting the remainder of the project according to the planned processes may minimize the revenue loss. Effective quality management reduces the risk of introducing defects, which would adversely affect cost and schedule in terms of effort required to manage and rework the defects.

In a project that is late and over budget, project managers should reexamine what is known through project monitoring and readjust through project control. The project manager must address the fundamental questions in a project: Who is working on the project? What are they working on? How are they working on it? Finding stable answers to these questions will result in the project being completed with a minimal loss in revenue.

References
Boehm, B. (1991). Software Risk Management: Principles and Practices. IEEE Software, 8(1), pp. 32-41.

Brooks, F. P. (1974). The Mythical Man-Month. Datamation, December, 1974. pp. 44-52.

Glass, R. L. (1998). Short-Term and Long-Term Remedies for Runaway Projects. Communications of the ACM, 41(7), pp. 13-15.

Wallace, L. & Keil, M. (2004). Software Project Risks and their Effect On Outcomes. Communications of the ACM, 47(4), pp. 68-73.

recent portraits

2007-10-09T00:19:00.000-04:00

Although I feel more at home behind the camera than in front of it, a few people have managed to capture some portraits of me in my element. Many thanks to Paivi, Jack, and Kai!

Photo by sintixerr

Photo by spiggycat

Photo by PianoMan75

ofrenda art show

2007-10-08T23:22:00.000-04:00

A fellow APA Film Festival volunteer photographer I met last week, Jack Whitsitt (blog, flickr photostream), is the chair for ArtOutlet, a local organization that puts together art events.

This coming Saturday 13 October from 3 PM until midnight, ArtOutlet is hosting Ofrenda: Art for the Dead in the empty space next to Mexicali Blues in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Va. (The space formerly occupied by the Lazy Sundae ice cream shop is slated to become an extension of Mexicali Blues.)

Read more about Ofrenda on Jack's blog.

electronic music

2007-10-08T20:55:00.000-04:00

Photographing some of the APA Film Festival (website, photo pool) events brought me back into some nightclub venues for the first time in a while. I realized I don't miss much about them: the artificial lines at the door, the overpriced drinks, and the pretentious attitude. By the way, what ever happened to the dilapidated warehouse clubs? Do they all have to act swanky now?

Two $15 drinks the bartender "discounted" to $7 for us volunteers.

To each their own, but one thing I do miss is good electronic music in the style that I like it. I know the DJs today are probably playing what's en vogue and what they know best, but I just really didn't get into the new music. It didn't convey any energy and it wasn't particularly relaxing either. Sure, it sounds like I'm just getting old and feeling nostalgic, but I think I've finally put my finger on what I like in terms of electronic music.

Synthpop (1980s): a-ha, Berlin, Eurythmics, Human League, New Order, Simple Minds, Tears for Fears
Big beat (mid 1990s): The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy, Propellerheads, The Wiseguys
French house (late 1990s to early 2000s): Daft Punk

And now for some music videos... First up, a classic video by a-ha, Take on Me.

I want to try rotoscoping at some point. It basically involves filming a scene, individually tracing each frame, and then assembling the frames together to create an animation. In the a-ha video, it was just pencil tracings and renderings to add depth and shadows, but it can involve coloring and painting as well, like in the movie A Scanner Darkly. If not a whole rotoscoping effort, at least tracing a few photos to get the effect in some stills.

Next up, probably one of my favorite works of electronic music: Digital Love, by Daft Punk. So, Daft Punk are a little strange, walking around in robot costumes no matter where they go, but I like what they have to offer. The video for this song comes from Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, a movie produced by Daft Punk.

Some things I noticed and liked in the animated video: the lens flare as if there were a lens, the motion of the hand slapping the control at 1:00, the shifting of focus from foreground to background at 1:27 as if there were a lens to focus, and at 1:40, an effect borrowed from the a-ha Take on Me video -- being pulled through a frame into another dimension.

If you're wondering how Daft Punk got the vocals to sound the way they did, they used a talk box, as demonstrated in the Digital Love cover below.

I think I can do the rotoscoping, but I'm not sure if I can pull off a talk box.

initial notes on flash photography

2007-09-29T10:19:00.000-04:00

Up until now, I've only been shooting with available light. The following are my initial notes on learning how to use the flash on my camera. I know I'll probably have to correct myself at some point in the future as I learn more about how to use the flash.

In automatic exposure mode, the camera assumes the flash is the primary light source in the photo. Since the flash only illuminates things up to ten feet away from the camera, everything else beyond ten feet ends up being really dark. This is what I've referred to as the "cave effect." This is what most point and shoot cameras do -- and what SLRs do when put in automatic mode.

Program Auto Exposure (P) mode. Camera chose: f/2.8 for 1/60 sec.

Aperture Priority (Av) mode. I chose f/2.8, camera chose: 1/4 sec.

By changing the camera mode to aperture priority, the camera assumes the flash is not the primary light source, but rather a foreground fill light. In aperture priority, I chose the aperture setting to be f/2.8. Since the scene is still dim, the camera chooses the shutter speed to be slower. This allows for the flash to "freeze" the motion that is in the foreground, while allowing for more light from the background to get into the picture. I think of how this works in terms of a piece of film: if there's something bright in the frame (something lit by flash), it will immediately burn into the film. If there's something dimmer in the frame (background light), it takes a little longer to seep in to the film. That is, the bright parts of the photo are exposed faster than the dim parts of the photo. The camera and flash (at least on my camera) calculates the flash power output and the shutter speed to make sure the foreground is not overexposed. Since the shutter speed is so long, one has to really hold the camera still or use a tripod (unless trying to do effects like streaking the background). However, if one is using a large aperture (let's say f/1.4, 1.8, or 2.8) the background will be thrown out of focus due to the shallow depth of field and any camera shake or motion blur in the background will be blurred out anyway.

The camera was set to ISO 400 in both photos and I used an older Canon Speedlite 380 EX as my external flash. The flash has a omni-bounce diffuser on it and is aimed 60 degrees upward toward the ceiling. Final note: sometimes when there really isn't enough light in the foreground or background, you have to use the flash as the primary light source. In that case, the photo will appear more like the first, rather than second photo above. Sometimes it's better to have a picture with cave lighting than to have no picture at all :)

randy pausch's last lecture

2007-09-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

In this video, Randy Pausch, professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center (and former professor at the University of Virginia) delivers his last lecture. At 47 years of age, Pausch is dying of terminal pancreatic cancer. His talk, titled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, is an inspiration. Despite his terminal diagnosis, his talk reflects his attitude on life: positive, exuberant, and funny. For those UVa CS and SEAS people out there, Anita Jones makes a cameo in the Best Bosses slide and look out for our old dean of the E-School, who Pausch refers to as Dean Wormer (reference to Animal House).

Randy Pausch's last lecture was also recently featured on ABC News and covered by the Wall Street Journal.

2007 dc shorts film festival

2007-09-18T07:53:00.000-04:00

The 2007 DC Shorts Film Festival continues and wraps up this week at the Landmark E Street Cinema, downtown in Penn Quarter. The themes for the primetime (7:00 pm) shows include Politics as Usual, Films of OurStage.com, Foreign Beauties, and LunaFest. The 1:00 pm, 4:00 pm, and 10:00 pm shows feature the Best Of DC Shorts, as voted by filmmakers, directors and audience members.

My favorites from the Best Of screening:

The Wine Bar, Christian Remde
The Job, Jonathan Browning
2 in the AM PM, JG Quintel
The Little Gorilla, Harry Kellerman
signage, Rick Hammerly

It was particularly interesting to see the films shot in HD and how different they looked than the ones shot using digital video or film. Showing multiple films in a row really allowed for one to compare films produced in different technical formats. It was also interesting seeing what creative-types notice in a film: one of my friends was really good at noticing issues with sound and color, another was good at paying careful attention to the story development, and I seemed to be looking at the details of the cinematography. Of course, this was all in addition to just enjoying the films themselves :)

2007 dc apa film festival

2007-09-16T23:37:00.000-04:00

The schedule for the 8th Annual DC Asian Pacific American (APA) Film Festival has been released. It will be taking place between September 27 and October 6, 2007. A full schedule with descriptions for each film should be coming soon.

I'll be volunteering as one of the event photographers so I will definitely be at some of the social events as well as some of the films. If you decide to check any of the films out, let me know—maybe we can meet up.

Two films I found previews for on youtube...

Bolinao 52
Saturday, September 29 at 1:30 pm, Rosslyn Spectrum Theater

The Owl and the Sparrow
Saturday, October 6 at 7:00 pm, Navy Memorial Theater

CS not a science, not about computers

2007-08-31T17:53:00.000-04:00

Although the name of the field, Computer Science, does not imply it, computer science is not really a science and is not really about computers. From Abelson and Sussman (1985 and 1996), The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (the intro CS course text at MIT):

Underlying our approach to this subject is our conviction that “computer science” is not a science and that its significance has little to do with computers. The computer revolution is a revolution in the way we think and in the way we express what we think. The essence of this change is the emergence of what might best be called procedural epistemology—the study of the structure of knowledge from an imperative point of view, as opposed to the more declarative point of view taken by classical mathematical subjects. Mathematics provides a framework for dealing precisely with notions of “what is.” Computation provides a framework for dealing precisely with notions of “how to.”

This is spot on. Abelson mentions in his lecture that surveying techniques originating in ancient Egypt led to geometry (earth measure), but not until geometry transcended the survey and encompassed formalisms did it become applicable to so much more. The same can be said of computer science: the work we do today in formalizing notions of "how" will one day transcend the computer and apply to so much more -- and it's just starting to happen with our realization that computation shares much in common with biology.

Oh, and computer programming is something that most computer scientists know how to do, but is not what they really do. It's like how musical composers know how to play an instrument, but it's not really what they do and there's much more to music than just knowing how to play. It's a skill. Knowing how to program (or play a piano) and being able it do it well helps a lot (and many times pays the bills), but it's only the surface.

In my next post: the redefinition of computer science in hopes of a revitalization.

i want a polaroid camera

2007-08-29T00:17:00.000-04:00

Polaroid cameras almost completely faded into non-existence with the advent of the digital camera, but surprisingly enough, they are making a comeback in some of the off-beat artistic photography. Actually for some people, Polaroid never left. I had a Polaroid taken of me at a restaurant in Taiwan—a place where they liked to hang customer photos on the wall. I was amazed at seeing a Polaroid camera still being used and thrilled at seeing the photo develop right then and there. The last Polaroid I appeared in featured a cardboard cut out of Ronald Reagan (current President at the time) in front of the National Air and Space Museum.

I found a spectacular stop motion animation on youtube made from 987 Polaroid frames, shot with a Canon camera without any computer manipulation.

I like how Process Enacted (above) is a meta-movie: a movie about making the movie itself. This reminds me, I have yet to see Adaptation, which is supposedly a movie about making the movie Adaptation. It brings me back to some of my undergraduate computer science classes where we talked about reflection: when a program examines and modifies itself while it is running. (Computer science is really more about philosophy than it is about science—more on that in my next post.)

If anyone wants to unload a 1970s-era Polaroid SX-70, 1980s-era SLR 780, or an 1990s-era SLR 690 camera, let me know! Oh and despite the song telling you to "shake it like a Polaroid picture," don't shake your Polaroid pictures :)