Photo Album: DigitalLife Expo 2007

Of last year’s small attendees, only Supacam and GelaSkins came back. No Pepper. And, shockingly, no Sony! I wanted to fondle the new Sony Reader, dammit.

Even though Palm had four Meeting Rooms, no Foleo. Palm was all Centro.

No Asus Eee in sight or even hinted at. Damn!

The show was shockingly small. My quick overview was done in just an hour!

On with the show…

Gateway was showing off a new machine that ripped off the Mac design was all-in-one…

…in fact, it’s called One

Gateway also showed off this humongous monitor; that’s three websites and an XboX picture-in-picture running

The cheap-ass Palm display; you had to pay for drinks!

Sorry-assed freebies (also a pen and jellybeans; not shown)

Crowded, huh?

No Treos. No PDAs. No Foleo. Just Centro.

Centro being demonstrated. Palm had the blonde I ordered, but no Foleo!

The crowding will kill you…

PC Magazine made it worthwhile again with a batch of wee devices

The big deal HTC Advantage running WinMob 6. Their HotSpot wasn’t working so I couldn’t try Opera browsing. But still, now having given this thing a feel (that’s far less than a fondle), I was very unimpressed. About a grand for that? No!

Size next to Centro actual-size brochure

Next to the ShitDrive my LifeDrive (left edges aligned)

With iPhone (left edges aligned)

My flash kills the HTC screen while the iPhone smiles

Better picture where I off-centered the flash… iPhone screen is still better

HTC vs OQO (left edges aligned)

Dell brings color to notebooks. Big whoop.

Erector is pimping a WiFi spy robot now…

… I didn’t get details. Go Google.

Aie! My mortal enemies!

Yeah, she looks like a satisfied customer. Must have used the 770!

Just as my brain began to melt out of my ears, I hear over the rush of earwax, “Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike!” I think, “Me? It’s a trap!” “Mike! Mike!” I turn around and my god —

— it’s Liz Kelly and Hannah Fairlight of Girls Don’t Cry at the Save Net Radio booth! Real human beings at the trade show! How did they get in?

Then it was back to the torment for me…

Why? Why? Why?

See above caption

A Pac-Man hat!

What the world was waiting for: Snoopy on cellphones! Kill me now.

I don’t know what it is …

… but I want it. NOW!!

Did anyone buy these?

Spider-Mutt. And Linux should sue for abuse of the penguin.

Look at them, ready to pounce and kill me!

Some parrot robot that does things

No Philip K. Dick electric sheep in sight. Thank God!

Cute enough to make you want to kill yourself. Not cute enough for Japan.

The new slavery: People as videogame consoles

All right! Something freaky!!

An electronic camera that magnifies up to 200x. What’s this guy have?

As I thought: FLEAS!

Non-parasite-infested samples to magnify

OK. This is just wrong.

Toshiba’s new Gigabeat player. More fodder thrown underneath the iPod juggernaut.

This is a very interesting notebook. Very lightweight with a CD/DVD drive!

The specs. Turns out that sub-2-pound one uses Flash, not a hard drive. Always a catch!

Only I would turn a notebook over like a turtle to show you its bottom isn’t flat!

Closed view. Wee LEDs on the edge you can see when closed.

Scale next to LifeDrive

Next to dollar bill (suggested by Toshiba rep!)

Screen in outdoor transflective mode. No, it’s not turned off —

— close up. I was told it’s very bright in direct sunlight. Hmmmm. I was also told you can get this with XP installed instead of Vista. The Toshiba rep wanted that made very, very clear. Wow, Vista must be the biggest disaster in Microsoft history!

Eight flatscreens showing eight players killing each other in Gears of War

This was fun. Toshiba did a Deal Or No Deal game

They picked a number by random draw corresponding to a seat. This woman was the first to play…

She picked a case. The two models were very lovely and lively. Drool. Real women!

The banker tries to get her to swap the case for a backpack!

“Open the case…”

Oh. My. God!

Close-up

She won top prize: A free Toshiba laptop computer!!!

One of those ceiling-projected interactive displays seen on mall floors

At hp’s booth, I come across their Tablet PC …

— and leave my mark!

The new hp PDA next to the LifeDrive; hp stylus shorter & thinner than LifeDrive’s. Yes, my LifeDrive screen is also showing year view on full brightness! Those of you thinking of swapping a RAM-based Palm PDA for this, forget it. It took five seconds to open a Mobile Word document. I can get that shitty non-performance with my LifeDrive!

I go back to the Palm exhibit…

LifeDrive next to Centro

Real-life size comparison: my shit-ass Thiefone Tracfone next to the Centro

I need a break from this unrelenting technology. I go see Hannah and Liz and find to my horror…

Hannah has become professorial, tutoring people on Saving Net Radio. Poor Liz is getting high from sniffing soy chips again. She has such a tough addiction!

I see the pair of assassins Palm and Nokia have co-funded to kill my ass. I flee.

But there’s no escape. In the hallway leaving, I see …

American technology vandalized by Finns …

… inside it has an Anti-Internet Tablet installed …

Thoughtfix probably drooled. (I see the lad is lapping up the Kool-Aid these days… sad.)

The show ran til 7PM. I fled a little after 5PM (sorry, Hannah and Liz!). It was very disappointing. I didn’t return today due to lack of sleep. If I’m bored tomorrow, I might return to see what’s going on. But I doubt anything will be…

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Photo Album: Museum Of Sex, NYC

Photos taken Thursday, September 27, 2007

Here’s something for Warren Ellis’s research folder…

Reading from Left to Right:
Knicker Wetting, Saline Injections, Haircutting, Diaper Play, Shaving, Penetrations, Adult Babies, Shrimping, Enemas, Scat, Golden Showers, Blood

Reading from Left to Right:
Gaping Maws, Amputee Wannabes, Giants, Casts and Braces, Cannibal Play, Stuffing, Vore, Car Accidents

Reading from Left to Right:
Rubber Mackintoshes, Rubber Inflation, Hazmat, High Heels, Fetishistic Transvestism, Immobilization, Angora Sweaters, Gas Masks, Panties. Bras, Lactation

I’m not going to otherwise comment. I’d just display my kink virginity total lack of experience awful ignorance of this subject…

Photo Album: India At Sixty, South Street Seaport NYC

All photos taken Tuesday, September 25, 2007

I didn’t get there until near 8PM. I missed Remo Fernandes‘ South Street Seaport concert. I wanted to see that. I thought it’d be at night, the usual concert time there. Unfortunately, the India at 60 website failed to go into time details. But I did catch a bunch of other interesting acts.

The only non-blurry photo of this great puppeteer. Notice he is holding the strings directly in his hands. No crossbars.

One of several regional dance troupes.

A dancer in another regional troupe. Look at the costume detail!

Another regional troupe. She is spinning that platter on a fingertip.

Color corrected. Those are peacock feathers! Look at the costume detail!

Then it was time for the pop music. Via the Bollywood Dancers! I had a girder support in the middle of my frame, so I had to crop a few dancers into each photo. There were five men and five women in all. Song tracks played and they mouthed the words while performing these dances from films.

During intermission for costume change, the two hosts introduced the famous choreographer of Bollywood, the woman dressed in white, with mic.

Then it was back to the routines!

These were dances and songs apparently well-known to the crowd, a segment of which was going wild with dancing and singing!

The big finish with the flag of India.

The choreographer introduces each dancer. At least two are also choreographing Broadway shows. In the audience was a student of hers who can give lessons in Bollywood dancing styles in New York City.

A whole big rack of puppets. I missed that show!

An after-event picture of the famous choreographer whose name I obviously did not get.

It was a great and exciting show. I also sampled some genuine food from India. Wow. My tongue went into orgasm. It was delicious.

Happy Anniversary to India!

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Previously in this blog:
India At 60

Photo Album: Harvest Moon, September 25 2007

Over Satan Island

Over South Street Seaport

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Photo Album: Evil Guacamole Cultists Recruit In NYC!

Photos taken Sunday, September 16, 2007

Cultists will show up at any event that attracts the young and ignorant. So it was that the Guacamole Liberation Front (GLF) dared to show itself in propinquity to the Virgin Megastore Battle of the Bands yesterday, trying to tempt the stupid innocent to their Way of Life!

Yeah. Just like Jesus Loves Me. They lie!!

Look at that. No shame in expressing their preference!!

And look at this!

One of their ambulatory churches!!

I’ll come back to this later!

Notice those steps. But they shut the door, to fool the cops!

Liars! I happen to know red peppers don’t go “that” way!

T-shirts to fool the vision-impaired. Squint and they read God Squad!

Oh ho ho! You see that? Do you? Do you?

It’s a spy camera! This cult doesn’t trust its own members!!

They say they take a vow of poverty. Does this look like poverty?!!?

Resist them! Don’t dip into their evil beliefs!!

What A World Run By Windows Looks Like

Photo taken Sunday, September 16, 2007

Satan Staten Island ferry, Whitehall Terminal

Just remember: Every time Windows crashes, another programmer burns in hell!

Update/Clarification: A site linking to this post thinks I’ve jumped to some sort of Microsoft-hating conclusion here because Microsoft isn’t explicitly mentioned in the photo. This sign has crashed before. And when it did, it explicitly stated MICROSOFT(R) WINDOWS(R). I just didn’t have a camera with me at the time. Here, it just shows the Intel CPU that’s apparently at the heart of the PC running this Windows-software-based sign. All clear now? Good.

NYPL: Writer Lafcadio Hearn

If you don’t know who Lafcadio Hearn is, look him up. No, I won’t provide a link to wikipedia for your lazy ass. (Oh, all right then.) Another one of my gods. Kneel!

All images from NYPL Digital Gallery, The New York Public Library

Previously in this blog:
The NYPL Won’t Know What Hit Them Now…

The NYPL Won’t Know What Hit Them Now…

I’ve mentioned several times how I’m stuck in New York City because of the great the New York Public Library (NYPL) is. It’s my religion; its buildings are my churches, my temples. It is holy ground. Other people go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to seek God. My cathedral has lions guarding it!

Source: NYPL Digital Gallery, The New York Public Library

For several years now, the NYPL has been building a web presence that I think is probably the best in the country and a model for all other public libraries to emulate.

One of the absolutely stunning features of the NYPL’s website is its NYPL Digital Gallery which contains over a half million photos and other images that are generally in the public domain.

Today I was searching for Red Moon and decided to peek into the NYPL Digital Gallery. I plopped Baudelaire into the Search box and whoa! Some images of one of my gods I had never seen before!

Source: NYPL Digital Gallery, The New York Public Library

Source: NYPL Digital Gallery, The New York Public Library

I wanted to run them here. But there was a User’s Guide that mentioned fees for publication, including non-commercial use. Close reading revealed these fees seemed to be for actual higher-than-screen resolution prints and there was no mention of publishing in non-profit, non-commercial blogs such as this one.

I wanted those images here, so I emailed the NYPL:

I’ve read over all the relevant FAQs, User Guides, and even PDF files.

It all still leaves this question: Can images that I see on the screen — not ordering special TIFFs or anything else — be Saved As… and then used on a *blog* without any fee?

I’m a quarter-century user of the NYPL and a published author and it just seems screwy to me that you would charge for reproducing public domain images that are no more than captures of what’s shown on the screen.

My interest in this was piqued when I came across some images of Baudelaire I hadn’t seen before. (There are probably likewise images of other dead writers I’ve not yet searched for.)

My blog is not ad-supported and requires no fee to view.

And since I’ve already mentioned I have a blog, your reply may well be published in it.

Within minutes I got a reply!

Dear Mr. Cane:

Yes, you may use images from the Library’s Digital Gallery free of charge on your web Blog. Please credit as follows:

NYPL Digital Gallery, The New York Public Library

Sincerely,
Thomas Lisanti
Manager, Photographic Services
& Permissions
The New York Public Library
476 Fifth Avenue, Room 103
New York, NY 10018
phone: (212) 930-0091
fax: (212) 930-0533

Is that great or what?

As word of this spreads, I expect many bloggers to go there to get images for posting.

In fact, you can expect more images from there here too.

Thank you, NYPL!

Be sure to support your local library. Ebooks aren’t enough, neither is the Internet (both, by the way, which many public libraries now offer). Public libraries are the difference between civilization and civil degeneration. Do you have a library card?

Photo Album: August 2005 Street Art

Photos taken August 28, 2005.

Photo Album: Proof Of My Anti-Photographic Ability

Just how bad a photograph can I wind up taking?

Look:

Co-Producer/Co-Songwriter of Girls Don’t Cry Richard Berg in conference with musician/singer Hannah Fairlight. Photo taken Wednesday July 25, 2007 at McCarren Park.

What you don’t really see until I move in:

I managed to align a streetlamp in the background with the tip of her nose! Hannah ala Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!

I should never be trusted with a camera… any good pictures I take are purely coincidental.

Photos of the Girls at the Park coming soon.

Previously in this blog:
Girls Don’t Cry category