Archive for the ‘Computers’ category
Still Working…
May 5, 2013
The Debate Over the Ethics of Photo Restoration
May 3, 2013
At first glance, one might question how photography and genealogy are linked. The reality is, however, that a big part of genealogy and historical research is simply basic detective work.
To do a complete study of an ancestor's past, a genealogist or family historian needs to put on their detective's hat, turn over every stone and investigate every clue at their disposal.
A great take on the
ethics debate.
~~~~Felicia
Caging the Intellectual Bird
April 30, 2013
“The binary world has given
radiant wings to knowledge
and information. Those who
support the infringement of
cyber freedom cage the
intellectual bird.”
••••••» Felicia Lujan
••••••» 4.30.2013
Art+Technology=True Love
April 27, 2013When the sun disappeared last night I attended the 3rd annual Outdoor Vision Fest at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. It was amazing to see some of the multimedia exhibits that the students created. They were interactive, animated, colorful and very creative. The media students include animators, filmmakers, graphic designers, and photographers. Some exhibits were projected onto buildings, trees, geometric shapes, glass, water, and material.
One of my favorite projections was designed by Keith Riggs, who is married to my cousin Jessica. There was even a projection with poetic quotes by infamous authors. I also adored a piece which was flapping in the wind, had edgy music, and a human body which appeared to be ripping off skin. It must have been a symbolic piece. Last night I decided it is finally time for me to dabble with Adobe After Effects. I need to see what I’m really made of.
Without art, writing, technology and music, I would certainly die! I guess when you’re in love~ you’re in love. Here are a few of the photographs I took last night.
BLACKOUT… (see my post on the 21st for more information)
April 22, 2013Down with the
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).
******UPDATE*****4.30.2013
Unfortunately, the representative for New Mexico’s 3rd congressional district had a change of heart over the last year.
In Protest: Going Dark on April 22, 2013
April 21, 2013******UPDATE*****4.30.2013
Unfortunately, the representative for New Mexico’s 3rd congressional district had a change of heart over the last year.
****************************************************************
My web site will blackout tomorrow in protest of the
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).
You should do the same.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anonymous Calls For Internet
Blackout On April 22 To Protest CISPA
The Huffington Post | By Alexis Kleinman
The link for FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 192 has been deleted.
Anonymous releases (almost) everything they know about Rehtaeh Parsons
April 12, 2013
The loose collective of online activists known as Anonymous have released a list of statements they believe are facts in the case of Rehtaeh Parsons.
While the group has said they know the names of those responsible, they are not releasing the names right now.
"We have done our best to keep those names from being released," the group said in the statement below.
Government aware of lost student loan data earlier than admitted, documents suggest
March 19, 2013
OTTAWA — A missing hard drive with sensitive information about 583,000 Canada Student Loan recipients was one of two external hard drives noticed missing in late November from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada — one was later found — and an internal email suggests someone may have been aware of the data loss earlier than the government has publicly stated.
Wow!!!
F
Collection of Links: Resources for Libraries
March 6, 2013
Apps
Free Software for Libraries Ideas Exchange - iLibrarian
50 Great Mobile Apps for Librarians - Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian's Weblog
Technology
Internet Librarian: Speed Technology Dating - Librarian in Black (30 technology recommendations - from Raspberry Pi to Liquid Space)
How to Create Your Own Knowledge Base - iLibrarian
Library Now! Google now technology applied to libraries? - Musings about Librarianship…
President can order preemptive cyberattacks if needed - Computerworld
February 13, 2013
Hacker gains access to Bush family emails, photos
February 8, 2013
Hacker gains access to Bush family emails, photos
HOUSTON — A hacker apparently accessed private photos and emails sent between members of the Bush family, including both former presidents, and the Secret Service is investigating.
The Smoking Gun website said the hacker, who went by the online moniker "Guccifer," gained access to emails, photos, private telephone numbers and addresses of Bush family members and friends.
Ear Candy Tools for HeadFets
January 22, 2013 
Yesterday the Audacity® team released a new version of the free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds. Nice! Version 2.0.3 is now available for Windows®, Mac®, GNU/Linux® and other operating systems. If you are so inclined, you can also opt to build Audacity yourself, by downloading the source code.
This software is for all those people with a headphone fetish!!
Changes between 2.0.2 and 2.0.3
- Crash using Undo whilst time-shifting a track.
- Crash using Repair if the selection extended into an empty track.
- Export Multiple didn’t prevent export if there was no audio or all audio was muted. This allowed export of small invalid files.
- Loop Play of a speeded-up track inserted silence.
- Playback and rendering was significantly inaccurate, creating audible and visual glitches.
- The mnemonics character “&” was read out by screen readers in most of the Preferences choices.
- NVDA did not read static text in most dialogs. Text can now be read by using INSERT + B.
- JAWS and Window-eyes misread the “Duration” control in Silence Generator.
- Toolbar buttons could not be pressed by ENTER
- Other interface bug fixes.
- The SoX Resampler library (libsoxr) has replaced libresample in Audacity releases, offering both higher quality and greater speed. .
- “Set Range” now changes only the range of the Time Track, preserving the pitch/speed set by any existing warp points.
- Vertical scale added with options for linear and logarithmic display and interpolation.
- Upper and lower speed limits will now be remembered when saving and reopening a project in 2.0.3. Warp points in projects saved by previous Audacity versions will be correctly restored in 2.0.3.
- Warp points saved in a 2.0.3 project will be preserved if opened in previous versions but playback and display will be incorrect.
- Studio Fade Out (uses a filtered “S” curve).
- Adjustable Fade (accessible effect for creating partial fades and adjustable fade shapes).
- Bass and Treble (replaces Bass Boost).
- Real sample rates up to 384000 Hz are now supported for playback and recording in high resolution devices (the maximum is up to 192000 Hz for Windows DirectSound host).
- Labeled Regions in Edit Menu is renamed to “Labeled Audio” and now allows splits to be placed at point labels. Labeled audio regions that touch without overlapping are treated as separate regions. Overlapping labeled audio regions are treated as a single region.
- New Croatian translation of Audacity.
- CMake is required in order to build libsoxr.
Secret Weapon
January 21, 2013
~~~~~Secret Weapon~~~~~
Self portrait and digital rendering by Felicia Lujan
Animate and inanimate weapon systems have been used since the beginning of time. The weaponry can by 2D, 3D, physical, and intellectual. A sophisticated arsenal of knowledge almost always accompanies the development, deployment, and use of every weapon. This often requires that the weapon be kept confidential. There are many reasons that a useful instrument may be kept secret. The web definition of “secret weapon” is “either a concealed weapon, or a weapon that is not officially confirmed by the owner.” Since many weapons are kept in the shadows, I wanted to share a few of my favorite secret weapons. It is always interesting to take a look at the dark side of intelligence.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has had a continuous love affair with secrecy. In the 1950s, the Skyhook retrieval system was developed and allowed the CIA, United States Navy and the United States Air Force to safely extract their personnel from the ground or the water. The secret retrieval system used an MC-130E Combat Talon aircraft to accomplish this. The Skyhook utilized a balloon, a harness and a nylon lift line to pull a secret agent to safety. A decade later, the Acoustic Kitty was developed as a mobile listening device. The “kitty” included a power pack and transmitter which was fitted into a real cat’s abdomen. The secret weapon included a microphone inside the cat’s ear canal, and an antenna along the spine. The CIA was then able to implant a bug into the ear of the cat which the agents used to spy on their enemies.
Recently there were two secret weapons revealed by power players in the computing world. In June of 2012, Microsoft’s top secret surface computing project which uses multi-touch technology and cameras was disclosed. The development team is said to have used an underground bunker called “the Garage” with no windows and biometric entry verification while researching the technology. The team also utilized a gang of high-tech armed security guards before they decided to officially unveil their work on the project. Later that year, we got an inside look at the “Apple Need to Know Confidential” better know as the Genius Training Student Workbook. Apple’s secret employee manual was revealed as an inside look at the company’s training methods. The unconventional manual is a guide to mastering the art of psychological coercion. Apple calls a person who masters the skill of mind manipulation a “genius” and then gives them a special blue shirt to wear.
Sometimes it is in the best interest of all to keep special weapons secret. I do find it interesting that the plight of a concealed weapon may ensure strength, but it could also foster weakness. Keeping inanimate weaponry at bay will likely keep an enemy or competitor on their toes. Maybe the less they know the better? In the case of an animate or intellectual instrument, it is possible that a life in the shadows may hinder the true potential of that weapon.
The Knowledge Martyr~ Aaron Swartz
January 12, 2013
~RIP Aaron Swartz~
May you reach binary heaven.
“Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations.”
~~~Aaron Swartz
Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto (2008)
Frank Kingdom once said that “questions are the creative acts of intelligence.” His words are so powerful. Tonight I was going to post about something else, but when I signed on to the internet, I learned about a tragedy. I am saddened to learn that one of the greatest pioneers of the open movement has paid the ultimate price in his quest for knowledge.
Aaron Swartz the founder of Demand Progress, paid with his life on Friday. The 26 year old was just a baby in the world of technology. He was facing federal charges, close to 40 years in prison, and at least a million dollars in fines for his part in a political movement demanding the freedom of information. In the words of Herodotus,”this is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.”
The young genius is said to have killed himself, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s true. If information and knowledge is power, how much can you demand before the powers that be make sure you disappear? I used the digital library JSTOR (Journal Storage) just yesterday to write my last post Seduce the Moon. Swartz has hacked that library and some close to him say he was depressed about the decisions he made.
As a hero, Swartz authored the Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto. He didn’t sign the manifesto because he did not believe in the ownership of information. Swartz called it “outrageous” and “unacceptable” that scientific articles are provided “to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South.” If you have never read or do not know of this manifesto, I would encourage you to read it.
The dark haired champion said “we need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.”
He has been called a political martyr, a hacktivist, a web genius, a felon, a committed liberator of information, a hero, a distinguished hacker, a pioneer, and an open access guerrilla. Swartz was all of those things~ though I think he was indeed a felon with good intentions. He was more brave than I. May he rest in peace among the 1z and 0z. May his soul reach binary heaven where knowledge is freely available.
An Honor to be Selected for “DigIn Alumni Reflections”
January 3, 2013
I was honored to be asked by the DigIn (digital information management) Program Administrators to be featured on the UofA web site. For those of you who don’t know, I was a Wild Cat for a couple of years. 
The DigIn Program offers a Masters Level Certificate in digital information management through the School of Information Resources and Library Science. There is also a doctoral program in digital studies.
There were other graduates to choose from and it made me feel good that they asked me. Out of 55 students admitted into the program with me, I believe only 13 graduated. Apparently one person was selected to be featured from each year (2008-2012).
I was approached about two months ago, and today I learned that the alumni features went live. It is an honor to be featured as the 2009 alumna in the DigIn Alumni Reflections.The site says “we asked our DigIn graduates how the certificate played in their career path.”
I was asked the following two questions:
•••Have you changed jobs since you received the DigIn certificate?”
•••How has DigIn helped you in your previous and/or current job?
If you care to see my answers, you can click on the link up top.
One thing I found confusing is that I was in the first graduating class, yet someone graduated in 2008? They even put a link under my section (which includes a UA News article I was featured in). Maybe there was only one student in 2008? I’m not sure?
Here is a link to that article~
DigIn Program Graduates First Cohort
Voyager Comments