Vu Digital Translates Videos Into Structured Data

This is awesome! It basically extracts descriptive metadata!!! Nice!! Useful for sure!
~~~Felicia

Houdini, Meteorites, and Airbursts: Oh My

~Dr. Boslough and Felicia~

I found myself wondering how many people with a scientific Ph.D. surrounded me in a room of at least 500 people tonight. It is so much more interesting for me to spend the night learning, writing or crafting then doing something completely mindless. I learned so much from the lecture of Dr. Mark Boslough, a physicist and New Mexico’s “expert on planetary impacts and global catastrophes.”

Dr. Boslough’s lecture was titled “2013 Chelyabinsk (Russian) Meteorite and Other Stories of Destructive Impacts and Airbursts on Earth.” It was very interesting and we walked out in amazement. On Valentine’s Day here in the United States in 2013, an asteroid “descended at about 19 kilometers per second exploding at high altitude in a momentary flash brighten than the sun and generating a shock wave that injured over a thousand people.” It was both scary and amazing to learn about because these things can be “more damaging than a nuclear explosion” and can generate more than enough heat (1800°C) to literally melt the Earth.

~Yes...I took notes and looked at stars.~

The lecture was sponsored by the New Mexico Academy of Science, which was founded in 1902. The academy was proud to host an event for Dr. Boslough who received his doctorate from CalTech. What did I find most interesting? Learning about the geologic origins of Libyan desert glass was rather cool. It was awesome to find out that King Tutankhamun had a chest plate which featured a scarab beetle carved from this desert glass. What a beautiful piece!!

~King Tut's breast plate with a scarab beetle carved from Libyan desert glass.~

Dr. Boslough has been featured on BBC, NOVA, PBS, and the Discovery and National Geography Channels. He even had an asteroid named after him (73520 Boslough, 2003 MB1). Super cool for a man who focused his career on geophysics right? He was very happy to report (he seemed star struck, but who could blame him) about his recent presentation in the Canary Islands with the notorious Stephen Hawking. Dr. Boslough showed us a piece of a meteorite that Hawking felt there. It seemed like he wanted to say “I’ll never wash this thing!”

Of course I had a question at the end… “What software do you use to render models and create simulations?” He stumbled around, but finally said they use Houdini. He also knew all about metadata!!! At first I thought he was joking by saying he used Houdini, because he was kind of comedic. At the end, Gail leaned over and whispered in my ear… “Have you heard of Houdini?” I told her no, but that I would look it up. I checked it out tonight and the physicist wasn’t kidding. Houdini is real. It runs in a Windows based system and is a 3D animation application software developed by Side Effects Software of Toronto. Maybe that was the other thing I found most interesting!

Unique Identifiers: A Closer Look at Biometric Technology in New Mexico

|Biometrics~ A digital composite by Felicia Lujan. This composite is composed of 13 layers, 8 masks, 3 color overlays, and a Gaussian blur. The composite includes images of binary code and components of ocular, palm vein, and voice recognition scans.|

**NOTE: This research was
not intended to promote or
renounce the use of biometric
systems, though I do find the
technology extremely interesting
and useful in most cases. I
understand that the use
of this technology is considered
controversial by some. I intend
to continue my exploration into
how biometric technology is
being used around the world
for the greater good.

________________________________
I am an archivist with a deep love of technology, which is one reason I pursued a masters level certification in digital information management. A little over a week ago, I was in a meeting that reignited my interest in biometrics. I must admit that I was naïve in my assumption that my state was not a pioneer in this industry. First off, I didn’t know that the central nervous system of New Mexico state government (aka the State Data Center at the Department of Information Technology) utilizes biometric technology as a method of security. After that meeting I came home curious about how involved New Mexico is when it comes to biometric research and implementation. The writer, the researcher, the analyst, the special agent in me took over and that night I added biometric engineer to my list of dream jobs that I would love to have. So…what type of education does a biometric engineer need? Most commonly, a biometrics engineer has: a computer science degree; a computer language certification like Java or C++; and good problem-solving, people, and technical skills.

I found an informative link online titled “Become a Biometrics Engineer: Education and Career Roadmap.” Hum? Well, according to this plan, there are only 7 “popular schools” specializing in advancing a career in biometrics. The page said that “biometric technologies include complex equipment designed to analyze personal identification markers unique to each individual, such as fingerprints, ear lobes, vein patterns, voices, and iris shapes.” Through this research, I discovered that the technology is not limited to “individuals” or people here in New Mexico. I did know that biometric engineers were software developers, but there was a lot that I didn’t know before I embarked upon this research over the Thanksgiving break. Ear lobes? Veins? Hum? Didn’t know those were used as unique identifiers? We are all well aware of the TV shows touting the sexy use of biometrics, like CSI and most recently my beloved Scandal, but that’s just on TV right? A dead guy’s index finger couldn’t possibly be used to confirm his identity? Could it Shonda? Maybe I should ask Chien Le?

The most information dense white paper I discovered was written by Chien Le of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Washington University in November of 2011. Le wrote A Survey of Biometrics Security Systems and his research introduced biometric security systems. It also outlined application fields for biometric technologies, solutions, middle-ware and software, advantages and disadvantages, acronyms, and the future uses of biometrics. Damn! Chien Le beat me to the punch didn’t he?! Here it was…all laid out for my thirsty mind. Le’s paper says there are “seven basic criteria for biometric security systems.” These are “uniqueness, universality, permanence [hummm?? Do I hear digital preservation?], collectability, performance, accessibility and circumvention.” I don’t completely understand some of the criteria, but it was very useful to read over the types of biometric solutions outlined by Le. Current technologies include: facial recognition detectors, fingerprint readers, voice recognition, iris scanners, vein recognition, DNA biometric systems, and 2D barcode scanners, among others.

This technology can have good uses, but there are many privacy advocates who are against the use of any biometrics. In December of 2013, Scientific American published Biometric Security Poses Huge Privacy Risks by Oliver Munday with a byline which read “without explicit safeguards, your personal biometric data are destined for a government database.” The article starts with the sentence “security through biology is an enticing idea.” Yeah it is. Is that all it is though? An idea? I think not. Maybe I’m not worried about privacy as much as I should be? The article is basically a call to United States Congress for “lasting protections against the misuse of biometric data.” Munday quoted an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation who seems to fear that biometric data will be used genetically to test for criminal predisposition. I’m actually not sure that’s a bad thing? I guess my only concerns at this point would be relative to health information and insurance coverage. When it comes to physical security and data security, personally, I think that biometric technology is necessary. It is a way to uniquely protect data, which in the end equals the preservation of knowledge and heightened security.

Over the weekend I started whittling through what I found. I read a great deal of articles and a few white papers before I started to look at projects going on closer to home. The more I researched this topic, the more information I found. I was most interested in how biometric systems actually work, so I focused my mind on the technical aspects. I had questions like…what are the major components of a biometric system? Who uses these systems? One of my questions was answered in Le’s paper. I have a sore throat now, so last night I wondered…what if a person needed to use voice recognition and something was wrong with their voice? How is that accounted for in designing a successful system? According to Le, there was no solution. A voice recognition system will not recognize a hoarse voice wave. So now that we have some background on the basics of biometrics, let’s take a look at what I found going on right here in my state. I was able to locate information on at least ten concrete areas where biometric technology is being used in New Mexico from at least 2003-2014. I’m sure there are many projects I missed, but frankly, this could be a thesis and maybe even a dissertation. This is just a quick look at highly visible projects I came across over the last week.

We will start with the New Mexico Department of Information Technology (DoIT) since it is a meeting with this office that rekindled my interest in this technology. DoIT is “responsible for infrastructure IT services provided 24x7x365 which includes: the State’s telecommunications system, two-way public safety radio, digital microwave, the State’s core data network and internet connectivity, and the State’s Data Center.” It is here, in the State Data Center where biometric technologies are being used for data security. I felt impressed with my state when I learned that and tomorrow I will get a tour of the center. “The State’s Data Center provides a secure facility with redundant power and cooling which houses many of the State’s critical IT systems including the State’s mainframe and agency servers. This division also provides enterprise system services which include the State’s consolidated email system…” It will be interesting to see what type of biometric security the agency is using as of late. I am guessing a finger or palm scanner?

The two strangest projects I found information on were tied to the use of biometrics on kids and animals in New Mexico. On April 3, 2013, there was a news release put out by KOAT (channel 7) titled Los Lunas School Offers Biometric Scans at Lunch. What? Seriously? Yes. Seriously. The school apparently tried to implement a palm vein scanner in the lunch room instead of good old meal tickets or cards. Parents were not happy about the suggestion of using infrared wavelengths (electromagnetic radiation) during the lunch hour to ID their children. The parents fought off the proposal which would have allowed scanners to recognize a unique vein pattern in the child’s palm and they won. I wasn’t sure which seemed stranger…scanning kids or scanning animals? I also read about how the New Mexico livestock industry is using Retinal Vascular Pattern (RVP) for livestock identification. RVP is the pattern of blood vessels at the back of the eye. It’s is being called the new way of branding animals. I wonder how ranchers feel about that since they must prefer the old burn and freeze methods? What’s a brand without cowboy symbology right?

I discovered that the national labs and the air force bases are also using biometrics. Of course, this was no surprise. I read a white paper Chris Aldridge prepared for Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in June of 2013. Sandia Report No. SAND2013-4922 is titled Mobile Biometric Device (MBD) Technology: Summary of Selected First Responder Experiences in Pilot Projects. This report was concentrated on the use of MBDs to enroll individuals in databases and perform “identification checks of subjects in the field area,” for “military, law enforcement, and homeland security operations.” The report was a multi-agency/multi-state project with 3M Cogent Systems and involved: Iowa, Colorado, California, D.C., Texas, Washington (Seattle), Arizona, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Idaho. I think the most interesting part of this study used a “mock prison riot” for first responders out of West Virginia. We all know how critical that information is given New Mexico’s prison riot history. Many of the agencies studied for this report are using “Fusion devices.” Fusion was developed by 3M Cogent Systems for the Department of Defense. A large part of studies in this field are tied to law enforcement, but currently the technology trend is leaning towards cyber security.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) says biometrics are important because they: secure facilities, protect access to computer networks, counter fraud, screen people at our borders, and fight crime. The NIST says this technology is used to manage identities for: first responders at the scene of a natural disaster, border patrol, soldiers in theater, and police officers on the street. It makes sense that the following projects are closely related to the projects cited in the Sandia report. In New Mexico, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uses the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) to support criminal justice DNA databases. The National DNA Index System or NDIS is part of CODIS. The FBI uses biometrics to analyze data from DNA databases and for latent print analysis. Holloman Air Force Base is using the 49th Security Forces Defense Biometric Identification System which is comprised of hand-held scanners. The scanners are used to screen people entering the base to verify the access authorization. Identity is established using barcode technology and fingerprints. In February of 2011, it was announced that Santa Fe County was using biometrics to “remove aliens convicted of a crime.” It can also be noted that between 2003 and 2005, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) researched the use of biometrics in handgun grips while working with a New Mexico biometrics company. The NAE was interested in developing biometric grip sensors, but a 2005 report declared the tests a failure.

I also located evidence of the health care systems in New Mexico using biometric technology. The University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) offers Biometrics Screening Services as part of Employee Health Plans. These screenings are said to align with recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Ommmm…Maybe this is where my privacy fears rest? In 2013, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine released a Joint Consensus Statement on Biometric Health Screening for Employers. According to the “statement,” the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines biometric screenings as “the measurement of physical characteristics such as height, weight, BMI, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, and aerobic fitness that can be taken at the worksite and used as part of a workplace health assessment to benchmark and evaluate changes in employee health status over time.” I am a fitness freak, but that seems crazy? What if something is wrong with me and I don’t know? The statement outlines the “purpose of screenings” and I found it kind of scary. What if they find out I experience shortness of breath or I’m genetically predisposed to cancer? Will they drop me from my insurance plan?

In New Mexico health circles, I also located a “Fingerprint Techniques Manual,” which was prepared by the New Mexico Department of Health. The manual had very interesting graphic illustrations on the fundamentals of fingerprints. This training tool covered from patterns to arches to loops to lines to deltas to cores to whorls to scars of the fingerprints. The machines can read all these intricate things. The Division of Health Improvement uses this technology as part of the Caregivers Criminal History Screening Program. Makes more sense than the biometric screenings. I feel comfortable with this use. This type of use can protect people from abuse or other forms of criminal activity. I was rather impressed with the 36 page manual. It reminded me that about 15 years ago I applied for a finger print technician position with the Department of Public Safety. I was crushed to learn that these people don’t make very much. I don’t know…I guess you have to be a biometrics engineer to make it out there!? What I do know is that I found a great deal of information about how New Mexico is actively participating in the biometric industry.

I gained useful knowledge through this research into biometrics and then regurgitating what I learned. My son just asked me what I was writing about and when I told him he looked at me with the curiosity that I love and see in myself. I told him “I’m writing about biometrics. Do you know what that is?” I explained with words and then decided it was easier to show a nine year old a catchy tech video with visual candy. Together we learned about the future of biometric systems. Between October and November of this year there were several videos on the use biometric technology. The National Science Foundation released information on a project by a young man studying the use of ocular biometrics in the video game industry for disabled people. In October the Telegraph out of the United Kingdom released a video declaring that we would simply kill passwords with biometrics and CBS news declared that biometric palm scans will help keep hospitals secure.

The future of biometrics is here. It is everywhere and happening all around us. Biometrics is about identifying who we are and not who we say we are. Tonight I learned that the most accurate method for a biometric reading is the heartbeat or an electrocardiogram (ECG). Makes sense ha? It’s symbolic actually. Symbolic because the heart is at our biometric core. It is the giver of life. The heart represents how we feel and who we are. That beat is indeed is a unique identifier.

Sources:

News release, Santa Fe County and All New Mexico Now Benefit from ICE Strategy to Use Biometrics to Identify and Remove Aliens Convicted of a Crime, released on ice.gov, February 15, 2011

White paper, A Survey of Biometrics Security Systems by Chien Le, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University, November 28, 2011

News release, Los Lunas School Offers Biometric Scans at Lunch, released on koat.com, April 3, 2013

White paper, Mobile Biometric Device (MBD) Technology: Summary of Selected First Responder Experiences in Pilot Projects by Chris Aldridge, Sandia Report No. SAND2013-4922, prepared by Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, June 2013

Article, Biometric Security Poses Huge Privacy Risks by Oliver Munday, released on scientificamerican.com, December 17, 2013

Publication, Fingerprint Techniques Manual, prepared by New Mexico Department of Health, Division of Health Improvement, Caregivers Criminal History Screening Program, no date

Various internet searches for basic information in articles and videos

Completely Dedicated to My Passions

I can’t tell you how good it felt to hold the final, professionally printed program in my hands tonight. What a gratifying moment. I know it is going to be appreciated by the awesome community of writers and creative spirits I will be surrounded by for the next 4 days. I am really proud of myself. Why? Here are some of the reasons.

1) I have a full-time position in the archives, which I love…so I did this on my personal time. I worked countless hours. I stayed up until the crack of dawn on several nights for three months until my eyes felt like they would fall out of my head.

2) I was asked to design this after earning the professional respect of two amazing women over several years.

3) I completely mastered a new program in this process. You can call me an Adobe InDesign (desktop publishing) master now! I have now made the Adobe suite my biaaaa.

4) I designed most of the ads in this program. The full-page ad I designed for an author was secured for an oversized redesign for a major book tour by a PhD who was recently awarded the Hillerman Prize. It also secured a meeting with him in the next few days to discuss a potential design/promotional partnership.

5) I have proven that if you put money last and you follow your heart with selfless sacrifice, the rest will fall into place…eventually (if you stay positive and dedicated).

And lastly…

6) I made the deadlines!!!! The 2014 Tony Hillerman Writers Conference starts tomorrow. I will be the official photographer and I’ll document the conference on it’s 10th anniversary!

Notes: Case Study- How We Did It: Lessons from IG’s Smartest Peers

Case Study- How We Did It: Lessons from IG’s Smartest Peers (Enterprise Records Management at Comcast) presented by Ralph Furino, Comcast Corporate Records and Information Management and Tamara Hoagland, Information Management Specialst with Information First, Inc.

ARMA Live Conference
San Diego Convention Center

This session focused on the use of HP Records Manager (formerly HP TRIM). The software “is a scalable enterprise document and records management (EDRM) solution that simplifies the capture, management, security, and access to your information in business context.”

•••They ingest records using TRIMport as Text Tabbed Delimited files.

•••Metadata is extracted and
encrypted data is uploaded to a secure FTP site.

•••Files are decrypted in a batch program to concatenate multiple metadata files into one import file.

•••They are able to run an “empty container report” to see which images didn’t transfer.

•••The use WebDrawer is part of the  standard license of HP TRIM/RM.

•••Images displayed in WebDrawer are the masters and not a copy.

•••The system can be set up to host anonymous users, named users or super users.

•••Active Directory is used to control security with regard to anonymous access.

•••Searching is done via WebDrawer in a web portal.

•••Supports more than 1,300 viewer formats.

•••Records can be redacted electronically while preserving the integrity of the master image.

•••When records are destroyed, metadata is retained and the master digital image is overwritten 10 times, which is in accordance with federal destruction standards.

•••It was recommended (for data integrity) not to use leading zeros on any numeric field because data will be truncated and difficult to manipulate/search.

•••Make sure to complete an upgrade and user acceptance testing in a development environment before moving into a production environment.

•••Use the Software Development Kit (SDK) to develop automated electronic image imports instead of HPTrim port.

•••Back end database utilizes Oracle and SQL.

My questions were:

Is there a digital preservation module with HP Records Manager which allows for check sums and object validation? Answer was yes.

Is there a way to search multiple documents which have been retrieved and automatically identify confidential information for redaction? Answer was yes.

Creepy Mirror

I finished the creepy mirror for our Halloween party at work. It was fun to make. One of my friends asked me if I could creep it out for her. She knew that she came to the right place for the creative creepiness. Haha!

Today we met for a bit to go over party ideas and food. I’m excited to work on an idea I had for the party. My corner of the Pinion is sure to be dark…just like I like it. Yesterday I bought a bunch of stuff to use.

I also got hooked up by another friend (thank you 🙂 you) with a grippa sweet software apps. Imma dabble in sum Adobe After Effects tonight. Looks like it will be an all nighter! I’m designing the party invite and I’m thinking a moving image! Maybe!?!

Harley Quinn and the Assault

“Ooh…I like you, Cowboy!”
♥~Harley Quinn
Batman: Assault on Arkham
(2014)

~The new sticker 4 my runner.~

This evening I picked up a new sticker for the back window of my runner. I’ll slap it on in the morning before running around town. It was time to remove my sun damaged, cracked, skeleton hands, heart. I also rented and watched the new adultish, animated movie Batman: Assault on Arkham. It was awesome and was released in August. It featured so many of my favorite DC characters like Harley Quinn, The Joker, Poison Ivy, Batman, Killer Frost, Scarecrow, and Deadshot. It is worth a watch, and the October 2014 issue of the Harley Quinn comic book features the new movie on back.

~My newest comic book...Harley Quinn (October 2014)~

“Maybe when we get into Arkham, I can show you around. I know some TIGHT places.”
♥~Harley Quinn
Batman: Assault on Arkham
(2014)

This DC movie had a kick ass preview of the newest Rocksteady masterpiece…Batman: Arkham Knight. This video game is mind blowing! Seriously!! I would like to write about an article I read in Gameinformer (Issue 252, April 2014) about the technology used to create the game. The Batmobile alone is said to use 160MB of data to render (that could take a whole Xbox 360)!! The new villain is Arkham Knight. Yeayyyy~ a new villain. I would love to watch the artists use Apex cloth physics simulation software. This special software was used for the first time to render Batman’s cape and things like individual rain drops! Amazing!  

I lovvvvvve♥ DC!!!!!!

Can SharePoint Provide Extended ECM for SAP?

Interesting read…
~F

Design: Another Love

Last weekend I had a meeting with the owner of a local construction company. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be working on a business logo and web site design for the company. The web site will include a short biography on the owner as well, so I will be writing one. It’s always so fun to do what I really love. If I could make a solid living doing this, I would. I guess when I retire?

Tonight I scanned a grip of photographs. It took some time to sort through two photo albums and select the perfect images. I used a photo of the best stone work to draft a business logo. We will focus on branding which is very important. I do love Photoshop. I have been super busy, but in a couple of weeks it will be over! Hopefully, the owner of this construction company will like the finished product.

IO launches an OpenStack cloud running on open source servers

~~~Awesome. •••Felicia

Gigaom

Modular data center expert IO is getting into the cloud provider business, launching a new service called IO.Cloud that’s built using Open Compute server designs and runs the OpenStack cloud computing operating system.

That’s a lot of open source, but the company seems to think it’s necessary. According to the IO.Cloud website: “IO.Cloud is built on Open Compute because it provides our engineers with the flexibility to configure and optimize the hardware specifically for scale cloud deployments … IO.Cloud uses OpenStack Cloud components that are interoperable and designed to support standardized hardware implementations.”

IO is pitching IO.Cloud as an enterprise cloud offering, and if it plans to legitimately compete against larger cloud providers for those workloads, the company and its cloud can use any advantages they can get. IO.Cloud is available in hosted and on-premises versions, and the Open Compute hardware almost certainly will let IO operate its public cloud infrastructure more efficiently, as well…

View original post 421 more words

Historic Photo Restoration

I have been restoring and enhancing photographs for people for many years. If I could make a good living doing so, I would do that full time. Recently I did some detective ghost work for a friend who has a sister who snapped photographs at the La Fonda Hotel here in Santa Fe on a recent visit. That specific hotel is said to be haunted and my friend Jackie from RMD wanted me to take a closer look at the photographs using Adobe Photoshop. I like to consider myself an expert user when it comes to all things Photoshop. If my friend gives me the go ahead, I will post the details about, as well as the images of the creepiness I discovered. It was rather scary actually~ or shall I say hair raising!!

I also do photo restoration for people and one of my regular customers is the former State Records Administrator. I have done many, many things for her over the years from enhancements to restorations. Below is my last restoration for her. She gave this away as a Christmas present. The original was a 20×18 convex, historic photograph which had suffered water and mold damage. I was very happy with the result and so was she. I took a high definition photograph of the convex image and then worked from that. If you ask me….Adobe Photoshop is the best software ever created!! If any of you are in need of my services, I can be reached at myvoyagethroughtime@yahoo.com.

~Historic photo restoration by Felicia Lujan~

 

C3PO and Digital Curation

I recently took some time to learn more about content profiling. It is very important to me to keep my digital skill set sharp and so I enrolled in a WebEx virtual training out of the United Kingdom. The training was on May 31 at 13:00 BST/14:00 CET (UK time), which meant I needed to be logged in by 5:30am (US/NM time). The training started at 6:00am in my time zone and ended at 7:00am. It was a Friday, so after several cups of coffee and a brain loaded with information, I made my way into work. I didn’t want to miss taking taking a closer look at C3PO, a contemporary tool being used for digital curation (collection, management and preservation).

~~My true loves… My computers.~~
~~~Call this cross-platform and ready for training!~~~

This digital tool is supported by the Information and Software Engineering Group (IFS), Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems (ISIS), and the Vienna University of Technology in Austria. C3PO was developed by Petar Petrov of Creative Pragmatics. Petrov also delivered the virtual training titled C3PO: An Introduction to Content Profiling. Petrov studied Business Informatics and Software Engineering. The system he has developed addresses content profiling in three steps: the gathering of metadata; data processing and aggregation; and metadata analysis.

~~One of Petar Petrov’s presentation slides.~~

• C3PO is for content and planning- content means- personal content (documents etc.), cultural heritage (libraries, museums, archives, etc.) scientific data and government documents.
• He says that the “future growth” of what happens in an “internet minute” is “staggering.” The question is “what do we preserve because we can’t preserve all of it. We need to evaluate what we can preserve.”
• Preservation planning- identifying risks to digital objects and developing a preservation plan. This should describe content and describe how you will go about preserving that using a certain digital repository or software.
• Plato~ supports the Preservation Planning Workflow. It was developed by the University of Technology in Vienna. This program will help through the process and enable the development of a real preservation plan.
• Discussed how objects, technology, usage criteria, policies, and actions affect preservation environments.
• Scout~ monitors interesting aspects of the world, notifies you when a certain important event happens, helps you know when you should reevaluate your preservation plan (format migration, current tools, trend watch on preservation and migration tools, notifications come through for a redeploy of software).
• Content profiling~ Property (format), FileA (PDF 1.2), FileB (PDF 1.2), FileC (PDF 1.4). Example about which are similar. Not A and B, but a closer look at the metadata is required. After looking at page count, encryption, file size, and if the files are valid and well-formed it can then be determined which files are most similar. In preservation planning, this is a necessary evaluation. It is difficult to do this both on a large scale and in detail. We need to take more data out of the digital repository and secure a data characterization process to aggregate the data.
• “Heterogeneity: one size does not fit all”
• He discussed how to perform a sample selection based on the metadata to experiment on.
• QA and limitations~ “how do you know if your content profile is good or no good?” You need to understand the tools which provide the metadata so that your characterization data is clean and your content profiles are good.
• C3PO~ how does it work? What does it do? This software merges several command line tools into one tool. This is one tool that does many things that several tools can do. Call it the “Swiss Army Knife of tools.”
• v0.3.0~ it’s a Command Line Application and a Web Application. It is an open source Mongo Database and it stores documents differently than a traditional database. It uses Java technology and processes FITS (and Tika) files, stores them in the document store, XML Profiling and CSV Export. It can process close to 1 million (945699) objects in about 2 hours (1hr48m) and can define profiles in 12m. The web application provides an overview of metadata, to browse, filter, sample and export metadata.
• Hands on C3PO demonstration~ very useful for data sampling. He started a terminal window to use the command line version of C3PO. He was demonstrating on about 2,000 objects. He ingested data using commands into the metadata database. He was then able to export the metadata to Excel for further sorting options and to detect problems with files and metadata. The web based app provides statistics using bar graphs of mime types, format versions, object validity, if the objects are well-formed, sizes.
  
• Object can be filtered by format and other things to see detailed and regenerated tools to analyze particular sets of objects. For example you can see all “invalid PDFs.” You can then export any generated profiles to Plato to help you develop a preservation plan. He said “content profiling will never be completely solved, we can only improve the process.”
  

Open Source Blogging Platform WordPress Turns Ten, And Its Community Gets To Blow The Candles Out

I ❤ Open Source!!!

~~~~Felicia

Art+Technology=True Love

When the sun disappeared last night I attended the 3^rd 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.

Collection of Links: Resources for Libraries

infophile

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
What To Do with a Raspberry Pi (The New $35 Computer That Could Replace Your Opac Terminals) – The Digital Shift
Digitally Embedding the Law Library – Ellyssa Kroski

Web Design and Websites
Responsive Web Design and Libraries – iLibrarian
Transforming the Library Website: You and the IT Crowd – iLibrarian
Blogging Mega-post: 21 Resources for Tips, Strategies, and Content Ideas – iLibrarian
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