Month: March 2009

Problematic Panorama

Posted on By Tom 3 Comments on Problematic Panorama
Local, Photography

Falls Park Panorama

View the above image large

The photo above is a panorama of the Liberty Bridge, Falls Park, and Reedy Falls area in downtown Greenville. It consists of five images taken at a wide angle 18mm focal length, then stitched together in Photoshop. It turned out to be quite a learning process and experiment in adaptation.

The first thing I tried was to load up all five shots and try to use the automatic panorama tool in Photoshop. Some of the buildings were completely obliterated, and it simply rejected one image that it couldn’t get to fit. I’m still using version CS2 of Photoshop, so there may have been improvements in the automated tool, but the results with my version were disappointing. It was time to go to manual mode.

The problem with using wide-angle shots is that you get some unusual perspective distortion at the edges. If you look at each photo individually, each looks OK.

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Falls Park and Downtown Photo Walk

Posted on By Tom No Comments on Falls Park and Downtown Photo Walk
Local, Photography

Old South Main

Thursday evening I met up with several of my Flickr photographer friends for a photo walk. Tracy (Wilhemina Lump Lump), Eric (RestedTraveler), and James (James Wellman) and I gathered at the entrance to Falls Park for a downtown expedition. It turned out to be a great gathering, and we really learned quite a bit from each other about various photographic techniques.

James Eric and Tracy

When we first planned this outing we had scheduled it for a couple of weeks ago, right as the snow storm hit. The intent was to go out and try to do some long exposure photography. When we reschedule, we failed to take into account the time change, so we still had more daylight than we had planned. Oops.

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Literary Characters on Social Networking

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Literary Characters on Social Networking
EdTech

It started with a call similar to one I get very frequently in my position, although taking an opposite tact – “Can you unblock Facebook for a class?” Usually I’m being asked to make sure it’s blocked. When I asked why the site should be unblocked, I was given one of the best explanations and … Read More “Literary Characters on Social Networking” »

Restoring Scientific Integrity

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Science

Today President Obama signed an executive order effectively lifting the ban on stem-cell research. While that line of research will remain controversial, and I’m not going to comment on it directly, there were other things that the president said that were very encouraging. CNN perhaps puts it best… Bush’s critics argued the former president allowed … Read More “Restoring Scientific Integrity” »

Twitter Hits the Mainstream

Posted on By Tom No Comments on Twitter Hits the Mainstream
General Technology, Internet

Twitter certainly has been getting A LOT of press this past week. On Monday, the Daily Show did a segment on it, John Cleese released something on his video blog about it, Daniel Schorr and Scott Simon discussed it on NPR’s Weekend Edition, and there have been at least three articles about it in the editorial pages of the Greenville News. I think the catalyst was when various politicians were spotted Tweeting during President Obama’s recent Congressional address. If Congresscritters could do it, then it must be (A) easy and (B) the thing to do.

As you might imagine, these stories have run the gamut from those who think it’s the absolutely best thing, and everyone MUST start Twittering (Tweeting?) to those that think it’s a complete waste of time. I think I fall somewhere in the middle.

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21st Century Skills and Employment Reality

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on 21st Century Skills and Employment Reality
EdTech

Often I’ve written here about my internal conflicts when it comes to use of Internet filters. While I’d love to open up YouTube, the cost in bandwidth and disciplinary problems makes it hard to justify. I may tend to be more liberal than my counterparts in allowing access to the Web, but I also know that filters, however flawed, are necessary, and censorship isn’t the only driving reason for blocking a site.

Recent conversations have shot holes in one argument which presents itself on a regular basis. I have teachers and media specialists tell me that the kids need more access to the web because they need to learn skills for the 21st Century workplace. I would argue that if we REALLY wanted to give them a taste of workplace policies, we’d tighten things down even further.

I’ve spoken to two friends in two different industries – one in research and development and another in a medical-related field. Both said that their Internet access is very tightly controlled. They have NO access to anything that might be construed as non-work-related.

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