jaretogarato

In researching a presentation I’m giving on the current state and future of electronic publishing, I found an interesting article summarizing Forrester’s projections for the eBook. We’re turning a corner with respect to adoption, with over 11 million eBook consumers in the US predicted by 2013. I don’t own a Kindle or a Nook, and I don’t want to read a novel on my iPhone or on my computer. But the power and flexibility of the eBook reader is undeniable. I will keep reading my novels on paper, and I will also own an e-reader for research, for news, and for interacting with writers and fans of similar interest. What about you?

Read more: http://ireaderreview.com/2009/06/03/forrester-and-wattpad-on-ebook-trends/

My good friend Kelly Peterson and I have launched a podcast to do one of our favorite things: find, play, share, and discuss good music. Not since the ’60s have we seen such an explosion of musical creativity. Fusions and gumbos, perversions and remixes, mash-ups of mambos and minimal house. Flavors are drawn from the deepest corners of the planet, of the thrift store record bin, of the software shelves. But too much of it isn’t accessible via mainstream channels: you have to dig. If you have an eclectic ear and love discovering music new, old, distant, or just possibly right from your backyard, give us a visit at Gentlemen, Scotch, And Song.

I cried after watching this for the first time - for the loss of a great person, Carl Sagan, and for empathy with his struggle - to convey a critical message to an audience he is not convinced to be listening. In the Cosmos series there is a reference to an unnamed planet which has substantial technology, including the ability to create nuclear bombs. He ranks the odds of survival of this planet over the next hundred years at 40%. Was he referring to Earth?

I love this project. I think the world needs a version of this with about 50 parallel streams in a big frame, say 8′ wide by 4′ tall. Who’s going to build it?

I recently took a trip to Lake Powell, and took a lot of photos. I’ve been studying post-processing techniques, mostly in Photoshop and Aperture, and it’s really rekindled my interest in photography. I’ve got three categories of photos posted:

The ones I really went nuts on:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jaredgg/LakePowell2009Processed#

My favorites from the trip, most with minimal post-processing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10211040@N02/sets/72157616867393563/

Finally, I’ve put together a couple of panoramas (thumbnail above), which are viewable here:
http://www.jaredgallardo.com/photography/

Remember that in many browsers you can click on the image to zoom in and out to/from 100%.

-Jared

The question was: “Do you use Facebook Applications.” The results:

Yes: 25%
No: 50%
I don’t know: 25%

Sample size = 12 respondents. Certainly not statistically significant but interesting. Please comment if you have any thoughts to share on the results!

Please respond - yes, that means you!

– Survey now closed –

When working on interactive art project Jellyfish 12,000, I thought a lot about possible display technologies for our 8′-diameter dome before we settled on the design we chose. One option that had a lot of appeal was a persistence of vision (POV) design: rather than 36 ribs containing 136 lights each, we could produce similar functionality by rotating one, two, three, or four such ribs, depending on the speed we could achieve, around the dome. Ultimately this design concept was abandoned for this implementation due to our sentimental concern for the life and limb of our passengers.

Yes, it’s true, there is a solution, and it’s simpler than most would believe:

Use Photoshop.

Send money, flowers, and thanks to jared ({(a  t)})jaredgallardo.com .

This is a joke, right? Has to be. I mean, seriously. But if it’s a joke, the question becomes, who’s playing it? Could this be the first tangible evidence of a creator? Macropinna microstoma. Thanks to Carmen for the link.