Igor's home-made stuff

Another Portland sunset

Igor Clark — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:33:26 -0700

I get to see this view pretty much every day. My living room window faces straight out across the West Hills, affording gorgeous sunset after gorgeous sunset. Can't get enough of it.

Trying a new approach.

Igor Clark — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:13:00 -0700

I realised recently that Twitter has taken over my attention to the point where I rarely post anything to my website, except for the occasional bookmark, Flickr favourite or G-Reader item. This has meant that my site has for the last few months become nothing more than the dreaded “link blog” - that is, a stream of pointers to other people’s work.

Given that Twitter’s really good for that sort of thing, I’ve decided to stop putting anything of that sort onto my website, and use the If This, Then That service to push my favourited/starred/fffound/bookmarked items onto a separate Twitter feed, “igorlikes”. I’ll then re-tweet anything that I think others might be interested in via my normal Twitter account, “igorclark”, meaning existing followers can already see stuff I deliberately RT, and can choose to follow the whole stream (should it become any more than a trickle) if they wish.

I’m hoping this might have the side-effect of making me more inclined to write proper blog posts on my site, but I guess we’ll see how that goes.

Breakfast burrito bobby

Igor Clark — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:01:31 -0800

Grabbing some breakfast.

Portland International Airport, Oregon

Blue glint

Igor Clark — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:55:56 -0800

Standin' on the corner.

East 46th St, New York, New York, USA

Mounted police

Igor Clark — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:26:55 -0800

Pair of beautifully turned-out horses.

SW Washington, Portland, OR

I can fix your primal pain.

Igor Clark — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 18:54:35 -0800

It’s time to get this worked out. It won’t take long; there’s no need for extended therapy, risky medications or complex rationalisations, and I won’t charge you a penny. The treatment is brief, concise, and to the point. So let’s begin.

Like many people - so many more than you realise! - for some time now, you’ve been vaguely aware, somewhere deep in your hind-brain, of an unfathomed, unfulfilled desire. A primordial pining, a powerful yearning for understanding, comprehension, enlightenment even; a preternatural realisation that for far too long, your basic appreciation of what might reasonably be described as the definitive British heavy metal band - let alone any kind of respectable working knowledge of the detail of its oft-overlooked œuvre - has been so sorely lacking as to bring gut-wrenching shame upon you and your entire line.

Not only does this ignominious ignorance disgrace you socially, but it leaves you lost, lonely longing; desperate for deliverance from your sorry state of incompleteness, driven to distraction by the certain knowledge that someone, somewhere out there, has carefully curated exactly the collection of aural appetisers which together constitute the musical meal you seek; an introductory repast, an opening into the world of that which salves your soul and soothes your sorrows: the domain of down ‘n’ dirty, rough, ready and willing to rumble rock ‘n’ roll.

The scene is now set; the reason for your subconscious sorrow summarily laid bare, the fix is clear. All you need, to fill the void gnawing at your very core, is for that someone to be made known to you, in order that you might benefit from the balm of that unguent for the unconscious.

So let us tarry no further: I reveal myself to you as that someone! Yes, O weary traveller, I have the cure for your malady, and I present it to you now, for your distraction, delectation and delight: the highlights of 12 years of heavy metal history at a key point in its evolution, stripped of the populist and the filler. Friend, I bring you Motörhead killers, ’75-’87; a Spotify playlist of an hour or so of the best, beefiest, most straight-up tracks from the main proponent of what metal music is really all about: fast, heavy, bluesy rock. Get in there. Knock yourself out. You’ll find your emptiness evaporating immediately.

Holding back the cars

Igor Clark — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:33:14 -0700

Some serious episode apparently in train, these two pairs of police stopped for a swift confabulation - presumably to establish an approach rather than to discuss the day's dramas or plan a trip back to the station for a cuppa - before zooming off, lights ablaze and sirens ablare, leaving a street suddenly devoid of distraction, and a column of cars directly to their own devices.

Clerkenwell Road, London

York Way lights

Igor Clark — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:33:07 -0700

Transporters transporting themselves up the Kings Cross dune.

York Way, Kings Cross, London

Momentary lapse of motion

Igor Clark — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:29:02 -0700

Hanging around the lights near Kings Cross station.

Popped out

Igor Clark — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:36:46 -0700

These two fellow just dropped in to the Horse and Groom, dropped out again, and headed off up the street.

Curtain Road, Shoreditch, London

Union Square is secure

Igor Clark — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:36:46 -0700

Good job, gentlemen

Union Square, New York City, USA

Keystone

Igor Clark — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:36:46 -0700

Exeunt stage left

Tribeca, New York City, USA

Police pod

Igor Clark — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:36:46 -0700

Single-officer enforcement-mobile

West Village, New York City, USA

The Blimp With Laser Eyes

Igor Clark — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:15:07 -0700

Turned out I was in NYC at the time my friends at Breakfast were gearing up to launch their iPad-controlled video blimp at the NY Design Week afterparty on Saturday night (at the Ace Hotel on West 29th Street), and so I was happily recruited in to helping with setup. Cables taped up, comms lines cleared, it went off really well, and seems to have got the guys coverage at Wired blog. Schweeet.

Bad Google? Bad technology journalism, more like

Igor Clark — Sat, 15 May 2010 05:04:00 -0700

There’s a lot being written about Google’s collection of “private data” from WiFi networks using scanning equipment in its Street View cars. The Daily Beast says ”it’s not paranoia if Google is really snooping on you”, and that Google “collected private data from non-password protected Wi-Fi networks”; the Register informs us that “Google may have collected emails and other private information”; BoingBoing says that the search company ‘snooped’ “private data people sent over unencrypted wireless networks”; and on it goes.

Whatever you might think about Google, and whether or not you like the idea of the company holding data on you - let alone of its software as an automated arbiter of whether, for example, your face or car number-plate is correctly excised from the Street View maps - this réportage is disingenuous, and particularly disappointing because it’s coming from such generally solid sources. (I’m glad to note that Ars Technica’s coverage keeps it sensible.)

There’s been plenty of discussion recently of Facebook’s privacy policies, with luminaries like Danah Boyd writing lucidly about the issues there - which is only right - but it seems to be making for an atmosphere in which lazy journalists are playing on people’s reasonable concerns about their online privacy in order to make a big headline.

Of course, this is hardly the first time that that’s happened, and, equally, this isn’t the first instance in which Google’s approach to privacy has also been subject to scrutiny - and in some of those instances, found seriously wanting - but the way in which this particular episode is being presented serves merely to add sludge to already muddy waters, and these particular straits, treacherously complicated though they can seem, are important. The clue to the misrepresentation is in the terminology: “private data”, and “unencrypted”, “non-password protected” WiFi networks.

Obviously Google has a responsibility to ensure its software works properly and doesn’t compromise people. Obviously if it’s engaging in large-scale data collection it has a responsibility to ensure that such collection is done safely and respectfully. The reality of software engineering is that software is written by people, and people make mistakes, even in systems that are designed to look for mistakes made by people. (Obviously, it’s a shame for Google that they’ve opened themselves up through such a mistake to further criticisms about their privacy record, given recent events.)

This, however, is not the real issue. The real issue here is that technology journalists are writing stories implying that Google is secretly snooping on our private lives, on the basis that it’s been collecting information which people have been broadcasting, unencrypted, to the world at large.

This is new ground for most people, and answers to questions regarding whether Google - or indeed anyone with a WiFi card and some software - should be able to do this are not self-evident. It’s complex ground, too; the questions are not just related to technology but also ethics and, consequently, law. Articles such as those quoted above over-simplify, making unstated assumptions which aren’t apparent to many readers, and thus misrepresent this important material to exactly those people who most need to have it correctly represented.

The problem is that we’re diving head-first into a massively more complex information society, predicated on spiralling levels of technological complexity. This opens myriad issues in terms of privacy, data protection and, crucially, the comprehension of these issues by the people most affected by them. Like, if you give a shit about the security or privacy of your information, it’s down to you to take basic precautions like enabling authentication and encryption on your home network. (Let’s not even bother with the fact that the vast majority of these “private” emails make most of their transit in plain sight over the public Internet, encrypted home WiFi or not.) Clearly this makes the issues involved into big stories; technology writers know this, and take it upon themselves to inform their readerships about it. Which is as it should be.

The thing is, this is important, and the people writing about it have a responsibility to inform their readers in a level, even-handed way. If they focus instead on whatever makes the bigger story, because that sells more newspapers/magazines/ad impressions, then they do those readers as great a disservice as the companies about whom they monger their headline-grabbing scares.

Douglas Rushkoff talked compellingly at this year’s SXSW about his “Ten Commandments for a Digital Age”. The main thrust of his talk was that in this new information technology landscape, if we’re not to be completely manipulated by the biases of the technology involved, or that of the technologists who create it, we must either learn to manipulate those systems directly ourselves, or at the least we recognise that technology has biases, and is not neutral.

This clearly applies to previously existing media, as the technology journals are painfully demonstrating: the current wailing about Google’s data-gathering mechanisms seems a pretty clear example of how individual people need to learn to recognise those biases for themselves, because those who profess to inform them about the issues intrinsic to the technological advances are equally beholden to their own, pre-existing biases, amplified by scale and distribution in their new global context. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Don't forget who else was on the yacht

Igor Clark — Wed, 12 May 2010 02:33:00 -0700

It wasn’t just Osborne. There was an infinitely more malevolent, and manifestly less incompetent, presence on board. That’s right, it’s your friend and mine: THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS!

But will the old Bullingdonian’s erstwhile boating companion now take full advantage of this latest nepotistic opportunity - on the back of his hopeless friend’s extraordinary elevation at the hands of a hapless fate - for yet more unelected, avowedly non-partisan, portfolio-less rounds of sinister manipulation at the heart of morally bankrupt government? If so, you’ll be able only to:

» WATCH as his ruthless PFI agenda subsumes further swathes of public service money and control into the pockets of his Big Co. pals!

» SCREAM as, empowered by a notional “mandate” borne of an abortive election, he siphons off ever-increasing percentages of GDP into murky slush funds remote-controlled by corporate fraudsters and large-scale private criminals!

» DESPAIR as healthcare, transport, the Post Office - hell, whatever he can get his hands on - collapse into the grasping, silently merciless hands of international oligarchs, and Maggie’s grim forecast of a British society entirely unsponsored by government finally comes true!

MANDELSON. Coming soon to an opportunistic, mismatched, ethically compromised coalition near you.

Guardian Eyewitness

Igor Clark — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:37:44 -0700

We built this iPad app using the Eyewitness photo series. Steve Jobs referred to it in the pre-amble to his iPhone OS 4.0 launch as "really nice", and "a cool app". I've been touched by the hand of Jobs.

I have decided

Igor Clark — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:18:28 -0700

Bright shoes are where it's at. They force you to be a cheery goon, which is clearly highly desirable. I've gone so far as to throw away my old dull, dark shoes. That ain't me no more.

Drive-by

Igor Clark — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:52:56 -0800

Completely failed to capture the real meat of what was going on here, which was a couple of officers out of the car, questioning the driver they'd pulled out of the car they'd pulled over. They looked a bit jumpy though, so I didn't feel like pushing my luck. Still, nice colours.

Bishopsgate, London

Quo vadis?

Igor Clark — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:52:56 -0800

… asked the two officers of this gentleman. Among a variety of other questions, no doubt.

Dean Street, Soho, London