Cattle Report, June 2013

The Svoboda/Bull Cattle Company now has a herd of 40 heifers.
(click for larger image)
"The cattle have been grazing hard grass pastures for the last few weeks. We have been moving them everyday to new grass within a pasture. They have been doing well." - Scott

Oyster Report - June 2013

Yesterday I performed some maintenance on my oysters that I over wintered at the SPAT facility at Cedar Beach.

I left Greenport at 9am and culled 4x hanging lanterns of oysters into 5x 4-tier lanterns with 20 oysters per tier. Result: 80+80+80+80+50(smaller oysters in final lantern). There were 24 empty shells. There were two floating cages with 50 oysters/cage - - I just scrubbed the marine growth off the outside of those cages. I took 50 oysters home for eating. I returned to Greenport at noon.

Total 2012 oysters living into 2013 season: 520. (Expected 2013 oysters spats: 1000)

2 hours of labor + 2x :30 minutes travel time = 3 hours.

If I value my labor at $20/hr, then $60/520 = ~$0.12/oyster invested in this maintenance cycle.

Removing my travel time, 4.33 oysters received one minute of my attention (=520/120).

Assuming no improvement in my work flow, 50,000 oysters would require 11,547 minutes (=50000/4.33) of maintenance that equals ~192 hours aka 2.5 weeks of service. This an on-the-cuff reality check of my thoughts to nurture a large number of the bivalves.

"x twelve v.1" is latest AR on Junaio

"x twelve v.1" is my latest ARt attempt, channel No. 171744 on Junaio. This 12x loop 3D cylinder object built around a common axis is cast forth by the user in front of where ever (s)he is standing. Like my AZZA series, this 3D object is created in code using a multi-part random number sequence, thus ephemeral, never to be repeated, only a view of the result can be recorded by the mobile device still camera.
x twelve v.1 recorded on iPad2
Using a simple hack of closing the iPad I was able to drag this object created on East 63rd Street into the "F" line subway tunnel, a portion under renovation, many feet below. I like the painterly quality of the higher resolution image. Click on the image and if you agree, or not, let me know.

2013 Heifer Herd

This is the beginning of the Svoboda/Bull Cattle Co. 2013 heifer herd wrangled with care under the watchful eye of Scott Hanson in western Nebraska. These fine animals were purchased at the end of March 2013 from the Ogallala Sale Barn. We will follow an organic practice raising the cattle this summer. We receive our financial support from Pinnacle Bank, Ogallala NE. Note our lazy S backwards B brand.

Please respond with YES or NO

A fragment of an annoying phone call exchange with a bot, an agent of my new health care provider gathering demographic information. The questions are presumptuous and the bot has a hearing disability. I hung up on the bot as no other options were provided.

AR Please Use Other Door

This is an AR Junaio browser screen grab of my augmented reality piece from last night's show Swell Sound & Vision at The Firehouse Space, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The event was organized by Jessica Nissen and Sasha Sumner. Many thanks to Ben Blachnitzky and Felix Bull for their help producing the alpha channel video fire. If you're not in Brooklyn in front of this door sign, then use the show poster below and DIY.

Sneak Peak - tech location review - AR WAR OF 1812

The augmented reality model of the USRC cutter in the 1813 incident is at GPS position mid Hudson River. Crew member Rubin poses to check photo opportunity.


The spirit of Captain James Lawrence appears adjoining his tomb in the Trinity Church yard.


Inflated international (1813) bank notes are floating mid air on Wall Street. The spirit of Cap. Lawrence is strutting down Wall St. celebrating his naval prowess.

Come to Castle Clinton, Battery Park at 2pm on Saturday, April 6, 2013 and co-creator public historian Kathleen Hulser and I will give you a personal tour.

For those who want to sojourn on your own with an iPad/iPhone/Android device, scan this:

Ferry: Battery Powered

This was spotted from the crow's nest today and now I share it with you.

MARCH 22, 2013 — Rolls-Royce plc has signed a contract for the delivery of its Azipull propulsion and control system for a "ferry of the future" that will operate on battery power alone.
The vessel is being built at the Fjellstrand shipyard in Norway, and once in service will be operated by Norwegian ferry operator Norled between Lavik and Oppedal.
. . . . more . . . .

Mount Sharp, MARS

PIA16769: Mount Sharp Panorama in Raw Colors

This mosaic of images from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows Mount Sharp in raw color as recorded by the camera. Raw color shows the scene's colors as they would look in a typical smart-phone camera photo, before any adjustment.

Target Name: Mars
Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun)
Mission:  Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
Spacecraft:  Curiosity
Instrument:  Mastcam
Product Size: 29178 x 4037 pixels (width x height)
Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems
Full-Res TIFF:  PIA16769.tif (353.4 MB)
Full-Res JPEG:  PIA16769.jpg (4.928 MB)

PIA16769.jpg

Earthlings, here is a white balanced image with a blue sky. Does this make you feel more comfortable?

Support the NASA mission with a letters to your elected representatives.

QR codes - a brief investigation

In the process of using a "free" Internet QR code generator for SONic Geography, I have always had a suspicion that a different QR code result would occur depending on the website visited. There are differences. Look below and then read the explanation.

1.deliver.com_URL_10082930.png


2.delivr.com_text_5539161.png


3.goqr.me_qrcode.png


4.qrstuff.com_qrcode.12065485.png


5.the-qrcode-generator.com_qrcode.png

1. = http://delivr.com/2apba_qr
2. = http://cellphonia.org/toronto/
3. = http://cellphonia.org/toronto/
4. = http://cellphonia.org/toronto/
5. = http://cellphonia.org/toronto/

My testing method was provided by QR4 - thank you. Beyond the obvious sneaky redirect in result 1 the explanation of the differences is found in this discussion thread from stackoverflow.com. The variable seems to be the error-detection algorithm.

From my investigation I recommend GoQR.me as they give you control over the QR code parameters mentioned in the stackoverflow thread.

Note the URLs of the "free" QR code generator websites in the QR file name of the .PNG

Wikipedia writes about the QR code standard.

SONic Geography runs April-May, 2013 via NAISA.ca Toronto CANADA.

Sock Ludlow

On a relaxing Saturday morning while listening to Click and Clack on WNYC and reading the Village Voice, I discovered this contest and here's my submission.

Reinventing Payphones in front of Subway's

On the NW corner of Ludlow and Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City a 3D model of a future payphone was positioned, along with many others across the city, in support of the proposal Kara-boothie for the NYC Reniventing Payphones competition.


Looking West


Looking North

Media Bistro talks about the Frog Design vision.

Lazy S Backward B

I was prepping last year's taxes when I came across this photo. In 2012, Terese Svoboda and I briefly owned a small herd of hand picked heifers in Perkins County, Nebraska. Our first choice was not to brand them, but then we had to mark their hides to prevent owner confusion. The brand description is Lazy S Backward B that ironically describes these efforts in raising these animals. You'll need to find me to tell you the story. Giddyup!

SketchUp Pro 3D .obj in Junaio

This is a developer note about using 3D objects created by SketchUp Pro in Junaio GPS channels. Good news, the process is relatively easy. My comments reference these work-n-progress objects. Since they are imperfect they provide some talking points.

Above is a place holder building for another building that you see as a multicolored splinter piercing the right hand frame of the image. The intent here was to build a simple 3D object near my studio of the 18th Century Federal/City Hall, New York City and later place it over the current historic landmark Federal Hall, the splinter 1.2 miles away.
1. With SketchUp I was able to quickly construct a rough building. However, note that I got the roof pitch wrong, see the roof peak over far end of the building. I used a 256x256 .png file as a single image decal on the ends of the model.
2. I painted the rough model using a gaudy pallet and paint bucket so I could quickly see the 3D shape without having to export the walls and roof into Photoshop, a complexity for another post, and then re-import. However, when I put the 256x256 .png decaal on the building ends, the .png images strobes with shifting pixelation patterns when viewed through the Junaio browser on my iPad2. Perhaps this effect would be an design element asset in another model.
3. I had no drawing of the side of the 18th century building so I tiled the building sides with the SketchUp Pro 'white shingle' texture. The result looked okay in SketchUp Pro, but exported poorly as an .obj. Notice there is just a bottom row stripe of the 'white shingle.'
4. The building is floating. I need to reposition the building to the 'ground' in lat/lon attribute code associated with the object in Junaio.


Above is a 3D sketch of a future public phone booth that as a stand-in for the final 3D object I plan to use in the NYC Reinventing Payphones competition due mid-February 2013.
1. Again note my use of bright colors and bucket in SketchUp Pro to quickly define surfaces and edges.
2. The 'ad' on the side of the phone booth strobes with a shifting pixelation pattern. I just got lucky and took this photo when the image was whole--it only took me 15 attempts. But the strobbing might be more appropriate here because it mimics the video ads that now appear on the sides of some public structures.

Placeholder Federal Hall NY 1790

As a placeholder for the final 3D object of the Federal Hall building circa 1812, I have built this model using SketchUp Pro with end elevation provided by Amos Doolittle engraving from Wikipedia article. The final 3D object will be included in the Cutter v. Smuggler AR installation.

Pauline+Scot+Steve Hangout

Pauline Oliveros, Scot Gresham-Lancaster and I hangout tonight catching up on network music and challenging network latency with silly hats.

Here are some links we shared:
static.echonest.com/InfiniteGangnamStyle/
www.alesis.com/iodock

Drill Ship Kulluk on the rocks

I support the efforts of Earthjustice to curb arctic ocean oil drilling. Shell oil response. Alaska Dispatch. However, I am fascinated by this customized ship design for specialized work.

Cutter v. Smuggler

The New York Council for the Humanities has provided a partial funding grant to create the augmented reality (AR) channel "Cutter v. Smuggler" for the Augmented Incidents of the War of 1812 series by Kathleen Hulser, public historian, and Steve Bull, user experience designer and AR coder. Harvestworks is the fiscal sponsor for the Hulser/Bull team. The channel "Cutter v. Smuggler" will be available for FREE to the public by the Junaio Augmented Reality Browser. For more information on this Hulser/Bull project read their blog at The War of 1812 - 1814.

Salvaging SANDY Flotsam

On a beach under the Manhattan Bridge I have been unbolting the floats from a piece of worn flotsam, a gift of Hurricane Sandy. I plan to re-attach each float to a oyster grow-out bag/pouch/cage. Later, I will provide photos of this result--see my earlier posts on my oyster growing efforts in Greenport NY.

Side note: Hurricane is one of the few Carib and Mayan native people words in the English language. Let us not forget that the Carib native people were exterminated in the Caribbean Islands because they violently resisted enslavement. Perhaps you are more familiar with the enslaved force that was bought and brought to provide the 12/7/365 labor.

Winter Wheat 2012-2013

Organic farm report: I have approximately 100 acres of winter wheat planted in Perkins County, Nebraska. This photo shows the state of the crop on December 23, 2012. When I first walked the field I could not see the wheat shoots anywhere and then I noticed the thread like leaves you might discover in this photo. Overall, there were not many shoots. Hopefully there will be enough moisture this winter and in the spring to permit a successful harvest of this dryland crop. On the photo horizon the sandy band is the southern edge of the sandhills.