How the US National Archives digitizes documents and records
There's an interesting part of this video that shows Adolf Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun, and her personal videos from being alongside Hitler. The US National Archives has digitized a good portion of them.
What would happen in the aftermath of the digital information age?
Wow, watch this short video from Nimblefox about a future where the digital information age collapses. It's eye-opening and thought-provoking. Especially when I remember that almost everything I do nowadays is digital. And as a photographer, I hardly ever make prints unless they are part of a specific body of work. But all the in-between shots and all of the "less important" stuff actually is important to me. What if I lost it all to a systematic failure of disks? Freaky! It certainly makes me think twice about storing everything on my computer. Maybe I should start printing everything. But...the clutter. Yikes.
NYC Digital Playbook outlines goals and principles for digital city services
Hey, this is nice and encouraging to see on a city government level. NYC has published an official NYC Digital Playbook as a guide/reference for anybody making digital apps and services for city residents. The playbook highlights 12 goals to strive for when creating digital services. Some of these are obvious, like making services available to all people, testing services before launch, and engaging the public should the need arise.
While the playbook was made specifically with NYC in mind, I think any designer can make use of its suggestions to make better services for any city. Check it out here.
Shooting with the Phase One IQ280
This past week was an interesting one. I shot with Phase One's IQ280 for the first time and the experience was quite good. I haven't shot with medium format digital in quite a while (the last time I did it was with the now-aged P45) and I remember now while so many photographers have moved on from the format.
Let me be clear though: There is plenty reason to shoot medium format digital -- quality being at the top of that list (versatility probably being the 2nd) -- but the cost vs quality argument here is becoming harder to justify in an age where DSLR's are quickly catching up to not just the quality but the size of files as well. And for companies hiring photographers to do a job, I can see why medium format is hard to justify -- a digital back and medium format camera setup is significantly more than a DSLR setup. It just increases the budget that much more from a production point.
With that said though, I really liked shooting with this Hasselblad + IQ280 setup. There's nothing quite like the solid, heavy feel of a medium format digital camera in your hands. That huge shutter sound and vibration, the build quality, the amazing touchscreen back -- it's everything I love about digital photography. All the nerdy bits plus all the image quality I want. Obviously, I'm not a client, so if I could, I would always opt for this camera. But alas, sometimes speed and budget trump all else. So until next time...!
CGP Grey on digital encryption
CGP Grey drops some very good knowledge on digital encruption and the recent fight for it in specific relation to the San Bernardino massacre and the encrypted iPhone the FBI wanted unlocked by Apple.
It's a good reminder that even though our fight seems strong at the moment for digital encryption the same isn't always necessarily true for other countries where hackers are happy to hack away without consequence. Having one backdoor vulnerability, no matter how good the intention is, is a bad, bad, bad form of encryption for all.
The world's first digital wearable pin
Pins Collective is asking for support on Kickstarter to create the world's first digital pin. An interesting idea that will surely fall in place next to the forgotten digital picture frames of recent past.