onfocus

The beach at Devil's Punchbowl near Newport

Saturday night sk and I went to hear Dennis Kucinich speak at the Old World Deli here in Corvallis. I hadn't heard more than a couple soundbites from him on TV before, so I didn't really know what to expect. I was very impressed with his message, his speaking ability, and the way he related to the crowd. Here are a few photos from the talk:



Even though Kerry is the party's foregone conclusion, Kucinich explained that he's still in the race to try to get the Democratic party to adopt a more progressive platform. If Kucinich wins one or two states at the end of the primary, (Oregon votes late on May 18th) it could impact the positions Kerry has to take to win the election. His speech was energizing and it was great to hear a national politician taking positions that I believe in. It was also surprising to me to be in a crowded room full of people with similar views. You mean I'm not the only one?

Here's a local story about the event: Kucinich rallies Demos in Corvallis.

Today sk said, "It doesn't feel like spring without pictures of flowers on your site." Here are a few so it can feel that much more like spring around here.

What's happening to the music portion of the South by Southwest festival? If I would have stayed for music, I know I would have been at the Ozomatli show. They're one of the best live bands I've seen. But it sounds like things got out of control at the end of the night. Taking the music out to 6th street after the bar closes isn't anything new. Brave Combo took their encore to the street in 2000 when the bar said stop, and it rocked. They played for 20 minutes or so with no amps, and there was no riot gear required. Maybe Austin is cracking down now, but arresting band members and spraying the audience with pepper spray seems excessive.

There are eyewitness accounts and some conversation about what this says about the character of Austin at the Ozomatli discussion board. There's video of the event at News 8 Austin: SXSW band's arrest raises questions about noise ordinance.

A couple of animated pictures of Austin during the day vs. night: downtown (344 kB), highway (343 kB). These were taken at the new Hilton downtown. I wish I would have taken both day and night photos of this new building:



The top lights up.

These are sad times for developers in Oregon. I just spotted this job listing on craigslist:

We are looking for a developer/designer who is highly skilled of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP.NET, PHP, Java, C++, C, Unix/Linux, Windows, Macintosh OS X, SQL (Oracle, MS SQL, MySQL & PostgreSQL please),UML. Must have BS in Computer Science, marketing,sales, business and writing experience a plus, preference given to those with an MBA. Must also have excellent design and artistic skills, video (filming and editing) experience a plus.

Compensation: $10/hour

Maybe it's a joke/typo, but I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't.

A centralized option for online identity management: TypeKey.

I'm home from Austin and I brought an intense sinus infection with me. Luckily this hit at the end of my trip rather than the beginning. It was a great time, and I'll post a conference wrap-up as soon as I can breathe again.

I'm off to Austin for South by Southwest bright and early tomorrow with an evening arrival. I'm looking forward to lots of great geeky conversations and fun. South by Southwest was the first conference to devote a panel to weblogs (in 2000), and many early adopters and people who helped develop and spread the format in the early days have been attending ever since. (And lots of people who inspired me to work on the web were attending before I even realized there was an interactive side of the festival.) This year I counted eight panels that are specifically about weblogs, with lots of overlapping topics. It'll be great to talk with people I only see at sxsw, and hear about ideas, projects, and life in general in person. I always leave inspired.

I'm also going to be speaking on two panels. On Sunday, March 14th, I'll be discussing the rise of aggregation as a means of measuring popularity with Erik Benson and Cameron Marlow. And on Monday, I'm going to ask Wendy Seltzer and Peter Kennedy lots of questions about where weblogs and law intersect. My speaking schedule means I'm going to miss many panels I want to see, and I hope people share their notes again this year. If you're going to be at sxsw, I'll see you there!

(psst. If you're going to be at sxsw with a cell phone or mobile device that can take pictures, there's at least one group space to share them. And you can watch this page to see them.)

Some friends in Nebraska bought a box of old photos at an auction. They found seven photos of the Oregon coast from 1937 in the mix, and they sent them my way so I could see them. They include some familiar scenes of Newport and Waldport. I have no idea who the photographer is, but it looks like some sort of professional vacation postcard collection (though they are actual photographs, not prints). I scanned them tonight so I could have a copy, and I thought other Oregonians may be interested too. Here are the full photos with no color adjustments:



They're showing up as a bit more yellow on the screen than they are in real life.

The pictures are very small, about 4 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches. I liked seeing the scans, because I could suddenly zoom in and see more detail in the photos. I've highlighted a few sections by cropping the photo, and taking out all of the color. The details are in a separate gallery here:



(This Alsea Bay Bridge in Waldport doesn't exist anymore. It was replaced several years ago with a new bridge.) You can toggle back and forth between the source photo and detail by clicking on the picture. Each photo has the year hand-written on the back. The photo of Newport Beach has an additional message, "What a thrill to see all this." I feel the same way about these old photos.