Trip to Austin

Our EyeFi/Mifi test: How did it go?

Last week,I wrote about an experiment in new media we were working on at the Archdicoese of Boston. My colleague, George Martell, a photojournalist, traveled to Washington, DC, with a group of Boston pilgrims for the 37th March for Life. He took along his usual panoply of gear, plus two new bits: an Eye-fi card for his camera that transmits photos to the Internet as they are taken and a MiFi, a portable wireless modem that connects to the Internet over mobile phone networks.

So how did it go? You can see for yourself at www.facebook.com/BostonCatholic or www.flickr.com/BostonCatholic. We got lots of photos of the three-day journey and, for the most part, they wereo nline and available for friends and family back home to follow along within a minute or two of the shutter closing.

I say, “for the most part” because we did have one glitch at the worst possible time. We only got a relative handful photos of the actual March for Life because the particular Eye-Fi card we’re using isn’t compatible with RAW format photos. (Tangent: RAW photos are the complete image files recorded by the camera’s sensor. Most point-and-shoot cameras do a lot of image-processing and compressing to make your photos look nice and make them small as they go, but serious photographers like RAW files because it lets them do all the manipulating and processing after the fact. The trade-off is that the files can be huge; an a professional SLR, they can be 25MB each or more.)

Unfortunately, during the Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception the night before the March, George accidentally switched the camera to RAW mode while adjusting his white balance. The next day, he spent most of the March trying to figure out why the camera wasn’t transmitting his photos. By the time he realized his error, there wasn’t a lot of March left for him to photograph.

But no matter. We got lots of great photos of the pilgrims throughout the three-day trip and the many, many people who followed along were very happy with the results. Rest assured, we’re hoping to do a lot more of this type of thing and since we learn by doing, it will only get better.

(Photo credit: George Martell/The Catholic Foundation) May not be reproduced without permission. All rights reserved.

Archdiocese of Boston breaks new ground in new media

Over the next few days, if you go to www.facebook.com/BostonCatholic or www.flickr.com/BostonCatholic or www.twitter.com/BostonCatholic, you can follow along in real-time with the pilgrimage from the Archdiocese of Boston of the Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults (ONE) to the March for Life in Washington, DC. The pilgrims left by bus this morning at 6am and will return on Saturday, and will take part in tomorrow’s march.

Tagging along is my colleague, George Martell, a photographer who will be documenting the pilgrimage the whole time. The best part is that he and I have put together some technology that allows him to have the photos available online within one minute of taking them. This allows those of us who couldn’t go—as well as the families of those who are taking part—to travel along virtually, seeing everything they see almost instantaneously. This is unprecedented, I think. I don’t know of any media organization, never mind diocese, that is

How did we do this? We put together two pieces of technology that allow us to take the photos from George’s camera and transmit them wirelessly over the Internet from any location that has a cellphone signal.

The first piece of tech we’re using is the Eye-Fi memory card. This is just the standard SD memory storage card that’s probably in your own digital camera except that these geniuses at Eye-Fi have figured out a way to cram a WiFi wireless access card in there too! (That’s what allows your laptop computer to connect to the Internet without a network cable.) The Eye-Fi card also has the smarts to upload certain photos that you choose whenever it’s near an Internet wireless hotspot and to upload them to whatever service you want: email, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube (if you’re taking video), and more.

That’s great if you know you’re going to be near a publicly accessible wireless hotspot, like a cafe or library, but that won’t give us the near real-time photos we’re looking for. You never know when you’re going to find a hotspot.

That where the second piece of tech comes in: the Verizon MiFi. This nifty gadget is about the size of an iPod nano and can fit in your shirt pocket. What it does is acts like a mobile wireless hotspot. Up to five computers or other Wifi devices can connect through it to the Internet using Verizon’s data network, the same network that allows smartphone like the Motorola Droid to be little Internet-connected computers.

So, as George walks down the streets of Washington, DC, with the MiFi in his pocket and Eye-Fi in his camera, his photos will upload to the Internet automatically and be posted to www.flickr.com/BostonCatholic within a minute. Once it’s there, I will put on proper titles and a caption, tag it, and drop it in a set. Over at www.facebook.com/BostonCatholic, that page is automatically grabbing the photos, butI will also be sending out manual updates to fans, alerting them of new, interesting photos. And we’ll also use Twitter as a means of providing even more updates.

Like I said, I don’t think anyone is doing anything like this and I’m very excited to be part of this. I’m also looking forward to other applications of this technology in the future.

Ten years ago, my brother John lead a pilgrimage from Boston to World Youth Day 2000 in Rome and on that trip we were also on the cutting edge of technology, taking photos each day, rushing back to the hotel at night, creating web pages by hand and uploading photos so the families back home could follow along. This is the natural extension of that project, except now there are tools in place to take a lot of the extra work and hassle out of it, while also making the whole enterprise nearly instantaneous. I love living in the future.

Caption: Pilgrims waiting for their buses this morning to take them to the March for Life.
Photo copyright by George Martell, The Catholic Foundation. Used with permission. flic.kr/p/7xhED2

Fixing iTunes error 9809

Dems would defy will of the voters

The special election to replace the late US Sen. Ted Kennedy is one week from today and Democrats are saying that, if Republican Scott Brown were to beat the odds and win, they plan to defy the law and stall his swearing-in until after a vote on the Democrats’ healthcare “reform” boondoggle. That way, interim Sen. Paul Kirk can be the key 60th vote to ensure passage of the bill, where Brown would be a reliable vote against it.

The justification for the delay is that the Massachusetts Secretary of State has to certify the election, which they claim would take at least 10 days to give absentee ballots time to be counted. But that hasn’t always been the case.

In contrast, Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Lowell) was sworn in at the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 18, 2007, just two days after winning a special election to replace Martin Meehan. In that case, Tsongas made it to Capitol Hill in time to override a presidential veto of the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

This isn’t the first time the Democrats have played politics with a US Senate in Massachusetts seat. In 2004, when John Kerry was the Democrat nominee for president and Republican Mitt Romney was governor, the Democrat legislature changed the law to take away the governor’s ability to appoint a replacement in case of vacancy, but in 2009 when Ted Kennedy was dying and Democrat Deval Patrick was governor, the Democrat legislature changed the law back so that the appointment power was the governor’s again.

That’s par for the course in Masscahusetts where the will of the people is regularly denied. When voters overwhelmingly voted to reduce a “temporary” tax increase that had been in effect for more than a decade, the Legislature simply ignored them. When voters demanded the right to vote on whether we want the bizarre construction of same-sex “marriage”, both the Legislature and the courts denied them the right. What’s so frustrating is that voters who are being denied their participation and representation in their own government fail to get outraged enough to vote out the politicians who are taking advantage.

Maybe it will become so blatant that even the blindest Democrat partisan will wake up and vote in his own best interest.

Photo credit: http://flic.kr/p/7kUonn

2009 Retrospective in Pictures

Melanie put together this slideshow giving an overview of our past year. I think it will most appeal to family and friends.

Germs are good for kids

One area of parenting philsophy in which Melanie and I definitely agree is that we don’t obsess about kids getting dirty, touching dirty things, or eating things that, shall we say, made a detour between plate and mouth. It’s not that we want to encourage uncouth habits, but we recognize that we don’t live in sterile haitats and that for eons kids have been doing just fine rolling in and even consuming some small amounts of dirt and dirty stuff.

It turns out that science supports our parenting instincts. According to a new study out of Northwestern University, dirt and being dirty is good for kids. In fact, exposure to common germs and bacteria as children can lead to cardiovascular health as adults.

“Contrary to assumptions related to earlier studies, our research suggests that ultra-clean, ultra-hygienic environments early in life may contribute to higher levels of inflammation as an adult, which in turn increases risks for a wide range of diseases,” says Thomas McDade, associate professor of anthropology at Northwestern University and lead author of the study.

I think this is a case of science supporting common sense. You can’t build up an immuniy if you aren’t exposed to germs. And if you don’t have an immunity against the small stuff, you’re in big trouble when you’re exposed to the heavy-duty stuff. The study says the same thing, but only in a way that a biology Phd would say it.

“In the U.S we have this idea that we need to protect infants and children from microbes and pathogens at all possible costs,” McDade concludes. “But we may be depriving developing immune networks of important environmental input needed to guide their function throughout childhood and into adulthood.

Yeah, what he said. No, scoot along outside and make some mud pies. And finish this apple you dropped on the floor. It’s good for you.

Book review: Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin

It’s no secret I’m not a fan of President Barack Obama, his policies, or his ideology. From the campaign through Election Day to Inauguration Day and through his first year in office I’ve predicted that his administration would be a disaster for the US. I’ve also long held that despite his vaunted claims of “a new day” in politics and Hope and Change sweeping through Washington, DC, what we’d see is the same, old Democrat cronyism and liberal “gimme, gotcha” politics.

And, as sure as the rain, that’s what we got. In Culture of Corruption, Michell Malkin lays out the facts on the corruption rampant in Team Obama, among his friends and cronies in both Washington and Chicago, and even including the First Lady and his Vice President.

This isn’t 300-pages of ranting and raving, full of hatred and plain ol’ partisan dislike for the president of another party. Instead, Malkin takes us through the list of Obama cronies, all his appointees (including the record number of failed appointees), the fundraisers, the hangers-on, the cozy politicians, and the special interest groups that have his ear. Malkin has meticulously researched her subject: 300 pages of text are followed by more than 70 pages of endnotes, documenting each fact.

It’s the sheer enormity of the list of corruption and ethical failings that make Malkin’s point. Anyone one (or a few) of these instances would be unfortunate, but by the time I was halfway done with the book I couldn’t believe how much of it there was and how much of this the media had turned a blind eye to. And as I said, it’s not just partisan raving. Republicans come in for a fair share of criticism, including those who are not on the Obama team. But it’s Obama’s circle that bears the most scrutiny.

Not every item listed is a potential crime, far from it. Many could be just marked up to imprudence or even just the way business is done in Washington. But that’s just it: Malkin shows clearly through direct quotes how Obama promised the exact opposite while running for the office. He promised the most ethical administration in history. Instead, it may be the most ethically challenged. The sheer mass of page after page of insider dealing lobbyists buying influence, politicians getting sweetheart deals for buddies at taxpayer expense. It’s the worst kind of politics.  I just wish more people read books like these. I wish we could have read it before the election.

But read it now and be informed and tell your friends and family. Maybe in 2010 we can reduce this party’s stranglehold on DC, curbing their lust for power, and in 2012 we can put someone else in office who really will have the most ethical administration in history. We can always hope.

Cheap sunglasses

Back in May, when I found out that I was going to need prescription eyeglasses for the first time, I wrote about the fact that it’s possible to buy very inexpensive eyeglasses online. And by that I mean $25 for the whole package versus $200 or more. Since most vision insurance plans have a limit on how much they’ll reimburse you for new glasses and often limit you to a new pair every two years, these inexpensive glasses could be a very useful way to replace lost or broken glasses or to keep a spare pair around. And most of my online research found satisfied customers of the major online retailers.

Yet after all this research, I didn’t actually get around to ordering cheap eyeglasses for myself until December. It was always one thing or another and I had a hard time picking a style and so on. But finally I decided that I need a spare set of glasses in case I lost or broke mine—let’s just say we’ve had a few close calls with the kids—and I could really use some sunglasses. I dealt with the summertime sun, but the glare off the snow in the winter was really what convinced me.

That decided, I picked out a pair of regular glasses and a pair of sunglasses. And since it was only a couple of dollars to add them, for the regular glasses I added the option of the magnetically attached sunglasses. I wasn’t sure I’d like them, but I figured at that price, why not?

Luckily I’d thought ahead about to this very moment and I’d asked my optometrist for my prescription when I’d first gone in, even then I had to get the all-important pupillary distance by looking over her shoulder. Eye doctors don’t like you buying your glasses online for a lot cheaper than they’re selling them.

Anyway, I ordered my glasses from Zenni Optical. Both glasses, including options like magnetic sunshade, anti-refletive coating and the like, with shipping came to a total of $60. That’s about $30 per pair of prescription glasses! The order was placed on December 8. On December 23, I received an email notification that my glasses had shipped from California. I received them via First Class mail on December 28. Not a bad turnaround.

So the all-important question: How are they? I really like them. The next time I order sunglasses I’m going to make sure I get ones where the lenses are a little larger. That’s the downside of ordering online: not being able to try them on before buying. I’m also trying to figure out how to adjust the other glasses so they don’t slide down my nose. Another downside: No optometrist to provide the final fitting. But then I just saved hundreds of dollars for the price of those slight problems. And to answer the next question, Yes, I will be buying my next pair of glasses from online too.

Holy Family: Homeless or Lost Reservation?

One of the many myths surrounding Christmas and its celebration is the idea that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were homeless. This “fact” is used today as a sugue into a discussion of the plight of the homeless, especially in what is in the northern reaches of the northern hemisphere, a dangerously cold season.

The most recent appearance of this myth comes in a column by Boston Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis headlined “A homeless problem 2,000 years old.” Gelzinis is recounting a recent religious service at an Episcopalian church in Boston dedicated to the homeless and those who serve them.

Let me be clear: I think this is a good thing. We should pray for the homeless and we should care for them as well. No one should be homeless. But you do your cause no good when you espouse comepletely ridiculous assertions and comparisons.

The general public, scurrying about for a last-minute Christmas bargain, seemed largely oblivious to the fact that the story of Christmas is the story of a homeless family.

Joseph, Mary, and Joseph weren’t homeless. They had a home in Nazareth, but they went on a trip to Bethlehem, where there was no room at the local hotel. If the Holy Family was homeless, then every traveler heading home for the holiday this week who gets stranded in an airport by weather, whose airline reservations are lost, or whose hotel unexpectedly fills up is homeless, regardless of the home, apartment, or condominium they will return to next week. You’d be more accurate to use the Nativity as a means to highlight the plight of the beleagured tourist.

But the ridiculousness doesn’t end there. The minister comes up with another whopper.

“Hundreds of (homeless) bodies later, hundreds of condos later,” Tiernan seethed, “we’re still holding services like this one. In a few short days, we are about to welcome into the world the world’s first homeless little boy.”

What? Does he mean to suggest that off all the tens or hundreds of millions of people born before Jesus, that he was the first homeless little boy? What about the tribes of Israel who wandered in the desert for 40 years after leaving Egypt. I bet there were some homeless little boys among them.

For that matter, what about Adam and Eve? After breaking the terms of their lease, their Landlord evicted them from their garden-view dwelling, and they had to sweat and toil to make ends meet afterward.

Homelessness is indeed a problem, one which we should all try to alleviate and address in the ways that will actually accomplish some good. One of the activists quoted in the story notes that he remembers when there were no homeless shelters in Massachusetts and now there are 150. I think he means it like it’s a bad thing. But the fact is that over the past 50 years a big social safety net has been created to help the homeless. Indeed, there are many more homeless today than there were 50 years ago, and the reason for that is multi-faceted: Mass de-institutionalization of the mentally ill that callously shoved them into the streets; inflated housing markets that put housing out of reach of many and then cast others out of their homes when the bubble burts; massive increases in overall tax burdens that eat up income that could go toward adequate housing; and so on.

We should pray for all those who have no shelter, just as the Holy Family had to seek temporary shelter on the first Christmas. But let’s not do them the disservice of distorting what really happened for the sake of making a social justice point.

Photo by Thomas Hawk - http://flic.kr/p/5pJjuy

The Curry Favor

Ever since my bachelor days I’ve been a fan of Indian curries made at home for dinner. Back then, it was not unknown for me to eat tikka masala, vindaloo, or korma four or five times a week.

I’d picked up the habit after a series of priests from India had come for several summers and stayed in the rectory where I lived. At least a few were cooks and they introduced me to their native cuisine.

Now when I make curry it’s rarely from scratch but it’s also never straight from a box or jar. I use commercial curry paste but add other ingredients as well. And I almost never make it exactly the same way twice.

Lately I’ve been adding curry powder at the simmer stage. In order to boost that flavor. At the end I always add the traditional garam masala, which boosts the flavor depth. And tonight I grated a chunk of ginger and added with onions to sauté.

I love curry, as you might guess. Melanie claims I’m addicted. All I know is that on nights when I make it, the leftovers begin to call to me about 9pm and I can’t resist.

But who can blame me? I wish I could properly thank those priests who introduced me to homemade curry those summers. You might say they “curried” favor from me.

  Posted via email  from Domenico’s posterous 

Our cold, snowy, windy, Christmas-time blizzard

Shock! Tolls rise, Mass. Pike usage drops

Once again, our liberal solons and their coatholders are surprised by human nature and economic reality. For the second year in a row, the Massachusetts Turnpike has seen a drop in the number of users, only the second time in its history that we’ve seen the double dip. That’s resulted in a decline in revenue and a scramble to prop up the bloated budget for another patronage-laden state agency.

Of course, the recession has to take some blame. When 10 percent of residents are unemployed, that’s going to affect the numbers of people on the road. Although many people I know who regularly drive state roads say that they’re just as crowded and busy as they ever been. But that’s just anecdotal.

“The lower numbers are primarily a function of the economic climate. We are in the worst economic times since the Great Depression, and fewer drivers are using our roads,” said Adam Hurtubise, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. “Fewer vehicles on the turnpike means that the department receives less toll revenue.”“

But unemployment doesn’t tell the whole story. In fact, two years ago, we were told that because of falling revenues and increased costs at the same Mass. Turnpike Authority, they would have to raise toll rates yet again. In 2001, toll rates were doubled to $1 for cars on most roads and to $3 in the harbor tunnels. Two years, right before the big drop in ridership, those tolls were raised again to $1.75 and the harbor tunnels have essentially more than doubled because they are now $3.50 and for the first time are assessed going in and out of Boston. A trip to the airport now costs $7.00 in 2009 compared to $1.50 in 2000. And some politicians are talking about raising them again!

The fact is that the rising tolls have led to people avoiding the Turnpike for their daily commute and driving about town. I know that when I was still commuting from Salem to Brighton and I heard the first rumblings of plans to raise tolls, I researched alternate routes that would avoid the Turnpike. And while I knew I would be getting more company on those roads, the slightly increased time would be worth the hundreds of dollars saved per year by avoiding the tolls. Thankfully my daily drive from Holbrook to Braintree is on city streets.

In 2006, the conservative, Massachusetts-based Pioneer Institute released a report of their analysis of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (PDF), its effect on the economy of Massachusetts, and its future. Their unsurprising conclusion is that the collection of tolls is a net drain on the state economy and that the toll-collection system actually saps money from road maintenance, i.e. that there would be more money to maintain the roads—the putative reason for the agency—if there were no tolls.

The Turnpike tolls are another sap on the banks accounts of the average citizen, who is being drained from a thousand taxes, big and small. So now the taxpayer is fighting back in the only way he knows how: avoiding the taxable behavior.

As usual, this confounds the liberal politician. As I’ve noted before, liberals seem to think that you can raise taxes on people again and again and they’ll just keep paying. But basic economic knowledge tells us that people act in their own best interest. And thus it’s a never-ending cycle of raising taxes and watching revenues fall. You’d think they’d get it after a while.

Incidentally, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority no longer exists as a separate entity, but has been folded into the state transportation department, but it continues on in spirit. Not much has changed as far as the pork and patronage are concerned. As usual, it’s a reform in name only, intended to mollify critics and voters.

Photo by wallyg - http://flic.kr/p/eMuBL

The problem with Mac software promotional bundles

The problem with so many of these Mac software bundles, like MacUpdate Promo is I either own the apps already, I have competitors’ software that do the same things, or I don’t care about the functionality the apps provide (don’t do eBay auctions, for example). Most often there are one or two applications I might be interested in but the $50 price tag for the whole bundle isn’t worth it for the one or two I want.

  Posted via email  from Domenico’s posterous 

The Christmas light bar has been raised

I have not yet grown tired of these elaborate Christmas light displays each year. This guy (and it’s always a guy, isn’t it?) takes it to the next level by making it a Guitar Hero game. Awesome.

  Posted via email  from Domenico’s posterous