Accept no substitutes

Author: Paul (Page 118 of 147)

Hubo at NextFest

Move over Asimo, Hubo is more human and less of a puppet and more of a robot. The developer, Dr. Jun-ho Oh of the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, says that Hubo has three big advantages over other robots.
First Hubo is Korean.
Second Hubo has five fingers that can work independently.
Third Hubo has no backpack or other restrictions.
My fourth would be that Hubo is motivated by “artistic rather than purely engineering concerns.”

There are other differences. Hubo took only 2 years to complete while Asimo took nearly 15. Hubo cost about $1 million (US$) to build while Asimo cost over $15 million. The Hubo team was a small quick team of only about 5 developers (says Oh).

When we were at the NextFest preview, Hubo was locked up in customs in Anchorage. So we went back specifically to see him in “person” Hubo has very fluid movements and does an amusing version of Korean Tai Chi. He does have trouble walking on soft surfaces tho.

The most promising and delightful development at NextFest was the interchange between David Hanson and Dr. Oh. David is already conspiring with Oh to add a Philip K Dick like pliable face and AI to Hubo. Since, according to Hanson, the PKDA (Philip K Dick Andriod) only requires some AA batteries to power it, the face and brain could drop right on Hubo with not too much reengineering.

Odd Moves in the Cosmos (Club)

Staying in the Cosmos Club during our trip to DC for the Computerworld Awards was a kind of special (and perhaps out-of-time) experience for us. But it was something else for Republican conman Jack Abramoff. During the Senate hearings into his defrauding of various Indian tribes (and others), email between Abramoff and a conservative religious leader turned to awards and to the Cosmos Club as the Washington Post reports:

“I hate to ask you for your help with something so silly but I’ve been nominated for membership in the Cosmos Club, which is a very distinguished club in Washington, DC, comprised of Nobel Prize winners, etc.,” Abramoff wrote. “Problem for me is that most prospective members have received awards and I have received none. I was wondering if you thought it possible that I could put that I have received an award from Toward Tradition with a sufficiently academic title, perhaps something like Scholar of Talmudic Studies?”

There were titters in the audience as Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) read aloud the e-mail, then outright laughter as he continued reading: “Indeed, it would be even better if it were possible that I received these in years past, if you know what I mean.”

The rabbi, conservative radio host Daniel Lapin, gave his blessing. “I just need to know what needs to be produced,” he wrote. “Letters? Plaques?”

“The point of all of this,” Dorgan said, “is there’s a lot of deception going on.”

Sadly Abramoff sounds like the three friends — lion, scarecrow and tinman — who visit the Wizard of Oz and leave changed forever by their awards — medal, certificate and heart. The difference is of course that the three friends had shown that they were brave, intelligent and compassionate during their trials and adventures. Abramoff does not.

A follow-up email from Abramoff (not in the Post but from Seattle Post Intelligence) shows a more desperate and more resourceful Abramoff:

The next day, Abramoff to Lapin: “Probably just a few clever titles of awards, dates and that’s it. As long as you can be the person to verify them (or we can have someone else verify one and you the other), we should be set. Do you have any creative titles or should I dip into my bag of tricks?”

No one has reported whether Abramoff was admitted to the Cosmos Club or not.

Domesticating Chicago

Last night we took in a great Second City etc show “From Fear to Eternity” (thanks for the great suggestion Fred). This and the note from WillR on the post below reminded me of some of the oddities that I saw on Navy Pier on Thursday.

The early Second City folks did a diner skit about a Chicago eatery called the Billy Goat Tavern (or locally BGT). The BGT still exists was WillR describes it, but there is also a BGT out on Navy Pier that is tamed down and living off its notoriety. The awning reads “cheezeborger. cheezeborger. chips … no fries” It’s hardly the greasy burger burner that Belushi and Aykroyd visited while working at Second City. There are now two other BGTs in Chicagi besides the original and the Navy Pier versions.

A similar fate has struck what was once Chicago’s best jazz club. I heard Dizzy Gillespie play Joe Segal’s in the Blackstone Hotel some years back. A few years later, I made it a point to stay at the Blackstone and to go to Joe’s smokey and authentic and acousticly wonderful room again. Since then the Blackstone was bought by the Transcendental Meditation folks who kicked out smoking, drinking and jazz as they remodeled the hotel. Joe went looking for a home and found one up on Rush Ave (a name that would surely have been appreciated by some of the talent that played the original Joe’s). But there is also a tamed Joe’s called Joe’s Bebop Cafe and Jazz Emporium — out on Navy Pier.

But the domestication of the Hog Butcher to the World is even more easily seen when you take a walk down the Miracle Mile. Yes, it’s a friendly shopping district full of the best stores — the best stores found in any upscale mall. Try looking for something unique to Chicago and you’ll see what I mean. The restaurants are even parts of chains. We did find some local places tucked away and with the help of you folks who gave us some great suggestions — like last night’s late dinner at Vong’s Thai Kitchen (thanks for that suggestion Scott).

Faces of Chicago

Chicago knows how to put on good faces. I’ve been impressed about how faces are used by art and technology working together at least three times in the past 24 hours.

First, the great and somewhat eerie Philip K Dick robot whose facial movements were incredibly real. But wait there’s more. Dick also scanned to room for faces and locked in on each one until he could recognize the person speaking to him.

Second, the two 50 foot Crown Fountains (and on a day like today the Crown Wading Pool and Shower). These are constructed of glass blocks with a metal structure inside. Water runs down the blocks on three sides (most of the time). The side of the towers that face each other are screens for internally projected videos. These videos are the faces of various Chicagoans who cast their 50 foot tall visage toward each other across the small splashing bathers. They blink occassionally. The move their lips a bit. Then they both suck in a little and suddenly a stream of water sprays out of their mouths on to the waders. Suddenly the blocks go blank and water cascades down from the top of the towers.

Third, at the Art Institute of Chicago down in the Children’s section near the wonderful miniature the Thorne Rooms (thanks to telling us about them Max). Adobe Aftereffects are put to good use. They run a series of morphs across over 100+ images of faces in all styles from the Art Institutes collection. You see a Mayan head morph into an early American portrait into a Cubist face study into an African mask into a Walker Evans photograph into … What a great way to see who the various visions of artists related to the subject of the human face! The entire run is about 15 minutes

Our visit with Philip K Dick

Last night Sally and I sat down for a chat with Philip K Dick. Whilst it was no a seance, it was closer to that than to say Mark Twain Tonight. The Philip K Dick robot from Hanson Robotics (and others) features a very flexible and eeriely realistic face which seeks out people in the room (using facial recognition) to establish eye contact with them. He shutters and blinks as he thinks about how to answer your questions. Behind that blinking and shuttering is a program using latent symantic analysis (and indexing) to mine the entire works of Dick. [more after I get back]

Best of NextFest

Quickly before I hit the sack. The Best of NextFest were for me:

  • Philip K Dick robot from Hanson Robotics, Fedex Institute of Technology at University of Memphis, and UTexas-Arlington ARRI
  • Panoscope 360 from University of Montreal (elumens dome turned to a dish)
  • Chroino from Kyoto University’s Robo Garage
  • Mobile Feelings from Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences
  • Moller Skycar from Moller International
  • Innespace Dolphin from Innespace
  • Robolobster from Northeastern University
  • Saturn Sky (sportscar) from Saturn

In Chicago – day 1

We’ve been in Chicago since about 10 am CDT. So far we checked in sorta — our room wasn’t ready yet. We checked out the neighborhood which is the begining of Michigan Ave and the Miracle Mile as well as State Street going down to the Chicago River. Sally and folks who care deeply about architecture have strong opinions about most of this area often building by building. I wasn’t that upset that the Disney Store hails back to a time that doesn’t really exist so I’ll stay out of that one.
We did have deep dish Chicago pizza for our first meal here at lunch at Pizza Due which is still using the airconditioning installed by Bret’s grandfather (thanks for the suggestion, Bret).
We took the bus down to the Museum of Science and Industry, the building there are from the World Columbian Exposition of the 1890s. From there we strolled through the park and through the University of Chicago area until we reached the Robie House, a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the midst of restoration. We took the tour and learned how every family that tried to live there met with some misfortune — bankruptcy and divorce, sudden unexpected death, premature death — until the house ended up in the hands of the University of Chicago who is leasing it to the National Preservation Trust while a Frank Lloyd Wright group restores it.
We have tickets for Second City tomorrow night (thanks Fred for that suggestion) and tonight we’ll be off to a reception for Wired’s NextFest.

ibiblio-mania WCHL edition

Just back from recording about an hour interview with DG Martin out at WCHL. We talked about ibiblio (what else?) and I think covered a good number of topics — internet radio (at some length), Project Gutenberg (one of DG’s favorite sites on the net), folkstreams.net, Documenting the American South, even World Tibet Day (July 3) and ibiblio in general.

The show will run at 6 pm and at 10 pm (tonight?). WCHL is 1360 AM and not streamed on the internet so unless DG adds it to his archive, you’ll have to catch it as it’s aired (so will I).

When I walked in the building, I was met by a placard saying “Welcome to VilCom Center – Paul Jones” That was a nice surprise. Then in leaving, I ran into my old friend, Jane Tyndall, and at coffee before the interview into Melva Okun who works with NC Prevention Partners in the same building.

Dr Fun Book and Middlesex

Dave Farley’s Dr Fun book is now on sale from Plan 9 Publishing in Greensboro. Dave has been doing Dr Fun, a single frame daily color comic (hosted at ibiblio), for over a decade now. Now you (and I) can own a whole big bound collection of Dr Fun.

Less than two chapters from finishing Jeffrey Eugenides’ Pulitzer Prize winning Middlesex. This has to be one of the smartest and best written and most sweeping books that I’ve read in a long while.

Sincerest form of flattery

Keith Henderson has been doing his “Illusions of the King” Elvis show for 26 years. I saw him first as the young Elvis not long after he started. Keith has a great voice and great family support over the long haul; his grandmother makes his elaborate costumes and his mother adds the stud work, his daughter sings a great soprano.
He also has a great band. Any band with Will McFarlane as lead guitar is going to be good.
As I listened to Keith hold a verrrrrry long note on “Rags to Riches,” I was reminded that Sam Phillips of Sun Records had latched onto Elvis when he was looking for a young white boy who could sing and sound like the great black artists that were hitting on the R&B charts. Now, according to Henderson, the number of Elvis-sounding acts and Elvis tributes has grown at such a rate that if the grown continues apace 1 out of every 4 persons in the world will be doing Elvis tributes by 2020.

View de LeBeau from UMKC

Speech professor Joan Aitken has collected and annotated many links, added personal and professional insights and generally created a strong picture of the Affair de Bryan LeBeau. Included are ethics statements, solutions proposed and suggested as consequence including the laughable idea of having LeBeau teach an ethics course. She provides some notes on the salary situation as well. All this at her personal site.

HNN and Vanke go down the Memory Hole

Jeff Vanke writes of his TurnItIn.com experience using the Le Beau speech at the History News Network. TurnItIn found both West and Russell borrowings AND turned it in to UMKC who immediately contacted Vanke to ask how he managed to get a copy. Since UMKC has removed the speech from the net. Google cache of course is still good as I explain below in an earlier post. I’m not sure for how much longer though.

But for historical purposes, many of us have kept copies to use in class when we discuss plagiarism.

When I was travelling in Russia with PR Prof Larry Lamb, I would hear him tell classes over and over that the best PR plan is not to duck, hide, or deny. But to own the problem immediately, take proper responsibility, consider the image of your brand in the circumstances and do more than is required, and never to destroy evidence that people have already seen. You only look more guilty.

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