Buffalo is officially the smallest city in the world. It seems like everyday I am some re-exposed to people that I met in the past. Today I was speaking with one of my co-workers about some web deisgn stuff when he said, hey I am having this guy named Adrian Roselli in to teach my class on Monday. You should talk with him about the public transphere project. I said, "We both went to kenmore west."

I wonder if he is my competition for the job. He has a nice website with lots of information about web design. You should check it out . SOrry Adrian if you see this and hate this picture, it is what google brought me.



On another note, (e:robin) did you video tape the whole accident [inlink]robin,383[/inlink]

Well, I got to get going, jesse and (e:rzoo) are coming over so we can test out the public transphere engine

Well at least I made it so far as getting a job interview for the position I desire. I hope that it leads to the job. Sounds like it is time to start shopping for new clothing. Of course, the interview was scheduled for the same day as the fiveV show, which I have to participate in. Hopefully everything can be rescheduled and still work out.

The public-transphere [search]transphere[/search] project starts tomorrow. I bet it will be a crazy night of getting ready. It was featured in the gusto today. Congratulations (e:rzoo)

The reporter Anne Neville, was one of the nicest people I ever met. Below is the text from the article because I know the Buffalo News removes everything from the site after a couple days. Can you believe that a professional photographer took this picture? I mean he put us in the wind on a cold morning and expected all smiles. It was really a bad choice. You think being a pro he could have gotten a better shot. I could have gotten a better shot with the sidekick. My hair looks so messed up, I guess it is the time of year when I have to cut it all off again. I wish it would just remain sunny first. WHo am I kidding.

By ANNE NEVILLE
News Staff Reporter
4/22/2005
    
Bill Wippert/Buffalo News
From left, Arzu Ozkal Telhan, Paul Visco and Jesse F. Fabian have worked together on "Public Transphere."

all names are CQ

Need a free ride?
How about a chance to discuss your experience of Buffalo life?

You're in luck. This weekend's "Public Transphere," the master's thesis project of Arzu Ozkal Telhan, a student in the University at Buffalo's Art Department, will provide both.

The white, 12-passenger van marked with the words "Public Transphere - travel around - talk about - Buffalo," will run on a 30-minute loop starting at Main and North streets and proceeding east across the Medical Campus area, north through the Fruit Belt and back. Passengers can get on and off at any stop.

James Holland, an adjunct instructor of art at UB, will drive the van, which will operate from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

On the van, "I'm like a tour guide," said Ozkal Telhan, as she looked forward to the two-day project she has worked on for almost a year. "I'll talk a little about the history of Buffalo, and then I'm hoping my announcements will trigger some discussion among the passengers."

Ozkal Telhan's project statement says: "Riders are encouraged to discuss their everyday realities, share opinions and exchange concerns about their communities."

Along with Ozkal Telhan, a native of Turkey, other UB grad students working on the project are Paul Visco, a Kenmore native and adjunct professor at Canisius College, and Jesse F. Fabian, who was born in East Otto and is a lecturer in the department of media study. Minoo Amini, a professor in UB's School of Architecture and Planning, also worked on the project.

Ozkal Telhan views the van as an "itinerant free-speech platform," much like the free-speech corners in other cities. By moving among communities divided by race and economic status, the Transphere van "directly physically integrates people from different neighborhoods," said Fabian. "This is an interesting thing - there are a lot of people who won't take public transportation because of the cultural barriers. This allows an integrative space for people from different cultures and physical areas, and maybe goes a little toward repairing the rift between the areas."

Visco is the designer of elmwoodstrip.com, a three-year-old "local journaling and social networking site." He has developed software that allows visitors to the project's Web site www.public-transphere.info) to t
rack the van. Fabian's data links will record the discussion on board and transmit it to the Web site, where it can be heard as streaming audio. Visitors to the Web site may also ask questions and make comments that will be communicated to riders.

The east-west route was chosen to link city neighborhoods that have few points of intersection. Fabian said, "Logistically, (the route) looked very simple, but culturally and politically, it was designed so there are obstacles," including the Kensington.

This weekend, look for Public Transphere, driving through those obstacles. For group reservations, call 400-6728.

(e:rzoo) needed signs for her public transphere projects so I thought, "I know a local steel and aluminium machining factory, I could ask them." i placed an order weeks ago on the phone, and then just never heard back. I kept emailing and calling and time and time again, the boss was out of the office and know one knew about where my signs were or that they were even ordered.

Great Lakes Pressed Steel totally didn't follow through on the order, which made me look like an idiot. So much for working with local business. I guess I leanred my lesson, next time I will just order something on the internet. (e:rzoo) ended up buying plastic.

Tom asks the dreaded software question. Sometimes, I think he is great - sometimes. DJ spooky had lots of interesting stuff to say but also seems to really strain to tie everything to his previous degree in the philosphy. I don't know how much he had to justify everything that he was saying. He kind of talks as though he is insecure with something. Sorry to get all diana troy. This will make a great poem.

I hate listening to people asking questions to hear thmeselves speak. Especially when it takes four minutes and they have to take a dramtic deep breathe instead of a pause.

Note: Someday I would like to give a speech and tie everything to botanical metaphors. I do now wonder if remixing does cause a loss of roots.

My final thoughts: Only now is music a commodity because you package it and copy it so easily.

Terry and I drove down ferry from east to west at like 2am in effort to test the mapping project. We drove from the como mall to the home and it mapped the whole trip perfectly. Sorry to hear you were ill (e:southernyankee).

Here is the light up sign that jesse made for our poetry reading. I wish I could get a better pic of it. It lights up. I will get a pic of it tommorow.

What a weird day!

Paul Visco, a professor in the digital media arts program at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., said he worries about competition, pricing and the future of graphic design.

"It seems as though much of the recent innovation between the two software giants was brought on by healthy competition. They had an array of software packages that had the same purposes, e.g. GoLive and Dreamweaver, Illustrator and FreeHand, Photoshop and Fireworks. If there is no longer any need to compete, then they might not continue to develop new products. It will effectively create a monopoly in graphic design."

Visco also voiced concerns about pricing. "Adobe can now say $1,000 for Photoshop, and companies and designers won't have any other choice. Look at Microsoft. Once you get really big like that, nothing matters."Quoted from: Analysts: Merger Works for Adobe, But Customers May Suffer

I was really most concerned about a single toolkit approach to graphic design.

So I decided to design up the google map capture program while I was at it. This is the new interface found at



Here is the largest map I have downloaded so far. It is most of Western New York at 2560 pixels by 2560 pixels big. I want to get all of america. I was thinking it would be really easy to systematically download every tile from google maps so that you could have them for the future if something ever happend to google.



This reminds me of that one time I downloaded 80,000 corporate logos in vector format. I never did anything with them yet, but it was fun collecting.

You can visit the new version here. Don't forget to stop out on saturday or sunday for the big event.



Well, it all started out when I saw (e:ajay) 's site about google and I just couldn't stop after that. The softwar n ow let's you pick an arbitrary google map at zoom 2 and then works. I have to say he is all around inspirational because he is also the guy that got me hooked on xmlHTTP. I remember when I was visiting him for some linux help one day and he mentioned it. I sersiously had no idea how great it was. Soon enough I will totally redo this site to be way cooler. With networked live user interaction.



How does it work?
Basically, a cell-phone sends data from a GPS in the moving vehicle to a MySQL database. A PHP file reads from that database and makes it available to the world. The same PHP file, disguised as a tiny xml file calculates the current latitude and longitude in pixel location values. The xml file is then read into the browser DOM using xmlHTTP, a javascript technology. With the live location data, the van icon is moved on the map accordingly via javascript. The site continues to poll the database every 5 seconds for smooth real-time mapping yet maintains very low bandwidth data requirements as the page never has to reload.

The site is also capable of extreme error handling so that the end user does not notice an glitches with missing or innacurate data. The site even has a debug mode, that is avaiable by hitting the "d" key on the keyboard. Furthermore, the user can surf the history of the van's movement by using the left and right arrow keys.

There is are also some shortcuts.
Left and right arrow - go back in time and return to the present time
T = tracking mode
D = debug mode
s = satellite image
r = show and hide route

We drove the car around the public transphere zone.


Here is a picture captured looking out the window.


Here is a picture of the screen. Look at the locations, they match!!!