Sigma Photography

February 9, 2009

Dedicated servers

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 12:20 am

Breaking down the walled garden: Some thoughts on Facebook embracing OpenID and opening up status update APIs

Facebook made two interesting announcements this week in the area of making their platform more open. The first announcement was made by Mike Shroepfer in the developer blog post Next Steps in Openness where he writes

Enabling social information to flow through the Web is one of the core goals of Facebook. In the two months since Facebook Connect became generally available, over 4,000 sites and desktop applications have gone live with the service. Users can now log into sites across the Web using their Facebook account, bring their identity and friends with them, and share information and experiences using the same features as they would with applications on Facebook.

As we’ve launched and built Facebook Connect, we’ve been participants in OpenID efforts. One of our user experience experts, Julie Zhuo, presented at the UX Summit in October. Several of our engineers have been participating in meetups, and one of them ran as a community member for a board seat. We’re happy to announce today that we are formalizing our support of the OpenID Foundation by officially download sci-fi movie joining the board.

At first glance it seems contradictory for Facebook to join the OpenID foundation given that many people view Facebook Connect to be a competitor to OpenID as a single sign-on solution albeit a centralized one. The confusion from pundits around this announcement from Facebook is summarized in the Ars Technica article Facebook’s “next steps in openness” raises questions which openly questions why the company needs to join the OpenID foundation when Facebook Connect seems to be enjoying broader deployment across the Web.

The reason seems quite straightforward to me. Right now, Facebook has created a situation where web sites that want to enable their users log-in with credentials from third party sites need to implement two solutions; an OpenID consumer and Facebook Connect. This places a burden on web sites which now either have to chose to adopt one solution over the other or create a user experience problem by offering users both options. It’s bad enough that there is now a market for companies who wrap both solutions in a single package like JanRain and Clickpass. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook has been getting an earful from some of their larger Facebook Connect partners about being a competing offering to OpenID.

That said, I doubt that a generic solution like OpenID will ever beat the ease of use and value added functionality that Facebook has created with Facebook Connect. By supporting OpenID, Facebook gets to silence the sites who simply want single sign-on solution that is built on standards so they can implement one solution to get access to users of Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live, MySpace, and AOL’s services among others. However anyone who wants the richer integration that comes with integrating with the Facebook mini-feed and live feed will still need to adopt the proprietary Facebook Connect.

The second interesting announcement about Facebook opening up comes from Chris Putnam in the post titled Opening Up Facebook Status, Notes, Links, and Video to Facebook Platform which is excerpted below

We’ve seen increasing engagement with over 15 million users updating their status each day and sharing over 24 million links per month. We wanted to make sure this content and the ability to share this content was available through our standard APIs.

Specifically, your applications can now directly access all of a user’s status, links, and notes via new methods and FQL calls. Your application will have access to any status, notes, or links from the active user or their friends that are c

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February 8, 2009

Colorado home and garden show

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 3:10 pm

Germans qualify for 2010 hockey tournament

seidenberg, tripp grade in 2-1 triumph in over austria that sends germany to vancouver olympics

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February 7, 2009

Senator spector

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 12:48 pm

From Superhero to Superdelegate?

In what now seems to be the ever-lasting story of an actor looking to seek public office, we have a recent installment from New Mexico: Jim Morrison, i.e. Val Kilmer, wants to be Governor.

Running for office is expensive and as such creates an entry barrier for a lot of people. Hollywood actors don’t always have this problem which is why it’s enticing for people with high name recognition to jump into a race and self-finance a run - but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they should.

In California we’ve seen Clint Eastwood, Sony Bono and more recently Arnold Scharzeneggar all make their mark in politics - for better or for worse (usually worse). Governing is not an easy job. And when dealing with a position that affects so many people’s lives, actors - including the Ice Man, i.e. Val Kilmer, should seriously consider their credentials before jumping into the fray.

Vince flynn

Though it’s true that actors play an important part in our system of public affairs - they can catch the attention of the public and draw focus on important issues. George Clooney’s extensive advocacy for Darfur is one example, Bono’s work on behalf of Africa is another. Robert Redford’s current publicity work on behalf of national park space in America is another.

Yet given the current economic situation in this country, it’s important that we also look at how important, and how fragile, our state of affairs are and how the process of governing affects things.

The counter argument to this usually goes along the lines of “if an actor surrounds himself with good people, he’ll do fine.” To which I’d like to point out that surrounding yourself with good people doesn’t make one a better actor. So why then do people think it will make one a good governor? The previously stated examples show that it actually doesn’t.

Let’s take a look at where New Mexico is and where it’s been. As beautiful as this state is, it fell on tough times for several decades. Slow growth and a lack of new industry stifled the state’s ability to pay competitive wages to state employees and improve the education system. It wasn’t too long ago that the state lingered near the bottom in most job growth and economic state rankings. These are the kind of foes that even Madmartigan never took on.

In more recent years, the state has seen an improvement in the economy, education standards, teacher pay and new business development. With the arrival of Bill Richardson and Diane Denish, the state has seen the changes that not only improve the standard of living, but created incentives that foster new industries to invigorate the economy. Tax cuts to help create middle class jobs - at one point being as high as 6th in the nation for job growth. A thriving movie industry. Tax credits for wind, solar and biofuel companies. In addition to creating jobs, this has also helped $600 million in the classroom, the state went from 46th in teacher pay to 29th.

Incumbent Lt. Governor Diane Denish has served the state for eight years and is in a position to continue the success of the state from 2010 onward. She’s been a part of one of the most accomplished state administrations in recent memory and has a demonstrated track record to keep things moving in the same direction. These are the kind of leaders we need managing our affairs.

origin line: while nick rivers right away served his nation well, val kilmer is in all likelihood better suited to advocate for change at the conditions and national level than he may be to manage the shape as governor.

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Valerie bertinelli

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 10:04 am

A Short, Crude, Yet Awesome Star Wars Video from Phineas and Ferb’s Dan Povenmire

A couple of days ago, I recorded an interview with Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, the creators of Phineas and Ferb. We’ll be publishing that interview next week, but, as a (sort of) teaser, I wanted to share with you a video I came across while doing research for it. Povenmire made it a few years ago on a whim, which is why I found it, even though it’s unrelated to the cartoon. It’s only a minute long, and it’s very funny.

I should warn you, I suppose, that it does contain crude humor, but the crudity is of the sort that virtually every male levitra bestellen between the ages of five and fifteen (and many who are older) finds hysterical. You’ll get the idea from the video’s viagra online bestellen title: “Use the Fart.” (I did ask Povenmire about the video in the interview, for anyone who wants to know more about it.)

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Krysten ritter

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 12:24 am

Restaurant of the Week: Pranna

pranna.jpg

pranna looks more like a nightclub than a restaurant, with 15,000 stuffed shirt feet of hiatus and a bar on each of its three floors. CEO chef chai trivedi, who’s into punk her and tasted his something like a collapse through southeast asia on a honda nighthawk 750 motorcycle, crafted a big-ranging menu inspired by his travels. he knows his direction around seared, fragrant thai-style diver scallops ($14), lamb sliders with coin aioli ($6), and chicken wings with a serrano-lemongrass cover ($7), worth messing up your lipstick. these appetizers were well-matched by a sparkling crémant from jura ($12), imaginative cocktails ($12) and a wine list dreamed up by the skilful and partial wine maven, alice feiring, author of “the contest for wine and love.” the boutique wines she’s chosen, mostly french and many of them breathing or biodynamic, can snatch the warm up and rival well with asian flavors. we started nutty in a cozy, hideaway nook in the puzzling lounge, sipping and snacking, before moving on to dinner in the thumping, big-box dining room. groups should fall ill a selection of satays (four for the sake $30), including bacon-wrapped prawns, tofu and shiitake with mint chutney, and garam masala yogurt swordfish. i loved swirling the skewers in dipping sauces of sour mandarin galangal, spicy peanut and over lemongrass caramel. and no table is complete without a side of wonderfully crisp and aromatic sweet potato fries ($6). it’s too loud to think at pranna, so luckily the clever people behind it have done all the thinking for you, including coming up with a “stimulus package” served between 5-7 p.m. for $5 you can from a swig beer and naan with two dipping sauces or a satay sampler. a cocktail and an appetizer during that time is $10, something that could surely bring both sides of the aisle together. pranna 79 madison ave., (212) 696-5700 www.prannanyc.com

Thimble

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February 6, 2009

Dimebag

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 10:20 pm

The “Stealth Jihad” Conspiracy: One of David Horowitz’s Screaming Wingnuts Claims Islamic Radicals have Taken Over America’s Educational System

by alex constantinethis regression to the insidious rhetoric of cold war paranoia is an unprecedented latest sick for the sake “conservatives,” even for a bottom-feeder who writes for rm scaife’s “cultural” painted lady, david horowitz. substitute “jihad” on “communists,” and this is indistinguishable from the tripe ages churned out by the john birch society:us surrenders educational institutions to islamic radicalsthe exponentby herb denenbergthe account january 30, 2009″there’s growing evidence that america may be meeting its educational waterloo and that our educational system is being captured by radical islamists. as robert spencer write it so well in his classic book, the slyness jihad, deep islam is subverting america without guns or bombs.”feel that urge in the lower bowel? that’s tremble. dangerous muslims have co-opted the public schools - and they are poisoning the minds of your (already drugged) children … quite a dilemma, quite a c-o-n-s-p-i-r-a-c-y …”the radical islamists have scored dramatic victories in determining what students are taught in america about islam, and we don’t even seem to know what is event. the all-embracing islamists have managed a massive perspicaciousness of our educational system that teaches everyone from the youngest students all the way up to students at our colleges and universities.”brown alert!oh, my god! “massive penetration.” yet the department of homeland security is discovery a paucity of real terrorists, uncountable left-wing commentators have observed, and now we understand why - they are in “stealth” mode. invisible “educators” from lucasfilm. you can’t actually see them. there! have a that bowel clutching? the feds should issue a “brown alert” - it means we destitution to start crapping our pants … “here is what the radical islamists are doing at all educational levels, according to mr. spencer:”‘of all the arenas in which the underhandedness jihad is advancing, one of the most crucial is in our schools, where stealth jihadists have bring about a welcoming territory lot teachers keenly steeped in the credo of multiculturalism. with the mandate download animation movies of ?tolerance’ robbing numberless educators of their talent to evaluate non-western cultures critically, teachers are highly susceptible to an organized contest by u.s.-based islami c organizations and their sci-fi movies excellent benefactors, saudi arabia, to distribute a view of islam that whitewashes its ferocious history and narrow-minded unerring imperatives.’”in other words, if you can’t evaluate other cultures and pick out whether our discrimination is sick, you’re by no means in a position to preserve your own culture against the rising tide of its enemies, including the radical islamists also known as islamofascists. … “clever all-embracing muslims - by exploiting dreaded “multicultural permissiveness,” they’ve wormed their way into our schools, so stealthily no one even knew it was happening, redefined islam to their own advantage … and now i know why johnny can’t read a corporate accounting ledger! the kids are too busy lore to make explosive tennis shoes to concentrate on catcher in the rye. we are bled by invisible muslims - our own children induce been converted to “islalamofascism” - an invisible ideology compatible with invisible jihadists (because fascism is unqualifiedly us-brand corporatism, not israel/america hating radicalism among people “we” have destabilized for decades). we trouble to cut our losses - america has a no tolerance policy toward terrorists. stuff the kids off to gitmo, i approximately … what’s that, it’s been closed? no, they’ve gotten to the president, too! …pray for america, the last bastion of christian undefiled bread and jingoistic circuses.robert spencer - originator of the stealth jihad, director of jihad watch, a program of the david horowitz freedom center. spencer is the initiator of eight books on islam and jihad, including the further york times bestsellers the truly about muhammad and the politically incorrect guide to islam (and the crusades). spencer is a weekly columnist for the cia-subsidized human events and frontpa
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Petite teenager

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 6:32 am

Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick for Health & Human Services Secy. Position?

not since president barack obama’s “pastor pickin’ problems” have i seen so much hubbub and dust up over the bevy of political appointees for whom april 15th is just another day in the unexpectedly.

First Timothy Geitner had his tax troubles (although got “Grandfathered in” as the first one to eff up), then New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson had to drop out because of some ethic investigations back on the ranch, then NancyKillefer withdrew her name as Chief White House Performance Officer due to her tax troubles. And now, most recently, former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschel dropped out of the running for Health and Human Services Secretary after his failure to pay taxes on his driver were revealed (and The New York Times put out a blistering story on his tax woes).

This is all the more amazing considering you had to get through an “exhaustive,” billion page vetting process that asked of an arm, leg and possibly, your first born, (but with a “Rumpelstiltskin” escape clause for Geitner).

But where Daschel gets all weepy and closes a door on the second act in his political career, the Governmental Gods open a window for a black state governor possibly facing a tough re-election.

No, not Playboy Paterson of New York State, but Obama BFF Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, of whom the Clintons used to charge Obama, quite pathetically, of “Great Speech Plagiarism,” as both repeated similar themes and rhetoric in their campaign speeches.

Deval, who is considering taxing just about everything from gasoline to sugar to adding highway tolls on the turnpike, is in a bit of an unpopularity pickle right now. Unemployment is up. Everyone in Massachusetts is bitching at him all the time. So folks are thinking, “Does the D-Man want a change in scenery? Like the kind with cherry blossoms in the spring time and lobbyists on every corner?”

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Google vertaling

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 5:01 am

(Advertentie) Business Cases. Zorg dat u erin staat

computable obligation cases is een speciale uitgave van computable en biedt een overzicht van de beste ict-business cases van het jaar. met een oplage van 40.000 exemparen bereikt u met deze jaargids een budgetverantwoordelijke doelgroep van ict-beslissers en algemeen management. zorg dat u erin staat.

Babel fish translation

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February 5, 2009

Bale out

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 7:50 pm

Breaking: EVE Online Goonfleet Espionage Leads to Largest Corporation Takeover in History

in what may be the most pregnant case of in-engagement espionage in history, one of the largest guild of players in ccp’s spaceship mmo threshold online, merge of brothers (bob), was entirely disbanded today when a bob director defected to the somethingawful-derived goonfleet.

In a story that only EVE Online could spawn, Goonfleet Intelligence Agency (GSA) leader The Mittani and his league of spies managed to “encourage” a Band of Brothers director to turn coat, transferring trillions of BoB’s in-game ISK currency to the Goons before nullifying BoB’s control over all of its territory.

We surround them

“A director with full access to BoB alliance controls defected to Goonfleet and The Mittani was happy to accept his conditions,” writes Shacknews tipster Frylock, who noted that while BoB can reform, the name “Band of Brothers” is now permanently owned by Goonfleet.

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February 4, 2009

Kyrgyzstan

Filed under: Uncategorized — sigmaphotography @ 3:15 pm

‘Human Terrain’ Contractor Guilty of Manslaughter

Hts_logo_2 Don Ayala, a contractor with the Army’s controversial Human Terrain social science project, pleaded guilty today to manslaughter.

Faye dunaway

Ayala was facing a possible life sentence in prison, after being charged with second degree murder for an alleged revenge killing in southern Afghanistan. Under the terms of his plea agreement, announced today by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Alexandria, Virginia, Ayala could still spend up to 15 years behind bars.

Ayala began working in Afghanistan in late September, as part of an Army Human Terrain Team, which embeds cultural advisers in combat units. Originally, the program was conceived as a way to find for commanders non-violent options for stabilizing chaotic areas: Islamic radio broadcasts to mollify Afghan mullahs, shame tactics to nudge out corrupt Iraqi cops. “In a counterinsurgency, your level of success is inversely proportional to the amount of lethal force that you expend,” lead social scientist Montgomery McFate told Danger Room.

But in a warzone, violence is never far off. Human Terrain teams became involved in several lethal incidents. The latest occurred on Nov. 4, when Ayala was on a foot patrol in the village of Chehel Gazni, with teammate Paula Loyd, a social scientist. She approached Abdul Salam, who was carrying a fuel jug. Suddenly, the man doused Lloyd in a flammable liquid and set her on fire. She suffered second- and third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body.

Ayala chased Salam down, tackled him to the ground, and restrained him with plastic cuffs. “After about 10 minutes,” according to an Army Criminal Investigation Division affidavit, “a soldier approached the location where Ayala had Salam detained and informed the personnel in the area that Loyd was burned badly. Ayala pushed his pistol against Salam’s head and shot Salam, killing him instantly.”

Ayala was taken into custody, and flown to the United States two-and-a-half weeks later. He was charged with murder — the first military contractor to be charged with such a crime under a 2000 law that allows the prosecution of U.S. government workers who commit crimes overseas.

Paula Loyd succumbed to her wounds in January, and became the third Human Terrain researcher to die in nine months. Ayala is scheduled to be sentenced on May 8. A second criminal case, involving a Human Terrain contractor who allegedly served as a spy for Saddam Hussein, is ongoing.

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