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Catching Fire was a tad more introspective in a seventeen-going-on-eighteen kind of way. One of my least favorite plot ploys is the angst-filled character who through misunderstanding, lack of communication, and self-doubt manages to keep the tension in the story ramped up. This series wasn’t the worst example of that kind of writing, but it was present.
A mesmerizing visualization of wind in the lower 48 of the United States.
(via: @HackerNews)
One of the extras available through Sibylle’s conference was a chance to take a tour of the Steinway & Sons Piano factory in Queens. Not knowing what our schedule would be like we didn’t sign up prior to arriving at the conference. The bus ride to and from the factory and the tour combined to last about 4 hours, and Sibylle wasn’t willing to give up that much conference time. On the opening day of the conference we bumped into two of her MAMTA colleagues who had signed up for the tour but who weren’t going to go. They offered their reservations to us. After a day or two of thinking it over I decided to go. I’m glad I did as it was very interesting.
The plant employs about 270 people and produces around 6 1/2 pianos a week. The tour guide was a bit cagey as to exactly how much effort (man-hours) it takes to complete a piano, but said that it’s roughly nine months from start to finish. Some portion of that time is waiting for wood to dry, glue to cure, and other processes to finish.
Like McDonald’s Steinway is vertically integrated. They no longer do the casting work to make the metal frame that goes inside the piano but they own the Ohio company that does do the work. They also own the Germany company that makes the keys.
Much of the work is done by hand – in fact all the parts (with the exception of the action) that go inside the piano are hand made or hand fitted to each piano. No two cases (the outer wooden surround that we all see) are identical, and so the sound board, braces, bridge, et cetera, are all custom fit to each piano. The legs and wooden assembly that holds the pedals are made on a computer controlled milling machine.
Steinway holds several patents on construction details that they feel make their pianos unique. When the case is laminated both the outer case and the shorter inner case (which supports the sound board) are done simultaneously. The layering of the pinboard (where all the tuning pegs go) is done in such a way as to have all sides of the pegs against end grain wood.
What was impressive to me about the whole process was the sense of making fine furniture as much as making a musical instrument. The cabinetry alone was exquisite – indeed, as our guide said it’s almost a shame to cover the beautiful wood in lacquer or high gloss (poly) finish. Most European finishes are the high gloss reflective ones. In American some of both are sold.
Once the piano is strung it is tuned, regulated, and voiced. Tuning is tighten or loosening the strings to achieve the proper pitch. Regulation is adjusting the action of each key so that it is in perfect alignment. Any sideways movement not only causes wear on the parts, it makes the performer work that much harder. Voicing is adjusting the hardness of the wool felt hammers. Shaving a bit of wool off the hammer makes it harder and therefore brighter in sound. Needling the heads (literally sticking fine needles in to the felt) softens the felt allowing for a mellower sound. As each piano is unique the voicing, tuning, and regulation all must be done with an awareness of that particular piano and what will be best for it.
It was a wonderful tour and a lot of fun to see. I liked the old world craftsmanship represented in all the hand work. These instruments aren’t stamped out on an assembly line, they are build piece by piece over months of effort.
Big city means big prices. The conference rate for our stay in New York City is over $200 per night. The regular rates are frightening. Complimentary Internet access exists solely in the lobby area of the hotel – where there is very little available seating. Room Internet access is $14.95 per day. A six-night stay equals $90. Which is rather outrageous.
However, as we were checking in to the Hilton we learned that by skipping one day of housekeeping we could get free Wi-Fi for our entire stay. The Hilton, like many other hotel chains, is already only changing bed linens every third day of your stay, and will only replace towels if you leave them on the floor. Skipping housekeeping therefore means the bed doesn’t get made and the trash can doesn’t get emptied. We goth agreed that this was a tiny price to pay for free Internet access.
On a related note, I realize that not every hotel visitor wants or needs Internet access, but I’d prefer it if they’d just bake Wi-Fi into the room rate and be done with it. Let me think I’m getting access for free and I’ll be happier. Yes, some people would be subsidizing my browsing and emailing, but I’m subsidizing their television view as I never turn the TV on in a hotel.
Yesterday I posted about my iPhoto and Flickr integration woes. Today I figured out how to make that integration work. In case you haven’t read yesterday’s posting here’s a recap. I updated from an old version of iPhoto to iPhoto ‘11. When I authorized the new version of iPhoto to access my Flickr account the saved Flickr sets (over 200 in all) weren’t recognized and iPhoto wanted to delete them from Flickr. Thirty minutes of one-on-one time with a genius at the nearby 5th Avenue Apple store did’t resolve the problem.
The problem I stated to them was, “How to I reconnect these old Flickr photosets with the new iPhoto?” And the answer was, “You can’t.” However, the question I didn’t ask was, “Is there any way to create new photo sets and push them to Flickr?” The answer to that, as I’ve just discovered, is “Yes.”
In iPhoto’s preferences, under the Accounts tab I deleted the existing Flickr account. This was the account that was imported from the old version of iPhoto. The delete dialog warned me that, while the pictures would remain on Flickr, I wouldn’t be able to use iPhoto to manage them any more. Since managing them only amounts to unilaterally deleting them, I deleted the account.
Next I shared a test batch of pictures, which created a new Flickr entry under Accounts in iPhoto. I authorized the access through Flickr and I am now uploading pictures to Flickr. The connection between Flickr and iPhoto is bi-directional meaning that changes made to images on either platform are reflected on the other platform. Add a title on Flickr and it appears in iPhoto and vice-versa. In my usage of iPhoto and Flickr I’ve viewed the ability to share as a one-way transfer. I don’t really care about the bi-directional aspect. Deleting the old photo sets means any changes I make to the meta data about those images will only occur in one place (unless I repeat the change on the other platform). I’m fine with that added responsibility – especially since it means I can once again upload images from iPhoto to my Flickr account.
To summarize, if you are upgrading iPhoto and you have an established Flickr connection, you may need to delete the connection and reestablish it to keep the new iPhoto from deleting your photos on Flickr.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll walk back up 5th Avenue and clue in the fine folk at Apple.
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When Hunger Games was first released the University were I work selected it as the first book for everyone on campus to read over the summer. The idea was we’d all have a similar experience to share. I avoided the book then but now with the movie out and capturing lots of press I thought I’d give it a try. That our New York City hotel is directly across the street from a theater showing the movie helped. It’s a compelling story in a rather simple and direct way. Because it’s primarily aimed at the teen aged reader it makes for a quick read. I’m already into book two of the trilogy after just a day of reading. It’s not great literature but it isn’t bad either.
Three weeks ago in order to solve a problem with getting a VPN client to work properly on my laptop I backed up everything on the hard drive, formatted it, and reinstalled Lion. I then spent the next several days reinstalling all the software and settings that I use, and recovering my data from the backup.
When I went to import my pictures to iPhoto I discovered that Lion doesn’t come with iPhoto. My version of iPhoto is ancient – it came with my PowerBook G4 that was purchased over 9 years ago. There may have been an upgrade (or two) since then, I honestly don’t remember. I bought a copy of the latest iPhoto through the App Store and once it was downloaded copied the backed up iPhoto library on top of the newly created (empty) one. When I started iPhoto it happily starting importing all my pictures. After the import was completed I didn’t think anything more about it.
Until two days ago. Then I tried to upload pictures from our current New York City trip to Flickr. I had to authorize the new version of iPhoto to Flickr, which is easy. Instead of having my pictures upload however I was presented with a dialog that said one of my Flickr sets wasn’t found and that the pictures on Flickr would be removed. The dialog only had an “OK” button. No way to cancel. I was tired after a long day and wasn’t thinking. I clicked “OK” and the pictures were in fact removed. The dialog reappeared objecting to another Flickr set. I had to force quit iPhoto to stop it. I also revoked iPhoto’s authorization on my Flickr account page.
I sent an email via Flickr’s feedback page regarding my problem but I have yet to hear back from them. I guess they don’t work weekends.
This morning as part of my pilgrimage to 5th Avenue Apple store I signed up for a Genius Bar appointment and took my laptop and the backup drive with me. I was hoping there would be some way to reinstate the Flickr sets so that I could reconnect iPhoto and Flickr.
There isn’t.
The Flickr sets are in iPhoto but something about the way they are managed no longer lines up with what Flickr expects. In a bit of extremely poor user experience management iPhoto reacts to this misalignment by deleting the photos and all their comments and notes from Flickr. The images are still on my hard drive but the social aspects of Flickr are wiped out.
The genius worked on my problem for 20 or 30 minutes, eventually asking several other geniuses for their opinion. The consensus answer was, “There is no way to reconnect my existing iPhoto Flickr sets with Flickr again”. I can never again connect this version of iPhoto to my Flickr account – unless I want to lose all the comments and all the notes that were added. Between September and December 2010 we had a house built and I took, uploaded and heavily notated almost 1000 pictures. Information that is priceless and irreplaceable.
My love for and support of Apple has diminished somewhat. I do not know if the misalignment between iPhoto and Flickr is due to changes Apple made or changes Flickr made. All I know is that what used to work no longer works.
The only glimmer of hope is a third-party app called Flickery. The genius said it sits between iPhoto and Flickr so maybe – maybe – it would recognize my existing photo sets and keep them. I’ve sent the Flikery guys an email explaining my situation and asking my all important question. Hopefully I’ll hear back soon. In the mean time I’ll have to use Flickr’s photo up load process to get my pictures to the Internet.
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While Point of Impact remains the best Bob Lee Swagger book, The 47th Samurai wasn’t bad. In an interesting wrinkle for a series about a sniper the hero never picks up a gun in this story. Another good vacation read.
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Over the years I have enjoyed Barry Eisler’s John Rain series. Inside Out is the second in a new series with very (so far) tenuous ties to the John Rain books. Eisler’s background as a covert operative for the CIA adds a lot of verisimilitude to his books and Inside Out is no exception. A good, quick, vacation read.
A wonderfully inventive page for a wonderfully inventive movie. Just keep scrolling down.
(via @rands)