daniel sinker

calumet412: Poster for Riverview Amusement Park, c.1930s,...

Fri, 17 May 2013 05:35:15 -0500

calumet412:

Poster for Riverview Amusement Park, c.1930s, Chicago.

dangrzeca: One of my fave signs on Montrose #Chicago...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:28:52 -0500

dangrzeca:

One of my fave signs on Montrose #Chicago #typevstime

maxistentialist: A 6th grader’s advice to next year’s 6th...

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:42:09 -0500

maxistentialist:

A 6th grader’s advice to next year’s 6th graders.

OpenNews: Code Sprints do some spring cleaning on data

Tue, 07 May 2013 09:41:00 -0500

Data is a buzzword nowadays. Whether it’s sifting Big Data to influence business, or the promise of Open Data to transform government, or Data Analytics winning elections, data is constantly in the news. But one thing that gets glossed over in all the buzz is that data is hard. Really, really hard. One of the hardest parts is cleaning, standardizing, and formatting data in a way that journalists and others can start to work with. These are real challenges faced by newsrooms and we’re hoping to make some of that a little easier with two new Code Sprints we’re happy to announce today.

First up: Dedupe

One of the biggest problems with data sets is figuring out if information in one set of data is the same as information in another. When you have a small set of data, the work is pretty straightforward. But as your rows increase, the work becomes daunting. Derek Eder and Forest Gregg at Chicago’s DataMade have been working on an automated process for deduplification of data, and we’re happy to help get it to a state where running it through huge datasets is as simple as a few calls from the command line.

A clear early use for the tool is in deduplifying campaign finance records, which can often be a slog. We’ve recruited the help of Derek Willis and others from the New York Times—a href=”who know something about

The DataMade team have done a great deal of heavy lifting already—“we’ve solved the most of major engineering challenges of scaling up on large datasets,” DataMade’s Eder says—but getting a lower barrier to entry on the tool is time and money well spent. If you can program Python, you can fork and start running Dedupe today. If you want to wait for the simplified version, we’re expecting development to wrap up early this summer.

Next up: FMS Parser

The US Treasury releases a statement of, essentially, the Federal Government’s checkbook every day at 4pm EST. Unhelpfully, they release it as a straight-up text file or a PDF. Newsroom developers and info-hackers Cezary Podkul, Burton DeWilde, Thomas Levine, Jake Bialer, Brian Abelson, and Michael Keller started work on scraping and parsing that daily statement at the Bicostal Datafest earlier this year.

The team got far enough along at the Datafest that they approached us about helping to turn it into an open API that any newsroom developer can access. With our Code Sprint grant, the team will take this once nearly-inaccessible dataset and transforming it into an easily accessible API that returns machine-readable JSON. In this time of cutbacks and budget wrangling, the FMS Parser should offer developers and journalists a new way to dive deeply into governmental spending.

The tool should see some immediate use too, as the team of developers working on it include newsroom developers at Reuters, the Daily Beast, and the Huffington Post (along with our Knight-Mozilla Fellow at the New York Times). While it’s still being developed, you can fork and follow at the FMS Parser Github repo.

Onward

A month ago I announced a reimagined Code Sprint application process, and we’re excited to help tools like this get the funding and attention they need through it. We’re always looking for developers and newsrooms with great ideas they want to build (along with newsrooms that want to betatest them), so please drop a line. Let’s do this!

calumet412: The Chicago Colleens batting at Wrigley, All...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 06:38:06 -0500

calumet412:

The Chicago Colleens batting at Wrigley, All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1948, Chicago.

Doors of Perugia, Italy.

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:08:40 -0500

Doors of Perugia, Italy.

In Perugia, Italy for the International Journalism Festival. The...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:04:23 -0500

In Perugia, Italy for the International Journalism Festival. The whole city is built on a series steep hills. Escalators are part of the public infrastructure and the whole place feels as much like living in an Escher drawing as I could ever imagine.

Photo

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:14:30 -0500

un: socalledcopy: 3D printer + IKEA hack = toddler bike It’s...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:49:50 -0500

un:

socalledcopy:

3D printer + IKEA hack = toddler bike

It’s nothing new to make your own furniture out of the build-it sets sold at IKEA. What I like is about this hack is that since people can print their own extra parts, it’s no longer just about finding the right screw and drilling a few new holes to turn your bookcase into a side table. Now, it’s printing out the pieces you need at home to help hack yourself a whole new product.

What happens when 3D printing is so mainstream that getting the pieces you need, in the exact colours you want is just a click away? What happens when the flat pack isn’t the cheapest and smartest way to have the home furnishings you want at a price you can afford? What happens when printing a BILLY bookcase wins over tackling the IKEA store on a Saturday, no matter how good those hotdogs are?

3D printing should be a wake up call for most businesses that sell “things”. But it doesn’t mean they have to end up like Kodak or Blockbuster. Like the always fictitious but often wise Don Draper says, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.” As long as companies know who their customers are, selling them what they want and need should be the easy part.

If customers don’t like or no longer need what’s being sold to them, change the sale. Adapt. It will be exciting to see if IKEA is able to do that, when and if it becomes necessary.

Until then, try your hand at making the FROSTA stool bike here. Or maybe just print one of your own at home.

via: grist

Ikea hacking!

vjeranski: Sun Chaser by Andrew Holder.

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:55:00 -0500

vjeranski:

Sun Chaser by Andrew Holder.

brucesterling: Could prove useful

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:53:55 -0500

brucesterling:

Could prove useful

OpenNews: Code Sprints in 2013

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:43:28 -0500

Back at the Hacks/Hackers Media Party in Buenos Aires, I announced the creation of Code Sprints—funding opportunities to build open-sourced tools for journalism. We used Code Sprints to fund a collaboration between WNYC in New York and KPCC in Southern California to build a parser for election night XML data that ended up used on well over 100 sites—it was a great collaboration to kick off the Code Sprint concept.

Originally, Code Sprints were designed to work like the XML parser project: Driven in concept and execution by newsrooms. While that proved great for working with WNYC, we heard from a lot of independent developers working on great tools that fit the intent of Code Sprints, but not the wording of the contract. And we heard from a lot of newsrooms that wanted to use code, but not drive development, so we rethought how Code Sprints work. Today we’re excited to announce refactored Code Sprints for 2013.

Now, instead of a single way to execute a Code Sprint, there are now three ways to help make Code Sprints happen:

As an independent developer (or team) with a great idea that you think may be able to work well in the newsroom.
As a newsroom with a great idea that wants help making it a reality.
As a newsroom looking to betatest code that comes out of Code Sprints.

Each of these options means we can work with amazing code, news organizations, and developers and collaborate together to create lots of great open-source tools for journalism.

I always think real-world examples are better than theoreticals, so today I’m also excited to announce the first grant of our revamped Code Sprints will go to Jessica Lord to develop her great Sheetsee.js library for the newsroom. Sheetsee has been on the OpenNews radar for a while—we profiled the project in Source a number of months back, and we’re thrilled to help fund its continued development.

Sheetsee was originally designed for use in the Macon, Georgia government as part of Jessica’s Code for America fellowship, but the intent of the project—simple data visualizations using a spreadsheet for the backend—has always had implications far beyond the OpenGov space. We’re excited today to pair Jessica with Chicago Public Media (WBEZ) to collaborate on turning Sheetsee into a kick-ass and dead-simple data journalism tool.

For WBEZ’s Matt Green, Sheetsee fit the bill for a lightweight tool that could help get the reporters “around the often steep learning curve with data publishing tools.” Helping to guide Jessica’s development to meet those needs ensures that Sheetsee becomes a tool that works at WBEZ and at other news organizations as well.

We’re excited to fund Sheetsee, to work with a developer as talented as Jessica, to collaborate with a news organization like WBEZ, and to relaunch Code Sprints for 2013. Onward!

hypergif: Pyramids.

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:35:41 -0500

hypergif:

Pyramids.

This song was the last one ever played in the Punk Planet office...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:00:45 -0500

This song was the last one ever played in the Punk Planet office before I unplugged the last computer, took apart the last desk, and turned off the lights. I have never been able to listen to it since without tearing up. Tonight, especially.

RIP Jason Molina.

cabinporn: Cabin on the Long Trail, Vermont. Submitted by David...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 07:27:04 -0600

cabinporn:

Cabin on the Long Trail, Vermont.

Submitted by David Szlasa.

kenyatta: triciawang: journalism content reflects structural...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 07:25:51 -0600

kenyatta:

triciawang:

journalism content reflects structural racism. 360 words = 1 person shot in white hood = 370 words. 23 words = 4 people shot in black hood.

braiker:

wbez:

verosays:

This is what structural racism looks like.

Chicago, we have to do better.

Media criticism done on a napkin.

Not only did the Chicago Tribune respond but they posted it to their Tumblr:

This image of an article from Monday’s (March 4) edition of RedEye has been passed around by many on social media. It highlights a condensed article about overnight violence in Chicago, including a shooting in West Rogers Park and shootings in the Back of the Yards, Englewood, Gage Park and New City neighborhoods.

We hear you.

The online conversation that’s developing around this story is an important one. Thank you for the comments and feedback. This is incredibly important to us, especially as we set out to shine a light on Chicago violence this year. Conversations like these will continue to inform and improve our coverage. We hope you’ll continue to join us in addressing these issues.

The article in question is from the Chicago Tribune and can be found in full here.

Not bad.

OpenNews: Learning is Go Go Go Go Go

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:42:00 -0600

It was all the way back last summer when I first made mention of the OpenNews Learning project. The idea was to assemble some of the best minds in the journalism-code world to help create case studies around the journalistic problemsets that developers come across in the newsroom. The trick of assembling great people is that they’re in demand, and when you’re talking about journalism coders, trying to get a project going in a timeframe that included both the Olympics and the US Presidential Election, well… you’re going to want to find a new timeframe.

Which is why today, I’m absolutely ecstatic to announce that that timeframe has been found and it’s next week.

That’s right: starting next week, we’ll be launching OpenNews Learning as a new section on Source. It will be a regularly updated section of case studies that dig deep into the thinking, design, ethics and execution of code in journalism, written by the very people that know this world best.

Kio Stark, who’s heading up our learning team in part because she’s written the book on independent learning, writes more on her blog today:

OpenNews Learning works by example, through case studies written by a stellar set of journalist-developers, designers and hackers about projects they’ve worked on, describing the hairiest coding problems and hidden ethical issues they’ve come up against. You’ll find out how they solved them, and more importantly where they didn’t. You’ll see where there are opportunities to kick ass and take names to keep information free and make democracy more democratic.

Follow @source on Twitter for the final announcement of when we’re live, and get ready to learn some amazing things.

tarynvondoom: Heaters

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 18:36:52 -0600

tarynvondoom:

Heaters

kenyatta: slavin: terrestrial: There Are Giant Camera...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 18:33:42 -0600

kenyatta:

slavin:

terrestrial:

There Are Giant Camera Resolution Test Charts Scattered Across the US
When people test cameras and lenses for resolution, they commonly use special resolution test charts that are filled with black bars of varying lengths and thicknesses. They’re kind of like eye charts, except for cameras instead of eyeballs, and with lines instead of letters.

Well, did you know that in dozens of locations around the United States, there are gigantic resolution test charts on the ground?

The Center for Land Use Interpretation writes that the strange “land-based two-dimensional optical artifacts” are used for the development of aerial photography — cameras built into airplanes and drones.

The resolution charts were mostly used during the 50s and 60s, but some of them may still be used nowadays to calibrate “flying cameras.” They have dimensions of around 50-80 feet and are coated in heavy black and white paint.

Camera-equipped aerial vehicles can fly over the giant charts and use them to test, calibrate, and focus their cameras while traveling at various altitudes and speeds. Even satellites can utilize the charts.

(Continue Reading)

#dollhouseearth

♥

robotchallenge: This robot is called the Shoes-O-Matic. It can...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:18:48 -0600

robotchallenge:

This robot is called the Shoes-O-Matic. It can crush the ice or not make you slip. In this picture it is doing both because it has the spikes on the bottom and it has the electricity sucking into the ball. You wear them so you don’t slip!