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[Confused?]

It's just a month since I finished the first mosaic for my middle son (and now wife) and I've got the 3rd Son's done!

This one was quite different:
The PhotoMosaic was an image of Nathanael and Monica that was made up of photos of their friends and family (that sounds familiar, right?).
In the end I had 1,645 photos to work with. The finished image was then colour separated into four separate images comprising the C, M, Y
& K layers and then each printed onto A1 transparent sheets. These four A1 transparent sheets were then cut into either 8 landscape tiles
or 9 portrait tiles, giving 34 tiles in total. These 34 tiles were then put into envelopes (with instructions) and compiled on the day by
the guests, in a slightly random order, giving a slightly random development of the final image: Cyan on Magenta creates a different
colour to Cyan on Yellow.

Confused? The printer was too, so I created this example to show the printer (and others) so they'd get the idea what I was planning:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYW6vdjrz8g" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYW6vdjrz8g</a>

If you want to read the story behind the mosaic, it's written up in this blog post.

I put together an actual time-lapse of the mosaic construction:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6DDkl1axCU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6DDkl1axCU</a>

If you'd like to compare my mock-up with what really happened I did a shortened time-lapse of just the changes here.

The PhotoMosaic is up on my site as an Interactive Mosaic as well.

Actually, I have a question for any web devs who might know: the Interactive bit is a thumbnail mouseover on an imagemap (through js) with an anchor link to fullsized image that's displayed in a fancybox pop-up. Works fine in Chrome and FireFox but IE (up to fails when clicking on the imagemap to open the image in fancybox. Love an idea or two to get me going... or an idea to work around it?

You are right (and I wasn't serious)... but I still find the change concerning as it's like reducing the size of the can of Baked Beans but keeping the price the same.

I was also shocked, or maybe 'confronted' is better, by the "Wedding Industry"... how can we let this level of materialism happen? You mention wedding and instantly zeros are added to the price... and the poor couple are emotionally blackmailed with phrases like "your special day".

Thankfully our kids got strong heads (from somewhere?): Keren's reception ended up $50 something a head (which I think is extremely reasonable, even if we are paying  )  Goodness only know what it'll be like for their kids (maybe Chris is right and we should start saving now? ) ...which reminds me I've just about finished The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, which is one of the better books I've ever (nearly) read.

Thanks guys: I'm not sure when the world changed Chris, but the grooms parents now pay just as much as the brides     (or are we soft touches?    )

I'm now working on my third son's wedding piece, which will actually be printed and manufactured, although along a similar theme: but at least once it's at the printers I wont have performance issues to worry about 

I think I'm going to have to go for a walk when these are done: just to clear my head!

I'm just taking a quick breather from my creative endeavours, as I've just got one off my plate; and I thought you'd be interested in what's keeping me busy...

If any of you followed my links to my Bushwalking Mosaics you'll understand where the inspiration for the piece came from, and if you're interested you can read more of the why and how here:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFAIOgyeQFo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFAIOgyeQFo</a>

I've pulled out the end tile of the animation as the final PhotoMosaic. On the site I've added an interactive version where all the tiles are available as a pop-up thumbnail and full size image; not that you'll know anyone .

So... that's one son down and one more to go (youngest son has his wedding in under 4 weeks)       I think I've got his piece under control...

sampela tok istap, tasol, tinktink bilong mi istap long narapela samting. i kamup bikpela samting tumas 

Thanks kilele: I realize that I didn't explicitly say that it is all running without my involvement (except to get the scripts running), so guests dropping photos into a directory works well, or some sort of sync with an online thing could work too, but I think I'm definitely leaning toward:

WiFi definitely.

You could set up a Flickr account or another quicky easy enough with a simple password.
I don't think an App is needed. Just log in and upload from any phone or computer.

Yes, that's got some legs... set up a new account and share the password... I'd have to investigate if notification is given on new uploads so that a script could go and grab them (hmmm... plus internet access  )

Lots of good thoughts to play with... thanks

You could set up a Bluetooth PAN, (Personal Area Network), with a $2 Bluetooth USB adapter which should cover any phone that has Bluetooth but that's beyond my knowledge.

Thanks for that link, I wasn't aware of BlueTooth PAN.

I'm guessing by your "$2" comment that there is no benefit getting a more expensive adapter?

What would you think: WiFi or BlueTooth PAN or Both??

Another alternative to the removing the Delete permission would be a script/program that watches for new files and spirits them away to another non-shared folder for safety.

Yes, that's what I'm doing with the other scripts... watching for removable drives connecting and copying off the photos.

Thanks for the suggestions... the head is starting to catch up now

Do you know how many phones have WiFi... majority?

I don't think I'll be able to cater for everyone, but the more the merrier.

So I could take my Router, and I presume that it'll set up WiFi without a DSL connection?, and give everyone the password which will give them access to the shared directory... I can see that working: particularly like the no-cost element.

I did think about a site that could sync with DropBox... anyone had experience with email uploads to a photo sharing site?

I've got my head buried deep into some art works I'm doing for two of my sons who are getting married next year.... actually, that's only a month or so away 

Anyway... for the first son's wedding I'm setting up a computer and projector with the intention (hope) that the guests will donate their photos that they've taken on the day to a running live photo mosaic.

So far I've got scripts running that:
1. Watch for insertion of a removable drive
2. Copy photos taken today of the card / drive onto the computer
3. ImageMagick resizes and auto-rotates
4. Photo mosaic software generates new mosaics as the photo numbers increase (in groups)
5. Slide show is regenerated when a new mosaic is created.

The scripts run well and the resulting slideshow is an evolving image made up of the mosaic tiles that over time gets more and more defined to the base image. 

OK... so what's the problem??

In this day and age I'm wondering if many people will have brought their phones (not cameras -- I've got a good array of card readers) and I'm not sure what the best way for people to get their photos off their phones and onto my hard drive is....  I don't have a smart phone, so have no idea 

I don't mind multiple methods... just needs to be as easy as possible.

Thanks

Have you seen Library .NET Professional: it promises the world... but I've always wondered how much it actually delivered 

Mobile phones are an Opt-in personal micro-chipping surveillance tool: I'd stay clear of them all together 

I do Excel spreadsheets --  my goal is to make a website

I have found a trial
Purchasing Toolpak
Need Excel.

I suppose is like a business decision maker.
But simpler.

What I am looking for is a soft to give important to parameters and make a buyer decision.

A buyer comparison
 

Last year our respective works graciously allowed Sandi and I (Sandi is my wife) to take leave to walk the Bibbulmun Track: We were absent for a couple of months (most of the time putting one foot in front of the other on the track), and  last week I posted the last day of our walk diary on our Blog and a short summary. It's been 8 months since finishing the walk, 10 months after starting the walk and an amazing 16 months since starting the initial planning.  During the break we diarised 44,416 words and took 9,621 photographs (most of which were on the track): these have been turned into 58 Blog Posts with 99,500 words and 4,359 photographs (no wonder it's taken 8 months and forced me to become a recluse ;-) ).
 
Experiences like the Bibbulmun are important for our sanity (…well, what we’ve got left).

I am overwhelmed by the numbers of our experience though:

1	journey
2	people
12	camp grounds
35	kg food eaten
53	overnights
143	SPOT messages
316	hours of walking
1,021	kilometres of track
5,223	total $cost
9,106	photographs taken
44,416	words written
49,036	metres skipped down
49,407	metres trudged up
90,919	GPS points recorded
1,215,573	footsteps walked

Everything is collated on our Bibbulmun page: The Bibbulmun Track :: The Mowbray Version, which has a lot of stuff on it (both fun and helpful - just in case you may need it)!  The walk is grouped into the 8 weeks, and the 4K of photos have been published into subject albums: Flora (North & South), Orchids, Fauna, The Track, Trees (and Stumps), Fungi and Panoramas.

Some time ago I shared our time-lapse (from these slides), which was lots of fun, and generated quite a bit of comment – it does reveal our feelings at the beginning and end of the day:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L06gKY_IC04" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L06gKY_IC04</a>

Thanks to everyone for their support and interest (Mouser -- you were very quickly off the mark  ): it was great fun and lots of fun remembering too…  Like I wrote in Albany "The walk has finished ... I hope it doesn't end" 

Very sorry for your loss SJ: May he rest in peace and your and your family's grieving bring peace.

I hope your memories will glow in full colour.

I'm following in your footsteps with my father (although he's on the other side of the country).

Yii provides a php framework in which you can build just about anything.

There are plenty of Yii add-ons, or templates, or plugins that provide user / permission / etc functionality.  One of the problems is that you need to install a few different ones generally to get what you want.

From what I understand, Mouser is writing a single module plugin that will do all the user based functions: account / messaging / permissions / etc.

It will be a 'single' module that can be installed into any Yii application and will provide 'out of the box' support for user accounts stuff.  What the Yii application does is entirely up to the developer.

I've also decided to open source yumps.

Where were you planning on hosting it? I think Yii use git?

Here: https://github.com/yiisoft/yii

In other words, if you build a site using yumps

Which I'm very much looking forward to starting...

If I ever finish with the mountains of photos and blog posts from my last walk I have a yii project that I've been wanting to work on with my youngest son, that although not cms or forum, will involve a significant amount of user action / interaction.  From the first announcement I've been very keen to use this module.

One of the most important things, in my mind, is that the module can self-regulate in some way:  

• Definable scoring for users that can be used in other areas (eg permissions).  eg:  If there was some sort of moderation in place for new entries, then a rule that allows unmoderated entries when successful entries >= 5.
• This may involve users being voted up or down, that may impact (eventually) on some of their permissions, or flag them for some sort of administration task.  
• Users being able to form themselves into groups and have some level of control over what members are allowed to do.
• Users have full control over their information and what is displayed / used.
• Multiple and easy registration methods for users

And I guess if it didn't come with it "in the box", having the ability to extend the module is important.

There is something really important to note about CrashPlan.

You can use the full and powerful application freely to back up encrypted backups to a friend/family PC.

So if like me your goal is to provide a backup solution to protect in case of fire/theft, you could very easily find a friend with the same needs and back up to each other's PCs, at no cost (at least that's my understanding).

That's true... but they'll need to be very friendly 'cos they'll have a copy of your files

I did this investigation some time ago and ended up with SpiderOak, which I now have paid space with (it does all my documents / development stuff / etc).

It's got lots of other features, but they push security strongly, but I only really use the 'backup' side of it.

Not sure why I moved away from CrashPlan now?

Seems like we need to be a bit more vigilant in looking for more false flags.

I knew it was suspicious when a blatant typo jumped out at me 

I wonder if there's a way for them to determine how many participated?

  And I think it's a wonderful English conundrum that "apart" and "a part" have opposite meanings!