Photoethnography.com Blog

Top 40 anthro blog -- or spam?

2010-07-23T01:49:50Z

Apparently, our little Photoethnography.com blog got into the Top 40 Anthropology Blog list.

Online PhD

However, I'm entirely unclear as to whether this is spam or not. Gentle readers, please advise.

I added rel="nofollow" tags to the links just in case. And just removed the links altogether since the feedback below seems to suggest that it is spam...

Careers: "Areas of interest" bloat

2010-07-19T20:13:20Z

In the last few months, I've now gotten letters from prospective graduate students with CVs that suffer from what I would call "Areas of Interest" bloat. One had twenty-five (25!) areas of interest and the other was also well over a dozen.

This is just too much. Yes, you are young and the whole world looks like a giant oyster -- but too many raw oyster can give you really bad indigestion.

As a general rule, try to keep your areas of interest to less than six or so. Since I (rarely) try to practice what I preach, here are my "Areas of Interest:"

Region 1 (general world region): East Asia
Sub-region (country or local area): Japan
Topic 1: Disability Studies
Topic 2: Politics of Identity and social movements
Sub-discipline: Sociocultural and Visual Anthropology

OK, I cheated on the last two bullet points...... anyway, you get my point.

Try to go through your areas of interest with a very fine tooth comb and make sure it's as concise and focused as possible. Use it as a way to find out which departments might be interested in what you study and vice versa.

I also tell my graduate students to perfect their elevator speech, but that's a topic for an entirely new blog entry.

Info: Cheap places to crash for the night in Japan

2010-07-14T02:10:27Z

Yikes! You've been out partying in Tokyo and missed the last train for the night. You need to crash, but where? Here's my list of cheap ways to spend the night in Tokyo:

Net cafe: Many manga+net cafes are 24 hours and have private cubicles that you can crash in. They have "overnight" rates which are quite reasonable, coffee and soda machines, and of course manga comics and networked PCs. Some even have massage machines, tanning beds and foot spas! The "night pack" price for a random netcafe that I googled in Shinjuku is a measly Y1500...
Super Sento Bathhouse: Many of the larger "super sento"-type bathhouses have relaxation rooms where you can spend the night. It might cost an additional Y1500 on top of the Y1000 admission fee, but still Y2500 for the night (and all the hot spa baths you can handle) isn't too bad.
There is of course the capsule hotels. I'm claustrophobic so this isn't an option for me.
Business hotels: the cheapest business hotels like Super Hotel or Toyoko Inn have rates that start around Y4980 for a single for the night. The problem is that these cheapo hotels don't tend to be in front of popular train stations, so getting to one might be an issue. And the rooms tend to fill up quickly.

I was inspired to write this because of two random events that happened this summer: one of my students almost got stuck herself stuck by herself in Osaka overnight .... and I went to the Oedo Onsen Monogatari bathhouse yesterday with my sweetie and noted that they had a very nice women's only "relaxation room" with full reclining chairs and individual TV sets -- and there appeared to be several patrons who were gearing up to spend the night there.

Oedo Onsen is quite expensive, Y2000 for general admission and another Y1700 for spending the night (in their lingo "extra late-night fee"), but other super sento in Japan are cheaper.

Of course, the best thing is to never get stuck!

Shopping: ¥100 stores in Japan

2010-06-30T01:37:05Z

The LA Times has written a travel/shopping story about my favorite store in Japan -- no, not Yodobashi Camera, but the ubiquitous ¥100 stores:

Bargain hunting at Japan's 100-yen stores

In this shopping-mad country, the latest craze is the 100-yen store. For a little more than a dollar, savvy consumers can stock up on everything from origami paper to banana cases to milk carton-shaped erasers.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-100yen-20100627,0,4323842.story

Anyone else a fan of these bargain emporiums?

Shooting Video with DSLRs

2010-06-21T18:44:13Z

As the video indicates, shooting video with DSLRs is on the rise. In fact, "the House (great show, btw) season finale was shot entirely on a Canon 5D Mark II."

I'm very much an amateur as these things are concerned, but I was thinking about this with respect to Karen's thoughts on choosing a digital camcorder. Specifically, I've wondered how suitable it would be to use a DSLR to both record video and capture stills for ethnographic work.

With my limited knowledge, this seems very attractive to me, especially after getting a 50mm lens has changed my life, but the video does point to some very important caveats.

Via Digital Photography School.

Things That Caught My Eye: Hatcams

2010-06-18T19:56:11Z

Wow, just, wow.

Most activities require the use of both hands, which unfortunately makes filming these experiences impossible ... UNTIL NOW! Our patent pending Hatcam Mounting System allows you to capture everything you hear and see, all while having both hands free. With our Hatcam Kit, experiences that would be just a memory can now be captured forever.

Via Gizmodo.

Equipment: Digital audio recording in the field

2010-06-10T13:36:22Z

In my rush to pack for Japan, I forgot to bring my usual digital audio recorder. I decided to pick up a new one in Japan since there were several options that weren't available yet in the United States.

I decided to not go with my previous Roland- Edirol or Samson-Zoom choices. Those companies make great digital recorders designed mainly for studio recording, but I don't need XLR jacks this time around since I'm not shooting any video. My main frustrations with the R-09 and Zoom H4 as field recorders were their comparatively large size and the short battery life, surely there must be better options now.

Oh, I should note everything I'm mentioning is only available in Japan. I'm not sure when or if they will ever make it to the states.

Olympus: I first looked at the Olympus Voice Trek data recorder series. These are highly rated by journalists and fieldworkers alike. Many of my graduate students use their sub-$100 series. On the higher end, I liked the DS-750, it had almost everything I wanted including the ability to recharge its NiMH AAA batteries itself, when plugged into USB. 4GB internal memory, linear PCM 48 kHz / 16 bit recording. The price, Y17,000 or around US$200.

Unfortunately, I'm the type of geekette that always has to have best of class. In the Olympus lineup, that meant the new LS-11 which just came out. Much better mics than the DS-750, 96 kHz / 24 bit, more internal memory (8GB) and a wireless remote control. Drool. Street price, Y36000 or US$400. Gulp. And while the two AAs would power it for an amazing 22.5 hours, there was no internal recharging capability like the lesser DS-750. Well, harumph.

Sanyo, which is not known for its audio recorders in the USA, had some very nice models. I wish they sold them in the USA because I think they would be a huge hit among field recorders. I ended up settling on the newest, latest, biggest, baddest model: the Sanyo Xacti ICR-PS605RM (egad, what a mouthful).

The PS605RM has 6 ... count 'em ... 6 mics. Four mics in a W-XY configuration and two that are omnidirectional. This allows for a wide variety of recording modes. When recording with the 4 W-XY mics, the frequency range is 40 Hz to an amazing 47,000 Hz -- digitizing at a 96 kHz sampling rate at 16 or 24 bits. Although no one except your dog might be able to hear pure tones above 25 kHz, there is some small evidence that even ordinary people can "sense" such ultrasonic overtones in musical instruments. Total overkill, the way I like it.

Although it doesn't look like it, the PS605RM is actually smaller than the Olympus models and is powered by a single rechargeable AAA battery (enclosed), which keeps it chugging for 26 hours in MP3 mode (15 in linear PCM). Incredible.

No fancy wireless remote, but there is a nice binaural mic option which I'm going to try.

Also, the Xacti can recharge directly from the computer with a slide-out full-size USB A plug. So no cables needed for downloading files or for recharging. The only thing I forget more often than batteries is the darn USB cable, so this is great. It can also take a 16 GB micro SDHC card if the internal 4GB isn't enough.

It comes in a nice bundle with a windscreen and tripod/clip adapter.

We'll see how it functions in some field tests this summer. I especially want to plan with the binaural mics, since I want to make some recordings that show Tokyo as a blind person would hear it.

The cost was just over Y30,000 or around US$350. A tad expensive. The next lower model was a full Y10,000 cheaper. But it didn't have the Klingon shaver look....

p.s. The binaural mic is the Sanyo HM-250 -- around $75 but unfortunately only available... yes... you guessed it... in Japan.

p.p.s. And I haven't forgetten iPhones, more after the jump.

iPods and iPhones: In case you wanted to record with your iPhone or iPod touch, there is an interesting mic dongle that is... again... Japan only. It's the Logitech LIC-IREC03P retailing for around Y6300 (US$80). Why didn't I get it? I've run out of juice on my iPhone too many times to trust it -- and I have a tendency to lose any and all dongles.

Thoughts on Adam Wheeler and academic fraud

2010-06-10T09:48:07Z

The whole Adam Wheeler and Harvard academic fraud ordeal had me thinking about the importance of early detection in these types of cases. It seems like these students often start small (plagiarizing student papers) and then move onto bigger things (Wheeler was caught when he tried to fake his Rhodes Scholarship application).

In fact, Wheeler was apparently for one semester from Bowdoin College when he was caught plagiarizing a paper in his sophomore year. He could have gone back but Wheeler instead applied to Harvard on false credentials (claiming to be from MIT) and was accepted. There, he continued faking material until he was caught.

In Wheeler's case, it seems like Bowdoin did all the right things -- suspending him for one semester. That should have been Wheeler's wake-up-call, unfortunately it wasn't.

On the other hand, I've seen cases of plagiarism at colleges (not just Yale) where the actions taken weren't as harsh -- such as just an 'F' on the paper, which is just a rap on the wrist, really. I think this only encourages students to believe that academic fraud isn't a serious issue and could encourage them to continue in that vein, only trying harder to not get caught.

Dropbox: trés cool file sharing/syncing and a way to help Karen

2010-06-03T03:35:58Z

How do you share files between computers that you own? Say you have a Word document on your desktop that you want to bring over to your laptop. Do you e-mail it to yourself? Put it on a thumbdrive? That's what I used to do until I discovered a really cool web 2.0 serviced called "Dropbox".

Basically what Dropbox does is create a folder on your computers that is shared in real time between all of your computers. Drop a file into your dropbox folder on your Mac and it appears magically in the dropbox folder on your netbook. Update a spreadsheet on your laptop and it gets synced automatically to your desktop.

There are some other places that offer this service, like Apple's MobileMe. But Dropbox has several things going for it:

Blazingly fast. I'm in Tokyo and my work computer is in New Haven. I've dropped a file into my dropbox on my New Haven computer (using a VNC connection) and it literally popped into my laptop computer here in Tokyo within two seconds. I was absolutely gobsmacked by how fast it is.
It actually syncs. This is one of the reasons why I've come to hate MobileMe. My gorrham iDisk is constantly failing to sync and plays havoc with my files.
It backups. Dropbox keeps 30 days worth of archived versions on its servers, so if you accidentally overwrite a file with the wrong contents, you can retrieve it. Many places can handle deletes, but not overwrites, so I'm very happy.
They have Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Linux versions.
They are free: They'll give you 2 gigabytes free as a matter of course but....
They also have a great referral program: if you sign up with my referral code, https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTcwMjMyMjI5, they'll give both you and me an extra 256 megabytes free.

You can get up to 8 gigs of free cloud space just by referring your friends. Which is what I'm trying to do.

So.... if you need a great file sharing / syncing program -- or you just want to help me out -- please sign up for DropBox! It's absolutely free and the referral bonus will mean a great lot to me in the long run.

Thanks everyone!

Karen

Karen has unfortunately gone native...

2010-06-02T04:23:42Z

http://reface.me/profile-pictures/avatarize-yourself/

Info: Laptop and netbook failures rates compared / by manufacturer

2010-05-18T02:37:55Z

The PC extended warrantee company SquareTrade has published some really interesting data on laptop / netbook failure rates, based on their own data from 30,000 of their covered machines. What's interesting to me is the fragility of netbooks. One of my own netbooks (an Asus EEE PC 900) has died, which is a shame since it's one of the most reliable brands.

Things That Caught My Eye: DSLR Sensors in Tiny Bodies and Beautiful Pictures From Ugly Videos

2010-05-12T18:42:52Z

I've been following the development of the micro four-thirds system a little, just because of how nice it would be to take DSLR quality photos in a point-and-shoot size frame, but here is another option — a DSLR size APS-C sensor in a point-and-shoot size frame. So pretty. PopPhoto.com has a review here as well as some sample pictures.

You'll never believe where this beautiful picture came from — it was compiled and extracted from some dirty shaky hazy video. Gizmodo says it is from a technique developed by Microsoft where they "can take a small percentage of these 900 images—80 in this case—and combine their sharpest, most detailed parts." The write up also has a great example of a panorama they created from similar quality video.

Equipment: Digital camcorder recommendation

2010-04-29T17:51:34Z

I was recently asked by several people to recommend digital camcorders. While I've previously recommended tape-based HDV camcorders, I'm now recommending SHDC flash memory based camcorders for most people. Flash memory is now very cheap and so is hard drive space.

I personally use a Canon Vixia HF100 high-def digital camcorder to tape meetings and talks here at school.

The current model is the HF200 which is listed at around $750. You also have to budget for a
16 gigabyte SD card ($50~), tripod ($100), and microphone ($50).

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=177&modelid=17994

If your budget is less, then I think the Canon Vixia FS21 at $400 would be
just fine. You lose high-def but if you're just uploading to the web,
then high-def is overkill. You'd still need to get an 8 gigabyte SD
card, tripod, and mic.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=2544&modelid=18057

Be sure to buy a good tripod as most cheap tripods have plastic heads that herk-and-jerk when you try to pan or tilt. If you've ever used a good fluid head, it's hard to go back to el-cheapo tripod. Personally, i wouldn't touch a tripod under $300, but I realize that's not in most people's budgets.

The AVC format that these cameras used makes it fairly easy to dump the video to your harddrive and then onto a DVD for archival purposes. AVC isn't terribly great for intensive editing since it's highly compressed, but it's not terrible either with today's fast CPUs.

Would I use either of these for ethnographic filmmaking.... hmmm... most probably not. But this is only because my 'A' camera is the Canon XL-H1 which is a prosumer HDV camera. When I edit in Final Cut, it makes sense to not mix and match between different HD formats, so my current 'B' camera is a Sony HDV tape based camera as well.

If I was all digital, I might consider it, but I'm not sure..... I don't have enough funds to buy an all new flash based 'A' camera, so it's a moot point anyway.

No way to type x-bar in Pages!

2010-04-12T20:38:23Z

I'm in an anti-Mac rut these days.

Getting ready to give a fancy presentation to medical types and just realized that Pages has no way to type an italic x with an over bar over it as in arithmetic-mean (x=1.0). The image below is a GIF picture -- you can't write the x on the left hand side of the equation in Pages!

Arugula!

What century are we in! It turns out that x-bar isn't a standard Unicode glyph and so programs have to support it themselves, which Pages doesn't.

I know Steve Jobs doesn't do math, but is some basic math support too much to ask? I'm not asking for LaTex, but I am asking to not be made to seem absolutely daft.

Brinno Garden Watch Cam

2010-04-09T17:41:03Z

Alright, so maybe I am a little obsessed with time lapse photos. But still, I think this is pretty cool. It's a cheap but not so cheap ($139.95 on Amazon) waterproof camera that you stick in the ground and leave to gather time lapse photos. Seems there would be a number of uses for something like this, and they do have a sample video of someone using it to make a video out of some people putting up a Habitat for Humanity house.

Via Cool Tools.