Photoethnography.com Blog

Meta: Had to block all traffic from China

2013-05-22T22:52:42Z

With deep regret, I've had to implement a filter that block all IP traffic originating from Chinese internet service providers. This affects all of the websites and blogs under my control. The reason for this was that I was getting an inordinate amount of web traffic from those IP ranges. These were likely not legitimate traffic but instead spam and/or hacking attempts.

With 25-50 gigabytes of traffic a day, my website provider was going to charge me over $1000 a month in bandwidth over-usage costs, even after I had upgraded to one of their high-volume contracts. I just couldn't afford this.

Since implementing the block, web traffic has plummeted back to normal levels.

If you think you were blacklisted unfairly, then please let me know your IP address (range) and I can whitelist you. Of course, you most probably won't even see this notice unless you use a non-Chinese proxy….

Link: Color blindness simulator

2013-03-11T19:05:04Z

A Color Blindness Simulator (via my pal JL): http://www.etre.com/tools/colourblindsimulator/

Info: Open Access doesn't mean free

2012-11-16T18:22:45Z

Although there's strong interest in open access as the future of anthropological publishing, it isn't free. One of the best models for digital publishing is PLOS One but as their website indicates, they charge authors $1350 for publishing an article, and some of the other journals in their portfolio charge up to $2900. There are waivers available.

PLOS Biology US$2900
PLOS Medicine US$2900

PLOS Computational Biology
US$2250

PLOS Genetics US$2250

PLOS Pathogens US$2250

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
US$2250

PLOS ONE US$1350

Source: http://www.plos.org/publish/pricing-policy/publication-fees/

A note for Karen: One of the open source programs for open access journals is: http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q=ojs

Stop MS Word from opening up old files when starting up

2012-11-10T19:53:41Z

In general, I like the new Mac OS versions but the one thing I don't like is that applications like MS Word open up all my old documents when they start up again. Here's how to stop it:

Type the following in terminal:

defaults write com.microsoft.Powerpoint NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false
defaults write com.microsoft.Word NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false
defaults write com.microsoft.Excel NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

Very user unfriendly. Poops.

Don't Feed the Animals

2012-10-13T01:35:12Z

Seeing such an expensive lens being demolished like this is so painful to bare. According to the article, a woman was "trying to change lenses while standing at the edge of the enclosure, and accidentally let the 70-200mm slip out of her grasp and into Felix's territory."

Tips: Crashplan kept crashing… on Mountain Lion

2012-08-09T15:51:30Z

I've been a fan of the backup service Crashplan (crashplan.com) but the service had been crashing on my Mac Book Pro when I upgraded to Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8). I wasn't sure what was going on and googled around.

Changing the memory buffer size for Java has seemed to fix things. I used the instructions here: http://afterhours.bitsandbugs.net/2012/04/18/crashplan-crashing-here-is-the-fix/

Nothing worse than a backup system that doesn't work! I just had one of my Seagate 700 megabyte drives fail on my desktop at work, crashplan is churning away restoring it. It's having some trouble on some files, which is the subject perhaps of a followup post.

Karen

Video: Syncing two video tracks in Final Cut Pro

2012-07-31T15:51:51Z

If you have two video cameras running at the same time in the field, syncing the video tracks in FCP can sometimes be a pain. My pal, filmmaker Harjant Gill, turned me onto Plural Eyes - which does this automatically. Cost: $149.

Grad applications discussion forum

2012-06-14T06:14:12Z

Found this site about applying to grad schools. Could be useful for advisees: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/45-anthropology/

Mac Pro Early 2008 - SATA DVD Drive Install

2012-05-15T18:36:31Z

My main machine is an early 2008 Mac Pro. It's hard to believe it's four years old already... In any case, the DVD drives fail about once a year due to dust build-up. I replaced the original one with a PATA drive from a donor, but the new drives are all SATA.

Here's how to install a SATA DVD drive in the 2008:

Useful info.

Deep brain stimulation using implanted electrodes to control depression

2012-04-16T02:58:50Z

"Her depression controlled her life for the next 40 years -- until she decided to volunteer for an experimental treatment. A neurosurgeon would drill two holes in Guyton's skull and implant a pair of battery-powered electrodes deep inside her brain.

The procedure -- called deep brain stimulation, or DBS -- targets a small brain structure known as Area 25, the "ringleader" for the brain circuits that control our moods, according to neurologist Dr. Helen Mayberg.

Mayberg's groundbreaking research on this part of the brain showed that Area 25 is relatively overactive in depressed patients. So, Mayberg hypothesized that in patients who do not improve with other treatments, Area 25 was somehow stuck in overdrive."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/health/battery-powered-brain/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Karen's talk at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City

2012-04-11T21:15:36Z

Just a quick note that I'm giving a talk tomorrow afternoon at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Just landed here and it's truly like another planet. Having my own Jane Carter moment….

DISABILITY OF THE SOUL | Thursday, April 12, 2012 2:00 PM BEH S Room 114

[read more]
Event Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 2:00 PM MDT

A DISABILITY OF THE SOUL: MENTAL ILNESS AND PSYCHIATRIC DISABILITIES IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN

By Karen Nakamura
Associate Professor
of Anthropology and East Asian Studies,
Yale University

For the past several years, Prof. Nakamura has been conducting research within an intentional community of people with severe mental illnesses in northern Japan. Founded in 1984 on Christian principles, Bethel House attempts to create a space where people with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders can live within
the community.

Like other utopias, Bethel is not without its flaws but it also has much to teach us in its approach to mental illness and community life. A visual and cultural anthropologist, Prof. Nakamura's work explores through image and text what it means to live with psychiatric and other disabilities in contemporary Japan.

Digital audio recorders for interviews

2012-04-09T13:45:46Z

One of my coworkers wanted a simple audio data recorder to do some interviews. Here was my response to her:

Sorry to take a few days to get back to you on the audio recorders. I think you said you wanted a digital audio recorder that you could use to transfer files back to your computer, that eliminates several of the sub-$50 models and so the cheapest ones are all in the $50-100 range and above.

There are a couple of Sony models in this price range, but I find that Sony usually has complicated user interfaces and really bad software, so unless you're a huge Sony fan, I'd generally avoid:

Sony ICD-PX312 $52

I'd instead recommend Olympus. They tend to have simpler interfaces that are easier to use and harder to mess up:

Olympus VN-8100PC $65

There are models that go on up from there, but unless you want to record live audio (concert performances, etc.) then they are overkill.

Karen

Karen's talk at Wake Forest tomorrow night

2012-03-21T17:38:57Z

I'll be giving a talk at the Wake Forest University Museum of Anthropology tomorrow night (Thur March 22; 7pm) with the title: Crooked Nails Standing Tall: Images and Stories of Disability and Mental Illness in Contemporary Japan. If you're in the Winston-Salem area, stop in!

http://www.wfu.edu/calendar/?m=3&y=2012&d=20&w=0&v=w&id=14000

Why I can't give introductions to people in Japan

2012-03-13T17:01:52Z

I'm often asked by people who have read my articles or my book, Deaf in Japan, if I could introduce them to people who are engaged in disability or deaf studies in Japan. Unfortunately, I cannot do this because introductions in Japan are considerably more fraught than in the United States:

An introduction in Japan has two dimensions:

Guarantee: By introducing someone to one of my informants, I am serving as their guarantor and vouching for them. If there are any problems or difficulties, it then becomes my responsibility to resolve any social or financial damage that might be caused by them.
Reciprocity: By introducing someone to one of my informants, I am asking my informant to do a favor on my behalf -- to take care of the visitor and to make sure that their needs are met. The assumption is that this favor will be reciprocated by me at a later date.

While I will do introductions for my students and people that I meet and know, I cannot vouch for or ask favors of my informants for people that I have not met and do not know. Instead, I will usually refer people to google or use the white pages and to cold call people (or more appropriately, to use their own letterhead in a formal letter of self-introduction).

This is definitely one of more stuffy and formalistic aspects of doing fieldwork in Japan.

Fuji X-Pro1 vs. Ricoh GXR + A12-M

2012-02-24T06:29:36Z

I was at the CP+ convention last month when Fuji unveiled the X-Pro1 and played with the camera a bit. I have to say that I was very disappointed in its lens work. Basically I found both the auto-focus useless as it hunted far too much, even in a well-lit environment. I was never sure of whether the focus was achieved unless I was in EVF mode, which seemed to defeat the purpose of an optical viewfinder.

In manual focus, the stock Fuji lenses seemed to be very "detached" from the focus ring. I didn't have the confidence that I could snap focus like I could with a Leica M rangefinder.

The worst aspect though of manual focusing was that there was only one manual focusing aid -- the magnified view option. This is good but is now a bit dated.

----

I decided instead to get a Ricoh GXR base camera and plan to get an M-module very soon. I've already tested this setup and I found that the contrast-highlight manual focus option on the GXR is very fast and accurate -- as accurate as my rangefinding focus. Will report on this setup more as I get more experience with it.

Karen

----

Comparison Reviews

Sony 5N vs GXR: http://ricoh-gr-diary.blogspot.com