Gallery updates

If you wander over to the gallery, you’ll see a new look and feel (Thanks John for the remote-remote helpage in getting that set up) as well as some new pix from Thanksgiving, Christmas and in between.
I updated the gallery software so now I can export straight from Lightroom (which I recently adopted for photo management on my PC) to the gallery. The plugin could use a few more features (would be nice to create a new album from the plugin) but it’s still a bunch easier than creating jpegs locally and then using a third tool to upload.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re getting set for a great 2008.

Hi, 911? I see somebody using a map!

Dang, Chicago, I thought you were cool. Much cooler than Boston, which goes all flaky at the sight of illuminated cartoon characters.
Turns out Chicago is giving Boston a run for its money in terms of silly security. This Winter Holdiay Public Awareness bulletin reads, in part:

It is important to immediately report any or all of the below suspect activities…
Physical Surveillance (note taking, binocular use, cameras, video, maps) …

I’ll grant that some of the other stuff seems reasonable to report. But…c’mon…maps? This is just goofy. I’m tired of these petty attempts at turning normal urban people into a surveillance network. Those who should make our nation a beacon of freedom are doing the work of those who would see this nation fall. They should take a break, go watch Brazil, or read Farthing, and I hope the clue stick hits ’em on the way out.
And I should have known better about Chicago, after Daley had Meigs field bulldozed in the middle of the night back in 2003. Meigs lives on in my memory as the home field for the subLOGIC flight simulator that lived on the Commodore 64 in the basement of my youth. I kinda miss it, in all its 8-bit, 3-frames-per-second glory.
(A tip of the tuque to Boingboing for the security bulletin link)