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Bündnis für den Palast
Im Streit um den schwachsinnigsten Abriss der Republik (s.u.) tut sich was: unter palastbuendnis.de formiert sich eine Öffentlichkeit für die Rettung des Palastes, der erst diese Woche wieder als Ausstellungsraum zugänglich war, und es sprießen zahlreiche weitere Web-Projekte zum Thema.
"Informationen und Hintergründe zu dem Gebäude, der Institution der Volkskammer und dem städtebaulichen Kontext am Schlossplatz" in Audioform präsentiert derweil Uli Schuster (via Kantel).
IM ARCHIV
2005-11-22 Behämmert
2005-08-06 Volkspalast - Der Berg
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Nice Touch
If you compose a mail in GMail and attach a file first and type the message second, it uploads your file in the background while you are typing - so you don't have to wait for the upload to complete after hitting "send". Now that's a clever and helpful use of asynchronous data transfer.
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Wort zum Sonntag
Klick = groß
.. auf der Rohkohlen-Lagerhalle der Jahr 2001 stillgelegten Ruhrzeche Fürst Leopold.
In diesen Momenten läuft die letzte Schicht auf Bergwerk Lohberg. Damit gehen 100 Jahre Kohleära in Dinslaken zu Ende.
Ebenfalls in diesem Jahr wurde das Bergwerk Warndt/Luisenthal im Saarland geschlossen.
Coal blending and storing facility, Fürst Leopold colliery, Germany, closed down. The writing on the wall reads: "You have destroyed the mine - bastards!"
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Posted in category Endangered Machinery
Indoor Fireworks
Slag dumping in a mill for ultra-high-strength cast steels
Click to enlarge
New Year's Eve is approaching quickly - time to think about some fireworks. This steeler has some ideas - but you better don't try this at home :-)
MOMENTS EARLIER
2005-07-15 Steeler
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Posted in category Endangered Machinery
Architekturdatenbanken
Bei der Beschäftigung mit Industriefotografie und Industriegeschichte kommt man zwangsläufig auch mit den Themen Architektur und Städtebau in Berührung. Einige Verweise:
International
- Structurae - "Internationale Galerie und Datenbank des Ingenieurbaus" (auch in Englisch)
- archINFORM - "Weltweit größten Online-Datenbank für Architektur" (auch in Englisch)
National und regional
- NRW-Architekturdatenbank - "Architektur und Ingenieurbaukunst der 50er, 60er und 70er Jahre im Land Nordrhein-Westfalen", ein Projekt der Uni Dortmund mit zahlreichen seltenen Fotos, fällt gelegentlich leider aus
- nachkriegsmoderne.de - Berlin-spezifisch mit Schwerpunkt auf dem maranten Hochhaus der TU-Fakultät für Bergbau und Hüttenwesen am Ernst-Reuter-Platz
- BauNetz Bauten der Moderne präsentiert einige Bauten der Nachkriegsmoderne, die gefährdet sind oder abgerissen, entstellt oder gerettet wurden, so das Berliner Ahornblatt und das Tor 1 von Krupp Rheinhausen. Besonders die Rubrik Abgerissen ist freilich ausbaufähig. Manches interessante Gebäude wird in loser Folge auch auf Elms Blog gezeigt.
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Eine Frage der Strategie
In den letzten Jahren hat sich ein "Berliner Konsens" herausgebildet, der für eine defensive Reaktion [auf die Globalisierung] steht: [...] Nur mit sinkenden oder zumindest stagnierenden Reallöhnen, mit längeren Arbeitszeiten und geringerem Kündigungsschutz könnten die Arbeitsplätze gesichert werden. Nur mit einem Abbau von Sozialleistungen, einem reduzierten Angebot an öffentlichen Gütern und niedrigeren Steuern könne sich der Staat im internationalen Standortwettbewerb behaupten.
Bevor sich die neue Regierung dem vorschnell anschließt, sollte sie sich die Zeit nehmen, seine Prämissen und wirtschaftspolitischen Implikationen gründlich zu prüfen. Fragwürdig ist schon die Annahme, dass Globalisierung für eine Volkswirtschaft wie Deutschland Verzicht auf Wohlstand bedeutet. Alle ökonomischen Theorien sprechen für das Gegenteil.
Peter Bofinger: Magerstaat und ewiges Jammertal oder staatliche Offensive? →
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Losing and Re-discovering Vision In Engineering
Typically, those who first work on an idea or concept will see that it has a very wide scope of application, however, they are almost always forced to focus on one or another specific, limited scopes in order to present their idea in a relevant fashion to potential adopters who have specific issues addressed by the innovation. Often, in the process of this focused positioning to convince early-adopters to accept an idea or process, much of the full richness of the vision is lost or put aside. The cost of acceptance is thus often the loss of very important, even essential, elements of the vision. Sometimes, the loss is permanent and only the original thinker knows what paths were not traveled...
That is a very good summary of what everyone in engineering who envisions, develops and builds stuffs that is actually new is likely to experience.
I learned this when I helped developing a new manufacturing process in the domain of rapid prototyping and solid freeform fabrication. In the end we came up with a process, a set of materials and a machine that was well positionable in the market, but of course, it was different from our initial vision. It was the initial vision after the real world with its multitude of constraints has acted upon it (1)
(Still it is important for the future development of the product and the company not to forget the initial vision. This is a good case for solid, narrative documentation of what has been done, what worked and - even more important - what did not work and why. We had to abandon many interesting paths because they were blocked by technological and other limitations - at the given time. But such work needs not to be lost: writing down what was aimed at, was the encountered limitations looked like and under what conditions it could work anyway is the key. Then, things can be re-assessed at a later time under the light of technological advancement, and promising paths blocked in the past could turn out to be open now. A wiki looks like the tool of choice here, but the tricky part of course is to get people actually writing things down.)
Bob Wyman, the author of above piece, of course has much better and more exciting examples than I could give: his attempts to get Hypertext built at DEC during the 80's, and the current re-discovery of the word "write" in the initial vision of the Internet as a read/write-place:
How the read/write web was lost... →
[via Danny Ayers]
(1) Addition 2005-12-29: This is by far not as negative as it may sound.
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The real German Christmas
I tried to tell my audience at the bookstore how much I had enjoyed their city’s Weihnachtsmarkt, how happy I was that I’d found the bubbly lights for my brother, how I had come down from orbit and landed on Planet Weihnachtsmarkt and I’d found its inhabitants to be a lovely, bouncy, musical, and cheerful people. The audience looked at me as if I were nuts.
The story of an American writer in Christmas Germany →
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FeedMagick
FeedMagick is a set of URL-line tools written in PHP used for filtering, converting, and otherwise munging XML syndication feeds in RSS and Atom formats.
Les Orchard's FeedMagick →
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Feed Icons
On December 18, I asked a number of people for hints where to get a vector graphics version of the Firefox Newsfeeds logo but we all couldn't find one (perhaps there is one deep in Bugzilla?). The squar logo is on its way to become the de-facto standard, given that enough people will start using ist.
On December 19, a Matt Brett filled the gap and offered the logo in Illustrator and Photoshop formats for download on his blog.
Now you can find the package conveniently located at feedicons.com and the whole things seems to be taking off. Thanks, Matt!
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Beacons 2006 Wandkalender
Zwölf Industrielandschaften zeigt der Wandkalender "Beacons", den ich dieses Jahr erstmalig anbiete. In den Formaten DIN A3 oder DIN A4 sind Stadt- und Landschaftsbilder zu sehen, die hier zum Großteil noch nicht vorher gezeigt wurden. Ich freue mich auf Ihre Reaktionen und Anfragen.
Ausführliche Beschreibung →
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Posted in category Endangered Machinery
Beacons 2006 Calendar
My printed photo calendar for 2006 is now out and available. It features one scenic Endangered Machinery photo per month, most of them previously not shown on this site. For orders and all details, check the new calendar webpage →
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Posted in category Endangered Machinery
Hilfe für Afrika? [Updated]
Hinreichend Sendungsbewusstsein vorausgesetzt, kann man gerade auf Themengebieten, mit denen sich die meisten Leute nicht näher beschäftigen, sie aber "irgendwie ziemlich wichtig" finden, recht überzeugend klingen. Das geht solange gut, bis jemand kommt, der sich mit dem Thema auch auskennt. So ist das zum Beispiel mit Afrika, Bono und Paul Theroux:
Das Beste wollen, aber das Schlechte schaffen: Nicht nur der ewige Gutmensch Bono und Erst-Nerd Bill Gates schaden Afrika mehr, als sie dessen Not lindern.
Süddeutsche: Nix Gutes von Bono →
Das englischsprachige Original, The Rock Star's Burden ist schon im Bezahlarchiv der NYT verschwunden gibt es bei der NYT, ix hatte den richtigen Link. Und einen eigenen Eintrag dazu, genau wie mapu.
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Building a photo tool user interface
Notes which should better go into a wiki:
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What's wrong with this video?
Click to play video (2 MB)
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Yahoo! Pick, calendar announcement
Endangered Machinery is a Yahoo! Pick of the Day - thanks!
This might also be a good moment to announce the Endangerey Machinery 2006 wall calendars which will be available very soon. Stand by for details.
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Posted in category Endangered Machinery
Pipeline Bridge
Click to enlarge
In many areas with historically grown sites of heavy industry, public and industrial spaces are not clearly separated, but tightly interwoven as the cities grew into spaces not yet occupied by the mills and vice versa. As a consequence, connecting lines between the different plants often run through public spaces and living areas. In many places, they are so ubiquitous that they become invisble to the casual observer. That's why they are interesting study objects - like this pipeline bridge across a main road, connecting various Cockerill-Sambre/Arcelor plants in the Liège basin, Belgium.
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Posted in category Endangered Machinery
Mystery Photo
In an hardly disguised plot to become rich and famous I have added an PayPal Donate button to my photo website. You can find it on the photo homepage and the collections index page. With a donation, you support my efforts and show appreciation for my work. Don't be shy at the button - clicking on it takes you to a mystery photo not shown elsewhere on the site :-)
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Posted in category Endangered Machinery
Sic transit...
Zur Stunde werden die Leuchtbuchstaben montiert, und die offizielle Webseite der Bundesliga vermeldet, daß am Samstag der Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund offiziell eingeweiht werden wird. Das Wort Westfalenstadion wird lehrbuchgemäß nicht ein einziges Mal erwähnt, ganz so als ob es vor Signal Iduna nie etwas gegeben hätte. Westfalenhütte abgerissen, Westfalenstadion umbenannt, für die Westfalenhallen findet sich bestimmt auch noch was.
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Stanley Tookie Williams
Stanley Tookie Williams, gang founder, gang crime pacification activist, anti gang children's book author and Nobel Peace Price nominee for five times, has been executed today by the State of California. No rehabilitation, never. Not to mention justice for the other, not so illustrious death row inmates.
ON THIS BLOG
2003-01-15 Two Men
ELSEWHERE
Mehrzweckbeutel: Terminator spielen – Terminator sein (in German)
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Hard landing test passed
Yesterday, my Olympus digital camera fell down onto a curb from a height of about 1.90 meters, the lens fully extended. Nothing happened. The magnesium alloy body now has a little dent near the shutter release which doesn't affect handling at all - that's it. And that's why I wouldn't buy a camera without a metal body or at least a metal sub-structure.
Before, the camera also passed the Say hello to this brick wall test, the Sudden Thunderstorm test, the Extensive Rainfall test and others, so it can be recommended for rugged outdoor usage. And yes, I like it if gear shows some wear - it's a sign that it actually gets used, so it might be a good product.
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Heiße Kiste
Erstens soll der Vertrieb und die Nutzung aller Software untersagt werden, die für Übertragungen geschützter Inhalte im Internet genutzt werden könnte und die kein Digitales Rechte-Management (DRM) unterstützt. Das beträfe fast jede Software zur Übertragung von Daten im Internet, vom Webserver über Instant Messenger-Programme bis zu Peer-to-Peer-Tauschbörsenclients. Zweitens sollen alle im Internet ausstrahlenden Sender dazu gezwungen werden, ihre Programme nur noch DRM-geschützt zu verbreiten, um das Kopieren der Inhalte zu verhindern. Drittens werden die französischen Internetprovider dazu verpflichtet, den kompletten privaten Datenverkehr auf Verstöße gegen das Urheberrecht hin zu überwachen. Wer gegen diese Gesetze verstößt, soll mit Freiheits- oder Geldstrafen bis zu 300.000 Euro belangt werden.
Mit etwas Pech in Frankreich bald Realität.
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Art, Truth & Politics
The Nobel Lecture of Harold Pinter, "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms", as the Nobel Committee puts it, is too important to get burried in the QuickLinks, so here are the links once again:
Video of the Nobel Lecture →
Text in English →
Text in German →
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Beyond the single photo: Immersive panoramas
As close to a personal visit as it gets
Immersive panoramas, also known as spherical panoramas or virtual reality panoramas are 360° x 180° panoramas one can navigate with a QuickTime or Java viewer. I haven't been a fan of this kind of panoramas in the past, but changed my mind recently: in contrast to a video where you have to follow a fixed route through a place, you can actually explore it on your own with spherical panoramas. Have a look at this set of examples of a wind tunnel. Exploring all six panoramas gives a good impression of the topology, the dimension and the "feeling" of that place, probably as close to an actual visit as it gets. (Also note the "French Concrete" exterior style typical for industrial buildings in France and Belgium.) These examples recorded at CERN in Geneva also carry audio tracks, making it an even more exciting experience. Of course it does not stop here. In academic and scientific use, software based analysis of spherical panoramas is where the real fun starts. The website of Metigo Software of Leipzig has some examples.
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:: in category Beyond the single photo
Semantic Wiki Reading List
Links I've collected over time from various sources, all unchecked and on my "to read"-list:
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CSS Bar Graphs
Last year I introduced CSS Bar Graphs which looks rather crude, but work without loading any images. If using images is OK for you, Apples To Oranges: CSS for Bar Graphs has some examples for well-styled horizontal and vertical CSS bar graphs using the ul and dl elements. Elsewhere, there is an example for charts with table markup.
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Come to where the flavor is
Click to enlarge
Bienvenue à Seraing :-)
More Seraing Coke, Liège area, Belgium:
2004-12-07 Industrial Landscape
2004-12-08 Belgian Cityscape
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Posted in category Endangered Machinery
Dolomitwerke
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Dolomitwerke dolomite quarry and refractories works, Hagen, Germany
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Posted in category Endangered Machinery
Then each went to his own home
Now that I just said it, let's hear it again from someone else:
It appears to me that there’s not been much progress being done related to tagging systems lately. What rather became better is the embedding of tagging systems into already existing technologies such as search. It gives the impression that core issues are done and that there’s no much room for improvement. In this article I wanted to disprove this. I think that there's much much more than I have written in here, I even believe that todays tagging applications cover just about 5% of all the possible features tagging makes possible. Thus, let’s gain ground.
It is a pleasure for me to point you to Then each went to his own home - Philipp Keller's thoughts on tags and deliciousness. Philipp's writings offer what is badly needed in most blogs on tagging/"folksonomy"/social software/"Web 2.0" issues: substance. To begin with, check Tagsystems: performance tests, Tags with MySQL fulltext, Analyzing tag-connections and How tagging could gain ground from which above quote origins.
It could gain ground, of course, if it better helps to explore, if it offers a currently missing view on data with, as Philipp puts it, "a bit more ontology than [plain] tags but not that much taxonomy as open directory". That's the idea I wanted to convey with my currently doormant semantic tagging stuff, explained better - don't miss his street map comparison!
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All That Tagging Jazz
This is an entry I have written in early November but just saved as a draft then. Now that the self-fullfilling prophecy caravan is making station in Paris it might be a good moment to publish it.
[...] Building visualization tools, building keyword handling, editing and grouping tools, building more nifty interfaces might be further steps. So are gluing together thematically related blog entries, wiki pages and bookmark collections (finally a solution to that!) or applying the tags architecture to entirely different applications like a photo collection (hint hint) or this weblog (there is already a hack that replaces Movable Type's category system with del.icio.us tags). Generally, tagging discipline will be an important subject as it is a cornerstone for building powerful queries.
That's what I've written one year ago on tagging. See how the issues haven't changed since? It is amazing how little effort went into basic things like tag handling, editing and grouping so far - while at the same time, lots of effort went into creating a new mini Web 2.0 VC-bubble? (See Joel Spolsky's Architecture Astronauts Are Back for the latter point.)
Example: synonyms or tag groups. There are lots of photos of the local blast furnaces plant called Phoenix West (you know that I am into taking photos of such plants, so let's use an example from that domain). Tagging photos of these plants, people will probably use Phoenix_West, Phönix_West, Phoenixwest, Phönixwest and phw. ö and oe are roughly equal in German which makes this example a bit more interesting. Five tags, all synonymous.
So let's come up with an interface that lets me say "All these five tags are synonyms. Let's use phw as the default term for this group. If someone uses one the five tags, ask him if he really means this Phoenix West [ambiguity issue], and if so, automagically replace the used tag with phw." And then let's have similar mechanism for search and for batch changing older entries accordingly. Once we have such basic functions, lets build more fancy things like tag attributes and tags that come with custom rendering rules - wide open fields :-)
RELATED
2004-10-30 Switching to del.icio.us
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Beyond the single photo: The fourth element
Audio recordings
In the first posting on this subject I mentioned three techniques that in terms of conveying impressions go well beyond a single photo: panorama photography, aerial photography and videography. How could I miss to mention the fourth: audio recordings. One evening I sat in the harbor of a huge steel works, the very place itself most quiet, and rhythmic noise from a variety of sources all around me in its slow and steady pace mixed into a relaxing surround sound symphony. On the other end of the "industrial sounds spectrum", inside the housing of electric arc furnaces, you feel the noise as much as you hear it, most forceful, energetic, crude and deafening - intimidating, frightening to some, glorious to others. Could recordings of this be valuable to my project? Most certainly.
Regarding aerial photography, a local company has a demo gallery with some good examples of the aerial photography's specific language.
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:: in category Beyond the single photo
API Explorer
Note on Software Documentation
Flickr has a so called API Explorer with which you can send test calls to each method of its well documented API in a hassle-free style right from the website; XML results get shown in an iFrame. Example. Nice.
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Wegen Hobbyaufgabe zu verkaufen
Es gab mal wen, der wollte wegen Hobbyaugabe sein Fotopapier verkaufen - und hat es für das eBay-Foto ausgepackt. Jetzt hat wieder jemand sein Hobby aufgegeben →
UPDATE
Die Person hat den Lapsus mittlerweile gemerkt - und in der Artikelbeschreibung ganz unkompliziert auf ihn hingewiesen. Finde ich gut. Sei daher auch erwähnt. Ist hier ja schließlich nicht wie bei den großen Medien, wo positive Wendungen gelaufener Geschichten prinzipiell keinen Platz finden.
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