This year at Amazon’s re:Invent conference, Rekognition premiered as a new service. It is a “deep-learning AI” service that performs image recognition on pictures you show it. It provides labels of objects and concepts it finds in the image. It can also do facial recognition. Hitting the Rekognition API is only a few lines of … Continue reading Video Rekognizer
Category: Movies
On the Headache of Digital Movie Redemption
I own a lot of movies on physical media. A lot. Something like 300+ at last count.I downsized A few years ago, compressing several tall bookshelves of movies to three shoebox-equvalent boxes by ditching the packaging and placing the discs in sleeves. I like the format because I can extract movies into DRM-free files using Handbrake … Continue reading On the Headache of Digital Movie Redemption
College Quidditch
It is the month of March — the month that brings madness to the world of college-level basketball. But I’m not going to speak of that because I know very little of basketball matches and teams. I’m going to talk about quidditch. You know that quidditch is real, right? Through the magic of the internet … Continue reading College Quidditch
Storytelling through aspect ratios
This weekend I watched Grand Budapest Hotel and chuckled a little at the opening slate. It wasn’t until later, when I went back to review a scene that I noticed. The aspect ratio was… odd.
HOWTO: Ripping DVDs
I have a friend who recently got the one/two combo of a Mac Mini and AppleTV. (Hi, Micha!) Starting with digital files from the iTunes store is all well and good, but he also has a nice collection of DVDs that he’d like to slurp into the Mac for easy access. There aren’t too many … Continue reading HOWTO: Ripping DVDs
You are my density
One of my favorite movies takes place on, or at least starts out on, my birthday… Posted in:
My favorite book, back in 1983
While rewatching Super 8 the other night — a monster-movie film about kids making a monster movie, with a feel very similar to Goonies — I remembered a book I had back in 1983 or 1984. Although I had not thought of it in years, the title, “Lights! Camera! Scream!”, and the cover art centered … Continue reading My favorite book, back in 1983
127 Hours
I saw 127 Hours this afternoon. For those that have not heard of it (I only just learned of it in recent weeks), it is the story of a guy who goes out climbing alone, without telling anyone, who then gets his arm pinned by a large rock. He’s out in the desert for 5 … Continue reading 127 Hours
The Game Grid is powered by Unix
I first saw the most recent Tron Legacy trailer when jwz posted the video a week ago. I remember seeing the brief scene when the kid is looking at the computer console and being mainly focused on the on-screen keyboard. “Oh yeah, I remember that from the original Tron. They had iPad keyboards long before … Continue reading The Game Grid is powered by Unix
Twilight? You mean the ELO hit?
Before about six months ago, I had never heard of Twilight. Now I see it everywhere. Between Linda Mercury’s analysis on of the archetype of Bella (and actually, her whole series of posts loosely titled “In defense of Twilight, even though I hate it“) and Lucy Knisley’s distillation of each book into four-panel comic strips … Continue reading Twilight? You mean the ELO hit?