Imaging

A proposal to ban photography on the city’s subways to deter surveillance by terrorists has been nixed by police and transit officials. Charles Seaton, a spokesman for NYC Transit, the division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that runs the subways, the buses and the Staten Island Railway, confirmed to the Daily News that the photo ban has been scrapped. Here’s a story from last year when this all started. And here are 200 photos sent to the NYCTA Link.

Zippo has some hardcore lobbyists! You can now bring empty Zippos on planes, at least in checked luggage that is. I’ve been following this Zippo thing pretty closely since I use a Zippo shaped camera and those aren’t allowed. The little camera has a cool mode that will take photos on a timed basis so when I travel I like to have it take time-lapse pictures out the window while I am gone. Link.

Major Nelson has posted the audio from Xbox 360 keynote briefing here. Also, Popular Science is podcasting from the E3 gaming expo- they’ll be publishing a podcast (MP3 audio program) each day this week. They’re interviewing people, have some commentary and they’re singing too. Link. If you want to see some photos that go along with this too, here are the e3 tagged photos on Flickr.

These fellows made their own high-altitude balloons to take photos using a Dakota Digital camera, a Hi-Value Radio PocketTracker, two latex balloons from Kaymont and a parachute from Public Missiles. They also found a closeout on DigiTraveler GPSes from RadioShack. The balloon made it up to 52,000 feet, the pictures are really neat. Link. Via /.

Incredibly lo-fi DIY attempt in making panoramic video, with interesting results- Ingredients: Old plastic Christmas tree bauble found in the garden, Felt tip pen, Blu Tak, “Polar Coordinates” distortion in After Effects. Seems possible to make a version with a larger mirror ball, the effect is pretty neat. Link.

This might be useful if you’re ever interested in building a high speed flash photography system. Two students used a procured BASIC micro-controller and bolt gun. With the aforementioned micro-controller, we simply had no choice but to build a flash timing mechanism to capture images of hot bolt-on-food action. Link.