If you aren’t familiar with it, the box art is an homage to the terrible artwork associated with the North American version of Mega Man 1 for the NES:

The actual kit is a real NES cartridge that has been stripped of screws and logic board, then reassembled with magnets and a new label. The first auction for one of these on eBay went for $750 but as you can see (since I opened it) I’ll be keeping mine!

Here are some photos I’ve taken of the unboxing:

The instructions were pretty straightforward… Except for an undocumented film on the solar panel that was very difficult to remove.
There was also a fair amount of cursing involved but both kits finally made that distinctive heliophone sound.

These are my “home stations” since moving back to Toronto in 1997.

In the presentation, we find out that Seadragon can be used to process and visually work with many gigabytes of photographic images without any slowdown.

Further, the technology is used in Photosynth to spatially map thousands of photos into a navigable virtual space. In the picture above, the presenter shows an example of what happens when every photo on Flickr tagged “Notre Dame” is thrown at the Seadragon technology.

Anyone on a decent connection can try out Photosynth for themselves here: http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

Be sure to check out the Grassi Lakes collection where you can see climbers ascend the Rocky Mountains:

More pictures here at Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/tech_knight/sets/72157600067652295/

Outside, a group of people from Ubuntu Canada were giving out free Linux CDs and information pamphlets. Security watched them carefully to make sure that they didn’t actually set foot in Dundas Square, but it wasn’t possible to miss the cries of “Free operating system! Don’t buy Windows!”.

Click here for the full set of pictures (camera phone, sorry).

It kind of looks like a bare garden now, but what it used to be is a swimming pool. My stepfather told me that sometime during desegregation, the city filled in the pool with concrete to prevent blacks (and presumably any other non-whites) from using it.

To say that such a situation seems unreal is an understatement. I contacted the Legacy Museum of African American History in Lynchburg for more information, and this is what the museum’s administrator Cheryl R. Stallings had to say:

This information is correct.

Early in the afternoon on Independence Day, July 4, 1961, a black gentleman named Olivet C. Thaxton, with six young boys, came to the segregated Miller Park swimming pool and attempted to purchase tickets for entrance into the dressing room. It is said that the City Manager, Recreation Department Supervisor, and the Chief of Police were present, because they had been forwarned. Also, additional law enforcement was present. Mr. Thaxton was told at this time that all city pools, the white Miller Park and Riverside Park pools and the black Jefferson Park pool would be closed if the group entered. Mr. Thaxton insisted that he be let in. The pools were closed, and soon after filled in. I beleive that Miller Park pool did not open until 1986.

There are two great books that you can purchased (1) Lynchburg: A City Set On Seven Hills by Clifton & Dorothy Potter; (2) Lynchburg, Virginia: The First Two Hundred Years 1786-1986 by James M. Elson.

What surprises me, besides the fact that the pools were filled in at all, is that in this park with several sites of interest there isn’t a single plaque to inform visitors of the important history that they might just be walking on.

More photos:

Links

Legacy Museum of African American History
Lynchburg, Virginia by Clifton Potter, Dorothy Potter (Barnes & Noble)
Lynchburg, Virginia: The First Two Hundred Years, 1786-1986 by James M. Elson (Barnes & Noble)
Official City of Lynchburg, Virginia site

A duck

Toronto Harbour