Photo tags suck, solving the problem with patience

Whenever you add photos to a service people automatically assume tagging will be a feature.  I don’t know about you, but I think photo tags suck.  My brain isn’t well enough organized to be like a database, remembering all the tags I’ve used in the past and which images I applied them to.  So, for now no photo tagging.

Even if you had perfect tagging then you would run into semantic problems when you are in a group.  A word means one thing to me and means a different thing to others yet we use the same word.

This weekend I was taking photos of the kids getting ski race medals and after taking a picture with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 app it would prompt me to tag the image.  I defaulted to date as I found after I took a picture the last thing I wanted to do is tag an image and type.  Seems really stupid that my kids are smiling in the moment and I would have my head down pecking on my phone.  Doing it later is too painful, and you are spending time sharing the photos with family and friends.

This experience confirmed a better way to tag that came from a friend who was using a new photo based service and made an awesome point.  Sorry not sharing the idea. It is too good.  Especially since I have been staring at this problem for over 2 years.  With patience and identifying that photo tagging sucks, finding a better way is the reward for the years of patience.

Photo tagging is important enough that Facebook was granted a patent for photo tagging.

Facebook Wins Patents For Tagging in Photos, Other Digital Media

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Kim-Mai Cutler•May 17th, 2011

Facebook, Photos, Search,VirtualGoods

Tagging was arguably the feature that made Facebook the biggest photo site in the world and seeded the idea for creating the platform.

Now the company has finally won a patent for it.

Nearly five years after the company originally filed for the invention, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office gave Facebook a patent protecting the ability to select a region in a piece of media (like a photo or video) and associate people or other entities with it. Mark Zuckerberg, longtime designer-turned-product architect Aaron Sittig and former Facebook engineer Scott Marlette were credited as inventors.

In the article Zuckerberg is referenced for his early work on tagging.

 

Zuckerberg has long talked about photo tagging as the innovation that helped him and other early Facebook employees initially conceive of the idea for the platform. The company did a competitive analysis of all other photo products out on the web and while Facebook didn’t offer features like high resolution or printing, it still outcompeted rivals simply because it centered its product around people, and not around technical capabilities. Last year the company said it was seeing more than 100 million photo uploads a day. It has not updated that statistic since.

Zuckerberg has long talked about photo tagging as the innovation that helped him and other early Facebook employees initially conceive of the idea for the platform. The company did a competitive analysis of all other photo products out on the web and while Facebook didn’t offer features like high resolution or printing, it still outcompeted rivals simply because it centered its product around people, and not around technical capabilities. Last year the company said it was seeing more than 100 million photo uploads a day. It has not updated that statistic since.

Data Center Drama Class, making the point

I was in a tour of Verne Global's data center, and in the tour we couldn't take pictures of too many things, but I got this one of Tate Cantrell and it was memorable of Tate making a point on the infrastructure.

I never really thought about it, but using your arms to make points is something we should all try a bit more.  I don't think many of us took drama class in high school. :-)

I'll pay more attention to when people are using their arms and body.  It makes the pictures much more interesting.

Another picture I took from the media/analyst briefing event was this one of the Viking Ship.

Here is RMS's Bobby Soni.

And I am even caught making gestures with my arms.

A Golden Circle tour of Iceland for a Technology Oriented Person - IC Iceland

This is my first time to Iceland and had a bit of time for a tour.  The folks at Verne Global recommended Omar at IC Iceland for a tour of the Golden Circle.  For a technology person Omar was a great fit for a tour guide. Omar used to work OS support in Iceland for IBM AS/400 and 360, then worked on complex system installs for Hughes Electronics equipment, and even worked on an ABB control systems with SCADA controls in a power plant in Iceland.

IC Iceland is a fully licensed tour operator specializing in guided super truck tours and extended tour around Iceland. Super trucks are powerful 4×4 vehicles that are customized in Iceland to handle tough terrain of the highlands and glaciers.

About Omar

Omar is the owner and guide for IC Iceland (previously Iceland on Track). Omar has an MS in software engineering and an MBA, and worked in IT for over 20 years before pursuing his passion for the outdoors full-time. He enjoys exploring the Icelandic highlands, travelling the country, super truck winter adventures, hiking, fishing and hunting. Omar is very knowledgeable about Icelandic history, folklore, geology and geography – and enjoys sharing and introducing this knowledge with his clients.

So first what the data center crowd would care about.  The sights, the glaciers, waterfalls.  No power.  Well he did see the awesome sights of the area, and also saw the power infrastructure.

Here is a small venting of the steam from a drill site.

Driving up to this drill site you can't see much.

Here is a view of many more drilling sites.

The steam from the range of well gets piped to a steam processing area.

Here is a closer look at the steam plant.

The steam gets sent to power plant.

Here is a smaller power plant.

Omar did a great job of also showing the sights of the Reykjavik and the Golden Circle. Here are more of the shots you would expect from a typical tour guide.  Don't know of any one who would show you the above.

Omar is in this shot.  Omar is the one who looks like he is not cold. 

FYI, most of Iceland's power comes from Hydroelectric.

We were heading up to the Glacier.

But we weren't going to see anything.

So we turned around when the road was like this.

One of the unexpected pleasures was driving by Ossur which bought a good friends company years ago. It was nice to see the company I have heard about.

Telling a Construction Story worth watching, Construction of Disneyland

We have all seen videos of construction projects.  But almost none tell a story worth watching.  Here is one created by Disney from the beginning of Walt Disney on site, his input, approaches used, issues that came up, and the end results.

It is hard to do tell a story well, and the folks at Disney are professionals at telling stories so they have an advantage.

Here are a few screen grabs.

Walt with in a tower to get a perspective.

Roy Disney is on site and captured.

Aug Ski Camp Mt Hood

It's Aug 2, 2013 and the kids are in ski camp at Mt Hood Oregon.  The ski area is the center of picture.

Here are kids coming off the mountain.

It's pretty warm (people wearing shorts) and dry where the parents pick up the kids.

Some of the kids are in a week long camp and trekking up every day.

It is so much easier to get nice pictures of the kids in this weather compared to the winter.

What do the parents do?  Go for a hike.

And relax with a Bloody Mary in the sun.

I get to take the pictures.