RaeAllen.net

Year: 2009

  • Image Server

    This is a draft document collecting specifications, functions and processes necessary for the successful implementation of a production image server. Please use the discussion area to add your comments, issues, needs, and requirements.

    Contents
    1 Background
    1.1 How it works
    1.2 Benefits for the ABC
    1.3 Issues
    2 Requirements
    2.1 Input
    2.2 Output
    2.3 Workflow examples
    2.3.1 Interface with SiteProducer
    2.3.1.1 User example:
    3 Resources
    3.1 Example site using an image server
    3.2 Image servers
    4 Add comments or discuss

    Background

    The ABC is implementing a new User Interface Guideline framework. This framework includes a new set of image sizes to be embedded in pages as sites are rebuilt.
    These 16 new image versions do not match any of the current image versions used by the ABC, and do not match any of the versions of the 160,000 images currently in the Resource Library.
    As re-editing 160,000 photos is not practical, an image server seems the most logical next step.
    [edit]How it works
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_server
    an image server holds the original image file
    when a web page needs a specific image size, it uses a url format to address the image on the image server, which then delivers the image in the appropriate version
    this processing only happens once, as from then on the processed image is held in the image servers cache.
    [edit]Benefits for the ABC
    only original versions of images need to be uploaded
    future-proofing – if down the track a new image size is needed this can be automated by the system so it affects all past and future images
    the workload on content producers is significantly reduced as they only need to process an image once in a single way.
    legacy imaging – the 160,000 old images in the resource library can be processed using the largest version available.
    [edit]Issues
    Preview
    Templating Language changes
    Static images for subscription clients
    legacy imaging – old images may not have a large enough size for acceptable resizing
    changing the aspect ratio. quality of cropping
    [edit]Requirements

    As part of the requirements gathering process we want to develop a list of suggested requirements, analyse and edit those suggested requirements, then order that list by importance.
    [edit]Input
    web interface to upload a single raw image
    [edit]Output
    multiple versions of an image
    versions to be produced via logic rules
    if image required is larger than 340px(?) width, then uses basic crop of image, resized
    if image required is larger than 340px(?)and has a set height and width, then uses a resized slice of the basic crop. That slice includes the focal point/area set on the original image
    if image required is smaller than 340px(?) width, then it uses the best fit around the internal focal area
    versions should have logical url structure
    [edit]Workflow examples
    [edit]Interface with SiteProducer
    Conceptually I would see the data being entered via the resource library, then when the ‘save’ button is clicked, instead of it opening the current image window it would open a single ‘browse’ instance to add the image to the image server.
    Part of it would require the resource library to find the image on the image server, perhaps using the ‘save reference’ concept
    [edit]User example:
    I want to add my new photo
    I open SiteProducer as normal
    I go to the resource library section and create a new image
    I add the data to the resource and click save – to this point all is as normal.
    I then get the option to add the image to the resource library (for legacy reasons) or to the Image server
    I select Image server and get a single ‘browse’ form.
    I browse to my image and upload
    The image server uploads the image and gives me the image in a window
    The window allows me to set the ‘outside crop’ for the image
    The window allows me to set the ‘focal crop’ for the image
    I save and that image becomes a reference in the resource library (for example http://images.abc.net.au/2009/03/345937/3000×2000.jpg )
    The image server stores the crop and focal point information
    Story and index templates (Wallace, siteproducer or xml) reference image by parsing in the relevant height and width e.g. http://images.abc.net.au/2009/03/345937/340×277.jpg, using a set of rules to calculate the crops and resizing.
    [edit]Resources

    [edit]Example site using an image server
    http://www.daylife.com/ – site using image server technology.
    http://www.daylife.com/photo/0a1RcrQeEq9tc?q=Top+News
    http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0a1RcrQeEq9tc/610x.jpg (photo in the story)
    http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0a1RcrQeEq9tc/340×227.jpg (photo in our new half column 3:2 ratio)
    http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0a1RcrQeEq9tc/340×191.jpg (photo in a format cropped to fit our new 16:9 format)
    http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0a1RcrQeEq9tc/700×394.jpg (this would fill the content column in UIG with a 16:9 format image)
    [edit]Image servers
    http://www.scene7.com/solutions/dynamic_imaging.asp – Adobe Image server product

  • Tools for Journalism

    Tools for modern journalism was a presentation prepared for primarily post-graduate students and staff of the University of Queenslands Journalism faculty. The talk was part of the JACtalk series.
    (more…)

  • The essential technique of zazen

    Go to a quiet place, sit in lotus posture, and place one hand on top of the other.

    Without leaning to either side, bring your ears into alignment with your shoulders.

    Open your eyes only halfway and fix your attention on the tip of your nose.

    Rest your tongue on the roof of your mouth.

    Throw away your body and your life.

    Looking from the inside, your self has no mind.

    Forget also about your connections with others.

    Looking from the outside, there is no mind anywhere to be found.

    If random thoughts should occur to you unexpectedly, let them go straight away. Do not follow them. This is the essential technique of zazen.

    ~ Mugai Nyodai (d. 1298)
    ( Zen Sourcebook Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and Japan )

  • The valley stream

    Rain, hail, snow, and ice:
    All are different,
    But when they fall
    They become the same water
    As the valley stream.

    – Ikkyu (1394-1481)

  • Dust in the eye

    One grain of dust in the eye
    Will render the Three Worlds
    Too small to see
    ~ Muso Soseki (1275-1351)

  • Red flag

    The people’s flag is deepest red,
    It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
    And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
    Their hearts’ blood dyed its ev’ry fold.

    Then raise the scarlet standard high.
    Within its shade we’ll live and die,
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
    We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

    Look ’round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
    The sturdy German chants its praise,
    In Moscow’s vaults its hymns are sung
    Chicago swells the surging throng.

    Then raise the scarlet standard high.
    Within its shade we’ll live and die,
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
    We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

    It waved above our infant might,
    When all ahead seemed dark as night;
    It witnessed many a deed and vow,
    We must not change its colour now.

    Then raise the scarlet standard high.
    Within its shade we’ll live and die,
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
    We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

    It well recalls the triumphs past,
    It gives the hope of peace at last;
    The banner bright, the symbol plain,
    Of human right and human gain.

    Then raise the scarlet standard high.
    Within its shade we’ll live and die,
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
    We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

    It suits today the weak and base,
    Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
    To cringe before the rich man’s frown,
    And haul the sacred emblem down.

    Then raise the scarlet standard high.
    Within its shade we’ll live and die,
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
    We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

    With heads uncovered swear we all
    To bear it onward till we fall;
    Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
    This song shall be our parting hymn.

    Then raise the scarlet standard high.
    Within its shade we’ll live and die,
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
    We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

    ~ Jim Connel(1889)

  • Wandering

    My treasure is the cloud on the peak
    The moon over the valley
    Travelling east or west
    Light and free on the one road
    I don’t know whether I’m on the way
    Or at home.

    ~ Muso Soseki (1275-1351)

  • A life lived later

    The word
    That defines my life:
    Later. Mine has been
    A life that will be lived later.

    ~ Anurag Mathur

  • Lifetimes seldom fill a hundred years

    I live far off in the wild
    Where moss and woods
    Are thick and plants perfumed
    I can see mountains rain or shine
    And never hear market noise
    I light a few leaves in my stove to heat tea
    To patch my robe I cut off a cloud
    Lifetimes seldom fill a hundred years
    Why suffer for profit and fame?

    ~ Stonehouse

  • The Man Watching

    I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
    so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
    that a storm is coming,
    and I hear the far-off fields say things
    I can’t bear without a friend,
    I can’t love without a sister

    The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
    across the woods and across time,
    and the world looks as if it had no age:
    the landscape like a line in the psalm book,
    is seriousness and weight and eternity.

    What we choose to fight is so tiny!
    What fights us is so great!
    If only we would let ourselves be dominated
    as things do by some immense storm,
    we would become strong too, and not need names.

    When we win it’s with small things,
    and the triumph itself makes us small.
    What is extraordinary and eternal
    does not want to be bent by us.
    I mean the Angel who appeared
    to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
    when the wrestler’s sinews
    grew long like metal strings,
    he felt them under his fingers
    like chords of deep music.

    Whoever was beaten by this Angel
    (who often simply declined the fight)
    went away proud and strengthened
    and great from that harsh hand,
    that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
    Winning does not tempt that man.
    This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
    by constantly greater beings.

    ~ Rainer Maria Rilke