They greeted me like I was a celebrity. And, to be real, in some circles I guess I would qualify as a very minor public figure. This was the group of activists that want to do away with LinkNYC or else take a different approach. I don’t think it is within anyone’s authority to have a terribly realistic impact on the future of the program, and I did not go to this meeting intending to have any influence over anything. But once I identified myself everyone was like “Awesome!” and “You’re here!” and “That project is so cool.” And when I showed them some of the noise I’ve been making through the Links they thought it was spectacular.
So that was a nice entrance into that realm. I’ll probably go to future meetings. This was pretty much what I expected, with some tedium but also a lot of good information. I got an earful from someone who seems like what I guess you’d call an ethical hacker. He said the LinkNYC devices are sitting on a technical foundation that is painfully insecure, and he seemed to suggest he had broken into the network already. I have no roots in that kind of thing, my college-age pursuits notwithstanding. As in the manner in which I make Links last incredibly loud noise my approach to getting what I want out of these things is rooted in pure zeitgeist of a most earnest focus.
I am sitting at the Windmill, thinking I will walk to Manhattan later. I’ve been up before 9am the last couple of days after refreshing my bigass photo dumps sections. I separated the cemetery photos from the rest of the /pictures and nuked the Found Photos altogether, though I might bring that last part back. I did what I’ve been meaning to do for a long time, which is move from Menalto to Piwigo. I had to separate the cemeteries and nuke the found photos because otherwise Piwigo couldn’t handle the import. Too damn many pictures, I guess.
I wandered through some pictures from what now feels like forever ago, including the road trip of 2002 through Nebraska and the Dakotas. I was getting pictures of payphones all along the way. I guess some things never change.
I also rediscovered some photo themes I’d given up on, including SURVEILLANCE. That’s the series of photos of signs saying you are being video recorded or surveilled. I also forgot about my Cool Cars collection.
I’ve also been revisiting what I now call the Payphone Podcast. That resurfaced a few weeks ago when I found a mass of recordings I made about 6 years ago, mostly from payphones. It really does sound strange and unique, not that I can stand to listen to my own voice for very long at a time.
I also got a microphone stand and boom so I can have a microphone at my face while playing piano. I made some recordings of Amy Beach piano music while adding my spoken commentary. It sounds OK but nothing I want to post publicly yet. I should really get that new field recorder, the old Sony has become a major annoyance.
Someone is here at the Windmill messing with the tomatoes. Someone was running a buzz saw earlier but now it is quiet as hell. I can hear the subway from here.
Going to wander some.
