Evidently there’s a nice new ‘theory object’ neologism for the class of things of which Documents With Tails are members: blogjects.

Thanks for Stephen for reminding me to read that paper.

A while back, there was reported a new law enforcement surveillance system which could automagically switch/integrate multiple data feeds into a single presentation layer — designed to automatically follow individual people or vehicles, as they pass from one camera/feed to the next. Think it might have been a new toy from Qinetiq. Sounds like their kind of thing — 3D maps with patches of realtime footage from CCTV, helicopter cameras, whatever is available, all integrated in realtime for officers in the field or back at C&C. Anyway. Can’t find it on Google, but there were some very CSI-stylee screengrabs (probably mockups). But hey. There must be a nice art project in trying to build a realtime 3D video of London just from the intersecting sightlines of all those CCTV cameras — the flipside of the Institute for Applied Autonomy’s camera-evasion route planner. If only it was possible to hook into all those feeds (as is possible to a limited extent via the Wired Shoreditch project).

Would be interesting to see where if there are any surveillance blackspots in central London. Doubt it.

Interval at Addictive TV/Optronica’s night out at Waterman’s. Some fine fine short things — respect to Tom Wall and Somniscope [above], and of course Addictive themselves for a reprise of The Italian Boj, which was quite a thing last year at the South Bank…

This component is unique in that it is the only vacuum tube driven surround sound processor in the world, utilizing Dolby Pro Logic II, created by the legendary Jim Fosgate.

No shit.

I’ve been reading a lot about early surround recently. Fosgate most definitely has bragging rights as The Man. Not only did he develop the coolest decoders, he went on to design Dolby Pro Logic II and now makes crazy stuff like the 5-channel tube pre-amp shown above. Respect.

All of which is preamble to mentioning that I’ve just installed the Pro Logic II upgrade to the AV32R. It’s at least interesting and kind of fun — the surround channels are much more discrete than with Tag’s matrix system, which I’ve used a lot, so it will take a little while to get used to. And I think I need to recalibrate the speakers for it. Off to the shop for a new battery for the SPL meter…