SciFoo 2008: Panoramic Images
01:27 AM September 17th, 2008
I took a decent number of pictures at SciFoo. Luckily, I had the foresight to take a few series of shots – and, even luckier, I have a girlfriend who is a Photoshop Wizard.
It’s not always possible to merge images perfectly since the camera is changing position for each shot, but the results are pretty cool. In fact, the artifacts of the merging process are fascinating, too. Look for the seams.
The first image is from the opening session. Tim O’Reilly, Timo Hannay, Sara Winge, and Chris DiBona can be seen up front, addressing the crowd. Also prominent, to my eye, are Garrett Lisi‘s bald head on the far right and Simon Quellen Field‘s well-appointed head in semi-profile left of center.
Click through for bigger versions…
The next image is Google’s large indoor open space referred to as Charlie’s, if I’m not mistaken. Paul Davies and Chris Patil are prominent and the cafeteria area is in the background…
The final image is from the SciFoo closing session. Once again, Sara, Tim, Chris, and Timo are up front. Aniruddh Patel is near-center because he was sitting next to me before I stood to take these pics.
Jim Hardy – as promised, the waiting is over, here is your prize – you have the distinction of appearing not once, but twice in this image. Yes, by virtue of your restlessness, you have been cloned. In fact, there were originally three of you but one was removed. To speak to you in your own language: like pluripotent stem cells, you differentiated into three different germ Photoshop layers. But only two were harvested…
Thank you, Tara. 🙂
Jim H
5:09 amSep-17-2008
Ha, that’s great, but I want my third clone back, please. He’s the smart one.
Also, I noticed a guy next to me with a Boston Red Sox hat on. One thing I forgot to mention throughout was that I was always wearing a ball cap. Not always my Indians hat, but always had a cap on to cover my bald spot.
I never saw anyone else wearing a baseball cap. Maybe that’s a California thing?
Great picture. I hope you don’t mind me sharing it on my blog..
Brian Malow
9:26 amSep-17-2008
Jim,
We did a cost-benefits analysis and settled on a maximum of two clones per SciFoo camper. If the one we eliminated was the only one with viable neural tissue, we accept no responsibility.
Also, Garrett Lisi wears his bald head with apparent pride. Perhaps you should focus on the advantages – such as improved aerodynamics.
And your blog posts are the most “press” I’ve received in one place since my mom’s scrapbook, so keep it up!
Simon Quellen Field
7:12 pmJun-28-2009
Sitting to my left in the first photo is Antony Williams, of ChemSPIDER
fame. In the second photo Victoria Stoddard is talking to Chris Patil. To the
left I see the white hair of Peter Norvig.
Obviously we need cameras with more megapixels, so we could read
nametags.