Strahov Library Panorama

Apparently Jeffrey Martin at 360cities has created the largest indoor photograph, which is a QTVR/pano taken from the center of the Philosophical Hall in the Strahov Monastery Library in Prague. While its boring to get caught up in a pissing contest over gigapixels and gigabytes (though sadly typical in the photo world), what is more interesting is the library itself, which recently underwent a massive renovation:

“After a thorough preparation, the library was dismantled, first the parquets, which were documented piece by piece. Photographs and old book covers were found under the floor, which had been put there to prevent the floor from creaking. After that the wooden bookshelves were worked upon, most of them were renovated right on the spot,” said Mr. Šidlovský. Then the scaffolding was put up for the restorers, Karine Artouni and Alena Krahulíková, who removed all the unnecessary repaintings and past interventions from the magnificent fresco Spiritual Development of Humanity.

The same type of work was carried out with the wood, the old layers of varnish had to be removed and a new one had to be put on following the classical recipes. The wood also had to be strengthened, as parts of it were eaten by woodworms. Only a few ornaments were added,” said Mr. Šidlovský.

Technically, Martin's image it is almost 3,000 photographs stitched together, not one, however. At first, the number of images seemed unreasonable, but this is the result of such meticulousness:

Martin’s panorama lets you examine the spines of the works in the Philosophical Hall’s 42,000 volumes, part of the monastery’s stunning collection of just about every important book available in central Europe at the end of the 18th century — more or less the sum total of human knowledge at the time.

Its pretty amazing that you can zoom in a read what's on the spines here, especially since, for the most part, the public is not granted access to this room.

As an aside though, I couldn't resist including the part about "the sum total of human knowledge at the time". Its tricky business when you start equating books with human knowledge.

Double feature: Seven Samurai and High and Low

I have seen both of these films before, but had forgotten how good they were. They both, of course, feature Toshiro Mifune, but he plays nearly opposite character types. His samurai is recognizable from his turns in 'Yojimbo' and 'Sanjuro' though somewhat drunker/more reckless; but his wealthy shoe executive is more a study of cold rage transforming into ultimate bewilderment coupled with modern alienation. I had forgotten how his character basically disappears throughout much of the third act (except for the brief moment when the detectives come to his house and see him mowing his lawn and sweating through his dress shirt) until the final scene in which he visits the kidnapper/murderer in prison.

Both films are interesting studies on class, dignity, and (even in Seven Samurai, surprisingly) the shifting ground of morality in the modern age. Both films ultimately turn on questions of what should be valued in a culture, and how that value is redeemed. In Seven Samurai, the 'old man' chides Manzo for worrying about protecting his daughter's honor from the samurai, saying "your head is on the chopping block, and all you care about are the whiskers on your face". The end, too, reveals the ambiguity of values like honor and sacrifice, when Shimada, turning from the singing peasants planting their rice fields, looks upon the graves of the fallen samurai and says, "So. Again we are defeated. Victory belongs to the peasants, not to us."

They are both on Netflix instant. I didn't plan on watching them both together, but after Seven Samurai, I couldn't resist more Kurosawa and more Mifune.

Finally, an excuse for my terribly slow typing rate

Apparently there is a whole 'nother kind of keyboard layout out there. Unfortunately, I just got a new computer and got it with the usual QWERTY layout. I can't say I've ever seen the Dvorak layout in action, but according to wikipedia (though more accurately in this case, probably pro-Dvorak wiki-propaganda) it is more efficient and causes less hand strain and awkward keystroke combinations.

The Cloud

Finally, a big company has gotten their act together and created a cloud service for music and videos. The concern, I suppose, is over licensing and copyright issues, but Amazon doesn't seem to be concerned about this:

"Cloud Player is an application that lets customers manage and play their own music. It's like any number of existing media management applications. We do not need a license to make Cloud Player available."

A number of commenters have pointed out that several companies (mp3.com) tried this several years ago and were stopped in the courts. Amazon's strategy seems to be, "we're Amazon. We sell a lot of your shit, and this cloud will help us sell even more, so you'd better get on board before you miss out on your profits."