I've Been Known To Take a Photo or Two

And this is one of my (new) favourites:

ISO: 400, Exposure: 1/4 sec, Aperture: 3.5, Focal Length: 18mm

It was Sunday night and I wanted to grab some images of the newly restored Gwanghwamun when it rained for about 10 minutes. Once the shower had cleared Admiral Yi was reflected on Gwanghwamun Plaza.

Not to be outdone, King Saejong was also reflected in the rain puddles:

ISO: 400, Exposure: 0.8 sec, Aperture: 4.5, Focal Length: 30mm

And in another piece of interesting reflection, King GoJeong's memorial was reflected in the glass of The Kyobo building:

 

And of ourse I got the gate:

ISO: 400, Exposure: 1/6 sec, Aperture: 5.0, Focal Length: 35mm

 ISO: 200, Exposure: 1/2 sec, Aperture: 5.0, Focal Length: 18mm

Who knew I had such a steady hand?

Here are some more images from Sunday:

ISO: 400, Exposure: 1/6 sec Aperture: 3.5 Focal Length: 18mm

This is another favourite. The one sixth of a second exposure and high ISO allow for a fair amount of light to hit the mirror. The result being that the sky looks much lighter than it does to the naked eye. (And I think that is a result of refraction of the city lights.)

ISO: 400 Exposure: 1/10 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 40mm

ISO: 400 Exposure: 1/4 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 800 Exposure: 1/10 sec Aperture: 5.0 Focal Length: 35mm

ISO: 400 Exposure: 1/5 sec Aperture: 3.5 Focal Length: 18mm

Looking back towards The Kyobo building from Gwanghwamun - again the lighter sky effect in play.

All of these were taken without a tripod - I always feel like a dick in the subway carrying one - and I am surprised the half second exposure of Gwanghwamun came out so well. The joy of digital photography of course being that I had more than one go at pulling that shot off. It's also a testament to Sony cameras. Say what you will about them, those of you in the Canon Clique, but in my experience they perform really well in low light conditions - even Sony's point and shoot offerings. 

It's Coming

And I want one.

Video teaser here. First hands on video here. 

(Via Engadget)

How to Write a Take Down Letter Pt. III

You will, of course, remember Hans, our Dutch friend, who owns auckland-nz.org, and who was passing one of my photos off as his own until I wrote him a Take Down Letter earlier in the month.

He dropped me a line earlier this week, unimpressed by my publishing of his Whois record:

As you published domain name information read this http://stafford.squarespace.com/journal/2010/8/14/how-to-write-a-take-down-letter-pt-ii.html

The data contained in GoDaddy.com, Inc.'s WHOIS database, while believed by the company to be reliable, is provided "as is" with no guarantee or warranties regarding its accuracy. This information is provided for the sole purpose of assisting you in obtaining information about domain name registration records. Any use of this data for any other purpose is expressly forbidden without the prior written permission of GoDaddy.com, Inc.

By submitting an inquiry, you agree to these terms of usage and limitations of warranty. In particular, you agree not to use this data to allow, enable, or otherwise make possible, dissemination or collection of this data, in part or in its entirety, for any purpose, such as the transmission of unsolicited advertising and solicitations of any kind, including spam. You further agree not to use this data to enable high volume, automated or robotic electronic processes designed to collect or compile this data for any purpose, including mining this data for your own personal or commercial purposes.

Please note: the registrant of the domain name is specified in the "registrant" field. In most cases, GoDaddy.com, Inc. is not the registrant of domain names listed in this database.

Remember....it might be so that people have to protect this information but it cant be used the way you do because where you have taken it from has guidelines to use it and you didnt copy those in?

And since you are a person on lines...and regulations..

All text on pages within the [www.stafford.net.nz] domain is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License unless otherwise stated.

You use this domain as a redirect...so you dont even PUBLISH it under that domain actually.

And if you copy this...copy it all in so Godaddy can read it too..

First of all Hans is assuming that just because his registrant is GoDaddy, I got the record from there. In the Terms and Conditions Hans quotes, I have underlined the section I think he is alluding to when he states

Remember....it might be so that people have to protect this information but it cant be used the way you do because where you have taken it from has guidelines to use it and you didnt [sic]copy those in?

Of course what he's really getting at I don't know from this passage. Nevertheless I am not in breach of any Ts&Cs from where I got the information: Whois.net, note the lack of the same clause in their conditions:

NOTICE: Access to .ORG WHOIS information is provided to assist persons in determining the contents of a domain name registration record in the Public Interest Registry registry database. The data in this record is provided by Public Interest Registry for informational purposes only, and Public Interest Registry does not guarantee its accuracy. This service is intended only for query-based access. You agree that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this data to: (a) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations to entities other than the data recipient's own existing customers; or (b) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that send queries or data to the systems of Registry Operator or any ICANN-Accredited Registrar, except as reasonably necessary to register domain names or modify existing registrations. All rights reserved. Public Interest Registry reserves the right to modify these terms at any time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by this policy.

As far as I am concerned my publishing of said Whois Entry is lawful, and I have not used the data to allow, enable or otherwise support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or fax of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations. And as far as I am aware I have not enabled high volume, automated, electronic processes that send queries or data to the systems of the registry operator.

What I have done is publish the Whois record of A THIEF who was passing off my intellectual property as their own.

[Update:] I note that auckland-nz.org is still nothing more than a blank page with art assets that are probably stolen from somewhere else, and that the directory auckland-nz.org/images is no longer accessible because someone doesn't want people rumaging through his files to check if he is passing their work off as his own as well!

[Original:] As for the dig Hans takes at my own Terms and conditions, noting that stafford.net.nz redirects to stafford.squarespace.com: I am unaware of any case law that says they way I have things set up prevents me from using these Terms and conditions as they are now. To get here you have to go through stafford.net.nz ergo, this is still part of the stafford.net.nz experience.

Someone is just trying to pick holes because they have been found out as A THIEF and don't like that they've been found out.

Problems

My web hosting company - which controls the redirect for stafford.net.nz to stafford.squarespace.com has apparently gone out of business, turned off its servers and shut its doors.

Hence you are probably not even able to read this if you tried to access this site through stafford.net.nz

Adding fuel to the fire (or is that salt to the wound) the company appointed by the liquidator to oversee technical transfers of things to do with the tubes is unable to recover files from the server and will not honour any prepaid agreements with the now dead host.

Meaning I only got 6 months worth of hosting out of the 12 mnths I paid for, so If I want some space on a server somewhere else I will have o pay for it - effectively loosing the money I spent.

Aaaaarrrrrgh!

I May Well Be in Trouble

But I doubt it is for the curse words or the poor grammar. 

It could be the numerous North Korean themed pictures, posts and youtube clips.

But it's not because of my views on freedom of expression.

It all started on Monday...

You see, under the South Korean National Security Act (국가 보안법) Posting NK-Friendly stuff will land your ass in jail (or not):

Relaying and posting material sympathetic to North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-il on the Internet is a clear violation of the National Security Law, a court ruled Monday.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced a 40-year old man, identified only by his surname Lee, to two years in jail, suspended for three years, finding him guilty of disseminating documents and songs praising the communist state and its activities.

Songs!

Oh oh!

The K-Times continues:

It was the first time for an individual to be found guilty of violating the National Security Law for simply uploading a hyperlink on the Internet, which leads those clicking it to documents, songs and other materials lauding North Korea.

In March, the prosecution took Lee into custody and indicted him on charges of posting and disseminating a total of 433 pieces sympathetic to the North. He was accused of uploading hyperlinks on a community cafe on Daum, one of the country’s largest portals. 

Interesting that this is the first time an individual has been knicked - but not surprising, my meagre attempts at satire here at The Chosun Bimbo pale into nothingness in comparison to the nearly 500 links etc that Mr Lee had up on Daum.

And as long as everyone remembers that anything I post about North Korea is usually a (poor) attempt at satire or Irony and that I don't, under any circumstances, agree with, like, or otherwise support the dictatorial, oppressive, inhumane actions of the tyrant madman Kim Jong Il and his cronies, I should be fine.

After all, The National Security Law prevents the distribution of material lauding the North or unauthorized activities sympathetic to the Stalinist regime. Neither of which I am doing.

And then along came Tuesday...

From Kushibo:

I will say, though, I dread the eventual message I get that reads, "Kushibo, North Korea is now following you on Twitter." That is, if it isn't happening already.

That's right, after many an imitator, The DPRK has an official North Korean Twitter feed though Twitter hasn't verified it yet! By the way - the above image is all you will see of the feed as the page is now blocked in South Korea. (Thanks again to Kushibo for the pic) If you were able to follow @Uriminzok from SK before the banning its posts will still show up on your Twitter Home page or in any of the clients you may use.

But on the back of Mr Lee's case a couple of people were starting to freak out by Tuesday afternoon, given the huge popularity of Twitter  in Korea (South that is).

From Tuesday's K-Times:

Twitter users are increasingly expressing concerns over possible violation of laws for subscribing to a North Korean micro-blogging site, which opened last Thursday under the name “uriminzok,” or “our people.”

Such fears are attributed to the National Security Law which states any person who corresponds or communicates with an anti-government group is subject to a maximum jail term of 10 years, if they were aware that their act could threaten national security.

Under the inter-Korea Exchange and Cooperation Act, those contacting North Koreans without first reporting to the Unification Minister can be fined up to 3 million won ($2,500). 

“The North Korean Twitter site is now the talk of the town,” a college student with the screen name Leehuna tweeted. 

“I wonder following the site is a breach of the National Security Law?”

Well yes, in addition to the Inter-Korea Exchange and Cooperation Act, which I hadn't heard of until this week.

later in the article is this beauty:

Seoul has banned 65 websites considered sympathetic to Pyongyang since 2004 by blocking IP addresses, but the matter seems much more complicated with Twitter.

Well apparently not....

And elsewhere My dear friends the Korea Communications Commission (remember them - they also deal with the phones) seems to be reading Roboseyo, having apparently discovered The DPRK's (pretty lame) Official YouTube channel:

“Now, it appears that it will need to have long discussions with Twitter and YouTube on technical matters and legal terms on blocking South Koreans from accessing certain sites created by North Koreans.”

In July, Pyongyang created its own channel on YouTube, uploading video footage that praises its leader Kim Jong-il and defends itself against allegations over the sinking of the Cheonan warship in March.

The big concern though, is not that North Korea is about to turn Southern Liberal Democracy on it's head, but rather by banning it's Twitter feed, South Korea is killing free speech.

In addition I challenge you to find a A South Korean inclined to use Twitter who would actually take @Urimminzok's insane ramblings seriously. For example here is Twitter user @SSSSSunny:

방송통신심의위 심의를 거쳐 적법하게 차단됐다는 북측 것으로 추정되는 계정@uriminzok가 정말 자유민주주의 기본 질서를 해칠 만큼 위험하던가요? 공권력은 필요하다면 사회적 합의를 통해 더한 조치를 취할 수도 있겠지만 늘 '자의적'이어서 문제입니다

Roughly translated it says deliberations are needed before arbitrarily blocking North Korea's twitter feed.

And to prove the near impossibility of North Korea corrupting the Twitterers of The SOuth - How could anyone belive this:

uriminzok 최근 조선에서 효능높은 암왁찐 개발 암재발, 전이예방약(암왁찐)이 환자치료에서 놀라운 효과를 내고있어 의학계의 이목을 집중 http://tinyurl.com/36cuwb8

Yes apparently North Korea has cured Cancer. And finally rlaalswo8 reminds us that all this twittering is just playing into the North's hands - ater all it's hardly for domestic consumption. WHatis the penetration of PCs in homes in North Korea?

김민재(@rlaalswo8)님이 공유한 이야기: "zkfldiwls: RT @anyfree21: @uriminzok 북조선 인민들은 여름에 어떻게 사는지 궁금합네다~ 아 그리고 북조선인민들의 컴퓨터 보급률은 어떻습네까 ?"

I suppose we can chalk this one up to another attempt by the current puppet regime Lee Myung Bak administration to curb expression on the Internet.

more coverage from The Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng, Kushibo, and the NY Times among others.