Take LinkedIn for example, a relatively innocent, innocuous “6 degrees” type of site for working professionals. No gaudy backgrounds, music, or any of the other garbage, its just supposed to be for professionals finding other professionals. But think about it, there has to be some revenue thoughts or concepts for the type of data those connections and linkings bring to the organizer. Even the links and connections that you dont even explictly make. I was adding a previous cowoker to my “network” today, and was presented with a dialog:

Add people you might know:

• Person 1, Acme
• Person 2, Meh
• Person 3, Starbucks

The odd thing being, I don’t know any of those people professionally, just socially, and tangentially at best really. Being security minded, I’ve never allowed the site a view in to my gmail address book or AIM contact list (Seriously people, giving your password to your email to a third party? Really? No wonder phishing schemes work), but they did, months ago, LinkedIn is being helpful in a way, making the connection for you.

Here’s the deal though, some of these service providers, like Google, add casual contacts and all kinds of things to your address book. It’s not a one shot deal where you let LinkedIn log in to your gmail account, and present “oh yeah, this person in your address book is also signed up, you can quickly add them now” — They keep that data, forever, so when that really bad date you had 2 years ago and exchanged emails with signs up with them 6 months from now they’ll occasionally get a notice “We think you might know So and So” .

Interesting stuff.

From Khoi Vinh via Daring Fireball

I was shopping for a new Dishwasher yesterday, and after hitting the regular scratch & dent outlets, local independent places with decent deals, and checking the local BigBox stores, I finally landed  at the Sears in the mall near my house. Like most Sears locations, they keep the appliances down at the lowest level with the tools, the TV’s that never get sold anymore, and the wall of video games that time forgot. But the oddest thing about the Basement is the constant gaggle of 6 - 10 middle aged men with bad haircuts and ill fitting polyester dress shirts called “sales associates” lounging at the intersection of Ranges, Washing Machines and Vacuums.

“Has anyone helped you yet Sir”, each one of them in turn will ask as you prairie dog around once locating the unit you want to buy.

“Not yet, I was wondering if you know if  $feature comes with $unit becau…. ” you begin to reply before being cut off with “oh, this isn’t my department, let me find someone for you”, walking off to the tall grass of Refrigerators, never to be seen again.

Eventually, someone will redirect you to the youngest person on the floor who enthusiastically completes the sale (probably his 100th of the day, and the store’s too, go figure) and sets you on your way, but I wonder … Is he paying back some commission to the clique of loungers in some odd ponzi scheme of referral madness, how else are the old men even keeping their jobs?

But hey, Sears out of box deals are awesome. A $700 Bosch DW for $200? Take two, they’re small.

But, I’m cautious. A bit of a traditionalist, if you will. While I’ll go to the fringe, I tend to operate within the bounds of established areas. This, is a weakness. Not Adam…..

Landscapes, Trees, Contrasty rock out-croppings … those are your predictable IR subjects …. But People? I’m inspired. Really. These early glimpses into what will hopefully evolve into an encompassing series called Living Dead Girl are a very different take, and are encouraging me, as an observer, to take another look at my own work as well and see where I can start pushing the envelope.

Looking through sunglasses is one thing, but at times it’s almost as if you’re peering through the first few layers of skin, and getting a glimpse of the texture underneath .. Any attempt at normal color, or even tone is completely out of the question, reflections off of things as colorless lipgloss can even affect the entire dynamic, remember, you’re not dealing with visible light here!

So, here’s one of mine … not in the [photoblog]. Spooky eh? Not nearly the same rich, gothic feel on ThatOneDeadGuy, but still creepy.

Now, off to cull the archives to find images suitable for a crop down for header image glory.

I’ve also been meaning to write up a few tutorials. People seem to like the IR images a lot, and many have asked how to make them — so, yes, when I have time (ha, funny) I’ll whip something up.