The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

4 Issues with my upgrade to WordPress 2.7
|| 12/21/2008 || 11:35 pm || Comments Off on 4 Issues with my upgrade to WordPress 2.7 || ||

Last week I upgrade to WordPress 2.7 and the week before that I upgraded to 2.6.5 from version 2.3. For this entry, I’ve isolated my four main issues that I’ve came across since upgrading.

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YouTube Video of Saint Louis Buy Nothing Day 2002 by Aaron Michaels
|| 12/20/2008 || 2:55 pm || Comments Off on YouTube Video of Saint Louis Buy Nothing Day 2002 by Aaron Michaels || ||

Earlier this week I decided to add this archived video to the repository known as YouTube. I’ve had it for 6 years now and decided to finally upload the video because I could not find anywhere else on-line. I still feel the message that we were delivering then is the same as now: don’t go into debt buying presents for others during the holiday season and if you must give presents, try making them first.

The article that was published in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch regarding this demonstration was the first time my name appeared in newspapers. The story behind this video goes like this….

On October 2nd, 2002 I created a Yahoo Group dedicated to the planning of Buy Nothing Day in Saint Louis. After a few planning meetings and e-mail discussions, the members of group decided to create giant credit cards that we’d drag around the malls in the Saint Louis area. We also produced & handed out fliers with suggestions on how to avoid going into debt during the holiday season.

This video by Aaron Michaels highlights the news coverage we generated and documents the message we were advocating. The first part is a music video featuring a modified Christmas carol sung by Sara Lucas spliced with footage from the news & us dragging the cards and handing out fliers. The second part of the video features news clips & interviews with participants highlighting why chose to demonstrate. I show up around 4:35 into the video.

I haven’t gone out of the way to purchase gifts for my family this year. Its nice that we’ve stopped doing the gifts for nearly 10 years now. I am going to Colorado next week to visit some of my family and I feel my presence will be the best gift I can give to rarely-seen family. Interestingly, I think yesterday’s commissioned map follows closely with this video’s messaging because the client was asking me to make her a gift. It wasn’t like client decided to hitup Walmart for the gift that millions of others might get, rather she went for something that’s truly one of kind.

Related Adbusters Entries:

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Commission: Yankee Stadium Quilt
|| 12/19/2008 || 1:51 pm || Comments Off on Commission: Yankee Stadium Quilt || ||

: rendered at 9,000 X 6,000 :
Yankee Stadium by Nikolas R. Schiller

At the beginning of the week I received an inquiry about making this map. It’s intended to be a gift for the client’s friend who’s a big Yankees fan. I was unsure if I’d be able to obtain the newest imagery featuring the new Yankee stadium, but since the client felt the friend had spent more time in the old stadium, the newest of the imagery was not an issue. I went with .5 meters per pixel imagery from April, 2006. There was a second set of imagery of the area at lower spatial resolution, but I liked the coloring on this imagery better and went with it. This is my first map of the Bronx borough of New York City and for 2009 I am planning on mapping the rest of the boroughs.

Like my previous commission I was able to modify the source aerial photography so that the nearby outdoor track has been converted into a heart. I debated on modifing the coloration so that the pinkness of the heart (below) would be more pronounced, but I opted to follow my current style of non-modification. Yet this inclusion of the heart motif is something that I find to be an unique addition to my current map design. I am adjusting the imagery to not only create a geometrically perfect design, but literally adding a bit of love to it. An aerial landscape design of love, so to speak.

There is also a sense of transition in this map. By the varying degree of translational symmetry placed upon the the actual stadium, there appears to be an architectural metamorphosis taking place. Where the old stadium is becoming a new stadium. And some day in the future, when it’s time that I make the next map of Yankee Stadium, with newer contemporary imagery, it will be a new stadium. But will the heart (track) still be there in the future? Will development change the love of the geography? I don’t think so. Yet in making this map for the client, I’ve captured the love between two people (and probably thousands of others) that will never change.

Unlike my previous commissioned map, which was printed at 32″x48″ on stretched canvas, this Hexagon Quilt Project map will be printed a bit smaller at 10″x16″ on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl paper. If you are interested in obtaining a custom map, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

View the Google Map of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx

: detail :
A heart created next to Yankee Stadium

View the rest of the details:

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A roundup of videos from yesterday’s shoe demonstration outside of the White House
|| 12/18/2008 || 4:07 pm || Comments Off on A roundup of videos from yesterday’s shoe demonstration outside of the White House || ||

This morning I scoured the intertubes for videos related to yesterday’s shoe demonstration outside of the White House. Below are the videos I’ve pulled from YouTube and other media outlets.

DC FOX 5: White House Protestors Throw Shoes at Bush Effigy

The rest of the videos:

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SMiShing Scam [UPDATE]
|| 12/17/2008 || 11:19 pm || Comments Off on SMiShing Scam [UPDATE] || ||

A few moments ago I received the following text:

BFSFCU / This is an automated message from Bank-Fund Staff F.C.U. Your ATM card has been suspended. To reactivate call urgent at 202-729-8214

It’s too bad that I don’t bank with BFSFCU or might have fallen for this SMiShing scam. I called their phone number and told the service representative that the phone number I was told to call is a DC number, and not a 1-888 number which was currently on the website (above). Their customer service representative said that she’d notify their fraud department. I wonder who else got the text message?

UPDATE – exactly 9:30pm – I was at a birthday party in the basement of Napoleon Bistro in Adams Morgan and received second text message from the SMiSher. The message was exactly the same, except that the the phone number had changed to “1-202-729-8214″

UPDATE – 11:00pm – I returned home from the birthday party and noticed quite a few people got hit by the SMisher. Below are screen grabs of those who were searching for more information about this fraud.

More Updates:

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The American Flag in a 51 Star Configuration with One Star Removed
|| 12/16/2008 || 1:08 am || Comments Off on The American Flag in a 51 Star Configuration with One Star Removed || ||

An American Flag with 51 star configuration with one star removed by Nikolas Schiller

Lately I’ve read a couple articles related to DC becoming America’s 51st state. While I’m wholeheartedly in favor of this prospect, two nights ago I decided to make an American flag showing my frustration with the fact that this route is not currently being pursued.

Above is a static public domain flag I found on WIkipedia by Gunter Küchler that I decided to modify showing what an American flag could look like, but with one star (New Columbia) removed.

Below are the animated versions of the flag that I produced to highlight the lack of the 51st star on America’s flag:

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A Thank You Note to Muntazer al-Zaidi outside Busboys & Poets
|| 12/15/2008 || 3:17 pm || Comments Off on A Thank You Note to Muntazer al-Zaidi outside Busboys & Poets || ||

Close up of my thank you note attached to The Empty Shoes of War by Alison Flensburg

Yesterday President George W. Bush was nearly beaned by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi (his first name is also sometimes spelled Montaser, Muntada, Muntather, or Muthathi). Before throwing his second shoe at the president who oversaw the invasion of his country and subsequent deaths of over million Iraqis, he said “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” In case you missed it, here’s the video:

On a very cold morning in February of 2007 I coordinated the amplified soundsystem at Code Pink‘s “Walk In Their Shoes” press conference on the National Mall. The centerpiece of the press conference was the unveiling of The Empty Shoes of War by Alison Flensburg (right). It’s a large plexiglass box filled with donated shoes from Americans from all over the country. On each shoe contains the name of an Iraqi civilian who has been killed by George W. Bush’s illegal war & occupation of Iraq.

Not soon after the Walk In Their Shoes press conference, the memorial was placed on display outside of Busboys & Poets, an independent bookstore & restaurant located on the corner of V & 14th street in Northwest, Washington, DC (about 5 blocks from my house). The placement of the memorial is significant because the owner of Busboys & Poets, Andy Shallal, is an Iraqi-American from Baghdad and has been against the war before it started.

Last night I was reminded of the shoes in the memorial and conceived the idea of putting up a small guerrilla thank you note as a way to publicly thank al-Zaidi for doing something millions of people around the world would love to do if they were given the opportunity.

My thank you note attached to The Empty Shoes of War by Alison Flensburg

#UPDATE# – 15/15/08 – 4pm
After the photos below I’ve added the text of a press release related to a demonstration taking place at the White House on Wednesday.

Below are some of the photos I took before putting up the note:

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The Geospatial Art FAIL Landing Page
|| 12/14/2008 || 2:20 pm || Comments Off on The Geospatial Art FAIL Landing Page || ||

Screen grab of the FAIL 404 page featuring the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, DC

In continuance of my previous entry related to finding and exploiting a flaw in search engine aggregation algorithms, I decided to modify the landing page slightly. So instead of displaying a random foreground graphic, like my splash page, it only displays the text FAIL. Its an attempt to poke fun at the humorous FAIL Blog by extending the meme to failed search results. The title of the page says “Nikolas Schiller thinks you should try searching again,” and when you hover your mouse over the FAIL text the title text says “You clicked on a bogus search result.”

To get the extent of how many visits this internet bait has been generated, look at a portion of this weekend’s search results:

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Newark Quilt #2
|| 12/13/2008 || 10:04 pm || Comments Off on Newark Quilt #2 || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Newark Quilt #2 by Nikolas R. Schiller

Using this portion of Newark Quilt, I was able to constructive this Hexagon Quilt Projection derivative map. If you look closely there is a nice hexagram in the center of the map. I’d like to make a map of Trenton, New Jersey next.

View the Google Map of downtown Newark, New Jersey

: detail :
A location somewhere within the map

View the rest of the details:

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Newark Quilt
|| 12/12/2008 || 11:43 pm || Comments Off on Newark Quilt || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Newark Quilt by Nikolas R. Schiller

Would you believe that this is my first map of the Garden State? It is. After hundreds of maps, I have finally gotten around to making a map of New Jersey. Originally the delay was based on the availability of color imagery due to the fact that I could only obtain false-color composite imagery of New Jersey. While it looks nice, it is not within the color parameters I’ve chosen to work with. If you look around this website you won’t see any quilt projection maps using this type of coloring. While I have modified the colors of the source aerial photography before, I have not started with false-color imagery and then made a map.

The imagery I was able to obtain and use for this Dodecagon Quilt Projection map is, ummm, to say it nicely, pretty much crap. According to the metadata, this .5 meter aerial photography was taken in March of 2006, processed in June of 2006, and released to the public on June 26th, 2007. Instead of using a digital camera, this imagery was taken with an analog film camera, printed out, scanned, and finally digitally altered for correctness. The result is a very grainy resolution when looked at up close and is comparable to the poor-quality Los Angeles imagery I worked with last year.

The imagery also suffers from the fact that it wasn’t taken completely at nadir. This means that you can see a mishmash of perspectives, where buildings literally run into each other because the angle at which the photograph was taken wasn’t completely overhead (nadir). For example, in the detail below you can actually read the lettering of the Prudential building due to the obliqueness of the original aerial photograph.

Anyways, now I only have to complete a map of somewhere in Vermont and I’ll have a made a map of a city in every state in the United States! I think its time to remove the dust from my last book proposal….

View the Google Map of downtown Newark, New Jersey

: detail :
A location somewhere within the map

View the rest of the details:

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Hello! Thanks for stopping by! My name is Nikolas Schiller. I am an American citizen currently living in New York City and working remotely to support structural change in Washington, DC.

This blog is my online repository of what I have created or found online since May of 2004. I've been on hiatus since 2018 but plan on contributing more content in the not so distant future.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact: