Featherston Blog

Sigmaman.com lives

2008-07-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have decided to consolidate my blogs. So, from now on, you can check out sigmaman.com for all your Mitch Featherston stuff. Yes, I know... so exciting! :-)

The move makes sense. I need to use one site for all my online activities. For the past year or so, I have neglected this blog and Sigmaman.com, so this will help that.

Please adjust your bookmarks. There is some seriously cool stuff coming.

Mitch (Sigmaman)

Egyptian - Tomb of Caliphs

2008-07-22T04:35:00.000-07:00

Additional info can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooklyn_museum/2674966510/

Space Shuttle Engine

2008-07-15T04:20:00.000-07:00

New Seamless Texture Set

2008-07-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

I have completed a new set of seamless imagery. They have been dedicated to the public domain... please feel free to check them out.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mlfeatherston/SeamlessTextures

NASA Photo

2008-07-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

Public Domain Images

2008-07-03T07:11:00.001-07:00

Want more images like this? Check out THOUSANDS more... http://www.navy.mil/view_photos_top.asp

Lawrence Lessig

2008-06-19T04:28:00.000-07:00

A classic example of the power of Lessig.

Free Turtle(s)

2008-06-17T05:57:00.001-07:00

Here are some NASA nature pics. All public domain, of course. :-)

NASA Images

2008-06-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

Air Force Photo

2008-06-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Free High Res Photos

2008-06-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

These images are 100% free and public domain.

Cool NASA photos

2008-05-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

These are 100% free and public domain. Enjoy!

NOVA uses Creative Commons

2008-04-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Well, we have another really big move towards media freedom. This time it's the PBS series NOVA. You can find many downloadable video clips to remix under a Creative Commons Noncommercial license.

Main NOVA Open Site:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/open/

NOVA's explanation:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/open/share.html

NOVA FAQ:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/open/faq.html

Great, concise Creative Commons license overview

2008-04-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

Check this out if you are new to Creative Commons and the world of free content licenses.

Public Domain Image

2008-04-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

Recent public domain articles

2008-04-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

These are interesting reads:

http://richardswheeler.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/leeching-on-granddaddy/

http://knowprose.com/node/18881

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2837/135/

Aircraft Carriers

2008-04-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

US Navy Photographs

2008-04-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

These are public domain.

Architectural Imagery

2008-03-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

Awesome Public Domain Photos

2008-03-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

Check out this amazing set of panorama photos of the construction of the Panama Canal from 1913.

Public Domain Photos

2008-03-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

You are free to share these images!

Classic NASA Imagery

2008-03-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

Public Domain Textures

2008-03-13T05:38:00.001-07:00

Well, I've created 100 seamless textures and have decided to give them away. I was going to use a CC license, but thought these images might be better suited for public domain dedication. I have setup a seperate site to store these images.

Hope you can find a use for these images.

Public Domain Images

2008-02-25T05:46:00.000-08:00

Professor Lessig

2008-02-08T21:33:00.001-08:00

Professor Lessig is an amazing, inspiring figure. This photo was taken by Robert Scoble. Mr. Scoble has dedicated this photo to the public domain.

A very big thank you goes out to Robert Scoble for doing such a wonderful thing!

Daguerreotype Photographs from 19th Century

2008-02-05T06:11:00.000-08:00

Public Domain Photos

2008-02-02T06:58:00.001-08:00

Classic Artwork

2008-01-17T06:39:00.000-08:00

Navy beats Army

2007-12-03T17:45:00.000-08:00

The Naval Academy 38-3 victory at the 108th playing of the Army-Navy football game.

The images are public domain.

The GigaOm Show Episode 19

2007-12-03T17:40:00.000-08:00

The GigaOm Show Episode 19 - Jimmy Wales - Wikipedia and Wikia

Classic Illustration

2007-11-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

Space Shuttle Atlantis

2007-11-26T05:14:00.000-08:00

Great resource for public domain images

2007-11-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

If you need some photos for a project, especially nature images, check out the U.S. Government's Yellowstone National Park Image site. It's a wonderful collection of nature imagery that houses over 13,000 photos. Of course, since it's a work of the U.S. Government, it's 100% free and public domain.

Sunset

2007-11-01T13:26:00.001-07:00

Clouds

2007-10-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

Airmen support space shuttle launch

2007-10-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

Members of th 45th Space Wing supported NASA's successful launch of Space Shuttle Discovery Oct. 23 at 11:38 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is the 23rd mission to the International Space Station. Discovery will deliver a connecting module that will increase the space station's interior space.

This image is free and public domain.

Parachute drop

2007-10-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

A pararescueman conducts a parachute drop Oct. 19 on Kadena Air Base, Japan. The Airmen train to maintain proficiency for the defense of Japan and to meet U.S. obligations. The pararescuemen are capable of conducting search-and-rescue missions under most conditions and have saved the lives of both U.S. military and Okinawans.

This image is free and public domain.

New Photos

2007-10-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Project: Indiana sounds good

2007-10-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

If you are a supporter of free software, you need to check out Project: Indiana. Project: Indiana is an effort by Sun to get OpenSolaris into the hands of users, a lot of users, easily.

Community info.

Military jets

2007-10-15T05:05:00.001-07:00

This image is 100% free and in the public domain.

CC photos on Flickr going nuts

2007-10-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

The world of Flickr photos just gets neater and neater. There are now, as of today, October 15, 2007, over 5.6 MILLION CC attribution license photos on Flickr. The attribution license is the most liberal of all CC licenses. Here is a link to all of the different kinds of CC-licensed photos on Flickr.

Thunderbird

2007-10-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

This image is 100% free and in the public domain.

Image # 108665111

2007-10-11T04:49:00.001-07:00

Image # 739828549

2007-10-11T04:46:00.000-07:00

Zude Demo

2007-10-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

This is Scoble's demo video of Zude, a new way to build content-rich web experiences. Awesome!

Today's interesting fact: birds are dinosaurs

2007-10-10T06:21:00.000-07:00

Like most boys, I was always a fan of dinosaurs. The fact they existed was incredible and I read about them, researched them, figured out how to pronounce their latin names, all that stuff. Over the past few years, I have started to get back into researching dinos, and in doing so, I have been reading about how modern birds, birds we see every day, are dinosaurs. I think a lot of people, if you asked, would be very surprised by this. I recall explaining this to my Mom, and she looked at me like I had been drinking.

The bottomline is that the idea that modern birds are dinosaurs is becoming a widely accepted thing. It is not by any means universally accepted. Think about it though: birds are reptiles, their skeletons really do appear to be dino-like. For me, someone with no background in paleo studies, can still accept this as fact. It also gives me more appreciation for nature.

Some neat links:

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/avians.html
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/dinosaur.html
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs

Image # 099828552

2007-10-09T15:20:00.000-07:00

A recent addition to my Flickr stream, and qualifies as a 'free culture' entry since it is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

A topic for present and future

2007-10-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

After a fairly long hiatus, I am going back to my blogging roots... starting today, this blog space will be about a very important subject: free culture. When I started blogging back towards the end of 2004, my intent was to blog about all things free culture but things kind of got muddy. From now on, free culture takes priority. Of course, I could have some other items I touch on, but generally, this space will be free culture-oriented.

Robert Scoble and blogging boredom

2007-10-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

Robert Scoble is a pretty interesting fellow. I have been following him since he was a Microsoft employee. Over the past year, I have been an avid reader of his blog and viewer of his video series, ScobleShow. Scoble has recently announced that he plans on scaling back his blogging, and I don't blame him at all. I have fallen in and out of love with blogging. If you aren't doing it for money, it's a real drain on your time. I guess it's a drain on your time even if you are doing it for the money, but it's hard to build an audience and then keep them around. I tried to blog consistently since late 2004 and it's tough as hell. Granted, I have never stated I stated I was a pro writer (far from it), but one of the really important aspects of any writing is the actual ability to write and make sense. So, a lot of time can be spent trying to make sense and not to look like an idiot in the process.

Blogging is not for everyone... it's probably not for me, but I am going to keep trying.

HP: Linux is ready for the enterprise

2007-10-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

From CNET: "Randy Hergett, HP's director of engineering for open-source and Linux organization, said at the Gelato Itanium Conference & Expo in Singapore on Monday that Linux is ready to be used in some mission-critical applications, despite a perception that there are gaps in areas such as manageability."

This is simply more affirmation that Linux is poised to continue to expand in business.

Please support Creative Commons

2007-10-02T04:14:00.001-07:00

Creative Commons has just launched a new fundraising campaign. Their goal is to receive $500,000 by the end of this year. If possible, please help them out. CC is a very important organization.

Find out ways to support CC here.

Interesting clouds

2007-10-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

Dawn on the launchpad

2007-10-01T04:22:00.000-07:00

This image is free and in the public domain.

MS has to pay

2007-09-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

Looks like the EU is going to make Microsoft pay over 600 million dollars in fines. Ouch.

A new beginning, sort of...

2007-08-31T10:41:00.001-07:00

I have decided to begin posting again, but not sure which direction I'd like to pursue. So, for now, prepare to see a lot of different things.

Elderly Lady

2007-08-31T10:36:00.001-07:00

Young Woman

2007-08-31T10:35:00.002-07:00

Young Girl

2007-08-31T10:35:00.001-07:00