The Unreasonable Man

I am in London - and I left my umbrella at home.

The trend for countries to include RFID technology in their official ID documents (such as passports) is a worrying one. Perhaps the intention is good, and the process is kind of cool (just walk through the passport check area and the authorities already know who you are). But I fear the practice will not be so good. Cool things are not always good. Guns are cool too.
As forthe RFID chips, I have a number of objections. For a start, the codes wil be cracked (this is not “if”, but “when”, and the “when” will probably be well within the five or ten years a passport will last). So when that happens, every crook can read your passport number and details if you simply walk by. Imagine the possiblities for criminals: you get everyone’s passprt number and full details. Do it at the airport and you can go burgle their homes before you even steal their IDs.

The second problem is that the data will be more widely used, and in this process, many errors will be made. When an airplane crashed into a building in Amsterdam some years ago, the government databases were so bad that the mail order companies had to help: at least their databases were up-to-date. This is unavoidable - even in the Netherlands, which is well organised and has a legal oblication for every resident to register with the authorities the moment they move.

FInally, government will become so used to this identifying people by a chip that soon enough, no transactions will be allowed without your government chip. Terrorism will be used as an excuse. At that point, our governments will truly be Big Brother.

And I think that should be avoided. Unfortunately, only the US (which is pushing for this technology) can stop it - and since it is pushing, it will not pull back.

I am off to the UK again. I would really rather fly into North Korea that to the land of Big Brother, I think, but I have no choice in the matter.

The UK’s luggage restrictions have eased a bit: one is now allowed one piece of cabin luggage. One only, and no handbags, cameras, or anything else unless they fit into that one piece. So I am now measuring bags’ dimensions to find one that is large enough to hold my camera, my documents/wallets etc, and perhaps also my laptop, while still being within the maximum allowable dimensions. This packing is taking me all day. As will htre travel: security lineups are enormous; all electrical goods have to be separately screened, and so on.

I know some of you will say this is a small price to pay. Fortunately, no-one can tell me what to think yet, and I think this is (or is at least symbolic of) an enormous price to pay.

The BAA (British Airport Authority) has an FAQ. One amusing question and answer:

What food stuffs can I carry in my hand luggage? Can I take my wedding cake?

You can take most solid food, including wedding cake. Food in sauces are not permitted.

Wedding cakes. Sauces. How British can you get.

I went to see Eric Clapton just now, performing at the Air Canada Centre. Packed concert; everyone was my age (except some had brought their teenage children). The couple next to me was so drunk and noisy that they nearly started a fight, especially after the grumpy tax-collector type in front of them objected to them smoking (especially a joint). Fisticuffs were narrowly averted.
Eric Clapton himself was in great form - guitar virtuoso magic, and also his voice, which sounded just it he did in the 1970s. Mr Clapton played many of his old his hits, and I must say there is something very special about seeing the actual guy who wrote Layla, Cocaine, Crossroads, After Midnight, and many other such songs actually perform them right in front of you.

Has anyone else noticed that Eric Clapton looks just like Steve Jobs nowadays? He certainly appears to have the same capitalist mindset: it was apparently at Mr Clapton’s own personal insistence that photographs were strictly, strictly, utterly forbidden, and the notes at all the entrances were very clear that any cameras will be confiscated and their owners will be expelled, etc. I was happy to see that at least 200 people in the crowd ignored that advice and got through the pat-down searches with cameras. Flashing all over and security trying in vein to locate the culrits. Ha ha. I mean, he charges $125 for a concert and you’re not allowed to take a few snapshots? Come ON!

As you probably all know, Lithium Ion (LiIon) batteries are inherently unstable. Only clever electronic circuitry and physical design saves them from exploding. Usually.

But not always. Dell and Apple laptops have recently been exploding all over; now, an IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad caught fire last weekend at LAX airport. It too had a Sony battery, apparently.
I can see a (probably justified) total airline ban on laptops soon. But then what: ban blackberries, cell phones and -shudder- digital cameras, because they all contain LiIon batteries? I don;t think our economy could survive it and I suspect I couldn’t, either.
Perhaps the manufacturers will make them safe enough soon. Meanwhile, read up if you are interested, here [link to WikiPedia article] - very interesting read.

I am not sure where I read, the other day, that the national newspaper was the tool the nation-state used in the 19th century to establish itself, and that its day was now over.
But that resonated. What did create the nation state? Does it still have a place? Why do we identify with a nation, as in “I am German, and Deutschland Ueber Alles”? Why not with a profession (”I am a surgeon, and Surgeons Ueber Alles”), or a hobby (”I am a radio ham, and radio hams ueber alles”)? I have much more in common with people who think like me than with people whose passport I happen to share. Why should I identify with the latter, rather than pick and choose the good things?

Language might be one reason, as might culture - but they used to be much more aligned with nations than they are now. Language is no longer a nation-builder (I speak English, and so do George Bush and Robert Mugabe), and nor is culture (Sikhs drive my taxis, Azoreans fix my driveway, and my colleagues are Italian or Libyan).

I have more in common with likeminded people in Libya or Sweden then with sports-fans in my own countries (either of them). A liberal in Canada has more in common with a liberal in the USA than with a conservative in Canada. Perhaps the Internet, and the lack of young people reading newspapers, are going to destroy the nation state. And I am not sure that is a bad thing: like religion before it, nation states can go too, if we can come up with a suitable replacement.

As the heading suggests, I am in LA. Just for a day or two: flying back to Toronto this afternoon.

Click above to see a larger version of the pigeon phot, taken at Venice Beach.

..which makes this breaking news article from CBC news an example of the wrong thing to do:

Security breach grounds planes at Vancouver airport

Last Updated Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:06:42 EDT

CBC NewsAll departing flights at Vancouver International Airport were put on hold for more than two hours on Sunday morning because of a security breach, CBC News has learned.

Boarding gates at the airport were closed as passengers went through a second screening at the terminal that handles domestic flights.

Incoming flights were allowed to land during the clampdown, but people were not allowed off the planes and no flights could take off.

Officials at the airport have not given details about the nature of the security breach.

By noon, some planes had begun to depart and things were returning to normal.

It seems to me that this is how not to do it. Vancouver “airport officials” are obviously cowed and terrorised; lots of people will be flying home with stories about how they escaped a terrorist attack. Much more likely that they escaped nothing at all, and were just the victim of officials who exhibited a panicked kneejerk reaction. Terrorism cannot affect us unless we let it.

I am supposed to fly to LA tomorrow but I really, really do not want to subject myself to this avalanche of humiliating nonsense.

So for the photographers amongst you: I have finally been able to solve the “blinking eyes” problem I was experiencing with E-TTL II (Canon’s multi flash system).

The problem: the pre-flash invariably causes people to blink.

The solution, in brief:

• Use a 580EX flash as master in zone “A” (fill-in);
• Use a 420EX as slave in zone B (key light),
• Use a 430EX as slave in zone “C” (background light), set to manual.
  
• Use A:B C with A:B set to 1:4.
• Finally, use FEL (press “*” on the camera) to do the preflashes and lock exposure, then take the actual picture a second later.

The result (click for larger image):

This certainly took a while to figure out and required some investment, but it works a charm. Finally, a reproduceable setup that gives me predictable flash images.

I often think of myself as a jack of all trades (and my implication, master of none).

I consider this a good thing, not a bad thing: realistically you will never be a master of anything anyway, and having 25 interests, each of which you are quite proficient in, is better than one interest that you know everything about (can you say “Anorak”?). I am a man of a dozen anoraks.

One of them is photography. Here is my basement portrait studio:

Working out how Canon’s E-TTL II works in a multi-flash setup has been a challenge; I am now one of perhaps one in a thousand users of tha Canon Flash system who knows how it works.

All this, of course, in the context of my New York Institute of Photography “Professional Photographer” course, which I am half way through. As said here previously, I greatly recommend this course, even if you already know photography.

Perhaps I’ll be master of something, for once.