Meeting Notes - 8 July 2014

by **bdahm** Sat Jul 12, 2014 4:47 pm

Looks like the rain in Spain falls mainly on the geeks. We had, perhaps our lowest turnout in a while as it rained in the morning and looking threatening at meeting time. Nevertheless, there was one new person. If you weren’t there, you really missed it.

Register
Just a reminder, if you haven’t registered through the Forum, there is a benefit for you to do so. One of those immediate benefits is that if you aren’t registered, the posted links are hidden from you and so you’ll be missing out on a lot. Another is that you can't post anything or leave questions.

The other benefit is that those who register get on the email notification list. Why is this important to you? Because every three months or so, for one reason or another, our meeting facilities are not available to us on meeting day. Typically this is because something is going on in the big meeting room and those participants have also booked the restaurant. Usually I don’t find out about this until a day or two before, sometimes on the day of, the meeting. Even if I post something on the Forum, unless you access it after I’ve posted it, you’re going to miss it. Then you’re going to come all the way down here, presumably for nothing.

If you’re on that registration list, I can send out a mass email and chances are you’ll get it in time to save you the trip ... unless you’re still looking for an excuse to get out of the house. So join the other 34 registrants and be the first to know. I promise I won’t otherwise spam you.

Internet Banking in Thailand
I went around the room asking those using internet banking in Thailand what they were using and whether they were satisfied. Most of the people who responded were using Bualuang Banking from Bangkok Bank. One person was using Kasiakorn Bank. The people using Bangkok Bank were pleased and the one using Kasikorn thought the experience was not particularly intuitive but something one could get used to.

People liked the security features of Bangkok Bank, the use of SMS to inform you of transactions when they occur and the use of one-time passwords sent via SMS as authorization when funds are transferred.

Fireworks Display from the Inside
We’ve talked a lot about drones, those tiny quadcopters that take stunning aerial views. That they may be hazard if not controlled properly and even a privacy threat in the wrong hands, goes without saying. Like a lot of things they can be used for good and for bad and there needs to be some rules and regulations for their use. Right now it’s a virtual wild west out there.

All that said, I came across a simply magnificent video of a fireworks display this week. Unlike most fireworks displays, which we see from the ground or from a distance in the air, this guy flew a quadcopter (drone) into the middle of a fireworks display and it was awesome, spectacular and breathtaking. With the addition of a musical background it was nothing short of brilliant.

I’m going to give you two links. The first is to the original YouTube video containing both the video and the audio. The second is to the YouTube video as it exists today. Why have I given you two? because, due to copyright considerations, the audio has had to be replaced. This diminishes the impact of the video in my opinion, since it was obviously edited to fit the movement of the music. It goes without saying that the selection of the original song was masterful. To date there have been almost 10 million views of this video. I posted it to our @CMGeeks twitter account and it is approaching 175 views there. Normally I can expect about 30 views of what I post there. One more thing, you may want to try to download the original video before you attempt to play it, because you may not have sufficient bandwidth to stream it without a lot of buffering.

Original Video:
http://tinyurl.com/lbjt4s2

Curent Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KZ3jgbbmI

One of the wonderful things about the internet is the ability to follow-through and supplement what you know. This was the case here. As this video was released and showed up on most people’s radar right around the 4th of July, I thought that was the case. After all, probably the biggest fireworks displays are in conjunction with the 4th of July, at least in the US. What I found out was that the video was uploaded in May and went viral around the 4th. Given that, it was probably a New Year’s display. The other thing I discovered was that it took place in West Palm Beach, Florida, which would explain the lack of a lot of tall buildings in the background. The barges indicated it was near a large body of water.

Now what about the music. The song is “Con Te Partiro” and is sung by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Bocelli

There are several versions of the song, one is Spanish called “Por Ti Volare” and even an English version entitled “Time to Say Goodbye”. It was first sung at the Sanremo Music Festival in 1995 and went on to be one of the biggest hits in Europe and the all-time top seller in Belgium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Con_te_partirò

Here’s the performance by the singer himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrfvP11Hbo

So, enjoy the video and the music.

Downhill from Here
I don’t thing we can top what we’ve just seen. Nevertheless here are some honorable mentions. The first one is a commercial sponsored by Lexus. You will read from the blog how a number of performers dressed in light suits were strung across the skyline and alternately lit. These are real people. You can even see one of them moving as he appears to climb up the building.

http://blog.lexus.co.uk/2014/07/amazing-in-motion-strobe/

Interesting that this also comes from a car company, this time from VW. Look what happens to an unsuspecting audience as they settle in for a movie in Hong Kong. Do you get it now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlxjng8h3Tc

What else can I say. That’s a wrap!

-Bill