ComCam Workshop

20th DoD Worldwide Military Photography Workshop

The 20th annual DoD Worldwide Military Photography Workshop (WMPW) will be hosted by the Defense Information School, Fort George G. Meade, MD, 03 to 09 June 2012. Travel dates for attendees will be 02 and 10 June 2012.

The 20th annual DoD Worldwide Military Photography Workshop (WMPW) will be hosted by the Defense Information School, Fort George G. Meade, MD, 03 to 09 June 2012. Travel dates for attendees will be 02 and 10 June 2012.

The purpose of this workshop is to improve professional knowledge, proficiency and qualifications of DoD photographers and photojournalists. Workshop faculty members will provide technical instruction to increase the effectiveness, ability, and visual communication skills of attendees to provide the highest quality imagery to the department of defense.

Selection for attendance will be competitive and limited to 25 photographers / photojournalists. To ensure maximum benefit, those attending the workshop are required to have a strong background and working knowledge in still photography.

Eligibility: personnel from all services, holding a photographer / photojournalist specialty code, and DoD employed civilian photographers may apply. Attendees will be selected based on their portfolio and command recommendation, which must be received no later than Friday, 13 April 2012. Portfolios and a letter of recommendation from the commanding officers shall be forwarded to the Defense Information School, Attn: Mr Rob Hood (Photography Workshop), 6500 Mapes Road, Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755-5620.

Portfolio requirements: Portfolio submission will include not less than twelve, nor more than twenty images. Images may originate from either digital or traditional photography techniques, but must be submitted digitally following the guidance prescribed on the DINFOS webpage under "Special Events". Photographic prints or 35mm slides will not be accepted.

Include the following information in Package Submission: full name, rank, command address, cell and work phone number, and e-mail addresses, both work and personal. Additionally, provide name and phone number of unit / command point of contact.

Selectee and alternate attendees will be notified the week of 16 April 2012 of their selection to attend. Selectee and alternate attendee info will also be posted on the DINFOS webpage NLT 20 April 2012 under "Special Events".

The agenda for the workshop is:
Faculty presentations
Discussion of assignments with faculty advisors
Shoot photo assignments
Critique of photo assignments
Roundtable discussions with faculty each evening
Awards presentations
Informal banquet (pay as you go)

The faculty for the workshop will include recognized professionals from national organizations.

Services or parent commands are responsible for funding TDY/TAD for their candidates. TDY/TAD orders should authorize rental car for each student to enable the individual to travel to and from shooting assignment locations. All students are required to secure billeting at the designated hotel (TBD prior to selection of candidates). The hotel will be located within five minutes of the Baltimore Washington International (BWI) airport and 15 minutes from Fort Meade and the Defense Information School. Hotel will fall within acceptable per diem rate for the Fort Meade area. Further information is available via the internet at http://www.dinfos.dma.mil, under Special Events.

11. This is a digital photography workshop. Attendees are required to bring a copy of their portfolio on a compact disc. Attendees must bring their own digital camera kits and are strongly encouraged to bring a laptop computer. A limited number of specialty digital camera kits may be made available on a case-by-case basis. Images will be edited using Adobe Photoshop software.

Due to nature of prestigious shooting assignments in the National Capital Region, civilian business casual (i.e. khakis and collared shirt) is the appropriate attire for attendees during workshop. However, military members will need to have their class A uniform for the first and the last day of the workshop.

Request widest dissemination of this message in your Visual Information and Public Affairs communities.

POC
Mr. Rob Hood,
(301) 677-3212
DSN: 622-3212
email: rob.hood@dinfos.dma.mil ; or: dinfosphotographyworkshop@dinfos.osd.mil.

Released by COL Jeremy Martin
Commandant
Defense Information School

One 55- Gallon Barrel found in Atlantic Ocean?

DARPA to engage Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Data Visualization communities to develop “big data” analytics and usability solutions for warfighters...
“The sheer volume of information creates a background clutter…,” said DARPA Acting Director, Kaigham J. Gabriel. “Let me put this in some context. The Atlantic Ocean is roughly 350 million cubic kilometers in volume, or nearly 100 billion, billon gallons of water. If each gallon of water represented a byte or character, the Atlantic Ocean would be able to store, just barely, all the data generated by the world in 2010. Looking for a specific message or page in a document would be the equivalent of searching the Atlantic Ocean for a single 55-gallon drum barrel.”

Watch your Data... it may still be out there?

Researcher: Private data recoverable from Android after wipe

Android devices may not completely remove personal data from a device after a user activates the built-in wipe option, according to McAfee identity theft researcher Robert Siciliano. To test the security of various platforms, Siciliano purchased 30 devices, including smartphones and notebook computers, from the popular classifieds site Craigslist.

Tests reportedly showed that users can be confident that their personal data is not easily recoverable from a BlackBerry smartphone or iOS device. RIM took top honors, with security provisions that Siciliano describes as "totally impenetrable," according to quotes posted in an LA Timesreport.

"They did a really good job of destroying data when you reset the factory settings," the researcher added.

Siciliano suggests that Android and Windows XP represented the worst performers, leaving users with no direct option to clear data. The researcher recommends that users do not sell Android smartphones or Windows XP computers, without removing the hard drive

Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/03/29/blackberry.ios.receive.praise/#ixzz1qcyGxcl2

Microsoft Hand Language

from Engadget by James Trew

Billion Dollar Clutter?

White House ‘Big Data’ Push Means Big Bucks for Drone Brains

from Danger Room by Robert Beckhusen

Illustration: DARPA

The military has a data problem. More specifically, it has a 

too-much-data problem. Analysts have to sort through massive 

amounts of information collected by orbiting surveillance drones 

and satellites, or finding the data trails left behind by spies inside 

defense networks. Sorting through all this data is also necessary 

for making unmanned vehicles more autonomous.

Bring on the White House’s new “big data” research initiative. 

Announced this morning, the plan aims to invest “more than $200 

million” in six government agencies to develop systems to 

“extract knowledge and insights from large and complex collections of digital data,” 

according to a White House statement (.pdf). That means anything too 

large for normal software to handle, meaning data sets of at least 

dozens of terabytes, at minimum. The biggest beneficiary of all this 

could be the Department of Defense.

The Pentagon already spends hundreds of millions annually on 

“big data”-esque problems. The initiative announced today could add to 

that kitty up to $60 million per year for new research projects. That 

includes a $25 million yearly sum for a new Darpa data mining 

program called XDATA, which is broadly defined as a tool to 

analyze large amounts of meta-data and “unstructured” data like message traffic. 

(In comparison, the Department of Energy is receiving only $25 million 

in funding for a new data mining institute and the National Science 

Foundation is being granted $13.4 million.)

Where is all the rest of that defense research going? Several places, 

and a lot of it for helping drones crunch the massive amounts of information 

pulled from sensors.

“The Department of Defense if placing a big bet on big data.” Zachary 

Lemnios, the Pentagon’s research and engineering chief, told reporters 

on Thursday. “We are within sight of a new generation of systems that 

understand and interpret the real world with computer speed, computer 

precision and human agility. These systems will not only be central to 

helping our commanders and analysts make sense of the huge volumes 

of data our military sensors collect, they will also support multiple 

missions.

Some of these systems, like Darpa’s Mind’s Eye, seeks to develop 

“visual intelligence” in aerial sensors, which would give military computers 

he ability to connect visual data with pre-written cues. Effectively, that 

could mean giving drones the tools to spot enemy soldiers automatically. 

Other programs likely to benefit include the Insight program, which can 

help drones spot potential threats on the battlefield.

That information is “growing rapidly in both volume and complexity,” Darpa 

acting director Ken Gabriel said. “From scraps of paper to hard drives, to 

overhead imagery and intercepts — the data collected is often imperfect, 

incomplete and heterogeneous. This trend is further accelerated by the 

proliferation of various digital devices and the internet. All of which is 

used by our adversaries to operate and hide in this data terrain. The sheer 

volume of information itself is creating a background clutter.”

Clutter so thick, even a quarter-billion dollars in investments may not be 

enough to cut through.

DoD Mobile Apps

Defense Department Launches Mobile App Development Challenge

from Armed with Science by glenn.selby

The Defense Department announced today the launch of a challenge to develop innovative mobile applications that provide Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning tools.

The contest, which will run from April 2, 2012 to June 4, 2012, is headed by the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, a research and development office within the department.

“The STEM App Challenge will benefit the national STEM efforts for K-12 education, but may also have an immediate impact on the Defense Department,” Dr. Kristy Murray, Director, ADL Initiative said. “We are always looking for innovative ideas for how we better incorporate mobile devices for learning within DoD.”

The challenge is open to all mobile app developers who have creative ideas for developing apps that foster problem-solving, discovery, and exploratory learning in the targeted area of “common misconceptions of science.” There is no cost for entering the challenge.

The winning developers will be showcased at the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative’s iFest Conference in Orlando, Fla., July 31, 2012 – Aug 2, 2012. For more information and to submit an app entry, please click here.

Smartphone - Smart Tablet - PCs

March 28, 2012 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

Nearly 1 Billion Smart Connected Devices Shipped in 2011 with Shipments Expected to Double by 2016, According to IDChttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120328005370/en/1-Billion-Smart-Connected-Devices-Shipped-2011

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The universe of smart connected devices, including PCs, media tablets, and smartphones, saw shipments of more than 916 million units and revenues surpassing $489 billion dollars in 2011, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). These numbers reflect the combined total from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, Mobile Phone Tracker, and Media Tablet Tracker.

“Smartphone growth will be driven by Asia/Pacific countries, especially China, where mobile operators are subsidizing the purchase of 3G smartphones, thus increasing the total addressable market. In many if not all instances, the smartphone will be the primary connection to the Internet”

"Whether it's consumers looking for a phone that can tap into several robust 'app' ecosystems, businesses looking at deploying tablet devices into their environments, or educational institutions working to update their school's computer labs, smart, connected, compute-capable devices are playing an increasingly important role in nearly every individual's life," said Bob O'Donnell, vice president, Clients and Displays at IDC.

Looking ahead, unit shipments for smart connected devices should top 1.1 billion worldwide in 2012. By 2016, IDC predicts shipments will reach 1.84 billion units, more than double the 2011 figure, as consumers and business of all shapes and sizes around the world are showing a nearly insatiable appetite for smart connected devices. This works out to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.4% for the five-year forecast period.

A graphic illustrating the size and composition of the worldwide smart connected device market for the 2010—2016 forecast period is available at IDC.com. Instructions to embed the graphic into online news articles and social media can be found by viewing this press release on IDC.com.

In terms of platforms, IDC expects a relatively dramatic shift between 2011 and 2016, with the once-dominant Windows on x86 platform, consisting of PCs running the Windows operating system on any x86-compatible CPU, slipping from a leading 35.9% share in 2011 down to 25.1% in 2016. The number of Android-based devices running on ARM CPUs, on the other hand, will grow modestly from 29.4% share in 2011 to a market-leading 31.1% share in 2016. Meanwhile, iOS-based devices will grow from 14.6% share in 2011 to 17.3% in 2016.

"Android's growth is tied directly to the propagation of lower-priced devices," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices. "So, while we expect dozens of hardware vendors to own some share in the Android market, many will find profitability difficult to sustain. Similarly, we expect a large percentage of application developers to continue to focus their efforts on iOS, despite the platform's smaller overall market share, because iOS end users have proven more willing to pay for high-quality apps."

Research conducted by IDC suggests that many individuals own and regularly use multiple smart connected devices. "We are in the multi-device age," continued O'Donnell, "and we believe the number of people who use multiple devices will only continue to increase. The trick, moving forward, will be to integrate all these devices into a unified whole through use of personal cloud-type applications and services. That's the real challenge of what we have often called the 'PC Plus' era."

"Smartphone growth will be driven by Asia/Pacific countries, especially China, where mobile operators are subsidizing the purchase of 3G smartphones, thus increasing the total addressable market. In many if not all instances, the smartphone will be the primary connection to the Internet," said Will Stofega, program director, Mobile Phone Technologies and Trends. "In countries where devices are not subsidized by the mobile operators, competitive and component-based pricing will help drive volume.

DirectShow vs Media Foundation vs Media Platform

Exploring Microsoft Media Platform and How it Uses HTML5

Haven't heard of Microsoft Media Platform? A tech evangelist explains that it combines several well known applications.

By Troy Dreier
Posted on March 28, 2012

What was Microsoft doing at the recent HTML5 Video Summit in Los Angeles? Explaining to the audience how its video solutions take advantage of HTML5. The session was led by Alex Zambelli, media platform evangelist for Microsoft, who understood that much of the audience likely hadn't heard of the Microsoft Media Platform before.

"Probably the first question on your mind today might be, 'What is the Microsoft Media Platform?' It's a term that we haven't necessarily been using for a long time. We've been developing a lot of media technologies at Microsoft over the past several years, some of them independently and then some of them to work together. We've always been using them to build media solutions and so we come to think of them as a media platform and we decided we should put together some umbrella brand for these technologies. That's really what Microsoft Media Platform is: it's an umbrella brand for a set of Microsoft technologies that you use to encode, deliver, protect, play back video really to build internet media streaming solutions," said Zambelli.

So while attendees might not know the term "Microsoft Media Platform," they're probably already familiar with several of the product it contains.

"The Microsoft Media Platform really encompasses a number of other Microsoft technologies that you might know by other names. This is a good overview, for example, of what goes into Microsoft Media Platform. Probably starting from what I would consider the first step in the path of delivering and building a media solution would be the services. Basically, how do we deliver the media. Today we have two primary components that we use to deliver media. That would be Windows Server, using IIS Media Services -- that's our on-premises technology for building media servers. And then we have Windows Azure, which is becoming more and more important as we transition to the cloud," added Zambelli.

For more, including the role of HTML5 in the Microsoft Media Platform, watch the video below:



Microsoft Media Platform and HTML5

Microsoft Media Platform is a complete set of technologies for digital media encoding, protection, delivery, and playback. In this session we will explore the role of HTML5 in the Microsoft Media Platform: encoding HTML5-compatible media content using Expression Encoder; delivering media to HTML5 browsers over HTTP networks using IIS Media Services; playing back video and audio in Internet Explorer with full utilization of hardware-accelerated decoding; building HTML5 player applications using the MMP Player Framework; and finally, leveraging the intuitiveness and simplicity of HTML5 to build rich media apps for Windows 8.

Speaker: Alex Zambelli, Media Platform Evangelist, Microsoft
Speaker: Mike Downey, Principal Evangelist, Media Platform, Microsoft

ToughPad ... any day now?

Looks like the "best Hard-Droid" is still open for best dressed.  Who gets the reference design crown?  Will it be Googleola or Panasonic?  Available mid-Summer is the newest rumor... $1395 without the 4G card at $495...

Toughpad FZ-A1

The 10.1" Android™-powered Toughpad FZ-A1 is ideal for highly mobile outdoor workers in challenging conditions, it's designed to meet durability standards on drop resistance as well as meeting ingress protection ratings on dust and water.

The CPU in the tablet incorporates a dedicated security processor, which provides a high level of tamper resistance and frees up the multi-purpose CPU core for other tasks. The business matte, anti-reflective screen with digitizer provides true daylight visibility together with 10 hours' battery life, integrated GPS and replaceable battery.


Android™ 4.0
Marvell® dual-core processor
Dedicated security processor core, FIPS 140-2 Level 2 compliant
10.1" anti glare capacitive Multi-Touch Display and Digitizer
Up to 500cd/m” brightness with anti reflection film
Satellite GPS and digital compass
Up to 10 hours battery life
Replaceable battery
Drop resistant from a height of 120cm, MIL-STD 810G compliant*
Water / Dust protected, IP65 compliant*

 

 * Tested at Panasonic Factory.  

 

Google, the Google logo, YouTube and Android are trademarks of Google Inc.

Droid for Wintel !!! It had to happen

BlueStacks App Player Enters Beta, Brings 450,000 Android Apps to Your Windows PC

from Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog by Kellex

BlueStacks released a beta version of their Android app player for Windows PCs this morning, bringing with it access to 450,000 apps. They previously ran a closed alpha, but have gone public with this beta from what we can tell. For those not familiar, BlueStacks is an application that installs on your Windows computer and then allows you to run any Android app through it. This is a brilliant piece of software and one that developers should thoroughly embrace. Through something like BlueStacks, applications from devs can reach more than just Android devices and are now essentially a part of everyone’s Windows PC without the need for code tweaking. This app player does all of the work. Talk about an audience.
You can download the file from BlueStacks, however, their servers appear to be completely overloaded. When you get to the download page, make sure you the “Try a different installer” link. It will get you the full software.

Cheers Mike!

Oh Droid-for-meo!!!

Android Left Out, for Now.

by MILIDROID on MARCH 26, 2012 · LEAVE A COMMENT

End of last week the Army announced the release of their new App Marketplace. Still in the “prototype” phase the site offers 12 training focused apps for users to download. The apps are for download onto personal devices and as of right now only supporting iOS (ugh) eventually Android will be added into the mix.

According to the Army:

“The Apps Marketplace is at the center of Army efforts to radically reduce the time to deliver applications across the force,” said Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, the chief information officer/G-6. “This prototype is a first step in establishing and exercising new submission and approval processes that will eventually enable Army members, organizations and third-party developers to release applications for Army-wide distribution.”

Access to the marketplace is restricted to soldiers only.

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Tagged with: apps for the army • US Army Marketplace