vjblog: RFID for Everyone

Finally starting to come down from a mind-blowing week at AVIT UK in Birmingham. After meeting Toby Harris last summer at AVIT in San Francisco, I decided to get myself over to the UK to see what other VJs in Eupore were doing and hopefully meet some interesting folks. The trip exceeded my wildest expectations. Everyone at the conference was amazingly friendly and open. The sense of community was tremendous. The AVIT organizers put on the most fantastic event I have attended.

Highlights included getting sponsored by vidvox, makers of the awesome GridPro application, scoring a midnight to 1 a.m. VJ spot to play along with the amazing Kraddy at the Drop Beats Not Bombs party which I shared with Michael, winning the grand prize of an Edirol V4 mixer in the raffle as well as two pieces of software.

Really got a thorough going over by the inspectors at Heathrow and Dulles airports on my way back home to Los Angeles. Both sets of screeners were particularly intrigued with the folding tripod I was carrying. The imigration official at Dulles hassled me about not looking anything like my passport photo. Guess most folks have more of a stable look and their identification has longer relevance. The new breed of RFID enabled identification on the cusp of being legislated in the US has potential to help with this, but I doubt it would be made useful in such a manner.

A big thank you to fALk and Michael for welcoming me onboard.

Music: Dilemma's "sawtooth" Chip Tune.