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An Annotated Response - The Unisys Sign

Nat — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:09:08 -0400

An annotated response to The Unisys Sign: What's the big deal?, an editorial in the Friday July 26th, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer. The original article appears quoted, with replies in plain text.

The opposition to the proposal by Unisys Corp. to put its name in large type on Two Liberty Place is reminiscent of the small-minded thinking that opposed the construction of the high-rise tower (and its fraternal twin, One Liberty Place) in the 1980s.

Back then, many in the city vehemently resisted the construction of the Liberty towers because they would violate the unwritten rule that no building exceed the height of William Penn's hat atop City Hall.

That all seems so quaint today. And so Philadelphia. But the city has grown up since then, and is making strides to be world-class rather than small-town.

I agree with defining small-minded thinking and strict opposition to growth, efficiency, pride, or progress as typically being "so Philadelphia", but the notion that a city which has seen a 23% drop in residents since 1970 has "grown up" is ridiculous. Sure, Philadelphia is advancing, but as a city we're still in short pants in the back of grandma's late model Maxima.

Indeed, the city should welcome Unisys' plan to move its headquarters to Philadelphia - and do much more to figure out how to get other businesses to locate here.

The city should attract Unisys and other businesses with reasonable tax rates and non sign-based incentives, and anyone who knows anything is aware of this. Business taxes in Philadelphia are the second highest in the nation, so perhaps reducing business taxes from the current rate of 6.5% would be a better way to start addressing the actual problem of the lack of business growth. The answer to Philadelphia's problem is certainly not in allowing any company wielding a paltry 225 jobs to plaster their uninspired, pets.com-assed logo on the side of a building that, 18 years ago finally told the world, "Hey guys! Remember us, from the late 19th century!?? Wait up!"

Too many companies have moved away, and not many are lining up to come here. In fact, denying Unisys its sign could cause the Fortune 500 firm to re-think its relocation. That would underscore the city's reputation as a tough place to do business.

They've all moved due to sign-related issues, too. I mean, shit...Fox Foundry closed down in the '70s after a neighborhood group called the foundry's new logo "too snarly". What reinforces the city's anti-business reputation has more to do with tax issues than anything else, and everyone is aware of this.

There really isn't a strong argument against Unisys' proposed sign - unless you live in one of the million-dollar condos that will have an up-close view of 11-foot-high red letters planned for the 38th and 39th floors on two sides of the building.

There really isn't a strong argument against this sign - unless you're one of the rare Philadelphians that struggles to take some pride in where you live and can envision some potential increasing value in the city. Changing the face of an increasingly respectable skyline should cost more than 225 jobs.

In a perfect world, corporate names wouldn't be plastered on buildings, ballparks and billboards.

Unless it's W.B. Mason.

But we're adults, and we realize that corporate branding isn't at all the issue here, right?

But take a look around the city skyline. Many of the most recognizable buildings have corporate names, tickers or logos on them, from Aramark to Peco to Blue Cross. A couple of the most iconic buildings have names of companies that no longer exist: PSFS and PNB.

Every single one of the buildings mentioned was brought to the city by the company that bears its' name, and all were designed with featuring the name of the company in mind. If Unisys wants to break ground for their very own 3.5 story building, I would welcome their logo to our micro skyline. Maybe they could even lease out the other side to pets.com.

What's six more letters?

You know...good point. What is six more letters?

Ratatat: Shiller 7"

Nat — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:36:30 -0400

A couple new Ratatat tracks:

The most succinct review I've heard thus far came from a friend of mine:

Hm. Maybe the drums are on the other side of the record?

Addendum: Oh man, I've got it. The sound and general feel of both of these tracks seemed extremely familiar, and specially in the case of the second track, I was thinking of Ice Castles by Ween.

Mantua Hall Implosion: Sunday, March 30 @ 8:30am

Nat — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:24:12 -0400

Over at Philly Skyline, B. Love suggests the following locations to view the implosion:

For an extensive and interesting write up on Mantua Hall, hit up Philly Skyline, and check out what is being planned for Mantua at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

Map of Underground Pedestrian Concourses in Philadelphia

Nat — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:20:11 -0400

Courtesy this post on Philadelphia Will Do, I found out about this reconstruction of the map of the underground pedestrian concourse in center city. The concourse requires no fare and connects the Market-Frankford Line, the Broad Street Line, and the PATCO line, making it possible to do neat shit like walk from 12th and Locust to 17th and Arch entirely underground.

There also exists this map, which I found a little while back on the website for the Center City District and Central Philadelphia Development Corporation.

The differences between the two maps are minor. The CCD map makes note of who services the concourses (SEPTA, the city, or "other"), while the reconstruction includes the entrances for the concourses and also maps out the concourse north of Cherry to Race St.

Presenting: A "band".

Nat — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:18:00 -0400

"Mmmhmm. That looks real nice. Got a pretty girl there...and you, you're talking on a telephone, looking' slightly stubborn! Now, one of ya'll wanna go get me a drink of water before I die penniless, succumbing to a heart attack after becoming disoriented in a snow storm or some shit?"
-Blind Lemon Jefferson

Bwahahahahahaha!!!!

Nat — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:13:00 -0400

The new $5:

Jus' sayin'...

Randall Munroe's Graffiti Tag?

Nat — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:34:00 -0400

Seems appropriate...

hostap linux kernel modules for upgrading flash firmware

Nat — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:34:00 -0400

You might think that after a few years of finding oneself occasionally messing around with strange, nearly obsolete hardware under various operating systems with wildly varying degrees of success, one might begin to look for a more rewarding hobby.

Like sidewalk fly fishing. Or maybe even watching sidewalk fly fishing.

However, in what seems to be my own personal quest to try everything that could be described as foolish and/or potentially tedious twice (or more than twice), I bought a Sharp Zaurus 5600 (Poodle). Turns out I needed to flash the firmware on the wireless CF card (SanDisk Connect, SDWCFB-000, Prism 2.5) in order to get WEP/WPA encryption to work properly. However, in order to flash the firmware, you need kernel modules that don't ship with OpenZaurus. I assume this is because no one wants to listen to, much less can help someone who flashes their card incorrectly, and in turn ends up with useless hardware.

Hey! Look over here! Are you impatient? Would you rate yourself as "unsatisfactory" when it comes to following directions? Behold! These modules are for you!

Just kidding, of course. Not that it needs to be said, but make sure you have a handle on what you're doing. A: cardctl info from the command line should set you in the right direction. Another good resource might be the information I've collected thus far. Just make sure that this is what you're actually looking for before you set into it. I've only tested this with my card, on my machine, running OpenZaurus 3.5.4.2-r2. I've provided these modules in case you don't want to set up an OE build environment

Modules: hostap-2.6_2.6.17-r30_poodle kernel-module-hostap-cs-2.6_2.6.17-r30_poodle

Incase you missed it, these are excellent instructions on how to flash your firmware.

Storycore: Beats made from Storycorps Clips

Nat — Sun, 27 May 2007 13:48:00 -0400

Storycore, get it? Like a music genre!

Every Friday, Philadelphia's NPR affiliate plays a Storycorps entry during Morning Edition. Storycorps is a project aiming to collect audio recordings of people's personal stories. I always look forward to it, just like a John Butterworth traffic report, or a beat getting dropped in or out of a track at the exact right moment.

While listening to this entry, my friend Mark mentioned something about fashioning a beat from the lady's voice. So I gave it a shot.

Fruitioned!:

All percussion sounds in the track originated from Trudy Henry (pictured, left). Everything else from an extremely cheap, overused guitar or my mouth.

None of the samples were altered in any way. A similar, minimalistic approach was used in this very excellent track.

Flying Windows Screen Saver for Mac OS X

Nat — Mon, 21 May 2007 09:09:00 -0400

This is a replication of the classic 'Flying Windows' screen saver that first appeared in Windows 3.1. In order to use it, you must have at least OS X 10.4.

Just put it in ~/Library/Screen Savers .

Download