Graffiti quality mapping in New York City - Gothamist

Hilarious yet interesting info thanks to Jake: http://gothamist.com/2013/01/04/interactive_map_graffiti_complaints.php

In general, mapping graffiti walls can bring the buff along with the tourists, competitors and police, but in big cities like NYC where every inch is photographed, mapping mass photo data is perhaps less harmful, because lots of people know where it is already.

Think twice about geolocating your secret and chillest spots though. The person you get arrested might be yourself. Check your camera phone settings to make sure it's not recording location when you don't want it to.

Germany, Berlin: Aug. 31, 2012- Cryptoparty - For everyone interested in better privacy

How secure is iCloud? (or any encrypted storage online) An expert explains.

Video: NSA whistleblower explains the mechanisms of totalitarianism - coming to the USA

William.Binney.HOPE.9.KEYNOTE.Part2 by dm_500719a56d9cd

I skipped to the end questions, and if they interest you, you should watch at least the last half of the video.

Sukey - A tool for non-violent demonstrations

How to disable geotagging photos on your smartphone

Find street art nearby with your smartphone - and GPS dangers

Turn on GPS on your phone
go to
http://0009.org/streetart/
The phone tells the website where you are, then the website shows photos from Flickr that were taken near you. It's not an app, so it works with any phone that has GPS. I know the guy who made this site.

You can't map the photos this way (which is a good thing for the artwork), but it gives a nice sense of your artistic neighborhood.

When you try this, notice that clicking an image enlarges it and clicking it again brings you back to the grid. If you hit the browser's Back control, you'll end up at some other web page you visited instead.

GPS, geolocation, and EXIF 

Speaking of GPS and phones, it's important to set your phone not to geolocate your photos if you share photos online. Otherwise, you might be blowing up your spot and not even know it.

You can set Flickr not to show location info for your photos, but that doesn't mean it isn't still in the photos. Even if your online photo spot doesn't do photomapping, someone can download your photos and maybe get the location info from them, so keep that in mind. You don't want your camera telling the world where your friends houses are either, so the danger's not just about graffiti spots. It's best to strip the EXIF info to be sure.

I use GraphicConverter on Mac OS instead of Photoshop for editing images. It has a nice tool that erases EXIF data (photo metadata that describes all about your camera, its settings, and possibly the location of the photos). I also told my phone camera not to save that info, and I keep my GPS off unless I need it (saves battery life too).

For Windows, Google has more info about Windows EXIF tools.

More info on GPS and photo tagging on Howstuffworks.

Using QR codes to preserve graffiti virtually

iPhone Everyday Looper demo

Google stickers businesses with QR codes. You have stickers too. Hmm.

"What if every store had a bar code sticker on its window so that you could pull out your iPhone (Android) wave it in front of the bar code and get all sorts of information about that business—the telephone number, photos, customer reviews?" 

It's just a way of encoding Web addresses.

You can make your own for free at places like QR Stuff and delivr. Also Kaywa lets you encode text, SMS, etc. 

Here's one for Art Crimes: