clair006

What is peer-review? What is the role of the peer-reviewer? In reviewing academic / scientific research, is peer-review different than reviewing an academic / scientific work-product? Let's examine the questions. But first, some definitions. What is peer-review? As a noun, peer-review is an evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field. As a verb,

I have made no secret of my academic pursuits. I have been an educator in the classic liberal arts and sciences for some time now. I am of the firm belief that the classics inform every aspect of adult life. I'm one of the few out there that believes that people should not hyper-specialize in their educational pursuits, but should have a broad knowledge set. Save the specialization for doctoral /

Like many in law enforcement, I have degrees in Organizational Leadership. This is a solid degree choice for anyone aspiring to leadership in their organization, public or private. The difference between a "management" degree, like an MBA, and a "leadership" degree like mine (BOL / MOL) is quite simple actually. Managers correct things that have gone wrong. Leaders help things go right in the

You've analyzed evidence. You've made a few notes along the way. You've turned those notes over to the process. Your agency doesn't have a specific requirement about what should be in your notes or your report or how detailed they should be. In all the cases that you've worked, you've never been asked for specifics / details. Now, your case has gone to trial. An attorney is seeking to qualify

It's been a busy fall season, traveling the country and training a whole bunch of folks. Over a lunch, the group I was with asked me about a case that's been in the news and wondered if we'd be discussing how to conduct a comparison of headlight spread patterns. That lead us down quite the rabbit hole ... Comparative analysis assumes a "known" and compares it to an "unknown." It's important to

"Is it forensically sound?" I've heard this question asked many times since I began working in forensic analysis many years ago. Me being me, I wanted to know what it meant to be "forensically sound." Here's what I found as I took a journey through the English language. "Forensically." The root of this is "forensic." The root language for the English word "forensic" is the Latin "forensis."

I had an interesting evening. A friend sent a link to a YouTube video, a recorded webinar for a "video analysis" product. I'll admit. I was curious. I watched it. Below is my commentary on what I saw. The presenter outlined his workflow for working with video from a few different sources. The presentation turned to the difference between how Direct Show handles video playback vs. what's actually

I've been in the "video forensics" business for quite some time now. I've seen enough to notice trends in the industry. I've seen people come and go. Today, I want to comment on a coming trend that I believe will impact everyone in the business, LEOs and privateers alike. Here's what I mean. Going back to about 2006, the economy was booming and folks were happy. Then 2007 hit and the economy

Part of doing the work for Forensic Multimedia Analysis is the eventual testimonial experience. Depending on the state in which you work, or the state in which the case is being heard, different rules will apply. In my state - Nevada, for example - to the extent that Daubert espouses a flexible approach to the admissibility of expert witness testimony, the Supreme Court of Nevada has held it

Eliminating repeating pattern noise from images has been a pain for forensic analysts for quite some time. There are tons of freeware apps and plug-ins ranging in price from inexpensive to cost prohibitive Some of their limitations include: they only work on images, their reliability is spotty, you must document your work without quite knowing how the tool is doing what it's doing. Imagine

Many companies have made the decision to cover the interior of their establishments with as few cameras as possible. They do this with 360 degree camera, big fisheye lenses, or a combination of the two. They get to check the box of having CCTV. You get to try and fix this mess back in the lab. In this case, the ClickIt DVR allows the user to segregate camera views and output individual

One of our customers called in to ask about the formatting of the reports that are generated in FIVE. Specially, she wanted to know why FIVE mashed all the sentences together and didn't allow her to format the Description field into paragraphs. I explained that it does. It's done in the Project Properties dialog box. Here's how: Notice the line break in the text. That's how it's done. If you

Say what you want about him, Tony Robbins knows how to motivate people. Here's one of my favorite Robbins quotes: "Everything you people have told me; I didn't have the technology, I didn't have the right contacts, I didn't have the time, I didn't have the money. Those are resources. And so you're telling me, 'I failed because you didn't have the resources.' And I'm telling you what you already

It's been quite a while since I've posted in the this space. I've been over on LinkedIn and the Amped Software blog. I just wanted to take a moment to mention what I've been up to lately. Last month in the Advanced Processing Techniques class, controlled installation of codecs and players in a virtualized environment was one of the topics of discussion. You really get to see what havoc is

The old Zen proverb, "Those who know don't tell and those who tell don't know," comes to mind when reviewing the many marketing websites for those trying to find work as video/image analysts for the many court districts around the US. In most states, the evidence code defines the process whereby a person's testimony may be admitted and how that testimony will be treated. In California, for

I'm momentarily out of my self-imposed exile to post this brief note on my old friend, Photoshop. When processing images and video for the court, many agencies will try to do more with less. They will make the mistake of thinking that standard commercial photo editors will be fine. The software is often very inexpensive or even free. But, would you trust your case to just any piece of software?

It's with a touch of sadness and regret that I must end my run as your humble blogger. I will leave this site up for as long as Google allows, to serve as a reference. But no new posts will appear. All the best and thanks. Jim

I can't update the Adobe Creative Cloud apps on my MacBook Air. I keep getting the same error. I've been to the forums. Here's one thread full of frustrated customers. Here's another with a stupid solution. Adobe's support has gone down the tubes over the years. SO GLAD I don't need the update right now. SO GLAD I use Amped FIVE for all of my forensic work now.

In the years since my book was published, people have asked about the dedication page. Who is "Sandy?" Professor Alexander "Sandy" Allan was my great uncle, my inspiration, and the guide to my academic and professional life. He passed away on July 10th. Sandy Allan October 21, 1926 - July 10, 2015 Sandy passed away at home, aged 88. Sandy was predeceased by his beloved wife, Marguerite (Gunton

Amped Software just announced that David Spreadborough, aka Spready, has joined their team. Awesome news. Congrats to Spready and to Amped Software.