Watch Out McCarthy, Amazon.com Wants to Turn Me Into a Communist
June 8th, 2007
I went to buy a Father’s Day gift on Amazon.com this morning and happened to glance at the “Recommended for You” section of the home page. Imagine my surprise when Amazon.com recommended Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto”! You know, only 40 years ago Amazon.com would have been dragged before Congress, shut down, and Jeff Bezos would be in prison somewhere. Funny how times change.
Update: Earth, The Next Hollywood Superstar?
June 7th, 2007
Here’s an update to my previous entry, “Earth, The Next Hollywood Superstar?.” The blog High-Def Digest is reporting that HD-DVD and Blueray sales for Planet Earth have broken revenue records. Although fewer units were sold (The Departed holds the record for that at 100,000), the approximately 42,000 units of Planet Earth are more expensive (around $70 each) which has lead to more overall cash than The Departed raked in.
Go Earth!
Sphere: Related ContentCanon Develops 50 Megapixel Camera Sensor
June 6th, 2007
According to Wired’s Gadget Lab blog, Canon has developed a 50 megapixel CMOS sensor. Surprisingly, a 50 megapixel censor only provides an 8000×6000 image (am I getting greedy?). The storage requirements for these images must be insane! Time to stock up on memory cards 
. I’m still waiting for prosumer level DSLRs that have GPS tagging built into them.
Time Warner Cable to Use Switched Digital Video Technology
June 5th, 2007
According to Multichannel News, Time Warner Cable will be installing switched digital video technology in a couple of their markets. Switched digital video (SDV) is a technology I saw at NCTA this year and in my opinion has a huge advantage over satellite. In a nutshell, SDV allows cable operators to offer a virtually unlimited number of cable channels. Currently a cable operator has to provision a certain number of channels given the limited spectrum. For example, let’s say a cable operator can only handle 100 channels due to throughput restrictions for the medium. Channel 002 is always Station X and channel 003 is always Station Y and even if no one is watching Station X, the operator has to send the station’s signal out. SDV allows the cable operator to reclaim throughput not being used and provision it for other channels. So, if no consumers are watching Channel 002, the operator can use channel 002’s bandwidth to offer a new channel, channel 101. So, the idea behind SDV is more analogous to your home internet. You have a certain amount of bandwidth going into your DSL or cable modem…what you do with it is up to you (50k of your 800k bandwidth isn’t always reserved to do one thing). SDV allows operators to virtually stream programming only when consumers want it. Therefore, a cable operator can offer thousands of channels. If no one’s watching a niche channel, nothing is affected since that space is reclaimed to send signals that people are watching a different channel.
This technology will ultimately lead to more high definition channels and more niche channels. Imagine having a high definition channel that solely consists of a camera mounted somewhere in Yellowstone Park (HD of course) and a channel dedicated to underwater basket weaving. Traditionally, a cable operator wouldn’t dream of such a thing since it would take away their ability to offer more mainstream channels but now the possibility exists to offer almost any channel as long as it’s commercially viable.
Sphere: Related ContentEarth, The Next Hollywood Superstar?
June 5th, 2007
It seems like Earth is becoming a huge star in Hollywood these days. Between Winged Migration, March of the Penguins, An Inconvenient Truth, and the cable television series Planet Earth, there’s no shortage of films about the home planet. Now, according to the UK’s Telegraph, the BBC is releasing a new nature documentary creatively named “Earth.” The article describes what went into the production of the film:
It took 130 cameramen and technicians five years to make the £8 million movie, the most expensive documentary film ever made. Filming in 62 countries, they braved some of the world’s most remote and treacherous terrain to secure footage of previously unseen aspects of the animals’ struggle for survival.
I really enjoyed Planet Earth so I can’t wait for this movie to come out.
Sphere: Related ContentSphere It
June 4th, 2007
Over the weekend, you may have noticed a new link, “Sphere: Related Content,” appeared at the bottom of all the posts. I’m trying out a new service called Sphere which finds related blog posts and media (from other sites) that are related to what I wrote about. So far, I’m not overly impressed with the results but that could be a result of my posts being somewhat random and not very mainstream. Anyway, I’ll try it out for a bit and see if people like it. Please let me know either way by leaving a comment.
Sphere: Related ContentEvery Five Year Old’s Birthday Party Nightmare For Grownups
June 3rd, 2007
As a kid, did you ever fear that you’d float away when that clown at your birthday party handed you a ton of helium balloons? I know I sure did but then again, I was afraid of a lot of things back then like shopping carts (it’s a long story). Enter the hobby of cluster ballooning, a practice where people strap a ton of helium balloons to themselves and soar high up into the sky. I’ll stay on the ground but if you want to learn more, check out Ballooning Into the Sky.
Department of Redundancy Department
May 23rd, 2007
This beauty comes courtesy of AOL Television. For months now, I’ve been searching for the ultimate TV listings and have looked at Yahoo TV, TV Guide, MeeVee, TV.com, ZAP2IT, AOL Television, and countless others. So far, I haven’t found one that I absolutely love so the search continues. While conducting my search, I took a look at AOL Television’s guide. In their guide listings, when I enter my ZIP code, I’m offered the following choices:
- Time Warner Cable – Standard, Los Angeles, CA
- Time Warner Cable – Digital Non-Reb, Los Angeles, CA
- Time Warner Cable – Standard, Los Angeles, CA
- Time Warner Cable – Digital Non-Reb, Los Angeles, CA
First of all, as a consumer, how am I supposed to know what “Digital Non-Reb” means? Even if for some reason, I knew, why is each option listed twice? Of course, this ultimately ends up being Time Warner Cable’s fault since they’re the one providing the names. This only goes to show that the merger of AOL and Time Warner is really paying off. Only together can they create such a crappy user experience.
Sphere: Related ContentDefining Irony
May 21st, 2007
Sure, you could look up the definition of irony but I find learning by example much better. For example, take two stories from the LA Times. The first is about California State Senator Carole Migden who was involved in a car accident over the weekend when she reached down to get her cell phone. The ironic part? She voted for a bill this year that would fine people for talking on their cell phone while driving their car. Example number two comes from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who rode a city bus last week to a meeting about reducing fossil fuel usage. After the meeting, he climbed into a GMC Yukon SUV (a car that gets horrible gas millage and burns a lot of fossil fuels) and drove off. I guess he’s taking a page out of the book of Arnold.
Sphere: Related ContentIf I Had to Turn to the Dark Side, I’d Vote for Ron Paul
May 17th, 2007
Rudy Giuliani is an idiot. Such an idiot that he just might get elected president (here’s hoping he won’t). Anyway, I didn’t watch the second Republican debate on May 15th, but I caught some excepts from it, most of which made my blood boil. However, none of the highlights were as shocking as Rudy Giuliani’s position on why the United States was attacked on 9-11. Ron Paul, the only Republican who seems to actually have any sort of a grasp on why Islamic fundamentalist organizations like Al Qaeda hate the United States made a remark where he actually tried to provide a rational explanation. Of course, Giuliani who walks around acting like he’s the world’s expert on terrorism because he happened to be mayor of New York City during the largest terrorist attack on American soil in history, attacked him. Here’s the exchange from the New York Times transcript:
REP. PAUL: No. Non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we’ve been over there; we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East — I think Reagan was right.
We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we’re building an embassy in Iraq that’s bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. (Applause.)
MR. GOLER: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attack, sir?
REP. PAUL: I’m suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it, and they are delighted that we’re over there because Osama bin Laden has said, “I am glad you’re over on our sand because we can target you so much easier.” They have already now since that time — (bell rings) — have killed 3,400 of our men, and I don’t think it was necessary.
MR. GIULIANI: Wendell, may I comment on that? That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. (Applause, cheers.)
And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that. (Applause.)
Giuliani’s response is the typical Republican reaction to Islamic terrorists: “They hate us because they hate freedom.” Indirectly, that’s true. They believe that democracies allow individuals to behave how the individual wants which is often in a manner that contradicts strict interpretations of the Qur’an. To Islamic fundamentalists, the rule of law must be based on the Qu’ran and no other form of government. That said, Osama bin Laden didn’t target the United States just because we’re a democracy. As the 9-11 Commission Executive Summary states:
Bin Ladin also stresses grievances against the United States widely shared in the Muslim world. He inveighed against the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, which is the home of Islam’s holiest sites, and against other U.S. policies in the Middle East.
Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden therefore did attack the United States, at least in part, because of our foreign policies (including military presence in the Middle East and diplomatic policies with countries in the Middle East). Rudy Giuliani, a self proclaimed expert on terrorism and 9-11 because he “lived through the attack of September 11,” doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. To just run around claiming there’s zero reason for the attack is ignorance. You may not agree that our policies justify such a horrific attack on innocents (I certainly believe that’s the case) but to attack someone for stating what real experts, including the 9-11 Commission, believes is plain stupid.
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