Odds and ends: we finally were able to watch the rest of the DVDs that we checked out from Brad and Emilie's Video Rentals: "Gattaca", "Iron Monkey", and "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring". I'm sorry, but I didn't like the Lord of the Rings all that much, and neither did Misti. Maybe there was so much hype about it or something, maybe I waited too long to see it, who knows - but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. =(
A few weeks ago we saw "Goldmember" (Austin Powers III) at the El Rancho Drive-In. The audio sucked, as usual - they always get the audio garbled during the movies - so we ended up with 2 or 3 minutes worth of silence during the film. Everyone was honking like crazy until they finally figured it out.
Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Sunday, August 25, 2002
Well, I am now, finally, happy to report that I finally figured out what the heck was going on with our DVD "situation". In case you don't know the background of our dilemma, please read my previous DVD post. After more research and a little experiment at Brad and Emilie's house, I finally stumbled across the culprit of our DVD viewing woes: Macrovision Copyright Protection (aka "macrosplat").
The geniuses that make DVD players decided that U.S. copyright law and the F.B.I. aren't effective enough to prevent people from making illegal copies of movies, so they, themselves, did an illegal thing by incorporating copy protection "features" in all DVD players - which is illegal because you, the consumer, are allowed by law to make a legal backup copy of any media you purchase (in this case most commonly a VHS copy of a DVD), but their copy protection prevents you from making *any* copies via a VCR whatsoever, thus illegally preventing you from not only making a copy, but in our case (and the case of millions of households across the nation) even viewing the movie at all!
We finally solved our problem with a most excellent and highly recommended product from Video Ware, Inc. in Wyoming, called the S-Video to VCR conversion package. Since our TV (a Sanyo DS19380) only has one input, an RF coaxial connector (see specs on Sanyo's website), our only option for hooking up the DVD player was through the VCR. Well, guess what? You're apparently not supposed to even think about doing that. When certain DVDs see a VCR as the output destination, they decide that you're trying to copy them, so the picture goes all funky and you can't even view it. I guess they never even conceived that half of all Americans would need to hook up their DVD players this way. Of course, even the TV manufacturers will tell you this (even ours does), but who thinks to go to their website when it's the DVD that won't play! For the record, one of the reasons it was so hard to troubleshoot this problem (and why no one I asked could) was because some DVDs played just fine, while others clearly didn't. For instance, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (Set 4, Season 2) worked, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" worked, "Uncorked" worked, "Baraka" worked, and just about anything you burn onto DVD yourself should work (I tried 5 different DVDs from work that were custom made, and they all worked). None of the rest that we tried would work, however, including "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", "Unbreakable", "Gattaca", "Shallow Hal", "Iron Monkey", and a goofy karate movie about a guy beating up a cow Matrix-style, but I can't remember the name of it, mainly because we rented it, but couldn't watch it.
At Brad's suggestion, I'm going to keep a little log of which media companies are the "good guys" and which are the "bad guys" (i.e., which ones include this illegal macrovision scheme on their DVD releases). That way, you'll know which companies' DVDs will work on your player if you're forced to hook up your DVD through your VCR like we were. Of course, if you're in the same boat that we were until today, I highly recommend the product we purchased - even though it is a bit pricey. So far, the list stands thus:
So, now that we can view all DVDs without incident, does this negate my previous post? Not even. I still notice banding and other DVD compression artifacts all the time, and I still think the compatibility issues (and the stupid macrosplat "feature") are ruining the marketplace, and they still don't hold enough data, and an optical medium is always going to be inherently flawed when it comes to playback obstruction due to dust, fingerprints, scratches, etc. There are still some real issues that need to be addressed until I'll be completely happy with DVDs. But until then, I guess I'll just have to suffer with the higher horizontal lines of resolution and extra features of DVDs like the rest of y'all. =)
Also in today's news, I saw my first double-yolked egg - Misti ate it for breakfast, yucka! Also, we went to the Nevada State Fair, which, sadly, gets more lame with each passing year. The petting zoo was the highlight, as I got to squeeze the zebu's hump. We also had two lemonades, one very lame, and one very tasty. The one outside in the food court was the yucky, overpriced one, whereas the one on the second floor inside the Livestock Events Center in the southeast corner was the very tasty and reasonably priced one. The Church also had a booth there, and it looked pretty good. Interestingly, Yucca Mountain nuclear waste proponents also had a booth there trying to soften people up. (See my previous Yucca Mountain post for my opinion on this issue.)
Got $2.00 off ($1.00 twice off mine and Misti's tickets) by using the coupon on the back of Model Dairy milk cartons. Took the shaft on parking, though, as it was $6.00 if you came in via the main entrances, but the parking lot wasn't even manned on the south entrance (the Washoe County Complex main entrance - on 9th St) so that would've been free, I guess, had we discovered it on the way in instead of whilst exiting. =(
Watched "Unbreakable", starring Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis - a great film based around the concept of comic books. Yes, it was a DVD - that I borrowed from Brad, and, for the record, that didn't work until after we installed our new little gadget.
Since it appears that the RIAA, MPAA, et al are now suing individual users of peer-to-peer file sharing programs (most noticeably for trading MP3s), I think it's rather convenient that my computer died awhile back and has been thus far uncooperative during several attempts at resurrection. Ironically, many fellow employees at work don't understand the favor I'm really doing them by having blocked file sharing at work via the proxy server. One guy said to me, "Well, they can't arrest everyone" - which is true, but like I told him, "They don't have to, all they need to do is arrest one or two people in each state and everyone will be crapping their pants". Thus, for the record, I don't use any peer-to-peer file sharing programs. My computer at home doesn't even function, and I lost any previously stored music while reformatting the hard drive, and it's all blocked at work. =)
The geniuses that make DVD players decided that U.S. copyright law and the F.B.I. aren't effective enough to prevent people from making illegal copies of movies, so they, themselves, did an illegal thing by incorporating copy protection "features" in all DVD players - which is illegal because you, the consumer, are allowed by law to make a legal backup copy of any media you purchase (in this case most commonly a VHS copy of a DVD), but their copy protection prevents you from making *any* copies via a VCR whatsoever, thus illegally preventing you from not only making a copy, but in our case (and the case of millions of households across the nation) even viewing the movie at all!
We finally solved our problem with a most excellent and highly recommended product from Video Ware, Inc. in Wyoming, called the S-Video to VCR conversion package. Since our TV (a Sanyo DS19380) only has one input, an RF coaxial connector (see specs on Sanyo's website), our only option for hooking up the DVD player was through the VCR. Well, guess what? You're apparently not supposed to even think about doing that. When certain DVDs see a VCR as the output destination, they decide that you're trying to copy them, so the picture goes all funky and you can't even view it. I guess they never even conceived that half of all Americans would need to hook up their DVD players this way. Of course, even the TV manufacturers will tell you this (even ours does), but who thinks to go to their website when it's the DVD that won't play! For the record, one of the reasons it was so hard to troubleshoot this problem (and why no one I asked could) was because some DVDs played just fine, while others clearly didn't. For instance, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (Set 4, Season 2) worked, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" worked, "Uncorked" worked, "Baraka" worked, and just about anything you burn onto DVD yourself should work (I tried 5 different DVDs from work that were custom made, and they all worked). None of the rest that we tried would work, however, including "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", "Unbreakable", "Gattaca", "Shallow Hal", "Iron Monkey", and a goofy karate movie about a guy beating up a cow Matrix-style, but I can't remember the name of it, mainly because we rented it, but couldn't watch it.
At Brad's suggestion, I'm going to keep a little log of which media companies are the "good guys" and which are the "bad guys" (i.e., which ones include this illegal macrovision scheme on their DVD releases). That way, you'll know which companies' DVDs will work on your player if you're forced to hook up your DVD through your VCR like we were. Of course, if you're in the same boat that we were until today, I highly recommend the product we purchased - even though it is a bit pricey. So far, the list stands thus:
| Good Companies | Bad Companies |
|---|---|
| A&E Television Networks Warner Brothers Pictures Vidmark/Trimark MPI Media | New Line Home Entertainment Miramax Home Entertainment Columbia Pictures Touchstone Home Video |
So, now that we can view all DVDs without incident, does this negate my previous post? Not even. I still notice banding and other DVD compression artifacts all the time, and I still think the compatibility issues (and the stupid macrosplat "feature") are ruining the marketplace, and they still don't hold enough data, and an optical medium is always going to be inherently flawed when it comes to playback obstruction due to dust, fingerprints, scratches, etc. There are still some real issues that need to be addressed until I'll be completely happy with DVDs. But until then, I guess I'll just have to suffer with the higher horizontal lines of resolution and extra features of DVDs like the rest of y'all. =)
Also in today's news, I saw my first double-yolked egg - Misti ate it for breakfast, yucka! Also, we went to the Nevada State Fair, which, sadly, gets more lame with each passing year. The petting zoo was the highlight, as I got to squeeze the zebu's hump. We also had two lemonades, one very lame, and one very tasty. The one outside in the food court was the yucky, overpriced one, whereas the one on the second floor inside the Livestock Events Center in the southeast corner was the very tasty and reasonably priced one. The Church also had a booth there, and it looked pretty good. Interestingly, Yucca Mountain nuclear waste proponents also had a booth there trying to soften people up. (See my previous Yucca Mountain post for my opinion on this issue.)
Got $2.00 off ($1.00 twice off mine and Misti's tickets) by using the coupon on the back of Model Dairy milk cartons. Took the shaft on parking, though, as it was $6.00 if you came in via the main entrances, but the parking lot wasn't even manned on the south entrance (the Washoe County Complex main entrance - on 9th St) so that would've been free, I guess, had we discovered it on the way in instead of whilst exiting. =(
Watched "Unbreakable", starring Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis - a great film based around the concept of comic books. Yes, it was a DVD - that I borrowed from Brad, and, for the record, that didn't work until after we installed our new little gadget.
Since it appears that the RIAA, MPAA, et al are now suing individual users of peer-to-peer file sharing programs (most noticeably for trading MP3s), I think it's rather convenient that my computer died awhile back and has been thus far uncooperative during several attempts at resurrection. Ironically, many fellow employees at work don't understand the favor I'm really doing them by having blocked file sharing at work via the proxy server. One guy said to me, "Well, they can't arrest everyone" - which is true, but like I told him, "They don't have to, all they need to do is arrest one or two people in each state and everyone will be crapping their pants". Thus, for the record, I don't use any peer-to-peer file sharing programs. My computer at home doesn't even function, and I lost any previously stored music while reformatting the hard drive, and it's all blocked at work. =)
Thursday, August 22, 2002
Why are there two different "Away in a Manger"s? They both have the same words, but there are two different tunes. Well, we bought a new mattress the other day from Mattress Land, a Simmons Beautyrest "Merrion" queen set. I also tried some different fat-free, sugar-free fudge bars: Blue Bunny's Health Smart bars. They're pretty tasty. I finished listening to two comedy tapes that Gene lent me, Volumes I and V of Willie P. Richardson's Phone Pranks. They're pretty hilarious. I've been doing a little research on all the different types of offerings listed in the Old Testament (so far I've counted 13 kinds): heave offering, wave offering, peace offering, thank offering, burnt offering, sin offering, trespass offering, guilt offering, grain offering, drink offering, freewill offering, votive offering, and fellowship offering. Within the next week or so, I'll write a little summary of what I've found. In the mean time, check out Brad's dancing spiderman. =)
I just surpassed the 1,500 mark on Seti@home workunits. Also, Misti is now selling Herbalife products, so if anyone would like to order health and household products from her, please give her a call or drop her an e-mail. Also, two of Herbalife's foci are weight management and work-at-home opportunities. Thus, if you're interested in either of these, please visit Misti's websites for losing weight and/or for working from home.
I just surpassed the 1,500 mark on Seti@home workunits. Also, Misti is now selling Herbalife products, so if anyone would like to order health and household products from her, please give her a call or drop her an e-mail. Also, two of Herbalife's foci are weight management and work-at-home opportunities. Thus, if you're interested in either of these, please visit Misti's websites for losing weight and/or for working from home.
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
I've been quiet on the whole Yucca Mountain issue because I really haven't had too much of an opinion on it so far, but since it actually looks like we're going to get stuck with most of the nation's waste, I think it's about time for an opinion. On Tuesday, July 23, 2002, President George W. Bush quietly signed a $58 billion resolution clearing the way for the burial of toxic nuclear waste from across the nation in Nevada's Yucca Mountain for 10,000 years. Yucca Mountain is only 90 miles away from Las Vegas. Not surprisingly, 83% of Nevadans oppose the site, and this action will likely cost Bush the state in the next election. Now if the federal gov't was to pay us 10,000 years worth of rent for the storage, that might create a whole different issue... J/K.
Most people already know that this stuff is lethal. Right now it's being stored at 131 locations in 39 states. I'd actually be really mad right now if I lived in one of those 39 states, and of course then I'd be all for getting rid of the junk. I find it funny that Utah, only 120 miles from Yucca, voted in favor of it, simply to get it out of their state, even though any accident at the site would definitely affect them also.
To think that environmental exposure is not going to happen, whether by nature, terrorist attack, or simply good 'ol human error, for 10,000 years is rather na�ve. With such an attractive target for terrorists, it's going to cost a whole lot more than $58 billion to maintain the thing in the long run, as they're going to need to have 24-hour surveillance and military protection for 10,000 years. That's a ton of money! In February 2000, there was a radioactive accident in Thailand that demonstrates how easy it is for the human error part to happen.
Let's assume that in 200 years some of the stuff gets out into the environment. The main shaft of radioactive waste for humans is that it causes cancer and two types of Human mutation: teratogenic and genetic. I read an article a while back that made light of at least the cancer scenario, because honestly if medical science still hasn't found a cure for cancer 200 years from now, they're really not all that bright, are they? So, assuming that cancer is no longer a problem, there's still the whole mutation problem.
Genetic mutations are changes in a person's genetic makeup (DNA) that will affect future generations. Teratogenic mutations change a person's body but those changes will not carry over to the next generation. In other words, if you're exposed to this toxic nasty stuff, not only will you get screwed over, but so might your kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, etc. for who knows how long. Watch Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall" movie to get an idea...
What a lot of people don't know is that not everyone is opposed to the stuff, and some people even *want* the stuff. I was saddened to learn that some members of the Goshute tribe in Utah actually want to bury the stuff on their reservation (for several interesting reasons) until Yucca Mountain is completed. Obviously, not all of the Goshutes feel the same way, but I certainly wouldn't volunteer my land away to some deadly stuff. Some interesting articles I've been reading on these issues are the EPA's radiation FAQ, the General Conference of the IAEA's report, a Shoshone land claim issue, and a list of nuclear accidents in the United States.
While I'm glad that there are no nuclear plants in Nevada, I am miffed that there is one in Sacramento (California) which is right over the mountain to the west only 130 miles away, which I think would mean that they are currently also storing waste there on site (not certain about this, I'll have to check it out further). And, of course, I'm mad about the three nuclear testing sites in Nevada that most people already know about. I'm glad, however, that no DOE-proposed truck routes come through Reno, but I am a little worried about train transport as Reno is a rail hub. The good news is that we really aren't en route to Vegas from anywhere except from Washington, Oregon, Northern California, and Western Idaho - but their toxic refuse is apparently being trucked to Yucca either going through Salt Lake and down to Vegas through the middle of Utah or down the I-5 corridor in California).
In other news: we watched "First Daughter" with Mariel Hemingway, had a few people over Saturday for pizza, wings (yes, they were from Joe Bob's - the Chicken Joint, NOT the Chicken Palace), and "It Came to Pass". Ate dinner and played Bocce with my folks on Sunday at South Hills park. Finished the Clive Cussler book, "Atlantis Found" that Gene lent me. Pretty good book. Speaking of genetic mutations, I tried a pluot for the first time (it's a cross between a plum and an apricot). Quite tasty. Becky learned how to eat with a fork at the Olive Garden recently during Misti's birthday party. Of course, what made it really cute was that the fork was as big as she was. =)
Most people already know that this stuff is lethal. Right now it's being stored at 131 locations in 39 states. I'd actually be really mad right now if I lived in one of those 39 states, and of course then I'd be all for getting rid of the junk. I find it funny that Utah, only 120 miles from Yucca, voted in favor of it, simply to get it out of their state, even though any accident at the site would definitely affect them also.
To think that environmental exposure is not going to happen, whether by nature, terrorist attack, or simply good 'ol human error, for 10,000 years is rather na�ve. With such an attractive target for terrorists, it's going to cost a whole lot more than $58 billion to maintain the thing in the long run, as they're going to need to have 24-hour surveillance and military protection for 10,000 years. That's a ton of money! In February 2000, there was a radioactive accident in Thailand that demonstrates how easy it is for the human error part to happen.
Let's assume that in 200 years some of the stuff gets out into the environment. The main shaft of radioactive waste for humans is that it causes cancer and two types of Human mutation: teratogenic and genetic. I read an article a while back that made light of at least the cancer scenario, because honestly if medical science still hasn't found a cure for cancer 200 years from now, they're really not all that bright, are they? So, assuming that cancer is no longer a problem, there's still the whole mutation problem.
Genetic mutations are changes in a person's genetic makeup (DNA) that will affect future generations. Teratogenic mutations change a person's body but those changes will not carry over to the next generation. In other words, if you're exposed to this toxic nasty stuff, not only will you get screwed over, but so might your kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, etc. for who knows how long. Watch Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall" movie to get an idea...
What a lot of people don't know is that not everyone is opposed to the stuff, and some people even *want* the stuff. I was saddened to learn that some members of the Goshute tribe in Utah actually want to bury the stuff on their reservation (for several interesting reasons) until Yucca Mountain is completed. Obviously, not all of the Goshutes feel the same way, but I certainly wouldn't volunteer my land away to some deadly stuff. Some interesting articles I've been reading on these issues are the EPA's radiation FAQ, the General Conference of the IAEA's report, a Shoshone land claim issue, and a list of nuclear accidents in the United States.
While I'm glad that there are no nuclear plants in Nevada, I am miffed that there is one in Sacramento (California) which is right over the mountain to the west only 130 miles away, which I think would mean that they are currently also storing waste there on site (not certain about this, I'll have to check it out further). And, of course, I'm mad about the three nuclear testing sites in Nevada that most people already know about. I'm glad, however, that no DOE-proposed truck routes come through Reno, but I am a little worried about train transport as Reno is a rail hub. The good news is that we really aren't en route to Vegas from anywhere except from Washington, Oregon, Northern California, and Western Idaho - but their toxic refuse is apparently being trucked to Yucca either going through Salt Lake and down to Vegas through the middle of Utah or down the I-5 corridor in California).
In other news: we watched "First Daughter" with Mariel Hemingway, had a few people over Saturday for pizza, wings (yes, they were from Joe Bob's - the Chicken Joint, NOT the Chicken Palace), and "It Came to Pass". Ate dinner and played Bocce with my folks on Sunday at South Hills park. Finished the Clive Cussler book, "Atlantis Found" that Gene lent me. Pretty good book. Speaking of genetic mutations, I tried a pluot for the first time (it's a cross between a plum and an apricot). Quite tasty. Becky learned how to eat with a fork at the Olive Garden recently during Misti's birthday party. Of course, what made it really cute was that the fork was as big as she was. =)
Tuesday, August 06, 2002
Okay, it's really about time that motherboard manufacturers get with it and finally start providing some decent documentation. I just got a new AOpen AX4B-533 motherboard with an Intel Pentium 4 2.40(B) GHz CPU, but the stupid board won't boot. It's supposed to be an awesome motherboard to overclock, and it's got USB 2.0 support, 533 MHz FSB support, PC-2100 DDR SDRAM support, 4X AGP support, and uses the i845E chipset. The manual is incomplete, however (and as usual is written in poorly translated English from Chinese), and doesn't provide an LED map or a jumper legend or anything. There's a status LED that stays on that I know holds the key to what's wrong with the system, but there is nothing to explain what the LED is for. Their website, of course, sheds no additional light on the problem, so basically I'm screwed - so I had to take it back to our local supplier. What is so hard about providing a few more pages of actually useful information to the manual? I think it's high time that consumers start to expect more from these companies, and only buy products with better support and documentation.
UPDATE: resolved the issue, but we did it the easy way - got a different board (the other one was bad). The new board is an MSI 845E Max mainboard (all the same specs as above). It works wonderfully. MSI even has auto-update webpages (Live Driver, Live BIOS) for their motherboards (which can automatically scan for new BIOS, drivers, and utilities for your particular board just like WindowsUpdate does) - it's pretty slick.
I am bummed about moving to Windows XP, however, as it doesn't support many DOS batch commands (like Choice and Start - which breaks 5 to 10 batch files I've written over the past few years and use on a daily basis), and there seem to be some issues with Microsoft's Virtual Java Machine (like it's not included, and you can't download it from Microsoft). So, aside from some minor annoyances, I'm computing at a much faster pace at work now. =)
UPDATE: XP does support some additional DOS commands, but they're not included, so you have to copy them over from Win98, then you can use them - just put them in the same directory as your batch scripts and they'll run... mostly (some switches might not work). Also, I guess Microsoft doesn't want to play the Java game any more so they're not supporting Java in XP. You can, however, get the latest Java plug-in from Sun, but frankly it doesn't work as well as the Virtual Java Machine in Win98. -- Sigh --
UPDATE: On 02/05/2003, there was an article on ZDNET on how (and why - court order) Microsoft doesn't bundle the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) with Windows XP. Very interesting.
UPDATE: resolved the issue, but we did it the easy way - got a different board (the other one was bad). The new board is an MSI 845E Max mainboard (all the same specs as above). It works wonderfully. MSI even has auto-update webpages (Live Driver, Live BIOS) for their motherboards (which can automatically scan for new BIOS, drivers, and utilities for your particular board just like WindowsUpdate does) - it's pretty slick.
I am bummed about moving to Windows XP, however, as it doesn't support many DOS batch commands (like Choice and Start - which breaks 5 to 10 batch files I've written over the past few years and use on a daily basis), and there seem to be some issues with Microsoft's Virtual Java Machine (like it's not included, and you can't download it from Microsoft). So, aside from some minor annoyances, I'm computing at a much faster pace at work now. =)
UPDATE: XP does support some additional DOS commands, but they're not included, so you have to copy them over from Win98, then you can use them - just put them in the same directory as your batch scripts and they'll run... mostly (some switches might not work). Also, I guess Microsoft doesn't want to play the Java game any more so they're not supporting Java in XP. You can, however, get the latest Java plug-in from Sun, but frankly it doesn't work as well as the Virtual Java Machine in Win98. -- Sigh --
UPDATE: On 02/05/2003, there was an article on ZDNET on how (and why - court order) Microsoft doesn't bundle the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) with Windows XP. Very interesting.
Monday, August 05, 2002
Okay, important update on Joe Bob's Chicken Palace: THEY SUCK! They have the worst customer service! We liked the wings so much the other day that we decided to get 18 wings to go tonight for dinner (well, as part of dinner), so we called ahead. We then drove over and I went inside to pick them up. The girl asked if I had a pickup order and I said "yes", and she asked if it was for "Misti - 18 BBQ wings", and I said "yes" (Misti was the one who called them in). I paid, and we came home. Upon opening the box, there were only 12 wings inside. So I got on the horn and called them back and told them that there were only 12 wings inside, even though we paid for 18, and they said we could come back and get the other 6 if we wanted for no extra charge (duh). I said we would. So I went back and got what I thought would be the remaining 6, but I got home and THERE WERE ONLY 4 WINGS INSIDE (and they weren't even BBQ)! I couldn't believe it, they are so STUPID! How hard is it to count? Anyway, good wings or not, that's the last time they'll receive our business. What a senseless waste.
Yesterday, Becky took her first bike ride. Her mom got her a little helmet at Wal*Mart the other day with cute little ladybugs on it. Her dad put her in her own little bicycle seat on the back of his bike, and the family took a little ride to her grandma and grandpa's house to visit. She was cute, but her little toddler helmet kept slipping down over her eyes so she couldn't see. Poor thing, but she was sure cute! =)
Yesterday, Becky took her first bike ride. Her mom got her a little helmet at Wal*Mart the other day with cute little ladybugs on it. Her dad put her in her own little bicycle seat on the back of his bike, and the family took a little ride to her grandma and grandpa's house to visit. She was cute, but her little toddler helmet kept slipping down over her eyes so she couldn't see. Poor thing, but she was sure cute! =)
Saturday, August 03, 2002
The whole DVD issue leads into another similar beef I have with the so-called wonderful digitally-based technology that is digital video surveillence. Anyone that has used digital video cameras and recorders to do security knows how bad they suck. It's a little unclear to me as to why they're so slow (it could be that compressing and writing the images to a hard drive takes a second or two, or that the transmission over a network takes an extra second, or what), but trying to capture a couple of seconds worth of good activity on a digital system is just about impossible. The fastest speed I can seem to get on a digital network video camera is about 3 frames per second. That is, the camera can only take a photo every third of a second, and then write it to a compressed JPEG file, and then e-mail it to me. Keep in mind that for smooth-looking video, you have to have at least 24 fps (frames per second). So what I get when the motion detector senses movement is a series of photos of someone walking across the room, about a third of a second apart. You would be surprised, I'm sure, when you realized how much a person travels even at walking speed in a third of a second. If you've got a small room, you can cover the whole thing in a second or two. So what happens is that you really only get two or three good shots of the person, as opposed to the 24 or 48 that you would get with good 'ol fashioned analog videotape. This is crucial if the person is carrying something or doing something (like picking up something from a desk, for example) because in one shot they may not yet have grabbed it, but in the next shot they may already have it, so you don't actually get them "on tape" as actually grabbing it. On regular ol' videotape, you would actually catch them redhanded lifting the item. The bottom line is that you miss about 95% of the action, all for the sake of "going digital". In this case, digital just plain sucks.
Oh, while I'm thinking about it, I should mention that I finally got around to watching the other Hitchcock movie that I borrowed from the library, "The 39 Steps". After considering both films, I think I like the ending on this film better, but I like the other one more overall.
Oh, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has decided that the term "Hispanic" is no longer a recognized ethnicity as relating to collection of demographic data for their programs. Is that totally messed up or what? Stay tuned for my unofficial opinion after I brush up a bit on cultural anthropology... UPDATE: As it turns out, HUD is only implementing an OMB-mandated change (that all gov't agencies are required to make), and that is explained a little bit better by the Census Bureau. I still don't think the rationale is complete, however, as they've left off races for the Middle Eastern peoples, and ethnicities for persons of Jewish culture (for example).
Today we went to Joe Bob's Chicken Palace and had the best BBQ wings in the world. It was at Joe Bob's today that Becky learned how to drink through a straw for the very first time. She had made attempts in the past, but never quite figured it out (she would just end up biting the straw). This time, on or about her third attempt, she finally got a drop of root beer and made the connection that it was for drinking. Now she's a pro. =)
Poor Brad and his lens cap. First Lisa steals it after Brenda's party, then I hid it at Brad's BBQ (only temporarily - the only one that really had to look for it much was Lisa), and then apparently now Brenda has it for some reason (maybe she stole it after Brad's party, too?), which just makes his camera lens all dusty by now for sure.
Oh, while I'm thinking about it, I should mention that I finally got around to watching the other Hitchcock movie that I borrowed from the library, "The 39 Steps". After considering both films, I think I like the ending on this film better, but I like the other one more overall.
Oh, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has decided that the term "Hispanic" is no longer a recognized ethnicity as relating to collection of demographic data for their programs. Is that totally messed up or what? Stay tuned for my unofficial opinion after I brush up a bit on cultural anthropology... UPDATE: As it turns out, HUD is only implementing an OMB-mandated change (that all gov't agencies are required to make), and that is explained a little bit better by the Census Bureau. I still don't think the rationale is complete, however, as they've left off races for the Middle Eastern peoples, and ethnicities for persons of Jewish culture (for example).
Today we went to Joe Bob's Chicken Palace and had the best BBQ wings in the world. It was at Joe Bob's today that Becky learned how to drink through a straw for the very first time. She had made attempts in the past, but never quite figured it out (she would just end up biting the straw). This time, on or about her third attempt, she finally got a drop of root beer and made the connection that it was for drinking. Now she's a pro. =)
Poor Brad and his lens cap. First Lisa steals it after Brenda's party, then I hid it at Brad's BBQ (only temporarily - the only one that really had to look for it much was Lisa), and then apparently now Brenda has it for some reason (maybe she stole it after Brad's party, too?), which just makes his camera lens all dusty by now for sure.
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