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January 31, 2007
HD-DVD: First Reactions
After living with our "big damn television" for a year, I've finally seen my first bit of "real" HD content (as opposed to the up-scaled DVD's that compose 99.999% of our viewing). I bought the HD-DVD drive for the XBox 360, which arrived the other day, and a friend was kind enough to loan us copies of V For Vendetta, Batman Begins and Superman Returns on HD-DVD.
Last night I did a side-by-side comparison between V for Vendetta playing on the XBox HD-DVD and my Oppo up-converting DVD player, both displaying 720p, on our Philips 50PF7220A/37.
The executive summary is: the difference is definitely noticeable, but the Oppo gives it a serious run for it's money.
I won't be re-buying anything yet - I'll at least wait for the end of the VHS/Betamax war (after all - it's a razors and razor-blades business, the player is chump change compared to the lifetime investment in media), but I've enabled HD-DVD on our Netflix account, and look forward to watching Casablanca in the highest resolution I've ever seen it :)
Posted by dberger at 8:35 PM | Comments (0)
The Deathstar Has Returned
Cingular Wireless is now "the new AT&T" - complete with a revamped Deathstar logo.
That's freaking hilarious.
Posted by dberger at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2007
I'll Never Hear That Song The Same Again
Last night, Dawnise and I watched the last two episodes of the second season of The West Wing.
If you haven't seen it, suffice to say that there's some fairly heavy stuff going on toward the end of the season - there wasn't a dry eye in the house at the end of "18th and Potomac," and it'll be a long time, I think, before I can listen to "Brothers in Arms without being brought back to those moments.
Bartlet's crisis of faith in the national cathedral in "Two Cathedrals" was cliche, and so well written and delivered that it got me anyway.
Brad & Kat loaned us their copy of Season Three, but we'd had enough "heavy" for the evening. our copy - procured on ebay - should arrive today.
Posted by dberger at 1:02 PM | Comments (0)
It's As Done as It's Going to Get
Our landscaper was recommended to us by John Paget, the owner of Salty Dog Construction who did a great job on our deck in the winter of 2005. The deck project was the first major project - measured mostly in terms of dollars - that I did by the proverbial seat of my pants.
Continue reading "It's As Done as It's Going to Get"
Posted by dberger at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
Harry Potter and The Readable Book
I mentioned a while back being less than enthralled with the previous Harry Potter novel. A few days ago I decided to pick up Half-Blood Prince from our bookshelf and give it a whirl.
I'm happy to report that unlike Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince has a plot that's recognizable at every step in the book, and of all the subplots, only one or two felt superfluous.
Definitely a bit darker - which I think is appropriate as Harry (and Rowling) grow along with their audience. If Order of the Phoenix scared you off, follow our friend Stephanie's advice, get it on CD, listen to the last disc, and move on.
Posted by dberger at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2007
Well, At Least I Know My Repair Works...
A couple months ago I mentioned the heat trouble I was having with the Trophy. The repair went pretty well, aside from spilling some anti-freeze on the garage floor (what a wonderful smell you've discovered) but I hadn't had proof positive that it actually solved the problem 'till tonight.
Continue reading "Well, At Least I Know My Repair Works... "
Posted by dberger at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2007
10pm and > 0 degrees
For the first time in several weeks, it's above freezing after 6pm. Huzzah.
Posted by dberger at 9:53 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2007
Comments Update
God I hate the SPAM arms race. I've turned on CAPTCHAs and re-enabled anonymous posting.
Posted by dberger at 4:39 PM | Comments (1)
Comments Re-En-Disabled
I tried re-enabling commenting this morning, and in 30 minutes got 50 spam comments.
So I've turned commenting on for authenticated users only - which means you need either a:
TypeKey ID (free)
LiveJournal Account (free)
or an OpenID.
Or, just email me...
Sheesh.
Posted by dberger at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)
Cingular Follow-up
I have to retract my assertion that all of Cingular sucks. Dawn Alling, if you somehow manage to read this, you have my gratitude and respect - and if you contact me, I'll be happy to buy you and a guest dinner for your troubles.
Posted by dberger at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)
Oh, You Have *Got* To Be Kidding
Cingular will be sold under name of AT&T.
So once they make me a "Cingular" customer, I'll be an "Old Cingular" customer and they'll get to screw me over yet again!
Bastards!
(Thanks Clark)
Posted by dberger at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)
Cingular Sucks
Just before we moved to WA, we went into a Cingular store and signed up for cel service. The phones said (say) Cingular, the receipt says Cingular, the bill has always said Cingular, so of course, they think we're "old AT&T" customers.
I got my first taste of the pain this involved when I bought my Cingular locked Palm Treo and unsuccessfully lobbied Cingular to unlock it. They wouldn't, of course, so I paid to unlock the phone and went on with life.
Continue reading "Cingular Sucks"
Posted by dberger at 8:45 AM | Comments (1)
January 15, 2007
Please, Tell Me You're Joking
A handful of years ago, a friend of mine who was working at Microsoft on DirectSound and I had a conversation about the futility of DRM and content protection.
My basic argument - which he didn't disagree with - was that at some point you have to convert the digital signal back into analog so a human can consume it - and at that point, your scheme falls apart (the so-called Analog Hole).
He asserted that Microsoft's desire was to push this hole as close to the rendering device (speakers, monitor) as physically possible, and thereby make it as difficult as possible to exploit the hole.
I was incredulous - I mean, how do you obsolete speakers? And why? What value does it add to the consumer? I shook my head - not disbelieving that Microsoft would think that way, but disbelieving that they'd ever go anywhere with this scatter-brained notion.
I was wrong.
Peter Gutmann has written a great little piece on the cost of the content protection in Vista - and reading it makes me wanna cry. Unlike previous ass-backwards moves by the 800lb Gorilla of the software world, which I was content to ignore living in my little open source paradise, this one fundamentally changes the economics of hardware development. The collateral damage, in the form of increased end-user costs and complexity - and the necessarily correlated reduction in reliability - affect the entire PC market.
Posted by dberger at 2:03 PM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2007
Google Maps (finally) groks the ferry
For the longest time Google Maps was all but useless to me, as it didn't understand that the fastest way to Seattle from Bainbridge Island wasn't via Tacoma.
Sometime in the last couple of weeks, that changed, and now if you ask how to get from our place to, say, the crumpet shop in Pike market, you get a sensible answer.
Huzzah.
Posted by dberger at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
Just for the record...
Our outdoor thermometer recorded a low of - 9.5 degrees C last night (that's about 15 degrees F).
That's pretty damn cold in my book.
Posted by dberger at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
January 6, 2007
Comment Spam
In the last two days I've had to deal with several hundred junk comments. So to stem the tide I've temporarily disabled commenting.
Posted by dberger at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
January 5, 2007
'06 BMW 325i: First Impressions
As I mentioned a while back, our car needed to go into the shop, and after yet one more false start (they broke their second appointment to pick it up, resulting in all manner of annoyance), the hand-off was successfully completed last night. They took our '03 330cic, and left in it's place an '06 325i. We'll only have it for a day, assuming all goes to plan (which at this point is a silly assumption).
Continue reading "'06 BMW 325i: First Impressions"
Posted by dberger at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
UPS Mail Innovations
Until a few weeks ago, when I got the shipping information for something I bought on ebay, I had never heard of UPS Mail Innovations.
Basically, it's another logistics service from UPS, whereby they perform sorting and partial delivery of packages by handing them off to the local postal authority.
This is, in my opinion, a horrible idea.
Two weeks later, UPS claims that they delivered by package to USPS 6 days ago. Needless to say, it hasn't arrived at the house, and I'm guessing it never will.
For this "service" I paid UPS shipping rates (though how much of that the seller pocketed I have no idea) and got UPSP (un)reliability. Isn't that great. I mean, if I wanted something folded, spindled, mutilated and ultimately lost, I have shipped the damn thing via USPS in the first place.
Now I get two companies who get to play hot-blame-potato with each other when I try to figure out where the hell my package is.
Crap.
Posted by dberger at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
Good Agile, Bad Agile
I don't know Steve Yegge, but a former colleague sent me a recent post on his blog entitled Good Agile, Bad Agile.
I don't have nearly as much experience with capital-A-Agile as he reports, mostly cause it set off my "won't work for me" alarm pretty early, so I was more interested in his description of the process at Google. Has a lot in common with my current gig, including the Noogler Fifteen (read the post).
Posted by dberger at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)
January 2, 2007
AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War
Dawnise came home from the library the other day and presented me a copy of AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War. It turned out to be a nice dove-tail into my recent read of Thunderstruck, though not as exhaustive, and not told in the form of a narrative.
The book recounts (as the title suggests) the conflict between DC proponents (most notably Edison) and AC proponents (Tesla and George Westinghouse) at the formative years of the electrical age. The book was well written, and I did learn a few things. A solid four stars. Not a great book, but quite good. And at just under 200 pages, a pretty quick read.
Posted by dberger at 7:09 AM | Comments (0)
January 1, 2007
Happy New Year
Happy New Year - may the year bring health, prosperity, and happiness.
Posted by dberger at 8:13 PM | Comments (0)