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There appears to be a new 30gb Zune and most likely the fire sale was to try and sell out the old model first.

I saw a new 30gb Zune at the Wal*Mart in Belle Vernon, PA. It doesn't seem to be for sale anywhere else, including (last time I checked a couple of days ago) Wal-Mart's web site or Best Buy.

Don't ask me why an obscure rural hamlet got it first; it seems strange to me too. Here are pictures I took at my Wal*Mart:

http://amazing.com/creations/show/8561

D

I can tell you that before I saw his account of the situation, I wanted to let anyone do anything they wanted on my fledgling social networking site. I agree, this account is required readng for anyone wanting to create a community site.

What he did and how much time and effort he was willing to put into it shocked the heck out of me and caused me to put very strong anti-JavaScript code into my site. I didn't want to do it because I wish we could have given people the freedom to be creative in that arena. But after I saw what he did I felt I had no choice.

That being said, the reality is that he did an enormous amount of damage. He says things were back to normal at myspace within a few hours, but I remember at the time that the system was highly unstable for a few weeks after the incident was supposedly cleaned up.

From the point of view of the folks who ran myspace, what he did caused untold misery and pain for many people and i think he deserved a heavy punishment.

Not that I really think he will avoid using the Internet for social purposes no matter what the courts say. And I really don't think probation or community service seems like that heavy a punishment for someone who deliberately disrupted a service, however disliked in some quarters, that many people rely on.

Samy and people like him make it a difficult, miserable and thankless task to create services that hopefuly will do nice things for people. They make people like me waste our time trying to figure out how to restrict things, when we'd much rather produce fun features people will use and enjoy. Samy's account made me laugh, but it also made me furious that human nature is so pointlessly destructive.

I hope the sentence deters people from doing similar things.

I wonder how much he had to pay Myspace. Does anyone know?

D

Call me crazy, but that's something I actually like about myspace. It gives people creative freedom to express who they are.

Most people nowadays are not writers. They are not professional photographers. They are not musicians. And yet they still want to express themselves online.

One problem with myspace, in my view, is that it doesn't offer its members help in designing profiles. People are told about third parties, but the third parties just want to make a buck, so their sites are confusing and much of the material produced is endless attempts at viral advertising. So people dump strange stuff in their profiles without understanding it, and I think that's a recipe for disaster.

But I sympthise with their desire to make their page look good, so I created a social networking site that tries to help them out. It lets you upload a photo as your background, suggests colors that might go with it, and automatically sets opacity to make the text on top of the photo readable. I put together a nice little photo library of backgrounds for people without their own photos to use. So far, for those who have tried it, it's been about 50/50 - about half the people have their own photos and about half use mine.

I think the approach of giving people freedom, but giving them some guidance as well seems like a promising idea. Time will tell how it works out when faced with the corrosive effects of the real world.

D

The problem is that people like "those horrid profiles" or they would not build them that way, and a huge cottage industry would not have been created based on them (i.e. freeweblayouts.net, pimpmyspace, etc).

If you consider how difficult it is to explain to people how to cut and paste from one place to another, you can appreciate how much effort people are wiling to go through to create one of those profiles.

I've created my own social networking site, and after a great deal of thought, I decided to support the myspace "standard" for style. My system gobbles up a myspace style and effectively translates it into my own style system. What I wanted to do was create a "happy medium" between myspace's anarchy and the greater professionalism of Web 2.0 sites, which all wind up looking alike.

I don't know how feasible interchange is between social networking sites in any event, since they have such a different idea of what a profile is. Try copying a myspace profile over to Tribe and I don't think you'd see a lot left of it over there. To enable export requires standardization, and I think standardization would be a bad thing for the creativity that lives in the space.

In other words, I'm somewhat against interoperability, not on monopoly grounds but on artistic ones. Each site should have its own individual feel and be able to create a unique environment. If we're just copying data between sites, then we lose that individuality and look completely alike. Differences between the sites are the only reasons to use more than one; I think if we elimiinate those differences, we're in trouble.

D

I'm curious about how many people use cellphone plans that charge by the bit nowadays. My T-Mobile Sidekick has had unlimited data for years now. I think even Verizon gives you unlimited data, albiet for a horrible price, around $ 90 a month if I recall correctly.

But I think anyone interested in pushing bits down their cellphone should get an unlimited plan and forget about per-byte charges.

That being said, I really want to give my social networking site a cellphone version, but Google ads are Javascript based and won't work on many phones. Worse, they really clutter up the screen. So I was thinking the best solution would be to ask people to pay a fee for no ads on the main site and the cellphone version, say $24.95 a year, same as Flickr.

In return, there would be no ads on the site and the cellphone version would basically cut out the left sidebars with navigation stuff, bringing you to the main menu bar and then the content window.

What do you folks think of that plan?

D

9) Finally we can do a POST! However, when we send the post it never actually adds a friend. Why not? Myspace generates a random hash on a pre-POST page (for example, the "Are you sure you want to add this user as a friend" page). If this hash is not passed along with the POST, the POST is not successful. To get around this, we mimic a browser and send a GET to the page right before adding the user, parse the source for the hash, then perform the POST while passing the hash.

The company is owned by Gerhard Haag. See:

http://www.amazing.com/scientology/haag-company.ht ml

What you probably want to check out is
David's Amazing Internet Services: Internet Provider Resources
http://www.amazing.com/internet/

It is a bit dated but still good.

I've been to Cuba, and I loved going to Cuba. The people were wonderful - friendly, charming, and Cuban women surely give interested tourists the best welcome one would ever want :-).

But all I heard from citizens was gripes about the government. The "free" healthcare is worth about as much as you'd expect a dictator's promises to be worth. The capitalist things, like the taxi system, work gloriously. The hotels, being right under the government's thumb, are a model for poor service and bizarre rules. For instance, you can't take your Cuban girlfriend up to your hotel room without paying a bribe.

I read a lot of books on Cuba before I went, and it seems like people who go to Cuba with an ideological agenda are shuttled carefully to the right places, where things look shiny and new. This is a potemkin village that impresses the heck out of people who want to be impressed.

But if you go a few blocks away, you see scenes like I did. All these pictures were taken on what would be prime real estate in any other country, a block or less from the Malecon, the giant seawall that faces the ocean and is a major gathering spot for Cubans.

Cubans live in their decrepit and dangerous housing until it collapses, because if they maintained it the government would take it over and give it to someone else. No joke, sadly.

To put this slightly on topic, Cubans are generally not allowed to use the Internet, at least not at prices Cubans can afford. The Internet connections in the tourist hotels are closed to Cubans; only non-Cubans can use them. This is part of an effort to keep tourists on the busses and away from contact with the Cuban people.

The Cuban computers I saw were woefully out of date, with truly ancient versions of Windows on display. If my memory serves it was mainly Windows98, and I went in December 2002. So I doubt that this mandate from Castro will have that much effect. It's probably a propaganda effort to make Slashdotters look at his rule more favourably.

Even open source tyranny is still tyranny.

Alas.

D

I've been to Cuba, and I loved going to Cuba. The people were wonderful - friendly, charming, and Cuban women surely give interested tourists the best welcome one would ever want :-).

But all I heard from citizens was gripes about the government. The "free" healthcare is worth about as much as you'd expect a dictator's promises to be worth. The capitalist things, like the taxi system, work gloriously. The hotels, being right under the government's thumb, are a model for poor service and bizarre rules. For instance, you can't take your Cuban girlfriend up to your hotel room without paying a bribe.

I read a lot of books on Cuba before I went, and it seems like people who go to Cuba with an ideological agenda are shuttled carefully to the right places, where things look shiny and new. This is a potemkin village that impresses the heck out of people who want to be impressed.

But if you go a few blocks away, you see scenes like I did. All these pictures were taken on what would be prime real estate in any other country, a block or less from the Malecon, the giant seawall that faces the ocean and is a major gathering spot for Cubans.

Cubans live in their decrepit and dangerous housing until it collapses, because if they maintained it the government would take it over and give it to someone else. No joke, sadly.

To put this slightly on topic, Cubans are generally not allowed to use the Internet, at least not at prices Cubans can afford. The Internet connections in the tourist hotels are closed to Cubans; only non-Cubans can use them. This is part of an effort to keep tourists on the busses and away from contact with the Cuban people.

The Cuban computers I saw were woefully out of date, with truly ancient versions of Windows on display. If my memory serves it was mainly Windows98, and I went in December 2002. So I doubt that this mandate from Castro will have that much effect. It's probably a propaganda effort to make Slashdotters look at his rule more favourably.

Even open source tyranny is still tyranny.

Alas.

D

I've been to Cuba, and I loved going to Cuba. The people were wonderful - friendly, charming, and Cuban women surely give interested tourists the best welcome one would ever want :-).

But all I heard from citizens was gripes about the government. The "free" healthcare is worth about as much as you'd expect a dictator's promises to be worth. The capitalist things, like the taxi system, work gloriously. The hotels, being right under the government's thumb, are a model for poor service and bizarre rules. For instance, you can't take your Cuban girlfriend up to your hotel room without paying a bribe.

I read a lot of books on Cuba before I went, and it seems like people who go to Cuba with an ideological agenda are shuttled carefully to the right places, where things look shiny and new. This is a potemkin village that impresses the heck out of people who want to be impressed.

But if you go a few blocks away, you see scenes like I did. All these pictures were taken on what would be prime real estate in any other country, a block or less from the Malecon, the giant seawall that faces the ocean and is a major gathering spot for Cubans.

Cubans live in their decrepit and dangerous housing until it collapses, because if they maintained it the government would take it over and give it to someone else. No joke, sadly.

To put this slightly on topic, Cubans are generally not allowed to use the Internet, at least not at prices Cubans can afford. The Internet connections in the tourist hotels are closed to Cubans; only non-Cubans can use them. This is part of an effort to keep tourists on the busses and away from contact with the Cuban people.

The Cuban computers I saw were woefully out of date, with truly ancient versions of Windows on display. If my memory serves it was mainly Windows98, and I went in December 2002. So I doubt that this mandate from Castro will have that much effect. It's probably a propaganda effort to make Slashdotters look at his rule more favourably.

Even open source tyranny is still tyranny.

Alas.

D

I've been to Cuba, and I loved going to Cuba. The people were wonderful - friendly, charming, and Cuban women surely give interested tourists the best welcome one would ever want :-).

But all I heard from citizens was gripes about the government. The "free" healthcare is worth about as much as you'd expect a dictator's promises to be worth. The capitalist things, like the taxi system, work gloriously. The hotels, being right under the government's thumb, are a model for poor service and bizarre rules. For instance, you can't take your Cuban girlfriend up to your hotel room without paying a bribe.

I read a lot of books on Cuba before I went, and it seems like people who go to Cuba with an ideological agenda are shuttled carefully to the right places, where things look shiny and new. This is a potemkin village that impresses the heck out of people who want to be impressed.

But if you go a few blocks away, you see scenes like I did. All these pictures were taken on what would be prime real estate in any other country, a block or less from the Malecon, the giant seawall that faces the ocean and is a major gathering spot for Cubans.

Cubans live in their decrepit and dangerous housing until it collapses, because if they maintained it the government would take it over and give it to someone else. No joke, sadly.

To put this slightly on topic, Cubans are generally not allowed to use the Internet, at least not at prices Cubans can afford. The Internet connections in the tourist hotels are closed to Cubans; only non-Cubans can use them. This is part of an effort to keep tourists on the busses and away from contact with the Cuban people.

The Cuban computers I saw were woefully out of date, with truly ancient versions of Windows on display. If my memory serves it was mainly Windows98, and I went in December 2002. So I doubt that this mandate from Castro will have that much effect. It's probably a propaganda effort to make Slashdotters look at his rule more favourably.

Even open source tyranny is still tyranny.

Alas.

D

I've been to Cuba, and I loved going to Cuba. The people were wonderful - friendly, charming, and Cuban women surely give interested tourists the best welcome one would ever want :-).

But all I heard from citizens was gripes about the government. The "free" healthcare is worth about as much as you'd expect a dictator's promises to be worth. The capitalist things, like the taxi system, work gloriously. The hotels, being right under the government's thumb, are a model for poor service and bizarre rules. For instance, you can't take your Cuban girlfriend up to your hotel room without paying a bribe.

I read a lot of books on Cuba before I went, and it seems like people who go to Cuba with an ideological agenda are shuttled carefully to the right places, where things look shiny and new. This is a potemkin village that impresses the heck out of people who want to be impressed.

But if you go a few blocks away, you see scenes like I did. All these pictures were taken on what would be prime real estate in any other country, a block or less from the Malecon, the giant seawall that faces the ocean and is a major gathering spot for Cubans.

Cubans live in their decrepit and dangerous housing until it collapses, because if they maintained it the government would take it over and give it to someone else. No joke, sadly.

To put this slightly on topic, Cubans are generally not allowed to use the Internet, at least not at prices Cubans can afford. The Internet connections in the tourist hotels are closed to Cubans; only non-Cubans can use them. This is part of an effort to keep tourists on the busses and away from contact with the Cuban people.

The Cuban computers I saw were woefully out of date, with truly ancient versions of Windows on display. If my memory serves it was mainly Windows98, and I went in December 2002. So I doubt that this mandate from Castro will have that much effect. It's probably a propaganda effort to make Slashdotters look at his rule more favourably.

Even open source tyranny is still tyranny.

Alas.

D

I'm happy to be of help. If you have more questions, let me know.

If you're in a remote place in temporary surroundings while you're editing video, your stress level is going to be high enough without trying to make bleeding-edge stuff work.

I strongly recommend the Apple/Final Cut platform. Final Cut has served me well as a loyal user since version 1.1 eons ago, and Apple's served me even longer.

I know Apple's pricing can seem painful, but for Windows you'd need Adobe Premiere Pro or similar software. Per dealtime.com, the lowest "trusted store" price is $464.19. If you buy Final Cut Express with a new Mac, it's $99. So you have $363.20 to play with as a price difference for your PowerBook.

My recommended system would be the 15" PowerBook with SuperDrive so you can burn DVDs on the road. If you don't need to do that, the cheaper 15" would do. If you don't mind lugging it around, the 17" is truly spectacular.

I did a price check and had to admit that ThinkPads are a lot cheaper than PowerBooks. You are paying for MacOS X and for the video software, both of which took enormous amounts of time and effort to build. So did Windows, of course, but Bill's spreading the cost over a lot more units than Steve, so his costs are lower. That being said, I think the difference is only about 20-25% when equivalent features are compared, which in my view is not a bad premium for the extra utility you're getting.

So yes, Apple's expensive, but in my view, you get a lot for your money.

Here's some video I shot in an especially stressful situation. Shot on a Canon XL1, edited with Final Cut Pro. Admittedly on a desktop. Glad I didn't risk my laptop over there :-).

D

I plead guilty as charged for being an elitist snob.

I'm an unusual one, though. I've actually been to Watts several times to photograph the Watts Towers.

Have you ever been to a real-life ghetto?

D

I created a little humour piece on penis enlargement ads as my match.com video. Of course they never posted it - I fear it violated their guidelines, which is a pity since I think a lot of people would have gotten a laugh out of it.

Here it is, all 9mb of it.
(Warning: No X-rated content - just a joke. You have been warned).

It took me two hours, concept to completion, which just goes to show that sometimes it's nice to have a Canon XL1 and Final Cut Pro lying around ready to use :-).

Hope you enjoy :-)

D

Suburbia has largely mutated into Edge City without most people being aware of it. So for example, I live in Woodland Hills, California, in a very cool house on top of a hill. I live about 3 miles away from my workplace. That's Edge City; my job is where I live, so I don't commute far at all. You might notice that in the Slashdot poll mentioned above, about 30% of people live within 6 miles of their work. This is the reason.

You don't need to squeeze everyone in massive high-rise apartment blocks or characterless row houses to let people live near their work. You do have to accept somewhat high density - I live on a 5200 square foot lot, not an acre (which is about 9x as much).

I really love the single-family home lifestyle and wouldn't give it up without a fight. It really is great to have genuine control over your own domain instead of being in an ugly, characterless block. Here is the kind of building "New Urbanists" want to squeeze us into. By comparison, here's where I live today.

It's unfortunate that the New Urbanism looks progressive compared to what's normally being built by today's builders. I feel very fortunate to be in an area built up during the 20s through the 60s, where builders took pride in what they constructed and big profits were not the sole motivating factor.

But this all being said, I don't think the New Urbanism is the answer to our nation's ills. In my view, the merits of suburbia - privacy, the potential for individualty and some nice outdoor space to stay in on a sunny day - outweigh the disadvantages.

D

Whoah, man, I was trackin' with ya for a minute, but then I made the mistake of visiting your web site..

PLEASE don't criticize KDE's look in the same post as a link to the color felony amazing.com.. I don't care *where* you ripped off those colors from, they're UGLY!!

Cuba IS a great place ... to visit.

The weather's perfect. The environment's gorgeous. The fact that buildings are ready to collapse all around you is simply a frisson that makes life in Cuba more dramatic.

The people are friendly and inviting. The women are beautiful and, well, inviting.

But there's a reason they're inviting - the average salary is 200 pesos a month, which is about US$20. About half of this goes to a ration book of basic supplies. The other half can buy, well, about what $10 would bring in the US.

The housing is beautiful. It is also in disasterous shape. About 100 buildings in Central Havana collapse every year. My web page, The Fabulous Ruins of Cuba shows the heartbreaking details. All the buildings you see there are within a block or two of the ocean. They would be worth millions here in California; they're not even worth routine maintenance in Cuba.

The health service is rationed - it works well if you have connections, badly if you don't.

Cuba has enough money to buy shiny new $100,000 busses for tourists. But the busses Cubans ride are crude creations, packed to the gills with people. Cubans are not allowed in the tourist hotels, they are not allowed on the shiny tour busses, the Cuban government does its best to make sure Cubans and tourists don't mix.

Which is too bad, because the best thing about Cuba is the wonderful people who live there. I made good friends in Cuba. I thought it was a fantastic place.

But don't think the Communist government is some mildly extreme version of Canada. Policia were everywhere, and my Cuban girl was clearly scared of them. She was scared of being heard by the waiters in any resturant I visited. But she was lovely and charming and made my trip magical.

She could have gotten a three year sentence for endangering my morals, such as they were. There are accounts of tourists who get close to Cuban women and the Cuban women are then sent to jail. Nothing you can do about it.

However, to address the parent poster's point directly, Cubans are definitely influenced by American TV, specifically Univision. A few people have satellite TV, and you can see the awe in people's eyes at all the strange stuff available over on the other side. Cars! Paper towels! And Univision soap operas ... let's just say they don't reflect American reality unless you are A Jerrold Perenchio, billionnaire founder of Univision.

I thought of taking my Cuban girl back to the US eventually. But as her eyes popped open while seeing Univision, I realized she wouldn't be able to stand my relatively humble home and ancient Mercedes. She wanted it all. Maybe someday she'll get it ...

The year after my trip, Castro cracked down on dissidents and sentenced them to jail terms ranging from 18 to 28 years. I loved Cuba and really wanted to return to see my Cuban friends. But I didn't want to support Castro, so I decided, with more than a couple of tears in my eyes, not to return.

For now.

D

PS Concerning the point of the actual article, I never saw anyone with Internet (or even a computer) at home. All the Internet access I saw was Internet cafes. The government runs one in the Capitolio that I visited that Cubans can use (most of them are in tourist hotels where Cubans are not allowed). I found service friendly, but Internet access sluggish. My girl did not find the Internet easy to use, probably because she had never seen a computer before.

I live and work in Edge City. Have you read Joel Garreau's work? It's quite fascinating because it shows what people really want, not what planners want to give them.

My new house is ten minutes away from my work. I'm not one of those guys who buys a $279,000 house in Pacoima or Lancaster and spends $1,000 a month keeping my car running and insured. No; I realize that's folly. So I buy a $428,000 house so I can be ten minutes away from my work. I should be a Hero of the New Urbanism, except that I think light rail is as much of a folly as heavy commuting.

In order to convince me that sprawl is bad, you're going to have to create a more convincing alternative to it than has been hithero created.

Here is my $428,000 house

Here is a condo in the same general area. Note that I'd be nuts to buy a "condo downtown", because I would have to commute for an hour to get to my job!

The condo is not in the same, exceptionally nice, area the house is in. Instead, it's surrounded by similar concrete ugliness. In fact, a house in the same area is very similarly priced once you add on the HOA dues to the condo's price.

Now, I have some questions for you that are very important.

Does this condo make you feel good when you look at it?

Would you feel pride, if you worked and slaved very hard for years, making hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments, and the end result was ownership of this condo?

Would you feel good about making a $2,000 monthly payment (including homeowners' dues) to buy this concrete monstrosity? Remember that homeowners' association dues make it very nearly as expensive as a single-family home in the same area.

Personally, I think I would have been nuts to buy the condo.

What do you think?

D

Are you serious?!

and I didn't get in the way of emergency vehicles, but here's my contribution - one picture and video.

I should have brought my tripod - everything's pretty shaky. But it does give you a good flavour for it.

The Chatsworth/Simi Valley Fire as it nears Topanga Canyon Blvd.

D

The oracle of the Internet (i.e., Google) indicates that Haag used illegal employment methods in Germany and has been involved in setting up front groups for Scientology. Gee, I wonder if the parking is done not by robots at all but by body thetans.

After I took the picture, I noticed that you could get two full browser windows plus a terminal window all visible at once if you put the dock on the bottom of the screen. Stunning. I plan to buy one in a few months. Enjoy!

D

Perhaps my pictures of the new Cinema HD Display will change your mind :-).

D

I've been trying to do this myself, and my best sessions have always been when I bring my digital camera along and take pictures. I get so absorbed in the picture-taking process I forget I'm exercising.

Another way to get exercise is to go to a trade show of some field you're interested in, like the auto show or DV expo. You're on your feet a lot. Just watch for the absymal food served at convention centers; take a break to go to a restaurant instead. (The link is to my own pictures, by the way. Camera is my spiffy Canon EOS D30 which I bought in January, shortly before the D60 came out).

If you live in a neighborhood with comically expensive real estate, you can always check out a few land listings. They're fun to look at because you can generally wander the land at will (again, my pictures, taken with my Canon XL1 MiniDV). In Los Angeles, TheMLS.com has land listings.

Hope that helps.

D

I've been trying to do this myself, and my best sessions have always been when I bring my digital camera along and take pictures. I get so absorbed in the picture-taking process I forget I'm exercising.

Another way to get exercise is to go to a trade show of some field you're interested in, like the auto show or DV expo. You're on your feet a lot. Just watch for the absymal food served at convention centers; take a break to go to a restaurant instead. (The link is to my own pictures, by the way. Camera is my spiffy Canon EOS D30 which I bought in January, shortly before the D60 came out).

If you live in a neighborhood with comically expensive real estate, you can always check out a few land listings. They're fun to look at because you can generally wander the land at will (again, my pictures, taken with my Canon XL1 MiniDV). In Los Angeles, TheMLS.com has land listings.

Hope that helps.

D

Seems like DSL providers are failing left and right. Is yours one of them? You don't want to take chances with your DSL. Qwest is a well-established national leader in broadband technology serving thousands of customers. You can count on us -- we're here to stay.

Soon all companies will spread FUD routinely! Like negative campaigns, FUD must work on stupid and brainwashed Americans because it's used so much. It is why I call anxiety the drug of choice for most Americans (just watch TV for an hour some day). But I digress!

What bothers me about this: Although some people say that MSN doesn't have a stronghold on the ISP market, their presence continues to increase. They are now the second largest ISP provider with 9%, after AOL, which has a whopping 33% [1].

But Microsoft isn't a monopoly. It's now metastasized into something much larger, as it has its tentacles into gaming, ISPs, aw, hell, you guys know the routine by now. And I'm not just spouting FUD. This is fact.

I can't stand SUVs because they're ugly. My Mercedes has just as many luxury gadgets, but rides and handles a lot better. I drove a Mercedes ML SUV during a Mercedes road-test event, and although it accelerated fine, it was noticably tippy on the corners. And I understand that's one of the better-handling SUVs.

D
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If you work for an Internet company in the Marina, you probably work in this building complex - the same one I do. Periodic blackouts/brownouts, erratic elevators, no air conditioning on weekends, etc. Click the link for my gripe page. :-(

However, it should be noted that South Park's folks don't work here - I'm about an inch from the beach (but on the other side, so no ocean view :-( ).

D

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I'm muddling through the idea of buying a house here in Southern California. For anyone curious about the market, you might like to visit David's Dream House. And if you don't live in Los Angeles, it might be worth a laugh or two.

As a nice contrast to this, may I recommend The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit?

D

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High-end digital video cameras use 3CCDs with a similar beam-splitting system to what's described in the article. As far as I know, no mid-end digital still cameras (i.e. ones selling for less than $ 15k) do this, and I wonder why. This current practice would appear to invalidate their patent unless it's using a more sophisticated variant of the process.

Interestingly enough, my Canon XL1 MiniDV camcorder has the moire pattern problem despite the use of separate red, green and blue sensors. This is because it performs a process similar to that described in the article so that it can use larger CCDs to improve light sensitivity. It happens that the NTSC video standard, on which the XL1 is based, disguises such effects by providing a relatively high-resolution monochrome image and then overlaying low-resolution colour over it. This is why you often see reds distorted and blurred when you watch a video (especially one that's been through a few generations).

The biggest tradeoff between this lower effective resolution and competing cameras is significantly higher low-light performance and more vivid colours. The Sony VX-1000 has a more conservative design and would probably be the right camera to use for a direct comparison between the old and new technologies. (I have a review of the XL1 and the VX-1000 at the link above).

I find the XL1 to be the ideal digital camera for the web, since you can take video and pick the best individual frames from it. That way, you always get the picture. You can see some examples at my portfolio of XL1 pictures.

That being said, I wish they had shown a picture and given pricing for the new camera. Cool as the technology is, it seems like it would be even more difficult to carry around than my six point XL1.
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High-end digital video cameras use 3CCDs with a similar beam-splitting system to what's described in the article. As far as I know, no mid-end digital still cameras (i.e. ones selling for less than $ 15k) do this, and I wonder why. This current practice would appear to invalidate their patent unless it's using a more sophisticated variant of the process.

Interestingly enough, my Canon XL1 MiniDV camcorder has the moire pattern problem despite the use of separate red, green and blue sensors. This is because it performs a process similar to that described in the article so that it can use larger CCDs to improve light sensitivity. It happens that the NTSC video standard, on which the XL1 is based, disguises such effects by providing a relatively high-resolution monochrome image and then overlaying low-resolution colour over it. This is why you often see reds distorted and blurred when you watch a video (especially one that's been through a few generations).

The biggest tradeoff between this lower effective resolution and competing cameras is significantly higher low-light performance and more vivid colours. The Sony VX-1000 has a more conservative design and would probably be the right camera to use for a direct comparison between the old and new technologies. (I have a review of the XL1 and the VX-1000 at the link above).

I find the XL1 to be the ideal digital camera for the web, since you can take video and pick the best individual frames from it. That way, you always get the picture. You can see some examples at my portfolio of XL1 pictures.

That being said, I wish they had shown a picture and given pricing for the new camera. Cool as the technology is, it seems like it would be even more difficult to carry around than my six point XL1.
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Back in 1994, when domain names were free of charge and the InterNIC supposedly went over every application by hand and approved it, I registered amazing.com .

I have contradictory feelings about it. On the one hand, I want to keep it because a lot of my life is in it. On the other hand, I'm sure it's worth a lot of money to the right company.

I've gotten occasional offers for it - the last one was for $ 10k. I'd say it would cost about $10k worth of effort to move all my sites off the domain and try and reset all the links to it. Also, I think the absolute right buyer would pay more.

Any thoughts on how much such a common and distinctive word is worth? I looked on eBay and came to the conclusion that it's just not a good place to sell a name.

D

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Or just get a MiniDV video camera (as I suggested in my other response on this topic). A $ 15.99 MiniDV tape can hold over 100,000 individual still frames, no lie. All in a tiny thing about twice as big as a standard 35mm film cartridge. Use Frame Movie Mode or Progressive Scan (two terms for the same thing) and you'll get gorgeous, perfect stills from any three-chip digital video camcorder.

D

DV FAQ

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Now, I agree that the 35mm camera is hard to beat when it comes to getting the highest possible quality pictures, but unfortunately getting them into the computer is a pain, and paying for film and developing is an even bigger pain.

About a year ago, I took a look at what was out there in digital cameras, and - like you - didn't think much of what I saw. I didn't need high resolution, since all the pictures I take are bound for the web, but I wanted something with closer to the look and feel of a "real" camera.

In the end, I bought a Canon XL1 MiniDV camcorder. It's a bit heavy to carry around (I put it around my neck like a giant still camera), but it takes fantastic pictures and draws attention like a magnet. It's very similar in operation to the Canon EOS still camera I own, so the learning curve was very gentle. And it has a real lens and camera-like manual controls that are very easy to use compared to the clunky menu systems of most digital and video cameras. It has interchangeable lenses, but the included lens is roughly equivalent to 28-500mm in 35mm context, so you probably won't need the insanely expensive other lenses.

It's a 3CCD camcorder, which means it uses imaging technology more advanced than any plain digital camera I know of.

Needless to say, I recommend it highly. Unfortunately, the $4,000-odd price puts it above the reach of most people; a good alternative is the Sony TRV-900, also a three-chip unit, for about $ 2,300.

For more information, check out my DV FAQ or take a look at some XL1 pictures I took

D

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Now, I agree that the 35mm camera is hard to beat when it comes to getting the highest possible quality pictures, but unfortunately getting them into the computer is a pain, and paying for film and developing is an even bigger pain.

About a year ago, I took a look at what was out there in digital cameras, and - like you - didn't think much of what I saw. I didn't need high resolution, since all the pictures I take are bound for the web, but I wanted something with closer to the look and feel of a "real" camera.

In the end, I bought a Canon XL1 MiniDV camcorder. It's a bit heavy to carry around (I put it around my neck like a giant still camera), but it takes fantastic pictures and draws attention like a magnet. It's very similar in operation to the Canon EOS still camera I own, so the learning curve was very gentle. And it has a real lens and camera-like manual controls that are very easy to use compared to the clunky menu systems of most digital and video cameras. It has interchangeable lenses, but the included lens is roughly equivalent to 28-500mm in 35mm context, so you probably won't need the insanely expensive other lenses.

It's a 3CCD camcorder, which means it uses imaging technology more advanced than any plain digital camera I know of.

Needless to say, I recommend it highly. Unfortunately, the $4,000-odd price puts it above the reach of most people; a good alternative is the Sony TRV-900, also a three-chip unit, for about $ 2,300.

For more information, check out my DV FAQ or take a look at some XL1 pictures I took

D

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Looks like you got the URL wrong. I found it at:
http://www.amazing.com/david/portfolio/auto-show/

~PanIc~

Yes, Virginia, there was an event outside the Bay Area, although it was a lot lower key.

Here's my page of photographs and commentary

D

He ran the Inet-Access mailing list for years and years until Avi Freedman took it over, I think in mid-1998.

He was an excellent list administrator - always did a fine job. My ISP FAQ is/was based on messages on that list.

D

I own the domain amazing.com.

A company called Metro Global owns the domain amazingsex.com. They have also used the name "amazing" in their pornography production for some time.

They gave me a ring, suggesting that my name interfered with their trademark, and suggesting that some kind of arrangement be made. I took a look at their web site, and was appalled - it's just a horrible, crummy place. So naturally I was in no mood to sell them amazing.com . They threatened to sic lawyers on me, and they proposed to meet me for a bite to eat to negotiate.

I eventually agreed, and after some thought sent them a lengthly memo regarding my feelings about their web site. Now, understand, I have nothing against sex sites, but I have plenty against awful sex sites like the aforementioned amazingsex. I also visited their LA headquarters and quite visibly took some digital photographs with my Canon XL1. Finally, I bought a couple of their videos, which are not nearly as bad as their web site, but still below the standards I'd like to see if I sold my domain. I quite loudly mentioned within the stores that I was buying the videos because of their attempt to grab my domain name. I got nothing but befuddled sympathy from the video store owners.

In the end, they melted away. I don't think they appreciated my suggestions about the quality of their web site!

I don't think these tactics would work with Yahoo, but they might help others involved in a similar dispute.

D

Summary: I tried AutoPC, it was mind-numbingly confusing even in optimal conditions on the show floor.

I don't think it'll fly. The rep I talked to admitted most people are curious but find it too expensive, but didn't know the price (I think this was the business owner's girlfriend there on a lark).

Incidentally, if anyone has a specific make of car they'd like a report on, drop me an email - I'm almost certainly returning later in the week because I want to see the new S-Class Mercedes (which wasn't there yesterday but apparently arrived today).

D

Summary: I tried AutoPC, it was mind-numbingly confusing even in optimal conditions on the show floor.

I don't think it'll fly. The rep I talked to admitted most people are curious but find it too expensive, but didn't know the price (I think this was the business owner's girlfriend there on a lark).

Incidentally, if anyone has a specific make of car they'd like a report on, drop me an email - I'm almost certainly returning later in the week because I want to see the new S-Class Mercedes (which wasn't there yesterday but apparently arrived today).

D