Kodak doesn't sell this anymore. You can only get authentic MAM-A from a few places, but here's probably the most reliable source: MAM-A's own online store. This is expensive stuff, and will only get more expensive as the price of gold goes up. They also make more standard "silver" discs which are about the same price as genuine TY.
Costco uses MAM-A media for their photo discs and DVD transfers. Good call.
I hate to say it, but maybe it's an embedded Linux vs. a cut-down Mac OS X issue. Maybe the version of Mac OS on the iPhone is not optimized enough vs. embedded versions of Linux.
Along with the last of the white plastic MacBooks, the Mac mini still has a FireWire port. Both have Intel Vampire Video, but that wouldn't be an issue with audio.
I think this decision was lame, but at least there are options for now.
The InkaVote ballot readers that Los Angeles County uses run Linux. Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I know, I'm a pollworker, and I've seen 'em boot. BTW the precinct readers are there to guard against blank ballots and overvotes...the paper ballot is the record of the vote in LA County.
Apple netbook would own. I'd like to see something that was almost the resurrection of the Newton eMate, but with a more modern Mac OS X derivative OS, 802.11n, and an option for Mobile Phone Company-provided bandwidth. However...and this is a big HOWEVER...this Apple netbook would be more expensive than any of the other netbooks. It just comes with the territory of machines with better "fit and finish" than the average computer.
I would say such a machine would be sort of like the offspring of an iPhone and a MacBook. Considerably less powerful than the MacBook, but with more versatility -- and no tie-ins to a single mobile phone company -- than an iPhone.
OK: how close are you to your local TV transmitters? Also it looks like Seattle is fairly flat. The San Fernando Valley is ringed completely around by what we call hills but others in flatter areas would refer to as mountains. This should give you an idea: Image of SFV basin. I'm a little less than 30 miles away from Mount Wilson, where most LA-region TV transmitters are located.
So yeah, different terrain. Greater distance between me and the transmitters. Fail.
The Silver Sensor, which is now being made by Philips, is not a panacea. I live in a neighborhood where there are lots and lots of multi-story apartment buildings. I live in an area ringed around with mountains...it's the Valley, after all. All this conspires to cause what broadcast engineers call Multipath Interference. Basically the signals are bouncing off multiple objects and careening around like billiard balls. So I get weak signals, "drifting" signals, and worse.
The best way to deal with Multipath is to have a large outdoor antenna, or better yet, multiple antennae which will cancel out a lot of the interference if placed correctly. However, if you live in an apartment building, good luck getting your landlord to consent to putting up an antenna farm on your roof. Sure, there are probably ancient '60s vintage antennae up there on the roof, but they haven't been used in decades and are in sad shape.
At least in rural areas that are mostly flatland you have a fighting chance of getting a decent digital broadcast TV signal. All you have to do is make sure your antenna is high enough to get a line-of-sight to your local transmitters.
This is the dirty little secret of digital broadcast TV. Multipath is going to KILL digital broadcast TV in heavily populated areas with large buildings. It's also going to KILL digital broadcast TV for people in mountainous regions.
The vaunted Cliff Effect is not the whole story, either: if you have a marginal signal that is strong enough for the digital converter box to lock onto, but not enough to really pump out enough bits, you wind up with what I call the "Max Headroom Effect." The picture pixellates, the sound stutters like a CD with a skip, and you are left with something even worse than no picture.
Basically those $40 gift cards are a boondoggle...welfare for Chinese electronics companies and American and European holding companies that subcontract to said Chinese electronics companies. The digital converter boxen are not enough: you need to have adequate antenna or antennae. Of course, the gift cards could have included a rebate for approved antennae. But that would have meant the FCC would have had to dig deeper and spread even more welfare to electronics companies. So this half a loaf really is worse than nothing, because the taxpayers have to bend and spread and get ready for the gov't HOT BEEF INJECTION. If the FCC hadn't sent the gift cards out, it would have had the same results.
Instead of trying to broadcast digital signals over the air, the US should have handled the digital transition this way. On February 17th, 2009, BROADCAST TV IS GOING DOWN. PERIOD. END OF STORY. Go to your local cable company or satellite service and request "Lifeline Digital Tier" if you are low income. (you might have to present evidence of this for means-testing) The cable companies and satellite companies would have to offer a low-cost package as a condition of keeping their franchise. This would free up the craved broadcast frequencies, low-income citizens would keep their TV reception, and a lot of valuable real estate on mountaintops would be freed up for other wireless uses.
This is only the first signs of the coming DTV trainwreck. This is almost like the added consequence of alcohol prohibition coinciding with the Great Depression...TV is not necessarily a necessity, but entertainment is a nicety of living that provides a little cushion and a little escapism in bad times. Prohibition made the Great Depression psychologically worse, if only a little. The DTV debacle will coincide with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. But hey, shit happens, right?
So glad they are going to put out a Wii version. Sure the graphics and the physics won't be as impressive on Wii but the gameplay is going to r0x0r your b0x0rz.
This also means I can get my lighsabre combat fix without dealing with the crapulous CGI style of the Clone Wars movie/TV series. Besides, being Sithy for a change might be spiffy.
This is the home for almost all of my videos. They won't take AMVs or mashups so I still have to upload those to YouTube. But anything original? Vimeo all the way.
VBR lame-encoded MP3s, with not a speck of DRM! Effective by design!!! And if you drink Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and other Pepsi products (although paradoxically not Mountain Dew, dammit) you can get FREE tunes. I've had iTunes for years and never bought anything. However, I've bought from Amazon.
Useful interim tool for Firefox: http://www.customizegoogle.com/ . You can force SSL not only on Gmail but with Apps and Documents. It is your friend. Not useful if you are not accessing the Googleverse from your own computer which has it installed.
Vimeo has stood up to the Church of Scientology and the IOC. Their commitment to free speech is absolute. They are far more worthy of our support than YouTube, which regularly knuckles under to media companies whispering "Boo!" in their ears. Vimeo will not allow you to upload your rips of Battlestar Galactica episodes but they will stand by your right to free speech. Plus videos look and sound WAY BETTER there.
Of course they should have used Macs, but Lenovo was the sponsor and not Apple. And ultimately not displaying anything is better than displaying Wrong Thing. So if it failed completely it wouldn't have looked as spectacularly bad as having a BSOD up where a graphic or whatever should have been. Yes, Macs are definitely better for anything where you use graphics or video. Unless you are talking about the ones with the cursed/cursable NVidia video chips. Or if you are doing something elaborate in 3D and all you have is Intel built in video.
Vimeo has very restrictive terms about actually owning your content. However, once you have satisfied their requirements for original content, Vimeo is very protective of the First Amendment rights of its content creators. Vimeo was the safe refuge for Wise Beard Man and his Scientology critic videos.
Vimeo is also technically superior to YouTube, GoogleVideo, Revver, Ning, and any other.FLV sites. Sound is better. Picture is clearer and less blocky. They can handle video that is higher definition than 480p.
http://www.vimeo.com/ . I don't know anyone there, I don't own their stock, I don't work for them. However, they are the superior solution and Deserve To Win. (tm)
The displays in the Red Line/Purple Line subway of LA's Metro Rail system are all on some embedded version of Windows. I've seen bluescreens and other errors, plus one time when you actually saw the desktop. With Internet Exploder and Windows Media Player among the icons on the desktop. It's not as crucial as a stoplight or an ATM but it's disheartening to see. Another place Windows runs in the LA transit system is on the monitors on almost every bus showing entertainment and ad programming to the captive audience on the bus. Seen lots of Windows Fail on that system.
Windows98. Running an ATM. Not even an embedded version, or an NT-heritage version like NT4, 2K or XP. Real bad. 98 was never meant to be used in applications like an ATM, which demand superior security and resilience. Time was that a lot of these machines used OS/2, or even ran custom code on "bare metal."
Slashdot Mirror
...Anakin Skywalker? ^_^
Chuck Norris loses to the late, great Bruce Lee.
No PCMCIA slot either, sweetie. iBooks/MacBooks have NEVER had PCMCIA/Cardbus.
Suddenly my Merom MacBook feels freakin' sweet to me. :)
I've seen my fill of too many all-too-serious sabre videos. Folks, this is how it should be done! Have some fun with it! Most impressive!
Kodak doesn't sell this anymore. You can only get authentic MAM-A from a few places, but here's probably the most reliable source: MAM-A's own online store. This is expensive stuff, and will only get more expensive as the price of gold goes up. They also make more standard "silver" discs which are about the same price as genuine TY.
Costco uses MAM-A media for their photo discs and DVD transfers. Good call.
I hate to say it, but maybe it's an embedded Linux vs. a cut-down Mac OS X issue. Maybe the version of Mac OS on the iPhone is not optimized enough vs. embedded versions of Linux.
Along with the last of the white plastic MacBooks, the Mac mini still has a FireWire port. Both have Intel Vampire Video, but that wouldn't be an issue with audio.
I think this decision was lame, but at least there are options for now.
The InkaVote ballot readers that Los Angeles County uses run Linux. Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I know, I'm a pollworker, and I've seen 'em boot. BTW the precinct readers are there to guard against blank ballots and overvotes...the paper ballot is the record of the vote in LA County.
Apple netbook would own. I'd like to see something that was almost the resurrection of the Newton eMate, but with a more modern Mac OS X derivative OS, 802.11n, and an option for Mobile Phone Company-provided bandwidth. However...and this is a big HOWEVER...this Apple netbook would be more expensive than any of the other netbooks. It just comes with the territory of machines with better "fit and finish" than the average computer.
I would say such a machine would be sort of like the offspring of an iPhone and a MacBook. Considerably less powerful than the MacBook, but with more versatility -- and no tie-ins to a single mobile phone company -- than an iPhone.
OK: how close are you to your local TV transmitters? Also it looks like Seattle is fairly flat. The San Fernando Valley is ringed completely around by what we call hills but others in flatter areas would refer to as mountains. This should give you an idea: Image of SFV basin. I'm a little less than 30 miles away from Mount Wilson, where most LA-region TV transmitters are located.
So yeah, different terrain. Greater distance between me and the transmitters. Fail.
The Silver Sensor, which is now being made by Philips, is not a panacea. I live in a neighborhood where there are lots and lots of multi-story apartment buildings. I live in an area ringed around with mountains...it's the Valley, after all. All this conspires to cause what broadcast engineers call Multipath Interference. Basically the signals are bouncing off multiple objects and careening around like billiard balls. So I get weak signals, "drifting" signals, and worse.
The best way to deal with Multipath is to have a large outdoor antenna, or better yet, multiple antennae which will cancel out a lot of the interference if placed correctly. However, if you live in an apartment building, good luck getting your landlord to consent to putting up an antenna farm on your roof. Sure, there are probably ancient '60s vintage antennae up there on the roof, but they haven't been used in decades and are in sad shape.
This gets worse in an urban setting. Big city, lots of big skyscrapers = digital broadcast TV FAIL.
At least in rural areas that are mostly flatland you have a fighting chance of getting a decent digital broadcast TV signal. All you have to do is make sure your antenna is high enough to get a line-of-sight to your local transmitters.
This is the dirty little secret of digital broadcast TV. Multipath is going to KILL digital broadcast TV in heavily populated areas with large buildings. It's also going to KILL digital broadcast TV for people in mountainous regions.
The vaunted Cliff Effect is not the whole story, either: if you have a marginal signal that is strong enough for the digital converter box to lock onto, but not enough to really pump out enough bits, you wind up with what I call the "Max Headroom Effect." The picture pixellates, the sound stutters like a CD with a skip, and you are left with something even worse than no picture.
Basically those $40 gift cards are a boondoggle...welfare for Chinese electronics companies and American and European holding companies that subcontract to said Chinese electronics companies. The digital converter boxen are not enough: you need to have adequate antenna or antennae. Of course, the gift cards could have included a rebate for approved antennae. But that would have meant the FCC would have had to dig deeper and spread even more welfare to electronics companies. So this half a loaf really is worse than nothing, because the taxpayers have to bend and spread and get ready for the gov't HOT BEEF INJECTION. If the FCC hadn't sent the gift cards out, it would have had the same results.
Instead of trying to broadcast digital signals over the air, the US should have handled the digital transition this way. On February 17th, 2009, BROADCAST TV IS GOING DOWN. PERIOD. END OF STORY. Go to your local cable company or satellite service and request "Lifeline Digital Tier" if you are low income. (you might have to present evidence of this for means-testing) The cable companies and satellite companies would have to offer a low-cost package as a condition of keeping their franchise. This would free up the craved broadcast frequencies, low-income citizens would keep their TV reception, and a lot of valuable real estate on mountaintops would be freed up for other wireless uses.
This is only the first signs of the coming DTV trainwreck. This is almost like the added consequence of alcohol prohibition coinciding with the Great Depression...TV is not necessarily a necessity, but entertainment is a nicety of living that provides a little cushion and a little escapism in bad times. Prohibition made the Great Depression psychologically worse, if only a little. The DTV debacle will coincide with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. But hey, shit happens, right?
It's now called Bos Wars.
So glad they are going to put out a Wii version. Sure the graphics and the physics won't be as impressive on Wii but the gameplay is going to r0x0r your b0x0rz.
This also means I can get my lighsabre combat fix without dealing with the crapulous CGI style of the Clone Wars movie/TV series. Besides, being Sithy for a change might be spiffy.
This is the home for almost all of my videos. They won't take AMVs or mashups so I still have to upload those to YouTube. But anything original? Vimeo all the way.
VBR lame-encoded MP3s, with not a speck of DRM! Effective by design!!! And if you drink Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and other Pepsi products (although paradoxically not Mountain Dew, dammit) you can get FREE tunes. I've had iTunes for years and never bought anything. However, I've bought from Amazon.
...is doing just fine, thanks a lot, on my MacBook.
'scuse me...I'm of the "finer sex" as you put it. No Y chromosome here. Oh, you thought I meant MICROSOFT geek? Oh well. Common mistake.
Anyhoo, I'd think a CGI guy who looked like that would also be very, very, VERY creepy.
Useful interim tool for Firefox: http://www.customizegoogle.com/ . You can force SSL not only on Gmail but with Apps and Documents. It is your friend. Not useful if you are not accessing the Googleverse from your own computer which has it installed.
What about that funky Replicant teddy bear from Blade Runner? That was all the way IN the Uncanny Valley.
BTW the girl on the video in the article...FAIL. Very, very, VERY creepy.
Vimeo has stood up to the Church of Scientology and the IOC. Their commitment to free speech is absolute. They are far more worthy of our support than YouTube, which regularly knuckles under to media companies whispering "Boo!" in their ears. Vimeo will not allow you to upload your rips of Battlestar Galactica episodes but they will stand by your right to free speech. Plus videos look and sound WAY BETTER there.
Of course they should have used Macs, but Lenovo was the sponsor and not Apple. And ultimately not displaying anything is better than displaying Wrong Thing. So if it failed completely it wouldn't have looked as spectacularly bad as having a BSOD up where a graphic or whatever should have been. Yes, Macs are definitely better for anything where you use graphics or video. Unless you are talking about the ones with the cursed/cursable NVidia video chips. Or if you are doing something elaborate in 3D and all you have is Intel built in video.
Vimeo has very restrictive terms about actually owning your content. However, once you have satisfied their requirements for original content, Vimeo is very protective of the First Amendment rights of its content creators. Vimeo was the safe refuge for Wise Beard Man and his Scientology critic videos.
Vimeo is also technically superior to YouTube, GoogleVideo, Revver, Ning, and any other .FLV sites. Sound is better. Picture is clearer and less blocky. They can handle video that is higher definition than 480p.
http://www.vimeo.com/ . I don't know anyone there, I don't own their stock, I don't work for them. However, they are the superior solution and Deserve To Win. (tm)
The displays in the Red Line/Purple Line subway of LA's Metro Rail system are all on some embedded version of Windows. I've seen bluescreens and other errors, plus one time when you actually saw the desktop. With Internet Exploder and Windows Media Player among the icons on the desktop. It's not as crucial as a stoplight or an ATM but it's disheartening to see. Another place Windows runs in the LA transit system is on the monitors on almost every bus showing entertainment and ad programming to the captive audience on the bus. Seen lots of Windows Fail on that system.
You actually *can* make out the stop error on this picture. Here, I'll type it in for those who don't want to follow the link:
(STOP: Ox000000f4 0x0000000[can't read number hidden by guy wire] 0x8a014260 0x8a0143d4 0x80609528)
OK, Windows gurus...have at it. The operating system is XP Embedded according to a very informative post on the other page.
Windows98. Running an ATM. Not even an embedded version, or an NT-heritage version like NT4, 2K or XP. Real bad. 98 was never meant to be used in applications like an ATM, which demand superior security and resilience. Time was that a lot of these machines used OS/2, or even ran custom code on "bare metal."
I would have liked to see a picture of the crash.