04.25.06
Posted in Tech
at 8 am
My latest prediction: eventually digital cameras will not have an optical zoom, nor will they have flashes. These will become obsolete once the optics technology matures.
Optical zooms will go away because the optical sensors will be able to take such detailed images that zooms will be unnecessary. The resolution of the images they capture at full size will be detailed enough that an optical zoom will be overkill. What we call ‘digital zoom’ today will become the primary method of ‘zooming’, (which in a sense is actually ‘cropping’). Once digital cameras are able to take 100+MiB images, zooming will be redundant.
Flashes, likewise will go away as the sensors will be able to pull up the details of all light coming to the camera and be able to apply tone maps in order to generate High Dynamic Range images. Flash used for darker environments will be uncessessary, and flashes used for fills will also not be used, replaced with tone mapping algorithims.
Not this decade… maybe the next one.
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Posted in Tech, Web
at 8 am
There’s a few pages that walk thru the process:
* Domain Name Registration Article at About.com
* Domain name Tips article at About.com
You need a few things to do this:
1. A credit card
2. A website hosting service (Easystreet, rackspace.com, etc.)
3. The list of 2 “name servers” from the hosting service (ns1.easystreet.com, ns2.easystreet.com, etc.)
4. A domain Registrar: (NetworkSolutions, Doster, GoDaddy, Yahoo, etc.)
The Registrars that we use at work are http://www.NetworkSolutions.com and http://www.Dotster.com. There are hundreds, but I generally like Dotster. Personally I use http://www.000domains.com (but they simply resell Dotster’s services).
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04.10.06
Posted in Tech, Web
at 1 pm
Ajax is client side asynch communication. Comet is the Server-side equivalent.
Comet: Low Latency Data for the Browser:
So what makes these apps special? What makes them different from other things that might at first glance appear similar? Fundamentally, they all use long-lived HTTP connections to reduce the latency with which messages are passed to the server. In essence, they do not poll the server occasionally. Instead the server has an open line of communication with which it can push data to the client.
As is illustrated above, Comet applications can deliver data to the client at any time, not only in response to user input. The data is delivered over a single, previously-opened connection. This approach reduces the latency for data delivery significantly.
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04.05.06
Posted in Apple, Tech
at 11 am
From Apple – Boot Camp:
Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.(1) Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don’t have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them.
I literally feel sick to my stomach. It was one thing when this was a hack that someone could cobble together, but this is just… ugh.
But maybe I can get approval to run one at work now?
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03.26.06
Posted in Media, Tech
at 11 pm
On the review for the Amazon.com: Westinghouse W32701 27″ Widescreen LCD Flat Panel at Amazon:
A 4:3 TV is a 3-4-5 Right Triangle. Divide the Diagonal measurement By 5 then multiply that number by 3 to get the picture hieght, or by 4 to get the width.
A 16:9 TV is a 16-9-18.36 Right Trangle. Divide the Diagonal measurement By 18.36 then multiply that number by 9 to get the picture hieght, or by 16 to get the width.
Rule of Thumb:
17″ Widescreen = 15″ 4:3 Picture Height
23″ Widescreen = 19″ 4:3 Picture Height
27″ Widescreen = 22″ 4:3 Picture Height
30″ Widescreen = 24″ 4:3 Picture Height
33″ Widescreen = 27″ 4:3 Picture Height
44″ Widescreen = 36″ 4:3 Picture Height
See? That’s nice, well written, succinct, right to the point, straight forward, not redundant and non-redudant.
The one piece they forgot to add was that LCDs don’t have the overscan area that CRTs do. That means that the CRTs have an effective screen size that’s an inch or three smaller than the listed size.
So if Amy and i are going to replace our ancient 22″ (circa 1988!) CRT, we could probably get away with a 23″ widescreen. But I think a 26 or 27″ display would be a better bet.
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03.08.06
Posted in Tech
at 9 pm
Fortune Magazine ran this great, longish article on the car that we bought late last year The Birth of the Prius:
Today Wada explains Okuda’s order philosophically. “This is always how it is,” he says. “The top management is not going to give detailed instructions on technology. As long as engineers come up with solutions by the deadline, that is fine.” As Watanabe, who also had a lot riding on the decision, puts it, “Everything was challenging about the development of the Prius.”
It’s a great run down on the workings at Toyota. It’s also an interesting study of the relationship between engineering and business management.
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03.06.06
Posted in Tech
at 8 pm
Okay so those guys have been working on the ‘invisibility cloak‘ sort of stuff but really, should they simply be concerned with breaking up the edges of the the wearer’s profile? The central areas can have the look of a yellow bicycle, but as long as the edges don’t look like a person, the ‘target’ won’t be recognized.
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03.02.06
Posted in People, Web
at 8 am
From the places I’d like to be, conferences I’d like to attend file:
Digital Web Magazine – News – South by Northwest:
South by Northwest sponsored by Blue Flavor, Bryght, Newsvine and Raincity Studios. There will be lots of beer, wine and margaritas to suck down. Be sure to bring your digital cameras because there is nothing more bloggable than drunken web geek celebrities.
Have a great time guys!
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01.07.06
Posted in Apple
at 10 am
From Mike Industries comes Design a Steve Jobs Movie Poster contest. “The theme of the final Mike Industries iPod Creativity Competition of 2005 is to design a movie poster featuring Steve Jobs.”
High-larious! I really like “Byte Me” and “CEO, Interupted”. Some crap entries but some really good one too.
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09.10.05
Posted in Apple, Career, General, Life, Media, Tech, Transport, Web
at 9 am
For the first post of September, we’ll be covering August and the last few weeks with QuickNotes™…
1) I’ve got a new laptop: 15″ PowerBook. Woo Hoo! It’s teh hot! Seriously, switching from the plastic-cased iBook to the aluminium wraped 15″ PB has given me a new appreciation for thermodynamics. (But still the PB is FAST! So much faster than the iBook.)
2) Tiger is okay, but little to write home about. The UI inconsistencies in OS X from the system and iApps perspective is becoming more obvious. But I could be just railing against the fact that part of iChat crashes on a regular basis, just after I switched back to using it instead of Adium because iChat can now do multiple accounts including Jabber accounts.
3) General instability is the call of the day. Some things are craping out way too easily. I’m letting Steve use my iBook while he’s out in Astoria for school, and I’ll be putting Panther on it.
4) Went and saw part of the Woodburn NEDRA electric drag races. Took some video and put together some movies for John Wwayland over at plasmaboy racing.
5) The new iTunes interface is an unecessary change unless it’s carried out to the rest of the iApps. The name for it seems to be “Polished Metal” as opposed to the older (and reviled) “Brushed Metal”. The iPod Nano looks cool but it took me days to find out it was solid-state flash and not hard drive-based. The ROKR iPhone is for SUKRs. Totally crippled and nothing new hardware-wise. Apple can’t build the whole widget, so the widget is a total compromise.
6) Our living rooom television died. Would like to replace it with a flat LCD, but they’re still more money than I want to invest in Home Entertainment. If anyone’s got a recommendation for a $200 to $300 television with *LOTS* of input and output jacks, let me know.
7) I’ve got a freelance project launching in the next could of days. I’ll point to it once it’s got a bit of burn-in time.
8) I’ve been seeing a new testing probe-bot that’s crawling around Contact forms. It’s already hit LazerQuick where we’ve patched it and just last nite it hit my feedback form on OrderSomewhereChaos. Nasty little bugger made me dive back into Perl code that I’ve not touched in 6 or 7 years. The mail is being sent to the (probably compromised) AOL account of “jrubin3456@aol.com”. They’re looking to find tons of spamming reflectors. I’m sure they’ll find *LOTS* of them.
9) Amy and I are off to see the final regular-season game for the Timbers! Mighty Mighty Timbers!
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