There’s a funny discussion over at Slashdot where people relate tales of hardware that has survived a beating. My favorite quote:
The original VT-100 was top-rack dishwasher safe. No, really – that was the standard DEC repair instructions in case someone spilled something into a keyboard. Place the keyboard key-side down on the top rack of a dishwasher, normal wash cycle, air dry.
A few days ago, I wrote about my thoughts on online DVD rental, and my eventual decision to go with GreenCine.
Browsing around today, I stumbled upon a NetFlix experiences site. Apparently there are a lot of problems with NetFlix, including horrible customer service, tendencies to damage DVDs beyond repair in their warehouse, and generally very bad service. I’m always a little uncertain about stuff like this written more than 6 months ago, because changes can happen in that amount of time, but this site has reports up through last week. The person running the site also keeps a journal that makes interesting reading.
There is also a link to an analysis of the NetFlix DVD selection system, which appears to confirm experiences that many people continue to report to this day.
I somehow doubt I’ll be switching from GreenCine to Netflix anytime soon. And I say that having not yet received my first DVD from them, too! :-)
I’ve been talking a lot about MythTV lately, and here’s a tangential topic: we bought our first HDTV unit last weekend. It’s a widescreen 30″ CRT Philips 30PW8402 unit. We don’t yet have hi-def video sources (save for DVD), but I’ve still gotta say: wow. The picture is so much better than our Sony TV (and not just because that Sony’s picture tube was dying, either!). There’s some stuff in 16:9 even in standard def, and that can be zoomed in upon. Very slick.
And DVDs are stunning on this thing. We’re very happy with it all and are glad we opted for a HDTV instead of a standard def one.
One of my concerns was about traditional stuff — would it all be “squashed” by the wide screen? Turns out no — the remote has a picture size button, that alternates between 4:3, zoomed 14:9, zoomed 16:9, widescreen, and superwidescreen modes. The zoomed modes are used when the black letterboxing at the top and bottom of a standard screen are part of the signal (such as widescreen movies broadcast in standard definition). The widescreen modes are used with true widescreen signals, such as from a DVD player.
Our DVD player already had component video out, so a few cables, and a quick check of the setup menu to tell it we had a 16:9 unit, and wow — stunning results. We’re really enjoying it.
My next project is to get a DVI to HDMI cable so I can hook it up to the MythTV unit digitally. This will get us the best possible quality, and I can use a Linux-based DVD player to send a pure digital signal to the TV.
Here’s a very interesting read, slamming the FCC’s relaxed ownership rules:
My Beef With Big Media. Turner makes it into a “fight about freedom”. It’s interesting to see this argument from Ted (“pot, kettle, black” anyone?)
There’s a interesting interview with Joe Trippi, former Dean campaign manager. He has a lot to say about collaboration, the power of the Internet, and how things are shifting from television to the ‘net.
Apparently, four inmates escaped from a Tennessee jail after the doors were left unlocked. Nobody noticed their absence. But all they did was buy a bunch of beer and bring it back to the jail to drink there. Strange.
From the “only in Russia” department…
Apparently, it is quite commonplace for passengers on Russian flights to be intoxicated. It’s less common for the flight crew to be drunk, but apparently it happens anyway…
My MythTV system is now mostly complete. My Biostar motherboard had a defective TV out, so it was sent in and now the TV out is working. I’ll post a more complete update in the next few days. In short, Biostar = bad, Albatron = good.
Also, had a fun adventure stringing some cat5 cable to the part of our house where our TV is. After sawing through the floor to get to the previously-inaccessible crawlspace, we found, among other things, a working wire stripper, pipes connected to nothing, and lots and lots of spider webs.
And my latest book project is just about complete. I’ll have some news there too in a day or two.
To many Americans, it seems that patriotism is the flag-waving unquestioning devotion to the United States and its armed forces. July 4th and Memorial Day bring out these sentiments everywhere, and we are constantly reminded to be patriotic, support our troops, to pledge allegiance to our government above all else, and remember those in the armed forces that died for our freedom.
Many “patriotic” people get mad at those that point out that the United States has never, in its entire history, lived up to those words in the pledge: “with liberty and justice for all.” In fact, when the pledge was written in 1892, slavery was not yet a distant memory. Segregation and racial discrimination were still the norm. White juries, especially in the south, sentenced black men to death on the flimsiest of evidence, while exonorating white lynchers that were clearly guilty. It’s considered “unpatriotic” or “against America” to mention these things, especially around July 4.
Continue reading Redefining Patriotism
