Thursday, October 02, 2008

4-Pin Firewire:  What Were They Thinking?

The Most Fragile Connector Of All Time

I’m a calm man.  I really am, ask anybody.  I never get worked up about anything.  But once in a while, annoyances mount to the point where even Mr. Frosty can get a little miffed.

I saw my first Firewire connectors about ten years ago, when I bought a Canon XL1.  The tiny size of the 4-pin connector amazed me - how could this little jack, plug & cable throw around enough data to make video?  Hey, it’s all magic to me; then as now, I’m thrilled when it works.  But even back then it looked rather fragile.  So, I babied my Firewire jacks, to the extent possible.  The six-pin jacks are quite sturdy affairs; while breakable, you really have to screw up bad to hurt them.  But the 4-pins?  If you sneeze towards them you are at risk.

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Monday, September 22, 2008

It Had To Happen

The Comeuppance of a Digital TV Critic

I’ve made a bit of a cottage industry out of criticizing the Digital TV transition over the last eight years.  I still hold my core beliefs - that the transition was unnecessary, poorly engineered, and largely a welfare program for equipment companies and TV set sellers.  But the biggest problem in my eyes is that the ATSC standard is locked into the technology of when it was ratified - 1996.  That means that the top-shelf technology of 12 years ago - MPEG2 compression - is supposed to be our TV standard for decades to come.

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Monday, September 15, 2008

Any White Wall - A Movie Palace!

A Projector You Can Hold In Your Hand?

Here’s a link to a Popular Science blurb on the debut of the 3M Mpro110 Pocket Projector.  I saw this demonstrated at CES 2008, and it’s undeniably cool, if a little light in the lumens department.  It runs at VGA resolution (640x480) and makes a decent picture if you give it a little darkness to work in.  The 3M guy at CES said the holy grail of this technology is fitting a projector into a cell phone, and right now I wouldn’t bet against the boys from Minneapolis.

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Friday, September 12, 2008

REVIEW:  Roku Netflix Player

Who isn’t a Netflix subscriber?

It’s a pretty rare mailbox that never sees those iconic red Netflix envelopes.  The little mail-order that could reshaped the face of video rentals seemingly overnight.  But slick as it is, you still have to do something that is anathema to many people these days - you have to wait.  Now there seems to be a bit of an answer to that, and one that could offer an alternative delivery vehicle for small productions.

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Monday, September 01, 2008

A Salute To America’s History Teacher

Tom Hanks Embiggens Us All

I’m using this holiday weekend to do some movie-watching catch-up (even with astoundingly nice weather).  Last night it was time to load up “Charlie Wilson’s War,” produced by and starring the man I’ve come to call America’s History Teacher: Tom Hanks.

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Isn’t Photography A First Amendment Right?

Disturbing Video From Denver

Fellow PVC’er Jim Feeley sent me this link.  Check out this clip from Denver near the Democratic National Convention.  Watch a really big cop nail a really small woman with a long rod and knock her to the ground.  And for doing basically… nothing.

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Monday, August 25, 2008

Maybe They Should Have Called The Cops First

Adventures in Indie Filmmaking

It’s said that the best lessons are the hardest learned, and this lesson is a doozy.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Will The Real Kevin Martin Please Stand Up?

Populist or corporate tool?  You make the call.

Does it seem strange that the same guy that let XM and Sirius Satellite Radio merge - creating a de facto monopoly - is now trying to single-handedly create nationwide wireless broadband?  Rings strange to me.
USA Today is reporting that the FCC commissioner is pitching the idea of selling a block of frequencies coveted by cell-phone carriers with the proviso that a chunk of it be reserved for nationwide wireless broadband.  Oh, and did I mention that this access might be free?

From the article:

“There’s a social obligation in making sure everybody can participate in the next generation of broadband services because, increasingly, that’s what people want,” said Martin.

Of course, corporations like Verizon, AT&T and others that users pay for that kind of access are unimpressed. (In fact, it seems that T-Mobile might actually already be encroaching on the offered frequencies where they shouldn’t be.) You can understand the corporate consternation, since Martin has been reliably in their pocket throughout his 3-year tenure as Chairman.  Even prior to his ascension to the Chairmanship, Martin was a reliable Republican vote on such matters as media consolidation - a subject that, when public comment was counted, was 99-1 against expansion of ownership limits.  This sudden populist turn has me concerned, frankly.  He must not be feeling well.

What’s next?  Low-power FM radio freedom?  Heaven forfend! 

LATE ADD:  Check THIS out - Martin says the lack of cable ala carte pricing is the “single biggest problem” facing consumers these days!  What, even more than $4 gasoline?!  The Washington Times has the scoop.

I have to add that on cable ala carte, Martin has seemed to buck the corporate view, but that’s pretty easy to do when there is essentially zero chance he can actually do anything about it.  Looks good on the resume’, though.  Wonder who he’ll end up lobbying for in a few months.

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