Archive for category politics
All Of The Time It Was Me
I wish you peace.
I have been rustling around to write an article and had some time tonight. I wanted to find a picture that suited my mood. I typed in “peace” into Google images and the image above was the one that seemed more akin to my style. I like it because I exist in a dualistic world. Plus, it was either that or a bunch of hippie rainbow pictures and I am not a hippie. Though there are some really cool ones out that get excited about rainbows. One in particular:
You might think I post that video in jest of the person in it. Wherein I do find it funny I actually think it is totally awesome. I get excited about stuff too and wish this dude well. Rainbows are cool. And he was right, it was beautiful.
Which is think is a good segway into the point of this entire article in the first place. If its your dream to find every “double complete rainbow” you should do it. Don’t apologize to people that don’t understand your dreams. Life is too short to placate people. I find that when I make choices true to me and my family they tend to be the best ones. At the end of the day I could make everyone happy but if I am not content with my life do the haters suffer? Nope.
If you are going through a hard time because you are trying to do right by yourself or your dreams understand that it won’t be hard forever. Im not sure how long things suck until they get better, but things do seem to get better. Ive been through some recent hard times but it seems that life is ready on the other side to be just as awesome as it once was. The breeze still blows in my face if life sucks. And yeah, I do appreciate the wind blowing. It is really an awesome phenomena.
I recently turned 30. It was a great time. I felt ready to be 30. I like being 30. Turning 30 was one of the best days ive ever had. One theme ive noticed as ive turned 30 is that ultimately I am the biggest obstacle to my success and contentment. If my life sucks I am ultimately responsible for it. Other people add great things to my life. They are big things too. But they are not responsible for my life, I am.
Stay well.
Bad Defaults. Watching my new TV looks fake!
Marketing not to scale.
Recently we bought a new LED TV. Reasons are a few fold. We watch a ton of movies and want a great experience. We want a TV that uses less power. We want more crisp and vibrant colors. Plus its cool to buy a bigger TV. No envy really, its just great to have the picture come alive in your house if you love that sort of thing. It was a real no brainer and right now, we love the TV. But when we first got it we hated it and that almost led to us returning it.
This is post is about why.
The question.
So ill start off with a question. You ever been in a store hocking new TVs and you look at the latest model and notice that the movie or TV show looks totally fake? Does the image look like a Soap Opera, British TV show or something filmed on set? Does it look like it was filmed as home video? I have. When I plugged in my new Samsung TV the image looked just like that. It sucked. It sucked because it didn’t look like what I come to expect a movie or TV show to look like. When I watch “The Dark Knight” I don’t expect it to look like a British comedy OR a soap opera, I expect it to stylistically look like the movie I saw in the theatre. We watch movies in BluRay, I expect the image to be crisper and the sound to be more dynamic I don’t expect the movie to look like a home recording.
The problem.
After plugging in my Samsung my wife and I lamented that this image looked like crap. We didn’t want to watch a home video “behind the scenes” recording of Harry Potter, we wanted to watch the Harry Potter movie. After fiddling with the contrast and color and watching a few TV shows on DVD and BluRay movies we decided if things didn’t get better we would buy a lesser quality TV. Reason? The new TV looked like something so foreign we wouldn’t accept it as what it was to watch a movie.
A bit of history.
Come to find out we are not alone. Come to find out the Samsung default actually modifies the original movie and TV show from its intended release. To explain it ill stub in a few facts about TVs. TV is generally broadcast at 60 frames a second or 60hz. A hertz is defined a clock cycle per second. So 60 hertz or hz is 60 frames per second. Most movies are filmed/released as 24 frames per second. Thats one reason why you notice TV looks like TV and movies look like movies, because, generally speaking they have a different hz rate(amongst other things). People that produce new TVs need to keep adding in features to stay competitive. One way is to increase the hertz or frames per second they can support. Current middle Samsung and Sony LED models support 60hz and 120hz. Ultra top of the line 3D models are 240hz. So that means the middle of the road LED supports 120 frames per second! Makes little sense if 99% of all source material(TV & Movie) doesn’t support it. Most BluRay movies I have clock in at 24hz. So, right now, there seems little reason to have a 120hz TV right? I mean, even PS3 and XBox games don’t clock in more than 60hz. Some struggle for 30hz.
Whats going on?
Samsung has a technology called Auto Motion Plus. Basically Auto Motion Plus takes your 24hz, 30hz or 60hz material and adds in frames making it a 120hz material. They “morph” or “transition” the added frames to make it look like a seamless process. So if you have a 24 frames per second BluRay Samsung adds in 86 frames. It attempts to blend them to make it look seamless, but as I have stated previously it looks really really bad.
Why this sucks.
It sucks because it doesn’t look like the movie you bought. It sucks because Samsung is showing you the material by default in the way the material wasn’t meant to be shown. This would be akin to Pioneer(a maker of good audio equipment) saying that an album needs to be sped up to meet some arbitrary feature that they want to demo. Lets say Pioneer developers a really great sub-woofer system but the source material lacks prominent bass. Pioneer shouldn’t add bass to the mix, it should work with the existing material not alter it. Adding two bass drums or another bass note to a Rolling Stones mix is altering the material in the same way that Samsung adds 86 frames to a 24 frame per second movie.
If my wife and I didn’t take the initiative on ourselves to find out why this was happening the outcome would have been a returned TV. We would have purchased a lesser model to achieve the outcome we wanted. This is why defaults are so important. I would argue some people wouldn’t be as resourceful and either return the TV or be displeased with the results.
Why they really need to stop this by default.
I appreciate the fidelity of the original artists vision and in the end want to watch the same movie at home I saw in the theater. If you want to go outside the lines and add beats to the Rolling Stones song fine by me. However, don’t add beats to it for my default listening experience. Make it opt in. If you want to add 86 frames to Harry Potter, fine but don’t do it by default. I appreciate technology that ages gracefully but don’t force me to look at something the way it wasn’t created to be viewed. I just put a few coins into a new experience to me wrecks the out of the box experience. Let me wreck the movie if I want to, not by default.
In the end.
We turned off the abomination that is Auto Motion Plus and really love the TV. Its so crisp and the colors are so vibrant the movies comes alive. Good on Samsung, its a great piece of technology. That said, don’t let you marketing department go crazy. Its cool that you can support 120 frames per second and its also cool you can modify the source material to show 120hz. That said… just because it can doesn’t mean it should and certainly, absolutely and without hesitation not by default.
Extra reading.
120hz in and of itself does serve a useful purpose to displace judder for 24hz sources. Im not going to get into it here, however needless to say if you view a lot of 24hz material a 120hz set does help you with original source fidelity. Im not knocking 120hz as totally useless, I am knocking Auto Motion Plus.
I present this material to you as a opinion of a way I appreciate viewing video material. I imagine other people may see it differently. Realize this is the internet and everyone has an opinion whether or not you think it is correct is something else.
Watchmen Ultimate Cut
We watch the Watchmen.
This last Friday I had my friends over to watch The Watchmen Ultimate Cut on BluRay. It was a fun time as I really love watching great movies, this being no exception. Kind of sucks though, I picked this up for $50 on Amazon and yesterday it goes on sale for $28. The rub of the market it seems.
The theatrical release mainly follows Rorschach as he tries to uncover a plot to kill superheros. The Ultimate Cut dances around all the characters and interleaves Tales of the Black Freighter throughout the movie. Watching the Ultimate Cut the first time, my first inclination was that it was too long. I also thought it seemed less focused than the theatrical version. After pondering it more, I still agree with my initial impressions but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t fantastic, I just needed a break in the middle.
The Ultimate Cut is much more dark than the theatrical and with Tales of the Black Freighter in the mix now, it really cranks the dark tone up quite a bit. All the scenes have more footage, you see entire sub stories of some of the city gangs and you get the absolutely gruesome yet extremely powerful Tales of the Black Freighter. Speaking of the aforementioned pirate tale I found it to be one of the more compelling bits of the movie. The pirate tragedy narrative really brought the movie to a level I hadn’t considered previously. At first the animation really jerks you out of the movie but I felt later on I was looking forward to it. The final chapter in the tale really brought the entire story full circle in a really fantastic way.
In the end if you loved the theatrical, I would recommend this version. It has a few issues though… First being its length and second being it really changes the movie from it essentially being focused on Rorschach to the Ultimate Cut dancing around everything. Not saying its bad, but it is worth mentioning. That said, if you are looking for the same anti-super hero movie that has you question the motives and actions of “good” then I recommend you check it out.
4th of July!
Posted by jdodson in offhandstrangity, politics on July 4, 2010
Happy Independence day United States.
Combat, Isolation, Removal
Two player fun for all ages!
I love working with a team of cool developers. Right now we are growing our team and finding the right people is challenging, fun and slow. We have interviewed a few people and what people we have interviewed have been quite good.
Its awesome to be part of a larger entity that is so much better than you are. Having someone close to you that can give you a different perspective on the code you are writing is magical. Not being ultimately responsible for the entire product is equally awesome. I don’t mind responsibility and accountability, I just don’t want it all. :) I am loving the team atmosphere and how we are all in agreement on its style and tone. Its fun to express that vision in an interview and watch the person interviewing get excited about the team and its possibilities. Not to say everything is always roses, conflict arises out of mis communication. However, the team bounces back because ultimately we are all good people with great intentions.
When I was interviewing this was a question I asked everyone: ”Why is your company awesome?” I selected a company that seemed to be just that. Its a startup so if we do well the potential for substantive reward exists. That said, I am more excited and motivated because it seems like a cool mix of people that love what they do. Plus the project is exciting and I will learn much.
Its been fun to throw a idea in the “team cooking pot” and have everyone stir it up and we come out with a awesome meal. The best ideas bubble up and when your team is diverse enough the ideas bubble up in ways you never would have imagined.
I know what my weaknesses are. Finding people that can cover that will make our product a joy to use. Plus its fun to see something grow into something you love. And right now, I have a lot of love for what I am doing.
Please Think.
Its a war that will never end!
I really like paying attention to United States politics. Its fun to notice shifts in opinion, changes in thought and how people react to that. Its also so petty and childish it makes middle school drama look like a upgrade. Yet I like it. In political thought I am more attracted to is reasoned opinion based on facts and the social good than hyper partisanship, anger and fear. I appreciate respectful discussion of the topics with attention to understanding the other side. For instance, I actually allocate time researching differing opinions. I do this because its fun to know what and how people think about things. You can’t really understand someone without understanding motivation, background and history. People rarely make choices that are not based on who they are, where they come from and current social group. Then again, I think its important to understand who you are and where you came from because it helps you know yourself. I guess this isn’t really a post about that, but I do apply this sentiment to people and politics as well. If you understand someone it also helps so your don’t demonize them. You realize they come to beliefs in much the same way as you even though they believe differently. I guess put another way is that its hard to make someone out to be the devil if they have many similarities to you.
That said, this post isn’t really about that. Its about a trend ive noticed lately in politics in the United States. Ill explain the trend by describing how ive viewed the last 10+ years of the political system in the United States.
* Bill Clinton is in office and does a few things people don’t like. He is a Democrat. He commits a few morally dubious acts and gets slapped for it politically.
* George Bush gets elected because he isn’t Bill Clinton and runs on a platform of not being Bill Clinton. He gets elected because is isn’t Bill Clinton and is Bill Clintons “moral opposite.” He runs on a platform of changing the Washington Bill Clinton created.
* During George Bush’s tenure he is very unpopular in certain political groups because of his stances on the war in Iraq. His party receives huge losses to the Democrat party because Democrats are not Republicans. After the sweeping election for the Democrats the Democrats change no significant war policy.
* George Bush leaves office largely unpopular. He is unpopular because of his policies regarding several wars, constitutional stances & more.
* Barack Obama is elected because he isn’t George Bush. He runs on a platform of not being George Bush. He gets elected because he isn’t George Bush and is George Bush’s “political opposite.” He runs on a platform of changing the Washington George Bush created.
I am going to now divine the future here folks:
* During Obama’s tenure he is unpopular in certain political groups because of the inherited poor fiscal US situation. His party receives huge losses to the Republican party because Republicans are not Democrats. After the sweeping election for the Republicans the Republicans change no significant fiscal policy.
/end divination
My charge is that the impending sweeping victories for Republicans will not impact fiscal policy in any significant way. The reason why the is because of the reason the Democrats didn’t change any significant war policy in the United States. Lets match it up some to illustrate my point.
* Democrats claimed if they were elected they would end the Iraq war. Clearly accountability would come to Washington. They tried to tie the presidents hands to a timetable through the laws they passed financing the war the Republicans and Democrats did not attempt to pay for. They conveniently forgot the president has the ability to veto laws he doesn’t like. The president vetoed every attempt to do this while painting Democrats as not supporting the troops. The Democrats caved in to the presidents position. In the end they brought no change to the current war policy.
* Republicans will claim if they are elected they will bring us out of the poor fiscal position we are in. Clearly “fiscal conservatism” will return to Washington. In one such action will attempt to amend Health Care legislation or repeal it. They will conveniently forget they need 60 votes to repeal due to a Democrat filibuster. A super majority they will not have. If by some chance they have a super majority they will conveniently forget Obama will veto the repeal. They will attempt to amend the current health care bill. They will conveniently forget the president will veto every attempt to do that while painting the Republicans as people that do not support positive health care change in America. They will eventually sign all bills funding everything that comes to them. The Republicans will cave in to the presidents position. In the end they will bring no change to Obama’s fiscal policy.
Im not sure if Republican politicians forget how stuff works or if they are simply being optimistic. That said, understanding what it takes to repeal something OR that passing a law requires a presidential signature seems like, you know, important to understand. Im not saying being fiscally responsible is bad, its great id love us to get back to that. Its just that the Republicans sweeping wins will change nothing in the way of that.
But I want to break it down to a more basic level for you:
* Political party A gets elected running on a platform of anti political party B. Political party A claims they are the party of the people and that political party B doesn’t listen.
* Political party A screws stuff up with political party B. Political party B blames it wholesale on political party A. Political party B claims political party A doesn’t listen. Political party A yells and moans political party B are obstructionists.
* Political party B gets elected running on a platform of anti political party A. Political party B claims they are the party of the people and that political party A doesn’t listen.
* Political party B screws stuff up with political party A. Political party A blames it wholesale on political party B. Political party A claims political party B doesn’t listen to the people. Political party B yells and moans political party A are obstructionists.
* Rinse, repeat.
This Article Contains Faulty Reasoning
?
Recently I was reading an article about “Linux on the Desktop being a non starter.” Most of these articles revolve around the author wanting to do something and failing OR it taking way to long to do it. I can accept that. Ubuntu isn’t perfect for everything. Its really great at some things though.
However, this article is so flagrantly poor quality it makes me wonder what quality standards Computerworld has for its bloggers. Obviously few.
Lets go over some of the gems contained in this article.
It claims Linux on the desktop is “still not happening.” Beyond the fact that is is and I know lots of people using it, its also constructed of basically two silly arguments.
* “For a while last year, things were looking up for Linux. Many of the early netbook vendors were forgoing Windows licenses and instead offering consumers machines that ran some form of Linux. That didn’t last long, though. Return rates for Linux netbooks were much higher than for their Windows counterparts, and most netbooks today are sold with some version of Windows, not Linux. What this means is that, though Linux is a great value for many server applications, it’s still a non-starter on the desktop.
Huh. So netbooks have a higher return rate than Windows netbooks? OK. Fair enough. The author notes this and jumps to the conclusion that Linux is a non-starter on the desktop. This is faulty logic. There could be a sea of reasons why someone would return a Linux netbook. How bout they thought Windows was on it? You mean customer made a mistake? I think its possible people may click before they read every sentence.
Netbooks are a nascent market in computing. Its like looking at ebooks and noting that Amazon controls the desktop. The author didn’t note how many people stuck with Linux powered netbooks. If the number of people with Linux netbooks is 20% then id say Linux on a netbook is a success.
* “Richard Stallman may not be typical, but you can read all about his setup here. It’s not something that’s going to win a lot of converts among the mass market of computer users, though. As he explains it, he uses a Lemote Yeelong, a netbook with a Loongson chip and a 9-inch display. “I spend most of my time using Emacs. I run it on a text console, so that I don’t have to worry about accidentally touching the mouse-pad and moving the pointer, which would be a nuisance. I read and send mail with Emacs (mail is what I do most of the time). I switch to the X console when I need to do something graphical, such as look at an image or a PDF file. Most of the time I do not have an Internet connection. Once or twice or maybe three times a day I connect and transfer mail in and out.”
Since most of us would go back to using paper, pens, envelopes and stamps before using the open-source text editor Emacs, it still seems likely that it’s going to be a Windows and Mac OS world for the foreseeable future.”
ARE YOU SERIOUS? <sarcasm>Obviously all Linux users have is Emacs and a console. Obviously</sarcasm>. Wait, no thats absolutely ludicrous. I use Gnome. Gnome is pretty, functional and elegant.
Anyways, felt it was worth sharing. I am not a Linux crazy but this kind of poor article makes me want to throw a Firefox at someone.
The Disconnect of Digital Pricing
When I was in middle school CDs were a new thing. I remember talking in school about CDs and how they cost about a penny to press and because of this insanely low printing cost, CDs would be ultra cheap compared to tapes or records. Imagine a world where the printing cost led to ultra low prices! Imagine that world. I can, its great. It would be awesome to pop over to Best Buy and get the latest album for $1. Or $3. At that price I wouldn’t really think about it, id just buy it.
And that is the topic of this blog post. The disconnect of digital pricing.
I buy games, music and software in a box from the store. I know this makes me a dinosaur but I am actually getting a better value and in most cases its cheaper. I want to live in a world where I download everything for a lesser fee, but I don’t. The idea WAS that when we went to the point where we download all our games or software online the price dropped because the cost of producing a physical product was circumvented. Ill give an example.
Modern Warfare 2 on PC costs $51.48 on Amazon. Now, since thats a physical box and manual product the digital copy should be cheaper right? Well on Steam its $59.99. Why the hell is it more expensive to download on Steam? Why does it cost me MORE TO DOWNLOAD IT? I have no idea but the disconnect between the download/physical product is absolutely nuts.
Same with music. The Book of Eli download on Amazon/iTunes is $11.99. The physical CD costs $11.99 as well.
Simply stated, I believe digital goods should cost a significant share LESS than their physical counterparts. However it seems the physical product actually costs less. OR in the case of music, you can get a better value if you buy a album for the same price because you can rip it long after MP3 is dethroned. Adopting a pricing model like the iPhone where apps are mostly $0.99-$5 means people dont think about buying stuff. They just buy it. I am not saying AAA game titles should be $5 but how bout $25. How bout $30? $60 for a digital download? No thanks.
I always I buy the physical copy these days unless the digital price is so low it doesn’t matter. Digital pricing needs to improve or I will always buy the physical product, because most of the time its a way better deal.
The Devil Sends a Letter To Pat Robertson
“Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll. You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.
Best, Satan “
Google Does Goodle
“Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.
First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.”
This is good. This is also Google roundaboutly saying the Chinese government is behind these attacks. I hope this is one more nail in Chinas “not allowing its citizens to be free” coffin. And what I mean by that is I hope these kinds of actions lead China to adopt a much more free society.