Archived News starting from 08-28-2006 and earlier
BlogWith my latest
TV acquisition, video connection options have become a frequent conversation topic. Searching Google for a definitive listing, I quickly found
this glossary from Crutchfield, which covers an exhaustive number of connections for both video, audio and data. For those not nearly as interested in connections, I'll sum up the video part from worst quality to best:
- Composite video: lowest analog quality, basic yellow video input.
- S-video: "seperate" video, seperates color and brightness in analog signal. Marginally better than composite
- Component video: Splits the color signal into two portions and brightness into another. Big improvement over S-video.
- DVI (Digital Visual Interface): Transfer video signals in pure digital form, are encrypted with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection). Two kinds of DVI connections: DVI-D is found on most home video gear, carries digital-only signals. DVI-I, used with some computer video cards, is capable of passing both digital and analog video signals.
- HDMI: Used for passing standard- and high-definition digital video signals, as well as multi-channel digital audio, through a single cable. Accommodates up to 5 Gbps bandwidth to simultaneously transfer pure digital video and audio signals without compression. Signal is also encrypted with HDCP.
Tonight I returned from my
U-Haul adventure to deliver the stuff Lisa couldn't fit in her condo to Melanie and Jaird. After claiming defeat with Jaird's Tivo that refused to connect to the network, we decided to enjoy some stale funnel cakes at the local IHOP before calling it a night. Saturday we had
entirely too much fun with RC cars before we decided to finally unload Lisas stuff.
At 2:30pm today this server went offline. According to Brighthouse, the outage was caused by my cable modem "experiencing issues with the cable network. Subscribers in the affected area(s) may experience a loss of connectivity, usually indicated by flashing modem lights and/or a loss of video service." My experience was slightly more severe, due to the ranting of an
angry Morlock during the outage. I promptly forwarded the rantings to Brighthouse, after which my connectivity mysteriously returned. Apparently cave dwelling cannibals are more convincing than balding nerds to customer service representatives.
My entire life I've been confident in the fact that there are nine planets in the solar system.
I would even recite the rhyme: My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Porcupines, representing
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Your Anus, Neptune and Pluto. Well now, thanks to
orbitism (discrimination based on orbit pattern), poor
Pluto is no longer in my rhyme.
What will my very elegant mother sit upon? Nine what? It doesn't even make sense anymore!
Needless to say my confidence in this solar system is shattered. Without Pluto classified
as a planet, I just don't know how I'll get up every morning. It's time to move to
Proxima Centauri and get
out of this orbitist solar system. Who's with me?
I just got a brand new
42" Plasma HDTV with an
HDMI Upconverting DVD/DiVX Player and
CableCARD on the way. Once my collection is complete, I'll be viewing completely digital content in the highest quality available until the HDDVD/BlueRay
battles resolve themselves. How can I continue to afford such lavish luxuries you ask? Remember all that math we learned that we thought would never be useful? Turns out, it is. Thanks to the
transitive property I get to enjoy these new consumer items absolutely free. No, this isn't the intro to a pyramid scheme, it's the simple fact that MorlockPrime lives in my basement, and since I own my basement, I also own what he owns. Thus, I enjoy high definition episodes of "Gilmore Girls" absolutely free in my basement. All you armchair lawyer haters can rant all day about property rights while I enjoy my 1080 lines of resolution comfortable in the fact that mathematics are infallible.
I finally found the Kids in the Hall skit "
Girl Drink Drunk" on YouTube for everyone to enjoy. There are a few other good ones, like "
The Gazebo", but "Girl Drink Drunk" is a documentary on my alcohol preference.
My last
battle with comment spam ended with a victory for the spambots. Even though they left no URL or email, they were programmed to happily post away, with no possible method of financial gain for their creators whatsoever. This bypassed my anti-linking and anti-keyword filter that "productive" spambots get caught in. Lately the number of idiot spambots has increased to the point of requiring action, so today I wrote a simple image verification routine to further complicate the comment posting procedure. Hopefully this will catch the idiot spambots and once again return peace to the land of comments. If not, my only remaining option is the dreaded login requirement, which I desperately hope will not be necessary.
After seeing a sweet deal on a dual core Athlon 64 4200 processor I was unable to resist getting one. It's been
over a year since my last processor upgrade, and with dual core Athlons becoming affordable I decided to end my single core suffering. No longer will my web development suffer as I decompress an archive, they both get a dedicated core! As a bonus, they'll both finish sooner thanks to a faster clock speed. Those of you still using a single core, I bite my thumb at you. Those of you already using dual processor or dual core systems can no longer derive humor in my inability to properly multitask. Those of you determined to best me have less than a month before the next
LAN party. Those in the know remember I disable network ports to machines that best me. Of course, a full
old and
new system comparison was performed, revealing how much a faster processor helps out with just about everything. Hey! Whoever just said I only have a GeForce 6800 video card, I heard you! Keep quiet!
Tonight Jaird managed to find two other motorcyclists and his dad for a total of 5 people to ride to Royal Oak for
bike night. Since he's moving to Ohio this weekend, and is the only friend I know that has a motorcycle, it will be my last bike night for some time. Fortunately he's only 3 hours away, unlike
some guy in California, so I'm sure I'll still see him for LAN parties and the occasional motorcycle trip. He's a great friend and I'm sad to see him go. Bike night was definately the best way to send him off. Those of you wondering what you can do to ease my loss (Tim) can buy a motorcycle. Good luck in Ohio Jaird, if you get tired of all the flatness come back and visit.
A recent
article mentioned on
Slashdot suggests the end of wired peripherals in the near future. While I'm
all about wireless networking, I'm not a fan of wireless peripherals. My reason can be summed up in one word: batteries. As long as batteries power wireless peripherals I refuse to buy them. It's an extra hassle and expense to deal with. How about using something similar to "self-winding" watches where a wheel on the bottom of the mouse or a pressure pad on the keyboard generates electricity to charge a capacitor as you use them? Those devices would probably have limited range or generate insufficient power and I'd be right back to my rant. To point out my hypocrisy, however, I do have a wireless combo for my media center pc, but that's because a 10ft cord from my TV to my couch would trip Lisa and cause more hassle than replacing batteries. As it becomes more difficult to buy wired peripherals, I plan to evolve into the angry old man hording my antiquated wired mouse and keyboard, cursing randomly. My mantra will be "Get wired or go home!"
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