Category: Geekdom

The Winner In The High-Def DVD Wars Will Be Decided By The Porn Folks

Out of the two competiting high-definition DVD formats that are coming out, I personally like HD-DVD. Why? It doesn’t have as much DRM-nastiness as the Sony product (or at least isn’t in bed with movie studios), it’s cheaper, and its encryption has already been broken meaning you can now make legal backup copies of your HD-DVDs. That, and I also don’t like Sony, the biggest backer of the Blu-Ray format.

But I have a feeling that the porn industry is going to make the format decision for us. Like it or not, the adult film industry generally sets a lot of the trends out there when it comes to video formats. They were the first to stream video online, first major adopter of DVDs, and they’re embracing the HD-DVD format. Biggest reason? Economics — Blu-Ray costs more to produce. If I remember correctly, HD-DVD discs can be produced in existing DVD factories with minor retro-fitting, while Blu-Ray requires new machines and processes. I personally just hope a format is settled on soon so that customers don’t have to try to understand all this mess.

January 15, 2007

NSA Has Backdoor Access To Windows

While this comes as no surprise to me, it certainly doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

January 14, 2007

Those Thing’s Are Frickin’ Sweet (Updated)

And let me tell ya, if I had the money, I’d buy an iPhone when it came available (and if it actually worked locally, as we don’t have Cingular coverage). Needless to say, today’s announcement has totally beaten up Palm and RIM’s stocks.

But I can’t even remotely imagine how much this thing’s going to cost $499, apparently. I’d be happy with a Google phone (or a phone that can run all those cool Google apps). At the very least, if I ever lose my phone, Google will help me find it.

Updated on 1/11: A few more links for ya:

January 9, 2007

Linux Link Dump

I know I’ve been doing a few of these lately, but they’re by far the easiest way to share a bunch of links without entries for all of them. So here’s a Linux/Unix link dump:

Update 1/17/07: And a few more:

January 4, 2007

Photoshop and Graphics Design Link Dump

In an attempt to clean out some links here are some good ones that I’ve got sitting around:

More to come if I find them.

Update on 1/17/07:More for ya…

January 2, 2007

Be Wary Of Cheap Computer Parts For Sale Locally

A couple of local computer shops were broken into over the weekend. The culprit hasn’t been caught yet, so if you are approached by anybody offering to sell you cheap parts, be very wary and call the Bend Police Department (or if you’d like, email me and I can tell you if it’s indeed a proper price for the item or if you should be suspicious).

I don’t know the folks at Click and Fix, but I do know the folks at PHD Computers, having bought quite a bit of stuff from them over the years. They’re a wholesaler here in town, and have probably more inventory than most. But their stuff all has barcode labels that they adhere to the packages, so if you see a unusual barcode label or a spot where a label has obviously been removed (usually on front of the package), call the police.

January 1, 2007

Web Development and Design Link Dump

This might not be too helpful for a lot of the people that read this site, but I know some of this stuff will be handy for some, and I want to have it bookmarked just the same.

OK, now just have to get into the rest of my flagged links in my new RSS reader.

Update on 1/1: Added a few more to the list that I found sitting in another bookmarks folder.

December 31, 2006

The New Adobe CS3 Suite Icons Were Announced…

…and boy are they boring and utterly worthless.

December 28, 2006

The World’s Largest NES Controller

The most entertaining part of this is watching the guys try to play the first level of Super Mario Bros. with it.

(more…)

December 20, 2006

Free Enterprise Search Engine Software

This is mostly for me, but it might be handy for somebody else. IBM and Yahoo! have partnered up to provide a stupidly slick but really powerful enterprise search package. The best part? It’s free, and free is always good for what appears to be a very powerful system.

Thanks Greg for the link.

December 17, 2006