Haibane.info

Month: December 2006

  • Indy 4

    Lucas says it starts shooting next year, for real for sure this time. The gang at AICN are skeptical, but if Stallone pulled it off, why can’t Harrison Ford, in closing the book on their iconic roles?

    UPDATE: Lucas and Spielberg confirm:

    Producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg confirmed details of the project Monday after Lucas tipped off the media to Indiana Jones’ imminent return as he prepared to serve as grand marshal of the Rose Parade in Pasadena.

    After years spent in script development, a fourth installment of the famously successful franchise is set to begin production in June in locations around the world and in the U.S.

  • from humble beginnings

    Guess what this is?

    High Level Architecture

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  • device convergence

    I’ve long been suspicious of modern cell phones. Crammed with bells and whistles as they are, they usually serve as nothing more than hooks to get you to subscribe to various expensive media and internet services via the cellular provider. My experience until now has been that it’s virtually impossible to copy a photo or video off a phone and onto a PC unless you’re ready to jump through various hoops (logistical and financial). As a result I’ve long been a proponent of the “just a phone” mindset – my Nokia 6016i has served me well for two years in that regard, as did the various “bricks” I’ve owned prior.

    Samsung SPH-M500 SprintHowever, with generous Sprint rebates as bait, I’ve taken the plunge and am now using a Samsung M500 for the past four days.

    What’s cool is that it supports the new MicroSD card format – these miniscule cards are smaller than my fingernail but can hold up to 2 GB. Since the phone comes with an mp3 player app built in, I can actually store a serious amount of music on this device. Not to mention podcasts, my beloved H2G2 radio scripts, Qur’an recitations… I’m impressed. Video, photos, and audio taken with the phone camera all can be saved to the card, as well.

    Technically I could even use the phone for USB file storage, but that requires carrying the special cable around, so I’ll stick to my jumpdrive. Still, if I get some bluetooth headphones I’m pretty much set for convenience.

  • PS3 vs Wii

    God help me, I’m turning into Sharikou! But Razib links to a YouTube video that makes the comparison between the PS3 and the Wii in a visual manner that is not exactly suited to this kawaii-safe blog of mine. Best line: “I’m cheap and fun!” Oh yes, indeed.

  • The Poincaré drama

    The greatest unsolved problem in mathematics was solved this year – namely, the Poincaré Conjecture. This achievement has now been named by Science magazine as the Breakthrough of the Year. Ars has a nice writeup of the background of the Conjecture and the road to the solution by Russian mathematician Grisha Perelman, including a layman’s description of the proof itself.

    What’s intriguing however is the underlying drama. Perelman actually refused the Fields medal for his work – the most prestigious award in mathematics. There have been accusations of ethical lapses and intellectual dishonesty, and even the threat of lawsuits. The sordid details – of the story behind a mathematical proof! – are best outlined in this classic piece at The New Yorker, which features the only interview with Perelman on record.

  • Digital SLR Buyer’s Guide

    In the market for a digital SLR camera? Anandtech has the ultimate guide, no matter what your budget. What is especially interesting is that Samsung will be selling rebadged Pentax models, which typically come out on top of the reviews.

  • the tragedy of choice

    It turns out that Playstation 3 console supply problems started easing before Christmas, enough that pretty much anyone that really wanted one could have gotten one without much pain. Now that you can actually find one, though, should you actually buy one? The thing still represents a sizable investment, yet offers little immediate return, especially for family game play.

    Oddly, there are reports from industry analysts that suggest that the console drought will stretch well into next year, but that doesn’t agree with the experiences of gamers on the ground. For example, in comments to this piece on the drought, someone comments, “I walked into a gamestop at a local mall and they had a bunch of PS3’s just sitting there.”

    I’ll test the waters on Dec 31st, which is the next date that ps3seeker.com/wii says that local retailers will have Wii consoles. But given that the Wii is cheaper, significantly more fun and family friendly, and truly innovative, I think that it’s more likely that any console drought will be limited to Wii and PS3’s will be plentiful after New Year’s.

    UPDATE: PS3 officially a dud?

    As soon as people realized that you couldn’t make a profit with PS3s on eBay, they started returning them to the retail stores. It wasn’t rare to walk into a Circuit City or Best Buy the week before Christmas and find 3 or 4 returned Playstation 3s.

    In fact, when GamingMoments returned its PS3 to Circuit City after failing to sell it on eBay, the employees told us that more and more people were starting to do this, confirming a trend.

    However, even with a surge of Wii supply on December 17th, Nintendo Wii continues to be totally unavailable. No returns at the stores. You can’t get one on eBay for less than $450, almost 2x retail.

    I’ve got nothing against the PS3 – you won’t see me go all Sharikou on you and proclaim “SONY BK in 3 Quarters” or anything. It’s just frustrating to some extent that the high-end, Bluray-equipped, godlike trancendent machine is sitting on shelves, while what amounts to nothing more than a souped up Gamecube with a cool controller is impossible to find.

    Speaking of sharikou, even he’s on board the Wii wagon. As are the linux geeks.

  • faith-based operating systems

    Stevn has a lengthy essay on the analogy between operating systems’ battle for the desktop and the schism between Christian Orthodox and Proestant sects. In a nutshell, Linux is Protestanism, and it’s very non-centralized nature is what keeps it from ataing critical mass on the desktop. It’s a fascinating analogy and one that might I might well apply in reverse to Islam at some later date (elsewhere).

    One thing I note, is that Protestanism is dominant in Christianity, at least in Europe and the United States. It’s mostly in the third world that Catholicism is ascendant, especially Southern America. What does that mean for Linux? One thought is that even tough there is no common unifying distro, enough “turnkey” distros may arise that the majority of computer users one day are using Linux in some fashion.

    Ultimately, I think the real barier to entry is not the OS but the applications. The primary obstacle facing Linux is really the lack of a serious contender to Micosoft Office, though now that MS has adopted an XML standard that may well change. Hardware periperals are another factor – once anyone can plug any mouse or USB thumbdrive bought off NewEgg or Amazon into Linux and It Just Works, Linux’ fortune will markedly improve.

    It’s not about installing an OS – it’s about using it. To that end I don’t think that there’s really a two-year window as ESR suggests. If the various linux factions can unite, not on a distro but rather on a API or plug and play infrastructure, then Linux doesn’t need unity. It can win by sheer dint of numbers alone.

  • the season has a reason

    It’s odd how many people this time of year succumb to the prosletyzation urge – about how everyone else is wrong. One person insists that Kwanzaa is a fraud, another says that Christmas has pagan roots, another says that the SeaTac/Rabbi incident was latent anti-semitism. Is Santa usurping the Three Kings? And what’s with Hajj this year?

    But I just don’t see why having an inclusive holiday neccessarily requires a dilution of meaning. Is there some conservation of good cheer principle at work? Why does it matter to someone what someone else’s interpretation is?

    I say, Merry Christmas, Hag Sameach, Happy Kwanzaa, hajj mubarak, Blessed festivus, and every other greeting and salutation that is relevant, with pride. It’s not out of rote political correctness. It’s because this is the time of year, in which we all look to our pillars of identity and reafirm them. This is a holiday for all mankind.

    Happy holidays to all of you. May the year ahead be full of blessing and joy.

  • Amazon

    Let’s just make clear – I’m not blogging to make money. And I certainly don’t have the bandwidth problems that Shamus enjoys. My hosting fees, while certainly non-trivial, are reasonable and I view them as money spent on a hobby rather than a loss to be recouped. And I have a day job that puts plenty of food on the table…

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