Haibane.info

Month: February 2007

  • Why is this so hard to understand?

    Ars takes the new BitTorrent video store for a spin and finds unsurprisingly that DRM renders it useless. Off the top of my head,here’s what a genuinely successful online video store is going to require:

    Intuitive. The interface should be identical to NetFlix, with genres down one side and a search box. A Queue functionality should be a given, with options to “subscribe” to shows.

    Comprehensive. Every TV show that is currently broadcast or on cable should be available. Movies should have simultaneous release on the big screen and at the online store.

    Value. No more than $1 per 30 min for movies, $1 an hour for TV. Hot picks or new releases could reasonably go double or triple that rate within a short time window, say three to four weeks. The price could decrement in stages over that time frame. Allow users to get a discount on TV show downloads if they opt for included TV commercials (which will be formatted as part of the content chapters, so they cant be skipped on the DVD burn). The purists can pay full price for the ad-free version. For movies, give the user a discount coupon for the soundtrack CD or a free movie rental at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video as a freebie (give those chains free ad space to cover their costs). Permit the user to apply discounts/pay a premium for higher or lower resolutions (ie, 50% for iPod or 150% for BluRay).

    Burn to DVD. The vast, vast majority of video is seen on consumers’ expensive TV sets. Its still very rare for people to have a PC next to the TV set, and will be rare for a long time. HD-DVD and BluRay, not to mention the mandatory upgrade cost of HDTV for everyone within the next year or two, means that people have enough new media hardware to spend money on.

    And what about DRM? First, let’s acknowledge reality: all DRM schemes are bogus to begin with.

    Second: what Steve said. But more importantly: recognize that the lack of protection on audio CDs has not impeded sales. Note that you can burn iTunes tracks to CD as well. Theres no reason that burning to DVD would result in any threat to the studios’ revenue streams; in fact, I’d be able to burn a disc of great scifi show episodes and get my friends hooked. We could share video discs the way we did with mix tapes and CDs. The lack of any need for DRM on the files would also mean less overhead and increase profits to the studios directly.

    Have I missed anything? If the studios build this, the consumers will come. Ultimately we shouldn’t even be wasting our broadcast spectrum on television; it should all be wired.

  • Dual-core notebook CPUs point to MoD

    Tom’s Hardware has a detailed guide and overview on dual-core CPU technology for notebooks, comparing Intel’s Core/Core Duo (Yonah and Merom) to AMD’s Turion X2 series. If you are in the market for a new laptop anytime in the next year or two, this is an essential backgrounder. I’ll admit to being an Intel-fanboi partly because I am heavily biased towards mobile computing – any desktop PC I am likely to build in the future will be the silent-PC “mobile on desktop” type with heavy emphasis on notebook components to save power. True MoD will require desktop-PC motherboards that support the 945GM chipset, which are in development but I am not sure if have reached actual product yet. Soon.

    I’m not a hardcore bleeding edge gamer, and my scientific applications will run fine on a multi-core chip. Even if games are your thing, going the MoD route is still tenable, given that external graphics cards are on the horizon. It’s a nascent niche but in two years the big honking desktop PC is going to go the way of the cold-blooded lumbering dinosaur, and the energy-efficient warm-blooded mammalian MoD systems shall inherit the earth.

  • Wiivisions

    (the silly post title parade continues)

    Hardware revisions for the Wii are planned to roll out fairly soon:

    multicolored WiiThe obvious things that Nintendo would do to make the Wii more attractive are add new colors, increase its internal flash memory, include rechargeable batteries for Wii Remotes and component cables. There isn’t much merit to making the console any slimmer or lighter, and high definition support isn’t likely to happen.

    The Wii is attaining mass-market appeal, much like the iPod. It may only be a matter of time before Nintendo adopts Apple’s hardware redesign strategy.

    Note that DVD support is already confirmed for the end of the present year, though probably at a slight price premium. That will certainly make things more convenient but it’s hardly a must-have feature. Unlike, say, the retro-themed Wii:

    retro Wii

    yum. The last game console I actually ever owned was in fact the original Nintendo. Alas, the above mod is just fan art, but it’s seriously cool enough that Nintendo better take notice.

  • Wii sports on a 344″ movie theater screen

    Just… awesome. There are no words to contain my envy.

  • dell coupon codes

    I’d like to ask a question of you, my seven readers. For some time now I’ve had access to coupon codes at Dell Computer for significant discounts (25-40% off, etc) on new systems, especially notebooks. I usually just delete these because I am not in the market for a new notebook until next year. But if there is sufficient interest, I can post them here at Haibane.info instead. If anyone actually used one, I’d get a referral payment of about 5-10 dollars depending on the configuration, which would help with my hosting costs (I’m firmly in the red, I don’t have enough traffic for the google ads to really help. But that’s a price I pay willingly for my enjoyment). However I’d rather not put the codes up and take up space if they won’t be of any potential use to anyone. Your thoughts?

  • yes

    hey Brian? I agree:

    Most people, when talking about the emotional impact of The Lion King, talk about the death of Mufasa, or the ensuing expulsion of Simba, or one of those other plot elements that’s overtly emotionally charged. Now, I don’t know if I’m just a freak, or if these other people are just redirecting their visceral reactions into other parts of the movie; but the scene that choked me up – and continues to do so to this day, even during something as far removed from the movie experience as typing this paragraph describing it – was where the zebras splash through the river, followed by the elephants with their tusks covered with birds, striding along with the beat of the music (“And the sun rolling high, through the sapphire sky,” etc). Somehow all the visuals and music just suddenly come together at that moment and create some kind of implosion in my brain, where suddenly the mystery that the whole sequence has been alluding to becomes revealed, and you find yourself looking at a natural world all brought together by a single event, and treating it with the triumphant pomp even human ceremonies can’t muster, only in a purer, wilder way, with exuberant music crashing over the scene and the camera flying over the gathered crowd in a bird’s-eye view designed to give the audience a sort of virtual-reality experience of the joy of flying, in much the same way as had been done a few years before in The Rescuers Down Under (which I hadn’t yet seen at the time). The song quiets down at that point, after the first chorus; but then there’s the anointing scene followed by a new buildup to a second chorus as Simba is presented and the beams of light shine down through the clouds…

    I am even prepared to say that the Lion King is the greatest animated movie ever made.

    I had the title song as my alarm clock every day for a long time, in fact.

  • GE issues warnings about Omniscan

    The following just came out over the SMRT mailing list:

    Vendor issues new warning on Omniscan MR contrast for patients with kidney disease

    GE Healthcare warned European providers Feb. 7 to discontinue the use of gadodiamide (Omniscan) for patients who may be at risk for a rare and life-threatening skin disease.

    read the rest of the press release below the fold. (more…)

  • Scientific Literacy

    I missed “Just Science” week by a couple of weeks, so here is my post to try to make up for it:

    I have recently been reading a book called “Junk Science” by Dan Agin, who describes himself as a neuroscientist and biophysicist. The book discusses the many ways that legitimate science is twisted/altered/slanted so that the information reaching the public often bears no resemblance whatsoever to the actual science. This happens with environmental pollution, health issues, and genetically engineered food, and just to name a few. Perhaps blame can be placed on the media, politicians, large corporations, etc., but it seems there is another very important underlying issue, here, and that is the scientific literacy of the American public.

    Without the basic tools of healthy skepticism and a basic knowledge of science, the “Average Joe” has no hope of understanding the filtered science that appears in the news. As scientists, why should we care? We have ways to communicate amongst ourselves, within the scientific community, but it seems the scientific community also has a responsibility to relate our work and findings to the Average Joe. So many issues — vaccinations for teenage girls against HPV, what food additives are controlled by the government, pollution guidelines for corporations — are decided by non-scientists and affected largely by politicians and lobbyists. In order for the work we do as scientists to go from being purely academic to improving everyday life, the public has to be on board. For them to be on the side of science, they have to understand it.

    It seems that as scientists, we have a dire interest in ensuring the scientific literacy of everyone. So, the next time someone asks you to speak to a group of students or write an article for a “non-scientific” newsletter-type publication, think about where most people get their science information. Would you rather have them get it from you, a scientist, or from a CNN article that has been re-interpreted by several laypersons before reaching the public.

    By the way, although I don’t agree with all of what Dr. Agin says, he raises several interesting points. It’s very thought-provoking.

  • mod my Wii for DVD

    a mod chip for DVD playback on the Wii? I’ll believe it when I see it. Ars is similarly skeptical. Though it does lend itself to yet another childish post title.

    BTW the Wii is everything I expected it to be. From my 4 year old (almost 5) to my inlaws, everyone can play games on this thing and have a blast. Even a jaded 15year old PS2 jockey I knew had a blast playing Wii Tennis with me. And you should see the ladies take out their frustrations on their husbands on Wii Boxing! I can’t believe how this simple, clean box has made videogames fun again. And you don’t need thumb extensions and finger grafts to play.

  • quantum computer hoax?

    Perhaps hoax is too strong a word. Canadian company D-Wave systems demoed a 16-“qubit” quantum computer last week, and demonstrated applications like playing Sudoku, searching a protein database, and calculating seating charts.

    However, there is now some skepticism as to whether the device really constitutes a quantum computer in the general sense:

    While impressive, some scientists don’t like the fact that the calculations were actually being done at a remote location and that the computer couldn’t be physically inspected. D-Wave reps were actually quite open about that detail saying the computer was too delicate to be moved because of its liquid helium cooling system and sensitive components.

    Lieven Vandersypen, an associate professor at Delft University and quantum computing researcher, told the IEEE Spectrum that he is surprised that investors have put money into the company and that D-Wave “hasn’t published any major advances or breakthroughs in the scientific literature.” He adds that the company has very little detail to support their claims, something that a peer-reviewed article would have.

    Phil Kuekes, a computer architect in the Quantum Science Research Group at HP Labs, was also skeptical telling the Associated Press, “Until we see more actual measurements, it’s hard to know whether they succeeded or not.”

    The lack of any peer-reviewed publications about the computer is indeed troublesome. The CEO of D-Wave himself described it as a “special-purpose machine that uses some quantum mechanics” – which is not the same thing as a computer that can be programmed. In light of this, it’s hard to see any rational justification for going straight to demo other than PR (and perhaps to attract investment?).

    UPDATE: Ars looks at the issue as well.