Thursday, November 27, 2008

Time Warner DVR sucks

After moving from an area covered by Charter to an area covered by Time Warner, I had no choice but to switch my cable provider. Right off the bat, I found many things lacking in the Motorola DVR that TW provided me. Most of it, I've learned to live with, but the most recent offense... there's just no excuse.

What's bad to begin with:
  • Search. Having to scroll through each letter instead of letting us use the arrow keys for an on-screen keypad.
  • Program Guide. Time Warner's program guide rarely has sufficient information on programs more than a couple of days ahead of time. If it's going to be three days before the program airs, chances are it doesn't have anything in the description for it. If it's more than a week, you might not even get the program's title. Some programs never get any useful information, even when it's airing. Why is this important? Well, without having any info about the program, it doesn't know if the program is new or not.
  • After setting a "series recording" (TW's version of TiVo's "season pass"), if you delete a program you've just finished watching, and the same episode is aired again a few hours later (this happens a lot on HBO/Showtime shows), it will try to record it again. Why? These re-airing are not new anymore! Ugh. I constantly have to look through my "future recordings" list to remove shows I know I've already watched.
  • Have too many upcoming shows set to not record? If you set one more to not record, something else you've previously set to not record will want to record again. WTF?
  • Just added a new series to your DVR? Better check your upcoming recordings again, because guess what? The episodes you've told it not to record all think they need to be recorded again.
The worst thing it just did? This week alone, two of the shows I've set to always record new episodes were not recorded. And there were no scheduling conflicts, either. One was on Monday, for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which I've set to record along with Chuck, but there was nothing else on that it needed to record. Strangely enough, it recorded Prison Break just fine. So I was forced to download the episode from online.

Just a few hours ago, it failed to record Dirty Sexy Money, when there was nothing else on that I wanted to record. This episode had the return of Samaire Armstrong, the whole reason I started watching this show to begin with, and what does it do? It didn't record it. Instead, it recorded a rerun True Blood, which I've already watched on Sunday. What a piece of crap this DVR is.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Peter Griffin is a Ballchinian

Okay, so a while back, they were airing Men in Black II on cable, and I decided to watch it again. In one scene, as part of the punchline, they had aliens who had weaknesses that could be easily exploited, and one such alien was a "Ballchinian."

When I saw him, I immediately thought of Peter Griffin of Family Guy. See the resemblance?

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Finally

After nearly a week without [HD]TV (I still have a TV in my bedroom, but it's not HD, and I don't have DVR in there), my new TV finally arrived today. It's a lot lighter than the other one, and the menu system is better. I'll have to check the setup for my DVD player later.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Good Night, Sweet Prince

The HDTV I bought about 22 months ago stopped working last night.

Last summer, we found out that this model had overheating issues. Basically, when it got too hot, it will shut down by itself, even though the LED indicator will show it as still on, and the power switch will not respond. Luckily, all you had to do in this instance was to use the power switch in the back, and it will work again.

I thought I wouldn't have to deal with this problem again, after moving closer to the beach, since it was generally cooler here than in the valley. But about a month ago, there were a few heatwaves where the temperature got up to 90°, and I had to place a fan behind the TV to keep it cool. After the heatwave ended, however, it would still turn itself off randomly, much to my annoyance, and last night, it did so for the last time. It would not turn back on again.

I suppose a TV repair shop might be able to fix it, so I'll probably try that when I get a chance.

Before that happens, I still need a TV, so I've order a new one from NewEgg. Of course, this being the weekend, the earliest they will ship it would be Monday, but since they're based in City of Industry, hopefully it will arrive on Tuesday...

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008

Umm... what?

I couldn't find a larger version of this picture, so in case you find the writing on the signs difficult to read (besides the "Electricity Vs. Cat" part), here's what they say:

Purpose:

To see what electricity does to a cat.

Hypothesis:

Cats hate electricity.

Procedure:
  • get battery
  • get cat
    any cat will do
  • hook battery to cat
    if it fights hook up
    two batteries
  • watch
Materials:
  • battery
  • cat
  • fire extinguisher
  • camera

What's that thing they say about curiousity?

Monday, September 08, 2008

Old Spice does it again


I thought I'd posted this before, but can't seem to find it. Anyway, here's another hilarious Old Spice commercial for your viewing pleasure.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Long John Silver's

I'd been craving for lobster for a while, so when I passed by a nearby Long John Silver's and noticed that they were selling these "lobster bites" a while back, I wanted to give it a try.

I finally tried it yesterday, and also bought some of their clam chowder--in case the lobster bites turned out to be a bomb, I'd at least still have some clam chowder.

Overall, I thought the lobster bites weren't too bad. You can really taste the lobster in the larger pieces, although much of the texture is lost. Still, if you're in need of a lobster fix, it makes a pretty good cheap solution.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

The End of the Universe


"Oh look! A Starbucks. Let's have a cup of Joe!"

He wasn't kidding. It really exists.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Call the Police!

Okay, so this recording is pretty old, but I was reminded of it while reading through some other news articles, and since I don't think I've posted it before, and it's pretty funny... and ridiculous at the same time, I figured I'd post it.


This is definitely not something worth call the police over. From what I understand, many fast food places offer some sort of "western" burger at one point or another, and they're often offered on a "limited time" basis, and we can assume that she went to a Burger King when it was no longer the promotional period for their Western Whopper... if we assume that she was actually at a Burger King, and not some other fast food joint.

If she really was at a Burger King, she does sort of have a point, as Burger King's slogan is "Have it your way." That supposedly means you can ask them to without certain condiments, or to add certain other condiments, to a burger. How hard would it have been for their employees to just add some bacon to a Whopper, and smear some barbecue sauce on the inside of one of the buns?

Still, that's not something you call the cops for. And I bet if she had asked them nicely, they would have happily added some bacon and barbecue sauce to her burger...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Why?

A few days ago I saw a this music special on MHD, that's when I found out that Jewel had released a new CD... except it's a country album.

First Michelle Branch, and now Jewel. Why?

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Celebrities who look alike... but not really

Ever since the first time I saw Rachel Bilson on The O.C., I've always thought that she reminded me of Mila Kunis from That '70s Show. In fact, I sometimes get the two of them mixed up. But when I really look at them, I don't think they look that much alike. I can easily tell them apart when looking at their pictures, or watching whatever TV show or movie they're in. Yet whenever I see one of them, I'm instantly reminded of the other. Sometimes I might even remember the other's name but struggle to remember the name of the actual person I'm looking at.

I guess they sort of give off the same vibe somehow. They're both brunettes, often with similar hair styles, and have a similar bodytype.

I'm glad to find that I'm not the only person who thinks they look similar. All you have to do is Google their names together, and you'll find others who think the same.

Another set of celebs who I think have that "similar but different vibe" would be Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton. Perhaps owing to the fact that they're both musicians, in addition to some physical similarities.

Jennifer Esposito and Eva Mendes are yet another example of this...

On the other hand, I think Erica Cerra, Sarah Shahi, and Emmanulle Vaugier really do look alike.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

I feel the earth move under my feet

An earthquake shook Southern California earlier today. According to the US Geological Survey, it was a magnitude 5.4 earthquake centered in the Chino Hills area, about 23.7 miles (38 km) away from where I live, at 11:42am.

I was working at the time, and felt the P-wave a few seconds before the actual quake, which lasted, I guess somewhere between 5 to 20 seconds (yeah, my internal clock sucks). Afterwards, I looked around the apartment, and the only thing that fell over was the air freshener in one of my bathrooms.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Don't do this

So as of July 1st, it is illegal in California to talk on your cellphone while driving, without using some sort of hands-free device. However, texting is still fine. WTF?

I mean, I get that a lot of teens who text a lot can text without looking at the keyboard or the screen, but they still gotta look at the screen to read what other people have texted them. That means taking your eyes off the road, which most people wouldn't be doing if they were talking on the phone, even if they weren't using any hands-free devices...


Anyway, here's a dude in India doing something that no one should ever do:

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Sneak previews on cable

When it was released on DVD last year, I remember reading the plot summary for Blood and Chocolate, and realizing that I've already watched it before. The strange thing for me, at the time, was that I don't ever recall going to the theaters to watch it--The movie hadn't piqued my interest enough for me to want to spent money to watch it in the theaters. Nor did it garner enough interest for me to look for a way to watch it online.

What's more, I remember being able to watch a crystal clear picture version of it. I still remember very specific scenes, too. But no recollection of watching it in the theaters.

Then it hit me--I must have watched it as a sneak peak on a cable HD channel. It makes sense. They do sometimes show full-length movies that are only just getting to be released to theaters. Like the recent sneak peak of Quid Pro Quo. Which, coincidently, stars yet more people I recognize, but almost couldn't place.

There's Vera Farmiga from The Departed, and Nick Stahl from Terminator 3.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Friday the 13th: You win

On my way back to the office after buying lunch, my car's "Service Engine Soon" light came on. So I dropped by AutoZone after work to see if I can find out what's causing it... Hoping that it's just something minor, like maybe I didn't tighten the gas cap enough.

No such luck. Instead, I've got this.

P0403

EGR Flow Circuit Malfunction

And here are the details, according to AutoZone's printout:

Definition
EGR system fault (Exhaust Gas Recirculation)
Explanation
The ECM has detected a fault in the EGR solenoid circuit
Probable Causes
1.-Failed EGR vacuum solenoid
2.-Open or short circuit condition on the EGR solenoid circuit
3.-EGR solenoid faulty
4.-Failed EGR pressure sensor where applicable
5.-Failed EGR position sensor where applicable

It was $140 to "rent" the ODB-II scanner, which they supposedly credited back to me when I returned it (about five minutes of use). The credit back hasn't shown up yet, though.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

That one with the guy who was in the movie that was out last year

Ever watch something, and see some actor that you recognize, but can't quite place where you've seen him or her? Happens to me all the time. Recently, there's been a few actors I've been trying to place (and was able to, thanks to the Internet).

First, there's Chris Williams. He's in the end of this State Farm Insurance commercial.
He's also in the recent "Smoky Chipotle Crispy Chicken" commercial for KFC, but I couldn't find a video of it online.

I've seen him in Dodgeball, The Wedding Bells, and Californication.


Next, another KFC commercial.
There's Jessy Schram, who I would've seen in Veronica Mars, and Edwin Hodge, who I've seen in Invasion. That's why they both look familiar.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

A parody of revisionist history

19 years ago, students in China led a series of protests, cumulating to a tragic end on June 4, 1989 at Tiananmen Square. This post is in memory of those who gave their lives.

The image above comes from an episode of The Simpsons that aired three years ago.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Mighty Wingman

I was reminded of this Coors Light commercial (which I guess I've never posted, because it's older than my first blog entry), while watching an episode of Flight of the Conchords on HBO while I was making black sesame ice cream last night.

The episode involved a gender role-reversal, in which the two guys try to date two girls who work at a bakery. One of them (Jemaine) asks the other (Bret) to be the wingman, but while Bret has all the luck with the girls, Jemaine couldn't get either girl interested in him.

Bret's (eventual) date turns out to be very aggressive, behaving like what's typically described of guys--The other girl went along as her wingman. When it became clear that Bret didn't want to have sex with her after only two dates, she told him that she has to ship out for war in Iraq so that he'd have sex with her. She's done in five minutes, then falls asleep. When Bret encounters her again at the shop, she claims that they changed her schedule, and that she'd have to ship out the day after, then saying that they both used each other and dumps him. As Bret and Jemaine leave, she's seen high-fiving the other girls in the shop and mocking Bret.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way

This is quite impressive. Here you see the guy in the process of mapping real human textures onto the cartoon Jessica Rabbit character. You can get the full-sized picture here.

He's also done the same for Homer Simpson and Mario (of the Super Mario Bros.).

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Aliph Jawbone

I got myself a new Bluetooth headset and a new cell phone... Primarily, because my old headset's battery had to be charged every other day--too often to my liking. So I bought the Aliph Jawbone, CNet's highest rated Bluetooth headset for cell phones.

It has such a high rating for two things--"Noise Shield" and "Audio Enhancement." Both work great. However, there are several caveats to using the headset.

As you can see from the above picture, the top cover came off. How did this happen? While trying to remove the charger. Chalk this one to bad design and lack of documentation. There's no "release button" or anything like that on the charger, but you're not supposed to just pull the thing off the headset, despite there being no instructions on charger removal in the owner's manual. Only after contacting their support staff, am I given proper instructions for removal.
  1. With the top of the Jawbone facing up, hold the Jawbone in one hand.
  2. With your other hand, grasp the cap of the USB charger cable on the top and bottom (not the sides) with your thumb and forefinger.
  3. Gently bend the cap of the USB charger cable downward and away until the Jawbone is disengaged.
Without these instructions (which, as of this posting, cannot even be found in the FAQ section of their website), you're likely going to get the top pulled off eventually.

The next caveat, which is probably the first thing anyone would notice on a non-broken unit--the design and size. This is just a quick comparison of size...

All of the "professional" reviews I've read for the Jawbone talk about how good the Jawbone looks. I do not concur. They also do concede on its large, bulky size. On that, I do concur.

As you can see, not only is the Jawbone larger in terms of surface area, it is also much thicker.

Not surprisingly, the Jawbone looks huge when worn properly.

Still, the most important thing about a headset is that it should work properly. Looks are secondary. As I've mentioned earlier, what this unit is top-rated for, works great. Also, despite its apparent size, it's still quite light--at 0.5 ounces, it is by no means heavy.

Noise Shield--Jawbone identifies your voice (through an "activity sensor" that must make contact with your face), and eliminates virtually all other sounds, so the other side of the line can hear exactly what you're saying.

Audio Enhancement--Jawbone monitors the volume of the noise around you, and adjusts the volume of the headset accordingly, so that you should be able to hear your call even if you're surrounded by loud noises.


But that brings us to the next caveat. Jawbone is apparently very susceptible to the many radio frequencies around us, as after pairing it with my Z520a (a Cingular phone, which Jawbone all but promised to work well with), it would constantly drop the Bluetooth connection--even though they are sitting right next to each other. After the connection is dropped, the phone will try to find it again, and reconnect, only to have the connection drop again 20 seconds later. This often continues for 10 to 20 minutes, until the phone finally gives up trying.

During this time, however, the phone's battery is considerably drained. Whereas before, I could keep the phone on standby for about 4 days before I had to charge it again, with the constant searching of the Bluetooth device, the battery needs to be charged again the very next day... which rather defeats my purpose in getting a new Bluetooth headset. And since the Z520a never dropped the connection to my previous two Bluetooth headsets, I know the problem is not the phone.


However, upon getting a new phone--I was up for a free upgrade, and wanted a new phone anyway--Jawbone does work much better with it, and hasn't dropped the connection once... it basically means anyone buying the Jawbone has to be very careful about what phone they have, as I've read about many other phones that don't pair well with Jawbone.


As mentioned earlier, I've contact their support staff--more about the broken cover than about the Bluetooth connection. Although they were initially very quick to respond, giving me instructions on requesting an RMA, they've yet to respond to the RMA request, even though they mentioned that I should be getting a response within one business day. Two business days later, I still had no response.

Friday, April 11, 2008

GoPhone

What normally would have been a corny commercial has become awesome because of Meat Loaf.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Flickr Video


Earlier today, I read that Flickr is now beginning to offer video hosting to its "pro" members. That's almost perfect timing, as I had only just started to make more videos with my digital camera, and was not sure about uploading them along with the other stuff I've got on my YouTube account.

The current limit is for 90-second videos, not larger than 150 megabytes in file size. For the moment, that length is sufficient for me, as none of the recent videos I took exceed that length. The saxophone solo from my uncle, on the other hand...

The upside is that, as you can see, the resolution of the embedded videos seem to be higher with Flickr video than YouTube (although you can also get higher quality playbacks from YouTube if watch it directly from the site). Hopefully they'll be able to offer the full resolutions of the uploaded videos in the future, like they do now with pictures.

I also read that it takes AVI, MOV, and MPEG files. Wasn't sure if that included MP4s that I've converted to work with my PSP--which, coincidentally, I've just made a 720x480 conversion of last night. Perfect for me to test with, and it worked, so that's good to know.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Neeerrrrds!


In case you don't know, LARP = Live Action Role-Playing.

Here's an example:

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

We like the moooon~~~

I've been wanting to take pictures of the night moon with my new camera ever since I got it. Unfortunately, at first I couldn't get the settings right. Then after the eclipse, it's been nearly a month before it was visible in the night sky long enough for me to photograph it (it had already set by the time I got home from work for the past few weeks).

Well, not tonight. Tonight, I got it. The picture on the left was taken with flash fired, while the one on the right was taken without flash. Of course, flash would not reach something as far away as the moon, but I was hoping it would decrease the exposure time. (The moon is quite bright, so longer exposures with the camera would result in pictures with just light, and no details.) Alas, it did not, but the results are still interesting. As you can see, the moon appears with more of a golden hue when the flash was fired, and is closer to the color we're used to seeing with the naked eye.

Once again, feel free to compare with my previous attempt. It should be noted that in this previous entry, the picture where the moon is smaller... was taken with my 5-megapixel Minolta camera, while the the one where the moon appears to be larger was taken with my 2-megapixel Panasonic (with 12× optical zoom). The 2-megapixel camera's moon looks almost as big as the 7.2- megapixel counterpart! (It is still smaller, but the resultant size might have more to do with the angle of the moon than anything else. It also lacks the detail that can be seen from my new camera.)

Monday, March 17, 2008

Monday, March 03, 2008

Cell Phone Towers

Sometime last year, I noticed a cell tower very close to where I live as I was driving home--Most of the time I take a different route home, and it's also often dark by the time I get home, so I don't know how long it's been there before I noticed it.

Then, about a month ago, I noticed another one, only about a block away from the first one...
I've circled the cell towers in this satellite map from Google Maps. You can see the long shadows each tower casts...

And for perspective, the same map, without satellite imagery. I've overlaid the same circles to mark the locations of these towers.



For the curious, these cell towers were "disguised" as very tall trees. The one on the left is an AT&T cell tower. I didn't get close enough to the other one to see which wireless carrier it's for, or if it's for multiple carriers.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon

In case you don't know, Jimmy Kimmel is the host of the late night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, on ABC. As a running gag, he often ended his show with apologies to Matt Damon, because they ran out of time and had to bump his appearance on the show. They took the joke further when Matt Damon was finally scheduled for an appearance...

At the premiere of Ocean's Thirteen:

Prior to the release of The Bourne Ultimatum:

Not too long ago, Jimmy's girlfriend, comedian Sarah Silverman, was on his show, and they extended this joke with the following music video:

And last night, on the post-Oscar show, Jimmy Kimmel showed this reply video:

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Example of Range

Most digital cameras have "3× optical zoom," which is really only adequate if you never need to take shots from a long range. Having "10× optical zoom" means being able to get that close-up shot from the back of the room, without getting out of your seat to block other people's view. Or get a good look at something you can barely make out with your naked eye.

So here, an example of the zoom in use from pictures I snapped at Taipei 101:

This was taken without using any zoom.

The zoom in this photo is around 3.4×, which is slightly higher than what most digital cameras are capable of.

At 10× zoom. Also note that these pictures were sized down for Blogger, so the original, 7.2 megapixel picture is almost twice the size of the 1600×1200 images you see here (and about 8 time larger than the thumbnail images in this post).

Wide angle

I've been wanting to do this for a while now--since my new camera has a "wide-angle lens"--to take pictures with the new camera, and with the old camera, from the same place, to see the difference in how much you can see from a regular camera, as compared to a wide angle camera.

This was taken with my old Minolta:

And this is with my new Panasonic:
Of course, neither one is being displayed at their full resolution, as Blogger doesn't allow pictures larger than 1600x1200.

Why is this wide angle important? Well, for instance, if you were hanging out with a group of friends, do you need to get some extra space in order to fit all of your friends into the frame? Sometimes you might not have that extra space available to you. When the camera has a wider angle, you won't need as much of that extra space.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Turn around, bright eyes

Once upon a time there was light in my life
Now there's only love in the dark
Nothing I can say
A total eclipse of the heart

Wednesday, February 20, 2008.

Total. Lunar. Eclipse.

And I actually watched it this time. The next total lunar eclipse won't happen again until 2010, although there will be another lunar eclipse later this year.

More photos I took of the event available here.


Edit: On a side note, while I was taking these pictures, one of my neighbors (or perhaps a neighbor's friend) walked by and inquired what I was doing. He then related to me that, as he works for the fire department, he has noticed that during the nights with full moon, they would often get more calls of people causing disturbances and whatnot... however, he had noticed that the night before, knowing that it would once again be a full moon, there weren't as many calls as he anticipated, and perhaps the eclipse was the reason.

People have often associated the phases of the moon with the madness, hence the word lunatic (luna = moon); I used to think such an association was more in the realm of urban legend, but hearing first-hand anecdotal evidence like this kind of takes away the "friend of a friend" requirement of urban legends.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Shake it like a Polaroid picture

Years from now, when the children of our current generation grow up, if they listen to the music of our day, they might be prompted to ask what "shake it like a Polaroid picture" means.

Not because you don't actually need to shake the Polaroids for the instant pictures to appear, but because Polaroid is shutting down its two US film production plants, and other out-of-country plants will follow suit. In short, Polaroid is getting out of the film business.

I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone, really... With digital cameras becoming so cheap and widespread, just about anyone can take quick snapshots, and see the results instantly--faster than Polaroid's fastest instant film. What's more, you don't need to keep buying expensive instant film that you cannot reuse for this convenience. (Currently, you can get 20 Polaroid exposure films for $25, and 40 exposures for $52 from Amazon. That's $1.25 per photo for the cheapest Polaroid picture! And.. um.. why would you buy the 40 exposure package when the per photo cost is more?)

The last time I went to Little Tokyo for Shabu Shabu, I noticed this group of people walking around, taking group photos--with a Polaroid camera! I was certainly surprised that anyone would still be using it. Then I noticed that a few people in the group also had their own digital cameras, and they went on to take pictures with these digital cameras. I wonder... will the owner of that Polaroid camera be sad to be out of instant film next year?

Sunday, February 03, 2008

"Strange" ads in Taiwan

The dachshund is also sometimes referred to as weiner dog, hot dog, or sausage dog. In Chinese, its official translation means "sausage dog."

That brings us to the above sign, which is hung underneath the store sign of a pet store in a row of pet stores. Roughly translated, the sign reads:

"Racing class long-haired sausage"

(Racing class, racing grade, or whatever. I'm not up on dog breeding vernacular.)

When my sister saw this sign, unaware of its surroundings, she commented, "Ew! Why would anyone want to eat hairy sausages?"

Context is important, folks.

Want a mail-order bride, but don't think you can afford one? Look no further. The sign above promises to get you a Vietnamese bride, with the security of a contract and inexpensive fees. Just call the number below.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

In remembrance

From the first three years of our lives, both my brother and I were raised by my grandmother--part of the reason was that, when my brother was born, my grandfather had just passed away, so my brother could keep grandma company. When I was born, it wouldn't have been long before my brother had to start kindergarten, so I would also be able to keep her company.

Back then, grandma lived further away, in the countryside of Yilan. Afterwards, she moved closer to Taipei, and both my brother and I would visit her almost every weekend, as well as vacations (spring break, summer vacation, winter vacation, etc.); it's a safe bet to say that if anyone knows how I feel about grandma, it would be my brother, and vice versa.

Grandma always took good care of me, and always prepared my favorite food for me--my love for certain vegetables is in no small part thanks to her cultivation of my tastes.

When we came to the US, the person I missed the most was my grandmother. I found out from my aunts that at the airport, she kept a brave face in front of us, so that we wouldn't make a fuss and not make our flights, but as soon as we got out of sight, grandma wept. The thought of this always makes me cry.

My only comfort now is that when she passed away, it was peacefully in her sleep, and that she did get to spend time with her first great-grandchild--Kaelyn, my niece.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Apparently, I bought two award winners

Joanne (one of Lynn's bridesmaids) bought a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T200 last month, and it is now somewhat broken not quite right, since she's been clubbing a lot, and because of the alcohol, people invariably drop it or hit something with it. So she asked me if I knew anything about the life-cycle of Sony's digital cameras, specifically regarding how often they release new versions of their cameras (which in turn would affect how quickly their prices may drop).

In looking up that information, I found out that the T200 apparently won a 2008 International CES Innovations award. Which reminded me that I saw a sticker on the box of my TZ3 for an award, too.

Of course, I had to look that up. It seems to have won the 2007/2008 European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) Award in the "Compact Camera" category. From the same place, SanDisk's Extreme III SDHC cards also won in the "Memory Card" category. Good to know, I guess.

Also, judging from the layout of their websites, it looks like the T200 is Sony's current flagship in the area of ultra-compact digital cameras, while the TZ3 is Panasonic's current flagship in the area of consumer digital cameras.


The photo above was taken with the TZ3 at 10x optical zoom (click on the image for full-size). Compare with photos I took using the Minolta DiMAGE X50, and the Panasonic DMC-FZ1. The difference is quite staggering... although I haven't been able to take a decent version of the moon at night yet. Will have to play with the settings a bit more.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

I've lost my favorite person in the world

My mom called me this afternoon to let me know that my grandmother has passed away.

Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf

I was listening to Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler) the other day, and decided to look up more info about it. Then I found out that it, along with Making Love (Out of Nothing At All) (Air Supply) were both written by Jim Steinman, who had given these songs to Meat Loaf, his long time collaborator, first.

Apparently, the two have had a troubled relationship, and when they reconciled in 1986, he gave the song It's All Coming Back to Me Now to Meat Loaf to use in his then new album, but they decided to use I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That), instead, putting it on the backburner for another album further down the line in the future.

As most of us know, it became a hit for Celine Dion when she recorded it in 1996. And as you can see, Meat Loaf did eventually record his own version in 2006, as a duet with Marion Raven (formerly of M2M).

Since all of these songs have been made famous by other people, it may be kind of hard to imagine Meat Loaf singing them. But listening to I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That), I get it--they're all power ballads, which Meat Loaf does pretty well. What exactly is "that" which he won't do? It's actually all there in the lyrics...

Total Eclipse of the Heart... do some parts of the video seem a bit too literal to you? It does to me.

Making Love (Out of Nothing At All) is lyrically similar in structure to I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That); in Making Love, the singer lists the things he knows, or the things he can do, then follows them quickly by something he doesn't know or can't do ("I don't know how you do it, making love out of nothing at all"). Likewise, in Anything for Love, he lists the things he'd do, then follows them with things he won't do ("But I'll never forget the way you feel right now, no way")

Saturday, January 12, 2008

SDHC

My SanDisk 4GB Extreme III SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) arrived today. Well, technically, yesterday, since it is now technically "Saturday morning." I did not get it from Dell, as mentioned in my earlier post, however. Apparently Dell had trouble getting the card in stock, and after needing to delay the shipment a second time, they informed me that they must obtain confirmation from me to keep the order, or they would have to cancel it, due to some law or regulation. As I also did not want to keep waiting for who knows how long, I placed an order from J&R on Wednesday, who I've ordered from before through Amazon, and opted for the 2nd Day Air shipping method.

Why "Extreme III"? Well, it has a transfer speed of 20MB/s, or 133x. For recording videos, Panasonic recommends a card with at least a transfer speed of 10MB/s, and SanDisk's next class of SD cards are "Ultra II," which are 10MB/s--10MB/s read, 9MB/s write. That's pushing it a bit close for me, so in my opinion, it's better to go high than low. Plus, with a 7.2 megapixel camera, the pictures will mostly be larger in size, so having a higher transfer speed never hurts.

With the transfer speed, there's something important to note--Officially, SDHC cards have three class ratings--Class 2 for at least 2MB/s, Class 4 for at least 4MB/s, and Class 6 for at least 6MB/s. Anything faster than that are all Class 6, which is why you see a "6" enclosed in a larger "C" printed on the card. It also means both the "Ultra II" and the "Extreme III" are "Class 6" cards. Which is why the "Class 6" rating doesn't hold too much meaning these days. If you need a certain transfer speed, it's better to find a card that either lists the megabytes per second rate, or a multiplier rate (such as 133x, where x is "multiplied by 150 kilobytes per second"). If neither values are available, and you need a card that transfers faster than 6MB/s, move on.

Incidentally, SanDisk is not the only manufacturer that has these high speed SD cards. At present, I know of Panasonic and Transcend SDHC cards that are 133x and 150x, respectively. Have not yet found an 8 GB SDHC card with that transfer speed, however.

You'll also notice in the picture that the card came with a "MicroMate" USB card reader. That's because SDHC is a new standard, so while devices that support SDHC can use either SDHC or SD, older devices that can read SD probably can't read SDHC cards. So the USB reader fixes that problem. Plus it's USB 2.0. For some strange reason, Panasonic did not deem it fit to equip the SDHC-supporting TZ3 camera with USB 2.0 compatibility when connecting to the PC.

The card also comes with a neat little carrying pouch for the USB reader, a case for the card, and SanDisk's RescuePro software, which can be helpful in trying to retrieve data from a corrupted card, or accidentally deleted data.


I've only taken a few pictures with it, but I like it. The transfer speed is fast, and the USB reader makes the card (or any SD/SDHC card) double as a flash drive.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The curse of the just-washed car

So after the rain last week, I waited for the weather forecast to confirm that there won't be more rain in their extended forecast, and finally washed my car last night.

And wouldn't you know it? Just after I got back from buying lunch, a bird (or birds) have dropped not one, not two, but three bombs on my car. I even purposely parked away from trees and power lines. Ugh.

Friday, January 04, 2008

New camera

I ordered a new camera last weekend, and it just arrived today. This makes it my fourth digital camera.

I've wanted a new camera for a while, ever since I've had need to have better optical zoom from my ultracompact Minolta. The Minolta was a big compromise for me, since I really liked having a powerful telephoto lens like the 12x (35-420mm equivalent) I got from my Panasonic DMC-FZ1.

I originally got the Minolta (DiMage X50) for two reasons:
  1. The FZ1 was too big to carry around, and I wanted a camera I can take with me everywhere.
  2. The FZ1 was only 2 megapixels (compared to the X50's 5mp)
I figured that since I rarely had the opportunity to make use the ultra-zoom I got from the FZ1, I wouldn't miss it all that much. Well, I kinda did. Plus despite its lower resolution, the pictures I got from it typically looked better than the X50's (when sized-down).

So I began looking for a middle ground--something that was more compact, but provided a higher zoom than the 3x optical found on most digital cameras. Eventually, I decided on the Panasonic DMC-TZ3, a compact (though not ultracompact) 7.2 mp, 10x optical zoom camera (28-280mm equivalent).

Here we have a size comparison with my very old, regular-sized Olympus camera, and my ultracompact X50. As you can see, it's a good size bigger than the X50, but still much smaller than the average point-and-shoot camera. The FZ1 was much larger than the Olympus, so lugging it around was no picnic, although there are plenty of larger cameras out there.

This should help put it into better perspective--compare the sizes with a "credit card."
(It's actually a refrigerator magnet that looks like a credit card, courtesy of American Express.)

Obviously, it's also not as slim as the ultracompact cameras. Still, it's not bad, especially considering that it has 10x optical zoom. The lens does extend out once you turn it on, and will extend even more when you push it to the full 10x, but the point of a compact camera is so that you can carry it around with you with more ease, which means the "off" position is what you'll have it on while you're going from place to place... so the extended lens size wouldn't be a factor.

Now, compared to the FZ1, it may not be as noticeable from the front how much larger the old Panasonic is...

...but if you look from the different angle (or see them in person), you can immediately tell the difference. Even when turned off, the FZ1 has quite a long barrel (compared to traditional telephoto cameras with the same amount of zoom, however, it was quite small).

Even when fully extended, the TZ3 is still slimmer than the FZ1 when off. With both fully extended...


Along with the camera, I also ordered an additional battery (from the same site), a 4 gigabyte, Extreme III SDHC card (from Dell), and a carrying case (directly from Panasonic). The camera is the first to arrive, the carrying case is on its way, and the memory card has not shipped yet. Normally, this is the part of the blog where I start bitching about the online store's service, but not this time. See, this time, Dell was very prompt in informing of the shipment delay, so I know exactly what to expect. The other stores I complained about never bothered to let me know of any shipping/stock issues, leaving me in the dark regarding the status of my order--that's what I was really complaining about.

So for now, I'll be using my older, 2GB Ultra II SD card in my new camera.