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After 41 weeks without posting to LiveJournal I have decended from high atop my ivory tower of social networking elitism into the bowels of the Internet to bring you this good news:
I was right.
Allow me to call your attention to the following article:
Official: HD DVD dead and buried, format war is over
And now let me remind you:
http://adwb.livejournal.com/6902.html
Full disclosure: I purchased an HD-DVD drive on sale at BestBuy a year ago but never took it out of the box. I sold it on eBay to a guy in the Netherlands. I also own a PS3 which has a Blu-Ray player built in. I have never played a Blu-Ray disc. I did download a high-def version of Planet Earth. I have no idea if it was on an HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray before it was ripped and seeded. |
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I was going to post something important here after over a year of ignoring LiveJournal as a whole and my first experience is one of anger and disappointment. I had typed my message to the world and then curiosity (and LiveJournal's web developer's incompetence) got the better of me. It turns out those little question mark buttons don't open new windows or act like tool tips as one would expect. It turns out they navigate away from this page and cause me to lose everything I typed.
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Eve asked me what kind of tattoo I wanted and I told her "I want Eve getting tempted by the serpent." So she drew it in pen and I'm going to get it traced at Anchor Tattoo today.
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Blu-ray Coming Out On Top?
I did: Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?
Obviously this is not the final battle but Blu-ray is definitely moving up. |
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Eve and I met a girl from Germany named Anna. The first half of the conversation is Eve chatting as me.
( Read more... ) |
| » This guy is my new hero |
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He flew 1,000,000 miles in 56 days on Air Canada. The airline sold him a $7,000 ticket that gave him unlimited flights for 60 days. After racking up a million miles on his frequent flyer account he got a voucher for $70,000 worth of business-class airfair.
http://gcmr2005.blogspot.com/
Dec. 2nd, 2005 @ 01:34 am
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| » still not sleeping much |
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I said I would update you on my progress in my last post and I like to be reliable. In the immortal words of HAL 9000: "Everything is going extremely well."
( Read more... )
Nov. 25th, 2005 @ 02:41 am
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| » can't sleep |
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If I posted every time I couldn't sleep at 2AM my LiveJournal would probably crash the server. Ok, I don't really know what kind of hardware LJ is running but you know what I'm saying.
Had my second date tonight. First real date if you don't count sitting around with Zach and Maggie watching Firefly. Ruxton Towers played a good show and I had a couple beers which makes it easier say what I think (rather than what I think people might be interested in hearing). Apparently what I think went over well because tonight was also the first kiss. Second date? First kiss? Too soon? Whatever. I'm doing things differently this time around. More of what I feel like doing and less of what I think I ought to do.
I'll let you know how it turns out.
Nov. 13th, 2005 @ 01:51 am
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| » One good experience deserves a bad one |
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Today I had a first date. Ok, not a real date. We just watched television with my brother and Maggie but we did sit next to eachother.
Today I fell. I was trying to unplug my laptop from an awkward outlet and upon standing up I tripped over the cord and fell. Fortunately I protected the computer but I bruised my leg as you can see in the following photo...
( Read more... )
Nov. 11th, 2005 @ 03:02 am
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| » Laptop repair status |
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I sent my laptop to Toshiba to be repaired after experiencing repeated BSOD resulting from faulty video hardware. Below you will find an updated status log.
( Read more... )
Nov. 3rd, 2005 @ 01:19 am
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| » this is my first post since diana and i broke up |
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diana won custody of live journal after the breakup but i retain visitation rights.
she obviously loves you more than i do, lj.
Oct. 30th, 2005 @ 05:14 pm
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| » Blu-Ray or HD-DVD Update |
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I would like to draw your attention to an article which describes some of the details of the new Toshiba HD-DVD player.
From the article: "The most interesting thing for people buying TVs at the moment is that Toshiba have stated that their HD-DVD Player will ONLY output high Def on the player's HDMI output..."
Keep that in mind when you go shopping for a new HD TV.
Jul. 29th, 2005 @ 11:09 am
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| » How to buy a car |
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> How to begin looking for new/used auto.
think about if you want to shell out thousands of dollars on a new
vehicle. then come to your senses and buy a used vehicle.
> How to look for new/used auto.
the best way to decide what type of vehicle you will want to buy is to
look at as many as possible. visit autotrader.com, cars.com,
autos.msn.com, and ebaymotors.com
once you have established the make and model you will begin to see
what the market for said car is like. after you know the reasonable
range of cost for a car of a certain vintage with a certain number of
miles you can go car shopping.
plan a day to drive to puyallup and stop at every auto lot that looks
like it might have something even close to what you want. do not take
any money with you. leave your credit cards at home. in fact, leave
your wallet at home and only take your license. this way, even if you
are pressured into buying you can relax... there's no way you can pay
for it.
test drive as many cars as possible.
> How to dicker, if necessary.
on a completely different day you can make your purchase. i recommend
waiting a week from the time you test drove the perfect car. in that
time you will either confirm or deny your initial feeling.
the best way to buy from a dealership is to act relaxed. if you seem
nervous they will push you. if you seem anxious they will try to hard
sell. the auto sales person's job is to make you uncomfortable and
distract you from the obvious problems with the deal.
making small talk about what you may have read online about various
autos helps me to act cool and confident. i say "i read that this car
gets x miles to the gallon" the sales person usually has no idea, but
it buys you some time to examine the condition.
> What to do before finalization of purchase of new/used auto.
look at everything, especially the under-carriage. i always start with
the paint. if it looks like shit the car has been outside all its life
and probably has more than just paint damage. if it's dented it means
the previous owner was careless and likely didn't repair any of the
other cosmetic damages. i think it's illegal to sell a car with bald
tires so check that out... you might get a free set. it's also illegal
to sell a car with a cracked windshield.
the next big thing is rust. check under the fenders, bumper, around
the headlights, doors, and windows. if you see paint chipping off and
rust underneath be prepared to do some sanding and repainting later
(rust spreads like crazy if left unchecked). examine the exhaust. if
it has holes it needs to be replaced.
after the exterior is the mechanisms. unlocking the door should be
smooth and relatively easy. if the locks are sticky or the automatic
unlocker doesn't work be prepared to completely disassemble the door
trying to find the problem. adjust the seats. adjust the mirrors,
adjust the steering wheel, open the trunk, open the hood, etc. if
anything squeeks or scrapes or is hard to operate it's probably rusty
and will fail sooner rather than later.
once inside the car check the electrical systems. don't start the car
right away. turn the key to accessory and see if all the lights come
on. check the signals, check the brake and headlights, check the
guages, and check the radio. try the brights, try the emergency
flashers. if any of these things don't work, walk away from the car.
electrical problems are more expensive than any other thing to repair.
it's incredibly difficult to troubleshoot and even more difficult to
fix. (my 4-runner had a burnt out relay in the back door which
prevented the rear window from rolling down which prevented the back
door from unlocking which prevented me from using the rear end at all.
the replacement part was about $500.)
start that shit. i'm not going to go into all the problems with
engines. you'll know if it's messed up. it'll sound bad and feel
underpowered. steering is a major nightmare to repair. if the
suspention feels too soft or squeeks when you drive over bumps you
don't want to mess with it.
make a list. don't try to make mental notes, you will always forget
when you're trying to dicker. don't give the sales person your notes,
just read them off. and if you did your research (the week after you
test drove it) you will know how much each of those parts cost both
from shops and from ebay. use this to drive the price down. some
things they will not agree to repair. anything cosmetic goes with the
car, but mechanical defects should be negotiated out of the purchase
price.
part of your deal will be the inspection of the car by a mechanic of
your choosing. this is important because it shows the sales person you
aren't an idiot and you get a professionals opinion of the vehicle's
value. after you test drive and love it, call around to the local auto
shops (if you don't know anyone personally go for the bigger names)
and ask them how much to do a pre-purchase inspection. i think i paid
around $90 for my bmw.
> What to do after finalization of purchase of new/used auto.
read all the paperwork. it's not that long, just read it.
> What to do to not get fucked after purchase of new/used auto.
as soon as humanly possible, take the car to the shop. preferably to
the same guy who did the inspection (if it's in the area) and have him
fix whatever needs to be fixed. the brakes are something that auto
dealers never replace... because you can't see them! a brake job is
like $200 so just get it done if the mechanic says you could use it.
remember the rusty muffler? get it fixed. it will improve performance
and gas miliage not to mention the noise.
Jun. 17th, 2005 @ 03:24 pm
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| » Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? |
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"[HD-DVD] has a lower data density and thus more limited disc capacity, but could in principle benefit from lower manufacturing costs for both the drive units and the pre-recorded/recordable media."
- Wikipedia
If this cost difference is transfered from the media manufacturers to the end user HD-DVD will win. Would you buy an optical media technology that cost more and store the same amount of data?
Note: I personally believe that Blu-Ray is a superior technology and that the corporate backing is going to make the difference. (HD-DVD is not backed by companies that really pull their own weight in the media industry)
Jun. 15th, 2005 @ 12:48 am
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| » My iPod makes me steal |
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 When I'm sitting at a computer I can log in to Yahoo! Music Engine, queue up a bunch of my favourite tracks and go on with the rest of my day. It costs me $6.99 a month to stream any album in their 1mn song database. Prior to Yahoo's release I subscribed to Real's Rhapsody service which was equally useful albeit over-priced.
Then I bought an iPod. Turns out all the popular new unlimited music services use a DRM technology not compatible with iPod. So I find myself paying for this incredibly convenient service that I can only use at my computer then downloading the same music from some peer to peer service so I can play it on the go.
Seeing as how I pay a subscription to Yahoo for the same music I've got on my iPod one would think I'm not stealing. The problem is that the artists get paid every time I play a track on the music streaming service... they don't make anything from the music sitting on my iPod.
So please Apple, let me play Janus DRM files on iPod or start providing a subscription music service.
May. 22nd, 2005 @ 11:18 am
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| » robots in space |
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here's an idea: instead of building space ships capable of sustaining human life and sending them to research on mars send robots.
oh they thought of that already? well here's another: instead of sending one or two robots which are designed to do as much as a human before getting high-centered on a rock or lost send specialized robots.
i'm not talking about one robot to collect samples on one hemisphere and one to handle the other. send a dozen robots which are all designed to do a specific type of research... sort of like a team of specialized researchers.
but don't stop there. make common elements on each robot specifically for robot repair. this means when one of the unlucky robots gets stuck in a ditch one of the other ones could roll by and help it out. if one of them lost a part another one could switch to repair mode. you know... like a team of real people.
May. 11th, 2005 @ 11:31 pm
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| » possible feature of the ps3: umd r/w |
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a thread over at psp-vault discusses one person's encounter with a sony rep.
from the post: "... they are building a UMD Reader and Writer in the next Playstation Console."
this would likely place the ps3 in direct competition with tivo and windows media center. if the ps3 includes a tuner card you could record tv shows, burn them onto umd and watch them on psp.
if the aforementioned becomes possible it is likely that one could transfer mp3's and pre-encoded video over the network to the ps3 and then burn onto umd.
but does this make sense for sony? from a consumer electronics perspective: yes. they place themselves in line to be the next tivo.
but from an entertainment industry perspective they could damage sales of movies and albums on umd.
which direction will make them more money?
Apr. 17th, 2005 @ 04:07 pm
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| » psp features |
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if any of you are considering whether or not to buy a psp read this article which discusses the current feature set as well as future possibilities.
Apr. 17th, 2005 @ 01:30 am
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