Blu-ray's ascendancy continues

Apple Insider reports: [edited]

Best Buy and movie rental service Netflix both said on Monday that they would focus their attention on Blu-ray discs.

Netflix was first to take the initiative and said that it would no longer add HD DVDs to its movie library, instead stocking only Blu-ray movies in the foreseeable future. HD DVD titles will remain an option for subscribers to the monthly service for now, but will gradually phase out as older movies leave regular rotation.

Best Buy is adopting a similar policy, according to reports. The big-box outlet now says it will prefer Blu-ray in its stores as of early March and will give both playback devices as well as movie catalogs more prominent placement in its stores than their HD DVD equivalents. Floor staff will also recommend Blu-ray over its rival.

The turnovers at either company only add to existing difficulties for HD DVD, which first saw its fortunes turn at the very start of 2008 when Hollywood studio Warner Bros.announced Blu-ray exclusivity beginning in June.

Warner's announcement left more than 70 percent of all high-definition movies as Blu-ray titles and pushed the HD DVD Promotional Group to abruptly cancel its keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show later in January. Toshiba followed suit by cutting HD DVD player prices in what analysts at Gartner dubbed "useless resistance" to a sea change in favor of Blu-ray.
------------

Silver Surfer - Requiem

The Silver Surfer has his origins as a young astronomer called Norrin Radd, living on the extremely advanced planet Zenn-La. However, to save his home-world from destruction by the planet-eating Galactus, he makes a Faustian pact, devoting himself to Galactus' service.

Galactus gives Norrin Radd great powers, a silvery protective coating and a cosmic surfboard. capable of, erm, faster-than-light speeds. The Silver Surfer's job was to roam the cosmos searching for new planets for Galactus to consume.

When his travels bring him to Earth, the Silver Surfer meets the Fantastic Four, who help him realise what a monster he has become. He manages to save Earth from Galactus, but only at the cost of being exiled on this planet forever.


Best known for writing Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski worked with Esad Ribic to produce Silver Surfer: Requiem. It follows the subject's last weeks after learning he has a terminal illness. The writing shows a good knowledge of the Silver Surfer's history, as well as sympathy for the tone of previous works. But it is Esad Ribic's illustrations and muted colouring that make this book special.

Worth a browse next time you're in the graphic novel section at your local mega-bookstore.
------------

When home cinema becomes an obsession

Audio Video Interiors reports: [edited]

When it comes to home theaters, I thought I'd seen it all. But nothing's come close to this. First, I'm going to try to describe the sheer magnitude of Jeremy Kipnis' theater. His Stewart Snowmatte laboratory-grade screen is the biggest I've ever seen in a home, and in the back of the theater, there's a Sony ultra-high-resolution (4,096-by-2,160) SRX-S110 digital projector.

While the KSS is technically an 8.8-channel audio system, it uses a lot more than eight speakers and eight subwoofers.

The original contingent of eight subs sounded "really good" but, unfortunately, didn't deliver the full earth-moving-under-your-feet effect he wanted. So, he wound up with 16 18-inch Snell subs!


The speakers are fed by a well-balanced combination of audiophile solid-state and vacuum-tube amplifiers. The KSS is astonishing in the way it delivers power, but with 11,315 very high-quality watts on tap, that's hardly surprising. Not only can it play ungodly loud, the KSS sounds phenomenal while doing so and never hurt my tender ears.

The 18-foot screen fulfilled my IMAX fantasies, and the projector's va-va-voom color and brilliant light were transformational.

Price estimates will be site specific, but the cost of Kipnis' home system would be in the $6-million range.

Thanks to Sky for the link.
------------

Your mother was a hamster...

Sky News reports: [edited]

A new series of Mr Men sees Mr Rude speaking with a French accent - the only foreign-sounding character on the show. Mr Rude appears on the programme's official website telling viewers how rude he can be and blowing raspberries.

Chorion, the makers of the new show, defended the use of a French accent for Mr Rude.

"It is a kids' comedy show, it is not meant to be offensive or anything like that. It is very light-hearted," said a spokeswoman.

The show will feature four new characters including Little Miss Daredevil, based on a performance stunt rider, who wears a crash helmet, white heels and a rocket pack. Other characters will get a makeover, with Mr Strong no longer a square but boasting broader shoulders, a narrower waist and bulging biceps.

The Mr Men Show will air on Five's Milkshake! on February 25 at 7.30am.
------------

Viewing atoms through a microscope

Futurismic reports: [edited]

The world’s most powerful transmission electron microscope has been installed at the Department of Energy’s National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dubbed TEAM 0.5 (TEAM stands for Transmission Electron Aberration-corrected Microscope) it can produce images with a resolution of a half-angstrom: half of a ten-billionth of a meter, or less than the diameter of a single hydrogen atom. The test image above shows the arrangement of atoms formed where two gold crystals meet.

Advances in electronics and computer technology make the new microscope possible, enabling it to counteract spherical aberration (the aberration that, in an out-of-focus image, makes points of light look like disks), which also enables it to maintain its high resolution with a lower-energy beam of electrons, less likely to alter the subject. TEAM 1, due to be up and running next year, will also be able to counteract chromatic aberration, cased by different wavelengths of electrons being refracted at different angles by the microscope’s magnetic lenses.

The microscope can literally focus atom by atom in a sample, and with a new stage to be installed in TEAM 1, scientists will be able to manoeuvre samples with such fine control that they’ll be able to create a 3D image of the atomic structure. As the project leader puts it:

"This brings us within reach of meeting the great challenge posed by the famous physicist Richard Feynman in 1959: the ability to analyze any chemical substance simply by looking to see where the atoms are."

TEAM 0.5 and its components are now undergoing testing and tuning, and the microscope should be available to outside users starting this fall.
------------

London, Lincoln, London 10-02-08

LONDON to LINCOLN
Anthem - Zebrahead
Hippy With a Banjo - Those Darn Accordions
You're So Vain - Carly Simon
Mr Vain - Culture Beat
Lazy Sunday - Small Faces
The Boys Of Summer - Don Henley
Real - Plumb
Dead Ringer For Love - Meat Loaf
Year 3000 - Busted
You're Unbelievable - EMF
Snow Is Gone - Josh Ritter
Ya Ya - Lee Dorsey
Do Anything You Wanna Do - Eddie And The Hotrods
Take Me Back to Your House - Basement Jaxx
Ready for the Floor - Hot Chip
Joy! - Gay Dad
Up Around The Bend - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Solsbury Hill - Erasure
That Great Love Sound - The Raveonettes
The Fly - U2
If You Let Me Stay - Terence Trent D'Arby
Wasted Time - Kings Of Leon
C'est la vie (radio edit) - B*Witched
Come Home Billy Bird - The Divine Comedy
Ladyflash - The Go! Team
Dance Hall Days - Wang Chung
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
More Than A Woman - Tavares
Imagination - Belouis Some
Head Over Heels - ABBA
The Final Countdown - Europe
Big Yellow Taxi (featuring Vanessa Carlton) - Counting Crows
Concrete And Clay - Randy Edelman
It's My Life - Bon Jovi
Babylon - David Gray
Ray Of Light - Madonna
Girlie Girlie - Sophia George
Helicopter - Bloc Party
She Drives Me Crazy - Fine Young Cannibals
Girls & Boys - Good Charlotte
Dilemma - Nelly feat. Kelly Rowland

LINCOLN to LONDON
The 29th Day - Phil Roy
September - Earth Wind & Fire
Never Give Up - Yolanda Adams
Bullet & A Target - Citizen Cope
Conspiracy Of One - The Offspring
You Know - Skip Spence
Ten Commandments - Prince Heron
A Woman In Winter - The Skids
Get Him Back - Fiona Apple
The power - Snap
Miracle - Josh Rouse
Flying High Together - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Solace - a-ha
And Then Some - Chuck Loeb
I Worry - Scotty
Mike + Me - Adam Snyder
Headphones - Björk
Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me - Terri Clark
Good To Me - Brendan Benson
Waiting For a Star to Fall - Boy Meets Girl Vs. Cabin Crew
This Modern Love - Bloc Party
Dying On The Vine - The Jayhawks
Summer Of '69 - Bryan Adams
Sport - Lightnin' Rod With Kool And The Gang
Candy Man - Sammy Davis Jr.
Goodbye My Friend - Linda Ronstadt
Fire In The Land Of Grace - Mark Germino
Felix Tucker's Biggest Lie - Mark Germino
Making It Up (As We Go Along) - Vigilantes Of Love
Transmission - Gay Dad
Anarchy in the UK - The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain
I'm Not The One - The Cars
Desire - Ryan Adams
Endlessly - Mercury Rev
Moving Out - Billy Joel
Best Of My Love - The Eagles
Who Drove The Red Sports Car - Van Morrison
Aryan Mist - Van Morrison
Sunshine on a Rainy Day - Christine Anu
Mea Culpa - Polly Paulusma
Slave To My Belly - Catie Curtis
------------

Backing up your data

If you keep anything precious on your computer, and don't regularly back up that data, you are an idiot.

Computer operating systems and the hard drives they reside on have become increasingly reliable, but non-recoverable failures do occur, and often without any warning at all.

And there really is no excuse for not backing up. External hard drive prices have plummeted over the past 5 years, with 500GB drives available for under £70.

If you have a Macintosh computer running Leopard (OSX 10.5), Time Machine is part of the system, and does an excellent job of backing up your system. Just make sure you purchase a hard drive that is at least twice the capacity of the one you're backing up.

If you simply want to create a bootable duplicate of your hard drive, and/or you are running Tiger (OSX 10.4), there are two free/donation-ware utilities that do the job very well.

I have used Carbon Copy Cloner for years now. It works reliably, and you can customise the way it backs up to suit your requirements. My routine is to erase my backup drive's existing data before each back up, it keeps things simple, and maximises the lifetime of my back up drive.

SuperDuper! is another excellent program, with a more extensive range of backing up options.

One word of advice, if you have a Power PC Mac, make sure you buy a hard drive with a FireWire interface, otherwise you won't be able to boot your Mac from the external hard drive.

If you are a PC user, things aren't so easy. However, The Register has recently published a positive review of a system called Rebit.
------------

Women in advertising

I wouldn't usually point anyone towards the Daily Mail, however I recently came across an old Femail article that has some priceless images from the (currently out of print) book 'You Mean A Woman Can Open It?: The Woman's Place In The Classic Age Of Advertising'.

Word of warning: Unless you want to experience a short essay in 'How to write in a patronising tone', skip straight to the pictures.
------------

London, Lincoln, London 09-02-08

LONDON to LINCOLN
1980-F - After The Fire
Sun Drums and Soil - Four Tet
When You Dance You Can Really Love - Neil Young
Everytime You Go Away - Paul Young
Sunny Came Home - Shawn Colvin
Sad Eyes - Josh Rouse
Light & Magic - Ladytron
Guilty Cubicles - Broken Social Scene
I Am Six Pounds Of Dynamite - South San Gabriel
Better Things (live) - Dar Williams
The Company of Men - Eliza Carthy
Turn On Your Love Light - The Blues Brothers
Strange Fruit (original) - Billie Holiday
My Responsibility - Buffalo Tom
In The Garden - Johnny Cash
Forgiveness - Patty Griffin
105 Feet High - Amy Smith
Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing - Stevie Wonder
One Too Many Mornings - Tim Hockenberry And Tom Corwin
Born At The Right Time (Acoustic Demo) - Paul Simon
BabySitting Boogie - Buzz Clifford
Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers
Soccer Mom - The Vandals
Dear Prudence - The Beatles
Born Too Late - Steve Forbert
Kiodin Man - Republic Of Loose
Save A Prayer - Duran Duran
Empty In Soho Square - Jackie Leven
You're just too good to be true - Lauryn Hill
Burn the Clutch Out - Runaway Planet
Am I Ready? - Spitalfield
Look For Me (I'll Be Around) - Neko Case
Accidental Deth - Rilo Kiley
Passionate Kisses - Lucinda Williams
Little Sparrow - Bettye Lavette
The Theme From Harry's Game - Clannad
Please Let Me Wonder (live) - Brian Wilson
I Don't Want Anything To Change - Bonnie Raitt
Baby, Baby, Baby - The Jayhawks
shimmy shimmy coco bop - Little Anthony & The Imperials
Moonlighting - Leo Sayer

LINCOLN to LONDON
On the Way - Ligion
The Rhythm Thief - Sparks
That's That - Cass McCombs
One Week - Barenaked Ladies
Baggy Trousers - Madness
Party to damascus - Wyclef Jean feat. Missy Elliott
Mandinka - Sinead O'Connor
Pretty Little Dum Dum - Anastacia
Bullets - Editors
That ain't my truck - Rhett Akins
Really Free - John Otway
Every Other Time (Radio Edit) - LFO
I Can't Be Bothered - Miranda Lambert
Rhythm of the Night - DeBarge
Sense - Lightning Seeds
The Game Of Love - Santana Feat. Michelle Branch
Waiting For A Star - Cabin Crew
God Gave Rock And Roll To You - Kiss
Basket Case - Green Day
Have You Seen Her - The Chi-Lites
Pink Squares - I Was a Cub Scout
Bring Back That Leroy Brown - Queen
Out Of Space - The Prodigy
Monster - The Automatic
We Will Become Silhouettes - The Postal Service
Bad Day - R.E.M.
No Regrets (clean) - Authority Zero
Naive - Kooks
I Found Out - The Pigeon Detectives
Mr Understanding - Pete & The Pirates
Nice Weather For Ducks - Lemon Jelly
Soul Bossa Nova - Quincy Jones
Don't Let's Start - They Might Be Giants (TMBG)
Moonlight shadow (trance remix - Mike Oldfield
Amos Moses - Jerry Reed
Open Your Heart - Human League
Why can't we be friends - Sublime
Where Do We Go From Here - Cliff Richard
Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix) - Alabama 3
------------

Amy Stein

Amy Stein produces wonderful photographs.

Her bio tells us that she is a photographer based in New York City, and that her work explores our evolving isolation from community, culture, and the environment.

Start with the Halloween in Harlem section. Captivating stuff.
------------

iFob

icloseby.com reports: [edited]

iFob is software which turns iPhones & laptops into wireless Icebreaking Beacons.

You download iFob and then take about 30 seconds to put in your tagline, something like, "I like coffee," and then when you go anyplace where other people have iFob installed on their iPhones or laptops, your "I am Here" taglines get exchanged with each other.

iFob isn't a MySpace, dating or a Facebook site. iFob is not a site at all.

With iFob all the virtual crud and un-reality disappears because the broadcasting and receiving is ultra close by and local: people only see taglines of others who are in the same physical places. "See," means that your iFob software will light up and show a list of all the other iFobs who are right there, right now, in the same hotspot.

-----

For more details, and screenshots click here.
------------

Sigma DP1

In September 2006 Sigma announced the release of the DP1. Intended to be a competitor for the Leica Digilux 2, it features the same Foveon CCD as their DSLR a high-quality wide-angle lens, the option of a clear, accurate range-finder, erm... and that's about it, unless you find the basic (read 'dull' and/or 'butt-ugly') design to your taste.

After many delays, it looks like it is going to be available to buy. I would love to own a compact camera with a 'full-frame' CCD, but the lack of a zoom lens is a deal-breaker for me. Oh, and it's not going to be cheap either, $800 is the current best estimate.

For more details and sample images visit dpreview.
------------

Mobile phones and cancer

RegHardware reports: [edited]

Two separate studies have found that mobile phones don't increase your risk of developing cancer.

The Tokyo Women’s Medical University recently studied 322 people with various forms of brain cancer and 683 people without such diseases. Each subject was rated according to how many years they have used a mobile phone for and how long each they spend chatting every day.

Claimed to be the first study to look at the effects of radiation from mobile phones on different parts of the brain, it failed to find any evidence that mobile phone use can lead to brain cancer.

Separately, Professor Bernard Stewart from the University of New South Wales created a banding system to categorise a person’s risk of developing various forms of cancer, according to their actions, including the use of a mobile phone.

The Tokyo Women’s Medical University recently studied 322 people with various forms of brain cancer and 683 people without such diseases. Each subject was rated according to how many years they have used a mobile phone for and how long each they spend chatting every day.

Claimed to be the first study to look at the effects of radiation from mobile phones on different parts of the brain, it failed to find any evidence that mobile phone use can lead to brain cancer.
------------

Deadwood

HBO (Home Box Office) is the premium television programming subsidiary of Time Warner. It has over 40 million US subscribers. Because it delivers its content via cable, it is free from many of the censorship laws that restrict the 'adult' content of other US broadcasting companies, which is just as well, because Deadwood has a lot of very, very adult content.

The series is a 'Western', set in a semi-historical town called Deadwood in the 1870s, before, during and after its annexation to the Dakota Territory.

Deadwood is one of the many 'stage-camps' that people used on their journey to prospect for gold in the Black Hills. The series follows the lives of a number of its occupants.

Deadwood features many historical figures, such as Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Wyatt Earp, but fact and fiction are frequently blurred in service of the plot-line.

The key figure is Al Swearengen, played by Ian McShane (yes, Lovejoy!) who plays the role of his life as the menacing, viciously pragmatic, football-faced 'Godfather' of Deadwood, and owner of The Gem Saloon, which also functions as a hotel and a brothel.

The other outstanding character is Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok's alcoholic, foul-mouthed scout. Robin Weigert plays the part brilliantly, portraying a clever, sensitive but damaged woman who is just a little bit too devoted to her boss.

This is not a series to watch if you are squeamish about, well just about anything. There are few taboos that aren't confronted, including racism, prostitution, misogyny, disability... but it is one to watch if you enjoy meaty scripts and big issues.

In short, I have no real idea what the 'Wild West' was really like, but I have a pretty good idea that it looked a lot more like Deadwood than Oklahoma.

Like many HBO series it was cut short due to falling ratings and mounting production costs, closing half-way through the third series. The box-set is available from Amazon for £42 inc. p&p. Put it on your wishlist.
------------

Los Campesinos!

BBC Wales reports: [edited]

Formed while they were students at Cardiff University, Los Campesinos! began as a student band at Cardiff University. Before long their demo was causing a fuss all over the web, and they became one of the hottest indie tickets around.

The septet started as a trio with guitarist Neil, bassist Ellen and drummer Ollie, but gradually swelled their ranks through a complex system of musical and intellectual tasks.

The music began to come together: "Glockenspiels, melody horns, cow bells, handclaps, Casiotone keyboards, silliness and indie snobbery were then thrown in to complete the mix," explains Tom.

The music itself is an inventive, more charming British indie sound recognisable in a post-Libertines world with the saving grace of genuine intellect and humour.

-------

Demo MP3s of:

- You! Me! Dancing!
- Death To Los Campesinos!
- It Started With A Mixx
- Sweet Dreams Sweet Cheeks

are available from links in the sidebar of the BBC Wales web page.
------------

Panasonic developing 'dynamic range' sensor

c|net reports: [edited]

Panasonic showed technology on Monday that could shift the digital photography trend of high-dynamic range photos off the computer and directly into a camera image sensor.

It works through a variation of a familiar photographic technique called exposure bracketing. For years, photographers challenged by tough lighting conditions have taken multiple pictures of the same scene at different brightness levels -bracketing - to make sure one photo has a good balance shadow and highlight details.

More recently, with the advent of computers, these bracketed exposures can be combined into a single high-dynamic range (HDR) image that captures both bright and dark areas - for example both the subtle tones of both a bride's white wedding dress and a groom's tuxedo - that lie beyond the abilities of the camera taking a single shot.

Tokayoshi Yamada showed technology that he said lets an image sensor capture that high-dynamic range information. With today's sensors, "You can get either highlight or shadow detail, depending on the exposure time. To get much wider dynamic range images, we need to combine these different-exposure images," Yamada said.

Yamada showed a 177x144 pixel image sensor that takes three photos of the same scene in rapid succession. In one example, he said, the first exposure lasts 1.5 microseconds, the second 150 microseconds, and the third 15,000 microseconds (not far from a 1/60 second exposure). Extra circuitry built into the sensor records the data from the multiple exposures and uses an assortment of electronic capacitors to combine it into a single image that spans a greater dynamic range.

The image can span a dynamic range of 140 decibels compared with ordinary sensors with a 60dB range when working at a frame rate of 15 frames per second, the researchers said.

In his presentation, Yamada showed a resulting image taken of a regular incandescent light bulb. With conventional sensor technology, a few of the words printed on the bulb were visible, but most were washed out in a blown-out white patch near the bulb's filament. In the Panasonic sensor's image, not only were most of the words visible, but also the helical coil of the filament was.


Although the Panasonic research shows some promise, though, photo nerds should rein in their hopes: the research showed only a black-and-white images so far and is suited "for automotive and security cameras," according to the researchers' paper.
------------

iPhone - 16GB now available

£329, plus usual, constricting, ridiculous, not-suitable-for-me 18-month O2 strait-jacket contract.
------------

iPod touch - 32GB now available

£329.
------------

Candy Crisis

My blog on Tetrical reminded me of one of my favourite computer games.

Candy Crisis is a puzzle game based on a game called Puyo Puyo. It can be played in single player mode, but it really comes to life with a human opponent, with your success at matching up the falling 'candies' becoming your opponent's misery (or visa-versa) as horrid black lumps rain down on your pieces, slowing your progress and hastening your demise.

Originally designed for the Apple Macintosh, it is now available as contribution-ware on both Mac and PC platforms.
------------

Free fun fonts

Both of these typefaces are ideal for headlines where you want to say 'fun' and/or 'lighthearted'. Think kids' parties, themed parties etc.

Alba comes in three fantabulously 70s flavours. Remember to leave some space for those loopy descenders, make a feature of them rather than have them clash with their neighbours.

Cheri is pure 'Care Bear' (just look at those love hearts!), and its near-uncial proportions favour closer line spacings, probably in pink!

Just one caveat, neither of them go well with Comic Sans. Come to think of it, NOTHING goes well with Comic Sans... not even Comic Sans!

Available from DaFont.
------------