Kaizen Bits

This blog was hacked on Dec, 29th. Due to Xmas holiday, I was not aware of this till today. A change in the name (“24c3″ as the new name), three hundred visits from Germany and a post announcing a hacking congress were the main symptoms.

Now everything is back to normal.

Update: After studying a bit further the issue, I have realized that it all came throught the theme, which was also hacked and a new picture shinining on it. I also changed the template now. New Year, New Blog outlook.

 I know it may sound sooo cool for these times, but I love having my blog to wish you all Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year… and all that jazz!!

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 Sure, evevery single Monday morning I sit in the office, there is a new Google release. That makes you wonder, what the heck am I doing with my time while these guys are doing great? (But that is another rant, another story…)

 Fundamentally, Google Profile is an OpenID (but closed) for the Google Merry Family of products. Since we are working on our own identity retrieval mechanism, looks more related work to add to the stack…

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 I know, I know: I am kind of crazy. I was ultra-busy lately but I could not stop jumping on a Haskell course. Haskell is not only the “lazy functional programming language” but an interesting tour de force for an old guy like me who wants to know if still able to learn a new programming language.

 In principle, Haskell is not that different to other programming languages: a mathematical syntax, internal functions  and external functions (called monads, good for Leibnitz). I see some power in the syntax being so math-oriented and I guess many geeks would love it. What I found more difficult is to avoid object-oriented construction because Computer guys are born now fully object oriented. However, it is a good exercise to do something different.

 Still for me, there is a long way to go…

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As lately, I have no time at all to write myself (too much stuff going on in the background), but I keep on reading during my free time. The issue of Blu-Ray and DVD, the format of the future war, is one of those topics I am really interested in, particularly since we will be buying next week a new 50” LCD TV. I saw something brilliant on this in ReelThoughts:

“This
isn’t about Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD. Instead, it’s about standard def
versus high-def. Quite frankly, 1080p isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
There’s a fair amount of hype involved when selling either high-def DVD
format. That’s to be expected since companies are going to do whatever
they can to sell their products, even if it means practically giving
away hardware.

The
common in-store sales pitch goes like this: A salesperson shows you two
identical TV sets showing the same movie. It’s usually a recent title
but not one that’s too recent. On the left, you have a standard
DVD of the movie. On the right, you have a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD version.
The image on the right looks crisp, clear, and astoundingly better than
the one on the left. There’s no comparison. Time to buy the high-def
player. There are a couple of details you’re not being told. First, the
movie chosen for the A/B comparison is usually one for which the
standard DVD transfer is known to be sub-par (possibly one that has
since been re-released with better video), so you’re not getting the
best DVD performance possible. Secondly, the DVD player is likely an
old model: one that doesn’t do progressive scanning (the procedure by
which 480i signals are converted to 480p signals) and for which there
is certainly no 1080p upconverting available. Some stores also tinker
with the TV settings so that the set showing the standard DVD image may
be improperly calibrated. All these things combine to degrade the
standard DVD image and, by comparison, make the high-def one look so
much better. Somehow, however, when you get it home, it doesn’t look
the same.

My
experience is that the Blu-Ray image does indeed look clean, crisp, and
clear. It’s a beauty to behold. That wasn’t a surprise. What was
a little unexpected was how good many of those upconverted standard DVD
images appear. Some were almost as clean, crisp, and clear as the
Blu-Ray ones. When I first started watching DVDs in 1997, it took less
than a month before I had boxed up all my VHS cassettes and put away my
laser discs. The quality of DVD made its predecessors look shabby.
That’s not the case here. I can happily switch between standard and
high-def without feeling that I’m missing much. Yes, the high def image
is better (and given a strict choice between a Blu-Ray and a standard
copy of the same title, there’s no question which one I’d watch), but
the delta is not world altering. A colleague mentioned he had read that
the improvement is about 20% and that seems as reasonable a figure as
any. As far as the audio goes… That’s not my area of expertise but I
can’t notice much difference. (Then again, I am usually as happy with
Dolby Digital as with DTS, so what do I know?)

It
goes without saying that videophiles will desire a high-def player or
two with all of their souls, and they will be happy with the hardware
when they get it. But what about the average viewer who rents a few
DVDs each month and has a small collection of movies to call his or her
own? Blu-Ray/HD-DVD isn’t likely to stir them to dole out the money. It
lacks the “wow” factor that DVD provided. And there are those who,
having been bowled over by the in-store demo, will feel cheated when
things don’t look that way in their living rooms. If the movie looked
twice as good in the store, why does it only look 20% better now?
This
is not a rant against high-def DVDs. I have my Blu-Ray player and am
buying the occasional disc for it. The deal on Toshiba’s HD-A30 ($240
with the discount plus 10 free HD-DVD discs) is almost too good to pass
up. This is a 1080p player (unlike the cheap 720p/1080i version that
Wal-Mart dumped a few weeks ago) with an effective price of about $40.
If someone doesn’t get me this for Christmas, I may order it from
Amazon.com on the 26th. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. So
I like high-def DVD, but I wonder – PS3 notwithstanding – whether it
has mass appeal.”

 Maybe too much to read but it is worthwhile. Also the conclussion: “There
are three problems. The first is the format war, which sows confusion
and even a little disgust. The second is the lack of sexy titles, which
limits interest. And the third is that the difference between standard
DVD and high def DVD isn’t going to blow many people away.”

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 Last weeks I was having a tremendous workload that left out of the blogging world. Meanwhile I learned about the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, a best-of-breed organizing solution invented by David Allen which is divided into three parts: a workflow model, a perspective-driven metaphor and a natural planifying methods.
 
 Apart from to-do lists and stickies all over the place, I have started to use it and its software, Thinking Rock. Let´s see…

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 Well, hi all my beloved readers, I am back after a huge period of ultra-activity that set me out of my loved blog.

 Last three weeks were so busy and stressful that I simply decided (better, I was forced) to stop blogging and get some fresh air. Now fresh air is enough and I am back to blogging.

 Thanks for staying!!

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