2007 May

Archive for May, 2007

Apple iTunes Plus And The Rise Of AAC

by blueZhift on May.30, 2007, under Tech

Apple’s iTunes Plus store just went live today and features (or will feature as I have not checked myself yet) many songs so sale that are not encumbered by digital rights management (DRM). These “plus” track are also encoded at a higher bit rate which may translate into higher quality, though in all honesty, most people won’t be able to hear the difference. And while these tracks should now play on any player capable of playing AAC encoded music, there’s quite a ruckus on Digg right now because the tracks have the buyer’s account info encoded in the track. That means that if someone chooses to break the law by giving away the tracks via filesharing programs or other means, they can be tracked down and perhaps held accountable.

I think though, that many are really missing the big story here. I think that the stripping of the DRM is something that Apple has wanted for a long time and the record companies are starting to allow this in order to make a little more money (DRM-less tracks cost $1.29 vs $0.99 with), and to, they hope, loosen Apple’s grip on the legal digital music market. So why oh why would Apple agree to this, especially since they make their money by selling iPods, not the music? I think that they understand that in the near term at least, they’ll still be able to sell plenty of iPods because the iPod-iTMS combo is easy to use, easier than any current competitor. In the long term though, I think they want to increase the popularity of AAC versus MP3 for digital music.

Right now, all of the competing digital music players play MP3 encoded music tracks, but only a subset of these play AAC. DRM free iTunes tracks in the AAC format by default should be incentive enough for all music players to adopt AAC as a supported format. But hold on, why can’t people just transcode their AACs to MP3s? First, most people don’t know how to do that and really can’t be bothered to, and secondly, those who know how also know that transcoding from one lossy format to another lossy format results in a loss of sound quality, sound quality you just paid an extra $0.30 to get! So if Apple is able to maintain its lead in digital music players, it is inevitable that AAC popularity will rise and could someday surpass MP3. Not only that, iTMS seems likely to become the digital music store of choice for all since writing support to transfer DRM free AAC files from an iTunes library is easier to do than building a complete competing digital music store. I guess that means it’s Apple FTW!

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Damned If You Do

by blueZhift on May.29, 2007, under General

To paraphrase Captain Picard, if I’m going to be damned, it might as well be for what I really am! Sometimes I really wonder why I got married at all given the no win situations one can often encounter in such a union. I guess sooner or later every man gets the classic “Does this make me look fat?” question or some variant from which there are no good escapes. Today my turn came when my wife asked me to answer some survey questions for an MBA class she’s taking. These questions were all of a personal sort and to my eye designed to be answered by someone who has worked with her. I knew right away that there was probably no escape from pain!

Now I could either just fudge a lot and answer the questions in an overwhelmingly positive way or I could act answer the questions as accurately as possible as the trained ex-physicist I am. I ultimately chose the latter simply because I try to be as honest as possible whenever I can. It’s just easier to keep your facts straight when, well, they’re really the facts. So honestly, I told her, I’m not qualified to answer the questions because I don’t work with her and thus have not observed her in the working environment. This of course, went over like a lead balloon much as expected. But at least I can still live with myself, even if it means sleeping on the couch. It probably won’t, but it sure does feel like it right now.

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Coca Cola 600: Has Toyota Finally Arrived?

by blueZhift on May.27, 2007, under Games and Sports

I’m awake, I think…But I just watched Brian Vickers in the number 83 Red Bull Toyota lead about 60 laps of the Coca Cola 600! Can I be dreaming? A fast, powerful Toyota running with the big boys of NASCAR? The announcers alluded to some developments in the engine department, so maybe, just maybe, Toyota has finally arrived and is ready to play. Dale Jarrett’s Toyota was already out of the race with a blown engine, so one hopes Vickers won’t meet that same fate. In any case, as someone who habitually roots for the underdog, yaaaaay Toyota!

Of course, Jimmy Johnson just passed Vickers for the lead, still I’m pretty happy to see some improvement from Toyota. Now if Michael Waltrip can start getting back into races….but maybe I’m asking for too much now. LOL

Update: Vickers would go on to place 5th after losing his power steering and a nasty brush up with the wall. Good show! Jeremy Mayfield’s Toyota was also having a good day until the engine blew very late in the race. Ultimately Casey Mears went on to score his first Nextel Cup win on an economy run.

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Indy 500 Please Don’t Suck!

by blueZhift on May.27, 2007, under Games and Sports

The biggest race weekend of the year is once again upon me and all I can think right now is, please don’t suck Indy 500! I never worry about NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600 being in danger of major suckitude because I think that NASCAR in general is more self aware of its existence as entertainment. The show is everything, and they make sure it’s easy for you to come on in, take your shoes off, and put your feet up on the table. The Indy 500 is another matter in this respect. For one thing, it took me 10 minutes just to find out when the the race coverage began and who was covering it looking first on Yahoo’s Indy 500 page and then on the official Indy 500 site. It shouldn’t be that hard to find this kind of information. But more to the point, the coverage of the race itself over the past few years has not been nearly as entertaining as the NASCAR coverage.

I think maybe the Indy 500 takes itself a little too seriously. Yes, it is the grand daddy of big races and deserves major props for that. But it is still entertainment and should be presented in an entertaining fashion. I’m sure that if I go to the race myself I’ll easily find that sort of carnival atmosphere I would expect surrounding a big race. The coverage of the race should project this fun as much as possible for the viewers at home. At least that’s what I think. I guess all I’m really asking for is a little more color to the coverage. Open wheel racing, like Soccer, is a major religion in the rest of the world. But like Soccer, here in the US, coverage of open wheel racing in the IRL, CART, and F1 has been less than spectacular. Here’s hoping things will turn around with this year’s Indy 500. At least they’ve got Milka Duno!:D

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A Dress A Day In Second Life

by blueZhift on May.26, 2007, under Games and Sports, Tech

While a lot of people use Second Life as a glorified chat room, for me one of its greatest attractions is as a creative medium. I’m very interested in creating new things for use/display there in addition to just having a good time. So with that in mind, I’ve focused on modifying my first avatar and her clothing.

Over the last 8 months, I’ve made 7 costumes for myself and others, including a dress for my wife. So I was very eager to see if I could transfer any of the clothes making skills I’ve picked up into Second Life. To do this, I downloaded the fashion templates from Second Life’s download area, read some tutorials, and studied the examples closely. Then like an enterprising Hong Kong tailor, I set about making a knock-off of something I saw on AsiaJam.com.

I did this by using Fireworks MX to import the Photoshop (.psd) formatted templates and doing my editing there which consisted of bringing in the image of the front, back, and sleeves of the top I copied from AsiaJam, and then fitting it to the template forms. Fireworks MX can’t save to 32-bit Targa (.tga) so I saved to 32-bit PNG. I then imported the PNG file into the free Paint.net which I use to save it out as a 32-bit uncompressed Targa file. I upload this file to Second Life and create the new top using the image file as the texture.

Using this technique, I created a skirt and stockings to go with the top. And now I’m on the lookout for more real world fashions from which to create Second Life knock-offs. AsiaJam.com has a lot of things I like, but I’ve also found that the A Dress A Day blog has some wonderful dresses and fabrics too! I’m also planning to create Second Life versions of some of the costumes I made. I should note though, that I’m strictly into the knock-offs for fun. Selling these things in SL just wouldn’t feel right, and probably violates trademark/copyright laws. If I ever want to get into the serious SL fashion biz, I’ll create my own stuff from scratch using what I’ve learned making knock-offs!^_^

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Open Cola: Drink Of A GNU Generation

by blueZhift on May.25, 2007, under General

Usually when one thinks of open source and the GNU General Public License, software comes to mind, not soft drinks! While Coke and Pepsi jealously guard their secret formulas, Open Cola’s formula is open source and GNU licensed. I think I’ll try to get my son, who has developed a great love of cooking, to whip up a few batches of Open Cola the drink of a GNU generation!

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Awesome Xbox 360 Laptop Mod

by blueZhift on May.23, 2007, under Games and Sports, Tech

I love cool hardware mods! This Xbox 360 Laptop mod is one of the coolest I’ve seen in a while. I’ve gotta try something like this one of these days. Why take the world as it comes to you? Make the world the way you want it to be!

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/11/ben-heckendorns-xbox-360-laptop-best-mod-ever/

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/18/how-to-make-an-xbox-360-laptop-part-1/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/25/how-to-make-an-xbox-360-laptop-part-2/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/22/how-to-make-an-xbox-360-laptop-part-3/

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Assume The Position! Goodbye Virgin

by blueZhift on May.21, 2007, under General

The weather outside is pretty good today and for the most part I had a good lunch walk. Then I made one fatal, mood altering decision. I decided to pop into the Virgin Megastore to look for bargains since the store is closing in a month or so. I frequented this store regularly for the last 5 years and have never had anything but good service, but nothing will turn me off a retailer faster than being treated as a criminal!

Today I entered the store at the same time as another patron, and the theft detector went off. I was sure that I did not have anything in my bag that would set it off, but I stopped anyway when asked. The other guy did not stop, nor did they make any effort to get him. Key difference? The other guy was Asian, while I am African American. So I asked them, why aren’t you stopping the other guy? I was told that they could only get one guy. So of course stop the black guy. Naturally I was upset about being singled out like this, even if the guy stopping me was black too.

So I showed him what was in my bag and declared, “I’m out of here!”, and left that store for the last time ever. The detector did not go off.

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ACen 2007 Aftermath Part II: Pictures Pictures Pictures!

by blueZhift on May.18, 2007, under Anime, Manga, Etc, cosplay

Since the convention ended, I’ve been browsing a buttload of picture galleries of photos people took at the convention. These are from this Anime Central Forum thread. So I figured I’d start a link list here for easy reference. These links may or may not work for long, so enjoy while you can! Thanks to everyone who has posted pictures!^_^

Wow! That’s a lot of links! I feel like I’m spamming my own blog!

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Inuyasha Deserves A Proper Ending

by blueZhift on May.18, 2007, under Anime, Manga, Etc, cosplay

I watched the last episode of Inuyasha again last night on Adult Swim. I really hope that someday Rumiko Takahashi will write a proper ending to the story. I really love these characters and they deserve a proper ending to their stories! Yeah, just silly fanboy ranting, a fanboy who still doesn’t have any ACen pictures of his Kagome cosplay, waaaah! Oh well, I did have one woman come up to me and tell me I looked cute, so that’ll have to do. I was joking with my mom that women only seem to notice me when I’m in drag! That happened to me in costume at Reactor last year too so I’ll just take it as a plus.

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