JohnA lifeBlog

Yay Netflix

What bothers me most is that Netflix completely ignores the fact that I live about 50 miles from my “Local Netflix Hub”, yet my movies never show as received until 2 or 3 days pass.

Anyway, I can’t wait for my STUPENDOUS $2 REBATE!!! Woohoo! That’s like almost 2 things off the Taco Bell value menu!

Ok, found this one via The Consumerist

What Is Burger King Thinking?

Nothing says hilarity like a cartoon onion about to have a body cavity search. Wait, I never thought I’d write a sentence containing “cartoon onion” and “body cavity search”

We live in difficult times, people

Texas Hold 'Em Stats

I wish I were that good of a Hold ‘Em player, but the truth is that the iPod app’s AI has some serious issues that are too easy to capitalize on. Here are a few of the ones that bother me most.

• Too much pre-flop activity. The AI players bet far too much and far too often pre-flop. This means that if I’m holding pocket aces, I can pretty much slow raise the pot to several thousand dollars before the flop.
• Pushing all in too frequently. Actually, this is a problem in real life tournaments also… but the AI pushing all in pre-flop with 9-10 off suit? Give me a break.
• Poor heads-up performance. The AI is too liberal in their heads up bets. It’s easy to slow play the AI heads up because they push in several thousand dollar pre-flop bets.

Aside from those AI issues, I also hate the way it deals with multi-table tournaments… it is basically “Win a 10 person tournament, then go to another 10 person tournament” instead of the constantly balancing tables in a real tournament.

There are other issues as well, but it’s still a nice, uh, “restroom break” game.

Design Your Morning with Pantone Coffee Cups

This is the kind of thing that just tickles my inner Illustrator n00b. I love design, but suck at it, so hey, I can at least be a poseur, right?

I’m a wimp who cannot last through this “parade”.

• I am simply AMAZED at how the producers have chosen to use people instead of technology in so many places. Where I expect to see a nice servo, I instead see a smiling Chinese citizen.
• What technology are they using to project on the canopy at the top of the stadium? It is too precise to be DLP, but too bright to be anything else.
• Ugh, time for the part of the “ceremony” that is awful… how long until they light the flame?
• Even the immovable Bob Costas is confused by the the athletic parade. I don’t feel so stupid now not knowing how many character strokes “United States brought to you by McDonalds and Starbucks” requires
• Why is Bush 43 still “arguing” with Putin? Isn’t that what the Kremlin is for?

Sorry friends, I need to hit the sack. Enjoy 2 more hours of, um, walking. Yeah.

Wow, the first Lenovo commercial I’ve seen yet… sorry, but it’s not a Thinkpad…

• I wish I could be a cameraman covering this event… how awesome was the petticoat shot just when Bob Costas talked about costumes!
• A 500 foot LED display… how many pixels, and how much $$$ is that?
• Every single woman performing is simply stunning. I guess when you have over 500 million available, you can be choosy.
• It’s interesting, watching NBC’s bumpers with the “classic” Olympic theme song seem dated compared to the actual event.
• Thanks for the IMs. In regards to my previous post about ATSC, I meant that I need to get my ATSC tuner working in my big Vista MCE server so I can record all of the prime-time HD coverage on NBC.
• OMG, look at the LED costumes… it reminds me of the Main Street Electrical Parade.
• Hmm. I wonder how the lights are controlled… per person, or as part of a larger procedure?
• It looks like from a closeup shot that each performer has some kind of control module attached just above the waist.

In the spirit of my good friend Tony’s weekly braindump posts, here is my braindump thus far into the opening ceremonies. More to come after the break.

• $300 million, and it shows. This is crazy over-the-top.
• How precise was the color guard in the flag ceremony?
• Watching this in 1080i is definitely worth it. I need to get my ATSC tuner working ASAP.
• How much money did that unrolling scroll prop cost?
• A 230′ x 70′ LED display? That is nuts. The shot from the blimp shows that it really is LED technology.
• This really is the best High-Def presentation I have seen since Planet Earth on Blu-Ray, and this gives that a run for the money.
• I could have sworn the chinese printing block presentation was done with mechanics. Wow.
• NBC should have made better use of the Dolby Digital 5.1 provided by High-Def.
• Only China could have ever spent this much money on such an elaborate production.

Stay tuned…

New Study Finds Low Interest In Blu-ray

To be honest, I’m not surprised. I have an insanely large next-gen disc collection, and the pain and hassle of trying to watch a DRM encumbered disc is not worth the extra lines exhibited.

As you can see from my Delicious Library, I continue to buy large numbers of next-gen media. But the truth is that if I hadn’t bought and installed AnyDVD HD on my main home theater PC, it would be a complete puzzle of technologies and rights restrictions before I had even a single hope of playing a movie on my big screen.

Bottom line is that before Joe Sixpack will embrace Blu-Ray, it has to become transparent. No region coding. No mandatory online digital restriction management. Mr. Sixpack wants to put a disc in the drive, and watch a movie in 15 seconds.

Oh, wait. Blu-Ray has every single one of those restrictions. It takes at least 90 seconds for a factory fresh Blu-Ray disc to play. There is no way Blu-Ray can compete with upconverted DVD when they take over 90 seconds to display a single trailer you cannot skip.

Even with AnyDVD HD, it takes at least a minute for me to watch a movie. Will the studios ever learn?

Hello again. Since I upgraded my Wordpress install (see the previous post about how bad that sucked), I decided that I should check out the available themes and find something new.

I really like this one, but I suck at all visual design. If you hate it, please let me know!

JohnA The Blogger®

P.S. - In celebration of this historic event, I even updated my About Me page. Go me!

Hello blogosphere friends. I’m in the market for a non-3G iPhone 8GB. Since I live in the sticks, we do not have AT&T 3G coverage, which would kind of make the whole 3G data plan not that useful.

If you have one you want to sell, please let me know!