Category: Technology

You like my new Favicon?

So after ribbing Google a few weeks ago for their groundbreaking new favicon, I decided it was time for me to invest some time and energy into my own 16 pixel piece of internet real estate.

Like I mentioned in the other article, designing a favicon is HARD!  (If you don’t know what a favicon is and you’re too lazy to go look at the other post, a favicon is the 16×16 pixel graphic that come up right next to the address bar of your modern browser (sorry IE6, you suck) ).

So here’s what I came up with…

Whaddya think?  Can you tell that those are supposed to be eyebrows above the W and E?

The Future of Digital Media

TV, Movies, and Music have undergone major changes in the last decade, a revolution brought on by high quality digital compression (mpeg 3 and mpeg 4), which have made high quality video and audio a reality for distribution over the internet.

We now store gigabytes of music, movies, and television shows on our home computers. We can micro-target the content we enjoy, while filtering out that which we don’t. This is a far cry from the ‘olden days’ of buying a whole CD, cassette, or LP just to hear the one good song on the album.

We now ‘time-shift’ all our TV programming, watching what we want when we want. We can now download movies on demand through our cable providers or online services.

Continue reading The Future of Digital Media

Red Flag of Surrender, Blu Prevails

Today, the ‘red’ flag of surrender was raised by Toshiba, the maker of the HD-DVD format DVDs and disc players.  They have announced they will not produce any more products with the HD-DVD technology.

It’s final.  Blu is better than Red.

For those who’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 2 years, HD-DVD was one of the two competing next-generation DVD formats who were competing for the High Definition DVD market.  It was an all-out VHS vs. BetaMax rehash.

Sadly, last time evil prevailed and VHS became the standard.  However, this time methinks the powers that be have made the correct choice, and Blu-ray was the right way to go.

The only thing that makes this victory even more sweet is that Microsoft backed the HD-DVD format, and once again has picked a loser.  Now what are all the poor souls who bought Xbox 360’s going to do?

What does this mean for the average bear?  If you’re planning to buy a new dvd player in the next year or so, you will have two options – future proof and pay a little more for a Blu-ray, or get a very cheap standard DVD player.

I say ‘future proof’ because unless you have one of the most recent HDTVs (one that does 1080p), you will not reap the full benefit of the Blu-ray disc.  In some cases, you might as well be watching a standard DVD.  Don’t let silly people who speak of ‘upconverting’ make you think it’s the magic bullet either.  You won’t see much difference in DVD vs Blu-Ray until you have a top of the line HD set.

Do you need to upgrade all your DVD library?  No.  Blu-ray players will play standard DVDs.  But Blu-ray discs cannot be played on standard DVD players.

Personally, I will wait until a high quality player is under $150 before I upgrade.  Right now the low end players are still well over $200.

If anyone is to topple Microsoft, now is the time…

I was going to the bathroom today, and it dawned on me… (as things typically do when I’m in my primeval “think tank”) If anyone is going to make a dent in Microsoft’s operating system dominance, NOW is the time!

Microsoft unleashed its Vista operating system to the public, to find it very poorly received. In the past, hoards clamored to upgrade every OS. Corporate IT departments worked around the clock to prepare for the new challenges and bugs that each new OS would bring, and pushed for early adoption due to the desirable new features. Vista adoption in Corporate America has been slow… very slow, and it’s apparent that Microsoft is losing steam.

What do they do next? They no longer have a ubiquitous platform. Their user base is fragmenting into those who really likes XP, those whose machines won’t support Vista, new users who are stuck with Vista, and then those ardent Vista HATERS who will stop at nothing to point out its failures and shortcomings.

So if you are Microsoft, having recently lost your founder and visionary, what do you do next?

If Apple/OSX or any Linux desktop OS is going to emerge to compete with Microsoft, now is the time.

Will my iLife take over my realLife?

I recently had several friends join Facebook who swore they never would. One described himself as a “convert.” I guess his mom or wife sold him of its virtues.But with the advent and growing ubiquity of Facebook, it appears that social networking is here to stay, not just a passing fad.The real question is… what does having such an extensive online life and presence do to your real life? Will there be a time when your iLife takes over your realLife?

There are two great myths about the internet. 1) That the internet is anonymous, and 2) that the memory of the internet is fleeting. (There’s actually a third that the internet is free… but I’ll leave that one for another day)

Since we specialize in debunking such myths here at WhiteEyebrows, let me just break this one down for you…

1) You are identifiable on the internet. Like it or not, your internet service provider knows who you are and where you’ve been. They can be (and have been) forced to give up that information to the RIAA, the MPAA, and also the federal government.

2) The internet has a LONG, LARGE memory. I will illustrate with a story:
I once wrote a post on a newsgroup when I was 16 years old. You know, when you’re 16, life is just so small and simple, and mixed up. What I thought was a little joke, a pun, or play on words, other people found quite offensive. This was before Google, before online forums, before yahoo even.

One day I was busy at the new national past time, Googling myself, when I ran across this newsgroup post almost 10 years later. I was so embarrassed to read what I had so insensitively written, and slightly entertained at the response I evoked then.

Yes, the internet has a LONG memory, and each new advance in search and social networking will certainly build on the past, make ever more accessible those huge server farms and databanks bursting at the seams with the intimate details and private snapshots of your life.

And that’s the real problem, isn’t it? The internet only offers snapshots, glimpses into who we really are as people. Technology offers no essence of the human. Social networking sites can offer an opportunity for someone to form a perception of another person, but it can never fully and accurately reproduce the essence of me.

This is why online dating is so difficult. It requires either a high level of perceptiveness or delusion. It’s not that people try to be dishonest, it’s that they simply can’t ever be complete, or offer an entire picture.

ilife.jpg

I suppose it’s poetic justice that I’m pontificating about this on a blog, yet another forum for my inner beliefs and feelings to be made manifest on the web. Will I reread these posts in a few years and feel embarrased? Ashamed? What happens when we start electing presidents, congressmen, and school board members who have grown up online? Will someone’s myspace profile be considered evidence in a court of law? Will my politically moderate rantings on this blog prevent me from ever changing my positions to be more liberal or conservative, or will they be forever held against me?

This is an issue that celebrities and politicians have been dealing with for much longer. Where does their private life begin and their public life end? In a way, we are all entering their world, making our private lives much more public and accessible.

I’m not an internet alarmist. I don’t think we should shut down the web or anything.  If we did that I’d have to quickly go find a lot of hobbies to replace my eHobbies, a real job to replace my technology job, a new side job to replace my eSideBusiness, and also a real pet to replace my ePet…

Seriously though, we need to enter this era of the iLife with great caution, and maybe be willing to cut each other some slack while we watch each other grow up online.

Green Week

I was watching NBC last night, and during one of the commercial breaks on “Heroes,” they had the cast of the show do a small commercial/feature on planting trees out in front of Rockefeller Center in NYC.

I thought, “how nice. they are jumping on this green bandwagon, trying to promote eco friendly ideas and tendencies.”

Then, every NBC show I watched had some major plot element that centered around being “green.”

Then on my local news, there was several feature stories about being eco-friendly, and NBC’s green week.

Then I checked the website to see the schedule, and the whole website is now in hues of green.

Apparently, it is Green Week on NBC.

Turns out, NBC’s parent company, General Electric, has made it “Green Week” for all of their subsidiaries.

When I went to bed, I turned on talk radio, and these guys were blathering on about NBC’s Green Week. I didn’t realize promoting “green” living was such a controversial subject, but apparently they have ruffled some feathers with their green talk. They were going on and on about how Global Warming is not a proven fact, and how the earth warms and cools every few thousands of years… blah blah blah.

As I was listening to these people blather (yes, that is the right word to describe talk radio), I thought to myself, “c’mon guys… what is “Green Week” actually hurting?”

I mean, I’m going to get sick of hearing about how to have a Green Wedding on Days of Our Lives, and leaving a small carbon footprint as you travel through time on Journeyman, or how to be an eco-friendly Hero. I don’t think all this “green” promotion will really enhance the entertainment value of NBC’s shows (which it actually desperately needs), but honestly, what is green week really going to hurt?

What does it hurt to turn the lights off, turn the air conditioning up 2 degrees, drive around less, buy a more fuel efficient car, and recycle your recyclables? Who does it hurt if I use less energy? No one. Who does it hurt if a corporation uses less energy? No one. In fact, being green usually saves you money. Lots of money.

I’m just not understanding what part of that I can feel good about crusading against…

And while I’m on this subject, let me say…

Being “green” is not something you just wake up one morning and decide to do. Being “green” is a process and a way of life. We have been thinking “green” as a nation for several decades, which we don’t give ourselves enough credit for. We have made great strides in being Green:

  • Catalytic converters on cars
  • Recycling programs in major metro areas
  • Better recycling of e-waste: silicon, toner cartridges, batteries, etc.
  • Corporate use of email and document control systems to totally replace paper (most e-corporations are almost entirely paperless)

The truth is, we have grown GDP in our nation in the last 30 years while becoming greener and greener. Now is not the time for a radical shift. Let the “green” movement continue organically. We already are green and we keep getting greener and greener as it makes business sense to do so.

We stand at the brink of a new era of “green.” There is a big inflection point in American thinking now centered around looking for the next big breakthrough in energy. Everyone wants less dependence on foreign oil, dirty coal, and politically impossible nuclear energy. Something big will break, we hope. In the meantime, just use less.

It’s really as simple as that.