lifebsideben

I’ve been staying out of the HD-DVD / Blu-ray format war for a long time, but Val sucked me in to it. You see, she got me the BBC ‘Planet Earth’ DVD set for X-mas… only it was the HD-DVD set. One of the reasons I hadn’t bought it previously, is because I hadn’t wanted to get it on standard def DVD, since that would be a ‘travesty’ to lose 3/4ths of the detail that it was shot in, for such sweeping and compelling nature content. But, now she had bought it for me, and I didn’t want to return it. I quickly did some research, decided yep, HD-DVD was the format I preferred, and bought a Toshiba A3 from Amazon for $179 (this was January 2nd). Of course, a week later, and obviously because Ben Margolin finally jumped into the fray and cast my dice, Warner Brothers threw all their weight behind Blu-ray, and the couple remaining HD-DVD allied studios look soon to follow. Toshiba was taken by surprise, and canceled their press statements at CES a couple of days later. It looks bad for HD-DVD as a format. You’re welcome! You’re now free to buy Blu-ray now… but here’s why you shouldn’t.
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Tags: apple, Apple-TV, DVDs, format-wars, HDDVD, iTunes, movies, Technology

The neighbors behind us removed this huge tree in front of their house the other day. It was pretty sad, actually, it was a pretty tree (from my vantage point, anyhow). I suspect they’re selling the place and it didn’t give the best ‘curb appeal’, especially since it’s some kind of pine that doubtlessly was dropping needles all of the place. But what was really amazing was the speed with which it was dispatched. In about an hour, this majestic tree went from probably 80′, to big chunks on the ground, being fed to the chipper. I do have a slightly nicer view of San Fran off in the distance (in the gaps of another tree) now, but I miss this big one that was a popular stopping point for local birds, too.

Here’s some photos of the action:

About a dozen more in my Tree removal PicasaWeb album. And here’s even a video, if you’re really into forestry-type stuff :)…

Tags: Millbrae, real-estate, tree

Lenny Kravitz just released a new album, ‘Love Revolution’, and it’s a typical Lenny album: not groundbreaking, but eminently listenable. His is probably the only music that would be classified as straight “rock” that I listen to these days, and this album doesn’t disappoint, although telling it apart from his other CDs isn’t obvious if they’re loaded in the changer.

Anyhow, I knew the album was forthcoming, not because I follow him that closely, but because I went to the Oracle OpenWorld party back in… December? It was pretty amazing actually, quite impressive, with 3 separate stages, free for conference attendees (of which I wasn’t, but my friend’s husband was and gave me his ticket), and featured the likes of Billy Joel, En Vogue, Stevie Nicks, and our man Lenny. There were some bands that would appeal to a younger demo as well, but I have to admit I must be getting close to the Oracle vendor target market in age, because a couple of the bands were too heavy metal-ish (or what passes for it these days) for me, and a couple others were just plain going on stage too late. Yes, I am coming to terms with my lameness is later life. But, I got to see Lenny anyhow, and he definitely puts on a good show. I also saw him at the Shoreline many years ago, and was impressed with the energy he put into the corporate gig, it was about at the same level as his concert. He did play a track (the title track) from the new album at the Oracle thing, and it was Zeppelin-ish Lenny goodness, so I’ve been awaiting the new album.

So I saw it at Costco on Thursday night, but for $13, which seems un-Costco-like. I figured it’d probably be on sale cheaper at Target or similar, and sure enough yesterday I was at target to buy valentine’s stuff for my kid’s playgroup, and saw it for $9.99, with a “Only at Target” sticker that said ‘Digital Extras: Video downloads include a behind-the-scenes look at the new CD PLUS 2 acoustic songs and 4 of Lenny’s classic videos. Over 30 minutes in all! Also featuring the single “I’ll be waiting’ & ‘Bring it On’. Offer valid while supplies last or through 05/05/08″. Sounds pretty good. I’m going to buy the album regardless, but a couple acoustic songs sounds good. Now, how to go about actually getting to this content? Beats me. No insert in the (hateful) thin paper packaging (I don’t mind the reduced environmental impact, but there have to be more usable designs than this!). Nothing on my receipt. Nothing on the product page on target.com. Nothing on Lenny’s site. OK, I’m stumped.

Does it not make sense to publish an URL on the sticker? Maybe that checks against my receipt that I bought it? Or put an insert in the CD itself with a special code (as Kanye West has done)? How difficult is this?

Tags: bitching, Lenny-Kravitz, Music, Target