lifebsideben

In this article at Wired about digital projection of films and anti-piracy measures, Brad Hunt of the MPAA is quoted as saying:

“We’re not trying to describe specifically what is being done, because the effectiveness of these technologies is based on a lack of knowledge.”

Ah, the old “security through obscurity” tactic. That always works so well… not. But hey, don’t tell the MPAA; their continued ignorance is probably an overall good thing: the more shitty movies get pirated, the less likely people will pay to go see them, the more likely quality movies are to be made, for which people DO pay for. I have seen a bootleg or two in my time, largely because with a 17-month-old, I don’t get many opportunities to go to the movies, and I want to see some things before the DVD is released. Movies I like, I buy the DVDs for. Many other people are the same way, I’m sure. (Actually, a lot of folks are probably renting the dvds and not buying them, via Netflix or Blockbuster, but I tend to like to own movies that are worth watching, especially if there’s extras on the disc.)

Aside from that silliness above, the article basically just says there will be a time & location stamp in the film. Big whoop. I suspect (a) this won’t survive through the projection->camcorder->encoding (and possibly ->reencoding) process, and (b) most pirates just don’t care. Until you have to show ID and have your picture taken going into the theater, I don’t see this being much of a deterrent. Better plan: have ushers (remember them?) or security folks observe people in the theater, and spot people with camcorders. But wait, this would cost the theaters money, and is likely difficult to acheive 100% success, which is almost needed, due to the multiplication factor innate to piracy.

But hey, maybe it’ll stop the low-tech pirates hawking cheap dvds at swap meets and on the corner. Maybe…. but internet-based/p2p piracy, I seriously doubt it’ll have any effect. You know what would work? Making quality movies, giving something extra to the theater experience (interactivity? better value? purchase the DVD at a discount on the way out?), and treating your customers with respect instead of apathy, disdain, and mistrust.

Tags: big_business, dvd, movies, MPAA, piracy, security

Finally the SD300 is available, I’ve been waiting for its release the past 3 months. I’ve been wanting to replace my Olympus D40Z digital camera for a while now… it takes decent pictures most of the time but I still wasn’t satisfied. I’m a “little camera” fan, I’m willing to give up (some) features for smaller footprint, and so far I’m quite happy with the SD300.

Here’s the big differentiators from the Olympus, in my opinion:

• fast start up and shot-to-shot cycle time
• much smaller footprint. the sd300 I really can fit in any pocket!
• larger LCD display, and entirely more sensical operation. after a shot, if you want to keep the review onscreen, press one key. no mode switching, no rushing to show it to people before it disappears!
• it actually remembers the last mode you were in, complete with various manual overrides etc., between power-off and back on. this was immensely frustrating on the D40Z.
• SD cards go a lot bigger and faster (I picked up a 32x 512M) than SmartMedia!
• the movie mode is waaaaay nicer, including 640×480 @ 30 fps, saved as some variant of QuickTime (I think actually MJPEG)
• formatting a SD card takes less than 1 sec!
• “stitch assist” mode for panoramic photos, and half-decent software to stitch them
• generally the software is much much nicer than the olympus stuff, and has full OS X support too!

That’s the good stuff. The less impressive stuff about the new camera so far include:

• Uses proprietary batteries. All the smaller cameras do, but there is something nice about NiMH AAs, and the ability to “fall back” to alkalines when you’re out of the country, can’t get to a AC outlet, etc. (This happened to me in Romania; I didn’t have time to charge the batteries but could pick up some cheap AAs to tide me over until the end of the day…)
• Picture quality, in general, is not noticeably better than the Olympus. But I’ll take more outside shots and compare further. So, it’s a 2-year-later-model camera, same resolution, but about same quality pictures. I guess I expected some advances, even in a smaller camera.
• No case included, and the official Canon one is on backorder. When the camera has 40% of its back as the LCD, you really feel safer with a case to put it in! I finally just picked up a $10 Case Logic model from Fry’s in the meantime. I can’t find the specific case on their site, but it’s kind of cute–built like the black case that comes with the iPod 2nd gen… like two pieces of padded material with snug elastic on the sides.
• “long shutter” mode is up to 15 sec; the Olympus can do 45 sec. Granted, you don’t need this often, but I’ve gotten a few really cool nighttime shots of the sky with the long exposures.

That’s kind of the roundup at this point. I’ll see how I feel in a few more weeks after the holidays… really worried about the battery situation, until I can get a spare (for $40!)

Now the really sad part is that the D40Z, which cost me $550 at Amazon 2.5 years ago, only goes for about $100 on eBay. Sigh…

Tags: cameras, photography, review

(From Apple’s new iPod pages):

Slideshows Anywhere
Mesmerize friends and family with a glorious multimedia experience, offering them a breathtaking slideshow accompanied by the music you already have on your iPod Photo.

I don’t know about your friends and family, but I don’t think mine are going to be “mesmerized” by a 16-bit, 220×176, what, 2″ diagonal screen…? Breathtaking? Hmm.

My camera can do slideshows, hooked up to a TV, also. No music to accompany it (although I certainly can plug in my ipod to the tv at the same time). I dunno. It seems like a nice incremental add-on to the iPod, and how they’re actually getting an extra 3+ hours of playback time (I think my iPod claims 12 hrs, color ones 15) I don’t know… but that’s a nice improvement. Definitely not enough to plunk down another half-grand or so, though.

In fact, I typically take my laptop with me on trips where I’m likely to encounter a lot of family… and viewing photos on a 14.1″, 24-bit screen (or on TV–it’s got composite out), is easy there too. Actually, the 60GB iPod Photo costs $600–about the price of a really nice, used, or new entry-level laptop. But I guess you don’t get the pocket-able form factor: bad for typical mp3 usage, but I’d argue better for photo usage. I guess that’s the rub: is this device trying to do too much? For me, I think the answer is yes; but I think it’s likely to be a success, based on the reputation and cool-factor alone. Apple generally makes really well designed hardware and software… so I wish ‘em luck with it. It’s better than supporting a lot of the mediocre stuff so many other places put out!