Well, I guess it's official... come October 1st, Comcast will begin enforcing a 250GB/month data transfer cap (that's combined up/download), at least according to this. My Google-Fu's not up to spec, though... I can't find any press release on Comcast's website to back it up, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was buried deep, on the theory that most customers "just won't care".
As for me... I think I'm currently well below that limit, even with my Roku box in play. The problem is that I don't know that I'm below the limit, and Comcast apparently has no plans on producing a "usage meter" that customers can check at will. I'm sure I've said it before (I just can't find it readily), but... if you're going to meter a service I'm paying for in any way, shape, or form, I damn well expect to have access to the meter, both to check my usage and to challenge errors.
Oh well, it's another step down the road of Comcast losing relevance down the road, I'm guessing. Come on, Qwest, get that fiber laid in my neighborhood, plzkthxbai.... :)
EDIT: I stumbled across a link to the official bits... it's not a press release, its an "Announcement Regarding An Amendment to Our Acceptable Use Policy", which can be found here.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Wii Downloads: Helix
OK, this is another one I haven't played all the way through yet... but then, it's an "exercise" game, so I fully expect to drop it before I've conquered every nook and cranny of it. If you've played "Dance Dance Revolution" or "Guitar Hero" or the like, you know the basic drill... make the move the game wants you to make in time with the rhythm of the music being played. The big difference here is that, instead of mashing buttons/footpads, you use a pair of Wii remotes, one in each hand, to mimic moves an on-screen robot shows you to make.
For a $10 download, the game does what it needs to do quite nicely... sure, the techno tracks they use for the rhythm are somewhat forgettable (at least the ones I've seen so far), but the total experience works well... at least, that's what my sore muscles and one joint that forgot it was supposed to bend that way are telling me... :)
The one down tick that I'll make at this point... the game locked up my Wii hard during my first run at the tutorial. Maybe it was a random glitch, maybe it's something I'll run across again and again. If the game pisses me off too much, I'll let you know... :)
For a $10 download, the game does what it needs to do quite nicely... sure, the techno tracks they use for the rhythm are somewhat forgettable (at least the ones I've seen so far), but the total experience works well... at least, that's what my sore muscles and one joint that forgot it was supposed to bend that way are telling me... :)
The one down tick that I'll make at this point... the game locked up my Wii hard during my first run at the tutorial. Maybe it was a random glitch, maybe it's something I'll run across again and again. If the game pisses me off too much, I'll let you know... :)
Monday, August 25, 2008
2008 Olympics - Closed
Yep, it's done. By past standards, it was a pretty good Olympics, too... while you still had the occasional questionable judging issue, no athletes died, and only one errant Swede got his medal revoked for poor sportsmanship on the podium. The host country got the most gold, we got the most medals overall... a nicely balanced showing for all.
The closing ceremony was nice, but not nearly so awe-inspiring as the opening (not too surprising, considering they only had a few hours to work in the stadium between the end of events and the start of the ceremony). Of course, the snark in me can't go without mentioning the London part of the ceremony... a double-decker bus that transforms into a Chia pet? Spastic dancers writhing to a tortured version of Greensleeves? "Whole lotta love"? I mean, sure, measuring up to China's presentation would have been no mean feat, but... that's the best you have to show for what London's going to give us in 2012? Really?
The closing ceremony was nice, but not nearly so awe-inspiring as the opening (not too surprising, considering they only had a few hours to work in the stadium between the end of events and the start of the ceremony). Of course, the snark in me can't go without mentioning the London part of the ceremony... a double-decker bus that transforms into a Chia pet? Spastic dancers writhing to a tortured version of Greensleeves? "Whole lotta love"? I mean, sure, measuring up to China's presentation would have been no mean feat, but... that's the best you have to show for what London's going to give us in 2012? Really?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Blueberry filling/topping
Looking to make some pocket pies, but don't have enough for a full batch, or just want to have a little variety? You could do worse than this:
The resulting consistency is just a bit too sloppy to spoon directly into the pies... but forking berries into place and drizzling with a bit of sauce works well. This recipe made me enough for a half-dozen pies, with enough left over to spoon over a bowl of ice cream later. Tasty treats all around... :)
- 1 c. thawed frozen blueberries, with juice
- 1 T. sugar
- 1 t. lemon juice
- 1/2 t. corn starch
The resulting consistency is just a bit too sloppy to spoon directly into the pies... but forking berries into place and drizzling with a bit of sauce works well. This recipe made me enough for a half-dozen pies, with enough left over to spoon over a bowl of ice cream later. Tasty treats all around... :)
Monday, August 18, 2008
Consumer content companies - lacking clue?
I just saw a couple of items on Fark that got me to thinking: for companies dealing with consumer content (music, movies, literature, that sort of thing), there sure seem to be several companies out there lacking a clue as to how the consumer thinks.
The first item up for bids... Internet radio. The organization in charge of setting royalties for various "broadcast" uses of copyrighted music in the U.S. seems intent on destroying Internet radio by setting rates well in excess of what's charged terrestrial radio and satellite radio stations... often to the point that the fees would exceed what the stations bring in. I can only assume that the music companies behind the organization are trying to drive users back to channels that they're "comfortable" with, like CD purchases and such... but is that realistic? This is the Internet we're talking about, after all... and there are many countries out there with less restrictive, yet still legal, licensing structures out there... why wouldn't consumers (and the companies that aggregate online stations for consumers) just look there for their content, cutting the U.S. royalty group out of the equation entirely? Isn't a smaller slice of the pie better than no slice at all?
Next, let's look at Blu-ray video... there seems to be continuing confusion from that camp as to why consumers aren't jumping from DVDs like they did from VHS many moons ago. Here's a hint: video quality is nice, but, past a point, it's not a game-changer, especially for pre-recorded content. DVD has many more benefits over VHS... to name a few: never needing to rewind, chapter search, multiple audio tracks (including foreign language, surround sound, and commentary tracks), smaller and less expensive to manufacture media, more durable media, and quieter players (due to fewer moving parts). If you want to sell higher-quality video, look at that list for a start, and see where you can improve on DVD (for example, one reason I'm loving my Roku box for Netflix video is that, since it streams video from the Internet, there's no moving parts, so no additional background noise). Once you've found what you can improve, price it competitively (another place where the Roku box shines), and it might just sell. Otherwise, you're doomed to fill an enthusiast niche... kind of like Laserdisc back in VHS days.
The first item up for bids... Internet radio. The organization in charge of setting royalties for various "broadcast" uses of copyrighted music in the U.S. seems intent on destroying Internet radio by setting rates well in excess of what's charged terrestrial radio and satellite radio stations... often to the point that the fees would exceed what the stations bring in. I can only assume that the music companies behind the organization are trying to drive users back to channels that they're "comfortable" with, like CD purchases and such... but is that realistic? This is the Internet we're talking about, after all... and there are many countries out there with less restrictive, yet still legal, licensing structures out there... why wouldn't consumers (and the companies that aggregate online stations for consumers) just look there for their content, cutting the U.S. royalty group out of the equation entirely? Isn't a smaller slice of the pie better than no slice at all?
Next, let's look at Blu-ray video... there seems to be continuing confusion from that camp as to why consumers aren't jumping from DVDs like they did from VHS many moons ago. Here's a hint: video quality is nice, but, past a point, it's not a game-changer, especially for pre-recorded content. DVD has many more benefits over VHS... to name a few: never needing to rewind, chapter search, multiple audio tracks (including foreign language, surround sound, and commentary tracks), smaller and less expensive to manufacture media, more durable media, and quieter players (due to fewer moving parts). If you want to sell higher-quality video, look at that list for a start, and see where you can improve on DVD (for example, one reason I'm loving my Roku box for Netflix video is that, since it streams video from the Internet, there's no moving parts, so no additional background noise). Once you've found what you can improve, price it competitively (another place where the Roku box shines), and it might just sell. Otherwise, you're doomed to fill an enthusiast niche... kind of like Laserdisc back in VHS days.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Movie o' the day: WALL-E
Again, yes, I'm slow about getting to movies in the theater... but warm summer days and a lack of air conditioning in my house combine nicely to motivate me. WALL-E was my choice for the day.
I got to the theater just a bit late, so I didn't catch the entire introductory cartoon... just enough to see that I really, really want to see it in its entirety sometime (stage magic meets Portal, with a cute bunny... what's not to like?). The movie itself... the darker, more cynical side of me desperately wants to label it "Looking for love? Live a hermitile existence for several hundred years, cannibalizing your brethren to survive, latch onto the first being remotely like you and stalk her beyond the ends of the Earth, and love is assured", but that's the same part that calls Princess Mononke "A lovely story of demonic possession", so we'll leave it lay.
Honestly, WALL-E is a wonderful story, all the more so for being told with limited dialog, especially in the early parts. Trash collector WALL-E, the last(?) functioning unit of his kind, continues his assigned task of cleaning up the Earth that humanity despoiled and fled... but, over a few hundred years, he's developed a few quirks, including his collecting habit and his pretty-well-indestructible pet cockroach that eats Twinkies. One day, a probe ship comes and drops off EV, an explorer robot that searches the wreckage for something, but has an itchy trigger finger. The fearless roach ends up getting the two bots together and surviving the process... and it turns out that WALL-E has what EV's looking for, while he's showing her the collection of "neat stuff" that he's found... which results in EV's collecting the item and shutting down.
Undaunted, WALL-E watches over EV while continuing his job... until the probe ship returns and snatches her away. WALL-E hitches a ride on the probe ship to the cruise ship, where his pursuit of EV ends up disrupting the routines of robot and human alike... and that's all the further I'm going to say in any great detail about the movie. Apart from the love story angle, there are two other overriding statements from the film... first is the prevalence of "BuyNLarge", Wal-Mart on steroids (think "global CEO" as a presidential sort of position), and the message on that is glaringly obvious. The second is the role of routine and duty in life, a topic that hits close to home for me, as I do tend to define myself by what I do. The "good" characters invariably honor their directives while they're "working, up to the point that doing so might be injurious to others... the "bad" characters obey their directives at all costs, even if the directive is sloppily provided, outdated, and contradicted by current information, often because by doing so they retain power.
Of course, this is definitely a "suspension of disbelief" kind of movie... especially for somebody technically-minded like myself, it's all too easy to poke at the weak corners and find flaws that take the film out of the realm of science fiction and straight into fantasy (the quick example: humans that spend their lives in microgravity chairs ever being able to stand upright?). Resist that urge, go with the flow of the movie, and you'll have a fun, and maybe even touching, experience of it.
I got to the theater just a bit late, so I didn't catch the entire introductory cartoon... just enough to see that I really, really want to see it in its entirety sometime (stage magic meets Portal, with a cute bunny... what's not to like?). The movie itself... the darker, more cynical side of me desperately wants to label it "Looking for love? Live a hermitile existence for several hundred years, cannibalizing your brethren to survive, latch onto the first being remotely like you and stalk her beyond the ends of the Earth, and love is assured", but that's the same part that calls Princess Mononke "A lovely story of demonic possession", so we'll leave it lay.
Honestly, WALL-E is a wonderful story, all the more so for being told with limited dialog, especially in the early parts. Trash collector WALL-E, the last(?) functioning unit of his kind, continues his assigned task of cleaning up the Earth that humanity despoiled and fled... but, over a few hundred years, he's developed a few quirks, including his collecting habit and his pretty-well-indestructible pet cockroach that eats Twinkies. One day, a probe ship comes and drops off EV, an explorer robot that searches the wreckage for something, but has an itchy trigger finger. The fearless roach ends up getting the two bots together and surviving the process... and it turns out that WALL-E has what EV's looking for, while he's showing her the collection of "neat stuff" that he's found... which results in EV's collecting the item and shutting down.
Undaunted, WALL-E watches over EV while continuing his job... until the probe ship returns and snatches her away. WALL-E hitches a ride on the probe ship to the cruise ship, where his pursuit of EV ends up disrupting the routines of robot and human alike... and that's all the further I'm going to say in any great detail about the movie. Apart from the love story angle, there are two other overriding statements from the film... first is the prevalence of "BuyNLarge", Wal-Mart on steroids (think "global CEO" as a presidential sort of position), and the message on that is glaringly obvious. The second is the role of routine and duty in life, a topic that hits close to home for me, as I do tend to define myself by what I do. The "good" characters invariably honor their directives while they're "working, up to the point that doing so might be injurious to others... the "bad" characters obey their directives at all costs, even if the directive is sloppily provided, outdated, and contradicted by current information, often because by doing so they retain power.
Of course, this is definitely a "suspension of disbelief" kind of movie... especially for somebody technically-minded like myself, it's all too easy to poke at the weak corners and find flaws that take the film out of the realm of science fiction and straight into fantasy (the quick example: humans that spend their lives in microgravity chairs ever being able to stand upright?). Resist that urge, go with the flow of the movie, and you'll have a fun, and maybe even touching, experience of it.
Currency after the fall of civilization
I went to a party last night... not exactly true to form for me, but, well, my friend's headed to Iraq for a year or so, and it was his "farewell" party. Of course, being ex-military and much more extroverted than myself, he has some... interesting... friends, including a few that aren't quite full-blown survivalists, but who have put some thought and preparation into what they might do should society fall apart. One in particular has, as part of his investment planning, taken to collecting gold and silver coinage to use for trade, should the need arise.
I got to thinking about it overnight... currency requires an agreed-upon standard of value, and, at first blush, precious metals seem like a no-brainer. However, to be useful for trade, there has to be enough of those materials around for all the market participants to have a pool of, in this case, coinage to draw on for their purchasing needs, with sufficient excess for sellers to make change on purchases... and a few guys with pockets full of heavy, noisy coinage just doesn't fit the bill. No, a workable currency needs something reasonably plentiful, but not excessively so, that isn't readily counterfeited... and, in a post-modern-tech society, something instantly recognizable from pre-fall days would fit the bill nicely. Also, it should be lightweight, portable, and durable, to allow transfer and use over as large an area as possible for as long a period as possible.
So, for any of you thinking about what to stockpile for trade after the fall of civilization, allow me to suggest... credit cards. Definitely lightweight and durable, made from a material that a pre-industrial society would be hard-pressed to mimic, with stamped numerals and that magnetic strip (at a minimum) to differentiate them from any other random bits of plastic that somebody might try to pass as money, credit cards are practically custom-made for the job. Almost everyone is guaranteed to have at least one to start with... and, as an added bonus, due to the grouping of numbers on the card, they're pre-marked for division into at least four sub-bits for change-making purposes, kind of like the "pieces of eight" of old. Get your local gathering of survivors to agree on the standard for trade first, then branch it out to your neighbors... odds are I won't be there to help you, since I live all too close to a military installation, but I'll be hoping for your success, from the bottom of my biohazard/radioactivity-zombified heart... :)
I got to thinking about it overnight... currency requires an agreed-upon standard of value, and, at first blush, precious metals seem like a no-brainer. However, to be useful for trade, there has to be enough of those materials around for all the market participants to have a pool of, in this case, coinage to draw on for their purchasing needs, with sufficient excess for sellers to make change on purchases... and a few guys with pockets full of heavy, noisy coinage just doesn't fit the bill. No, a workable currency needs something reasonably plentiful, but not excessively so, that isn't readily counterfeited... and, in a post-modern-tech society, something instantly recognizable from pre-fall days would fit the bill nicely. Also, it should be lightweight, portable, and durable, to allow transfer and use over as large an area as possible for as long a period as possible.
So, for any of you thinking about what to stockpile for trade after the fall of civilization, allow me to suggest... credit cards. Definitely lightweight and durable, made from a material that a pre-industrial society would be hard-pressed to mimic, with stamped numerals and that magnetic strip (at a minimum) to differentiate them from any other random bits of plastic that somebody might try to pass as money, credit cards are practically custom-made for the job. Almost everyone is guaranteed to have at least one to start with... and, as an added bonus, due to the grouping of numbers on the card, they're pre-marked for division into at least four sub-bits for change-making purposes, kind of like the "pieces of eight" of old. Get your local gathering of survivors to agree on the standard for trade first, then branch it out to your neighbors... odds are I won't be there to help you, since I live all too close to a military installation, but I'll be hoping for your success, from the bottom of my biohazard/radioactivity-zombified heart... :)
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Moving day - Ow.
So I'm sitting here recuperating from two days of company-moving madness... my company's shrunk over time, our old space was way too big for us, there's a more reasonable space at the other end of the building, kind of a no-brainer. Of course, since the building we're occupying was never intended to be office space (actually, it was built to be a nursing home for Alzheimers patients), there was a bit more physical labor for me than I'm used to. Mainly, I had to pull network and phone cabling through the space (our phone guy just happened to be going on a one-week Alaskan vacation during our move...) and get everybody working in their new offices.
Thankfully, it looks like I'm about done. I've got one more server to place in the new space, and the technology side should be mostly done (I've got a problem with one fax line, but we've got another... so the phone guy can investigate when he gets back). One more day of fun, and then I'll get to enjoy one benefit of the move. You see, the space we're taking over isn't quite wholly vacant yet, so, having no office, I'll be forced, forced I say, to work from home for the foreseeable future... :)
Thankfully, it looks like I'm about done. I've got one more server to place in the new space, and the technology side should be mostly done (I've got a problem with one fax line, but we've got another... so the phone guy can investigate when he gets back). One more day of fun, and then I'll get to enjoy one benefit of the move. You see, the space we're taking over isn't quite wholly vacant yet, so, having no office, I'll be forced, forced I say, to work from home for the foreseeable future... :)
Saturday, August 9, 2008
2008 Olympics - Open
Yeah, I'm not much of one for organized sports as a rule... but there are a few oddities that can grab my attention. Take the Olympics for example... even though they don't do the pankration anymore, I can usually stumble across at least a few competitions that will hold my interest. Of course, since this event only happens once every few years, they have to do a whole ceremonial thing to kick it off. I had heard that this opening ceremony was going to be something special, even by the measure of past events, so I decided to watch it for once.
OMFG!
What can I say... if you haven't seen it already, find it online somewhere (preferably not through NBC's systems, but I'll come back to the why of that later). I haven't had anything evoke the feelings of awe and sadness that I got from that performance in a long, long time. Sticking with the awe side of the equation for now, and not getting into too much detail... anything starting with a couple-thousand men beating on ancient war drums modified with pressure-sensitive lighting effects is just intimidating on a primal level. After that, they go into a variety of technologically impressive segments employing thousands of people in perfect synchronization, providing a view of the history and culture of China from ancient times to modern days. It's all outstanding, although there was one section where I had to laugh, since it reminded me a little too much of a bit from "Logan's Run" (the "last day carousel", to be precise). The "artistic" portion of the opening ceremony takes up the first hour and fifteen minutes of the whole, after which comes the traditional parade of nations' athletes.
For me, the parade is pretty skippable (and, if you're so inclined it takes up the next 2:15 of the ceremony)... somebody decided that the parade should be somewhat more formal than in past Olympics, so the athletes dressed up a bit, either in regional cultural garb or tailored suits (that's the path the US took... complete with a Ralph Lauren insignia on it... *facepalm*). Most of it worked well (although the Hungarian look was... erm... interesting), and they even tied it into the earlier artistic portion by having the paraders basically walk over huge stamp pads before progressing across a huge painting created throughout the earlier artistic portion, filling in a large open area with color.
Finally, the speechification was gotten out of the way (and, mercifully, kept short and sweet), the torch was run into the stadium, the flame passed from runner to runner until they used wirework to have the last runner do a sky run around the entire stadium against an evolving animated backdrop to light the fire. If someone were to package the whole on a DVD set, with subtitles for what the participants were actually saying, and maybe include a "making of" piece, I would seriously consider buying it, that's how good the whole was.
Of course, that brings me to the "sad" part of the whole... while I was watching this show, I was all too aware that, in my lifetime at least, I doubt I will ever see the U.S. be able to match, let alone exceed, what the Chinese presented to the world last night. To see why, one need not look much further than NBC's presentation of the whole affair. While the Chinese were presenting us with a thing of beauty, NBC cut in every 10-15 minutes with commercials for McDonalds, Coke, Nike and the like. When they were covering what was happening in the stadium, it was being covered like a sports broadcast, using a "Chinese cultural specialist" (if I recall right) for color commentary. They did so in spite of the event taking place not less than 12 hours before it was going to be broadcast back at home... they could readily have kept the artistic piece intact (I'm sure I missed some fantastic transitions between set pieces) and made up for it by doing more "brief detail" displays of parading countries (which they already did some of to make up for their commercial breaks during the parade proper). Oh, and, just maybe, telling us what's being said by the participants while you're at it.
No, if we wanted to run something anywhere near the scale and precision the Chinese did, well... first off, no one city could afford to do it financially, and no level of government could sell it these days politically. No technology firms would be likely to provide the necessary hardware "at cost" or as a donation... and why should they, when the whole event would be plastered with corporate sponsorship logos, to the greatest extent that the IOC would allow. Beyond that, nobody in show business in this country would have the courage to do something expressly symbolic, for fear that Joe Sixpack wouldn't "get it"... and replace all those children and performers with big name stars and technology... and where are we going to find enough fireworks... and... and...
Erm, well, enough U.S. ranting... the Olympic games are open, best of luck to all the athletes involved... make us all proud!
OMFG!
What can I say... if you haven't seen it already, find it online somewhere (preferably not through NBC's systems, but I'll come back to the why of that later). I haven't had anything evoke the feelings of awe and sadness that I got from that performance in a long, long time. Sticking with the awe side of the equation for now, and not getting into too much detail... anything starting with a couple-thousand men beating on ancient war drums modified with pressure-sensitive lighting effects is just intimidating on a primal level. After that, they go into a variety of technologically impressive segments employing thousands of people in perfect synchronization, providing a view of the history and culture of China from ancient times to modern days. It's all outstanding, although there was one section where I had to laugh, since it reminded me a little too much of a bit from "Logan's Run" (the "last day carousel", to be precise). The "artistic" portion of the opening ceremony takes up the first hour and fifteen minutes of the whole, after which comes the traditional parade of nations' athletes.
For me, the parade is pretty skippable (and, if you're so inclined it takes up the next 2:15 of the ceremony)... somebody decided that the parade should be somewhat more formal than in past Olympics, so the athletes dressed up a bit, either in regional cultural garb or tailored suits (that's the path the US took... complete with a Ralph Lauren insignia on it... *facepalm*). Most of it worked well (although the Hungarian look was... erm... interesting), and they even tied it into the earlier artistic portion by having the paraders basically walk over huge stamp pads before progressing across a huge painting created throughout the earlier artistic portion, filling in a large open area with color.
Finally, the speechification was gotten out of the way (and, mercifully, kept short and sweet), the torch was run into the stadium, the flame passed from runner to runner until they used wirework to have the last runner do a sky run around the entire stadium against an evolving animated backdrop to light the fire. If someone were to package the whole on a DVD set, with subtitles for what the participants were actually saying, and maybe include a "making of" piece, I would seriously consider buying it, that's how good the whole was.
Of course, that brings me to the "sad" part of the whole... while I was watching this show, I was all too aware that, in my lifetime at least, I doubt I will ever see the U.S. be able to match, let alone exceed, what the Chinese presented to the world last night. To see why, one need not look much further than NBC's presentation of the whole affair. While the Chinese were presenting us with a thing of beauty, NBC cut in every 10-15 minutes with commercials for McDonalds, Coke, Nike and the like. When they were covering what was happening in the stadium, it was being covered like a sports broadcast, using a "Chinese cultural specialist" (if I recall right) for color commentary. They did so in spite of the event taking place not less than 12 hours before it was going to be broadcast back at home... they could readily have kept the artistic piece intact (I'm sure I missed some fantastic transitions between set pieces) and made up for it by doing more "brief detail" displays of parading countries (which they already did some of to make up for their commercial breaks during the parade proper). Oh, and, just maybe, telling us what's being said by the participants while you're at it.
No, if we wanted to run something anywhere near the scale and precision the Chinese did, well... first off, no one city could afford to do it financially, and no level of government could sell it these days politically. No technology firms would be likely to provide the necessary hardware "at cost" or as a donation... and why should they, when the whole event would be plastered with corporate sponsorship logos, to the greatest extent that the IOC would allow. Beyond that, nobody in show business in this country would have the courage to do something expressly symbolic, for fear that Joe Sixpack wouldn't "get it"... and replace all those children and performers with big name stars and technology... and where are we going to find enough fireworks... and... and...
Erm, well, enough U.S. ranting... the Olympic games are open, best of luck to all the athletes involved... make us all proud!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Warner Brothers DVDs - where'd the quality go?
So yeah, I picked up Freakazoid! and Tiny Toons over the weekend, since I had a guest that needed Freakazoid! inflicted on him. Good stuff on both of those collections, for those of you who are into '90s toons... but the packaging has taken another downturn, I'm sorry to report.
Back when Warner started putting out their first animation collection (the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection"), they did it "right"... a nice "bookcase" sleeve around a folding, printed cardboard case, with individual storage of DVDs in and among the folds of the case. I'm not doing justice to the package with my description, but, for a general-consumer-targeted DVD collection, it's nice.
Unfortunately, that only lasted for the first three volumes of the Looney Tunes stuff... by the time Volume 4 came out (and they did this with Animaniacs, too), somebody must have decided that all of that printing cost too much... for the same number of discs, the package is maybe two-thirds the original width... and, while they kept the "bookcase" sleeve, the contents are a trifold affair, with the discs stored two to a panel, overlapping... so, if you want disc 2, you have to juggle disc 1 to get at it.
I thought that I'd seen as cheap as Warner was likely to go... until the new Freakazoid! and Tiny Toons collections, that is. Now, there's only a thin cardboard sleeve over the DVD box, which is a clamshell affair with plastic hinged "storage pages" inside, allowing them to store two DVDs per page while maintaining the ability to get at either one independently... admittedly, as an engineering-type, I like the solution, but, even to me, it just doesn't look good. However, the "best" surprise is when you hit the last disc in either collection... it's a double-sided disc. You've seen the type before... usually used when some company wants to provide both "letterboxed" and "full-screen" versions of the same material on the cheap, with a "label ring" so small that you need a loupe to figure out what's on what side of the disc. To me, it's an annoyance... I'm just glad I don't do with DVDs like I used to do with CDs and store them in a binder, tossing the original package.
Oh well, here's hoping I get all the cartoon collections I want out of Warner before they're reduced to distributing stacks of DVDs labeled with Sharpies, separated by waxed paper, with a bolt through the middle to keep them together.
Back when Warner started putting out their first animation collection (the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection"), they did it "right"... a nice "bookcase" sleeve around a folding, printed cardboard case, with individual storage of DVDs in and among the folds of the case. I'm not doing justice to the package with my description, but, for a general-consumer-targeted DVD collection, it's nice.
Unfortunately, that only lasted for the first three volumes of the Looney Tunes stuff... by the time Volume 4 came out (and they did this with Animaniacs, too), somebody must have decided that all of that printing cost too much... for the same number of discs, the package is maybe two-thirds the original width... and, while they kept the "bookcase" sleeve, the contents are a trifold affair, with the discs stored two to a panel, overlapping... so, if you want disc 2, you have to juggle disc 1 to get at it.
I thought that I'd seen as cheap as Warner was likely to go... until the new Freakazoid! and Tiny Toons collections, that is. Now, there's only a thin cardboard sleeve over the DVD box, which is a clamshell affair with plastic hinged "storage pages" inside, allowing them to store two DVDs per page while maintaining the ability to get at either one independently... admittedly, as an engineering-type, I like the solution, but, even to me, it just doesn't look good. However, the "best" surprise is when you hit the last disc in either collection... it's a double-sided disc. You've seen the type before... usually used when some company wants to provide both "letterboxed" and "full-screen" versions of the same material on the cheap, with a "label ring" so small that you need a loupe to figure out what's on what side of the disc. To me, it's an annoyance... I'm just glad I don't do with DVDs like I used to do with CDs and store them in a binder, tossing the original package.
Oh well, here's hoping I get all the cartoon collections I want out of Warner before they're reduced to distributing stacks of DVDs labeled with Sharpies, separated by waxed paper, with a bolt through the middle to keep them together.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Comcast Spanked
Well, it's official... the FCC says Comcast needs to stop blocking Internet traffic and, better still, needs to publicly disclose exactly what they are doing in the way of network management, so outsiders can gauge the reasonableness of said management (link). Naturally, Comcast's not particularly happy about this turn of events, so watch for upcoming lawsuits and/or congressional action... but it's a good starting point towards keeping the Internet free from interference by the gatekeeper Internet service providers.
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