theMediaman.com

The hardware audit at work is almost complete. It’s actually a bit fun for a geek like me. I’m a little proud of how my 1 GHz machine boots faster than most of the newer P4s. It’s all in the tuning.

Leon’s left for New York, leaving me the only coder in the company. Right now I’m going back over one of his last projects and making it compatible for Firefox, Netscape and Safari… I admit he’s a very talented ASP coder, but this is only more proof that there’s no substitute for nine years of HTML programming L33Tness

I’m also the only full-time techie… it’s a little busy for me right now, but I’m handling it, and I’m even more of everyone’s hero when I solve a seemingly impossible problem. I like that feeling! However, since it’s part of my job description, I don’t rewarded in homebaked cookies like I normally do when I do Tech Support extracurricular-ly (I’m making words up again).

Oh, and I DID look it up, and Sloan was wrong. “Underwhelmed” is indeed a word. Still doesn’t take away from one of my favourite songs.

In fact, I encourage anyone with an extra $150 bucks to put an MP3 player in his or her car. I’ve got one CD that’s only two-thirds full of tunes, but I compiled them from some of the best singles of the last 12 years. When Toronto radio is sucking, I just put this disc on ‘randomize’ and I can listen to it for hours. It’s been in my deck for almost a full month now.

I’m starting to warm up to the idea of living downtown. I know I don’t like it in the faux-suburban life that Richmond Hill provides, and I know I can’t move further away since everyone I know seems to live in GTA now (except for a few K-W holdouts). Spending most weekends downtown I’ve started to get comfortable with the idea.

I’m also quite impressed with myself, as I had never driven south of Yorkdale more than twice before 2001. Unfortunately, as soon as I drive south of Bloor Street, I turn into a rather nasty driver. Kind of like walking through a mirror into Bizarro-land… “Evil-Stephen” with a goatee.
 

Looks like it’s official now. Both Toshiba and Sony have given up on a unified, next-generation format.

Get ready for the messiest format war since Beta vs. VHS

A few additional notes:

• Sony (Blu-ray) didn’t win the last war, even though they had the superior format.
• HD-DVDs are set to be released before Christmas with about 85 titles including Batman Begins.
• The studios are split. Time Warner (Warner Bros., New Line), Universal and Paramount support HD-DVD while Sony (Columbia Tristar, MGM), 20th Century Fox and Disney (Miramax) support the BD-DVD format. Dreamworks hasn’t decided (but is closely tied to Universal).
• HD-DVD is cheaper to make, because it’s very similar to current DVD technology. In fact, many HD-DVDs can be made with the standard definition DVD on the flip side.
• BD-DVDs don’t support dual-side.
• HD-DVD supports 15GB, 30GB or 45GB on up to three layers.
• BD-DVD supports 25GB or 50GB, but a 100GB quad-layer disc is in development.
• Both formats support MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 (based on Windows Media 9) for video compression.
• Playstation 3 will use the Blu-ray disc
• Rumours have circulated about HD-DVD coming in a future version of the Xbox 360, but nothing is confirmed yet, except that Microsoft supports HD-DVD as a format.
• Apple’s officially supporting Blu-ray, but their DVD burning software already supports creating HD-DVDs (even though burners are not on the market)

My predictions: BD-DVDs will emerge as a popular data format, and HD-DVDs take the Home Entertainment market.

Because the technologies are so different, we’re not likely to see readers and writers that can handle both formats, as we’ve seen with DVD “plus” and DVD “dash” media.

HD-DVDs have the best chance, because it comes down to early adoption. Within the last few years, everyone has replaced (or started to replace) his or her VHS collections with video DVDs. Asking us to replace them again so soon could backfire.

If the studios using HD-DVD offer the standard-definition, DVD-compliant flip side discs, then consumers will have no reservation paying an extra $5-10 premium to have their DVDs come with a version of the movie that will be HD-compatible. Movies on Blu-ray discs can make no such offer, without pairing the BD-DVDs up with a traditional DVD disc in the same packaging.

If we find that Batman Begins (the flagship product for the launch) is released as a one-sided, HD-DVD only disc, then they will miss their chance at promoting the format’s one strength that really matters to the consumer: future-proofing their movie collections. Sony will then be able to leverage Blu-ray’s advantages (like the PS3) and take the market.
 

There are some tempting guests at this year’s CN Expo, but as I said yesterday, the only one I think I’d actually go to see is the VG Cats guy. Anyway, I wanted to post some of the other guests-of-note with a short (and wise-ass) description of who they are for the non-geeks in the crowd.

Peter Laird (aka, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator)
Elijah Wood (aka, Frodo)
Elijah Wood’s eyes (gorgeous and usually fearful)
Kevin Sorbo (HERCULES!)
Marina Sirtis (ST:TNG hottie)
Linda Park (ST:Enterprise hottie)
Tuvok (who cares what his real name is)
Margot Kidder (Superman hottie)
Elvira Mistress of the Dark (55 years old and looking good in low-cut, gothic outfits)
Kenny Baker (R2D2)
Crispin Glover (Marty’s dad in Back to the Future)
Clive Barker (modern horror master)
Gary Gygax (co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons)
Most of the voice cast from Red vs. Blue
 

You are
Leo!
If you were to be described in one word it
would be this: dense. You’re not the sharpest
tool in the shed but when it comes to things
you care about you can be quite impressive. You
even like to hear a good story time to time
from the local town drunk.

Which VG Cats character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Turns out the VG Cats guy is going to be in Artist’s Alley at the Canadian National exhibition this weekend. I’m tempted to pay the 20 bucks just to meet him. Might go on Sunday… pondering… pondering…
 

My search for a new mechanic after the abysmal treatment by the Yonge & 16th Canadian Tire has led me to a new place. They currently have my car… (and just called me as I was writing that sentence, back to that in a moment). I’ve been searching for someplace new for anything from a typical oil change up to major repairs.

The first place I tried was Twin Hills Ford, just north of Elgin Mills from where I live. I’d been to the Ford dealership just north of Steeles & Yonge, but it was closed. Seriously too bad, since I was quite happy with the service. However, I tried out this other dealership’s service center and was indeed happy with the results… except, rather predicably, with the price. You do pay a premium for having the most knowledgable Ford mechanics working on your car.

With the hunt still on, the car started to get a lot louder. Sort of like a Mustang, but with a 4-banger under the hood. The noise is coming quite far up to the front of the car, so I first figured that it might be just a hole in the exhaust pipe. However, while the car’s warming up, there’s a noticable metal-on-metal rattling. Since it seems to go away once the car is warm, I figured it might be the catalytic converter.

The cat converter seemed a very real possibility. Many of the problems I’ve been having with the ZX2 over the last year have mirrored the problems I had with the last Escort at the same age, even though they are different models.

I looked up ‘mufflers’ on Canada411.ca, mainly because Yellow.ca has been disappointing me on how out-of-date their database is. (<= useless tangent, sorry)

I found a couple of places, including one very close to work - Car Quarters Automotive. One reason I kinda trusted them is because of the location. They’re in a plaza with a bunch of other car shops, from mechanics to detailing… including “Concepts on Wheels” who will proudly post their latest work on the front lawn, including a rather hideous pink 2005 Mustang to promote Juicy Fruit pink.

They called up and let me know that there was nothing wrong with the catalytic converter, just a loose pipe. Welding it back on will cost “about a hundred bucks”. I opted to get the shoes replaced too, and the whole thing is going to cost less than I was expecting.

The next step is to wait and see if something “mysteriously” breaks on my car soon. I know, it’s a cliché. But I’m not ready to trust any mechanics yet. However, they’re doing a pretty good job so far.