Todd Terwilliger » technology

Whither, Twittiquette?

Todd — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:25:04 +0000

I got into an argument with a gentleman last night over twitter. I had posted a tweet about his application (which I hashtagged) in which I questioned certain aspects of that application. Inevitably, sometime later, he responded. A few back-and-forths later, he tried to dismiss me as a troll. Now I’ve been around the internets long enough to know the cold, slime-slick claw of a troll when I see it and this wasn’t it. Besides, how can I be trolling in my own feed?

Let me say this first: I don’t begrudge a man who wants to defend his own creation. I most certainly would do the same. I appreciate that twitter is a medium through which he could address me both personally and in the larger context of anyone else interested in him or his product. That being said, what I found distressing was his attempt to paint me as some sort of skulk by suggesting that if I post, in my own feed, something negative about his creation, I’m somehow interloping into his inviolate demesne.

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Post tags: conan, messageboards, thirteenth warrior, trolling, twitter, vikings

Opening Up the Pod Bay Doors

Todd — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:37:36 +0000

Yesterday afternoon’s dismantling of the 1UP website and associated podcasts reminded me of the transience of life, specifically the life of the internet podcast. From that train of thought, I emerged to give thanks to the podcasts I appreciated while they still exist to be appreciated. For tomorrow, they might be gone.

As much as I watched and listened to their podcasts and enjoyed them, I didn’t visit 1UP much. So I didn’t contribute much to their page-views, hits, or ad-views, I just freeloaded. Unlike blogging, podcasting requires a significant portion of time, technology and expertise, and bandwidth to produce. All for not much in return. Well, I don’t have much to give but I can give this: a few simple shout-outs to the podcasters I appreciate. Word.

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Post tags: 1up, bob packet, common sense, dan carlin, hardcore history, history according to bob, itunes, kevin smith, scott mosier, smodcast

DIVX Returns from the Dead?

Todd — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:00:00 +0000

After spending the better part of last night waffling over whether to go to Philadelphia this morning, I went, somehow rousing myself up at five this morning to make a 7:00AM train. While I waiting at the station, I wandered into the Hudson News and was confronted by this display:

Disposable DVD rentals? Does this remind anyone of anything?

DIVX was a rental format variation on the DVD player in which a customer would buy a DIVX disc (similar to a DVD) for approximately $4 US, which was watchable for up to 48 hours from its initial viewing. After this period, the disc could be viewed by paying a continuation fee, typically $3.25.

(From Wikipedia)

The trick with DIVX was that it needed a dedicated player and involved internet connectivity for some extra-charge billing tomfoolery. It looks like this evolution (called Flexplay) works with ordinary DVD players. It also doesn’t have any options for extended rentals or ownership. What’s old is new, like bell-bottoms and moon-walking, or something.

Technorati Tags: divx, flexplay, hudson news

Random Detritus: Friday Edition

Todd — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:25:00 +0000

Another weekend, another set of changes to service on the mighty G train. Weekends on the G are always special occasions but these weekends make it even more of a precious experience. However, I am lucky in that, other than getting to and from kickball on Sunday, I don’t have to take the G if I don’t want to. I’m close enough to things that I can walk to down Myrtle to Burrough Hall or take off down Washington to the C train. The G is closest though and its siren song is strong.

I noticed a new poster on the platform yesterday for Righteous Kill. It caught my attention because it’s got both Robert Deniro and Al Pacino in it. This got me immediately thinking back to Heat which is probably the whole point of the thing.

In one important regard, it won’t be like Heat at all. This time, Deniro and Pacino are working together. Wikipedia says:

Two veteran New York City detectives (De Niro and Pacino) work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; is there a serial killer on the loose, and did they perhaps put the wrong person behind bars?

It sounds pretty ordinary but I’m a sucker for these things so I have no doubt I’ll give it go. Time to track down a trailer!

On the topic of movies I want to see, I still haven’t seen Tropic Thunder. Maybe this weekend. I pass this poster of the flick everyday on my way to work and it makes me giggle every single time.

Who the heck is McBride? I don’t know but I want to find out.

In other news, my iPhone has been acting up all week but, of course, now that my appointment with the Apple store “genius bar” draws near, it’s begun acting perfectly normal again. It’s as if someone flicked a switch inside the cursed thing. Hmm.

In other other news, I said previously that I would avoid reading The Watchmen until after the movie comes out. Well, I lied. I saw the damn book at a bookstore on lunch a couple of days ago and I couldn’t talk myself out of buying it. I’m about two-thirds of the way through with it. It really is an excellent piece of literature. It’s very talky- I wonder how the film will handle all of it. I’m sure I’ll finish it this weekend.

Immortalize This

Todd — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:49:00 +0000

I like that new games are starting to really take advantage of the possibilities of media- Halo 3, Skate and others have encorporated user-created videos directly into the game. Madden has followed suit in this regard and added a feature to save and upload video highlights. It’s very, very limited but it works. Now we can all see videos of Lamont Jordan going Bo Jackson on an entire defense- Yay!

EA SPORTS World: Madden 09 Video Highlight

As cool a feature as this is, I do wonder why they don’t make a deal and utilize an existing video distribution service such as YouTube. Instead, ERA tries to reinvent the wheel with their own service that, of course, relies on their own ID and login systems. What, does no one like simplicity?

In other media creation news, I’m still fooling around with Lightroom 2. My first impression is… it’s okay. Maybe I need to learn what I’m doing but I’m underwhelmed by it at the moment. I’m not inspired. I admit, however, that I need more time. It does do more, by itself, than the other two apps did by themselves. That has to count for something… I guess.

Uneven Flow

Todd — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:16:00 +0000

Now that I’ve got my computing troubles settled, I’ve begun working on my backlog of photographs that I need to process. The trouble is: how do I process all of them? I’ve got enough photos in the can that I need some sort of workflow and a better solution than the few pack-in tools I received with my camera.

At the moment, I can’t afford Photoshop. So, I’ve been searching for more reasonably priced alternatives. Two that I test-drove last night were LightZone and DxO Optics Pro.

Both of these applications have their strengths and weaknesses. DxO has excellent tools for correcting faults or distortions in camera and lens optics. LightZone has a powerful zone system for applying effects to isolated areas of the image. Both applications include batch processing and organizational tools.

The problem with LightZone is that it lacks the optical fixes and, at the moment, does not accept the RAW files properly that are generated by my camera. DxO lacks the zone editing functionality.

I experimented with using both applications in tandem. While it worked fairly well, it generated intermediate files for each image I’d ideally like to avoid (RAW via DxO to DNG via LightZone to JPG). DxO has built-in flickr support. LightZone does not. While the process works, it’s not quite as neat and tidy as I’d like. Also, investing in both applications together raises the price a bit higher than I’d like.

In that vain, tonight I’ll be giving Adobe’s Lightroom 2 a go. It’s more expensive than either one of the other applications separately but not if I have to buy both to get the functions I want. Apple’s Aperture 2 is supposed to be awesome but, alas, it is Mac only and I am tethered to a PC. Back to the lab!

Brett the Jet

Todd — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:09:00 +0000

The Brett Favre saga ended with a a somewhat surprising twist: a trade to the New York Jets. The funny thing was, my first thought had less to do with contemplation of the Jets chances of success with Favre in the real world than with his impact on my Madden Jets franchise. As if to punctuate this thought process, my cousin messaged me this exclamation: “What a MADDEN upgrade!”

With the new Madden release coming next week (or tomorrow if I am lucky), I suppose I can be forgiven. I doubt I’m alone in my mania besides, if it wasn’t Madden implications, surely a thousand notes were taken by a thousand fantasy football owners sizing up a new wrinkle for their draft. The last thing we’re thinking about is real football.

In completely unrelated news, the second external hard drive dock I tried to hook up my ex-laptop HD to my new PC did the trick. I can now access all my files from my laptop and begin the process of migrating them to the new PC. The dock I went with was an Apricorn. The dock itself works like a champ but the software on the installation CD brought Vista to its knees. Thankfully, I don’t need any of it to do what needs doing.

Who Will Watch the Watchmen?

Todd — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:03:00 +0000

I think I will after catching the trailer attached to The Dark Knight and then watching it again on YouTube. I never read the graphic novel. Now I’m wondering if I should now or wait until after I see the film. I’m leaning towards after for the simple reason is that I will be able to watch the film as a single, stand-alone experience without the comic hanging over it.

As a somewhat casual aside, I’m getting pulled into more “higher level” conversations at work of late. I suppose this is a good thing but it might not be. Like Frodo moving through Mordor, the attention of the Great Eye is best avoided.

I’m going to run down to J & R at lunch to try a second external hard drive enclosure. I just don’t trust the one I’ve got holding my ex-laptop hard drive. If this one doesn’t work, I’ll be pretty close to the end of my rope.

Technorati Tags: the watchmen

Going Back to Shell Beach

Todd — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:35:00 +0000

It wasn’t easy but I managed to grab a copy of the new blu-ray release of Dark City. When I say it wasn’t easy, I mean it: there was a queer shortage of the discs all over town. It wasn’t to be found at Best Buy, Circuit City, or Virgin Megastore. I finally found a copy at the Union Square Barnes & Nobles of all places.

Ever since the abysmal director’s cut of The Abyss, I’ve been wary of re-edited films, director’s vision or no director’s vision. However, Dark City has long been one of my absolute favorite films. So, with much excitement and a dash of trepidation, I tossed the disc into the PS3. This action almost induced a fit the likes of which even Richard Pryor in The Toy had never seen. Almost.

When I popped the disc into the PS3, it loaded as it should. After a moment, it pauses at a screen at which you can select the director’s cut or the theatrical cut. All was well. Well, all was well until I touched any (and I mean any) button on the bluetooth remote. As soon as I pressed a button, I was dumped out of the player, back to the cross-media bar. I tried many different buttons. None of them worked.

A lesser man might have quit but not I. In a stroke of pure, unadulterated genius, I tried the controller instead of the remote. Problem solved. I don’t know what sense that makes but there it is. At least I got the movie to play.

Other than removing the voice-over at the beginning (ala the Blade Runner director’s cut- coincedence?), the changes from the theatrical release are mostly subtle but almost always welcome.

Instead of being told up front essentially exactly what is going on and why, it is now slowly drawn out over the course of the film. We’re no longer waiting for John Murdoch to catch up with what’s already been revealed to us. We find everything out at the same time.

Since I can’t recall anything being cut in the new edit, it must certainly be longer than the old one. That said, I couldn’t tell by watching it. It just moves along so well, and I was so caught up in it, that by the time I looked away from the TV the end credits were running. It was already a great film and I think this edition makes it just that little bit better. I already can’t wait to watch it again.

There aren’t too many villains better than Mr. Hand. Oh, how I’ve missed him.

It seems that life is never without its little problems. I got the new PC up and running but I can’t get my laptop hard drive to work. I’ve got it inside an external enclosure and when I plug in the USB cables, I get a blinking red light as if the drive is working or thinking or plotting acts of unkindness but Windows just won’t see it. I’ve tried it at work on an XP PC and here at home on Vista. No dice on either flavor of OS. The hard drive was not the reason the laptop went south so I’m assuming at the moment that it is alive and well inside its new home. However, I’m running out of ideas on why Windows is shunning it. Something will have to be done. I just don’t know what that something is yet.

Technorati Tags: dark city

Coming Up Acer

Todd — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:58:00 +0000

Consider my PC acquired. After much muttering, mumbling, and gnashing of body parts, I somewhat over-spent and brought home a bouncing new baby Acer desktop. When it came down to brass tacks, I went with bang for buck over pure cheapness. What that got me was a Pentium Dual Core E2200, 4 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB hard drive. Not too shabby for a budget box.

Since I don’t have a monitor handy and I didn’t want to buy one, I’ve got the beast tethered to my TV via HDMI. So far, that setup is working fine. But if I go with this configuration for any sort of long term, I’ll need to rustle up some wireless components.

The Acer comes pre-loaded with Vista. It’s my first experience with the much-maligned OS but so far it’s treating me alright. We’ll see how it goes. At least it seems, so far, that things haven’t moved around too much on me: the Control Panel is right where I left it, for example. Put me and Vista in the Honeymoon Suite. Let’s see how I like it a month down the road. For now, it’s just nice to have my computing capabilities restored. Now, I can go back to watching YouTube and porn in peace.