Thursday, November 20, 2008

Point/Counterpoint on Alice's Commute

Point:
The (my) Prius gets better gas mileage than the (her) Jetta does.
Alice commutes. I don't. There is a parking discount for hybrid drivers at Expedia, which will save us an additional $75 each month in addition to the gasoline savings. This makes it the better choice for her commute from from both an economical and environmental standpoint. It just makes the most sense. It is better for us and the world if she drives the Prius to work instead of the Jetta.

Counterpoint:
Hey, that's my car!

Friday, November 7, 2008

The HDMI Video Cable Scam (or: Do You Know What DIGITAL Means?)

The other day, I was in a big computer and electronics store and saw a rack of HDMI video cables right by the entrance with prices ranging from $50 to over $100!!

This is a SCAM! Identical cables can be purchased on Amazon for $1.50 or so. There were even some used ones that were listed at $0.01. (Plus a couple bucks shipping, I assume.)

Now, some of you audiophiles may be saying "You can see and hear the difference on a better cord!" and that may be true (or may not be) for your analog equipment, but this is DIGITAL. Digital means "NUMBERS." Do you understand the difference yet? Let's look at some numbers, shall we:

100
100
100
100
100
100
100

Hmmm, all of those numbers have the SAME VALUE, don't they. Whether they are big or small, bold or italic, or not.
Imagine that first BIG BOLD number as coming from a top-of-the-line $100 HDMI cord and the last tiny italic one coming from a $.01 used HDMI cord. THEY HAVE THE SAME VALUE: FOUR!*
As long as that value gets through, your TV will give you the exact same image and sound.


You're welcome.

*This joke was for the ultra-geeky. If you didn't get it, just assume I said "one-hundred" and be happy that you are cooler than that.

PS: The difference in quality between HDMI and Component Video IS NOTICEABLE! And completely worth your $1.50.

Monday, November 3, 2008

ContactClone Video

Watch my video!



This was done to show off our new iPhone software, ContactClone and ContactClone Pro.
I tried (several times) to get a decent video using both a webcam and an actual video camera and nothing worked. The lighting was always terrible, and the iPhone screen was usually blurry. So I animated the thing in Flash using screenshots. It worked great!

And it was the first time I'd really used Flash in 10 years!! And WHO KNEW THAT THIS WAS STILL ON THE WEB!
http://www.burford.net/clipart/
I didn't. It's kind of fun to watch some crazy stuff you did a long time ago and had nearly forgotten about.
NOTE: Clip Art Theater contains scenes of explicit cartoon violence and is not for the the weak of comedy.