Of late I’ve been mulling the “price per bit” over time (not in depth, nothing to show for the thoughts yet). The price has plummeted. Where we used to treasure every byte received, we now have a “cloud” serving vast piles of data which we give a scant glance then discard.
With this iPad thingie, I moved an average of 10kb/sec all last month – one bit every 0.0001 seconds. Small wonder AT&T is throttling users on the large-but-limited bandwidth 3G network. They’re getting $0.000001/bit (or less).
So...
- The iPad is a hit, moving huge volumes of product. Apple sold 2 million in two months, and that was just to the “early adopters” in the USA. About half of those run 3G.
- The iPhone 4 is due soon (today?). That front-facing camera will open the floodgates of videophone calls, magnifying the data demands of otherwise normal calls.
- Google just announced GoogleTV – another huge draw on internet video. Expect a revamping & push of Apple TV in response.
- 4G wireless is gearing up, with Verizon about to throw the nationwide on switch, AT&T soon to follow, and Clear & Sprint already running it. Lots more bandwidth to cover the aforementioned load, once we consumers upgrade our hardware.
Tangent while I’m blathering:
The fight over Flash on the iP* makes me think we’re on the cusp of a “Tower of Babel” moment. So far all internet-connected devices speak pretty much the same language and follow the same technosocial protocols. There may be “dialects”, but everyone kinda gets along.
At some point some faction (*cough*Apple*cough) will choose to stop supporting some part of the “internet language” outright (*cough*Flash*cough*), causing a sharp separation of network participants, a separation which cannot be bridged without concerted effort. New cultural divides will form, defined by users’ inability to “just go there”; millions of iP* users won’t give up their uber-mobile life-changing devices, and TimeWarner/NBC/CBS/whaever won’t give up Flash just for a small fraction of their customers ... a division which just won’t be bridged.
Let the balkanization of the “exascale web” begin. There’s enough bandwidth & data out there to support it.
BTW: Google is about to introduce their outright replacement for Windows. They expect a million users on day one.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Rant: Rampage in Whitehaven
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2996697/Shooting-horror-in-Whitehaven.htm
Somebody killed a bunch of people in England.
Dave writes "How? I thought the people were all disarmed in England to make it safer?"
I ... I don't understand. It can't be. It must be untrue. It's unpossible.
I mean ... there are words on paper somewhere that prohibit such things, right? Not that anyone but the elite keepers of the law have seen those words. I mean, really, there are WORDS ON PAPER! This can't happen! The evil nature of ... of ... I can't say the word* ... THOSE THINGS ... must be overwhelming and awful. That poor man ... somehow he ends up with ... one of those THINGS ... and he just couldn't help himself. Let's all pitch in ... I mean ALL, the police will encourage community cooperation ... to give this poor man a comfortable life to help him cope with such a dire experience. And where did that ... THING ... come from? We must scour every home to ensure there are none of those ... THINGS ... in our community. Oh, it's not a violation of "right to be secure in one's home and effects" to do such a search, it helps enhance that right by ensuring such ... THINGS ... do not threaten our community. So it's settled then? It should be unanimous, so it is. We raise taxes to pay for that poor man's retirement, and we send our kind SWAT team to search every home for those ... THINGS ... and everything will be much better. I'm feeling very sunny and cheerful now.
My word, I'm starting to understand how people end up thinking that way. I need to go shoot something and then have a stiff drink.
Somebody killed a bunch of people in England.
Dave writes "How? I thought the people were all disarmed in England to make it safer?"
I ... I don't understand. It can't be. It must be untrue. It's unpossible.
I mean ... there are words on paper somewhere that prohibit such things, right? Not that anyone but the elite keepers of the law have seen those words. I mean, really, there are WORDS ON PAPER! This can't happen! The evil nature of ... of ... I can't say the word* ... THOSE THINGS ... must be overwhelming and awful. That poor man ... somehow he ends up with ... one of those THINGS ... and he just couldn't help himself. Let's all pitch in ... I mean ALL, the police will encourage community cooperation ... to give this poor man a comfortable life to help him cope with such a dire experience. And where did that ... THING ... come from? We must scour every home to ensure there are none of those ... THINGS ... in our community. Oh, it's not a violation of "right to be secure in one's home and effects" to do such a search, it helps enhance that right by ensuring such ... THINGS ... do not threaten our community. So it's settled then? It should be unanimous, so it is. We raise taxes to pay for that poor man's retirement, and we send our kind SWAT team to search every home for those ... THINGS ... and everything will be much better. I'm feeling very sunny and cheerful now.
My word, I'm starting to understand how people end up thinking that way. I need to go shoot something and then have a stiff drink.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Rant: ultra-low-budget movies
I have a fondness for ultra-low-budget movies.
Prime examples:
Blair Witch Project - Actors, with just camping equipment and mundane audio/video equipment (which was part of the story), were actually sent into the woods for 5 days, and were given cryptic directions they would find on scraps of paper lying in their path. They really did get tired, dirty, stressed & scared.
Cube - Aside from a handful of simple digital effects shots, the entire film was shot in a 10’ cube. Change of “location” was achieved by color filters on lights.
El Mariachi - Made for $7000, raised by the director/producer submitting to paid medical experimentation. Lighting was just two cheap lamps cleverly arranged. Extras included two local hostile-to-the-production talk-show hosts won over by giving them cameos. DVD includes fascinating 10-minute lesson on cutting corners.
Done right, the viewer has no clue there was practically no budget – because the story, directing and acting were right.
El Mariachi’s director, Robert Rodriguez, went on to become a major Hollywood player. He still does all post-production work in his garage.
All too often, when you pare a big-budget production down to the story and its truth, there’s nothing there to convey. If you don’t have a story to tell, but have to tell one, money can still buy fame.
Tangent:
I’d love to do a series of shorts that take the start of blockbuster movies, then apply a moment of realism which abruptly cuts the film short. There’s a 007 film that starts where Bond jumps off a cliff to freefall into an uncontrolled airplane, then a long blind pause reveals he has succeeded in catching up & taking control before it crashes; I’d edit in a fireball, then roll credits (backed by a slow zoom in on a dark smear on the canyon floor). Likewise a slasher movie where the first would-be victim grabs a 12-gauge, performs the indicated response, then resumes the night of fun & frolic with the others.
Edit: xkcd wins...
Tangent to the tangent:
The high point of Executive Decision was 20 minutes in, where a big-name actor abruptly falls out of a plane and is not seen again.
Prime examples:
Blair Witch Project - Actors, with just camping equipment and mundane audio/video equipment (which was part of the story), were actually sent into the woods for 5 days, and were given cryptic directions they would find on scraps of paper lying in their path. They really did get tired, dirty, stressed & scared.
Cube - Aside from a handful of simple digital effects shots, the entire film was shot in a 10’ cube. Change of “location” was achieved by color filters on lights.
El Mariachi - Made for $7000, raised by the director/producer submitting to paid medical experimentation. Lighting was just two cheap lamps cleverly arranged. Extras included two local hostile-to-the-production talk-show hosts won over by giving them cameos. DVD includes fascinating 10-minute lesson on cutting corners.
Done right, the viewer has no clue there was practically no budget – because the story, directing and acting were right.
El Mariachi’s director, Robert Rodriguez, went on to become a major Hollywood player. He still does all post-production work in his garage.
All too often, when you pare a big-budget production down to the story and its truth, there’s nothing there to convey. If you don’t have a story to tell, but have to tell one, money can still buy fame.
Tangent:
I’d love to do a series of shorts that take the start of blockbuster movies, then apply a moment of realism which abruptly cuts the film short. There’s a 007 film that starts where Bond jumps off a cliff to freefall into an uncontrolled airplane, then a long blind pause reveals he has succeeded in catching up & taking control before it crashes; I’d edit in a fireball, then roll credits (backed by a slow zoom in on a dark smear on the canyon floor). Likewise a slasher movie where the first would-be victim grabs a 12-gauge, performs the indicated response, then resumes the night of fun & frolic with the others.
Edit: xkcd wins...
Tangent to the tangent:
The high point of Executive Decision was 20 minutes in, where a big-name actor abruptly falls out of a plane and is not seen again.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Blatant Plug: The Survivalist Blog
M.D. Creekmore over at the The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster – with articles on bug out bag contents, survival knife choices and a wealth of other survival information is giving away a Go Berkey Water Filter System (a $139.00 value)! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for the details.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Pun: 5th of May
Nearly 100 years ago, Mexicans discovered a European condiment made of whipped oil & eggs. They went crazy over it, and would not be satisfied with homemade Central American versions of it – no, they demanded the real thing from Great Britain. Arrangements were made for a large shipment of this smooth, white delicacy via the Titanic.
Well, you know what happened to that shipment.
News of the loss of the huge and much-anticipated cargo reached Mexico on May 5. Enthusiastic expectation turned to horror and lament, so great that every year the nation remembers the loss with ... Sinko de Mayo.
Well, you know what happened to that shipment.
News of the loss of the huge and much-anticipated cargo reached Mexico on May 5. Enthusiastic expectation turned to horror and lament, so great that every year the nation remembers the loss with ... Sinko de Mayo.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Rant: Perception
We sense an incredible amount of data, far beyond what gets filtered down to a tiny articulable amount. Sometimes some of that data bypasses some of those filters, or seeps thru anyway, and reaches conscious cognition anyway – kinda freaking us out in the process with the manifestation of the perception & interpretation. AFAIK the phenomenon of autism is the lack of certain mental filters, inundating the autistic’s cognition with huge amounts of raw data, allowing for the “savant” ability to perceive & recall intricate details, and as a consequence be unable to focus on particular details which are socially expected by “neurotypicals”.
For a more sane analysis of nuanced perception, read Tom Brown’s “Science and Art of Tracking”. Might help translate the weirdness of perceptive dreams and nutcase supernaturalism into the reality of better understanding what you do perceive.
For a more sane analysis of nuanced perception, read Tom Brown’s “Science and Art of Tracking”. Might help translate the weirdness of perceptive dreams and nutcase supernaturalism into the reality of better understanding what you do perceive.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Movie: Taken
Teenage daughter vacations in Paris. Father has 96 hours to rescue her from kidnappers. Visceral, compelling tale - to parents, about what evils may befall their offspring; to older children, a reveal of how evil others can be and how playful ignorance can kill.
I put this with Braveheart as a story parents should share with their older (!) kids, a platform for frank discussion of how much of the world operates and how we should behave in response.
Well done as an entertaining thriller. Downfall is how so much of the story relies of nick-of-time coincidences; consider how different an end if only actions spanning days occurred a few seconds off. As a father of a playful little girl, I hoped for somewhat more applicable solutions to every parent's nightmare. Perhaps a trip to Storm Mountain's High Risk Personnel training (to wit: how to survive a kidnapping) is in order.
I put this with Braveheart as a story parents should share with their older (!) kids, a platform for frank discussion of how much of the world operates and how we should behave in response.
Well done as an entertaining thriller. Downfall is how so much of the story relies of nick-of-time coincidences; consider how different an end if only actions spanning days occurred a few seconds off. As a father of a playful little girl, I hoped for somewhat more applicable solutions to every parent's nightmare. Perhaps a trip to Storm Mountain's High Risk Personnel training (to wit: how to survive a kidnapping) is in order.
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