Is this for real? Can it be that Trump phones will soon be in the hands of eager supporters and tech journalists?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2026/05/12/trump-mobile-t1-phone-shipping/90046321007/
Fed Up or Fed Down?
With inflation rising within a reasonably strong job market, there’s no reason to further lower interest rates. Which will put the new Fed chairman, Trump toady Kevin Warsh, in a very tough spot. Jay Powell steps down on Friday, but he will stay on as a Fed governor.
Got My Flare On
I was busy watching silly cartoons today, rather than posting silly stuff here. I did, however, make a change to the site, by adding Cloudflare integration. It’s been enabled before, but there were some resulting issues that I didn’t feel like figuring out, so I disabled it.
Response time lately has been rather sluggish, and sometimes slower than merely “rather.” So, I’m giving Cloudflare another try, to see if it can speed things up.
If Pingdom is a valid test, the site’s speed rating has gone from “D” to “A”.
For Serious Animation Fans
Along with the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons from 1966, I’ve been watching a new Blu-ray collection of cartoons from Paramount’s Famous Studios. I gave the disc a single-sentence ★★★★★ review on Amazon.
https://amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R28OPM1AN83AMV?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp
Almost all of the cartoons were taken from original camera negatives, so the image quality is jaw-dropping impressive. One of the cartoons I’ve seen so far was transferred from a flawless Technicolor print. While looking great, it’s obviously one generation removed from the original negative.
For those of us who are interested in the animation industry and its history, this lengthy discussion delves into the details of the Famous Studios Champion Collection.
Exciting All EPSON Blog Post!
I continue to obsessively play experiment with the new Epson ET-2985 printer/scanner. Thanks to the low cost of ink tanks vs. ink cartridges, I’m not afraid to do some printing for fun.
This is a high-resolution image that I thought would be good for a printer test. (Enlarge everything here, of course.)
The top print was made on regular copier paper. The bottom is on matte photo paper/card stock. You can see the better quality paper is a superior white.
This test was very interesting. When I went downstairs to check on the printout that specified matte photo paper, it hadn’t yet printed. The tiny display screen was asking for confirmation that the special paper was installed. Very impressive. After confirming, it started printing.
The most obvious difference between the two prints is the color shift in Robin’s cape and, especially, his vest. The regular paper on the left is a better match for the original image, but I prefer the way it looks on the thicker paper.
Now I will turn my attention to the Epson EF12 mini-cube projector I bought a few years ago for $700. That’s the cost of two replacement lamps for the vastly superior JVC projector I bought in 2013. (It was delivered on “Shelter in Place Friday,” after the Marathon Monday bombings!)
The JVC lamps last up to 2000 hours, while the Epson has a laser that lasts up to 20000 hours. Considering the JVC has 6000 total hours of use on it after thirteen years, I’ll undoubtedly be dead before the Epson’s laser wears out. Technology marches on.
I finally have a copy of the complete 1966 Marvel Super Heroes cartoons that’s worth keeping. I’ve been playing them on the EF12 from a USB stick.
Given the superior quality compared to previous bootleg collections taken from VHS copies, the cartoons must have been ripped from a UK DVD set, which is the only official DVD release the series has ever had.
Not every cartoon looks that good, but even the lesser quality prints are good enough for me to no longer wish for an official release from Disney. The cartoons have excellent voice work and music, and I enjoy the very limited animation that’s based on stats from the comic books.
There are, however, some embarrassingly bad scenes with original animation, not taken from the comics. I must agree with Denro, who said, “You may have identified why the series hasn’t been released in hi-definition in the US.”
P.S. I forgot to mention the projector screen is also from Epson. The ES3000 cost $200 when I bought one in 2013 to go with the JVC projector. The screen is still available today, but it now costs $330.
Fan Rebellion
Star Wars Day is actually May 25, not May 4.
‘Rogue One: The Andor Cut’ sets out to re-envision ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ as the finale and epilogue of the Andor series, as if it had been made afterwards.