Author: DOuG pRATt

Gun-Slinging and Singing

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/DEC06/ManWithoutStar.flv 400 300]

As mentioned in the last posting, we now have a Panasonic DVD recorder. The VCR it’s replacing will be used for video transfers to the computer. My first DVD test recording was made with no thought whatsoever, other than it happened to start moments after I had the unit set up. But, as it turns out, it’s a movie that might be worth a mention here.

Man Without a Star is a 1955 Western starring Kirk Douglas. It hasn’t been released on DVD, and I guess I can see why, as it’s fairly typical for its time. It was directed, however, by noteworthy director King Vidor, whose career dates back to the Silent era. The movie features gorgeous Jeanne Crain in her prime.

Also appearing was William Campbell, who seemed to be making an effort to appear straight. He later played the flamboyant and incredibly annoying character Trelane in the Star Trek episode “The Squire of Gothos.” Am I getting nerdy enough for you? But wait, there’s more! Campbell’s wife in the 50’s was Judith Campbell, who became a girlfriend of Frank Sinatra. She later claimed to have been JFK’s mistress at the same time she was seeing mobster Sam Giancana.

I got a big laugh out of seeing that even in the 1950’s cowboys were still singing and yodeling! I don’t know who dubbed Kirk Douglas’ singing in “Man Without a Star,” but it’s bad enough that maybe it was Douglas himself. Frankie (“Rawhide!”) Laine sang the overwrought title song.

Booty-filled Christmas

Among the items that Santa brought our way this year is a CD set that caught my interest last summer when I heard a favorable review on the radio. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Works.

The $135 price seemed all right, until I read the comments on Amazon that it could be had for $100 elsewhere. When it appeared at BJ’s for $100, Santa couldn’t resist. 170 discs! All of them are now installed in my 300-disc Sony CD changer. The set includes a CD-ROM with 800 pages(!) of liner notes and librettos, but unfortunately the music discs don’t have CD-Text, so I had to get out my spare PC keyboard and laboriously type in 170 abbreviations.

If you’re interested in the set, you can read much more at the link above. I’ve scanned some random selections, and all sound super and none are defective. At the moment I give “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Works” a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating.

Another fun item delivered by The Man in Red is a Panasonic DMR-ES15S DVD recorder. This was also obtained by Santa at BJ’s, for less than what the Mozart set costs on Amazon. I haven’t played with it too much yet, but my short evaluation is it works great but the analog cable tuner is weak. A DVR it isn’t, but as a VCR replacement it’s absolutely the way to go.

Christmas Eve 1906

fessenden

It was exactly 100 years ago, Christmas Eve 1906, that Reginald Fessenden first transmitted audio, rather than just telegraph sounds, over radio. There is controversy surrounding some of the details of the event, but nevertheless it was a monumental achievement. The transmission was made from Massachusetts, as told in this radio report.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/fessenden.mp3]

Picking up the story from there, American Radio Works has a 1-hour radio documentary on the history of music on radio, that you can get to by clicking here. If you have trouble listening to it let me know, and I’ll post it here.

Wii Wiish You a Merry Christmas

Wii

If you’re reading this it means our son Eric has been given the bad news. Wii have failed as parents. His Christmas wiish has not been fulfilled. There will be no Nintendo Wii under the tree.

We tried! Oh, how we tried. Carol stood in front of a Target at 4:15 AM, only to learn she was #28 in line, waiting for 15 units. Curiously, the store manager also had 15 Sony PS3’s, but all except a couple of those went begging!

Early one morning, one of the few truly cold ones we’ve had so far this winter, I was #8 in line for eight Wii’s — until a strange Russian man cut in line behind a strange Russian lady who was #5 in the queue. He insisted he had been there earlier, and she insisted she was holding his place for him. Each of them was buying a Wii. But the all-American nerd who had been in front of the store since 11 PM in his sleeping bag said he hadn’t seen the man before that moment. Not wanting to get into an argument, and hearing from Carol that her car had a flat tire, I chose the path of least resistance and left.

Eric will get a Wii, of course, but not for a while, unfortunately. Four years ago I walked into a Toys R Us and bought a Nintendo Gamecube for Eric. No problem. This year we are not happy with Nintendo. Carol wrote to the company, and somewhat to my surprise she got a reply. Here it is. Apparently, they were planning on lukewarm market acceptance.

Hi!

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been unable to acquire a Wii console. While we have succeeded in making this the most plentiful hardware launch in our history, the Wii has been far more popular than we could have predicted. I want to assure you that production and distribution were at full capacity long before, during, and after the launch, with every available resource used to its fullest extent. We ship directly to the major retailer’s main warehouses, their corporate offices determine how the product is allocated and when they will be shipped to stores.

If it were possible for us to produce more consoles in time for the holidays, we would have taken every reasonable step to do so. Despite what some will say, there is no benefit to not having enough stock to meet demand. On behalf of Nintendo, I empathize with and appreciate your frustration. Once the initial demand has passed you will find it much easier to walk into a store and buy one. When that time comes, it is our hope that you will choose Wii.

Nintendo of America Inc.
Anna Bates

RFD goes RFID

barcode rfid

It’s the time of year when retail is king, so let’s take a look at where retail technology is heading. Recently, inside of a new DVD I found a loose barcode sticker. I peeled off the backing material and saw a Radio Frequency Identification Device.

Besides being a security and stock control device for brick-and-mortar stores, RFID can be used by online retailers to more easily track products packages, containers, etc. There are also potential applications in healthcare. I still see packages from Amazon that have incorrect or totally missing tracking information, so there’s plenty of room for improvement.

If you haven’t already seen one of these things, or if you have and didn’t know what it was, you can painlessly learn about RFID by watching this Flash presentation from IBM. Be patient with the download.

Seinfeld Irony

I’ve never seen even a single episode of Seinfeld. And — HA! — I have no plans to ever change that. Why? Not because I have anything against Seinfeld or the show. Exactly the opposite. If I started watching it I would undoubtedly keep watching it. It’s like smoking. If you don’t start, you don’t have to quit.

As proof that I have nothing against Jerry Seinfeld, here’s a trailer that I love, for a movie I’ve never seen. This thing has been blogged a buh-zillion times, but I’m going to do it again.