Category: Tech

Spam mess

Note: I may have deleted a couple of comments by mistake when clearing out spam today. Keep in mind that if you post multiple comments in a row, the spam filter sometimes grabs one and I have to go fish it out of the pile. Today the pile has been very big, and if you’re not seeing a comment you wrote, I apologize.

Bad and loud

My ears aren’t what they once were (well, they’re bigger, just not better), but I’m bugged by the latest audio technology going backwards in sound quality. Over a year ago I talked about overcompression, and today tastewar pointed out something on Gizmodo about Metallica’s new stuff sounding better on Guitar Hero III than it does on the CD release.

Speaking of Guitar Hero, Stephen Colbert has been digitized and is available for downloading on the video game Rock Band 2.

And coming in November will be “A Colbert Christmas“, with musical guests, including Elvis Costello. Check out the pictures at that link. Looks like the pilot for “Colbert’s Playhouse”!

Closing the Gates

I’ve watched the new Microsoft commercial a couple of times, and to me it falls flat. I fail to see the entertainment value of one of the world’s richest men talking about shoes with a rich comedian who’s been given $10 million to be in the commercial.

Aren’t both Gates and Seinfeld essentially retired anyway? In that context, I guess having them pal around like a couple of old men makes sense — they’ve got nothing better to do.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/SEP/SeinfeldGates.flv 440 330]

What really gets me is that somehow the subtext of the commercial is supposed to be Windows Vista as a cool alternative to Mac OS X. Well, it isn’t. Click here for one reason why. Thanks to tastewar for the tip. This article explains why it’s a waste having more than 3GB of memory installed for Windows XP and Vista.

Everybody’s been wondering about Steve Jobs’ health, but does Bill Gates look all right to you in that commercial? He doesn’t look well to me. Oh, by the way, what do Gates, Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the Worldwide Web) — and myself — all have in common? Well, we’re all in the computer biz, but I’m not rich and famous. We were born in 1955. Unfortunately, so were Mark David Chapman and John Hinkley, Jr.

McCloud Computing

Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud, creator of the independent comic book series ZOT! and author of the book Understanding Comics, has created an online comic book for Google, explaining the new Chrome browser.

Chrome sounds interesting, mostly because of its independent tabs, but I’ll wait a bit before jumping on it. Computerworld’s review of Chrome is very good. Ever have a page in one tab lock up, resulting in a crash of the whole browser, or forcing you to crash it? Sure you have, so if you have at least a gig of memory you will like independent tabs.

McCloud, who grew up in Massachusetts, changed the spelling of his name from McLeod when he started working in comics. I know this because his mother’s apartment happens to be around the corner from my mother-in-law, in the retirement community where they live. I assume Scott wanted to avoid confusion with comic book artist Bob McLeod, who was already established in the business at the time McCloud came on the scene.