The banana. Recognized worldwide as the standard size by which new technology is judged.
Speaking of technology and size, I’ve edited the blog’s template to make the text bigger. On high res screens it was getting too tiny, and I didn’t want to buy stronger reading glasses.
Last week, Bluehost sent this notification:
SERVER PERFORMANCE UPGRADE
Dear DOUGLAS,
We’re pleased to inform you that the server hosting your dograt.com website will be undergoing a major software upgrade, from CentOS 5 to CentOS 6, within the next 48 hours.
This upgrade includes newer software packages (including Python, Perl and gcc), as well as all the security and performance benefits that come along with CentOS 6. In addition to this, the server will be redeployed with a different file system type simultaneously, further increasing performance.
Although a bulk of the upgrades to your server are being done with it online and functional, in order to safely finalize these changes our Administrators will need to temporarily take your server offline in the early morning hours. Barring any extenuating circumstances this outage should only last about 2 hours.
Please note that while we do not anticipate your software having problems post-update, it may be required to re-compile any module(s) you are using to take advantage of the newer included libraries. We suggest reviewing your site afterward to verify that it is functioning as it should.
The case can be made that the upgrade actually reduced performance, because after the update was run I saw that Gzip compression wasn’t working. In the cPanel manager for my Bluehost Pro account the Optimize Website option is gone, and that means something called “mod_deflate” in the Apache Web server is no longer supported. So I wrote to Bluehost and here is their reply:
I’m sorry to inform you but we did away with that icon as it caused problems with other things in the hosting account, this was done fairly recently and wont be coming back in the near future or ever that I am aware of.
First they were pleased to inform me, then they were sorry to inform me. From this I am inferring the real issue is that CPU power is more expensive than Internet bandwidth. The loss of Gzip means that every character of text in this post and the page it’s on is being sent, rather than going across the Internet in a compressed format that uses about one quarter the amount of data, before being unpacked by a browser. If I want Gzip compression, I’ll have to force it in PHP, then see if Bluehost’s dreaded CPU throttling returns for the first time since upgrading to their Pro plan.
Behold! My venerable and beloved Sony 32XBR100 has left the porch and is now being used by Eric for his “classic” video game setup. In its place is a Samsung LN40D630, and this one came without a vertical line of red pixels. The LN40D630 has received uniformly positive reviews, with the most comprehensive of them being at this link. The stand came from Target.
I took delivery of a Samsung LN40D630, a model that’s liked by both LCDTVBuyinguide.com and Consumer Reports. When I powered it up there was a bright, solid, vertical red line on the left side of the screen, as simulated on the picture. So back it went to Best Buy. *Sigh* I’ll wait for the credit card activity to clear before deciding what to do next.
Engadget says the end may be near for quirky little Chumby. We have a Chumby in the kitchen, and wouldn’t it be nice if the service is maintained somewhere, so all those little Web radio alarm clocks keep working for a year or two more?
Update: From Venture Beat – “CEO Derrick Oien told The Verge that Chumby’s assets, which include widget technology, patents, and the platform, are being shopped around by a corporate trustee. The content and apps platform, however, will stay operational for the immediate future.”
Last week, while thinking about my nice federal tax refund, a buddy was rushed off to the hospital with heart trouble and I had a “life’s too short” moment of weakness. I bought a flat panel TV for the sun room (calling it that sounds fancier than saying “porch”). Amazon sent me a notice that Panasonic had a deal on a 42-inch plasma HDTV with a free Blu-ray player, and thanks to some Amex reward points it cost me only $470 out of pocket.
The TV arrived, I set it up, made some adjustments, and my initial reaction was quite enthusiastic and positive, but after a while I noticed something odd. Strange yellow-green streaks. Then TCM showed Casablanca and the streaks were everywhere!
On the Roku player I looked at portions of more black-and-white movies, and every one of them had raging yellow-green trails to the left of objects and there were blue trails on the right. Even with stationary scenes, all I had to do was move my eyes and I’d see flashing colors. They reminded me of the notorious rainbow effect in single-chip DLP projectors.
I did a Google search and learned that the problem is called phosphor lag, and it’s built into every plasma display, as explained at this link.
How could I not have known about this?? I keep up with most of the tech sites and blogs, I watch Tekzilla and its HD Nation segments, etc., and I thought I knew all of the advantages and disadvantages of plasma vs. lcd/ccfl vs. lcd/led, but obviously I didn’t.
Consumer Reports warns about DLP rainbows, but says nothing about plasma lag, so I added a comment about it on their Web site. Maybe it’s true that the effect is seen by only 1% of people, but to me it’s so relentlessly bothersome that black-and-white material simply isn’t watchable, and I watch a lot of stuff in black-and-white.
I’ve never returned anything to Amazon before, and when I called them I was pleased they immediately agreed to take the set back and pay for shipping. I’m waiting for the freight company that dropped it off to call and arrange a pickup. Once it’s been returned to the warehouse and my money has been refunded, I’ll look into getting a 40-inch LCD HDTV.
