There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion… Even if it’s wrong.” That’s kind of been my stance on all the hubbub surround Apple’s latest “magical” device, the iPad. I’m usually pretty good about keeping my comments reserved on such matters because I realize there are a lot of both haters and fanboys when it comes to all things Apple, but I feel like I need to step up to the plate on this one and shout from my little soapbox on the internet because, quite frankly, I need to be the Yin to the Yang of articles titled “17 Things Wrong With the iPad”, “Newton 2.0″, and “ROFL, IPADS VAGINAS ZOMG!”
On the iPad
29 January 10 — 1 Comment
HTML5 Video: First YouTube, Now Vimeo
22 January 10 — No Comments
After getting a lot of (offline) comments and questions about my foray in HTML5 video, it seems like the rest of the online world is also making tremendous leaps away from Flash and towards this slick new method of serving files.
What does this mean for most people? In a word, nothing… yet (ok, that was two words). The fact of the matter is that until we have full browser support for the H.264 video codec, which is currently only available in Webkit-based browsers like Google Chrome and Safari, this seamless and superior technology will never be experienced by the majority.
I don’t anticipate Internet Explorer ever fully supporting the video standard or the code to actually implement it (c’mon, 8 versions in and they’re just now figuring out how to render web pages correctly), but for this to be anything close to a victory over Flash, Firefox needs to get with the friggin program. While it’s true that Firefox does support the code to get it working, the videos need to be encoded using Theora as opposed to H.264—which, in short, requires two versions of the same file, doubling the necessary server space. You can see how this would be a problem for a company like YouTube, whose server farms are probably running at max capacity with a ridiculous 12,000 videos views per second.
So, while I personally think it’s great that those of us who opt for Webkit browsers will have an overall better user experience, not to mention that videos from both YouTube and Vimeo are now accessible to mobile platforms without the need for Flash, I would love to see this technology rolled out to the populace as a whole, which will require a massive amount of feature requests and a miracle.
On Resolutions and Resolve
12 January 10 — No Comments
These first weeks of January always bring out the people with piqued curiosities poking and prodding their contemporaries for a list of resolutions that seem more and more mandatory with each passing year. It took me until this point in my life to really investigate the history of why we declare these resolutions (aside from the obvious and inaccurate “clean slate” excuse) and why we use the word resolution as opposed to goal.
My Top 10 Albums of 2009
28 December 09 — No Comments
Music is a pretty integral part of my life on a day-to-day basis and I consider it a public service when those around me create a Top 10 list of anything that has inspired them throughout the course of a year. So, keeping that in mind, it is without further ado that I present my top 10 albums of 2009 in no particular order:
Panasonic Lumix GF1 Field Test
18 December 09 — No Comments
Pretty amazing photo journal supplementing an excellent camera review. Money quote:
Memory of travel is fleeting at best. Photographs serve as road-markers for returning to those experiences.
