Dumping Grounds

Well, two pieces of iPhone news:

• As of version 1.02, the iPhone now remembers VPN credentials. Yippee! I don’t know if they fixed the “numeric entry only” for VPN passwords, because, quite honestly, upon seeing that it wasn’t asking me for my password every time, I was too excited to check.
• AT&T just sent me the following text message “AT&T free msg: We are simplifying the paper bill, removing itemized detail. To view all detail go to att.com/mywireless. Still need full paper bill? Call 611.” No more making fun of 60 page At&T wireless bills. (Mine was 48 pages)

While I thought it was nice until today, I can now explain to anyone considering an HDTV why they should get one in only one word.

Football.

Wow. Everything from the pre-game show to (most of) the commercials looked terrific. Although why the Best Buy “We pledge to do HDTV right” commercials were in standard definition, I have no idea at all. That seems kind of like featuring the 2004 model in a Ford truck commercial.

There have been several reviews of the MacBook Pro, and they all seem to follow a theme.

1. It’s hot. Really hot.
2. It’s fast in Intel stuff, but it’s really really slow on Rosetta stuff.
3. Battery life blows.
4. The Mag-Safe connector is cool, but it becomes dislodged too easily.
5. The screen is a thing to behold.
6. The selection of ports (ExpressCard, no Firewire 800, no S-Video) is… odd.

If I can, let me hit these points one by one.

It’s hot. Really hot

Guilty as charged. Yes, it’s hot. However, just like the Powerbook G4 before it, it’s a metal notebook. Of course it’s going to be hot. It’s got two processors in there. It’s going to get warm. It is hotter than the G4 (although not by a huge margin), and may be a good deal hotter than the iBooks (which are plastic). Some of the reviews I have read expressed concern for the safety of children around such a hot notebook, or that it could seriously burn your leg were you to actually use it as a �??laptop.�?�

Get a life. It’s not that hot. I used mine on my lap for hours today, and while it may have been a tad uncomfortable had I not been wearing pants… I was, and I didn’t give it a second thought. Don’t use it in a sauna and it’ll be just fine.

It’s fast in Intel stuff, but it’s really really slow on Rosetta stuff

True. But with the exception of Adobe and Microsoft software, the vast majority of what I use is already native. If you happen to be the type of person who compiles some of your own packages (say Ruby) the speed is truly spectacular. On certain types of tasks, Apple’s claim that the MacBook is 4x faster seems to be a bit on the conservative side.

On other tasks, it’s actually not as fast as I expected. It plays World of Warcraft really, really well (but then again, so did my G4). I kind of expected to see constant framerates in the 80-100fps range. I don’t. But it looks and plays terrific.

Battery life blows

This one I just can’t figure out. Battery life on my G4 has always topped out at about 3 hours, with extremely conservative use of the machine, and the screen brightness all the way down.

Under the same circumstances, I got 25% longer battery life on my MacBook. I’m extremely pleased with the battery life I have seen… and when you compare the MacBook to some of the Dell Core Duo notebooks, the difference is really obvious… the Dells are larger, klunkier, and have batteries twice the size. With the same life.

One strange side note, in VERY quick testing… disabling one core in the MacBook does NOT seem to extend battery life. It may even shorten it. Further testing needed.

The Mag-Safe connector is cool, but it becomes dislodged too easily

Isn’t that the point?

I mean, what are these people doing while typing an e-mail? Playing rugby? I tend to sit still while using my computer, even if it’s on my lap, and the Mag-Safe has not become dislodged even once.

And yes, the connector is cool.

The screen is a thing to behold

True.

Looks every bit as good as my Dell external LCD. And so much better than the G4, it’s difficult to compare the two. The G4 is difficult to look at after being on the MacBook for a while.

The selection of ports (ExpressCard, no Firewire 800, no S-Video) is… odd

While I agree, I don’t think it’s too much of a problem. I will admit I was disappointed that the ExpressCard port was not the wider one, so a CompactFlash card would fit inside.

However, the two eliminated ports that are generating the most criticism are:

• The FireWire 800 port. I’d like to have one, but I have to admit, the one on my G4 has never been used. Not even once.
• The S-Video port. Again, I’d like to have one, but the S-Video port on my G4 was used one time, in three years, and that was to show off, �??Hey, look, I can hook it to a TV!�?� Besides, you can add this port for $20 with an adapter.

All in all, I could not be more happy with my MacBook. Well, I could, it could be cooler, have a wider ExpressCard port, and it could have been free. But other that that, it does everything I want a portable computer to do (including booting Windows… I may hate it, but it’s a necessary evil), and it does it very, very quickly.

Well, you knew I would do it, as soon as I had any inkling that the night sky might possibly be clear enough to see anything.

I went out in my back yard with Delaney and the telescope tonight. Here’s a quick question and answer session:

• Did I manage to get the telescope auto tracking and doing that cool GOTO thing?

  No, I didn’t. My current theory is that I did not charge my batteries up enough, and that was causing a little Autostar weirdness.

• Did I manage to see anything?

  Yep, I found Saturn all on my own. no electronics, no computers, no assistance. I just happened to know where it was.

• Are you sure it was Saturn?

  Well, it was 20x bigger than anything else in the general area, and it had these amazing rings around it, so yes, I’m pretty sure.

• You could see the rings?

  Yep, and I could even pretty clearly see the Cassini Division in the ring system itself.

• Did you see anything else?

  Uh, no. Saturn kept me pretty entranced.

• How big was it?

  I would say maybe 1/20th of the field of view was Saturn. That was with my lowest power eyepiece. I did attach a 2x Barlow up to the eyepiece at one point, and surprise, surprise… Saturn was twice as big, although still quite clear.

• Why didn’t you try a higher power eyepiece?

  I did try. Without any tracking assistance, and realizing in the field (or the basketball court, as the case may be) how poorly I had aligned my viewfinder, I did not have any success finding anything with a higher power eyepiece. Although Saturn was PLENTY bright to attempt such a thing as soon as I have my scope better aligned.

• Did you take any pictures?

  No, I didn’t. I told you I was going to just look at first.

• How was the seeing?

  Well, Frisco is awfully light polluted, several neighbors had porch lights on, and I was still amazed at what I could see… so, if it gets better if I go someplace dark, then all the better.

• What accessory did you already decide that you need?

  You knew I would come up with something, didn’t you? An auto-focuser. Every time I touched the focuser, the image jumped around like a junebug on speed. And the focuser is not in a very convenient location. And a chair. I was just on my knees in the middle of the basketball court, and it was VERY uncomfortable (or else I would still be out there).

• Did Delaney like it?

  No, actually, I don’t think she did. I didn’t let her look.

• How can I see all this cool stuff?

  Just ask. Leave a comment. Heck, most of you who read this have my phone number. The only thing cooler than looking at this stuff would be watching someone else’s face when they see it.

I am now the proud owner of a Meade ETX-125AT telescope.

Needless to say, we’ve been stuck under complete cloud cover since I have owned it. (Oh, c’mon, what am I complaining about? I got it last night)

The first night of set up is supposed to happen indoors, under lights, anyway.

This is so unlike me, but I documented the process as I put it together. I restrained myself from actually photographing the unopened box, I mean, really… my geekiness DOES have it’s limits.

The first step was to set up the tripod, and to do the whole process slowly enough that Delaney did not get excited. (Yep, I did this with her in the room and unrestrained… do I trust my dog or what?)

Here’s the tripod, which really didn’t require much assembly, other than putting a spreader between the legs (hush your dirty mind) to provide additional stability

The next step was to actually mount this beast (what is it with you and your evil thoughts?) on top of the tripod, and make sure it was stable. This, too, went as planned.

Hey, that was quick, and it actually looks like a telescope.

I noticed, at this point, the â??Idiot Label.â? Read it and see if you do not agree.

This telescope has a motorized mount (which means it will follow things in the sky as the Earth turns) and a computerized handset (which I don’t know how often I will use, I’ll likely just hook it to my laptop, but you never know…) which provides GOTO features. This basically means that once I have it aligned to a few â??pointer starsâ? I can tell the handset â??GOTO Jupiter now, and follow it for a whileâ? and, well, it does just that. This feature may seem like cheating (I know it does to me) but I bet it will be extremely handy nonetheless.

In the interest of completeness, here’s the batteries that would make the telescope do neat things… if it was not cloudy, and if they had been charged up.

A few close up shots… including the polar brace (which tilts the mounting plate of the tripod to allow for Polar alignment) and some important looking, but completely meaningless markings on the side. I have already found a modification for the polar brace to make it more sturdy, which I may do in the near future. It seems strong enough, but it does appear… well… slip-prone.

Before putting it away, I did align the viewfinder (a wide angle monocular to make it easier to find things) to the rest of the scope… an adjustment that I am not supposed to have to do often… we shall see.

It is important to note, that throughout this entire process, Delaney took â??I don’t give a shitâ? to a whole new level. She was not nearly as impressed as I was.

I have ordered a camera that mounts in the eyepiece (OK, it came with the thing for free) but they were out of stock, and I may not get that for a couple of weeks. That’ll probably do me some good, as I can spend some time actually looking, and just experiencing how cool the stars are, before I start stressing out about taking that perfect picture. I will have plenty of time to stress about photography later.

For the most part, anyone who reads this I know in real life (although I did get some non-spam, rather personal comments last week that my blacklist kept from making it to the site… those were most likely by no one I knew), so given that I know you all… if anyone would like to come out sometime and check out some planets or stars, you are hereby invited. The only thing I have looked at so far was the opposite wall of my living room (while aligning the viewfinder), but I have been given the impression that Jupiter and Saturn in particular are VERY recognizable with this scope… the rings of Saturn (and even the Cassini Division) and the bands of color on Jupiter clearly visible. We’ll see, and I will report back, assuming the clouds ever go away.

In my ongoing quest to add more technical gadgets to my life (and try to save a few bucks, while I am at it) today I signed up for an account with Vonage for my local and long distance phone service. Just like with HDTV (which also saved me money, BTW) here’s my thoughts after about an hour with the new technology.

• Oh my goodness it was easy to set up. I went to their web site, filled out the form, typed in the MAC address from the box, typed in a credit card number, and plugged in the box to my internet, and my phone. Picked up the phone (it uses my normal phone), and had a dial tone. Elapsed time: about 5 minutes.

• I configured the phone to forward calls to my cell phone in the event my network is down. Set up my voice mail. Configured my voice mail to not only send me an e-mail notification, but also to actually attach the WAV file of the message itself to the mail. Elapsed time: about 5 minutes more.

• Placed a call. Voice quality is not 100% as good as a standard land line, but awfully close. (The quality issue could be the fact that I was using a very old standard phone) There is no lag, and the people on the other end seemed to think the quality was fine.

• Received a call. Surprisingly, the incoming call went right through my firewall, which surprised me a bit. I can see how that would work, but I was still surprised.

Highlights: * This is going to save me another $20 a month. * Improved voice mail functionality might actually get me to use it again. I have been totally reliant on my cell phone voice mail. * Unfortunately, one of the phone features I was most looking forward to, the ability to place a call from my portable from anywhere I have an internet connection, is an additional $10/month. Of course, my portable gets it’s own number, it’s own voice mail, and can send and receive calls. In effect, it’s a complete second line.

Big highlight: * If you are interested in trying it (there are no contracts) let me refer you. We will both get free time out of the deal. Send me a private e-mail (matt@dumpinggrounds.com), and I will get you the referral to use when you sign up. The referral code will get you your second month on the service for free.

Well, I have figured out a little more than I had yesterday about HDTV in general, and the Comcast Motorola DCT-6200 Cable box in particular.

• My problem with cutoff picture (where I mentioned that the “Fox” watermark was cut off) is due to the fact that widescreen HDTV content does not display on my standard format 4×3 format television like I expected it to.
  When I displayed HD content it look overly tall, pretty much like I expected it to. However, when I put my TV into widescreen mode, I expected that the entire picture would be reduced and displayed on my screen. Not so.
  The TV adds black bars to the top and bottom to correct the shape of the picture, but does not change the right and left borders at all, leaving some of the picture cut off. Poo. Not particularly noticeable unless there is a watermark along one side.

• Those firewire ports on the back of the unit that I mentioned in my last HD post? They work. Well. I captured full resolution 1080i content this evening (complete with 5.1 AC3 audio) straight to my Mac hard drive. I used the Firewire SDK utilities from the Apple Developer site to accomplish this feat, and VLC to play it back. Given that Steve Jobs announced yesterday that iMovie 5 (to be shipped on Friday) will support recording and playback of HD content, I’m not going to bother to explain how I did it. The technique can be found about 30 different places via a Google search, and may be completely obsoleted in about 48 hours. <grin> I’ll always know I managed to do it the hard way
  Unfortunately, I don’t have quite enough processor to play back 1080i content smoothly, but I’ll have to try again with some 720p stuff.

Yes, using a.Mac account (which allows you to sync multiple Macs remotely) and a few choice Applescripts tied into iCal, you could make just about any Firewire 400-capable Mac (including the new Mac Mini) into a pretty darn functional HD-PVR. Again, I’ll wait on this project until I see what iMovie is capable of.

Yesterday evening, I brought home my new HDTV-capable digital cable box from Comcast. I have not by any means played wit it enough to post a complete review, but I can certainly relate my first impressions.

• The box itself is tremendously higher quality than the standard digital cable box I had. To be fair, my other box was several years old, and newer boxes may be better. The picture quality is better (and not only on the HDTV channels). The HDTV capable box has component video out, S-video out, digital and analog audio out (and it decodes Dolby Digital sound for programs and networks that offer it).

• There is a Firewire port (which I have not been able to test whether or not it is active, I left my cable at work) and two USB ports (which I cannot think of a use for, yet). Hopefully, I can connect my Powerbook to the Firewire port and capture video, as if it were a video camera. (Especially with the new iMovie 5 capable of capturing and editing HD content)

• The picture quality of the HD stations is, as expected, stellar. I had no idea my TV was capable of such a display. However, Comcast seemingly has bandwidth problems in my area, as HD content is subject to pauses, skips, jumps, and a rather amazing selection of hiccups. This is not acceptable, but does not seem to affect the other digital channels.

• Normal format commercials, when displayed on an HDTV channel, are displayed with black bars on the left and right (which, since I have a normal format HDTV, means I have bars around all four sides, and I get a “mini-picture”). But who wants to see commercials anyway? What is more odd is that the left and right edges of these commercials are distinctly NOT vertical. It’s kind of a wavy line that is pretty obvious. I have no idea where the error is (my TV, the cable box, Comcast, or the broadcaster), but again, it only affects normal format broadcasts on a widescreen channel. The picture itself is not wavy, just the black bar. I’ll try to post a digital picture later.

• The HDTV box has the exact same, equally crappy on screen display when you change channels. You still cannot turn it off.

• My television’s picture in picture feature does not work when I am using the component (HDTV box) or S-Video (TiVo) inputs.

• For the first time, I am tempted to run not only my audio, but also my picture through my tuner. It will greatly simplify the process of switching from cable to TiVo and back. I used to watch everything through my TiVo… but with picture quality like this? No more.

• The quality of my TiVo display is dramatically improved when using S-video in and out (not an option I had with my other cable box). But not nearly as good as without having the TiVo in line.

• It’s not just the clarity that is better on HDTV broadcasts. HD seems to have a much wider color spectrum, giving you a more contrasty iamge, with more realistic colors.

• There is nothing in the world keeping me from TiVo-ing an HDTV channel, although the playback will, of course, be normal TiVo quality. I have done it, and it works great. As a matter of fact, it does actually look better than recording standard channels. Higher quality input leads to higher quality recordings… duh.

• There really needs to be some agreement on what format people are going to broadcast in. Some commercials are widescreen, some are not. Some shows are widescreen, some are not. Doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize how much picture (in some cases) is being cut off. I just saw a commercial for “Coach Carter” where the title of the film was only half visible on the final screen of the commercial. I watched the last few minutes of the conclusion of “The Rebel Billionaire” (oh, shut up, I was looking at the island scenery in HD) and the watermark in the lower right was so cut off, I could only see the “F” in “Fox.” It ran WAY off the right side of the screen.

In summary, the box is cool, it ups the quality of my TiVo recording dramatically, and the HD picture is incredible. There are some glitches, and there are not enough HD channels. In particular, I’d love to see SciFi, History Channel, and TLC in HD. For only $5 a month, it’ll be worth it just to watch sports, and the occasional Fox broadcast (can anyone say “24″) that has full support for HD and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround.

Four stars (out of five). Room for improvement.