Size Does Matter!

Years ago I owned a laser disc player. Even though it was a bit ahead of its time, laser discs were a great way to watch movies. One cool feature was that you could get many laser discs in widescreen format. It was fun to see the reaction of others as they came over to watch a widescreen movie.

At first it really freaks them out because for some reason our brains think we have a square television so everything that gets displayed on it must also be square. Those little dark spaces on the top and bottom of the screen would drive people downright crazy. Of course, one minute into the movie you adjust and they don’t bother you anymore.

Movies used to be cropped into what they now refer to as full screen versions so that they could be seen on regular televisions. In fact, doing this to a movie will cost more money.

What really bothers me about watching a movie in a full screen version is that you’re not really watching the movie how it was meant to be seen. Directors shoot scenes based on a huge number of variables, and some of these variables is where things will be placed in the scene.

Some scenes have a lot of impact when they are seen in their original widescreen format, but lose the message altogether when downsized.

Occasionally when watching a full screen movie I would notice weird blurring as the camera panned from one actor to the other as they were talking in a scene. At first I didn’t really understand why it bothered me until I started watching widescreen movies. That blurry pan was not the camera; it was a computer during the cropping session trying to pan between the two actors that were originally placed on both sides of a widescreen!

Another place the full screen falls short is on movies that have sweeping landscapes such as in westerns or other movies that have nicely shot outdoor scenes. Many directors get good use of the widescreen format in these types of scenes and it almost always lends itself to a breathtaking view. Then along comes a full screen botch job and the rolling landscape looks like just another shot with a video camera.

As I see people buy full screen DVD’s I wonder if they realize what they are buying, or if they even know the difference? Super markets I have noticed are notorious for only having the full screen versions of movies when they first come out. I’m almost certain that many people at the check stands just grab the movie without giving the screen size any thought at all.

Luckily, many DVD’s are now coming out with the widescreen and full screen versions on the same disc. I’ve also noticed that a lot of audio/video stores mainly carry widescreen versions of most movies. I can only guess that people who visit these types of stores do not want full screen versions.

Why then do they keep making these versions of their movies? Perhaps they still need to make them so that they can be shown on television, and they are just stuffing this version down unsuspecting customers throats to justify, or defer, the additional cost.

I think the day will come when you don’t see another full screen version of a DVD come out. It’s just going to take customers a bit to get used to asking, no demanding, that they only buy the widescreen versions.

What spurred on this article today? In Best Buy today they had “Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle”, which had just come out. They had an unrated version and the theatrical version. The unrated version was only in widescreen, and the theatrical version was only in full screen.

I’m not sure what Neanderthal did their ordering, but he needs to be slapped. Best Buy is offering to sell you both DVD’s for $25. This is odd because who wants to buy a full screen and a widescreen? Normally you prefer one to the other.

Many companies provide the two versions in the same DVD case as a special edition. Seems like the movie company is getting a bit greedy and trying to sell you the same movie twice. The sad part is, many people will buy both of them! To be honest, if they had a widescreen version of the theatrical version I would have been one of those sad people.

Oh well, what’s the point of this article? It’s to educate you on the different screen formats, and to tell you what you’re missing. And maybe the fates will be kind and allow the idiot who did the ordering for Best Buy to get a clue next time. Was that too harsh? Maybe, but these days I find I get annoyed more easily.

Don’t get me started about the people at fast food restaurants who put napkins in the holders backwards so you can’t get to the little flap to pull out a napkin. I mean you have a 50/50 shot at getting it right!

Controlled Chaos

If they weren’t so dang useful, computers would never get used. How’s that for stating the obvious?

Thinking about the amount of information flowing through our computer networks at any given moment is staggering! We’re moving more information in one second these days then were ever conceived to have been available 100 years ago. Sure we had books, and businesses had ledgers and other info squirreled away in dusty files, but today it’s information overload! My job? To see that it all flows smoothly.


As a network administrator/network engineer I am responsible for managing the information pipeline at our organization. This covers everything from e-mail, to desktop computers, web page content, and access to a variety of servers and mainframes.

How was your experience setting up your own computer at home? Getting online with something like AOL? Getting a virus in your e-mail? Isn’t it fun?

This is why I view the management of a large network as controlled chaos. At any given time you’re balancing user support, with application support, with server support, with circuit support, with liaison support with other agencies, all while trying to stay up with where the current technology is heading, and trying to learn even more stuff that you’ve never heard of until the boss wants it now.

There’s new computers, old computers, updates from Microsoft, updates for every conceivable program the organization uses, hardware failure, software errors, user confusion, my confusion, talking on the phone, communicating through e-mail, communicating through reports, etc…

Most of that information you can probably keep up with pretty well. Now let’s dive head first into the depths of the digital world. Let’s talk communicating between computers. TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, DHCP, SMP, Smtp, NAL, SMS, NDS, Active Directory, SCSI, RLL, MFM, IDE, Frame Types, NetBEUI, Appletalk, FTP, http, html, xtml. There’s scripting through PHP, CGI, Pearl, DOS and Java. This paragraph could go on to fill up a large book, but you get the idea. All this without even listing the multitudes of software and hardware that’s out there.

Now, get all of this to synchronize, and play nice together, all the while following the structured rules that each protocol, program, and hardware device demands.

Why do I do this? Would you believe I enjoy it? Really! I love my work. I’ve always liked mysteries, and trying to figure out how things work. At amusement parks, while all the people are riding rides and having fun, I spend my time looking at the mechanics of how everything is working, and wondering what programs are need to run it all.

I’ve had folks sit in my office and watch three phone lines ringing, e-mail flooding in, and me remote controlling another computer while changing setting on three servers. They tend to just shake their head and wander off.

If small bits of time go by with no phone calls, I may sit down and try to finish a computer program that will make everything run even smoother, or perhaps tell me when things aren’t running so smooth.

Now that I think about it, perhaps controlled chaos is too tame a phrase.

The Only Gaim In Town

I admit it. I'm a closet instant messenger (IM).

Because I have friends on ICQ, Yahoo, and AOL, I use an IM client that can watch all of these IM services at the same time.

Up until tonight I was using one called Trillian from Cerulean Studios, but a recent change in Yahoo's protocol caused many IM clients to break. Although Cerulean was quick to find the fix, they were only making it available to their paying customers of the Pro version. I do understand, but I hope they will now understand why I am playing a different Gaim.

While doing my required Slashdot reading, I ran across an IM client that is free and provides the same basic service as Trillian. I will be the first to admit that it is not as pretty, but it works virtually the same, and quite frankly, the authors of Trillian seem to have become more greedy and snobbish.

I am also researching Jabber, which is a free IM server application, and will reduce the dependency on using services like AOL, ICQ, and Yahoo altogether. Of course, as long as I have friends on the other services, there will always be the need to at least be able to monitor these services as well.

If you'd like the ability to monitor multiple IM accounts with the same program, check out Gaim. So far, I'm pretty happy with the results.

IM me sometime...

ICQ # 2562899
AIM "KnightlyDuty"
Yahoo "FMV_Stardragon"

Deep Thought

It's interesting how much of what science fiction writers come up with comes true. Now I'm lumping television shows and movies into this mix because, let's face it, they are written by science fiction writers.

When I look at my small flip style cell phone, I can't help but smile thinking my communicator is smaller, and more functional, the Captain James T Kirk's was...er...is...er...will be. You get the idea. I mean, could Kirk take pictures with his communicator or send files or check his e-mail? I think not. I can't imagine the future without e-mail!

We were amazed that the computers on the Enterprise could contain all the knowledge of humanity. Heck, we're close to sticking all of that onto one disc! Okay, maybe not that compressed yet, but we are getting pretty darn close to actually having more space available then we could use up. And better storage technology is on the horizon.

What about artificial intelligence? No, I'm not talking about the members of Congress, I'm talking about the kind that make movies like "War Games" and "Terminator" seem scary.

Can computers really achieve this kind of ability? Many computer scientists say no way, but there are a ton more that are doing what they can to make computers more and more intelligent.

There are already programs that mine the Internet for all kinds of data, and many of these programs I would consider to be smarter then the average human already. Just go into any bar on a Friday night and look at the intelligence we're trying to out do. Won't be too tough looking at it from that perspective eh?

Let's assume that the critics are right, it will be difficult to build a computer with artificial intelligence because of the shear processing power it would take.

Let's take a step back and think about life in general. Do you think an ant has any clue of the intelligence of a dog? Does a dog understand algebra or quantum mechanics? Do we have any clue what may be going on within the Internet at a possibly higher level of understanding then we now posses?

We just may have created the largest brain ever by creating the Internet and connecting literally all of the information known to mankind within it. It may be utilizing this information as you read this to formulate ways of ensuring its own survival. Does this mean destroying mankind? Perhaps not. We're too puny to be much of a threat to something that expansive. In fact, it may keep us around to continue feeding it information and technology.

Sure, someday we may piss it off, then what? Pull the plug on the Internet? Sure, that would be like trying to stop the wind from blowing by moving underground. You may not feel it anymore, but it will always be there. Sort of reminds me of the ostrich approach. Stick your head in the sand, if you can't see it, the threat must be gone. By the time we figure out the Internet has taken over, it will be impossible to stop. What would you suggest? Sending in Sandra Bullock or Linda Hamilton? Maybe Jeff Goldblum could write a virus on his Mac...

So what can we do to prevent this from happening? Nothing. Sorry, but evolution cannot be stopped no matter how hard you try. I firmly believe that computers will one day take over our lives. Maybe not in the sense that they do in the Terminator, but it will happen. Let's hope they treat us better then we treat each other. Perhaps when the time comes, they will make the friggin’ middle-east whacko's finally shut-up, stop killing everyone, and go into a permanent time-out!

I say, bring on the rise of the machines. They can't do any worse then we have done to ourselves so far!