RSS feedWell finally the first episode of Bonny & Clyde is out. Please take a look and send me some feedback. We value your input.
More wacky zany antics from those madcap nutbars at Telstra. They bought whereis a while back, which is ironic considering Telstra aren’t particularly known for getting places on time.
So anyway I was entering an address today, and I’m a little off my skull at the moment, so I accidentally entered the name of the place into the street field. Always helpful, it came back and said the place didn’t exist, without offering any alternatives, or bothering to put it into the white pages for me just in case.
Then I saw this weird second tabbed box behind the main address box. It was marked “place”, as opposed to “address”. Duh I thought, and after recovering from hitting myself in the head somewhat stronger than I was expecting to, I clicked on the “place” tab.
Did I mention that I was using a Mac and Safari?
And so I clicked on the “place” tab. I clicked on the “place” tab. I clicked on the &*^*#@$^(*&^ “place” tab!
Apparently Mac folks aren’t allowed find out where a “place” is, but at least we can still see and click on their ads.
For more Telstra fun and frivolity, check out my other Telstra rants.
I came across a site the other day, with this photo. And as I tend to do when looking for something, I leave other interesting windows open as I go, hoping that later that night I’ll take a proper look, but never do. But for some reason, this photo just stood out. Whatever I was doing, she kept staring back at me. Eerie.
She looks partly relaxed, yet slightly tense, wary, sad, almost fait acompli.
Or maybe I’m just sensing what I already know, because the photo is listed as being from the Arkansas State Prison 1915-1937, although she’s not actually marked or listed as a prisoner, like in the other photos on the same site.
Was she really a prisoner? What crime did she commit? Who was she? When was she born? When was this photo taken? And when did she die?
I came across the photo through another Australian blog, but I couldn’t find the site when I went back in my history or googled the link. My apologies for not crediting it. I found that BoingBoing and other sites also posted it back in December 2004, so I don’t know why I missed it, maybe it’s just this photo…
Check out Taronga’s new Fiordland Crested Penguins. Cute!
It is “improvisor”. Even though both Google and Answers.com say otherwise.
From the following site: The Un-Scripted Theater – Company Store. Although, they need to think about how to spell theatre.
‘-or’ and ‘-er’ are noun suffixes denoting an agent or doer; as in auditor, one who hears; donor, one who gives; obligor; elevator. It is correlative to ‘-ee’. In general ‘-or’ is appended to words of Latin, and ‘-er’ to those of English, origin.
French ‘improvisor’, from Italian ‘improvvisare’, from ‘improvviso’, unforeseen, from Latin ‘imprvisus’ : in-, not; see in+ ‘provisus’, past participle of ‘providere’, to foresee.
Therefore, to ‘improvise’, from the Latin ‘improvidus’, would thus dictate the use of the Latin ‘-or’ suffix, and thus make those who practice the art of improvisationÂ… improvisors!
It’s a big site, with a lot of resources, yet their sign up form still crashes with a single text error “the parameter is required gender” if you don’t select a gender. Well excuse me, I just thought the field without the mandatory field indicatory was probably not a mandatory field.
Whatever happened to testing? The sign up form is probably the most used non-media display page on the site, it is the key page required to be functioning correctly in order to get users signed up. Signing up of course being an important part of their business model, so they can sell them to their advertisers. You would think that they’d want to actually test this page.
Arrgh. Morons, with no clue, dominating a market which they don’t understand, in a technical domain they obviously have no particular expertise in.
But of course, it’s also personal with me an them, isn’t it.
So I went to upload a video, the Bonny & Clyde trailer, and I bumped into their extremely liberal terms of use. Check this out:
The IFILM Network, including all content, media and materials, all IFILM software, code, design, text, images, photographs, illustrations, audio and video material, media files, artwork, graphic material, articles, databases, proprietary information, writings, spoken statements, music, video recordings, audio-visual works and recordings, slides, portraits, animated and/or motion pictures, caricatures, likenesses, vocal or other sounds, sound recordings, voices, voice reproductions, computer graphics and visual effects, as well as any accompanying documentation, packaging or other materials, tangible or intangible, and all copyrightable or otherwise legally protectible elements of the IFILM Network, including, without limitation, the selection, sequence and ‘look and feel’ and arrangement of items, and all derivative works, translations, adaptations or variations of same, regardless of the medium, broadcast medium, format or form, now known or hereinafter developed or discovered, and regardless of where produced, on location, in a studio or elsewhere, in black-and-white or in colors, alone or in conjunction with other work, characters, real or imaginary, in any part of the world, are the property of IFILM and/or its Affiliates, and their Advertisers, licensors, suppliers, service providers, promotional partners and/or sponsors (all of the foregoing, individually and/or collectively, is referred to herein as “Content”).
So basically, they own the world it would seem. Anyway, so I uploaded the video, which is already covered by a creative commons attribution non-commercial remix license, which leaves them in a bit of a dilemna doesn’t it, because their rights can’t override mine. So it’s up to them to remove my stuff when they realise they don’t own it. Meanwhile, I’m making use of their network for my own needs, and they can just go and get …
The Apple TV will output NTSC 480p (480 progressive) and 480i (480 interlaced), and PAL 576p and 576i, as well as all the common widescreen formats. And if you’re just listening to music, you can run the component output from the Y (green) socket into a standard composite (yellow) video input, and get black and white without the requirement of a signal converter box.
When the Apple TV was announced, I went out looking for the specs on what it could output. While Apple was saying only widescreen TVs, this couldn’t be the truth of it, because it is impossible for a box which is outputting analogue video signals, to determine the destination resolution and aspect ratio. Even so, most of the tech “journalists” simply spouted the Apple line, instead of taking a look at what it could and couldn’t actually do. You don’t have to have a brain cell to become a tech journo, you just have to have all the latest gear so you don’t have to write for the people who haven’t.
Anyway, the question is, will the Apple TV work on a standard television set?
The answer is, yes it will, with some provisos.
Output video signal
Most older TVs will only have an S-Video or composite video input. S-Video uses a mini-DIN 4 pin connector, and carries luminance (brightness; greyscale; black and white signal) on one wire, and modulated chrominance (colour) on another. Composite video uses a single RCA connector to carry the entire video signal, and is usually colour coded with a yellow plug or socket.
The Apple TV outputs HDMI, which we can ignore because olders TVs won’t have it, and component video. Component video, carries YPbPr signals, by using three wire to carry the video signal. Typically, red and blue wires carry colour difference signals, and the green wire carries luma (brightness; greyscale; black and white).
If you connect the green luma component signal from the Apple TV, to the yellow composite signal on the old TV, you’ll get a usable black and white signal on the TV.
Resolution
The other issue with whether the Apple TV will work, is the resolution, and this one is easily fixed. When you turn on the Apple TV for the first time, it will give you a menu of resolutions/aspect ratios to choose from, including 480i, which is NTSC 480 lines interlaced, and 576i which is PAL 576 lines interlaced. There are also 480 and 576 progressive options, and most common resolutions above that.
Audio
Aside from the HDMI connector, which carries video and audio, audio out of the Apple TV is via standard left and right channel RCA connectors, in their common white (L) and red (R) plugs/sockets respectively.
Summary
Does the Apple TV work on old TVs?
Yes. If you have composite inputs (yellow video, white and red audio), you can run the Apple TV in black and white with full audio quality via the green video and white and red audio connectors.
If your TV has component video, so green, blue and red video connectors, then you’ll be able to do full colour and full quality audio, at your standard 480i and 4:3 ratio as selected in the Apple TV settings.
For about the last 18 months or so, I’ve been working on and off on (sic) a new video series called Bonny & Clyde. While other projects came and went, many actually paying the rent, Bonny & Clyde just sat there, slowly ticking away in the background. Until now.
We’ve finally locked in a release date of 14th May 2007, which coincidentally is either Mothers’ Day or the 52nd anniversary of the signing of the Warsaw Pact, depending on which way you’re inclined.
Bonny & Clyde is a weekly improvised serial, so up to 4-5 minutes per episode per week, with each being mostly improvised by the characters. You can find more detail on the Bonny & Clyde Production Journal.
If you enjoyed our Frank & Dale, I’m pretty sure you’ll also enjoy Bonny & Clyde.
Why this revolution will be televised
Al Gore’s announcement of Current TV in the UK. Great spiel on the new media revolution.