> On Sat, 12 Apr 1997, Eugene Leitl wrote:
>
> > Hitachi's new videocamera (about 5 kDM) can do realtime 1:100 MPEG.
>
> Ick. Unless it's a damn sight better than the MPEG CD-is I've seen I'll
> be sticking with Hi8.
Well, the goal is cramming movies (while still recognizable as such) in
smallest store possible. (Hint: compression ratio rules). Quality? What
for? Besides, IFS/ANN compression should beat MPEG (or wavelets, or...) by
orders over orders. Asymmetrical, of course. Crunching offline,
expanding online.
> > Gateway2000 might acquire Amiga tech & rights from ESCOM AG
> > which went bankrupt July 1996. Oh my.
>
> Serves ESCOM right. When I bought my laptop from them I had to wait six
> weeks for them to get one which worked, then take it back for a
> replacement because they left off the CPU heatsink and it continually
> overheated, and they told me they'd have some more RAM for me a couple of
> weeks after I bought it. Nine months later I finally found a RAM card for
> it in Taipei...
Personally, I think the "Amiga(tm)" is cursed. So don't buy it, ever.
(Particularly, if approached in the street. Hey mo, Amiga Inc., just $50.
Deal?).
> > Vobis, a popular teutonic computer chain, will offer a 64 MByte
> > RAM, 1 MB 2nd cache, 4 GByte IDE HD, 4 MByte gfx board and 8x
> > CD ROM Alpha for 6 kDM. Muckischrott NT 4.0 and FX!32 (a smart
> > run-time Ineptl-Alpha code compiler) is bundled. Won't sell, of
> > course.
>
> Why not? Sounds like a good price to me; just delete NT and install Linux
> instead.
Linux/AXP sucks still (as does any nonIneptlian Linux, according to last
tests). And gcc takes eternities to run on the Alpha, and produces pure-d
bagbiter code. You care for Alpha assembler? (It's sure smooth and mellow,
but it's assembler still).
> > net.jet, a Java application for Nettscrape >2.0 will suck
> > this-document referenced pages into local cache, thinking
> > ahead of user's mouse. Access latency? Which access latency?
> > http://www.peak-media.com
>
> Bad, bad, bad. I don't want my browser downloading pages which I didn't
> choose to look at, because I don't want to end up in access logs unless I
> have to. I get more than enough junk mail as it is. And just think of the
Junk mail poses a sufficient problem on its own, it will be dealt with
by a mechanism, shortly. Authentication by crypto protocol, I guess. Nothing
less will serve. No more regurgitated spam, no, thanks. (Boy, I am
looking forward to these times).
> problems if someone links from a popular page to a legal Dutch porn site
> with images which would count as 'child porn' in America, or to an
> American crypto ftp site. People looking at those pages would be breaking
Well, I tend to just ignore insane legislation. What, a law preventing me
from clicking on that link? Bull. I can click whatever thing I like. And
the day they outlaw PGP will be the day I'll have my key certified. I
won't even bother with steganography. Waaay too sublime.
> the law purely by accident as their browsers go off and download the
> illegal data for them.
Fuck the law, then. Let that be problem of the Chinese (those behind the
Great China Firewall), or Arab countries.
> > from skies seems a better choice, though. Speaking of that,
> > when (compressed) video-bandwidth cellular links?
>
> From what I was reading last week British Rail have been testing video by
> GSM. AFAIR it uses four GSM channels and only gives two or three frames
> per second, but that's good enough for the security cameras they want to
I was thinking of something way beyond GSM. Smaller cells, shorter
wavelengths, higher bandwidth. Let's say, 10 MBit/s celllink. SF?
> install on trains. Presumably if you could afford to use 40 GSM channels
> at once you could send 25fps.
Ludicrous. Just 40 channels, eh?
> > Digital photography has taken wing, silver stock will definitely not
> > be a good future investment.
>
> Do color films use silver? Anyway, we have a long way to go before film
Yes. I guess Ag (current price trend extrapolated) might find a niche in
AC motor windings, though. Kinda better than copper (slightly). Ah, and
silverware cutlery. It's traditional.
> becomes obsolete; my $700 35mm camera gives about five times the linear
> resolution (twenty-five times as many 'pixels') of any similar priced
> digital camera. So digital is great for snapshots and advertising photos
Just now, yes. But a) not everybody is a pro b) CCD resolution will go up
in near future c) image processing and archival is a lot easier if no
scan necessary
Personally, I don't care for high quality. I'd like the stuff I pictured
to be recognizable, and dbaseable. Being able to send the pic over
celllink is quite valuable for certain clientele. Silver hog photography
will still have its niche in the high-end, for a long time, sure.
> with a short turnaround time (e.g. real estate agents, used car ads), but
> at the moment it's lousy for real photography.
I think the question is whether digital photography is suitable for the mass
market. What's "real"? Picturing babies, animals, landscapes, and cars. I
guess it qualifies, already. (Lookit! That's Marge on ole TV!).
ciao,
'gene
> Mark
>
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