Sunday, February 28, 2010
Purim in Israel with April
Purim in Israel with April
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Blu-Ray Players Adds Astonishing Connectivity to Our Post-modern Lives
The process from science to consumer production has taken taken ten years. The first of prototype implementation of blue laser technology was unveiled in October 2000. The project was officially labeled Blu-ray in February 2002. Sony shipped the first BD-ROM players in June 2006. HD DVD had beaten it to the market by a few months. I bought an HD DVD player later that year. Blu-ray players were vastly more expensive then.
I gave in and bought a Samsung BD player in late 2007. A year later newer BDs were unplayable. I managed to upgrade the firmware despite Samsung's awful support for Macintosh users and that allowed me to view most of the new releases but BD Live that began appearing on BDs were beyond the capacity of my player.
This week I decided to try the new LG BD player with built-in WiFi. The alternative was to buy a cheaper player without WiFi, just so I can watch the new releases without crashing my player. I bought the cheaper model with just 1 G built-in memory. I brought it home thinking I would probably have to exchange it for a cheaper, non-Wifi-capable device. Unlike the Ethernet-connectable Samsung, connecting the LG player to the Internet was instant. Whew! But when I tried to check for upgrades, the player once again crashed. I tried BD-Live on some disks I already owned. "BD Live content is available only on some players," the dialogue said. I was going to return the player yesterday when I discovered the problem. I needed to plug in more memory.
I had an old Cruzer USB flash-memory unit that I used at one time to transport files home from my computer at the office. I plugged this to the LG player and everything worked! I plugged a Windows-formatted USB hard drive with 80 gigs and that worked, too. Now I could download additional content from BD Live sites like Warner and Lionsgate.
Bonus View and BD Live, implementation of Sun Microsystems's Java platform, changes the whole entertainment experience. Right now I need a BD Live disk in the player to access additional content like live weather and news reports but the technology has turned my large-screen HDTV into an Internet device! Non-HD streaming content is still unviewable (I require crisp resolution on my screen or great audio or not I would not watch the video) but downloaded HD content is absolutely thrilling to watch. And download is fast!
I decided to learn content-creation software because of my interest in media. After all, I tell people I left the Philippines to access media that were few and far between in the 1970s. Mass media connect people and disconnected was what I felt back then. Pundits warn against over involvement in virtual connections and they may have a point. Nerds are antisocial humans but with their narrow focus they have brought profound insights into our modern world.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A Temple in Turkey Older than Civilization
A Temple in Turkey Older than Civilization
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Khaled Hosseini describes writing Kite Runner

Amazon's Book Video Preview

Adam Haslett's Union Atlantic, published last February 9, is available on Amazon. How it is listed brought on this meditation on books and publishing.
Amazon offers the book for 42% of its hardcover price. The listing makes note the book is bound with "deckle edge" paper and explains what this means: the pages are bound to resemble handmade paper by fraying the edges so they appear uneven. Amazon, with Wal-Mart, the most successful merchandising gambit of recent times, sells its products at a sharp discount and with free shipping. Not even Wal-Mart can beat that, especially since for the 49 states, sales don't include sales tax. With its very modern stocking, listing and distribution system, Amazon emphasizes how the publisher (Nan A. Talese) produced the book with a touch of the handmade craftsmanship of a bygone era.
I was struck the most by one element on Amazon's list page for the book. I clicked on a video icon and was treated to what I presume was the author reading from the book against a background that suggested its setting. Amazon, always on the cutting edge to keep its merchandising dominance, may be pioneering another merchandising tool. There really is no question that videos have arrived. With the ease with which video producers today create videos the format should inundate the media even more.
To someone like me fascinated by both words and moving images, the future is thrilling.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Writing Tips for Success

Monday, February 22, 2010
Art and Art

Sunday, February 21, 2010
Audrey the Writer

Saturday, February 20, 2010
Snow Today, Gone Tomorrow

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Skillet-broiled hamburger

I can't believe that I haven't posted to duendejoes since January last year. Can memory be so unreliable? I thought surely I'd posted photos and squibs about food since then?
I do admit: I have not cooked at home much since last summer when I would fix lunches for Tony. Tony was my excuse to drum up meals so I would eat hot meals at home. Of course it didn't work like that. By the time I'd photographed the food it was cold. More often than not I'd fix the food and not have time to photograph the masterpieces: Tony was already at the door. It was an exercise in frustration and futility. I eventually stopped doing it, and stopped cooking at home. Is this like throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
Life is the series of attempts we make to change our basic structure—our karma, our character. I should learn not to accumulate regret and realistically just enjoy the gambit.
This was a meal I prepared for myself a week ago. Since then I made chickpea soup and spaghetti with oyster sauce and that's it: all the home-cooking I've done.
Like Conquistadores of Old

Thursday, February 4, 2010
Noli Me Tangere
Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"