Sun, 26 March, 2006

Critical Knowledge for the 21st Century

Posted in Media, Tech at 11 pm

On the review for the Amazon.com: Westinghouse W32701 27″ Widescreen LCD Flat Panel at Amazon:

A 4:3 TV is a 3-4-5 Right Triangle. Divide the Diagonal measurement By 5 then multiply that number by 3 to get the picture hieght, or by 4 to get the width. A 16:9 TV is a 16-9-18.36 Right Trangle. Divide the Diagonal measurement By 18.36 then multiply that number by 9 to get the picture hieght, or by 16 to get the width. Rule of Thumb:
17″ Widescreen = 15″ 4:3 Picture Height
23″ Widescreen = 19″ 4:3 Picture Height
27″ Widescreen = 22″ 4:3 Picture Height
30″ Widescreen = 24″ 4:3 Picture Height
33″ Widescreen = 27″ 4:3 Picture Height
44″ Widescreen = 36″ 4:3 Picture Height

See? That’s nice, well written, succinct, right to the point, straight forward, not redundant and non-redudant.

The one piece they forgot to add was that LCDs don’t have the overscan area that CRTs do. That means that the CRTs have an effective screen size that’s an inch or three smaller than the listed size.

So if Amy and i are going to replace our ancient 22″ (circa 1988!) CRT, we could probably get away with a 23″ widescreen. But I think a 26 or 27″ display would be a better bet.

Sun, 19 March, 2006

Portland to the MAX

Posted in Life, Public Works at 11 am

Over at Metroblogging Portland Bannana Lee Fishbones posits that Tri-Met should run around underground the MAX and give up on adding the MAX into the Bus Mall mix.

I’m not a big fan of digging up Portland’s streets, but here’s my response:

BLF: […] I agree with you about the need for alternatives in the Tri-Met plan. This whole idea of taking what is normally a longer distance service (The only route that stretches from G’town to B’ton.) and making. it. stop. every. two. or. so. blocks. in. the. middle. of. down. town. makes no sense to me at all. MAX ought to be a backbone route, dropping people off at half a dozen strategic locations in the core and then getting back to a ’stops every half mile’ sort of style.

Have they even thought about how many riders they’re going to pick up on the trains that are only as long as a euro-style shorten city block? Those trains are going to be OVERFILLED between downtown and Rose Quarter.

Here’s my thought: run two lines of rail branching off of the existing MAX line.

A) one that breaks off the Steel bridge on the west bank, runs up Everet/Glisan thru Old Town/Perl/Northwest and swings around to catch up with the main line at Civic Statium. (Yes, you heard me Civic Stadium). This brings better service to all the Yuppies in the Pearl and NW and brings down the number of commuters clogging those streets. When the area becomes a shanty town in 30 years, the residents will really need the mass transit options even more.

My Proposed Plan for MAX for 2009 Legend

  • Blue: MAX (Existing & Planned)
  • Red: MAX (My Proposed route on 99e and LO Commuter Rail)
  • Green: Streetcar (Existing & My Proposed Mississippi/Hollywood/Woodstock extensions)


B) Then run a line from Lloyd Center, down 11th/12th to Powell, setting up for a Moreland/ Milwaukee shot south along 99E. Get down to at least SE Tacoma, then shoot a branch off towards the river. We can build a replacement for the Sellwood bridge that includes a MAX deck, and then run the MAX up the old Lake Oswego commuter rail line up into downtown, either staying on the street car line, or hopping onto the rest of the under-used 1st avenue that the exisiting MAX is already using downtown.

In fill some major arteries with street car and now we’ve got a multi-modal hub/spokes/ring around greater Portland, with MAX able to handle a large amount of the commuter traffic that’s pounding the roads in the area, freeing up bus service to support more regular runs in smaller neighborhood hubs.

This is a little Southeast-centric, but hey, we’ve got to make up for the Mt Hood Freeway somehow, right?

Sun, 12 March, 2006

Best B*G Quote of the Season

Posted in Media at 9 pm

Dean Stockwell’s line in the last episode of Season 2 of BattleStar Galactica:

I’m not a fracking Zylon! I’m not…
(Sees fellow identical Cylon in brig)
Oh, well then…

It doesn’t come across well in text, but Stockwell plays it perfectly. Well done Brother Cavell. (Which Cylon model is he?)

Wed, 8 March, 2006

The Birth of the Prius

Posted in Tech at 9 pm

Fortune Magazine ran this great, longish article on the car that we bought late last year The Birth of the Prius:

Today Wada explains Okuda’s order philosophically. “This is always how it is,” he says. “The top management is not going to give detailed instructions on technology. As long as engineers come up with solutions by the deadline, that is fine.” As Watanabe, who also had a lot riding on the decision, puts it, “Everything was challenging about the development of the Prius.”

It’s a great run down on the workings at Toyota. It’s also an interesting study of the relationship between engineering and business management.

Mon, 6 March, 2006

Camouflage thoughts

Posted in Tech at 8 pm

Okay so those guys have been working on the ‘invisibility cloak‘ sort of stuff but really, should they simply be concerned with breaking up the edges of the the wearer’s profile? The central areas can have the look of a yellow bicycle, but as long as the edges don’t look like a person, the ‘target’ won’t be recognized.

Thu, 2 March, 2006

South by Northwest

Posted in People, Web at 8 am

From the places I’d like to be, conferences I’d like to attend file:

Digital Web Magazine - News - South by Northwest:

South by Northwest sponsored by Blue Flavor, Bryght, Newsvine and Raincity Studios. There will be lots of beer, wine and margaritas to suck down. Be sure to bring your digital cameras because there is nothing more bloggable than drunken web geek celebrities.

Have a great time guys!