Tucker's Tuesday Technology Tidbits and Tertiary Trolling

Neo Industrial Technorotic Aesthetic Death Trip.

Design, the facet of presentation which attracts the eye and stirs thelittle grey cells into action. I have long understood that I have an aesthetic which is somewhat off center with most of those around me. Yet, If I were to invite you to my second life abode the chill would soon settle into a yet unrecognized comfort; like sinking into the plush furniture of proper Victorian drawing room.

I bring this subject up from a find whilst I scrolled through my 300 news feeds in my Google reader, (love google reader), and came across a metal skull lamp in an article in Gizmodo. The writer of the article calls it “..the most terrifying table lamp…”.I call it beautiful. I want it, crave it.
If I could have my druthers I would have a ‘den’ which looked much like the ‘Closer’ video by NIN, this is what I would do if means were no object.
 
Growing up in Sag Harbor I was fascinated by the Victorian aesthetic and had ample opportunity to explore show homes which reproduced this, but it was too soft, too tranquil. Where, I asked were the drawing rooms of great explorers, whalers, and botanists?-(think about it, in order for someone to see and study a rare plant he would have to travel in harsh accommodations and face death by nature every moment. No rescue by GPS here. Darwin was a tough mother!). Everything had been sanitized by the local historical revisionists.

I left the semi isolated Sag Harbor to shack up with an artsy hipster in downtown NYC and found a world I only previously dreamed I could be part of. The girl and I soon parted but the stamp of what I was introduced to struck home, THIS is where I was supposed to be, this is what I had been searching for.

Concurrently I had just begun to understand and appreciate the Punk and hardcore movement in music when I met Pam and Marc. The Koch’s were uber NYC downtown rock hipsters via  Buffalo and close friends with one of the great unknown bands of the early 80s, The Splat Cats. Marc collected the ephemera of kitsch gothic ghoulishness. Their Ludlow street apartment was filled to the brim with records, comic books, videos, pop culture models, books of suspicious origins and early 19th century coffins-the ones with viewing windows on the cover. I still have several of the birthday cards given to me which consisted of heavily gilded photos of a specific coffin or groups of coffins. One birthday I was given the book Wisconsin Death Trip, a book I read nearly as often as I do Cyrano de Bergerac or  Foucault's Pendulum. The Koch’s home was not so much an education as a revelation, that central aesthetic which I had been searching now surrounded me each time I entered their home. I was introduced to the art of Joe Coleman, Joel Peter Witkin and innumerable bands of nearly every genre. It was a cross between Maxilla and Mandible and the Rembrant room at the Met.

Around the same time I chanced to meet Robin Ludwig, an artisan for whom the word itself is his being.  I met Robin through his daughter when I was in an Aveda show, I had very famous scissor hands cut my, then looong, hair and got a few products and bucks to boot.  Robin played gritty guitar, growled when he sang and created works of art out of metal with skilled delicate hands. Watching him work was nearly as intoxicating as the mead wine he brewed in the loft apartment they occupied smack dab in the heart of Chinatown.

This combination of old world craftsmanship and a full involvement of the modern drew me into a local high end audio store to drool over an early 80's retro tube amp placed in the front window, and to be promptly be escorted out by staff – “come back when you have money to spend kid!”.   The amp itself was evidently very good but the cost was for the art of the product, it called out and pulled you in with how it played with the light, its warmth and visual shimmer.

While I worked in recording studio and learned the in n’ outs of the main gear I was constantly drawn to theFocusrites, Joe Meek gear and theUREI LA-2A’s . The fascination was not just as moth to flame but a concerted study of the device and the names behind it.  The boxes spoke to me, called me in to learn not just about compression or EQ but about the early days of audio and the men who made or inspired these gleaming boxes; I also found out about their inspiration and obsessions.

So, you’ll excuse me as I mount this “…most terrifying…” lamp to a brushed aluminum stand shaped like a gothic fence rail and revel in its lineage of history, artisanal heritage and learning it encapsulates for me. 

Same thing we do every night Pinky, Plot to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Every couple of years someone comes up with a daring plan to have one system take over and become the ubiquitous backbone of a market or function.   MIDI laid claim to something like this for several years in music and interface automation. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) has continued to fight for complete dominance of the device configuration arena, despite several Bill Gates Blue Screen failuresat live events.  IEEE recently announced the formation of working committees to formulate content over CAT 5 standard.

HDMI has announced – (admittedly, this was announced in January but it is still relevant and moving forward) plans to present HDMI not just for content delivery of video and audio but to act as the data backbone as well.  It is an interesting attempt to grow the usefulness of HDMI and insure its necessity in any wired home; and, of course, fulfill their plans to take over the world!

 The pursuit of one system that does-it-all over a single cable or methodology can be almost spiritual in function, acting as if in recursion, much like the mythical  Ouroboros, forming a constant state of eternal return.  In such cases the apparent limitation and exclusivity are, in actuality, inspiration to development and open new pathways of innovation.

There is also a danger in allowing a single technology to be the medium for all content. Kevin Kelly recently wrote a fascinating and captivating commentary on the Ted Kaczynski\ Unabomber treatise.  In life as well as technology there always exists the danger of over reaching the purpose and function of a topology or medium, winding up like Bellerophon , wandering alone.

At its barest form the concern stems from the debate of centralized vs. distributed control and memory.  Is it best to store values in the processor – (centralized) or to store them in individual units being controlled?   The arguments on both sides carry a great deal of validity and detriment in application.
 
In the Case of HDMI, One has to question if it has the data rate room for 1080p Deep Color (which requires a data rate of  6.7Gbps) and full Ethernet data?  The better question is just what would have to be given up to accommodate the addition of Ethernet backbone topology?  Would CEC have to go away? This would not be such a bad thing as nearly no one actually uses it those who do appear to have only conceived of this as a single source to display concept.  I am unclear, and the press releases does not attempt to answer, just what would have to give, (if anything), In order for this to be accomplished.

 Given HDMi’s severe limitations on cable distance one would have to presume that some manner of CAT 5 solution or converter will be necessary, especially if it is intended for retrofits.  The proposition leaves many who are building HDMI distribution products without an eye towards this latent but present capability suddenly tagged as legacy. For those who designed with an understanding of just what HDMI is, and will be, capable of  the world just may be their oyster.

Update: 2-25-09

Ah, the things twitter can show you.  This morning I opened up my twitter account ,my http://twitter.com/TuckerTues and not the http://twitter.com/CresrtronHQ , and find an endgadget article on the DiiVa connector which claims   

"Forward channel video speeds of 13.6 Gbps provide plenty of room for 1080p and higher resolutions with Deep Color, plus the two-way connection at up to 2.25Gbps that can simultaneously handle multichannel audio, control or other data"

http://tinyurl.com/akh6ep

BrundleFly?

One has to wonder if the quest for wireless HD distribution is more closely related to the Philosophers Stone then Grand Unified Theory at this point.   A friend of mine compared this to eating a cake by saying 'you never know if its going to taste good until you eat it, and then its too late.  A lesson in confections from the kitchen of Mrs. Schrodinger indeed.

Wireless HD distribution is something I would install in the blink of an eye, were I confident it would\could work reliably in both speed and location. My home is not new, not nearly new, not was new to my father  in his youth; in fact my home is just barely considered new by the strict definition of antique. While spacious and accommodating my 1901 colonial home still has walls of 1x3's and lathe under plaster. I spent a good portion of my formative childhood tearing down just such walls in the numerous homes we lived in to rebuild and update. I know just how difficult it is to retrofit these homes with modern wiring without planning a complete renovation. It is not a task I look forward to with any pleasure. 

 I also have years of experience working with wireless systems of all sorts and know full well the fragility of the connective infrastructure.  RF transmission of media can be summed up simply  - Wireless transfer of data is the most convenient method yet developed, it is also the most inconsistent and unreliable form ever put into operation. (I think this statement has a very Mark Twain lilt to it and given his relationshipp with Tesla quite possibly attributable to him in an alternate Universe).

The EE Times has published, as part of a year end 'Hot Technologies to Watch for in 2009, an eye opening article on the the relative stasis HD home distribution over RF has exhibited. In the article 'Not getting the big pictures(s) yet', the EE Times editors describe 802.11n as 'troubled', UWB as a 'failure' and the 60GHz as '...too immature...'.  

So, why pursue an RF HD distribution model?  HDMI has some notorious short falls when it comes to whole house distribution which include but are not limited to cable length and physical connectors. It is a market that has huge potential to make redundant  an entire category of cable and distribution.  Trouble is what we have currently and for the near term results in an end video more BrundleFly then Seth Brundle. 

I suppose I should take a deep breath, thank my mother for having the forethought to prepare me for this moment and  with wrecking bar in hand begin the process of renovating to run wire.

Goneril, Regan and Cordelia

EE times posted video and a short article on a symposium consisting of manufactures of three main technologies vying to be the wireless digital video delivery system.  While the event appeared cordial with pronouncements of coexistence and equitable market distribution, it is quite clear all are looking for blood in the water.  It is still possible at this juncture that all three technologies will find a place and coexist with the others but it will not, cannot be in the same market.

The full article and video clips are at http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208801236&cid=RSSfeed_eetimes_newsRSS

I suppose one's outlook all depends on whether you prefer the original play or the apologist performances of the 18th and 19th century.

"When properly lit and shot on film, this makes for the best test of flesh tones one can find." -TW

It is indeed interesting what one finds whilst trolling manufactures websites – Yeah, I know I need to get out more.

3M has announced a functioning video projector designed to fit into a mobile device (Cell Phone, Blackberry, and Digital Camera).  The 3M site http://www.3m.com/mpro/index.html states the unit is

"Roughly the size of a wireless earpiece, and a half inch thick..."

can project an image of

"VGA 640x480 Resolution"

And - most interestingly or curiously

"Projects sizes 5' to 50' or more"

The 3M description markets this as a social tool for sharing photos and videos; I see the break mobile content providers have been looking for in particular the WiMax folks.  All those arguments against people watching content on their phones because the screen is too small just may have gone away. 

Taking a futurist POV, imagine a time when there are no 103" plasmas just your mobile content device which projects an HD image of up to 60" or 70".  Aside from a central sever for storing your terabytes of content you take it all with you. (that which you could not store on the mobile device could be accessed via a slingbox like connection) oh, and it can make phone calls as well.

While the techie in me gets all worked up about the above being possible and I am intent on finding system diagrams to figure out how this works, the luddite in me bemoans the loss of regionalization. With the advent of cable, Satellite TV and the Slingbox type devices we no longer allow ourselves a chance to see local programming. Often locals do not see local programming - aside from the 6:00 news. Accents are becoming homogenized, Story lines all the same. Instead we arrive at the hotel, set up our PC to connect to the Slingbox and watch all our shows including our local news-(not the local news of the place we are staying). I do have hope that IPTV and sites like YouTube will always provide an outlet for truly regional culture; does anyone know exactly what happened to the Manhattan accent you last saw in 40's movies?

There are a number of troublesome possibilities as well:

·       Those lovely folks who seem to think the rest of us are utterly fascinated with their lives and use their Nextel or speaker phone on trains have a new way to invade personal space.

·       The potential for showing images you would really not rather- or I'd rather not see.

The lure of showing something elicits in a public manner -even if just as a laugh- can be quite strong.

In the days of the first single gun LCD projectors a number of techs-(including me) and a projectionist stayed late putting a new unit through its paces. The company I worked for rented several floors which had windows on two side streets and the main ave. Initially we pointed the projector out one of the open windows facing a block long side street wall to see just how big an image the projector could actually produce.  The image was big and damn bright! As it grew later on an early summers day we became even more impressed as the video engineer tweaked a few things and was able to produce a super bright image of about 20' (remember the throw was just a Manhattan side street width).  The projectionist wondered aloud if this 'data' projector could moonlight as IMAG support - (IMAG commonly is the projected talking head of the on stage speaker).  Someone mentioned that it must be fairly inefficient in handling flesh tones. 

Here is where the title of this entry comes from. Our ever resourceful projectionist placed a tape in the SVO deck and hit play. Up before us leaped to life a 20' super bright image of a couple in flagrante delicto. Yeah, you read that right.  There in full color was a 20' porn playing. We laughed, snickered, and thanked our stars that this was an industrial area after 8 pm on a Tuesday night. Then we heard a Yelp, expletives and our desk phones started to ring.  It appears two senior management types had stayed late as well and were just at that moment crossing the side street when our impromptu show had started.  Suffice it to say, the next few days were a bit tense in the office. Those who know the story, who’s initial are credited to the quote and just why we had ready access to the content will completely understand why I still find it hilarious.

We were some high tech geeks with access to very pricey toys and took a moment to misuse it. It was a one off event unlikely to happen again for some time.  Now anyone with a penchant to cause a ruckus could do nearly the same but all from his \ her mobile device.

Considering the two leading specs quoted above from the 3M site. 

640x480 is just tolerable looking at a 5' image, any bigger and you lose all definition.  I see no way the "..up to and above 50' image" is plausible.

This Way to the Egress

Just as the doomsday clock on the cover of  'Atomic Scientist' magazine indicates the proximity to the precipice so the reports of shenanigans in HD retail indicate the level of desperation of those to be 'left behind'.  The deceptions, bait and switches and out right lies are everywhere waiting to lure in the innocent and uninitiated.

The 10 worst HDTV, scams, lies and ripoffs.

http://hdguru.com/the-10-worst-hdtv-scams-lies-and-video-ripoffs/

This article does have some faults, in particular a general misunderstanding of HDMI and the rules of HDCP but is right on with Fake HD Cable and Satellite Channels (number 9) and Deep Color (part of the 1.3 spec and number 7 on the list).   

Deep color is currently nothing more then hype and promise with no source devices capable of producing deep color content.  Yes, you will be ready when and IF this is ever utilized by content producers, yet as Pee Wee Herman said- 'You have a big but there...'

Fake HD channels are just dishonest, yet every cable and satellite provider has a few channels they include in their HD package which are in reality SD widescreen content.  Phil Swann of  www.TVPredictions.com  has commented on this at

HDTV: Networks Should Stop Stretching the Truth

http://www.tvpredictions.com/forum/comments.php?y=08&m=04&entry=entry080421-102055

Why would major broadcast and cable providers deliberately try to fool the average HD viewer? Because 

1. The true HD content is STILL not there. Well at least in the volume to feed a constant broadcast schedule.

2. Cable and Satellite providers have a serious issue of bandwidth. Consumers are demanding two main services, HD content and a plethora of choices. Without compressing the digital data - thus losing some detail- it is just not possible for these providers to deliver both true HD content and 1000 channels. (Thus proving Bruce Springsteen was right all along). 

MSNBC provided an interesting article on this subject:

Cable TV under fire for degrading HD quality

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24238071/

The Slashdot folks also took Comcast to task on this

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/2113218&from=rss

And that promise of 1080p? All those sets selling by prominently listing a 1080p capable spec, well your going to have to wait awhile

Tandberg CEO: 1080p HDTV In 3 Years

http://www.tvpredictions.com/1080p041408.htm

Still think this is just a few over eager manufacturers jostling for market presence?  Um, not so much, major retailers are trying to dump non HD units on unsuspecting consumers:

Retailers Fined $4M for Improper Labels on TVs

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89551875&ft=1&f=1019

Then there are the stacks of portable TV these same retailers are still selling with no warning that in only few short months they will be as useless as wax cylinders.

Don't buy a portable TV this year

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9911621-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

There is also the very real possibility that millions will be left without any form of TV reception and no, we are not just talking about those living in the vast stretches of Montana- NYC and

Boston

top the list:

Study: 9.2M Homes May Face Digital TV Outages

http://www.tvpredictions.com/centris041008.htm

Into this possible gap comes the federal government and its DTV coupon program to help those of lesser incomes purchase converter boxes at discount -(and thus extend the life of their non HD\DTV sets). All is well you think, Ha!

Scammers Exploit DTV Coupon Program

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/08/2245248&from=rss

The title of this post comes from the semi anecdotal story about PT Barnum’s infamous '

American

Museum

'. The premise of the story is that the museum was so popular that folks would linger too long, thereby making it difficult to get others in and impacting the total days take. P.T being the shrewd showman posted signs throughout the museum which read 'This Way to the Egress!', knowing full well most people would not know that Egress meant exit. It is said that many a visitor would follow the signs out a door and down a covered stairway to an empty courtyard. The door just exited closed and locked behind them, thus making another ticket charge the only way to get back in.  Many people would complain that they never did get to see the Egress!

HDMI - Nitrate Free?

HDMI is a funny thing. To those of  who cut our teeth crimping copper BNC or soldering XLR's trusting in a cable we cannot make ourselves presents a quandary.   The first time I looked into an HDMI cable I was left with questions similar to those often asked about hot dogs - 'Just what is in that thing?'.

A number of questions still befuddle installers daily

• How long can I run an HDMI cable -(answer: it depends on the gauge and quality of cable not necessarily a predefined length limit)
• What effect does HDCP have on my connections -( answer: its presence turns off component outputs  \ inputs and does have bandwidth considerations, which may effect usable cable length).
• Which devices support deep color ? -(a few, maybe).

In an apparent answer to our questions I have been receiving a plethora of newsletter and articles on just such subjects  lately:

CEpro: 3 ways to improve HDMI http://www.cepro.com/article/3_ways_to_improve_hdmi/?utm_source=CEPWeekly&utm_medium=email

HDMI.org newletter: What do speed ratings on HDMI cables mean? http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/170134/ceb1d060a1/132000973/9ac1526c60/

HDMI.org also has a great  set of  webinars (live or self guided)http://hdmi.org/learningcenter/installer_training.aspx

Deciphering the Mystery of HDCP and HDMI http://www.rentalandstaging.com/articles/publish/article_1054.shtml

How HDMI works from Howstuffworks Daily feed: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hdmi1.htm

The Nuts and blots of HDCP by Crestron's own Rob Carter. http://www.digitaltvdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206800378

Now can anyone tell me just why hot dogs have 10 to a pack but the buns only have 8?

Perhaps Cecil can http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_350.html

Avast! I find Ye Returning from the Isle of Lost Friends

When T6 started out as a in house email - newsletter I wanted a memorable name for it to both amuse my associates and make it memorable.  Being a Lit major in college (focus on American poetry of the 19th century) I am a fan of alliteration. I also was an avid reader of Mark Schubin's Monday Morning Memo.  When Mark moved his newsletter to another venue I lost touch but named T6 as a homage to the memo. 

Truth is, if i really went looking I would have found him but I did not. Out of the blue I decided to contact him with a question.  Mark lead me to his great Podcast site, The Schubin Report http://www.theschubinreport.com/.  The podcasts are slick presentations where Mark discusses High Definition news.   

I have added his link to my blog under the inspired Tech Links' Section.  (Currently on the left hand side of the Blog).  Check him out - I'll wager that you will anticipate his next podcast after the first listen.

Its Just That Once You Accept One Into Your Neighborhood, They All Want In

If you have been paying any attention to the analog frequency sell off conducted by the FCC, you will undoubtedly have noticed that Google is just moderately interested in the proceedings.

Google has for some time been working on getting itinerant device access to what is commonly known in the industry as RF white spaces. White Space refers to the valleys which exist between the Color, Picture and Sound spikes of analog television signals.  (Typically an analog TV signal has a separate modulated RF signal for the Color, Picture and Sound, all three are received by the television and processed to complete the signal). 

White Spaces are typically where the FCC allowed the use of itinerant low power RF transmitters for wireless microphones and Intercom systems.  While TV broadcast signals are very powerful (typically 50k watts) for the most part you could hide a great deal of microphones in between the spikes. If you lived in the sticks, or just outside a major urban area, you could rely on finding some portion of the spectrum which was free of a TV channel.  In heavily saturated urban areas - such as NYC- you relied on proximity effect hoping that as the microphone would be the stronger signal - locally- to the receiver.  For the most part this usually worked out very well with only the occasional interference and then the dynamic compression circuits would kick in, minimizing the audience impact. In sections of the City, like Broadway, you also have to contend with wireless systems in adjacent theaters. The logistics are remarkable.

To this mix Google wants to add the mobile communications devices which would use access points placed within the remaining white space areas to facilitate Wifi\Wimax type  'local access'. The concern of many in the commercial market is the possible havoc this could causes to existing system and make overly complicated new installs. Google's answer is to institute a device awareness protocol which would recognize that at a device or devices are already in use and not transmit until clear. I would surmise that the withholding of transmission would only be until it could find a time slot to transmit.  Live audio is a continuous stream - whether analog or digitized in the microphone - and does not allow for a momentary pause to allow other devices access to the frequency.   As a compromise a few others have offered up a fixed licensing scheme but it has been met with minimal enthusiasm. As I no longer work in the event staging world this is a minimal concern, but for corporate\commercial installers this is an issue to keep a close eye on.

Two good articles which cover this story well are at

CTIA urges FCC to license -- and auction -- TV white spaces

http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/FREE/120719096/1007

Google Proposal for 'Wi-Fi on Steroids'

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9901747-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Inevitably the spectrum will be auctioned off and utilized for a mass consumer set of services.  You may have to become accustomed to lower quality audio from you live performances or see the reemergence of old school wired, hands free microphones.  okay that was a joke, sort of. It is clear that the tiny market of wireless audio systems will be overwhelmed by the tsunami of consumer traffic. 

I touched on this in Issue 14 Volume 3 of the old newsletter (July of 07)

See   http://tuckerstuesday.typepad.com/tuckerstuesday/2007/06/index.html  for the original link and my commentary.

Ah see, Dot vas the qvick fuse, Ya

After years of cajoling, pleading, and half hearted attempts to get the broadcast industry to educate the public on the 2009 transition, the FCC seems to finally a be putting some teeth behind it's mandate .  It appears that no one wanted to be the first to let us all in on the what and what nots and its affect on our television viewing. 

I heard  a report concerning the most recent escalation on NPR; the archived link its at -( with link to podcast of the original radio broadcast):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87898671&ft=1&f=1019

The TV broadcasters were concerned with causing a near panic ala Orson Wells War of the Worlds.

The manufactures of televisions had apparently been on a concerted program of deliberately misinforming  the public with phrases such as 'HD ready and 'HD Capable' in order to dispose of as many non native HD units as possible. I have consistently heard the terms used by the box store sales clerks to mean the same or different things, sometimes correctly.

The Cable companies up until late have been promoting the fact that they have (x) number of HD channels and that subscribers need not worry as cable had it all in hand. (what they don't tell you is that cable will continue to provide the standard analog signal for at least 3 years; this is good if you do not want to go out  and replace you 2 year old 37" monitor, bad if you wanted more HD content and upgraded you converter box to the DTV model only to have the majority of channels  stay at a lower SDTV quality.

So finally the FCC had enough with the industry surveys showing 3/4 of Americans having little or no knowledge of the transition-( or even the difference between DTV and HDTV)- and is clearly stating that a concerted attempt at public education must be made.   To this end the FCC has set up a countdown to DTV Transition site to help everyone get with the program.

The FCC  Digital convergence site -(complete with countdown clock!)  http://www.dtv.gov/

The FCC DTV FAQ : http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html

WNBC TV in New York has had a great series of spots concerning the Digital transition and they archive them on their website!  Navigating the WNBC website is an arduous task -( it is an absolutely horrendously designed site). The direct Link is http://www.wnbc.com/digital/index.html

After the years of debating, arguing and endless conversation we are finally at a moment when there  no going back and all players are making efforts to get EVERYBODY on board.  After all this waiting I cannot shake the image of Liebkind in The Producers lighting the fuse only to find it is the quick one.