Forest Fires

Everywhere I look on TV they are discussing the fire in California. Ugggghhh, I feel so bad for all the
Californians. I just cannot imagine how upsetting and powerless people must feel as the fire approaches their house.

I spoke with one of our vendors today who is located in Simi Valley. My contact was telling me how the fires were everywhere and the office was running on only a skeleton crew since many people could not get in.

Another colleague of mine runs a webcam in San Diego. He sent me the URL and I checked it out. It was bizarre, it looked pitch black outside and yet it was midday. The smoke is just that dark and dense.

64 Bit CPUs

I was perusing slashdot and found this article which compares the Power Mac G5 with the new 64 bit Athlon CPU. Interestingly, their initial battery of tests suggests that the new Athlon chip is
substantially faster than the new Macs. Their tests are tough to compare since they are based on real world application performance. The problem is that applications are not always comparable across OSes since different teams usually write them and thus the final result may not be equivalently optimized across platforms.

Regardless, it is still impressive that the Mac is pretty much beaten across the board. So much for Apple’s rather dubious claim of having “the world’s fastest personal computer.” Still only time will tell.

One important thing the article mentions is that there is no 64 bit OS available for the new Athlon chip. This could potentially hurt performance especially since OS X has special 64 bit extensions to better take advantage of the new CPU. This makes the test results all that more impressive since the Windows machines are effectively running on an OS that is not optimized for the new CPU.

What a game!

The ALDS game five just ended with a Sox win! Wow, I cannot believe it. This was not a comfortable win and it came down to the very end. I almost couldn’t watch because I was thinking of past Sox let downs. (To be honest, I was switching back and forth between the Sox and MNF.) This situation seemed to be heading that way when Williamson walked those two batters. Why on earth did they not pull him after the first walk? Regardless, Derek Lowe came through in the end. Once more, the Sox came very close to blowing it, but fortunately they didn’t. I am thrilled that they won. The challenge now is the Yankees. What an exciting series it will be especially since the rivalry is so strong between the two cities.

Pats — Who is Cloud?

I tuned in for the second half of the Pats game today and was surprise to see an unfamiliar face in the backfield — someone named Cloud. I was shocked to see that this guy could actually run the ball? It is kind of weird because I was expecting to see Kevin Faulk, but he was nowhere to be seen. I guess he is another victim of the injury gremlin that has plagued the Pats all year. Interestingly, Antowain Smith was healthy and yet we never saw much of him either.

The good news was that Cloud did a really great job running. I was extremely impressed with his performance.
Continue reading Pats — Who is Cloud?

More thoughts about HDTV

I now have a bit more experience watching HDTV and while, I still love HDTV, the quality of the image definitely varies. Yesterday I watched Fox’s HD feeds for its early NFL game. The simple reality is that the image quality was just not that great. Sure it was better than standard definition, but nearly as good as it could be. They were still broadcasting in 4:3 with marginally better sharpness.

I was a but frustrated with this. Then last night, I watched ESPN Sunday Night Football. Holy Shit! The image quality in that game was outstanding. Seriously, it was definitely the best looking football images I have ever seen. You really need to check it out yourself to believe.

I was hoping that tonight’s ABC MNF feed would be similarly in quality to ESPN’s since they are both owned by Disney. Well, I am happy to say that it is of similar quality.

Those of you who do not have HDTV do yourself a favor and check it out. This is truly incredible.