Back in December, I bought a digital camera. It's a Canon Rebel XLT. So far, I think it's a pretty great camera. Photography is something I always have been deeply interested in but really never took it on as a serious hobby.
Now, that might change. I have yet to do a lot of outdoor photography. Maybe I'll start taking some in the spring or summer.
Anyway, here are a few of the pictures I took with the camera. I am not a professional. I once took photography in high school and aced it. Since then, I really haven't done much. I might take some courses on it at the local university just for fun and learn a few new tricks.
That is a picture of a comforter with a few dog hairs on it. Only if you could see it at the full resolution, you can literally see every thread on this comforter!
That's Mugs, one of my two dogs. She is a purebred yellow lab. She is taking one of her naps. She likes to sleep quite a bit these days.
This is just some of the many gifts I wrapped for Christmas. I focused on the particular word; "Noel" on the right while the rest is a little out of focus.
This is a close-up shot of a Christmas angel in the living room. I was really happy with how the picture turned out.
This is Sky. She is a part Labrador Retriever and part German Shepherd. She is quite a beautiful dog, maybe a little too hyper at times. But she is a very loveable dog, just like Mugs is.
This is a picture of my face. I should mention that I often work on photos using Adobe Photoshop. I tampered a little with this one.
Since I mentioned that I tampered with one of the pictures shown above. This is a side-by-side comparison of the original and the modified versions to see how much of a difference it is.
Paramount Home Entertainment quietly announced today that they would be releasing their movies onto Blu-ray Disc again as a result of the HD DVD's demise.
The consumers will become more confident in what format to buy now that all 6 major studios are supporting Blu-ray Disc. So much have happened in the last couple months. This week was pretty much the biggest week for the Blu-ray Disc camp so far.All six major Hollywood studios are now in the Blu-ray Disc camp, a day after Toshiba has pulled the plug on HD DVD and Blu-ray became effectively the only next-gen game in town.
Paramount Home Entertainment quietly came onboard via a statement sent exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday: "We are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer," the statement reads. "As we look to (begin) releasing our titles on Blu-ray, we will monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly."
Source: The Hollywood Reporter (February 21, 2008)
I am relieved that this format war is coming to an end because there is no need to prolong it when HD DVD have yet to win a single week since January 2007 which was over a year ago. My real concern was that if they prolong the war, Blu-ray Disc might have suffered causing both formats to fade away before its time. However, the future is now looking bright for the Blu-ray format now that Toshiba have conceded defeat to the BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association) in the format war.
The Future is Blu.
Related stories:
• Amazon.com to Support Blu-ray
• Universal Studios Goes Blu-ray
• Ding Dong, the HD DVD Format is Dead
• Warner to Back Blu-ray Exclusively
• Something Smells Fishy at Paramount
• DVD vs. Blu-ray: A Comparison
This morning, the Amazon.com team released a press release announcing their support of Blu-ray. They are going to promote Blu-ray more from now on. They will continue to carry HD DVD products. This is something they can easily afford to do since they operate in warehouses and not retail stores. They just won't be promoted as much as they used to be. They were paid by Toshiba to constantly advertise HD DVD products through e-mails and inserted leaflets in all of their parcels to their customers for months. It certainly did not make any difference at all.
Below is the press release they released today.Amazon.com to Support Blu-ray as the Digital Format of Choice for Customers
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In an effort to help demystify high-definition entertainment for consumers, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced its support for Blu-ray as the digital format of choice for customers. As part of this announcement, Amazon.com will more prominently promote Blu-ray hardware and software products on its website.
“The high-definition landscape is rapidly changing, and consumers are looking for guidance on how to make the best high-definition buying decisions,” said Peter Faricy, vice president of movies and music at Amazon.com. “Our customers have clearly voiced their support for the Blu-ray format. Blu-ray titles have increased from just over half of our high-definition sales to over three-quarters of our high-definition sales since early January. In order to best serve our customers, Amazon is recommending Blu-ray as the preferred digital format and will continue to carry the ‘Earth’s Largest Selection’ of Blu-ray products.”
Amazon.com currently carries a wide array of Blu-ray hardware and software products including players, Blu-ray discs, and the Sony PlayStation 3. For the hundreds of thousands of HD DVD owners who may still wish to purchase products for that format, Amazon will continue to carry a wide assortment of HD DVD products, including the broadest selection of HD DVD movie titles.
Source: BusinessWire.com
We still haven't heard anything from Paramount/DreamWorks SKG on their decision. If they don't announce it this week, it is just a matter of time before they do switch over. That $150 million payout isn't going to last them long.
Related stories:
• Universal Studios Goes Blu-ray
• Ding Dong, the HD DVD Format is Dead
• Warner to Back Blu-ray Exclusively
• Something Smells Fishy at Paramount
• DVD vs. Blu-ray: A Comparison
Already? It didn't take them long to make the “decision.” They must have been prepared for a long time. In fact, industry insiders mentioned that some people from Universal Studios were scouting the Blu-ray Disc facilities last year. That was a big clue that they were already thinking about it, but they had a legal obligation to stay committed to the HD DVD format.
At least one of the two studios exclusive to HD DVD is already gearing up to join the other team.
"While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray," said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
"The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear. Universal will continue its aggressive efforts to broaden awareness for hi-def’s unparalleled offerings in interactivity and connectivity, at an increasingly affordable price. The emergence of a single, high-definition format is cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate."
Source: Home Media Magazine (February 19, 2008)
Now we just have to wait for Paramount/Dreamworks SKG to make an announcement. It should be taking soon. We just don't know when, but it probably will be today or later this week.
Related story: Ding Dong, the HD DVD Format is Dead
Who would had thought of such a thing? Brilliant! Switching from the old-fashioned square Shreddies to the brand new Diamond Shreddies? Wow, just wow!
It is obvious that it is a joke. The ad campaign is a big success because it got people talking about it.
I bet it will be short-lived though. These types of marketing ploys don't last a long time. So they will have to come up with new and fresh ideas on promoting their products.
That's right, the HD DVD format is now officially dead as of today. Toshiba, the biggest backer of HD DVD announced today they are dropping the format due to the declining sales in both hardware and software. Ever since Warner Bros. Entertainment announced they were going to support Blu-ray exclusively back in early January, it resulted in a massive domino effect. New Line Cinema, HBO, National Geographic and more are now Blu-ray exclusive since the announcement.
Netflix recently announced they are dropping HD DVD, Best Buy announced they are now endorsing Blu-ray over HD DVD. Wal-Mart announced they are dropping HD DVD starting at the beginning of June.
It is highly likely that Universal Studios and Paramount/Dreamworks SKG will be switching over to Blu-ray Disc as a result of Toshiba's announcement. I wouldn't be surprised to see an announcement this week. Anyway, here is the press release.
February 19, 2008
Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses
Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content
Tokyo—Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.
“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”
Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.
Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.
This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.
Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.
Source: Toshiba Investor Relations
There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth.
In a recent e-mail I received, the person mentioned that he is working with the local deaf community to organize events at the theatre. He is trying to get a V.I.P. -type program set up for the deaf and hard of hearing moviegoers so it would be easier to show open-captioned movies instead of using the RWC system. I must say he's one heck of a guy because of his dedication to providing accessibility to the deaf and blind moviegoers.
RWC stands for Rear Window Captioning. It has a bad reputation among the deaf moviegoers. I know a lot of hearing people may be surprised to hear that, but I can't say I am and I know why.
The reason why many deaf moviegoers dislike RWC system is because of how much of a hassle it is. It is a tinted plastic glass attached to a snake-like stand. It is bendable and adjustable. However, you would have to come in early to get a good seat. The best place to use it is to sit in middle of the theatre. If you sit in the back, the captions will not be able to fit in it, and if you sit at the front, the captions will be really tiny and difficult to read. If you sit to the right or left, it will be slanted. Also, it will have to sit in the cup holder next to you. So if the theatre is packed, you will have nowhere to put your cup of beverage.
Also, there are too many cases of where the neck of the snake-like stand will be unable to stay in the position you put it in because it is too worn out. So it will repeatedly bend over forcing you to readjust it. Another problem is that you have to sit very still to watch the movie with the captions reflecting off the glass. It can get quite uncomfortable after a while.
Open captioned movies is preferred by many because it's right on the screen instead of having to focus on two separate objects at once which is difficult for some because some people are unable to see both without one being out of focus. As hard as that may be to believe, but it's true. To the deaf people, it is a big pain in the neck. We do have to put up with a lot more than the hearing people ever will have to in their entire lives. The hearing people don't realize that they are really working harder to accommodate us when they could be doing much less by just offering open captioned movies.
The problem is that they are worried about how the moviegoers may react to it and how it may affect the attendance at the theatres. I can understand their argument, but have they ever tried a test run of it? Have they ever ran a month worth of nothing but open captioned movies at every showing on every screen at a few selected locations and study the impact of the experiment? I would really like to know.
In the end, they might be surprised to see how much of a difference it may make. I just hope it would be the surprise I hope for.
In fact, the person who e-mailed me is hearing and his whole family is hearing. His children watch movies with captions turned on all of the times. Just to show you that there are hearing people out there who do watch movies with captions or subtitles turned on. In fact, he is not the only one. I know several people including movie reviewers who watch movies with captions on and they are all hearing.
If they can do that, why can't everybody else? A few people will try to fuss over it but many will probably become accustomed to it. In United Kingdom, they show some TV shows with an interpreter in the corner. Myself, I don't like seeing an interpreter on the screen; I prefer captions since it's less distracting. Different strokes for everyone. But they do it anyway. How do we know how everybody will like it or hate it if we don't give it a shot?
I am not advocating that every single screen should be open-captioned. I am only saying that they should do a test run of it at selected theatres across the country where every movie shown on every screen is open captioned at every showing for a month or more. It should be a good way to study the impact it makes on the audience and how it affects the attendance at these selected theatres. I just wanted to re-clarify what I said earlier and hope people won't take it the wrong way.
If the audience reacts quite positively to the open-captioned movies, then I would say open-captioned movies are far, far more economic compared to using expensive technologies like the RWC system.
I am sure a number of readers are tired of reading about subtitles in our vlogs. Though I still want to do a poll and see what the average reader think. There are two polls below.
For the last week, there was a surge in the discussion of whether we should subtitle our vlogs or not. As you know, I do subtitle most of my vlogs and the remaining vlogs that are not subtitled will be likely subtitled soon.
It was heavily discussed at Mike McConnell's blog, Kokonut Pundits. This isn't the first time I came across this subject. This is basically déjà vu for me because it reminds me a lot of what happened the last time. Who would had thought that subtitling ASL vlogs would be a very sensitive topic considering the fact that we have pushed for accessibility for many years? We are always pushing the TV networks, movie studios, movie theatres and online video services to provide captioning for all of the contents that are available to the public.
Here are some of the related topics the deaf vloggers and bloggers brought up in the last week.
Deaf Progressivism: Let's Stop, Drop and Roll
The Expatriate: Subtitles in Vlogs
Ka'lalau's Korner: Captioning or Subtitling Vlogs Is Not Necessary
Ka'lalau's Korner: Captioning Must Be UnbiasedKa'lalau's Korner: Paraphrasing vs. Captioning
Kokonut Pundits: The Advantages of Subtitles on Vlogs
Kokonut Pundits: No Subtitles for Patty
Kokonut Pundits: Japanese Sign Language
Some people would say it's hypocritical to not provide subtitles on the vlogs. The truth is, some deaf bloggers and vloggers don't want to reach a larger audience. I don't try to reach more readers either, I just blog and vlog because I enjoy it. If I end up getting more readers as a result, I would feel great about it but it's certainly not one of my goals. I do subtitle my vlogs because I have some friends who are not fluent in ASL or they may be fluent in a different sign language.
Websites like YouTube.com and other video hosting services are great to use. However, nearly none of the video contents are subtitled. I must say that it does bother me that YouTube still lack a feature to upload subtitle files like you can at Google Video. That's why I haven't used YouTube for my vlogs, it's because they are inaccessible to the deaf. Their options are too limited for my liking.
I do think it is hypocritical of people to strongly advocate against subtitling the vlogs for political reasons. The problem with that kind of political statement is that the hearing people will not care. They will just move on to other websites if they are unable to understand us. I can understand why some wouldn't want to subtitle their vlogs because they find it to be time-consuming. One of my vlogs is approximately 12 minutes long and I managed to subtitle it on the night I uploaded it to the internet. I'm not sure, but there may be other vlogs of mine that are nearly as long too.
Sometimes, we let politics get in the way causing more harm than necessary. Now, in my opinion, it should be up to every vlogger and blogger on whether if they want to subtitle or translate their vlogs and blogs into English or any other languages. People should not be pressured into caving to their demands. Every blogger and vlogger out there has their goals and they do differ from individual to individual. Also, there is no need to feel threatened by the discussion of subtitling vlogs because it is still up to you on whether you want to do it or not.
It’s your choice. For every action you take, you may get praised by one side and criticized by the other side. It’s hard to please everybody these days.
I probably will get criticized for some of what I said, but I am always ready to expect it. In fact, I often appreciate the criticism more than I take offense to them. Most of the times, they are constructive criticism and you can learn a few things from it.
That’s all I have to say for today. Feel free to share your opinion by leaving a comment.
For these who are fans and are looking forward to the second season premiere of TV show, "Jericho." I just wanted to give out a reminder that it is airing tonight.
There will be only seven episodes this season since it was a last-minute production due to the setbacks as caused by the cancellation back in May. They shot two different endings for the season finale. One ending will be open-ended while the other will be sealed for good if it is cancelled. If it does get cancelled, at least we will get a real ending rather than a cliffhanger.
I hope Bonnie (Shoshannah Stern) will get to kick some ass in this season. All of you did see her with a shotgun in the preview. A deaf woman with a shotgun blasting away at the baddies, which should be fun.
Remember, it airs tonight at 10pm ET/PT on CBS. Check your local TV listing to see which channel the CBS station is on.
Have fun!
This is a pretty cool one. It's an ASL story being told by a computer-generated person. I don't believe I have ever seen one this well done. Yes, the body model itself could be more realistic but that's not the point. The animated character features body movements, the facial expressions, the ASL classifiers and more. This is where they really excelled in.
Vcom3D and the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center of Gallaudet University researched and developed the proof-of-concept system to be used for creating and delivering animated stories in ASL with facial expressions and ASL classifiers. They are still researching and developing the system and improving it as we speak. I think it has great potential.
It is captioned for the signing impaired. Though you can turn it off, which I did. I am fluent in ASL and could understand the story without a problem.
Click here to view it. It is titled, "The Forest" by Jason Stewart. Jason Stewart is a teacher at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School, he wrote the story.
I decided to browse the internet for the reactions to "Bob's House", which aired during the pre-game event yesterday. I came across this article. Just take a look and I think you will be pleased to see how it turned out.
Entertainment Score RankingsSource: PR Newswire (February 4, 2007)
Ads ranked based on their ability to entertain viewers. The top entertaining ads starting with best were: IRONMAN, Pepsi (Bob's House), Pepsi (Justin Timberlake), Bud Light (Wine and Cheese), Diet Pepsi Max, Budweiser (Team), Bud Light (Breathe Fire), Victoria's Secret, Audi (Godfather), and Doritos (Mouse Trap). The worst entertaining ads starting were: Sales Genie (Panda), Sales Genie (Plane), CareerBuilder.com (Firefly), and GMC (Yukon).
Vanity Score Rankings
Ads based on their ability to balance entertainment and influence on brand perceptions. The ads which most effectively balanced entertainment and marketing starting with best were: IRONMAN, Audi (Godfather), Diet Pepsi Max, Pepsi (Bob's House), Bud Light (Breathe Fire), Pepsi (Justin Timberlake), Budweiser (Team), ETRADE (Banking Baby), and Bridgestone (Firestone). The least effective ads in terms of balancing entertainment and marketing were: GMC Yukon, Sales Genie (Plane), Cars.com (Witch Doctor), and Life Water.
As many of you may be aware of, they don't often caption or subtitle TV advertisements online for the deaf and hard of hearing. That was always the case with Superbowl ads ever since they started airing them online on a yearly basis following the Super Bowl event.
Today, that is no longer the case. I received an e-mail from John Erskine, the co-founder of ProjectReadon.com. They are captioning a number of Superbowl ads for everyone on the internet. John has assured me that they will be captioning even more Superbowl ads as they become available online.
If there are some Superbowl ads missing on the Project Readon website; you can submit it via their "Request a Video" feature. I would suggest that you wait for a few days before submitting it. I already mentioned that they are planning on adding more to the website within days.
Just click here to gain access to the Superbowl webpage on the Project Readon website. I want to let the Project Readon team know how grateful I am for their service to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Their dedication to providing such a service is making a big impact on the internet.
Enjoy the Superbowl ads!
By the way, congratulations to the New York Giants for winning the Superbowl game!
