Blu-ray v HD-DVD – just another format battle?

February 19, 2008 By 2 Comments

Today’s news shocked me at first: Toshiba has effectively conceded defeat for the HD-DVD format and Blu-ray is the winner.

It was a battle that, although it had interested me, was not one that I was going to let affect me. I am currently quite happy with the DVD standard for video and data, and although it’s interesting to see where the technology is going, I already see enough problems with the DVD subformats to worry too much about any new ones.

That said, I am worried that in the not too distant future, we will not be able to read the DVDs that we write today.

When I got married I archived all of the digital pictures on a CD and gave copies of this CD to our relatives. One of my friends asked me if I was sure that I would always be able to read them. At the time I thought that the CD format was pretty much standardised, and the pictures were in JPEG format – something that I couldn’t see dying out too quickly.

And yet now I find myself really wondering if I will be able to read the CDs in 10 or 20 years time. What will come after Blu-ray? Will the drives read the ‘old’ CDs? Or will reading a CD then become like reading a disc today.

Actually I still use 3.5″ discs as one bank that I deal with accepts DTA files on them. I also use one when I want to print flyers at the local copyshop.

So currently I find myself using 3.5″ discs, CDs and DVDs for my data, not to mention my USB stick and the SD card in my PDA and the MMC card in my mobile phone.

Is Blu-ray going to be just another format to add to the list?

I remember the VHS/Betamax time at the beginning of the 1980s – the current discussion has often been compared to this. At home we had VHS, at school Betamax. At least one person I knew had betamax at home, but everyone else had VHS – and eventually my school changed as well. Whatever happened to those betamax recorders?

The fact is, that I still use VHS cassettes. Yes, I can record a DVD instead, but when I want to play it somewhere else there are always compatibility questions: is it +R, -R, +RW, or -RW? Has the last session been closed? These two simple questions determine whether or not I can watch my recording on other equipment. VHS does not, normally, have this problem (although I did once have an SVHS recorder…)

Will Blu-ray bring the compatibility that VHS once did?

Filed Under: Cymeradwyo, Hardware Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Getting married in Germany

February 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment

As a foreigner, getting married in Germany – an in particular to a German national – means preparing and presenting specific paperwork.

Translations of certificates and other documents need to be produced by authorised agencies.

Finally, the marriage needs to be approved by the relevant court.

Listen to the podcast to find out more:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

Filed Under: Monday Podcasts, Podcasts Tagged With: , ,

Speedcabling

February 16, 2008 By 3 Comments

Here’s a fun sport to try out: Speedcabling.

The idea is that you try to untangle a jumbled up mix of computer wires, and do this against the clock.  The first competition of this kind has been held in Los Angles, the article reports.

It’s the sort of thing that I often do for my customers – labelling all the cables and them removing them all, only to replace them with a much neater arrangement, preferably using new, colour-coded cables.

But once I remember doing this in the server room of a company with about 50 employees.  I spent an entire Saturday morning re-wiring all the patch fields to make the system more presentable and understandable.

Another time I had to remove old network cable out of the ducts in the wall, and back then this was so-called BNC-cabling, where everything was joined to one big circuit – not like the structured cabling used today.

Again, I spent several hours trying to rescue as much cable as possible to be able to re-use it later.  But sometimes there was not other way than to cut through it, especially where the plugs had been attached after the cable had been put through specially-made holes in the wall.

So how would I fare in a speedcabling challenge?  I think I’d be pretty good.  When the sport makes it Europe, maybe I’ll have a got!

Filed Under: Cymeradwyo, Sport Tagged With: , ,

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