Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Michael J's Pepsi ad



What more can be said about pop/r&b musical genius Michael Jackson?

He was one of the first '80's pop stars to legitimize TV celebrity endorsements by musicians, raising the price tag to a then record $5 million deal. He cleared the way for a wave of suddenly hip, star-studded commercials, in an industry where Hollywood and music insiders had long frowned upon such endorsements as crass.

Take a look at how he modified Billie Jean to create one of Pepsi's best ads ever, link below.

On a personal level, I saw Michael entertain at Indiana U. when I was a freshman, having secured some front row seats to see the Jackson 5 from the AM radio station where I DJ'ed.

Many of my friends were "too cool" to go see young Michael sing "ABC" and "Stop the Love You Save". Remember this was the late '60's, think the Doors and the James Gang.

Watching him perform close up, I was speechless. His voice was a child's pitch but with a mature vocal range with uncanny pacing.

And yes, even at 11 years old, you couldn't take your eyes off his dancing, choreography, and stage presence.

The only other entertainer who had that impact on me was when I saw Robin Williams as his career was lifting off as "Mork".



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd15YVb2M6M

TV Networks - Technology's Latest Blow - Death by 1000 Cuts














Growing up, I loved our old black and white TV.

We had only 3 network channels (WCBS, WNBC, WABC), 2 weak independent stations (WNEW, WPIX) and a fledgling, part time, educational TV channel.

How technology has changed it all !

The latest nail in the coffin for TV networks was hammered in on Monday.

The Supreme Court declined to hear a case about a digital video recorder technology, opening the gate for wider use of DVR systems.

With it, a customer would use a remote control to digitally record a program like “60 Minutes” but instead of storing the show in the customer’s at-home DVR box, the technology would store the show on a faraway Cablevision server.

The technology would let Cablevision convert set-top boxes into boxes with DVR capabilities without requiring an installation or new equipment, opening up broader use of DVR access and commercial skipping tools.

I wonder if TV's pioneers ever envisioned the explosion in TV and web content?


from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/technology/30cable.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

3,000 hours and 100,000 toothpicks later



Artist Scott Weaver spent 35 years working on this toothpick structure of San Francisco, which required 100,000 toothpicks and has a ball that rolls through the entire thing in Rube Goldberg fashion.

The nine-foot-tall creation is called
"Rolling Through the Bay". But perhaps the best part of this is Weaver's sentiment towards the project; he loves to "know that I'm building something that people will see later on that took a long time to build for no reason."

Ripley's Museum has upped its offer from $10,000 to $40,000 to buy it. Mr. Weaver isn't selling.

Video Link here:

http://gizmodo.com/5029363/rube-goldberg-machine-is-made-of-100000-toothpicks-shaped-like-san-francisco

Monday, June 15, 2009

Transistor Radios and the Start of Summer



The start of summer always reminds me of my first transistor radio.

By 1960 vacuum tubes were rapidly being replaced by small, lightweight transistors.
Jack Kilby (Texas Instruments, 1958) is credited with having developed the concept of integrating device and circuit elements onto a single silicon chip, see graphic.

Robert Noyce (Fairchild Semiconductor, 1959e is given credit for having conceived the method for integrating the separate elements.

IC's advantages over vacuum tubes were obvious: they became less expensive, did not burn out in service, and were much smaller and more reliable.


Early ICs contained about 10 individual components on a silicon chip 3 mm (0.12 inch) square. By 1970 the number was up to 1,000 on a chip of the same size at no increase in cost. Late in the following year the first microprocessor was introduced. The device contained all the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer’s central processing unit (CPU). This type of large-scale IC was developed by a team at Intel Corporation, the same company that also introduced the memory IC in 1971. The stage was now set for the computerization of small electronic equipment.

Until the microprocessor appeared on the scene, computers were essentially discrete pieces of equipment used primarily for data processing and scientific calculations. They ranged in size from minicomputers, comparable in dimensions to a small filing cabinet, to mainframe systems that could fill a large room.

The microprocessor enabled computer engineers to develop microcomputers—systems about the size of a lunch box or smaller but with enough computing power to perform many kinds of business, industrial, and scientific tasks. Such systems made it possible to control a host of small instruments or devices (e.g., numerically controlled lathes and one-armed robotic devices for spot welding) by using standard components programmed to do a specific job. The very existence of computer hardware inside such devices is not apparent to the user.

The large demand for microprocessors generated by these initial applications led to high-volume production and a dramatic reduction in cost. This in turn promoted the use of the devices in many other applications—for example, in household appliances and automobiles, for which electronic controls had previously been too expensive to consider.

Continued advances in IC technology gave rise to very large-scale integration (VLSI), which substantially increased the circuit density of microprocessors. These technological advances, coupled with further cost reductions stemming from improved manufacturing methods, made feasible the mass production of personal computers for use in offices, schools, and homes.

By the mid-1980s inexpensive microprocessors had stimulated computerization of an enormous variety of consumer products. Common examples included programmable microwave ovens and thermostats, clothes washers and dryers, self-tuning television sets and self-focusing cameras, videocassette recorders and video games, telephones and answering machines, musical instruments, watches, and security systems. Microelectronics also came to the fore in business, industry, government, and other sectors. Microprocessor-based equipment proliferated, ranging from automatic teller machines (ATMs) and point-of-sale terminals in retail stores to automated factory assembly systems and office workstations.

By mid-1986 memory ICs with a capacity of 262,144 bits (binary digits) were available. In fact, Gordon E. Moore, one of the founders of Intel, observed as early as 1965 that the complexity of ICs was approximately doubling every 18–24 months, which was still the case in 2000. This empirical “Moore’s law” is widely used in forecasting the technological requirements for manufacturing future ICs.


from

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/183904/electronics

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Happy 75th Birthday Donald !




75 years ago today. FDR was in the White House, the country was in a depression and a kid could get into the movies for a nickel. And, a star was born.
Donald Duck made his cartoon debut in a cartoon feature called "The Wise Little Hen."

Link here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5dowCyaP7I&feature=related

He had his own daily newspaper comic strip by 1938, and by the 1940's, he'd already surpassed Mickey Mouse in the number of cartoons reaching theaters.
Web-footed and hot-headed, Donald starred in more than 150 other cartoons and seven full-length feature films. In one of his most daring roles, a patriotic Donald took on the Nazi's in "Der Fuehrer's Face" - which earned him his one and only Oscar in 1943. At 75, Donald Duck is no spring chicken, but he still looks pretty good.

While we're talking about cartoons, here's the Disney's Silly Symphony -- Three Little Pigs. The classic story of lazy pigs singing and fiddling vs. the hard-working pig laying bricks.

This was our son's favorite when he was barely able to talk. Bobby would laugh hysterically and say "yowwwwwwwwww" every time the wolf's bottom would land in the kettle of boiling water.

Video link here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHJ0L6DftGg&NR=1

from Disney and CBS News

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Where's my celestial GPS -- Dark matter distorts the universe




This computer generated simulation image shows how dark matter, shown in red, distorts the light path from and apparent shape of distant galaxies, depicted in blue.

The presence of a massive network of distributed dark matter is evident in a recent analysis of the shapes of 200,000 distant galaxies. Scientists with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope believe that intervening dark matter, normally invisible, may distort images originating in the distant universe, much the way an old window distorts images originating on the other side. Makes you wonder how man would "aim" a spaceship, using light as its target, matter, or some other means.

No GPS's for space yet.


Source: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Leave Well Enough Alone Department

Microsoft wants a new term for 'netbooks,'

Microsoft now wants to change the name of these low-cost slabs of white plastic riding Intel's Atom processor. Oh joy.

Apparently unhappy with the 5 choices of netbook, smartbook, MIDI, thin-and-light, and ultra-portable, Microsoft's preference is, are you ready, "low cost small notebook PC."

Man, that flows like a sonnet.

The new name proposed by Steven Guggenheimer, general manager of Microsoft's Application Platform & Development Marketing Division, is meant to reflect netbooks that do more than Internet browsing.

Hidden agenda: What Steve-o doesn't say is that by creating a new product division above netbooks, Microsoft can require beefier versions of its Windows OS installed for higher profits on higher margins -- especially now that they've dropped the three application limit from its entry-level Windows 7 Starter Edition.

Hey Microsoft, if it's all the same to you, we're just fine with the term netbook thankyouverymuch.

Given the near-universal positive press heaped on Windows 7 thus far, you'll be raking in the cash starting October 22nd, no need to shake us down, ok?


http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/microsoft-wants-new-term-for-netbooks-unhappy-with-other-5-ch/#comments

Monday, June 1, 2009

Your Next Car -- The Trabbie?


The Trabant put communist-era Eastern Bloc residents on wheels, as big a revolution behind the Iron Curtain as the VW Beetle was for their western cousins.
Several versions were made, but the famous P600 (plastic body, 600cc two-stroke) 'Trabbie' was made for 30 years unchanged.
That ugly little car became famous in 1989 when thousands of East Germans used it to cross to the West. The Trabant originally derived from a well regarded West German car (the DKW) made by Audi, which today produces some of the most prestigious cars in the world. In the hands of the East German government, the unfortunate DKW became a farce of a car. The bureaucrats and the union that ran the Trabant factory made the car smaller and boxier, to give it a more proletarian look. To reduce production costs, they cut down on the size of the original, already small DKW engine, and they replaced the metal body with one made of plastic-covered cardboard. What rolled off the assembly line was a kind of horseless carriage that roared like a lawn mower and polluted the air worse than a whole city block full of big Western cars.

After German reunification, the plucky little "Trabi" that East Germans used to wait 10 years to buy became an embarrassment, and its production was stopped. Germany's junkyards are now piled high with Trabants, which cannot be recycled because burning their plastic-covered cardboard bodies would release poisonous dioxins. German scientists are now trying to develop a bacterium to devour the cardboard-and-plastic body.

Reported by Lt. Gen. Pacepa, the highest ranking Soviet bloc official granted political asylum in the U.S., WSJ, 6/1/09

Images of many great Euro cars here:

http://www.channel4.com/4car/gallery/

Fall of an American Giant




Founded in 1908, G.M. ruled the car industry for more than half a century, with a broad range of vehicles, reflecting the company’s promise to offer “a car for every purse and purpose.”

Rarely has a company fallen so far and so fast as General Motors.

The company did have vast numbers of loyal buyers, but G.M. lost them through a series of strategic and cultural missteps starting in the 1960s.

It bungled efforts in the 1980s to cut costs by sharing the underpinnings of its cars across different brands, blurring their distinctiveness.

G.M. gave in to union demands in 1990 and created a program that paid workers even when plants were not running, forcing it to build cars and trucks it could not sell without big incentives.

Its finance staff argued with product developers and marketers who pushed for aggressive spending on new cars and trucks. But forced to feed so many brands, G.M. often resorted to a practice called “launch and leave” — spending billions upfront to bring vehicles to market, but then failing to keep supporting them with sustained advertising.

With its market share shrinking, G.M. could not give its multiple brands and car models the individual attention that helped Honda attract customers to the Accord and Toyota to its Camry.

It also lost interest in vehicles that needed time to find their audience, as happened when the company introduced the EV1 electric vehicle and then dropped it in 1999 after only three years.

Now G.M.’s brand lineup is being halved, with the company jettisoning divisions like Pontiac.

“Nobody gave any respect to this thing called image because it wasn’t in the business plan,” Mr. Wangers said. “It was all about, ‘When is this going to earn a profit?’ ”

Over the years, G.M. executives became practiced at the art of explaining their problems, attributing blame to everyone but themselves.

That list included the United Automobile Workers, for demanding health care coverage and pensions (even though G.M. agreed to provide them); government regulators, for imposing rules that G.M. said hampered its competitiveness; the Japanese government, for unfairly helping its own carmakers break into the United States market; and the news media, for failing to appreciate G.M. vehicles and the strides the company was making to improve them.

Asked in 1995 why he had not moved faster to reorganize the company, the late G.M. chief executive Roger Smith replied, “Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if we could have flipped a switch?”

Even last week, G.M.’s newly retired vice chairman, Robert A. Lutz, said the automaker had experienced a “world of hurt, much of it not of our own doing.”

Sloganeering was not backed up by execution. Executives wore lapel pins, for example, in 2002, with the number “29” — referring to the market share the company vowed to regain (most companies focus on profits). Through April of this year, its share was 19 percent, a steep drop from its peak of 54 percent in 1954.

Consumers started blaming G.M. for sub-par vehicles. They may have given them second and third chances, but many eventually started switching to other brands, which will make it that much harder for G.M. to win them back.

Mr. Wagoner was able to hold on to his job for longer than people expected, as G.M.’s stock fell steadily from about $70 when he took charge at the start of the decade. It closed at 75 cents a share on Friday.

By MICHELINE MAYNARD, New York Times, Published: May 31, 2009