5 days is how long it's taken my package to get from Jersey City to... Jersey City. I don't know whether Amazon or the USPS is at fault but it is ridiculous either way.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
5 Days
5 days is how long it's taken my package to get from Jersey City to... Jersey City. I don't know whether Amazon or the USPS is at fault but it is ridiculous either way.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Thank You For Working
I want to take a moment to express my appreciation to everyone who is working during this three day weekend. Even those who were able to take the 4th off, but have to work today or tomorrow, deserve some gratitude. Holidays are great, but the world continues to move. Thank you for facilitating that movement. Rest assured that there are people who don't take you for granted.
Netflix Redeemed
After a few weeks of customer complaints they decided to keep their profiles feature.
I'm still going to work to move my ratings outside of Netflix. I've begun rating movies on IMDB for this. Then I'll delete my profile and assimilate my information into my wife's, since she's no longer using the service anyway. I still wish they made the data portable, it would make everything so much easier.
I'm still going to work to move my ratings outside of Netflix. I've begun rating movies on IMDB for this. Then I'll delete my profile and assimilate my information into my wife's, since she's no longer using the service anyway. I still wish they made the data portable, it would make everything so much easier.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Why, Netflix? Why?
I just talked to Danni from NetFlix customer service. She provided more psychological help than anything else. She can't help me, because they haven't enabled her to do so.
Netflix is deleting my profile in a few months, and there's nothing she or I can do about it.
The closest thing to a solution she offered was to go into my wife's account, look at my account through the friends feature, and manually add all of the movies from the queue and rate all of the movies again. There is no way to switch my account to the main one, make my account a new account, or copy the data automatically. It's really disappointing.
It seems that I'm somewhat alone in seeing the value of all of this. My wife mocks me for it. To me, this was a database of nearly every movie I've ever seen with at least some thought put into how I felt about that movie.
It won't seem right to mix that data with my wife's. Suddenly I'll have to think, did I watch that movie, or did she? Did I really give that 4 stars, or was it her?
More than that, I occasionally took part in the community, and had recently made an effort to write a few more movie reviews. I was toying with the movie reviewer rankings to see what I could do to raise mine. Now, why bother?
I'm pretty disappointed, NetFlix. I've often evangelized your service and I've rarely had an issue with your customer support. By your own metrics I was within the top 2% of reviewers even before I actively tried to manipulate the rankings. You're just tossing that in the trash in a couple of months.
You couldn't even write an account migration script? What a letdown.
Netflix is deleting my profile in a few months, and there's nothing she or I can do about it.
The closest thing to a solution she offered was to go into my wife's account, look at my account through the friends feature, and manually add all of the movies from the queue and rate all of the movies again. There is no way to switch my account to the main one, make my account a new account, or copy the data automatically. It's really disappointing.
It seems that I'm somewhat alone in seeing the value of all of this. My wife mocks me for it. To me, this was a database of nearly every movie I've ever seen with at least some thought put into how I felt about that movie.
It won't seem right to mix that data with my wife's. Suddenly I'll have to think, did I watch that movie, or did she? Did I really give that 4 stars, or was it her?
More than that, I occasionally took part in the community, and had recently made an effort to write a few more movie reviews. I was toying with the movie reviewer rankings to see what I could do to raise mine. Now, why bother?
I'm pretty disappointed, NetFlix. I've often evangelized your service and I've rarely had an issue with your customer support. By your own metrics I was within the top 2% of reviewers even before I actively tried to manipulate the rankings. You're just tossing that in the trash in a couple of months.
You couldn't even write an account migration script? What a letdown.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Mistaken Identity, Mistaken Outrage
As I've said before, I have an old email account that is fairly simple to type and remember. Unfortunately, that means that a few people through the years have mistakenly attributed my email address to someone else. As of right now someone thinks that they are emailing Jeff "Rusty" Rouston and someone else thinks that I'm a sheriff's deputy in Indiana.
The deputy mistake is mildly entertaining. If nothing else, I get an interesting insight into public event security planning. The Rusty mistake has been annoying more often than not, usually it's chain mail forwards that I would debunk for any friend. Last night, my Rusty persona received an email from Janet, who is apparently outraged by Obama's policies on defense spending, specifically one YouTube video posted with an anti-Obama slant and a blog post (linked from the email) that reinforces the same opinion.
I'm going to highlight some aspects of the video and Janet's reaction. It really is interesting, because I don't think I personally know anyone who would be so outraged by so little. First, here is Janet's reaction, which was originally in a 20 point bold red font:
Now the video she's responding to:
So, let's look at what Obama is saying: He will end a war that has become completely indefensible. He will cut unnecessary and unproven defense spending. He will try to slow other defense spending by limiting research into future weapons. Also, he will increase oversight of spending. Lastly, he will attempt diplomacy with other nations so that we don't need to spend so much because we won't have so many staunch and powerful enemies.
Uh, why is this scary? Notice that what he's said is that he'll get rid of unnecessary, unproven, and failed things. He's not saying that we won't have guns and missiles, or that we'll start defending our country with flower power. He also isn't promising any huge cuts in existing successful programs. No where did he claim that he would cut the military's size in half like George H. W. Bush started and Bill Clinton finished. He doesn't even promise to rid us of nuclear weapons, just to take them off of constant alert status. These aren't huge changes, unless you're a defense contractor or a warmonger.
Now, let's dig into what Janet said. Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican you should be scared by Obama's stance is a ludicrous statement. He's repeating the same stance that many Democrats, and a few radical Republicans (I hate to mention the name, but Ron Paul springs to mind), have held for decades. More importantly, she unknowingly reveals the real problem she has: she wants to feel safe, she's far less concerned with being safe.
What she wants is the current security theater where we spend trillions to fight an attack that will never happen while we are in the middle of an economic crisis. To her, and people like her, we must pump money into a system where we seem imposing, instead of putting effort into a system where others recognize that we are not a threat. She's scared because Obama might provide real security, but it isn't security she can touch, it's security she simply must have faith in.
She, like so many others, has lost faith in people. When we have no faith in each other then we build barriers that look omnious, are dubiously effective, and serve to destroy others' faith in us. She didn't even have faith in me when I replied to her email last year and said that I'm not Jeff "Rusty" Rouston.
The deputy mistake is mildly entertaining. If nothing else, I get an interesting insight into public event security planning. The Rusty mistake has been annoying more often than not, usually it's chain mail forwards that I would debunk for any friend. Last night, my Rusty persona received an email from Janet, who is apparently outraged by Obama's policies on defense spending, specifically one YouTube video posted with an anti-Obama slant and a blog post (linked from the email) that reinforces the same opinion.
I'm going to highlight some aspects of the video and Janet's reaction. It really is interesting, because I don't think I personally know anyone who would be so outraged by so little. First, here is Janet's reaction, which was originally in a 20 point bold red font:
Whether you are democrate or republican..........This should scare you!!! It scares me!!! I want to continue feeling safe in my counrty. -janet
Now the video she's responding to:
So, let's look at what Obama is saying: He will end a war that has become completely indefensible. He will cut unnecessary and unproven defense spending. He will try to slow other defense spending by limiting research into future weapons. Also, he will increase oversight of spending. Lastly, he will attempt diplomacy with other nations so that we don't need to spend so much because we won't have so many staunch and powerful enemies.
Uh, why is this scary? Notice that what he's said is that he'll get rid of unnecessary, unproven, and failed things. He's not saying that we won't have guns and missiles, or that we'll start defending our country with flower power. He also isn't promising any huge cuts in existing successful programs. No where did he claim that he would cut the military's size in half like George H. W. Bush started and Bill Clinton finished. He doesn't even promise to rid us of nuclear weapons, just to take them off of constant alert status. These aren't huge changes, unless you're a defense contractor or a warmonger.
Now, let's dig into what Janet said. Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican you should be scared by Obama's stance is a ludicrous statement. He's repeating the same stance that many Democrats, and a few radical Republicans (I hate to mention the name, but Ron Paul springs to mind), have held for decades. More importantly, she unknowingly reveals the real problem she has: she wants to feel safe, she's far less concerned with being safe.
What she wants is the current security theater where we spend trillions to fight an attack that will never happen while we are in the middle of an economic crisis. To her, and people like her, we must pump money into a system where we seem imposing, instead of putting effort into a system where others recognize that we are not a threat. She's scared because Obama might provide real security, but it isn't security she can touch, it's security she simply must have faith in.
She, like so many others, has lost faith in people. When we have no faith in each other then we build barriers that look omnious, are dubiously effective, and serve to destroy others' faith in us. She didn't even have faith in me when I replied to her email last year and said that I'm not Jeff "Rusty" Rouston.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Driving Outside the Averages
Have you ever heard that the average speeder only gets to their destination ten seconds earlier? I have, or at least something to that affect. I think this ignores the obvious in trying to influence people. Life is not about the averages, it is about the rarities. Almost everyone lives for the rarities.
The average is the day that traffic moves normally, whatever normally is for your commute. The rarity is that you get stuck behind that slowpoke who drives exactly the same speed as the person next to them. The average is that you come to a red light and can turn right on red. The rarity is that you find yourself behind someone too pensive or distracted to make the turn. On the average day you get that same parking space, but sometimes you've been beaten to it.
The cumulative effect of this is that you remember those rarities, while the averages all blend together and don't matter. So, what do you do? Go a little faster to try to get there earlier. Pass those last few cars before you take the exit. Maybe, if you've got time to spare, you leave earlier, but that's a hassle. So, despite what the averages tell you, you rush to get there a little faster.
The result is that on average you get nowhere. The rarity is that you make in before the pensive, slow poke whose after your parking space. Is it worth it? You decide.
The average is the day that traffic moves normally, whatever normally is for your commute. The rarity is that you get stuck behind that slowpoke who drives exactly the same speed as the person next to them. The average is that you come to a red light and can turn right on red. The rarity is that you find yourself behind someone too pensive or distracted to make the turn. On the average day you get that same parking space, but sometimes you've been beaten to it.
The cumulative effect of this is that you remember those rarities, while the averages all blend together and don't matter. So, what do you do? Go a little faster to try to get there earlier. Pass those last few cars before you take the exit. Maybe, if you've got time to spare, you leave earlier, but that's a hassle. So, despite what the averages tell you, you rush to get there a little faster.
The result is that on average you get nowhere. The rarity is that you make in before the pensive, slow poke whose after your parking space. Is it worth it? You decide.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Stop the HD Stretch
After months of having people hit this page from searches for HD stretch I've decided to add this section. I wrote this for an update post, but that one never took hold with the search engines.
And now, on to the original post...
I bought an HDTV last year. It was the largest entertainment purchase I've ever made. I had high hopes, and they've been met for the most part. HD content, DVDs, and even standard TV all look great. There is one caveat to HD, stretched content.
See, there are people who are willing to pay huge sums to get a better picture on their TV, yet they defy all logic and set the TV to stretch normal content. I was fine with this when I bought the TV, let those people watch 90% of the available content with atrocious distortion and horrible picture quality. I picked a TV that would show 4:3 content in its native aspect ratio, it displays black bars on either side but the actual content looks great.
Unfortunately, the predisposition to stretch content has wormed its way into the media. The more HD channels I watch the more apparent this is. Mostly commercials are stretched, but occasionally it's whole shows. This is unacceptable. Why pay to have HD content delivered only to get low definition content that is distorted to look worse than it originally did? Even when the upsampling is done well, stretching the content makes everything look odd.
What's the point anyway? Why would you sacrifice the image quality just to avoid some black bars? I suggest that these stations develop a tasteful graphic to show in the empty areas. I'd love to see some of them dedicate broadcasts to HD, instead of using the same stream downsampled for standard television. This way they could adjust their graphics, show station identification and show advertisements on the sides while keeping the content at its original quality. Advertisers should use this extra area to deliver more information so that they only have to make one version of the ad.
Happily, I'll never be on television. If I were, I'd hate to imagine myself stretched like that. At least my TV can display 16:9 content in 4:3 aspect, I once thought it was a useless feature
It seems that it is high in the results on Google when you search for... "HD stretch," go figure. Well, if you've reached this site looking for advice I apologize. You may feel heartened that I feel the same way about picture stretching that you probably do. Until the time that I take a deeper look into how to fix the issue, may I suggest the following:I'm sorry I can't be of more help. I hope you find a solution somewhere. If you do, post a comment telling others how. Maybe the next person to stumble by won't have to search as much.
- Try a more specific search, such as "brand [and model] hd stretch."
- Check your user manual or check http://safemanuals.com/ if you lost your copy.
- Go to the AVS Forums and look around. If you need, ask about your problem there.
And now, on to the original post...
I bought an HDTV last year. It was the largest entertainment purchase I've ever made. I had high hopes, and they've been met for the most part. HD content, DVDs, and even standard TV all look great. There is one caveat to HD, stretched content.
See, there are people who are willing to pay huge sums to get a better picture on their TV, yet they defy all logic and set the TV to stretch normal content. I was fine with this when I bought the TV, let those people watch 90% of the available content with atrocious distortion and horrible picture quality. I picked a TV that would show 4:3 content in its native aspect ratio, it displays black bars on either side but the actual content looks great.
Unfortunately, the predisposition to stretch content has wormed its way into the media. The more HD channels I watch the more apparent this is. Mostly commercials are stretched, but occasionally it's whole shows. This is unacceptable. Why pay to have HD content delivered only to get low definition content that is distorted to look worse than it originally did? Even when the upsampling is done well, stretching the content makes everything look odd.
What's the point anyway? Why would you sacrifice the image quality just to avoid some black bars? I suggest that these stations develop a tasteful graphic to show in the empty areas. I'd love to see some of them dedicate broadcasts to HD, instead of using the same stream downsampled for standard television. This way they could adjust their graphics, show station identification and show advertisements on the sides while keeping the content at its original quality. Advertisers should use this extra area to deliver more information so that they only have to make one version of the ad.
Happily, I'll never be on television. If I were, I'd hate to imagine myself stretched like that. At least my TV can display 16:9 content in 4:3 aspect, I once thought it was a useless feature
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