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  • June4th

    1 Comment

    toLearn day 96: VHS FTW

    Posted in: Geek, Technology, toLearn

    Alright kiddos, let’s take you back to the old days and celebrate: the day VHS made it’s way to America.

    This is long before the Blu-ray and DVD debates, and back when it was VHS vs. Betamax (SAY WHAT?!).

    The VHS videocassette was introduced in North America at a press conference before the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.

    VHS, or Video Home System (clever, right?), was based on an open standard developed by JVC in 1976. The format allowed longer playtime and faster rewinding and fast-forwarding. JVC showed a two-hour tape that was so compact, Popular Science called it “smaller, in fact, than some audio cassette decks.”

    The original system used to play VHS tapes cost $1,280 (about $4,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars). Blank tapes were $20 ($72 adjusted).

    Although Betamax debuted by Sony earlier than VHS, there were some big differences that ultimately led to VHS winning out. The VHS could record for two hours — enough to record a full-length movie — while Betamax had a recording capability of only an hour. VHS-based players were cheaper than their Betamax counterparts.

    In just its first year, the VHS format took 40 percent of the business away from Sony. By 1987, about 90 percent of the $5.25 billion market of VCRs sold in the United States were based on the VHS format.

    JVC introduced VHS HQ (for High Quality) in 1985. It promised greater noise reduction and improved sharpness in picture quality. Two years later, Super VHS made its debut. By then Betamax had started to fade.

    I know, this is SUPER interesting, right?

    The VHS VCR’s decline started as tape-based systems were replaced by hard-drive–based digital video recorders such as TiVo. The DVD format changed the game for prerecorded movies in March 1997 and ended up entirely replacing VHS.

    Hollywood studios stopped offering movies on VHS. The VCR, though, refused to die quickly. As of 2005, some 94.5 million Americans still owned VHS-format VCRs. (I do! And my family has a TON of VHS tapes still. If they get rid of them I will have a problem… yes, family, I’m speaking to you.)

    The last standalone JVC VHS VCR was produced Oct. 28, 2008. The company still makes combo DVD-VCR units.

    Stay tuned for the death of the DVD, coming you way over this next decade.

  • June3rd

    1 Comment

    toLearn day 95: AP Stylebook Socialized

    Posted in: Geek, Journalism, News, Technology, toLearn

    When I was in high school and into college I was into journalism. I was an editor, a writer/reporter, and I loved it. One of the books always in my bag was in the AP Stylebook. Yes, I was a different kind of geek then, but I had that book pretty well read over and I could tell you the right usage of most terms. (Nowadays…no way.)

    For those who don’t know, the AP Stylebook is like the journalist’s bible. (Oooh, I bet that I’m supposed to capitalize “bible”!) Everything has to be written a certain way in the journalism world — it’s quite intense!

    So when I read this week about some of the additions they’ve added to the AP Stylebook I had to laugh.

    One big change was it’s no longer “Web site”, but instead “website.” Altogether there are 41 new and changed definitions, use cases and rules for journalists to follow.

    Among the more interesting changes are separating out “smart phone” as two words, hyphenating “e-reader,” and allowing fan, friend and follow to be used both as nouns and verbs.

    AP has also decided to recognize a number of acronyms that are commonly used in texting and instant messaging. Most of them are fairly well-known to regular web and mobile phone users (ROFL, BRB and G2G among them), along with the odd “POS“. (Sorry folks, it’s not that POS.)

    According to the AP, POS stands for “parent over shoulder” and is used by “teens and children to indicate, in an IM conversation, that a parent is approaching.”

    Other terms making the cut include “trending,” “retweet” and “unfriend” (“defriend” is also acceptable, though the AP concludes it’s less common).

    Finally, the AP also offers some basic rules of thumb for how social media should and shouldn’t be used by journalists, with a focus on making sure they continue to confirm sources and information they find on blogs, tweets and other forms of social media.

    Really, how reliable is information found on tweets and Facebook? Blogs, but of course. I will say that the journalist in me has been dying knowing that I’ve been writing without sourcing most of what I write!

  • June2nd

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    toLearn day 94: youTube X1000

    Posted in: Geek, Technology, toLearn

    So here’s something random for the day: a guy decided to test the image and sound degradation that happens when you upload a video to YouTube, download it from YouTube, upload it again to YouTube, and on and on. And here’s the kicker: he did it 1,000 times.

    Even more odd is the psychadelic (oh yes, I just used that word…) result:

    Crazy, right?

    A lot of sites have been explaining it in detail, which I’ll sum up, but it seems to me the best explanation is by Michael Keaton in Multiplicity. You remember that movie, right? He makes copies of himself and the copies progressively become less intelligent. (Pizza Steve!)

    What really happens is that every time you upload a video to YouTube it gets encoded again by their servers. (Yes AMers, much like your work each week is encoded on the site!) When a video is encoded it gets compressed which takes out small details from the image and audio, leaving behind some artifacts. Done again, the missing details and added artifacts become a bit more noticeable.

    This works for us as viewers as our brains are great at filling in the missing parts — so much so that we don’t notice most of the time. So compressing a video once is fine as our brain makes up for the missing pieces.

    The problem you run into is when you continue to strip the video of details and continue to add artifacts. However one may argue that the end result is more interesting to watch than the original:

  • May30th

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    toLearn Roundup: days 84-90

    Posted in: Geek, Technology, toLearn

    toLearn updates for this week!

    Sunday, May 23rd – Day 84: RAW – RAW is the new JPG

    Monday, May 24th – Day 85: Brain Rewiring – How the Internet is rewiring our brains

    Tuesday, May 25th – Day 86: What motivates us – An interesting way to discuss motivation

    Wednesday, May 26th – Day 87: Influence Objects – Maya geekery

    Thursday, May 27th – Day 88: World of Color – A new show coming to Disneyland!

    Friday, May 28th – Day 89: Human Computer Virus – A real Weekly World News story

    Saturday, May 29th – Day 90: Creative Minds & Schizophrenia –

  • May24th

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    toLearn day 85: Brain Rewiring

    Posted in: Science, Technology, toLearn

    So get this: According to a recent study by a UCLA professor, using the Internet rewires the way our brains work.

    Using special goggles that web pages could be projected onto, six volunteers (three experienced web surfers and three newbies) were asked to surf the web as an MRI scanned their brains for areas of high activation (increased blood flow). The experienced users showed more extensive brain activity, especially in the prefrontal cortex that’s associated with problem solving and decision making.

    As a control, he had each subject read blocks of text projected on the goggles and there was no significant difference in brain activity.

    Almost a week later, the professor conducted the experiment again after each of the newbie users had agreed to spend an hour a day surfing the web. The new MRI scan revealed that their brain activity had changed dramatically and now resembled that of the experienced surfers.

    Continuing with science tradition, the professor conducted the experiment with 18 more volunteers and got the exact same results.

    Initially it seems great — the Internet rewires our brains to utilize the area of our brain that helps with problem solving and decision making more. Awesome. But the professor, Gary Small, was quick to point out an important fact:

    “The current explosion of digital technology
    not only is changing the way we live and communicate,”
    Small concluded, “but is rapidly and profoundly
    altering our brains.”

    So by going online, it’s an arena that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning (what does that say about this toLearn blog?!). Yes, the web gives access to endless amounts of information, but it may be making us become shallower thinkers by literally changing the structure of our brains.

    Just some food for thought. =)

    To read more on this subject, check out Wired Magazine’s article.

  • May11th

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    toLearn day 72: Oil Spill

    Posted in: Technology, World, toLearn

    Via Gizmodo: The recent gigantic oil spill is taking it’s toll and despite how much we hear about it, I know I didn’t really get how massive it was. The aerial shots are great, but on a massive ocean, a giant oil spill looks like a few drops.

    Enter Google Earth.

    Paul Rademacher has shown the extent of the spill—all 2500 square miles of ocean surface and even more of the floor—using the Google Earth API, and lets you place it over the city of your choice. So how big is the spill? Bigger than Connecticut. Bigger than the island of Hawaii. Bigger than you can wrap your brain around or capture through a camera lens. And it’s only getting bigger. Crazy, right?

  • May10th

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    toLearn day 71: a Virtual Worldwide Choir

    Posted in: Geek, Music, Random Fun, Technology, toLearn

    So how cool is this: Eric Whitacre is a composer whose choir is full of amazing vocalists from around the world, with 12 countries represented. The coolest part is that his choir actually never performs together in the same space as it’s a virtual choir. The choir performances are captured on youtube and then all tied together.

    So what’s toLearn about all of this? Well, I didn’t know you could pull of such a stunning a performance through the magical but seemingly limited youtube. I tell ya, this technology thing is pretty spiffy!

    The Choir performs Eric Whitacre’s original composition ‘Lux Aurumque’:

    To add to the coolness factor, you can watch each singer’s individual performance on youtube:

  • May9th

    1 Comment

    toLearn day 70: Eraser meets technology

    Posted in: Random Fun, Technology, toLearn

    So here’s random for you: Those lovely little pink erasers we all have had our actually handy in cleaning a few tech items.

    Of course, please note, these only work if you start with a clean eraser. =) To make it even easier, you don’t have to go buy a new eraser — just take the one you have and rub it on the carpet to make it all clean and new looking.

    And now, drumroll please, five wonderful things you can clean with an eraser:

    1. Memory Cards: Although they don’t seem like something that gets dirty, they get handles quite a bit coming in and out of our cameras, phones and portable electronics. Simply flip them over and use the eraser to buff the metallic pieces on the back.

    2. Cartridge Games: For all the geeks and vintage lovers (Sega 16 bit and 32 bit here!), you know how dirty those cartridges can get! Use the same technique above and make sure to blow out any residual eraser lint/shavings from the process.

    3. Computer Scuffs & Grime: Instead of giving your laptop a bath, try busting out an eraser first. Simply erasing the dirt works out brilliantly in most situations — though you’re on your own for things like Sharpie marker. The same also works for keyboard keys and the back of your mouse!

    4. Cell Phone Keys: Although we’d like to think our fingers are always clean when dialing our peeps, there’s a good chance we’re on the go or multitasking while making the call. Once a week we clean our phone’s buttons with a good clean eraser. Our phone sees its share of dirt and grime and we’re always thankful we take the time to clean it out.

    5. Remote Control Buttons: Even though in a perfect world we all eat at the dinner table and don’t park it on the couch so we can munch on snacks while watching The Big Bang theory — that isn’t always the case. If your remote suffers from a case of Cheeto film, get in the tiny nooks and crannies with the eraser on a pencil, or the tip of a new rectangular handheld one.

  • May8th

    1 Comment

    toLearn day 69: Facebook Privacy

    Posted in: Privacy, Technology, toLearn

    Facebook. I dare say that almost everyone I know uses it. (Yes, even my parents and grandmother.) I love the convenience it brings and the ability it gives me to keep in touch with people. I’ve had so many great opportunities to meet people from all over the world, and without the means of social media, I probably wouldn’t keep in touch as often as I do.

    That said, Facebook is seriously starting to concern me. They’re privacy settings have been on a rollercoaster of a ride over this last year, and with the constant changes they’re making, I’m beginning to doubt just how safe my information is. And I am definitely not the only one with this worry.

    Facebook modified its policies for handling user data once again as part of its F8 conference and release of the Open Graph API, making it more clear that more information is being set as public by default and more is being shared with third parties. As a result, Facebook came under attack this week, when 15 privacy and consumer protection organizations filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, charging that the site, among other things, manipulates privacy settings to make users’ personal information available for commercial use.

    On “The Early Show on Saturday Morning,” Joan Goodchild, senior editor of CSO (Chief Security Officer) Online spotlighted five dangers she says Facebook users expose themselves to, probably without aware of it:

    - Your information is being shared with third parties
    - Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign
    - Facebook ads may contain malware
    - Your real friends unknowingly make you vulnerable
    - Scammers are creating fake profiles

    I spend a good hour today combing through all of the individual (and somewhat seemingly hidden) privacy settings on my facebook account, and found several options set to share with Everyone, and applications set to access my account anytime. I know I have set some of these to “Only Friends” before, so the reverting to default settings concerns me.

    So if anything, I hope all of you will login, check your settings, and block the whole world from seeing your info and third party apps tracking you. Especially for the kiddos out there.

    A news spot on one of the new features automatically added to each Facebook user’s account this week:

  • May5th

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    toLearn day 66: Google Chrome

    Posted in: Technology, toLearn

    In a further effort to convince you to switch to Chrome, Google recently released a new beta of its browser. As I’ve said before, Chrome is fast — super fast. But the new beta, well, it’s a whole new level.

    To demonstrate Chrome’s speed, Google made a video comparing the speed to that potatoes, paint,
    a sound machine, and electricity.

    No, seriously. Check it out:

    According to Mashable, Chrome uses a JavaScript engine called V8 that has been developed in-house to be extremely fast. The latest version of V8, which is in the new Chrome beta, is reportedly 30-35% better than the last beta channel release. Google even notes that its overall performance with Chrome has improved between 213 – 305% when compared to the very first Chrome beta released back in 2008.

    Chrome FTW.

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