Does anyone even want 3D?
One of the trends at CES this year was 3D video. It seems that the industry is moving in that direction at a rapid pace: a year ago, 3D was reserved for the theatres, and even the idea of having it in your living room seemed far fetched. If things like CSS3 and HTML5, or even high definition video, moved from idea to market as quickly as 3D seems to be, we'd all be a happier species.
But wait - do we even want 3D?
It seems like every time Engadget talked about 3D at CES, they groaned about one thing: the glasses. They're a pain at the theatres, but I can't imagine how irritating they would be at home, when I really want to just lie down on the couch and watch a movie casually. Not only that, but in order to watch a 3D movie effectively, you need to stare directly at the screen. This might seem like a minor point, and for many, maybe it is. But if I've got people over, crammed into our small media room, more than a few people will be at a non-optimal viewing angle. Add on top of that the physical pain that can come from extended viewing of 3D (I'm not the only one who gets headaches from it), and you've got a recipe for disaster.
This whole thing doesn't seem well thought out at all.
To put it simply, I think the industry has moved far too quickly in a direction that has little demand. I'd be perfectly happy to watch a 3D movie, but I really prefer to watch them in a theatre. Once they really start pushing 3D, I won't have a choice: it'll be 3D, or not watching the movie at all. That is, if people buy the equipment. And I really don't think they will. Unlike HD, 3D really isn't worth upgrading to: it's a gimmick that has limited application, and comes with painful headaches (literally).
The Relevance of a Possible Apple Tablet
Everyone's heard enough about it already, I know. But while there's been a lot of talk about the purported "iSlate" that Cupertino is widely expected to release on January 27, there hasn't been a lot of thought. What I'd like to look at is the possibility that the iSlate will do for the tablet/slate/MID/magical-touchscreen market what the iPhone did for the phone market, the iPod did for the MP3 player market, and yes, even what the Mac did for the PC market back in that year that Orwell prophesied about.
It's really not far fetched. This device has been so well protected: not since the release of the iPhone have we speculated so much on a product we know so little about. Apple is protecting this thing like its first born child. It's something special, and when Apple has something special, it tends to turn heads.
Now, let's take a look at the tablet market right now: sure, a lot of new tablets or "slates" have been released at CES, but none have really gotten much interest. They are all just like what the smartphone market was like in January of 2007: they don't serve much purpose if they run a custom operating system, and if they run Windows 7, they just don't work well at all: a desktop operating system should stay on desktops and laptops.
If this device really exists (and let's be honest here, it does), we're about to see another paradigm shift in the technology market. For a year or two, we'll see cheap imitations of the "iSlate". And then someone like Google or Palm will come along with their own Android or WebOS respectively, and competition will be good. Maybe Microsoft will tag along with their own OS 2 years after the competition does, too. The iSlate will probably remain on top, because that Apple brand has fans who won't stop at anything, but the competition could very well be better.
Google’s new real time search
But the Internet is not what it was a few years ago. It is now a dynamic system, with information flowing at a pace so fast that if news is more than a few seconds old, it's old news.
That's why I find Google's real time search so interesting. I really think they're onto something here: take the new instant sources for news and information (Twitter, essentially), and throw it in with the search results. What you get is an informative mix of instantaneous news and discussion, often interesting enough for one to feel like getting involved, in addition to the traditional sources of information that have been proven useful.
What may seem like a small change to the monster search engine that most of us use, know and love, will probably prove to be another evolution in search. It's different from what Bing is doing. In the future, I see each having their own individual uses, as each tries to redefine what a "search engine" has become.
More about real time search: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/rel...l-time-web.html]]>
Learning C#
So far, I'm enjoying the language - very simple, and with a book this big, I should know just about all of it by the time I'm done 
I've never learned from a book before, only from Internet stuff, but I've found that I end up switching back and forth between tutorials online, and then I learn bits and pieces to the point that starting any tutorial is boring, but if I skip ahead a few pages I'm missing something valuable... but I still know a lot of what's there. So I'm trying the book approach as a way to keep myself in one place ]]>
Earth Hour
Well, it's pretty simple. First of all, it's one hour out of 8.760 in a year. That's not going to make a difference. It's largely a symbolic thing. Maybe it raises awareness, but I don't think it really matters that much.
Secondly, how are people going to live without electricity? Well, they'll burn stuff. They'll put a fire in, maybe have a bonfire outside, and light a bunch of candles. That, to me, sounds much worse than using hydroelectricity, which many people have, to power your low power/energy efficient light bulbs. I turn off lights every time I leave a room, so there's no benefit from turning off all the other lights in my house either.
I think this event is being overhyped beyond belief, and may actually be doing more harm than good. Regardless, it is a unifying event, that involves worldwide collaboration to get everything done. Entire cities power down. But I don't think it's the genius idea that it's being played up as.]]>
