Recent Comments:
Therma Blade heated ice skates landing soon {Engadget}
Oct 2nd 2007 10:01AM hey chill guys.... don't be so quick to criticize a technology you know little about. Admittedly my understanding of the physics behind skating isn't that strong - but here it goes. Supposedly the pressure of a standard skate blade on the ice melts a very tiny amount of water which lubricated the contact between blade and ice and thats part of the reason why there's little friction between the ice on a set of skates. I don't think you'd have to heat the skates to the point where they're melting the rubber floor or melting a hole in the ice- what if the heater only keeps them at 60 degrees? They'd melt that little bit of ice alot easier than unheated skates (which i would imagine stay at a temperature somewhere between the air temp. and the temp. of the ice.... probably between 30-40F).
take the battery out of the equation and substitute some kindof passive motion powered generator (like the system of coils and magnets inside those flashlights you shake - or the roatary system inside "automatic" watches) and you're set!
Ask Engadget: Best digital camera for the price? {Engadget}
Aug 3rd 2007 10:59PM the two biggest factors that make the picture are lens quality and the sensor. to make a pocketable camera, they mfg it w/ a small lens. to make the lens physically small, the sensor has to be equally small. the problem with smaller sensors is they produce more image "noise" than larger sensors of the same resolution do. (more image noise = lower quality photo) The drawback of having a larger sensor, is that you require larger, more expensive lenses (a DSLR setup for example) but that's how you get the best image quality. it's a tradeoff - portability or quality. if you look at sites like dpreview, they list a camera's sensor size in the specs so a general rule if you're looking for say a 3x zoom camera, is that the 3x zoom camera w/ the largest sensor will provide a photo with less noise.
Also, resolution (megapixels) doesn't by any means indicate quality. a 5 megapixel DSLR such as one of the older digital rebels, will produce better photos than a 8 megapixel pocket sized camera - due to the higher quality lens and larger sensor with more dynamic range and lower noise.
Ask Engadget: Best digital camera for the price? {Engadget}
Aug 2nd 2007 9:28PM wiishark really hit the nail on the head. It's not a matter of which *one* camera is best for the price - first you should take your intended use into account and then find the best value in that range.
I currently have 4 cameras - but I think most people's uses will fall in to one of three categories.
1.a very pocketable camera. I have a sd400 but as far as current models, i'd recommend the canon powershot sd1000. The idea here being that it doesn't matter how good your camera is if you don't have it with you. Cameraphones are still garbage as far as quality goes so I carry a pocket sized camera most places when I can't carry something bigger.
2. a midrange camera / prosumer camera. I have a canon S3 - the canon S5 is out now (the newer mode). This is the "i'm going on vacation and want to take some decent shots, but I dont want to lug my whole kit around" camera. The long zoom range is really handy for zoos, races/airshows, ball games, etc. It takes regular AA batteries so you don't have to worry about getting in a pinch w/ not having a charger and the rotating LCD is really handy for high up / low down shots, plus the built in macro is awesome.
3. DSLR. personally I'm a canon fan but even if you go olympus / nikon / sony - a DSLR is the only way to go for max. creative control and flexability. I wont go into all the details but if you go w/ a DSLR - spend your money on glass and save on the body - glass holds it's value while the bodies are always being updated. It's like buying a computer - some people need the latest greatest dslr body, but you can still get great shots w/ one 3 years old off ebay for a couple hundred bucks. dpreview is a great resource for camera info. as is steves digicams
most of my friends that come to me asking a similar question - get referred to something small in the powershot series (like the sd1000) b/c unless you know you need the features of a dslr or the zoom length of the S5 - most people's biggest obstacle when it comes to taking more photos, in my opinion, is not carrying the camera with them b/c of the inconvenience
Snoop Dogg chooses video games over charity event {Engadget}
Apr 23rd 2007 6:16PM While I don't agree with snoops actions 100% - George (posted on page 2 of comments) hit the nail on the head. Snoop ... as a brand... is a business and he deserves to be compensated for his time. I don't know if the 150k is his regular rate for such an event or if it's reduced because of charity - but it's not like he sprung that fee on unicef at the last minute - they contracted him at that rate probably months in advance, and they felt it was a worthy investment. Charging for his entertainment services is snoops' business. And also like george said, artists do have contract riders that dictate many things... usually the larger the act the more specific the rider... and unicef was in breach of contract by not providing him an xbox if thats what he required. checkout thesmokinggun.com for some riders for big acts.
I was in a similar situation several years ago. the local american cancer society contacted my audio company and wanted me to run sound for their relay for life event...which is a 24 hr walk around a track... there are various bands that play the entire time and all these performers need sound reinforcement. I donated my time and equipment to do this. I never told the committee the full value of what I was donating - at my regular rates this would have been probably a $10,000 job..but I donated my time.
even though it didn't directly cost me any money since I did the labor as opposed to paying someone working for me...it still tied up equipment and services for that day thus having a very real opportunity cost since I was unable to take any other job in that time. My audio company does the majority of its business on the weekend - so this is the equivalent of someone asking you to take a week off from your 40/hr week job unpaid and donate your time.
charities have many other very real costs - printing, phone, utilities, payroll, etc. Its all part of what they do. Personally I would have felt guilty accepting payment for my services at the relay - but then, I limit the charity work I do every year and when I do take the charity jobs - I make sure they're just that: charity. Otherwise if I was doing charity work every weekend, I'd have to charge regular rates to maintain my business
When I agreed to do the relay for life job, I sat down with their committee and outlined what I would need to do this - I'd need to be let into the track at a certain time to set up, Instead of my usual hired muscle for moving around equipment, I requested that X number of volunteers showed up X hours before the event to help me do the heavy moving, I needed X amperage power feeds, and one of the perks i wanted was to be able to eat for free from their food booth - b/c the total time I spent there was around 36 hours (24 hrs for the actual event, plus setup and teardown) so I was unable to leave and get a meal. All these things are very minor costs/ details for a job that expensive.
Well...the day of the relay came, and the number volunteers I was promised weren't available when they should have been - so setting was more stressful and alot slower than it should have been. I still made the start time b/c I always build in extra time for 'emergencies' like that. Noone told the food booth that I was supposed to eat for free, and on top of it all my name / company's name was left out of the program.
in the real world, I would have been fully justified in turning around and leaving for any of those contracted items... but it wouldn't have been the right thing to do by any means based on my personal values. so I just made due. But it's all too common that I find people contracting jobs that don't understand what they're getting in to and not taking contract riders seriously.
The most recent big mistake I've seen a promoter make - was a country band where the promoter booked me to run the sound, but they overlooked in the contract where they were supposed to provide backline (all the instruments) for the band since they were flying in and not bringing their own. It was quite a surprise when I was setting up and the band walked in and asked "Where are the instruments?". We almost had to cancel the show but I hustled around to a couple rental agencies and got the right backline just in time.
Warner Bros., Universal, and DCIP to make digital cinema a reality {Engadget}
Mar 7th 2007 3:44PM @ Camperton:
That article you posted was UPDATED in 2002! It's no surprise to anyone reading this site how much technology changes in 5 years...Before you go judging you should either experience it for yourself or at least post a more recent comparison article.
I don't know about other parts of the country but I think many of the Carmike Cinemas have gone digital already in my part of the country
Australia to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2010 {Engadget}
Feb 20th 2007 5:34PM "4) Incandescents give off heat, whereas most flourescents don't. Sometimes that heat is desireable."
"It's about the least efficient way of generating heat you could think up. It would be far more efficient to just turn up your thermostat one or two degrees than to run a bunch of incandescents solely or even partially for the purposes of heat. It's always better to use any item for the purpose for which it was designed, because it's going to be the most efficient when used in that way. You wouldn't use an electric heater for light, would you? Then why use a light bulb for heat?
I don't think the original poster was referring to actually heating a house with a lightbulb... but situations like, outdoor lamp posts in the winter. the heat of the bulb will melt the snow off. I think I read a post about this in cars - some manufacturer had developed LED headlights that were almost as effective as halogens, but because they hardly produced any heat, ice and snow accumulated quickly so a heater needed to be added. Besides the issues with differences in color temperature, There are many products out there that don't operate properly on anything but incandescents. Good luck getting your lava lamp working... and a 100 watt fluorescent wont work very well in your kid's easy bake oven.
Maria Hamprecht's SW° solar lamp can take it in, dish it out {Engadget}
Feb 8th 2007 10:56AM Yeah I don't see this as being that revolutionary...not to the "I totally had that idea first" point like the article claims. I'm guessing the post author has been stuck in an urban jungle all his life b/c out here in suburbia, for the last 5 years or so everyone has been getting those solar powered patio lights and solar powered light up house numbers lately. They charge via solar and glow via LED light all night long (hopefully - but the batteries usually give out after a couple years).
Seagate ships single-platter, 1.8-inch, 60GB hard drive {Engadget}
Jan 8th 2007 12:56PM hmm... here's an interesting consideration: I think most hard drives of the laptop variety and smaller are shipping with some form of the freefall - shock protection system that shuts down the drive if it senses a freefall. There are already quite a few HDD camcorders on the market.. what happens if you take one of these camcorders on a rollercoaster, or skydiving? Will you drop massive amounts of frames (or just not record video at all) because the hard drive thinks it's about to have an impact with the ground?
a related question: on those hard drive camcorders...can anyone tell me if they record direct to the hard drive...or is there a flash memory buffer that allows them to only spin up the hard drive when they need to dump the buffer, thus saving power?
Popalive remote lets you spin iPod tunes at a distance {Engadget}
Dec 23rd 2006 3:13PM Yeah it does seem like it would be alot simpler just to carry the ipod and transmit the audio to your stereo...but then battery life would be a big issue...since you'd be broadcasting audio for the entire time the music is playing (as opposed to just broadcasting "track change" orders back and forth between the remote). as a very rough comparison, think about how often you have to charge the battery in your cellular or cordless telephone...vs how many times you have to replace the batteries in your television remote.
GlobalSat launches Google-friendly GPS data logger {Engadget}
Dec 22nd 2006 10:52AM I don't understand why these dataloggers are so expensive. several years ago i got a garmin gecko 201...which is a regular functioning outdoor gps (no street navigation, just features for hiking, etc)... for somewhere around $110 I believe. It has a computer interface (although its a serial connection)and it keeps a tracklog which is the same thing as doing this. Its limitation in this capacity would be its small memory - it would only store something like 10,000 track points before looping back to the beginning and recording over the data it just wrote. Just this summer I got a garmin etrex venture cx for about $150 after rebate...which has a color screen, will do navigation on road maps or topo maps (the maps cost extra$$)... its waterproof, runs something like 30 hours on a set of AA batteries...and it will keep a track log on a microSD card.
Bottom line is.. if I'm going to be paying for a gps "logger" whose only interface is an on/off switch, that only outputs a log to a sd card or some other means of flash storage, it needs to be well under the $100 price range. $50 would be almost reasonable. I keep seeing different versions of gps "trackers" out there which all cost over $100 which is a ridiculous price considering you can get a gps unit with more functionality for the same or less$$
i don't recall which..but either sharper image or hammacher schlemmer had a gps logger in their catalog that was in the $400 range, but the advantage was it connected to a cellular network and would let you see a real time view from a web portal of where it was. Although it may be possible to do this for less $$ with a prepaid cell phone as someone mentioned in a previous post
