Hot Hardware has an article about 3D:

3D: Does It Make Your Head Happy ... or Ache? - HotHardware

I for one have not jumped on the 3D bandwagon, at least for home theater (have not played with the 3DS yet) for the following resons:

• Expensive Glasses

  I have four kids at home, plus 2 adults. At about 180 bucks a pop, I am looking at $1080 for glasses! Then factor in the fact my kids, if the past is any indication, should break a pair a week, I am looking at another $600 a month! :)
  

• Totally NOT 3D

  I feel like the sane person at the asylum, Am I the only one who gets that is is not really 3D? At best it is a high tech Daguerre Diorama, with each field of depth statically defined. Not at all like looking out the window, unless you live in a Terry Gilliam movie.

  
• Loss of Brightness

  This is being dealt with on modern sets. But the reality of physics are, if you are only looking at half the pixels at any given time, you are going to have a less bright image.
  

I just cannot get over the fact that 3D seems like a gimmick. Now, this is where I lose all my credibility. I have never seen a movie in the theater in 3D (I am not counting Jaws 3D), nor have I watched a full film in a properly set up home theater. Yet, since Lord Lucas is releasing all the Star Wars movies in 3D, this is only reaffirming the gimmicky status for 3D. There is a reason why real directors are running away from 3D even with enormous studio pressure.

Sound off, am I just a hater? Or is 3D pretty weak?

Go Amazon!!

Amazon has launched a cloud based storage service that works in tandem with their MP3 Store. From now on, albums purchased from Amazon MP3 can be stored on the cloud. These albums WILL NOT count against your free 5GB limit (but albums previously bought off Amazon and uploaded to the cloud will). As of right now, they are also offering you an upgrade to 20GB of storage if you buy an album.

This may be an iTunes killer (we can only hope!). DRM free music, stored on a cloud for free (wow, download your music whenever you want, to as many places as you want, wherever you are. It's like you almost *own* the music!</sarcasm>). They currently have a Web and Android-based cloud player. Now, your music will be available anywhere you have an Internet connection.

No word yet if they will offer a desktop client similar to Dropbox.(A service I currently use for my files).

Here is a list of what you can store on the cloud:

Store More than Music
Cloud Drive allows customers to upload and store all kinds of digital files; music, photos, videos and documents can be stored securely and are available via web browser on any computer. In addition to the 5 GB of free storage, customers can purchase storage plans starting at $20 a year for 20 GB.

		Cloud Drive		Cloud Player for Web		Cloud Player for Android
Cost		-5 GB: Free -20 GB: Free for one year with purchase of MP3 album -Additional storage plans starting at $20 a year		-Free		-Free
Storage		-Digital Music -Videos -Photos -Documents		-N/A		-N/A
Format		-Music: Any type of file -Video: Any type of file -Pictures: Any type of file -Documents: Any type of file		-Music: MP3, AAC		-Music: MP3, AAC
Compatible Devices		-Macs -PCs		-Android Phones -Android Tablets -Macs -PCs		-Android Phones -Android Tablets
Audio Quality		-N/A		-Original bit rate of your music file		-Original bit rate of your music file
Basic Features		-Upload, download, move, copy, delete, rename.		-Upload, download, playback, playlist management		-Upload, download, playback, playlist management

Expect a review from me in the next few days on the player for both the Web and Android. I am currently rocking to a little Fat Boy Slim via the web player.

As one who is somewhat (okay vehemently) anti the "Proprietary, controlling, homogenous" world that is Apple, this is good news.

How to download Quicktime Trailers

Okay, I was in the mood to watch some Quicktime trailers off Apple's website to see what films are coming out.  Plus, I am at work with its weekid-fast (say with Boston accent) internet connection.

Ah, bliss, I forgot that Apple has made it almost impossible to enjoy their quicktimey vids without using quicktime.  I remembered there was a work around and after a quick search I found this: Save Apple movie trailers without quicktime.

Had all the info I needed, but hardly an elegant way to go about it.  Silly windows users and all their extra steps!

Well, in way less time than it took to write this blog entry, I wrote a bash script.  Basically find the trailer you want, under the "Watch Now" drop down, right click on the version you want (1080p, 720p, etc) and select, "Copy Link Location".

Then in your shell run the script with the copied URL as your first option.
Hit enter and you are done. :)

opps...noticed a .1 in the file above. That is from wget. Wget saw that the title already existed, so appended a .1. Nicely done, wget!

Good-Golly bash scripting rocks!!

Here is the script (as you can see you also have the option to rename the file you download.)



#/bin/bash

## Quick script to dl apple trailers
## Written by the AVChimp avchimp.blogspot.com
## May be freely distributed with this header kept
## Enjoy!

# usage: appleDL [original url] {save name}

REALURL=`echo $1 | sed s/tlr.*_/\&h/`

echo -e "\nGetting $REALURL from Apple Trailers\n\n"

if [ -z $2]
then
wget -U "QuickTime/7.6.2" $REALURL
else
wget -U "QuickTime/7.6.2" $REALURL -O $2
fi



Bash: so simple, so powerful!