Joe Chu's Weblog

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josephchu — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:09:02 +0000

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Photo Hosting Options (by Mark)

josephchu — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:44:00 +0000

It is with considerable regret that I find myself looking, probably, for a new family photo hosting service. For little more than a year, I’ve used the Phanfare service, which I absolutely adore. The problem is that their business model hasn’t worked out, and they recently announced they will undergo significant changes. Much of what was so great will still be there, but other important things will be lost.

What will still be good is their software, which makes creating albums and uploading images easier than anything else I’ve ever used. Also, they allow absolute privacy over your albums, so you can post everything knowing that only your friends and relatives will ever see it. Indeed, in the new version, this will be a default. You can also post full-size images, which get automatically resized, and they create slideshows and other features automatically. They even allow video uploads of up to (I think) 10 minutes, which are automatically converted into flash for viewing simplicity. as a real bonus, it acts as a backup, because you can get a DVD withh all of your images (for a fee) at any time. It is absolutely a fantastic service and it’s a shame it never caught on. They charge for this wonderful service, and currently have no free version beyond a limited time trial.

The changes are various, and only a couple bother me. Starting with the ones I don’t care about: It will be hard to create a public website of photos, and all existing links will be broken. They are also increasing the Phanfare brand presence on your site, and users can no longer control whether viewers can download full-size originals. The parts that cause me concern involve the experience of my visitors. Until now, I could give people a password that allowed access to my albums. That password was specific to my subdomain at Phanfare, and did not require that anybody register with Phanfare. That is now changing. Once the new system is implemented, everybody will have to register with Phanfare to view my photos. What’s more, once I invite them, Phanfre will automatically generate notification emails whenever I update or create a new album, and I will have no control over this. Individual users will be able to control whether they receive these emails, but why should they have to bother? I have no interest in spamming my friends and family this way.

Basically, Phanfare is embracing a photo-based social networking model. Everyone who registers will also get 1 gig of free photo storage, and we’ll all get notifications of each others new photos. Obviously they hope that people will upgrade to the paid service. They are also trying to discourage professional users, who were never their core target customer, and who are almost certainly less profitable for them.

While they’ve had some missteps in announcing and explaining the new service, they’ve really tried hard, and even allowed users to create an “Alternative to Phanfare” topic on the Phanfare user forum. They also allowed a considerable amount of venting and harsh words on the forum from disappointed customers. I’m one who posted some harsh items about the new registration process, about which I have considerable concerns, but I also recognize that they can’t continue with a business model that won’t work. The new system is currently in beta, and should go public soon. Meanwhile, they will allow folks like me to stay on the old system until next June. I’m hoping things will either be better than I fear, or the worst aspects will be modified before then.

If not, I’ll be looking for a new service. The forum thread I linked above is a very good start. If anybody knows of additional resources or services, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

I’m also cross-posting this at my Working File blog.

Wheeeee! (by Mark)

josephchu — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:22:00 +0000

So Jobu got a PS3, and the mg household was brought a Wii by Santa Clause. All I can do is confirm everything you’ve probably already read. It’s fun, physical (for a video game), great for families, usable by little children, and basically different from every other video game system you’ve ever experienced. The system came with Wii Sports, which most but not all packages include. Santa also brought Wii Play, which had 8 other fun games and also comes with an extra remote, which helps when you have more than one child. Santa also brought a Barbie Island Princess game for our 2 girls, and we’re all loving it. Even the 3-year old can participate. We recommend it highly, if you can get your hands on one.

Alternative Take on Flat Screen HD TV

josephchu — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:52:00 +0000

Reading Jobu’s posts on his new Panasonic TV, I’m struck by the difference in our buying experience and preparation. Reading this blog generally, it’s apparent that Jobu and I have developed some significantly different interests and tastes, but one thing we generally share is the research and preparation we put into a major purchase. For me, my first flat screen HD TV was a significant exception.

I think I’m still of the mindset that televisions are the same simple appliance I grew up with. That’s obviously not true, but I was unwilling to spend the time and effort to fully educate myself about everything new. I ended up getting the Samsung HLT5687S, and ended up very pleased.

But Jobu discusses things such as “black levels” when discussing his Panasonic, and I don’t even know what that is. After I bought the Samsung, I found some reviews, like this one, with references to hot spots, and the lack of a rainbow effect (which is apparently good, and rare in DLPs). I don’t know what those are, either. I also never ever contemplated the possibility that one would use a DVD to calibrate a television, until I read Jobu discuss it. And I’m guessing this is pretty basic stuff.

For me, my research basically meant determining that rear projection come in bigger sizes for less money than flat panel plasma or LCD. You also apparently lose some level of picture wonderfulness, which I’m OK with. Since our TV room setup is such that hanging the TV on the wall is not an option, I also didn’t much care about the fact that the rear projection is thicker. It is still much, much thinner and lighter than old-style rear projection TVs. Also, at 56 inches, we are pushing the edge of size for our viewing distance, with no eye fatigue anybody is aware of.

Once I decided on rear projection, size, and price range, what pushed me to buy the model I did was an article in the business section of the Sunday NY Times. Now, as an off-topic aside, I’m finding the Times increasingly irrelevant, but in this instance it proved really useful. The article pointed out a new technology that Samsung is using in its DLP televisions, replacing bulbs as a light source with L.E.D.s. You can read the article for the advantages this brings, but I’m pretty sure it is responsible for most of the good things you’ll ready in any review of this model, especially as compared to other DLP models.

I’m not alone in loving this model, as of the date of this post, the model has a 4.5 star rating at Amazon, and is near to pushing 5. I also bought it at Amazon,which was a superb buying experience. Although it wasn’t eligible for the Amazon Prime free 2-day shipping, Amazon was offering free delivery when I bought, and the entire process was simple and smooth.

Finally, I’m more than pleased with the result. The picture is fantastic, in my admittedly uneducated opinion. The only flaw I’ve noticed is a bit of fuzziness in people’s skin on close-ups, even under Hi-Def. I think this is not a flaw in the television, however, as I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen it on a DVD (I haven’t even ventured into HD-DVD or Blu-Ray). We use Direct TV for our television service. Right now it has about a few dozen more HD channels than any of its competitors, but it is using some compression to do so. It’s not clear how much, it appears that information is nearly impossible to obtain with any certainty, but I’m guessing that it is the cause of the fuzziness I’ve noticed.

Backup Hard Disk: Western Digital My Book 500

josephchu — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 04:49:00 +0000

I bailed out on the sophisticated backup system by buying a Western Digital 500GB external “My Book Home” drive at Costco for $139. I really needed to back up my files pronto. So far, so good, but I did have to reformat it for NTFS, as it comes formatted as FAT32 (not a good thing).

One gripe: the included backup software, WD Anywhere Backup is a trial version, and not advertised as such. Also, it seems to be unable to backup my outlook.pst file and large .avi files. So far, the jury is out on whether it works well.

Finally a Rib Roast worth writing about

josephchu — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 04:42:00 +0000

For Christmas dinner this year we made a 10lb 3-rib, rib roast from the great meat department of Fairway’s Harlem store. They sell USDA Prime grade meat, which is the best. (Choice and Select are the others, in descending order).

The butcher prepped it by cutting off the bones and laying them underneath the meat, then tyeing it all together with string. A simple marinade of mustard, garlic and rosemary was rubbed on the exterior. It was cooked to 120 degrees using low heat (250) for, like 3 hours. (It was seared at 450 degrees for 15minutes to start).

We’ve been eating the best prime rib sandwiches ever for the past 4 days.

PS3, baby

josephchu — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 04:34:00 +0000

Got the Playstation 3 for Christmas and I am impressed! Why?

Its a great Blu-ray player, and a great upscaling DVD player, too.
It has wireless everything: Bluetooth for the controller plus built in Wi-Fi networking
Acts as DLNA Client, meaning you can view photos, videos and play music that is on another computer in you house, by configuring it as a DLNA Server. This is a work in progress. I got the photos to pretty well now (after using a wired connection from PS3 to my router and improving the performance of my 802.11g wireless network connection to the server computer)
Regarding games, I only have one, F1 Championship Edition, which is less exciting than I expected.
I’ve started participating in the Folding At Home project, a distributed computing research project sponsored by Stanford, and supported by Sony via the PS3. The project is a computer model of protein “folding” which may yield medical benefits, like helping cure cancer.
Overall, a great machine. More comments to come.

Update on Panasonic 42" 1080p Plasma

josephchu — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 04:27:00 +0000

Its been a month now, and all is well with the new TV. I have yet to calibrate it (DV Essentials DVD hasn’t arrived from Netflix yet), but I used settings from PC Magazine and it looks great.

Thoughts:

Blacks are very good, though I actually thought they would be better.
The 1080p resolution is phenomenal when fed by Blu-ray. You really have to be closer than my standard viewing distance to see it, but when you do it is amazing.
The exterior of the set itself is quite good looking. Piano black works for me.
No significant gripes!

Still highly recommended.

Free Range Heritage Turkey

josephchu — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:43:00 +0000

We got our Thanksgiving turkey from the Plaid Piper Farm in Sussex County, NJ. It was a huge hit! It was large (29lbs) as these hybrid heritage breeds tend to be. The flavor was amazing, particularly the breast meat: no pastey bland, dry breast meat here. Recommended. Will do it again every year.

Keeping your photos and videos safe… in other words, data backup

josephchu — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:18:00 +0000

I’m embarking on a long search for home data storage. I thnk I’m headed in the direction of a NAS (Networked Attached Storage), or a hard drive that’s connected to your home network, not an individual computer. This is much like the network drive you probably have at work.

But what are the common options?

1. Single Computer based:
A) Simple/complex external hard disk backed up manually. (A single USB/eSATA drive or a Drobo)
B) Extra HDD in a computer, backed up manually, automatically or in a RAID configuration
2. Network Based
A) Single Drive (?)
B) Multiple Drive/RAID (Theus)
3. Offsite network storage.

I think a NAS will be preferred choice of the future. It can be used for shared storage and backup, and is independent of any one computer.

Costco has a WD MyBook World Edition II which looks very cool. Its a 2TB NAS that can be RAID 1 enabled for full data redundency. It also has a feature whereby you can access the drive from the internet. I hope it is secure! $600 bucks, but it does it all.

Interesting links:

ExtremeTech.com “Ten Storage Strategies for the Home”

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2212535,00.asp

HP’s new MediaSmart Home server

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2212289,00.asp

Interesting home NAS with bells and whistles

http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=11&pid=48

I’ll be adding to this over time.>>