- BitsBlog - https://bitsblog.com -

Nightly Ramble: The Camping Trip, HDTV, Blackwater, More.

  • Yeah, I was out all weekend. So, we made the trip over the weekend, to Fair Haven State Park, which is one of the best in the state. There’s a problem, though with the state Reservation system for their campgrounds; Forget about reserving one spot for one night. Two night minimum. So, we drove all that way, and the place was full. So was Selkirk Shores, perhaps another 30 miles along.  We ended up staying at a private camp just outisde Mexico, NY, that we’ve stayed at before. The idea being it wasn’t a total loss.  Of course, bout 20 minutes after we pulled in, and maybe 10 minutes after we set up camp, it started raining. It didn’t stop all night. We had lots of lightning, too… a real show. I gather that the same storm we had caused some issues out along the Jersey Shore [1]. My camera quit, too, so I never did get any pics of the camp. My younger boy did, though, I think, as we were breaking camp. And my older boy got lots of stuff from the airshow… vids. I’ll post a few when he gets them converted. Still, a good weekend. Spent some time teaching my elder how to play chess, and listening t the rain on the roof. As I told my boys, that’s one thing about adventures… they don’t always end up sunny and warm. I’ll post a review of the campground under seperate cover later this week. It’s mostly positive.
  • Ed Rasimus  does a pretty fair job of dressing down John Warner [2]. Warner is another one who really needs to be forcably removed from the Republican party.
  • I’ve had my problems with McCain, and made no bones about it. But I have to tell you that this speech [3] would, if spread properly among the voters, would end the Obama campaign. Or at the least, it would in a sane world.
  • You’ll doubtless recall that there was a lot of wailing about Blackwater from the Democrats. But when their prince needed protection, guess who they called. Yep… Blackwater. [4]  Gee… I wonder what that means… No, wait; I think I know… They know what Blackwater does, works, however much they bitch about it.
  • So, if we’re winning the war in Iraq [5]why isn’t the press covering this? You know why. It doesn’t fit the liberal mantra, so the liberal press pretty much buries it. Another example would be the LA Times and the John Edwards affair. [6] And of course, Obama said nothing about this at all.
  • Glenn says:

    POPULAR SCIENCE: Global Warming: Not so bad? “Birds and power companies adapt to climate change; scientists downgrade its role in hurricane formation.” I dunno. But maybe we should figure this out before we turn our economy upside down?

    Yeah, no kidding, Glenn. Welcome to the club. We’ve been asking that question here at Bitsblog for a decade, now.  And as you point up elsewhere, Greenland is a case in point. It used to BE green.   Let’s take that point one step farther; If oil is decayed plant and animal matter, and if we have a large amount of oil at the North Pole, as has been reported here in the alst week, how did that plant and animal matter GET to the polar region? The answer of course is that it was once green there, too. Oh… did I mention there’s a large amount of oil under Greenland? Yep… so says the USGS.

  • Gas prices are going below $4/gal. [7]I expect this trend to continue.
  • If you’re into Hi-Def, you’ll want to see this [8]. What this boils down to is knowing what you’re doing with the thing. So many people who by these things are neophites to the point of being technophobes. Now, perhaps I shouldn’t bitch; It’s that kinda situation that keeps my tech support talents in the dollars, but still… Oh… there’s this also… the article bemoans the lack of regulation as regards bitrate for boradcasters? Sorry, but I fail to see this as an issue, for a few reasons. First off, most of the programming out there is still in NTSC. Take StarTrek as an example. The original series was on film, so converting it to true HD is a snap. And some of the models and photography is astonishing to see, even for old hands at the show.  But did you know that Startrek; The Next Generation was shot all in Digital NTSC, meaning that hi-def is impossible? I don’t care what you convert the bitrate to, it’s never going to get any better than NTSC’s 525 lines.  There’s this, also; Years ago,the Radio division gave up trying to enforce frequency response for both AM and FM, figuring that the stations themselves should be responsible to heir listners on the point; Free Markets and all that. If the consumer didn’t like what t was hearing they’d tune out. And sometimes, that did happen. It’s called letting the market work. My guess is that broadcasters are trying to get the best signal on the air possible, even absent regulations on the point. It’s just that we’re really not so flush yet with high bitrate 1080 programming yet. That’s not a failure of broadcasters.