I have been living with RCN digital cable for several weeks now. Forget that the cable box user interface is so primitive and slow, the worst flaw is that the box only has composite video outout. What's the point of a digital signal !! I emailed their tech support. They were wonderful in responding to my email. They told me first that they have very few boxes in the warehouse that has S-Video out, and they are out of them right now. I asked them then if I can go buy my own, and they said the current policy do not allow me to do that. The tech that responded did say: ... I am doing some work compiling the requests from customers together with some of the new equipment spec sheets and writing a request for the policy change. This is something that may take quite a bit of coercion on the part of our customers to make this happen. Time for www.i-want-clean-signal-from-rcn.com ?
Full Matrix Reload Trailer
From slashdot -- the full Matrix Reload trailer is now available here. It's a 96 meg download. Luckily I have MegaModem -- downloaded at 200+ KB speed. Sadly, my old trusty IBM T22 ThinkPad is not quite fast enough to show this quicktime movie smoothly. Oh well. Have to view it on my Shuttle (the PC, not the Space Shuttle). But my Shuttle is over at the farm while I am in the loft. I don't think we have a machine that is fast enough in the office either. Sad.
Boston's New I93N and the Lenny Zakim Bridge
The northbound of Boston's I93 highway, the tunnel that goes under Boston downtown, connecting to the Lenny Zakim Bridge, opened to the public Saturday night. I decided to try it out on Sunday afternoon when the traffic is light(er)... I started into I93N from the south end Mass Ave on ramp (which is not really on Mass Ave...). The entrance into the tunnel is a three lane entrance. The tunnel is clean (duh) and bright. Several LED signs spanning the lanes overhead display different type of information -- "Welcome to the new I93N", "Storrow drive exit this way >>>>", etc. Lighting is good. Somehow the tunnel is not straight, but curving right then left, pressumably following the old 93 outline, (not sure why that has to be the case)? There is an entrance merging from the left, then right. If you are planning to go through the tunnel without taking either of the exits inside the tunnel, you should enter on the middle or the left lane. The rightmost lane stayed rightmost for a little while, a right entrance started a new lane on the right, temporary giving us four lanes in the tunnel, then dropped off. So the original right most lane turned into an exit only lane for the exit in the tunnel. You would have to merge left.
The bridge is prettier still driving on it, after seeing it every morning driving pass it on I93S. It is not very long. It's over in a minute, and that's because traffic was slow through the tunnel and on the bridge, going 15 miles an hour as oppose to the posted 45 to 35. I assume people are just driving slowly checking out the new road.
One bad thing (I am getting picky now) about the tunnel -- the tunnel has light strips on left and right edge on the celling. So two stream of bright white continuous line of light panels go the entire length of the tunnel, very pretty. But, the ceiling changes height a little at several places, and they somehow cannot make the lighting strip smoothly track the ceiling height changes. So the beautiful line of lights has several ugly vertical kinks in them, spoiling otherwise a very pretty sight.
Hero movie review
Director Zhang Yimou's epic chinese movie, Hero, is not yet available official in the States. It was released in China end of last year to be eligible for a Best Foreign picture Oscar nomination. However, DVD's (official or not is still unclear) is popping up all over the place. I got the chance of viewing the movie. Before you read further, please note that it is difficult to review the movie without giving it away. So if you have not seen the movie, stop reading after this paragraph. I encourage you to see this movie. If you are a Zhang Yimou's fan, you will love this movie. The use of color, and sound, and mood is signature Zhang style. One thing to be clear is that this is not a martial arts movie. If you are only into martial arts, then while you will enjoy the fight sequences, there is little else that will make this into a action flick, which it is not. Just like if you think Crouhing Tiger Hidden Dragon is a just a martial art movie, you are mistaken. Crouhing Tiger is a love story. Hero is a story about Heroism.
...to be continued...
Hero Intro and Ending Text English Translation
Hero the movie -- for those who watched the subtitled DVD and are wondering what the chinese text at the beginning and at the ending of the movie say, here is my translation of them: The beginning text:
About two thousand years ago, it is a period of internal wars in China. There were seven kingdoms within China, fighting for dominance. Years of war, the people suffered most. Amongst the seven kingdoms, the Qin kingdom was the strongest. The Qin king is wining the battles, planning to take over the other six kingdom, to unite the empire. Hence, he is the biggest enemy of the other six kingdoms.
Thoughout the years, in Chinese history, there are plenty of stories of assassins and assasination of the king...
Text at the end: King Qin gave orders to give Nameless a grand funeral. In memory of his three friends who gave up their lives, Sky never fights again.
AD 221, King Qin united the Chinese kingdom. Ended the wars, built the great wall of China, protect his citizen. He became the first emperor of China, of the Qin dynasty.
(Note -- Sky is the assassin that uses the spear, played by Donnie Yen, and Nameless is the assassin played by Jet Li (re)telling the stories).
Charlotte Sometimes
Just caught this movie on Sundance -- Charlotte Sometimes. It is a very interesting movie about Asian American lives in the city. Simple and not your typical love story. Catch it while it is still on DSS or cable. How interesting is this movie? I caught the last 30 minutes or so of it while channel surfing. I ended up waiting for few more hours to catch the entire movie from beginning to the end at 2am.
design site
A design and experiment site, suppose to be for education and kids, but its sure fun to play with for adults !
Becoming American: The Chinese Experience
Becoming American: The Chinese Experience, a 3-part Bill Moyers Special, will premiere at 9pm on March 25, 2003, on PBS. Moyers frames his special around the quetions: What does it mean to become an American? At what moment does one "become American"? What does one give up to become American? What traditional values can we preserve"?
In Boston, WBGH will air the special on March 25, 26 and 27 at 9:00pm on Channel 2. Watch it and pass the word !
Tokyo Gadget Report Dec 2002
What's new in gadgets in Tokyo? As I always say, the only thing that is important are things that deal with the newly digital media -- MP3, JPG, MPEG -- or sound, pictures and videos. Before getting to those, do you know that it is Minidisc's 10th year anniversary? Just when you think it cannot get any smaller, Sony's 10th year anniversary MD player MD-E10 is 55g light, and 9.9mm think, looking at it seems like it is smaller than a MD itself. It is so think that when an MD is in its case it maybe thinker than the player itself. There is a corresponding Net-MD version, the MZ-N10 which allows USB transfer of songs from your PCs directly to the recorder in more than realtime speeds depending on the compression level (MDLP*), up to 64 times.
Looking at customer traffic at retail stores, no one cares about MDs and MP3s anymore -- in Tokyo they are as common as starbucks. Besides the lighter and NetMD features (which have been around here for a while) there is nothing too exciting. All the foot traffic is at the digital camera front. There are lots of new models, but the most interested ones are the ultra thin cameras. Sure they are unnecessary and overpriced. You can get the same functions in a normally small size camera, like the Minolta DiMAGE X or the Canon IXUS 230 V3. But why won't you want a super cool credit card size Casio Exilim Wearable Card Camera? They offer both a 1 and a 2 meg pixel camera, with or without audio (audio record/playback and video record playback) capabilities. In a size of 11.3 mm thin, 88 W x 55 mm H. The video/audio ones are slightly thicker 11.4 mm. These come in fashionable red/green/white colors. The image quality is amazingly good. No zoom, but with scene management. Built in memory plus SD. They goes from 30,000 to 35000 to 45000 yen depending on resolution and features. No one needs one of these, but it is just so fashionable and cool!
Next is the Sony Cyber-shot U10 (DSC-U10) camera. I guess this is supposed to be for kids or the fashion consious. It is shaped like one of those old disposible camera -- long and boxy but tiny. It is not cheap but oh so cute. A sliding lens cover will allow for some level of abuse. Movie mode, scene support, uses memory stick and normal AAA batteries. You can hang on your neck as fashion accessory. It comes with pink, silver and blue.
While I was in the audio asle, I spotted this poorly made MP3 player that obviously try to copy the iPod design ! 
. I also took a look at the Toshiba version of the iPod, which uses a real harddisk. The unit is only slightly larger then the iPod, but feels much larger. Don't think it will make it.
On a different note, A new sharp Zaurus SLC700 comes with a bigger qwerty keyboard, to be available 12/14.
Passive bargaining on t-mobile / voicestream pricing plans
I had been using Voicestream GSM mobile phone service for a while because they are the only one that does GSM and I need GSM for roaming in Europe and Asia. I had a very old pricing plan, $60 for 600 national minutes. Voicestream is now t-mobile, owned by Deusche Telekom. They also have new pricing plans that are better. So I called them to "review my account". My current (old) price plan is $60 (well, $59.99) for 600 national minutes without unlimited weekends. They now have a $40 plan that offers the same and with umlimited weekends. Since I exceed the 600 minutes frequently, I want to move to a higher plan. Their current $60 plan offers 800 minutes, additional minute is 40cents. Next one is $100 for 1400 minutes.
I was trying to decide between the new $60 and the $100 plans. Is it worth the $40 difference for another 600 minutes? After "trying to decide" for a while, the rep finally offer a special plan of $60 (same cost), but 900 minutes and additonal minutes for 35 cents. Pays to do (passive) bargaining !
My favorite Gel pen, part II
Finally, my favorite Gel pen, the Sahara that was only available in Japan is not available in the U.S. It is marketed under the Zebra brand, called the Sarasa Gel Retractable. Get one and try it. It writes wonderfully.
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
A upcoming PPS Evenings at the Pops show, Fiddlers Three features Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Very interesting character. Don't forget the Speaking in Strings documentary mentioned in an earlier post as well.
DVD , 
companion Music CD
Minority Report
A movie that is thought provocating at the conceptual level, beautiful to watch at the visual level, but full of holes at the simple logic level. The premise of "pre-cogs" is good. The story actually unfolds and you don't really know all there is to know even after watching the trailers. At 2 hours and 20 minutes, the movie does not feel long. Only the last 10 minutes, if you think hard enough, can figure out what is going to happen.
The technology part is wonderfully done. The smart home, the computer user interface, the transportation system, all of those works together very well. But, check out the advertising product placements. Not sure if it can be more in-your-face than this movie.
Speaking in Strings
interesting violin player Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg -- from the PBS show Speaking in Strings. There is a DVD of the PBS show, and a companion Music CD.
DVD , companion Music CD
Sarasa Gel Pen
I think I said before, my favorite pen for general writing is the 0.7 mm Gel Pen from Zebra -- the SARASA brand. Zebra just started TV advertising on the pen in Japan. When was the last time you saw an ad for a 100 yen pen? Does this mean that no one is buying these pens? Or that they finally realized that they have a good thing and are going to take over the world with it ??
da me architecture
Just started reading a very interesting book: Made in Tokyo, by Kaijima, Kuroda, and Tsukamoto. It is a bilingual book that look at the non designed but interesting buildings in Tokyo. Quoting a small passage from the beginning of the book: From <Architecture> towards <Building>
The buildings of Made in Tokyo are not beautiful....... They are not 'pieces' designed by famous architects. What is nonetheless respectable about these buildings is that they don't have a speck of fat. What is important right now is constructed in a practical manner by the possible elements of that place. They don't respond to cultural context and history. Their highly economically efficient answers are guided by minimum effort. In tokyo, such direct answers are expected. They are not imbued with the scent of culture; they are simply physical 'buildings'.
Air Travel
Kao, aka Faces by Junji
Kao, aka Faces by Junji Sakamoto
Sakamoto-san won a Japanese Academy Award for Best Director for this film. Faces is a dark comedy, a Japan "road movie". A honest portrait of different Japanese lives. A fable of "you are responsible for your own actions". A dark "coming of age" movie.
Best quote from the movie, slightly paraphrase: Do not die. You have to go on. When you are hungry, you eat. When you are hungry again. You eat again. That is the only way to keep going.
Go find it and see it.