Max's Blog

January 25, 2012
Max Life, Technology , ,

Dear Hollywood

Your business model is broken and trying to fix it by hounding those that share content is probably not the best way to fix it.

 Let me explain.

A number of major studios have thrown their money behind a new digital content distribution system called ‘UltraViolet’, that in theory at least, allows you to rent or purchase a movie and watch it on multiple devices.

On the surface this is great.  Really, truly this is a great thing. Rather than rent a DVD or BluRay from Netflix, Blockbuster or RedBox for a couple of dollars, you can rent one directly from the studio; and you can watch the movie on any device.

Except an iPad, iPhone, Android Phone, Android Tablet, or a non-smart TV or connected device that does not support UltraViolet.

Oh and you need a fast internet connection too.

All of these are minor issues though and nothing a small investment in hardware or bandwidth cannot solve. Assuming of course the movies are available fairly quickly after they leave the cinema and that they are relatively inexpensive to rent/buy.

Sadly neither is true, a ‘High Definition’ movie is $19.99 and an ‘SD’ movie is $12.99 and the current plan appears to be to release the movies at the same time as the DVD/Blu-Ray.  Generally I can get most DVDs shipped to my door from amazon.com for about $10 or I can pay less than $20 for a BluRay, again, shipped to my door. Often Amazon will sell off movies a few months after release for $5 – $8 and there are many BluRays available for less then $10.

For example, one of the sixty movies that Paramount are launching with is ‘Rango’, their SD price is $12.99, the HD price is $19.99

  • I can rent the DVD from Redbox for $1.29 or $3.99 will get me the BluRay from Blockbuster.
  • I can buy the DVD that comes with a free digital copy that I can play on my tablet for $12.49
  • I can buy the BluRay/DVD/Digital Copy combo for $19.49
  • I can buy it on iTunes for $19.99 (HD)
  • I can watch it on Cinemax as a part of my $9.99 add-on to my basic cable subscription
  • I can buy it on Amazon Video On-Demand for $14.99 (HD Version)
  • It will be on Basic cable soon, so I can wait.
  • It is on torrentsRus with 10 million seeders for freeez !!!!1111oneoneeleven

In other words, UltraViolet, for this example movie is actually the most expensive (along with iTunes) and easily the least convenient.

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December 30, 2011
Max Life , , , ,

Why am I using an iPhone 4 ?

2011 was a crazy year for cell phone technology, I began the year with a HTC Aria running Android. I had replaced my iPhone 3GS with this on release of the iPhone 4. The Apple ‘walled garden’ finally pushing me back to Android.

The Aria briefly had a cousin in tow. I got a Samsung galaxy tab which I utterly adored. Unfortunately this was trashed and I replaced it with a nook color which is a hacker delight.

The Aria gave way to another HTC, this time a large screen Inspire. Which within a couple of weeks gave way to a Samsung Infuse with an even larger screen. The size of the screen matters as you get older.

All of these android devices gained custom roms. Wherever possible I use CyanogenMod ROMs as they are fast, minimalist and close to the standard Android experience than it is possible to find elsewhere.

My major gripe with Android is that the combination of carrier and manufacturer customization often make the android experience worse than the standard.

The Android OS is utterly fantastic. The standard UI is brilliant, the deep integration with google services rocks harder than Mötorhead in their prime. The variety of devices and screen sizes pander to everyone. Virtually any combination of carrier, screen size and speed is available.

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October 4, 2011
Max Life, Technology ,

Applebook vs Amoogle vs Netflix ?

Forget the iPhone 4s that was announced today.

It is not not really that relevant.

The new 4s is an incremental upgrade that sticks rigidly to the Apple design briefs, Launch a product, refine it then redefine it. The iPhone 5 will be the redefinition, the 4s is the 3g or the 3gs for the current cycle.

The new iPod touch in white is nice, the new 64GB capacity is nice, but for $399 I will pass for a while.

There was nothing in that product launch that stood out as ‘new’. The one thing that did stand out for me is that Apple is continuing the battle for the living room. Allowing you to pair your phone with an AppleTV and effectively play a movie or other content on a big screen.

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May 18, 2011
emaren F1, Motorcyling , ,

Monaco F1

As I write this, I am sitting on the sofa watching the F1 race from Monaco, there are about 18 laps to go and unless a car breaks or crashes or some technical problem intervenes then the result is set.

The top ten has been set for something like the last fifty laps.

Initially there was a great deal of ‘fun’ when Alonso, who started in the pit lane, picked off car after car and pulled the same move on several cars, before a safety car session allowed him to jump up the order and create a Ferrari-McLaren-Ferrari sandwich. Given that Alonso is one of the absolute best drivers in the world and he is was in arguably the most expensive cars on the grid he really struggled to get by cars that are several seconds per lap slower. Typically he would catch a car that was five seconds or more up the road in a single lap than spend two laps trying to find his way around it.

The safety car sessions gave Alonso probably as much as thirty seconds back at one time.

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January 10, 2011
emaren Life, Religion , , ,

Belief and Cultural Differences.

Of the many cultural differences between living in the UK and the US, probably the single biggest difference revolves around belief.

In the UK, belief is very much personal, foisting ones belief onto friends and colleagues is seen as ‘bad form’ and is something that is rarely done. In general this type of behavior is restricted to the more ‘extreme’ groups. Jehovah’s witnesses, Mormons and the minority but vocal ‘Born again’ folks. In general though it is considered to be ‘poor form’ to even discuss your religious stance.

Many English churches are lovely buildings, in the village that I lived in as a teenager, we had a simply beautiful church, it was the center-point of the village and a landmark in many ways. As a family we went to church on an irregular basis, but as far as I can remember, my church attendance, or otherwise in later years, was simply not a subject of any conversation with friends and colleagues.

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January 7, 2011
emaren Life

1220 miles in a Pontiac Vibe

A Pontiac Vibe last Tuesday

My  MINI Cooper S has been in the bodyshop since some time before Christmas and hopefully I will be back behind the wheel later on today.

My ‘Rental Car’ this time around is a Pontiac Vibe.

The Vibe was a joint venture between Toyota and Pontiac, with Toyota selling the Matrix and Pontiac the Vibe.

A number of years ago we had a Matrix and I loved it. It was roomy, comfortable, economical, practical and it even handled fairly well. It was fast enough to earn me a speeding ticket in Arizona (96mph) and apart from an odd issue with the ignition barrel it was very reliable.  I often regret selling it.

The Pontiac Vibe was the same car. Except it was ‘adjusted’ to make it less Japanese and more appealing to mainstream America. The first version of the Vibe had truly hideous plastic cladding and a roof rack, plus gaudy chrome-look wheel trims. The suspension settings where softened and the ride height increased.

It sold pretty poorly.

The second generation Vibe was less ‘Americanized’ and was the version that I have just spent 1220 miles driving.

First impressions count for a lot.

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December 16, 2010
Max Life, Religion , ,

A Bit Bloody Sensitive…..

I guess you learn a little every day.

Saying ‘god damn‘ is, apparently, about as extreme an expletive as it is possible to use when in the company of a christian. As I recently upset someone by defending a friend that used the expression I learned a lot in a short space of time.

So I guess that it is time to temper my language somewhat and have therefore decided that rather than  yelling ‘god damn‘, I will replace the phrase with something less offensive.

Doing a little research turned up the following list of potential replacements…..

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December 10, 2010
emaren Life

A tale of two security operatives…..

I recently flew to Kansas on a business trip. Obviously this necessitated a little air travel and obviously this was going to mean a couple of encounters with the TSA.

The plan was to fly out of John Wayne airport in Santa Ana, an airport that is pretty local to me. I arrived in plenty of time for my (really early) flight, grabbed my tickets and headed to security.

OK, let me rewind a tad, prior to embarking on the trip I made sure that I was ‘in compliance’ as far as I could possibly be, no liquids, beyond a couple of items in my toiletries bag, no knives, guns, rocket propelled grenade launchers or nail clippers and very little metal ‘on my persons’. Apart from a Seiko Orange Monster wrist watch.

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December 9, 2010
emaren Life

Imagine changing the lyrics, it’s easy if you try…..

Driving to work this morning, channel hopping on the radio, I stumbled across the John Lennon classic ‘Imagine’.

Obviously I started to sing along to it, badly….

Then I realized that the song had been changed and I nearly drove off the road in a rage.

These are the original lyrics from the second verse, I just looked them up….

Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do

No need to kill or die for and no religions too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

The end of the second line had been changed to ‘…and one religion too’

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July 15, 2010
Max Driving, Life, Photography

That is why you should always run…….

And so, with those words did the conversation start…..

Let me rewind a tad. On Saturday morning I rode to Cars and Coffee, there is nothing new there, I often take ‘the bike’, there is special motorcycle parking and my bike is fairly unusual.

At the end of the event I walked back to where I had parked and there was a young guy standing next to a black GSXR 1000 talking animatedly with another motorcyclist. As I approached, sensing his chance the other biker left the conversation and the GSXR owner said, loudly ‘and that is why you should always run’, thus engaging me in conversation…..

The young guy – he was 23 it transpired – had just been on the receiving end of ‘huge’ ticket and a ‘hour long’ lecture on his riding.

He is now, it appears, in a position where he is going to have to sell his bike as his insurance is going to cost him more than he can afford.

Rather than learn ‘do not ride like a dumb-ass’ he has learned that you should always run.

He even showed the ‘cool’ flip-up licence plate that he had fitted – well, when I say ‘fitted’ I mean ‘bashed with a hammer until it was barely recognizeable and then bashed onto the bike with cable ties and ductape.

*sigh