The Richter Scale^®

As mentioned in a prior blog entry, I’m always amazed at the innovative uses of new technology one finds in the adult industry, and this past month’s AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas was no exception.

For me, the best technology find was from Lurid HD. Lurid, as well as several other providers of adult content, delivers adult video in high definition by using WMV HD as their encoding format. There aren’t any standalone, non-PC WMV HD players out there, but certainly PCs equipped with the latest Microsoft Windows Media Player or Media Center Edition (MCE) software can play back WMV HD files.

Well, Lurid’s big splash at the show was to present their HD adult content on an Xbox 360. All of a sudden the Xbox 360 is now a HD player. See the image below.

Alas, it’s nothing as simple as just popping a CD or DVD with HD content into the Xbox 360’s DVD drive. Instead, the smart guys at Lurid figured out that the Media Center Extender software in the Xbox 360 can play back any video media that a master Windows XP Media Center Edition PC can play (and thus stream). So, they load the WMV HD content onto said PC, start up the Media Center server there, and then tell the Xbox 360 to fetch content from the MCE system. Voila, high definition video on the Xbox 360.

I’m sure Microsoft is not particularly thrilled by this use of their latest and greatest living room toy, but it sure is ingenious, isn’t it?

And wouldn’t it be nice if some mainstream movie studios tried a similar approach? But they won’t because of DRM issues and a general inability to rapidly adapt to new technology, which is one reason the adult industry innovators will probably always be on the bleeding edge.

Veterans of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas may recall that the Riviera Hotel’s ballroom was part of the CES show in years gone by, featuring the more risque elements of consumer electronics, namely new gadgets in the realm of adult entertainment, as well as media content (typically in the form of CDs and VHS tapes). It was at the Riviera during CES that I saw my first commercial use of MPEG playback on CD, and the first use of digital video over phone lines using Intel Indeo codec. And let’s not forget using Quicktime VR for interactive adult entertainment titles on CD.

Well, at some point, the folks who used to claim the Riveria for their exhibits, and the CEA (the folks running CES) must have parted ways, because for at least the last couple of years, Adult Video News (AVN) has been running something called the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo as a standalone show. Last year the show had the Sands Convention Center to itself.

This year, however, CES expanding to take over all the remaining space at the Sands, so the two shows shared venue. Look closely at the photos below to see how well they blended.

It was vastly entertaining to see geeks coexisting with adult starlets, each on the way to their own exhibit area. It was pretty easy to tell who the CES attendees were and who was there for the AVN Adult Expo. Typically the AVN show attendees ignored the CES attendees while the CES attendees stopped to stare and gape.

The AVN show has certainly expanding its breadth of exhibitors to include offerings of all aspects of the adult business - retail displays, toys, lubricants, and more. But there were still some pretty interesting technology finds there too, as innovators in the adult industry continue to apply new technologies to their industry. More on that in a subsequent blog entry.

At last month’s Consumer Electronics Show, multimedia PCs masquerading as living room media center entertainment devices were once again in abundance. Most offered some sort of cumbersome remote control device which gave limited access to the system’s functionality.

Almost completely ignored was the fact that these boxes are all computers, most of them running Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). Well, I don’t know about you, but if I am going to stick a computer in my living room, I had better be able to use the thing as a PC, for things like web surfing on my high definition TV, checking e-mail, and more.

But, as we know, the living room is not the same thing as an office, and most living rooms therefore do not have nice, convenient smooth, flat surfaces for using with ones cursor control device (e.g. a mouse). In fact, quite the opposite - I find that my optical wireless mouse typically falls off the couch or gets sat on - and either way, it’s annoying.

The solution, of course, is integrating the pointing device into the keyboard as shown in the image below in two variations of wireless keyboards available from a small PacRim company whose name I don’t recall. The image is of a Sony VAIO wireless keyboard being offered with Sony’s MCE solution.

Years ago, when wireless keyboards first came out, Logitech had some models with built-in track balls. That meant you could leave the keyboard on your lap, and control the cursor without worrying about the mouse disappearing or getting flattened. Pretty darn efficient if you ask me. But then Logitech stopped making those keyboards, and no one else of note picked up the slack.

My informal survey of Logitech and Kensington at CES shows that neither has imminent plans to address the need for a wireless keyboard for living room MCE devices with an integrated pointing device. Nor did I see HP or any other MCE system vendor other than Sony (see above image) with such an integrated keyboard.

Suffice it to say that Sony typically has the consumer electronics scene figured out so since Sony appears to have figured out what people want with their MCE PCs (with the exception of DRM, of course) maybe others will wise up, or maybe some of those Far East peripheral makers will strike it big with their integrated keyboards instead.

Until then the mouse will keep slipping off the couch or be sat on.

And here’s one final image from my test shoot around Times Square a couple of weeks ago.

I saw a few of these around. Basically six additional people can hop on these contraptions and bicycle their way down Broadway. No idea how much the guy charges, nor why someone would want to risk life and limb peddling backwards in chaotic traffic in freezing weather, but hey, it takes all sorts.

Here’s another image from my test shoot around Times Square a couple of weeks ago, showing some of the more prurient aspects of Times Square.

As this post is being sent from e-mail, the image is cropped to 320x240 - the original portrait mode image has much better compositional elements. But again, this is all natural lighting.

As I wrote sometime back, I have a Nikon D2x camera that I absolutely adore. It’s very responsive, does great in low light conditions, has extremely fast focusing, and just a delight to work with. However, when traveling on business instead of a photo shoot, it’s awfully bulky.

So when Nikon announced the new D200 a couple of months ago, I was thinking this might be my high end travel camera. I was in New York City on business a few weeks ago, and after much hunting located a D200 kit in stock at Adorama on West 18th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue (if you go there tell Efraim I sent you). I had also on a previous day purchased a Nikon f/2.8 14mm rectilinear fish eye lens from B&H Photo and Video, although with the smaller sensor of a digital SLR like the D200 or D2x it just becomes a rectilinear 21mm wide angle lens (in 35mm film equivalents). 

Below is a test shot I took at the corner of Broadway and West 45th Street late at night.

As the above image shows, the camera does brilliantly in low-light conditions - no discernable noise. Mind you, one of my favorite types of photography is natural light and low light, capturing motion as a blur, with static elements in focus.

The D200, while coming in with only about 10 megapixels vs. the D2x’s 12 megapixels of resolution, also weighs in quite a bit less, and most importantly (at least for the reason I bought it), it’s about 30% smaller than the D2x, which makes a world of difference to someone like myself who cannot pack lightly no matter what.

I plan on putting the camera through its paces in the coming two and a half weeks while on vacation all over the place, but so far I’m pretty impressed with it. The D2x will still be my major workhorse on professional shoots, but the D200 is an excellent back-up (and in some cases primary) camera.

About six years ago, I helped launch Caribbean WebCams, LLC (CWC) - a company I founded with my friend Dan Senie of Amaranth Networks. The purpose of CWC was to develop WebCam systems for deployment in the Caribbean for tourism purposes.

There’s a bit more history later in this blog entry, but I’m pleased to say that after nearly two years of trying to find better WebCam equipment we could use outdoors, at a reasonable price, we finally came up with a hardware solution that met all of our needs, and have deployed the first in a series of new outdoor WebCams on Bonaire.

This new camera is called the DonkeyCam, and can be viewed in large form here and in the regular medium size at http://www.DonkeyCam.com. The DonkeyCam is installed at the Bonaire Donkey Sanctuary and funds to purchase it were donated by a Donkey Sanctuary Supporter - plus, CWC kicked in money as well.

Below are some pictures of the DonkeyCam.

So, a bit of history about CWC now…

The first demo system we developed was the Bonaire WebCams, which featured (and still does to this day) the world’s only open-ocean, underwater ReefCam. Sadly, as neither Dan nor I like to be sales people, and didn’t have a lot of time to invest in the project, we didn’t manage to sell any additional WebCam installations anywhere else (yet). To pay for on-going support of the Bonaire WebCams, we started a membership site where all captures since December 2000 could be perused for a small fee ($24.95/year) and better bandwidth could be had for viewing image updates (which occur every two minutes). We also found a sponsor in Eden Beach Resort a couple of summers ago when the cameras had to move from my rented home to another ocean front location because I was moving inland.

The Bonaire WebCams have remained stable over the years, until now, with 3 top-side cameras and one underwater one. Locations have changed with these base four cameras, but not much else.

However, now that we have the new equipment package figured out, we are in talks with several businesses on Bonaire to add WebCams at their facilities, which will hopefully lead to the introduction of a downtown KralendijkCam and a WindsurfCam by mid-year.

And one very nice thing about these cameras is that they can capture imagery in very low light conditions, making night time shots appear almost as bright as day-time - just take a look at the DonkeyCam in the middle of the night as an example.

At many tradeshows, vendors are often willing to give away samples of their products or at least sell them at a much reduced price, for a variety of reasons.

For example, when it’s the end of the show and they don’t want to lug everything back to the office or even have to pack it all back up. In this category, I happened to stop by the stand of MCA / Manhattan Cellular, a French company which makes incredibly nice looking leather cases for mobile phones, iPods, and Sony PSPs. After admiring their wares (which they were slowly packing away since the show was closing in less than a half hour, and getting ready to walk away, the beautiful French woman doing the packing asked me if I wanted one or more of the cases. I ended up walking away with a great white leather case for my video iPod, and several PSP cases (one for each of the kids and PSPs in my family - mine, my son’s, and my daughter’s). I am staring at that nice iPod case here in my hotel room as I write this entry.

I also ended up buying a collection of Pelican (hardened plastic) cases that Pelican staff didn’t want to ship back to their office, at about 60% off list.

Another reason a company might part with their wares is because you have a need, and ask for a sample.

Again, I experienced this twice. My issue was that my new Sony VAIO TX-690P notebook needed to have its system restore data backed up onto two DVD discs, and I only had one in my hotel room. At an evening event I came across Imation, a well known maker of computer media. When I explained my plight they were nice enough to open up a package of DVD-R media and give me a disc. They also gave me their press kit on one of the cool USB flash wristbands they are now producing, as well as a sample of their new scratch proof CD-R media. And yes, the Imation ForceField CD-R media really does appear to be scratch proof.

However, I found I goofed - what was back in my room was a DVD+R blank, and not a DVD-R as I originally thought. While it might not make a difference, I figured the Sony DVD writing software for generating the restore discs would prefer consistent media types, so the following day I stumbled across Sky Media Manufacturing, which produces color displays (LCD and Plasma) as well as blank optical media, under the Swisstec name (CompUSA sells their products, although I had never heard of them before). I asked if they might have a loose DVD-R disc, and they just gave me a package of 20 of them instead. Greatly appreciated. And thanks to Imation and Sky Media, I was able to safely back-up my new notebook that same evening.

Exhibitors also give away product for special performances, typically during presentations they are giving. Such performances including yelling the loudest, jump up and down the most, parroting answers to posed questions, or doing other embarassing things. Occasionally just being at the right place at the right time works too, but that’s rare. There’s also the not-so-rare raffle drawing.

Finally, folks might just give you a product because they are giving everyone products. Typically this only works if you’re among the first ones there, as no matter what the product is, if it’s free, it’s soon gone. I don’t recall having good enough timing for anything like

And all that is in addition to other interesting hand outs, like pens, prop-up plastic things to hold up your PMP or MP3 device, the occasional t-shirt (not so many of those this year), pins, buttons, and notepads, never mind bags to carry brochures and stuff in. I hesitantly accepted a $5 Starbucks gift card from one vendor at a press event, and completely bypassed another stand where cash bribes (not much, just a few dollars) were being proffered - cash crosses the line into the tasteless and unethical if you ask me.

While at the Las Vegas Hilton last month, after the Sony Keynote, I was wandering about to a meeting when I stumbled across a vending machine selling tech toys. I thought this was incredibly apropos considering it was during the Consumer Electronics Show, and figured it had been planted at the Hilton for just that reason.

While discussing the machine with my fellow bystanders, a couple of folks from Zoom Systems wandered up to service the machine and restock it, and we learned that this machine was one of approximately a dozen deployed throughout Las Vegas, and that product was selling rather quickly too. The Zoom Shop vending systems had been in place for a number of months already, as well.

So what goodies did I find in the Zoom Shop machine? Well, for starters, iPod Nanos, video iPod, headphones, arm clips, power supplies, and Sony PSPs. And not discounted as best I could tell.

A very cool idea, but the biggest drawback I see is as the vending systems didn’t sell digital music or PSP games, a purchaser would be left with a cool toy and nothing much to do with it for a bit.

As I travel far too much (e.g. New York last week for the New York International Gift Fair and client meetings, Washington DC this week for a deposition in a patent case I’m working on), I rely heavily on my notebook computer. And more importantly, being able to quickly access my desktop as well as shut down my notebook, with the work state saved.

Under Windows XP (as well as previous Microsoft operating systems) there are two ways to save the state of the system so you can quickly go back to that state when you turn on the computer - standby and hibernate. Standby tends to drain the battery over time because it keep power going to memory so that you don’t lose your data, but getting in and out of standby is rather fast - typically a matter of seconds.

Hibernate is where the memory of your system is saved to a file on your hard disk, and then the system powers down. Pressing the power button lets the computer boot up, and when it sees an active hibernation file, it restores the system memory and state from that. This may take up to a minute each way (going into hibernation and coming out), but is still a lot faster than the typical 2-4 minute system boot and shutdown one experiences with Windows XP. It’s great for notebooks and desktop systems alike.

That’s when it works.

Turns out that for at least three years there has been a problem with Windows XP and hibernation on systems with more than 1GB of memory - an amount of memory that is becoming increasingly common these days.

What happens is that if memory has become fragmented enough (i.e. you run a bunch of applications that are memory intensive), then, when you attempt to enter hibernation, the screen blanks, indicates it is going into hibernation, but then flash and returns to your Windows display, upon which you get an error in a pop-up bubble at the right end of the system tray which says: Insufficient system resources exist to complete the API.

At this point the system will no longer let you get into hibernation (although standby still works, at least until your standby has timed out and tries to go into hibernation on its own, at which point you may be carrying a fully powered notebook computer in your bag which you think is standing by but is instead draining your battery and possibly overheating).

Your only recourse when the hibernation crash occurs is to reboot the system.

My old S-series Sony VAIO notebook had exactly 1GB and I never had a problem. My new Sony VAIO TX-690P has 1.5GB and the problem is consistent whenever I seem to run Adobe Photoshop CS2 and/or Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in addition to my e-mail software (Eudora 5.1) and various Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Word, Excel). If after a reboot I only run e-mail and Office programs (in moderation), I can successfully hibernate. However as soon as I then also need to edit an image in Photoshop or a web page in Dreamweaver, I am pretty much hosed - hibernation will produce the error I indicated above.

Here’s the irony - Microsoft has been aware of the issue for at least three years, and even has a fix out for the original Windows XP, but that fix will not work on XP systems upgraded to Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 (all new XP-based systems ship with SP2). And there’s some question as to how well the fix actually worked on older systems.

There’s an extensive thread in Microsoft’s Community Forum about this this issue, with people owning Dell, HP, and other brands of systems all experiencing the same problem. The thread closes with a gentleman who got a suggestion from Microsoft that to resolve this hibernation issue, he should tell XP to not use more than 1GB of system memory.

That’s just bizarre in my opinion. We spend good money to get as much memory as we can in our computers, and here Windows XP won’t support more than 1GB if you want to hibernate? Ridiculous.

And apparently computer makers are either not informed, passing the buck, or unable to have Microsoft make it a priority to fix this bug, which from my perspective is a serious detriment to portable computing.

Wasn’t stability and the ability to run multiple programs without causing problems the reason we all switched from DOS to Windows in the first place?

I wonder if this problem is solved in Microsoft’s forthcoming Vista operating system (not that I think Vista will run well on many current generation notebooks). Wouldn’t it be a hoot if they didn’t fix this in Vista? Oops.