TV demo with a pickle

Do you understand how your TV works?   Even the older cathode-ray tube (CRT) technology may seem complicated to most of us, but scientists continue pushing the boundaries for future technologies.  You’ve probably heard of LED TVs, which are currently high-tech, but now there are OLED (Organic LED) TVs.

The video at this link explains how it works, using a pickle.   (No, that’s not a typo, and I’m not being silly.)  OLEDs are made of organic materials, and even a pickle is subject to the same properties used in an OLED TV.  Basically, electrons are sent to it, creating an electric current in it, and then when positive and negative charges hit the same molecule, it releases a proton, which makes it look like it’s glowing.  In the video, the pickle becomes a giant pixel.

Not only is the source organic, which would presumably be better for the environment, but it also uses 50 percent less power than LEDs.  And this technology allows TV screens to be very thin (as shown in the video).  It’s already being used in some new (high-dollar) cell phones, which is a great use for it.

Can you imagine how people figured this out?   Try to picture someone figuring out how electrical current affects organic materials and then realizing they could make TV screens with it…

the cost of sending text messages

Most likely no one would be surprised if I said the cell phone companies are ripping us off with fees and various charges.  But someone has done some research into the costs of texting and I think you’ll find it interesting.  How much do you think it costs the carriers to send a text message from one cell phone to another?

Before, I tell you, let me present the fact that about 2.5 trillion text messages were sent in 2008, and it’s expected that about 3.3 trillion will be sent in 2009.  The price per text message went from 10 cents to 20 cents for all four major carriers in the past few years, unless you have a package plan that includes a certain amount per month.  This increase led Senator Herb Kohl (who is the chairman of the Senate antitrust committee) to investigate why this happened.

Senator Kohl wrote the companies about their pricing plans and they all replied, but they conveniently “forgot” to explain the cost of conveying text messages.  There is a reason for this…

Now let me explain what prompted me to write on this.  I learned that text messages are free riders on the network, using what’s called a control channel that’s reserved for operation of the wireless network.  That’s why text messages are typically limited to 160 characters per message — they have to fit within that space.  And here’s the kicker — the channel uses that space whether or not a text message is inserted.  See, that channel is used for the communication between the tower and your handset to set up calls.  So, in effect, text messages costs the carriers NOTHING.  Whoever thought to include the 160 extra bytes in the control channel was a genius…

Sure, the companies have an initial cost in setting up storage and transmitting equipment, but they’re doing that anyway for cell phone service.  So really, it costs them NOTHING to transmit a text message from one cell phone to the next.  So their text messaging charges and package plans are pure profit to them.  Think about that the next time it sounds like a good deal to get unlimited texting at $15 or $20 a month.

Doesn’t it make you wonder why our cost for sending text messages went up?

my adventure in upgrading to Windows XP

This past weekend I decided to upgrade my home computer from Windows 2000 to XP Professional.  I had put this off for a while now (obviously), because I didn’t need it, and I had 2000 customized to be stable and efficient.  But now two of the programs I need to use require XP, and I couldn’t find a way around that (unlike some programs, which claim to need XP but really run fine on 2000, since they are very similar).  This upgrade should have been simple, but there were some unique, unexpected circumstances that made this very complicated.

Before I explain what happened, let me add that I’ve had my own computer for over 15 years, and I’ve been a professional programmer for over 10 years, so I know what I’m doing.  I’ve done quite a few upgrades and fixed a number of things manually before, so it doesn’t scare me to “get under the hood” of an OS (Operating System).  But this latest upgrade really threw me for a loop.  (It also explains why I haven’t posted in a few days.)

Before my upgrade, I backed up the files that were new or modified since my last backup.  (You should always do backups before any major upgrade, and really, backups should be done on a regular basis if you have anything you wouldn’t want to lose.)  So after the backup, I started the upgrade to XP.  I was really hoping to not have to reinstall all my programs, and the XP upgrade suggested that I wouldn’t have to.

The night I started the upgrade, it was stormy outside.  I was aware of this, but not concerned.  The power hasn’t been out for an extended time in the four-plus years I’ve lived here, because our power lines are underground.  Also, I have a nice UPS with AVR, so even if the power blinked, I would be okay.  But as you might have guessed already, the power went out and stayed out for about an hour, and my UPS didn’t last that long.  Also, the install was delayed because of a request for a certain driver for my hard drive.  Here’s my first mini-rant about Microsoft — the RAID/SCSI driver for my SATA hard drive is loaded by the BIOS (when the computer turns on), and obviously XP could read and write to my hard drive, because it was doing the install.  I couldn’t find the disk at first for it, so I skipped it.

After the power came back on, I booted up my computer, wondering what to expect.  The initial chkdsk (check disk) revealed that some files and registry entries needed to be cleaned up, which is something to be concerned about.  The XP upgrade started over, and seemed okay.  Again, it asked for that driver for my hard drive, but I skipped it because I didn’t have it.  Then the upgrade failed on 13 files, saying it couldn’t copy them.  The installation continued and finished successfully (supposedly).  But upon reboot, XP would “blue screen” before getting in, even in safe mode.  It turns out that it requires that driver for my hard drive, even though it installed the upgrade without it.  I finally figured out how to get that loaded without reinstalling the upgrade.

I was concerned about the 13 files that wouldn’t copy, though.  I thought that the power outage had caused some bad sectors on my hard drive (which is less than a year old).  I ran some scans, which didn’t find anything.  So I started applying the security patches.  When I got to Service Pack 2 (SP2), it would load about halfway and then fail, saying, “An error occurred while copying file dataspec.xml”.  Then the next error said, “The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect”.  I was afraid this was due to bad sectors, so I ran a full disk scan, using both Windows tools and Western Digital’s Data Lifeguard Diagnostic software.  Neither found any problems.  I tried different methods of running the SP2 patch, but it always failed in this same spot.  So it would uninstall what it had done, then give me a message of “Windows XP has been partially updated and may not work properly”.  That’s really comforting…

I researched the situation online, figuring someone else has had this problem before, but none of the solutions worked.  I happened to notice that one person said the upgrade from Windows 2000 to XP can damage the “Help and Support” tools (and that this can also happen when upgrading to Windows 2003 Server).  Then I realized some of the files that had failed to load were related to that.  Then I learned that the dataspec.xml is related to the “Help and Support” tools, in that it’s stored inside the PCHealth subfolder in the WINNT directory.  Here’s where I see a glimmer of hope in fixing this situation, and simultaneously I grow more frustrated with Microsoft for having such a bug in the XP upgrade (which also prevents SP2 from loading).  You’d think Microsoft would’ve learned of this and documented it.  Maybe they have, but I searched all over their site for info on this and found nothing.

I tried to manually load the PCHealth files (which includes msconfig.exe and HelpCtr.exe), but Windows Explorer couldn’t find the PCHealth folder.  I couldn’t create the folder, because Explorer said it already exists.  But it didn’t show up, even when showing all hidden and system files.  So I went to DOS (Command Prompt), and it was listed there, but if I tried to go into it (using the “cd” command), it said the directory is invalid.  Obviously bad things have happened.  But I was able to delete the directory from the Command Prompt.  (And on a side note, who says knowing DOS commands is obsolete?!?)

After I got the corrupted PCHealth folder deleted, I reinstalled it using the pchealth.inf file and letting it copy the files from the CD.  Then after rebooting to let the registry update and the service start naturally, it worked fine.  Then the SP2 upgrade also worked correctly.

And so I spent many hours thinking my hard drive might have become corrupted or damaged because of the power outage while it was in use, but the reason XP and SP2 weren’t loading correctly was because of a bug in the upgrade process.  But at least my frustration with Microsoft is overshadowed at the moment by the excitement of having figured this out and fixed my computer.

video of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Being a programmer, I’ve always dreamed of creating video games for a living.  However, that’s not my calling in life, so that’s not going to happen.  Nonetheless, I still enjoy hearing about the aspect of programming games.  Here’s a video by the developers of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, where they discuss how they combined three simulation engines to create the environment for the game.

The video also shows quite a bit of gameplay and it looks like it’ll be really fun.  It’s been confirmed that it will be released on the Nintendo Wii, and I hope they integrate swinging the Wiimote with swinging the lightsaber onscreen.  If they make the gameplay as fun as it should be with this environment and story and simulation techniques, this game will easily sell millions of copies.

The story is about a secret apprentice of Darth Vader.  The character of the apprentice is based on how it would’ve been had Luke Skywalker been brought up on the dark side.  But it’s designed to fit within the movie trilogies, to fill in unclosed parts of the story.

I wanted to embed the video here, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t working with my blog theme, so here’s the link.  The video is a documentary called The Technology of the Force Unleashed.  If you watch the other documentaries, you can see how they created the story of the game like they would a movie.

Also, you can watch the teaser trailer at the homepage of the official site.

Can you rip your CDs to your computer?

Can the music industry (RIAA) get any more greedy and stupid?  In the news, the RIAA is going after personal use, meaning they don’t want you to rip your own legally bought CDs to your computer or to put them on your MP3 player.  Here’s some excerpts from the article :

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings. …

At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG’s chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that “when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Copying a song you bought is “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy,’” she said.

I suppose they want you to buy the CD AND buy the songs online for your MP3 player AND buy another copy for your cell phone ringtone (at $3 for 30 seconds!).  That’s greedy!  And they’re being really stupid because this is going to drive more fans away.  The RIAA points to file sharing as the only problem (and it is a problem, I know), but I know people who don’t buy music anymore because most of it is so “manufactured” and there’s few songs on a CD that are good.  There are even people who are buying only non-RIAA CDs now.

By their new standards, is the RIAA going to say it’s illegal to burn a CD from the songs you buy through iTunes or other online music services?  That wouldn’t surprise me, either.  The RIAA probably thinks it is invincible, that musicians need them to make a living, but it’s not necessary.  The only strength the RIAA has now is that they have somewhat of a monopoly on things because they control so much.  But if there was a widespread rebellion among artists, producers, engineers, distributors, radio stations, etc., then the system could be overthrown.  I’m thinking that would be a great thing.  I know it might make certain things more difficult at first, but a new, independent system could work without having a “government” of the music industry.

To answer the question of whether we can legally rip a CD we bought to our computer, it’s legal under “Fair Use” laws.  But the RIAA is trying to change that…