10,000 Mistakes

On recent TWiP podcasts, Alex Lindsay suggested a couple of cool product ideas:

- using a computer and one or more projectors to “paint” light onto a studio scene e.g. you could dial-in that you want a certain part of a scene (e.g. a model) lit with warmer light and the software would change the image that’s being projected with the desired light colors and shape. Of course, you’d need a lot of light out of the projectors to light any substantial set up. This idea, however, seems eminently doable. Throw in advances in LED lighting over the next couple of years, and there’s some good potential for a portable lighting configuration.

- a camera manufacturer that solely focuses on manufacturing the lenses and sensor and ships a simple body that puts the two together. In addition, it provides a slot to drop in your iPhone and makes available a simple, but comprehensive API, to control the hardware. Then, developers can develop UI’s to meet different classes of use cases e.g. HDR, time lapse, basic, etc. As they discussed on the show, the manufacturers have demonstrated a complete inability to design a good user interface in the menus or in the hardware.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I did find the physical controls of the Minolta Maxxum 7D very compelling; the potential manufacturer would have to put in some creative thought on providing programmable physical interfaces on the barebones camera as well.

I’ve always loved driving fast cars (perhaps it has something to do with the time I spent in Michigan). I recently got the opportunity to drive the Nissan GT-R. It’s a very fast car: 0-60 in around 3.4 seconds powered by a twin turbo V6. I was half expecting (and hoping) that Nissan had done something magical and gotten rid of the usual turbo lag, but alas, that was not the case. Still something to be said for that big engine kick, supercharged or not.

Of course, once you got going, you got going! Rolling launches were also much more responsive.

A very nice touch: the center panel gives you detailed metrics from any of the car’s many sensors. You can have it display g-forces, clutch positions, temperatures, etc. Of course, while you’re busy accelerating to very high speeds on non-track surfaces, you have little mental bandwidth left to look anywhere but at the road.

After my drive, another friend told me that Nissan got the Grand Theft Auto designers to design the panel – I have not verified if that was actually the case.

All in all, neat car – would love to play with that paddle shifter next time around.

Atul Gawande, in one his recent books (maybe Better) mentioned that one should count something all the time. I recently took a taxi to the train station and the cab driver mentioned that previously, of the people heading into the T with bags, 6 or 7 out of 10 would instead come to the taxi station right next to the T stop and take a taxi instead.

As a sign of the downturn, he mentioned that he now sees only three folks out of ten take a taxi. The rest decide to just lug their big bags down the stairs and all around the T-stops.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been spending a lot of time with digital photography these days. On my commute to and from work, I have ample time to listen to podcasts (esp. at the 2x speed that my iPod allows). I’ve been listening to podcasts hosted by various folks, and I’ve been struck by my own preference for particular hosts.

My preference has nothing to do with the content of the show – all of the podcasts I listen to (e.g. tfttf.com, techguylabs.com, martinbailyphotography.com, dpexperience.com, and twiplog.com) – have fairly good content, but some of the hosts (Chris Marquardt and Frederick Van Johnson) are a significant cut above the rest when it comes to their style.

Similarly, I’ve noticed with the MarketWatch show on NPR at 6:30 ET (in the Boston area) that Kai Ryssdal usually hosts. I find the show far more entertaining and engaging when Kai hosts it than when other folks host (while he’s out for short periods). I’ve tried to listen more closely to figure out exactly what’s the difference – cadence in speaking, intonation and variance of both tone and speed of speaking, the actual content itself – and haven’t quite been able to identify the “basis vectors” yet.

I met someone who is in the satellite business and works with SES Astra. I asked a bunch of questions since it’s not often you get a chance to learn about the business of satellites.

I wondered if bandwidth on satellites would be a shrinking business as more and more of the world gets wired with undersea fibre. Short answer: no. Many times, satellite bandwidth is cheaper e.g. for providing broadband to remote areas in the US and Europe. It’s cheaper for major telcos to acquire bandwidth over satellite than lay down cable.

I remember a similar reason for the use of solar power out in the Serengeti – it’s too expensive and intrusive to lay cables for power in remote areas. Solar power is presumably quite competitive in such environments, especially since sun is plentiful.

Satellite bandwidth for broadband continues to decline in price, with roughly a 75% decline in unit prices over the last five or so years [the numbers were in conversation, so take all these as rough approximations].

Until now, projects in Africa have been a common use case for satellite providers. Paul English recently launched JoinAfrica.org to cover Africa in free, low-bandwidth Internet access, which may change things or it may use satellite-provided broadband for major access points.