- Times have not been great for Fujifilm. The Japanese film giant was riding high in the ‘80s, but as the digital camera revolution swept across the technology world, Fujifilm gradually fell behind its competitors. Even though the company developed the world's first fully digital still camera in 1988 and held 30 percent of the digital camera market as late as 1999, competitors such as Nikon, Olympus and Canon have passed Fuji by of late. At this point, the company holds just a 6.7 percent market share. Now, Fujifilm is hoping that it can recapture the magic of 1988 with another new invention: the world's first 3-D digital camera for consumers. The camera, tentatively named the FinePix Real 3D System, will be the first device of its kind available to consumers when it’s released later this year. While the camera is slightly larger than the average digital camera, it’s not too cumbersome and bulky. The 10-megapixel camera employs two lenses, spaced about the same distance apart as human eyes, which allow for the taking of simultaneous photos of the same scene from different angles. Obviously, this is where the 3-D technology kicks in. Ordinarily, when your brain receives two similar images, one from each eye, it blends them into a single image and you get the illusion of depth to that image when there is none. To get the effect, you need something like 3-D glasses. The magic of the FinePix Real 3D System is that it offers two viewing options, one of which is a 3-D digital picture frame — an eight-inch (20 cm) LCD screen that directs the dual images to the left and right eyes, creating the 3-D effect, and the other being is 3-D prints made with a clear plastic overlay. To aid customers in making their 3-D prints, Fujifilm will launch an online service that will make the prints. I have no doubt that the novelty of pictures in which the central subjects appear to pop off the screen or print will catch people’s attention, but I doubt how much staying power the concept is going to have once people see the cost. The camera will debut in Japan this summer and elsewhere in September with a cost of around $600. With the price of traditional digital cameras constantly dropping, I have a feeling people aren’t going to shell out the money just for 3-D. Oh, and the picture frame will cost several hundred dollars, too. Perhaps seeking to spread out the sticker shock, Fuji isn’t yet saying what the cost will be for 3-D prints. With the worldwide economic troubles and the expected decline in digital camera sales, I can’t see many people doling out nearly a thousand dollars just for the novelty of some 3-D pictures. Don’t get me wrong, 3-D digital cameras are a cool concept, just not that cool…….
- What would our world be without the humor added by drunken idiots doing random and moronic things? Just think of how much less interesting your life would be if you didn’t have drunken friends to laugh at or random drunken strangers to mock at the bar on karaoke night. There are drunk idiots everywhere, but for this particular occasion, our drunken idiots will come courtesy of Louisville, Ky. After a night of drinking, an unidentified drunk in the Louisville area was apparently wandering around the countryside and looking for something to do. When this lush happened upon a llama farm, the perfect opportunity seemed to be presenting itself. Seizing the drunken day, this clown decided that it would be really funny to release the llamas from their pens and allow them to run free (do we have confirmation that this tool isn’t a member of PETA?). Authorities believe the llamas got loose just before 8:00 a.m., escaping from their home in the highlands. Following their escape, the llamas made a break for it and in the hours that followed they were spotted on Yale Drive, Waterdale and Dundee Road. Animal control was called and was eventually able to capture the llamas without incident. They were returned to their owner, who was inexplicably cited because the animals got out. Right, because you want to penalize someone for not anticipating that some knob would get drunk off his (or her) ass, happen across the llamas and open the gate to their pen. But at least the citation is all the owner received, because rather than have this individual pay a fine, the city’s animal services office wants to have the owner show them how to catch llamas in case of future incidents. So once again, thanks to whoever was responsible for downing a beer or nine and setting these llamas free. You provided some solid laughs and hijinks in your drunkenness, well done…….
- It may clock in at less than 40 minutes and have only 10 songs, but Coconut Records’ newest album Davy is one of the best indie rock albums of the year from where I sit. People from other walks of public life - actors and athletes - tend not to do so well when they venture into the music world, but actor Jason Schwartzman has followed up on 2007’s “Nighttiming” with another great album. His style isn’t complicated or revolutionary, but Schwartzman’s lyrics are introspective, thoughtful and tell a great story. Most of the songs on the album rely on methodical pacing and acoustic guitar, which is fine by me. The standout single thus far has been “Microphone,” a slow, folksy song in which Schwartzman’s vocals are nicely understated and calm. Another favorite song of mine on the album is “Wires,” a song with some funky, rhythmic acoustic guitar but a great chorus in which Schwartzman sings, “I can’t believe it’s already tired, go and cut all my wires.” The song has a bit of a vintage feel to it, but also the same simplistic, quirky style that is present thoughout. For the most part, the songs don’t rock out or send a lot of bass blasting from your speakers, but that isn’t what indie rock is about anyhow. Schwartzman is able to do what a lot of actors-turned-musicians can’t do, namely show off solid musical talent, great songwriting and an awesome sense of storytelling and thoughtfulness in his lyrics. Other favorite songs on the album include “Saint Jerome” and “Wandering Around,” but out of the 10 tracks, at least eight are must-listens every time through, which makes this one of 2009’s best albums in my book……
- Too few nations are keeping the practice of heavy-handed censorship alive these days, don’t ya think? Sure, there are some things that are censored even here in the United States, but by and large people are allowed to say what they want and cross most any line they want to cross. Not so in one of the last bastions of Communism, the frozen tundra known as Russia. There, making fun of the current or former dictator, er, leader of the country is a major offense. Now if I were to tell you that an American television show was the offending party in a case of Russian censorship, how long would it take you to guess that the identity of the show in question was “South Park”? Two seconds? Three? Depending on how slow your cognitive processes are, within a few seconds you would be uttering the name of Trey Stone and Matt Parker’s always-tasteless cartoon comedy from Comedy Central. An episode of the show appeared to mock former president and still power-behind-the-throne Vladimir Putin, so the Russian TV channel "2X2" cut material from the show. The offending episode aired Tuesday and a short segment of it portrayed Putin as a greedy and desperate leader. What’s funny is that this episode was more than four years old, having originally aired in the United States in 2005. Asked about the Putin scene being cut, channel spokesman Andrei Andreyev said it was the third time the edited version of the episode had been shown this year, although he refused to give a reason for the censorship. Honestly, this is the sort of blatant censorship that most onlookers felt that Russia would move away from following the demise of the U.S.S.R. in the 1990s, but my boy Vlad Putin has clearly inspired something in the way of a revival of that sort of antiquated thinking. The editing of “South Park” is far from the only example of Russian censorship in recent years. The channel NTV was forced to pull its satirical puppet show "Kukly" in 2002 after the Kremlin objected to the show’s repeated digs at Putin. Now that he’s “prime minister” and “no longer president,” (please not the use of quotation marks as signs of my disbelief of the claim that he’s no longer in charge), Putin is supposedly focused on returning economic stability to Russia, but if you think his reach no longer extends into every reach of the government….then you’re an idiot. Reaction to this act of censorship has been outspoken and angry in Russia, but don’t expect those complaints and criticisms to do one bit of good with the Communists running the country…….
- Oh AIG, how you continue to find yourself in deep financial sh*t, I’ll never know. You may recall how the ass hats at AIG decided to pay out $165 million of retention bonuses to executives even after receiving a massive bailout from the government. The public didn’t seem too enthused about that for some odd reason. Yet the ever-worsening condition of our economy means new tales of woe and idiocy on a weekly basis, so the outrage toward AIG has waned somewhat in recent months. That clearly didn’t sit well with AIG, which must take some perverse delight in having the ire of the American people focused squarely on its inept shoulders. See, the company plans to pay $2.4 million in executive bonuses next week even as it struggles to find a way to pay roughly $235 million still owed to employees of its crippled financial products division. Because of its status as a government charity case, AIG must receive the government's consent to make the performance bonus payment of $2.4 million to 43 of its top-ranking executives. Combine that with the $235 million in retention bonuses owed to about 400 employees of AIG's Financial Products (FP) division, the very bonuses at the heart of that March debacle, and AIG is doing its best to curry public disapproval. Approval for the ill-advised $2.4 million in bonus payments to executives will have to come from Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration's pay czar. He’ll also be reviewing the $235 million in bonuses for AIG-FP, the very division that wrote insurance contracts on shaky derivatives that were the main culprit in the company's near-collapse. That’s when the government bailed out AIG with funds now worth up to $182 billion, only to have the ass hats who run the company turn around and attempt to use much of that money for bonuses. Following the public outcry in March, FP employees returned about a third of their bonuses, and a dozen workers resigned. Because of pressure from Congress and the Obama administration, AIG actually restructured its bonus payments for the top 50 executives and in one of the least-noble gestures ever, the top seven AIG executives opted to forgo their bonuses. Thanks for falling on that grenade, fellas. I’m sure you would have done the same thing even if no one had bitched you out and vilified you, right? It is reassuring to know that no matter what twists and turns come our way in this world, idiots like those running AIG can always be counted on to do enough stupid things to keep life interesting…….
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