Ramblings 6: Digital Cams, Vid Cards, and more March 29, 2002 Paul Sullivan

Up First

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Digital Images

One of the fantastic things about the modern computing world is that Digital Cameras are here to stay. Once the exclusive domain of professional photographers, the technology and manufacturing has advanced to such a level that even the higher resolution models have become affordable for most consumers. Storage media densities have increased while prices have come down, meaning you can fit hundreds of pictures on a single $60 memory card. Compact Flash, Smart Media and now Mini-CD have all helped bring the joys of digital photography to the masses, and I’m astonished by the speed of the advances.

Back in the day, I opted for one of the more advanced cameras, the Olympus D-360L. Yes, it is a paltry 1.3 megapixels and has no optical zoom, and yes, it has a slow serial connection and eats batteries like crazy when the LCD is on, but it has been a good, reliable camera. The trusty 8 megabyte Smart Media card has served me well, allowing 18 Super High Quality (SHQ) images to be captured in their full 1280x960 glory. The 4:3 ratio matches the ratio on the computer screen, so pictures are easy to work with in a photo editor while maintaining the proper aspect ratio at all times. The included flash works wonders for internal photography in particular. However, as nice as this camera has been for me to have, it pales in comparison to what is out there now.

Technology Advances

One of the knocks that digital cameras have taken is that they are not up to par with the quality of 35mm film prints. This has been, and still is the case. According to my research, when digital cameras hit the 8 megapixel mark, they should absolutely match and possibly exceed 35mm print quality. Currently, the market is pushing past 5 megapixels and heading to 6, so in another year, we should reach the magic mark of 8 megapixels. This means you will have no quality loss in switching from 35mm film to digital media, provided all other things are equal.

What are these other things? Well, the lens, the flash and all of the nifty F-Stop / Exposure settings, to name a few. Capture speed can also play a part, as can compression settings and their adjustability. It is likely that the higher-end digital cameras will have all the features you need to get great shots, and even the lower-end models should do a pretty darn good job.

One feature that I lament not having is an actual Optical Zoom. I have a digital zoom, but all that does is “blow up” the image digitally, pixellating it. Optical Zoom does not use interpolation, but actually uses the lens to zoom in on the object you are taking a picture of. The difference is noticeable in almost all circumstances, so if you have the chance to get Optical instead of Digital, I’d recommend paying the extra money for it.

Another impressive advance in technology comes in the area of printers. With six color printing at 2880x720 on photo paper, you can get incredible images on Epson printers with an entry price of $100-$150. While HP, Canon and Lexmark are still major players, it really looks like Epson has this photo-printer thing figured out. Their newer models even have a color matching technology, now referred to as P.I.M (Print Image Matching), built right in. This technology, when implemented in both the printer and camera, allows for direct communication of color information between the two devices. Color balancing, tone, shading and sharpness can all be automatically sent from the camera to the printer for each digital image. Each print can automatically be optimized for varying light conditions, color saturation and a whole lot more. While modern software like PhotoShop and Paint Shop Pro do a great job of compensating for variances, it is a whole lot easier to have the camera and printer talk to each other directly via the header embedded in each image. These advances are pretty darn exciting if you ask me.

SIDEBAR: Adobe is releasing Photo Shop 7 and it looks like it will have some amazing features. One of them is said to do an incredible job of touching up digital photographs. It can remove blemishes, wrinkles and all sorts of imperfections. It’s like getting a face lift with the flick of the wrist. Watch out for online dating services...

Leftovers

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Musical Pizza...

After the out-of-place rant from the music industry executives at the Grammys regarding digital ripping, I feel even more hostile towards the recording industry. I do not like that they seem to be getting away with selling damaged music to the masses while crying poverty in the press. They are very hypocritical, and I for one, hope that they get called on the carpet for it. Maybe the increasing number of lawsuits from songwriters and performers against the big labels will help. Maybe the small victories like that lady in the “Charley Pride” case will help move things along. With that in mind, I continue my little protest by identifying and praising the music released before this latest fiasco in FM quality copy protection. I hope you can do the same. As requested, I have identified one for each workday:

Pre-FM CD Tracks Of The Week

• “Sweet Jane” from Cowboy Junkies
  
• “I Think I’m Paranoid” from Garbage
  
• “They Won’t Go When I Go” from George Michael
  
• “Lakini’s Juice” from Live
  
• “No Time” from Guess Who

Xbox Redux

I have been reading the press coverage of the Xbox release in Japan, and was glad to see that the controller I got to play with was the same one they shipped with the product. However, for a while there, it looked like there might be some bad news on the horizon. Rumor had it, via various media outlets, that Microsoft had made the fateful decision to region encode the controllers. If true, it would have meant that even if you could get your hands on an Xbox controller from Japan, it may not work with a unit from the US or Europe. Thankfully, it wasn’t.

On the positive side, it looks like Microsoft is going to release a near replica of the Japanese controller here in the United States. It will be called “Xbox Controller S” and should sport an improved logo and adjustments to trigger tension. I’m very glad to hear that Microsoft is keeping an open mind when it comes to the wishes of their new Xbox customers. They have a very expensive console that looks like a tank battery, but moves such as this may help people overlook such things and take a leap of faith.

The Xbox seems to be holding its own here in the US, though its start in Japan is not quite as impressive. On balance, it looks like the Xbox will be a moderate hit. If Microsoft can keep cranking out some top level games, it may start to pick up momentum and start running past the Game Cube within a few months.

From all indications, it looks like Nintendo is having trouble getting titles out the door. If the Cube wants to keep its appeal, it has got to get a handle on production delays. As we all know, consumers can be fickle, and they may not wait around for Nintendo, particularly when Sony is doing such a bang-up job. The more games you have out, the better chance you have of attracting buyers. After all, the Sony Playstation 2 may be technologically inferior to the Xbox, but it has so many titles that people are picking them up at a rapid pace, still exceeding the Xbox or Gamecube. A crowded field of three may soon become a field of two.

SIDEBAR: I have been reading that Microsoft is already working on an Xbox II. It seems pretty darn soon to be trying that out, but it seems even stranger that they are rumored to be excluding Nvidia as a chip provider due to cost concerns. Neither of these things seem to bode well for Xbox gamers. I hope they are both false rumors.

Representing

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Doing My Little Part

I got the call loud and clear: “Put up or Shut up”. So, I did. I contacted one of my Senators from the state of Washington, Maria Cantwell. She is a former executive from the folks who bring you Real Audio, and I felt that of the two Senators we have in this state, she would be in the best position to grasp the nuances of the legislation and of the concerns that many of us have. Below is the unedited text of her response to my letter:

Dear Mr. Sullivan:

Thank you for writing to express your views on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Enacted in 1998, the DMCA sought to achieve the appropriate balance between protecting copyrights and facilitating innovative technology. This law prohibits circumvention of technological protection measures and the trafficking of such technology. Thus, DMCA facilitates legitimate distribution of copyrighted work by allowing for the use of technological measures for the copyright holder and providing legal protections for those technological measures. Mr. Sklyarov is charged with violating this provision. This is a very complex issue and I will be closely monitoring this historic case.

Congress is in the process of reviewing whether these new provisions of copyright law impair the applicability of the "first sale doctrine" which provides that a purchaser of a work may transfer the purchased copy of that work with no further obligation to the copyright holder. The U.S. Copyright Office recommends Congress make no significant changes to this law right now.

We need to continue to encourage innovation in technology, but the intellectual property rights of inventors, artists, authors and musicians must also be protected. DMCA helps to meet both of these goals. Indeed, the pace of innovation requires diligence in maintaining the right balance. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over copyright issues, I will be very active on these issues and will keep your comments in mind.

In regard to private industry negotiations, I am hopeful that the market will find solutions that will bring the full range of musical offerings to the Internet and am encouraged when I see companies enter into online distribution agreements.

Thank you again for writing on this very important issue. Please feel free to contact me again in the future on this or any other issue.

Sincerely,

Maria Cantwell
United States Senator

Commenting

As she states, this is a very complex issue. I wish that the reply had been a bit more opinionated, but I understand that a Senator must bide their time, particularly if they are new. I do feel that this issue is reaching a fever pitch, what with the proposed changes in the HDTV standard, the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) and the copy protection currently being imposed on audio CDs all gaining attention in the media. Unfortunately, it looks like the entertainment industry is going to get even tougher restraints put into law, further diminishing our rights as consumers in regards to digital entertainment. There have been a few small victories by individual consumers, but there seems to be no groundswell in terms of class action. Hopefully more people will start contacting their representatives and voting with their wallets so an impact will be made.

SIDEBAR: The downside of that “Charley Pride” CD victory is that the scope of the decision was extremely narrow. The findings in that case will have no bearing on any other CD’s, except perhaps as a precedent in future lawsuits. However, maybe the smallest of victories can help start a trend.

Endgame

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Video Card Observations

I’ve been checking out the reviews of the latest set of video cards from ATI and Nvidia with some interest. What they do is important, particularly now that there will be no more Kyro cards coming out. I had hoped that the Kyro III would be a major player, but with that company going out of business, the big two are all that are left.

The 8500, by most accounts, is maturing well in terms of drivers, which is a good thing. However, ATI’s recent announcement of the 128 meg refresh is very disappointing. Since they will keep the same 275/275 speeds in place, there will be no performance increase for most people at all. This means that the Geforce 4 Titanium lineup of the 4200, 4400 and 4600 will all outperform the ATI 8500. The 4200 has shown to best the 8500 in just about every benchmark and is going to be released at $199, which is $100 less than the 8500. The 4400 should be shipping by the time you read this, and at $299, the same price as the updated 8500, it bests it handily.

The new Geforce 4 Titanium line boasts not only speed, but features as well. The only thing it lacks that the 8500 has is enhanced hardware support for DVD playback, something Nvidia thinks is moot, as most people buying a Geforce 4 Titanium have processors fast enough for good DVD playback in a window. Still, if you want full-screen playback at high resolutions, you may suffer slow-downs and image quality loss compared to the ATI 8500.

Brandon Bell, resident hardware expert here at FiringSquad, has done some extensive tests of the latest Geforce 4 cards on a variety of CPU’s, from 700mhz Pentium 3’s to 2000+ Athlon XP’s, so if you read them in detail, you should have a very good idea of what card will benefit your configuration the most. It looks that even the 1.2ghz AMD I have will barely keep up with the Titanium 4600, so I think I’ll stick with my “old and outdated” Geforce 3 Titanium 500. A sad day to be a technogeek...

EULA: Take Two

A significant ruling came down a bit ago in regards to EULA’s (End User License Agreements), and I wanted to make sure you all heard about it. A District court judge in California ruled in a case involving Adobe in which a user purchased bundled applications from Adobe, split up the bundle and sold the items individually. Adobe claimed this was a direct violation of the EULA imposed on the buyer at the time of purchase. The court, however, sided with the other party, concluding:

"... the purchaser commonly obtains a single copy of the software, with documentation, for a single price, which the purchaser pays at the time of the transaction, and which constitutes the entire payment for the 'license.' The license runs for an indefinite term without provisions for renewal. In light of these indicia, many courts and commentators conclude that a "shrinkwrap license" transaction is a sale of goods rather than a license."