The other side of the coin

Yesterday, HD-DVD was pronounced dead.  There was some discussion in the comment thread attached to that post of the various reasons why Blu-Ray is less than an ideal solution, even though the Blu-Ray technology itself is superior to HD-DVD's.

So, Blu-Ray's technology may be right.  This morning, xnguard has posted an excellent analysis of what's still wrong with Blu-Ray.  Few people will be surprised that one of the major factors is the heavy DRM that Sony has put on top of the platform, but many potential buyers probably won't know that Sony keeps on revising and revising the Blu-Ray specification in ways that require more and more hardware capability to be built into players.  (As xnguard notes, there's already one lawsuit by an owner of a Blu-Ray 1.0 player who's found that his player became obsolete before the format war even settled out, and can't properly handle Blu-Ray 1.1 discs.  One studio has already begun to release Blu-Ray 2.0 discs despite the fact that no Blu-Ray 2.0 compliant player, either as a standalone appliance or as PC software, currently exists on the market.)  And then, too, one should never underestimate the implications of the fact that the Blu-Ray specification is at this point controlled entirely by Sony, a company which we have now come to know as a deep repository of shameless and unrepentant asshattery.  (Sony's president, at least, expressed an opinion implying that from Sony's point of view, the only problem with the Sony rootkit scandal of 2005 was that Sony got caught.)  This is a perennial problem with any technology primarily controlled by a single source: the market is at the mercy of the whims of that single controlling source.

Perhaps what we need here, now that the question of the underlying technology has been settled, is for the rest of the consumer electronics industry to get together and formulate an "Open Blu-Ray" specification.

Incidentally, I observed in a comment yesterday that if HD-DVD claimed to be able to go to three or four layers to increase capacity, you can bet someone will do it with Blu-Ray discs too.  What I didn't know yesterday (quoting xnguard, here) was that it's already been done:

Hitachi, Ritek, TDK, and Panasonic have all produced ready-for-market prototype Blu-Ray media with 4-layer, 6-layer, and 10-layer capacities.  Of those, only Hitachi's 4-layer process might work in existing drives with only a firmware upgrade required.  Firmware upgrades for consumer electronics are still rocky and uncertain, but 4 layers (100GB) sure does sound tasty-- especially if it only junks a minority of players that either can't be upgraded, or just aren't supported by the manufacturer any more.

And if 100GB sounds tasty, how about that 10-layer, 250GB disc?

Aim high

Remember that failed US spy satellite (presumed to be a KH-12) that's coming down?  Not to let a good thing go to waste, the US Navy is planning to shoot it down tomorrow after Atlantis is safely back on the ground, using a missile fired from an AEGIS cruiser in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii.

"If we miss, nothing changes," said NASA administrator Michael Griffin.  "If we shoot and barely touch it, the satellite is just barely in orbit" and would still burn up somewhat in the atmosphere, he said.

"If we shoot and get a direct hit, that's a clean kill and we're in good shape," he added.

The missile will be a modified Raytheon RIM-161B Standard SM-3 Block 1-a fired from an Aegis BMD-equipped ship.  At present, BMD-equipped ships are the three Ticonderoga-class cruisers USS Lake Erie (CG-70), USS Shiloh (CG-67), and USS Port Royal (CG-73), plus the enhanced Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Decatur (DDG-73).  Current information indicates the USS Lake Erie, which has taken part in the majority of Aegis BMD tests to date, will also be the launch vessel for this shot.

The RIM-161, however, has a declared maximum altitude stated only as "greater than 100 miles", whereas the Navy intends to fire at the satellite as it begins to re-enter about 150 miles up.  From this we can infer that either the actual altitude capability of the RIM-161B is significantly greater than the unclassified specifications indicate (not unlikely), or the Block 1-a upgrade includes a significant increase in high-altitude performance.  Previous intercepts have been achieved at 130 miles altitude with the SM-3 Block 1-a.

The photo below shows the USS Shiloh firing a SM-3 on June 22, 2006, in the eighth flight test of the Aegis BMD System.  This shot would prove to be the seventh successful intercept in the Aegis BMD flight test program.  (The full-resolution version makes excellent wallpaper.)

Wheee! TWOSAT!

No, it's nothing to do with satellites this time.  It's The Wizard of Speed and Time, which Mike Jittlov has authorized for distribution via BitTorrent.  Props to perspicuity for the pointer.  :)

PSA: HD to Blu-Ray

Wired has a how-to on converting your HD-DVDs to Blu-Ray.  You'll need a fast Windows machine, a HD-DVD drive, a Blu-Ray burner, 30-40GB of available disk space, a whole bunch of software, and a whole lot of patience.  But check your costs first; you may be able to just buy a Blu-Ray copy of the movie cheaper than you can buy a blank Blu-Ray disc ($15-$25 per blank for single-layer write-once media; dual-layer writeable Blu-Ray discs aren't available yet).

Golden parachute

In the wake of Microsoft's unsolicited bid to buy out Yahoo, Yahoo has set out a golden parachute scheme for Yahoos.

The parachute, or cushion, will kick into effect should that employee lose his job within two years after a new owner takes over, should she get terminated without cause, or if the employee decides it's time to leave for "good reason."

The golden parachute also includes health and dental coverage for the length of employees' severance awards, as well as reimbursement of outplacement services up to two years, or a maximum of $15,000, depending on job title.

This bodes well for both Yahoo and Microsoft.  Yahoo wants to retain its workforce, whether it prevails over any hostile takeover attempt, or whether it walks down the aisle to a friendly merger with a desired suitor.

One could also (more cynically) say, Yahoo wants to protect its employees in the event that Microsoft takes over Yahoo and either starts laying Yahoos off left and right, or screws the pooch badly enough that Yahoos start saying "Fuck this shit, I'm out of here."

45% cloud cover, my ass

Six minutes to totality, and cloud cover just went from nine-tenths to ten-tenths.  Can't see a damned thing.