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4/2/2007 Belize 2007 
6/9/2006 Moral Responsiblity of a CarnivoreLet's first start off that I love eating meat. But in the recent months, I have been introduced to some more vegetarian dishes through some of my friends and dates. This made me really start to think about why we as a society still have a fascination with eating so much meat.
There is the argument that we have survived as a race by being able to eat meat as well as plant life. I don't think anybody could reasonably argue this analysis. In the early ages of man, we were hunters and survived by being able to kill and eat our prey. This was fine and great. However, as the game moved and migrated, so did our ancestors. And as the food supply died out, so did many of our descendants from that branch of evolution.
Next we had the agrarian societies who developed farming crops. This was a much more sustainable way of living and allowed for societies to stay put and become some of the greatest civilizations in at that time. From being able to farm and cultivate wheat, rice, and other essential crops, we moved away from being strictly carnivores and into an omnivore society. This was a great leap in our evolution. However, the pitfalls were still there. Mankind was under the mercy of the weather and their environment. We simply did not possess the power to better control the environment in which our crops grew. Therefore, we had to continue on depending on meat for our survival. During the same period in time, we also became proficient at farming and raising livestock. This was big leap for mankind and we still practice this today.
Now we come to modern society. We as a race have progressed so much in our knowledge of the world around us and are capable of controlling many of the factors that could wipe out crops in the past. Plus we now have the capability to synthesis nutrients and genetically manipulate our fruits and vegetables. With this newfound wisdom, I'm starting to think we need to be more responsible as people and give back to nature. Perhaps we can start eating less meat one day at a time. Perhaps we can be a little more morality responsible for the choices we make in our diets. I'm not saying we can quit cold turkey - I'm not a saint after all. But maybe I can start doing my part by eating one complete vegetarian meal a day... 6/2/2006 Microsoft's Identity CrisisSo as I'm sure most of you know, Microsoft will be launching it's Live! services over the next few months (some products are already out on the market). So what is Microsoft Live? I'm talking about the branding and not so much abou the services. To me, it's just another brand from Microsoft to confuse it's customers. Why does one company have so many brands? Microsoft's competitors stick to one brand name and it makes it esay for customers to associate their products and not have to make a distinction between internal business groups. Yahoo groups all of it's products under Yahoo! Fairly straight forward.
Let's take a look at Messenger clients as an example of how Microsoft can't figure out how to have one product and one brand as not to confuse it's customers. First, there was Windows Messenger. Then MSN has anothe messenger client with a little more robust set of features called MSN Messenger. Same product essentially. And microsoft even has help articles to help customers differentiate between the two even though the article doesn't say what the real difference is other than one is MSN and the other is Windows. Now Microsoft will be rolling out Windows Live Messenger - same product as MSN Messenger but now it will be called Windows Live Messenger. So now this gives the help article writers another help file to write. Great way to use the company's profit if you ask me (very sarcatically said).
So all this naming and re-naming reminds me of a guy I knew in junior high school. As with most kids at that age, he was very self-conscious and not very assure of who he was. In fact, I remember all throughout junior high, he changed his name. First it was James. The second year he went by JJ. Then the last year he went by Jim. He was the same guy, but everyone thought he was very confused and a little strange about trying to change his identity by changing his name every year.
Well, maybe Microsoft's marketting department suffers from the same lack of self-indentity. Instead of changing your name every year. Take a look at yourself (your product in in this case). Work on it, and then grow. No need to try to confuse us with a name change 1/26/2006 Closing The GapFor those of you who know me, you know that I am an avid evangelist of digital media and how digital delivery is so great. However, there has been a new trend that has made me take a step back and think about the reprecussions of moving too fast with digital media delivery.
Historically, films shown on the big screen took an average of a year to nine months to move to DVD. In the last few years, the gap between big screen and dvd release has shrunk to 6 months, 3 months, and now this Friday - immeidately. Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble" will be shown in the theaters, shown on HDNET, and have the dvd release a couple days later. Needless to say, the movie theaters are not happy about this decision. So much so that there will only be 250 theaters that will be showing the film.
This to me opens up the window for things we may see in the not too distant future. It is very plausible to see movies being offered on demand via your cable company on the same day as the theatrical release. Why not have customers be able to purchase and watch the movies online or buy ipod/media player versions? Some people don't care about the theater experience but just want to see the movie.
Obviously, this will be a big bonus to customers as well as the picture companies. Instead of having of relying so much on a dual stage source of income via theater and dvd sales, they (motion picture companies) could capitalize on both at the same time. They would only have to spend money on one marketting campaign instead of two. And if they really push for online/at home content delivery, think how much money in manufacturing and excess stock?
So if this is indeed the future trend, how will the theaters fare? Why not make deals with the theater production companies to distribute dvds and host online movie delivery? And of course, there will always be patrons like myself and many others out there who would still much rather go to the theater and get the whoel experience. 12/30/2005 Photo is in SeattleTimes.comSo I've been submitting photos to the Seattle Times all year. Finally, one of my photos made their travel section. Ironically, it's not one of my favorite photos but hey - it's a start.
(direct link)
12/22/2005 De-Christianizing AmericaLet me start by saying that I am a big supporter of religious freedom and feel that anyone should be able to practice whatever religion they believe in. However, I am disappointed in the way this country's recent policy's on being 'PC' (politically correct). We can't say "Merry Christmas" anymore as it may offend people who don't celebrate it. Instead of Christmas trees, we now have Holiday trees. This is going too far in my opinion. Our country was founded on Christian/ Judeo beliefs and values. You can find references to God in almost every founding document of this country. We have "In God We Trust" printed on our currency. Now we are too afraid to express anything that may be viewed as religious in our government. When people come to this country, it should be an accepted fact that there will be some Christian values and referrences in the government. These were the founding values of this great country. We allow you to express/practice your religion. Let us practice ours and be proud of it. 8/17/2005 Hello Kitty, Pokemon, and Kid's Beer?Okay, we all know that some of the strangest things come of Japan - (Pokemon, Hello Kitty). But this has to be the most bizzare thing I've seen yet. They are basically marketting non-alcoholic beer for kids. Now think about it. This teaches kids to enjoy the taste of beer at an early age. I really hope this never catches on here in the US.
Kidsbeer proves hit suds for minors
"SAGA (Kyodo) Kidsbeer, a nonalcoholic brew aimed at children, is catching on with young drinkers and is posting monthly shipments of 75,000 bottles, according to maker Tomomasu Co. "  Article can be found at:
5/23/2005 Die Mühe mit DRM (Trouble with DRM)So I have to admit that I'm a big teknophile and big advocate of online music downloads. I think that many music lovers will agree that the advent of online downloads is such a great concept. You have the ability to preview and purchase songs from the convenience of your living room. However this emerging industry has some big hurdles to overcome. The biggest complaint I have is the lack of intercompatible DRM format. DRM is basically a security mechanism that let's the content publishers (the online stores in this case) to control what kind of rights you have to your songs that you purchase (burning to cd, transferring to portable devices, how long you can have the song). Almost all legit online music stores use DRM. Now the problem is that there isn't one DRM format for all the online stores. For the mostpart, you have two major formats for DRM. Microsoft DRM and Apple DRM. Most of the online music stores such as music.msn.com, napster, musicmach.com use windows DRM. Most of the media devices you find on the market support this format (often referred to as protected WMA format). Apple on the other hand uses their own DRM format (protected AAC). Apple does not let any other software application, online music store, or portable device maker to use this format. Only Apple iTunes is allowed to sell songs in this format and only Apple iPods are able to play this format. In addition, the iPod will not play any other DRM format (especially WMA from Microsoft) So why has Apple been so successful? My opinion is great marketting and a great product dispite the limitations of compatablity. From everyone I've talked to, the iPod is the one of the best portable players on the market and the ease of use when combined with iTunes music downloads. So with their success, it's not suprising that they don't need to open up their iPod to competition from competing online stores. However, in the long run, I think it would promote the sale of their ipods for those of us who won't buy one because of the lack of online stores it supports. Hopefully music stores and media device makers can come to a common ground and adopt a universal DRM format that anyone could use. More Info on DRM issues: International Digital Media Project (DMP) DigitalConsumer.org Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) 4/26/2005 Attack of big MacFor those who haven't seen this article, I think it's worth a read http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002254110_webjobs26.html Apple is going as far as pulling all the books from the publisher of an un-authorized biography about it's CEO, Mr. Steve Jobs. After reading the article, I still can't seem to understand the company's thought process and why they would take these drastic actions. According to the article, the book is for the most part, favorable towards Mr. Jobs. I think that most of us can agree that Apple is notorious about not sharing their technology or brand name with anybody else (examples are iTunes - they will not let anyone else use the file format, their machines - only Apple can make their machines and the hardware is usually more spendy than windows based PCs). However, what good can come out of trying to control what people say about Apple in their books? I definitely think this will backfire against Apple and fuel critic's reasons on why not to support Apple. For such a forward thinking company that is about brand name and image consiousness, this act of trying to repress free speech will be a black eye for them. 4/25/2005 Cafe's around townOne of my indulgences is to have a nice cup of esspresso on the weekend and do some people watching. For those in the Seattle area, I highly recommend Cafe Vita off of Pike Street in Capitol Hill. I really like the smooth roast of their coffee beans as well as the great presentation and service at the cafe. Below is a photo of my quad espresso. Caffe Vita 4/11/2005 Sasha spinning 4 hour session @ ElementSasha @ The Element on 4/22/05 . One of my fav. dj's will finally be coming through to Seattle. Gonna be crowded with limited presale tickets. Get'em while you can :)
1/17/2005 Now that's home entertainmentBelow blog is from Sean Alexander showcasing his Microsoft Media Center Edition living room. (drool)
12/10/2004 Free internet radio feedsNow I know that there are online services pushing to sell their online radio services. However, if you are a big electronic music fan such as myself, you can't seem to find the variety of different genres on most of those services. Here is a great site that has hundreds of electronic music feeds. They are all free and you can do sub genre searches as well as specifying bandwidth, ect. Of course, you do need winamp to play the feeds as the site is sponsored by winamp. Fortunately, Winamp is free and one of my favorite music players on the pc. http://www.shoutcast.com/ (for list of streaming stations) http://www.winamp.com/ (winamp player needed to play streams) 12/8/2004 Trip to OhioI'm finally back from my 2 week trip to Ohio. It was nice to finally meet the rest of Cheri's family and friends as well as get to know the different areas of Ohio. We basically stayed at each of the 3 major cities in Ohio: Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Cleveland is a very industrial city. Instead of oceans of water, the landscape is filled with oceans of old factories and steel mills. It was evident that the city is no longer in its prime, as most of the city was fairly dirty and run down. There were exceptions such as the cities of Shaker Heights and Pepper Pike- but for the most part, it seemed liked its glory days have come and gone. Columbus, at first, seemed like just any other college town I had been to. However, I was given the grand tour and was pleasantly suprised to see how large it was and how many different areas of the city there really are. The city has a progressive feel, and from what I foresee, will be growing rapidly in the next 5 years. Everywhere I turned, there were new lofts and old houses being renovated. The city boasts a very chic area named the Short North which reminded me a lot of Seattle's Belltown. Another favorite area of mine was German Village which has an urban yet quaint and charming feel about it, as you can tell from my photos. Columbus was a fun town, but I can see outgrowing it after living there a few years. Lastly, there was Cincinnati. Home to large companies such as Procter and Gamble. Cincinnati is an old town and has a sense of history even though it is a thriving commercial city. The city seems to have a good balance of new growth as well as maintaining its charm and historic roots. |
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