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Yes we can make “hellabytes” an SI-recognized term

Posted: 20 Feb 2010 06:56 PM PST


All the hella-haters can spin on it. I want “hella” as an SI-recognized prefix along with “mega” and “kilo.” And that’s why I’m about to do something I rarely ever do: join a Facebook group. Point your little browser toward The Official Petition to Establish ‘Hella-’ as the SI Prefix for 10^27 if you want your storage space in 50 years to be measured in hellabytes and the universe’s weight in hellagrams.

It came about as a sort of joke project by a student at UC Davis, but with 12,000+ people and a couple academics on board, it may just have a chance. Not really, though.

Honestly, it would hardly ever refer to anything except on the most astronomical of scales. One hellameter would be something like a billion light-years, and the limit of the universe as we know it seems to be, well, a fraction of that.

A hellasecond would be about a two and a half million times the age of our galaxy. So really, there’s no danger of people who don’t like hella having to say it all the time. Come on people, let’s do this.

[via Reddit]

Samsung keeps the mini-camcorder war rolling, announces two new models

Posted: 20 Feb 2010 06:30 PM PST

In addition to the cameras we told you about earlier today, Samsung also announced two new mini-camcorders. Expanding on their existing line, the new Samsung models pretty much just bring the specs up to the next level and add a few new features. When Samsung brought their first mini-camcorder onto the market, no one really noticed. The market was dominated by Flip, and besides that, Samsung didn’t really bring anything new to the table. That’s not the case this time around.

The HMX-U20 does have a couple of innovative features (at least to the market segment) this time around. The USB connection is via a USB cable, both have image stabilization, and more importantly, the U20 has a 3x optical zoom. The U15 doesn’t, but it adds the ability to take still pictures. I’m not 100% sure why you’d want to, but it’ll be there. I think I’d rather have the optical zoom. The general specs are still the same, 2-inch LCD, recording resolution is still 1920×1080, and the U20 and U15 are available in either blue, red, silver, or black.

The HMX-U20 (with the 3x optical zoom) will sell for $249, and the U15 (with 10mp stills) will be priced at $229 when they come available this spring.


Samsung announces three new cameras, maybe even ones worth looking at

Posted: 20 Feb 2010 02:05 PM PST


The last batch of Samsung point-and-shoots was so unremarkable that I couldn’t even bear to write them up. Not so this batch — while Samsung isn’t exactly revolutionizing imaging or anything, these are at least different from the usual “megapixel bump and smile shutter features” nonsense.

Following the example of such cameras as the DP2 and LX3, the new TL500 eschews high megapixel counts and long zooms for a fast lens and larger sensor, resulting in (one hopes) much-improved low light performance. And the TL350 takes a page from Casio’s book (it’s about time) and allows for 1000FPS video recording (in a postage stamp-sized frame, of course). Bravo, Samsung.

Here are the relevant stats and figures:

TL500



The selling point of the TL500 is its lens and sensor. Its 1.7″ CCD and F/1.8 24mm lens (5x optical zoom) mean that the camera should be able to shoot at its optimum settings in almost any situation. No more high-ISO pictures at sunset or blurred action in daylight because of a slow lens — this has ever been the curse of point and shoots.

Unfortunately, the result of this helpful, but immature lens-sensor combination is a lack of other compelling features. Video, for instance, is limited to a pathetic 640×480 at 30FPS. While I rarely find a use for face recognition and such, it’s become part of a standard feature set that people expect, and the TL500 doesn’t seem to sport any of the usual bells and whistles. Maybe it’s for the best. But really, VGA video? And brother is that camera ugly!

It’s also got a 3″ AMOLED swivel screen, which I imagine is quite nice. The TL500 should be available this spring for $450. Kind of steep if you ask me, but I like where they’re going with this.

TL350


The TL350 is the most interesting camera I’ve seen from Samsung in a long time, probably because it’s a mea culpa on their part, admitting that perhaps consumers do want interesting features. The TL350 doesn’t have the same high-quality lens or big sensor as the TL500, but its feature set is much more compelling. To start with, it does high speed video — up to 1000FPS, like the Casio FC100, and actually uses the same framerate steps as Casio does, with slightly higher resolution. We’ll have to test this out first-hand to see if it’s better or worse, but the fact that they’re even doing it raises my opinion of Samsung significantly.

Next, they have an interesting but questionably practical feature, called dual capture. Basically, you can take full-size 10-megapixel shots while shooting HD video at 1080p. I don’t know how many shots I’ve missed because I was busy shooting video, but it isn’t many. Also, I’d be worried about shutter lag, weird exposure, and interruption of the video. But hey, maybe they’ve got that all worked out.

The TL350 also has a 3″ AMOLED screen, though it doesn’t swivel. I’m okay with that if you are. It should be available this spring for $350. This is the one I’d buy if I were you. Hopefully we’ll get one for review right quick.

AQ100 & SL605


Not too much too see here. The AQ100 (top) is waterproof, and the SL605 is “durable,” which is not to say “rugged.” The both have 12 megapixels, a 5x zoom, a 2.7″ LCD screen, and the usual point-and-shoot features. The AQ100 shoots 720p but the SL605 is limited to 640×480. The obvious question is why didn’t they just make one camera that’s both durable and waterproof?

They’ll both be available this spring, the AQ100 for $200 and the SL605 for $130.

Not bad, Samsung, not bad. It was a lot of work to write these bastards up, but I don’t regret it. I can’t wait to get my hands on both the TL500 and the TL350.

Outrage: School accused of using laptop to take photos of student at his home without his knowledge

Posted: 20 Feb 2010 10:00 AM PST

It’s the start of yet another lazy Saturday, so let’s make things a little more interesting with a side dish of outrage. A 15-year-old student in Pennsylvania has accused his high school of spying on him using a school-supplied MacBook. The school had accused the boy "inappropriate behavior" that it found him engaged in via the built-in Webcam. Lawsuits are flying, as you might imagine.

The school didn’t say what activity the boy was engaged in, and it doesn’t really matter. He could have been gacked out of his mind, but the school has no right to spy on him in his own home. If you think it does, then let’s get you a time machine so you can live under the thumb of the Stasi.

The school-issued MacBook has a sort of security feature that allows an administrator to remotely activate the built-in Webcam without the user knowing. It’s ostensibly a security feature, but, should the boy’s allegations pan out, then I think we can say the school acted way out of bounds.

Now, the MacBook is 100 percent owned by the school, so it’s well within its rights to set the rules. "No Torrents, no LimeWire, no YouTube," etc. (Who uses LimeWire, by the way? It’s always in the top 10 downloads of the likes of versiontracker and whatnot.) The school also reserved the right to search the MacBook’s hard drive, so if it found a whole bunch of DVD rips on there, well, that’s not allowed.

Remotely activating the Webcam to snap photos without the student knowing? That’s clearly an egregious violation of all sorts of privacy rights, and may well be on the wrong side of wiretapping laws, too. So it’s nonsense left, right, and center.

Not that emotions should have any place in deciding matters of law, but imagine your child, or you yourself if you’re a student, coming home and finding out that that laptop your school have him was spying on him. You’d be pretty ticked off, I imagine.

The school has denied any wrongdoing, and has since disabled that remote control feature.

My initial reaction was, what a wealthy school district, buying MacBooks for its kids! Surely a less expensive netbook is all a high school student would need?

Flickr

What I did today: Nintendo DS case replacement

Posted: 20 Feb 2010 09:03 AM PST

Not a big deal but I just wanted to write a bit about replacing parts on your valuable and delicate electronics. Friends, I’m here to tell you that while it’s hard, it’s not impossible to fix things yourself.

Our old DS, the one my son uses, fell in an airport a few weeks ago and the hinge cracked. I decided to try to repair the case. A quick perusal of eBay found a bright blue replacement case for the DS for 2 cents (plus $12 shipping LOL!). A search for “DS replacement case” or something like that will bring up similar models. When it arrived I put the whole mess away for a while. They all come from the same knock-off Shenzhen factory anyway. Heck, this even came with a “real” Nintendo sticker with serial number.

I cracked the thing open and slowly worked through all of the screws and parts. I’m not that handy. I like electronics but I don’t like them when they’re in pieces. My buddy Paul is great at taking things apart while our own Doug Aamoth is a whiz at PC repair. I’m just a dilettante.

Anyway, a few hours later and I have a brand new DS. Most of the parts didn’t quite fit at first – I trimmed them with a pocket knife – and the stickers are a joke but it’s a good feeling to fix something that broke. I remember repairing cars with my Dad when I was a kid and since we don’t have a garage here where we can really tear down brakes or change oil, I expect to do little projects like this with my son over the next few years. Hopefully complexity doesn’t prohibit us from this sort of thing.
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