Happy Lao New Year

Today is a day to celebrate the Lao new year. The starting date is on the 9th of this month but some claim that the 13 is the official date. Unlike most countries, The the New year festival can last for days. It’s been wonderful so far. I’m testing out Vimeo’s high definition video hosting to remind me of Laos. The video is set to widescreen to fit in with HD standard but somehow stretched it, I’ll fix when time permits. The quality is great on slide-shows but isn’t an efficient way to make a slide-show, check it out.

All images are Lao except the bike on field. The soundtrack is chosen at random… This is my last slideshow. I’ll stick with video.

Check out this Radio (RFA) interview with Lao Children learning to read and write Lao in Virginia.

I came accross a facebook list of what makes Laotians… Laotians. Very funny, although not official.

You know you’re Lao when…
1. You can name all the ingredients that go into thum mak hoong.
2. At least one person drives a Honda (or Toyota) in your family.

3. You got more than one generation living in your house.

4. Everyone in your house eats out of the same bowl.

5. Your gramps is making whiskey out of rocks and twigs.

6. You got a jar of fermenting fish heads in the bottom cabinet FOR THUM MAK HOONG.

7. You’ve climbed the neighbor’s tree while you were younger to satisfy the appetite for sour berries and hot sauce.

8. Your last name is a bazillion letters long and everyone jacks it up trying to pronounce it.

..

Chinese Photographer got caught Photoshopping

Photographer says “sorry” for faking Tibetan antelope picture [larger image] it’s been found to be a photoshopped fake was notice by a Chinese blooger read more at…

China Eats Crow Over Faked Photo Of Rare Antelope

View Costco’s  photo contest winners http://www.costcoconnection.ca/connectioncaeng/ (I believe some of the entries were Photoshopped.)

Howls’ Moving Castle is a classic

Howl’s Moving Castle is one of the best animation I’ve ever seen this year. This is the type of story line that has to be watched twice in order to understand and find the true meaning behind the inspirational animation. I’ve spent countless minutes watching it and it was worth it, I can’t say the same for anyone else. Howl’s Moving Castle is a stark contrast from The Shutter, the movie that could make us hear noise when we’re alone, but The Shutter is extremely cool when we need the suspense. ; )

A short soundtrack.

Some of the things that caught my attention is the architecture of the buildings, the drawings of the scenes and the use of colors. The buildings are constructed using traditional wooden joints which are built much like furnitures, like this building below which I’d screen captured from the DVD.

Analog TV is out HDTV is in.

Analog TVs will be outdated by February 17, 2009, according to the FCC. Recently we’d aquired an 32″ HDTV and a 22″ HD monitor to get ready for the change. The monitor was paid for by Microsoft I got from a settlement program. On a side note, Bill Gates, with his philanthropy program, isn’t so evil after all. The LCD TV will be the third most expensive item our family would ever own, but not the most important item.

If you have an antenna that recieves signals off the air you will need one of these converter boxes in this chart. If you want a $40 voucher go here.

The Tivocommunity has created a small poll. The poll shows that more people are choosing the $40 ECHOSTAR.

This poll chart is compiled by the Tivocommunity forum as seen here.

The DigitalSTREAM might be my choice because of a better video output. The voucher won’t allow high definition outputs. I’ll also have the CoShip 9900T because it stores up to 3000 channels with fast inter-channel switching capability and supports a picture in picture capability.

The following copyrighted information is compiled by Ken of EZ Digital TV used with permission. You can go to Ken’s site to see the updated online retailers.

Converter Box	Retailer	Price
Artec T3A	BSAT.net	$56.99
COSHIP N9900T SPEC	Buy at BSAT	$51.99
Digital STREAM DTX9900	Radio Shack	$59.99
Insignia NS-DXA1	Best Buy	$59.99
Magnavox TB100MW9	Magnavox	$49.87
Philco TB100HH9	Amazon.com	$70.99
RCA DTA800	Amazon.com	$49.87
Tivax STB-T1	Tivax Online	$69.99
Zenith DTT900	Radio Shack	$59.99
Zenith DTT900	Circuit City	$59.99
Zenith DTT900	Radio Shack	$59.97

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Example Coupon Eligible Digital Converter Box with EPG*

*EPG (Electronic Program Guide) time zone specific. You can see what will be showing up to a week in an advance. Check to be sure that some of these do have 7 days of programming guide. Some will show only 2-3hour ahead of program guide.

CoShip 9900T (7days)

The Echostar TR-40 (7 days)

Tivax ATSC STB-T9 (CECB) $ 49.99

Artec Digital ATSC T3APro (CECB) $ 54.99

MicroGEM ATSC MG2000 (7days) (CECB) $ 64.99

Philco ATSC TB100HH9 (CECB) $ 74.99

Sansonic ATSC (Note: Does not specify the type of programming) FT-300A $ 59.99

Note: All Sold by solidsignal. All images by solid signal.

Other features worth mentioning: The RCA DTA800 is equip with smart antenna jack which controls the smart antenna. The smart antenna isn’t probably available until Feb 2008. Smart Digital Antenna uses sonar technology to seek and lock the strongest DTV signal available. This gives consumers the convenience of never having to physically adjust your antenna.

You can probably find some of these boxes at a local store near you:

Best Buy
Circuit City
Target
K-Mart
Sam’s Club
Sears Roebuck
Radio Shack
Walmart

I tried out the Digital STREAM DTX9900 from radio Radio Shack and it was an easy setup. Took only a minute to auto scan and collect the channels. This model doesn’t have the S-VHS output or programming (I believe.) Without S-VHS, the lack of quality clearly shows on the screen. The converter box comes with a volume control for convenience but I can’t give great reviews on its sound quality. Many channels will sound just as though the TV is speaking thru a tin can (or the sound you get when your speaker is stuck at the 6-10kHz frequency bandwidth.) Reception is just as great as my Sharp Aquos. Switching between channels can give you a delay of about 1 to 1.5 seconds, somewhat slow but better than my Aquos. Overall it’s a practical box if you need one that produce a decent image on your square screen TV. But I think I need a better receiver, hopefully with a better video output, a few days of EPG and a faster inter-channel switching.

My HDTV will be used primarily to watch details in documentary movies such as Nature and the sciences. Our analog CRT TV had lasted about 10-15 years and they’re still manufacturing the same poor image quality as of ten years ago. Our LCD HDTV is expected to last 20-25 years because I bought spare parts along with it. But the technology will probably be outdated in about 18 years.

Pokemon on Ana Airlines

The popular Pokémon (Pocket Monster) television series entered the fleet of All Nippon Airways in late June. ANA had asked elementary school children to compete featuring Pokémon characters chosen from about 40,073 entries. Shota, the winner of the competition, signed his name on the aircraft’s door. In explaining how he chose his design, he said, “I wanted to give the Pokémon that usually live at sea a chance to experience the thrill of flying in the sky. I can’t believe that planes carrying my design are really going to fly.”

Hello Kitty by Eva Air

It’s really fascinating to be able to board a flight where just everything is Hello Kitty - for Hello Kitty fans, maybe. Eva Air (of Taiwan) launched a new concept incorporating Hello Kitty in their fleet. This can be a dream come true for young Asian girls who prefer a Hello Kitty flight over a trip to Disney World while going somewhere at the same time.

Below stands two dolls and two stewardess. There is something strange about this photo. The dolls appear skinny compared to their original cartoon appearance. Their thin, flimsy shirts and hard angles faces make them look spooky. The Taiwanese appear to have some trouble copying the Japanese craftsmanship.

To solve their thin, flimsy shirt problem I would rather have them fluff up their shirts with more fluffs. The male kitty in the blue shirt reminds me of some freaky fantasy universe where the scene crosses between a cartoon and a real world and where the pimpster has taken control of a mysterious airliner.

Cartoon Art on Planes

Below: Here are various cartoon planes shot by contributors of Airliners.net. Fun in the sky for kids of all ages. Or the young at heart. Some of these cartoons look familiar to me, but some I have never seen before. Such as the DieMaus and the big pink and blue cats. Read more at the bottom.

Spreeder and Zap-Reader Flash reader review

Here are two interesting programs that work great for those who struggles to read. Click play to watch.

Zap reader needs a better interface. The font is a bit off, most likely because of some optical illusion. Spreeder is an ad supported site which is not as distracting. You can probably make it work on your PC flash player but I havent tried it. Click one of the links below to try out the reader.

Spreeder.com - online speed reading application
Zap Reader

My first botch radio station (a commentary)

What makes these music to fall into the area of fair use is because they are small snippets that are to used for commentary, educational and non-profit purposes. They are musical remixes that are short and unique. You can never learn too much from these master composers. Click read more for a playlist. The playlist allows you to see the amount of music visually mixed into the mp3.

How to make your own radio station on WordPress.

Watch tutorial, click play.

Sample remixes of Enya and Vangelis:

Sign up at Switchpod.com there may be ads in the future. If hotlinking doesn’t work, let me know. But for now, it works.

The reason for making this tutorial is to encourage people who’ve said they wanted a radio broadcasting station but couldn’t afford to risk doing it full time can now try it out. Switchpod and WordPress is a good place to start.

FAQ:

What happens if I upload copyrighted music?

Your account at wordpress will be deleted, so as your switchpod account.

Isn’t the music you have there copyrighted?

Yes, but it’s shown here under the fair use law. The law is held by a thin line, however.

How are the ads placed in my podcast?

I don’t know, I don’t see or hear the ads yet. They put image or audio ads in along with your podcast. They are completely separate from you podcast. Your users just get the option to download them. To get rid of the ad you can upgrade to $3/month.

What the max size per song?

Probably 50MB.

What audio editor did you use?

Audacity, free

I can’t save it to mp3. Why does it says it needs a lame encoder?

See tutorial here. http://www.youtube.com/watc=nM58_p9XRxA