Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
An Interesting Sales Pitch
Have you seen it? Mr. Sulu has begun pitching a new product and I have to say that the product should win the Dubious Technological Development award. You must have seen it. I have seen it twice in the hour that the television has been on this morning and I am still trying to sort it out.
He happily touts the introduction of yellow pixels to a television set that are supposed to make the creation of colors that are "impossible to reproduce using the standard RGB technology."
Hmmm… Okay, I’ll bite. In the words of my friend and mentor RuthAnn: "How do it know!?" Just how does the television know to turn on a yellow pixel? Last time I checked, television was till being transmitted in three color signals.
If you have never looked really closely at your television screen, get a magnifying glass and take a look at it. (It will have to be on to see what I am talking about.) You’ll If you can look at a part of the screen that is white you’ll notice that it isn’t really white. It’s actually made-up of oodles and scads of red, blue, and green dots (pixels – short for "picture cells") in a tight array covering the screen.
Basically (not to get too technical), what happens is this: camera scans the image to be transmitted; each scan is then broken down to three colors, red, blue, and green; these three images are then transmitted to your television set; the electronics in your television use one of a few different main systems to fire-off either a red, a green, or a blue pixel for at a level called for to reproduce the picture as originally scanned for each location on the screen based on what the original image looked like.
So, unless the mechanism defining the way images are captured, encoded, transmitted, and represented by your television set has changed the addition of a new color pixel in the array on your television set has no appreciable affect. How would the television even know to turn them on? The only thing I can think is they are turning them on by inferring that they should be on.
You see, unlike subtractive coloration (such as crayons, inks, or paints – the red, yellow, blue that pretty much everyone thinks of as "the primary colors") the primary colors for additive coloration (as displayed on TV Screens and Projection Television are red, blue, and green. If you don’t have a white wall and three colored flashlights, start any program that allows you to change the color of objects.
If you change the RGB values to the maximum setting for all three, the object will be white. If you change the red and blue to their maximum you will get magenta. Green and blue at their maximum will result in cyan. Red and green at their maximum will result in yellow. Any one of them at its maximum will give you that color, and all of them at 0 will result in black.
So, all I can gather is that when the signal for a cluster of pixels tells the red and the adjoining green to go to their maximum with the blue one turned off, this TV must instead turn on the yellow pixel. Does that actually accomplish anything? I have no idea how it could but who knows. I know that I will not be buying this product on this claim alone as this claim makes no sense to me.
Wherever you are today, I hope you’re having a colorful day!
Don Bergquist – March 29, 2010 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
He happily touts the introduction of yellow pixels to a television set that are supposed to make the creation of colors that are "impossible to reproduce using the standard RGB technology."
Hmmm… Okay, I’ll bite. In the words of my friend and mentor RuthAnn: "How do it know!?" Just how does the television know to turn on a yellow pixel? Last time I checked, television was till being transmitted in three color signals.
If you have never looked really closely at your television screen, get a magnifying glass and take a look at it. (It will have to be on to see what I am talking about.) You’ll If you can look at a part of the screen that is white you’ll notice that it isn’t really white. It’s actually made-up of oodles and scads of red, blue, and green dots (pixels – short for "picture cells") in a tight array covering the screen.
Basically (not to get too technical), what happens is this: camera scans the image to be transmitted; each scan is then broken down to three colors, red, blue, and green; these three images are then transmitted to your television set; the electronics in your television use one of a few different main systems to fire-off either a red, a green, or a blue pixel for at a level called for to reproduce the picture as originally scanned for each location on the screen based on what the original image looked like.
So, unless the mechanism defining the way images are captured, encoded, transmitted, and represented by your television set has changed the addition of a new color pixel in the array on your television set has no appreciable affect. How would the television even know to turn them on? The only thing I can think is they are turning them on by inferring that they should be on.
If you change the RGB values to the maximum setting for all three, the object will be white. If you change the red and blue to their maximum you will get magenta. Green and blue at their maximum will result in cyan. Red and green at their maximum will result in yellow. Any one of them at its maximum will give you that color, and all of them at 0 will result in black.
So, all I can gather is that when the signal for a cluster of pixels tells the red and the adjoining green to go to their maximum with the blue one turned off, this TV must instead turn on the yellow pixel. Does that actually accomplish anything? I have no idea how it could but who knows. I know that I will not be buying this product on this claim alone as this claim makes no sense to me.
Wherever you are today, I hope you’re having a colorful day!
Don Bergquist – March 29, 2010 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sometimes They Get It Wrong!
The prediction was for more snow this weekend. Yesterday was supposed to be a miserable day! Predictions called for up to six inches of snow in town (which usually means closer to a foot of snow out where I live, west of town).
It is another lovely day! Yesterday Saga and I went for a nice long walk in her park (ppor thing was worn out by the time we got home… we passed a big pile of horse apples which she briefly sniffed and then ignored. This is a far less energetic response to something smelly than I expect from her.
Today is another lovely day! Another day in which I wish I were able to get out there and spend time in the out-of-doors. Saga and I did start the day with a nice long walk and I hope to take another one after lunch, but I have some stuff that needs to get done here at home and that takes precedence.
Wherever you are today, I hope you’re enjoying a lovely weekend!
Don Bergquist – March 28, 2010 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
It is another lovely day! Yesterday Saga and I went for a nice long walk in her park (ppor thing was worn out by the time we got home… we passed a big pile of horse apples which she briefly sniffed and then ignored. This is a far less energetic response to something smelly than I expect from her.
Today is another lovely day! Another day in which I wish I were able to get out there and spend time in the out-of-doors. Saga and I did start the day with a nice long walk and I hope to take another one after lunch, but I have some stuff that needs to get done here at home and that takes precedence.
Wherever you are today, I hope you’re enjoying a lovely weekend!
Don Bergquist – March 28, 2010 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Sometimes They Get It Right!
This past week when they called for a major snowstorm to start Tuesday night and last into Wednesday, pretty much all day, they were absolutely right. The snow started coming down as I was driving home and the snow kept coming down all day long.
Some times they get it right.
Wherever you are today, I hope you’re having lovely weather!
Don Bergquist – March 27, 2010 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
Some times they get it right.
Wherever you are today, I hope you’re having lovely weather!
Don Bergquist – March 27, 2010 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Gotta Love Lakewood!
It was a snow day in Lakewood.
The snow started Tuesday evening around the time the rush hour started in earnest. When Saga and I went out for our last walk we had to contend with about six inches of snow on the ground.
Luckily, I had planned for it and brought my laptop home "just in case." And it came in handy. At 04:30 yesterday morning, the snow was still coming down seriously! I swept well over a foot of snow off the deck and walked through snow that was shin-deep to take Saga out for her morning constitutional.
The snow kept on falling for most of the morning. Then around noon, the snow stopped and the skies started clearing. By 04:30 in the afternoon, when I was packing my PC to take it back to the office, it was a lovely afternoon out.
Other than the few broken branches, and the mounds of snow where the plows and shovelers had dumped them, the evidence of the frosting that the trees had had that morning was all but gone.
But that is what we all love about living in Colorado. We have (for the most part) a lovely climate, punctuated occasionally with inconvenient weather. All afternoon, while reviewing a document on my PC, my eye kept being drawn to what I think of as the dance of the aspens. The aspen trees outside my office window kept shimmying as the snow that was weighing them down melted enough to drop off the branches.
This caused the branches to spring back up, causing the tree to shake a bit. This caused more snow to fall, this caused the trees to shake a bit more. The pattern kept up for a couple hours 'til only a few small snowballs remain clinging in a few of the deeper craws. It's lovely!
Wherever you are today, I hope you're having a lovely day!
Don Bergquist - March 25, 2010 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA
The snow started Tuesday evening around the time the rush hour started in earnest. When Saga and I went out for our last walk we had to contend with about six inches of snow on the ground. Luckily, I had planned for it and brought my laptop home "just in case." And it came in handy. At 04:30 yesterday morning, the snow was still coming down seriously! I swept well over a foot of snow off the deck and walked through snow that was shin-deep to take Saga out for her morning constitutional.
The snow kept on falling for most of the morning. Then around noon, the snow stopped and the skies started clearing. By 04:30 in the afternoon, when I was packing my PC to take it back to the office, it was a lovely afternoon out.
Other than the few broken branches, and the mounds of snow where the plows and shovelers had dumped them, the evidence of the frosting that the trees had had that morning was all but gone. But that is what we all love about living in Colorado. We have (for the most part) a lovely climate, punctuated occasionally with inconvenient weather. All afternoon, while reviewing a document on my PC, my eye kept being drawn to what I think of as the dance of the aspens. The aspen trees outside my office window kept shimmying as the snow that was weighing them down melted enough to drop off the branches.
This caused the branches to spring back up, causing the tree to shake a bit. This caused more snow to fall, this caused the trees to shake a bit more. The pattern kept up for a couple hours 'til only a few small snowballs remain clinging in a few of the deeper craws. It's lovely!
Wherever you are today, I hope you're having a lovely day!
Don Bergquist - March 25, 2010 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sorry For The Prolonged Silence
An apology, dear readers!
I have to say that I am sorry. It has been too long since I have posted. My life has been pretty hectic this year and I have not had the opportunities to travel or to take photographs as I would like to.
My long and unexplained silence will be explained, soon. I promise to make good with pictures soon. It is, after all, soon to be spring. When the bulbs start coming up, the cameras will definitely come out!
Until then, dear readers, I hope that wherever you are today, you are doing well and have the time to do the things you love!
Don Bergquist - March 22, 2010 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA
I have to say that I am sorry. It has been too long since I have posted. My life has been pretty hectic this year and I have not had the opportunities to travel or to take photographs as I would like to.
My long and unexplained silence will be explained, soon. I promise to make good with pictures soon. It is, after all, soon to be spring. When the bulbs start coming up, the cameras will definitely come out!
Until then, dear readers, I hope that wherever you are today, you are doing well and have the time to do the things you love!
Don Bergquist - March 22, 2010 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Friday, March 05, 2010
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Monday, March 01, 2010
What A Good Girl!
I had no idea that Saga was so well behaved. And those of you who know her might be surprised at this too. But apparently, Saga is the model of self-restraint!
There are very few things that are absolutely verboten for her.
1) Begging from people who are at table eating
2) Barking at people who come to the door
3) Taking things off the table
She is pretty good at following the rules as long as I am watching. This weekend, however, I found out that she is pretty good at following the rules even when Daddy isn't watching! Here's how it happened…
It was a pretty busy weekend for me. I had some writing assignments to complete, I had some home projects that I wanted to do, and I really didn't have the time to have Saga checking-up on what I was doing every five minutes. So I prepared her favorite toy (a red-plastic ball that you fill with treats - in her case, a bunch of cut-up carrot) for her. The doorbell rang before I could give it to her and I set it down on the coffee table.
There it sat, forgotten – to me at least – until this morning. Oops! I imagine her sitting on the couch with the ball of treats sitting there in her clear view; only a foot from her nose as she walked by the table. And she let it sit there for more than a day untouched.
What a good girl! I had to give it to her today and shower her with praise!
Wherever you are today, I hope that you are pleasantly surprised by those around you!
Don Bergquist – March 01, 2010 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
There are very few things that are absolutely verboten for her.
1) Begging from people who are at table eating
2) Barking at people who come to the door
3) Taking things off the table
She is pretty good at following the rules as long as I am watching. This weekend, however, I found out that she is pretty good at following the rules even when Daddy isn't watching! Here's how it happened…
It was a pretty busy weekend for me. I had some writing assignments to complete, I had some home projects that I wanted to do, and I really didn't have the time to have Saga checking-up on what I was doing every five minutes. So I prepared her favorite toy (a red-plastic ball that you fill with treats - in her case, a bunch of cut-up carrot) for her. The doorbell rang before I could give it to her and I set it down on the coffee table.
There it sat, forgotten – to me at least – until this morning. Oops! I imagine her sitting on the couch with the ball of treats sitting there in her clear view; only a foot from her nose as she walked by the table. And she let it sit there for more than a day untouched.
What a good girl! I had to give it to her today and shower her with praise!
Wherever you are today, I hope that you are pleasantly surprised by those around you!
Don Bergquist – March 01, 2010 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
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