Archival Disc Format - Finally!

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Archival Disc Format Read a great piece today on the newly announced Archival Disc Format.

Move over, Blu-ray: Sony and Panasonic have just announced a new optical disc specification with even higher storage capacities. The new "Archival Disc" format promises to store between six and 20 times the data of a standard 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc. Unlike Blu-ray, this new format is intended primarily for professional, archival use. The companies first announced that they would be working on this then-nameless standard together in July of 2013.

"Optical discs have excellent properties to protect themselves against the environment, such as dust-resistance and water-resistance, and can also withstand changes in temperature and humidity when stored," reads the release. "They also allow inter-generational compatibility between different formats, ensuring that data can continue to be read even as formats evolve. This makes them robust media for long-term storage of content."

First-wave Archival Discs are slated to launch in summer of 2015 and will be able to hold up to 300GB of data. By comparison, the largest commonly available Blu-Ray discs use the 100GB and 128GB BDXL format. Archival Discs will apparently be double-sided, so this works out to 150GB of data per side. Future versions of the technology will improve storage density, increasing to 500GB (or 250GB per side) and 1TB (500GB per side) as the standard matures.

As a professional photographer,  this seems like nothing short of a godsend.   So far there has been no truly good way of archiving old work besides maintaining ever growing stacks of hard drives which need to be cloned and replaced as they age, burning multiple DVDs or BluRays per job which can be extremely time consuming,  as well as utilizing expensive cloud storage options to store multiple terabytes of raw photos.  This disc format could allow for a nice and simple way of archiving a lot of data in a short amount of time in a very small space.   Instead of going back and digging through a card catalog of DVDs, looking for DVD 3 of 8 of a certain job,  it could be much easier to simply find the 1TB archive disc that holds all of the work for a month,  or a quarter.  I'm looking forward to keeping a close eye on the development of this.

The Napster of Movies?

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popcorntime Could the new Mac app "Popcorn Time" be on the verge of becoming the Napster of movies?  Becoming the app that makes film piracy so easy that it becomes mainstream?  Yannick Lejacq of Motherboard seems to think so.

Popcorn Time, which is currently available in beta form for Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or higher, is pretty much identical to Netflix for all intents and purposes. The only difference is that all of the content therein is pirated, of course.

According to the site's FAQ, it's designed to download and stream torrented video that's "buried in a secret folder somewhere in your drive until you restart your computer," at which point it's deleted. In essence, it's a torrent client dressed up with a better presentation. At face value, Popcorn Time has the potential to be truly huge.

Then again, something makes me think that the wide availability of streaming services like Amazon Instant Video and Netflix will damper some of the enthusiasm for this product.   Though it may be enough to start to get movie studios to add their newer catalog to those streaming services a bit sooner than before.   Which would be a plus for consumers.   Either way I think the authors of the software are way too optimistic that they won't be creating too much controversy.  We shall see.

Incredible COLOR photos from 1905-1915!

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Emir Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan, the lat Emir of Bukhara (present-day Uzbekistan) Looking back on old photography is always an interesting adventure.  It's a window into a past life that can otherwise be difficult to imagine.  That being said, there has always been a bit of an "uncanny valley" in black and white photography.   You get a lot of the feeling of the photo,  but without the color it's difficult to immerse yourself in the image.  That's why I was truly mesmerized when I saw this grouping of COLOR photographs posted on PetaPixel dating to around 1905 by Sergey Produkin-Gorsky.   Yes, you heard that right.  Color photos.   These photos were not colorized later, they were taken in color.

The images were produced by taking 3 seperate exposures .  Each one using either a red, green, or blue filter over the lens.   Then those resulting monochrome images were projected through red green and blue filters onto a screen where the images could be printed in their full color glory. The amount of technical skill involved in doing something like this with the limited technology that was available in the early 1900s is absolutely staggering.  Think about the amount of exposure time, and the necessity to make sure nothing in the frame moves throughout the entire production of the image.   Staggeringly good work.

For more information,  please read the full PetaPixel article, and visit the full collection online.

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These new iOS games are amazing time-wasters!

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Many of you might know that I used to be quite the avid gamer.  Unfortunately, as adulthood crept on, I had less and less time to invest 60+ hours in a jrpg or the latest first person shooter.   My gaming habits have moved more and more into the casual realm, especially since I started carrying an iPhone back in 2008.  That being said, there is still the occasional times that I get hardcore sucked into one of these casual games.   Even more rare is when it happens twice in one week.   This is one of those weeks.

Smash Hit

This one seems simple enough.  Throw balls at crystals to acquire more balls and throw balls at breakable glass obstacles in your way.  It's the combination of beautiful graphics, zen like gameplay, and the catharsis of breaking tons of glass that keeps bringing me back to this one.  You need to check it out!  It also doesn't hurt that it's currently free.

Bridge Constructor

This one has you putting your brain to the test instead of your reflexes.   Bridge Constructor is exactly what it sounds like.   You construct bridges out of different sorts of materials and your goal is to make sure that they are stable enough for cars and trucks to drive over.   The physics in the game are fantastic!   The pieces of the bridge turn slowly from green to red to indicate the amount of stress they are under, and when they get TOO red... BOOM.   There goes your bridge.    The initial levels are easy enough for you to pick up the concepts quickly, and the challenge ramps up from there.   You will have more than a couple of moments where you will be biting your knuckles as those tiny little cars drive across your rickety bridge.   Not a free app, but more than worth the money.   Check it out!