| Axver vs digital television |
[21 February 2008|08:53 pm] |
Sometimes I feel like I must be a technological luddite, at least when it comes to television. I certainly go to no effort to upgrade whatsoever. I did not have a DVD player until last year. I was quite happily playing my videos. If I wanted to watch DVDs, I'd use somebody else's DVD player or my computer. I have only reluctantly made the switch to DVDs because a couple of my favourite videos are getting rather worn out. But that's my logic: while a piece of technology is serving me well, I feel no need to upgrade. Videos stopped serving me well when they began wearing out, so DVDs became a logical upgrade. It seems my technological reluctance has served me well, as I have missed out on the entire high definition war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, neither of which I have the faintest interest in. I'm not seeing what the victor, Blu-Ray, can offer me that regular DVD does not. Regular DVD solved my problem of videos wearing out, so for the time being, I'm quite content to stick with my regular DVDs rather than forking out cash to be yet another person pretending to be technologically up with the play.
But now Australia is phasing out analogue TV in favour of digital. This puts me in a bit of a difficult spot. At the end of this year, my television - which I have owned for over a decade and have not a problem in the world with - will suddenly become useless, except for playing my videos and DVDs. The analogue signal will be gone, and with it, my access to regular programming. I have no problem with analogue! I am perfectly content with the picture I receive now. I watched some digital TV up on the Gold Coast, and in flicking between analogue and digital, I could not perceive much of a difference at all. Perhaps that's just my shoddy vision; it wouldn't surprise me. But whatever the case, not only do I not have any problems with my current technology, I don't perceive any gains in the upgrade! But what am I to do? If I still want to watch television, I have to upgrade, which at best means spending $100 on a set-top box to allow my analogue TV to receive the digital signal, or spending much more on a whole new television, complete with spectacularly ugly and unnatural wide screen. In any case, I find it hard to like those flat plasma/LCD televisions. I'm used to them being either a luxury item of wealthy people with more money than sense, or people from the middle class with pretentions of being wealthier and more glamorous than they actually are. I know they have become rather common now, but I still have that perception from a few years ago.
I can't say I am terribly impressed with this whole state of affairs. I don't watch much TV; besides sport and the news, the only shows I watch on a weekly basis are Top Gear, Spicks & Specks, and The Chaser's War On Everything. I probably watch about as much television in a month as some of the people on my friends list watch in a day. I definitely must be a luddite, as the bulk of my entertainment comes from books. Outside of the news, I only watch television for light diversion, which would explain the three shows I watch, all of which are quite humorous. Because the ABC makes The Chaser and Spicks & Specks available for free download, I could just about go without television entirely if it weren't for the fact that I couldn't get through the week without SBS World News every evening. So I have no choice. I don't like it, but I'm going to have to fork out money for a pointless, unnecessary technological "upgrade". I enjoy my cricket and value my news too much to say goodbye to television. Lucky me. |
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[14 January 2008|11:28 pm] |
I was thinking of writing a serious entry today, but then I started to feel like shit and I'm simply not up to it. So instead, I would like to share some more photos. I went for a walk around Brunswick West this afternoon, and since having a digital camera is still a bit of a novelty for me (yes, I am aware of how behind the times I am), I took it with me and got some photographs. I still don't feel comfortable taking photos though, even when it's not of trams. A camera's always been something to get out for special events, so taking photos of mundane, ordinary things feels odd. I can't help but wonder what passing people think, and I'm always very careful to avoid getting anyone else in my shots. I'm sure almost everybody else is paying absolutely no attention to me. It's just not what I'm used to. Plus I don't like making overt displays of wealth, and I feel that things like digital cameras and iPods constitute that.
But I come from a family that didn't even have a CD player until 1998. DVD player? I had access to one belonging to other people 2003-06, but I did not get my own until 2007. I go to movie rental stores nowadays and I'm amazed by how much they're taken up by DVDs and how small - or sometimes even non-existent - the video section is. I walk in and can't shake the feeling that I want to rent a video!
Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Here's some photos from my walk. My inner Melbourne suburb and trams and random stuff.
( Photos. ) |
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[8 January 2007|08:27 pm] |
Evidently, my birthday has come early this year. This is a bit strange; at this time of year, it's meant to be Kate's birthday (well, tomorrow), with mine just over a week away on the 17th. But now was the opportune time for my mother to purchase my birthday present and give it to me, so she did. I am now the very proud owner of a snazzy 320GB external hard drive. It is indeed drooltastic. I now no longer have to worry about space on my overburdened hard drive, or about it becoming temperamental and crashing on me and taking all my data with it as everything even faintly, remotely important shall be backed up on the external hard drive.
Accordingly, I am currently transferring my entire music collection to the new hard drive. However, I have encountered a slight dilemma of sorts. Within the folders for individual artists, I cannot decide whether I wish to categorise albums alphabetically or chronologically. To use U2 as an example:
Alphabetically:
Achtung Baby
All That You Can't Leave Behind
Boy
[Et cetera]
Chronologically:
1980 - Boy
1981 - October
1983 - War
[Et cetera]
I can't decide which is preferable, so I figured I'd seek the input of you good people, especially those of you who are generorky enough to also fuss over your music collection's organisation like this. So here's a poll! I haven't made one of these in a while.
Poll #902650
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: AllShould I sort albums alphabetically or chronologically? |
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generorky
6 (27.3%)