tech-know bits

star cinema grill

2005-04-25T09:29:00.000-05:00

[bit] hey guys! i know, i know, i've been gone for a long time. well, don't expect this to be on-going like before. i just wanted to surprise you guys this time.

anyway, have you seen the signage for Star Cinema Grill? well, ginger and i have been interested every time we pass by it on the freeway. then we decided to go last night. we suspected it would have food at the movie hence the name cinema grill. we saw Fever Pitch and it was a fun movie, a romantic comedy. i wanted to see The Interpreter, but ginger ruled it out.

anyway, about the theater. it is so cool! we got there and you buy your movie tickets as always ($7.50 each after 5pm; $6 before). there are 6 theaters with upto date movies. we walked inside and it is really different. all you see is a wall-to-wall bar. the manager came up to us and greeted us. he ask if we've been before and we said no. he explained that we're welcome to goto the bar first or go ahead and sit down in the theater. he told us that there will be waiters in the theater to assist us. we proceeded to the theater and everything looked like it was redone.

the theater was pretty nice. it was clean, filled with new theater style seats with cup holders and a small retangular table in front of every two seats. so you basically share a table with your date. under the table it held menus and order cards. on the table there were pens and a black button. we got there before previews (no commercials!) and the waiter came by to explain how everything worked. basically, you decide what you want from the menu and write it on the order card in the proper section. then you push the little back button and it begins to flash, but it doesn't hurt your eyes and it's not annoying. the waiter comes by and picks up the card and comes back with your yummies. you don't pay until the end of the movie (they take cash and credit cards). as for the food, the menu had a lot of food choices. here are your categories:

"PRELUDE" - appetizers
"THE PLOT" - salads
"THE STORY LINE" - burgers and sandwiches
"THE FINALE" - pizza and pasta
"RATED G" - kid's meals
"CREDITS" - desserts
"OUTTAKES" - beverages
Beer & Wine & Mixed Drinks

the food price ranged from $6-$8 for entrees and the most expensive menu item was $10 for pizza. soft drinks and popcorn were cheaper than cinemark ~$2.75 ea. the setup inside the theater was old style seating, so no stadium seating. but there was no immediate row infront of you because of the tables and an aisle for the waiters to duck around. so it was like every other row were seats. no one could ever be tall enough to block your view again in these old theater style seats! the sound system was pretty good (updated), but there was this annoying sound everyone 20 minutes or so that would hum in the background... sounded like the a/c unit for the whole cinema... not sure though. it wasn't annoying enough to where i missed any dialogue.

so, i would definitely recommend Star Cinema Grill. it is a very cool concept and i hope it stays around. remember to get there a little early to order before the movie. it can be distracting if you're trying to order and watch a movie at the same time. for instance, we had nachos (thin chips with melted shredded cheese and topped with fajita chicken meat with guac and jalapenos on the side) for dinner and ordered that before the movie. then ginger wanted popcorn, so i had to stop watching the movie and write down the order and push the little black button. then the waiter asked if i wanted anything else. well, i'm very picky when it comes to being interrupted during a movie. so maybe this comment is just for me to remember :)

i hope you enjoy it as much as we did. here's the link www.starcinemagrill.net

house rules... 17 or under must be accompanied by an adult or guardian. no kids under 5 yrs old.

by the way, the restrooms are pretty clean. it wasn't remodeled like the rest of the cinema, but it is clean.

boldlygo.com

2005-02-08T10:57:00.000-06:00

here's a chance for anyone to enter a drawing to win a suborbital flight with virgin galactic.

www.boldlygo.com

read the section of the rules about taxes... i'm not sure about signing up.

to blog or not to blog

2005-02-07T10:04:00.000-06:00

that is my question.

baked ravioli and peach tea

2005-01-12T10:11:00.000-06:00

[bit] more about dlp tv's. a dlp (digital light processing) projection screen uses technology developed by ti. the screen has a small semiconductor chip that acts as a switch for over a million micro-mirrors. these micro-mirrors swivel back-and-forth to direct sharp and extremely bright light onto the screen. dlp's are considered rear-projection (rp) tv's, similar to the lcd rp's previously mentioned.

pros:

very good black-level performance (better than lcd's)
no maintenance required to preserve sharpness
thin and light compared to crt's
every dlp tv contains a 1280x720-resolution chip that shows every pixel of 720p hdtv, which provides very sharp pictures with hdtv input

cons:

some people see rainbow effects, like streaks of color when moving their eyes across the screen
may suffer from more low-level video noise resulting in tiny dancing pixels in shadow areas
periodic lamp replacement necessary
expensive, but you get more for your money ~$2500 for 61in

when comparing rp-tv's, both lcd's and dlp's are very similar in picture quality and price. try to find a plasma that's 61in for $2500, no way!

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - dvd recorders

{other} last night, ginger and i were thinking about meeting rich, roger, mark and the schottel's at bw3's but my older brother called and wanted to have dinner since he was in town for some work training. so we went to the olive garden instead and it was really good. i usually don't like going to the olive garden by the mall because it smells in certain rooms, probably because it's old and the carpet needs updating, but the food is still really good. they have this new appetizer, baked ravioli with meat instead of cheese and served with marinara sauce.... yummm! oh the peach tea is awesome too! i think it's the real sugar they use in the tea. so i had the never ending salad and shared the baked ravioli with ginger... plus the garlic bread. i think i'm hungry again. afterwards, we went to fry's electronics in webster. my brother is a tech geek too. he's actually alot smarter in this area than me. it was fun for us, but ginger was kinda bored. she found a massage chair and sat in front of the refrigerator watching tv... it was ~$3k for the tv-fridge. anyway, it was good to see my brother.

as i'm writing this, i can hear my coworkers laughing about something... probably the division chief's retirement "spoof" video. now i have to think of what i want for lunch.

disappointed yet relieved

2005-01-07T08:57:00.000-06:00

[bit] more about lcd tv's. here's a description that i wrote in a previous entry about lcd (liquid crystal display) - a lcd screen is made up of liquid crystals, actually a mid-state between liquid and solid. the crystals bend when stimulated by electrical current, thus providing bright and vibrant pictures. there are 2 types of lcd tv's on the market: flat panel and flat screen rear-projection (rp). what's the difference? well, price and size. picture quality is still comparable to each other.

pros:

picture quality is excellent when provided with a higher resolution input feed
as the screen gets larger, the thickness doesn't (flat panel); the thickness is ~12in for rp's, which is not as thin as the flat panel technology
weight is much lighter than traditional crt's (flat panel); rp's are heavier but still lighter than crt's
very bright pictures, brighter than plasma tv's
no burn-in issues like plasma tv's
longer life-span, about 50,000 hours (5.7 years if used 24/7)
no need for a tv stand or entertainment center for the flat panel lcd
coolness factor
prices are dropping because of the computer lcd industry

cons:

can't reproduce true blacks as well as plasma tv's (flat panel); better for rp's
lower response times meaning you may notice smearing or lag in fast-motion areas (flat panel)
periodic lamp replacement necessary for rp's
flat panel's are expensive still, sometimes more than plasma tv's; not so for rp's
rp's require a tv stand or entertainment center, can't hang on a wall

the more i learn about lcd rear-projection tv's, the more i lean towards purchasing this type of technology. i've spent some time staring at flat-panel lcd's versus rp lcd's versus plasma's and dlp's, and i'm very impressed with the rp lcd's. the prices are between $2000 - $2500 for a 42in rp lcd tv. a little more affordable compared to its flat-panel lcd/plasma brothers. one thing to warn you about when at bestbuy or circuitcity or any retail store, all input feeds they show are in hdtv or dvd, very high quality pictures. ever wonder what it looks like when you input coax cable or vcr recordings? i do, but i don't know the answer. they don't show you that part in the store. most likely they won't if you ask. do your homework and see what you like the best. remember, the settings at the store on each tv is preset by the manufacturer to present the highest quality pictures. that means the settings may be max'd out at the store just to give you the quality it adverstises. most of the time, you shouldn't use such high settings because it may degrade the tv's life-span.

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - dlp tv's

{other} somehow my coworkers let me slip by yesterday afternoon without a fight. i was quite disappointed in their fight. what am i talking about? the recordings of a fun work video to document the "young one's" misbehaving after our division chief retired to show at his retirement party. the recording was supposed to start at 4pm and i was almost willing to participate. 4pm rolled around and everyone was standing around talking, playing darts, and no discussion of any video recordings. i sat quietly and waited for 4:30pm so i could leave and get an oil change to get ready for my trip to ft worth today. well, 4:30pm came around, i shut-off my computer, turned off my desk light and preceeded to leave. gavin, rich and jo saw me leaving and no action. only a little question from gavin, "you're not recording today?". "not today", i answered. i continued to walk out of my office and managed to slip by becca, which saw me leaving. the person i'm most disappointed in is matt. the one that kept harrassing me about participating in the "coffee spiking" scene. as i walked out, i was sure matt was going to be waiting for me around the corner. nope, nothing. i was a free man... thankfully :)

back to work... in 2005

2005-01-05T10:14:00.000-06:00

[bit] what do you picture when you hear plasma? if you don't see a big screen tv, shame on you! like i mentioned in my last blog, plasma technology consists of a mixture of neon and xenon gases contained between two sheets of glass. you get a pretty picture when the gas mixture is stimulated by electrical currents. so why is plasma so cool? mainly because it is a technology that provides higher picture resolution than the traditional crt technology and it also allows for very thin screens. analog crt tv's are at least 12in and sometimes upto 30in deep, plus they can weigh close to 200 lbs. plasma screens are somewhere between 3-6in deep and weigh less than 100 lbs for most models, plus it can be hung on a wall. how cool is that? here are some pros and cons about plasma technology.

Pros:

better and sharper pictures when provided with high resolution input feeds
the thickness of the screen doesn't increase as the diagonal dimension increases
weight-wise, it is lighter than its crt counterparts
provides a wide viewing angle, meaning more friends will be able to see what you see
no need for a tv stand or entertainment center
coolness factor

Cons:

more prone to picture burn-in on the screen leaving a 'ghost' 0bject when repeatedly appearing in the same location like a network logo or video game timers
the black picture isn't nearly as good as crt's, but comes in second
the life-span is approximately 20k-30k hours which turns out to be 2.3 years if used 24/7 before its brightness degrades to half
expensive... the least expensive plasma is approximately $2,500

so there you have it. all you ever wanted to know about plasma tv's. most of this information came from other online articles.

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - lcd tv's

{other} well, everyone is back to work. the parkinglot is full of cars. texas beat michigan in the rose bowl. ou lost again in the national championship game. it's warm again in houston.

the sim last night was a challenge. neither of my trainers were there to spot me, so it was kinda nerve racking. actually, i had to call rich to help me 15min before the sim started to change a data file that doesn't change. then 1min before liftoff, fdo calls me to ask about new or old oms he leak procedures. i said new, he said old, and we ended up with a mixture of old procedures using the new weight numbers. that added to the stress level for the evening. we had four ascent runs, the first two went uphill, next we ended bailing out... no so good, and finally we went tal. everyone thought it might have been an easy sim to ease us back in the new year, but it was probably more eventful than most sims last year. the srb's were under-performing, the main engines had ton's of issues, and the worst was the engines were going out left and right and center. thankfully, the oms weren't too bad. but plenty of data paths (no telemetry) for the main engines all evening. it's kinda difficult to maintain your engines if you don't get any feedback from the onboard sensors. overall, it was a good learning experience.

anyway, i got out of the sim at 8:30pm and was able to catch the second half of the boring championship game... including the awful halftime show.

tragedy and prayer

2004-12-30T09:40:00.000-06:00

[bit] high-definition television a.k.a. hdtv. for an electronics geek, possession of a big flat screen tv is the epitome of my sinful desires... almost. you may ask, why? i ask back, why not? well, to tell you the truth, i don't know much about this technology. all i know is i have to have one... now! get real right? the next series of blogs will be attributed to hdtv's and its array of technologies. here are 3 competing technologies:

plasma - a plasma screen consists of a mixture of neon and xenon gas contained between 2 sheets of glass. when the gas mixture is stimulated by electrical currents, bright and vibrant pictures appear
lcd (liquid crystal display) - a lcd screen is made up of liquid crystals, actually a mid-state between liquid and solid. the crystals bend when stimulated by electrical current, thus providing bright and vibrant pictures.
dlp (digital light processing) - a dlp projection screen uses technology developed by ti. the screen has a small semiconductor chip that acts as a switch for over a million micro-mirrors. these micro-mirrors swival back-and-forth to direct sharp and extremely bright light onto the screen. since dlp technology is a rear-projector, its tv's may not be as thin as the 2 other choices, but definitely thinner than traditional crt's. sony hasn't bought into this technology yet, but other's have. sony is sticking to the lcd and plasma tv's.

as i find out more about these tv's, i'll let you know. the more i research and write about these tv's, the more i want one. maybe i can quit and become the chancellor of ut, then i can afford to buy one of these :) i know, that was a cheap shot.

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - more about hdtv's

{other} as i was writing this blog last night, something happened and i lost what i was originally writing. so this is my second try, the day after. as i think about what i just wrote about hdtv's and as i read about the victims in south asia, i realize how wrong my priorities are placed. i'm lusting over a piece of plastic while those suffering in south asia are hoping for drinkable water just to survive. i apologize. this has always been a weakness for me, not being content with what i've been blessed with already.

i'm in shock each time the death count is revised. the latest number is 117k victims. all i can think of is prayer. prayer to ask for quick aid, prayer to ask for generosity, and prayer to ask for peace that surpasses all understanding. none of this makes sense and it probably won't ever make sense. but i hold on to my faith in Christ knowing fully He will provide a peace in my heart and to those who ask.

people... tons of them... everywhere!

2004-12-27T23:52:00.000-06:00

[bit] downloading digital pictures is the next step. once you've decided on which camera to purchase and begin to fill up those memory cards, you've got to download those shots to make room for more on your memory card for more pictures. the most common way to downloading those 200 pictures is to directly connect your camera to a computer with the camera software installed. most of the time, once you connect your camera to the computer, the rest is easy... just follow all the questions or click a button to download all pictures from camera. one thing to remember after you download those pictures, save them on a separate media, such as another computer or onto a cd or dvd. this will provide you the security and peace of knowing those precious moments won't be eaten by a dead hard-drive. some cameras have a docking device and it can be directly linked to a photo printer. depending on the printer, you can preview and discard any pictures you don't want to print. personally, i wouldn't use the camera-to-printer option because i like to modify my pictures before i print them. another point to this bit is that when you download your pictures, you can email them and share them with everyone. like this past weekend, i took my maui pictures on a cd to lake charles and was able to share them with the entire family after playing them back on a dvd player and using the 34in tv screen as a monitor. it worked beautifully. i didn't have to pass a laptop around or anything like that. everyone got a chance to see the pictures all at the same time. makes for great conversation.

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - work and something technical

{other} today i decided to stay home to hang out with ginger and not go into work. we parted for houston's museum of natural science to see the dead sea scrolls. well, we got to the museum, parked on the top floor of the garage and walked into the ticketing area... it was a disaster! the line to purchase tickets was all the way back to the butterfly museum... on the other side of the museum. ginger and i decided this was the worst day to go and asked ourselves why we didn't purchase tickets ahead of time, so we left. then when we got outside we were thinking that we would end up having to pay 6 bucks for parking for less than 30min at the museum. it turned out that we didn't have to pay afterall because we were there less than some predetermined amount of time. thankfully.

we finally got away from the museum and headed toward rice village to go shopping at eddie bauer home store and the clothing store. we left with only a small gift for our neighbor. we did good. then we headed over to the westheimer area to go shopping at the potterybarn, crate&barrel, and others. can you believe that we left all these stores with only a java chip frappacino and an eggnog latte? we did really good. actually, we almost left potterybarn with a new couch but decided against it :) we finally got home and decided to take down the Christmas tree. it was so dead. now it's sitting behind my backyard fence waiting to be taken to the curb for thursday's trash pickup. ginger de-decorated the inside our house of Christmas decor so now it's back to normal. overall, it was a good day off spent with my wife. i got what i wanted... time with ginger and starbucks. what more could i have asked for? maybe a trip to fry's. now that would have been a perfect day off.

i don't see any snow... anywhere

2004-12-26T23:23:00.000-06:00

[bit] here's another insight into digital cameras, picture resolution. it is important to consider how many megapixels your camera is capable of recording in its active image sensor. the sensor dictates how many little dots it can capture per picture so that when you goto see it on the screen or print the image on paper, it will be what you're looking for. digital cameras vary in resolution capability. cameras range from less than 1 megapixel through 10 megapixels and some are even higher. as for point-n-shoot cameras, they usually stop at 5 megapixels. what might you need? well, here are some guidelines to follow:

4x6 or 5x7 prints need a minimum of 2 megapixels
8x10 prints need a minimum of 3 megapixels
larger prints require higher megapixels

personally, i have a 3 megapixel digital camera. i've never required anything higher yet. i think for those who like to crop and zoom-in a lot on the computer, then a higher resolution camera may be a better fit. for someone that just wants great 5x7 at a max, like myself, then the 3 megapixel camera is more than sufficient. and don't be fooled by a seller trying to tell you that a 4 megapixel camera will take a better 4x6 picture than a 3 megapixel camera. that is not true!

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - downloading digital pictures

{other} well, we're back in league city and i don't see any snow! that's probably because it was almost 60F today. traffic getting back into down was slow. we sat through 2 accidents on i-10 and that extended our return another hour or so. it was so nice to be back home. the cats were excited to see us... they actually finished their bowl of food this weekend. this is odd because they usually have a lot leftover when we leave them for the weekend. this time, may be it was too cold outside, they ate all their food before we got home. we both felt bad, but they looked fine. plus the house was still in one piece, thankfully.

so, i've decided to take monday off and possibly tuesday, if ginger convinces me :) we will probably go to the houston museum of natural science to see the dead sea scrolls. then venture into the rice village area and hangout there for a while. it'll be fun.

a white Christmas eve in houston!

2004-12-25T22:36:00.000-06:00

[bit] today is about digital camera memory cards. first, what are they? digital cameras don't use traditional film. digital cameras use little memory cards that slide in and out of the camera. these cards come in different sizes depending on the brand of the camera. here is a list of possible memory cards:

compactflash type I & II
smartmedia and multimediaCard
secure digital and xD-picture card
memory stick and memory stick pro

the four bullets above represent the four different sizes mostly used in digital cameras. the consumer doesn't get to choose which type of memory card to use in their camera. the manufacturer gets to dictate this. you the consumer get to choose which higher capacity memory card to buy next because the manufacturer usually only includes a very low capacity card capable of storing only 16MB (holds about 5 pictures at 3 megapixels each). memory cards are available anywhere from 32MB to 128MB to 512MB to 1GB to 2GB. the most reasonable price for the capacity received is the 512MB card. these are somewhere around $40 on the internet today (you might have to use a mail-in rebate).

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - digital camera resolution

{other} it's Christmas day and it was all very wonderful. it was very cold outside this morning. i think the temp in lake charles was 34F. we heard on the news this morning that league city recorded 2 inches of snow last night. victoria (about 90 miles sw of houston) recorded 10 inches of snow! ginger was not too happy about the fact that we could have seen snow at home. i guess we left just before it happened. becca mentioned that cari took lots of pictures to prove that it snowed at home. i'll have to see for myself. i'm just glad that we were fortunate enough to get out of houston before we got stuck in town due to somekind of traffic accident. i heard there were about 200 accidents attributed to the weather in houston yesterday.

anyway, we woke up and ate breakfast then opened gifts. santa blessed us greatly this year. lets just say that he received our lists and somehow almost everything fit under or near the tree. santa is always generous at the craven house. then we proceded to pickup ginger's grandparents, opened more presents, ate Christmas lunch and spent the afternoon with the family. did i mention that i'm so grateful for my caring, generous, and loving in-laws? this evening we ate leftovers and then we tried something new... we played mexican train dominos with ginger's parents. they usually crash early but we got them to stay up 'till almost 10pm!

oh, one more thing. i introduced my mother-in-law to the whole blog thing. she's not too sure about it either. but i did notice that she put me down as a favorite link. that's a good sign right? one more reader... that makes 3 and maybe ginger.

sleet and snow... in houston!

2004-12-24T22:06:00.000-06:00

[bit] as promised, digital camera batteries. there are so many kinds of batteries available depending on the digital camera you purchase. my canon point-n-shoot came with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. it is compact, saves me money, and recharges within an hour. i have to admit that when i researched about digital cameras before my purchase, i didn't think about the battery... so much. i think i just wanted something rechargeable. but now when i hear about friends having to purchase aa batteries for their camera and refill every 20 minutes, that's just outrageous! this is what i've learned about digital camera batteries, if you purchase a lower-end product, most likely it will not come with batteries much less a rechargeable battery. it probably requires 2 aa batteries or accepts 2 aa rechargeable batteries or a longer-lasting cr-v3 battery.

my recommendation is to avoid purchasing a digital camera that doesn't come with either a lithium-ion (Li-Ion) or a nickle-metal-hydride (NiMH) rechargeable battery. and Li-Ion is the way to go. some may say they don't want to spend more than $150 on a digital camera just to get a rechargeable battery and that is okay. if you do the math, you'll spend more than you ever wanted to on aa batteries if you think a cheaper digital camera initially is truely cheaper in the end! with all the frustration of having to purchase aa batteries again and again, the manufacturers are betting on you coming back for a better digital camera that includes a rechargeable Li-Ion battery.

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - digital camera memory cards

{other} well, ginger is still not sure about this blog thing. she thinks it is just another way to fill-up time... no doubt about it. anyway, i'm gonna keep trying to get her to read my blog on a consistent basis. i might have to pull the "do it for me" trick. also, i wanted to say that this afternoon in houston, i saw sleet and ginger saw a mix of sleet and snow. none of it stuck as expected, but it actually happened. i took pictures just to prove it (using my digital camera with 3x optical and 3x digital zoom with a rechargeable Li-ion battery). i just heard on the weather channel tonight that houston and its sw has snow. i'm in lake charles, la this Christmas so i don't know if the nasa area has snow or not. oh, thanks to sarah and becca for your comments on yesterday's blog. i'll be expecting more.

my first blog ever

2004-12-23T13:43:00.000-06:00

[bit] in the world of digital cameras, one of the most important features is the zoom. there are two kinds: optical and digital.

optical zoom is simply defined as the user's capability to view the object closer than normal through the "camera" lens resulting in a full-resolution photo. this way you're zooming on the real object.
digital zoom is simply bogus... actually, digital zoom is the user's capability to view the object closer than normal through the already "digitized" picture resulting in a less-resolution photo. this way you're zooming in on the picture taken.

the difference between the two zooms is picture quality... you get more grainy pictures when digital zoom capability is used. a majority of digital cameras on the market have both zoom capabilities (i.e. 3x optical & 3x digital). don't be fooled by advertising stating 5x zoom when it is truly 5x digital zoom without any optical zoom capability! in the world of electronics, you do really get what you pay for... most of the time, you get less because you may not know the difference.

God Bless & hope this helps.

coming up next - digital camera batteries

{other} this is my first blog ever. i just had to explain what a blog was to my wife, ginger. she doesn't understand what i'm going to blog about each day. i told her that it could be about anything and everything. but my blog would be somewhat different and more focused on tid-bits about tech-know-logy. my friends at work will be most proud of this endeavor. this will give them at least two more minutes to kill in the mornings.