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A company called Red One started by Jim Jannard, the founder of Oakley (the sunglass company), has created a digital video camera (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/red-one-camera-169222.php) that has a massive 24.4 x 13.7mm sensor. With a sensor that big it basically duplicates the depth of field and selective focus characteristics of film cameras. Steve Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings, recently demonstrated the camera’s power by filming a short film using it.

Red One is bringing the camera to market at a price point ($17,500) that should make digital filming at a super duper high definition (better than current HDTV’s are capable of) very common. Instead of renting a $250,000 film camera, now you can buy a digital camera with equivalent capabilities for less then the cost of most cars.

This tracks a natural evolution of technology in film production that is removing many of the hurdles of creating a tremendously professional work yourself. With youtube, Joost, Netflix, the Xbox360, and iTunes transforming distribution, the entertainment industry is in for a set of significant changes.

Having access to or being the talent that can put together a compelling story, direct, and act remains a significant barrier to entry, of course. But even more people should now have a shot.

I’ve always been rather impressed by Michael Crichton.

He is rather good at hitting cultural nerve spots and has told more than a few good stories. He’s the only person to simultaneously have the best selling book, movie and tv show in America. He’s also, like myself, someone who wants to analyze himself the actual verifiable data, rather than the opinions of people who’ve talked to the people who understand data.

What then to make of Michael’s disbelief in global warming as a crisis?

As Michael tells Charlie Rose (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2663847011110488414&q=charlie+rose+michael+crichton&hl=en) and as you can read on Michael’s website (http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speeches/index.html), his survey of the evidence indicates that humans have had a strong influence on CO2 levels, have resulted in the temperature of the world increasing slightly, but also that the level of impact humans have had to date is fairly negligible, and that computer models are completely unreliable as tools to predict weather for the next 5 years, much less the next 100. He points out that all of the global warming crisis talk is driven by long term projections done through computer models with unverifiable assumptions modeling something that is supremely complex to begin with. Kind of like the Bush administration trying to predict what the budget deficit will be in 2030.

These are all good points, and things I’ve wondered about before. One counterargument is that sometimes it’s hard to model short term behavior, but you can model long term trends.

However, I haven’t taken the time to really dig into the evidence, or how climate models are put together, so I can’t say whether I agree or disagree with anyone on this subject definitively. What is clear to me though is that more and more people are convinced that global warming is a crisis, and even if Mr. Crichton is wrong, I’m impressed that he took the time to look at the evidence and think it through himself.

Looks like I’m going to have to do the same.

I fully respect the right of anyone to sell media content with any kind of copy protection on it they want.  Yet, I find I am less likely to buy it if it’s copy protected, particularly if it makes the media much more complicated to use as I want to use it in the future.

Apparently a lot of people feel similarly.  For all the millions of multiple gigabyte iPods sold, Apple has only managed to sell about 20 songs per iPod through its iTunes service.

While I admire many things about the iPod, I won’t buy even one copy protected song on Apple’s iTunes.  Copy protection systems make using devices more complex, and they create a lock-in on the device.  Customers who buy copy protected songs must continue to use the devices supported by the manufacturer of the copy protection system, no matter what other competitive devices may later arise, or lose the value of their investment in the copy protected music.

Some people argue that Apple will always have the best devices being offered, so this isn’t a problem, but I think that’s very shortsighted.  The world is a big place with lots of innovation happening, the music playing device of 2015 will likely be rather different from that of today, and changes undreamt of can happen in shockingly little time.

What I would like to buy is music in an unprotected digital format, such as mp3.  Unprotected music can be easily moved from one type of device to another, from my home PC to my DVR to my portable audio player.

For a long time you could only buy mp3 music from a Russian outfit (www.allofmp3.com) which seems to me to be illegal, or from independent music labels, but now things are finally changing. The major studios are starting to experiment with selling mp3s (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061207/mp3_music.html?.v=2), a development that is long overdue. It’s rather shocking it’s taken them this long, since if you think about it every CD they sell is sold with unprotected music on it.