I was doing some ‘research’ today to see what issues have arisen as a result of Snow Leopard being unleashed upon the world.  For the most part, it seems to be going fairly well.  Like any other operating system release, there have been the usual horror stories as well as the ‘I’ve installed it on a thousand computers and didn’t have one problem’ types of posts and stories.  During my reads, though, I did find a couple of interesting issues.  The first is rather surprising to me:  defective installation media from Apple.  Apparently, they did not acknowledge this at first.  I suppose several thousand calls, emails and forum posts convinced them that it was, in fact, a problem.  I think it was reasonable, on Apple’s part, to blame the calls on bad drives or user error.  When numbers hit a certain point, however, a company will generally investigate and own up if there was a problem.  Apple did it’s duty and will be replacing the defective discs.  Good for them.

The second and more interesting issue I read about has to do with a change made to the way that Snow Leopard calculates file sizes.  Instead of using the more standard kilobyte is 1024 bytes calculations, a kilobyte is now 1000 bytes.  This makes it easier for the ‘normal’ person – and Apple’s alleged audience – to comprehend, but makes it inconsistent with the rest of the computing world.  And, no, the marketing scheme cooked up by the hard disk makers does not count.  There’s an interesting story about this over on TUAW, but the comments-almost all of them defending Apple on this, what a shock, are far more interesting. 

In typical defend-Apple-at-all-costs fashion, the fan kiddies responded to every negative comment in droves.  Some of the comments are just hysterical.  Others, just sad.  Most, though, are very well thought out, even the pro-Apple ones.  The general consensus, though, is that there should have been a toggle somewhere in the preferences that controls how this number is returned. 

The really interesting thing about the switch and the ensuing debate is the inconsistency within the operating system….something most of the Mac users that I know say Apple is very good about.  I also know, however, that it is just a perception and the real truth is that it is just as inconsistent as Windows, Apple just does a better job at masking them than Microsoft does.  (As an aside, Windows 7 is a great leap forward in this area.  I plan on writing about that after Windows 7 is released.)  So, apparently the underlying BSD framework that Mac OS X is built upon, returns the numbers the old fashioned way where a kilobyte is 1024 bytes.  Finder returns a kilobyte as 1000. iTunes (yes, I understand it is NOT part of the OS) says 1024 as well. 

When I first read about the switch in the meaning of kilobyte, I thought ‘well, that’s how they achieved the savings in disc space…they just redefined what a kilobyte, megabyte and gigabyte were.’  That’s not the case, however.  What they did was remove support for the PowerPC chip and bunch of drivers that can now be downloaded on demand…much like Windows has done for years.  I’ve seen, in various places, savings of six to twelve gigabytes (as in 1024 megabytes.) 

Apple, seemingly, has done a good job with Snow Leopard and corrected the multitude of problems that was Leopard.  Yeah, the dirty little secret-and one I’ve written about quite a bit-is that Leopard was a lemon.  You won’t find many die hard Mac fan kiddies admitting this (though, a few have…like the guy who was afraid to let his Windows computer out on the Internet.)  Like Microsoft with Windows 7, Snow Leopard is Apple’s apology for its previous buggy operating system.  Good for them.

Links:

• MacFixit article about the change
• TUAW story about the change

Once again, for the second straight year in a row, a NASCAR race will run in the rain.  The Nationwide Series is in Montreal, Canada running on a road course.  The Montreal event has proven to be a pretty competitive and exciting race to watch.  Canada’s own drivers normally do well and, in fact, one of them, Ron Fellows, won the race last year.  This year, he along with fellow countryman Jacques Villeneuve, are participating again. 

Qualifying for the event was held in the rain and Marcos Ambrose took the pole.

Running events in the rain is relatively new to NASCAR.  Back in the nineties, they ran qualifying for one of the exhibition events in Japan was in the rain, but until last year, no race had run in the rain.  While the cars are prepared to run in wet conditions at all of the road course events, none actually did so until this event last year, however, conditions had deteriorated so much that, with 28 laps to go, NASCAR called the event and gave the win to Ron Fellows.

In order to run the cars in the rain, the teams have to install windshield wipers, rain tires, lights in the rear of the car and some kind of defroster mechanism inside the car for visibility.  What normally happens, prior to the event weekend, the wiper mechanism (minus the wiper itself) are installed, the lights installed and connected in the rear of the car, at the top of the back window usually, and the duct work or blowers for the defroster are installed.  IF NASCAR deems the conditions warrant it, they will bring out a caution, bring the cars down pit road and have the rain gear installed.  The field is frozen, meaning when the cars go back on the track, they maintain position-provided they are back in line at the end of the time limit.  The teams have a five minute limit to get everything done.  If they do so, the go back in the same order they came in under.  However, if they are late, they go to the rear of the field, something you do not want to do on a road course.

Ambrose led 60 laps in the event, but after a late race caution bunched the field and allowed Carl Edwards to close the gap, Ambrose made one mistake on the last turn of the track and allowed Edwards to pass him.  Edwards won the event, but Ambrose proved his road racing prowess once again.  Canadian Andy Ranger finished third in his first NASCAR event.

Well, just when one thinks that Apple will start to take security in it’s operating system more seriously, one finds out that the ‘security through obscurity’ mantra still stands.  Remember the ‘malware’ feature in the ‘new’ version of Mac OS X?  Well, turns out that it only ‘protects’ against two types of malware:  OSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Horse and the OSX.iService malware that was embedded in the pirated iWork installer.  Supposedly, however, the definitions can be updated through a software update.  Question is, will they?  Remember, this company is the same company that pretends to be ‘safe’ because of Windows.  They are the ones responsible for the notion that by merely using Windows, especially on the internet, they will be at risk, much more than if they used a Mac.  In fact, they have so brainwashed the Mac faithful, that, at least one prominent podcaster even said it (he said it once before, but i thought he was joking…he wasn’t.)  On a recent Mac oriented podcast, one person, who runs a production company, actually said that one of his employees was using a Windows PC and…GASP!…went on the Internet.  The podcaster immediately sprang into action, completely wiping out the PC and doing a fresh install.  I have to wonder if the poor person who actually used the computer kept his or her job.  The thing I’m going to take away from this little story is the image of this person, donning a cape with an Apple logo, leaping toward the compute, yelling ‘NOOOOO!!!!’ in slow motion and, when he’s too late to stop the browser, he whips out a disk image and ‘saves’ the computer through amnesia.  What a great image.  I kid, of course, but he did tell that story.

Mac users, anxious to get a free copy of Snow Leopard, might not want to jump at the first site that claims to have it.  Indeed, according to Trend Micro, these web sites carry something called OSX_JAHLAV.K which changes the DNS configuration of the target computers and redirects them to phishing sites.

The ‘new’ operating system releases today (Friday, 8/28/2009) to the masses. 

I’m a gadget nut.  I love gadgets, my wife hates them…a marriage made in heaven.  My favorite gadgets are those that don’t cost a lot of money.  Until about two years ago, one had to seek out such crapgadgets online, since most retail establishments do not carry these devices.  So, what changed?  Well, one of my favorite stores blew into town.  Called ‘Five Below’, these stores are ‘upscale’ dollar stores, you know…the stores where nothing costs more than a buck.

Five Below carries a multitude of products from candy and soda to posters, games and…tada…electronic gadgets.  Now, one might think you would not find any worthwhile electronics in such a place but, not here.  This store carries a surprising amount of nifty and very workable electronic gadgets.  Things like toss away keyboards, iPod speakers, mice, game controllers, digital cameras, radios, digital photo viewers, web cams and other cool little toys. 

Granted, for five bucks, you won’t find the highest quality stuff, but you will find gadgets that are suitable for travel, kids and other situations where you may have a need for something that works well enough to get through that pinch or to occupy a child and if they break it, you are not out any real money.  Once in awhile, however, you may even find a gem or two.

For instance, this week, the stores featured a cooling pad for laptops, a web cam and digital photo viewer.  All for five bucks each.  The cooling pads went fast.  I picked up one for my son.  It uses USB to get its power, but does not have a USB hub like the more expensive one he had, which broke a few days ago.  The pad-at five bucks-was money well spent.  It moves just enough air to keep the laptop much cooler.  I also picked up the web cam and the photo viewer.  The web cam, an iConcepts web cam made by Sakar, does 640x480, 15 frames per second-pretty standard for lower end web cams.  The video and still mode quality is not bad at all.  In fact, I’d say it was quite a bit better than my Moto Q Smartphone  and better than my first digital camera that cost me four hundred bucks.  It comes with software that, surprisingly, works with Windows 2000, XP and Vista.  It does require a lots of light, but it produced a stutter free and pretty clear video.  It is very small and flexible.  If you need a web cam for the kids computer or one for travel, this thing will work well enough for you.  If you don’t expect high definition video or razor sharpness but want something a bit better than those old Creative Labs cameras, you can’t go wrong with this thing.  Finally, the photo viewer is the same one that was advertised on TV about a year ago.  Called ‘Wallet Pix’, it is about the size of a credit card and a couple of millimeters thick.  The screen is about 1.5 inches and has three buttons:  previous, next and power.  It comes with an image transfer application, but no installation CD since there is nothing to install. It uses the auto play feature of Windows to start executing the transfer application that is resident in the device memory, which mounts as a read only drive in Windows.  NOTE:  you cannot access the memory where the photos are actually stored, just the software.  This version of the device can hold 58 low resolution photos, which is fine due to the screens size.  If you are running Windows 7, the software will still work, but you must run it as administrator and be prepared to be bombarded by UAC prompts if you have that feature turned on.   I’ve never gotten as many prompts with UAC in either Windows 7 or Vista.  Annoying, but I can live with it.  The viewer does an OK job with displaying the photos.  At the price I paid, I can deal with it.  Photos of faces and other close ups do better than with other types of photos.  Holding down the previous button for a few seconds will turn on or off the slideshow feature while holding down the next button for a few seconds will turn on or off the auto power button.  Speaking of power, the device is powered by three hearing aid type batteries.  Generously, the device comes with three batteries installed, plus another three for backup and there is a coupon inside the box that is good for another couple of sets of batteries.  You do have to pay four bucks for shipping, so it may not be a good deal, but the fact that the device comes with TWO sets of batteries is pretty cool.

Sakar markets devices under a bevy of names, including Vivitar.  I bought, last summer, a small keychain digital camera because I had left mine at home and hated using my Moto Q as a camera (it took REALLY BAD photos.)  The little camera was a Vivitar.  I figured it would take crappy pictures.  Which, it does, they just are not as crappy as said Moto Q.  The little camera could take up to 25 photos at something like 240x196…definitely NOT anything to write home about.  The colors, while vivid, tended to smear and the detail was lacking.  BUT…those photos have a unique quality about them.  Kind of like the Polaroid instant photos of days gone by.  The nice thing about them is that they look great on the Wallet Pix viewer. 

Other surprisingly useful crapgadgets I’ve purchased recently include:  a wireless nun chuck adaptor for the Wii, a really nice PS2 controller, another nice WIRELESS controller for the PC, lots of cables, a power adaptor for the Nintendo DS Lite that uses four AA batteries and can charge the DS Lite, DS Lite screen protectors and a comfortable pair of earphones that fold (not great for listening to music, but perfect for podcasts.)

I don’t mean to sound like a shill for this store, but just because a place may be perceived as a junk store, does not mean you cannot find something that is useful.  And since I love crapgadgets, this place is pretty cool in my book.

FOLLOW UP:  The WalletPix malfunctioned on me.  I had loaded up some photos and it was working just find.  However, I went to show it to someone, turned it on and the picture looked like an old tube style television with horizontal hold out of whack.  A trip back to the store resulted in an effortless exchange and my purchase of an additional web cam.  I have an idea for a use of said webcam and may write about it at a future date.  I showed the guy at the store what was happening and he exchanged the device, no questions asked.  Which, by the way, speaks volumes of this store.  I’ve always had good service from the store.  For a company that specializes in low cost stuff, the customer service is amazingly good. 

How’s this for an interesting turn of events:  Snow Leopard, the ‘new’ version of Mac OS X contains anti-malware.  Well, well.  The Apple growers decided that Mr. ‘Softie’, as our friend Mac OS Ken calls them, wasn’t too far off the mark when they decided that apps like Defender should be included in the operating system.  That, or the threat of malware on the Mac has grown quite a bit in the last few years. 

The Mac Security Blog is reporting that the feature is in the ‘new’ version of Mac OS X that is releasing this Friday for $29 (provided you have a recent version of the OS already installed and are running an Intel processor-Snow Leopard is afraid of those PowerPC things.)  The Mac Security Blog even has a screen shot of the feature to prove its existence.

What’s really interesting about this, if true, is that the latest schlocky ‘I’m a Mac’  ad attempts to drive home the fact that ‘PC’ is virus laden.  While the ad is funny, it is unoriginal and the whole concept is sad and old now.  I wonder how much importance Apple will place on this new built-in malware protection.  How often will it get updated?  How much will they advertise it, if at all?  Will we see ‘Mac’ discussing his newfound protection (aside from, you know, obscurity) on those silly commercials? Inquiring minds want to know.

Television broadcasting, on a regular basis, is barely seventy years old, depending on where you live. The Olympic games, however, predate anyone living today. Indeed, the games predate many of today's technologies. Broadcasting those games, however, is a relatively recent thing. The games were regularly broadcast beginning in 1960, at least, here in the United States. The CBS network paid for the privilege of bringing the games to the population of the United States. Other networks in other parts of the world did, however, bring the games to their own countries.

The Olympic Committee began offering up the broadcast rights in the 1950's. The American networks, however, did not warm up to the notion of actually paying for the games until the 1960 games. The notion of charging for the rights to carry the games began with the first post World War II games: the 1948 Olympiad. The BBC paid the equivalent of three thousand dollars to broadcast the games around London. Approximately a half million people watched nearly sixty-four hours of programming. Just twelve years later, CBS would pay fifty-thousand dollars to broadcast just fifteen hours of programming. I think the BBC got the better deal. An interesting side note: legend has it that the three-thousand dollar check the BBC paid was never cashed, but it did establish the idea of broadcast rights fees. Every Olympiad since has cost networks enormous sums of money, both in fees and personnel/equipment cost. In fact, the only games that have been broadcast on television that did not involve a rights fee were the 1936 games in Berlin. 1936? What? The 1936 Berlin games were broadcast to about 25 parlors in and around Berlin and an estimated 128 thousand people viewed the broadcasts. It is interesting to note, however, that those broadcasts were considered a flop. I have not found much information on why this was the case, but, at least one magazine in the day wrote about it. Click here to view the article. It is presumed that the technical challenges are why the broadcasts were considered a flop. The pickups in the cameras needed a lot of light. The cameras were huge, too. Only one of the three cameras available could actually be used live. The picture quality was probably not very good and, since they were projected, suffered quite a bit because of the low resolution. Nonetheless, I'd say it was a remarkable achievement, given the time.

Olympic broadcasts are a showcase, not only for the host nation, but for the networks who cover them. Many firsts took place because of the Olympics. Sadly, some of them were tragic, such as the 1972 Munich games in which 11 athletes perished during a hostage situation. ABC television, in the United States, was covering the games then.

Some of the more notable firsts, for television or Olympic coverage, include Stereo broadcasting in the 1984 LA Games, coverage via satellite for the 1964 Tokyo games, color coverage occurred in 1968 and high-definition coverage began with the spectacular 2008 opening ceremony.

In 1996, another huge achievement for Olympic coverage took place: the internet. IBM coordinated the web presence for the Olympic Committee. IBM developed the data tracking and the web site. Unfortunately, it did not go as smooth as IBM had hoped and, as a result, they became the butt of many jokes during the games. It was, however, a start.

By the 2004 games, the Internet was commonplace. Web sites ran much more smoothly and the Olympic sites just got better and better. On line video also became standard. Highlights were freely available and one could also pay a fee and see certain events live.

Olympic coverage has come a very long way since those first grainy, flickering images of the 1936 games. One can only guess as to what the games of the future might be like. Three dimensional, holographic images might be the norm. Certainly, one will be able to watch them regardless of location. Many suggest that by the 2014 games, you'll be able to watch them on your cell phone in clear, hi-def video. Imagine that.

Links:

• Olympics.org marketing facts
• Olympics website
• 1936 Berlin Olympics 
• Wikipedia entry:  Olympics on Television 
• Modern Mechanix 

My son is going into the seventh grade and, as a parting gift from the sixth grade, he and his classmates were given an assignment over the summer to complete for the new semester:  read.  They were given a journal to record what, when and how much they read.  There are also activities they need to complete as well as at least one assigned book:  The Wind and the Willows.   He’s an incredibly fast reader, so when he said he still needed to read the assigned book, I was not too concerned since I knew he could read it pretty quick.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have the book.

So, over the weekend, I took him to Barnes and Noble and we bought the book.  Not remembering much about this exercise in boredom, we had to ask where this ‘classic’ might be found.  Well, without hesitation, the guy at Barnes and Noble took us right to a table that had lots of titles.  And a sign.  The sign says ‘Assigned Reading Books’.  My son asks ‘why do have to read THESE anyway?’  I had to put on my "DAD” hat and think.  Problem was, I didn’t have a good answer.  ‘Because that’s what they want you to read’ was the best I could do.  See, I think it’s rather counter productive to assign books, especially THESE.  They were the ‘classics’, I suppose.  But, it made me wonder.  And here’s where teachers and some parents will no doubt, disagree with me.

Once upon a time, not too long ago, getting a child to pick up a book and read was regarded as a good thing and a necessary thing for them to do, second only to playing outside.  Now, the merits of the latter can be debated, especially if one lives in a city, but the former really should not even be an issue.  As long as children CAN read, it is not necessary for them TO read novels.  The idea behind having them read a novel is to exercise the mind.   Sharpen the imagination, that sort of thing.  Well, today, there’s just too many alternatives to reading a novel.  Today’s kids are not stupid.  Some may be more informed than others, but they are not stupid.  Even the ones who have no clue as to who the president is or where Canada lives on a map can still read.  Illiteracy, while still a concern, is not what it was a hundred years ago.  And, contrary to what some would have you think, American children are not mindless drones that are glued to the television 24 hours a day. 

I would put out there this little nugget:  things that many of the older generation would say is a waste of time is what makes these kids smart and, dare I say, more social.  Things like text messaging, social interaction via the web, online gaming and internet connected devices.  Even reading a book does not have to involve paper and binding.  Children today have so many different ways to charge the brain-without drugs, I know what some may think-that people of my generation or older never had.

And, lets face it.  Some of those ‘classics’ really are much of the same mindless drivel that people just love to criticize on television.  Books like ‘The Wind and the Willows’ is nothing more than a cartoon in book form.  There’s a ton of drivel out there in book form, but, because they are books, they are fine.  Put them on a screen, with people acting them out and, suddenly, that’s bad.  What’s the difference?  Yeah, when you read, you can imagine them anyway you want.  And that’s true.  However, the words-the meaning-are the same. I once worked with a school teacher at a video store.  The store began to carry a small but nice little collection of audio books.  This woman had a real problem with them.  She said they were not real books and we should not be promoting them.  I asked why she thought that.  She says ‘well,  someone is reading them to you.’  ‘Yeah, so?’ I replied.  Her hypothesis was that you were not getting the ‘benefit’ of reading.  What?  Whether you read it or have it read or acted out in an audio book still results in you ‘imagining’ the story.  Same thing. 

Now, I’m not saying reading is wrong.  I love to read.  I have a Kindle and use it everyday.  And I’m not saying that children should not read.  My son loves to read.  I know lots of kids who love to read.  That’s not the point.  I’m just not sure it needs to be REQUIRED, especially during a child’s downtime, time away from school.  That time is meant, among other things, to do the other activity that people seem to think is wholly necessary: playing outside.  That’s another thing I have an issue with these days, but that’s also a topic for another time.

Wow, I think I may have found a group of fans more rabid-and blind-than the Apple fan boys:  Mozilla fan boys.  Just, wow.  I stumbled on an opinion piece on the TD Daily site that was talking about Mozilla’s newest thing to complain about:  the Microsoft browser ‘ballot’ screen.  To recap the latest bit of crying from Mozilla: they are ‘concerned’ that showing the icons, especially the blue ‘e’, would taint users choice and they would always pick Internet Explorer over, oh, I don’t know…FIREFOX.  They also think that Windows Update would still use IE, Microsoft’s other software would force the user to use IE, etc. 

So, TG Daily published a rather over the top opinion piece about this.  It basically called out the organization as a group of whiny kids.  Well, oh boy.  Did the Mozilla Defense Force come out in full force.  Comments ranged from ‘WTF? Are you joking?’ to ‘I’m never coming back here’ and all sorts in between.  Apparently, while these people love Firefox, they don’t actually use it to look for facts.  Most of them thought that TG Daily made up the news.  Yet, a quick BING search (and Google too) revealed a myriad of links all pointing to Mozilla’s complaints. It’s as if the Mozilla defenders just buried their heads in the sand.  Unbelievable.

This brings me back to the whole ballot screen.  Microsoft’s willingness to include this ‘feature’ has more to do with them trying to get Windows 7 out the door in Europe at the same time it is released elsewhere and less to do with them trying to appease the other group of whiny kids: Opera.  I sincerely hope that Microsoft simply ignores Mozilla’s ‘concerns’. 

And, by the way, I have my default browser set as Safari 4.  I have yet to have any of the Microsoft tools that I use open an instance of Internet Explorer.  In fact, the only thing that has done so was an installer for an open source application that I use.  I love that little bit of irony.

I can’t remember where I saw this, it was either my Friendfeed or my Twitter feed, but it is pretty cool. HP has a free service called Tabbloid.  What it does is take RSS feeds, creates a very nicely formatted PDF file and emails it to you. You can have it send the pdf to you daily or weekly and you can set the time for delivery as well.  While there are plenty of RSS readers out there and every browser has an RSS reader built into it, the difference here is that the PDF is formatted for printing. So, the idea here is that you set it up to deliver your PDF during the night and when you get up the next morning, you print it out and read it, at your leisure, just as you would a newspaper.  You don’t need your PC, laptop, phone or Kindle, though you could have it sent directly to your Kindle DX to read.

The service is currently free and does not require an account.  Go to the Tabbloid home page, add your RSS feeds, set the frequency and time, enter your email and off you go.  At the designated time, your PDF is sent to you. 

While this is a nice an convenient way to get news, I’m not sure it is a service that has a real purpose for most people.  Many people have a Smartphone that has either a web browser and/or an RSS reader.  This is really only for people who still like to read a newspaper, have a long commute where they are not driving or someone who just like to read paper based content.

I like this service, but have doubts about how long it will be around.

Well, today, two of my favorite things came together in an odd, but very cool way.  NASCAR and rollercoaster's collided at a press conference at the Kings Dominion theme park just outside of Richmond, VA.  Kings Dominion is just minutes from where I live, so I am naturally stoked about this.  Kings Dominion announced it’s newest attraction for 2010:  the Intimidator 305 rollercoaster.  The coaster will be 305 feet tall, have a 300 foot drop at 85 degrees and achieve speeds of up to 90 mph.  The theme for the coaster, and the name, are derived from one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers:  Dale Earnhardt Sr. 

Dale Earnhardt, seven time NASCAR champion, was known as the intimidator partly due to the color of his car and partly due to his on track demeanor.  The coaster’s height and speed will likely intimidate many who visit the park as it will be visible from most of the park due to its height.  The trains are themed as black Chevy’s, much like the one Earnhardt drove when he raced.

Among the guests as today’s announcement were Earnhardt’s daughter, Taylor.  Together with representatives from Cedar Fair-the parent company of Kings Dominion, the Lt. Governor of Virginia, and a Dale Earnhardt Incorporated executive, the general manager of the park showed of a nice little model of the new ride, introduced a video of a rendering of a first person ride perspective and compared the ride height to the signature Eiffel Tower that adorns the parks main entranceway.  The tower is a one-third scale (that puts it at 300 feet) model of the famous tower.

The park has had a history of ‘firsts’ in the ride world.  This ride will be the tallest and fastest coaster of its type on the east coast and only the second ‘giga coaster’ in the country.  A ‘giga coaster’ is one that is greater than 300 feet tall and 90 mph or faster.  Previous record setting coasters in the park include the Hypersonic, the King Kobra, the Volcano Blast Coaster, the Dominator and the Flight of Fear.  Hypersonic and King Kobra are no longer at the park.  The Volcano remains the tallest and fastest suspended launched coaster.  Flight of Fear and its companion coaster at Kings Island in Ohio were the first linear induction launched coasters.  Anaconda, which sits over the remains of Lake Charles, is the only coaster that goes under water.  It does so only briefly and right after the first drop.

The Intimidator, designed by Intamin AG, is scheduled to open in April of 2010.

Links:

• Intimidator 305 web site
• Kings Dominion home page
• Cedar Fair home page
• Announcement video part 1 from Coaster Crew
• Announcement video part 2 from Coaster Crew
• First person perspective rendering video

Microsoft released, finally, the new Windows Live Movie Maker.  I must say, the final version is far and away better than the previous beta releases, but not quite as nice as the Vista version.  This version has a few things that the Vista version did not have, but lacks many of the features from the Vista version.  For examples, there’s no way (at least, none I’ve found) to put the titles on the video or photos.  In the Vista release (and all prior releases,) you could mix the titles and your content and overlay them, display the video in a box, like a newscast, or squeeze the video for scrolling credits.  None of that is in this version. 

That’s not to say this version is bad or lacking.  Instead, it seems that Microsoft has focused on ease of use and quickly putting together a nice and short video.  There is an automovie feature will takes your content and assembles it with a soundtrack if you have one, titles, credits, captions, transitions and, if you include photos, animation and special effects.  It does this very quickly.  The result is very pleasing and requires little work to polish up.  You have to supply the credits, titles and captions, of course, but this is a relatively simple thing to do.

There are many ways to share the end product.  There’s a YouTube selection which creates an HD (720p) video and then uploads it to your YouTube account.  There’s a DVD options, three HD options (480p, 720p and 1080p) as well as mobile device output and, finally, an email/blog/web version.  The last one is probably the lowest quality of all of the options.  Even so, it still looks pretty decent, provided your source material was of good quality.

It’s obvious that Microsoft was going after the ultra casual videographer here.  Power users will want something better.  However, if you need to put together something quick that looks reasonably nice, this tool will definitely fit the bill.  I’ll have more to say about it once I’ve put it through its paces.  Stay tuned!

Today’s news from Sony about the ‘new’ PS3 (smaller, cheaper) model got me thinking about failed products.  Or, more specifically, successful failures.  There are products that fail completely, like the little known RCA home computer.  There are very public failures like HD-DVD and then there what I call the successful failure like PS3.  Below is a short list of these successful failures.  Before I go on, however, let me explain what I mean.

A successful failure is a product that has sold reasonably well, but failed to live up to expectations or is generally perceived as a failure even though it sold relatively well.  This is not a huge category, but is one that contains some interesting choices.

• Sony Playstation 3:  with about 25 million units sold, the PS3 could be considered a hit.  After all, the Atari 2600 sold about 30 million units in almost twenty years.  PS3 achieved its numbers in less than three years, yet is considered a failure.  It released to much hype and, in the first couple of weeks, high demand.  However, that demand was short lived as everyone who was going to pay its outrageous price, $600, did so.  Almost immediately, it became clear that the competing Nintendo Wii was a bigger hit.  In fact, the Wii took nearly two years before supply levels caught up with demand.  This console sold almost 55 million units in the same amount of time.  PS3, even today, still commands a high price, even with the announced 299 price point for the 80gb model and the new ‘slim’.  The chances that it will ever do the sales numbers of the PS2 or the Wii are pretty ‘slim’.  Still, the console is a success as 25 million units sold is nothing to sneeze at.  With its image tarnished and the public notion that it is a failed product, I consider it a successful failure.
• Windows Vista:  no matter how you try spin it-and I’ve tried-the perception is out there that Vista is a failure.  Even Microsoft is now trying bury Vista by releasing its successor, Windows 7, much more quickly than it did with Vista compared to XP.  Almost immediately, the tech press began to label Vista as a dog of an operating system.  Bent out of shape bloggers and columnists were upset because their ancient printer did not work with Vista or some obscure program that no one has used since Windows 95 was new didn’t work.  Drivers were not complete.  There were a few high profile applications that didn’t play nice, etc.  Even though most, if not all, legitimate problems were solved within its first year, the damage was done.  Couple that with the series of dis-information ads, courtesy of Apple, and the continual barrage from certain PC magazines forever tarnished Vista.  Yet, it is on all new PC’s and 250 million or more computers and you have a successful failure.
• Blu-Ray: another Sony product that has failed to capture the hearts and minds of the general public.  Yet, sales are up and prices are coming down.  However, no one really expects the format to become entrenched like DVD.  The difference in quality between DVD and Blu-Ray, for most people, is negligible and not worth the cost.  Millions of players have been sold and millions more discs.  Successful, but a failure nonetheless.
• Microsoft Zune:  this one really kills me.  I love the Zune.  The new Zune looks really hot.  The software is far and away better than the competition that it tried-and failed-to kill.  Microsoft has sold a few million of the devices and will probably sell a few million more, but the device-platform-will never be considered a success.  Microsoft itself is a tarnished brand.  They should have taken the Microsoft name off of Zune and marketed it separately.  Whatever they do now is going to be considered ‘catch up’ to Apple.  No matter how hard they try, no one will ever admit that they are one up on Apple, but, instead, just call them ‘copycats’.
• Memory Stick:  yet, another Sony product.  Sony insists on keeping memory stick alive, even though they are pretty much the only consumer electronics manufacturer that makes products that actually uses these things. Oh, other companies include the ability to read and write to them, but no other company relies solely on them as storage.  Even Sony uses SD cards in addition to Memory Stick on a few devices.  Since they have successfully marketed and sold a very nice selection of digital cameras that use Memory Stick, the memory cards can be considered successful even though as a standard format, they failed.
• Betamax:  continuing the Sony record, Betamax had an early lead in the home video market.  That lead, however, was short and by the early 1980’s, the writing was on the wall.  Millions of decks and tapes were sold, but, in the end, VHS ‘won’ the war and Sony threw in the towel and marketed VHS for a while.  They never really killed Beta, which met with more acceptance in the professional market. There are those who lament its passing in the consumer market.  It still has its fans.  Many claim it was better than VHS-and, on paper, it was.  In practice, however, there really was no discernable difference.  One needed a high end television to notice any difference.  Like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, the expense required to see that difference far outweighed the perceived difference in quality. It also helped VHS that RCA sold VHS decks back when the RCA name still meant something and it also helped that the adult video industry settled on VHS to market its wares.
• Packard-Bell:  Packard-Bell sold millions and millions of computers in the 1990’s.  They were, for a time, the number one seller of computers in the United States.  The machines were relatively low cost for the time.  They had great marketing.  They were everywhere.  They were junk.  Many of the computers were sold as new, even though they may have been returned or contained many returned components.  A high failure rate and poor customer service eventually lead its new owner, NEC, to pull the brand from the US market.  It continued in Europe and was purchased by Acer in 2008.  Acer also owns the Gateway brand.

Some may argue about my choices, and that is OK.  I stand by them all.  There are a few there, like Zune and Vista, that pained me, but reality prevails.  Zune is a failure in the market.  These days, perception is everything and the perception is that PS3, Zune and Vista-all currently marketed products-are failures.  Thoughts?  Comments?

Visit the Half Byte Store.

I am running Windows 7 RC on my primary desktop.  The operating is pretty darn stable-I can’t remember getting a blue screen since I installed it.  Oh, I’ve had to kill some processes once in awhile when the machine slows down. Usually, it’s a game or something video related that brings the system to a crawl.  ATI’s drivers are not yet fully baked, so I expect an occasional performance problem. Until 7 is officially released, that is. 

Windows 7 introduces many small, though significant user interface enhancements.  Among them is the task bar.  Microsoft has rethought how the task bar works and, I think, they’ve improved it in many ways, and have gone backward in other ways.  Overall, it is an improvement.  One of the things they did was change the way the system tray works.  It only shows, by default, four icons: Network center, Action Center, Volume and Mail.  At least, for me, that is what it shows by default.  Well, I have a Palm Pre and when I connect it, via USB, to the computer, I have to disconnect it via the system tray Explorer icon first before I physically disconnect it from the USB cable.  Previously, I was clicking the jump list, then clicking the Explorer devices icon and then selecting the Pre.  This gets old quick.  While I could have made a shortcut, I hate shortcuts on the desktop.  I found, quite by accident, that by right clicking the task bar and selecting PROPERTIES, there is a button called ‘Customize’ which gives you a list of all of the system tray icons and lets you choose how to display or not display them.  (NOTE: you can also get this from the Control Panel:  Control Panel->All Control Panel Items->Notification Area Icons.)  From here, you can set each icon to:  Show icon and notifications, Only show notifications or Hide icon and notifications.  You can choose to turn off the system icons all together by clicking the link just under the list window.  You can also choose to always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar.  I’ve now got the explore devices icon set to always show.  It’s cleaner and easier that way.

Other taskbar tricks and changes include the ability to click the lower right of the taskbar to quickly show the desktop.  This feature is called Aero Peek and you can turn this off (or on) via the taskbar property window.  The visual task tips feature, introduced in Vista, has also been enhanced.  When you have stacked icons, hovering over them will show the visual task tips for each stacked icon and you can then select the one to bring to the front.  Also, when downloading a file, the browser icon slowly fills with green.  This is like a progress bar that has been integrated into the icon.

One of the major changes that Microsoft made is the way it mixes active tasks with shortcuts.  You can ‘pin’ a shortcut to the task bar and maintain the effect of the ‘quick links’ that previous versions of Windows had.  You can control the way these are displayed.  Bring up the taskbar property windows and click the ‘taskbar’ tab.  Here, you can the normal things like Lock the taskbar, Auto-hide the taskbar, Use small icons and the location of the taskbar.  But, now, you have one more choice: Taskbar buttons.  You set them to always combine and hide the labels, combine when taskbar is full or never combine.

Right clicking the taskbar also shows a few interesting tricks concerning open windows.  You can show windows side by side or stacked.  Either way has the effect of tiling the windows.  For each option, there is also an option to undo the action.  This feature could come in handy for things like comparing to Explorer windows, comparing two (or more) text files, etc.

While some of these little niceties might have been part of the taskbar in previous versions of Windows, their utility seems to have been enhanced with Win 7.  The visual cues that Microsoft has added just enhances an already cool and very useful taskbar.

Well, the past week was a big one for Microsoft.  Zune HD details were made public, Windows Server 2008 RTM was released to MSDN and TechNet, Windows RC 7 no longer available, Office is coming to Symbian phones from Nokia and Microsoft ordered to stop selling Word 2007.

• The bomb shell dropped on Microsoft was that a federal court in Texas granted a small company called i4i a permanent injunction against Microsoft to stop selling any versions of Word 2003 and Word 2007 that contains ‘custom XML’.  This company, i4i, claims to have ‘invented’ custom XML and, in fact, received a patent for the technique.  Custom XML is the ability to embed user defined tags in the resulting XML.  Which is something, I thought, was already part of the XML spec.  This is yet another reason why our patent system is broken.  The fact that this company was able to patent something as obvious as this is just appalling.  And, don’t be mistaken, this is not just a Microsoft problem:  other products COULD very well be affected by this ruling.  If this patent is allowed to continue, then other lawsuits from tiny i4i are likely to follow.  They also got a $200 million judgment.  Microsoft is appealing the decision. 
• Zune HD details were also disclosed.  The device will be available in 16 and 32 gigabyte versions.  It will be available on September 15 and will cost $219 and $290.  The device will include Wi-Fi, web browsing, an apps store, HD video output and a selection of colors.  The new software features that do not rely on new hardware will also be made available to previous versions of the device in a firmware update, continuing Microsoft’s tradition of keeping the older devices somewhat up to date.  Even with the problems I have had, and despite that I said I was done with Zune, I will be getting an HD, not just for the sexy device, but also because they have made an effort to keep my old brown brick Zune somewhat up to date.  That is a lot more than you can say for a certain fruity company-or most other companies for that matter.
• In addition to Windows 7 RTM being available on TechNet and MSDN, Microsoft made Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM available on TechNet and MSDN.  Joe Public can buy the server software on October 22, 2009.
• Office is coming to Symbian phones from Nokia next year.  Nokia had previously licensed Exchange, but they will, starting sometime next year, be offering Office on the devices.  The Nokia E-series will support: Office Communicator Mobile, Office Mobile which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote, SharePoint Server and system center for device management.  This is huge for Microsoft.  Although Nokia is not well known in the United States, it is the number one mobile phone maker on the planet.  Nokia commands %45 of the worldwide market.  Compare that to the tiny fraction for Windows Mobile.  Microsoft HAD to do this to stay relevant in the hand held arena.  One cannot help, though, to feel a bit sorry for the Windows Mobile people within Microsoft. First, Microsoft licensed Exchange to Windows Mobile arch nemesis, Apple and iPhone, they turn around and hand Nokia the keys to the cash cow.  That’s gotta sting. 
• Windows 7 RC will no longer be available after next week, so get that download now if you do not already have it.  August 20 is the last day it will be available.  Better yet, just wait until October 20 and buy the real thing.  Remember, the RC will cease functioning in June of 2010, but you’ll get the warnings, every three hours, about two months before that.

Other news from Redmond:  IE 6 support will continue, IE 8 is the most secure browser (and why not, after all of the crap they have had to fix over the last ten years) and Windows Mobile lost another %2.7 of the market.

Wow, everything has a ‘day’ these days, including the vinyl record.  It seems that August 15, 2009 is Vinyl Record day or, as the ‘Collecting Vinyl Records’ blog states: the first Saturday after August 12.  Why August 12?  Why, that’s the day Edison ‘invented’ the phonograph.  The phonograph was, without a doubt, a game changer.  It was, however, like many other Edison ‘inventions’:  without any purpose.  At least, at first.  Edison was a prolific ‘inventor’, having ‘invented’ many of the things we use or experience everyday:  the light bulb, the motion picture, vacuum tubes (well, we don’t experience them so much now) and, of course, the phonograph.  However, how many of these items were truly invented by him is a matter of debate.  Edison employed many in his labs and you can be sure that quite a few of Edison’s inventions were actually created by one of his employees.  Whatever, the truth is, however, is moot now.  Edison gets the credit and, in the grand scheme of things, I suppose that is OK. 

Edison’s problem, though, is that he never really knew how to monetize his creations.  Take the aforementioned phonograph.  It was a travelling curiosity at first.  He made a few dollars by leasing phonographs to ‘parlors’ where the public could ‘order’ up a recording for a nickel.  After a time, Edison – like many of his other inventions – got bored with the device.  After other manufacturers started making home devices, he quickly got back into business.  One use for his recording technology was in a talking doll.  However, the dolls were very fragile and tended to break easily.  It was a failure. One contributing factor to the failure could be that the doll itself was creepy.

Edison, of course, went on to see his many inventions commercialized by other companies.  Some of them spawned huge industries:  the motion picture industry, recorded music, commercial and home lighting and, most of all, the electric distribution systems.

As with anything, however, those industries and inventions of Edison’s undergo changes.  The motion picture industry is currently undergoing massive changes now.  Changes in the way the movies are made, the way they are distributed and the way they are consumed.  Film is quickly being replaced with digital technology.  Distribution now includes digital delivery. Movie theaters can now get the films via the internet or satellite.  Because of the new distribution, the method of projection has to change.  Film projectors make way for video projectors.  Even the light source has changed.  Gone are the days of the argon lamps.  In are the days of LED and Halogen bulbs.  DLP is a term one is likely to hear instead of ‘film canister’ 

The music industry spawned by the phonograph has already undergone a multitude of changes, starting with the magnetic tape in the 1950’s which includes the eight track and the cassette tape.  The vinyl disc was replaced by the compact disc which utilizes lasers to reproduce the sound.  Even that, however, is being replaced by purely digital means.  MP3 is heard more than vinyl disc or cassette tape.  A quick scan of just about any public place will reveal people listening to some kind of recording digitally.  iPods are as ubiquitous these days as the 45RPM was in the 1960’s.

Even Edison’s light bulb has undergone many, many changes and is, unbelievably, outlawed in places.  The incandescent bulb, a mainstay for nearly a century, is being replaced by LED’s, fluorescent and other types of light bulbs.  Several states in the United States has legislatively killed the incandescent bulb.  The phase is to take place over a period of time, but they will eventually be illegal.  Several countries have also banned the bulb.  Why?  The environment.  But, here’s the killer:  at least one of the replacements, the compact fluorescent, is actually worse than what it replaces.  A quick read of the proper way to dispose of them once they are no longer useful is complicated and don’t break them: you’ll need a hazmat team to clean it up.  I can’t imagine the damage done in producing these things. 

Edison’s legacy is quite extensive and no matter how you feel about him, you cannot deny that he has touched pretty much everyone’s lives, at least, anyone who is reading this post.  I’m sure you could find someone in the heart of Australia who may not have been affected in one or another by something he did or got credit for doing. 

Remember, August 15 is Vinyl Record Day.  Show your love for all things vinyl and break out the old ‘Thriller’ record and do the moon walk.  Honor two legacies at the same time.

Wow, lots of Zune HD news out over the last few days.  First, ‘spy video’ of the new interface in action, then a leaked Best Buy inventory sheet that lists the prices, capacities and street date and pictures and video of the browser and on screen keyboard.

So, according to the Best Buy leak, there will be two versions of the HD: 16gb and 32gb and will retail for $220 and $290.  September 8 is the supposed release date.  I’m not sure, but I think we already knew about the capacities and release date.  I believe we found this out during the e3 conference, but I’d have to go back and do some-GASP!-research.

The device is very attractive and the interface is not too different than the current interface. The browser looks pretty complete, at least from what I’ve seen, and the on screen keyboard looks like it is not all bad, like so many on screen keyboards.  It is definitely way better than the current Zune’s method of input.

The HD is getting pretty good reviews so far, with CNet’s Donald Bell being the most enthusiastic.  CNet has always liked Zune, but they seem pretty stoked over the HD.  All the Microsoft love here really starkly contrasts with the Vista hate they were spewing forth not too long ago.

Below are some links to the reviews and photos of the device.  Is it September 8 yet?

Links:

• Hands on with the Zune HD web browser

• Zune HD's Bing powered web browser

• Zune HD hands-on

• Zune HD interface and media playback demoed on video

• Purchase the Zune HD from the Half Byte Store

So, how do you know when you have no life and you need to live, vicariously, through others?  When do you, officially, cease being the social butterfly that you once were and become a home bound, boring adult?  Answer:  when you actually start to look forward to watching certain television shows.  And, I am not speaking of ‘normal’ television shows either. No, I am talking high brow entertainment like ‘Ice Road Truckers’ and ‘Pawn Shop Stars.’ 

Who would EVER had thought that a show dedicated to a few daring souls who just happen to haul cargo over the frozen land that is northern Canada and Alaska?  Seriously.  This show is in its third season now and I am mysteriously drawn to it every Sunday at nine in the evening.  This year, it has an equally compelling companion show called ‘Pawn Shop Stars’. 

Pawn Shop is a half hour show that chronicles the ‘Gold and Silver’ Pawn Shop in Las Vegas.  The primary characters are the patriarch, his son, his grandson and a guy named ‘Chumley’ (which, I suppose, is better than a guy named Sue.)  Each half hour shows three or four customers who bring in really odd and/or interesting items that usually have some kind of history behind them (hence, the reason it is on the ‘History’ Channel-no such tie in with the Ice Road Truckers.)  Oddly, I find the four guys interesting and funny to watch.  The patriarch is a crotchety old man who looks-and dresses-like he would have fit right in with the men who once made up Las Vegas’ ruling elite.  The son is a slightly overweight and bald guy who looks a bit intimidating but is decidedly more mild mannered than his father.  His son is an overweight guy that is just learning the ropes but thinks he knows way more.  Lastly, Chumley at least knows his place as the likable idiot. Well, idiot is too harsh, but the guy is not the brightest bulb in the bunch.

So far, on Pawn Shop, we’ve seen a very rare cannon that was built in the 1890’s, a world war II uniform jacket worm by a general who was from Nevada and a rare 1980’s Chris Craft boat.  Other items have been highlighted, but these are among the more interesting.

Ice Road Truckers, this season, is in Alaska and only two of the original cast is back.  Alex and Hugh are considered rookies this season because they are new to Alaska.  Both have not done as well as the previous two season.  Alex has been plagued with mechanical problems and having to wait for whomever his partner is and Hugh has also been saddled with lots of wait times because he has to drive in a convoy of at least two trucks.  He also got a ticket due to an incorrect entry in his log book.  They take that very seriously in Alaska.  As they should.  Driving up to 80,000 pounds of goods and truck on ice is something that should be taken very seriously.  If someone, four years ago, would have told me I’d be hooked on show about this, I would have laughed.  Sadly, though, I am hooked.

This is, however, reality television like no other.  It is not a game and the people are definitely real.  It is reality television that is compelling and fun to watch.  And, most importantly, neither show has anyone named ‘Jon’ or ‘Kate’.

Regular readers of this blog know that among my many interests are going to amusement parks with my son.  However, I have had this love of amusement parks since before I was his age-and younger than dirt, I might add.  When I was 13 years old, my ‘local’ amusement park, Kings Dominion near Richmond, VA, added a new and thrilling rollercoaster called “King Kobra”.  I loved that ride. It was the park’s first looping coaster and the park’s first ‘launched’ coaster (it did not use a chain to pull it up a hill, instead, a weight was pulled backward on a pulley like system and the train was attached via a cable.  The weight was released and ‘launched’ the coaster train in the opposite direction.)  Unfortunately, the ride was removed in the late 1980’s.  I have not seen much about it since.  Well, to my delight, a web site devoted to Kings Dominion posted a short story, complete with video and photos, about the ride.  The ride has been relocated several times and is now in the Hopi Hari Amusement Park in Brazil.  However, it was in Alton Towers Amusement park in 1991, which is where the video came from.  The photos, however, were taken in Kings Dominion.

The photos are, obviously, old and have deteriorated a bit.  Color is faded quite a bit.  I knew I could restore some luster to these photos and restore at least two memories of the ride.  The photos were probably taken with an old Kodak 110 camera.  They are not overly sharp and exhibit a lot of film grain.

I copied the photos to my local drive and then opened them in Picasa 3.  I used the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button in the photo editor to get the basic fixes out of the way.  This got the color to pop a bit and fixed some contrast issues.  I then used the Neutral color picker and sampled the white paint from the wooden coaster (Rebel Yell) that the Kobra was located next to in the side photo.  Using the bright white as the neutral color resulted in a vivid blue sky and greener trees as well as bringing out the blue in Lake Charles, which was kind of brownish in the photo.  The lake has never been brown (murky green at times, but never brown.)  As you can see in the before and after, Picasa was able to fix much of the photo.  I was not yet happy as there was too much grain.  I fired up Adobe Photoshop Elements and used the despeckle tool.  This, however, resulted in a photo that looked more like fake painting.  I decided that the grain was not that bad and let it go.  I did, however, pump up the shadows using Picasa just to bring out a bit more detail.  I think the effect works well for this photo.

I also used Windows Live Photo Gallery to make the same fixes on copies of the photos.  While Live Photo Gallery works very, very well, I was a bit more satisfied with the results from Picasa 3.  Both applications are equally easy to use. Picasa has a few more options than Live Photo Gallery.  However, you can be very happy with either application.  Since the two photos were in relatively good shape, I did not need to fix things like tears or creases.  To do that, you’ll need more sophisticated applications like Photoshop Elements, Gimp or something like Paint Shop Pro.

Before	After

While Palm may be taking its time getting new applications into the Pre App Catalog, one web site and a few developers have stepped up to create a nice little ecosystem.  Pre-Central.net has created a portal of sorts where homebrew app developers can place their applications for users to download.  There are several ways to get apps on the phone, but perhaps the best method is download and install an app called File Coaster. Of course, you will have to connect the phone to your computer and install this one first, but once installed, the application is as easy to use as the App Catalog. 

There are a ton of great and not so great applications in the portal.  Some are really useful like the package tracking application and some are not so useful (but fun, depending on how old you are) like the Pre Brew Fart application. Yes, Pre has a fart application just like the iPhone.  Want to tether your Pre to your laptop? Yeah, there’s an app for that.  Want to put together a shopping list? There’s an app for that. Want to play a game of Solitaire? Yep, there’s an app for that as well. 

Applications in the portal are all free, though some welcome a PayPal donation. 

Pre-Central has done an excellent job putting together this portal and the developer behind FileCoaster did an excellent job integrating the portal in to the application.  Other Pre oriented web sites have also gotten into the act. 

This move proves that there is, indeed, a yearning for more applications and uses for this wonderful little device from Palm.  With the start of the Pre DevCamp this weekend, I can only guess that the whole development scene for the Pre is going to really take off.  More and more developers are joining the Pre camp (and leaving another certain Smartphone) and with 2.5 million downloads of just 32 applications, there’s sure to be a decent market awaiting these developers.  Who needs a piece of fruit adorning ones phone anyway?

Links:

• Pre-Central Homebrew App roundup

• Homebrew App Portal

• Installing apps on your Pre

Marcos Ambrose has proven again why he has adapted very nicely to NASCAR by winning, for the second year in a row, the Nationwide Series Watkins Glen race.  The Watkins Glen road course, coupled with the double-file restart, made an exciting race and Ambrose showed off his road racing prowess.  He had several big-name NASCAR drivers to contend with, most notably with Kyle Busch.  Late in the race, the two were battling for the lead, with Busch ahead of Ambrose.  The two approached a tricky turn and Ambrose made a daring pass that caught Busch completely off guard.  Busch had to act quickly to avoid wrecking them both.  He used his head and only lost two positions, which he was able to make up one spot, to second, shortly after.  Ambrose was able to hold off a hard charging Busch and Carl Edwards to win the race.

The race had its share of drama in middle and back of the pack as well.  Robby Gordon, once again, showed that he, too, is a road racing master.  Unfortunately, he’s not overly smart at times and showed it during this event.  He and Joey Logano had several on track skirmishes, which appeared to be Gordon’s fault, which led to a wrecked car for Logano and Gordon GETTING A LAP BACK.  NASCAR also showed it’s usual lack of consistency by not only rewarding Gordon with that lap, but not doing anything with him.  He, very clearly, tagged Logano several times, the last time resulting in said wreck. 

Marcos Ambrose has quickly mastered this NASCAR thing and is on a road to much success.  Congratulations to Ambrose and his team.