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Category: Tech in the News

August 7, 2016

This Trekie Not Impressed with First Look at New Star Trek Series

There’s a new teaser trailer online for the upcoming “Star Trek: Discovery” series. Over a million fans have already checked it out. Is the show ready for prime time? Uhhhh….

There’s a new teaser trailer online for the upcoming “Star Trek: Discovery” series. Over a million fans have already checked it out. Is the show ready for prime time? Uhhhh….

I’m a Star Trek fan, and I have been since I was seven years old. So it really pains me to say this…

But as a ‘Trekie,’ I think the first trailer for the new Star Trek series, “Star Trek: Discovery” is simply…well…

It’s terrible.
(You hadn’t heard there’s a new series in the works?)

Granted, this first teaser trailer doesn’t reveal much except the new starship itself. So what could be so bad?

Here… take a look…

Where’s Scotty When You Need Him?
Yes… my problem is with the U.S.S. Discovery.
The new starship.

It looks like an ambitious fifth grader designed it on a Mac. All of the right parts are there, but the design is… well, kind of odd.
(I know… geek alert!!)

Sure the ship has the familiar saucer and two nacell warp-engine design. But it looks… rather boxy. Not sleek or elegant the way all of the ships in the Federation’s Starfleet have always looked.
(Both in the original ‘Prime’ universe as well as in J.J. Abram’s alternate timeline)

If this is a pre-Kirk era starship, (note the NCC-1031 on the saucer) that doesn’t mean the ship has to look like an old Volvo. The NX-01 starship of the doomed “Enterprise” UPN series (2001-2005) still looked pretty cool…

A Teaser is Supposed to Generate Excitement
Also, the footage looks like something out of a Star Trek fan film you can find on YouTube. It approximates the quality of a Hollywood-created starship, but the ship doesn’t feel ‘real’ at all. It’s clearly stuck in an animated universe.

Which isn’t so good considering the best-in-class special effects we’ve just been exposed to in Justin Lin’s “Star Trek Beyond.”

Granted, “Beyond” is a big budget movie, and we’re comparing it to something out of a TV series.

But for one minute, the special effects department can’t do a little better?!
(You only get one chance to make a first impression.)

Look… I get that the producers can’t give too much away, with “Beyond” being front and center right now.

But if you’re going to give up anything, please make it great!

Live Long and Prosper
I really don’t mean to bash “Star Trek: Discovery.” I want Star Trek in all its forms to succeed, and the truth is I’ve stuck with all of the incarnations my entire life.

Perhaps I’m smarting a little bit, because “Star Trek Beyond” isn’t doing that well at the box office. And I have to admit that (Spoiler Alert) there’s so much frenetic and confusing action, the film sometimes forgets it’s a Star Trek movie. Even with all the great special effects and Simon Pegg’s witty lines, you leave the theater feeling hungry for more.

So now that “Beyond” is behind us, the attention turns to “Discovery,” which premieres in January.

The Band’s Back Together
I’m thinking, “Guys, you’d better get this right!”
(The failure of “Enterprise” over ten years ago is still fresh in my mind.)

That said, I’m excited to see so many Star Trek A-List production alumni attached to the project….
Alex Kurtzman (co-writer of 2009’s “Star Trek” and “Into Darkness”), Bryan Fuller (“Deep Space Nine” and “Voyager” writer), and Nicholas Meyer
(“The Wrath of Khan” writer and director)

That’s pretty exciting, right?

So why am I so cranky?
Because of a silly teaser trailer?

Exactly.

Discovery Will Not Be Free
Plus, I’m going to have to pay for the pleasure of watching this new series, as it will only be available on CBS All Access streaming at $5.99/month.
(Except for the series premiere, which will be distributed old school.)

So now if I’ve got to pay to watch your Star Trek series… then you’ve also got to show me the money!

This is Just a Test?!
All we really know about “Star Trek: Discovery” so far is that a poorly-designed starship likes to hang out in the middle of an asteroid space station. I’m hoping that it was just a concept piece to get the fans excited at Comic-Con.

There is one other little detail to pay attention to…
The title of the trailer
It’s “First Look – Test Flight of Star Trek’s U.S.S. Discovery.”

Test flight?

Huh.

Does that mean these are just test shots. Not the real deal?

Huh.

Does that mean I set my phaser to ‘severely angry’ for nothing?

I hope so.

Okay.
Red alert cancelled.

Deep down, I’m a believer.
Always have been.

I’ll try to be more patient as I wait again to “boldly go….”

1 Comment
July 10, 2016

Technology Killed the Tollbooth

Nobody likes to wait on a tollbooth line. And even with E-ZPass, you’ve got to slow down. But bridges like the Tappan Zee have a little surprise for you…

Nobody likes to wait on a tollbooth line. And even with E-ZPass, you’ve got to slow down. But bridges like the Tappan Zee have a little surprise for you…

I commute over the Tappan Zee Bridge on many days, and I’ve been marveling at the day-by-day construction on the New NY Bridge project for the past year. It’s really cool to see this bridge going up over the Hudson River north of New York City.

The New NY Bridge Going Up

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Age of the Camera Gantry Begins
Some months back while I was driving home, I noticed a strange grid-based overhead structure going up on the Rockland County side of the southbound New York State Thruway. I could see multiple cameras on the top as cars whooshed by below.

Then, one day the Tarrytown toll plaza on the Westchester side just closed up shop.
(What?)

I thought for a moment,

So no more tollbooths?
(Manned or unmanned)

Did that also mean no more tolls?!
(No, that couldn’t possibly be true…)

The toll collection process of course was continuing…
What had happened is the giant gantry on the other side of the river had quietly been ‘activated,’ turning all of lanes into cashless toll lanes on steroids.

Now, it’s not like there wasn’t cashless tolling before at the old toll plaza via E-ZPass, but you still had to slow down while passing through.

With the new giant gantry peering at every car overhead, now you are free to maintain normal highway speeds.
(Eliminating the toll ‘slow-down dance’ will save drivers up to nine hours a year!)

Cashless Tolls

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tolls by Mail
The arrival of the giant gantry also ushered in a back to the future moment for drivers… the U.S. Postal Service.

If you don’t have E-ZPass, no problem…
One of those cameras living on the gantry will snap a photo of your license plate, and then you’ll get a bill in the mail.
(How quaint)

Sign for E-ZPass or Toll Billed by Mail

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can pay on New York State’s website or the old fashioned way with a stamp.

The Phantom Tollbooth
About 50 million vehicles drive over the Tappan Zee every year, and about 80% already use E-ZPass.

As for all the others, welcome to Tolls by Mail.
(That’s a lot of stamps!)

Or they can sign up for E-ZPass.
(Hint, hint)

Does the cashless tolling gantry foretell the end of the manned tollbooth?

Looks like it… eventually.
(This technology is already in use elsewhere around the country.)

And with it terminates the need to develop the mighty skill set of the ‘quarter throw.’
(My father was a master at winging quarters at toll baskets when I was a kid.)

Look at me, getting all nostalgic.
Then, I remember all those blasted toll lines in the pre E-ZPass days.
(Shudder)

Resistance is Futile
I think it’s also important to recognize we’re passing through another ‘big brother’ moment brought to life by technology.

Cameras for Cashless Tolls

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other gantries will be erected on highways to help speed your travel, but it’s another example of more patterns of your life being integrated into the ‘Borg collective.’

Is that a problem or just progress?

A conversation for another day…

1 Comment
July 3, 2016

Why Would Anyone Buy a Finally Bulb?

This new ‘Finally’ bulb promises to take you back to the future in a big way where LED bulbs have failed… finally. But is the LED bulb juggernaut already too far ahead?

This new ‘Finally’ bulb promises to take you back to the future in a big way where LED bulbs have failed… finally. But is the LED bulb juggernaut already too far ahead?

I know… It looks like I’m about to be particularly judgmental and disapproving. That’s not my intention. I’m just confused. Really.
(Admittedly, not the first time)

Here’s my back story…

Bumping into the Future?
So I was shopping at my local Ring’s End store last weekend for a replacement lawn sprinker.
(You may recall I had a meltdown last year when I realized that all of my garden hoses were very likely toxic… including the one that fed our vegetable garden.
So I replaced them all with hoses made by ‘Water Right.)

On my way out, I walked past a stack of boxed light bulbs on a table.

You know how I am about light bulbs.
(I’m like a moth.)

These were no ordinary LED bulbs.
No…

They were something new.

Newer than LED?
Well, I had never seen one before…

They were ‘Acandescent’ bulbs made by a Massachusetts company called
The Finally Light Bulb Company.
(No, not incandescent. ‘Acandescent.’)

I turned to the marketing rep, who was manning the table.

“What’s this?”

She explained to me that this new Finally light bulb used plasma to create its glow.

“Plasma?”

“Yes,” she explained.
“Finally emits a warmer light than LED bulbs, and it will help you sleep better at night.”

Uh huh.

“So this is a plasma bulb.”

She stared at me.

“That’s not the name of the bulb,” she responded politely.
(I actually think that would be an awesome name- the ‘Plasma Bulb!’)

And then she told me that Finally was running a promotion on its 100-watt model.
(Two for the price of one)

Well, I always love a deal. But I didn’t really need any extra 100-watt bulbs.

And then she told me that Finally bulbs can’t dim.
(That capability is coming next year.)

So I walked out on Finally, finally.
But I decided to do a little more research when I got home…

What is a Finally Bulb?
First off, the Finally bulb isn’t so new. This Acandescent bulb was introduced back in 2014 and released to the market in 2015.

Back then, I was still getting used to the mind-blowing introduction of LED bulbs.

Philips was one of the first out of the gate. Then Cree stormed the market.
(Other brands have also been showing up with lower price points.)

Beyond LED, I’ve had no clue there’s been a competing ‘breakthrough’ light bulb tech out there…

And what exactly is Acandescent technology?

Finally’s website describes it like this:

“Acandescence™ is a new lighting technology that utilizes induction to initiate and sustain a non-thermodynamic equilibrium plasma, coupled with state-of-the-art phosphors, to produce white light with the warm color of a typical incandescent light bulb.”

Make sense?
(Me neither.)

I think the bottom line is there’s a copper coil, a magnetic field and ‘plasma’ gas that together generate the light.

Here’s a page from Finally’s marketing materials that helps to explain…
How Acandescent Technology works

Acandescence Vs. LED
Okay… so we’ve got here another kind of light bulb.
Does the world really need it?
Is it going to topple the dominance of LED bulbs anytime soon?

Well, let’s look for a compelling reason to buy one…

Price

Ring’s End sells the 60-watt equivalent Finally bulb for $9.99.
So does Amazon Prime.
If you want to save a little bit, Amazon’s got the 6-pack for $53.94.
So that just breaks the $9 barrier.

And how does that compare to the competition?

Cree’s 60-watt Equivalent LED with the stripped-down 4Flow filament design is $7.97 at Home Depot.
Amazon Prime’s got it for $5.11 as an ‘Add-on’ item.

And Cree’s ‘Classic’ 60-watt LED is also currently available at Amazon as an Add-on item for $5.07.

So Finally isn’t your cheapest option, but depending on the brightness of the bulb you’re looking for, it’s not that much more expensive…

Energy Efficiency

Finally bulbs are fifteen times more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs. But LED bulbs took that prize years ago.
(And according to CNET, many LED bulbs today are slightly more efficient that Finally bulbs.)

Light Quality

This is the big selling point for Finally:
It’s supposed to replicate the look and omnidirectional light of incandescence. According to CNET, the Finally bulb does have even light distribution, but the quality of the light doesn’t live up to all of the hype.

Functionality

It can’t dim. (yet)
And it doesn’t actually pop instantly on.
(Takes a few seconds to get to full brightness)

Eh.

Mercury

Yes, you read correctly. There’s a small amount of mercury in the bulb’s plasma. Finally says the amount is small enough that it’s safe for landfills.
(I say… “Mercury?! Why would I want to bring any amount into my house?!”)

Size

The 60-watt models are physically smaller than the 100 watt, although they both have the same standard-size base. So if you’ve got a fixture with a tight squeeze, the 60-watt Finally could solve your problem.

Longevity

15,000 hours is great.
But some LEDs promise up to 25,000 hours.

Not Ready for Prime Time
I’m just not feeling it. Are you?

CNET’s 2015 review by Ry Crist totally hammered Finally.
He said it’s essentially CFL tech.
(Shudder)

And the bulbs aren’t as bright as advertised.

It’s almost a year later, and now Finally is suddenly showing up in stores like everything’s fine.
(Actually, I’m only seeing it for sale at Ring’s End and Staples.
…and Amazon.)

I feel like I must be missing something…

In Search of Tech Truth
I just don’t understand the glow of the Finally bulb.

To be totally transparent, I admit to firming up my point of view without actually having purchased or used a Finally bulb. But facts are facts… right?

Sure, maybe the light quality is better than the LED competition.
(Maybe.)

Even so… Will that make it competitive in the marketplace? Or will it end up being the Betamax to VHS’s crushing success.
(I know… an old reference for most of you)

I’ve been pretty happy over the past couple of years with my LED bulbs….

So I conclude this post inviting someone out there to set me straight.
Why buy a new Finally bulb instead of an already established LED bulb?

Please, help me to see the light.

And then maybe I’ll stop writing about light bulbs.

Finally.

37 Comments