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Feb. 24th, 2007 02:27 pmAs I was waiting for the train back from Leamington yesterday, I saw a kid dressed in tracksuit, hood, and baseball cap walk onto the platform, before striding off the other way. I caught myself mid-thought, and reminded myself that just because he looked like a chav, didn't automatically mean he was up to no good.
20 seconds later, several railway station staff rushed in via the same route, and started asking people where the guy went, before heading off in pursuit.
On a totally different topic... digital TV... it's crap. The free stations are apparently transmitted in MPEG-2 format which means you keep seeing the picture divided up into blocks all the time. It's like watching videos on your Commodore 64 or something. And when there's a bit of interference, instead of the picture getting slightly noisier or the hue changing a little as you see with analogue television, you get brightly coloured blocks across the screen, which are much more visually jarring. Apparently the pay-to-view channels use MPEG-4 format, which is probably less blocky-looking, but I wonder how many people will have that by the time the government turns off the analogue broadcasts? Meanwhile the shops try and sell people high-definition televisions that just make the visual deterioration of digital transmissions more apparent. Isn't technology great, improving lives everywhere.
Something else that's annoyed me of late... The Independent newspaper. For some reason they've decided to have some sort of panic headline on the front cover every single day. I'm surprised they don't just call it the OMG instead. "OMG HOLE IN OZONE LAYER GIVING EVERYBODY CANCER!!". "OMG FOUR YEAR OLDS WITH GUNS IN EVERY HOME!!" "OMG ASTEROID ON COURSE TO KILL LIFE ON EARTH BEFORE SUN BURNS OUT!!1one". Newspapers are shit, really. The local one is annoying too. They were talking a month or two ago about how there should be a crackdown on street peddlars, because they "take custom away from legitimate businesses". Who are they to decide which salespeople are legitimate and which are not? Morons.
No real news to report, anyway.
20 seconds later, several railway station staff rushed in via the same route, and started asking people where the guy went, before heading off in pursuit.
On a totally different topic... digital TV... it's crap. The free stations are apparently transmitted in MPEG-2 format which means you keep seeing the picture divided up into blocks all the time. It's like watching videos on your Commodore 64 or something. And when there's a bit of interference, instead of the picture getting slightly noisier or the hue changing a little as you see with analogue television, you get brightly coloured blocks across the screen, which are much more visually jarring. Apparently the pay-to-view channels use MPEG-4 format, which is probably less blocky-looking, but I wonder how many people will have that by the time the government turns off the analogue broadcasts? Meanwhile the shops try and sell people high-definition televisions that just make the visual deterioration of digital transmissions more apparent. Isn't technology great, improving lives everywhere.
Something else that's annoyed me of late... The Independent newspaper. For some reason they've decided to have some sort of panic headline on the front cover every single day. I'm surprised they don't just call it the OMG instead. "OMG HOLE IN OZONE LAYER GIVING EVERYBODY CANCER!!". "OMG FOUR YEAR OLDS WITH GUNS IN EVERY HOME!!" "OMG ASTEROID ON COURSE TO KILL LIFE ON EARTH BEFORE SUN BURNS OUT!!1one". Newspapers are shit, really. The local one is annoying too. They were talking a month or two ago about how there should be a crackdown on street peddlars, because they "take custom away from legitimate businesses". Who are they to decide which salespeople are legitimate and which are not? Morons.
No real news to report, anyway.
