More Good tech/bad tech

Been playing with the tech again. Which has led me to think of furniture buying ...

Had a fairly long running saga with my blu-ray player, which was a Sony player that didn't really like to play dvds. So I've been looking for a while to upgrade my stuff to bits that are 3d capable. I was already there with the amp and speakers, a 5.1 surround sound set probably does more for 3d experience than the picture does. 3d pictures just makes things jump out at you, 3d sound has the bullets flying all around you.

Anyway - that's getting beside the point. Point is - it's a bit of techie kit that doesn't work completely as intended. It's a victim of a good solution (HDMI) compromised by being meddled with (Anti-copy Stuff aka DRM).

That was the old, what's the new ? Panasonic are currently doing a deal where you buy one of their players and can send off for free Star Wars blu-rays. Hmm. 3d upgrade, free Star Wars, planned upgrade = me buying earlier than I needed to. Oh, it also gave me an excuse to use the car.

Hang on - he mentioned "Good tech / bad tech" ...

Ok. Hook up the new Shiny. Immediate problem - it's too thin to fit properly under my V+ box (think Sky+ or Tivo) so the V+ box is half on, half off the blu-ray player. That wasn't a problem for the Sony but it apparently crippled the Panasonic. Cue lots of screenblinking as that HDMI cable thingy acted up.

Long story short - it didn't want to play Iron Man 2 (loss of picture) until I moved it somewhere it was in the open. I suspect heat sensitivity, which is Very Bad for domestic electronics. If you cram the bits into a box that's too small to fit with other stuff, then you're going to get heat trouble. That's bad design all the way. Make it so it's reliable, which means Total Design, which includes making sure it works reliably as well as looks pretty.

So that's bad tech - an item that does what it was supposed to but only after putting up a fight. Still, it's better than Nasty tech, which is what Belkin specialise in these days.

Impressions of the Panasonic player ? Picture seemed a little sharper but that's small improvements over an already good Sony. Sound seemed better. I suspect both of those are placebo effect though. And I had to fight to get Best quality lossless sound as a default setting makes the player give lossy compressed sound. (Tip - turn Secondary Audio to Off) Picture was jerky during Iron Man 1, however this could have been due to overheating in its cramped location.

Good tech - anything Lexus. Had the car 1 week now and I'm still having the buzz from driving it around. The Focus felt like a tool that you drove because you had to, the Lexus (and the Puma before it) feels special. And anything associated with it just Works, from the iPod integration to the phone integration to the tech that makes it go. It's a very intuitive car to drive, there's no clutch or gearbox ratios to manage. There's an engine to turn on and off but the car does that for you, anticipating what you want.

I thought I was a pretty smooth driver but the Lexus is teaching me stuff there. I'm learning how to make the most of the energy you carry when a car moves, steadily smoothing things out to get the best out of the car. It'll still fly and leave people in the dust at the lights when you want it to but the challenge is more in how efficient you can be. Any brute can floor the throttle all the time but not many will achieve the same results with finesse. And I value finesse over the sledgehammer. It's a rare car that can do both finesse and sledgehammer but the Lexus seems to be managing it.

Doh - I'm rambling again.

Will close out with :
Bad tech - domestic electronics. They do what you want eventually but fight you for it
Good tech - complex stuff presented simply with reliable confidence.
Nasty tech - our IT system at work. Or anything Belkin.