The whole DVD issue leads into another similar beef I have with the so-called wonderful digitally-based technology that is digital video surveillence. Anyone that has used digital video cameras and recorders to do security knows how bad they suck. It's a little unclear to me as to why they're so slow (it could be that compressing and writing the images to a hard drive takes a second or two, or that the transmission over a network takes an extra second, or what), but trying to capture a couple of seconds worth of good activity on a digital system is just about impossible. The fastest speed I can seem to get on a digital network video camera is about 3 frames per second. That is, the camera can only take a photo every third of a second, and then write it to a compressed JPEG file, and then e-mail it to me. Keep in mind that for smooth-looking video, you have to have at least 24 fps (frames per second). So what I get when the motion detector senses movement is a series of photos of someone walking across the room, about a third of a second apart. You would be surprised, I'm sure, when you realized how much a person travels even at walking speed in a third of a second. If you've got a small room, you can cover the whole thing in a second or two. So what happens is that you really only get two or three good shots of the person, as opposed to the 24 or 48 that you would get with good 'ol fashioned analog videotape. This is crucial if the person is carrying something or doing something (like picking up something from a desk, for example) because in one shot they may not yet have grabbed it, but in the next shot they may already have it, so you don't actually get them "on tape" as actually grabbing it. On regular ol' videotape, you would actually catch them redhanded lifting the item. The bottom line is that you miss about 95% of the action, all for the sake of "going digital". In this case, digital just plain sucks.

Oh, while I'm thinking about it, I should mention that I finally got around to watching the other Hitchcock movie that I borrowed from the library, "The 39 Steps". After considering both films, I think I like the ending on this film better, but I like the other one more overall.

Oh, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has decided that the term "Hispanic" is no longer a recognized ethnicity as relating to collection of demographic data for their programs. Is that totally messed up or what? Stay tuned for my unofficial opinion after I brush up a bit on cultural anthropology... UPDATE: As it turns out, HUD is only implementing an OMB-mandated change (that all gov't agencies are required to make), and that is explained a little bit better by the Census Bureau. I still don't think the rationale is complete, however, as they've left off races for the Middle Eastern peoples, and ethnicities for persons of Jewish culture (for example).

Today we went to Joe Bob's Chicken Palace and had the best BBQ wings in the world. It was at Joe Bob's today that Becky learned how to drink through a straw for the very first time. She had made attempts in the past, but never quite figured it out (she would just end up biting the straw). This time, on or about her third attempt, she finally got a drop of root beer and made the connection that it was for drinking. Now she's a pro.   =)

Poor Brad and his lens cap. First Lisa steals it after Brenda's party, then I hid it at Brad's BBQ (only temporarily - the only one that really had to look for it much was Lisa), and then apparently now Brenda has it for some reason (maybe she stole it after Brad's party, too?), which just makes his camera lens all dusty by now for sure.