PS3 Firmware Upgrade

I really rather like the PS3. It is kind of growing on me. Late last week Sony released a firmware upgrade that made it even nicer. It adds quite a few nice features, including upscaling and the ability to fetch media from other devices.

I can remember when DVDs were the last word in quality. I suppose that compared to VHS video tape they probably still are. But these days we are used to bigger and better things. A lot of DVD players now have built in "upscaling" which attempts to take a standard DVD signal and convert it into one which will look OK on a high resolution display. This is a fraught business, in that the software has to add data where none was before, smoothing lines and filling in gaps when things move. Up until now the PS3 could play DVDs, but it couldn't upscale them. But now, with the firmware upgrade, it can. And it works too.

If you freeze the frame on an upscaled DVD the picture doesn't look that much better. But when the movie is running the effect is pretty impressive. I put on a high quality, action packed sequence (the car chase from Ronin) and the results were very good, to my eyes there is a significant improvement. Not as good as a proper HD source, but a good half way house, and good enough to stop me from re-purchasing all my DVDs in Blu-Ray (which is kind of a marketing own goal from Sony's point of view I suppose).

The PS3 can now also upscale old Playstation 1 and 2 games. First off I took my original Ridge Racer, bought with my PS1 all those years ago and popped that in to see what upscaling did. This was not quite as impressive, but then again each pixel was around a quarter of an inch square on the screen, so it was perhaps unlikely it would make much difference. I still enjoyed the race though. Yellow car, all the way.

My PS3 could see my media shares, and I managed to browse some folders but I ran out of time before I could get much going. They say you can also control your PS3 using a PSP via the Internet, but I've got to do some firewall fiddling to make that work. Maybe later.

Bottom line though, if you have a PS3 you really should upgrade the firmware. It takes around half an hour to download and install, but it is well worth the effort.

Best Cafe in the World

I've found the best cafe in the world. It is in York station and the coffee is good, but everything there is annotated in a most amusing way.

Message coated sugars

I know that all the slogans and clever artwork were actually concocted by a bunch of soul-less advertising executives for a franchise owned by an uncaring global corporation working out of an anonynous office somewhere in Slough, but I still think they are neat.

Indeed it is, but we got one anyway

York station looking good.

I'm in Love

I've seen my new phone. It's wonderful. And I can't buy it just yet. Which is unfortunate.To make matters worse, I saw it hanging from David's belt. I was going to advise him to buy one - after I'd got mine. Unfortunately he has taken my advice before I gave it to him. How temporally anomalous.

And annoying.

Anyhow, for those with a gadget bent and a drip proof drool tray, follow this link.

Finished Marking

I've just about finished marking now. All the first year exam papers have been passed on to Mike (I'll bet he was pleased to see them) and now I can get on with the rest of my life.

Gone to Print

The key turned in the lock and the door opened slowly. The print foreman flicked the light switch and high above them the fluorescent tubes clicked and popped into life. In front of them stood the printing press, seeming to jump around on its base as the lights around it flickered and got brighter. The smell of fresh paper, ink and machine oil filled the air. The foreman walked purposely around to the control panel and pushed the gold disk into the slot at the top.

The courier stood speechless in the doorway, catching his breath and watching the room come alive in front of him. He had been traveling since dawn the previous day to bring the precious data that was now being prepared for its final journey onto paper.

The control panel lit up, sections turning green as the pages were loaded into the memory of the vast machine. In the background the foreman could hear the print rollers and cooling fans coming up to speed. Finally the "Print Ready" light came on.

He glanced down at the lever that set the number of copies required. "Rob wrote some of this" he said to himself, as he pulled the lever all the way to the right hand end of it's travel before jabbing the Start button. The printing continued long into the night, vast trucks appearing out of the darkness to load up with copies for distribution to the furthest corners of the world....

Or,to put it another way, our book went to print this week. You should be able to find it in all good bookshops (and probably a few dodgy ones) by the end of June.

You can buy it at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.