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CNN recently published this article suggesting digital alternatives to the business card:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/01/digital.business.cards/

Are we seeing the last generation of paper business cards?  Or is this just a fad?  CNN seems to suggest that the business card is yet another casualty of the conversion to all-digital media.

Each of the digital suggestions in this article have their own unique merit – the ability to record where you met someone along with their contact information, and endless customization possibilities, for example.  Certainly for someone in a fast paced, technology centered industry, any of these would make a great addition to her virtual identity.

However, I don’t see how digital business cards can render the paper version obsolete.  There’s always merit to something tangible.  I believe it creates a lasting impression where a digital substitute cannot.  It gives the feel of exclusivity – a personal invitation to contact someone again.  If I were told to simply “Google” someone, this would not make me feel special.  Anyone can find that information.  However, if you hand me your business card with 3 different contact phone numbers, I feel like you’re making that extra effort to ensure that I get a hold of you again.

Sometimes the newest, flashiest product isn’t always the best choice for every situation.  At least that’s my opinion.  Feel free to disagree

Just when you thought it was safe to buy a new HDTV: Sony and Panasonic have just announced plans to release three-dimensional TV sets in 2010. ESPN is testing 3-D production, promising to “have football players appear to jump out of the screen”. Of course, special glasses would be required when viewing.

The new 3-D sets won’t come cheap, and some critics argue that there is not enough bandwidth available to broadcast 3D programming. No surprise there, considering that there still isn’t enough bandwidth available to broadcast true 1080p HD content.

These new televisions would be able to play shows in 2-D or 3-D, and 3-D video games.

Blu-ray has also said to be working on a product that would play three-dimensional movies at home.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-10285229-58.html

Windowboxing… Why won’t you just fill the whole !#%^ screen?!?

Last night I sat down to watch the premiere of The Chopping Block on NBC and was surprised to see that my broadcast was being windowboxed on the screen.

What is windowboxing you ask? While I am watching this program on my 42″ LCD HDTV, there is a thick black outline around the entire image, filling up half of my screen with dead space. This phenomenon is occurring more often recently as we shift into High Definition broadcasting.

The traditional tube television displays in an aspect ratio of 4:3 (for those of you not familiar with aspect ratios, that is the relationship between the length of the image and the height of the image). Brand new High Definition televisions now have a screen that is much wider than it is high, with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Just as the devices we use to watch programming have changed their aspect ratio, the cameras used to record the programs also have changed the shape of the images they capture.

So to get a 4:3 image to display without distortion on a 16:9 screen, the image is pillarboxed: the image is centered horizontally on the screen, and black space fills the left and right sides of the screen. Inversely, to view a 16:9 image on a 4:3 screen, the image is letterboxed: centered vertically, and black space fills the top and bottom.

So what I was seeing on my screen last night, was a program that was recorded in 16:9, but then was converted to be viewed on a 4:3 screen, which was then converted to fit my 16:9 screen. Dizzy yet?

Now this would make sense to me if I was watching a station that does not broadcast in HD, but this was not the case! The program before and after filled my screen with all of their HD glory! Apparently this revolution even confuses the “experts”.