Daily Archives: February 2, 2014

February 2, 2014 · 5:36 pm

Freelander Miracast Dongle

iambillbil pokes at the new Miracast dongle from Freelander with a variety of tablets and screen resolutions [Google Translate].

This post, despite some mangling by Google Translate, is worth a see. It answers some — but not all — questions that have been asked here about the relationship between a tablet screen, video resolution, and the target TV screen. It’s also interesting that the dongle does DLNA (I’m not sure they all do).

It should be remembered that Miracast sends a compressed stream to the target device. This tends to introduce latency that can be frustrating if you plan to do any work with a mouse or other pointer. But for just seeing things on a large screen — video, photos, web pages — it’s good enough for right now. Of course, there’s always room for improvement. But this is still better than snaking a 10-20 foot HDMI cable from a tablet to a distant TV (when HDMI-out is available — something that’s not on the iFive Mini 3).

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Filed under Android, iOS

February 2, 2014 · 2:08 pm

R.I.P. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman

Award-winning Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead in Manhattan

Dammit.

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Filed under R.I.P.

February 2, 2014 · 9:43 am

The New York Public Library Reboot

I’ve really wanted to stay out of this.

First, I don’t expect to be alive to ever see its completion, so I figured what they’re up to is for the benefit of the next generations, not me.

Second, I think every damned book should be digitized so they can be made available instantly — even if it’s stupidly restricted to having to be at a NYPL branch for access.

Third, the entire thing has been a mess and it’s become so complex that I really don’t want to have to devote any of my remaining time on it.

However, today I was pointed to this post by @tuphlos, a librarian in another city: A Tour of the NYPL Stacks. And it makes a good case for slamming the brakes on the entire reboot idea.

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