Vista - Finally some good news

Finally some good news about Vista. After the disappointment of not being able to USB Stream by HandyCam in the Vista laptop. I picked myself up, got a Firewire/iLink cable and had a go with that.

I have to say, it couldn't have been much more impressive. Plugged-it in, turned it on, detected the drivers and a very smart wizard took over.

I had a few choices of what to use to do the importing so I tried the new to Vista Import Video Wizard. I chose the options I wanted, starting with the simple burn all the tape to DVD and output as AVI.

Popped in a blank DVD and away it went. A couple of hours or so (I should have timed it) I had a DVD and a 12GB AVI. I was quite pleased with this but it wasn't until I played the DVD that I got the best surprise.

The DVD was automatically produced with a title screen and scene selection which worked really well. The quality was great too.

I'm doing a new tape now as I type which, if nothing else, shows that the Core Duo processor is doing something right.

27th April 2007

My Mum would have been 60 today. If she hadn't died almost 10 years ago now. Its hard to know exactly what to feel. The whole Mersault thing tries to kick in and tell me its just another day, just another 27th April. But it isn't. It's significant.

It's significant because it reminds me of three things.

1. How young she was when she died. 60 would still be considered young so to not get within 10 years of that...

2. How long ago it was that she died. I've lived nearly 10 years without her.

3. I'm reminded that I can't really type this kind of thing without fighting back tears. 10 years on, it seems that I'm still not really over it. I suspect I never will be.

But I am sure of is this. I'm here, I'm healthy and I'm happy which is all she ever lived for anyway. So I really don't need to worry.

Track of the day:
It has to be, Birthday by The Sugarcubes

Proofing versus Reading

There is no denying it, I'm not finding proof reading very easy. Obviously, I can't for a minute suggest that reading my own book is dull, but proof reading is very dull. Trouble is, its a weird mix of reading and parsing. You have to pay very close attention to every word, whilst at the same time keeping an eye on the flow. Before you know it, you are reading and not proofing and you have to start the whole page again.

This is best explained with this oft quoted example:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in
waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist
and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can
sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

This is exactly what happens when you proof read. You simply don't notice mistakes. Your brain can replace entire incorrect wards with the correct ones without you noticing.*

And, to put no to fine a point on it, that makes it far harder to proof-read than you imagine. I'm sure you can get good at it. But I'm only on page 59 and its going very slowly. Still, I'll get there.

Website of the day:
Great photos, lovely implementation.

Track of the day:
Well, the randomiser was kind today, some real crackers, Shangri-La by That Petrol Emotion gets an honorable mention but the standout of the night was surely One Step Beyond by Madness. Suddenly I was 12 again. Top. Another point of note is that the new laptop can drive my Sennheisers far better than the old one. Volume, at last!
(I'll try and get that last.fm recent tracks thing integrated with the blog something soon)

* see what I did there?

Some more photo usage

Also known as the lazy man's blog content. Lots of usage of late, here are a few that you can see on the web:

In no particular order:

• On a writer's wiki
• A healthy eating blog
• In a film making book (thanks Curtis)
• As a background to a poem about 7/7
• In an astronomy blog and the associated news story
• On a taxation blog

How to create a playlist of all your music in Windows Media Player 11

By special request for Tony C, here's how to create a playlist containing all your music in Windows Media Player 11.

1. Obviously, first get all your music added to library.
2. Then, select the 'Songs' view of your library. Click on any song* in the list and start it playing.
3. Then click on 'Now Playing'
4. Everything should now appear in the 'Now Playing' list
5. Then from the 'File' menu choose 'Save Now Playing List As...' and save as your 'Everything' playlist.

In other advice:

1. If you're going to break your arm, try not to break you arm.

* - don't play any rubbish

Don't buy Vista...

If you want to be able to connect to a wireless network. I've had my new Vista laptop for a bit now and yet, here I am, on my old trusty XP laptop. Why? Because my the Vista laptop won't connect to the Internet any more, its just says "Local Only" and lets me enjoy the information superhighway that is my router. That's all.

Its just not ready yet. I have a new router. Maybe that will fix it, maybe I'll never get back on the Internet for a while.

In addition, I got the new laptop as my old one struggled with digital video. I want to get all my mini-DV as DVD. Guess what? From the Sony website for my camera:

"For models with USB streaming, this function is not supported in Windows Vista"

Joy untold.

In summary, my advice is, don't buy Vista. Nice features are all very nice, but its utterly pointless if you can't do the basics.

Lets see how long until SP1 appears...

I am RAM, this is ROM

There is a unbelievable temptation to try to become a geek philosopher. Take established thinking and re-tell it with a techy-vibe and try to present it as something new. A temptation so great, that I am going to do it. Why not. Its not like I'm alone.


"The Permanence of the Water and the Hills"

Its a question of permanence. As you get older (and particularly when people around you start to die) you lose the sense of the infinite you have when you were young. I first really noticed this when my attitude to collecting changed. There was a time when I would have (and did) collect just about anything. Stamps, coins, football programmes, games consoles, CD's, VHS cassettes, DVD's, books, the list is a collection in itself. Over time, my temptation to collect has reduced. I think this is partly due to a new 'what is the point?' attitude that makes me think that ultimately all this stuff will just be some a big pile of rubbish that my beleaguered descendants will have to dispose of. This is, of course, terrible fatalistic and, while I'm alive I can doubtless benefit from such thing from the sense of 'having' that collectors will know well.

In a less tangible way, I began to wonder about the vast amounts of information I have collected in my head. As many who know me will testify, I know a vast amount of garbage and have, over the years, actively set out to learn more stuff and 'collect' more garbage to remember. Obviously, this is handy for well, quizzes mainly, but if it makes me feel better than it does no harm. But unlike physical collections, this accumulation of knowledge will disappear in an instance, all 21 grams of it. Viz, I am RAM.

Of course, when I first read "Being and Nothingness" I don't think I really understood it (and probably wouldn't now) but I'm sure JPS wouldn't have of a clue about blogs either. So there.

Therefore, this kind of thinking compels you to look for some degree of permanence that can come from this accumulation of such easily lost knowledge and experience. Its not really about "nothingness" if you don't want it to be. Clearly, this is one of the central joys of having children. Not only physical creations but hopefully you can give them the tools they need to have a better attempt at life than you have managed.

Maybe this is at least part of why I write, take photos, blog. After all, barring some massive natural disaster like Internet falling apart under the heat of global warming, this is a very small chance that this blog post may exist when I don't. Viz, this is ROM.

This is it folks, my legacy, my gift to history, the exam submission on which my existence will be graded by future generations.

D-, could try harder.

Website of the Day:
Hey, you can get some lovely Oak Furniture at Chris Sharp Cabinets.

Track of the Day:
The randomiser re-discovered "Lady Grinning Soul" by Bowie tonight for me. A song so good it has its own Wikipedia page. Well done randomiser, must think of a better name for you, cause that's a rubbish name and you're not random either.

Brought to you on behalf of Visit Scotland (unofficially)

Just back from a week in Lochgoilhead. Took quite a lot of photos, I'll be getting the good ones onto MorgueFile over the next week or so. Here's a selection of a few, click to download the full versions:




View of Glen Croe from "Rest and Be Thankful"



Boat on Loch Goil



View of Loch Eck from Jubilee Point on road to Dunoon



Looking out the window of Inverary Jail

Job Title Madness

As those who know me will testify, I've never been too fussed with job titles. I've had a few and most are generally meaningless. I've always been a fan of a job title scheme based around animals Code Monkey, Sales Weasel, that kind of thing.

These may be ridiculous, but I have started to notice and even more ridiculous trend. Trying to make fairly uninteresting jobs sound more exotic by the use of a really over-stated job title. I was in a jewellers recently and was served by a very competent and pleasant person whose name badge proclaimed the title of 'Sales Executive'.

Now, I've worked in a shop before, I've stocked the shelves, bashed the till and NEVER, for a single second, did it EVER feel like I was doing anything vaguely 'executive' (it might have been that I had a brightly coloured sweatshirt on).

I've seen many other examples of this recently (none of which I can remember sadly, yeah, I know, not exactly well researched this post) but you all** know what I mean, I bet you've seen it too.

I'd like to think that no one is fooled by this, especially not those with the names on their lapels. Sure, it makes it better when you go home and tell your family what job you've just got.

You can see the Royle Family-esque scene were Anthony comes home and says "I've got a job as a Sales Executive" and his Mum and Nana both say "Oooh, Executive".

Thankfully, trusty old Jim would retort with "Executive my arse". Well said Jim.

I'm not having a go at the people with these silly titles. Far from it. Good luck to them all. I have to take issue with the idiot HR 'Executives' that think this kind of thing is a good idea. Are they fooling anyone? "Executive eh? Wonder if I'll get a car, maybe an M3?"

Sheesh.

Website of the day:
The art and photography of the amazing Laurin Rinder, because its his birthday today. And he's a bit good too.

Track of the day:
The Private Psychedelic Reel by the Chemical Brothers has stood the test of time well.
I'd also like to give a special pop-tastic commendation to 'Come Undone' by Duran Duran which just came on as I was typing.

** 'all' - who am I kidding!

Photo Blog - Animal Faces

Meanwhile in Edinburgh Zoo, the animals are looking quite interesting.




Otter


Japanese Macaque



Jaguar

Click on images to download hi-res versions

Primeval Clapping

Have you ever written or typed a word and, despite it being something you have done many times, it just doesn't look right? So, you ask some "does that right?" and they look at you in a funny way.
On occassions, I think we all have moments when we look at commonplace things and they suddenly leap out as being absurd or stripped-down to what they really are. I even had a brief moment once when I was watching football and it looked like 22 blokes running about kicking a ball to no great purpose. After all, why is the space inside the goal different from any other?Thankfully, that on didn't last long.

One of the most profound of these moments I ever had was related to clapping. Clapping is an extremely commonplace thing. Humans tend to do it for pretty much any reason (especially if they are in a game show audience). It is a sign of welcome/adulation/happiness and generally speaking a positive thing in all but its slow form.

But have you ever had a moment when you have seen people clapping and it looks like some form of mass hysteria when a bunch of people are just sitting/standing banging their hand together to make a noise? It seems to me to be an enormously primeval thing. A throwback to a more animal time, perhaps pre-speech?

As usual, I have no idea on the science of this, doubtless it has been researched and countless papers written, but I can't think of any other similar habits that we have as humans that are so basic (football supporting aside). Maybe I'll try and find the science...maybe not.

Clapping is just plain odd. The next time you do it, just stop for a second and ask yourself "What the hell am I doing?"