Differing perspectives

For once I just don't see the point.

In the wake of the Sony PSP stampedes, a chap in England has shelled out almost £8000 on ebay to secure himself a one. According to the report this now gives him the ability to surf the web, download music and videos and watch movies.

Well last time I checked, my little PC can do all of these things for a lot less money. It may fall short in the state-of-the-art gaming department, but for the money I saved I can do 'reality' thrills. I can go snowboarding, wakeboarding, skydiving, paintballing or clay pigeon shooting. Alternatively I can experience safer thrills in a theme park or a holiday in Vegas. I can travel to far off lands or if I really wanted some pixelated hand-eye coordination, I could buy a £1 TV tennis unit in stunning orange at the bootfair down the road, where I know I'll get as much game-play as I would playing the latest incarnation of Grand Theft Auto.

OK so I know this isn't my bag and as Mr John has just pointed out, some people would view actually leaving the house to go snowboarding as abhorrent. But even so, £8000 when he could just wait a month or so...

Main Feature : Les Bicyclettes de Bracknell

Another quick movie, this time it's the Thames cycle action stitched together into some semblance of a story. Locations start at Bracknell and include Putney Bridge, Richmond Park, various locks, Hampton Court Palace and finally into Staines.

CD Flies In

Having got myself a waterproof stills camera that also manages pretty reasonable video, I found myself looking at video editing software again. The first hurdle was that the files in the W10 were ".MOV" format and would not import into any of the DV editing programs I had installed. After much faffing around trying to convert them without much success, I tried simply renaming the files with a ".AVI" extension and was amazed to find that they worked. I don't really know the ins and outs of media wrappers but the main thing is that I can now take movies on the camera and easily chuck them at a non-linear editor for tidying up before vlogging them.

Now the last time I made a movie from my DV camera footage I was using the excellent budget editing package "EditStudio" from Pure Motion. However, it always seemed to suffer from being tediously slow to move clips about and refresh the screen etc. Not sure why but it did. The situation was even worse with these new (non-DV) files, so today I sought out an alternative and settled on Sony's Vegas Video. I've had my eye on this software ever since Sonic Foundry brought out the original version. I was (and am still) using Sound Forge 4.0 back then for audio editing, so I also get the benefit of compatibiltiy between applications.

I grabbed a few clips, dropped them into the timeline and threw a rough-edited audio track into the mix. Around an hour later a short movie was winging its way to this website. Bonza!

Big In Banff

OK, now we're cooking on gas. Behold the infamous 1999 snowboard holiday movie Big In Banff. This was my very first effort at digital video editing so cut it some slack if you will. Apologies also for video quality, as although this was shot on a Sony DV cam, it was captured via an analogue composite video lead, stored on the hard drive as low-res M-JPEG and later converted to DivX before being uploaded to YouTube, where it's been re-compressed into goodness knows what.
Warning : those eating food should cease viewing after the "redrum will return" message.

Tahoe Movie

Since Ho has kindly uploaded my Tahoe Season Round-up movie to YouTube, I thought it only sensible to post it here.
Tahoe (and beyond) was something we all saw the point in to the highest degree. We focussed on that point down to a sub-atomic level. Like three little quarks, we went up the lifts, and down the mountain from top to bottom, impressed by its strange charm.
The time : 2004/2005 Winter Season. The Place : Lake Tahoe & Virginia City. The Score : "Burn Baby Burn" by Ash(2001).

Doris

This morning at work it struck me that 'my' desk had been feminised. Just look at the evidence!
Heading down to the shop for some refreshements I was happily surprised to see Doris behind the counter. Seems despite the new ownership, she has retained her Tuesday arvo slot. Naturally it was good to catch up on the gossip from a such a renowned source as Doris. She's been in the 'hood longer than I have for goodness sake.

I opted for Maltesers, Nik-Naks and a coke and was directed towards an out-of-date pack of cheese slices. The management may have changed, but the bountiful supply of reduced price fodder hasn't.

Today at work...

I think the week back at work will do me good and pep me up a bit. Already at the end of day 1 I am itching to fill my evening with 'my stuff'. It just goes to confirm to me that the less spare time you have, the more you try and pack in. Hopefully when I've finished this stint I will be doing more with my days and at a faster pace.

I had no problem getting back into the swing of the old job and the less I thought about the procedures involved, the easier it was to complete them. I think that I was quite lucky today to have a project that I was able to complete in just one day.

Resisting the temptation of the internet was not so hard and I hope to steer clear of it for the duration. At lunchtime I moseyed on down to Doris' shop to find it had been taken over by new managment and the crisp rack had been shifted. I adjusted my bearings and found myself approving of the new choice of magazines and display of man-sized lattice pork pies. One of which I bought.

Back at the ranch I got the low-down on Hammond's experiences.

At 3pm on a tea-making mission (the 5th of the day) I was coaxed into the computer-server room with a psssst and a wave to be confronted with a remarkable rocket launcher. OK so it turned out to be a homemade reflector telescope, but it was still amazing, especially the choice of materials (waste pipe for the main tube & Rolling Stones albums for bearings in the swivel base.)

On my return from the tea-facilities I noticed work was steaming ahead for the new buildings and sheltered walkway. Blimey.


Once 5pm had past I had completed my task and zipped up the relevant data and documents for manufacture. On driving off into the bleak weather, I decided that this would definitely be my last week here. It's good but it's all too familiar and being there blurs the new pastures I've moved through since leaving in 2004.

Obvious discovery of the day : Little Davy Jones is English!

No really, humour me on this one...

While channel-surfing on Sky last night I ended up watched part of "Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story".

Now I haven't seen an episode of The Monkees since I was knee-high to a grasshopper back in the mid '70s and I think I was vaguely aware back then that this was an American show.

So last night as I was noting the fine job that actor George Stanchev (who incidentally in from Bulgaria) was making of Little Davy Jones's voice I heard him use some English slang. Just as I was pondering the dual of Americans throwing in English words into conversation in the same way we might attempt dodgy American accents for effect, it hit me that Jones was in fact an Englishman.

*insert sound of cogs speeding up and ending with a lobby bell 'ding'*

The point of all this is not the realisation but the reason I didn't realise before. It would seem that Little Davy Jones, being born in Manchester and growing up performing on the stage in London and appearing on TV in Coronation Street, had incredibly, always had an English accent.

So I conclude that when you are so familiar with a particular actor's voice (having heard it right from a very young age) you just hear the voice as that person's voice and any accent just merges into the uniqueness. I did exactly the same thing with Sean Connery, not twigging that he was a Scot until probably in my teens. It was just his unique voice that I heard.

Great camera but why is the digital zoom so poor?

Bought a Pentax Optio W10 at the weekend for £149. On the whole I'm over the moon about this camera. I didn't buy it for the still-taking abilities. I didn't actually buy it for taking stills at all. I bought it first and foremost as a video camera in a compact package. With that in mind my number one reason for buying this model was that it is waterproof. Thanks go to CD for getting me thinking about cameras and reasons for buying and to John for doing all the research.

I wanted to know what sort of compression the video mode uses, and it turns out it employs good old Motion JPEG. This is excellent news for editing as, if my memory of back-in-the-day home movie making goes, this is an intra-frame compression and with its lack of key-frames, is well suited to most editing packages as well as inherent frame quality.
Use of MJPEG would also account for the larger file sizes and the reported mere 29 minutes available on a 2GB SD card. The 30fps 640x480 recordings are exactly what I was after.

The bad news is the appalling noise levels being picked up by the microphone from the optical zoom and auto focussing. Dreadful!

The other disappointment is the digital zoom. While I would never consider using this on a still photo, I expected good results from video. With a 6 Mega-pixel sensor, and VGA video only using some 300K pixels why do we still get pixelated digital zoom? By my calculations it should be possible to have a fair level of digital zoom before any pixelation sets in. I imagine this applies to all cameras - my only guess is the processing involved in discarding pixels to work, but surely that's as easy as scaling pixels which is what it's doing now. Someone tell me, I'd like to know.

So while I have no complaints over the water-resisting-videoing abilities of this cam, I find myself unable to use either the optical zoom (ruins sound) or the digital zoom (ruins image).

However since the main useage will be in noisy environments, it's not too much of a problem, and besides, it records quality video in a tiny package. - Q.E.F.

Staying one step ahead

I see that there are plans afoot to record audio and video of passengers on planes in the future (including monitoring in the toilet!) in a quest to create a hijack proof aeroplane. Nice idea but in a system designed to spot unnatural behavious, doesn't this kind of surveillance simply lead to unnatural behaviour? I can already spot ways around this with the vast array of technology and gadgets available today. A blanket jamming/interception of any wireless signals (bluetooth, IR etc) would surely be required too? Surely extrapalating the trends of security leads to everyone being monitored all the time. Which I think is kinda bad.

Le Bon Moment

Technology is a wonderful thing when applied correctly. It won't be long before the whole Skype video web-call scenario expands to fully mobile situations and then it's only a small(ish) step to teleports.

Beyond the thrill of seeing the pazzers from my hotel in Quebec, the still-novelty value of video-calls was good fun. Reminded me of a slightly extreme version of testing out a new pair of walkie-talkies:

Me: "Can you hear me still?"
Pazzer: "yes, can you see the pond?"
Me: "yes, I'm walking to the end of the drive now, can you hear me still?"
Pazzer: "still good, I'm in the lounge now"
Me: "I can see it...I'm down the road now, can you see the pub?"
Pazzer: "Yes, nice and clear"
Me: "ok I'm across the Atlantic and in Montreal, can see you perfectly..."

Drum & Bass blog

I love drum and bass me - it's the best music in the whole world.

I finally picked up a copy of the Roni Size / Reprazent 1997 Mercury Music Prize-winning album "New Forms" and set aside a chunk of time at the end of the evening to kick back with iPod and NTX speaker and make like a jazz-beatnik in an easy chair.

Having made such leaps in the genre with this jazz-inspired style it makes me wonder how it was largely ignored and we fell back into several years of hardstep. Come to think of it drum and bass seems to be collapsing into itself with the recent re-emergence of the amens and we'll soon disappear up our own bottoms in a ragga-jungle fenzy.

I'm not complaining really - I love those amen-break classics and it's good to see bands like Duran Duran Duran putting a new spin on it.

Drum and bass continues to split into new directions every year like a Missile Command MIRV.

Crackers, but then we do so love cheese!

I'm pleased to see that the 90's Spirit of "Mike Flowers Pops" lives on in the new millenium in the form of "Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine".

These guys from Vegas (where else?) are taking cheesy listening to the next level by covering the likes of Korn, Nine Inch Nails, System of a Down and Sir Mix-A-Lot in their swinging elevator style.

Tesla Power

As CD pointed out to me, this car has everything I could want in a motor - electric, sporty, English, quirky and named 'Tesla'!

Cracking good pint

If only I could blog a photo from a UK phone.

Currently sitting in the midst of the Yorkshire Dales National Park outside the Grassington hotel with a foamy pint of Tetley's bitter.
Having done the rounds of the village itself I decided a sit-down in the sun was in order. There's no shortage of amiable aged locals to banter with which makes the whole scene so much more pleasurable.

And the aroma of horse-dung.

Summer cruisin' choons

It's a rare old summer's day here in Admiral's Park in Chelmsford and the weather is serving to justify my current reason for being here. I have three hours to kill while my car is prepared with its new music system.

I decide that after three months without having fitted the spangly new bluetooth head-end with iPod adapter it was about time I called in the pros. And I mean pros only in the sense that they do this sort of thing on a regular basis and have the know-how to take apart AND replace a dash, not because of their attention to detail and panache.

I know I could do a better job if only I could get past those progess-stopping unforeseen pain-in-the-bottom problems. The sort of problem that requires all sorts of running around to get hold of a specialist tool that you just know those pros would have in a handy drawer and which kills any enthusiasm to get the job done.

So as the guys in the sound shop get frustrated over that hard-to-access and burred facia screw and the restricted access head-end location, I am blissfully unaware eating Thai takeaway snacks, sipping on a cool Coke and soaking up the sun by the river.

JellyBullyRoniTongy

After the disappointment of not being able to book any accommodation in Newquay for the weekend we decided to re-schedule for later in the season. I was looking forward to some surfing in the refreshing sea coupled with large evenings out on the town at the Sailors Arms with the bank holiday hoi-poloi.

That left me needing an alternative option. Something eventful and different. Something not as far a drive as Newquay but just as much fun. A quick call to the ever resourceful and up-for-it Cousin Rog left me in no doubt that a weekend ticket to Hi:Fi South, the big new music festival in Winchester, would be a giggle.

There'll be camping which means I need to dig out the dusty camp-gear, and there'll be rain which means the emergency poncho may see the light of day. But the main thing is there'll be a plethora of superb music! And I mean a plethora. I nearly opted out of the event because it seemed unlikely that I could see all the acts I want to. A whole tent dedicated to Drum & Bass featuring pretty much every major artist of the genre - Roni Size, Fabio & Grooverider, DJ Hype, Zinc, Friction, Andy C, Goldie, Mickey Finn - the list goes on.

Meanwhile if i can break away from that lot, we have Lemon Jelly, Judge Jules, Super Furry Animals, Eric Prydz, Pete Tong, Scratch Perverts, Ian Brown, Hard-Fi, The Stanton Warriors and the mighty Audio Bullys drawing the crowds in other locations. Should be a goodie and no mistake ;)

Raggamuffin

So Desmond Dekker has died. Although I was only a twinkle when he released his original hit "Israelites", I can appreciate the part he played in bringing Reggae to the UK masses.

Additionally these simple equations show the butterfly effect more relevant to me...

Reggae + Electronic = Ragga
Ragga + Hardcore = Jungle
Jungle => Drum & Bass

Desmond Dekker is dead, long live DnB!

See what I see overseas

Virtual reality is virtually here!

Well ok it's quite a long way off in truth, but here I am watching "Buffy" in the comfort of an English lounge while CD watches my TV from her Californian couch.

Thanks to the wonders of Skype and a £10 handy-bendy webcam (plus of course my trusty HP tablet), the effect was so close to her being in the room watching with me that I almost believed it myself (sorry got a bit "Look Around You" there).

So as I munch on a McVities choccy digestive, CD chomps a cheese & ham taco. OK you get the picture. Just as she did - and the sound. Ha! I was even able to interrupt the show with annoying plot questions - yea!

(Click the image for a larger view with notes)

Scribble-Log... slog

Streamlining the Moderne Way

I decided it was time to lose the frames from my website and dive headfirst into Blogger.

The good news is that in the process of juggling images and areas around I seem to have managed to get the webcam up and working again and have slotted it into the right-hand pane of the site.

There will be more changes coming but in the meantime I reckon some more blogs, plogs and vlogs are in order.

So RIP the old journal website and all who sailed through her. It's been emotional :)

Yankers

As if spending six hours sitting in the US embassy only to be refused a visa wasn't enough for one day, I now find myself sitting on a train at Liverpool Street Station experiencing severe delays due to a death on the rail in Romford! At least I'm getting good use from my £55 ticket.

In the meantime can anyone think of any kind of supporting paperwork I could have taken today to prove my significant family and friends ties to the UK? Let me save you the time - there is none.

More on this when I finally get home and back to the digital ink of my trusty tablet.

Tablet Heaven :)

Years back at 'Live 95' I saw my first tablet PC and thought, "this is the way it should be done".
Over Easter weekend I finally acquired one - an HP/Compaq TC1100 running Window XP Tablet edition. After just a few days of use I can say it's the best computer/software combo I've yet owned.

THE COMPUTER...

The size is perfect for mobility and the detachable keyboard is a bonus. Hard drive is only 30GB 4200RPM but I may eventually install my 100GB/5400. Last night I installed another Gig of RAM, which gave immediate improvements in speed. It has bluetooth, WiFi, IRDA, PCMCIA and USB2 and the only thing missing is an optical drive. I think I can live without this though.

Why use a keyboard, buttons and mouse/touch-pad when a one handed pen will suffice? I know some people prefer a keyboard, which is undoubtedly quicker for writing text, but I'll happily take the hit for all the other benefits of a pen-based PC.

I would never go back to a desktop machine and if I can help it, never use a laptop again. All depends on the next generation of tablets though. For video and audio editing work I still need a powerhouse of a PC and the TC1100 while plenty good enough for web and office work will not cope with hardcore processing.

THE SOFTWARE...

I've been pondering moving to an Apple Mac for years. Mainly because the Mac OS user interface looks so much friendlier, cleaner and fresher than windows. The usual reasons held me back, but now in one fell swoop MS have won me back to their OS fair and square with this superb piece of programming.

Handwriting recognition is magical, and soon I hope to get to grips with the voice recognition. I didn't realise that a computer could be so different to a laptop in so many respects. Sure you can have streaming radio, TV, magazine, newspaper, crosswords, email and diary on a laptop, but it all works so much better on a tablet.

I had concerns about entering web addresses but once I realised I didn't need to tap away on a virtual on-screen keyboard I found it pretty easy with the handwritten options. Also I tend to use a handful of keyboard shortcuts, some of which I have yet to find actions for in pen-mode.

Good 3rd party support adds to the good experience. Some well-supported tablet-specific websites have yielded some good software links.

Calculator now becomes a sheet of intelligent paper. Write the sums and let the computer fill in the answers. Desk notes - just write on the screen as the thoughts appear.
Journal - plain and simple diary app. Calendar - Tap on the date and add notes. Search notes for text - all in handwritten form. Works a treat.

Next up is a GPS interface coupled to MS Autoroute.

I challenge users of other operating systems to find serious and unbiased fault with Microsoft’s efforts and commitment in the field tablet PCs. Well I like what they've done, that's all I'm saying :)

It's Pickling Time!

There seems to be a new service on offer down at Doris' shop.
Just the other day when I returned to pick up a pork pie that had been inadvertently left on the counter, I was given the option of handing over my pie to Dave who would take it round back, chop it up and give it a dose of pickle. Hmmm. I declined on that occasion as soon as I realised that he was serious.

Again today as I went to pay for my scotch-egg based luncheon came the question "do you want it pickled-up sir?"
I said thankyou but no, and that I was sure that one day I would give in to the pickle. The thought of working through a bag of pickled maltesers loses them their appeal.

"Whenever you're ready" came the reply as I let the door spring shut behind me.

I'm changing my computer again

There's nothing like a little travelling to make you appreciate your laptop. Keeping in touch with those back home as well as generally keeping in touch with the world.

Once upon a time I had a large office with a big desk covered in kit and hiding a load more kit below.
Then I chucked out the large tower PC with all its special plug-ins for a cube PC with everything I required on board.
This made me realise I could live without PCI slots and that storage could be external and I bought my first laptop.
The laptop was very specific. It was to be a desktop replacement, fully funtional and powerful. Able to run video editing s/w, store my vast AAC libray and play DVDs in big-screen format. I opted for the HP Pavilion 17" widescreen, with Harmen-Kardon sound and a hyperthreading processor.

Everything worked a treat. I migrated my life onto the Pavilion just in time for my 6 month stint in Lake Tahoe where it did its job, successfully functioning as a games machine (online Texas Hold-em), web browser (oh that glorious 3Mbit cable connection), photo store, VoIP phone, DVD player and music jukebox. It was only ever moved to watch DVDs from the couch - great on the widescreen and the Harmon Kardon speaker system is amazing, I've never heard anything like it on a laptop.

However, once the summer arrived with the Cali roadtrips and daily jaunts to the Blue Angel for web access, I started to wish it was a bit lighter and smaller. Battery life took a turn for the worse and balancing the hot machine on a leg to prevent blocking the cooling vents is a pain (literally).

So it's now time to continue the experiment and see if I can downsize once more.

With my free Nokia 6630 doing a fine job of picking up email from anywhere, as well as IM chat on the move and the occasional web-surf, I decided a PDA was not necessary. The main benefits would be WiFi on a larger screen, and mobile video. Good but no cigar.

Blew hot and cold on UMPCs for a few days. Concluded they were too big to be pocketsize and too small for serious work.

Finally I looked carefully at tablet PCs. I really like the idea of freeing up the restrictions of browsing to the extent of losing the keyboard and mouse for a pen and voice recognition. Although I really like the slate format of tablet PC (ie no fold-out keyboard) I would seriously miss the omission of an optical drive. These only seem to come with the comvertible tablets. So, for now I will buy a cheap, small slate tablet (the HP TC1000 or TC1100) and keep my HP Pavilion while I trial the whole concept.
In time I will hopefully be in a position to sell both and replace with a larger more fully spec'd convertible tablet, good enough for all eventualities.

Captains Blog

We're about to set sail on a voyage from Cork to Swansea on the Superferry.

This follows a splendid few days in Eire, having landed in Dublin on Wednesday morning.

Before that we had made our way across England, stopping for a couple of hours at Stratford for a Shakespeare fix and then overnight on Anglesea island at a good little B&B.

At Dublin we made sure we took part in a Guiness tour and ate some pretty tasty garlic grub.

At Galway we investigated a whole street of pubs after braving the icy weather.

On the way to Cork we viewed some mighty cliffs and overdosed on castles.

And today we kissed the Blarney stone and saw the Waterford crystal HQ.

Now we are sipping flirtinis at the ships aft bar.

Atfer Chopper we had Grifter & then came the mightiest of them all...

Thanks to Duncan for bringing up the subject of old bicycles.

While attending the Mighty Boosh show in Ipswich I was shown a grainy phone photo of a bicycle that Dunc had snapped in Cambridge. Not unusual to find such vehicles in Cambridge but this one was special. It was (as later research revealed) a Raleigh Vektar.

I remember seeing one of these in the mid 80s and Dunc's little snapshot brought it all back to me. A BMX-style frame with a big vulgar plastic centre console housing amongst other things, an AM radio, sound effects unit and a trip computer. This is the way bikes should be in the age of Street Hawk and Knight Rider!

Naturally while doing a little web surfing to study the history of this little gem, I found myself adding a couple of Grifters to my ebay watch list...