DVDs and Socialising

Been playing more with Pinnacle Studio 8. Still like it. However, the version which I have been, ahem, evaluating, is the restricted version. These are usually called SE (which you might think means "Special Edition" but which turns out to mean "Can't do any of the really useful bits"). To be fair, it lets you create DVDs in a very satisfactory way, but if you want to fiddle with the colour balance of your clips or the soundtrack you get this rather stern warning that your program will not do that.

I was all set to upgrade to the full version (cost 49 dollars) when my dad told me that PC World has the full program in stock, at half price - or 29 quid in english money. This is quite a nice reduction, and so I bought my own copy. Well worth it. The program comes with a nice printed manual and some extra bits and bobs. The best thing about this version though (although the old one might do the same I suppose) is that you can capture and compress to MPEG 2 straight from the camera. This does two nice things, it means that you don't fill your entire hard disk when you grab some video and it also makes the rendering of the finished DVD much quicker when you come to make the disk. Good stuff.

Then Geoff and entourage came round for the evening. Whilst showing Geoff my Dalek (I've just found that I can make it go backwards as well as forwards - hurrah) we got into a discussion about the colour red and Daleks. When I was a kid I vividly remember reading a page in a Dalek annual belonging to my friend Melvin (who had all the nice toys) which stated that Dalek eyes did not have a red sensor, and so anything red was invisible to them. This means that you should hide behind a pillar box if the Dalek race ever decides to invade your area.

At the time this seemed quite sensible, but there are some logical problems if you think about it. If something is red, how come they can't just see through it? If they see through it, it seems to me that hiding behind it is just plain stupid. The really confusing thing is that my Dalek is itself red. Which means that it is the Dalek version of the invisible man. Then Geoff tells me that red Daleks are the soldier ones. Most confusing. Anyone got the phone number for Davros? For those of you unsure of what I'm on about, take a look here and here.

 

Video Friday - plus culture

My dad is trying valiantly to transpose video from his shiny new camcorder (which is nicer than mine - chiz chiz) into his computer. He has just about got this sorted, but the Pinnacle software which he uses doesn't like his DVD burner. I'm kind of hoping that an upgrade to the program will sort this out. In the meantime I had a play with Pinnacle 8. It is wonderful. Very easy to use, with non of the silly fake user interface stuff in my previous favourite, Ulead. Of course the program works fine with my drive, and so I've been digging out old videos and giving them the DVD treatment. I've now got three DVDs packed with footage from one of our holidays - but I've no idea who will ever watch them....

Oh, for those wondering what a chiz is, you have to read your Molesworth. To quote the man himself: "A chiz is a cheat or a swindle as any fule knos". If you have not read any Molesworth then you are in for a treat. Amazon seem to have copies of it in stock, which is nice.

 

A Bright New Year

Got another email from Ian about Nils Allen Stewart of Sunday's entry. Apparently he has died for lots of people. You can find out more here. Ian regrets that he was not more aware of this line of work when he was younger. He suggests a number of potential roles that he would have loved to take including "Obese Man" in "Star Trek Deep Space Nine". Me, I'd go for "man in red jersey who you haven't heard of before and is going to die horribly (but cheaply) behind a polystyrene rock in the first five minutes" in the original Star Trek. I've been a fan of Star Trek as long as I can remember, but I am not aware of any great military success which has started with the order "Lets split up and search the place". Still, if it works for Scooby Doo, I suppose I'd better not argue too much.

Went over to "Los Parentos" and played a game (which is quite good) called Balderdash. You have to invent stupid definitions for things and then pass them off as genuine. Was quite astounded at the capacity of number one daughter for inventing plausible sounding explanations which turn out to be completely false. Was even more astounded at similar abilities as displayed by my mother. Ahem. I'm going to treat utterances by those two with a lot more care in future. Daughter ended up winning by persuading us all that the initials MCL stood for "Miniature Cricketers League". As if. Managed to come second though, so I guess I still have some capacity for invention (although I could of course be lying about this..).

 

Tidying Tactics

Whenever I get some time that I don't quite know what to do with (otherwise known as holiday) I turn my attention to tidying my room. There are a number of phases to this:

1: Look at room and express disgust and self loathing that I ever let it reach this state.

2: Get everything out and clean one corner really thoroughly.

3: Get bored with this cleaning and tidying stuff and shove everything back into place.

4: Sit and watch DVDs until the urge to tidy passes.

5: Indulge in displacement activity (such as writing my blog) for a while.

6: Run out of time and go off and do something else.

Then we watched a DVD (Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl) and saw in the new year. I played the first game of pinball at around half past midnight in a sprit of hope that 2004 might be "the" year for great pinball scores. It isn't - at least not yet. So I toddled off to bed.

Happy new year to both my readers.

 

DVD Bargains, Joystick japes and then off to Geoffs

I got given some cash for Christmas, and so I thought I'd go up town and spend it all. Got some lovely DVD bargains, including CSI (Crime Scene Investigations) half price. I love CSI. It is well produced, mindless, murder mystery tosh filmed in Las Vegas. I can look at the locations and say things like "I've been there" to everyone else. I also got Frasier half price as well. That is set in Seattle (which I've also been to - but only the airport...).

Then I took a look at a force feedback joystick. I got the posh Microsoft Flight Sim earlier this year and I'm told by a reliable source (number one son) that the sensation is much better with a force feedback control. And so I picked up a Logitech one at a very reasonable price. And it works great. It has a twisty bit which you can use as a rudder, so that steering the plane is much easier. I still can't fly (record is seven seconds in the Wright Flyer) but the experience is much enhanced.

Finally, went off for free food and drink at Geoffs. Good food, good company, what more can one ask for at this time of year?

 

Software Twiddling

Spent some of the day "recreational programming", trying to polish off a little mobile phone game that I've been working on. All was well until I tried to add sound. It didn't work. Moreover, it didn't work in a way which made me think that it did work (by making a different kind of boing to the one I had asked for). Ho hum. I've resolved to leave this one on a back burner whilst I search out something which does work.

Then I watched some more Babylon 5 (wonderful stuff).

 

Hard Drivin' and then back to saving the universe..

And then back up ye olde motorway to home sweet home. The M1 motorway was fairly kind to us, only held up a couple of times for a few minutes. It does seem to be colder up north though.

Watched some more Babylon 5 (got series 3 for Christmas - hurrah) and at the end of the first episode they had this wonderful credit:

I bet his mum was proud...