Category Archives: Geek-Speak

Geeky spaces lie within — be careful where you step!

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

Video Conversion

$2.999

Kevin had a video conversion project for me. He’s doing a site for The Lovell Sisters, a young trio of sisters who’re making a name for themselves in the bluegrass scene. They were recently on TBS, and after some talks with TBS, Kevin was able to secure the VOBs for the performance. He wanted them to be converted to MOV files for inclusion on their site.

Here’s how I did it.

First, I used OpenShiiva on the iMac to convert from VOB to MP4. I wanted the files in MP4 format so I could do rudimentary editing in iMovie HD. This went really well. Key item here: Be sure to click the Encode audio button on the Audio tab — without that, there’s video, but no sound. 🙂

Then in iMovie HD, I made projects out of what would become the two clips on the site. After cropping where needed, I did File|Share and clicked on the QuickTime icon. I set Compress movie for to Expert Settings, and clicked Share. After filling in the file name in the Save exported file as dialog box, I selected Movie to QuickTime Movie in the Export field, and selected Broadband – Medium for the Use field. That gave me a starting set of conversion parameters.

I clicked the Options button, and in the Movie Settings dialog box that was presented, I clicked the Settings button in the Video section. I changed the Compression Type to Sorenson Video 3 (the default setting never would display correctly on a stock Windows XP box), set the Frame Rate to 15 fps, set Key Frames to Every 75 frames, set the Data Rate to Restricted 220 kbits/sec, and the Compressor Quality to High. I clicked the OK button.

I made no further changes to the Movie Settings dialog box, and clicked OK, and then clicked the Save button on the Save exported file as dialog box. About ten minutes later I had my video clip, and it seemed to work on both the iMac and my stock Windows XP box.

Woo-hoo! This Mac Life rocks!

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

It’s Not So Bad

$2.399

Well, my experience this morning with the Apple service side was pretty good, on balance.

I packed up the iMac G5 last night, and schluffed it out to the truck and through the mall this morning, landing at the Apple Store at West County right at 10AM. At that time, the Genius Bar was already booked solid, and my appointment was to be at 11.20AM “worst case”. They gave me a pager and I walked the mall. And walked the mall. And walked the mall. I showed up at 11.20AM, to find that I was still three down on the list, and the list had only moved by two folks in the last hour or so. Ugh.

So I stood and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, around 12.30PM, my name was called, and we started trying to figure out what was going on. As it turns out, the symptom that I read about last night on the Apple site was not what was going on with my iMac. (That problem is about capacitors blowing, and my mobo wasn’t the right kind for that — guess that’s why they have you bring it to the store to figure out the problem, eh?)

After figuring out that the thing was powering on by itself when power was applied, and doing a little work under the hood, the Genius Bar dude decided it was either a power supply or mobo problem, and is ordering both. ETA for return is September 10th, but he thinks he’ll beat that. The impressive thing? They do the work right there, and don’t ship the systems off. That’s hugely comforting!

So, I’ll be using the Mini or the Gateway for the next couple of weeks until the iMac is back. I’ve got a little Mitsubishi LCD on the Mini — Beck’s old one — and I can’t get over how tiny the monitor is compared to the iMac’s 20″ widescreen!

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

Dust and Death

$2.419

Tonight, I’ve been working to get the MacMini up as the web server, and I think I might have accomplished just that. I’m very sure that some things are not gonna work like they’re supposed to. Just sit back, relax, and I’ll try to have the plane under control shortly. 🙂

However, the iMac has bit the dust, and I don’t know why. It was working during one commercial break in Battlestar: Galactica, and on the next, there was no video, and the fan was the loudest, fastest and hottest I’d seen. Nothing I’ve done has helped — changing which outlet it’s plugged in to, unplugging the power for a while, etc. I started poking around on the web.

It appears that Apple has a known issue with serial number ranges into which mine falls. The issue is not very well described at the Apple site, but it has to do with hazy problems of video, or power, or both.

So tomorrow, it looks like I’m off to West County Mall’s Apple Store to hopefully have them tell me what I can do. I’ve had the thing just barely three months, and I really don’t want to have to go through an ordeal to get back up and running. It’ll be interesting to see how this part of Apple works — the sales side has been great. The proof is in the service!

Geek-Speak, Photography

Canon EOS 5D

$2.459

Someone alerted me at work yesterday that Canon had announced a new EOS DSLR — the Canon EOS 5D.

This one seems to have everything that I was looking for when I bought the 20D — a full frame sensor even! And, at nearly 13 megapixels, I think the detail is really there, and makes this a nice step down from the 1D Mark II.

It’s got a huge 2.5″ screen on the back that is supposedly visible from a wider angle of view.

Now, the frame speed (3fps) makes it the slowest in the line — the 20D is 5fps, the 1D Mark IIN is 8.5fps (it was also updated apparently), and the 1Ds Mark II is 4fps. So the frame speed is more in line with the 10D, but at that pixel resolution, I’d take it.

I can’t tell if the focus screen is interchangeable on the 5D, but I’d have to think it would be.

Truthfully, the full frame sensor and interchangeable focus screen were the two biggest things missing in the 20D for me, and the 5D looks like it might do both. Of course, there’s always an increase in price for these things, and this body looks like it’s gonna run about $3300 on the street.

I’d love to have one of these before the big trek in November, but the body’s not available until October, and frankly, the money’s not there to pull it off. Until I start getting some photography exchanging for cash, I can’t really justify a purchase like this.

I can dream though……!

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

The Server, It Is a Changin’

Yesterday, I got to work and discovered me and couple of my peers had been recognized for working through a particularly ugly maintenance at the office a few weekends ago. Cool! What I didn’t know was that with that recognition also came a gift card to the mall. Even cooler! A mall that happens to house one of the new Apple Mini-Marts.

So, with my major award (and some extra money), I bought the new server for the deauxmayne — a nice shiny Apple Mac Mini!

I like the design and form factor of the Mac Mini. It’s doesn’t exactly stand out — no bells and whistles, magic lights, lava lamps or other moving parts — but it’s diminutive size sets it apart. It runs a G4 processor, which will be more than enough for my needs as a web and mail server. It has 512Mb RAM (which I intend to upgrade to 1Gb one day), 80Gb hard drive, 802.11g, bluetooth, USB, Firewire…. more than enough goodies for my needs.

Why would I change servers? Well, I’ve discovered that I can programmatically interface with Spotlight (part of OS X), and I believe that will give me the ability to add true searches for the photos on the site. That alone is a big reason to move to the Mac Mini.

So pardon the dust, watch out for the construction crane, and keep coming back for updates. The next couple of weeks of conversion oughta be a fun ride!

Geek-Speak

The End of the Future From the Past in the Present

Whaaaat?

For most of the mid-90’s, I labored to promote IBM’s OS/2 operating system as the wave of the future. I made a nice living for five years or so with that OS as my center of personal and career computing. In fact, occassionally, if you Google hard enough, you can still find some documentation I wrote for configuring PPP access through IBM’s Internet Connection software. It was cool stuff in its day, and kicked the butt of anything else out there. But, when you have an OS with no apps, buy Lotus, and still can’t put out competitive applications, you tend to lose your market share.

OS/2 Warp

Which is what happening with IBM, losing the war to Microsoft, and Windows 95/NT. Even IBM is giving up. Come the end of this year, you will no longer be able to buy OS/2.

After ten+ years, today in moving old data that I’ve been carrying around for a decade, storing on various OS/2, Linux, Windows and Macintosh boxen, I’m not moving one specific folder.

I’m not moving the one containing all the old OS/2 stuff. My old OS/2 CDs will also hit the corporate bulletin board tomorrow for a mere fraction of what I paid for them.

‘Tis a shame really. I know that OS/2 can be made to run on current hardware, but the hardware distance to overcome is buh-stounding. Think of the system you had in ’92 or ’93. A 386 maybe? Maybe 16Mb of 30pin DIMMs? I can’t even remember how big the drives were that I owned then, but I can’t imagine anything I had was more than a few hundred Mb.

And once I had it running, what then? The things I do daily are things that were pipe dreams ten years ago — music, video, digital photography, close to a terabyte of storage in my office, and 1000Base-T between the Linux server and the iMac. Nope, it’s time to let go.

So, with a tear in my eye, and a somewhat lighter closet, I say goodbye to OS/2, and look ahead to What’s Next. Anyone for telepathic computing? Holographic memory and displays? Scratch and sniff monitors? 🙂 It’s coming…. just wait!

Geek-Speak

24 Hours and All Is Well

$2.489

I sit here on the couch, and am wirelessly blogging. Cool. The Gateway box is rocking right along, and I’m thrilled.

The Sony I swapped for the Gateway was absolutely a sexy box, and while Janie Porche would tell you that an Apple would improve my life significantly and make me part of the “in crowd”, I’m really pleased with the utility of this workhorse laptop. Yeah, it’s a “Billy Box” — Windows XP, that is — but it does do what I need it to do on the road, and I still have the iMac here at the ranch for the big photoediting opportunities.

(Did you know Janie has a blog and stalkers? Wild… Try Googling her name sometime. Plenty to read.)

So, sexy or functional? Sexy catches my eye, but I’ll take functional in this instance….. although the Apple Powerbooks are really sexy, and do grab my eye. Maybe if Apple makes a G5-based Powerbook before the switch to Intel….. well maybe.

Geek-Speak

The News Is Still Good

$2.499

Several DVD burns later, and a lot of code removed, and The Little Gateway That Could is still chugging right along. This machine is working much, much better than the last one, and that’s a very good thing.

I’ve noticed things that are different between this one and the first. The CD/DVD tray opens much easier, which kinda leads me to believe that the first one might have been dropped along its travels to me. On the old one in fact, the serial number label on the bottom had a scuff on it — perhaps it met an unfortunate incident on the assembly line? I also noticed that some fixes wouldn’t install over the XP on the first box — mostly .NET stuff. I also noticed that Norton was consistently trying to install whenever the machine was restarted. I think that little box had a little dain bramage, and I got to suffer for it! 🙂

For now, all seems well, and I’ll keep percolating and see how this machine holds up. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Geek-Speak

And There Was Joy in Mudville

I was able to make a recovery DVD — woo hoo!

Perhaps that means that the drive in the last one was a lemon. Of course, the fact that it couldn’t recover from the recovery image may mean that the image used to recover and build the DVDs was bad — dunno.

In any case, I’m farther, although I still don’t trust it. I need to do some further burning of the photos I was burning last night to see if I’m in cow-heaven or not!