Rip It, Mix It, Burn It. That used to be the Apple iPod ad slogan, until the record companies declared ripping illegal. Coincidentally, the iTunes Music Store also debuted around the time that slogan died, as it become against Apple's financial interest for customers to Rip music.
Speaking of which, no one ever "mixes" any more. I had a friend in University that used to make killer mix tapes. For you younger kids, he would get some good songs and put them on a cassette tape that you could listen to in your car. With the advent of the iPod, and MP3 players in general, I now carry 1,000 songs around with me everywhere, and mix tapes are dead. I do miss them, because creating them was an art. Not to mention the actual art my friend used to hand-draw for the lining of the cassette holder.
The next evolution in home-rolled entertainment became SVCD. It was so easy to take an AVI or MPEG and burn it on a CD-ROM. Even old DVD players supported VideoCD format. The downside was CD's could only support 70-80 minutes of video content. So if your movie happened to run 90 minutes, as most movies do, you ended up having to split the movie over two CD's. It was a bit of a pain to have to get up and switch the CD in the middle of the movie, but programs such as TMPGEnc made it so easy to convert and split long movies. Burning SVCDs were easy.
I have always found burning actual DVD's hard. Extremely hard. First of all, the CD/DVD burning software that I have does not convert the movies from AVI format to the proper DVD format. You have always needed DVD Editing Software. I even tried some trial-versions of DVD editing software, like Pinnacle Studio, and even could not get 1% close to getting it to work. I was destined to not be able to burn a DVD playable in a DVD player.
But then I found Avi2Dvd. I have used this software before and could not get it to work. But I downloaded the lastest free beta, and have been burning DVD's like crazy for two days. Whatever the author changed, it works. It really really works.
Now the basic DVD Burning is fairly simple - load the AVI file, leave the default settings alone, and click Add Job and then Go. Easy. Not even 1-2-3. As easy as 1-2.
You can also author DVD menus, although I have not yet tried to. You know, that intro screen where you can either press play, or set some options, or view a chapter guide. You can make them. And it's all free.
Really amazing. If you have some videos on your PC (home or otherwise) and you want to turn them to a DVD, look no further. The quality has been amazing so far. No coasters, no audio-video sync problems. So far, perfect.
I may have just bought my last $5 movie... blank DVD's cost 25 cents a piece!
I watched "V is for Vendetta" even though I did not really want to. My wife wanted to see it, although I don't know why. I didn't know much about the movie other than the title and the movie poster. And I was slightly afraid of both.
It turned out to be a wonderful movie. The best I have seen this year. Stop reading this, log off the Internet, and go see this right now.
The lead protagonist, V, is played by Hugo Weaving. The only thing I know about Hugo is that he played Agent Smith in the Matrix movies. He rocked in those films. First there were the 50 copies of himself that fought Neo in the schoolyard. He came in from every direction, and Neo fought all 50 of them. Then there were the 5,000 copies of Agent Smith watching as he fought Neo in the rain. He must have spent weeks doing head shots, different reactions, looking different ways. Hugo Weaving rocked the Matrix movies, and he rocks this one.
Natalie Portman ain't too bad. She has to stretch her acting muscles a little more in this one than in the Star Wars movies. I didn't like her acting in the Star Wars movies, so it's good to see her show something different.
Anyways, there are fast parts, with blood and killing. There is some of the trademark Matrix time-slows-down-while-the-knife-flies-through-the-air stuff, but not too much. And there is a true "detective" type story built in here as we try to figure out the story before it reveals itself.
All in all, a good movie. Hollywood should make more like this.
A week or so ago, I was telling you about my frustration with license keys, and how difficult they were to keep track of. The Microsoft licensing system has gotten so complex, I must own 8 or 9 licenses for Windows but only have 3 computers.
So I finally was able to install Windows XP on my second machine (soon to be my primary PC). I installed Windows Media Center. Now I wasn't planning on having a "media center" and if it wasn't for the fact that the only license key that I could find with a matching CD was Media Center, then I wouldn't have. But I did. And I like it.
It connects to my XBox 360 nicely. Although I can't play DIVX movies on there, I guess if I really wanted to watch a movie on my XBox over the network, I could reencode it to uncompressed AVI... Or I can watch it straight off the PC fine.
But in the end, I did NOT have to purchase an extra license. Did you know Microsoft is asking for $400 for a copy of XP Professional that is not an upgrade edition. Holy smokes! If it was $150, I would have probably ended up buying another copy. But $400 is basically what I am sending to World Vision on a yearly basis. It's a lot of money for some software who's development costs have LONG LONG since been paid for. Microsoft makes $1 Billion per month (or something like that) off of Windows alone. I don't need to be part of that.
Anyways, things are now good here. No other reason not to completely switch to the new machine... We'll see how long that takes.
Happy anniversary to me. I've been blogging for four years. It all started August 1, 2002.
Looking back, it seems my blogging started because I had something funny/stupid to say, and noone to say it to.
You see, an American news reporter was talking about the Pope's visit to Mexico, and how he canonized the first "Native American" saint there. In actual fact, the canonized man was an aboriginal Mexican. An Indian. But TV reports can't say Indian or Aboriginal on TV, so the poor man becomes Native American. Even though he was Mexican.
Oh well, at the time it seemed like a witty insight into political correctness gone awry. Now it seems less poignant.
Anyways, blogging is just a word to describe the combination of a personal web site with a content management system. Imagine if I had to code this page by hand? Yuck!
A few years back (1997? 9 years ago?!?), Fast Company magazine had an issue devoted to The Brand Called You. In it, Tom Peters (yes, the THE Tom Peters) said:
"We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You. ... Starting today, you are a brand. You're every bit as much of a brand as Nike, Coke, Pepsi and The Body Shop. ... What is it that my product or service does that makes it different? ... What do I want to be famous for?"
I recommend you read that article. Here, I'll link to it again just in case.
Basically, Peters is saying that everyone who is a consultant today (and this applies even to employees who want to get ahead in business) should look at themselves as the client/employer looks at them. What image do you want to project? What image are you currently projecting?
Yes, images are superficial. And yes, people who are more concerned with their image than their reality can sometimes be compared to a sailor rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. But don't fool yourself: image is important, so having a good image gives you a head start on the less organized competition. Having a good image gets you the job, and then the image goes away and you have to deliver the goods! But being able to deliver the goods is useless without getting the job!
So I need to sit down sometime soon and examine my own professional image. That includes this web site, other web sites I am associated with, my books, business cards, the emails I send out, and anything else public that can be said to represent me.
Sure the trailer looks funny, but is the movie going to be as funny as the trailer? Did they give away all the good parts in the trailer?
Thankfully, the answers are yes and no. Yes, the movie is funny too, and no, the trailer doesn't ruin it.
After having my tastebuds nearly ruined by Lord of the Rings last night, I needed a sorbet tonight: something to cleanse my pallet. Some mindless fun.
Owen Wilson plays Dupree. Dupree is both a best friend to Carl, and is also constantly messing up. Wilson played the exact same character in Wedding Crashers, Shanghai Nights, and Zoolander. So I am glad to see he isn't stereotyping himself.
Matt Damon plays Carl. While Dupree is 30 years old and partying like he's 18, Carl has grown up and now has a wife, house and job. He's working hard to make a living, sometimes working late nights to impress his boss (who also happens to be his father-in-law).
Anyways, this movie does a pretty good job following the formula in other buddy pictures (Saving Silverman and Envy both come to mind). One friend is too serious, and the other is too laid back. Not to ruin it, but as the formula goes, at the end of the movie the serious one has learned to loosen up and the laid back one finally gets off his lazy ass and does something.
Good movie. Funny. Cute. Love Kate Hudson.
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