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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Thursday, June 03, 2004

Tarnished Treasure Titanic Suffering Ravages of Time, Tide and Man Ballard, now a National Geographic Explorer-In-Residence, believes the remains of the cruise liner, which sank in 1912, are deteriorating more quickly than nature would intend. "We know Titanic has been naturally deteriorating over time, but I'm convinced the deterioration is being accelerated by manmade impacts as well," said Ballard. Okay. No matter how much you might enjoy hugging a tree every now and then – and who doesn’t? – or maybe you get a little squeamish thinking about oil profiteers riding the asymptotic demand curve into ANWR. No matter how green you are or even want to be, aren’t you ready (after all of 92 years) to write off the Titanic as a just very bad design? If it was so great, why did it sink? 10:13:45 PM    comment []

I bought a Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 today.   I’d read a few positive reviews and I especially liked that it was USB 2.0 (therefore portable between computers, good because video capture/rendering ties up your computer for hours on end – and offloading time-consuming processes to a second computer is essential to any web addict) and does not recognize MacroVision copy-protection which makes dubbing VHS tapes a royal pain in the butt. My ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV card has served me well for a couple of years, but I wanted to make a DVD of my tape copy of 200 Motels. The ATI can’t stabilize the image and I’ve tried all the hacks and hardware that are reasonably priced.   I was looking for an inexpensive card that I could recommend to people who wanted to make DVDs of their home videos and their VHS library. The DVC-150 is inexpensive, but the recommendation is not forthcoming.   Installation was simple. Audio and video cables from the VCR, power, and the USB. A one CD setup that autoruns. Reboot, run the quickstart, and you’re ready for the wizard to guide you through the capture and processing. The system hung the first time I tried to run it but no big deal – just go to the website for the latest updates and then start to worry.   While I was capturing on computer #2, I had some mouse problems on computer #1. Reboot there, who knows what might have happened during the day. At one point, I was updating miscellaneous software on three computers – so computer #2 got minimal attention. Then the mouse problem re-occurred on computer #1. I did a short video capture on computer #2 and then it hung again. Task Manager showed two instances of the program running. Uninstall all software and start over. Try another program – say VirtualDub (still free!) to capture. It sees the DVC-150 but won’t capture. Google research. Hmmm…this hardware only works with the supplied software. Hmmm…some guy recommends having a fan blowing over the DVC-150 anytime you use it (it’s in a cool looking external enclosure that has, hmmm…no ventilation holes). Unplug the power the hung software on computer #2 can be shut down with pulling the plug on it – and, the hung up mouse on computer #1 begins responding. That sucker overheats and not only hangs up the attached computer, but also generates enough RF noise to disable my wireless optical mouse! Holy Shit! You probably need an FCC license to use this thing!   I am returning a Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150 tomorrow. Always keep those packing materials and that receipt! 9:12:34 PM    comment []

Ev'ry time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven Don'tcha know each cloud contains pennies from heaven? (You'll find your fortune fallin' all over town) (Be sure that your umbrella) Is upside down 7:15:28 PM    comment []

It looks like Elfito has disintegrated into a cloud of broken links (try clicking on 00003633 on the rankings page - you'll get the site immediately above it), but Daily Galleries has simultaneously appeared for those of you with a taste for salsa and porn. If the Salon Blogger community doesn't do something about this, the rankings will be turned in a list of porn portals. Fortunately, the broken links don't register as hits on the misdirected sites, but who wants to live in a neighborhood of crack houses? Neither of these sites has any original thoughts or even any paragraphs - no redeeming social purpose. 5:25:33 AM    comment []

What’s in my CD Player?   In some fun old days, about 10 years ago, I discovered alt.fan.frank-zappa on usenet. It became my second cyberhome (The first was Investors’ Forum on CompuServe). An ongoing feature there was (maybe still is) “What’s in my CD Player?” It was always fun to see the diversity of musical tastes in a group focused on the works of one guy.   Today, there is nothing in my CD player. All my CDs get ripped to MP3s and loaded into the directory for my HP ew5000 wireless media receiver. They play through my stereo with the quality you’d expect of 128-bit compression, which is better than I can hear anyway. So, instead of CDs, I have playlists on my computer that I can select with a remote from video output on my TV. I still buy CDs, however, and the cover pictured here is a recent acquisition.   The title track, Ballet Mecanique, by George Antheil, was composed in 1924 but the original orchestration presented some problems:   It called for three xylophones, four bass drums, a tamtam (gong), two pianos, a siren, three airplane propellers, seven electric bells, and 16 synchronized player pianos.   Now propellerists are a dime a dozen and gongs are not too difficult to find, but synchronizing 16 player pianos was a step ahead of the contemporary technology. So, the composition did not get performed as the composer intended until 1999, with the help of computer (MIDI) technology and the University of Massachusetts Lowell Percussion Ensemble – featured on this CD.   I’d never heard of Antheil until a feature on NPR’s Sunday Morning.  I’d never known a composer scored for siren before Edgard Varese (who Frank Zappa contacted after blowing his allowance on a recording of Ionisation). A discovery like this is like finding a morel in your garden. You too can get it at the Ballet Mecanique website. 4:51:19 AM    comment []