A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

Images were once just smashed pigments on cave walls. Then, they existed because of paper and chemicals. Now, I find the transition to computer files very interesting. The evolution completely changes the very spirit of what an image is.

The image to the right might be a bit blurry, but it sat on 8mm camcorder tape for more than a dozen years. Recently, I pulled it off through my computer's capture card. Next, it was manipulated and saved on the PC. A final step means that it now exists as a jpg file on a web server. It could in theory be viewed on hundreds (or a near infinite number) of computer screens simultaneously. The same copy, then, could be saved to remote hard disks or even printed out!

I wonder if Ben was able to cut that celery with a butter knife? I'll have to go back to the tape to find out ...

Labels: camcorder

I've come to view Movie Central as a valued service. Yet after seeing Internet adverts for years, it looks like a type of Netflix has come to Canada in the form of Zip.

This sounds like a real boon to movie-lovers living in rural areas. Moreover, it looks like Zip has titles that I'd have a hard time finding in local video stores!

The new business is based in Ottawa, so I wonder if the 'transfer time' will be acceptable. It does seem as though they've partnered with Canada Post. At least there's a free, 2-week trial so it's worth a try!

Labels: movies, zip.ca

Just in case you needed help humming yesterday's entry ...

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Labels: Mediaplayer, television

Oh great, next month the TV Land Awards will be hosted. During the classic TV extravaganza, one gets the opportunity to see old, wrinkled versions of the stars from tired reruns. I love the idea of getting this channel via satellite but seldom actually watch it. However, this does prove that I've thought of a new use of my capture card. How can you look at the following and not start humming the tune?

I have started using my capture card to convert years of analog camcorder tapes to mpg files. This is the first step in eventually creating DVD's.

Tape forces one into 'linear thinking'. Trying to find a specific event on tape is a mess as one generally has to fast-forward through lots of tape in order to get to the desired part. DVD menuing will make that a thing of the past as one captures into 'clips'. Each clip can appear on the DVD menu. It will take just moments to locate and play the correct scene.

Remember trying to carefully drop the 'needle' into the 'empty space' on a vinyl LP?

Labels: analog, camcorder

We went to a friend's house for dinner yesterday evening. Just like every trip to downtown Vancouver, we took the SkyTrain. It's convenient to pop out of the tunnel at either the Granville or Burrad Station. Because of the nice weather yesterday, it seemed that everybody had a similar idea of going downtown. Robson Street was very busy.

Here's a picture of my apartment tower. The building has direct access to the Columbia Street SkyTrain station, so the half hour trip is always a breeze.

When going to work, it takes me about the same amount of time to drive half the distance.

Labels: transit, Vancouver

After playing with my capture-card half the day yesterday, I am sure I didn't make a mistake. That was only part of the purchase; the other part was a DVD writer. What a cool combo! This is as exciting as when I discovered that music can be transferred onto recordable, shiny CD disks! This time it's video ending up on recordable, shiny DVD disks.

One of these new little platters holds 4.7 gigabytes of data. That's so amazing! (I had a computer with two, original 360K IBM floppy drives. (Those disks really were ... floppy and bendable and are probably collectors' items now.)

I'm able to create videos which can be watched in anybody's DVD player. (A player now costs only a bit more than a new-release feature movie.) Simple computer software allows me to make menus by template. I've got a pile of old 8-mm tape to archive.

I think this may also prompt me to spend less time with my digital camera and hasten my return to shooting video.



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Speaking about watching, here's a song from
the early 80's. It seems slightly related to
the topic at hand in a paranoid sort of way.

Labels: computers, Hardware, software