During our recent ice storm trauma Jackie and I spent a good deal of our mornings soaking up coffee and wi-fi at the nearest Panera. This went on for the entire eight days our power was out.
Each morning we would pack up the Dell laptop I use at work. It's a reliable, if not exactly light, Inspiron 5500 that has served us well. Jackie doesn't use laptops very often and had trouble negotiating the glidepoint pad and found it difficult to type with the laptop flat on the table. I solved the glidepoint problem next time by bringing along a mouse. The solution to positioning the keyboard at an angle was her idea...
Most dollar stores sell rubber door stops in a package of 4 or 6 or more. Placing two of them under the laptop sets it up at an angle and makes it easier to type.
Now I keep a pair of doorstops in the laptop bag to use whenever I travel or need to use the Dell on a table top.
Don't get me wrong, it's not an obsession. I don't spend every waking moment there. But when I have a few minutes to kill that's one of the bookmarks I occasionally visit.
You never know what you'll find. This morning under motorcycles/scooters I spotted "Large gas powered train holds 5 people" located in Kansas, OK. How could I resist? You just have to click on this stuff. The train cars are made from 55 gallon drums.
Or last week I came across a jar of dirt. It was free.
The free stuff is sometimes a little crazy. Almost creepy. Like today's post for "Fun random things," that sounds a little scary to me. What sort of serial random murderer might be lurking behind that randomized email address?
A couple of months ago I saw a vintage BMW motorcycle. I sent it to a friend half-jokingly. Last week he called me up to tell me he'd just bought it. Which proves you must be very careful how you use this powerful tool. You can quickly put yourself, or a friend, in the poor house!
So remember- the 'List has great power. Use it only for good, not for evil.
I'm still laughing my ass off to Flight of the Conchords.
A friend sent me a link to one of their music videos on YouTube a few weeks ago. I recognized Jemaine Clement from the offbeat film Eagle vs Shark. But I had no idea the musical pair actually did a television show about their digi-folk duo. A few minutes later it was in our Netflix queue!
The first season of the HBO series is now out on DVD and well worth your time. I recommend watching it with the subtitles turned on. Not because their Australian accents are hard to understand. Oops... I mean New Zealand.... But you'll want to catch the lyrics, it's subtle humor at it's best.
Very funny stuff. I dare say it's some of the best TV since Mr. Show.
A couple of weeks ago my interest in owning a "real" camera was renewed. A fellow BMW rider had posted some beautiful photos of his Spring ride in Northern California (R1150R.org). I decided to shop around for a digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera. I soon discovered there are some great bargains out there, but as usual, let the buyer beware!
It had been years since I sold my old Nikon F body. The difference between that 1964-vintage piece and today's digital SLRs is vast and there are hundreds of choices. But I found a great resource in Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com). After a little digging I read a review for the Olympus E-410. It was highly rated, got high marks in all categories and was reasonably priced.
Look for "factory demo" or Refurbished in the selling options!
The E-410 had several bells and whistles that were missing from competitors in this price range. It's typically packaged with a 14mm-42mm zoom lens (the equivalent of 28-85 if it were on a 35mm camera). It's light, compact and accepts third-party lenses. The only downside I could find was the media format (digital film, if you will). Olympus uses Fuji's XD memory cards instead of the more common SD format. But this camera also can store your pictures on Compact Flash cards or the tiny micro drives so you do have a choice. Suffice to say- any of these modern SLR cameras will produce much better results than your typical point-and-shoot cameras.
Prices vary widely- which surprised me. I found several eBay listings offering this camera for $50 to $100 below the usual price. My skepticism kicked in when I noticed "factory demo" in the description. But after a little research I wasn't quite so skeptical. These can also be found on Amazon, click the Used or View All option and you'll see a Refurbished tab. Eventually I ordered one of these factory refurbished camera rigs. It's literally like new, the only clue I had was a rubber band around one of the cords (instead of the customary wire tie and/or bag).
But before you jump in and order one let me offer a little advice.
Manufacturers demo their cameras at trade shows and press soirées. Sometimes they're selling you one that was returned by a consumer. Reputable dealers do not bury this fact in their fine print- but they also stand behind these units. The most important part is what warranty does the seller provide. The factory warranty on these is usually different from a new, sealed box camera- 90 days instead of one year in the case of Olympus. But some sellers extend this and offer their own warranty, so in my case I still have a one year warranty. Since it came from an authorized Olympus dealer, I felt comfortable with this.
Some less helpful sellers offer only 30 days or no warranty on factory demos. Also steer clear of these unscrupulous "drop ship houses" that are notorious for playing the classic bait-and-switch. In the end I felt it was well worth the research because I saved almost $100. Happy shopping, and next time I'll let you know how I like the new camera!
I was looking for a way to record audio on the go, mostly with video in mind. The most common options are wireless microphones. But a really good one is expensive. And since we would be using it around machinery (ie; spark plugs) I worried about interference with the radio signal.
Then one afternoon I picked up a copy of Event DV magazine and saw an article about the Zoom H2. The specs rolled off like a wish list: built-in mic, external line or mic input, USB interface, no tape, no moving parts, weighs like... nothing. It even has a guitar tuner! What's not to like?
We ordered one up. When it arrived I put a new battery in my trusty clip-on mic from Radio Shack and we were ready to go. Synch
To record audio on the Zoom while recording video on our camcorder, requires us to synchronize the two for our final product. This is really pretty easy to do with computer video editing software. It's a similar process to synching a two-camera shoot.
To simplify this feat we use a $2 clicker from the local pet store (you've seen them before- like they use to train Border Collies). The click makes a huge spike that's easily visible on the two audio tracks. Move them so the spikes match up and your sound is synchronized. Once we're rich and famous maybe we'll get one of those cool clapboards like the Big Boys use!
The sound is great, it can store days of audio and uses AA batteries. For under two hundred bucks we've got a fully portable audio system that can be used standalone or with a clip-on lapel mic. So far it's worked out great for our nascent video productions, and we're coming up with new uses almost every day.
I'm planning to use one at work to record conferences. Last week a buddy told me he attended a concert at the Cain's Ballroom. A guy down in front was holding a Zoom recorder over his head to catch all the action.
Welcome to the Blog-O-Matic. I'm your host, J. Rex Brown. These are my personal rants and raves on the technical, mechanical, fanatical, but mostly- problematical.
Features live tracks recorded during the Night Shift television appearance and at the Crystal Pistol, plus studio tracks from Tulsa's golden age of New Wave. Twenty rockin' tunes for a measly eight bucks.
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Most dollar stores sell rubber door stops in a package of 4 or 6 or more. Placing two of them under the laptop sets it up at an angle and makes it easier to type.
