Wow, the big five-o! Makes me want to surf or book somebody.
Updates, Upgrades and Uniques
I’m starting to serious wonder about my resume writing skills. No kidding, I have sent over 40 copies out in the last 3 week without so much as a nibble. Working on a re-write this week, but if anyone has any tips or pointers, please feel free to leave a note below.
As soon as I hit Publish here, I’m going to the gym. This is worthy of posting since I haven’t been since the weekend before MTTS. I managed to catch something that week and was congested and 1/2 deaf (yes, again). It’s finally cleared up, so I’m going. 3 weeks is a long time, and it’s going to be tough getting back into it.
Secretly, I want an iPhone. Not so secretly I don’t want to be an AT&T customer.
I’m still upset about missing the New Media Expo. Cool stuff happened there from what I could tell from the tweets and video posts I saw. I’ll have to try again next year.
I am extremely pleased with the way the new sites have turned out. And the redo on WRR (if you haven’t noticed). Helps keep the self confidence up. All new sites should go live this week.
I have a feeling a new computer will be purchased in the next couple of weeks. It will be for either myself or my Grandfather. I hope it’s me. 15″ MBP or 20″ iMac would be keen. Not sure I want to edit video or help Grandpa relearn his computer with Vista. And, since I will be doing all of the editing…
I hate that Wordpress releases a dot update a month after a new version. I need to figure out how to script Transmit to handle that all at once. Also not happy that the photo feature of “Press This” still doesn’t work for me. Although, they said it’s fixed for IE7.
I have a baby shower and wedding happening in the same weekend. One Saturday, the other on Sunday. Oh, and they are 1,000 miles apart. Wedding wins if I can swing it, otherwise a trip to Vegas will be in order.
Which would be good, since I need to get to the resort for maintenance and checking of things. Big upgrade might be coming their way after the first of the year.
Church bus full of screaming kids just drove by. That was weird.
Just so you know, you can count yourself among the 1,500 or so w(t)f readers. Sure, not huge numbers, but I’m still fairly pleased. Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget, you can subscribe to get the posts easier. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know if there is something worth click back about.
After I take the new sites live, I will be able to get started on The Hollywood Car Show site. Go ahead and click it if you want, should be a placeholder page there. I think by the end of the week it should be up and running.
Ok, that’s it. Time to start my day. Have a great Sunday everyone!
And while I was gone, in case you missed it, the new Delicious rolled out, as did the new Facebook. Neat, both counts.
While I sleep to prepare to close out MTTS with photos and posts, watch this.
More MTTS to come.
This coming weekend I will be heading north to Los Angeles for MTTS. I’m really looking forward to it.
We’ll be recording audio, I will, again, attempt video. Plus I’ll be posting a bunch of photos to my Flickr. And, if I can, I will be posting to Twitter.
Posts here from Thursday to Monday might will be lighter than usual.
On another note, later this week I will be giving the pressd section it’s very own Wordpress install right here at w(t)f. New feed and everything. I will post when that happens.
Cameras will be with me all week too. Hopefully I will get some stuff posted before MTTS.
Spent most of the week closing out MTTS East. Lots of video and photos. And more dreaming of new equipment, mainly a Macbook Pro. Then came the complaints.
On video cameras
I took the The Flip with me for MTTS. Heck, most of you saw that video. Most of someone saw the video because I have over 30k views (combined) on the dozen or so that I posted from the week. The bulk of those views are from Motoringfile.com, primarily the JCW MINI in action video I posted last Friday.
And damn if I didn’t get more complaints than compliments on that thing.
Sure it’s shaky. Sure the sound isn’t that great. It was take with a The Flip Ultra video camera for craps sake. And the entire shoot happened in less than 5 minutes from the time we found out we could ride in the car to the time we were done.
Just in case anyone might have missed it, I operate on a very low budget. Esp. for the show. I have spent less than $600 in total for my gear (and one of the other hosts) and that includes the The Flip.
But the The Flip works very well for me. It takes video that is very easy to edit and my Mac doesn’t choke on them too badly. This is one of those things that I have to think about.
Well now I’m thinking about upgrading to a better camera. I really hate complaints. Complaints mean that someone, somewhere, was not 100% satisfied with my work. I think it’s pretty good, but what do I know.
So, research has ensued. What I’ve been looking for is a camera that, at the very least, shoots 16:9 and uses SD Cards for storage. No tape, no hard drives, no DVDs. And it has to have external microphone support. Remarkable, in low end cameras, this is a tough combination to find. So, I dialed the money up a few notches and this is what I have found.
For a while I was very keen on the Panasonic HDC-SD9. You know I’m keen on Panasonic, and I’ve used my point and shoot (Panasonic DMC-TZ3) for video and it produces great results, albeit with horrible sound. The problem with this video camera is it doesn’t have external mic support, and that’s kind of a deal breaker.
So, the other camera I’ve been looking at is the Canon HF100. It’s about $100 more expensive, doesn’t have as good of sensors (CMOS instead of CCD) and it’s a bit larger. But, it does have external mic input (and monitoring) and great video quality (here is an example.) Plus it will shoot at lower than HD resolutions and still keep the 16:9 format.
Hopefully I’ll be able to upgrade before MTTS LA. If not, I’ll leave the The Flip at home and either do video with the point-and-shoot or not do any at all. I really don’t like complaints. I would rather have no comments at all then have complaints.
And, if you are on WRR and look to the right and see a donate button and want to click it, feel free. Someone suggested I do that, so I have. Camera money only. Should I get enough to cover the cost, the button comes down immediately after I order.
For the last 6 months or so I’ve been going back and forth on my next computer purchase. As I’ve mentioned before, I like 2 machines. 1 that is mobile that I can keep small, light and having only what I need to have while I’m mobile. And the other for my desk which holds all of my media (music, photos, video) and does everything the mobile machine does.
I haven’t had that. Not since my PC died in early ‘07, shortly after I got the MacBook. And, while the MacBook is a great little mobile machine, it just doesn’t have the horsepower I need for doing other things. As it turns out, there are a few other issues I have with it as well.
So I’ve been watching the refurb shop at the Apple store for a 20″ iMac (the good one, not the low-end model), a 24″ iMac and a 15″ MacBook Pro. After my last trip, I’ve made my decision.
15″ MacBook Pro.
This came to me as I was trying to edit video on the road on the 13″ MB screen and watching as iMovie brought the machine to a smoking, screeching halt and declared 200+ minutes to export a 15 minute long video. No good that. Also I got the chance to check one out in person at that ginormous Apple store in Boston. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it.
So, when the time comes, I will get a 15″ MBP for my desk. Run it off the juice with the battery removed (if I can) and use it mobile when I need the extra power.
Something else that I discovered after last week was just how cool the iPhone was. Every day during MTTS it saved our asses no less than twice, and some days more often than that. Whether it was finding the nearest Starbucks or giving us directions from point a to point b, just have access to Google Maps, even as slow as it is over EDGE, was a godsend!
Now, I’m not going to do anything foolish like drop Verizon and go to AT&T. Besides not liking AT&T, the coverage, where I spend most of my time, is crap. And, since it’s the only phone I carry, I like it to work all the time.
What I’m actually hoping to be able to do is get my MBP sometime before Apple stops that student special so I can also get an iPod Touch. Um, sure, it’s, um, for teh lad. Yea, that’s the ticket!
All of which hinges, directly or not, on my getting work. Don’t forget, I am for hire! Feel free to pass along my contact info and whatnot to anyone that you think could benefit from my skills.
Ok, back to processing one more video. Then, and only then, will this round of MTTS be done!
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