Editing Video footage from a DVD Camcorder

A major drawback of camcorders which use mini DVD discs rather than MiniDV tape is editing - the camera records the footage as a standard DVD VOB structure, and so is not in an edit friendly format.

I've finally found a freely available solution that doesn't plaster nasty watermarks all over the footage - VirtualDubMod. It requires an additional codec to support DV, but it is quite simple and well described on videoforums.co.uk

Once the footage is converted from VOB to DV format avi, it can then be edited via the video editing software of your choice. I normally use Pinnacle (which seemed OK) but also wanted to try out Microsoft Movie Maker since that is what my parents will most likely use. The first converted file I tried opening caused it to crash - but that's probably a separate problem :)

Slow Read/Write CD/DVD Behaviour

I was having problems with single layer DVD burns taking ~50 minutes on my Dell Vostro, when they should have been taking about 8-9 minutes. After some research, I found the culprit - The IDE interface was in PIO mode rather than Ultra DMA.

Windows XP is set to put an IDE interface into PIO mode after a few timeout errors. This is apparently what happened to me after attempting to read a CD with some significant errors on it.

The easiest way (at least for the standard Intel controller) to clear the PIO mode problem is to go into Device Manager, open up the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller, check which IDE channel is in PIO mode then uninstall it. Then go to the top of the list in Device Manager, right click and select Detect new hardware. A few reboots are also par for the course in Windowsland...

meme #42

Inspired by Michael Davies & others to:

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open it to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

My Result: "Sometimes this is natural and clear; at other times it can be cryptic." The C Programming Language, 2nd Ed. by Brian W. Kernighan & Dennis M. Ritchie.

I'm a bit disturbed that this was the closest book...

ECMA Standards

http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Standard.htm

Shows ISO/IEC equivalent specifications, and if they are freely available or not. Standards include:

• ECMA-262 (ECMAScript Language Specification - JavaScript 2.0 will conform to this spec)
• ECMA-334 (C# Language Specification)
• ECMA-335 (CLI)
• ECMA-372 (C++/CLI Language Specification)
• ECMA-376 (Office Open XML File Formats)

BSB Numbers

Have a BSB Number, but don't know which institution it's for? Try this handy little website: http://bsbnumbers.com/index.php

Main weakness I've seen is the suburb lookup only reports major banks - it's doesn't list credit unions or building societies.

Stack Overflow

I think Stack Overflow (http://stackoverflow.com/) has a lot of potential.

It'll be interesting to see how it scales from an initial successful beta where the participants are probably a pretty cluey bunch, to open slather. I'll be watching with interest (and chipping in where I can) - a good way to share and learn.

Why Make me Reboot, part 2

Just found this article & utility, which backs up my opinions. I'll have to give it a try. http://exodusdev.com/products/WhyReboot/

What I want, but don't need

Rush Bobblehead Dolls. OK, so they are clutter and dust collectors, and I don't really need them, but that doesn't stop me wanting them or putting a smile on my face. Financially, I can think of better more responsible ways to spend US$80 too. ($19 for shipping? Erk!)