Category: Gadgetology

It lives. It breathes (loudly). It works.

Okay, okay, here’s a shot where you can actually see it.

I’m already working on a couple of things already. Would you believe I already had stuff shot so I could edit it later?
Actually, it’s not as if with one bound, Jack was free. The dongle alone still didn’t solve anything; there was a 3.5 flarpy disk marked “Updater” that I had to locate in the box o’ goodies and use, and that did the trick perfectly. (I actually didn’t know that needed to be done, I was just getting desperate at that point.)
There’s not really a good time to be sick as a dog, but this is as close to one as I’ve got. I’ve been running a fever and have been having some hellacious chills for the past 48 hours or so, so I guess I’ll just have to stay home with this puppy. Tough life, eh? Here’s the first video I’ve edited with it.
Thanks to the potent-enough-to-knock-me-on-my-ass cocktail of cold and flu meds I’m on, I had a really bizarro dream last night; it involved me having to mediate a dispute of some sort between the following characters:

• Saul Tigh
• House M.D.
• Harlan Ellison

…a veritable cornucopia of irascible cranky bastards there. Sadly, I can’t remember any of it except for two things: Harlan’s main beef with the other two was that they don’t actually exist, and I didn’t get a word in edgewise until I sincerely and emphatically urged all parties to STFU. Just as well, really – if I had remembered enough to transcribe the whole thing, I’d probably charge you to look at it, because that would be some good stuff.
I’m off to lay back down for a bit, preferably surrounded by kitties.… Read more

Okay, this is f’ing ridiculous. Avid Tech Support told me the following, in no uncertain terms:

1. That’s a really old system. Wouldn’t you like to step up to a new one for a mere 20 grand?
2. The dongle is the security system that protects the company’s investment in the software that governs the technology. If you don’t have a dongle, you don’t have an Avid.
3. To transfer ownership, you have to fill out paperwork before we’ll acknowledge you.
4. We can’t unlock the system by remote even if you have that paperwork. You’ll need a new dongle.
5. That system is so old, we’ll have to custom-machine and program a new dongle. This will cost you $10,000.
6. Wouldn’t you rather step up to a new one for a mere 20 grand?

(This portion of the message is behind a ‘duck blind’; only registered users can see it.)
Okay, Avid. Let’s dance the real waltz here. Obviously you’re trying to crush the secondary market under your heels so that there isn’t a single Avid out there changing hands without you raking in at least a few thousand out of the deal. Unfortunately, this creates a backlash. One byproduct of which is that there are still, hypothetically speaking of course, ways for me to get this system up and running and fully functional, ways which wouldn’t put a dime in your pocket. And at this point, having paid for the hardware fair and square, I’m running out of qualms about going down that road. Hypothetically speaking, of course, assuming that Byron, Illinois’ finest don’t run across the stray dongle I’ve asked them to look out for.… Read more

Lookin’ good. … Read more

IT LIVES!!!
Expect more rantings later tonight when I get home, hook it up, and start doing cool stuff with an Avid for a change. Turns out it wasn’t just the motherboard, but a combination of a mangled motherboard and a pummeled power supply. For now, I’ve got a smaller PS in there, but I’ll need to step up to a 500 or 550 before long.
Like the old Atari ad says, let’s see how far we can go.… Read more

When I got my new PC a little over a year ago, I got the latest version of Nero with it, which includes a nice utility for building DVDs out of existing video files, complete with menus (with custom backgrounds, music, or even full-motion video if you like), customizable to the nines. Very exciting stuff for someone like me.
And then I was crushed when I couldn’t burn a disc to save my mortal soul. Nothing worked. I wasted DVD-R after DVD-R.
I’m not sure that you can stick enough numbers on a single line to some up with the precise mathematical measurement of how head-thumpingly, staggeringly stupid I felt when I discovered only just recently, having long since given up on making DVDs, that DVD+R discs are what I needed all along.
I’ve been a bit restless lately, and according to some who have to live with me on a day-to-day basis, a grouchy bastard, while I’m waiting for the new motherboard to arrive for the Avid so we can get that bad boy up and running. But in the meantime, I’ve been playing with 3D Studio Max, Nero, and all sort of other good stuff, just to take my mind off of it, and what I’m learning about these other apps may well be proof that this delay in getting Colossus back up and running is part of the great cosmic scheme, if you buy into that sort of thing. Nerovision Express, the DVD-building program I’m using, is stacked with options – if this is the Lite version, the thought of the full-up monster boggles my mind. You can build chapter stops (and titles) into video files, build your menu (and any submenus you deem necessary) however you like them, and the menu will be as long as whatever music or sound file you’ve put in it as background music (or whichever video file is your background, if you’re choosing that option). I just today figured out how to force anamorphic 16:9 as a disc’s native video format. Seriously – you can author the hell out of these things in your living room. These things play just beautifully on a DVD player too.
Once I’ve actually got this beautiful Borg cube of a machine up and running that allows me to make my own stuff rather than just burn a disc of some reconstructed missing Doctor Who episodes I’ve downloaded, I do believe we’re going to be off and running.… Read more