With my main PCs both down while I create a duplicate of my main hard drive in the hope that I can ensure myself against its destruction, I'm working on lisa's laptop.
I've quite got the hang of this now - putting all my files on external hard drives and memory sticks, and nipping effortlessly from one computer to another whenever it suits me.
it's a kind of nomadic exsistence, allowing me to set up and work on virtually any machine anywere. I'm certain that some day all computing will be like this, but right now, it's a little forced.
Not every computer is running the same software, so I'm constantly halted in whatever I try to do by the fact that the tool I need is on another machine. Having more than one computer right now means that you're constantly nipping from one to the other because there's not one machine that has everything you need.
I do look forward to the day when I can just carry around a simple remote control (or even just a pin number) and log into any computer, TV, phone, ipod or fridge anywhere in the world and instantly use it as though it's my home machine... however, that day is not today, and I'm going to have to wait for my computer to start working again!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
why macs are so crap
I finally got to write the tutorial for Computer music magazine on editing today. I had to write two tutorials on how to edit a rock video using cheap software on a Mac and a PC.
The PC version was relatively straightforward and as expected, the mac version was a real pig.
Obviously, the fact that I'm using cheap and free software means there aren't the options i'd like and that's a bit frustrating, but worse than that is the Apple ethos which pervades everything they do.
It's not that the mac does things differently to the PC - and that I'm used to the way the PC works - it's more that the very thing the Mac is sold on is fake.
let me explain:
Macs are sold on the idea that they're the arty person's computer. They're creative where the PC is businesslike. However, in truth, the mac makes it very very easy to do the things its programmers think you'd want to do. The predictable dull, businesslike things work perfectly and intuatively in just the way you'd expect them to.
However, if you deviate. if you want to do something different. if you have, horror of horrors, your own creative idea of what you want to do or how you want to do it, the architecture makes it virtually impossible.
The mac is built on the impossibly arogant notion that the programmers will have thought of everything you might want to do and planned for you the perfect way to do it. This is almost never true in real life.
It's a bit like having a car which has just one button on the dashboard marked "go home". Press the button and the car will go home. It's a triumph of engineering - the easiest car to drive ever created.
Unless you want to go somewhere other than home.
in which case you have to take the engine out or buy a new car.
and this extends to other apple products: take the ipod - beautiful piece of design and I wouldn't be without mine. But what if you don't want to use the clumsy Itunes? what if you just want to drag your tunes from the desktop to the ipod - you can do it with every other mp3 player on the market. But with the ipod, all your files are renamed and re-positioned so you can't tell which song is which file. so when itunes stops working -or when you're on a computer you haven't installed it on or when you're using your machine for something else and don't want to have it getting in the way - you're stuffed.
By contrast, the PC allows gives you options - creative possibilities - everything you want to do can be done several different ways and if one doesn't work, proves difficult, or you just don't like it, you can pick another.
Now that's an artist's computer.
The PC version was relatively straightforward and as expected, the mac version was a real pig.
Obviously, the fact that I'm using cheap and free software means there aren't the options i'd like and that's a bit frustrating, but worse than that is the Apple ethos which pervades everything they do.
It's not that the mac does things differently to the PC - and that I'm used to the way the PC works - it's more that the very thing the Mac is sold on is fake.
let me explain:
Macs are sold on the idea that they're the arty person's computer. They're creative where the PC is businesslike. However, in truth, the mac makes it very very easy to do the things its programmers think you'd want to do. The predictable dull, businesslike things work perfectly and intuatively in just the way you'd expect them to.
However, if you deviate. if you want to do something different. if you have, horror of horrors, your own creative idea of what you want to do or how you want to do it, the architecture makes it virtually impossible.
The mac is built on the impossibly arogant notion that the programmers will have thought of everything you might want to do and planned for you the perfect way to do it. This is almost never true in real life.
It's a bit like having a car which has just one button on the dashboard marked "go home". Press the button and the car will go home. It's a triumph of engineering - the easiest car to drive ever created.
Unless you want to go somewhere other than home.
in which case you have to take the engine out or buy a new car.
and this extends to other apple products: take the ipod - beautiful piece of design and I wouldn't be without mine. But what if you don't want to use the clumsy Itunes? what if you just want to drag your tunes from the desktop to the ipod - you can do it with every other mp3 player on the market. But with the ipod, all your files are renamed and re-positioned so you can't tell which song is which file. so when itunes stops working -or when you're on a computer you haven't installed it on or when you're using your machine for something else and don't want to have it getting in the way - you're stuffed.
By contrast, the PC allows gives you options - creative possibilities - everything you want to do can be done several different ways and if one doesn't work, proves difficult, or you just don't like it, you can pick another.
Now that's an artist's computer.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Pop videos
Headlong back into work yesterday, I’ve got a tutorial to write for Computer Music magazine. Basically they want me to show people who’ve never touched video before how to make a pop promo on PC or Mac.
The software they sent over wasn’t really up to the job, but luckily they were able to switch for more workable programmes (Sony Vegas for the PC and Imovie for the Mac). I did the PC edit fine using the 2 camera shoot they’d done at a live venue, but since imovie can’t syncronise two tracks of video at once, I’m going to have to adopt a different approach for the mac version (which is good anyway because it will make the feature more interesting).
The band who sent the footage are going to shoot some more over the weekend – a bit of a pain for them, but I’m sure they’ll get a lot of publicity out of it – not to mention a free video on youtube.
Although the tutorial is easy enough to do, it’s a bit frustrating knowing that if I was using Premiere or FCP, I could produce a much better piece of video. Still, it should give a good set of pointers to people new to video editing.
The software they sent over wasn’t really up to the job, but luckily they were able to switch for more workable programmes (Sony Vegas for the PC and Imovie for the Mac). I did the PC edit fine using the 2 camera shoot they’d done at a live venue, but since imovie can’t syncronise two tracks of video at once, I’m going to have to adopt a different approach for the mac version (which is good anyway because it will make the feature more interesting).
The band who sent the footage are going to shoot some more over the weekend – a bit of a pain for them, but I’m sure they’ll get a lot of publicity out of it – not to mention a free video on youtube.
Although the tutorial is easy enough to do, it’s a bit frustrating knowing that if I was using Premiere or FCP, I could produce a much better piece of video. Still, it should give a good set of pointers to people new to video editing.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Article on documentary making
Article on documentary making
This morning I finished (in rather a rush) my article for Digital Video Magazine on documentary filmmaking. It included a diary of my shark documentary which was interesting to write – and I could have gone on and on - as it was, the article over ran by about 700 words. This would normally mean I’d re-edit it, but I know the folks at Digital Video and they know my situation with George and so they’ll understand that I couldn’t be quite as fussy as I’d have liked to be about the length.
Still, I think I’ve put a lot of good detail in the article, and it should be an interesting and informative read.
This morning I finished (in rather a rush) my article for Digital Video Magazine on documentary filmmaking. It included a diary of my shark documentary which was interesting to write – and I could have gone on and on - as it was, the article over ran by about 700 words. This would normally mean I’d re-edit it, but I know the folks at Digital Video and they know my situation with George and so they’ll understand that I couldn’t be quite as fussy as I’d have liked to be about the length.
Still, I think I’ve put a lot of good detail in the article, and it should be an interesting and informative read.
bad sectors and tight deadlines
Got back to work to discover that two of my deadlines were a lot more urgent than I thought. The helpdesk for Digital Video I managed to dispatch today, answering a series of questions – more and more of which are about the new hard disk and memory stick camcorders which seem to be causing people endless problems – because the editing software hasn’t caught up with the new compression codecs used to store the video footage – with the result that you need to go through a lot of fuss before you can edit.
Turned on my PC on New year’s day to discover that it didn’t boot. The problem turned out to be a bad sector (which I discovered when I took the hard drive out and put it in another machine to check it). The problem seems to have been solved but worryingly video isn’t playing back correctly and the whole system seem s to be slowing down. I resolve to buy a new hard drive and copy everything to it – just in case there’s something more serious going on.
In any case, I can’t edit video properly – which is going to cause problems not just for the Gliese project but for another reason.
Turned on my PC on New year’s day to discover that it didn’t boot. The problem turned out to be a bad sector (which I discovered when I took the hard drive out and put it in another machine to check it). The problem seems to have been solved but worryingly video isn’t playing back correctly and the whole system seem s to be slowing down. I resolve to buy a new hard drive and copy everything to it – just in case there’s something more serious going on.
In any case, I can’t edit video properly – which is going to cause problems not just for the Gliese project but for another reason.
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