After a long conversation... (Leo's Camera Supply visit Log)

...A VERY long hour long conversation with a Leo's Camera Supply salesman, I've decided on the Z1U again after comparing both side by side in store. The primary reason why the XH-A1 is not practical is because I'd need a Letus35 (around $1000-$2000 more) to make believable film-look in 24p.

The A1 also needs more effort in order to access certain features compared to the Z1U (Timecode Preset can only be accessed by assigning a button on the A1, while it's a menu on the Z1U). The Zooming speed is slow too, the LCD is smaller and I'm not certain it is a hybrid LCD that can refract sunlight that is present also on my HC7.

The Leo's salesman actually personally recommended the A1 but I still had my doubts and I didn't need native 24p at the moment. He then stated that a general audience would appreciate a story rather than the little technical details. Then a discussion about subconsciouses preferring better quality over lower quality kind of confused me to where my head got hot.

In the end, at closing time at 4PM, I explained about my plan to start off with steps to progressively step up in cameras. I explained that after I bought my HC7 is that I'd get a non 24p Z1U after it then move into 24p after that with superior resolution. Experience is sometimes better than resolution... (as is the case with the Gulf Island Film and Television School where they only have DSR-PD170 DVCAM cameras). I'll get higher resolution later, but it can't stop sometimes the envy of higher resolution... I need to control those urges...

But all I wanted was to see the Z1U and handle it again, the A1 conversation was just re-ignited by the astronaut video shot with a XH-A1. I got my satisfaction.

David Wallace, you've outdone yourself!

He's just bought a new and absolutely HILARIOUS (and only serious once) play called "Skid Marks" by Lindsay Price.

Sample Pages here

I hope he buys the sequel too, called "Skid Marks 2: Are We There Yet?"

Who's David Wallace? The Drama Teacher at Burnaby South!

Edit (May 29): Wallace actually does have the sequel, I talked to him today and confirmed it.

Want to help in the NBC ATSC copy-protection case?

If you have a raw data dump of a NBC program which is blocked from recording in Vista's Windows Media Center, and you want to help in determining what the heck is going on, go to the EFF Blog post here:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/watch-tv

And let us not forget to remind the EFF to stand up to the Proposed Internationalized Border/All Authority law for searching devices for "illegal" content... If you have concerns, contact the EFF!

Wow. Just wow.

Read this for yourself and read this for yourself.

Amazing how your privacy rights and Fair Use rights are infringed in just the past couple of weeks...

Robbed from going to Leo's... Again!

And this time, it's not that it's closed.

My friend from elementary school Anna Gao, who was supposed to come at 1 or 2pm last Saturday to help in riding the Skytrain to Granville station to get to Leo's camera supply, SLEPT IN!

I sure hope this Saturday might... oh wait... a Shuttle is launching at 2PM...

I'm dying to see a real life Z1U again... and a recent astronaut video shot with a Canon XH-A1 just re-ignited the debate between the two cameras... I need to get to Leo's Camera Supply to sort everything out!!!

Oh, sorry it took this long to post this, guess I was super grumpy about it.

Can I ACE-IT?

I've finally applied for the Film and Television program for ACE-IT (Accelerated Credit Enrollment in Industry Training) at Burnaby North, if I get through the first few stages and the interview, I will very likely be doing this and going to 2 schools on alternate days.

I hope they have the Z1U there, but right now from what I hear from my media teacher, it's gonna be GL2s, but it does allow for your own equipment.

This also brings up that besides me and Marquis Lung, we're the only 2 people that publicly announce we record in HD in our school.

I'm also greatful for the extra year since if you apply in Grade 12 for this and you're graduating the same year, you can't take the course.

A new tactic in certain Asian DVD marketing...

Faking that the included disk is a Blu-ray when it's just a DVD.

Some North American small Asian retailers have started cracking down on this by cutting off and or blanking out the Blu-ray logo from DVDs from Asia.

Most of you might be thinking if you've read to this line: "So What?"

Here's something about this that's so humiliating, recent faking Blu-ray titles that don't have the BD logo on the cover art put a cheap piece of cardboard containing the DVD disc with the Blu-ray logo and a VERY poorly made McDonald's ripoff logo. Ashens would be proud.

The legal film industry in China is very prominent with films like "Hero" or "The Curse of the Golden Flower". But as I learned in a recent National Geographic documentary, the illegal movie business in China thrives on DVD [you-know-what] because the censors would never pass the films that are distributed by the "underground" filmmakers. Most of those films actually reflect reality in China, and sometimes it makes a negative image to the censors.

While more protections are added to curb the [you-know-what], there are people who need it to make great films and get it to the people. Who knows? "China Blue" (that PBS documentary) could be a [you-know-what] DVD in China and everyone would know the truth about sweatshops.

Just... don't make it that cheap... with a piece of cardboard faking it's Blu-ray and that it's from McDonald's.

A long overdue Blu-ray release

"I hope Topics Ent. sees fit to give another of PBS's impressive entries - 'Over Canada' -- the 'Blu' treatment."

From: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=685&show=userreviews

This is LONG overdue. The DVD version is a letterboxed SD version that isn't even true widescreen. Yet still it is used for citizenship ceremonies...

Hopefully the Jim Pattison group or the people who own the rights to these films would sell the rights to Topics Entertainment or manufacture their own Blu-ray copies of Over Beautiful British Columbia and Over Canada soon. With the capacity of Blu-ray, you can put both on one dual layer Blu-ray.

P.S: Another series of films that are long overdue for Blu-ray include Steven Spielberg and George Lucas films... War of the Worlds and The Terminal on Blu-ray please?

DualShock 3 is still a Dual Motor Rumbler

You'd expect a next-gen rumble for the new DualShock 3, (Example: Immersion's new system) but to probably cut launch time and probably production costs, it's still dual motors in the DualShock 3 that you know are reliable. Don't break what isn't broken...

The motors also seem in this image to be screwed in place compared to the DualShock 2 where it was held by plastic, making the DS3 MUCH more rigid in holding the motors together. More space between the weights and the handle plastic is also good to avoid the weight from contact with the plastic.

Sour Luck... again.

I tried to go to Leo's Camera supply today but I totally forgot in pure grumpiness that it's a HOLIDAY WEEKEND... there goes $1.75 in transit fare.

That's not all, at 10PM I accidentally stepped and broke the glass on my old scanner!

What's next? A 9.x earthquake in Cascadia? It could be if luck is so sour that it causes one.

Edit: On the same topic of earthquakes, better keep an eye for those earthquake clouds (yes, they do exist)

This is an example from 2 days before the Sichuan earthquake:



You'd need a degree in meteorology in order to really predict one, but a warning of a imminent West Coast quake would be REALLY nice.

New drawing, finished in under 24 hours

Talk about time pressure, I had to limit myself to a single character concept to avoid failing art this term at school. Surprisingly, it was done in under 24 hours thanks to the "Trace Bitmap" feature in Inkscape. Thank You Inkscape!

Check it out on my DeviantArt for the drawing.

Video idea for after the Quad-Core upgrade

A HD RCF Sizzle reel set to "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay. The Aqualung song's been set aside for this awesome song by Coldplay that could in my opinion, replace the Metropolis music in RCF.

Unfortunately, I can't do it now as I would risk tons of dropped frames. This could be one of the videos I could do after the Quad-core upgrade, which unfortunately isn't soon. At the latest it would take till September to wait for cash to upgrade it.

Anyways, in the meantime, check out Coldplay's Viva La Vida song.

The root of all my recent evils...

Ok, I have to admit it...

I deeply envy owning a HVR-Z1U right now. I had hands on experience with the camera 2 years ago and I couldn't have felt better. Now I need to own the camera for myself.

This all started because all new HDV cameras out now are "rolling (electronic) shutter" CMOS cameras. This makes it cheaper for a better image, but it's a nightmare to a matchmoving application. There is more info on this here:

http://dvxuser.com/jason/CMOS-CCD/

The Z1U is the last affordable 3CCD HDV camera that has the features I need. This lead to me needing a job at Greedy Productions since I swore to myself after getting the HC7 to get the Z1U only when I have a job. That's not going well, as Victor Lucas just told me (via Mr.Kwan) that he's only accepting me once I get into post-secondary. And that's not soon... one more year of Grade 12 for me.

I'm hearing about this "ACE-IT" program at Burnaby North which might have Z1Us in the program... that is uncertain as of now.

Basically, if I could get a Z1U in my hands in the near future, I'll be happy. Otherwise it's more broken sleep patterns...

Edit (May 14th): I think I need to head on over to Leo's Camera Supply in Vancouver. That could solve this... or not.

Parallels between Sly Cooper and a SNL Digital Short

(This post is rated PG-13)

Allright, enough gloating about how NBC sucks with the interweb and let's finally get on with it.

The video game character Sly Cooper is well known to fans around the world, however, there is something that only older audiences pay attention to: He has no pants on.



Well, as a disturbing realization of this, Andy Samburg did a Digital Short on SNL called "The Best Look in the World". Where it is a shirt, no pants (nor underwear), and socks. JUST like Sly Cooper... except it's a REAL PERSON!


[I am not responsible for this embed, NBC is. There might also be ads so I apologize in advance if there is a advertisement.]

Did Andy play a Sly Cooper game to get the inspiration for this? I hope so...

I remember one of my old pal Mike Lepore's lines saying "Oh look, they have no pants on! But no they put pants on Carmelita..." Classic.

Hulu. The new wave of corporate Youtubes.

I was expecting Hulu to be a video sharing site that allowed members to upload their own fan videos, however it's all corporate bull.

There is a regional restriction on the site clearly violating Net Neutrality and I believe the site is not gonna last long. No expansion equals suicide for the service.

Fox and NBC rule the content on that site, more corporate bull.

If this is a trend of the future, don't expect it to catch on. YouTube is still the dominant video sharing site with nearly all the freedoms you expect from Net Neutrality.

Fox and NBC, happily rejoin YouTube and we will welcome you with open arms. If you stick with Huhu, you're gonna lose lots of profits from international viewers and fail rapidly due to the limits that you've imposed.

If you want to see one more critical opinion of this, Click Here

NBC site hacked

Yes, it's true, and it looks like it's the same group that hacked Stage6.

This is getting serious... These hackers sure are smart, they could decrypt HDCP in real-time if they could... and they would cause they wouldn't give a dang about the DMCA.

The kind of attack is exactly the same as the Stage6 one. I was gonna make a blog post with the recent SNL Digital Short "The Best Look in the World" and Sly Cooper, but now it looks like it's to warn about the hacking.

After the damage the Stage6 hacking took in the ways of tons of compromised logins, the police agencies better catch these masterminds soon.

Edit: I found out that it is indeed the same people who hacked Stage6: 4chan. One thing is for certain, hacking that causes major economic loss is criminal and it will be prosecuted. Remember a kid from Toronto who hacked CNN? He served jail time for that crime.

Next video idea floating around right now...

The Flight of the Conchords song "Robots" to Dr. Nefarious and Clank from Ratchet: UYA.

It's also kind of related to Genevieve Ip's The Office Mr.Roboto video.

The choice to proceed is kind of in the air, if I do proceed (which is most likely due to Gene Ip) I'll have to capture a LOT of footage.

Edit: Work has officially begun on this video. So far it looks kick-butt...

Edit #2: It is done!



AVC High-Quality version

Tis was 2 years ago...

...that I made this post

1 is true (but the model's been discontinued), 1 is false, 2 are true, but in a different than in the intended way.

The 2 that are true in a different way include the simultaneous use of SIXAXIS and DualShock 3 functions and the Upscaling (not rendering) of PS1 and PS2 games to any HD resolution.

I was talking about bringing rumble back 2 years ago, and now I can proudly say I now own a DualShock 3.

The total is in.

It will cost around $530 (without tax) to upgrade my entry level dual-core to a quad-core.

Contents with NCIX links:

A Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor

A EVGA non-overclocked 9600GT video card

A Corsair HX520 520W standard size modular power supply

We'll order it when there is sufficient funding. This doubles the value of my PC from around $400 to nearly $1000. (not counting the Intensity Pro, including that it would be +$1349 in value)

Reply darn it! (major rant)

For the past week or two, I've been sending out stuff but have NEVER received any replies with the exception of HP's Total Care.

When it came to brass tacks, 12 out of my last 14 days I seen this message on my Thunderbird:

"There are no new messages on the server."

Seeing this enough can drive someone to the point of insanity, and trust me, I've seen this quite enough.

Next time you receive an important email from me, Reply, ok? (unless noted otherwise)

But for the jokers and pranksters: NO SPAM. My service already has the strongest spam filter in the business.

Why no such luck for me?

Her name is Genevieve Ip, she posted a The Office tribute a year back. NBC saw it and used it in a press tour, then they offer a internship in LA for her even though she's still a SFU student.

I'm not jealous, just frustrated on why no such luck is coming for me?

She's 19, I'm 17, we look alike, where's there to lose?

We just lost it...

The busted USB port is now officially pronounced dead.

The motherboard received a damaging static shock which was enough to malfunction the port.

Now I only have 3 USB ports on my laptop. **bleep**!

Laptop trouble AGAIN

I was working with my laptop normally in a room at my school at lunch normally until one of the USB ports stopped working for the one connected to my mouse!

I've been using the alternate USB port for 24 hours, I was sure after a shutdown it would be fixed. But it wasn't! Now the mouse blinks everytime you click it (even without Windows booted) and does not activate when you move it. In the F10 setup in the BIOS, if you plug ANYTHING into the bad USB port, the whole BIOS freezes. Yet the same port after connecting supports USB Mass Storage devices in XP. What the **bleep**?

This is VERY baffling, it nearly drove me to the point of insanity and I think I screwed up a screw in frustration. This computer is going back to HP via Future Shop.

Speaking of this, Martin Breault had trouble with Dell service. HP so far is pretty good service, but we'll see...

Asked NCIX and HP, about to make a decision...

I have decided to upgrade to the 9600GT video card and get the Q6600 Quad-Core.

I'd like to thank HP Total Care for helping me in my Quad Core decision and NCIX for helping me refer to HP and for processor help. Also thanks to Wikipedia for the info that the 9600GT uses less average power than the 8800GT. It's average power requirement is 98 watts.

I will still have to get a recommendation on a budget priced and adequate power supply for my config in terms of amps and watts. This means another trip to NCIX on Monday. Right now I'm looking at the Silverstone Strider SST-ST60F because of it's interchangeable cables that helps in heat distribution by using less cables.