Results of some troubleshooting...

I downgraded my software for the Intensity Pro to 1.8.4 and captured one minute of 1080i Motion JPEG to a defragmented system drive without dropping a frame. I have yet to do longer tests and have not tested yet in 720p but I will update this post with those results as soon as they come in.

720p results: Still dropping frames... Even on 1.8.4. This time it's 5 seconds before it quits.

Revised results: Finally, installing a separate capture drive via SATA solved this problem. I went 1:35 without dropouts. The 20 second one was to the same drive but interfaced through USB 2.0, making it slower. This is on software version 2.0.

Still, with a FAT32 formatted drive it can't go above 4GB so there's still a time limit.

RCF Coldplay Sizzler Reel

http://www.viddler.com/explore/jackvancouver/videos/3/

Download to see full quality. Must be registered though to download at full quality.

Alternate source (YouTube):

More Decent quality in the AVC HQ version.

(The Vimeo version is on the chopping block for the September 1st gaming deletion so might as well relocate and delete it earlier. It will be gone Friday July 25th.)

Still going ahead

The Viva La Vida RCF sizzle reel is currently being captured and edited. I have to keep each capture under 20 seconds though to prevent dropped frames.

Upgraded, but....

I am still dropping frames capturing MJPEG.

I'm now clueless, at least with the E2160 it doesn't have the power to do so and now at the Q6700 it still does it!?!

Any suggestions? It always does it 13-20 seconds in. This means I cannot proceed with the Viva La Vida RCF video unless every shot is under 20 seconds.

Quad-core upgrade tomorrow

I have made a few changes to the plan:

Because of the sale, I'm going for the Q6700 instead and might expand to 4GB of memory.

The updated list goes like:

EVGA 9600GT non-overclocked

Corsair HX520 Power Supply

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700

Optional but still debatable: Patriot PC2-6400 2x2GB (4GB) memory

New rough times... (serious life post)

My morale and my perception of how people are in the world today are conflicting.
After the daveslash incident, My parents are telling me to not socialize at all with people who tell dirty jokes. (which must be 100% of the American population) But trying to be normal is to give amusement, it's just some people do it the potentially offensive "American" way. My Asperger's has been a huge roadblock in socialization, and I think I'm ready to stop socializing again. The past year was a tremendous success, but it looks like thanks to daveslash, it's over. No apologies will be accepted (unless it's the sworn truth, which I highly doubt from dave).

Time to slip into another trench of depression. There are also times where I just can't get off my mind things that are just wrong (For example: I accidentally bumped into a old Cantonese lady on the bus once and she PUNCHES me and starts yelling in Cantonese. It took 2 hours to forget about her consciously but unconsciously, she's still on my mind everytime I see someone who looks like her.)

I'm not ready. I'm not ready.

I also think back to a man that was killed by the police for going bipolar on a just landed plane and claiming to have a... well, you know. I have this fear everytime after an incident...

And who could forget Robert Dziekański...

:(

(These are the thoughts right after a pep talk about my incident, the internet's care-free insult hurdlers, and my Asperger's for that being anti-social is healthy.)

2, count them, 2 busted USB ports...

And not only that, daveslash has restarted my parent's hyperactive fear of my bipolar rage and violence since the incident in April (where the police actually came to my house) just because he thought a simple homosexual joke would be fun to pull on the noob... You gotta learn these 2 words: Moral value. If you have none, real-life or in-game, you're a "rotten section of society" (straight from my father's mouth).

Next time he's on, I'll automatically mute him. Sorry, no apologies accepted. It's too late.

Anyway, the water damage that I had to replace my keyboard or a crappy Cicero mouse must've been what caused 2 USB ports on my laptop to blow. Now I only have 2 left. Thank goodness this Friday I'm getting the Quad core in my room.

My exam confidence

My confidence in a good Provincial Exam mark is high, I think I did very well on it and I hope my final report will make me pass all critical courses.

The Quad Core and GeForce 9600GT upgrade smells near...

My 2fort2furious stats

http://stats.2fort2furious.com/player.php?id=6628

I'm currently #734 at the time of this post, so not really a total newbie right now... Must've been that Portal gametime...

2fort2furious is gonna be my exclusive TF2 server but today there were too many people with reserved slots so there were TOO MANY autokicks. A reserved slot down the line would be nice, but who would give one to a newbie right now? :P (But I do heed and not do any micspam. And if I accidentally glitch, I'll use the kill command and inform others of it, not exploit it.)

Laptop crash-o-rama...

I spent the last 3-4 hours playing TF2 on the soon to be Quad-core because the ATI Drivers for my intergrated graphics keeps crashing the game. It did it in Portal and this...

I now have two choices: Play exclusively on the soon to be Quad-core or swap out my Laptop Motherboard for an Intel with Nvidia.

Here's a forum thread describing this problem with ATI and Valve's Source 2007 engine.

S**U BSOD!

Edit (June 21): I just wrapped up a 8+ hour session on Team Fortress 2 on my laptop, amazing it didn't crash even when rendering in 768p (720p is possible too). The key is to add this to your "Set launch options" box: "-dxlevel 80 -windowed -width 1280 -height 768". (The one for 720p is "-dxlevel 80 -windowed -width 1280 -height 720") The framerate for intergrated graphics is mostly the same at any resolution. But using it has had some 8-9 frames per second lags. After launching TF2, you must set every graphics setting to their lowest setting.

If you noticed something new on my Steam...

That's because I secretly played TF2, it was such a social accelerator, but I played it before the exams!!!

Worked fine on the Dual-core, but crashed on the laptop. Am trying to get the HP drivers again.

Not so fast...

Although I have a Steam account, I won't be playing TF2 until after the exam on Friday.
But rest assured for those skeptics that think I just made a Steam account and am bluffing about TF2... I'm getting the disc this week, and who wouldn't install a game they just bought?

Steaming ahead...

I now have a Steam account and might go on Team Fortress 2 once I get it, my name is JackmanofVancouverBC.

I'm encouraged to do this after we spent $300 on a fancy dinner. So $20 to download or $40 in the Orange Box isn't that bad.

Edit: Just saw on Future Shop the TF2 DVD for $29, I can obviously get a discount since I know someone who works there (Ok, it's my dad... but this ain't no sissy game either.) The Viva La Vida CD is also out today so I have to get that too.

Last HD video for a while

Stevenson, BC, Canada near and at sunset from Jack Zhang on Vimeo.

Why? Because I'm out of HDV tape and I'm out of hard drive space on the stuff that I own. The soon to be quad-core is what I edited this on, If you're registered on Vimeo, you can download the XviD 1080p60 version.

Senior Media Arts 11 Award

Ok, after Cron posted about his award, I just have to post this now:



Yup, I brought my HC7 up on stage to pose with the official photo... I was probably one of the only times that people laughed during the whole senior awards night.

Oh yeah, to the left of me is David Wallace.

Priscilla Ahn look-alike

There is a Priscilla Ahn look-alike in our extended family: It's my uncle's wife...



You have to admit, there is a little similarity... and that is how far that is going to go. Play it safe, any further and some people might be offended.

I recently discovered her beautiful music and was surprised that she's a American born Korean-American. She has the voice of Feist and the look of my Uncle's wife (Hey, that rhymed!) How better can things get?

Just as a plug, here's a link to P. Ahn's official site. She is today's modern Teresa Teng.

Smoke Bombed

You Sly Cooper fans love using the "Smoke Bomb" in-game, well some people at Burnaby South today experienced 3 real smoke bombs first hand.

The fumes are very intoxicating, one scene today actually looked like a film where Richard Per came through the smoke to a door and yelled "EVERYBODY OUT!"...

This caused a whole lunch hour and the beginning of Block H to be occupied by this mishap.

Smoke Bombs are fun in a game, but can be terrifying in real-life.

CTV Local News is going down... (Current CTV News critique)

...the you know what.

The Globe and Mail story on the Vancouver portion of Canada AM being CANCELLED.

Mi-Jung Lee and Rena Heer were pretty good on Canada AM, I liked the variety and it was what made it a little bit bearable...

Speaking of that, 2 years ago, I asked about HDTV local/national newscasts on CTV, their response: "The equipment is connected, but it's not on yet." Oh really? it's been 2 years and no true 1080i newscasts? (is this Marketing BS?) The National beat Lloyd Robertson for HD national newscasts and the entire CBC/Radio-Canada local affilates are all in WIDESCREEN now (480i for local, true 1080i for The National), when the best CTV could do was the HDTV broadcast of Michelle Jean's inauguration... they're now no longer talking about CTV HDTV newscasts anymore.

I like some of the stuff they did, such as "Dead End Streets", But... recently the format has changed to the American style of newscasts (minus the seamless transitions from story to story, they overlap the last word of a story with the first word of the next story, that's how fast they talk.) You need a competitive edge... true 1080i HDTV ENG. XDCAM HD is the new ENG industry standard, I'd be surprised if a HD US Local News affiliate doesn't use it.

Global, although still using old school 1980s Betacam SP, retain the Canadian style of reporting and presentation. The National is sort of leaning towards the NBC Nightly News style but is still uniquely Canadian. CTV National News is unique as well.

I know of someone at CTV by means of a Blog: Murray Titus. You can check it out here. I'm not giving total crap to him for how much it's all going downwind, he still does sweet Chopper 9 compilations... Just wish it was true 1080i HD.

Final comment: Graphics. CTV Vancouver probably got 3D templates from ESPN to create 3D graphics for section intros such as "Where We Live". Overdramatic and too much eyecandy (for SD, HD is a different story, as I'm about to explain). HD is marketed to make people go "Wow." The current 3D graphics simplified and cleaned up of unnecessary effects in HD would achieve the "Wow" factor.

Ok, so it's finally done...

http://jack-y-zhang.deviantart.com/art/Lombax-Flight-of-the-Conchords-87788240

Finally, after a mad dash to the end, it's done and now I can focus on those Provincial Exams...

Make sure to download it or view it in full view for best quality.

Crunch time...

Yeah, I know, I already said most of this on my Deviantart...

But it truly is crunch time starting with flat shading/coloring tonight followed by detailed shading overnight. It'd be an absolute miracle if it's done tonight...

Groundbreaking update (10:32PM Local time): Amazingly, all the flat shading/coloring is done! Now the work can proceed to the actual detailed shading!