Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from May, 2008

043 - Digital Nightmare

Sony lies. "Watch videos on your psp" they say. I'm a fairly tech-oriented person, but I really have no idea how to put movies on the bloody playstation portable. I think you need some sort of Sony diploma to do it. It should be as simple as click-and-drag, but it's not. You have to convert whatever movie file you want to one of the twoish video formats the device can read. And then, if you're lucky, it'll fit on the system. No, Sony, I'm not buying more of your high-priced memory. Let alone trying to take a movie from a DVD and trying to get that on a psp. That requires more software just to take the movie file(s) on the disk and putting it on the computer. And possible intermediate software to take that and convert it to something the psp converter can understand without freezing your system. And that special edition Juno dvd that comes with a digital copy? Brilliant - unless you have a psp. No matter what, it'll take longer than the 15 minutes you h

042 - Buck 65 Concert, Photoshop Experiments

I like concerts. There's something about live music, being in front of the people who make said music, being surrounded by people who are equally (or more) into the music than you are... something about that whole process that makes the music exciting. In contrast, I don't really like live concerts on cd. There are a few exceptions (Great Big Sea's Road Rage, for example), but the music without the atmosphere is only half the experience. Recently, I saw Buck 65 at the Bronson Centre, with Skratch Bastid and Cadence Weapon. It was a good show despite the mediocre sound and audience-not-at-capacity. Even though the venue is seated (it's an ancient high school auditorium), I still found myself standing by the stage. My ears aren't particularly happy when that happens, but it's worth it. It's even better when you get a few good shots. My battery life was limited (and died eventually), so I enjoyed the music rather than try to capture it. I wasn't particularl

041 - Earth Day, April Fools

These last couple of days were a harsh reminder that, on occasion, Ottawa weather likes to mess with you just a little bit. After a solid week of weather jet lag that made believe it was mid-June, we returned to late April without much warning. I got snowed on, albeit wet snow - and for all of five minutes. But during that five minutes, I was riding my bike. Figures. I was dismayed not to have a Future Shop or Best Buy flyer this week. I though perhaps it was the deliverer, since they aren't exactly known as being a good pot of gravy. But no, a quick trip to FS's website quickly reveals that "We will not print a flyer for the week of April 25" to "support Earth Day." I felt kinda proud for them for about five seconds, until I realised that maybe they should have told me so in their flyer last week - the one that's good for two weeks. Or maybe they did and I'm just not as Sherlock Holmes as I thought I was. Anyway, I thought about just how much plasti