imovie lesson

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yesterday i had my most successful lesson. this week i am covering digital video, and using the 604e chip at 250 MHz, elizabeth was able to not play, but run the playhead over a sequence of DV footage, combine with transitions and clips a simple four scene movie. leave it to apple to make a simple video editor. i’m encouraging the lancaster clan to get a new powermac or even an imac before the bootable OS 9 disappears. all of us have all these old educational and document programs tha still run, but will never run under OS X or even in the classic environment. i have several thousand dollars of software that will not work if apple moves then entire hardware line to OS X. help her out with financial contributions, so ruth can get a modern G3 or G4 machine. prices are dropping weekly, as are the bundles. now you can get a free edition of adobe indesign with any powermac purchase.

disc burning

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the burn. it’s quite a pleasure to prepare a disc image for burning. in OS X, disc burning is transparent in the OS, so when you place a blank disc into the burner, it just goes. i like using disk copy, first creating an image, adding media, and then unmounting and burning from the app. so far I’ve delivered four discs and zero coasters. for higher end CD-R i would like to get roxio toast, which can talk to DVD+R discs along with the standard flavors of CD and DVD. did you know sony just released the first ever combination DVD burner? it can record to all formats including DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, CD-RW, CD-R, and some other flavors.

computer school

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in the fall of 2002, i took it upon myself to begin to develop home home school lessons based on computer applications and basic computer skills. each week i’ve been traveling to lancaster CA to try out the latest teaching methods on my two test subjects, ruth and elizabeth. now three weeks into the course, everything is going well. before class i gather up from around the internet and my hard drives critical system updates and applications for that week. this week we’re covering digital video, so i have the latest versions of quicktime, along with some legacy versions like 6, 5, 4, and even version 3.

insomnia

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insomnia. ever since coming back from lassen volcanic national park i’ve been having trouble staying asleep. i’ve been waking up anywhere from 5 AM, 6 AM, and on two occassions 4:15 AM. my brain aches after five or six hours of sleep, and my entire day sleepiness takes over, but after lying in bed for thirty minutes, i’m reminded of my old professor william dement, “it’s better to get up and then try to go back asleep.” if you have any ideas (melotonin?) let me know.

opcode vision dead

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it’s always enpowering when your gambles pay off. many years ago when i first introduced myself to digital audio and electronic music, i concluded that home computers would get so powerful, that racks of sound and equipment would become obsolete. i bought a MIDI controller from yamaha instead of a keyboard, and now four years later virtual instuments and physical modeling are the norms. the cubase clinic confirmed this. not only is my opcode vision product old (works only in classic), but with current processor technology (soon the G5), outdated fully. it’s time to move to core audio in OS X.

green power

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i’ve been asked if buying green power makes a difference. here in los angeles we get almost 65% off all our electricity from coal fired power plants. thought that coal did not exist in CA, you would be correct. while most of the locally generated power is from natural gas, los angeles bought long ago into the intermountain generating station power plant in utah, which is coal fired, and thus produced a lot a acid rain, deforestation, and mahem. would it make sense to buy green wind and solar power. absolutely.