Category Archives: technology

Saturday Night Tech Bitching

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OK, I’ll admit I use some old technology. But damn, I got some bitching to do.

It will make me feel better…

Oh yeah – this post has some bad words in it, to reflect my state of frustration. If you don’t like to read such words, I invite you to get the hell of my blog right now.  K? K.

  • My 7 year old MacBook came with iMovie HD. For some reason it no longer recognizes my 8 year old Mini-DV camcorder for importing footage. Thing is, last time I tried it, all this shit worked! Did a software update sneak in and fuck up my setup? If so, well, screw them!
  • So I tried turning on the hardly ever used Toshiba PC laptop. I turn the thing on and it immediately is trying to sell me virus protection improvements. I already have virus protection. Apparently they want me to spend more. Turning this sonofabitch on is like going to a gas station where some dirtbag always asks you for some help “buying a bus ticket”.
  • Well, I find out that the laptop didn’t come with Windows Movie Maker installed. Never mind the fact that even 3 years ago when I bought it making movies on your computer was a pretty common thing to do. In typical Microsoft/PC fashion, they didn’t bother putting that on the computer. So I go to their download center, and it’s gonna take fucking 2 hours or so based on the snail-like movement of the progress bar to install ONE SIMPLE PROGRAM.  Well screw that. I force quit all the programs that were running and turn that bastard off. I wonder if I could gut it and use the case as a litter box for my cats.
  • Whilst all this bullshit is going on, I am trying my damnedest to remove a few songs from my iPod. Have you ever tried to do this? iTunes is one of the worst applications ever designed for actually managing your music and what is transferred to your portable device. It really makes me 1)sorry I have bought so much shit as downloads from the iTunes store, and 2)wishing I had just kept buying CDs, so I could move all that music to some other player/tablet/whatever. I wish I had all that music just saved as plain old MP3s, ripped from CDs, so I’d be less married to the iTunes system.  I feel like a wife whose husband beats the shit out of her, but he’s rich and she’s stuck there because she doesn’t want to start over. Yep. iTunes is an abusive spouse, and I am it’s bitch.

Now, you might be somewhat justified in pointing out that 7 years is pretty old for a laptop. That’s true. Congratulations – you have correctly assessed that factoid. HOWEVER — why, after me making no changes whatsofuckingever, does my setup for video not work anymore?

Out of 1 MacBook, one several-years-old Mac Mini, a Toshiba Windows/Shit PC, and $250 Google Chromebook, guess which device is operating as advertised? Yep. The cheap-ass Chromebook. It is limited in its function, but for its function is does great. No goddamn virus protection extortion racket. No shitty software. If this thing could edit video, audio, and hold my music, I would kiss all this other shit goodbye.

But sadly, as frustrated as I am finding some of the Apple products and software, they are still infinitely better than any PC available. The cheapest MacBook Air is better than any PC laptop you could get Santa to team up with the Devil and Einstein’s Ghost to build you. I may have to save up for one.

All this being said — Aikido and Skateboarding were awesome today — and this is all that really matters.

 

 

Audio Recorders and Podcasting Gear

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I don’t usually just post links of stuff to purchase, but here are a few things on massive sale right now that would be good for a podcaster/videographer.

This digital audio is on massive sale, and it a really good one.

 

This is the one I use, the Tascam DR40. It is a fantastic device, as you will see if you look at my podcasting links. Also on HUGE sale at Amazon.

Finally, this is the USB Microphone I use. It is the “old” model, and thus on bigtime sale, but the newer version just has a headphone jack. Other than that, the old one is the same. Great sound for this microphone. Plugs into the computer. Simple.

More thoughts on tech.

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I’ve written quite a lot about my Google Chromebook. I’ve had it a few months now and continue to enjoy it. It is light, boots up fast, and works pretty well. I’ve done most of my blogging from the Chromebook, plus a little digital image editing. For evening web-surfing and blogging it is my machine of choice. As I’ve stated before, I don’t really watch movies on it because it’s screen isn’t great and the video card (or whatever it has) isn’t super good for streaming HD movies. But it will do in a pinch for standard definition, and I’ve done that  bit while on trips.

This is the 11-inch Samsung Chromebook, which cost $250. So for that price I of course understand and accept the device’s limitations. It does what I purchased it to do, and not much more, but that is fine.

I have considered buying a Nexus Table too. They have really nice screens and work very well.

However, these devices are lacking in one area very critical to me. Content creation.

Since Google hasn’t developed their own really good video and audio editing apps for the devices, they simply are not up to the challenge of podcasting or video editing. I’ve tried all the apps available for the Chromebook, and they all suck. Sorry, but they do. I’ve searched and read about this issue as it applies to the Nexus tablets, and it appears to be the same there too. They seem to be great for surfing the web, playing game, and watching movies — content consumption — but simply are not equipped for content creation.

So other than replacing my burnt-out Kindle Touch, I think that 2014 will be a year of Zero Technology Acquisition. Unless my 2006 MacBook stops working, I will most likely stick with the tech that I already have. The only item I can see myself buying would be a replacement for that, or a new digital camera should my current one poop out on me.

Kindle Death

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That bad news: When I turned on my Kindle on Sunday to continue reading “I Drink for a Reason“, well, it didn’t turn on. Not at all. It was fully charged. Screen, rather than displaying the screen saver normally seen when it is off, was black with some barely visible “burned in” lines of text from the book.

Not good.

A few minutes of online chat with a Kindle specialist at Amazon.com revealed that yes, it was just fried. Dead.

As longtime readers will know, I love my Kindle. I think the Kindle is a fantastic device for reading. I don’t want it to be a “tablet”. I like it as an e-reader. Easy on the eyes, enlargeable font, just a fantastic reading experience. I love it.

Not sure what fried this one. We have had power issues due to an ice storm. Perhaps a surge got it? Who knows.

The good news: When I bought this Kindle Touch 3G at Best Buy, I broke one of my normal rules and I payed for 2 years of their extended super warranty. It is 1.5 years old. Warranty still good. Took it to Best Buy. They gave me store credit for the full purchase price, and bumped it up by enough to buy the Kindle Paperwhite 3G — which replaced the one I have. So that’s cool.

What’s not cool is that they are out of the Paperwhite 3G.  But what is cool again is that soon a better but pretty much the same price Paperwhite 3G will be available.

So I will wait for the new and improved one.

I was very happy with Best Buy. They did exactly what they needed to do. No bullshit. Good job.

 

Cheap stuff

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For the last couple of month’s I’ve been mostly using my Samsung Google Chromebook for my internet/blogging/multimedia activities. It cost $250.

It’s certainly true that I would rather have a new MacBook Air, but as I have stated before I couldn’t see spending that kind of money right now. Too many other things I want and need to spend money on.

The more I use this little machine, the more comfortable I am with it. True, it is kind of cheaply built, but hell, look at the price. The only thing I’ve found it really doesn’t do that well is video display. I guess the graphics card, or whatever you call the part of this machine that processes video, isn’t super good. But it isn’t horrible either.

I guess there is on other issue that has come up, and that is video editing. While there is some reasonable cloud-based software out there for video editing, the challenge is in the uploading of your video footage into the cloud to work on it. HD video creates such big files. It just isn’t very feasible to upload hundreds of megs (or multiples gigs) unless you have a much faster upload speed than most people. There needs to be some app that will load locally on the Chromebook and process the video locally. Perhaps there already is and I just haven’t found it.

I’ve had good enough luck with this Chromebook that I’m tempted to apply the same “making the most out inexpensive equipment” ethos to the rest of  my computing activities. I hardly every use a real “camcorder” for shooting video. Almost all mine is done on a simple point ‘n’ shoot digital camera. I use a GoPro HD Hero sometimes, but overall the point ‘n’ shoot seems to be my favored device.

In a world of skateboarders using expensive and cutting edge cameras, I like the idea of shooting good pics, video, and audio using inexpensive stuff, on an inexpensive computer. While I’ve been thinking very seriously about getting a nice digital SLR, maybe just getting a better point ‘n’ shoot — one that will shoot video in HD — might be a better choice for me.

OK, yes, this is kind of one of those rambling blog posts that no one will want to read. Whatever.