Chios06.org

I found that out the hard way.  After seen the BSOD several times and tweaking the settings, it still doesn’t work.  So I had to go buy a new box.  A Pinnacle MovieBox HD.  I’m sure this will work, since it is a newer item.  If not, I will be asking for my money back.

Sorry it took me so long to approve some of the comments, and I also apologize for not updating as often.   I honestly didn’t expect to see comments at all.  I am pleasantly surprised.  Anyway, welcome to the blog and I hope to see more comments soon.

For those of you who have Windows 7, you know that Windows Movie Maker does not come with it.  But there is good news!

I recently renewed my Hotmail account so that I may have access to windows live.  If you have Windows 7 you can have other Windows Live programs including Windows Movie Maker for free!  Windows Movie Maker is a basic, bare bones, consumer editing system developed for the average PC user.  Mostly someone who posts home videos to the web or saves them to DVD for family get-togethers.

I used Windows Movie Maker to post a few of my resume reels online.  I had my resume reel on a DVD and all I really had to do was convert all of the VOB files (since the media on the DVD was made by me) and changed the extention to MPG.  Although I should tell you this doesn’t work all the time so make sure you make copies of the VOB files you work with.  After that, I imported them into Windows Movie Maker cut what I needed and then uploaded (through Windows Movie Maker) to YouTube.  Yes! Windows Movie Maker can give you direct access to YouTube.

The only thing I haven’t seen yet with Windows Movie Maker was a capture function.  If I find it I am not sure it will work with the capture card I use (Pinnacle AV/DV 2).  I will continue to explore it more when I can.

Sim City 4 was previously installed but I never got a chance to test it out.  Today I did so and found out it works relatively well.  No immediate problems that I saw including scrolling and switching of screens.  I will keep testing it as I build my city though.  Like with Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, the computer really doesn’t get taxed until you add a lot of rides and other synchronous moving stuff.  My migration to the new computer seems to be well on track.

Google Earth works up to a point, until you decide to scroll along a stretch of highway like I-90 for a few miles then it stops and Windows will tell you it has stopped responding.  After a few minutes of waiting the first time it stopped it unfroze itself.  The second and third times it did not.  So you can use old versions of Google Earth, just don’t over do it with the scrolling.

I just got a new computer on Monday and I am trying to transfer a lot of older Windows XP compatible programs to Windows 7.  Unfortunately, some of the programs I need don’t work well on the new computer.  I wanted to compose a list here of the programs I have, will load/have loaded and tested on Windows 7.

Programs that I have worked with so far:

Mozilla Firefox – works well with no problems to speak of.

Mozilla Thunderbird – Mozilla’s equivalent of Microsoft Outlook.  I think I like Thunderbird better.  Outlook IS NOT on the new computer, but I haven’t set it up or used it.  It came with the computer so I think I will assume it works.

<<SURPRISE>> SimTheme Park – A game that used to work okay on Windows 98 works beautifully on Windows 7!   For those who still have those old OS games for Win 98, don’t throw them away yet!

DOS Box – Installed! It works on the basic level, I haven’t yet tested it with an application yet.

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 – Installed, but hasn’t been tested yet.

Sim City 4 – Installed, but hasn’t been tested yet.

Pinnacle Studio 9 and 10 – DO NOT work well with Windows 7.  Windows 7 would not let me install it using my profile.  I had to activate the Administrator profile to install it.  The program works, but there’s no communication with the Pinnacle Break Out Box.  I can’t record any video to the disk.  I should have assumed this since Windows 7 gives me errors when I attempted to install Studio 10.  Doing research online, I think I’ll have to bite the bullet and buy Studio 14.

WinZip – Works ok

Civilization 3 – Installed, not tested.

Bejeweled 2 – Installed, not tested.

Adobe Reader 9 – Works ok

more to come…

There is an “E” in the little picture next to the URL. I plan to change that soon. I don’t know what I’d put in place of it though. The “E” is for the name of the current theme of the blog which is called “Eximius.”

If anyone wants to code their own web pages, I suggest three programs you can use (separately or in concert) to get started.

Mozilla makes a really easy to use program called SeaMonkey.

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

This is the old Netscape Composer program updated for the current age. I found it very easy to use (much like Microsoft Word). You don’t have to deal with the physical code unless necessary. Good for beginners.

The next level up is HTML-Kit.

http://www.htmlkit.com/

There are 2 versions, the free version and the purchasable version. You have to write the code for web pages here but the code is color coded so you can see what you are working with. You have to play with the program a bit because it takes a little getting used to especially because you can code Javascript, XML, and CSS as well. At least there is a free version.

The last one I have is HAPedit.

http://hapedit.free.fr/

It is also freeware and it can do more than just HTML. It can help you code PHP and ASP too. I have yet to really play around with this one. But I like the fact that it tells you (most of the time) where your errors are (usually open brackets and missing semicolons).
Did I mention that this one is also free?

I finally got to adding clips to my resume reel page.  The clips I pulled were from 2005.  Hopefully soon I will be able to pull the more recent clips from a DVD soon.

…has bars running up and down it.  Why?  My video card is going bad, so I’m told.   I have to deal with it for now.  I don’t mind that.  Every so often the bars will clear up anyway.  I also have a laptop to use just in case.  Both computers were from 2001 and 2002 respectively so they are old and likely in need of replacement anyway.

Hi everyone,

I am still working on this blog so pardon the broken links and 404s.

The primary reason for this site is promote my video editing and web development skills and maybe some other things as I learn them.

WordPress is a very cool application!