2009-05-31 Weekly Twitter Update
May 31, 2009 by admin · View Comments
- Dragged Melissa out to see Star Trek last night with friends. She actually liked it! #
- Angry that in the 21st century courts are denying American citizens equal rights. Saddened by today’s court ruling in California. #prop8 #
- Prepping LocalOnlineNews.TV’s second territory this evening. #
- LocalOnlineNews.TV Zone 2 is just about ready to launch (just add content!) Now it’s bedtime. Early night, it’s not even 2 yet
. # - I love the Apple low profile aluminum keyboard. Wonder why all the design geniuses @ Apple can’t design a mouse worthy of the Apple name? #
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Toy Story 3 Teaser Trailer
May 30, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Pixar
REVIEW: JVC Everio GZ-HD300
May 29, 2009 by admin · View Comments
I am a member of the Amazon Vine Voices program. Every month Amazon sends me a few products that are new or coming soon to market to review on their site. This month I was sent a JVC Everio GZ-HD300 High-Def Camcorder to review.
The JVC is a competitively priced camera that is certainly adequate but far from the best camera in the marketplace.
1080p?
Before I get into other features, it’s important to note that this is not a 1080p camcorder! The marketing materials both on the box and here at Amazon indicate this camera shoots 1080 60p. It doesn’t. It’s 1080i running at 29.97 frames per second. While this shoots 60 /fields/ per second, it’s not the holy grail of 60 /frames/ per second. The product manual does indicate the correct output resolution, but it’s unfortunate that JVC is misleading customers into thinking this is a true 1080p device.
FEATURES
The JVC Everio is definitely smaller and lighter than most of the cameras in its product range even with a 60 gig hard disk crammed in. JVC is “checking all of the boxes” for a good consumer camera, including facial recognition, 24 megabit maximum recording (which is unfortunately off by default), and a hard disk that records about five hours of footage at the highest quality setting.
The biggest omission, something that JVC is not alone in omitting, is a microphone port. It just infuriates me to see this becoming more of the norm for consumer cameras, dooming users to a lifetime of lousy audio. Good audio is such an important part of good video, and the lack of even the option to bring in an external microphone is a real deal breaker.
OPERATION
My real issue with this camera, despite all of its features, is that it does nothing particularly well. JVC opted for a touch sensitive “laser touch” glowing navigation pad that is difficult to use with menu options that don’t make much sense. For example, the menu description for the built in stabilizer reads “image blurred need to reduce camera shake…” Huh? I was equally confused by an “auto manual” icon that doesn’t tell me what exactly it is I am manually controlling. There are no manual white balance, focus, aperture, or shutter controls that I could find.
The hard drive is responsive and relatively quiet. I predict this will likely be the last year for hard drive based recorders given how inexpensive large flash drives are becoming. Avoid buying this for kids who are rough on their equipment, as hard drives do not fare as well as flash drives do when getting knocked around.
The camera touts a bunch of ‘one touch’ features that ease the uploading of video from the camera back to a computer as well as YouTube. The problem is that none of these features work on a Mac. The camera does, however, interface perfectly with iMovie and Final Cut Pro.
IMAGE QUALITY
For a 2009 model year camera I was extremely disappointed with the output quality. I ran test footage side-by-side with last year’s Canon HF-100 in a naturally lit room. The older camera far exceeded the JVC’s output. The JVC was overly grainy with very flat colors. Image quality improved outdoors in good light, but still not as good as the Canon.
CONCLUSION
This is a competitively priced camera that is adequate but not great. There are definitely better models out there, but none that have this amount of storage capacity and features in this small a form factor at this price.
Consider the JVC if you don’t care about manual controls, shoot mostly in good light, and don’t need a microphone port. If you see yourself becoming a more serious videographer, look elsewhere. You will quickly outgrow it.
2009-05-24 Weekly Twitter Update
May 24, 2009 by admin · View Comments
- After hearing about this Jon and Kate debacle I have decided not to turn my life into a reality show. Sorry, I know you are disappointed. #
- Going to unwind with the 24 finale. #
- Essex municipal and education budget passes 392-186! #
- Just finished listening to Leonard Nimoy’s “I am Spock” audiobook. Biographies read by the author are great, but this one was very special. #
- Taking my Mom out to dinner for her 60th birthday tonight! #
- Starbucks’ office rent is the cheapest in America. And you get a tasty latte for free! #
- Time to relive the Wrath of Khan. Got the Blu Ray in today, can’t wait to watch it tonight. #
- KHAANNNN!! #
- Live now: Shuttle Atlantis landing. Live video here: http://bit.ly/liaSp #
- Get your official NASA @StephenTColbert ‘Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill’ patch : http://bit.ly/HFWJq #
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2009-05-17 Weekly Twitter Update
May 17, 2009 by admin · View Comments
- Loved the new Star Trek movie. Definitely worth a second viewing. #
- Real Star Trek: Shuttle launch today at 2:01 pm for Hubble servicing mission. @milesobrien will be reporting live at http://bit.ly/3zifUg #
- Space Shuttle lift-off in about 20 minutes, watch live at http://bit.ly/51WhK #
- Nine minutes to Shuttle launch. @milesobrien is doing a great live webcast at http://bit.ly/liaSp #
- Constant Contact = thieves. #
- Constant Contact interrogated me for 25 minutes, wanted to shut account off and then keep my money. Ridiculous. Avoid them. #
- Doing some work on http://localonlinenews.tv and then LOST. No spoilers please! #
- Great LOST. Bummed that we won’t see a new one until 2010
. # - It’s Friday!!! What do you have planned for the weekend? #
- Burning promo DVDs for http://localonlinenews.tv #
- My new online venture got some conventional ink today! Check it out! http://bit.ly/tEauY #
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2009-05-10 Weekly Twitter Update
May 10, 2009 by admin · View Comments
- Going to the grocery store hungry.. Never a good idea! #
- Learned a lot about Apple’s Motion 3 this weekend. The hard way. Not quite up to ninja status but relatively pleased with the output. #
- Wish life could be as simple as Twitter.. #
- Today is #starwarsday May the 4th Be With You! http://bit.ly/3H6PV #
- RT: Dom Deluise Dies At 75. http://tr.im/kxKq (via @davewiner) #
- On my way to vote YES for the Region 4 school budget referendum. Don’t forget to vote today if you live in Chester, Deep River, or Essex. #
- Just voted yes for the Region 4 school budget at the Essex Town Hall. Don’t forget to vote today! #
- needs more RAM. #
- Wow it’s 11 p.m. again… #
- Ooh totally forgot about LOST being on tonight. Time to fire up the DVR. #
- So happy I can turn my head this morning without experiencing excruciating pain. Ahh the simple things in life
. # - Now living in a rainforest… #
- You know star trek has gone mainstream when nobody comes to the theater in uniform. #
- Going to spend today with Mom and Grandma. Best wishes to the Mom’s out there, and to a few of our friends celebrating their 1st mom’s day! #
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2009-05-03 Weekly Twitter Update
May 3, 2009 by admin · View Comments
- What a great day today! Hope you all had a chance to enjoy the weather. #
- Melissa and I are headed to Dairy Queen. Blizzard anyone? #
- Senator Specter switching parties: http://www.cnn.com #
- Good summary of the Specter switch here: http://bit.ly/5d0Ve #
- Enjoy the warm evening CT folks! Tomorrow night is going to be in the 30′s… #
- Prepping our ad strategy for http://www.localonlinenews.tv #
- LOST.. Love this show. #
- Wow LOST and a Star Trek sneak peak. This is a geek’s dream come true. #
- My sister is really, really old today. #
- Wondering what new cool gadget Apple plans to unleash next month. http://bit.ly/bKvBA #
- RT @CTConfidential @hartfordcourant: A whole new of view of Hartford from Mt Trashmore. http://bit.ly/HiVN5 #
- The Mythbusters have mastered the art of audience engagement. #
- Watching a 186 meg file stream over in 2 minutes, remembering the days it would take a week to download a file that size. #
- What could be a better way to end the week than to see a rainbow as I step out of the office? #
- Just escorted a bird out of the house. An almost identical repeat to this adventure last year: http://tinyurl.com/csvben #
- This weekend’s project is monetizing. #
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Stuff I find interesting- Does the iPhone 4 hate the AT&T MicroCell? August 8, 2010
- FCC calls off net neutrality negotiations August 5, 2010
- The Nightmare Scenario August 4, 2010
- Long lived new windows June 10, 2010
- Vintage Apple II Sites June 10, 2010
