The fine season is here. Wallace is outside in the sunshine, working around the yard. The forest was choked with undergrowth and was also too gnarled to get in there and clean the trash that blew in off the street. I worked the wheelbarrow and he chopped and dug out the tangled morning glories. Now that we can see the street, today’s jpeg is part of the view. That empty parking lot assures us of quiet neighbors.
I worked on the computer. Pinnacle Dazzle, the device that records input onto a DVD, came with instructions so bad, it took a month to get the thing to work. This was not the end of things. The standard DVD format is uneditable. It is amazing how little useful information exists on how all of this works. I can find piles of technical specs but not a word on what needs doing.One place this led me was to the features of Nero, the software most people use only for burning disks. It can seems to be chock full of interesting operations, but beyond the basic copy, all of them are a limited free trial. I’ve always wondered what all the features in the Nero “recoding” file were for. I may have stumbled across something that can edit MPEG 4 files. Allow me guess that Nero can do the necessary “code” to use such files as both input and output.
I finally found an application that will do what I want as far as counting the pages printed at my shop. In fact, it is better than I hoped for. It assigns each user a “printing account”. When they hit print on any of my computers, a secondary screen appears where they have to sign in and agree to the price. They can examine their print history and I can set a limit to how many pages they can print before paying up.
There is always a snag. This software is “purchased” for one year. If I spend $60 I think it should be mine. Thereafter, you must buy a new key every 365 days. While this is interesting, I think I’ll pass. Now that I know such software exists, I can keep searching.
Wallace and I went over the remaining scenes we’ll need to begin editing the movie. We may, but that is not a promise, include a brief girlie photo to emphasize the plot ending. In one of the most ambitious sets, I’m toying with the idea of faking the interior of a passenger jet. I think I could do it for $20.
This morning I taught a computer lesson in French. This may have been a wise move. The lady was the president of the largest French-Canadien community in this area. They own private lawn-bowling clubs and dance halls all around this area. That was the fastest $50 I ever earned. She says many people need exactly what I can do – set up that email and show them how to use it.
My email says (yes, you can email me about this blog, read the directions—I prefer you leave a comment) I’ve sparked some interest last day with my quote from Capt. Slocum. His log is published under the title “Sailing Alone Around The World”. His astonishing adventures don’t compare with fiction and some of his words need uncommon understanding. The book is not about sailing, really, as much as his adventures along the coasts and places he visited. I’ll tell you my favorite two.
The best is the story of the Keeling Cocos Islands. As a lad in school, I was taught how the British wrested the islands from savages. The real story is much different. The islands were discovered uninhabited in 1609 but it was not until 1816 that the British went back. When they arrived, they found a man named Alex Hare living on the island with a harem of 40 women. To me, what happened next is so typical of Englishman thinking that it defines to me what a lot of the unwashed consider “law and order”.
It boils down that the English had no use for the island in over 200 years until somebody else had made a go of it. Not only did the inhabitants have no Queen, they were not being taxed and were apparently having a good time. The English will not stand for that, anywhere, ever. With a party of sailors, they attacked Hare and took possession of the island “women and all”. If I know Englishmen, especially the women.
(I’m not picking on Englishmen except as a bad example. Today, if the Americans found the island, everyone would suddenly need birth certificates, driver’s license ID cards, social security numbers and all persons would be on a database subject to arbitrary police inquiry. Anyone without a credit record would be suspect. Everyone would require a passport to leave the island and come back. And Hare would automatically be classified a sex offender.)
My second favorite episode was Slocum’s visit to Tonga. He met the king and the king’s daughter, whose name was Famoosami. Translated, this means “to make the sea burn”. Oooooh, I just got a visual on that.
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