artiss.blog

Category: Life

Random thoughts on life

  • CSI and David Artiss

    My name is not unique but it is quite rare. Personally, I’m only aware of one other David Artiss. None-the-less, a few years ago it came as quite a surprise to me to hear my name being used in an episode of CSI (an episode titled “Random Acts of Violence – season 3, episode 13). Or was it – maybe it sounded like my name? However, an online script showed that it was, even down to the exact spelling.

    (more…)

  • Editing a Flash Video

    I’ve had a recent need to edit a downloaded Flash video (.FLV extension). However, my usual editor of choice, PowerDirector, wouldn’t import a file in this format. And, it would appear, editing choices for Flash videos are few and far between.

    First of, I used the online video editor, JayCut. It imported and converted the video. However, it had two problems – first, if it’s a large video you have to preview it first before you can edit it. Second, the conversion process had put the video and audio out of sync. I therefore abandoned using JayCut.

    Next, I came across an Adobe Air application named RichFLV. Installation is quick and easy. Unfortunately, when importing the video it hung on “99% analysed”. It was still consuming CPU cycles, so I left it. Over 2 hours later, I gave up. Looking at comments on the applications website it would appear that others have had this issue.

    Lastly, I came to Moyea FLV Editor Lite, a downloadable application. Because it’s the free version it’s restricted but for the use I wanted to put it to, it was fine. It installed easily and worked quickly. There’s an option to output as a Flash video or Shockwave – the latter gives you the HTML code to embed the result into a website.

    I’d loved to have hosted it myself, but I use a fair proportion of my available bandwidth just hosting this site each month as it is.  As I don’t wish to use my own bandwidth I simply saved it as a flash video and uploaded the file to YouTube – again a conversion took place, but the result is excellent.

  • Replacing a Nintendo DS Case

    I’ve recently become the proud owner of a Nintendo DS – it used to belong to my older daughter and has seen better days. In particular, the hinge was broken. It was also quite mucky (under the plastic, so not easily cleaned) and had various chips and scratches. Oh, and the battery compartment was missing.

    To have sent it away to Nintendo and had the hinge fixed would have cost at least £30, so I decided to investigate alternatives. And on eBay I found a UK seller who supplies completely new replacement cases, along with installation instructions. All of this is for the princely sum of £13.99. Oh, and I also had to buy a “Nintendo” screwdriver to get out the pesky “Y” screws. None-the-less, it was far cheaper than a repair, and would resolve the grubbiness and missing parts issue as well.

    It arrived last week and it was immediately obvious that this isn’t a genuine Nintendo part, as the case is obviously not the same. The original is white plastic with a thick transparent layer on top. The new was simply a glossy white plastic. It also didn’t seem to be of the same high quality. The installation instructions were also rubbish – thankfully I found a 3 part video on YouTube on how to swap over the cases.

    So, at the weekend I sat down to follow the videos. I’d like to say it was easy and went well, but sadly it didn’t. Here’s what I found…

    1. The new case comes with its own screws (and none of them Y shaped screws). Sadly, nothing says which screws are for what and the plastic posts they screw into aren’t particular good quality – I would often find that none of the supplied screws would easily work, so I had to use some brute force to get them to “bite”.
    2. One of the screen screws on the original case wouldn’t move and I had to break the case apart to get into it 🙁
    3. The shoulder buttons are a test of patience, which I very nearly failed. They are a nightmare to put back, involving metal posts and springs.
    4. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get the power switch to drop into place when fitting the new case together. In the end, I put the switch from the old case in and it worked first time.
    5. The new Start and Select buttons are awful – you really have to push them down with your nail to get them to respond.

    But here are the two big problems…

    1. The final fit and finish leaves a lot to be desired. In particular, the part of the case in front of the bottom screen doesn’t have anything to hold it together and therefore “gapes” quite considerably. I ended up using Super Glue to hold it together.
    2. The 3 part video on YouTube suddenly ended stating to continue to part 4. Sadly, no part 4 has been added, so it leaves you at the tricky stage of adding the shoulder buttons. Thankfully, I managed to find another video that completed the instructions. However, for a while I was panicking!

    At the end of it, I’m not sure if it was worthwhile. £30 would have got me a guaranteed repair – a mucky case, but I could have got a replacement battery compartment. Instead, I’ve spend £16.49 (including the screwdriver) and have a clean, usable DS now, but sadly of much poorer quality build.

  • Commercial Breaks – the Death of Imagine

    Commercial Breaks – the Death of Imagine

    I came across this today. It’s a BBC programme from the 80’s which documents the computer game business. Of particular note is the death of Imagine Software – all recorded for posterity as the bailiffs turn up.

  • Dropbox hits version 1!

    Dropbox 1.0.10 has been released – 10 months after the last release, 0.7.110, it’s finally past that important version 1!

    Dropbox, for the uninitiated, is an excellent online file synchronisation service. Simply install a program on your desktop and drag files to your Dropbox folder. It will then be synced with any other computer that has the same software installed, and is also accessible via their website. You get 2GB of storage for free and you can pay modest amounts to increase this. There are also mobile phone applications available too.

    And what a cracker of an update too – less resource hogging and able to cope with open documents , it has a plethora of new options too, including the ability to only sync certain folders on particular computers.

    Get the full low down on the changes from The Dropbox Blog.