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The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things.
HP: The bit of the JKR interview I found most interesting was the question about pre-Hogwarts schooling: wizard children can either go to Muggle primary schools or be taught at home, as the Weasleys were. How would sending your kids to Muggle school work? How do you keep a child of five or six from talking about magic? Or do they just assume that nobody will believe the kid if he does?
Stargate: I watched Inauguration. My total reaction: meh. I've been holding off watching Lost City until I have both parts. Cause I hate waiting for part two.
Jeremiah: I finished up the S1 DVDs. The downloading of S2 must commence soon! I found that at about disc 4 I started to get much more into it and now I'm a hopeless adoring fan where I was a cautious fan before. I'm shipping Jeremiah/Kurdy but I must note in passing that Markus has a very pretty mouth and I had to watch the "Markus gets drunk" scene twice. Seems like there should be some drunken slash there, doesn't it? Also: Ezekiel is my boyfriend. Of course. *sigh*
Gundam Wing: I watched Endless Waltz again last night, this time the movie version, which seemed to have some extra bits in the middle. I think Duo had more lines than Heero, Trowa, and Wufei all put together. Duo certainly is growing on me, though he will never (never!) supplant Wufei in my affections.
Movies: I was thwarted in my attempt to see Triplets of Belleville yesterday. Today I saw The Station Agent, which I enjoyed a lot. Dear god, Peter Dinklage has a nice voice.
Books: Recently, I tried to read a book on deconstruction. It made my brain hurt. So I got out the next thing on my stack instead: The Golden Ratio by Mario Livio. It's all about the number phi, which is quite unusual.
If you take a line AB and divide it at C so that the ratio of AB to AC is the same as the ratio of AC to CB, then the line has been cut in the Golden Ratio, phi. I'm not a math geek, by the way, but the book has been written for the layperson so I followed things OK.
There's a lot of interesting stuff about how phi (and Fibonacci numbers, which are related) are found in various places in nature. And I thought there was going to be other interesting stuff about where it could be found in art, etc, but it turns out that those reports are greatly exaggerated, so most of that part of the book was debunking. (For example, there's no evidence that the Golden Ratio was used in the construction of the Great Pyramid.) Which isn't as interesting.
There was one bit about the Platonic solids, which are five regular polyhedra whose properties I won't go into. But I looked at the diagram and lo! they were dice: d4, d6, d8, d12, and d20. (Sorry, d10!) So a bit of gamer geekery there.
I do plan to get back to deconstruction at some point.
Beer: I like beer.
I haven't been doing any writing, though I should do a bit tonight. I've been feeling like my input/output ratio was a bit unbalanced, so I'm trying to take in more media of various sorts. Hopefully that will give me new ideas and help me to focus more.
no subject
That's what I was going to ask!
DVDs
When you sent stuff to Sabine, what media did you use? May I ask? And what source material did you use? I'm collecting data in attempts to find something that will play in her darn player....
Inn.
Re: DVDs
They were DVD-R disks. Probably Verbatim, though possibly Ritek. The source material was standard DVD (VOB) format. It would probably be helpful if you or she could tell me what player she has. It's really the player that matters. There is a slim possibility that adding a menu to the disks, instead of just encoding the episode to start playing automatically, would make a difference. But that's slim. It's really a question of the player and its compatibility with DVD-R. (also, many players with DVD-R issues also cannot play DVD+R)
Sabine's Specs
In my quest to distribute Jerry to the Masses (haven't done it yet) I managed to get Sabine's spec's. She has a Toshiba SD-2800 and here is a general link to DVD Media and Format Compatabilities (http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=&Search=Search&orderby=Name). The complete goods on her dvd player can be found, complete with 48 user reports, here (http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=1059&Search=Search&#comments). DVD-R Media is supposed to work, so I'm not sure what the problem is yet.
My source is completely digital, mostly from SVCDs or XVIDs - Would it be possible to look over the set you created? I will gladly return them or pass them on to another needy recipient - whomever you deem worthy! I would very much like to view your set, if possible.
Innogen
Re: Sabine's Specs
Yes, but sometimes, those reports are not accurate. For example, upon quickly glancing at the results, I see that the Toshiba SD2109 is listed as being DVD-R compatible. However, an independent sampling of testers (http://www.octave.com/cgi-bin/shop/shop.cgi/choice/html_dvd_compatibility#not) found that the 2109 did have trouble with some DVD-Rs, or playback was inconsistent.
DVD-R is a tricky media. A perfect example: At Escapade, I had a number of DVD-R disks that I had created using the same methods, same software, same media.
My source is completely digital, mostly from SVCDs or XVIDs - Would it be possible to look over the set you created? I will gladly return them or pass them on to another needy recipient - whomever you deem worthy! I would very much like to view your set, if possible.
I don't have any more right now, I'm afraid, and I'm in the middle of setting up a new system, so I don't have my duper set up. I don't really want to spend time doing one-offs, but eventually I will get the duper hooked up and do some more. I'll let you know when I do.
Essentially, DVD-R is nonstandard technology. It's really wiggy. I've now burned and distributed well over 1000 DVDs, and I can tell you that it's voodoo. The only solution is to find a player that's really tolerant, and stick with it. I've got a Panasonic that I swear would play a saltine cracker if you put it in there. Otherwise, you just have to experiment, and hope.
Tolerant Players - Apex AD660
My Apex AD660 can play DVD-Rs SVCD VCDs all just dandy...but it really has trouble with those DVD+Rs. My computer laptop won't deal with any DVDRW plus OR minus, and will only spin up -Rs. I'm a newbie and am still learning. So I'm already benefiting from your experience.
The trouble is that my Apex is old and I would like to get a newer player...I just have to make sure it has flashable ROM and not chip Rom...I enjoy my upgrades too much I guess.
Innogen