dahdahdahdahdah – JunkYard Geeks!
Tonight on TLC Online, our challenge is for mikailborg of the TechnoFetish team. His job – to build a working analog-to-digital video converter from things he finds in his apartment – before the end of the afternoon!
He’ll have an easy time with the digital end – he’s already got a FireWire-equipped computer made for digital desktop video. But, how do things look for conversion?
He’s got a Sony digital camcorder that he’s wired in there! It’s got an analog adapter cable with RCA jacks at the far end, and it plugs right into that computer of his, so conversion is okay. But here’s the rough part – he’s got to find a way to deliver that analog signal, and his wife probably wouldn’t be amused if he borrowed the living room VCR. So what will our challenger do?
Look at that! He’s blowing the dust off a 15-year-old Sharp VCR he pulled from his bottom shelf! I can’t believe that thing still plays tapes – it hasn’t even been plugged into the wall in over 4 years!
He’s got it all hooked together… now he’s changing the arrangement of plugs in his FireWire ports – and it’s working! Image quality isn’t the best, but then most of his originals weren’t that good to begin with! It’s working!!
Thank you for joining us for this edition of Junkyard Geeks. For the benefit of lekythen, subbes, and rubinpdf, this episode will be re-broadcast next month on BBC Online as part of “Scrapheap Geeks”. Join us tomorrow as Richard O’Brien hosts an episode of Sony’s Virtual Crystal MazeQuest Online (subscription fee required).
mikailborg‘s still going to have to return the camcorder, though.
My cosplay season approaching
Okay, just in case anyone can help me… for an upcoming costume, I am looking for a WWII – 50’s vintage “Ike” jacket in a size 41 or 42. If possible, the jacket needs to have few or no insignia on it, and the lighter the color the better. Also, I just don’t have tons of folding green on me at the moment, so a nice cheap price is another factor.
I nearly had one on eBay today, but the guy had a reserve listed, and I later discovered I wimped out 5 bucks short of it (but the jacket was sniped at the last second anyway, so I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten it.)
Tales of Modern Idiocy
A collection of unfortunate help-desk tickets: (had me snickering helplessly)
Stories of the increasingly surly owner of a video-game rental shop:
These are web pages nearly guaranteed to make you feel better about yourself.
Oooh… I just mentally bought a whole stack of t-shirts…
Sarcastic “God” billboards (may offend some)
Among other favorites: “I gave you a bigger brain for a reason. Start using it. – God”
LiveJournal Use Survey
(copied from madwriter)
This survey looked like fun, and a chance for a little more introspection than the usual character quiz (such as the fascinating “Which Space Rogues Character Are You?” quiz by raininva). Ahem. Anyway…
1. Your LiveJournal “user name” and what it means:
Nothing complex or mystical at all – I’ve used “mikailborg” since my AOL days. “Mikhail” is an infrequent nickname for me in my local group of fans, a group which is overloaded with “Michael”s who need nicknames for clarity; “Borg” becuase of the artificial hip I recieved in ’89 after my car tried to imitate Buckaroo Banzai‘s and tunnel through a mountain. I had to pull the “h” from “mikhail” because, at the time, AOL screen names had to be 10 letters or less. It stuck, and my Elfie e-mail is still missing the “h”.
2. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest) how well does your LiveJournal represent who you actually are?
Boy, the last question was so easy… I’d give it a 7-8. There are things about me which I may never discuss on LJ; on the other hand, I’m working on really opening up my mind and heart here once in a while, just to give them both some badly-needed fresh air. We’ll see how the experiment goes.
20 more survey questions and answers
Could someone please tell me when the term “deadline”, as used in the publishing industry, came to mean “The time at which we’d like to have your final approved materials if you don’t mind; but if you do mind it’s okay, later will be fine, or tomorrow, or even after we’ve put the papers out on the racks – it’ll be no problem to pull all 30,000 of them and fix the phone number you couldn’t bother to double-check…”
All of our advertisers and salespeople seem to have been told about this change, but none of the production staff. Weird, huh?
From the Desk of a Bonehead
In the midst of praising Rain for the incredible job she did last night, I inadvertently insulted her by suggesting that she may not have been able to handle her opponent in Sudden Death. As has been pointed out, her opponent had the advantage, but that doesn’t in any way mean that she couldn’t have won.
Sweetie, I apologize.
The Sorceress of Speed and Time
I am very proud of my sweetie! She played the third scenario of a short Mechwarrior: Dark Age campaign last night, and she had done her homework; she’d gone over the scenario description, fine-tuned the force she was going to use, and even used me as a guinea pig for her strategy. (She ran roughshod over me, but did at least tell me that she hadn’t even expected the minimal resistance I provided, so I guess that’s a compliment *smirk*)
Last night she beat both her opponents in less than half the permitted time, and walked away with a valuable “Atlas” collectible game piece. (I told a non-gamer that it was a little like winning permission to replace your bishops with an extra queen in a chess game.) She also impressed the judge to the extent that he is going to sponsor her as a judge, which will be good for local cons and get her some nice perks as well.
Hooray for Rain!
