I was having some difficulties with iTunes 10.7 so I opted to update to iTunes 11, now I want to roll back. My opinion is that the UI (and to an extent the UX) sucks, sorry Jonathan Ive. – Yet at the same time I realize that as artists when we have come to a new “enlightened” state about one of our designes solving more relevant problems we have to wipe away the old version and reach out for the new potentials. But in this case I think bringing over the design elements from iOS is a bit overkill. It does not respect the device and the mood created by the device (bring touchscreen to the Mac and I might reconsider).
I have been thinking about using a MacMini as a media / web server. I wonder if there might be some long-term financial benefit to running the server at home, with higher levels of RAM. Rather than paying an annual cost for a hosted solution.
There are several articles which have been interesting on the matter.
Over the last several months I have been looking for and comparing digitization services for audio, film, and for images (slides and more). I have been doing this as part of the ongoing work at the Language and Culture Archive to preserve the linguistic and cultural heritage of the people groups SIL International has encountered and served. I have not come to any hard and fast conclusions on “what is the best service provider”. This is partially because we are still looking at various out sourcing options and looking at multiple mediums is time consuming. Then there is also the issue of looking for archival standards and the creation of corporate policy for the digitization of these materials. I am presenting several names here as the results of several searches for digitization services providers.
Another option the Archive has been looking at is to determine if the the quantity of the work is cost prohibitive to have professional done. Meaning that, we would be better served by buying the equipment and doing the work in house. So in the process I have also been looking at people’s experience with various kinds of equipment and technology used in scanning.
I have been reading a lot of user stories like Dave Dyer’s reflection on Slide Transfer and MacIntouch Reader Reports from 26 April 2006 on Slide Digitization.
This past weekend I walked across the street from our house with Becky and went to an estate sale. In one of the rooms there was a stack of electronics. There on a dresser was a Reel-to-Reel machine in almost perfect condition.
AKAI GX-220D
The week prior I had been working with some Reels of language data in the archive. We have two machines but one of them does not work completely. Some amazing stuff. So now it sits on my desk and I am using my Marantz PMD 661 to digitize all sorts of Reel to Reels. Today I was looking up this model online and found it on Ebay for $300 and in Germany on Ebay for 500€, not bad as I paid $35 for mine. I finally found the manuals online for Free! It seems that somebody is trying to sell print offs on ebay for $11 each. But here is what I found.
Specifications
Track system: 4 track, 2 channel stereo/monaural system
Maximum reel capacity: 7″ reel
Wow and flutter: 0.08% at 7.5 ips
Frequency response: 30Hz to 24kHz at 7.5ips
Distortion: less than 1.5%
Signal to noise ratio: >50dB
Heads: 3 heads
Motors: 3 motors
Dimensions: 430 x 425 x 230mm
Weight: 19kg
One of my concerns is with the 30Hz playback.
Was this standard for reel-to-reels or was there better recordings done but I will never know because of the model of playback machine I have?
Another concern I have is about the heads:
If they are magnetized will they erase my tape? How do I tell if they are magnetized?
In a recent (2010-2011) Language Documentation Project we decided to also collect GIS data (GPS Coordinates), about our consultants (place of origin and place of current dwelling), about our recording locations and for Geo-tagging Photos. We used a Garmin eTrex Venture HC to collect the data and then we compared this data with GIS information from Google maps and the National GIS information service. This write up and evaluation of the Garmin eTrex Venture HC is based on this experience. Continue reading →
I had an OS failure while I was in Mexico. I managed to reinstall the combo update and things started working again. However, some of my big files (movies) will not copy, Time Machine fails, Some PDFs are now failing to copy. It always comes back to a -36 Error. I cannot find the error report for this online. It seems to be some sort of I/O error. I left a comment over on this blog.
prompt%> mv /Users/phil/Desktop/movie.avi .
I tried the command line mv command and the command line told me Input/Output error.
Failed mv
But I can play the file on my harddrive. – I have the same error if I try to copy the file to somewhere else on my internal harddrive.
Using OS X 10.6.5 on MBP 15″ moving the file to a WD My Passport via USB. The file in question is a .mts movie file. I can move other .mts movie files which were made with the same camera, at the same time, and are in the same folder to the external hardrive.
Error -36
I can’t figure out why I have this error or how to solve it.
