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April 2003: Paul Smith - What's in a name?
‘Marathon’ invoked images of energy and endurance, whereas Snickers just sounds like an overly politically correct update of ‘Sniggers’. Heaven knows what the makers of Jif were thinking when someone suggested Cif might be a better brand, and I thought Veet is what Germans call feet. Thankfully some name changes make a bit more sense. Just ask Sellafield/Windscale.
For another example, Roxio, the makers of Easy CD Creator, have leapt on this tour bus (formerly known as bandwagon) and have released their latest version (6) under the name of Easy CD & DVD Creator. Clearly, they have watched the sales figures of DVD+RW drives climbing like a builders estimate through an unfinished roof and have refined their product to reflect this trend.
I'm never happier than when I've a new toy to play with, so I was excited by the new generation of tapeless video cameras that are now appearing. I'm not talking about those that use diddy DVDs, I mean the memory card type. With broadband exploding out of holes in the ground up and down the country, the demand for web sites that take advantage of these fatter data pipes is only going to expand. These video cameras are basically digital cameras where the features have been shoved towards the video clip and away from stills. They do away with things like a flash and multi-point focusing straight away, and add a microphone. Like jogless MP3 players, the solid-state nature of the recording method means that this is one video camera that would survive a roller-coaster ride or a white water rafting weekend.
Take the new Mustek DV2000. A mere 68mm (less than 3" for the Imperialists amongst you) tall pocket-sized unit and yet it can record up to 2 hours of video onto a 512Mb SD/MMC media stick. It even has a 1.5" (Metricians, work this out for yourselves) TFT screen that folds against its side in a very camcorderesque way. It's a web-cam too, of course, via its supplied USB lead and the 1.3Mp CCD even means it should take worthwhile stills - up to 55 with the supplied 16Mb card. A self-timer, 2x digital zoom and 2.1Mp-interpolated mode completes a seriously handy package, and all to retail under £95.
Interestingly many of these cameras have a capture size of 320 x 240 pixels, which equates very neatly with the 240 lines VHS format videotape stores its data on. I'm not saying they’re in anyway a tool to video material intended for the TV (although the Mustek does ship with TV leads) but they are perfect for making web-ready video clips. You can even edit the little AVI files it produces with any camcorder editing software from the likes of Pinnacle, to add titles, scene transitions and other effects.
Who knows, you could be the next Roman Polanski. Just don't get caught.
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Paul Smith still seeks employment Nirvana. Please e-mail him at info@snapsandbytes.co.uk with your offers.
494 moving words Dale.