paul smith's Snaps & Bytes e-home
October 2003: Paul Smith - Going back the hard way
The clocks are going back this month, which means we can all hang up our shorts and pop away the flip-flops for another six months. For me the end of summer means dragging my camcorder out from under the bed and trying to do something with the footage I've shot of this year's holidays and other sunny seasonal shenanigans.
I use Roxio (formerly MGI) Videowave5, which impresses with a very wide range of options including the ability to author DVDs, but naturally other packages are available. It's only operating systems and Internet browsers where there's no real choice. You can capture video from any digital (IEEE 1394 card required) or analogue (video capture or TV tuner card required) source and edit to your hearts content. You can also use movies shot with a digital camera. My new Fuji s5000 (my first eBay purchase) takes 30fps 320x240 AVI videos with sound, or it will do when it eventually turns up from Hong Kong. There are all the text/transition/image effects you could ask from the software and the resulting DV quality video can be put onto tape, output as a compressed file for Internet use or used to make a VCD (up to 80 minutes of VHS-like quality video on a 700Mb CD which will play on most home DVD players) or an actual DVD. Obviously DVD burners are now cheap enough for people who aren't planning to recap their capital expenditure through piracy to buy them. It's nice when someone invests in technology without it actually being an investment.
Away from product placement, I'd like to talk about my favourite subject: Me. That is I'd like to talk about me, but I'm not allowed to. Instead, I'll tell you about the woman I saw trying to get into a local PC store the other day. Only a 5" step stood between her and computer shopping nirvana, but her wheelchair leaned dangerously over every time she tried to scale her personal Everest. I helped her in, of course, but I'd have thought the shop owner should be looking at ease-of-access for the less able into his or her store. Are your doors wide and your doorsteps small? I think your local council would be able to help if a bit of a ramp was in order. They have a public image to think about, almost as much as you do. Local press also seem to be enthusiastic supporters and reporters of efforts to make life easier for Stephen Hawking wannabes. Perhaps it's time to push the joystick on your PR machine forward and milk your altruistic efforts to make the wheeled welcome. With public liability insurance going the way it is, the last thing you want is the sound of a wheelchair going over backwards on your doorstep, followed by the noise of a mobile being dialled with the number for Claims Direct®.
Paul Smith is still 'resting'. Job offers to info@snapsandbytes.co.uk please.
481 words Dale.