Webmaster
Forum Replies Created
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"Will you be there" is the michael jackson song from free willy
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These are very interesting questions, and I hope I can clarify this for everybody.
Veena is introducing a new feature into her newsletter where she involves members and friends in the goings on of the StudioVeena.Com day to day. This is not a contest, nor is it an established event, nor is it a competition. There is no list on which to "get on". It is purely an effort to bring the community closer together by giving everyone insight into the lives and personalities of certain members who have arrived here, in the San Francisco Bay area, one way or another. Most importantly, it is fun for us.
If you are coming the San Francisco Bay area, email us. If we are able, we’d love to meet you while you are here. If there is time we’ll even do some video together.
We respectfully request that you refrain from questions of who paid for what in the forum or chat room. Public discussions of topics like this are tacky and in poor taste.
Thanks, we love you all, and wish we could meet each and every one of you.
Webmaster
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Please replace your videos and photos that are missing. We cannot recover them.
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Chat should now be working. Please everyone duck in and let me know if you are able to talk to others.
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Chat is a result of our issues last night. We will have everything resolved by tonight.
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Foxy could you retry that, I had to reset our PHP configuration.
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Here are some links to help you out. B&H photo is where I get most of my equipment, they are a huge supplier out of New York with great customer service.
The camcorder
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/539289-REG/Canon_2680B001_VIXIA_HV30_HDV_High.htmlMy favorite mic
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/201377-REG/Canon_3176A002_DM_50_Directional_Stereo_Microphone.html -
I’m a fan of the Canon HV30 you can pick it up for $750 if you look online and its got all kinds of neat features. Full HD at 1080p, selectable framerates to 30 frames per second. It has the Canon advanced hot-shoe that you can plug any number of devices into including several fancy microphones or even an adapter for professional microphones.
If you want to see some samples of work with the HV30 just go to youtube and search. Make sure to pick ones with HD because thats where you’ll see its true capabilities. We’re gonna start shooting StudioVeena videos with this camera once we get our new lighting.
Just to put the cherry on the sundae. I had a canon GL2 which is a $2800 camera, I prefer this one by far. It has better color seperation, it’s smaller, and much higher image quality. Canon uses a special prism to get the same quality as you do with a 3CCD setup out of a single CMOS sensor. In short its AWESOME!!!!
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VLC does somewhat acceptable transcoding and can be found at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/. It’s not perfect but it might work. I’ve had it drop frames, render things crooked etc… but generally it works fairly well and its FREE.
In general video still lacks any real good GUI based open source projects, if you were on Mac I would direct you to FFMpegX for transcoding but beyond that I have very little knowledge of open source/free projects. If you are willing to put a little money into it Adobe Premiere elements is a great little editing package that you can get for windows and it will import nearly any format.
Once you switch to Mac you’ll get iMovie for free which in combination with Quicktime will allow you to work with nearly anything. When you are ready to move up you can go to Final Cut Express and then to Final Cut pro for hollywood level editing (we are learning this package for StudioVeena.Com).
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Wow, it sounds like I’m at work. "How many hours would it take to {insert task here}?" https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif We’ll see what I can do.
Thanks for the suggestion.
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The site is designed to inhibit this type of behavior. Additionally it is prohibited by the terms of service and would be a violation of your registration on the site.
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You’ll notice the terms of use on the site specifically govern the use of all content on the site and prohibit the use of video without prior written permission. The specific line you refer to is for the legal protection of StudioVeena.Com.
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Vista is almost dead, as one of the shortest lived Windows versions they are replacing it with Windows 7 in a couple months, Vista is not an OS it is a virus. I have tried out Windows 7 and it is WAY better than Vista. Not better enough to get me away from Linux and Mac but hey…
My favorite version of Linux is Ubuntu. It is by far the easiest to use and most intuitive, I would absolutely not suggest any other version for a new user. It also makes it easiest to install new software as most of it is available for free through synaptic (the install manager for Ubuntu). Oh yeah, StudioVeena.Com runs off of an Ubuntu server. Remember Video is sorely lacking in Linux.
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Foxy, I have used Linux extensively since 1994. It is a phenomenal OS and has come a long ways since its early incarnations. It backs more of the Internet than any other OS on the planet and is one of the most stable operating systems every. I have personally run servers that ran three years without a reboot. Where it is still weak is in the realm of video you will most likely have difficulty recording and posting videos from linux unless you are partilarly savvy.
Now I know you said no macintosh but how about this http://gizmodo.com/5156903/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-mini-9-into-the-ultimate-os-x-netbook. You can get the Dell Mini 9 well equipped for about $300 then throw OS X on it. It’s ultra portable, very powerful and "Dude, your getting a Dell" https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
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You can actually click on the link on the front page right under the X-Pole. We will be adding it to the Shopping Link as we have time.
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I just have to put in my typical plug for Macintosh. Every mac comes with iMovie, an extremely easy to use and yet powerful video editing program. It’s what Veena’s movies are all made in.
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You are all very welcome. I love to see people enjoying my work. But please don’t forget we are nothing without our community. So thank-you all.
Webmaster (Mr. Veena)
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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!!
As a former Engineer and General Manager for the Geek Squad (Standalone stores, much different than the instore tech benches) I am very familiar with the wonkiness that can be visited upon your life by creative hackers. Here are a couple rules that will keep you safe.
1) If you arrive at a web page that expects you to install software, unless you are 100% positive of the outcome the answer is always no.
2) If you receive an email that appears to be from your bank, amazon.com, ebay, myspace or any other online account and they are asking you to click a link and update your info this is phishing, even if the url looks legit 99% of the time it is being masked by HTML. LEGITIMATE BUSINESSES DEALING WITH YOUR SENSITIVE INFORMATION WILL ASK YOU TO VISIT THEIR SITE NOT CLICK A LINK.
3) Always look for your browser’s SSL indicator when you are visiting your bank site or any other sensitive site.
4) IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A VIRUS OR SPYWARE GET IT CLEANED IMMEDIATELY, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS VISIT YOUR BANK OR YOUR MYSPACE PAGE ONCE TO HAVE YOUR LOGIN HIJACKED. And since most people use the same password everywhere once your login is stolen most hackers will try it at all major sites.
5) Always use virus and spyware protection. Avast is one of the better products I have used, along with TrendMicro. Avoid Norton, it is one of the worst product out there, I refused to sell it at my store due to the large number of reinfections compared to other products.
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Really, what’s going on?
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I’m preparing the system for some new technology we’re implementing, which requires that usernames stay pretty much static. Veena and myself can still change usernames. Please email Veena with your change request and she can take care of it for you.
Thanks,
Webmaster
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Sorry about that, this should be fixed now. Please feel free to email myself of Veena if anything like this ever happens again.
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So the only piece of hardware you are going to need to be careful about is mp3 players. But the best MP3 player out there is the iPod and they are competitive on price and features to other MP3 players, and all iPods work perfectly (they are Apple, of course they do).
Here is a link for you
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB403LL/A?mco=MjE0NDk5MwThis is a link to a refurbished 2GB MacBook. It will save you $200, on a very powerful machine. You get the same warranty as you would on a brand-new one. You can buy an extended warranty, and since its refurbished it actually goes through more tests than a new laptop. I’m helped several people buy refurbished and they’ve been very happy.
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Had to chime in on the mac recomendation https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif It is my platform of choice, and I have worked for a company with over 400 in active circulation. Here is why you buy a mac:
1) High quality – When I ran a geek squad store it was far and away the most durable computer we fixed. The only one that ever came in for hardware problems was 13 years old (others came in because people wanted extra hard-drive, new vid cards etc…). PCs don’t make it that long. Additionally the components are higher quality (anyone ever see Veena in chat, thats the built in cam on a macbook).
2) Ease of use – iMovie just works. You plug a video camera into it or drop in a recorded DVD and it says "Did you wanna put this in iMovie?" No drivers to install, no compatibility issues nada. Everything else just works (the commercials were right)
3) Price – a new MacBook (the plain one not the pro) costs 1000, and a PC laptop costs about 600 for an inexpensive one. The PC will last 2 to 3 years on average while the mac will last 5 to 6. So the cost per year of ownership is actually slightly higher $200/yr on the PC and $170/yr on the mac.
4) You can plug anything into it and it just works. Mice, keyboards, printers, cameras, etc… rarely do you have to deal with the dreaded driver disk unlike windows. The myth that you have to buy accessories just for the mac is an old one dating back to the late 80s and early 90s. We have a linksys wireless router, logitech keyboard and mouse, epson printer and scanner, canon camera, nikon camera, Western Digital backup drives and a Sony Camcorder all which play nice without any extra drivers or configuration.
5) Service Availability – There are thousands of AppleCare certified techs around. If you live in a small town in the middle of nowhere you might have difficulty finding someone but even when we lived in Bismarck, ND (also known as the middle of nowhere) there were technicians.
6) Viruses – There aren’t many (there are some) and the number isn’t likely to grow significantly. Macs are based on a UNIX type core specifically BSD. It is much harder to infect a mac because of this.
I want to say I am a bit of a Mac Fanboy but it is not without reason. What I like is that they build a better product.
A PC might be more in your price range however. Beware of the cheap PC laptops some are better than others, if you go that route read the reviews online. Some will last for years while others will break quickly.
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In my opinion your best bet would be to hunt down a good condition MacBook with Leopard on it, on Craigs list. They usually go for about $500 used and are worth every penny. The built in webcam and iMovie will make your life wonderful when it comes to making video and chatting.
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I’m glad everyone is enjoying the new site. It was alot of work and we were eager to see it come to fruition and the positive response has made it so worth while.
I noticed a couple people have been having trouble with the chat. As with any web based technology sometimes all that is required is a reload (ctl-r on windows and apple-r on mac). The flash client can get cached (stored locally for faster retrieval) and therefore not work properly.
We have some big plans for the site and can’t wait to show them off for everybody. In the mean time enjoy the new look, the unrestricted video uploads and watch for our clothing line to hit.
Chris
Studio Veena Webmaster
