The walls are looking like, well, walls now.
Click to enlarge
Author: DOuG pRATt
Fun Loving Video
I am using a new method to create FLV video for embedding. Side-by-side comparisons show that the results are better than the method I was using, but I honestly don’t think you’ll see the difference.
FiOS TV 2.0 Interactive Media Guide
A couple of weeks ago Verizon sent a flyer promoting the long-anticipated update to the FiOS TV 2.0 Interactive Media Guide. Sometime between last night and this evening the update was installed on my DVR.
I like having the ability to program the duration of the skip-ahead button on the DVR, and having a 60 minute playback buffer, but I prefer the old user interface. It was clear and bright with easy to read lettering. The characters are too small on the new display, with a color scheme that’s too gray, and a few layers deep into the menus the screen looks rather cluttered. Here’s a video sample of what it looks like.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/NewFiOSGUI.flv 400 300]
(Note to my friend Sam: Watch this and you will see a bit of your crazy cousin making a guest appearance.)
Pratt Porch Project – Day 3
Actually, Day 3 was last week. The walls have been framed in.
I’m having trouble finding a wall sleeve for the air conditioner. I think I can get it from an outfit called AM Royal.
Click to enlarge
Cinéma la Morte
Film students from the 60’s and 70’s got a real one-two punch recently with the deaths of Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. The latter directed L’Avventura (1960), a movie that I must confess nearly put me to sleep back in college. If I want to see a boy and a girl on an island, I’ll watch Gilligan and Mary Ann.
A much more interesting Antonioni film is Blowup (1966). It’s notable for a number of things, including some nude scenes that were daring for the time. I won’t be posting those — sorry! — but towards the end the Yardbirds, with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck in the line-up, make an appearance.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/BlowUp.flv 400 300]
Siskel & Ebert At The Movies Again
Movie critic Gene Siskel died in 1999, in the city where I was born — Evanston, Illinois. In recent years Siskel’s cohort, Roger Ebert, has had serious health problems of his own. Some of the movie reviews from the Siskel & Ebert days are now available on the Web site At The Movies TV.
A review Siskel & Ebert did of the re-worked version of Return of the Jedi is at this link, and it includes a reference to the good, old Laserdisc format.
Way back in 1983 I taped Siskel and Ebert’s original preview of Jedi. They devoted a show to the Star Wars series, and this video runs a little over 20 minutes. It looks like an old VHS recording, because it is! It was recorded off of a rabbit ear antenna a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away!
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/SiskelEbertJedi.flv 400 300]