What's your guilty pleasure?

[longview]

For sure.

I love the new tech in my field. Something absolutely amazing seems to come out every day. I only wish I was twenty-five years younger so I could see what happens from now until near the end of the century. As is, I'll be lucky to see the first half of it end without diapers on my ass.

I want to see the advances in my area, but I am not sure I want the responsibility of making sure they integrate with everything else they need to work with!

 

[ataraxia]

For sure.

I love the new tech in my field. Something absolutely amazing seems to come out every day. I only wish I was twenty-five years younger so I could see what happens from now until near the end of the century. As is, I'll be lucky to see the first half of it end without diapers on my ass.

You never know with technology in the biomedical field. You may be able to hold off on those diapers just yet.

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

 

[Infinite Chaos]

No no, AVID was actively involved in nonlinear even as far back as the late 80's.
But as you said, linear videotape editing was still very dominant and nonlinear was struggling with computer design limitations for a while. Apple had good hardware stock but so did HP, with enterprise grade WindowsNT systems, and NT was not plagued with the consumer demons we got slapped with during Win98, Me, etc.
But still, processor speed and available RAM limitations, together with the tiny hard drives of the era, kept nonlinear a novelty for all but the most well heeled specialty productions for some time.
AVID started on the Macintosh II as offline only in 1989, the picture output wasn't good enough (ultra low resolution) for broadcast yet, but you wound up with a perfect EDL for online assembly, be it film or video, because AVID worked with film keycode numbers right from the start so it's not like the negative cutters noticed any difference.

Videotape stopped being cut and spliced (EdiVue)* in the late 1960's when Eeco's On Time Telemetry Management system used by NASA was adapted to run a proprietary type of time code, and SMPTE came up with the universally accepted SMPTE time code soon after. The Quadrature 2-inch VTR's got adapted to work with time code and thus finally became frame accurate.
There was a bizarre interim period before Eeco where they were using a "cue track" but it was nowhere near accurate so one might describe it as a form of "crash editing" done "kitchen table style" and it really was the Space Race that helped usher videotape into fully electronic frame accurate machine to machine editing thanks to both Eeco and some stubborn SMPTE engineers.

I made my bones on the early AVID, which is part of the reason why I never glommed onto that whole Final Cut fad. Yeah, Final Cut was a good editor but I disliked that whole snotty attitude that came with it because I'd been fiddling with computer based nonlinear before Final Cut even existed.
Did you know that the guy who WROTE the Final Cut program was the same guy who wrote Adobe Premiere?
Randy Ubillos
Before Apple acquired Final Cut, it was a Macromedia product called "Key Grip", a name which made no sense since a key grip usually fiddles with lights.

*They also experimented with using a tape head instead of EdiVue solution/microscope, and the control track pulse made a distinctive sound that aided positioning of the splice point.

"An alternative to the traditional Smith Splicer, replaced the microscope with an oscilloscope and two magnetic pickup heads.
These heads are located so they "read" the edit pulse on either side of the splice.
The tape was then positioned, so that the trace was in the center of the scope.
This located the spot on the tape where the cut was to be made.
This technique eliminated the need to develop the tape, and to some extent, reduced the amount of tape handling required in making the spice.
Note: The greatest danger in tape handling, is the likelihood of creating dropouts."

Ummm, the OTHER greatest danger was the fact that spliced videotape does not live long when subjected to a quadrature video head spinning at 14,400 (for 960 recorded stripes per second) rpm for NTSC 525 lines/30fps-standard quad decks, and at 15,000 (for 1,000 stripes per second) rpm for those using the PAL 625 lines/25fps video standard...in a direction perpendicular to the tape path travel. View attachment 67344219

All I can say is wow. Boy do you know your stuff.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

All I can say is wow. Boy do you know your stuff.

Well gee thank you so much!
I did SAY that I am a "Recovering Analog Dinosaur"
And truth be told now that I am sixty-four years old with declining eyesight and hearing, I can still drive just fine with eyeglasses, but I no longer can nail razor sharp 4K focus in a tiny camera viewfinder repeatedly like I still could maybe four years ago, so I can't be a professional Director of Photography anymore, and since my ears have become like frying pans, I can't really hear a director well enough to be confident on set.
At least I can still do small-fry editing projects and rely on my headphones and jumbo screen.

But I am noticing the steady march of innovation in my field and I see more pasture these days than rodeo grounds, the young kids are doing what they're supposed to do, leave old farts like me in the dust.
Adios Da-da.
For instance, I used to fiddle with streaming back before any all in one streaming solutions even existed.
So exciting to be able to do the internet version of broadcasting, and when my little 1280X720 stream showed up I thought I was on top of the world because thirty or forty viewers could find me and watch.
Today the streaming solutions are very sophisticated and I am huffing and puffing trying to keep up.
I mastered OBS, I have a BlackMagic MiniPro switcher and a StreamDeck, an eight channel XLR enabled audio mixer, and of course plenty of HD cameras, mics, lights, you name it.

It's a challenge that a lot of colleagues my age won't even go near or touch with a ten foot pole, so instead they mourn for "the good old days".
Not ready to throw in the towel just yet.
Even if I eventually wind up just being able to fool with all this stuff for enjoyment, it still feels good.
Thankfully I get enough little jobs right at the moment to keep the lights on and the wolf will never be at my door anyway...but I am not ready to be a "retired" editor yet.

But at some point, one steps aside and passes the torch, and I will still enjoy watching brilliant young minds take this tech and run with it.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Working with tools to repair and improve things, which is also my source of additional income (self-employed handyman).

I also enjoy playing pool, fishing, listening to music and drinking beer - but I spend more time working with tools (not while drinking beer).

 

[calamity]

I want to see the advances in my area, but I am not sure I want the responsibility of making sure they integrate with everything else they need to work with!

For the most part, they won't.

Take the new vision systems designed to alert a motion controller to either slow things down or temporarily pause when someone is in the path of moving equipment, waiting in the ready to resume full speed operation once everything is clear. This works great with modern servo devices, allowing for the elimination of physical barriers, light curtains and scanners, since their controllers can be programmed to "know" exactly where the dangerous moving parts are and how fast they are going. These devices can easily react according to need, without tripping safety relays.

The new tech will make obsolete most binary devices that only know an item is on or off; extended or retracted. Those motion devices will always need to be stopped dead when a human steps into their path, their energy dumped and then later reset. You can't pause a pneumatic cylinder halfway through its stroke or slow down and AC motor wired to either run at full speed or off. However, I can see new advances in PLC logic resolving some of those issues.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

~ It's a challenge that a lot of colleagues my age won't even go near or touch with a ten foot pole, so instead they mourn for "the good old days".
Not ready to throw in the towel just yet.
Even if I eventually wind up just being able to fool with all this stuff for enjoyment, it still feels good.

I'm the same except for me it's modelling clay and sculpture equipment. I still love making sculpts and casting them to sell but on a smaller scale and I don't rely on it to pay for my house anymore.

Nothing feels as good as shaping clay and carving lifelike details in while I still have the eyesight to do it. A lot of the young kids are doing it digitally now and 3D printing - "undo" and "zoom" are things I never had in analog but I love to see the level that young artists achieve in digital clay.

 

[calamity]

So there I am, selling the crap out of my ninja skills at keeping projects on schedule despite setbacks. The young, highly aggressive manager of the schedule-driven popular EV manufacturing company eats it up. Everything I say, he says they want.

Suddenly, our operations manager pipes up. His tone sounds hesitant. There is zero confidence in it. “Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control,” he says.

I immediately think, STFU, Dhuude!

The room goes silent. The potential new customer raises an eyebrow. I quickly step in to describe how I overcome that obstacle. It’s a gallant effort, but too little far too late. The damage was done.

The sale went from being 100% in the bag to 50-50, just like that.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

So there I am, selling the crap out of my ninja skills at keeping projects on schedule despite setbacks. The young, highly aggressive manager of the schedule-driven popular EV manufacturing company eats it up. Everything I say, he says they want.

Suddenly, our operations manager pipes up. His tone sounds hesitant. There is zero confidence in it. “Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control,” he says.

I immediately think, STFU, Dhuude!

The room goes silent. The potential new customer raises an eyebrow. I quickly step in to describe how I overcome that obstacle. It’s a gallant effort, but too little far too late. The damage was done.

The sale went from being 100% in the bag to 50-50, just like that.

I think I might appreciate any antipathy you may have for your "operations manager" right about now.

 

[calamity]

I think I might appreciate any antipathy you may have for your "operations manager" right about now.

There is much to be said for reading your audience. Bad listeners are terrible at that. It was very obvious from the beginning that this was a "no excuses" crowd.

IMO, the worst thing to say to people like that is that your are often a victim of things beyond your control. His remark was definitely a "WTF moment" for me.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

There is much to be said for reading your audience. Bad listeners are terrible at that. It was very obvious from the beginning that this was a "no excuses" crowd.

IMO, the worst thing to say to people like that is that your are often a victim of things beyond your control. His remark was definitely a "WTF moment" for me.

Not that it's any of my business but does Mister Operations Manager have a boss, and does Mister Operations Manager have an evaluation coming up soon?
I ask because admittedly I know zilch about your job but I get the sneaking feeling he just shit the bed big time.

 

[calamity]

Not that it's any of my business but does Mister Operations Manager have a boss, and does Mister Operations Manager have an evaluation coming up soon?
I ask because admittedly I know zilch about your job but I get the sneaking feeling he just shit the bed big time.

The owner was sitting right next to us. He was not pleased.

 

[Demon]

But do you HAVE some of your favorites?
I just read up on HOW these gems become "colored" only to discover that in reality, they're REFLECTING light of a particular color, because their crystal lattice is acting like a reflective (subtractive) optical filter.
Funny thing is, directors of photography such as myself will pay a thousand dollars or more for a set of lens filters that do that very thing in a piece of GLASS.
It's not even diamonds, it's optical glass! And yet you'd think it would be diamonds when you find out what these premium filters cost.

I have been watching the diamond I mentioned, that is pretty close to mine, almost every day since I said how much more it was than what I paid. They just dropped the price somewhat for Black Friday. It is still $5125.00 more than what I paid for mine. Unreal how the prices have risen.

 

[Luckyone]

Other than polly-ticks, do you have a secret "thing", a guilty pleasure, a pastime, an obsession, a refuge, a groove, a comfort zone, an escape, a hobby, an alter ego?
Have we done this one before??

If no, my work is done here. No, not really but fan-farking-tastic, I hope we get some good ones.
If yes, how recently?

Throughout the years pleasures have changed. Early in my youth, it was beautiful women, it then changed to good race horses (I was a trainer once), then good money making opportunities in the market as I became a stock trader.

Nonetheless and at 76 years old, good series on Netflix is my guilty pleasure now.

Here is a trailer to my #1 series of all time:

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Throughout the years pleasures have changed. Early in my youth, it was beautiful women, it then changed to good race horses (I was a trainer once), then good money making opportunities in the market as I became a stock trader.

Nonetheless and at 76 years old, good series on Netflix is my guilty pleasure now.

Here is a trailer to my #1 series of all time:

Oh crap, better keep you away from Karen.
She is crazy about that series, sucked me into watching it with her too.

The plus side is, I can sometimes put her in a very good mood if I call her "Sassenach"
with just the right accent.
Of course, it's obvious she was predisposed to anything involving hunky Scotsmen, she already
said that Sean Connery could park his shoes under her bed any time.

 

[beancounter]

Expensive beer

 

[Luckyone]

Oh crap, better keep you away from Karen.
She is crazy about that series, sucked me into watching it with her too.

The plus side is, I can sometimes put her in a very good mood if I call her "Sassenach"
with just the right accent.
Of course, it's obvious she was predisposed to anything involving hunky Scotsmen, she already
said that Sean Connery could park his shoes under her bed any time.

Did you like the series?

My wife and I could not stop watching it. All 6 searsons of it.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Did you like the series?

My wife and I could not stop watching it. All 6 searsons of it.

We have not seen the FINAL season yet.
I enjoyed it, but it's really not something I would have elected to watch all by myself.
I enjoy it because it's one of those things the two of us like to watch together.
And what makes my wife so wonderful is, it works the other way around.
She was a mechanic aboard a tugboat in the Navy, but that did not turn her into a
motorhead. When the shops wouldn't hire a female mechanic (1980's) she reinvented
herself as a copier repair tech instead.

But one of my favorite shows is "ROADKILL" which is two motorheads who buy absolute
utter pieces of junk, stuff souped up engines in them and do stupid crap and make you laugh.
And miraculously she's decided she likes "Finnegan and Frieburger" and their antics.
She also liked the old BBC Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond and May.

I guess I got her sucked into those shows.

 

[Luckyone]

We have not seen the FINAL season yet.
I enjoyed it, but it's really not something I would have elected to watch all by myself.
I enjoy it because it's one of those things the two of us like to watch together.
And what makes my wife so wonderful is, it works the other way around.
She was a mechanic aboard a tugboat in the Navy, but that did not turn her into a
motorhead. When the shops wouldn't hire a female mechanic (1980's) she reinvented
herself as a copier repair tech instead.

But one of my favorite shows is "ROADKILL" which is two motorheads who buy absolute
utter pieces of junk, stuff souped up engines in them and do stupid crap and make you laugh.
And miraculously she's decided she likes "Finnegan and Frieburger" and their antics.
She also liked the old BBC Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond and May.

I guess I got her sucked into those shows.

My wife is Colombian and I was born in Mexico so we also watch latin series. Spanish series (from Spain) are very very good (it surprised us both how good they are) - sometimes ever better than American ones). There are a few series I would recommend. One of them that can be seen in English (not subtitles but English speaking) that I strongly recommend to you is Paper Heist. It is very good.

There is a Colombian series that has to be among the funniest I have ever seen called New Rich, New Poor (Nuevo Rico, Nuevo Pobre). It only has English subtitles (no English spoken) but you should take a look because just looking at the main actor makes you laugh. It is hilarious.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Other than polly-ticks, do you have a secret "thing", a guilty pleasure, a pastime, an obsession, a refuge, a groove, a comfort zone, an escape, a hobby, an alter ego?
Have we done this one before??

If no, my work is done here. No, not really but fan-farking-tastic, I hope we get some good ones.
If yes, how recently?

Sometimes I will grab a Twix at the grocery store

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

My wife is Colombian and I was born in Mexico so we also watch latin series. Spanish series (from Spain) are very very good (it surprised us both how good they are) - sometimes ever better than American ones). There are a few series I would recommend. One of them that can be seen in English (not subtitles but English speaking) that I strongly recommend to you is Paper Heist. It is very good.

There is a Colombian series that has to be among the funniest I have ever seen called New Rich, New Poor (Nuevo Rico, Nuevo Pobre). It only has English subtitles (no English spoken) but you should take a look because just looking at the main actor makes you laugh. It is hilarious.

I actually WAS furtively watching a couple of Spanish shows, slacked off but I'll probably pick back up on it again.
I actually worked at KMEX-TV 34 for a few months way back in the 1980's, and that's a Spanish language station in Los Angeles, and now it's one
of the flagships of the Univision network.


I was young, and languages came easily to me, and I was a partner with two Mexican ladies in "Video Circuit Studio" a small studio
we owned together in North Hollywood. So after a couple of years with Dora and Rosie, I had become somewhat fluent.
I'm sure if I picked back up on the novellas, it would all come back to me in a couple of months, because I can still get by
enough to be understood even now, as rusty as I am.

Ehhhh, the one thing about those Spanish shows...the women are breathtaking.
It's kinda funny, Karen going by and, "You're not watching that show for any other reason except....THAT" and she points at
something like:

 

[Arlette]

Smoking weed and shoes. I don't feel guilty about it though

 

[Luckyone]

Smoking weed and shoes. I don't feel guilty about it though

Never heard anyone say before that they smoke shoes. First time ever that I heard that one.

 

[Indydave]

Bacon

 

[Superfly]

Other than polly-ticks, do you have a secret "thing", a guilty pleasure, a pastime, an obsession, a refuge, a groove, a comfort zone, an escape, a hobby, an alter ego?
Have we done this one before??

If no, my work is done here. No, not really but fan-farking-tastic, I hope we get some good ones.
If yes, how recently?

Well, the sage wisdom of Dave Grohl said that we should have no guilty pleasures. We should own what we love. **** errbody else if they don't like it. They don't have to like it.

My favorite pastime is playing music and smoking the cheeba.