ThetaWorks at Lockergnome

I Love the New WicketPixie Stuff

thetaworks — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:54:59 +0000

I would like to take a moment to thank Chris for the new theme. It’s so cool that I’ll just have to come back later this week and write something truly substantial.

Thanks again, Chris!

Chroma-Keying Without Depth

thetaworks — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:49:45 +0000

Well, we finally got around to testing just how shallow a greenscreen arrangement can be. We tried flooding our green sheet with light from below (a small but bright source) in addition to the two soft boxes aimed from the sides. But nothing really gave us less than four feet of clearance necessary between the background sheet and the onscreen personality. It’s too bad that we can’t move the camera further away; but there’s nowhere to go.

More as it happens.

More Thoughts on Netcasting

thetaworks — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:06:25 +0000

I’ve been trying to understand why DiggNation is so popular. Of course, everyone likes Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht. I certainly wouldn’t mind hanging out with them once in a while - if it could be real and interactive. But the passive, virtual companionship of a couple of admittedly pretty cool guys is little more than boring when time has any real value. DiggNation just drags along for nearly an hour, with Kevin and Alex spending too much time commenting on any twenty-something female with larger than average breasts who happens to grab their attention. In a world of shrinking attention spans, DiggNation plods along like a documentary on paint curing quality control. Does most of their audience consist of losers who live in their parents’ basements and fantasize about joining of couple of cool guys for a couple of beers and a lot of time-consuming small talk? I can get the same stuff in less time by spending a couple of minutes at Digg.com. I can envision a discussion between a couple of intoxicated guys in my own head if I like. Sadly, my own hypothetical discussion is invariably more intelligent than the actual show. So why do I bother watching DiggNation every week? Is it because it’s a requirement for staying “in the loop” of generic coolness? I’m still puzzled.

Preparing for Public Netcasting

thetaworks — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:54:09 +0000

OK, so my wife and I are preparing to test our first public netcast. It’s going to feature something that we know and understand - and something from which others might benefit. It’s all about living in very small spaces and having limited resources. We’re going to call it “Living Nano”. We’ll probably just upload it to YouTube and see how much of a response it gets. It shouldn’t require a lot of post-production work - we just need to solve the mystery of the obscene dropped-frame rate, and make sure that the audio isn’t too far out of sync.

More news as it happens.

The First Law of Memory Cards

thetaworks — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:47:27 +0000

Yes, Friends.

Whenever you order a new camera, even if you check the “ship by Pony Express because I haven’t gotten around to ordering a compatible SD Card yet” option, your new camera will ALWAYS arrive long before its memory card - forcing you to either…

A) Go to Circuit City or Best Buy and get another card for only three times the typical online price

B) Start calling everyone you know to see if he/she has a spare compatible card

C) Sit around for two weeks unable to test anything - or even update the firmware

We’re trying to decide among these “options” right now.

Today’s Delays Were All on the Server Side

thetaworks — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:42:57 +0000

It’s good to see LockerGnome back up. From here, it looked as if all Pirillo sites were down throughout the morning.

So I decided to investigate whether or not it would be worthwhile to adapt my old Canon FD lenses (superb optics and mechanical action - acquired when I was a tender young undergraduate) to a newer digital model’s mount.

Conclusion: The optical degradation resulting from the adapter’s thickness makes it truly NOT worth it. Too bad I can’t afford new lenses with good optics (meaning able to open beyond f2.8 without distortion).

Just a Few Introductory Words

thetaworks — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:52:44 +0000

Hi, Everyone!

We’re happy to finally be a part of the LockerGnome community. Chris has built the best grassroots technical support community online today; and we look forward to its expansion into other areas as well. We have lots of experience doing things the “hard” (labor intensive) way - no MacBook Pro’s in our budget, since my wife and I run an impoverished little company in North Carolina. I hope we can contribute something unique here. But even if that fails to materialize, at least you’ll get to learn about some of the frustrations of destitute old people struggling to maintain a 21st century lifestyle in the midst of collapsing dollars, expensive oil, and operating systems without usable device drivers.

Thanks for listening!