Mark Watson's BlogI am the author of 13 published computer books and a consultant specializing in Java, C++, and Smalltalk development. Please check out my two Free Web Books at my main site www.markwatson.comThe danger and costs of proprietary file formats- September 6, 2003 Time passes. Historically, it has always been a hassle and expensive to maintain access to old legacy data. Sure, there are problems with media: nine track tapes go bad, the organic die in CDRs fades causing errors, etc. The problem is so much worse now because people unthinkingly (did I just make up a new word :-) store vital corporate data in proprietary file formats. A good example (but there are many) is the frequenty changing Microsoft Word file formats. As a Microsoft stock holder far be..http://radio.weblogs.com/0115954/2003/09/06.html#a164 Apple does it right: video editing- September 5, 2003 I finally bought a digital video camera a few weeks ago before leaving on our vacation (a Canon ZR-50 - for $380 from digibuy.com, a good deal - it supports manual exposure and focusing, which I like). I have two cheap Macs: an iBook and an old 450 Mhz G4 tower that my Dad gave me last year when he upgraded. Both run the most excellent iMovie video editing application. My wife and I were both pleased at how simple it is to edit video using iMovie - Apple really did it right with free video...http://radio.weblogs.com/0115954/2003/09/05.html#a163 I am back from vacation- September 3, 2003 My wife Carol and I are back home after a great vacation. We started and ended our trip in San Diego, visiting family and helping my Mom get through her second knee replacement surgery. (She is doing fine.) We left on a one week road trip from San Diego wih our friends Tom and Cheryl. We visited Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and a small vinyard owned by Tom's brother. All around, a great trip! It is good to be home in Sedona, but now I need to get to work on my latest Java book and re-synch with...http://radio.weblogs.com/0115954/2003/09/03.html#a162 |