Jeff Erdmann

The Govt. is almost out of the $40 coupons for the converter boxes. It will be chaos no matter when it happens, until all TVs are digital out of the box. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, here's the Kentucky Fried version of when Grandma switches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-pD-M0rY4 Enjoy.

Flickr is run by Yahoo, by the way, and it's free!

Good question Jeff, I learned this from my eBay exploits, works there too. I have a Flickr account, and upload my photos there. Once the photo is uploaded, you can choose from several sizes under the "All Sizes" tab. Find the size you like and click on that. When that comes up, underneath are two options for linking, the first is a scary looking HTML mess, and the second is simply the page URL. Copy the URL, then return to your blog. The first icon right above the text box I am typing in right now is a little Picture Frame. Put your cursor where you want the picture to be, click the Picture Frame icon, which will bring up this: [im.g][/im.g] (without the periods, I put those in there so it wouldn't activate.) Now, PASTE the URL from Flickr between the IMGs like this: [im.g] [/im.g] You're done! Good luck!

Hi all, As Richard said, I had a crazy idea to hack together an "heads-up display." I looked around the internet, and found several wearable units ranging from $400 to $4000. I was able to find the "Eyetop" sunglasses on eBay for around $250. I removed the sunglasses from the video unit and permanently attached it to a new set of Sony MDR-7506 headphones (so much for the warranty!) Finding a video receiver turned out to be harder than I expected. I wanted something which was portable, and could retain preset channels so I could jump between cameras quickly. I had no luck finding anything which ran on DC until I stumbled onto the Game Boy Advance TV Tuner, made by a 3rd party in Japan. The unit bolts onto the back of a GBA, and uses the GBA as the "brains" to select channels, store them, and send them out to the monitor via an AV IN/OUT port (which annoyingly must be reset every time I power up the unit.) The tuner and video feed unit live in a small backpack which I sling over my shoulder. The Tuner is a battery hog, so I fabricated some external "block batteries" from some 6v cordless nail gun batts I found at Home Depot. Interestingly, the tuner is designed to work with 4.5v, but I took a chance that 6v was close enough, and sure enough I plugged it in and it works, and hasn't blown up yet after about 3 weeks of use. The picture is OK, certainly good enough to see the frameline. On very wide shots where the boom has a dark background, it does become difficult to see, even with tape on the end of the windscreen. But overall I am very happy with the performance and convenience. All told, I have spent around $600 for the entire system. Two things I would like to change on the system: 1. The tuner can be a little finicky, and is a little large. If anyone has ideas about a small, easily tunable NTSC receiver with video output, please let me know. 2. Because of the size of the GameBoy Tuner with the battery and video brains, I have to wear a small backpack, which is comfortable but can be a problem in tight situations. Again, this is a prototype, and in that sense, is very successful. I have taken my first steps into the Singularity! If you have any questions, post them here or email me at jeffsoundman@yahoo.com -Jeff Erdmann

OK, ok, so I'm not a guitar player. The solo actually gave me a really nasty blister, so I had to move on to vocals.

Sorry, that's a style I don't have any experience with, either playing or listening.

Here's the youtube page: It's great. I'd love to see a better transfer. JE

"3GP video will do or are we going mini DV here?" Quick Impression: Producer - "It doesn't matter, just get it in the can! We'll fix it in Post!" But seriously folks, as long as the footage can be transferred into iMovie/FCP, it really shouldn't matter, and cutting between different formats might be cool and Soderbergh-esque. JE

I could easily add/extend more chorus sections to the song to accommodate the footage if need be. I was also planning to shoot some sort of video while I'm on the show at Paramount studios, the perfect location. That extra footage would take the video over the top! And miming-be-damned! We're SOUNDMEN, let's get 'em singin! JE

I LOOOOOVE that idea! JE

Agreed. But a "Link Repository" could be a fairly simple endeavor, no? JE

Thank you everyone. I had a great time dusting off my musical instruments and setting up a little studio in my living room. Took 3 days, but it's really still a rough mix. (Did it all in Bose headphones.) (Song Trivia: I came up with the song in the shower, right before going wine tasting with my wife and niece in Santa Ynez.) I agree we should have a "central repository" for this sort of media. Volunteers? Jeff W., you're absolutely right, I made this on a program which came FREE with my MacBook. Unreal. Again, thank you all. If anyone else has a musical epiphany and wants to collaborate, let me know!!! Jeff Erdmann jeffsoundman@yahoo.com