Help with Which Video Media (Dead Camcorder)

Help with Which Video Media (Dead Camcorder)

About five or so years ago we bought a Mini-DV digital camcorder.  About a month or so ago it died (accompanied by that characteristic smell of electronics burning).  I’m now left with 3 or so hours of MiniDV tape which I have not uploaded to computer and many more hours of archival tape which I can’t access (although for these I do have a virtual backup).

Now, given that these are family videos I have an interest in being able to access them in the future.

My immediate problem was the 3 hours of tapes which I currently can’t read.  I initially thought about buying another MiniDV camcorder – but they are now very hard to come by (unless you want to buy a high definition device, and, in that case, they seem to be the preferred option).  I then thought I should ask around to try to borrow one for a weekend, upload those three tapes and then return them.  However now I am coming back around to the idea that, as family video, the expected lifetime of these videos ought to be measured in decades (millennia if they become valuable historical records!).  Therefore it would be better to have a mini dv camcorder to access the original tapes rather than borrow one.

This implicitly assumes that magnetic tape will have greater longevity than a hard disk or flash disk.  Is that a fair assumption? (my experience with recorded CDs is not good for backups about 5 years old)

Moreover, hard disk and flash disk camcorders all seem to use lossy encoding to store the videos, so I’m a bit leery of using them.  Finally, I think I need to anticipate that my children/grandchildren may have super high definition playback devices so maybe I should be investing in a high definition MiniDV camcorder now.   That would at least solve my problem of recovery of the last 3 hours of tape, and recovery of archives in the future, but would also be quite expensive.  I need to find an answer promptly if I want to record Christmas this year.

Has anyone else tackled these problems?
[update (8 Nov 09)]:  Charles reports Mini DV has better image quality than the other options.  Googling around on the web gives me MTBF rates for hard drives at 3-5 years (!!) (apparently this is made up of a small number of drives that fail very early, and a larger number that last much longer), Mini DV at a couple of decades (if it’s fast forwarded+rewound every 6 months/12 months), DVD at 100 years – although I think they’re kidding themselves, I would give DVD, esp. home burnt DVD,  less than 7 years. While people comment on Mini DV failing on multiple recording on the same medium, my usage mode is to record once per medium.

Peer to Peer … Lending (?!)

Peer to Peer … Lending (?!)

Serendipity led me to some sites today which deal with (the, to my mind boggling in its possibilities, idea of) peer to peer lending.   The concept seems to be, rather than give your money to a bank, who gives it to someone else and makes a profit, returning a little bit to you, a p2p lending site matches you up with someone who you give your money to, giving you the profit, returning a little bit to the lending site.  This means that you are taking on more risk, and also sharing more in the rewards.  On the borrowers’ side, it can mean access to capital at a reduced rate, or on more favourable terms (eg if you have a reputation for being a good payer/some other good reason to receive the money, but would be ruled out by a banks’ bureaucracy).

Are banks the next music industry?

Windows invents encryption – Oh please

Windows invents encryption – Oh please

Apparently according to the SMH:

“Queensland police fear criminals will use high-tech encryption software on Microsoft’s new Windows 7 to bury pornographic images and files deep within computer networks.” [emph (hyperlink) in original]

I won’t hyperlink this but the address is http://www.smh.com.au/technology/windows-7/unbreakable-windows-7-may-lock-out-the-law-20091021-h8z9.html  And, by the way, the article conveniently hyperlinks the underlined section to an article on Windows 7 launching: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/windows-7/its-rip-vista-as-windows-7-is-launched-20091021-h91v.html

Clearly, lack of Windows 7 hasn’t stopped ‘criminals’ from evading police to date (as the article explains in paragraphs 2 and 3).  A Microsoft representative is quoted to the effect that bitlocker really truly is unbreakable… – but it has never hampered law enforcement… -  but it doesn’t contain a backdoor.

The ‘news’ item then ends with a paragraph outlining Windows 7’s new features (wtf???)

So, I’m inclined to call baloney on it.  Fair call?  What do you think?

Joining the list of KDE4 Haters

Joining the list of KDE4 Haters

Have just spent way too long trying to get icons onto the panel which, when clicked, launch a video player in a specific directory.  Why does it have to be this hard?

PS: and having just done it, one of the icons reset itself for no apparent reason.

PPS: Apparently it’s easy – right click from the start menu for a submenu.  Drag and drop works only intermittently.

Vista Poisoning my Clock??? Pt 4

Vista Poisoning my Clock??? Pt 4

This is now getting weird [28 Sept].  The last two times I have rebooted, the Linux clock has been correctly set.  I hadn’t gotten around to adding ntp to the boot files…

Heaven knows what has changed, but the time seems to be consistently right again.

[5 Oct] Arrrgh!!! Now it’s fast (by ~20 mins).  Updated to daylight savings yesterday.  Reboot today, and its fast (all the other times its been slow)

Vista Poisoning My Clock?? (Pt 3)

Vista Poisoning My Clock?? (Pt 3)

The Story so far.

I think it may not be Vista’s fault – or if it is, it may be some way that Linux interacts with the MB BIOS.  At 23:30 I rebooted from Vista.  During POST I entered the BIOS config to check the hardware clock – 23:30.  I left the BIOS and it proceeded to boot to Linux – once boot finished, time was 23:09.  Something is happening during the Linux boot sequence to throw off both system time and hardware clock time (hwclock –show matches system time).   I believe that in Linux the system time is read from the hardware clock on boot, then written on shut down.  If that’s correct then something is changnig the hardware clock before Linux loads it for System time.

Microsoft/Linux: Don’t Cross License with Us?

Microsoft/Linux: Don’t Cross License with Us?

Last week saw the purchase, by OIN, of a portfolio of patents which ultimately originated from MicrosoftOIN has alleged that Microsoft had described this portfolio as relating to Linux.   Red Hat has speculated that Microsoft auctioned these patents off in the hope of them being picked up by a patent troll and used ‘offensively’ against Linux (which I take to mean ultimately by way of litigation).

Without being a potential bidder I can’t say whether or not any of this speculation is true, but what if it is?

First, if this speculation is true, it means that Microsoft believed that the patents would be of value in litigation against Linux.  By selling the patents it therefore consciously decided not to litigate over them itself.

Second, what is the impact of this sale on manufacturers of Linux based devices who are entering cross-licensing arrangements with Microsoft?  What is the value of a cross licensing deal intended to protect against Linux related patents if the very patents you want to license are, will be, or have been, sold off to third parties?

Is Microsoft undermining its patent cross licensing push?

Vista Poisoning My Clock??? – Pt 2

Vista Poisoning My Clock??? – Pt 2

Click here for the story so far.

So, today I turned on my computer at 11:44, booted into Vista, simply to check the time (correct) then rebooted into Linux -> the time shown was 11:36 – a loss of 8 minutes during the reboot.  The time on the hardware clock /sbin/hwclock –show was also 11:36.  So, presumably somehow in the reboot process from vista-> linux something is resetting the hardware clock – but more weird, the change is not consistent across reboots (different reboots result in a different change in time).

Perplexed.

Vista Poisoning my Clock???

Vista Poisoning my Clock???

Started dual booting a little while ago (now that’s a story in itself!).  I’ve noticed my clock in Linux is now off all the time.  I switched from UTC to local time, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference (and the time offsets are not consistent – this morning, for example, Linux was off by 3 hours and 9 minutes). Vista’s time seems to remain consistent between reboots (Linux-> Vista or Vista-> Vista) but when I boot up Linux the time is off (by some offset, but I don’t think its a consistent offset).  As a for-example, I turned the machine off around 10:20 this morning, and turned on at 12:09pm.  In that time the clock lagged by 24 minutes.  I doubt it’s the battery as the time was right when I booted Vista first thing this morning.

I can’t find anything similar on the web…

Any thoughts?

OIN buys MS Linux Patents

OIN buys MS Linux Patents

The Open Invention Network has bought a number of patents from Microsoft at auction.  Their press release is here.  It is testament to the sorry state of the patent system that a vehicle must be set up specifically to buy patents and then not use them.

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