The Rank Cintel Mk 5 film scanner of the 1980s. We had one.

Back when I was a big dog at Channel 7 🙂 , flying spot telecine machines were huge, seriously expensive, needed constant adjustment and broke down all the time. A flying spot telecine (above) is a film transport (16mm and 35mm) where a very bright spot of light is produced by a very expensive CRT, passes through the film and is picked up by camera tubes, three for R, G and B.  The spot of light is swept back and forth across the tube face, hence scanning the film frame as if it were a TV in reverse.

If working well and well adjusted, the results could be superb, well, for an SD analogue output anyway.

Then digital came along and the film frame was projected onto three CCD sensor chips by a conventional light source (lamp). Each chip (R, G and B again) output stayed digital as it was processed in the machine, then was output to an analogue TV signal in the normal way. This should have been a huge improvement. If only the damn machine worked!

They were made by a long standing, very well known and prestigious British company called Rank Cintel, who were the premier makers and had most of the market. The machines cost around $250,000 in the 1990s. As I say, when they worked, the result was superb but we quickly learned that you couldn’t put it direct to air because it would stop working on air.  We always had to record the output to videotape so that we could stop and fix the failures as we went. It was hugely time consuming because someone had to attend the machines to make sure it went through OK.

My jaw dropped this morning when I read that a fairly small Melbourne (Australian) company called Black Magic Design has bought Cintel and has produced a film scanner that outputs 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) and are selling it for US$29,995!  We Aussies have taken over this British company and are topping them at their own game. You’ll forgive a bit of chest beating after all the hassles we went through in the 1980s and 90s.

Knowing this little Aussie company, I have no doubt it will work and be reliable.  This Black Magic company is amazing. They are turning the video and camera world upside down.  They have produced three small HD digital video camcorders that take interchangeable lenses (I have some that will fit) for a price that starts at $995 and up to $2,995 for more features.

This is a High Def video camcorder that takes my lenses, for $995!

Then in April they introduced a full sized studio camera (actually a shoulder mount camera) for $5,995.  This is 1/10th what this type of camera used to cost, and no tape to worry about. Not even special cards, just ones you can buy in any good photo retailer.  The broadcast world is buzzing.  These things are actually available to anyone at these prices. This is 1/10th what things used to cost, with fabulous output quality.

This is every news cameraman’s or independent video cameraman’s dream.

A portable, almost pocket sized HD video recorder!

This is another of their products. Just slide a SATA SSD drive in (available over the counter at any computer shop for not many $$s) and you have a battery powered portable, pocket sized Hi Def video recorder, connected to your camera by HDMI.  $345!  There was nothing like this when I was working, only 14 years ago.  All video recorders used tape and cost upwards of $50,000.

And now the film scanner above.

The old film scanners used to be the size of one or two fridges and weigh about the same. This seems to be small and light enough to mount on a wall.  I’ll bet it’s reliable too.  This is not all –  http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products  Great stuff from this Australian company.

Oh yes, why do we need it? The new TV/video standard is called 4K or Ultra Hi Def, but there’s almost no material to broadcast or stream. There is a huge amount of 35mm film though, of superb quality.  This machine will be used to convert old 35mm movies and docos to 4K UHD for distribution. It would repay its cost very quickly, I would think.

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I saw something I’ve never seen before on Monday. At Whitfords shops there were two armoured truck guys loading money into the back of the truck. The money was in clear plastic bags and there were masses of them, all obviously heavy with coins.  I saw at least one full of $20 (red) notes too, great bundles of them.  I stood and watched out of sheer fascination, but I didn’t go too close though.  I just grinned and said, “I’ve never seen anything like this before”, and moved on.

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Listening to the radio this morning about rules for kids’ play at schools these days, one woman said she’d been counselled by the school about what her son could and couldn’t do. She said, “I felt quite emasculated.”  Ha ha.  You were emasculated before you were born, lady. You obviously don’t know what the word means.

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I got my latest blood test results yesterday and even though I’m on insulin now, with very fluctuating blood sugar levels, my HbA1c was only 7.1, and well down from the level 3 months ago. Whacko. All other tests were good, except for one, and it explains why I’ve been feeling so low for months. Luckily it’s easily treatable and not damaging, so I start treatment tomorrow (topical cream).  I’m hopeful of a big boost.  I hope.

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Addition:  What a beautiful graphic — http://www.5wgraphics.com/img/newsletter/50-years-of-exploration.jpg

Tough but fair?

“Many [medical research scientists] have said they are torn by a budget that provides the new pot of money, in part by charging people to visit the doctor, but also cuts $80m from co-operative research centres, $111m from the CSIRO and $75m from the Australian Research Council.” [ABC News]

“Low-income couples with children and single parents will bear the brunt of the Abbott Government’s first budget, losing up to 15 per cent of their disposable income when the measures hit in full, according to independent modelling.

The findings from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) at Canberra University stand in contrast to the Government’s insistence that the budget is “fair” and “shares the burden”.” [ABC News]

“We’d estimate around 1.2 million families that would be on average around $3,000 a year worse off by 2017-18, whereas the top income groups – so the top 20 per cent of households – would have either no impact or a very small positive impact,” [NATSEM via ABC News]

Liberals lie to you, without compunction.  Liberals look after their rich mates.  Don’t blame me.  I voted Labor.

Try some of this Tony.

“The National Commission of Audit chairman says people are visiting the doctor more than 11 times a year and he doesn’t believe Australians are “that crook”.

“Tony Shepherd’s audit report recommends the Government introduce a $15 co-payment for people to visit their GP, which he says “will give people cause for thought over whether they really need to go”.” [ABC News]

This disgusts me. The Commission of Audit chairman makes a wide generalisation about people’s health, an area where he has no qualifications or expertise. He decides people need to be discouraged from visiting their doctor!

The ABC’s Fact Check proves that his statement is wrong. The average number of doctor visits is around five per year, not 11.  It says that if you count small procedures such as skin cancer removals, the average is nearer seven visits per person, but he’s still wildly wrong.

People need to be discouraged??! Who is this guy?  I’m having trouble with blood glucose control at the moment and I’m making a lot of visits to try to fix it. Perhaps I shouldn’t bother going, then see all the complications that can develop and cost Medicare even more for major treatments?

This is the rubbish a businessman/accountant speaks.  If he’s wrong about this, what’s the rest of his report worth?

“The Business Council of Australia today announced the election of Tony Shepherd as its new president for a term of two years effective Friday 11 November 2011.

Mr Shepherd B.Comm. is one of Australia’s most highly respected and passionate business leaders”  [The Business Council of Australia web site]. 

As I said … This $15 co-payment is a regressive tax. It will hit the poorest people the hardest, while for high income and wealthy people, who generally have better health, it will be no more than a loose change pin prick.

Speaking of pricks …

The hip is much better today. Thanks for asking. 😦  I don’t know why it was bad yesterday but nearly OK today.

I’ve got a GP appointment this afternoon but I’ve had to book it a week ahead.  This is wrong.  I’m still having trouble with blood sugar control and a week is doing me damage.  I need an appointment next day if not sooner.

I had to switch to another GP at the Medical Centre nearly a year ago because I couldn’t get in to see him unless I booked about 7-10 days ahead. Now the same thing is happening with this GP.  I think they’ve taken on too many new patients, or have too few doctors.  I’d go elsewhere, but I doubt it would be any different in this area and I’ve established a relationship with my present GP.  I don’t want to break that.  Problem.

© P J Croft 1989, 2014

If it’s not one thing, it’s the next. My right hip is on fire. I can get around the house with some difficulty but it’s a bit inhibiting. Of all the times to happen! I’m a bit booked up, surgically speaking, at the moment.

Speaking of bookings, I’ll be having an overnight stay in the Mount Hospital on Wed 28th, so I’ve booked into the hotel next door for the night before, and the Thursday night. That way I can catch bus and train in and out of the city.

That’s if this hip will let me.

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The Booo! is for Western Power. The power was off for four hours last night. Four hours! From 6.45pm until 10.45pm, then on for about 15 mins, then off again for another 15 mins, then finally on again at about 11.15pm.

I have candles and I was able to use the laptop to watch about 70% of a DVD (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), but then the battery died. It’s too hard to read by candle light, so I listened to a CD on headphones for a while. I would have gone to bed, but I can’t because I need my CPAP to sleep. So I just sat in the dark with my thoughts for a long while until the power came back on. Grrrr.

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I’m still setting up this new computer. Kerrumbs, it takes a long time. So many programs, so many web downloads, so many passwords, so many serial numbers. I’m only about 2/3 of the way.

No, I haven’t got my Video drives back yet. I have a feeling I’ve got the striped drives mixed up. If I can figure out which two drives go together, I might get them back. What’s that? They weren’t marked? Er, no. Nor backed up. I was too complacent. I’ll be extra careful from now on …

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I’m typing this on the new PC with an ASUS 19″ LCD monitor I bought a few years ago for this very purpose, as a second monitor. But this is a LED backlit LCD monitor, and wow, it looks good. Better than my 10 year old 24″ Dell LCD with its old style fluorescent tube backlighting. That’s taking 10 minutes of warm up time these days.

Which is a long way of saying there’s a new Samsung 28″ 4K computer monitor out now – 4K means a resolution of 3880 x 2140 pixels, four times the HD spec. The pixels are so fine they are invisible. Price – $748. I think the Dell will have to retire (to a good home) soon.

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Great rain! I was driving home along Marmion Avenue yesterday morning and the rain was so heavy for about 5 mins that I was considering pulling off the road as I could hardly see. I was down to 60Km/h in the 80Km/h zone.

But that didn’t stop the lunatics passing me at the full 80Km/h or more in this heavy rain, with no lights on. To me, this is criminal negligence.

Which reminds me of the ABC local radio announcer who was freely, laughingly, admitting a couple of years ago that she didn’t know what half the switches on her car dashboard do, including functions of the light switch.

Criminal negligence, lady. If you’re driving without knowing what you’re doing, you are negligent. Never overestimate the intelligence …

Holy crap. I’m in a state of shock. Not for any health reasons – it’s these damned computers. I’ve not only lost my Images drive, I’ve lost my Video drive as well. This is gut twisting. I need some of the above.

I had a backup of the Images drive, so I haven’t lost everything, but the last backup was December last year, so I’ve lost any changes since then. I’ve paid $82 on-line for data recovery software and after more than 6 hours of crunching, it appeared to have recovered everything. I even get thumbnails of the images when I look in the folders it’s recovered, which made me think it had worked. But when I try to open the file, it’s corrupted. Damn, damn, damn.

But the Images drive is a different matter. This is (or was) a pair of striped drives, with data shared across them. You can’t have one without the other.

This one I don’t have backed up. It was always more than 1TB, which a couple of years ago was too big to back up. Now that we have 2TB drives, I could have backed up, but I hadn’t.

The amount of work I’ve lost is huge. I have most of the original video files on DVDs, but it’s the data files produced by my editing and slide show software that can’t be recreated.

I’ve got the new computer up and seemingly stable now (but only after it had a corrupted BIOS!) so that’s one consolation.

What a disaster this has been. It’s taken a week so far of failed Windows installations and damaged drives. I wish I’d never started this. I’ve still got days or weeks of work ahead to try to get back to where I was. At least I don’t get bored.

I must also say, I am sick of seeing the Windows circling “Please wait” symbol! So often, something I do seems to take minutes of waiting, if it works at all. I just tried to record a DVD on my old (stable) PC and nothing would proceed. I gave up after minutes of seeing that damned circle, got the stupid error messages, managed to get out of it, but now the DVD drive has gone missing from the list of drives and the tray won’t open! It’ll be OK after a reboot, but bloody hell …. !! Windows is so fragile. It’s almost enough to consider ditching the lot for a Mac. I am so sick of Windows!

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If it’s not one thing, it’s the next. My right hip has been very slowly developing twinges for the past few years, but since last weekend, it’s suddenly got quite painful. I’m limping at times. I assume this is future hip-replacement territory. Ugh. Yet another reminder that age is creeping up.

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The side as of yesterday when they left.

The side after all the quartz chips had been removed.

My landscapers seem to think they’ve finished my job. I’m not dissatisfied, but there’s still work to be done as far as I’m concerned. The RH image is as it was left yesterday.  Yet they’ve given me their final bill. I haven’t paid it, yet.  I wanted pavers laid, but I couldn’t get them to understand what type I wanted. In the end I said Stop – I’ll choose them myself.

This was just green weeds when I bought the house.

I’m not sure why I’m doing this! This is not an area I’ll use. It’s just for the appearance really, and resale value of course.

That’s better! The reticulation works too.

Rail Master control panel. $349

Phew! Had the colonoscopy this morning and “all OK”. Only one polyp, which was removed, otherwise no problems. I am very relieved. I lost 3.5Kg in the pre-op diet regime and I feel another 5Kg lighter with all the relief from tension. So what did I do when I got home? I walked over the road and had a Hungry Jack’s Whopper and chips for lunch. Yeah, I know, but this was a comfort reward, and I had Diet Coke with it. That makes it OK. Back to the high fibre foods from now on. They really are beneficial.

It’s weird. You have no warning at all – one second you’re looking at the wall in the operating theatre, the next you’re waking up in the ward. There is no sensation at all of going to sleep and no sensation of time passing. Thank goodness we have the ways to do this.

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The photo above is a replica locomotive control panel, a physical embodiment of my train simulator control on the computer. I’m using software called Trainz which simulates, um, trains, on dozens of different routes in a score of countries, including Australia. You can either be in the driver’s seat looking forward, or outside the train watching it from some distance away. It has full sound effects and all the lineside scenery and stations and towns are as realistic as the computer allows.

With this new controller, arriving any day on my doorstep, I can actually push and pull the levers and push the buttons to make things happen. I don’t usually play games, but I do like this one.

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One problem is that my “old” computer, this one dating from 2009, is a bit slow for this simulator game and the scenery is very jerky. I’ve built up my new machine with a much better graphics card, so I’m hoping for a better result.

BUT! I’ve been building and fixing computers since the late 1980s and I have never had as much trouble as this one. It seems to be corrupting hard drives. I seem to have irretrievably lost my Images drive, with over 30,000 images on it. I knew there were a few bad sectors, but the whole thing is gone now. Attempts to revive it have failed.

It’s also lost my striped pair of Video drives. It showed them working for a day or so, but they won’t show now. I’ve had to disconnect them because if I lost them, I don’t have a backup – they were too big to back up.

OK, so I decide to start again and reinstall Windows for the third time. But I can’t get past the Setup stage, either from the actual Windows 7 DVD or from a Win7 Boot and Repair disk I have. It just spins its wheels in the Setup phase, never going any further. What the hell is going on?

Neither will the motherboard retain its BIOS settings. I have to go into the BIOS setup each time to make it boot from the DVD drive.  This is crazy. I’m beginning to wonder about crying “Faulty” on the motherboard (Gigabyte). So I’ll just plug on and see.

The wrecking crew, Channel 7 1994. We were dismantling our old friend, the Ampex ACR25 cart machine. We were sad about that, hence the black armbands (made from 2″ wide videotape).

Hmmm, colonoscopy on Monday. Bit apprehensive.

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Schadenfreude. Taking pleasure in someone else’s discomfort. The NSW Liberal government sets up an inquiry hoping to dig dirt and nail Labor, and ends up having dirt smeared all over themselves. The hypocrisy!

The Rabbott and his henchmen bray and crow about Craig Thompson and union corruption, but are being shown to be just the same. Let’s not forget that Peter Slipper was a Liberal member of parliament.  Yet his Liberal cronies absolutely trashed him when he moved to the cross benches and supported Labor. Hypocrites.

And the Rabbott made a huge show last year about Labor’s “Big fat new tax” (the so-called carbon tax). But despite his solemn promises, what have we got? A big fat new tax. Hypocrites.

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Habeas Corpus. “… requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court. The principle of habeas corpus ensures that a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention—that is, detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence.” (Wikipedia)

Asylum seekers have not committed any crime. It is NOT illegal to seek asylum in another country. Yet they are being unlawfully detained in Australian prison camps without evidence and without being brought before any judge. They are being kept in unlawful detention.

What does it take to get the Australian government, consisting largely of lawyers, to obey the law? They are in violation of the principle of habeas corpus.

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The hum goes on. I mentioned it in the last post. It’s driving me nuts. I’m going to have to complain to the Council.

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I was almost finished building up the new computer yesterday, and disconnected and removed two hard drives prior to installing different ones. I didn’t touch the C: boot drive.

But it would no longer boot up. I disconnected the new drives, removed and reconnected the cables for the C: drive, tried all the BIOS settings – no go. It seems the partition table had been lost or corrupted. I haven’t had this happen before.

There was nothing for it but to reinstall Windows. Easily done, but a waste of time. Luckily at this early stage there wasn’t anything much on the C: drive that was lost. I just have to reinstall a dozen programs. It’ll take a few more hours.

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As part of this new computer, I bought two external USB3.0 dual hard drive docks. They were listed at Altronics as reduced from $59.95 to $49.95. Fair price, I thought. I took two, as I said.

Then I had a browse in the shop and took two long USB cables and a 1m network cable at an average of about $11 each. Total of about $133 I thought.

I had to wait a couple of minutes at the counter for the guy to come from the back office. He was hugely apologetic at keeping me waiting, then told me he’d give me a discount for the wait. I said, no, it’s OK, don’t worry about it.

But the final bill came to $99.50. In effect the cables were free. I was amazed. And he threw in a magnetic desk toy to play around with.

Altronics, Balcatta. I’m impressed.

I need the caddies because although my new computer case has room for ten drives (eight hard drives and two optical drives, all of which I want to use), there are only six SATA ports on the motherboard. I hadn’t thought of that when I chose the motherboard. The external USB 3.0 caddies solve the problem, though, by adding four more. Just external, that’s all.

Hummingbird. —- Wikipedia

For the past week or more I’ve been aware of a hum from what sounds like a piston (diesel) engine in the background running 24hrs a day, seven days a week. Strangely, it seemed to stop for a few hours yesterday (Sunday). I noticed the silence, that’s how obvious it’s been. But in the late afternoon it was back.

It seems to be a fair way off and I think I’m going to have to ring Wanneroo Council to complain. Even at 4am it’s there. It’s really bugging me.

This is different from the general hum that I’ve been hearing for many, many years. It’s not just me, I’ve even read about it somewhere, a science magazine I think, so it’s worldwide. There was no answer as to what it is.

My theory is this: we are absolutely bathed in a 50Hz magnetic field from all the power lines that surround us. There’s no evidence that it does us any harm, but it must affect magnetically susceptible materials, i.e. iron and steel in our environment. That includes steel power towers and phone towers, and any steel framing and roofing (e.g. my own roof).

However small the effect, it would make them vibrate a little, which is translated into sound waves at 50Hz. I’m guessing that’s what I’m hearing. It drives me nuts late at night when all else is quiet. I’ll just have to live with it, though.

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From the Australian Financial Review, Saturday:

” The sole purpose of superannuation is to provide for your retirement. It is not to invest in property. ”

This is the Sole Purpose rule for SMSFs. It only needs one breach. There are others. The rules were not followed. There is no time limit for the ATO to investigate breaches. The penalties are severe.

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Anyone for an ant-free omelette? I opened my plastic omelette maker yesterday and picked up my garlic flavoured olive oil spray and gave it a good spray. Funny, where’s that beautiful garlic smell I like so much?

Uh oh. I’d picked up the Baygon Surface Spray can instead. I gave the omelette maker a good rinse out but I wasn’t game to use it, so I had poached eggs instead. The omelette maker got a really hot wash in the dishwasher.

By the way, I think I’ve got the last mouse, number three. I put an opened packet of rat poison out and I think he had a nibble or two. I’ve had  trap out for a few days and it’s still set. I hate having to do this but if they didn’t poop all over the place …

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I’ve got the landscapers revamping my side path and back area. They’ve used big manufactured limestone blocks to build a long garden bed along the fence, about 800mm wide. It’ll look good when it’s filled with soil and vegetation, but I wish I’d been able to have more control. We did talk about what I wanted, which was as shown in a photo in a Stratco catalogue. But what I’ve got is a single row of massive blocks which to me look too heavy. The problem is, by the time I got to see them, he’d already bought them and brought them in his trailer.

The same applied to the pavers. I told him I wanted the same as used in the footpath outside the pub, sand coloured with variegated stone chips embedded. Very common.

What he bought and brought with him are close but different. Very white, with quite a rough surface. Too late, he’s bought and paid for them. I’m not bold enough to say no, take ’em back. They’ll look quite good, but I’m worried about glare and the rough surface which will be hard on bare feet. Damn.

I should have had warning when even though I’d told him I want Buffalo Palmetto lawn, he specified a different type in his quote. Luckily I picked that up early and said, no, I want the Buffalo. It’s the old story – if you want something done, either do it yourself or watch like a hawk.

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I’m doing an electronic version of our school magazine for our 50th reunion in October, and part of it is people’s stories about what’s happened to them since 1964. I’ve had eleven contributions so far, but all of them are about half an A4 page with one photo.

I’ve written 27 pages, with about 40 photos for mine! Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop the memories pouring out. So much has happened for me, including about 30 overseas trips at various times*. Not to mention the travelling I’ve done within Australia. I have thousands of photos including many from the 1960s and ’70s. I can’t leave it all out or sum it up in a few sentences.

I’m in a quandary. My contribution is so drastically different from the others. I’m telling everyone what I’ve done and asking them to try and do the same. I guess I’m just embarrassed about standing out front of the crowd. It’s not published yet, that won’t happen until October, plenty of time to think on it.

* I still have all my passports since the first o/s trip in 1974. I started to go through them a few years ago reconstructing the trips by memory and listing the date stamps. I must finish this.

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I completed the assembly of my new computer and turned it on for the first time on Saturday. It’s always a nervous moment when you fire up a new motherboard and CPU for the first time – have I got the CPU seated correctly? Are all the plugs in the sockets? Have I forgotten anything?

I needn’t have worried. With the big, slow, quiet fans in the Fractal Design case and all the sound deadening material, it’s nearly silent. With a SSD, it’s also blindingly fast to boot. Silent and quick – ideal. Like a Mercedes. Right from the first few seconds, the BIOS screen appeared and we were away. No problems.

Then I put the Win7 Prof 64bit DVD in, followed the few prompts and about 30 mins later I had the desktop and it was done.

So easy, so quick, so simple compared with 15 or 20 years ago. What a pity it took Microsoft so long to get it right. All the trials and hair pulling we used to go through. What a waste of time it was.