It has just come to my attention that my motherboard’s microphone records in a single channel only, and my guess is this is the case for most of the sound cards out there. Granted most computer microphones are mono, but stereo microphones certainly exist and plugging those into a microphone jack could degrade their sound quality significantly.
Sometimes even a Hollywood production needs to resort to unauthorized acts. The following is a interview with one of the visual effects supervisor of the blockbuster Cloverfield:
We hired a helicopter, and went up various buildings to try and get the right angle, but ultimately we found out that the only place to get exactly the camera position that we needed was at a restaurant at the top of quite a famous hotel — and they wouldn’t let us take photographs in there, so it was a real problem. In the end, we all very covertly booked a table at the restaurant and asked to be as near the window as we could be. We took our cameras in there, and kind of snapped away whenever the waiter wasn’t looking. And had a very, very nice dinner.
Read the full interview here.
Malfunctioning Hard Disk
I am pretty convinced that my Western Digital 120GB 2.5″ Hard Disk is malfunctioning. Some data recovery softwares can see the partitions inside, but the data is unaccessible. This is a serious set back for the CS^2 project since all the project files are inside the disk. I do have backup of everything (less the most recent two weeks of work), but the tape containing the bulk of the footage is back in Hong Kong. For now this would mean the project is on hold until June.
戲夢世代
男女交歡不一定是淫，淫的其實是以淫辱眼光看相片的廣大香港網民吧。真的難以想像，不同情涉案的藝人還不夠，還要返過去支持發布照片的幕後黑手「奇拿」？各位大大，現在不是看電影，幕後黑手是好人的機會微乎其微。不過也許這是個普世現像，剛剛被揭發進行巨額違規交易的法興交易員凱爾維爾竟被不少法國網民視為敢於挑戰資本主義的英雄。其實無論凱爾維爾為何進行違規交易，他也只不過是個甘於附庸資本主義的小人物，跟本談不上甚麼英雄。
看清點吧，這個戲夢世代！
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陳智遠﹕集體窺淫症候群 2008年2月2日
【明報專訊】…大家心安理得地把別人的傷害及不合理行為，化成充滿娛樂、可供茶餘飯後高談闊論的「話題」。這就是Neil Postman在《娛樂至死》中所言，人人彷彿覺得「話題」貼身，卻又可以大條道理置身事外，漠視自己在無心之下，也可以為他人帶來不可磨滅的傷害。若這是我們的民智，我們無可奈何。但當年劉嘉玲為捍衛藝人尊嚴而站出來，獲得全城支持，為何只是幾年間，社會大眾能夠如此從容自若面對「淫照」風波？又為何我們能夠容忍傳媒透過販賣曖昧、炒作相關 juicy奇聞(如其他女星人人自危、當事人如何邊做邊影相)，淡化、否定相中藝人為受害者的客觀事實，並帶領公眾享受一場集體窺淫？
我並非什麼「道德塔利班」，也不敢以什麼正人君子自居。如此無病呻吟，除了我是阿嬌粉絲，也因為記得Neil Postman說過：「一切公眾話語都日漸以娛樂的方式出現，並成為一種文化精神；一切文化內容都心甘情願地成為娛樂的附庸，而且毫無怨言，甚至無聲無息，其結果是我們成了一個娛樂至死的物種。」我只是不甘自己死相如此駭人而已。
作者是中文大學政治與行政學系兼任講師、Roundtable Community總幹事
eBay’s New Pricing Scheme
Given eBay’s relatively poor performance this year and the departure of its CEO as a result, it is not surprising that eBay is on for a change. eBay has recently notified its user the coming change in pricing. The changes has one simple goal–to attract more posting by lowering the upfront cost. For existing sellers however this comes at a heavy price, for the final value fee–the commission you would have to pay after you successfully sold your item–has been significantly raised. It’s not a bargain for most sellers: eBay lowered the upfront cost by $0.05-$0.8, in exchange for a 3.5% increase in the final value fee for the first $25 of the sold price, and roughly 0.5% increase for whatever comes after that. 3.5% of $25 would already be $0.875, but you only get a $0.8 if you are posting an auction with a starting price of $500 or above. For anything below $25 the reduction is $0.05, which means an starting price of merely $1.43 would leave you worse off under the new price scheme.
So let’s just say, eBay is in hot pursue of profit this season.
<<陪我長大>>
不得不一讚容祖兒這套<<陪我長大>>的MTV製作水準高。曲易上口，詞不壞，容祖兒也交足功課。但要數特出絕對是攝影和編劇。容祖兒身後的演員演繹出每日在列車上發生的點點滴滴，香港每日上百萬的鐵路乘客當中定有不少心中有共鳴吧！
My Coauthor
I am coauthoring several papers with another 3rd year PhD student Dan Acland. Dan, a British, is quite a bid older than I am, having run a small business of his own before coming to Berkeley. Despite being the eldest among the third year Dan is more cheerful and funny than you might have expected. He always has a small piece of toy plastic clay with him, drives a scooter, doesn’t eat (cane) sugar and prefer having ham and pickles in separate sandwiches.
(This is the highest quality image I have of Dan. This picture was from the last Skit Party of Berkeley’s economics department. Dan was colorfully dressed to mimic one of the faculty)
Tomorrow I’ll talk about what research I am working on (frustrating stuff).
Sometimes pictures I shot get posted to websites other than my own. One such instance is Owen Ozier’s website. Yes that guy on the front page is Owen and I took that picture. Owen is a third year PhD student in Berkeley’s economics department, just as I am. Owen however has a much more diverse experience, in particular he has been conducting research in Kenya.
Central Rat Race
Looking at photos from previous Central Rat Race there is certainty an over-representation of foreigners. Another proof that Hong-Kongers dislike exercise?
Movies and Dramas
Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
Substandard special effects, particularly the keyings.
Resident Evil: Extinction
Judging from the ending the next title in series is going to Resident Evil: Clone Wars.
Prison Break
As expected my girlfriend is superb up to date to the new season.