The Power of One - in Democracy and Piracy

I Voted

India - the world's largest 'real' democracy went to the polls. And nearly a billion people would vote. I was one of them. While standing in the queue, I thought of the publicity in the run up to the elections. Leading persons from various walks of life told us how important voting was. The Times of India ran a special front page telling us about the power of one.

While I stood waiting my turn to vote, I thought about this 'power of one' idea. Its definitely important in democracy. It also applies to piracy. Movie piracy and software piracy. The power of one. Referring to anyone who shadily makes a copy of something he and she's not paid for. They knows its wrong, but do it nevertheless, just because 'everyone does it'. And because he or she won't get caught for it.

Its even more amusing when the film industry - actors, directors, producers - tell us about how bad piracy it. It is bad all right, but some of them do it too. With computer software, if not other people's movies.

The power of one, here too. "So what if I don't pay for MS-Office, I'm only one, Microsoft makes enough money right?" Can be easily rephrased as "So what if I download and watch Ghajini, I'm only one, the producer made 200 crores right?" So here too, 'one' makes a difference because everyone thinks they are 'one'. Just like in voting.

I just checked, Microsoft in India sells MS-Office for as less as Rs 3050. Look here. So all those film producers who moan and whine about piracy while running MS-Office on their laptops and office PCs can now show the power of one, by buying it. Rs 3050 is about what my family blows when we see a movie - just one movie - in a multiplex over the weekend.

For every one producer who uses one copy of MS-office without paying for it, my family watches one movie by downloading it, I think we'll be square. The power of one. Just like in a democracy.

Besides, I get to pay for movie tickets, and I get to pay for computer software, because I care about piracy. Some producers and actors on the other hand, get passes for movie premieres. So they watch movies for free and, (if they don't buy it), get computer software for free too. What are they cribbing about?

The Planetarium in a Science book

Many years ago I wrote an article for a magazine called Science Today. I don't think this publication exists any more. But Orient Blackswan has published a text book called

English for Students of Science
By Roy, & Sharma, P.L., (eds)

Link here...
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=E4vTvr43TngC

In this book, they've published the entire article.
pages 161-162

I have no copy of that article and have even forgotten I wrote it. But if anyone wants to know how the planetarium machine works, this is a quick explanation. I'm not sure I can make a copy and put it here.

And, my earlier post on 'Editing HDCamSR 24p in an Avid Media Composer Mojo' has been linked on another blog here.

Amazing how the 'word' travels.

Neil Sadwelkar

Wide-angle adapters for prosumer camcorders

One of the big problems with small HDV, DV and XDCamEx camcorders is that their stock lenses aren't wide enough. They let you go very close with tele, but in tight spaces, its hard to cover everything if you don't have room to back up from the subject.

Something like 35mm to 40mm is the widest many camcorders go down to.

For those who need wider lenses with little or no optical defects, Schneider a well known lens maker, makes wide-angle adapters for many prosumer camcorders

The Sony Z-7, S270, Canon HV20/HV30, XHA1 and many others.

Here's the link for the SonyS270/Z7

The S270 stock lens is 32 to 384 mm (35mm eqvt) with the .75x adapter it becomes 24-300 mm.
For 'only' US$ 1235.00. And you can zoom with the adapter attached.

Many other cameras are listed too check the dropdown.
There are adapters for the XH-A1 and HV30 as well.

A bit pricey, though.

Editing HDCamSR 24p in an Avid Media Composer Mojo

A colleague came up with an interesting situation. 

A client of ours is proposing to shoot a film on HDCamSR at 1080p24, meaning real 24 fps. The final output will be 35mm film also real 24fps. Being from a PAL country we see no utility on doing the 23.976 - 29.97 NTSC workflow. 

In fact, when I researched this on the 'net and specifically the Avid Community forum, I came up with mostly NTSC based workflows. Even the Avid MC manual doesn't have any explanation on this. Not surprising, editing system manuals seldom address the PAL 24-25 workflow. 

I've found that in the non-PAL post world, people mostly work in 23.976 fps. For shooting HD, telecine to tape whatever. No 24fps. Or in variants of 23.98 like 59.94. Incidentally, on FCP this would be easy. All our FCP systems have Blackmagic HD capable cards. And in FCP one can capture the HD as ProRes or DVCProHD and save space. 

Either way we would be capturing 24fps and editing true 24fps HD. We can then make out an EDL and recapture selects for conform and grading in our normal film grading systems - like Quantel iQ or Resolve. 

Even Autodesk Smoke or a Quantel eQ could be used for the recapture. We then export as DPX for further processing. All of this is at 24fps. Tried and tested. Works. But on an Avid there is a problem. 

All our Avids are Mojo SDI Avids that cannot capture HD. So we need to output from the HDCamSR VTR as SD PAL video. And an HDCamSR VTR, when outputting an HDCamSR tape as SD PAL video does so with a speed change. Meaning 24p HD plays out, not at 24fps, but at 25fps. 4% faster. 

Of course, Avid can capture 25fps PAL material in a film project and make it play at 24fps. But in this process of making it 25fps in the HD VTR and converting to 24fps in the Avid one loses the original HD timecode. So no EDLs, no recaptures. 

So I did some trials to find a fix. 

I've tried on a small test clip and sequence, so please do try it out and check if it works. Here it is. 

First set the HD VTR to do a burn-in TC (also called window burn or TC super). Make it show the original 24fps TC and the 'derived' 25fps TC. It looks like this.

 

 TCR is the 25fps 'derived' timecode that Avid will get when capturing, and 'ORG' is the original 24fps timecode. Next, open a film project in Avid Media Composer (this applies to MC MojoSDI ver 2.6 upwards). Capture the HD with deck control normally as you would. After capture set the bin headings like this. Basically you need to be able to see 'Start' and 'TC 24'. Initially, the TC24 column will be blank in the bin. Now open each clip from the bin to the source window and park at the first frame. In the bin enter the timecode you see in your rushes as 'ORG' in the 'TC 24' column. 

So now, you've 'assigned' a 24fps timecode to each captured clip. Avid will now track both the 'derived' 25fps timecode as well as the original 24fps timecode through your edits. Now you can edit normally. In the 'Film and 24p' settings you can set the edit play rate as 24fps so that the sequence clips will sync with audio if any was recorded separately on location. 

After the edit is complete, you can export the EDL using EDL manager. But with two small changes. In the EDL manager main window (not settings window), set the 'Source TC' to 24 and 'Record TC' to 24. Now open the seq you've edited and make an EDL. 

And save it. If your finishing system needs a reference cut, export the sequence as a Quicktime movie. Make sure the Quicktime movie is 24fps. Mind that Avid , when doing a fast export from a 24fps timeline, makes a movie as 23.98 fps. If you have an FCP system handy you can convert this movie to DV-PAL and then use CinemaTools to conform it to 24fps. Else just do a custom export from avid as DV-PAL at 24fps. 

Quantel iQ and the new Smoke and Resolve accept these as reference movies. This reference movie will match clips recaptured from the original HDCamSR tapes at 24fps using the EDL we just made. 

Please mind that I've tried this for a few clips and an EDL. You should test this thoroughly with your source material before committing to this workflow. And as I said before, if you have the option to work in an FCP system, none of this TC wrangling is necessary. 

Or, if you haven't got a Avid system yet and have to work in Avid, then get a MojoDX. This allows HD capture. And no TC wrangling. If this method has saved you some labour or made you some money, then consider pressing that yellow button in the margin that says 'Donate'.

More still cameras shoot HD video

Still cameras could shoot video clips for about as long as they've been around. They shot small sized very compressed videos. Maxing out at 640x480. But now there's a range of cameras that can shoot high quality HD video. Some can even be called 'broadcast-worthy'. Not to be confused with broadcast quality, though.

I went on a holiday some days ago with a bunch of colleagues who all had DSLRs. Really good cameras. Reminded me of times, some years ago when I too went everywhere with my film SLR. Eventually, I gave up on my SLR with its range of lenses, flash, motor-drive etc. I bought a really small Canon IXUS70 which is hitched to my belt in a small pouch. I now shoot stills and movies anywhere anytime.

These small point and shoot cameras also have a surprising amount of control over picture taking. Not in the same league as aperture or shutter priority of the DSLRs or bracketing or anything like that. But still, useful, if you know how.

What is quite amazing is how good the video looks with small still cameras. So, while on this holiday, my colleagues came out with stunning pictures, I had videos. Of some things that simply couldn't be conveyed in a still. Like riding a battle tank, or shooting with a real machine gun. Or the incoherent babble of my friend's year old son.

Before this still camera, I shot video with my DV camcorder for some years. After my SLR days I tagged that DV camcorder wherever I went. But its bulky, shoots tape, and needs a camcorder to show people your videos. And the videos need editing (which is what I do for a living anyway). Somewhat cumbersome. Also, video camcorders shoot really abysmal quality stills so I still needed to tag along a still camera.

My next acquisition will definitely be a still camera with HD video shooting capability. Best of both worlds. But I'll forgo the Canon 5D MkII, or Nikon D90 class and go for one that is small.

I came accross, this list of still cameras that can do HD video...
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/digital-cameras/hd-video_ratings.html

The Nikon D90 and Canon 5D MkII were the cameras that started this trend. But these are both expensive DSLRs. In the Rs 60,000 to 1.2 lakh range. Also, they are bulky, which for casual photography, is a no no. And both have interchangeable lenses. So you'll eventually end up with a collection of lenses which you'll always tag along.


Amongst small cameras, that do HD video there is the Canon SX 1 IS. This shoots 1080p video but at 30fps.

So, In India we'll need a creative way of converting 30fps to 24fps or 25fps. If I can get my hands on this camera, I could figure a preset in Apple Compressor to make a smooth conversion.

A good review of this camera is up at Cameralabs here...

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_SX1_IS/

The SX1 IS is probably the only of the non-DSLRs to shoot 1080p video.

The rest of the small cameras mostly shoot 720p movies. All at 30fps. The Canon SX200 IS is one such. It shoots 720p video again at 30fps.

This camera has only an LCD for a viewfinder. No 'regular' viewfinder. I find that a problem sometimes. Too used to shooting with one eye peering through a small hole.

Canon has provided a the SX200 IS with a 12x zoom and the SX1 IS with a generous 20x zoom.

In 35mm terms, the SX200 is 28-336mm while the SX1IS is 28-560mm So both are very wide angle lenses that can zoom to very telephoto. In fact, in the SX1 IS you can digitally double this to 56-1120mm. Great for wildlife too. And it goes down to 0 cm (yes zero cm) in macro mode. So leaf patterns, small insects, serious close-ups, here we come.

For half the price of the SX200 but with a shorter zoom is the Samsung TL34HD. If you absolutely must have a still camera that also does HD video, then this is your pick. But the zoom is 3.6x in this camera.

Detailed reviews are linked on the page I've linked above. So read it and make your choice. I'm not partial to Canon, just that I've always had a Canon, so they caught my eye first.

The Panasonic FZ28 is also a capable camera, much lighter than the SX1 IS and according to one review, better at correcting colour fringes.

Detailed review, also at Cameralabs, here...
http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Lumix_DMC_FZ28/



One thing that may come to the mind of fellow video shooters is this.

If video shooting is what one wants to do, can't one just get a HD camcorder? Camcorders do still too.

Not quite. Cost is one consideration. Even the most basic HD capable video camcorder is at least Rs 60,000.

Way over the cost of the basic still camera that does HD video. These still cameras start at Rs 10,000. Besides, still cameras that do HD video take great pictures too. So you need to take your pick between spending a large chunk of money on a video camera that shoots average stills or a fraction of that cost on a still camera that shoots gorgeous stills but average movies.

Added 16 March 2009

At the PMA 2009 show, Panasonic added a new camera the DMC-GH1. This is a micro four thirds camera with interchangeable lenses. What makes this camera special is the long zoom and HD movies at 1080p24. Yes 24fps. It saves movies as AVCHD at 17Mbps.

And in this camera, the auto focus works while you are shooting video. Yes. strange as it may seem as a feature, most still cameras that do HD video don't function like true video cameras in these respects.

I believe this camera's movie making capability will be stellar. Panasonic are the guys who gave the world great looking HD in the form of DVCProHD.



The camera will be available by June 2009 so maybe by then some specs might change.
Till, then, a review here...
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030316lumixgh1handson.asp






This year, HD video will definitely get into most homes which have a HD capable LCD TV. As movies shot on a HD capable still camera.

If you're looking at places to buy these in India check with. Simply safely and with home delivery, do check out
www.autsun.com

Apple Color for film DI... gets closer

The top reasons why I had not been able to make Apple Color work in a film DI assignment, in a post house with millions of DPX files available from a SAN were...

1. Color cannot read DPX sequences which don't have alphabets at the beginning of their names.
2. Color cannot read DPX sequences which have numbers less than 7 digits as their names.
3. Color really crawled when asked to open a 20,000 plus, DPX frame sequence - over GigE.

Because # 1 and 2 was true of Color 1, 1.0.1, and 1.0.2, I had stopped trying. Color could not read a SINGLE DPX file that was scanned with a Northlight or Spirit. Both Northlight and Spirit scan to DPX sequences that have numbers for names. With 5 digits, or at times 6, never 7. Renaming the approximately 200,000 DPX files spread over 150 folders Ifor just one feature) just so Color could see them was never an option.

Color 1.0.4 came along, and, although not documented (I haven't come across any such) these things seem to be fixed. Color can now read 'normal' DI DPX files. Whew!

#3 also seems sorted out to some extent and its now possible to scrub through a large DPX sequence without a beach ball. But, if I had a FC card and a licence to my SAN then I would be able to even play 2k - probably.

I also have to check out if Color 1.0.4 can conform an EDL to DPX files of 5 digits and only numbers. And I have to figure out a fix for Color defaulting to 720x486 as resolution when you quit and relaunch. Even if you select 720x576 PAL as your resolution. This is a minor irritant but one can manage.

More as I research it. But now I can get people interested because we can work with log DPX files, which is the currency of DI. And I've got an old Tangent CP-100 to work with my Apple Color station too. But that's another story.

Is Movie piracy in India wrong enough?

Movie piracy, or selling illegal copies of Indian movies on CDs and DVDs is pretty common in India. These copies sell on the streets of nearly every major street in India. Its helped by the fact that street selling is perfectly legal in this country. As long as the stuff you sell is legal.

Within clear line of sight of the Versova Police Station there's a small bazaar with hawkers selling vegetables and fruit on the street. One hawker has a handcart full of CDs and DVDs. You can get many of the latest Hindi and English movies there. Could the same hawker have been selling marijuana, or other stolen merchandise, so brazenly? I think not.

So obviously movie piracy is not illegal enough in this society.

A leading columnist wrote in a column today that they 'got impatient' and saw Slumdog Millionaire on a pirated DVD. I'm certain that many Hindi film producers and probably even distributors, have already watched this movie. Either on a pirated DVD or downloaded on a torrent. It has to be, the movie hasn't been released here yet. (its 11 Jan 09, SM releases 23 Jan 09 in India)

So obviously, for many people, even Hindi movie producers, movie piracy is not wrong enough. As long as its someone else's movie.

Movies get released here everyday, some become successful, some don't. Successful movie producers and distributors are a wealthy lot. The piracy of one of their movies will result in lesser revenues, or lesser profits for them personally. But I find it hard to believe that they will get poor because of movie pirates.

On the other hand, a Hindi movie that's going to flop (or fail at the box office) is not going to flop just because of piracy. No one I know is seeking out the DVD or VCD of any of the flops of the past few months. Nor even downloading those movies. Even those selling pirated movies have operating costs and even they won't lose money selling a flop.

And how about computer software piracy? Walk into any Hindi movie producer's or distributor's office and you see people working on computers - PCs mostly. None of these are stolen, of course. But the software on them almost certainly is. Ask any Hindi movie producers or distributor if he has as many licences of all software as he has PCs running Windows.

If a successful Hindi movie producers or distributor has 5 PCs running Windows and MS Office, he should have spent about Rs 2.5 lakhs (US$ 5,000) on software alone. If he hasn't, then he doesn't believe software piracy is illegal. Pirating such people's movies is like stealing from a thief. Illegal perhaps, but not harmful.

So, obviously movie piracy is not even harmful enough, because even the victims practice it.

The real answer to piracy is not to try to prevent it. You cannot. Pirates are very smart. Any DVD can be ripped, any movie will be shot off the screen somewhere, and people will watch even that fuzzy copy.

Instead, they who have a problem with piracy need to understand that like every crime piracy has to have two things - motive and opportunity.

With piracy, you can't do much about opportunity. But you could fix the motive.

Everyone wants to watch movies. And, they go to theatres in droves to watch them. India has 13,000 theatres, and the number of movie watchers in theatres in a year is equal to the population of the whole world!

No one really likes watching VCDs or DVDs. But for a family of 4,one trip to the multiplex to watch a movie, costs between Rs 1000-2000 (US$ 20-40). Maybe more, on weekends. At this rate this is the costliest outing for the common man. And the drivers that most movie producers employ for their fleet of cars take home a wage of Rs 3000-10000 (US$ 60-200 per month)

Why do cinema multiplexes charge so much money for tickets? And, after that, why are water, chips, and other goods with a printed MRP (retail price), charged over the MRP? Can this movie watching experience be made economical? Or, can Hindi film producers and probably even distributors subsidize this experience? Free popcorn, free soft drink, or even T-shirts and other merchandise giveaways. Something. There's got to be a way. There are, after all low cost airlines aren't there?

The bottom line is this. Movie piracy is wrong, but not wrong enough in India. Those that are affected by it, also indulge in it themselves.

There have been protests by people about the high cost of tickets, and food and goods sold inside a theatre. Can't movie producers and distributors get together and examine this? Induce theatres to eliminate this crazy practice?

And, make its possible for the common man to watch a movie in a theatre for under Rs 100 per head. If they can, then, I believe, there will be one less motive for piracy left.

An FCP system for Uncompressed HD

I was at a TV station a few days ago with a requirement to capture uncompressed HD at 4:4:4 dual link out of a telecine. The captures had to be a jumbo reel at a time which works out to about 22 mins in one go. Telecine was a Cintel with Stereo or Dolby audio coming from a Sondor sound follower in sync. 

The system was configured as a Dual Quad MacPro with 8 GB RAM. A Kona 3 card with a AJA embedder to embed analog audio into the HD-SDI stream. And disks were internal. Yes internal disks. I was skeptical. The disks were SAS disks RAIDed together as RAID 0 with the Apple internal RAID card. SAS drives are wicked fast. But the signal was HD 1080p24 at 4:4:4. 

I checked the AJA Control Panel to be sure. And I was still skeptical. I first ran the AJA disk test and it showed sufficient Read and Write speed. But only just. I've forgotten the actual numbers as we did a few combinations of cache on and off. 

So we threaded the film. And the sound film. Played pack to check sync and inputs. The colourist fussed over the colours a bit and was ready to go. He ran the film and I hit capture now. The 'Abort capture on dropped frames' warning was on. We went over the whole reel and the capture went through. 

The RAID drive wasn't empty, but wasn't full either. About 20% full from previous captures. The capture went off fine. Not a singe dropped frame. Just to be sure we did it one more time. And that went through as well. I'm not entirely sure this is going to work if the drives get full like about 80% full. And I have no way to check. 

A colleague will be running further tests over the next week or so. Maybe he'll fill up the drive and we'll find out that this works up to a point. Also, these drives are striped as RAID 0, so its not a secure RAID and one drive failure will result in total data loss. The whole telecine will then need to be repeated. 

But then, I guess their workflow will have to be to encode these to whatever their target format is and take it off the drives as soon as possible, so maybe that may not be such a problem. And SAS drives are seriously reliable. 

Finally, just to make sure that the same setup performed fine for compressed HD capture as well, I did one reel captured to Apple ProResHQ. The data rate of ProResHQ even at 1080p24 4:2:2 is well within the capabilities of even a single SATA drive so the SAS RAID wasn't going to sweat much over ProRes. But I wanted to be sure if the combination of an HD input and the extra processing that ProRes takes, would be handled by this configuration. It did. 

So, here it is. a simple system to capture HD Uncompressed all within one box. I went over to the Apple store to spec it out and check what it would cost. 

Here is the complete spec... 

# Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 

# 8GB (4x2GB) 

# Mac Pro RAID Card 

# 320GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s 

# 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS 

# 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS 

# 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS 

# ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB 

# One 16x SuperDrive 

# Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel) 

# Apple Mighty Mouse 

# Apple Keyboard + User's Guide 

# AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll 

And here's the cost. 

(US$, Customs duty extra) 

$ 9097 for the system - spec above 

$ 1300 for Final Cut Studio 2 

$ 2300 for the AJA Kona3 

With Indian Customs duty you're looking at About Rs 8 lakhs. The only saving I can see anyone making is to get a Blackmagic Multibrdge Pro in place of the Kona3 which can save you $ 700. 

But I haven't tested the Multibridge with this setup so can't say. I have used a Multibridge extensively and found it to work fine even with uncompressed HD. Either ways, the ability to capture and work in HD, as uncompressed 4:4:4 is now within reach. 

8 lakhs may seem a bit much, if you're in the market for a cheap DV only system. But if online quality video and even 2k is what you're getting into, then this is it. With an AJA Kona 3 you're going to get video quality indistinguishable from a Smoke/Flame or eQ for a fraction of the price. 

By the way, the new Smoke/Flame systems ship with an AJA Xena card which sources at Aja have told me is the same as the Kona in quality terms. Besides with Final cut Studio, you get Motion, Color, SoundTrack, LiveType. 

Add Shake, a 3D CG software, Adobe Video bundle, some DPX tools, Apple Color and a really imaginative editor, and you've got a mean system that can make you some big bucks. 

And, if you want to go further, add two iMacs, GigE network them, snag two enthu cutlets who can assist with capture and graphics and you've got some real great human throughput that one online machine just can't deliver.

Its OVER!

Its Over!

Two days of mayhem. When ten, maybe more individuals who seemed to have planned rather well, and had access to some high power weapons. And then, with a bit of guts, and a city that wasn't prepared, and they managed to hold up life.

As did those individuals who had a few stones, no plans, and only broke some taxi windshields. Yes, even they held up life in Mumbai not too long ago.

A lot of people are asking why the Government couldn't prevent this, or why security forces were so unprepared? I think the same terrorism strategy used here over the past days, could have been used in just about any city in the world. No security force in the world can prepare for this. Or prevent it. Anywhere.

But on 11/26, while the security forces excelled at their job, the news channels disappointed. None of them had access to technology that's so easy to get. None of their reporters had helmets or bullet-proof vests - costing a few hundred dollars.
Or some other technology that could have differentiated their coverage. Like...

High resolution cameras. HD is quite easily accessible and can produce detailed images. Even the transmission was so compressed in parts that one got the impression one was watching YouTube.

Long lenses. In cricket matches, the camera is in the stands but can take tight close ups of batsmen and fielders. These kid of cameras can take viewers closer to the action, but yet no news channel seems to have one. Surely they could have hired one. After all, there was a ODI series under way, so many such cameras were around.

Buffered recording. In terrorism situations, events can happen without warning, and one almost always rolls the camera late. But there are cameras that are always rolling in 'round-robin' fashion and when you actually start recording, the last 1-5 minutes are kept.

High angle views. Camera cranes that rise up to 50 feet in the air, are easy to hire and deploy. There are many in Mumbai. and these would have afforded safe and high angle views, which could even have helped security forces.

Rover and Helicopter cams. Remote controlled rovers running off rechargeable batteries can crawl close to the action without endangering the camera crew. These can even give security forces a close look without having to actually send a man there.

Remote controlled mini copters too can rise many hundreds of feet and get close to the action in a high rise building. These are small and silent and hard to shoot back at. Both the helicopter and the rover can be fitted with night-vision cameras.

Glass shields. Camera crew standing even hundreds of metres away could easily have been hit by stray bullets from terrorists or even the security forces. Glass shields standing on tripods placed in front of the camera offer protection from bullets and flying shards and shrapnel.

Mini-boom cameras. Mini cameras, even HD cameras that are fitted inside stumps or race cars, can easily be boom mounted so the camera crew don't need to stand on a platform for a high angle. These can even be used in hard to reach interview situations, or to 'peek around the corner' in a bullets-flying situation.

Boom-mikes. Why do TV reporters have to hand carry mikes and thrust them in the speaker's face. The entire movie industry records sound with boom mikes. They get you close and produce great sound.

Solar generators. News channels had vans running of mini generators. When parked together this makes a huge roar. In a sun-blessed country like ours, can't they use silent power like solar? There might even be a situation in the future when security forces order the generators off just so they can hear better.

At the end of the day, this whole thing was converted into a long reality show by news channels. Great for TRPs. A new spectator sport. So I say, if its just that why not equip yourself well to give the viewer a better view of the action.

Horrific it is all right. Some may even say it glorifies crime and makes us insensitive. Does that stop anyone from airing it? I think these kind of events if televised correctly actually help in generating public opinion. Maybe that's what we need to fight this war.

Browse hard disks like floppies or USB drive

Anyone who's a tinkerer has many hard drives sitting on their shelves from older systems. 120 G gets replaced by 250 which gets replaced by 500 and so on. And one doesn't really throw away old drives. At the same time, connecting a SATA drive inside a case or even inside your PC/Mac is cumbersome. Screws, connectors case lids - too much hassle.

So, I checked out a USB to SATA/IDE adapter some time ago. A friend, sent me a link. I bought mine on eBay. Rs 800 and very innovative.

It works fine, but can be a bit cumbersome. Too many connections to make just to connect a drive. And the SATA connectors come loose any time. So the experience is only marginally bettter than connecting a bare drive to a computer or external case.

Then last month while in London, I bought this a USB drive dock. From Maplin at Tottenham Road. This is really terrific.

Bare drive can be just slid in 'browsed' and slid out. Push a button and the drive pops out like toast. No screws no connectors. Just keep the dock permanently connected to your Mac or PC. Even MacBook Pro. My dock sits on my table permanently connected via USB to my MacPro at work. And a drawer full of drives, now working like floppies.
It even works with laptop sized 2.5 in. drives.

I even got another through a friend who went there last week. A USB/SATA drive dock with a card reader and hub. Also from Maplin but at Wembley. I could get used to this place.

This has a SATA port. And a card reader and USB hub.



And to connect it to my MacBook Pro via eSATA I have a Sonnet TempoExpressCard SATA adapter.

This drive dock thing comes in many variants (and colours)

From GeekStuff
or ThinkGeek
and some others here.

It gets even better. If you want Firewire and can spend a bit more, Vantec makes one with Firewire.



And like me, if you're worried that the drive is exposed from the back check out the one with a case.




And a final twist, one with a fan.





Bear in mind that these things are a bit heavy. They have weights in them, else when the drive spins they'd fly. As a curious experiment try this. Connect the drive, and let it mount on your Mac. Then browse through folders, open and close a file or two. Then, unmount the drive, after its gone, switch off the dock and pop out the drive and hold it in your hand.

The drive is now spinning down from 7200 rpm to stop. The sheer torque it generates twists your hand like an unseen force.

There's even a 'Please note...' at one web site which seems to be translated by a machine into English. It reads...

"Note: In order to keep still, the docking station has added weight this preventing the docking station to move when you are plugging in or out your HDD. This added weight is unfortunately increasing the shipping cost… We are very sorry for this inconvenient but there is nothing we can do on this matter. Thank you for your understanding."

The English is quaint, but this thing works. Recommended. If you can afford it get the version with Firewire and cases for your drives.