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The Office / Behind the iMac

Yup, that’s right… RasterWeb! World HQ has once again move into a new office. Since this blog started (in August 1997) we’ve probably moved the office seven times now. Moving is always fun! This time, even though we moved to a new building, we managed to maintain our IP address, probably because we experienced less than an hour of downtime.

The Office

The main workstation is set up, as is the server, though we still have about two other machines to set up. And hey, there’s even a window, and it’s got blinds so I won’t be blinded. I may do some funky time-lapse stuff out the window, who knows?

All in all, I am totally digging the new set up so far. Organization, FTW!

Of course there is the dark underbelly… the “Behind the iMac” of this lovely little set up.

Behind the iMac (Redux)

I think this is a major improvement over the old mess that I had (below) mainly because the power is now all hidden under the desk, and there’s not quite as much going on back there.

Behind the iMac

The challenge will be to keep things neat and tidy as we get into working like hell again. This office is bigger, and has a closet, so hopefully it will remain calm and collected.

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Does HDMI work?

DVI-D to HDMI During the move, the ceremonial setting up of the TV happened a bit earlier than I expected, due to the cable guy coming three hours early. No matter, I was ready, and while he was finding signal loss, I was trying to use the HDMI cable again.

You might remember that I got a DVI-D to HDMI cable back in January 2008. I tried to use it, but I just did not see a difference in signal quality, and there was this nasty lag when changing channels.

So when Gabe was over, I asked him about his experience with HDMI and he said he couldn’t stand the DRM wrapper it put on the video. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about until I mentioned the lag I was experiencing in changing channels, and he said “Dude, that’s the DRM wrapper I am talking about!” or something like that.

Component VideoSo I am back to using component video cables, because as Gabe pointed out, the ability to quickly go through the channels is of great importance. The component video cables allow that to happen, and like I said, I just am not seeing any difference in image quality. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s my 3 1/2 year old HDTV, I dunno… but for now, we’ll do it this way.


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Balancing Act (Documentary)

Within a week of announcing I was planning to produce a documentary… things are starting to roll into place.

Oh, the working title is “Balancing Act” by the way…

There has been a lot of planning and discussion this week, including assembling the FAB (or ‘Film Advisory Board’) which is a group of people I will bounce ideas off of, and creating some different sponsorship opportunities. So far a handful of people have offered to help, financially, and otherwise.

In the next week or two we’ll set up a web site, and start outlining things a bit more. We plan to keep things fairly transparent throughout production, so people can keep an eye on what is happening.

(Once the site is up, expect most of the updates to happen there, but I’ll still post things here on RasterWeb! when it makes the most sense.)

Pete with camera



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I am shooting a documentary

Shooting a documentary

During 2008 I will be producing a documentary about how people find the balance between what they want to do, and what they need to do. It’s definitely a balancing act; a struggle between making your dreams come true, and having reality set in.

Through a series of interviews we’ll explore how people deal with the choices they’ve made and have to make, to do the work they find rewarding and satisfying.

Filming will commence in the Summer of 2008, with editing wrapping before the end of the year. We hope to premier the film by January 2009.

That bit above…. that’s the pitch. That’s the description of the documentary I’ll be working on this year. It’s sounds like a large project, and it is, and I’ve got about 8 months to do it.

I’ll be shooting on MiniDV with a Sony PD150. Much of the equipment will be on loan from Z2 Marketing, who is a sponsor of this project. I still need other equipment and supplies, and that’s where you come in.

While I thought I could produce this film for no budget, that’s not exactly true. I think I can do it very cheaply though. I’ve had a few people tell me I should apply for a grant, and that’s a possibility (know any grant writers?) but I also plan to get people to sponsor me. I’ll follow up this post with one specifically outlining how I see it working.

This is exciting to me. I’ve been compiling a list of people to interview, and if you know someone you think of when reading the description above, let me know. (It would help if they were in the Milwaukee area, as the travel budget is non-existent right now.)

Anyway… watch this space for updates. Thanks….



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Tinkerbell has skin cancer

Tinkerbell has skin cancer

My cat Tinkerbell has skin cancer. She is just a few months shy of being 5 years old. I adopted her after she was found wandering around a parking lot in 2003. She’s a good cat, and by that I mean that she is very loving, but like any cat, she can annoy the crap out of you…

Dana first noticed a lump on Tinkerbell’s side a while back, and I finally got around to calling a vet and asking about it. We took her in to have it removed, and after it was tested, they revealed that she had skin cancer. So right now, we need to watch her, and see if she develops any more lumps. They said she could within a few months, or years, and if it gets bad, we could get chemotherapy for her.

If money was no object, I’d consider it, but as it is, we can’t even afford to have the humans in the house see a doctor, so sadly, Tinkerbell is not going to be getting chemotherapy, and if she needs surgery in the future to remove another lump, that might not happen either. It’s a sad state of affairs, but it’s the reality we live in.

I’m hoping she pulls some “miracle cat” magic on us (nine lives and all that) and lives for many years with no more problems, but I’m not counting on it.

Just to add some fun into the mix, she managed to remove all her stitches on her own. We had the vet check it, and she didn’t manage to infect it. (That’s the “miracle cat” magic I’m talking about!) So now she has to wear the cone, which is always funny on TV, but it real life it’s just sort of sad.

When I was a kid, my family had a cat name Licorice, and that cat lived to be over 20 years old. I grew up with Licorice, and I honestly thought my kids would grow up with Tinkerbell, but like so much that is planned in life, things go awry and you just deal with it the best you can.

Note: Just a quick update, it’s January 2017, and she’s still alive.