Unfair Language on Election Ballots

I am APPALLED by the wording on my Colorado mail-in ballot.

All of the amendments to our constitution make things sound like a cut-and-dried "no brainer." Listen to Amendment 60:

"Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning government charges on property, and, in connection therewith, allowing petitions in all districts for elections to lower property taxes; specifying requirements for property tax elections; requiring enterprises and authorities to pay property taxes but offsetting the revenues with lower tax rates; prohibiting enterprises and unelected boards from levying fees or taxes on property; setting expiration dates for certain tax rates and revenue increases; requiring school districts to reduce property tax rates and replacing the revenue with state aid; and eliminating property taxes that exceed the dollar amount included in an approved ballot question, that exceed state property tax laws, policies and limits existing in 1992 that have been violated, changed, or weakened without state voter approval, or that were not approved by voters without certain ballot language?"

"Well hell yes! Why wouldn’t I lower my taxes, especially when things 'aren't fair?!'" one would think after reading the above. However, what is failed to mention is that these MASSIVE tax cuts (when the state government can already *barely function* on their existing budget) will cripple not only our state, but most importantly our school systems. Colorado has already been slashing school budgets like nobody's business, and this amendment would cause 92% of the state's general fund to go to schools. Not only does this leave only 8% for EVERYTHING ELSE, but it will hurt schools by drastically cutting their funding.

How about "fairer language" on election ballots? I realize you can't explain everything in that little tiny space, but writing things out as if they are one-sided no-brainers is irresponsible and unacceptable.

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AVG Free 2011 DEFINITELY Slows Down Gmail

I haven’t seen problems with most sites I’ve been visiting, but the new AVG Free 2011 upgrade definitely makes Gmail nearly unusable.  I couldn’t figure out what was going on until I realized the slowdown was mostly isolated to Gmail and then remembered I upgraded my AVG security this morning.

Just thought you might like to know why your Gmail feels like running through molasses today.

Windows Live Essentials 2011 listed as “important update”

It’s extremely annoying to me that Microsoft is listing the Windows Live Essentials 2011 update (basically a bunch of bloatware) as an “important update.”  In no way do I want to install 160MB of garbage (Messenger, Photo Gallery, Mail, Movie Maker, Writer, Family Safety, and Windows Live Mesh, Bing Bar, Messenger Companion, Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector, Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Provider for Windows Live Messenger, and Microsoft Silverlight).

So you know: you can right-click the update in the update installer list and select “hide update” to discontinue receiving notifications about the update.

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Sorting and Organizing the Netflix Queue

I am baffled by the fact that Netflix can’t get their sh*t together and make it easier to organize your queue.  Currently, every single freaking movie you drop into your instant watch simply goes on a numbered list, and there is NO WAY to organize them other than by numbers on the list.  It SUCKS having to scroll through 300+ movies to find the one you want to watch.

I understand why I have to deal with this on my Panasonic BluRay player (Panasonic needs to pull their heads from their collective asses and make the VieraCast Netflix interface more user-friendly –scrolling across one horizontal line of titles is a massive joke), but the fact that Netflix, the company in charge of everything, can’t get it right… well that’s just unacceptable.

Seriously?!  You figured out how to license and stream video/film media to the entire U.S. via the internet, but you can’t figure out how to let your users organize a g*dd*mn list?!

Here are some VERY EASY solutions that I can think of right off the top of my head.

• FOLDERS!
• Sort by genre, actor, director, etc.
• At LEAST give us sort by star rating
• Display the covers in a grid instead of a list (like when you are suggesting things to me… you’re already DOING THIS ELSEWHERE! Why not do it on my queue page so I can see more titles at once?)

Right now the best bet for sorting your queue is creating multiple profiles, but if you’re using a device this requires logging in to a different profile (read: pain in the a**) when you want to look at a different list.  You also can’t transfer selections across profiles, so you would need to log into the appropriate profile to add a movie to that profile.

Some people are using a GreaseMonkey script to be able to sort by title, genre, length, star rating, etc.  It’s so easy (for someone who knows code, not necessarily the average Netflix user), so why wouldn’t Netflix implement something like this?!

It also seems crazy that there are other websites organizing titles better than Netflix itself.  Try InstantWatcher.com for an example of what I’m talking about (no organizing your queue, but a great way to find things you’re looking for as well as suggestions and various groupings for instant watch titles).

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Logitech Revue: First “Full Internet” TV Box (not really)

People have been anticipating the release of the first major-brand box to use Google TV.  The “big thing” that Google is touting, the reason why they are “better than the rest” is access to the entire web (not just access to a few streaming or VOD sites).  The actual quote from the Google TV website is: "TV, apps, search, and the entire web ... together at last."

However, Google just confirmed today in a press release that Hulu will be blocked from their service, so “the entire web” really means “not the entire web.”

Google does claim to be in negotiation for use of Hulu with their service for Hulu Plus customers.  We’ll see how that goes.

Just thought you’d like to know.

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Authoring BluRay in Adobe Encore CS4

For nearly a month I couldn’t create a BluRay in Adobe Encore CS4.  I tried all kinds of different export options for my media (H.264 vs. MPEG-2, different audio formats, different file sizes, different bit rates, VBR 2 pass vs. VBR single pass, etc.).  I tried changing the location of the files used in the project and the location to where the .iso was being written.  I tried shortening the name and removing spaces from all files involved.  I even sacrificed a live rooster under the full moon while chanting preset options.

None of it worked.

The answer to the problem is so simple it’s embarrassing… for Adobe.  If the thing that ABSOLUTELY prevents Encore from creating a disc/image is this simple to fix, why wouldn’t Adobe release a patch to fix it?

Here it is: the name of the disc, in other words, the name you give the disc in your project (not the .iso file, or the name of the project file, or the name of any of the other files involved), cannot be more than 15 letters, or the disc cannot be created.  You will get this error:

Blu-Ray error: “fatal error”, code: “6”, Note:”

I did come across this solution in my previous searches, but I didn’t understand that when people were referring to “disc name,” they didn’t mean the name of the file you were creating (the .iso image) or the name of the project.  Because it seemed like something as simple as the actual “name” couldn’t possibly have anything to do with an entire BluRay authoring session failing, I didn’t realize they meant the name you type in in this field:

If you make sure that the name in the “name” field above (where it says “Disc Name”) is short, your BluRay will burn.

Really?  FIX THIS (or at least document it), Adobe.

 

For what it’s worth, these are the settings I use when exporting my media from Premiere via Adobe Media Encoder:

MPEG-2 BluRay, 1920x1080, 23.976, VBR 2 pass, bit rate min: 25 – target: 30 – max: 35, Dolby AC3 audio at 320Kbps, “maximum render quality” ticked.

When creating a new Adobe Encore project, I select NTSC, 1920x1080, 23.976 (but oddly the Encore timeline still always shows 30 frames… can’t figure this out).

If you alter the length of the audio or video on the timeline, you are apt to receive other error messages that will prevent the project from rendering.  I advise making sure the audio/video are exactly as you want them in your Encore project before exporting them from Premiere.  I also am a fan of setting the Encore Chapter markers in Premiere.

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Encore CS4 Will Not Burn BluRay

[update at end of post or simply go to my solution post here]

Blu-Ray error: “fatal error”, code: “6”, Note:”

This statement is the current bane of my existence.  It pops up just as an Encore BluRay project enters the “initializing burn” phase.

I just want to burn a BluRay so we can submit our film to smaller festivals and project in HD (BluRay) instead of SD (DVD).  I made a couple of really expensive coasters before at least realizing I could change the settings to render a BluRay .iso (rather than burning directly to media) so I’m not trashing an expensive BluRay disc every time I attempt to create a disc.
Adobe, in typical fashion, simply states that Encore does not fully support Vista and Windows 7 (Really? --in the year 2010 you don’t support the most commonly used OS on the planet?).  To further the issue, I am running 64-bit, so Adobe supports that “even less” if that’s possible.

I have found little to no information on this subject, and what little I did find did not work to solve my problem.  Still, I will list the “solutions” I found in my searches.  Perhaps they will work for you.

And if you have more information or know of a solution, by all means post your suggestions in the comments!

Via Creative Cow:

Download and install msxml 6.0
It should fix the error.

People report this as a fix, but it didn’t work for me.
From the same Creative Cow thread:

What finally worked was changing the disc name and the filename/location. I changed the name of the disc from "Smith-Jones Wedding Unedited HD Footage" to "disc" and the filename from "unedited_footage.iso" to "disc.iso" set to build to the root c: and I was able to build a Blu-ray ISO image.

I can see how removing spaces or shortening names could possibly help the issue (though, pretty lame that software in this day and age can’t accommodate spaces and long file names), but it didn’t work for me.

There is some information in this thread stating that bit rate spikes will prevent a project from burning correctly, but the solution seems to be a bunch of other software (and adhering to some extremely specific settings) to create the video and audio files before importing into Encore for burning.

For a little humor on the issue, this was one of my favorite threads during the search for a solution.  It’s just a bunch of people bitching about how ABYSMAL Encore is, most concurring that Adobe should be taken out behind the barn and shot in the head.
Some people have suggested that the “code 6” error is related to oversized menus (menus being too large), but I tried different menus and even removed my menus altogether (so that the BluRay was just the movie file), but still I got the exact same error.

UPDATE: I have since been able to burn a BluRay.  I’m not sure which of the many things I tried finally got me there, but I will tell you that I used Adobe Media Encoder to create MPEG2 BluRay (which Encore prefers) built upon the MPEG2 BluRay preset.  My audio is .ac3 (Dolby), and I used VBR 2 pass (not 1).  For some reason, these settings actually burn infinitely faster (2 hours vs. up to 43 hours previously), so I’m not really sure what’s going on.  All I know is that I can author BluRays with Encore now, so I’m happy.

The runtime for our film is 102 minutes, and the film alone is taking around 24.6 GB of space (my VBR is set to minimum 25, target 30, maximum 35).  A single layer BluRay will only accommodate 25GB, so I can only author a disc for projection purposes (adding menus and extras would exceed the disc capacity).

UPDATE: I know understand the secrets to the Universe, or at least authoring a BluRay in Adobe Encroe CS4.  Check the post here.

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