PC Top Tips

In the past few years video editing has been transformed from a mysterious black art that depended on fancy hardware and expensive software, into an everyday application, but there’s always room for another simple to use and reasonably adept editing program, especially if it is free. Avidemux fits the bill well; it’s open source and available for all major operating systems, including Windows, Mac and Linux, and it does all of the basic jobs quickly and efficiently. The main feature list include simple cutting – handy for shortening home videos, chopping out dodgy bits and slicing ads out of TV recordings. It has extensive encoding facilities, for converting videos from one format to another – supported input formats are avi, OpenDML, mpeg, mpeg-4, asf, nupple, jpeg/bmp images, H263 and Quicktime, and the output options additionally include .flv Flash. The third headline feature is Filtering, and there are options for de-interlacing, resizing, adding subtitles, colour correction, crop, flip and rotate, sharpen/blur, noise reduction and a several twirly, whirly effects. Okay, so it’s not going to turn your next back garden epic into a Spielbergian masterpiece but if all you need is a quick and easy way to lick your footage into shape, it’s definitely worth a look.

20/05/13

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News Briefs

Running Out Of Time…

How fast can you run? It had better be faster than 22km/hr, because that’s how fast the MIT Biometrics Cheetah robot can run. In fact it’s not a record and even faster animal robots have been developed but to date they’ve all been unwieldy contraptions, unable to operate independently or support the weight of the batteries that would allow them to roam freely and chase humans. What makes this one really scary – and whatever you do don’t watch this video if you are of a nervous disposition -- is that the use of highly efficient electric motors to move the legs, rather than pneumatics, has resulted in a lighter and more agile beast that can carry its own batteries. If science fiction movies teach us anything it is only a matter of time before packs of these malevolent mechanical monsters will be prowling the streets…

2005

Flying Car by 2020?

Well, it may happen one day; probably at around the same time that I get my long awaited personal jetpack and take holidays on Mars… This latest prediction comes from a Massachusetts outfit called Terrafugia, which, to be fair, has already come up with a flying car design, called Transition, though this was a proper small plane, with folding wings, that could, at a pinch, be driven on the road. The new concept craft, is called the TF-X, which currently only exists as drawings and an animation. It seeks to address the many problems of flitting around the sky without a pilot’s licence by automating take off, flying, navigation and landing. The passenger does have a final veto on landing though, and can override the autopilot if they think it is unsafe. The design is quite cunning with two swivelling electrically powered rotors for near vertical take-off and landing. In flight they fold away and a petrol (avgas) engine drives a ‘pusher’ fan at the rear that propels it through the air at up to 200mph and at the same time recharges the batteries. The range should be around of 500 miles. On the ground the stubby wings fold down and it can be driven like a car. Terrafugia reckons that anyone with an ordinary driving licence can handle it after 5 hours training. The price is said to be around the same as a top-end luxury car. There really are too many issues to mention but here’s a couple to be getting on with starting with the minor problem that batteries with the capacity to provide this aircraft with lift haven’t yet been invented. But the biggest and most obvious one is letting Joe public go aloft without proper training and at least a grounding in aerodynamics, metrology, and the perils of gravity and let’s not even get into the regulatory arguments. Pigs will probably fly before this one gets off the ground…

1305

iPhone Obsolete Already

It seems like only yesterday when Apple wowed the world with the revolutionary iPhone. Actually it was in 2007, which wasn’t that long ago, but such is the pace of development, and Apple’s eagerness to get you to upgrade every few weeks that the original iPhone is about to become officially obsolete. It will happen on June 13th to be exact, according to leaked documents seen by 9to5mac.com. Don’t worry, in the unlikely event that you’ve been deviant and are still using a Mk1, it’s not going to suddenly stop working on that date, but if and when it does curl up its toes, you won’t be able to get it fixed in Apple Stores, unless you happen to live in California. They have a local statute that says manufacturers are obliged to continue to service and repair ‘vintage’ products purchased in the state.

0605

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