Sunday, March 9th, 2008
About 3 months ago I installed Linux Mint Darnya on my HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop, mostly because Microsoft Vista didn’t run well on it, even with AMD 642 gigs RAM. With a cheaper graphics setup on the Hp laptop, the Aero effects and other goodies don’t work(it had the next to lowest rating according to the Windows hardware analyzer). When I ran the live Linux Mint CD, it ran Compiz and most of it’s plug-ins, so I decided to lose Windows on it altogether. I installed with no problems. I used Envy to install my Nvidia Geforce 6150 GO drivers and to be honest I think the wifi worked right outta the box or with very little effort. The remote for the laptop works with Linux MInt, too, which I thought was really cool. The only thing I couldn’t do was to use the mini jack-RCA video cable to output to a TV. F5, ALT+F5 or any other combination did not work, although I read where some people got it to work by restarting(restarting in Linux? I thought that was a windows thing!) Also, I couldn’t connect to my Canon G9, digiKam will probably have the drivers sooner or later, but not the last time I tried. It’s not an issue, because the SD card reader works. I am going to be installing another version of Linux soon. Not because of a problem, but, more that I like to play around with different versions.
Sunday, February 24th, 2008
You’d need my email, ha. Oops, it’s not on my card 
amishjim@gmail.com
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
The long awaited Call of Duty 4 has been out about a month now and I’ve been playing it on PC. Call of Duty was always one of my favorite 1up games with a great Single Player campaign. The same is true of COD4, but for some reason I still haven’t finished the Single Player mission. In fact, I guess COD4 has the same kudos & quirks as the earlier versions. Especially since it is mostly just a re-skin, with some Rank & Challenges added. Roger Chang stated that he beat it on the hardest level in 6 hours, whereas, I was on about the 50th hour when I got stuck and lost interest.
The Multi Player is mostly boring and repetitive. The best part is the Kill Cam so you can see how you got gayed. There is some cool XP building to Gain Rank and to get new Challenges, such as weapons proficiencies, stamina and some other fun stuff. Once you Rank up all the way and mark off most of the Challenges, the fun drops quickly thereafter. Playing on the Public Servers always tends to have a certain ridiculousness, because it’s everyone for themselves and no game plan or strategy. In fact, pretty much as soon as you spawn, you run out in the open and start blasting away, add some nade spamming, get killed and spawn again. The lack of teamplay and strategy make it pretty boring , may as well play CounterStrike. The game needs something to slow down the play and add some strategy. I think an emphasis on Squads would help. Project Reality for BF2 is a good example of Squad based Multi Player teamwork in action.
Would I suggest spending 50 bucks on this game? Good question, I’m interested to see what happens when the SDK becomes available and some Mods start popping up. I own the other 2 versions available for PC and have loved them, so if you are into the franchise, it might seem boring. If not, well hey, it’s all new to you, give it a shot.
BUY IT NOW AT AMAZON:
$10 Off
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Monday, November 26th, 2007
GripLife.Org is back up. I’ll be slowly filling in content in my idle moments. It’s meant to be a site for Grips, but not so much an encyclopedia or “The Grip Book”, but more of a general Film Making knowledge kinda place. Please feel free to Register and contribute, Comments, Ideas, Links, whatever….
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Sunday, November 11th, 2007
I’m working on a show titled “Staunton Hill” and would like to give the members of the Grip and Electric crews a T-Shirt Wrap Gift. I have a concept and just need it put together cleanly. The T-Shirt guy said whatever I turned in needed to be a Vector Graphic. I need front and back single color graphics made. The front will just be one of their graphics tweaked to be single color vector and the back will be crossed hammers and an Ampere gauge in the center with the word Grip above and Electric below. Ok so I need it fast and cheap, heh. 724.263.7565
Elements are located HERE
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
Staunton Hill has some kissing cousin roots to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The feature length film is being directed by Cam Romero, yes, the son of George. The official Staunton Hill site and some little news blurbs is located HERE and HERE. Second Unit Photography began this past week and Principal Photography starts October 22nd and the show wraps around Thanksgiving. I will be working under Key Grip Doug Stanczak and Gaffer, er, Chief Lighting Technician Bill Fuller. I’ve started a Photo Album on my flickr.
Friday, October 19th, 2007
Well there might be something you can do! AND IT’S FREE!
As most of you know there is more than one Operating System that you can choose from. The Marketing Department at Microsoft has done a great job of shoving Windows down our throats while treating Mac users as Artsy Nerds and Linux users as Freaks n Geeks. But guess what?
Apple has come a long (I <3 my iMac & can’t wait to get a macbook).
AND: Linux is blowing up with more and more “homebrewers” everyday & it’s Free! There’s plenty of websites that can justify it’s use better then me, such as Why Linux is Better. I like it because it’s free and will pretty much run on anything you have sitting around.
* Another great feature about Linux is the Live CDs that alot of Distros have now. You can try Linux for real without even needing to touch your hard drive, without harming your existing Windows install!
A Live CD works the following way :
* Download a CD image, called an .iso or ISO, from the web (Links to Live Distros at the end of this article). Burn the ISO onto a blank CD.
* Put the CD in your CD drive, and reboot. Almost any PC that will turn on should run the Live CD, should(key word). The more RAM the better, since Linux is actually running in the RAM.
* Your computer will boot on the CD instead of booting on the hard drive (where Windows is), and will not install anything, unless you decide to install.
* If your computer still boots Windows (the CD doesn’t seem to have any effect), then your BIOS configuration needs adjusted: you need to set the boot order to first scan the CD, and then the Hard Drive. You can access the BIOS by typing “Del” or “F2″ while booting and look for the boot order. The directions for maneuvering thru the BIOS are usually listed along the border of the screen. If not just watch at Bootup for the BIOS ID and google your BIOS for explicit directions. But you will probably not even need to do this, so stop sweating it.
* And voilà, Linux runs on your system, you can test it and see how you like it! Don’t worry if the system seems a bit slow right now: it takes some time to load everything from the CD. Your Linux system will be much quicker once actually installed on your hard disk.
*Linux has a huge support base too. You can always google the problem. Almost any issue that you might have, someone has already had it, searched it, solved it and most likely left info on how to fix it. Tons of info is located in Forums, IRC chatrooms and many web sites.
Another interesting note about Linux: Almost everything made for Linux is programmed by enthuisists, like homebrewers making beer. Not to say that there aren’t any company’s developing Linux software, like brewery’s make beer. But, there is a huge base of developers working on their own time to make these various projects happen.
Licensing in Linux also allow you to make adjustments to the software or distribution, repackage and distribute under any other name(pretty much).
So, where can you download those CD images ? There are a lot of Linux Live CDs available on the web ! How do you choose? Well I usually goto Distro Watch and look at the right column where the Ranking is located. I’m going to recommend a couple that have a lot of support and that are fairly popular. There are hundreds to choose from, literally. I have installed probably over 20 of them, just for fun, haha.
Suggested Distros
* Ubuntu- Is dedicated to making Linux easy
* PCLinuxOS - I’m typing this on a PCLOS install right now, i like it alot.
* Fedora - One of the oldest and best supported
Ubuntu is a great noob’s choice. Probably a good first Distro for you, with a great Starter Guide to help you out.
Good Luck
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Creating Light, Shaping Light and sometimes even Capturing Light
Most Recent Project:
..Shanon’s Rainbow - Company Grip (Day Player)
Recent Work:
.. My Bloody Valentine - Company Grip, Crane Operator, Key Grip - Second Unit
.. The Road - Company Grip, Crane Operator
.. Staunton Hill - Best Boy Grip, Crane Operator
.. Boobs & Blood (Pilot) - Location Sound
.. Vacuuming the Cat - Key Grip
.. Kids In America - Rigging Grip
.. No Exit - Key Grip, Crane Operator
.. Jolene - Company Grip
.. Netherbeast - Rigging Gaffer
.. Into The Wild - Rigging Electric
.. The Kingdom - Rigging Grip
.. Pandemic - 2nd Unit Gaffer
.. The Villikon Chronicles - Key Grip, Crane Operator
.. The Governor - Grip
.. Yesterday’s Tomorrow - Best Boy Grip
Recent Commercials:
.. Arizona Lottery, Arizona Tourism Board, Drunk Driving PSA,
Bud Light, XM Radio, Monster.com, ASU Shine, UCLA Recruiting
Television:
Camera Operator, Audio2 1996-Present
.. Shoot live sporting events-Hard Cam and Hand Held
.. Audio2 live sporting events-Press Box and On Field
.. ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC Sports, CBC, ABC Sports, HDnet
.. Projects: NFL, MLB, NHL, Olympics, NCAA
Videographer 1995-Present
.. Camera, Audio, Production Management, Grip and Electric
.. Networks: IBM, NBC, FOX, TLC, Discovery, Prestigevision
.. Projects: Ancient Mysteries, Americas Most Wanted, Commercials
Production Manager Prestigevision Westminster, MD 1997-1998
.. Director, Technical Director, Mixer, Editor, CG, MCO, hired crews
.. Studio, live and live-to-tape productions.
Video:
Director of Photography 2005-Present
.. Digital Shorts: The Child, Silence(HD), Etre(HD), Risen, Ink Trails(HD)
Production Manager Vince Clews & Assoc. Baltimore, MD 1996-1997
.. Produced, hired crews, rented gear, location scout
.. Industrials, Informercials and web content
Film:
Grip 1996-Present
.. 28 Features, 18 Shorts, 12.5 Music Videos
Electric 2005-Present
.. 7 features, 5 Shorts
Sound 1996-Present
.. 7 Features, 1 Short
Other Tech:
MSA Solutions WorkFlow Admin- Clear obstructions hindering
..Loan Advisors from working, ie, Computer issues, Update time, maintain DNC List
Carnegie Science Center- Maintained computer network, email server,
..webcam server and museum exhibits. I installed operating systems
..(Mac, Windows, Linux), software, printers and other peripherals.
..In addition I also worked the “Help Desk” and worked in the field repairing
..computers (PC’s and Mac’s).
Computer Repair and Networking- Freelance
2002-Present
..Troubleshoot and Repair SOHO Computers and Networks, Build
..and Configure Client PCs and Servers
Achievements:
.. Nominated for Avalon Award- “The Ghosts of Carroll County”
.. High Honors 5 of 8 Semesters Pittsburgh Technical Institute
.. Tutor, Pittsburgh Technical Institute
.. Volunteer- Red Cross Blood Drives, Habitat for Humanity, Carnegie Science Center (over 200 hours)
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Once again amishjim.com gets a new home. No longer hosted on Blogger, not that there is anything wrong with it, I just wanted more creative control. l’m now on Gator Host, yay. So, sorry if you had any bookmarks to past articles,
