To repair or not to repair that is the question

If an article is attractive, or useful, or inexpensive, they'll stop making it tomorrow; if it's all three, they stopped making it yesterday.  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

I am often asked by friends and associates about their cameras or VCR's or other electric equipment that is not working properly or at all.  "What should I do?" asked one friend when a camcorder didn't display out an image of the flip out screen anymore.  It would still record and she could use the eyepiece, but like me, she found that image too small to be useful. 
Back in the dark days of analogue video equipment, camcorders and all electronics were big, expensive and made to repair.  With the advent of digital electronics, sizes became smaller, units became much cheaper and the ability to repair fell from the realm of reality.  It is simple economics.  If a camcorder costs $400.00 to purchase and 3 years later is stops working properly, most places that will repair it have what is known as a bench charge.  This is the cost for looking at the camcorder and evaluating the problem.  It is not the cost for repairing it.  Most times this will run between $80 and $150, remember this is only to evaluate the problem and whether you choose to fix it or not, you'll pay this amount. 
In the past 7 years, I have never known of anyone who had a consumer piece of electronic equipment repaired out of warranty, it was never feasible.  Should I now start my rant on the evils of a disposable society of conspicuous consumption, should I rail on the sorrow of overflowing landfills and a unsustainable model of  progress.......no. 
These cheaper, smaller electronics are responsible for YouTube and every event that is happening around the world being eye witnessed for everyone to view.  Natural disasters, political upheaval, groin shots.  Its all there 24/7 and we're better for it.  
As to sustainability, there are many outlets for recycling now.  Companies have discovered the precious metals used to manufacture these components can be recovered.  Baby steps, but at some point 100% of the manufacturing process as well as post use recycling will be possible.  Till then we'll keep watching those groin shots and may get some real educational content to boot.

Are you a convert?

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."  Mark Twain

Its happened to all of us.  You have a video, audio or image file that you need to convert to some other format for a specific application.  Fortunately today there are several new free software packages that are available to save you time, money and worry!

Lets look at Format Factory.

Format Factory is a free tool that can convert image, video or audio files from one format to another.   It easily converts WMV, AVI, MPG, MP3, WMA, AAC, JPG, PNG, GIF, and many more as well as supporting media formats used by most major portable devices, including PSP and iPhone. 
This alone gives this package great appeal for everyone from the novice hobby person to expert video producer.  While there are several free file converters on the market what sets Format Factory apart is its ability to convert images as well as video and audio.  While the user interface is not very intuitive and it lacks presets that could be helpful, I still recommend using this software.  What can you expect, it’s free after all.  Some of the other outstanding features of this software are:

1.      It supports converting all popular video, audio and image formats to others types of files.

2.      It can repair damaged video and audio file.  Very helpful in certain “o crap” moments.

3.     Format Factory can reduce multimedia file size.  This can really save your beacon by making video easier to play within PowerPoint or other graphic presentation software programs.

4.      It supports iPhone and iPod multimedia file formats.  For those using iPods for instruction this can be a real lifesaver.

5.      Picture converting supports Zoom, Rotate/Flip and tags.  This can really help if you’ve taken pictures using both landscape and portrait orientation and need to use both in your presentation.  You also can zoom in on the portion of the image you really want and get that embarrassing face Uncle Otto is making out of the shot.

6.      Audio Joiner allows you to bring two audio clips together or join them....get it, then convert them to another type of audio file.

7.      It has the ability to be a DVD Ripper.  For school produced videos this can be very helpful if you want to post it to an iPod or other mobile device.

A couple of caveats, first the interface is a bit confusing leading to high frustration level if you’re not familiar with other software packages that convert files.  Being patient is the key here.  Don’t start converting when you’re on a deadline, do it when you have time to experiment and try different settings to get the output that looks and works best for you.  One thing I didn’t like was that the software tries to install a couple of tool bars and shortcuts on your computer, make sure you look at the installation screens before clicking next and uncheck those squares if you don’t want them.   Also be sure your firewall allows the full installation of the program or you may get problems with your conversions.  Also this is only for Windows based computers.  Follow the link below to download your copy.

http://download.cnet.com/FormatFactory/3000-2194_4-10968547.html?tag=mncol;1