Wyszdom

I have a nice HD camera from Sony. It’s an HDR-HC3. It’s not cheap. I’ve had Sony cameras before, and I’m used to my camera having a standard mic input. I expect to see an 1/8″ input (or better) on anything but the cheapest models. Well, here’s how the always proprietary Sony decided to ruin my experience:

The HDR-HC3 does not have a standard microphone input. It has an “Active Interface Shoe” (AIS), which is a type of input specific to Sony that allows the connection of accessories. So what are my microphone options when it comes to AIS? Well I have three: a shotgun-like “zoom” mic, which mixes with the internal mic based on zoom level, an omnidirectional “surround” mic, and a wireless Bluetooth mic. The Bluetooth mic sounds like a good idea, but take a look at it:

Image by Dai Haruki

Yes, that large thing that looks like a flash drive sitting next to the camera is the microphone. Sony expects people to wear this. I don’t know if they realized during development that a video camera accessory might be used with a video camera that is recording images of someone wearing the microphone. Because it is ugly.

At some point Sony must have realized that people might want more than three options for microphones, as they did actually come up with the VMC-K100, an AIS to 1/8″ mic input. Unfortunately, they discontinued the item, and I was unable to find any third-party alternatives. I did find accounts of some people that were so desperate for a solution, they bought one of the Sony mics and after some disassembling and soldering, created their own inputs. Not something I’m ready to get into.

After losing an eBay auction for one that went for over $120, I was finally able to find a retailer selling it using Google’s Product Search. The seller had pretty mixed reviews and a poor website, so I’ll hold off on naming it until my order is complete. Feel free to email me individually if you’re searching for this adapter and want to know where I found it.

Now all I need to do is wait for the adapter to arrive, and then go out and buy a non-ugly wireless lavalier mic.

I’ll leave you with a Google search tip, useful for when you’re searching for something specific like [ais] and you don’t want Google to try and help you out by returning variations like [ai]: Stick a + right before the word with no space in between. For example, [+ais mic adapter] (without the brackets) should help narrow down your results. Don’t worry about memorizing this tip, since you can always cheat.

Enough complaining; I’m off to go watch some meteors shower down upon the Earth.

Update: The seller, NextTronics, emailed me this morning to say that the item was not available. A company which collects someone’s billing information before revealing that the item is out of stock does not deserve to be in business. Now I have to scramble for another solution.

Here’s the thing about the Internet…

You think that you’re going to log out soon and be in bed in five minutes, because you are tired and want to get to work early tomorrow. Yet somehow, three hours later, you are still at the computer, watching instructional videos about how to do the moonwalk. And you don’t dance.

Here!

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I’m out in Colorado right now and have been recording nearly all of my travels with an Amod AGL3080, a portable GPS logger which you can pick up for well under $100. It uses AAA batteries (including rechargables), and uses a standard USB connection to retrieve the log files. It’s tiny enough to fit inside the same pocket as my Canon SD1000, and also has a belt hook/strap allowing it to hang out of the pocket and easily accessible for explicitly marking waypoints.

To start logging, it’s pretty easy: simply turn it on. To stop, turn it off. A separate log file is generated for each power cycle. The batteries last long enough for an all-day excursion, so it’s probably best to just leave it on for the day.

The way it syncs up with photos is pretty similar to a lot of devices. You go around and take pictures. Your camera records what time they’re taken. At the same time, the GPS logger is in your pocket, and records where you are at particular times. Then, you put it all in the computer, which looks at what time a picture was taken, and where you were at that time, and figures out where the photo was taken. You can then add this location data to the EXIF data on each photo, which is understood by many popular photo services, allowing you to view your photos on a map.

What I need your advice on is software. The great thing about the Amod device I use is its flexibility. It shows up as a USB drive on any computer, and the log files are in the standard NMEA 0183 format, so it’s not tied to any specific software. The disk that shipped with the tracker came with JetPhoto Studio, and I upgraded it to the “pro” version to get all the features that make it actually usable, like the ability to write EXIF data. It’s fine and gets the job done, and even generates KML and KMZ files for Google Earth. However, the interface is a little confusing (and whoever wrote the messages isn’t fluent in English), and I haven’t found a great process for managing my files yet, since in the end I am importing them into iPhoto and/or Picasa Web Albums. Has anyone else used a Mac to geotag photos from a GPS log? I want the process to be as quick as possible so it doesn’t stop me from keeping up with organizing my photos, and I’m willing to pay for software. If you have a suggested workflow for JetPhoto Studio, I’m open to that as well.

Even though the process is a little annoying right now, I still love the idea and have already tagged nearly 250 photos from the past few days. It’s addicting.

Just testing. Hopefully I’ll be able to use this when I travel next week. The photo below is of the plant on my desk.

For the past few weeks, I’ve had to deal with this message almost every time I try to do anything with my Apple ID:

This Apple ID has been disabled for security reasons.

This is incredibly annoying. I think it might have something to do with the whole iTools/.Mac/MobileMe disaster, so I tried changing my ID to a non-iTools/.Mac/MobileMe address to see if that would help. I was unable to do this:

This change is not allowed. This account name was originally set up as a .Mac account and upgraded to MobileMe. An Apple ID has already been automatically set up for use with this member name. You can access this Apple ID by using either .Mac or MobileMe addresses (e.g. membername@mac.com or membername@me.com), but you cannot change the Apple ID. If you would like to use a new account name, please create a new Apple ID.

Ugh. Let’s see if they let me transfer my store credit to the new account. I’m guessing they won’t.

My name is not easy to spell. I’m used to this, and am not offended when people have trouble. I’ve spelled it incorrectly myself. However, there are times when the proper spelling of my identity really does count: email. I was giving my email address over the phone yesterday, and after I hung up, wondered if I would ever receive the message. The primary address that I usually give out to people is wysz@thewysz.com. But if I simply say it, someone might think that “Wysz” is spelled “Wiz.” Or, if I spell it out, it could become “Wifc.” Fortunately, I did get the message, but I decided to take action to make the process go smoother in the future.

So how did I address this? Well, first I needed a domain name that was easy to type and hear over the phone. Onlinehaircuts.com should work. Next, all I needed was a name. Wysz is too complicated, and I’ve seen people misspell Michael. Bob is easy. bob@onlinehaircuts.com. Yes, onlinehaircuts, all one word. Yes, “Bob” as in The Bobs.

I can’t wait to use it. Matt already thought it was hilarious; you should have seen him laughing.

I recently had to restore my iPhone, and was unable to recover the SMS and Notes data since I managed to corrupt my backup. This wasn’t a big loss, since all of my contact data synched right back from my address book, but I did have one note that I wanted to see again. Fortunately, I was able to find MobileSync Browser, which lets you view this data on your computer. It’s not meant to restore your iPhone, but it does let you access that important note or text message that you thought you had lost.

I like Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone, but why did they have to port one of the most annoying UI aspects of video games to such a device?

At least I can now type on my Apple TV.

Just in case you’re searching to see if others are having the same problem, Yes, AT&T DSL is weird tonight, at least in the Bay Area. I can’t connect to many sites, sign on to AIM, or access the iPhone App Store. Had to turn off WiFi and use AT&T EDGE on my phone just to blog this.

And yes, this would have been more appropriate for Twitter, but that’s down too!

Update @ 12:03 AM: It’s back. Thank goodness. I considered driving back to work and spending the night there. I don’t feel safe without the Internet. Twitter was temporarily up but now is back down.