Saturday, September 13, 2003

CDRW problem resolved After removing a couple DVD authoring tools I had installed,  and installing an upgrade/update for Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD,  my CDRW drive started reading discs again.  Seems the Pinacle Driver for the "InstantDrive" program that is a part of the package had gotten "disconnected" (that's my guess anyway).  All is well again. comment [] 4:46:54 PM

CDRW no longer recognizes disks that are in the drive I installed a DVD writer about 3 weeks ago.  It had its HP -rleated burning utilities.  I also bought Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD (free after rebate).  It has a program called Instant Write that creates a virtual drive.  All of that seemed to be working fine.  My Samsung CDRW was being recognized and I was able to read and write to that drive just fine.  Then,  sometime after that,  my CDRW no longer reads the disks that are placed in it.  The DVDRW still reads and writes fine.  Windows shows that the drive is there,  but it does not recognize a CDROM I place in it.  I have a program called HP-DLA installed (it's in the uninstall list) and I have a program called Daemon Tools that enables a DVD image to be mounted by the system and used as a drive,  so my Power-DVD (part of the HP DVD package- my writer is an HP dvd 200i).  My E drive,  which is the samsung cdrw drive (as identified in MyComputer when I right click on  CD-RW (E:) drive and select the Settings Tab),  says it is using the INstantWriteDriver.   There is also a tab called DLA,  which shows the following: Label: No Media (there is a CDROM with information on it in the drive) Type: Samsung CD-R/RW SW 212B Drag and Drop recording option selected. I am uncertain which ,  if any ,  of these things have caused my problem.  Device Status junder properties says "the device is working properly".  Any clues? comment [] 11:48:53 AM

	Sunday, July 06, 2003

Bruce vs the Machines Bruce Almighty and Terminator:  these last two movies I saw at the theater (Bruce on June 11 on my 20th anniversary) and Terminator 3 (yresterday).  I am always interested in different treatments of the now decades old human fear of  "machines taking over".  In fact,  the subtitle of Terminator 3 is "Rise of the Machines" (and the previous one,  T2 was "Judgment Day").  Both suggest that technology finally reached the level where Computers became "self-aware" and instigated a revolt against humans.  This is also a slight variation on the Matrix theme,  where all of what is experienced by most people as "life" is a computer generated program "life simulation",  but the question that gets re-opened in The Matrix Reloaded is "who wrote the program?" This is where I think the Terminator theme is purely science fiction.  Their suggestion is that machines become "self-aware",  crossing the barrier from "instructed" (by the humans who build them) to "deciding agent".  The fact is,  computers are still very much tools that do our bidding,  from the machine level responding to volatge ,  to the operating system level,  to the appliaction level.  All are responding to voltage,  yes-no decisions,  translations of 0's and 1's into bits and  which represent other things, and work together to calculate and represent.  The fear that lies behind the mythological tales ,  I believe,  are the sense of being "out of control" with our decisions.  When we hand over "control" to a system of software and a network of such which is comanded to respond to situation A with response B by activating computer-controlled system C,  the range of possibilities for "malfunction" grows.  The malfunction may snowball into something unforseen. In Bruce Almighty,  his initial decisions and acts as "God" have repurcussions on the other side of the globe (the moon incident when he arranges the moon to enhance the atmosphere for his romantic evening).  The application of computer control to such things as Missile Silos (also a theme in the 1983 movie, "War Games") gives us cause for pause when we contemplate handing over more power to the "Sytems" we have constructed. comment [] 1:42:44 PM

	Wednesday, June 11, 2003

Field of Dreams The DVD I've had for a couple of years, and bring out more often than others, especially now and lately (see my The 'Field of Dreams' Roadtrip story) Aside from its mystical , connected meaning to my present "dreams",  it's one heck of a baseball movie,  capturing ther hearts of many a baseball fan who misses the "When it was A Game" feel the game used to have, and whoever's family history is accentuated and made dear by numerous little league games and trips to major league parks.  This movie certainly tugs at this heart of mine,  especially when Ray calls out "Dad......you wanna have a catch?" and his voice breaks....and the lump in my throat pops up just about every time.  The DVD is good too.  A very good "Making Of" documentary is one of the extras. comment [] 1:43:08 PM

Bruce Almighty This was a funny, and sometimes profound movie.  Not that they delved deeply into theology, except that some very simple theological points can be profondly relevant,  like the simple matter of trying to comprehend the role of God as deity.  Part of it is that it's not comprehendible.  Part of it is to anthropomorphize God is to make it even more incomprehensible.  There were the usual, funny,  often hilarious Jim Carrey antics and slapstick moments.  These made the movie entertaining simply as comedy.  The God concepts were,  as usual,  fromthe stuff of Pop theology such as "the real miracles are a mom working two jobs and still taking time to take her kids to a soccer game."  I think the point is well taken that the kinds of "miracles" we often look for are something fantastic and immediate, and of the "parting the red sea" variety.  The point is also made that attention should be focused on people around us and that often we need to "stop looking up" and look around.  That applies well to the dangers of being too "otherwordly" focused by being less attentive to "seeing others through God's eyes".   Read on in Bruce and The Concept of Call   comment [] 1:26:15 PM

	Tuesday, December 03, 2002

Digital Photography?  I got a digital camera as a gift from a friend,  who is really into digital photography now and has a 12 megapixel camera,  which he used to give us a portrait of the family on Dec. 28. comment [] 10:51:20 AM

My Must See TV Schedule Saturdays and Sundays in January NFL Playoff games Sunday The Practice Tuesday  Smallville Judging Amy If feasible,  on tape: NYPD (used to be a "must watch live" show) Wednesday The West Wing Thursday ER (Not as strong now as in its first 9-10 years) Kentucky Basketball Games (whenever shown) comment [] 9:39:05 AM

Where are the DVD Collections of These? When are the good shows going to follow suit and release DVD collections?  I've seen collections of Malcolm in the Middle (which I've never seen,  so it might be good, but it is certainly not got any credentials of classic).....so where are the collections for "The Paper Chase" and "Thirty Something" (there are collections for My So Called Life and Once and Again,  which are two other shows from the writers of Thirty Something,  both of which I also liked....so why not do one of your best effort?) comment [] 9:33:12 AM

Ordinary People I bought (or got free at Best Buy with a purchase of Norton System Works) Ordinary People ,  a movie I saw while I was a seminary student,  and was one of the best I ever saw.  Powerful, emotional, and real.  I've been wanting a DVD copy of this for quite a while. comment [] 1:06:56 PM

	Thursday, November 14, 2002

Web Department on creativepro.com Looks like a pretty good DV video site comment [] 10:19:03 AM

	Wednesday, October 02, 2002

West Wing Dreams TV Guide's West Wing Showguide Martin Sheen, From Internet Movie Database I remember seeing "Heaven Can Wait" back in 1978.  At that time,  I was a Rams fan who had been frustrted year in and year out with plaoff losses.  losing 3 NFC championships in the past 5 years,  and 2 other first rounders.  The fact that the Rams got there and won in this movie (besides it being a really fun story) kept this movie near and dear to my heart (it was also the very first movie I saw on my very first VCR a couple of years later.) The West Wing is kinda like that for me now.  With the Bush crew in the whitehouse,  the show makes me yearn for the articulate and the profound coming from the mouths of the leaders.  I've always liked the Martin Sheen aura,  and it's no coincidence that he plays well as a political leader,  since he also had roles as Jack Kennedy in the TV miniseries "Kennedy" that aired in 1983,  and as Bobby Kennedy in "The Missiles of October" (William Devane played Jack in that one).   He also played a crazed politician with a desire to "push the button" in "The Dead Zone").   I really like him in the Jed Bartlett role,  and the idealism we get to see not only in him,  but in the other characters... like last week when Toby and Josh listened to a father talk about sending his daughter to college and how difficult it is......I read on the TV Guide site's West Wing Guide that they come away from that conversation from last week to tonight's episode with plans to do something about it .  comment [] 7:12:48 AM

	Tuesday, October 01, 2002

If anybody has seen my notice about my move to http://theoblogical.org  ,  please let me know by commenting something here if you get the time.   I want to see that somebody is getting this.  And anybody who has tips on anything else I might do to notify people,  I would appreciate them. comment [] 7:30:51 AM

	Thursday, September 05, 2002

Tootsie The first leg of a double-header Movie Night --- the second one was the one I had higher expectations for, and it turned out that Tootsie was far superior. The other was Dudley Moore and MaryTyler Moore and a title I don't even remember;(I looked it up: Six Weeks) (I'd love to get this DVD someday,  like when I have enough money to be buying DVD's.  But if you want to buy it,  plese go to Amazon by clicking the graphic here and purchasing it there---you are under no obligation to buy onece you get there...it just helps me if you end up buying it on your visit) comment [] 9:39:31 PM

An Officer and a Gentleman: Our first Movie Theater Movie Date The first movie theater date, in Cincinnati, sometime in September 1982 comment [] 9:28:51 PM

Movies we went to see about 20 years ago Gandhi got me thinking about the Cosmic Christ, since he seemed to be better at being a Christian than a lot of Christians. Know what I mean? Later, when I found the book by Matthew Fox ("The Cosmic Christ"), Gandhi's life had prepared the way for me to think about the way Christ reveals himself across and in spite of culture. comment [] 9:09:55 PM

© Copyright 2003 Dale Lature. Last update: 9/23/2003; 3:17:30 PM.