- May 21, 2001
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Since this is a long post, please feel free to ignore the rant since all I need is answers to the questions in bold. The rant is just here for explaination.
My boss told me last week that he is getting some computer cameras to record some videos of experiments (explosions). Great I think to myself, it would be fun to play with ultra high speed cameras to record these. But no, he didn't bother with that he just wanted a normal camera so he can remotely watch the explosions. Well at least I can help him choose a quality camera. Nope, he saw the X-10 popup ads and had already bought from them before telling me of his troubles. I refuse to buy from any company with annoying pop-up ads! The camera's are decent for what you pay (3 cameras, remote control of camera directions, wireless transmitter and reciever, computer cables all for $79.) But the software is horrible. No help, no manuals, no method of saving movies (just viewing them live on the computer), etc.
What is the best decently priced software/hardware that will let us record a movie from a video camera to a file - any format will work?
Even though there is no way to save the movie (only still photos) in the X-10 software my boss comes up with the idea that if he saved enough still photos, we could put it into a movie ourselves. Sure it is possible, but it is horribly time consuming. Plus the X-10 software will only save a still snapshot every 5 seconds. But then you need to delete the old pictures using a right-click menu. For some reason the menu will only stay open for 2 seconds (and there are multiple layers to manuver though to delete the old pictures). He says this is a problem with many menus. He is running Windows ME, the one windows OS that I have no experience with, and so I have no idea what the cause of the problem is or how to fix it.
Is there a way to keep the right-click menus in various programs on the screen for more than 2 seconds? Is this a known flaw with Windows ME or is this some unique problem with his laptop?
Finally during 3 hours of watching him struggle through (doing things like saving a file, then making his desired changes, and closing the program - I really think it works so much better to save AFTER making the changes instead of before...) I finally leave in frustration. I come back later with a mouse so at least I don't have to watch him struggle with the laptop touchpad (he thinks for some reason the buttons must be switched when you use any touchpad - they aren't!). The USB mouse works great for 10 minutes or so, but then stops operating. He says this is common on his laptop.
Is there something I can do to keep the USB mouse running?
I'm so frustrated watching him try to delete files. He'll select the files he wants deleted, unselect them, go to the file menu and select all files, then go to the file menu and hit delete (remember he can't remember to right click or left click, so this takes quite some time, especially since he forgets which menu the choice is in). I suggest hitting the 'delete' key instead of struggling with the menu but he won't listen.
What is the best way to deal with people who obviously don't know how to operate a computer, so they request you be in their presence, but won't let you do the work (which would only take 1 minute) and instead make you sit hours watching them fail repeatedly at the same simple task, and won't listen to your suggestions of much better ways to do things?
My boss told me last week that he is getting some computer cameras to record some videos of experiments (explosions). Great I think to myself, it would be fun to play with ultra high speed cameras to record these. But no, he didn't bother with that he just wanted a normal camera so he can remotely watch the explosions. Well at least I can help him choose a quality camera. Nope, he saw the X-10 popup ads and had already bought from them before telling me of his troubles. I refuse to buy from any company with annoying pop-up ads! The camera's are decent for what you pay (3 cameras, remote control of camera directions, wireless transmitter and reciever, computer cables all for $79.) But the software is horrible. No help, no manuals, no method of saving movies (just viewing them live on the computer), etc.
What is the best decently priced software/hardware that will let us record a movie from a video camera to a file - any format will work?
Even though there is no way to save the movie (only still photos) in the X-10 software my boss comes up with the idea that if he saved enough still photos, we could put it into a movie ourselves. Sure it is possible, but it is horribly time consuming. Plus the X-10 software will only save a still snapshot every 5 seconds. But then you need to delete the old pictures using a right-click menu. For some reason the menu will only stay open for 2 seconds (and there are multiple layers to manuver though to delete the old pictures). He says this is a problem with many menus. He is running Windows ME, the one windows OS that I have no experience with, and so I have no idea what the cause of the problem is or how to fix it.
Is there a way to keep the right-click menus in various programs on the screen for more than 2 seconds? Is this a known flaw with Windows ME or is this some unique problem with his laptop?
Finally during 3 hours of watching him struggle through (doing things like saving a file, then making his desired changes, and closing the program - I really think it works so much better to save AFTER making the changes instead of before...) I finally leave in frustration. I come back later with a mouse so at least I don't have to watch him struggle with the laptop touchpad (he thinks for some reason the buttons must be switched when you use any touchpad - they aren't!). The USB mouse works great for 10 minutes or so, but then stops operating. He says this is common on his laptop.
Is there something I can do to keep the USB mouse running?
I'm so frustrated watching him try to delete files. He'll select the files he wants deleted, unselect them, go to the file menu and select all files, then go to the file menu and hit delete (remember he can't remember to right click or left click, so this takes quite some time, especially since he forgets which menu the choice is in). I suggest hitting the 'delete' key instead of struggling with the menu but he won't listen.
What is the best way to deal with people who obviously don't know how to operate a computer, so they request you be in their presence, but won't let you do the work (which would only take 1 minute) and instead make you sit hours watching them fail repeatedly at the same simple task, and won't listen to your suggestions of much better ways to do things?
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