Operation 4k Camera

Testing the quality of 4k in a couple of cameras.

I brought 2 cameras to the 2022 Boston Marathon near the 5-mile mark - my GoPro Hero 9 and the Canon xa40.

Here is a sample of 4K footage from both cameras. They were taken from the same point moments apart. It???s a good idea of the quality of the videos p

Settings

GoPro Hero 9 - Default Activity Settings in 4K mode with wide lens.

Canon xa40 - Auto Focus and Auto Exposure in 4K mode

Video

iCloud Phone Scam

Audio recording of a scammer trying to steal my iCloud info

Every once in a while the house phone would get a call from Apple about my iCloud account. These are clearly scams because there's no reason for Apple to be calling you about your iCloud account.

In the following very brief call you can hear the person trying to set up the scam. I think that the next step would be for them to log into my account to "fix" the problem.

Phone Scam

Covid Mortgage Health Center

Do People Really Call Back?

I get a lot of strange calls. Most of the time I have my phone on Do Not Disturb. Every once in a while I???ll get a voice message from a potential scammer.

Here???s a voice mail that I got. They put some weird background music that made me want to put a slide show of flowers.

Transcript was provided by Apple and it seemed pretty accurate.

Transcript

Michael Savage

Classic Intro Clip from 1999

This weeks audio clip is from April 30, 1999.

Michael Savage, a popular radio talk show host from KSFO in San Francisco, replays his show opening.

The whole purpose is to make light of some of the failed NATO bombings of Yugoslavia that were going on at the time.

Listen to the Clip

November 1999 Commercials

Classic Dot Com Commercials

This week's Media Monday features some commercials I found on a VHS tape that had content from November 1999. I pulled off some commercials from that recording.

Watch the Commercials

Details

• Discover Card - With USPS running away after delivery.
• Dino Crisis by Capcom - Weird way to sell a video game.
• AOL 5.0 - Aired during the peak of membership. Broadband would start gaining popularity in 2000.
• Checkout.com - This looked to be an online rental service.
• McAfee - Interesting way to sell computer security.
• Web Without Wires by Motorola - Motorola promoted the world without wires.
• Duracell Ultra - Duracell always promotes that they have the fastest battery.
• eTrade with PacBell Promotion - Interesting promotion for new eTrade customers - California Only.
• Intel Web Outfitter Service - Back in 1999, Intel offered a lot of free services on their website - not anymore.
• Saturn SL - Classic Saturn Commercial.
• Toyota Celica - Classic Toyota Celica commercial.

Commercials from 2006 and Earlier

Do these Bring Back Memories?

This week's media Monday is a mix of some 2006 commercials. These were recorded using iMovie on my old G4 computer.

Video Collection

Here's this week line up:

• ProLine Infomercial - A minute into the ProLine Infomercial
• McDonalds - Eddie the Echo plays Mini Golf
• Wild Card Sunday - Introduction to the NFC Wild Card Sunday Game
• Pepsi Machine - A Pepsi Machine plays football
• MasterCard - featuring Payton Manning.
• Nextel - A couple of guys getting down in the office
• Buy.com - CEO promoting Buy.com from the rooftop
• Crush Soda - Watch the manager drink all the crush soda during the game.
• McDonald Nuggets - Is this the first Chicken McNuggets commercial from McDonalds? (Not sure of the air date - maybe 1983?)

Commercial

Auto Insurance Scam Calls

Caller Tried to Hide the Do Not Call List part

This week's Media Monday is a phone call that I got last week about car insurance. This is a typical type of call that I get.

Listen In

Couple of Notes

When the call got transferred none of the information that I provided to the original person was sent. Why did they ask me them? What are they going to do with that information?

The second call I got was an automated call. I got that particular call a couple of times that day and only once got beyond saying ???Good.???

I get this spam calls all the time usually they piggyback on each other. Almost if a vendor sells my active number and a machine takes immediate action and calls the number.

Ski Wachusetts

Watch the Improvements of Skiing

This week's media is a montage of a video of Juliana going to Wachusett's Mountain in Palmer Massachusetts. She spent 2 mornings learning how to ski. We spent the third-day free skiing.

Video was shot using a GoPro Hero 9 attached to a ski pole via Gooseneck Clamp mount. The weather was really cold on the third day that the GoPro couldn???t warm up to work properly.

Watch Video

Ski Wachusetts

Mount Wachusett's offers 90 minutes of skiing. Students get an opportunity to ski before and after the lesson to practice what they learned.

We arrived early each day so we could get the first lesson of the day. The lessons start at 8 am.

Level 3 start on the Easy trail and end the day on the intermediate trail. Level 4 conductors their classes on the intermediate trail.

Memory Power Infomercial

Featuring Harry Lorayne

Back in the 1990s, Infomercials were the late-night filler spot for many networks. I enjoyed watching them as a good way to fall asleep.

When going through my VHS collection, I found the Memory Power by Harry Lorayne infomercial. This is the kind of infomercial that would put me to sleep. It's just a show that will put you to sleep.

Watch this broadcast from 1998:

Order the Tapes on eBay

You can order the Memory Power by Harry Lorayne 5 Cassettes/ 1 VHS Tape Set~1988,1992 for about $20 on eBay.

The funny thing is that some people are selling the 1992 cassettes as new, they ordered the tapes but never bothered to open and listen to them.

Mega Speed Reading Informercial

Classic Informercial from 1998

Is it possible to purchase a training program that can help you read faster? Kevin Mark Trudeau and Howard Stephen Berg think they can.

Watch the first ten minutes of this infomercial from 1998.

Still interested?

You can find the complete package that Howard Stephen Berg was selling on the infomercial on eBay. There are plenty of people that are selling the Mega Speed Reading Course for about $10.