A Few Personal Notes

  • Thread starter Thread starter PapaJohn \(MVP\)
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PapaJohn \(MVP\)

To the regular readers of this newsgroup,

During the week of Dec 15, I'll be visiting Microsoft and meeting with Movie Maker team members for a couple days. It'll be my first time there since the February MVP Summit. Of course, I'll be carrying your collective inputs as it rolls up daily from your posts into my www.papajohn.org website, and seeking info about patches, revisions, enhancements, etc. I'll share what I can when I return. There's so much about Movie Maker that I don't' know, and appreciate any opportunity to learn more.

My new book 'Windows Movie Maker 2: Do Amazing Things' is just finishing up the printing process, and will be heading toward Amazon and bookstores in days. It's 'online companion' is already up and on my website, a better alternative than an included CD or DVD. The 'Zero to Hero' book has been well received.

As you know, I try to make my newsgroup postings short and to the point. I post on 52 newsgroups and a few forums, and 99% of the posts are about Movie Maker.

I sometimes see, on this newsgroup and others, notes about a post being 'off-topic'. Mostly I see such notes on the other newsgroups when people are asking about Movie Maker. I and others on those newsgroups point the poster to this newsgroup, as appropriate. But, I also answer the specific question, and don't expect the poster to have to repost someplace else (I get thumped on regularly for doing it). This newsgroup isn't mine, and it's not policed by anyone. Newsgroups are available for anyone to say whatever they want. Forums are different - they are moderated.

My prime interest is in using Movie Maker, and helping others with it. You can't talk about making movies with Movie Maker without also talking about things like camcorders and burning DVDs. They are lots of fun but sometimes frustrating, and I expect them to get more so as the world turns.


PapaJohn
 
Hi Papajohn

That's great news. I look forward to the feedback.

Regarding On and Off topic, I thought I should reply here as you made
comment here.

The rules of Netiquette which are the general rules subscribed to by all
who host a news group (and Microsoft has a big input into it nowadays so I
am told) require the following

- Although there are Newsgroups which welcome advertising, in general it is
considered nothing less than criminal to advertise off-topic products.
Sending an advertisement to each and every group will pretty much guarantee
your loss of connectivity.
and
Advertising is welcomed on some lists and Newsgroups, and abhorred on
others! This is another example of knowing your audience before you post.
Unsolicited advertising which is completely off-topic will most certainly
guarantee that you get a lot of hate mail.
and

- Messages and articles should be brief and to the point. Don't wander
off-topic, don't ramble and don't send mail or post messages solely to point
out other people's errors in typing or spelling. These, more than any other
behavior, mark you as an immature beginner.
The above is an extract from the RFC rules on NNTP Messages and can be found
at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/rfc/rfc1855.html For some reason I
cannot load the actual website for RFC which has it spelled out in exact
terms. The above is some ones interpretation.
Even though its an interpretation, its quite clear that in this newsgroups
case talking/advising continuously that someone should try another product
is advertising and consequently Off-Topic I am sure that whilst things move
along and the person warned of his off-topic posts eventually stops doing it
and that no great deal is made out of it, then Microsoft as a subscriber to
the rules will turn a blind eye. That does not make it OK, as these rules
apply to every newsgroup in the world, it is not unreasonable to expect this
newsgroup with its obvious title to deal with matters related to Movie Maker
and not how to get TEMPGenc to work or how you should record audio on some
other device
 
PapaJohn,
whilst your efforts to help those of us who have MM stop when applying
effects are admirable,
they are difficult to comprehend and ( certainly in my case ) inconclusive.
The developers should be 'challenged' to add some defensive programming when
their
application is clearly at the whim of any codec developer.
The MS on-line support folks don't even seem to be aware of it !! and
certainly don't seem to have a solution.
Your efforts to patch over the inadeqeuacies of the application are of NO
help to those for whom the computer is a tool and not a challenging
exercise !
Good luck
Peter ( replace the MINUS with the symbol and it'll get to me :-)
 
Hi there,

First, I do agree that it would be nice if the program was more robust...no
doubt at all about that.

I also have software (The paid for sort) that is so far advanced over Movie
Maker that it makes MM look as though it came from the Ark. But it still
has the same problem as Movie Maker with codecs and because it is both a
non-linear environment and highly developed in its method of application
the problems caused are very much greater when a codec plays up.

At the end of the day I think Movie Maker 2 is possibly the most robust and
definitely user friendly program I have seen in this area of computing.
Sure it still needs a few tweaks, but irrespective of what may come in the
future, MM2 is worth a hell of a lot more than any of us paid for
it.....which was Nothing!
 
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