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So sleepy. My head won't stop. It's literally throbbing. Migraine. Perfect.

Sorry, I do that, ramble on about me & how I'm feeling a lot. I'm working on it, give me time. Anyway, you ready? Drum roll please...

Work both East coast & West coast hours, you silly goose. Bam! More hours in a day.

See, I am a mathematical genius, I think, based on some past experiences. Or maybe it's just my OCD. I can't say for sure, because nobody every told me why they came to me. Nobody explained any of the crazy sh** going on, and why me?

To this day, I have no answers. I know I'm good at math. I know I'm good at problem solving. I know technology things.

I also know I'm a much better team player these days, after 35 years of being a self-centered prick.

I was out in the Seattle area Tuesday along with my colleague Ed Baker to provide a couple of free seminars on digital video evidence for members of the Washington Homicide Investigators Association (WHIA).

Many thanks to WHIA for the opportunity and hospitality, as well as to our employer Ocean Systems for their dedication to, and continued support of educating the LE community on the multitude of issues related to digital & multimedia evidence.

Stumbled on a blog post today about this topic, which is worth the read IMHO - "Why I moved away from FOSS as my main toolset". The author, whom I first met when he was a student in a LEVA Level 1 and/or 2 class I was teaching the better part of 10 years ago, raises some valid points about leveraging FOSS in DME workflows; training, support and documenting FOSS tools being the points I agree with. To that end, keep your eyes & ears open for news about professional training & support for FOSS solutions related to DME.

With that said, I'm going to make a few comments and pose a few questions to the community based on the above post, so if you haven't read it...the rest of this post is probably moot.

Users of Microsoft's free movie editing and photo management programs in Windows Essentials received a treat Wednesday as the company released new versions of the offerings for Windows 7 and Windows 8.

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LEVA has officially published the latest version of their Best Practices for the Acquisition of DME, version 3.0 dated 4/14/2010.

Click here to download the PDF (77KB)

What's the best way to deter a thief? Ruin the spoils, of course. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have agreed to a broad outline that will culminate in the creation of a central database for stolen cellphones. The goal? To block lifted units from functioning on US shores. Over the next six months, each firm will build out its own stolen device database for integration into a larger, central database, said a Wall Street Journal source, with regional carriers joining the effort over the following two years.

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In an effort to make it easier for YouTube users to make changes to their videos after uploading them, YouTube is rolling out a brand new video editor.

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I've used everything from freeware tools to high-end encoders to accomplish various audio & video trans-coding tasks over the last 15 years or so, and when time permits, I love testing out new tools.  Recently, when installing software on to a new PC, I decided to try another low-cost solution that's been around for quite some time, but I've never used; AVS Video Converter.

Hewlett-Packard has recalled about 162,000 lithium-ion batteries used in its HP and Compaq laptop computers. The announcement, made late last week by HP and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), adds additional battery packs to a recall program announced just a week earlier.

Full story:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/229105/hp_recalls_laptop_batteries.html

Posted by Larry C. on behalf of James M. Kennedy.

The New York State Police Forensic Video/Multimedia Services Unit has approval to fill newly created positions in the Forensic DME Section and the Video Production Section of the Unit. Information on the first phase of hiring can be seen at the link below. Feel free to forward the link to anyone who you feel may have interest in the positions. Any questions and/or interest can be directed to myself using the contact information in the below email signature.

In support of LEVA member agency the Vancouver Police Department and the Integrated Riot Investigation Team (IRIT), LEVA announces the activation of the Forensic Video Analysis Response Team.

IRIT investigators are inundated with over 1600 hours of video depicting criminal acts that took place immediately following this summer's Stanely Cup hockey finals, including arson, looting, and serious assaults.

Between September 26th and October 9th over 40 LEVA Forensic Video Analysts will converge on the National Digital Multimedia Evidence Processing Lab at the University of Indianapolis to undertake the mass processing of DME.

For further information please feel free to contact LEVA President Blaine Davison via email at president@leva.org

LEVA recently announced that the New York State Police will be hosting their Photographic/Video Comparison course in Albany, NY April 4th through the 8th.

Photographic/Video Comparisons focuses on the science of comparing known objects, vehicles, clothing and humans with CCTV images of questioned objects, vehicles, clothing and humans. The process of cataloguing class characteristics and unique characteristics found in questioned evidence is examined in detail. Using Adobe Photoshop and other generally accepted scientific tools for imaging comparison work,analysts/examiners develop a scientific workflow involving the hands-on analysis of video evidence, criminal-case report writing and courtroom presentation.

Complete details and application forms are available via the LEVA website.

Back in August I announced we'd be launching DMEpod, and I later stated that I hoped to have the first episode out in October.  Well, that ain't happening so get over it...'cause we've got LIVE streaming coming your way baby!!!

Media-Geek TV will be streaming forensic multimedia news and training content 24/7, and DMEpod episodes will be cut from the channel and distributed via podcast monthly (or so).  All of the behind the scenes stuff is going to take some time to get worked out, so I'm personally setting January as our official launch date, but we're already loading and broadcasting content, and periodically running LIVE test events.

I've got to tell you, the testing is just plain fun, and I'm really excited to get others on board and contributing.   While the channel will predominantly feature pre-recorded content (and a growing on-demand library), the possibilities related to the LIVE event streaming are endless!  Think association, working group, or committee meetings...round table discussions...LIVE training with multiple instructors...LIVE interviews with industry vendors, engineers, and analysts...and so on. Geek or not, that is just plain cool.

 Maybe I'm a bit naive, but I'm sticking to the all volunteer concept, and hope you'll consider participating.