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Everyone wants to try Windows 8 Consumer Preview. You've downloaded the software and installed it leaving just one task left: actually using the thing.

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Abobe's Photoshop Express(BETA) was made available in late March, but I just haven't had the time to fiddle with it. I was poking around the Adobe site earlier today (avoiding my to-do list like the plague) and finally decided to give it a whirl. I intended to spend a few minutes checking it out. I ended up spending a few hours playing with it and completely blowing off my to-do list for the afternoon. I hate it when that happens.

Photoshop Express is another Rich Internet Application (RIA) that, to me, shouts Software as a Service (SaaS) is unquestionably the future of software delivery. Sure many RIA's today have limited capability (or more bugs than your average road kill on a warm summer day), but the fact of the matter is SaaS is in its infancy.

Until about two years ago, it wasn't that often that I’d encounter Variable Frame Rate (VFR) video evidence, unless of course the case included video recorded by mobile phones. Times, they are a changing my friend.

DVR/NVR manufacturers are leveraging the advantages of VFR more often these days. And why shouldn't they be, especially when we’re seeing even the high-end professional video recording equipment start to use VFR more frequently. Throw in the want/need to get to Ultra HD before the next guy, and suddenly you've got a decent argument for VFR.

The Law Enforcement & Emergency Services Video Association has announced the introduction of a new certification. LEVA will now confer Certified Forensic Video Technician (CFVT) status on students who have performed video evidence processing for at least one year and successfully complete its three core courses within a five-year period:

• Basic Forensic Video Analysis & the Law,
• Intermediate Forensic Video Analysis & the Law and
• Advanced Forensic Video Analysis & the Law.

The courses, totaling 120 hours of lecture and hands-on instruction in LEVA’s Digital Multimedia Evidence Processing Lab at the University of Indianapolis, are designed to lead students to an advanced level of competency, knowledge and skills as Technicians in the science of forensic video analysis.

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It's a familiar scene in movies and on TV: a character, seeking to understand an issue involving computers, proclaims that an "expert" is needed. A teen is then brought on screen or referenced in dialogue.

The scene is funny because it illustrates something with which the audience is familiar anecdotally: the "digital divide."

While computer literacy is not universal, neither is it rare.

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Adobe is currently investigating what appears to be the inappropriate use of an Adobe code signing certificate for Windows. We plan to revoke the impacted certificate on October 4, 2012 for all software code signed after July 10, 2012.

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You can just press play if you want to, but if you're forensically processing evidence, I wouldn't advise it. Know the playback software, as it is just as important to proper playback and interpretation as the hardware. Take Windows Media Player, for instance.

In the following video I discuss a few quirks about Windows Media Player v12, a shortcoming of the popular metadata tool MediaInfo, and more.

By Sean Hollister

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 hasn't even been officially announced, much less reviewed, but that won't keep you from buying the company's latest Fermi-based graphics card anyhow. Over at Newegg, usual suspects ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI and Palit have fielded twelve models in all, most with slightly different features, thought it seems the base configuration has 336 CUDA cores (down from 352) and a mere 768MB of GDDR5 memory.

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Want to know what to encode with for great H.264 files? Robert Reinhardt, founder of VideoRx.com, is happy to tell you. One minute into his recent Streaming Media West presentation on how to evaluate H.264 encoders he gave the big reveal: FFmpeg is the best choice around.

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January was quite a month for technology enthusiasts, with MacWorld and CES showcasing tons of cool new gear and promising much more in the coming months. Video is taking center stage in 2007, as manufacturers and service providers dump research and development money into video like never before. While some of the major players are still sticking to their proprietary guns, it's refreshing to see that at least a few are doing the exact opposite.

"I feel so lucky to get to be the person to thank you..., on behalf of a world of people seeking free knowledge." - Wikipedia Executive Director

Members helping members.  Let's do this!

I donated to Wikipedia again today as they're in the middle of another fundraiser.  They're an independent, ad-Free non-profit.  No sleezy marketing, covert data collection, persuasive technologies to get or keep you, etc.  Very similar to what I've always tried to do with my websites and resources online. 

What do 120Hz, 240Hz, 600Hz really mean for the picture quality of your new HDTV?

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