I’ve got to hand it to the makers of “Office Space”. This one movie is a cultural phenomenon that just about everyone knows about.

But why didn’t they make a sequel? Where is Office Space 2? Everyone else who has had a hit movie can’t seem to get the sequel out fast enough.

I’ll tell you why… because the creators of Office Space knew better. They had a great run and didn’t crack under the pressure to make a sequel in a race to make more money. They kept the Office Space concept pure and that is worth my respect.

Just another reason to like Office Space!

I’ve had enough! No more will I wait over 5 days for to render an hour’s worth of footage. Those days are over! I’ve taken matters into my own hands and brought in reinforcements. And on May 31, it will be sent as the harbinger of doom… the devistating render monster.

All bow before the latest machine that will soon be in my arsenal!

I present to you… the Renderminator!

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So you’re ready to buy a new camcorder. You have all kinds of ideas about capturing your child’s first birthday party, parent’s 50th anniversary, or any other special event. That’s great! But when you’re shopping for your new camcorder… keep this one vital specification in mind… lux.

Every camera has a lux rating. This rating measures how sensitive the CCD (or CMOS) chip in your camcorder is to light. This light sensitivity is measured by the number of candles that are needed to capture a well lit image.

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A quick tip for all aspiring video editors. Though Adobe Premiere allows you to import MPEG movies, that doesn’t mean it handles them well. Actually, it handles them poorly. Instead of nice smooth video, you get a choppy substitute that makes it extremely difficult to make effective edits.

What is the solution?

Thankfully, the good folks at MainConcept created a plugin called MPEG Pro. Once installed, it makes all your MPEG movies run as smoothly as their AVI counterparts!

Now yes, you could transcode all of your MPEG footage into AVI, but if you don’t have to… why bother?

Anyone involved with search engine optimization (SEO) will tell you. Getting authoritative inbound links is crucial to success. Especially when targeting more competitive keyword phrases.

When I first got involved with SEO, placing an external link on Wikipedia.org seemed like a great place to get started. Well, it was, and everyone else thought of it long before I did. So when I tried placing links on various pages they were quickly removed.

But I persevered… and eventually got my wish.

Now that I actually have a link on Wikipedia that hasn’t been removed, I find out that in January of this year (2007) Wikipedia started appending the “nofollow” attribute to all external links!

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BrianShoff.com is undergoing some minor surgery. It’s upgrading to the latest version of Wordpress, installing some hip new plugins, and adding some new community features.

As always, the project is taking longer than anticipated, but I think you’ll like what you see. Hopefully the changes will make this blog better for all of us!

While I’m making some changes… any suggestions?

We all know that diet and exercise are the key components to any weight loss plan. But what if you just can’t find the motivation? Maybe you watch your diet and exercise regularly but aren’t getting results? Wouldn’t it be great if there was something out there that could help you lose weight with zero effort?

New findings at the Salk Institute could be the answer you’re looking for.

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It’s amazing how deadlines shape our life. They can be tight or loose, but when you get one, you know it. They are parasites. Deadlines need you to accomplish them and feed off you until they get what they want. That’s why it feels so good when they’re achieved. You lose your extra baggage. Don’t achieve a deadline and its power increases.

Deadlines are not only parasitic, but physics marvels. They have the power to bend time and space around us and create a microcosm with one solid ending point. Consuming more and more energy as it draws nearer and continually altering our experience. Outside of the box, you’re a regular person, but inside, your host to a powerful force that makes 5 hours feel like 1 and the time you have left feel like minutes. All hail to the deadline.

You’ll work late, miss important time with family, lose sleep, and offend colleagues because of your strengthening deadline obsession. As it escalates, you’ll find that you can’t be happy unless you’re working for the deadline. Anything less is frivolous and insignificant. Who has time to enjoy television… the deadline is approaching.

Then the deadline arrives… and another takes its place. For us to honor and obey… death do us part.