**New toy and new legislature..no one is safe

Recently I purchased a new toy. It is a Lite-On device which can copy DVD's to VHS tapes and vice versa as well as move broadcast TV to a DVD. It actually works. I bought it primarily to copy some old VHS tapes of weddings, etc to DVD format in the hope they might be more permanent.

The ability to copy broadcast TV to a DVD has one more use I was not even thinking about when I bought it. I have admit I first bought another device, but it relied on VHS tape players and both mine died within minutes of trying to use them again. They had been used for only a few video tapes too. The other use is that once on a DVD, the computer DVD program allows capturing frames from the video.

I first tried that yesterday when the device managed to get SDPB broadcast of Governor Rounds State of the State speech to a DVD. Had to see if it would be viewable in a computer and then noticed the frame capture option of the program. It copies to bitmap images which are huge, but can be converted to jpg format. Below is a photo of the SD legislature as Rounds addressed them yesterday Jan 8, 2008.

This device (if it keeps working) will be useful for getting timely images into this blog. As for comments on the Rounds SOS speech, they will be coming tomorrow. I am ready to do something else besides post here tonight even if the Rounds idea that farmers and ranchers just don't pay enough to educate the children of city and town residents is absurd and the regressive taxation using sales and property taxes distorts all kinds of issues and programs.

**Stay tuned even if technology and related devices leave you bored searching for something else to read---Doug Wiken