Computers can be funny things.

The other day, a friend of mine asked if could turn some old VHS tapes of hers into a DVD. Sure, I said. I have a desktop computer that functions as a TV. That would work perfectly.

(There are rabbit ears plugged into this computer. This amuses me greatly.)

My friend gave me her tape, and her VCR, and I set to work.
 

It didn't go so well.

The first problem was that Media Center, the TV-watching software that came with the computer, recorded videos in a format that other programs couldn't use. Sort of like getting a casette when all you've got is a CD player.

So I found some free TV software that could save videos in a more useful format. It worked great, and I got some nice video files made from my friend's tapes.

The computer that could watch TV did not have any DVD-making software. So I moved my recorded files to a new laptop I'd just gotten, which just happened to have Windows DVD Maker pre-installed on it. I had already comfirmed that it could use the video files made with my new TV software. I was all set.

But then, I had to bring my brand new laptop in for repairs. The keyboard was damaged, and it would take a couple weeks to fix it.

No problem, I thought; I still had my old laptop.

Unfortunately, my new laptop had the 'premium' version of Windows Vista, and the old one had the 'basic' version. Vista Basic doesn't come with Windows DVD Maker.

So I enlisted the help of my wife's laptop. She owns a Mac, which came with iDVD.

IDVD could not read the video files I'd made. I looked for some video conversion utilities for Mac OS, but couldn't find any. But, I did find a nice program for Windows that could do what I needed. So I used my old laptop to convert the files I had into something iDVD could use. And I could finally make a DVD.

* * *

Programming, especially user managed custom navigation, is like this a lot of the time. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. A big, old jigsaw puzzle with some of the pieces missing. You try your best to make everything fit together, and though you always find that you're missing a piece or two, hopefully you've got enough pieces to sort of make out the picture you were trying to assemble.