One of the greatest things about writing my blog is that I've learned so much from my readers who have so much more experience doing many of the things that I'm in process of learning now. Way back in the day, it was XML I was learning and getting help from the world at large -- now it's video technologies -- and I could really use some help.

I gotta kinda high tech problem (barely) and a very low tech problem:

1) I finally got a copy of Discreet Cleaner (yeah student discounts!) and now I'm wondering if I can start reducing file sizes quickly without having to learn much (cause I won't really have time to learn anything too intricate in the next week or two). I'm wondering if any of you pros out there can fill me in on the step by step for configuring say, one of my huge ILAW files into a smaller animal.

2) EMERGENCY: My camera crunched part of my Howard Dean tape from last night. I've rewound the tape, but it still won't play. my camera instructs me to remove the tape when I put it in. any ideas?

thanks!