Cool – Page 10 – Mostly Harmless

October 1, 2009

I’m not a web designer but I do like playing around

I’m playing with Typekit at the moment and having font fun. As I write this I am using Legendum by Roger van Dalen amd Droid Serif by Google Android. Today I received an e-mail from Typekit with my invitation (I applied a couple of weeks ago). I created my account, selected my fonts, and inserted two lines into my blog’s header.

The idea works like this: instead of just using the built in fonts specified in your style sheet, you can select and implement the font you want from Typekit’s offering. This way, the fonts that are displayed match what you want versus what the browser thinks. It works with all current versions of web browsers such as Firefox 3.5.x and Internet Explorer 8. It does not work with Internet Explorer 6, but who cares?

I signed up for the free trial so I’m limited to 2 fonts. Once you select a font you can apply it to the CSS tags that you want. I did not have to change my style.css in anyway, just get the CSS tags right. You can see the badge in the lower right hand corner and if you click it you’ll get to see what’s running font-wise on this page.

Very cool and I’ll keep poking at this.

September 13, 2009

F.E.A.R.2: Reborn (DLC)

fear-2-reborn I wanted to get a new FPS so I installed F.E.A.R.2 via Steam and bought F.E.A.R.2: Reborn (DLC) (also via Steam).

So far it’s plain fun mayhem. This expansion is supposed to be short (plays in less than 2 hours) but maybe I’ll re-play F.E.A.R.2 once I’m done.

September 9, 2009

iPhone OS 3.1 is good but iTunes 9 is better

No obvious changes from iPhone 3.0.1 to 3.1 but iTunes 9 is a huge refresh. Worth the download.

August 20, 2009

Transcoding for the iPhone

This is definitely one of those “you’d better write this down” posts.

Being a longtime LINUX monkey, I am used to manipulating files via the command line. The GUI is a fad and if you want to get something done switch to command line. Transcoding video files are good for that sort of CLI manipulation.

Let’s say I had a .mkv file and wanted to play it on my iPhone. The iPhone does not play that format so I need to convert or transcode the video/audio/subtitles to something the iPhone can play.

It’s a two step process that requires two executable files for Windows, mencoder and ffmpeg. Doing a basic search on Google located the two binaries that I wanted and I put them in C:util.

The first one used is mencoder.exe and that’s to take the mkv formated file and convert it to an avi file. This is accomplished using this command:

C:utilmencoder.exe -mc 0 -noskip -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr=128 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=1200 "C:VideosEpisode-01.mkv" -o "C:tmpEpisode-01.avi"

This is an intermediate step since the iPhone can’t play avi files either. Depending on the file this could take a while. Once the output file Episode-01.avi has been generated then it’s time to use ffmpeg.

C:utilffmpeg.exe -threads 2 -i "C:tmpEpisode-01.avi" -acodec libfaac -ab 128kb -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1200kb -mbd 2  -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -s 640x352 -async 1 -title "Episode 01" "C:iPhone VideoEpisode-01.mp4"

I am running on a Intel Core 2 Duo so I use the -threads 2 option. After that’s completed, I just drag the new file into iTune’s and sync my phone. The sync process will not transfer a video file that it thinks the iPhone will not play so even it iTunes can play it, the phone might not be able to.

There are GUI wrappers for this, but I could not get WinFF or Handbrake to work reliably for me. They both wrap the CLI commands, so this works out better for me. The quality is not that good outside of the iPhone but that’s what the original .mkv versions are for.

Now in 9 months, when I want to do this again, I’ll have the steps ready and wont waste the morning trying to remember what I did last year.

August 19, 2009

Washington DC trip

Going to Washington DC this year was quite an experience. Here’s what I learned.

1. The Acela is more expensive and only saves about 30 minutes. But it’s worth it, the Acela is roomier and more comfortable. We took the Acela on the way there, but on the way home we took the regional. Not really a good idea with kids; that additional space counts.

2. Charge your camera battery before the trip. My camera battery ran dry and I ended up taking photos on the Botanical Garden Museum with my iPhone.

3. Don’t worry about high ISO when in a museum. See the above picture? I like how it and others came out. That’s part of the The Apotheosis of Washington fresco I shot using my Nikon D60 with a AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6 G ED lens and these setting:

1/25 second exposure
F/5.3
75mm focal length
1600 ISO (auto selected by the camera, I started at 200)
Auto ISO turned on with a maximum sensitivity to 1600
Active D-Lighting turned on
Noise Reduction turned on

Normally I frown at taking pictures with such a high ISO and less than 1/30 shutter speed. I took 600+ photos on the trip and shared on Flickr over 170. The one’s that were set to ISO >1000 came out really good too. You can see the results at this link here.

Here’s some of my favorite high ISO shots.

4. Plan out where you want to eat. We planned the hotel, the places we wanted to go to, and the travel arrangements. We did not plan out to well where to eat. The first night we ate at the hotel’s restaurant which had steak, some steak, and more steak. Not a lot of variety although the steak was good though and Lily had a bowl of clam chowder. The next day we ate at the Union Station. If you have ever been to Roosevelt Field’s food level or even Pier 17’s food court then you’ve had the same experience. Not a bad thing but the same.

5. I still want a better camera. Even though the Nikon D60 performed well, I am still jealous of low noise at 3200 ISO. The 18-200mm lens is on loan from Stefan but it’s way too useful to not include in my kit. It’s a good walkabout lens.

In September I hope to order my new kit. In the meanwhile I’ll keep abusing my Nikon D60.

August 8, 2009

Light up the MG Exia’s head

I can’t read the Japanese text, but this method for lighting up the MG Exia’s head is very cool. See the YouTube video for the finished work.

August 2, 2009

Today is a time wasting day alright

While going through reddit (serious time wasting) I ran into this cool video on Vimeo.

That’s a lot of walking and one way to grow a beard.

February 3, 2008

Wow, what a great game ending

Lily and I are still watching Fox but the end of the game was great. I was sure that the Giants were going to lose possession of the ball and that the Patriots would just wait out the last minute. What a great end to the Super Bowl.

December 16, 2007

Zatoichi Challenged

When you are stuck at home thanks to a wet and icy storm you see a lot of TV. One of the high definition channels we get is the Kung Fu channel. They take a movie and then play it over and over again for weeks. Zatoichi films get lots of air time.

Zatoichi Challenged image from Wikipedia

Ichi’s stories all follow this plot line: he comes across some nice people who need help usually from gangsters while he does him blind masseur bit. He needs to work because he like to gamble. When the bad guy makes his move, that’s when Ichi starts leaving piles of bodies around.

It’s great fun. In this movie he befriends Ryota the son of a woman he met on the road. Ichi agrees to bring the boy to the his father when the mother dies. Along the way he meets the samurai Akatsuka who is not really a masterless samurai and is on a mission to wipe out all the participants of an illegal operation. One of those unwitting participants is Ryota’s father so at the end of the movie Ichi and Akatsuka have a great duel.

Ichi loses his sword (he killed Akatsuka’s assistant by throwing it) and Akatsuka tries to kill Ryota’s dad. Ichi grabs and struggles with him and Akatsuka must decide to kill Ichi when he is unarmed and helpless. Aside from the fact that he genuinely likes him, Ichi’s determination wins him over and he walks away.

The movie ends with Ichi leaving Ryota with his father and the sadness that Ichi feels because despite not wanting to he actually cares for the little boy.

July 7, 2007

Cousin Brucie comeback?

Looks like Jack FM is getting the boot and the Oldies are coming back. Cool, I liked being able to hear the oldies on the radio sometimes.

Category: Cool (page 10 of 11)