I don’t watch TV newscasts anymore. But if more people sided with Mika Brzezinski, especially so-called journalists fronting the major networks, maybe we could have less Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole and other drivel and focus on topics that actually *do* affect us. Such as our continuing rape at the gas pumps, the travesty of the Patriot Act and whatever legislation your Municipal, State or Federal representatives are dreaming up today.
Go MIKA!
I’ve done a much smaller, but still thrilling zip line up in Collingwood, Ontario:
3rd Person:
But this looks to be a very slick one-up on that experience. Holy cow! The speed really does not come across in the “zipper’s” footage so I’m glad they had a camera in the landing area so you could see how fast you can go!
A while after installing Window’s “One Care Live” on my personal laptop I tried using Synergy to control it from my desktop. I started encountering the following errors in the dos window that pops up when Synergy encounters problems: “requested address is a broadcast address, but the appropriate flag was not set”.
I already had the synergyc.exe executable listed under programs in One Care Live’s firewall. But, silly me, I had restricted it to connecting “To computers on my network (subnet) only”.
The solution is to elect instead to allow connection “To any computer (including those on the Internet)”.
Not really ideal but I don’t think too many folks will be trying to move my mouse for me in the near future…
Have you ever wondered what you cat did all day?
Where he went? Maybe he’s got some friends you don’t know about? Both our cats are now indoor only, but our last cat Vern, a rescued stray, could not be made to stay indoors under any circumstances. We caught the occasional hint of what he was up to from comments from neighbors or glimpses caught of him when we headed out on errands. But you never *really* know what cats are up to, do you?
Well, I spotted Mr. Lee through Phil Plait’s “Bad Astronomy” blog and I thought it was clever enough that I wanted to comment on it too. Some guy in Germany put some thought into this and he’s got some amusing galleries that highlight what his cat is up to while out of the house. Even better, if YOU are wondering what your cat’s up to while out and about, you can now apparently, purchase your OWN cat cam! Too funny!
From the look of it, your cat probably needs to be pretty big to operate normally with this around his neck. But if he can manage it, I’m sure you’ll be in for some interesting surprises from your cat’s “other” life…
I wanted to grab some clips of some larger videos that I could put onto my iPOD to show some friends. I first tried to use XP’s own “Windows Movie Maker” but found that it only saves clips in WMV format which my converter for my iPOD chokes on.
In searching I found this article from USATODAY.COM that pointed me to exactly what I was looking for. I ended up downloading and using “VirtualDub” which lets me simply and easily pick a start and end point (use the cursor keys to find these points and use the “Home” and “End” keys to choose which is which) and then I save the clip as AVI.
Be warned that the output file is HUGE but as I’m only using it as an intermediate file to get to my iPOD this is livable. In one case about a 20 minute clip from a 500 Mbyte AVI clip yielded about a 9 Gbyte AVI file. But after processing with 3GP_Converter I ended up with a more reasonable 135 MByte MP4 file and then deleted the intermediate file.
I can’t remember now where I found out about this great tool but I use the 3GP_Converter to convert just about any file format that I can play on my PC on my iPOD. All I need to do is drag and drop the videos onto the converter and, when it’s done, they are waiting for me on my iPOD.
It’s a good idea to pick a storage folder for the output videos in advance (I just called my “My iPOD videos” in my “My Documents” folder).
Remember to delete the videos from the folder after you’ve removed them from your iPOD. If you delete something from iTunes and you *don’t* get that warning dialog asking if you want to send the file to the recycle bin then you’ve either disabled that dialog (re-enable it now!) or the file is still on your system.
I originally posted this on January 9, 2007 but I found the link was bad when I went to check it out. So I’m reposting. Unfortunately, since WordPress munges up this kind of embedded content I’m using “Deepest Sender” which doesn’t allow me to backdate the entry to it’s original place. Ah well.
Original post:
On the heels of the other viral “X in a Box†videos is this offering, “My Box in a Box for You” on CollegeHumor.com. It’s pretty well done and good for a laugh if adult themes don’t make you uncomfortable.
There is so much indie creativity out there I’m seriously considering getting rid of my DirecTV subscription.
In this era of special effects it’s getting harder and harder to tell reality from fantasy. Now, you not only have to evaluate the evidence but you need to render a judgment as to the trustworthiness of the folks providing the evidence.
But some things, I suppose, you just have to take on faith. In this case I’m willing to bet that the magician is just pretty skilled at his craft and that there was no help from the photographer.
I also LOVE how folks can embrace new technologies and then take them that next step forward…
I don’t really understand what it is with restaurants lately. Maybe they are trying to stand out from the crowd, maybe the manager is away and whoever’s left is trying to assert themselves, I can’t really say. But I eat my lunch at pretty modest to upper-modest restaurants.
Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of music with guitar in it. I’m a closet Prince fan, I like Pink Floyd and my exercise playlist has some very lively music in it. But when I’m out at lunch at a restaurant like Applebee’s I just don’t think that the music should be noticeable to me.
My definition of “Noise” is sound that stands out from the environment. That can be anything from the person who doesn’t understand how to use their cell phone (hint, let the phone pick up your voice and transmit it, you don’t have to get it to the listener all by yourself) to the kid crying from boredom next to me at a $40 a meal restaurant. It’s just not part of the expected ambiance.
When I go out for lunch I usually want to talk to the person I’m with and maybe I want to wiggle my toes to the beat of some pleasant music. What I DON’T want to do is have to wait for breaks in between guitar solos to try to ask how my companion(s) like their meal.
Let’s save the hard core stuff for uber-trendy restaurants that cater to the 20 somethings or the Emo crowd. If I want to stare at my companions with no hope of conversing, I’ll go to a club in Buckhead fully anticipating and expecting that this will be the environment that I will enjoy.
But, and I think I speak for most folks in my demographic (30-50’s, middle class, 9-5 job) that, if I never hear another guitar solo at lunch, it will be far too soon. 😉
Things are definitely tapering off. For the past few work days there hasn’t been much to see, prep work doesn’t show too well. Plus we’ve had Tommy and Larry do a bunch of smaller things that have been on my “to do” list for ages. But it’s hard to show you the great improvement that shoring up (and properly sealing) the window air conditioner on the gym makes. Or how much nicer the outside of the house looks now that it’s been powerwashed and that scuff on the garage door frame and the fading chimney cap have been painted.
But today there were some more dramatic updates. The wallpaper is now up in the guest bathroom
and over the bathtub tiles
and the lighting has been installed for over the mirror
and the cabinets have been painted and new drawer pulls and cabinet door knobs installed
We’re waiting on the counter, we’re told it should be ready for next Wednesday (6/20).
Below is the next day – I guess I’m getting lazy but the only very visible thing to see is that the medicine cabinet is now installed and the shower doors are back up (and CLEAN too!)
