Jul 31st, 07
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Sometimes the Mac can be too clever for its own good. iMovie has a hidden directory structure for movies and somehow a movie I made is chewing up 50GB of disk, but you can’t see it. “Discussions.apple.com”:http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5001832 tells us that iMovie keeps its files in something called a pacakge. This is a collection of files that Finder and Spotlight only see as one file.
You need to download “WhatSize”:http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/ to figure out what is actually on the disk since packages are hidden.
To then take them apart, you that need to find the movies which have the extension _.iMovieProject_ and then you can see whats there by right clicking on the name and then choose Show Package Contents to find the Media folder with all the clips.
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Jul 31st, 07
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I wish that they had shipped this smaller brick with the initial MacBooks, but at least you can buy a much smaller adapter for $80 in a few weeks…
MacNN | Briefly: New MBP adapter, Duke/iPhone solved
brief: Apple has begun shipping a new MagSafe power adapter for the MacBook Pro with the model number MA938LL/A. The new 85W adapter is significantly smaller than the old iteration, appearing physically similar to the 65W adapter included with 13″ MacBooks. In early June, Apple debuted a new line of MacBook Pros, some of which include LED-based screens and offer significantly better battery life. The new adapter appears to be compatible with both newer and previously released MacBook Pro models .
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Jul 25th, 07
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So if you’ve got all your files on your iPod, how do you back it up. If you aren’t near your computer, this could be a disaster. “iLounge”:http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-computer/ saves the day with a good overview of the many utilities available. I’ve used a bunch of these are they are so, so reliable
!http://www.ilounge.com/assets/images/features_transfermusic2/9.jpg!
Here is what their review says, CopyTrans ($20) costs money, but it recovers all the metadata (for me ratings really matter!) so it is worth it. Only for Windows though. If you are on the Mac, then iPodRip ($15) is the equivalent and works very well. You get a coupon CPN1530724219 for 15% off
Senuti is a freeware recovery tool and works pretty well too and the same with YamiPod
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Jul 25th, 07
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The Complete Guide to iPod, Apple TV and iPhone Video Formats | iLounge
So what are the different resolutions and formats supported by Apple’s video playback devices? The table below provides an outline of the maximum resolutions supported, as well as the output quality of the device itself:
!http://www.ilounge.com/assets/images/features_videoguide/table1.jpg!
The new iPhone has an amazing screen double the resolution of the 5G iPod Video. It goes from 320×240 to 480×320, how confusing. As before, the best format from a compression POV is H.264 and it is now complex to figure out what to encode hwere given the formats. Here is iLounge recommendations for what to encode. Basically you do slightly higher than what the device can handle. 640×480 is probably about the right level
!http://www.ilounge.com/assets/images/features_videoguide/table3.jpg!
For DVD conversion, Handbrake is the recommended tool on Mac OS X and seems to work OK. “iLounge”:http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-complete-guide-to-ipod-video-conversion-mac/ like Handbrake for DVD to iPod conversion. It works on Windows and the Mac which is great. I also use autoGK to encode things for PC viewing.
If you are converting Internet content like AVI or DIVX files, then the simple choice is iSquint that makes it easy to convert directly for the iPod Video but it doesn’t yet have presets for the iPhone in 320×240 format. The one that loloks quite good is “MPEG Streamclip”:http://www.squared5.com which has a specific iPhone format if you are like me and want the minimum size for each device. That is to get an:
# iPod 320×240 for full screen
# iPod i320×180 for 16:9 letterboxed
# iPhone 432×320 for 4:3 full screen
# iPhone 480×272 for 16:9
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Jul 23rd, 07
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I’ve had remarkably good luck with the Buffalo Linkstation Pro 500GB. It’s a 500GB network attached drive. It supports 1GB ethernet and seems reasonably fast and most important very compatible. Works super well with Windows XP and even with Mac OS X which is amazing. The main issue is that 500GB fills up pretty fast these days, so time once again to look for the latest:
* “PC Magazine”:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1639544,00.asp did a review two years ago which selected the Buffalo, but they now have a great “NAS”:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1639544,00.asp section that goes over the basics. Right now they are recommending RAID configurations for reliability like the “Iomega SorCenter Pro NAS 150d”:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2128034,00.asp. Its quite expensive at $800 for 1TB but has four 250GB drives in at RAID configuration. It’s small at 10″x7″x12″. It comes configured as RAID 5 which means you get 750GB usable, but you can have one disk fail and everything still works. My main conclusion is that this is great for a small business but maybe a little overkill for our network which only really needs this to backup the storage on personal computers. You can get 750GB for about half the price if you go lower end.
* “PC World”:http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125072-page,1/article.html also keeps a review set and likes a completely different set of machines. The “Netgear ReadyNAS NV+”: for instance is more expensive at $1100, but it very fast so good for a real server setup. Another good compromise is the “Maxtor Shared Storage II”:http://www.pcworld.com/product/specs/id,29306-c,harddrives/specs.html also with 1TB and just $450. It is a single terabyte drive, so like the Buffalo Linkstation, not super redundant
* “Pricegrabber”:http://computers.pricegrabber.com/network-storage-devices/p/69/ is interesting because it shows what’s popular. It shows that SimpleTech STI-NAS 500GB is a best seller. It is an amazing $135 for a 500GB drive. Almost too good to believe. “Newegg”:http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822100016 reviews say it works, but isn’t very fast because it only has 100Mb Ethernet. If you want speed, you really need 1Gb Ethernet and computers that support it. For most laptop oriented installations like we have at work it will be fine though since laptops are either 100Mbps Ethernet or much slower 54Mbps shared channel Wifi. Not clear if it supports Macs. It is just $135 because the underlying 500GB drive is just $105 or so now and there is $35 of other hardware. Makes the $400 Buffalo Linkstation 750GB look pretty expensive doesn’t it? 500GB by the way seems to be the sweetspot for these devices. They are between $140 to $250 for that. Buffalo is at the high end at $275 or so.
* “Newegg”:http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000240124%20115750974&bop=And&Order=RATING&Pagesize=100 is a big enough site now that its ratings are meaningful. Those users like the Thecus N2050UD which is $140 but where you need to install two hard drives in it, so you can built it yourself.
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Jul 22nd, 07
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I normally use DVD Decrypter and then DVD Shrink on the PC to backup the kid’s DVDs which are constantly getting trashed. For Mac OS X, the solutions seem to be “Mac The Ripper”:http://mactheripper.org and then to burn the copy, you can use the included iDVD to get a dual layer onto a single layer or you can use “Burn OSX”:http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/
You can also check “Rip Different”:http://www.ripdifferent.com/ as a good overall source of information
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Jul 22nd, 07
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!
Main problem is they don't take reservations and some folks think it is like P.F. Chang's which is sort of Chinese, but not the real thing. We finally went to Sun Ya. The main thing about this place was there is parking. I'd say it was OK. 3 out of 5 stars. Service was quick though.
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Jul 22nd, 07
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!
Main problem is they don't take reservations and some folks think it is like P.F. Chang's which is sort of Chinese, but not the real thing. We finally went to Sun Ya. The main thing about this place was there is parking. I'd say it was OK. 3 out of 5 stars. Service was quick though.
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Jul 22nd, 07
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With the iPhone out, you get pretty board of the stuff there. Apple only allows web applications right now to run on it, so you have to find web game portals according to “Joystiq”:http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/03/web-based-iphone-games-begin-to-appear/ like “MacMost”:http://macmost.com/iphonegames/, “iGiki”:http://igiki.com/i/Arcade_Gikis_.html or “fun4phone”:http://mynumo.com/iphone/fun4iphone.htm
The best thing to do is to find sites liek “iPhoneHacks.com”:http://iphonehacks.com that will unlock things like the ringtones which are locked or backgrounds like the “Matrix”:http://www.modmyiphone.com/ running. Folks just love to customize and “a Custom iPhone Background”:http://www.modmyiphone.com/wiki/index.php/Custom_iPhone_Background is the place to start at their “wiki”:http://www.modmyiphone.com/wiki and also seee “Hacktheiphone.com”:http://hacktheiphone.com
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Jul 19th, 07
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“Green Car Co.”:http://www.thegreencarco.com/product_info/ is for those of us who really want to save some energy. Now that the Scion xB is an overweight monster, beside the Prius, what can someone who cars buy?
# “Plug Prius”:http://www.thegreencarco.com/product_info/universal_piprius_kit/ For just $10K more, you can buy a plug hybrid. (Wow that’s expensive), but it gives you a 16 mile all electric range and with a simple 110VAC charger its just six hours to recharge overnight when electricity is generated for free basically. Its kind of a hack, you add another lead acid battery pack that transfers into the NiMH batteries onboard.
# “Volkswagon Tdi Biodesel”:http://www.thegreencarco.com/product_info/vw_tdi_biodiesel/. Gets 45mpg but you might as well get a Prius then
# “Smart Car”:http://www.thegreencarco.com/product_info/smart_car/. Only two passengers and it is tiny and gets 50mpg, so not that much more than the diesel.
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