Month: October 2005

My new iPod – part III:
Organizing videos in iTunes

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iTunes video

iTunes 6 allows you to organize the videos you want to sync with your 5G iPod, but unfortunately, it’s a very clumsy implementation of this feature.

Once you get your videos into iTunes, either through buying them from Apple, or ripping your own, they show up under the ‘video’ list item in the left side column. Once you select ‘video’, you get a series of buttons across the top that allow you to sort by Movies, Music Videos, Podcasts, or TV Shows. Unfortunately, your control over how things are classified is very limited.

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My new iPod – part II:
Video format, bitrate, and battery life

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - iPod compression

As I mentioned in Part I of the story, I’ve begun the process of ripping my DVDs into iPod ready movies. I’m using Handbrake, a great little open source (free) piece of software for Mac and Linux. I know there are Windows apps that can do this too, but I haven’t researched those. Mark Pilgrim has put together a nice tutorial on how to use Handbrake for this procedure so I won’t go over the specifics of that part of the process. I’m going to concentrate on file format, choosing a bitrate, and iPod battery life.

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My new iPod – part I:
What you get and what you don’t

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iPod Box

I did it! I bought a new iPod. It was totally unjustifiable given that I have a perfectly good 40GB iPod photo that anne marie gave me for for Christmas last year. But, I bought it anyway (sorry sweetie). I really wanted the ability to carry movies with me, as well as music.

The 30GB is super slim, and I wish I could fit all my media into that model, but I can’t. I bought the 60GB model… in white. The black one seems to be really popular, but I prefer classic white.

First, let me say it is awesome! I’ve begun ripping my DVDs (more in pt. II of the story), and the screen quality is really amazing. I am extremely happy with the new iPod, but I thought I would mention a few things that you don’t get, for those of you still considering buying one.

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Night Stands for Sale

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Night Stands

If you live in the Bay Area, and you’ve been looking for some new night stands, then this is your lucky day. We have two very nice night stands for sale.

I purchased these from a contemporary furniture store called Bova, in Tempe, Arizona a few years ago. I think I paid $69 for each. I’m asking $50 for the pair (OBO).

The night stands measure 19.75″ wide x 17″ deep x 16″ tall, and are in excellent condition. There is only 1 very minor scratch on the top of one of them. They are not hard-wood, they are laminate… but they still look very nice.

If you are interested in buying them, please use the contact form on this site.

Google offers free wifi to San Francisco

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Free San Francisco wifi by Google

A while back, the city of San Francisco put out an RFP (Request for Proposal) for a free wifi network to blanket the city. Google was one of 26 companies to submit proposals. Google’s proposal states they would provide 300kbps service for free, and would charge for higher-speed access.

Engadget has a write up with more details, but there was one statement contained in Google’s proposal that caught my eye…

“we believe that ubiquitous, affordable Internet access is a crucial aspect of humanity’s social and economic development, and that working to supply free Wi-Fi is a major step in that direction.”

I couldn’t agree more… you go, Google!

Rosa Parks dies at 92

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Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, the woman known as the “mother of the civil rights movement,” died last night at age 92.

In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala., to a white passenger. This event has become a symbol of the civil rights movement, and lead to the 1956 US Supreme Court ruling making segregation illegal on the city’s bus system.

Rest in peace Mrs. Parks.

Internet Explorer Sucks!

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Get Firefox!

Whenever you make any changes to your site, more than likely you’ll probably find new things that no longer work in Internet Explorer. The changes I made yesterday are no exception. I have most of them worked out now, and the site is at least presentable in IE, but I’ll probably continue to teak things a bit.

Why does IE have to suck so bad? If you are using Internet Explorer… please, please stop! Firefox is by far the best browser for the PC. If you’re on a Mac, I recommend Safari, Firefox, or Camino.

If you are interested in spreading the word about Firefox on your site, they provide a nice variety of badges.