Archive for August, 2006

Step By Step Conversion Guide: Putting DVD's On To Your iPod (revised)

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

UPDATED: 22nd September 2007.
(MP4 Scripts updated September 17th 2007)

These settings/scripts will generate files of pretty much transparent quality to the original DVD. I’m using these settings for archival purposes, so if you’re looking for really small files, these might not be for you.

While I have previously written about this topic, I never covered it in any depth or went into every step I follow. When I first got my G5 iPod it was a steep learning curve figuring out MPEG video; what tools to use, what settings to use, what version of each software app was best, etc. to get the best possible quality and file size.

This post should serve as a complete answer to the question of “How do I get DVD’s onto my iPod that look good on both the iPod Screen, a TV at the smallest possible file size”. Below is the step by step process complete with illustrations and links to the required software.

(more…)

Posted in Music, iPod | 2 Comments »

Wanderlust

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

Winter is finally drawing to a close, the weather is warmer and the sun is out more often. It’s a nice change after the reading about all the summer adventures of the northern hemisphere dwellers, who seem to forget we’re stuck down here in the cold. Yet ironically in just over a month’s time I’m heading over to Europe for autumn.

I have recently added a travel map to the site, detailing all the countries and places I’ve visited. In listing all the countries and territories it’s really made me realise how few places I’ve actually been to. Especially in the Pacific where I live, I’ve only managed to visit 4 out of the 40. Hopefully I can check off a few more of these off by years end.

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Musical Dope

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006

PUTS

As many of you already know, one of the great loves of my life is music, and not just one style of music either—at last count I had 46 genres on my iPod. That said it’s not very often that I get really excited about a new album, but once in a while there is an exception. An exception that makes me call up everyone I know and play it down the phone line them (and believe me, if I know you, you’ll be getting a call soon!). If speakers could get the burn in effect like old monitors, they’d permanently say “Stepfather by People Under The Stairs“!

Here is a link to Amazon.com album page so you can buy it. And believe me it’s worth every penny, this is one funky hip-hop album.

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Chattering Teeth

Tuesday, August 15th, 2006

Dog looks like owner

You all have no doubt heard about dogs looking like their owners. There was an advertising campaign about it a while ago, which the picture to the left is from. Well, in my case it’s my car that is like its owner—we both hate the cold!

Whenever the weather is too cold, apart from not wanting to start in the morning, the speedo starts making a noise like chattering teeth and stops working. Well it does work, it just doesn’t tell you the right speed, lol. Apparently I was doing 125km/hr in a residential area this morning, drove right by a cop and he didn’t bat an eye! Funny thing was, it didn’t seem that fast…

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I'm Karma's Bitch

Monday, August 14th, 2006

I cancelled my audiologist appointment at short notice this morning (i was going to get some custom earphone molds taken for my shure e3c’s), which was kind of mean but I need to stop spending money if I’m going to be able to afford to go to Italy. Last night my flatmate came back from the supermarket with a 4c off voucher for petrol (if you spend over a certain amount at the supermarket, you get a discount on their petrol) which was sweet cos’ i needed to fill up this morning.

However in a swift karmatic bitch slap for diss’ing the audiologist, the [automated] petrol station ate my voucher, the lcd started flashing all this code stuff and then all the pumps came up with “out of order”! So not only did I have to pay full price for my fuel, I had to drive out of my way to get it!! grrrrr…..

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How To Look Italian On A Moped…

Monday, August 7th, 2006

This is funny… from With a Rebel Yael, the blog of an English expat living in Italy.

How To Look Italian On A Moped

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I Tag Therefore I Am

Monday, August 7th, 2006

Tagging problem in Antarctica

Actually I don’t actually tag stuff, it just sounded just a catchy post title. Was browsing the ‘net the other day when I found the site for Deception Island, which apart from sounding like it should be a location from a James Bond film, looks like a very interesting place!

However, it appears that even the most unlikely places have a graffti problem these days, including Antarctica! As you can see from the photo tagging is now on all 7 continents. The question is: I thought there was like a dozen people living down there, so who exactly is doing it?!

Posted in Antarctica | Comments Off

How Rice Was I?

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006

I have now been in business for myself full-time for three years and things are going really well. However, it’s funny to think back to when I first started, when I had no money, about all the rice* things I did to get by… * “rice” here means cheap, since rice is very cheap foodstuff.

  1. Going to the department store and using the [guys] perfume testers before meeting a girl for coffee [on several occasions] because i couldn’t afford to buy it …Yep
  2. Paying my rent 2 days late completely with 5 and 10 cent pieces (that’s €0.02 and €0.05 coins for my international readers) …Yep
  3. Cutting my own hair because the budget shopping mall $5 (€2.50) hair dresser was too expensive …Yep
  4. Driving with my car’s fuel gauge permanently on empty and only filling up when it started to misfire*…Yep
  5. and the number times I did actually run out of gas: 6
    —The worst of which the car died in the middle of busy bridge at 2am in morning in the pouring rain!!

* Occurs when the fuel injectors start pumping air, because the fuel tank is dry.

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