problem using flatLRF

I've downloaded flatLRF from http://monalipse.sourceforge.jp/tmp/lrf/ but it's not doing recursive downloads of all pages linked from the URL - only converting the first page. Wonder why.

opening mms links from firefox

Wonder why the firefox team did not add a nice gui for this one:

1) Type in about:config" in the FireFox address bar.
2) Right-click and select "New" and then "String"
3) In the first dialog box, as preference name, type in network.protocol-handler.app.mms
4) In the second dialog box, as string value, type in gmplayer (or whatever the path of your media player is - on Windows it will be wmplayer)

Avoiding echo in voice chat apps like skype

Make sure that your volume control settings are fine, and also move the mic and speaker as far away as possible. If possible use headphones, of course.

Double-click the speaker icon
1. Choose Options | Properties from the menu.
2. In the Adjust volumes for rectangle, click on Recording.
3. Make sure that only "Microphone" is checked - make sure all others are muted.
4. Choose OK.
5. Choose Options | Properties from the menu.
6. In the Adjust volumes for rectangle, click on Playback
7. Make sure Microphone is muted or volume is turned fully down.

The person at the other end also has to do these steps for best results.

video advice

Another question asked of the sage was:

I have some Quicktime .mov files which I want to stitch together. What software can I use? I run XP...

First recommended Windows Movie Maker as being bundled with XP. But it cannot open mov files, of course. Then lent out an old copy of Ulead VideoStudio ver 3 which had come bundled with an old ATI video card (circa 1999-2000, which says it will not work with Windows NT!) Hope it worked. If not, convert mov to avi with MOV2AVI or Rad video tools or something like that...

Ultrasound

Last night I'd been to the GH to help the doctor there with the new Philips Ultrasound Scanner (Echo machine). It had acquisition of still or video built-in, but poor Dr. G didn't know how to use it. Went thru the quick-start guide and found that hitting "Menu" while in the "Report" view brings up the images which are previously saved by hitting "Freeze" and "Acquire"..... No place to plug in a printer, either. Not very user-friendly, but better than Sirius Cybernetics products, I suppose!

Wireless networking security aka WEP aka SSID

Another question-answer session:

How to set the security bit in a wireless router ? So that neighbors do not
log into your network ?

Google the exact name of the router, find a manual or user-guide...

The technology is called WEP. (Wired Equivalent Privacy) . So what you have to look for is how to enable WEP...

Example http://support.dlink.com/emulators/wbr2310/wireless.htm

http://www.webhazard.com/html/how_to_set_wep.html

PRS-500 Sony Portable Reader - short review

Now that I've been trying out the reader for a few days, here are my thoughts.

Readability - very good.

Battery life - very good so far.

Responsiveness - very very poor. Especially large pdfs - page turn takes 5.5 seconds for a 30 MB pdf! I timed it. Even menu navigation is extremely sluggish. But page turns for BBeB and txt files are quite acceptable - just over 1 sec.

Sony Connect store - no freebies! But easy to use if you don't mind spending dollars.

Fanbase - pretty good, with sites like Mobileread

So far I've been converting whatever I want to read to txt files and then syncing with the Windows only Connect Reader software. Won't experiment too much with Linux sw, since the Reader will go to A soon. Windows sw for converting to LRF would be useful...

Planet hiccups

After our "major surgery" to the control system, again some hiccups for the "Daily Motion" and "Annual Motion" - driver cards suspected, because shuffling the cards makes them work.

Task tracker

Now we are evaluating (courtesy PB) another trouble ticket or task tracking solution - crm-ctt . Looks very nice and polished, PB reports a trouble-free and helpful install.

video

Lots of posts backlogged, will try to clear when I have time.

Anyway, here is an email exchange - nothing that videohelp.com cannot solve...

Need advice:

Video material on DV tape captured in to computer using Firewire.

1 Now needs to be converted to VCD. How to preserve the best quality.

2.Suppose the same material is converted to DivX.

3. Any good video editor (open licence) that you are aware of.

regards

My reply:

1. The best VCD encoding was by TMPGEnc - http://www.tmpgenc.net/ - free
for VCD, need to buy for DVD encoding.

2. Use Virtualdub after XVid codec is installed. http://www.xvid.org/

3. I suppose you want to edit the DV video before it is encoded? In that
case, many of the free apps bundled with DVD writers, camcorders and so on
do an acceptable job - even Microsoft Movie Maker
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
which is bundled with XP. Generally Titling, fading in and out of scenes
etc can be easily done with any such SW.

In case you want to cut the VCD encoded file, TMPGEnc has some rudimentary
mpg cut and join tools, which seem to be once again as good as the best in
the market.

Do you remember using the Panasonic Mpeg encoder ?

Yes, TMPG and Panasonic are equally well rated for quality. Panasonic is
non-free. (and I suspect no longer supported?)

database cleanup

Some misc stuff takes up so much time! Checking disc contents at Melb and Jo'berg, verifying which files are missing locally and which missing remotely, etc and the usual mails and so on took up the whole morning! Anyway, useful, since it cleaned up some space at Jo'berg by deleting some wav files, and got one Conversation out of hibernation which had missed being sent to Melb.

Commented out the last line of import_broadcastcenter_files.sh deleting temp table in database, did the query as

select "filename" from file_id where filename not in (select filename from temp);

and

select "filename" from temp where filename not in (select filename from file_id);