iPod

Roundup of Useful Mac Applications

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Every few months I go through a phase of looking for new programs that improve my day to day work experience on the computer. Not sure why I do it in phases, but it always seems when I switch to one program I am getting 5 more. Some end up being really cool and I continue to use, and others are just a fad and I forget about them quickly. Below are quick reviews of the several new applications that are all around great apps!

Growl I something that I installed last year but stopped using it when I switched computers. I guess you can call it a unified application notification system. It gives you alerts and events from several apps as a single system. it can get annoying if you have it notify too much stuff, but once I tuned it I got it working great. I like that it tells me the itunes songs I just started playing, or that I have new email and gives a quick flash of who sent it and the subject.

Rapidweaver is a simple but feature filled web-page and site authoring program for the Mac. Since I started using the Mac I full time over Windows XP I have been lacking a good web editor. I used Dreamweaver for basic page edits, but I never liked it. I always ended up going back to my XP box for Frontpage to do web work. Now Frontpage isn’t that good either but I was used to it, and I didn’t find anything better. That was until I saw a review for RapidWeaver. It does have its limits, but for the home page I have, I was able to redo my entire site in RapidWeaver in a few hours. All 300 megs of photos and all. RapidWeaver is not perfect. I all but can’t use it on my Intel iMac (universal binary version coming soon or so they say), so I use it on my Powerbook. That being said this software was worth the money I spent on it!

HandBreak is a free utility that will take a DVD and convert it for use in iTunes or on your iPod (aka makes a Divix or H.264 format). It takes a while to run, but it works great! I can convert a bunch of DVD’s to my iPod and watch them on the way to and from work!

iSquint is another great program that lets me convert media into Divix and H.264 file formats for use in iTunes and my iPod. iSquint takes existing video files such as MPEG-2, or AVI’s and will convert them. iSquint is fast and easy to setup. With it I can take any TV show I record with my DVR and put it on my iPod to watch later or when I am traveling.

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Offsite Meeting

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I spent the morning with a potential vendor discussing network designs and Call Manager configurations. It was very productive, but I am always backlogged when I spend half a day or a day out of the office. I spent the afternoon catching up on paper work while most of my team went to the data center to mount a new core switch we are trying to deploy.

I ended up at Dan’s with Jayson after work to upgrade the ram in his new iMac. We got dinner out of the deal and I also moved over his files from his old windows machine and setup his iPod on the iMac. Now I am iTired.

My scheduled trip to our Call Center for tomorrow is canceled. I didn’t want to chance the trip in the snow they predict. I will try to reschedule for sometime next week.

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Video Redux

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I finally took the time to look at an article that shows how to convert video from my DVR program to a format that works with my video iPod. Turns out it is a free video extractor (windows only) that will convert almost any video file (i am using a generic mpeg-2 file that worked flawlessly) into a compatible format for use on the video iPod. I ran a test this morning and it worked flawlessly. I programed my DVR computer to convert a bunch of other shows I have. I also programed my desktop to convert a bunch of misc video’s (a lot of them) to the same format. The conversions take allot of time so I am going to let them run overnight. While I sleep they will perform.

I also broke down and bought an Elgato EyeTV 200 for my Mini. it is not as elegant a system as my Beyond TV, but I wanted to use my Mini as part of the home entertainment center. Since my DVD player was going I removed it and now I have my Mini & my Media Center PC as my only components of my home entertainment center. The Tivo is now in the bedroom, and it will be gone as soon as I watch whats left on it. Tomorrow I hope to go through video’s I have and encode what I want to keep for use on the iPod and get rid of the rest. The other advantage of this conversion is the space savings. An hour long video in MPEG-2 is about 2 gigs, in the H.264 codec it is less than 500 meg. Not a bad savings.

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Strike Notes

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Since a friend emailed me and asked how the walking due to the strike was, I decided to write my little story of what happened. On the first day of the “work stoppage” I missed my ride since I worked late the night before. I ended up trying to take a cab down to my office. I got a cab rather quick but 35 minutes later we had moved less than 20 blocks. It was a mess. When people were walking faster than we were driving I decided to get out of the cab and walk. By this time I was in the mid 70’s (or 60’s I forget). It was dam cold. I ended up walking till the mid 30’s and then I broke down and caught another cab and rode the rest of the way to work. Surprisingly the roads cleared up by grand central station so the 2nd cab got me to work really quick.

I ended up at work by 11AM. Almost no one in my group made it in. That sucked since the powers that be wanted as many people in as they could get. I ended up getting a ride home. it took us an hour and forty five minutes to drive uptown. This trip normally takes me 20-30 minutes on a normal day.

Yesterday (Wednesday) it took an hour to get in. The roads all sucked. I got another ride. I got smart and packed a bag so I could crash at a friends who lived 10 blocks or so from work. Good call since the roads sucked last night. Because of my friends bad back we took a cab to his place even-though it was so close to work. I could have gotten there faster by walking. The traffic was horrible. People giving other people rides home from my office didn’t get home till like 9PM.

I slept and my friends and walked to the office this morning. The strike was over by mid afternoon but since nothing was up and running yet I decided to attempt to walk home. 3rd Ave. was packed till 59th street (i should have stayed on park or madison). I tried catching a cab after 59 (before then wasn’t worth it since I could out-walk most traffic). I had my ipod on and it wasn’t that cold (at first). After 59th street I couldn’t catch a cab until somewhere in the 70’s. I could probably have walked the rest of the way home, but by then I was so tired I paid the $10 since I felt like I couldn’t walk another 5 feet.

I am home now resting. I need to go back to work tomorrow (even though I took off and then was given off for the day) and pick up my overnight bag I left there since I didn’t want to carry it back uptown on foot. Lets hope the rest of the holiday weekend is less eventful.

Man Shopping

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Today I took the day off and went man shopping with my dad. Man shopping you ask? Well you will get the picture in a minute.

I got up normal time I would for work and headed out to my parents place. My dad picked me up at the end of the 7 line. We headed over to “the dinner” for some breakfast. Nothing says lets go man shopping like eggs, greasy hash browns, sausage, bacon, buttery toast (some whole grain toast, my dads only concession), cheese, and 5 units of insulin (not for me). When we were full we headed out to the mall, Roosevelt Field if you are keeping score at home.

We were actually shopping before 11AM. Even in a holiday time like now, you can expect little or no crowds at 11AM on a Friday. We hit the Verizon store to setup 2 new cell phones for my parents and transfer numbers from their old provider, 20 minutes. I was amazed that when we walked out of the store the numbers where already ported over. It took me a week and 7 phone calls when I did it. Next we hit the Apple store to just look. I didn’t find any cases for my new iPod so we didn’t buy anything. My dad liked the 30″ cinema display.

Next we were off to Best Buy to get a new PDA for my dad. This man shopping trip was for him, not me. We have been planning on doing this for months, so we had a list. He ended up going with the Palm Tungsten E2. Nice color screen but simple since he does not need tons of frills. He loved the screen on it.

After that we went to the La-Z-Boy store. He wanted a recliner. We spent the most time in this store. Most of it was lying in several chairs. We had to test them to make sure he was picking the right one. He found a nice comfy one in black leather. We paid and we were done with everything in under two hours. Now that is what I call man shopping!

I then went back with him to his house to move him to his new “temporary” computer. That took a few hours. Then we went to eat by my sisters to see her and morgan. My mom staid home since she was not feeling well. All in all a productive day (for him). I got not much done for me, but I had fun.

iPod 60Gig

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I took the plunge. I went to the Apple store and Kai and I both got a new 60gig iPod. My old 40gig (non color) iPod is being cleaned up for resale to someone. I didn’t get the new one for the video functions, but that was a benefit. I got the new iPod because it is supposed to have great battery life, it is slimmer than the old one, and it FINALLY comes in black. And of course the main reason to upgrade is the fact that it is 60GIG’s. I actually use the thing as a portable hard drive so I was running out of space on the 40gig. The color and video are nice extra’s (maybe even the final extra little feature that got me to buy it) but they are not the main reasons.

So far I am not happy that there was 1 type of case available for this model iPod at the apple store. What gives with that apple? So I am stuck with this really pathetic case they give you. Another, what is up apple? For $399 you can give me a better case than this. A cradle would be nice, but my old cradle works so I am not happy. The only other complaint I have is the fact that my nifty wired remote no longer works since apple decided to change the physical inputs. What gives there? Did you guys sit down and ask what good feature can we take away to piss off customers?

Yes I am griping. Why? Because I spent allot of money on a portable music player, and I expect to get my moneys worth. In general I am happy so far with my new pod, but it could be better! And yes in my book it is still the best out there!

iPod Reformat

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I am formatting my iPod right now. It was working perfectly but it was setup for use on a Mac only. I want to use it as a hard drive to move files between my home PC and Poowerbook. I also want to use it to migrate data from my Dad’s dell to a mini I am giving him to try out. You need to have the iPod setup for use with a PC to do that. So now the Pod is formated with Fat32 and I am coping my music collection back onto it. Not done yet, but so far no issues.

I am also in the process of getting my Mini ready for my dad. I hopefully will give it to him next friday. Hopefully he will like it and I can get him off of windows. Less headaches for me, and I think he will be happier.

10:35

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I did a trip to the “other” office today. Due to return trip train delays I didn’t get back into the city until late. The pouring rain didn’t help. As with most of these trips they are productive, but not in the traditional sense. I get allot done with people, but I usually can’t get any of my own projects done. I did allot of talking with people to see how certain things were progressing, and that is as detailed as I can get.

On the plus side I didn’t get a headache. That is a plus since I tend to get them when I do this trip. I also think I napped a bit on the train home. I had my iPod on and I think I dosed off for a while. I fought not to fall completely asleep, but the trip seemed to end allot faster than it does when I am awake.

Since I had the such a long travel day I got nothing else done on a personal level, unless you count watching some TV I had on my DVR from last night.

If you are wondering the 10:35 is the amount of time elapsed from the time I left on the train this morning until the time I returned back at penn tonight. And yes I got bored on the train and kept track.

Overall a good if not wet day, but I for one will be happy to be back in my office tomorrow.

The Birthday Gift

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For my mom’s 60th birthday I got her an iPod. I was going to get her a mini, but with all her current music on CD’s and the music I was going to rip from my collection (still fair use I believe since I own the CD’s) she would have more than what will fit on a mini. the final straw was when I was at the Apple store and saw how small the screen on the mini was. My mom wouldn’t be able to read that thing. So I got her a nice color 20 gig iPod. Plenty of room, and easy to read for her. that was last month. The thing has been sitting locked in my desk at work. Why you may ask? I need her CD’s to make this gift worth while. I finally saw her and she remembered to bring her CD’s with her.

That is a story unto itself. My grandmother is in town so I went to dinner with her, my mom, sister and niece. They are all “interesting” to sit with at dinner. I survived so that is all I need to say. Since I got to see my mom she brought the CD’s.

I am now home beginning the task of ripping all the disks using my trusted iTunes. I setup her an account on my mini and am putting all her music on that machine. My goal is to then sync the new iPod on that account for her. I am seriously planning on giving my parents the mini to use as their computer instead of the dell they have. That is yet another story unto itself that I will go into detail (i hope) later. I figured that was the perfect place to stage all her music. She will never use the computer for listening to it, but I need to store it someplace.

The problem I am running into is that some of her CD’s are not in good shape and have scratches on them. So far 2 disks are not able to import because of this issue. I am going through the stack to see if more will have problems.

The other issue is that some of her taste in music is painful for me to import. Some songs should just not be digitized onto the computer! The joy about importing using iTunes (much different than in the old days when I ripped stuff using music match) is that you can program iTunes to begin importing music at CD insert, and then tell it to eject and make a tone when it is done. All I have to do is every few minutes I have to feed it a new disk. Apple was very smart with that program!

So a ripping I will go. More later…