Monthly Archives: June 2008

OS X: Delicious Library – gimme back my Amazon ID!

A few weeks ago I blogged about Delicious Library and how helpful it is to take an inventory of your movies, gadgets, books and keep track who borrowed what and when.

While the software is great, I do not agree that I have to fork out $ 40 for the application and then have to find out, that when I publish my library on the web, Delicious Library embeds their own Amazon-associate IDs to get referral business. If the application was freeware, I would agree with such a practice. I have also contacted the company and asked to have this changed as a feature or remove it from the licensed product – but no response and sheer ignorance.

So I got crafty with the following little script – just adjust your associate ID and the location of your published HTML-folder:

 #!/bin/sh replaceFileContent() { # 3 input arguments: arg1 is file pattern, arg2 is search pattern, arg3 is replace pattern if [ $# -lt 3 ]; then return "" fi cmd="find ./DOCROOT/deliciouslibrary/ -name '$1' | xargs perl -pi -e 's/$2/$3/g'" eval $cmd } YourAmazonString='naschenweng_info-20' replaceFileContent "*.html" 'deliciousmons-21' $YourAmazonString replaceFileContent "*.html" 'deliciousmons-20' $YourAmazonString replaceFileContent "*.html" 'deliciousmo0d-21' $YourAmazonString 

 

Note, that Delicious Library currently uses 3 Amazon associate-IDs: deliciousmons-21, deliciousmons-20, deliciousmo0d-21 – but I am certain there are more. You can find the extra ones by search for the string “ref=nosim/” – this should provide you with a list of additional Amazon IDs – just adjust the above script.



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OS X: Rip your DVDs to your NAS-device

It could be no easier than using Handbrake on OS X. HandBrake does not require any more write-up: you install the app, pop in the DVD, select the target format and your DVD gets ripped to a number of formats (PS3, AppleTV, XBOX etc).

At least now I have a perfect use of my old PC for this mundane task: I have installed Ubuntu Heron on my old Acer which is now grinding away at producing 6-channel mixed mp4′s for my video-collection. My MacBook Air manages to rip a DVD in 70 minutes, whereas my Acer (more memory and more CPU) takes a good 110 minutes – makes you think?

On Ubuntu I run the Linux command-line-interface version of handbrake, which has the same presets and to rip a DVD for PS3 is as simple as the following command: ./HandBrakeCLI -i /media/cdrom0/VIDEO_TS -o MyMovie.mp4 –preset=”PS3″. After some time it will eventually spit out a 1,7-2,0 GB movie file at stunning video and sound-quality.

Performance tip: HandBrake encodes the video at about 17 fps. After installing yasm I was able to increase the encoding rate to about 30-40 fps.

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Let’s party – it’s Bill’s last day at work

Half the globe should be celebrating:

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The Friday Picture: Communyti

The Friday Picture will provide you with inspirational and (de)motiviational guidance to make the approaching weekend so much more appealing:

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PS3: Guitar Hero – Aerosmith

Launching this weekend, and should not need more introduction:

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will follow the career of Aerosmith, by playing significant songs in their catalog in a ‘rough chronological fashion’. The gameplay will follow the band through various periods in its history, spanning from its first show at Mendon Nipmuc Regional High School in 1970 to the 2001 Super Bowl XXXV halftime show, to their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 19th, 2001. You will start as Joe Perry, and will eventually be able to unlock Brad Whitford and Tom Hamilton.
Continue reading “PS3: Guitar Hero — Aerosmith” »

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iPhone 3G: Pre-order now from Vodacom South Africa

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks, the following should be no news for you: Vodacom is the only provider offering the new 3G iPhone in South Africa.

With the official launch just around the corner, you should better move and pre-order here:

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Big Buck Bunny premiere

I stumbled across Big Buck Bunny – a 10 minute video rendered completely on Linux Blender.

Big Buck Bunny is a comedy about a well-tempered rabbit “Big Buck”, who finds his day spoiled by the rude actions of the forest bullies, three rodents. In the typical 1950ies cartoon tradition Big Buck then prepares for the rodents a comical revenge.

It took 6 months to produce the clip on open-source technology and the 200MB 480p clip looks amazing:

If you do not mind watching a couple of cute, furry animals being killed, watch below or download the high-definition version from the above website.

Sofar there are over 400,000 downloads and the clip has been watched over 1,000,000 times. The downloads alone amounted to 29TB of traffic (IN ONE WEEK).

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Airport Express: Extending your network (and stream iTunes from your NAS)

I was running my N-wireless network for months through my Belkin N1 router without a problem. The router is located in my office, connecting to an iBurst desktop modem and was connecting via a Gigabit connection to my PS3. As more people have moved into our estate, interference has now prevented to consistently push Wifi through the remainder of the house.

I had to get a quick fix in the shape of the Airport Extreme:

Continue reading “Airport Express: Extending your network (and stream iTunes from your NAS)” »

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The Friday Picture: Overconfidence

The Friday Picture will provide you with inspirational and (de)motiviational guidance to make he approaching weekend so much more appealing:

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Nokia kicks ass (again): Nokia E71

Nokia is still my favourite phone-manufacturer and most of Nokia’s competitors have lost the plot (look at Sony Ericsson). In my previous posts I listed the shortcomings of the iPhone and subsequently got plenty of fan-mail (not really – lots of emails with the F-word in it) when proposing the new Nokia N96 as an iPhone-alternative.

But I think that the latest Nokia addition, the Nokia E71, will go nicely with my MacBook Air:

The quadband E71 is about 10mm thick thin and features WiFi (802.11b/g), HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP – iPhone, eat your heart out), A-GPS, 3.2 megapixel camera and a front facing camera for video chat. The business-class phone features 110MB of built-in storage and a microSD slot if you grow out of that. The battery life on the phone is also impressive:

Talk time: GSM up to 10 h 30 min, WCDMA up to 4 h 30 min
Standby time: GSM up to 17 days, WCDMA up to 20 days, WLAN idle up to 166 hours

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