arturmarques.com iLog » am

Converting from iSpy partials to something usable

am — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:13:55 +0000

I use iSpy to record house activity. It is fun to look back and play an entire day at some accelerated speed, for example using Media Player Classic (the shortcut to speed up playback is CTRL+UP Arrow) as provided in the K-Lite Mega Codec package.

iSpy is free at
http://www.ispyconnect.com/download.aspx

K-Lite is free at
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_lite_mega_codec_pack.htm

In my case iSpy outputs some ~300 1280×720 MP4 files per day, averaging some 6 GB. The source is a MS LifeCam Studio HD cam. It should be trivial to join them using one of the so called “video joiners”, but all fail, namely producing an output that can NOT be navigated.

I am still experimenting to find an appropriate workflow. My best candidate right now is converting the MP4s to “MS Compatible AVI” files using the free WinFF and then joining them using the commercial “Ultra Video Joiner“.

WinFF is free at
http://winff.org/html_new/downloads.html

Ultra Video Joiner can be bought at
https://www.regnow.com/checkout/cart/add/13185-12

Ultra Video Joiner beats all the “video joiner” alternatives I tried, and although it is not free, it does work.

Using the process below, the resulting file is much smaller (~500 MB) than the original partials, but seems to keep its quality and is usable, i.e., you can browse to any point in the timeline with no problems.

1) Use WinFF to convert from MP4 to:

AVI, MS Compatible AVI, forcing the “video size” to its original source value (of 1280×720 in my case) and “2 pass” in the “video” tab of the options.

2) Use “Ultra Video Joiner” to join the converted files.

After this, optionally,

3) Delete the converted partials.

4) Delete the original partials from iSpy.

5) Move the joined file to somewhere safe.

Listening to Garden Parti & Caroline, Yes

am — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:03:36 +0000

Enjoying it!

http://www.allmusic.com/album/garden-parti–caroline-yes-r2132641

It strangely remembers me early Pink Floyd.

Clear the DNS cache on Windows

am — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:00:11 +0000

Just run the following line at the command prompt:

ipconfig /flushdns

The latest 20 Google Tech Talks

am — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:28:51 +0000

GTAC 2011 Closing Keynote Secrets of…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE-t5J7hnHE

Human Perception Viewed as a…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXGxZUno5qY

GTAC 2011 Angular
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQclnI_8Vmg

GTAC 2011 Lightning Talks II (Web Testing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU5lb32EY8s

GTAC 2011 The Latest in Google Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQtBrmUU8Uk

GTAC 2011 WebDriver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsNkcUq0veI

GTAC 2011 Browser Automation with…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXJdgTz8LwQ

GTAC 2011 Lightning Talks I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7kk-WdiPy0

GTAC 2011 Keynote – How Hackers See…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onpxOG3TrWg

GTAC 2011 Developing and…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olyxa0LVtiI

GTAC 2011 Web Consistency Testing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6fV-6eMSUM

GTAC 2011 Keynote – Part the Clouds and…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXIA3VYN1To

GTAC 2011 BidiChecker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTrzDFP8yVg

GTAC 2011 Automating Hadoop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUcej07dGu4

GTAC 2011 How to Hit a Moving Target in…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2fUFSdUq20

GTAC 2011 Opening Keynote Address
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1jWe5rOu3g

The Cherokee Nation and Internet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsP9YP30dlc

Haskell Amuse-Bouche
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FagOVqxmI

Jürgen Schmidhuber at AGI-2011 Fast…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkCNbi26Hds

Zen and the Brain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEIXijQctlQ

Listening to Lisa Hannigan

am — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:51:40 +0000

http://www.lisahannigan.ie/

Non trivial lyrics, enjoyable rythms, fine voice. I am enjoying it.

Until Morning Comes

am — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:25:49 +0000

Listening to Cilla Jane’s “Until Morning Comes” and very [positively] surprised by it. Indeed very good.

I found this blog related to the album:

http://happilyeverafternoon.blogspot.com/2011/05/cilla-jane-album-launch-until-morning.html

How to search Google Earth by latitude/longitude

am — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:24:52 +0000

I love watching myzen.tv and then to travel to the locations, using Google Earth.

However, most of the time, it is not possible to find the locations by name and one has to use their latitude and longitude, instead.

The challenge is to understand Google Earth’s syntax for the latitude and the longitude.

This example should clear it out:
for what zen.tv writes as
“14º46’05.39″ N, 60º54’06.28″ W”
one should write, in Google Earth, as below
14 46’05.39N, 60 54’06.28W

Enjoy your travel

OKI C5600N paper jam – solved

am — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:53:02 +0000

I had a terrible paper jam on my Oki C5600N, due to a sudden power failure.

I have to say thank you to some very specific instructions found on this great PDF – it saved my day
http://www.german-parts.de/oki_manual/paperjam/stau_c5000.pdf

stau_c5000.PDF

Google Tech Talks latest

am — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 22:58:26 +0000

Color, Music, and Emotion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrONWEXCB8g

Historypin: Google Maps and the 4th…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjgjYacsq6E

HTML5 Multiplayer Game Development
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj1qTrpuXJ8

APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54WJHb4B8w

A Geek’s Guide to Digital Forensics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPd-HiEvhhw

Game On: 16 Design Patterns for User
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZCX-izCYMk

Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av67Ab0tF-8

Wittgenstein, Wheeler and…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QDZqFKmnBo

Helping Domain Experts Build Better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA-XwDStjng

Netmap: A Novel Framework for High
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPtoXNW9yEQ

HIV/AIDS Prevention Collectives in…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsQyrde_Lig

GiveWell: Giving to Charity Effectively
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ_xiPXKq_E

Google’s synonymous operator

am — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:56:29 +0000

The ~ operator (reads tilde) is Google’s search synonymous operator. For example if you want to search for

telescope control

or anything telescope

you should search for

telescope ~control

The thing is that a Google search synonymous is not necessarily a word with the same meaning, but instead a word in the “proximity” in the graph of word usage; e.g. “Ferrari” and “red” are probably search synonymous because they are used together so often.