It's time to update what I use since my May posting is a bit outdated.. This covers the hardware and software I currently use. This includes Macs, Windows and Synology devices and their related software. Read the rest »
The New Handbrake Rocks
I’ve been using Handbrake to encode video for a couple years and love it. The open source Handbrake works on Windows, OS X and Linux. I’ve always preferred and used the OS X version. It had been about a year without a new version of Handbrake but the drought was ended in November 2009 with the release of Handbrake 0.94. I was a bit slow to upgrade since the old version was working fine for me. Finally I upgraded. I had an issue (it wouldn’t encode) and kept using the [...] Read the rest »
Windows & Mac Synergy
Now that my iMac problems seem to be behind me it’s time to get my desk optimized. In the past my iMac was my primary computer and the Windows PC was used for for specific tasks. My Asus monitor was setup as a dual monitor for my iMac. If I needed it I would remote desktop from my iMac to the Windows PCs. In a pinch there was a cable from my Windows 7 box to a second input port on the Asus monitor so I could hook up a [...] Read the rest »
iPhoto vs. Windows Live Photo Gallery
I recently moved my photos from iPhoto on my iMac to Windows Live Photo Gallery (WLPG) on my Windows 7 PC so I figured I’d compare the two. The short version is that iPhoto is a mature application that has gone through many iterations of enhancements while WLPG is newer and less feature rich. I used iPhoto mainly as an organizing tool for any images I didn’t take – screenshots for my website, graphics for the website, pictures from others and from the web. I rarely edited those images and [...] Read the rest »
Use IZarc To Read ISO Image Files
I recently downloaded a software DVD ISO image from a vendor’s website, burned it to DVD, and tried copying it to a server. No luck, the DVD was bad. That was the second DVD, the burn on the first DVD failed outright. Since I didn’t really need a physical DVD except as a way to get the files I decided to finally take the time and look for a program that would extract the files from the ISO image. Some paid programs came up at the beginning of the search [...] Read the rest »
DVD Ripping Software: Fairmount & SlySoft AnyDVD
I’ve been looking at two pieces of software to rip my DVDs as part of my Video on Demand project. They are pretty much polar opposites. One is free (open source/GPL license) while the other is commercial. One is for Windows and the other is for the Mac. Fairmount is Open Source for the Mac that is included in the download for DVDRemaster. DVDRemaster is a commercial product that does not have to be installed (and I haven’t installed it). Fairmount does require that the VLC Video Player is also [...] Read the rest »
iTunes Smart Playlists
When I bought my first iPod I was still on Windows and the software delivered with the Windows iPods (yup, Windows specific iPods back then) was a version of MusicMatch. The software was OK, but just OK. It was slow and a pain to build playlists. One of the reasons I bought the hard disk iPod over other flash MP3 players was so I could have all my music with me and not have to decide what I wanted to listed to while sitting at the computer. MusicMatch did that [...] Read the rest »
Google Reader to NewsGator/NetNewsWire/FeedDemon
As you may know NewsGator Technologies made their RSS readers free. While these RSS clients are desktop clients they have the ability to synch between multiple computers and there’s also a web based reader. I took the opportunity to move my feeds from Google Reader to give it a spin. Moving the feeds over via an OPML file was a cinch. In Google Reader click on Manage Subscriptions at the bottom of your subscriptions list (or click on Settings long the top). Then click Import/Export from the settings menu. You’ll [...] Read the rest »
iTunes 7.4.2 Released
Apple has released iTunes 7.4.2 for both Mac and Windows. In typical Apple fashion the description is a terse: iTunes 7.4.2 addresses an issue with creating ringtones using iTunes Plus song purchases and includes bug fixes to improve stability and performance. Hey, it’s been over a week since the last update. Maybe all Mac software should have “broadband” as a requirement. It’s needed to download all these updates. The update is available through Software Update or as a direct download. It’s 38MB for the Mac and 49MB for Windows. Mac: [...] Read the rest »
Safari 3 beta – Now on Windows
The only “new” product to actually be released at WWDC by Apple was a beta version of Safari 3 for both Mac and Windows. Apple is promoting Safari as the method developers can enable software for the iPhone. Applications developed for Safari on the iPhone can hook into the other applications on the iPhone. Safari on Windows seems to be targeted to future iPhone users even though Steve Jobs talked about Safari’s browser share and how it could grow. Steve also used iTunes as an example showing that they know [...] Read the rest »