Holiday Screenshot!

Holiday screenshot time...

Clean | Dirty

Desktop -- Pixel Girl Presents

Icons -- Blend 512 pixel edition and custom 512 pixel text icons

Any questions, please ask... and happy holidays! :D

macscreenshot

Dexter Season Two

Dexter season two was fantastic. It was different than season one, but still good. Time for random thoughts and observations...

• I kind of found Dexter's sexual libido odd. They spent much of the first season focusing on Dexter's lack of libido, and now all of a sudden he's a sex fiend. (I get the deal with Lila and the understanding aspect, but still, it seemed to be a little much...)
  

  
  
  




• There were many similarities to season one in term's of Dexter's search for someone who can understand him. Rudy was his potential true friend in season one, and Lila in Season two.
  
  

  
  
  




• Rudy and Lila have a bunch of little things in common. Both had lines of work that focused on the body. Rudy made prosthetic limbs and many of Lila's sculptures involved body parts.
  

  
  
  




• Rudy and Lila both wanted to have Dexter all to themselves. They both wanted to be understood as badly as Dexter did. Neither wanted anyone else in Dexter's life (Deb, Rita).
  

  
  
  




• I can't help but think that how Dexter got himself into AA is just a little silly.
  
  

  
  
  




• Laguerta is an evil genius. She just is. As much as I hate her for it, I almost respect her for it.
  

  
  
  

For more, click below...

• Oh, Lila. I don't like you one bit. I never did.
  

  
  
  




• For whatever Dexter had in common with Rudy and Lila, you really see how different he actually is. He is a different kind of human, not completely devoid of emotion. I think that this has less to do with the code than Dexter thinks. There is no doubt that Dexter is a cold-blooded killer, that he has this intense need to kill that he cannot stop, but there's more to him, even if he is unable to understand what that is.
  

  
  
  




• I don't think Rudy or Lila could understand that Dexter was different from them, the same way other "normal" people can't understand that Dexter is different, either.
  
  

  
  
  




• All the Freudian sh*t was a little silly and just plain transparent. From Deb with all her daddy approval issues to that dream Dexter has about saving his mom.
  

  
  
  




• Rita really turned Dexter into Paul in her own head. Its amazing how grief works.
  
  

  
  
  




• Dexter is going to have a really hard time finding someone who understands him and who he can also trust enough to not hurt he or the people he cares about. I'm pretty sure he's figuring that out.
  

  
  
  




• I think if anyone got it, maybe it was Doakes, but probably not.
  

  
  
  

All in all an enjoyable and satisfying season.

dextertv

*Cinema -- Live Free or Die Hard

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

• There is no way around it, it was silly. Many of the action scenes were just laughable (in terms the chances of them really happening). However they still looked great. I mean really great.





• Lets face it, all ‘hacker’ movies are just silly, but somehow still completely enjoyable.




• Bruice Willis may play one character, but it is one awesome character. I could watch that character all day long.





• Justin Long. I find him irritating to look at. Even if he is a Mac. His hair and face kind of just bother me a little. I kept wishing he was Shia LaBeouf (similar in personality, less annoying).




• Kevin Smith, ftw.





• Oh Bullock, at least you’re still good at clenching your jaw! I miss you Bullock.




• Overall lots of fun. Would totally watch again.

Software of the Year

So, everyone is doing their year-in-reviews.

I’m going to do one on Mac software, mostly because I can’t think of anything else to post about.

The Good

• Leopard

  
  
  
  

  Of course the highlight of the year. Oh. So. Sexy.




• iWork ‘08

  
  
  
  

  Has totally replaced the old version of Office for me. Yay to having all universal apps! I find it hard to believe I’m going to go out of my way to buy the upcoming universal binary Office. I’d have to need to for a specific task first.




• Anxiety

  
  
  
  

  The answer for to-do lists for those of us who generally don’t use to-do lists. Also gorgeous.




• Twitterrific

  
  
  
  

  Might be not be free anymore, but if you have a Mac and use Twitter, its totally worth it.




• Candybar 3

  
  
  

  Makes Leopard look even better. Indispensable.

The Eh

• iLife ‘08

  
  
  
  

  The fact is there is just not that much of a difference if all you use of iLife is iPhoto. I have a feeling there are a bunch of us out there.




• Time Machine

  
  
  

  Awesome in concept. Lack of decent AirDisk support is just a pain in the ass. I will most likely be a much bigger fan once I’ve got my external drive hooked up to a desktop computer so I can actually use it wirelessly.





• SPSS 16 (Mac)

  
  
  

  Necessary for grad school but a usability nightmare. Fugly.




• TaskPaper

  
  
  
  

  Lovely app idea, just doesn’t work right for me. Totally replaced by Anxiety, above.

macsoftware

Lists. I Just Like Them.

• So last night the house alarm went off at four am. It was scary because the system claimed someone tried to open a door. That hadn’t happened in at least ten years. Luckily after checking, it seemed that the basement door (which was still locked and bolted) had moved slightly (perhaps due to the house settling?) and set off the alarm. By six am we were able to go to sleep and things were still fine this morning. However now I feel the need to have a bat under my bed.




• Some new exciting things have happened in the world of Leopard customization. This mostly has to do with the release of the Leopard version of Candybar. I finally have a decent looking Leopard 3D dock. I’m still not sure if I am a fan of the 3D dock though, and may end up swiftly reverting back to the 2d Dock.





• I’ve changed the images and CSS for the pop-pictures you see.. so if it looks funny (odd combination of grey and white), its because your browser has cached the old version, it should look normal the next time you restart your browser…




• For the record, Anxiety is going to rock (it already does!).





• I have to admit the writer’s strike is starting to get to me. I’m considering watching America’s Next Top Model and that frightens me.




• I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this before. Virtua Fighter for the 360 kicks so much ass. It lets you use the same special moves as the the old Sega Saturn versions! I can kick your ass in Virtua Fighter. No really. I can.





• My finals are starting next week. I am dreading them, but I can’t wait because the semester will finally be over! Yay!

fluffmac

*Cinema -- Ratatouille

Ratatouille (2007)

• I had heard good things, but I still wasn't sure what to expect.
  

  
  
  




• Of course it was visually stunning. There is just no way around that.
  
  

  
  
  




• Cuter than you can possibly imagine.
  

  
  
  




• So much better than Cars.
  
  

  
  
  




• It had an actual plot.
  

  
  
  




• It had a clear message, but wasn't totally overdone.
  

  
  
  




• It was fast-paced for a two hour movie.
  
  

  
  
  




• I will never get over Patton Oswalt playing Remy.
  

  
  
  




• I had no idea Will Arnett was in it! Crazy.
  
  

  
  
  




• I have to admit I'm really looking forward to watching it again.
  

  
  
  

A Sexier Mephisto

Mephisto is a fantastic CMS. I have really enjoyed using it, and love the way it is set up and organized.

However, I’ve always thought that it was missing a couple of key features.

First, there is no form of pagination for lists of articles, including the front page. Once you’re done with the front page, you must use the archives.

Second, it doesn’t provide a full listing of archives. Archives are only listed by month. There is no way to grab all of your posts, only a limited number of posts.

However, now there are two great plugins to add in these features.

First, Sven Fuchs has written a Paged Article Lists to give lists of posts (such as your front page) pagination links. You can see this in action at the bottom of my index page. I helped (read: was really irritating) in bugfixing it so it should work smoothly.

Next, there is now a great Full Archives plugin (also by Sven Fuchs) to allow your main archives page show a full listing of all of your posts. You can see this in action on my past page. It is called the tricky edition which is actually named after me because of all my suggestions and bugfixing (read: was really really irritating).

Baiscally a great way to manage content on the internet just got way better. Yay for Mephisto! Yay for plugins!

cmsmephistopluginsrailsruby

*Cinema -- Disturbia

Disturbia (2007)

• So I finally saw this.
  

  
  
  




• It was pretty good.
  
  

  
  
  




• I'd love to see Shia LaBeouf play a completely different character than the one he keeps playing. I guess he'll be able to when he gets older.
  

  
  
  




• Even so, he is still fun to watch.
  

  
  
  




• Where exactly was his mother the entire movie? I get that she worked all of the time, but really, umm..
  
  

  
  
  




• David Morse seems to play fantastic assholes (remember him in House?).
  

  
  
  




• Speaking of, whenever I see Matt Craven, I think of Indian Summer, in which he played a fantastic asshole.
  
  

  
  
  




• I just realized that Mike Binder wrote and directed Indian Summer, which kind of freaks me out, considering I just saw, reviewed, and really liked Reign Over Me.
  

  
  
  




• Back to Disturbia, I thought the suspense was very well done. Very well balanced.
  
  

  
  
  




• Shia LaBeouf is always getting super hot girls. Eh.
  

  
  
  




• Any teacher who can use the loss of a parent against a student, no matter how shitty the student is, should not be a teacher.
  

  
  
  

Trashy Television

We all know about the strike and how much it sucks. I personally support the WGA and (what little I know about) their stance. We also all know that because of the strike, we will have more reality TV. Now here is the thing…

I’m not sure I mind (yet).

I’ve mentioned before how I haven’t been that big a fan of many of this fall’s shows. I really only look forward to The Office, Psych, and Dexter. So what have I been watching? Tons of L & O: Criminal Intent, and a couple really bad reality shows: I Love NY 2, Shot of Love and Project Runway.

Of course I feel guilty. Of course I feel trashy.

But I love it anyway. I hate supporting such a terrible genre, but I can’t help it. I mean, at least this season New York doesn’t have a suitor with two lazy eyes (although she did have a midget).

[For the record though, I really do miss The Office. It needs to come back as soon as humanly possible.]

flufftv

Running Mephisto on Leopard

This is just a quick note incase anyone else has trouble installing the Mephisto svn locally on a clean copy of Leopard.

(This assumes you’re running Leopard and have a working install of MySQL. For that please see this wonderful guide. It also assumes you’ve set up Mephisto before.)

• The current Mephisto svn revision, 3037 works on Rails 2.0 PR. So to do this, you’d check out the svn of Mephisto:

  
  
  

  svn co http://svn.techno-weenie.net/projects/mephisto/trunk your_directory





• Next you’d freeze Rails 2.0 PR, in terminal, cd to your local Mephisto directory, and run:

  
  
  

  rake rails:freeze:edge TAG=rel_2-0-0_RC1





• Next you need to install the tzinfo gem and Action Web Service, with two terminal commands (while cd’d in your local Mephisto directory), running each separately:

  
  
  

  gem install tzinfo --remote

  
  
  

  And

  
  
  
  

  svn export http://dev.rubyonrails.org/svn/rails/trunk/actionwebservice/ vendor/rails/actionwebservice




• Ok! Next up you must create a Mephisto database with MySQL and properly configure your database settings in config/database.yml. Then you should be able to successfully run in terminal (in your Mephisto directory):

  
  
  

  rake db:bootstrap

  
  
  
  

  Or

  
  
  

  rake db:bootstrap RAILS_ENV=production

Start your favorite script/server for a lovely working copy of edge Mephisto on Leopard!

Many thanks to svenfuchs_ in #mephisto for the advice on a working Rails version!

cmsleopardmacmephistorailsruby

*Cinema -- Reign Over Me

Reign Over Me (2007)

• So well done.





• Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler do a great job. Seriously.




• I could never buy Liv Tyler as a psychiatrist, but I guess thats the point of her casting.




• For a movie mainly about profound loss, I didn’t cry too much nor did I come out of it feeling too sad.





• Its really refreshing to have a sad movie not abuse the emotion and force you to hurt the whole way through. I think its an art.




• Ms. Remar… you are a piece of work and are just fantastic.





• I knew I recognized Mike Binder (plays Sugarman). He wrote and directed the movie, too.




• I can’t remember the last scene. No idea why.





• Somehow manages to feel incredibly un-cheesy, even if it inherently is.




• A decent, realistic example of disassociation.

Gmail + Mail.app = Sexy

Gmail IMAP is really impressive when used with Leopard's Mail.app and an iPhone. It is about 100 times better when used with a couple plugins such as WideMail and Mail Act-On. Mail Act-On can make organizing mulitple Gmail IMAP accounts much simpler. This is going to be poorly explained, but I just thought it was so (geeky) cool I had to try.

Basically, I have three Gmail IMAP accounts set up in Mail.app. Each one of these has it's own respective "All Mail" folder. If you want to keep a piece of mail outside of your inbox but still save it, you must drag it to your All Mail folder. Anyway, doing this for three different All Mail folders is annoying. Luckily Mail Act-On is pretty smart. If you set up three different Act-On rules for moving messages, each with the same hot key:

Yet set each rule for a different account:

Mail Act-On is smart enough to move it to the right account's mailbox. I know this isn't that special, and I'm sure it's just due to the nature of Mail's rules, but it is still awesome. You just have to remember one hot key for an unlimited number of accounts! Yay!

fluffgmailmacmail

Ring of Death at Target

So I had a fantastic trip to Philly last weekend with Matty, Tim and Joanna!

More photos are coming, but I just wanted show you something Matty found at the Target in town... an ailing 360.


funnygamingtrip

*Cinema -- Hostel: Part II

Hostel: Part II (2007)

• Ehhh..





• I am a movie wimp. I never watch horror movies. I’ve probably seen three or four in total.




• However, I’m going to go out on a limb and say this was not a scary movie.





• It was violent. It was creepy due to the basic premise. But not scary.




• The plot was definitely lacking.




• I’ve never seen Hostel. I’ve heard its much better.





• Pretty much all of the characters are jerks.




• Yeah… I wouldn’t recommend this movie.

Rawr.

Happy Halloween!!


Leopard arrived Friday right on time around 10:30 am.

Its everything you've heard/read, very impressive but nothing incredible. But regardless, I love it. Yay for lists!

Issues

• Lack of Time Machine’s Airdisk support. This has been universally complained about, and you can add me to the list. I’m pretty sure official support for Airdisks is on the way. I have found my Airdisk to be pretty buggy in general.

  
  
  
  

  However I seemed to have unintenionally gotten a partition on my Airdisk to be supported by Time Machine. Basically I connected my external via USB to my Mbp (temporarily took it off the extreme) and made a new partition. When Leopard saw the new partiton it asked if I wanted to use it with Leopard, and I said yes. Then I ejected the disk and re-added to my extreme. Now Time Machine seems to recognize my disk even though its an Airdisk.




• I haven’t changed any icons other than my drives because I simply don’t have the patience without a working Candybar or Pixadex. I eagerly await new Leopard-compatible versions that are supposed to be coming soon.

Awesome

• Sleep display hot corner option. This is crazy useful if you have a laptop. Its a great way to save a little power when you’re on the batter and don’t have to look at the screen for a few.





• Sexy. Leopard, for the most part, is the best looking OS I’ve ever seen. I really enjoy the unified look. I still don’t like the dock, though and I’m use that ‘no-glass’ hidden preference for a dock on the bottom. I also really wish you could change the color of the Finder’s sidebar, that blue kind of bothers me. Otherwise, I pretty much totally love it. Good riddance brushed metal!




• Spaces. I’m really liking Spaces. Its nice not having every program on the desktop at the same time. I do, however, wish you could assign specific windows to follow you around. I know you can assign programs to follow you around, but what about just a window? I’d love for my todo list window in TextMate to follow me around, but I want the rest of TextMate in its own space.





• AutoFS. The other night I was at Matt’s and was connected to one of his computer’s drives. When I left I put my mbp to sleep, and when I came home and woke it up… it didn’t freeze! It just asked if I wanted to disconnect from the disk and moved on. Fantastic.




• Snappiness. It just is. I hardly ever see the rainbow ball of death anymore. Everything just feels so smooth. Even Spotlight is pretty usable. In fact if there was a way to add web search strings to spotlight (like you can in Quicksilver/Launchbar) I think I might not even use Quicksilver anymore…





• Mail also seems much faster and smoother. I just miss Letterbox and Mail Act-On hopefully they will both be upgraded soon.

So overall I am very pleased with Leopard. Totally worth upgrading, in my opinion.

leopardmacscreenshot

AutoFS

I just read this and learned about probably the best new feature in Leopard: AutoFS.

I won’t go into it because Garrett did such a wonderful job, but I just thought it was so awesome that I had to pass it along.

Basically every time you’d try to connect to a networked drive that had been previously been and suddenly stopped being available would cause your mac to totally freeze. Never again!

Hard restarts no more! Weeeee!

mac

A Little Less Than a Month

So I’ve been struggling for things to say. So here are a few totally unrelated thoughts…

• Grad school still sucks.




• However, sometimes for my Theories and Methods of Psychotherapy class I get to read random dirty Freudian phrases. Like the “female sexual channel”. So that is fun.





• Speaking of funny dirty things, here is way-too clever comic.




• So far I am fairly disappointed with tv this season as a whole. Except for The Office. I spend an awful lot of time quoting The Office. Andy has somehow gone from the most annoying character to easily the just funniest thing ever. Please watch this show.





• Whoever made my Halloween costume really over-estimated the bodice. I’m going to have to wear a bra twice the size of my body.




• With the iPhone being released legally unlocked (in France) and the iPhone SDK, its probably going to take over the world. Ok, so maybe it won’t take over the world, but its still going to be awesome.





• I have to admit that I’m a little excited about Leopard, even if I’m not sure why.




• I saw the new iMac for the first time today. It is very pretty. It was also the first time anyone working at an Apple Store has ever offered to help me without me prompting them. It must have been because it was one of the few times I’ve ever walked into an Apple Store with no intention of buying anything.





• We saw Rilo Kiley in the city a couple of weeks ago. It totally rocked. They always put on a great show. I highly recommend seeing them live.

So in conclusion, we have learned that I have a useless dirty mind, love The Office, Rilo Kiley, and all things Apple. Surprise, surprise.

flufftv

Things Found While Cleaning My Room

• About five trash bags worth of garbage




• My old sticker collection (maybe 12 years old?)





• My old embroidery floss collection (for bracelets/necklaces)(covered in stickers) (12 years old?)




• Photos from my sweet sixteen (was rather tame for a sweet sixteen)




• Three of my old portable CD players, my old cassette walkman, and my mini-disc player





• A host of old CD-Rs containing tons of old ppc software. I even found some old windows software (at least 10 years old, I’ve been using macs for that long now)




• Four years worth of college notebooks and textbooks. They’re all in the attic now. It was at least twenty large books all together.





• Old printer ink to old, broken printers




• All kinds of old video games and VHS tapes




• Two of Corrine’s birthday/Christmas gifts that still need to be sent to Colorado (sent her other stuff, instead, so its ok)





• Cat toys




• Extra CD cases




• A few CDs





• A keyboard

There is still more cleaning to do. I really should just have a garage sale. Seriously.

I’ve been spending the rest of my time doing stats homework, fantasizing about quitting grad school, and watching the Yankees. Goooo Yankees!

fluff

*Cinema -- The Nanny Diaries

The Nanny Diaries (2007)

• Not bad.





• I know Scarlett Johansson isn’t that old, and I know that she’s gorgeous. I still think she looks like she’s thirty.




• I guess I’m obligated to mention I was (for the most part) raised in the area where the movie takes place. Other than the locations in the movie, most of it was completely foreign to me… both of my parents worked at home and were very involved with me. I guess I’m just saying that not every child that grows up in a particular area of Manhattan is raised by a nanny.





• This is not a great movie. Its not terrible either. Its… ok.

F*ck Statstics

My psych stats professor is easily the worst teacher I’ve ever seen.

It is going to be a very long and painful semester.

On the bright side there is an Apple press event tomorrow, and there is this fantastic Office clip out for the new season! Soooo! Excited! About! The! Office!

fluffschooltv

I F*cking Miss College

I spent at least four hours today doing my graduate psych statistics homework. Three chapters of homework for the first week. He said most of it would be review. Well, I got an A+ in my undergrad stats class two years ago, and I’d say 97% of that shit was new. I even found my old notebook and textbook, and none of it was there. I spent three hours sitting in that class on Tuesday, and he didn’t teach a damn thing.

Graduate school sucks. I have no reason to get a masters, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never, ever be motivated enough to get into a PHD program. (However I was somehow motivated enough to do at least four hours worth of statistics homework blindly. What the heck is that about?)

I’m seriously starting to think that graduate school isn’t for me. However everyone around me now seems to think its what I should be doing.

I would much rather be watching Deadwood. If Deadwood were still on the air I think I’d choose to to do any kind of work involved with the show just to support it. How did I miss it when it was on the air? How the heck did it get canceled? It might just be the best show I’ve ever seen.

fluffschooltv

*Cinema -- Superbad

Superbad (2007)

• Super f*cking funny.





• The whole McLovin joke just never got old.




• Even funnier than I was expecting.




• Fantastically dirty.





• The only thing I missed was the fun chemistry of Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd. Bill Hader was still funny though, of course.




• Incredibly funny and dirty. What else could you ask for?

Summer Screenshot!

About a month late...

Clean | Dirty

Theme -- Gaia Black Menu Mod

Icons -- Blend and a few others

Any questions, please ask... ;D

fluffmacscreenshot

*Cinema -- Stardust

• You can totally see why Matt loves Neil Gaiman's books.
  

  
  
  




• A perfect fairy tale.
  

  
  
  




• This had to have been the first time in years that I had watched a movie with Claire Danes as a main character.
  
  

  
  
  




• I had no idea that Victoria was played by Sienna Miller. This is because I had no idea what Sienna Miller looked like. I'm sure I've seen things with her, but I never take note of her for some reason...
  

  
  
  




• Even when she was supposed to look young, Michelle Pfeiffer at times still looked a little old. Overall of course she looked gorgeous, though.
  

  
  
  




• If only we all could meet pirates like Robert Di Niro. We'd all be so happy.
  
  

  
  
  




• Just lovely.
  

  
  
  

Crumpler Barney Rustle Blanket!

Barney Rustle Blanket (Crumpler)

I received my new Crumpler
Barney Rustle Blanket messenger bag in the mail the other day. It arrived only two days after I ordered it since it was shipped from their Brooklyn headquarters rather than Australia.

Its gorgeous and just fits my 15" MacBook Pro in it's sleeve. I really like that its shorter than my Manhattan Portage West Side Bag, although I do miss the convenient outside pockets that my Manhattan Portage bag has. However it makes up for it with some great inside pockets.

bagcrumpler

*Cinema -- The Prestige

The Prestige (2006)

• Intense is an understatement.





• All the acting was just crazy impressive. Jackman, Bale, and Caine were fantastic.




• Left me feeling a bit uneasy.




• Very well done.

*Cinema -- The Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons Movie (2007)

• So good!




• I was very impressed by how they recognized their limits and only crossed them a bit. Enough to surprise you a bit, but not disgust you.





• Homer (obviously), Bart, and Lisa all had their own stories. Marge was kind of left out in that respect, even though of course she still had a major role in the film.




• “Spider pig, spider pig, does whatever a spider pig does…”

New, Non-F*cked, iPhone

Apple was kind enough to replace my f*cked iPhone for a new one. They expressed that they had never seen that before, and my (very nice) assigned Apple Genius showed my fantastic psychedelic camera off to his colleagues. Yay for a new working iPhone!

iphonemac

*Cinema -- Smokin' Aces

Smokin’ Aces (2006)

• This had potential.





• I could not take Ryan Reynolds as a dramatic actor. I know he can act, but this was just not that good.




• The ending was pretty bad.




• Ehhhh.

Oh, iPhone, You're Beautiful, but You're F*cked.

I am going to the Apple Store tomorrow. My iPhone’s camera is totally f*cked.

I also need my power adapter replaced, its been dead for like a week now.

They better friggin give a new phone and new adapter. Because this is just f*cked.

iphonemac

*Cinema -- Transformers

Transformers (2007)

• Frigging awesome.





• We first went to go see this on Saturday July 14th for a 5:45 pm show, and it was way too crowded to sit down. So we went again Sunday July 15th for a 9:55 pm show and it was totally sold out. We waited online for the 10:25 pm show.




• Totally worth all that effort.




• The visuals were obviously amazing. But it was more than just the visuals for me.





• Yes it was cheesy. I loved it anyway.




• I really really want Bumblebee to be my own personal transformer. I loved him.




• Easily the best movie I’ve seen since… Knocked Up. Man. What good movies.





• I have no idea what to say about it. It just rocked.

Typo Stripes Theme

Here is my (now very old) Stripes theme for Typo. Please feel free to download and use it, but please make sure you give me credit! Hope you like it!

Download: [stripes.zip](/static/files/stripes.zip) (233 kb).


extrasthemetypo

*Cinema -- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

• The Harry Potter movies get better (at least more interesting) as they get older.





• I really wanted to punch the new professor.




• Hermione and Ron had some pretty cute moments.




• These cute moments were mostly due to the fact that Ron was actually not a complete ass a few times.





• You did get the feeling that there was a lot of stuff they weren’t showing or explaining, but regardless they did a great job.




• Totally enjoyed it.

Automatic iPhone Video Conversion with VisualHub

Everything I could possibly say about the iPhone has been said. Its an amazing phone and I am addicted to mine.

So the other night I made an automator workflow that can have the wonderful mac application VisualHub automatically convert any video files to iPhone compatible video.

Obviously, to use this, you're going to have to have a mac with at least Tiger, and a copy of VisualHub.

I should also perhaps say that I have no experience writing tutorials, so this may or may not work for you. This is what worked for me... so hopefully it'll work for you, too! :)

Ok. So let's say you've got your iPhone, your mac with Tiger, and a copy of VisualHub.

• First, you need to be able to script VisualHub. To do that, you're going to have to download this special script dictionary.
  

  
  

  Next you're going to install this script library. To do so you need to (taken right from VisualHub's instructions):
  
  
  

  
  

  1) Control-click (right-click if you got 'em) on the VisualHub application, and select "Show Package Contents" from the contextual menu.
  

  
  

  2) Drill down a couple folders. Double-click on "Contents", then "Resources", and finally, "Script".
  

  
  

  3) Drag the "automation.scpt" file you just downloaded into this Scripts folder. You can close the window when done.
  If you did it right, then the next time you open VisualHub its title bar will read "VisualHub 1.x Automation Tech Preview".
  

  
  
  




• Now that you can automate VisualHub, you can download the Automator workflow & VisualHub iPhone settings file here.
  
  

  
  

  The settings file just tells VisualHub to convert to the iPhone format, at a standard ("WiFi") quality, and to automatically add the finished file to iTunes.
  

  
  
  




• Next, to install the settings file, you can really do this anywhere you like, but I installed it in my user's documents folder. To do this, just drag the "VisualHub" folder to your documents folder. After installed the path would look like HardDrive/Users/ShortUserName/Documents/VisualHub/settings.vhub.
  

  
  
  




• Now that you've instaled the settings file, all you have to do is install the workflow. Double click the "Export to VisualHub" workflow and it should open in Automator.
  
  

  
  
  




• Once it is open, set the correct paths in the applescript. The applescript window in Automator should look like this:
  

  
  

  
     on run {input, parameters}
  
  tell application "VisualHub" to set VisualHub to load script 
     (scripts path of main bundle & "/automation.scpt" as POSIX file)
  
  
  tell VisualHub
         LoadSettings("HardDrive:Users:
         ShortUserName:Documents:VisualHub:
         mysettings.vhub")
         SetSaveLocation("HardDrive:Users:
         ShortUserName:iPhoneVideosFolder)
         AddFiles(input)
         StartConversion()
         QuitApp()
     end tell
  
  return input
     end run
     

  
  
  
  

  Change the two file paths in to the proper locations of the settings file and a folder you'd like the converted video files to download to. Make sure to change "HardDrive" to the name of your hard drive, and "ShortUserName" to the name of your home folder (your short user name) in both paths.
  

  
  
  




• All that is left to do is to save it. Now you have to decide how you'd like to use it. You can:
  
  

  
  

  1) Save it as Finder Plugin.
  

  
  

  2) Save it as a Folder Action.
  

  
  

  Saving it as a Finder Plugin will create a Contextual Menu item in the finder. So, whenever you select a video file you'd like to automatically convert, you'd just control-click (right-click) the file and select "Export to VisualHub" from the "Automator" menu in the pop-menu that comes up.
  

  
  
  

Saving it as a Folder Action will cause any file that is placed in a specified folder to automatically be converted ti the iPhone format.

Note: If you save it as Folder Action, make sure you have the new iPhone video file saving to a different location (the second file path that you set above) than the original, or you will just have an continuous loop of file conversion going on.

Both methods are useful and its up to which one you choose.

That should be it with any luck. Now you should be able to have just about any video file you'd like automatically converted to the iPhone format for watching on your new iPhone! :D

applescriptautomationautomatorextrasiphonemacsoftwarevisualhub

The iPhone Is Amazing

I am posting this from Safari on my iPhone. Its frigging incredible. Photos to come soon.

fluffmac

Ode To Materialism

It seems as if summer is the time for shopping. For no particular reason, a list of overpriced things I want…

• 2.4 Ghz Macbook Pro – I have an original (first generation) 2.0 Ghz Macbook Pro, which I love. I have asked for an upgrade as my college graduation gift, and am selling my original one. I was going to actually sell it here at Lather Rinse Repeat, but I was able to find a local buyer for a good price.





• iPhone – Who doesn’t want an iPhone? I have been hoping to ask for one for my birthday. It really depends mostly on the calling and data plan rates. I am already stuck in a two year contract with Verizon for my Razr. Almost everyone else I know also uses Verizon, which makes most of my calls and text messages free. So basically the call/data plans would have to be reasonable enough to add to my Verizon plan, I suppose.





• Nabaztag/tag – This has got to be the silliest thing I’ve ever seen. But now I want one. Like, crazy want one. What can I say? Its probably completely useless but I completely want one.

fluffmacswag

*Cinema -- Oceans 13

Oceans 13 (2007)

• You just can’t beat the first one…





• I didn’t miss Catherine Zeta-Jones or Julia Roberts at all.




• Oh, Andy Garcia. How annoying you are.





• The european guy from Oceans 12’s part was totally useless. Maybe they were contractually obligated to put him in the movie?




• Not the best movie ever, but still very entertaining with great acting.





• Don Cheadle as Fender Roads. Awesome.




• Matt Damon with the cougar. Awesome.




• I’m pretty sure Ellen Barkin wore a pink outfit of some sort the entire movie.





• Completely enjoyable, just like the first two.