09.14.07

@danschawbel – good luck with…

Posted in Twitter at 7 am

@danschawbel – good luck with the online identity theft recovery!

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09.09.07

Finally watched “Thank You For…

Posted in Twitter at 9 am

Finally watched "Thank You For Smoking" last night. Not so much about smoking, imho. Much more to do with argument.

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Last Week's Itinerary

Posted in Career, Transport at 7 am

This was my travel plan from last week’s business trip. The only change was that I ended up on an earlier flight on the way home, the first leg of which was in United’s Economy Plus featuring 5″ of additional leg room. Nice for a free upgrade, not worth purchasing though.


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Flight   574
United Airlines Inc Confirmation Numbers: ZCWTNI
	Depart: Portland Intl Arpt (PDX)
	06:34 AM
Arrive: O'Hare Intl Arpt (ORD)
	CHICAGO, Terminal 1
	12:22 PM
Seat 19C

Flight   536
Depart: O'Hare Intl Arpt (ORD)
	CHICAGO, Terminal 1
	02:00 PM
Arrive: Logan Intl Arpt (BOS)
	BOSTON, Terminal C
	05:25 PM
Seat 23C

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Avis
Confirmation Number: 00710940US6
	Pick Up: Tuesday, September 04, 2007
	Logan Intl Arpt (Terminal)
Phone: 617-561-3500

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The Westin Waltham-Boston
Confirmation Number: C531347547
	The Westin Waltham-Boston
	70 Third Ave
	Waltham Ma 02451 Us
Phone: 781-290-5600
Check In: Tuesday, September 04, 2007  3:00 PM
Check Out: Friday, September 07, 2007  1:00 PM

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Flight   881
United Airlines Inc Confirmation Numbers: ZCWTNI
Depart: Logan Intl Arpt (BOS)
	BOSTON, Terminal C
	09:00 AM  Friday
Arrive: O'Hare Intl Arpt (ORD)
	CHICAGO, Terminal 1
	10:37 AM  Friday
Seat 17D

Flight   929
United Airlines Inc Confirmation Numbers: ZCWTNI
Depart: O'Hare Intl Arpt (ORD)
	CHICAGO, Terminal 1
	12:20 PM
Arrive: Portland Intl Arpt (PDX)
	02:38 PM
Seat 13D

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09.08.07

DVD to iTunes and TiVo using Mac OS X

Posted in Media, Tech at 12 am

The latest process:

1) I’ve saved my DVDs using MacTheRipper (For discs that are tough for Handbrake to handle.)

2) Recoded them to .m4v (MPEG-4) with Handbrake (great for iTunes. Handbrake also automagically runs the file through MetaX to gather more info.)

3) Converted the the .m4v’s to .mpg (MPEG-2) via Tivoizer. (I had to really look hard to find a copy of Tivoizer on the web. If you’re looking for it and want a copy, send me an e-mail. It’s just a GUI wrapper to FFmpeg, but it makes it easy to set and forget.)

4) Holding down Option while opening up the TiVo Desktop system preference shows the Videos tab for sharing them from the Mac to TiVo. (This step only needs to be done once, the first time.)

5) Drop the .mpg file into the folder that’s set in the TiVo Desktop Video tab preferences.

6) After a while, the TiVo Desktop software processes the video and creates a *.properties file

7) The .properties file can be edited by hand in a text editor to reflect the Title and such that you want the TiVo to show. (Note that the TiVo Desktop software uses the first part of the filenames to associate the .properties and the .mpeg files. The “title” property in the .properties file does not have to use the exact filename as the source file, so it can be edited to your heart’s content.)

As TiVo is the main way that Amy and I watch TV, this is the best way we have to integrate what used to be a separate video source (DVD Player, PlayStation 2, LasedrDisc, or Mac Mini) which require another remote control to operate. Now everything we have, video-wise, is accessible via TiVo’s interface. Now I’ve just got to get Miro to drop stuff into the proper folder after converting the incoming videos to MPEG-2.

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