Jeff’s Brain Dump

YouTube-> My Tube with XBMC

Posted by Jeff July 08, 2006

Google Video is giving away videos, including a lot of Charlie Rose episodes. He gets good guests and is generally a good interviewer, so I’ve been downloading them with the Video Downloader Firefox Extension. Sometimes AVI/MP4 formats are available; other times it’s only Flash FLV files. This got me wondering - could I get FLV to playback on my XBMC setup? Usecase: sitting in the living room with friends, and want to send a video to the XBOX (with superior screen and audio)

XBMC Fox lets you click right-click on a video, and send it to the XBox for playback. This simply uses XBMC’s web server to kick off the playback. Ultra-cool. Another simple API is GetCurrentlyPlaying. Entering a URL of http://192.168.123.3/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=GetCurrentlyPlaying returns:

• Filename:http://media.libsyn.com/media/actioncorp/ACTV-XboxMediaCenter.mp4
• SongNo:-1
• Type:Video
• Title:ACTV-XboxMediaCenter.mp4
• Time:00:00:55
• Duration:00:02:59
• Percentage:30

This led me to look into upgrading XBMC to playback FLV files. Installed XBMC-CVS_2006-06-25-T3CH.rar.

MC360 is a cool skin which emulates the 360 MediaCenter. Screenshots and trailers are here. Taking me a while to get used to it - especially the animated water background, but it’s an efficient powerful UI.

XBMC supports a ton of video formats, but Flash isn’t one of them (yet).. which is a pain because so much viral video is coming out in Flash format. So, I didn’t achieve my goal of playing back YouTube/GoogleVideo on the XBMC.. but I did:

• upgrade XBMC
• get a nifty 360-style skin
• gain the ability to “send” videos from the laptop to the XBox.

AutoPan in Camtasia Screencasts considered Harmful

Posted by Jeff July 06, 2006

AutoPan is a feature in Camtasia where the mouse stays centered on the screen as it moves around the screen. This movie uses autopan to demonstrate SEOBook’s SEO Firefox Extension. The content of the movie is good, but the autopan makes me nauseous. Autopan also hurts file compression because there is more movement.

Best tip for screencasts: reduce the screen size (and color depth) to the smallest possible, turn off antialiasing/Cleartype, and don’t use autopan.

Update: Here’s another one.

Frontline’s “The Dark Side”

Posted by Jeff July 04, 2006

Frontline strings together the chronology of lies and behind-the-scenes pressure which led the US into Iraq.  The full video is online.  Mighty depressing considering the incompetents - especially Cheney and Rumsfeld are still in power and trying to undo the reforms of Watergate.

The background interviews are worth reading - particularly that with Lawrence Wilkerson, military historian and former aid to Colin Powell.

Link Love - Hungover Edition

Posted by Jeff July 02, 2006

Moving? Better check this site first.
What better way to spend a lazy sunday than some viral videos–

Seth McFarlane (Family Guy) - Peter Griffin,Stewie Griffin,Quagmire.
Ebert tells Siskel what he really thinks of him
Creativity within constraints (DDR)
ImproveEverywhere - Meet a black guy in Aspen
Eddie Murphy and Stevie Wonder - classic. So is Superstition- on Sesame Street.
Vova Galchenko is one of the world’s greatest living jugglers. We teamed up to make this video.
Global Warming Train
I Wish I was a Lesbian - anime style, an AMV. Who knew people made these?