FlasKMPEG

FlasKMPEG is quite the butt-kicking video converting software. Especially from VOBs. So easy, free & open source (yes kids, even on Windows), and pretty quick to boot. Big thumbs up. (Like I had any little ones)

Not a real operating system

I’ve been running Microsoft’s Virtual PC with their IE6 image for the last couple of days (it’s great — if you take yourself seriously as a web content producer, it’s very much a must-have part of the toolkit) and it pulled some funny business on me today.

When they announced it a whole bunch of people were getting a little grumpy about how it didn’t work with Windows update — a few of the same were getting grumpy about how Microsoft didn’t release a version for Linux, but no further comment required on them… you’re all of an intelligent enough bunch to realise aforementioned people fall into the category of … well, you know.

Obviously, it’s no big deal — the whole point of that image it is that it hasn’t (and won’t) update, allowing you to keep testing on older platforms.

But then, this afternoon, I go and shut down the image (I know, suspending is faster, but I was trying something different) and all of a sudden it goes and says it’s installing 7 updates before it shuts down. In usual XP fashion.

So what gives?

I found myself yelling at it “you’re not even a real operating system! Don’t you get it? You’re going to be used and trashed in a couple of months anyway! Why do you care if you’re virus and spyware ridden by the end of it?” Possibly a strange response, but there we go.

Got me thinking about (human) clones, actually. Much musing to be had there. Maybe I’m just strange…

Craptacular email authoring meets luddites

This is bad news for anyone crafting email campaigns, but honestly, if I read one more comment where people plaintively insist that email is only ever meant to be sent as regular text, I just might scream. Go back to breaking textile machines and accepting union-defined minimum wages, seriously. I find it so hard to believe that any of these people are able to hold down serious jobs as sysadmins when they are so completely oblivious to the requirements/desires of the people they’re employed to provide these services to.

Yes, rich (HTML/RTF/whatever this new crap Outlook 2007 is pulling is) email can be horribly messy. Yes, it is a requirement. Yes, if you think text-only is the way to go, you need to pull your head out of the sand. Welcome to the twenty-first century.

The closest I’ve come to someone who thought like that was a chap who was adamantly against the idea of content management systems. I jest not, but in my mind that’s less serious an offense than suggesting that all content on the web should consist solely of text and links, “because that’s the way it was designed”. That is, in essence, what these sysadmins (and some other open-source bigots — we should all use Mutt and Pine — who probably haven’t much experience with the creation or delivery of such things) are arguing.

Adobe Soundbooth (Beta) Rawks

I downloaded Adobe Soundbooth Beta earlier this week. It’s been a while since I’ve even tried using audio software, but I’m making a video and had my heart set on one particular track (The Flashbulb’s Passage D… you’ve probably heard a remix of it in Dove’s Evolution campaign) with a few tweaks to make it actually work well. The visual aspect of this particular 30-second spot is pretty mediocre/low effort, so I figured that, at very least, a decent soundtrack would make it memorable (it only needs to be remembered for a week, too! We’re running it this Sunday as a reminder that TACKLES is starting up again next week).

This is probably really average stuff these days, but I’ve never driven Protools and haven’t touched audio editing things with a barge pole for so many years now that, frankly, it doesn’t matter whether it’s objectively innovative or not. Seems brilliant to me.

My biggest problem is that there doesn’t seem to be any way to add to an existing selection? That, and because I’ve been spending a bit of time in graphicsland this week (so I’m a newborn Adobe junkie, oh well!), it seems like the Remove a Sound task (and effects in general) would be a perfect candidate for application of whatever the audio equivalent of a mask layer is in terms of user interface. Non-destructive, easy to turn on/off, easy to build up in multiple passes (because it’s really still quite linear in the way you have to work).

Then again, it’s entirely probable I’ve just completely missed some way of working that makes it all very sensible… but possibly not. Whatever, I’m quite content to keep playing for a while longer… only I’d like to get this particular job done (audio & video) before today is over!

WordPress 2.1

Sorry to sound like an absolute fanboy, but I’ve been hanging out for this for about two weeks (which is a long time for me when it comes to open source software that typically has vague release dates–although that isn’t WordPress any more).

Sounds like… magic to my ears. Also looks as though there may be a bit of work involved when it comes to taking advantage of all the new goodies on old websites, but that’s probably to be expected. Although it’s a one-way upgrade (database structure changes), at very least it doesn’t appear to have removed any functionality. Which is beautiful.

I’m also going to enjoy rolling this out on a multi-user site that’s using WP as a backend without telling anyone, just to see if they notice the little UI enhancements it’s throwing out all over the place. (Well, assuming the upgrade goes well… otherwise I’ll send a red-faced email letting them know about it!)

I’ll probably roll it out here before the end of the week. No new theme coming, so it’s probably only really exciting for me… but that’s okay. ;-)