Atown’s Place to Think

well shoot 100 posts, thjats kinda kool…

anywho at church they brough up a really interesting thing:
What is vision… The illustration was artists or crafts people, they can see a final product and envision it, the colors, the size, everything. well before its finished. For some people (like myself) we cant even notice anything. we say a tree will look nice there, but we have no vision, we cannot mentally create an image about what it will look like or the basis for it.

Its kinda funny cuz my professors that most influenced me in college were ones who strived for clear imagery.

English 102 with Marcia Marxx, improved my writing and actually gave me the want to continue writing no matter what it was. That presenting clear ideas and using strong language can manipulate the readers senses. Now everything i learned became really mixed with the advent of Com. 295 , however I’ve stuck with writing my thoughts and trying to do my best at it. She even said i needed to become a writing major but meh, id rather work on computers than type on em, laf.

Geology 101, 102, 145 with Steve Macias. High end liberal who lives on capital hill in seattle and wanted to go to UW and teach really badly. Dunno if hes made it there yet, but if it werent for his classes i dont think WSU would be as easy as it seems to be. His tests were brutal and he really challenged me, in a good way though, mentally on how to act and do things. I’ll never forget the day i was doing a make up test and he got really mad at me and even yelled when i searched my bag 3x over and couldt find a pencil. hehehehe noone believed him in orientation day that forgetting pencils was his biggest pet-peeve. made a believer out of me though.

ASL 1,2,3 with Maril Elliot. Such a sweet little deaf lady ^_^  . I even helped her with her christmas tree and try and keep touch even now. Man as i look back, with all the crap i was going through i dont know what i would have done if i did not have her classes. Amidst 20+ credit quarters, an immoral relationship, parental unitz goin bazerkz, being more powered by energy drinks and power bars than sleep, the worst math teacher ever that i just couldt win with and life sucking… there was a glimmer of hope and fun. Learning how to talk with my hands, playing games in class, and just the demeanor of it all was awesome that first ASL class. And as a resonating effect of it, im getting a Speech and Hearing Science minor from WSU. life long impact and a bit of well timed grace.

Throughout i had good experiences and bad ones. but in the end, its still me as a core person as an individual with my convictions and my failures. As i did with my other salute, i say thank you.

Ok so i needed a solution at work with video files from dvd’s and misc. formats. This guide saved my butt.

http://lifehacker.com/397573/master-your-digital-media-with-vlc

Cross-platform media player VLC is often referred to as the “Swiss Army knife of media applications” for good reason: Not only does VLC play nearly any file you throw at it (you even voted it the best desktop media player), but it can do so much more. From ripping DVDs to converting files to iPod-friendly formats, let’s take a look at the four coolest things you can do with VLC and start you on your way to becoming a VLC ninja. Photo by R’eyes.

NOTE: Many of these VLC tricks use the same dialogs, so rather than repeat the same steps every time, I’ll be doing a thorough step-by-step once and then highlighting only the differences in the subsequent mini-guides. I’m using Windows in most of my examples, but since VLC is cross-platform, most of the same tricks should work just as well on any platform. VLC has a Streaming and Transcoding Wizard that’s supposed to make this process even easier, but it’s been buggy for me in all my tests, so I decided to go with the slightly more difficult method detailed below.

Rip Any DVD

You may have thought that you needed some fancy DVD ripping tools to rip DVDs to your hard drive, but VLC can actually rip any DVD with ease. As reader joelena pointed out, since VLC plays the DVD in order to encode it, it can bypass any copy protection. Here’s how it works:

1. Open the Disc and Find the Correct Title: Insert your DVD and open it with File -> Open Disc. We need to find the right title to rip from the DVD, so at this point we’re going to preview titles from the disc one by one. To do this, start with 0 as your title number and increment one number at a time until you find the title you want to rip. I’ve found it’s quicker if you choose DVD rather than DVD (menus) at the top of the Open dialog so you only have to wade through actual video.
2. Pick a Folder to Save the Rip and Name It: Now that you’ve find the right track, you just need to tell VLC that you want to save it. To do so, tick the Stream/Save checkbox, then click Settings. Here you need to tell VLC where to save the file, so tick the File checkbox and pick a folder to save it to and then give it a name (e.g., My DVD Rip.mpg).
3. Determine Video and Audio Settings: Now you’re ready to tweak the final settings before it’s time to rip. Tick the Video codec and Audio codec, then choose the output codecs you prefer. This is really up to you, and if you don’t have a preference I’ve had good results using the defaults described in this excellent VLC rip guide: mp1v for the video codec and mp3 for audio. If you need a specific file format for a mobile device, you may want to choose a difference encapsulation method and codec. Hit OK when you’re done.
4. Rip Away: You’ve made it. Just hit OK again (make sure Stream/Save is checked) and it should start ripping.

VLC will rip the DVD faster than real-time playback, and you can follow the ripping process in the corner of the VLC window.

Convert Any Video for Your iPod or iPhone with a Drag and Drop Batch Script

If you regularly convert files to a specific file format—say, for your iPod—you can set up a batch file with VLC that will make video conversions as easy as dragging and dropping the to-be-converted file onto the script.Create a new text file and save it as VLC Converter.bat. Make sure your filesystem is showing file extensions so you aren’t saving it as a text file (you don’t want to end up with something like VLC Converter.bat.txt). You need to make sure it’s saving with the BAT extension.

If you were building the script from scratch, at this point you’d open up the file you just created and paste “C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe” %1 in the first line. Now you need to get the command line options that describe how VLC should convert the file. For that, you can use the text generated by the Target textbox at the top of the Stream/Save Settings window described in steps two and three of the DVD ripping guide above, which displays the command line options you need for your batch file. Luckily a user at the iPod forums at iLounge already put together a VLC batch conversion script for iPods, so we can just use those settings, which look like this:

“C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe” %1 :sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=1024,scale=1,height=240,width=320,acodec=mp4a,ab=128,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=%1.mp4}}

That’s a lot of text, but it’s just telling VLC everything you would normally tell it in the Settings dialog. The %1 variable will be replaced by the name of the file you drop on the script. Copy and paste all of that text (and only that text) into your batch file and save it. That’s all there is to it. Next time you have a video file you want to convert for your iPod, just drag and drop it on your newly created batch script. The script was built specifically for converting videos to an iPod-compatible format, but you can build your own scripts to do virtually common conversions you want.

Stream Media to Other Computers

Now that you’re using VLC to rip your DVDs, you’ve got gigabyte after gigabyte of your videos on your desktop. Rather than copying all of those files to any other computer you’d like to play them on, VLC allows you to stream video over your network or even over the internet.First, go to File -> Open File. Browse to the file you’d like to stream, and then—like above—tick the Stream/Save checkbox and click Settings. This time, rather than outputting the stream as a file, we’re going to tick the UDP box and enter the local IP address of the computer you’d like to stream to. On Windows, you can find your computer’s local IP address by opening the command prompt (Win-R, type cmd, and hit Enter), and then type ipconfig and hit Enter.

Once you’ve got that, enter it in the computer you’re streaming from in the text box next to the UDP checkbox you just enabled. Hit OK to accept your settings, then OK again to finish the setup. While you’re still on the streaming computer, go to Settings -> Add Interface -> Web Interface.

Now it’s time to start the stream on your other computer, and doing so is a breeze. Just open VLC on your second computer, go to File -> Open Network Stream, and—assuming the UDP choice is selected and the port matches the port you used in the setup above (unless you changed it, they should both default to 1234), just hit OK to start the stream.

You’re presented with a slight problem streaming the video using VLC this way, namely that you can’t control the playback from the remote VLC interface. Luckily you already enabled the web interface, so on the computer you’re streaming to, open a web browser and point it to the VLC web interface. If you’re streaming over a local network, find your streaming computer’s IP address the same way you did with the remote computer’s address above, then enter it into your browser with port 8080 appended to the end. Mine looks like http://192.168.1.2:8080. Through the web interface on the remote computer, you can control all of VLC’s playback. Handy, huh?

You can stream video over the internet and not just over your local network, but you’ll need to either have a static external IP address or assign a domain name to your computer to do so easily. For more details on streaming with VLC, check out Engadget’s previous guide.

Play Ripped DVDs

If you prefer keeping ripped DVDs entirely in tact with you rip them to your computer, VLC may not be your tool of choice for ripping. Instead I’d recommend an alternate ripping tool like our one-click DVD ripping solution DVD Rip or one of the other DVD ripping methods we’ve covered in the past. Once you’ve ripped the full DVD to your hard, VLC comes in handy once again to play that ripped DVD, menus and all.We’ve highlighted how to play full ripped DVDs with VLC before, but for an even easier solution, check out DVD Play, a Lifehacker Code original that works as a more attractive front end to playing back full DVD rips with VLC.

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/07/24/jack-thompson-plays-it-laughs-jace-hall-show

watch it, you’ll lol

I was sent this article by a friend and I was very surprised at the conclusion of it and how much i agreed.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2319449,00.asp

The only thing i would add is a provision for open-source software creators and users to give them a break.

 The following article explains what AMD is trying to do to leap frog past intel and nvidia.
GO AMD GO!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/technology/05amd.html?ref=todayspaper

Ok this doesnt make alot of sense as a start but bear with me.

To give some context, watch this video:

ok so basically, leeroy wipes his entire party because he ran in and “leeroyed” the entire party. He was crazy to run into the room and pop all the eggs.

Now consider life. When was the last time we did something crazy? When was the last time God told us to do something crazy His glory but we said, “meh im fine right here.” You may say to yourselve, “thats never happened,” but what about those times when you felt you really should talk to someone standing accross the street but ignored them? The person at church who looks new but they seem fine so theres no need to talk to them? When was the last time we really stepped out to show Gods love to others?

What if PALS (the guild from the leeroy WoW video), was really God? what if PALS said, “this should never work, but we’re gonna do it anyways because it has a long term ramification,” and leeroy ran in, and God pwned the entire room. Philipians 4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Why is it dificult for us to take these steps in faith? Matthew 21:18-22, “Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

20When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

21Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Now think of Indiana Jones: The last crusade

He was able to take the step, but that was for his father. In turn, why cant we do this for our heavenly father?

Mark 10:13-15 ” 13And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.

14But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

15Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. ”

Jesus used the term “verily.” In other places he says “verily verily i tell you the truth,” as a more emphasis on his meaning, yet in regards to taking the steps of faith we need to, we need to know that this is a fact.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/fact

Fact is defined as: “Knowledge or information based on real occurrences.” Now when we’re younger, if our mom or dad tells us to not cross the street without looking both ways or we’ll get turned into tomato soup, isnt that a fact? if our parents tell us to wash the dishes or else, isnt this a truth? If our parents say if we dont get to bed soon santa wont come, isnt that a fact?

Luke 11:11-13 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[a] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This is also a fact.

luke 28:16-20 “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

in light of the above, let us take crazy steps and actions. Let us take steps knowing God has our back. We dont play by the rules of earth, we play by Gods rules, and he has the big picture. Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.” Let us be freaks for Christ and take those steps and leeroy without a second thought, having the security of God behind us when we are walking in the spirit with our heavenly Father.

Just some food for thought.

-Atown

I want to do a shout out to James Bannan, http://apcmag.com/5045/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux .

This guide was very well put together, the pictures helped alot with understanding the grub commands among other things and it worked with ease.

Stay tuned, im going to start working on a article on faith that ive been muling over for a while now and im going to be using some odd references but i dont know how else to represent the information in a real and relevant setting.

Ok so i get vista 64bit business edition free through my school…………… so yeah i figured i’d try it. nuked my xp and then installed it onto that partition. i now have to use EASYBCD to add my ubuntu install into the boot loader which is fine, but overall, its kinda nice to have something shiney to play with. thats really all it is, shiny. Alot of times i feel like im generally using ubuntu and then i realize i dont have my cube >_< . but thats ok. so far games work fine, my sound needed a new driver vista specific from realtek ac'97, but otherwise no problems whatsoever. i like my facebook gadget though.... >.> . the only gay part is my ruckus media player only allows 2 machines to work at a time, and u can only switch to a new machine 1x at a time every 30 days….. so i dont have 3/4 of my music accessible to me but oh well, just have to listen to like… http://www.pandora.com/ which works pretty well. so yeah vista isnt as bad as everyone thinks. shoot the major thing i noticed is network resource management works like 100x better and is actually faster and so is anything off a USB device runs/transfers much faster, kinda like what it does in linux

Well it appears my XP install went south so in the midst of reformatting i made a 40gb partitiion to test out the true power of ubuntu on a desktop. and i have been absolutely astounded. Clean install, dual monitors, compiz fusion, no problems, Guild wars plays well

coutner strike plays well, i can use skype, teamspeak, its a complete replacement for windows. but i still like windows for minor things. it works.

Now minwin is something to look at. start googling, but HCS has the info first really – http://www.hescominsoon.com/archives/839

Windows 7, based on a CLI, a year sooner than expected and aparently they believe it will actually blow iphone touch screen etc, out of the water (apparently we all live near water too)