HandBrake Get’s an Update

Oh, now that’s just silly … !

I’ve got to admit, JUST before I got home … ?

I got asked for directions from three rather glamourous women.

To Brentwood High Street.

I, of course, drew the obvious conclusion — they were The Only Way Is Essex fans looking for the Sugar Hut —, and, immediately after telling them how to get there, said “If you’re looking for the Sugar Hut … … ”

“It’s ok”, the eldest of the three replied, “we went there, last night.”

I had to gently tell them that it was in the middle of Brentwood High Street.

But somewhere … ?

A little part of me has ducked, in order to avoid the low-flying irony …

‹‹•››

At ANY rate … ?

What I WAS going to tell you was that HandBrake* — ever reliable open source DVD and BluRay ripper — has now been updated to it’s 0.9.6 version.

All to the good: I’ve just download the 64 bit version, along with the libdvdcss that it now uses, instead of the relevant VLC codecs.

Go get, folks: it’s STILL rather good!

Now …

Can anyone tell me the phone number for Angry Birds Anonymous … ?

* Just so you know, I’ve also managed to find out how to use my TV’s record function, that let’s me record a given programme as an mp2 transport stream. It took me a while and a lot of askingº to find out how to convert that to a smaller file I can use on my Mac. Basically … ? I then had to use VLC to change the mp2 transport stream (or .ts file ) into a programme stream. I then had to buy — and install — the QuickTime mp2 playback component from Apple: a one off purchase, so you know. Once that was done, it allowed me to use MPEG Streamclip to edit and export the programme stream, into whatever I happened to prefer: about the only thing it hasn’t worked on was something I recorded for a friend of mine: but I have a feeling there were timecode issues with the broadcast, as trying to edit the transport file — from a stick — AND the version I’d ripped from a DVD had timecode problems.

º I owe a big thank you to Jon Walker, who worked out how to do the change with VLC, and posted it onto the relevant forum for me. Jon … ? Thanking you, sir.

The Daily Teaser …

Oy Veh!

Do you remember me mentioning, yesterday, that I had a job interview lined up?

Britain’s weather can be very frustrating, at times like this. Because it got snowed off … !

I know my Russian neighbour always tells us that Moscow — in Midsummer — handles snow a lot better than most of the UK.

And doesn’t run out of grit.

Which — as far as I can find out — is why the interview’s been re-arranged: the person who was supposed to e interview got snowed in!

••••

But let’s move on, shall we?

Yes, let’s!

Yesterday’s Teaser saw Andrea, Simon and Tim all get 6 out of 6, with Andrea beating everyone to the Official First-In-Clap!

Simon, hand Andrea the ointment, there’s a good chap!

Let’s see how everyone does with today’s questions, shall we?

Here they are, along with the ‘How To’ and License …

Q1) 7th January, 1965 saw which twins arrested on charges of Menacing?

Q2) 7th January, 1904, saw the introduction of the original radio distress signal: what was that distress signal?

Q3) 7th January, 1797, saw the introduction of which country's flag?

Q4) 7th January, 1927, saw the world’s first transatlantic phone call: name either of the two cities involved … ?

Q5) 7th January, 1925, saw the birth of which English naturalist and writer?

Q6) And finally … 7th January, 1928, saw the birth of screen-writer, William Peter Blatty: which horror film is his most famous?

And here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 6^th January is the Feast of Epiphany: this celebrate’s whose visit to the Infant Jesus?

A1) The Three Wise Men, or Magi.

Q2) 6^th January, 1066, saw the crowing of the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.

A2) Harold 2^nd, Godwinson.

Q3) 6^th January, 1977 saw record company, EMI, fire which band?

A3) The Sex Pistols.

Q4) 15 year’s later, 6^th January, 1992, saw the US government recommend doctor’s stop using silicone … what?

A4) Breast implants.

Q5) 6^th January, 1540, saw Henry 8^th of England marry his fourth wife: who was she?

A5) Anne of Cleves. (Or Anna von Jülich-Kleve-Berg, if you want to do it in German … )

Q6) And finally … many member’s of which religious movement celebrate the (ceremonial) birthday of Haile Selassie I.

A6) Rastafarianism. (So so you know, some Rasta find the term mildly offensive. What they’d make of Tim’s Rusty Fairy’s line, I don’t know: it had me grinning, though.)

Enjoy those, everyone, I’ll catch you later!

The Daily Teaser …

Well, here’s hoping … !

I know it’s the holiday, but it has been quiet, and I’m starting to miss the attention!

At any rate, here’s today’s questions, along with the ‘How To’ and License …

Q1) 4th January, 1986, saw the death of which Irish rock star?

Q2) That rocker’s death was on the same day — 4th January, 1986 — as which famous British writer’s?

Q3) 4th January, 1967, saw the death of Douglas Campbell, whilst he was attempting to break the world water-speed record: what was the name of his boat?

Q4) 4th January, 1999, saw former professional wrestling, Jesse Ventura sworn in as Governor of which US state?

Q5) 4th January saw Sir Edmund Hillary reach the South Pole, becoming the first explorer to do so, since 1912: in which year of the 1950s?

Q6) And finally … 4th January, 1885, saw Dr William West Grant become the first doctor to successfully remove what … ?

And here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 3^rd January, 1496, saw who test an unsuccessful flying machine?

A1) Leonardo da Vinci.

Q2) Many years later, 3^rd January, 1988, saw who become Britain’s longest serving Prime Minister?

A2) Margaret Thatcher.

Q3) Today is the Feast day of Saint Genevieve: which French city is she the patron saint of? (Of, rather than from.)

A3) Paris.

Q4) 3^rd January, 1990, saw Panamanian dictator, General Manúel Noriega arrested by US forces: in which countries Embassy was he hiding?

A4) Vatican City’s.

Q5) And finally … 3^rd January, 1977, saw former Home secretary, Roy Jenkins leave Parliament to become the first President of what?

A5) The European Commision.

Enjoy those … ! I’ll catch you later!

Chromed …

Hell … llllllo …

Oh …

That’s how it works …

I’ve got to admit, I’m … tinkering, at the mo.

I’m currently using the (Beta) version of Google Chrome for Mac, and I’m … not sure what to make of it …

Hmmm … it seems interesting enough, but I’ll let you know more.

But the fact it doesn’t have a conventional Google search-bar — it is Google produced software, after all — does mean it’s a little bit of a bugger to get use to at first … !

•••••

But one thing I do know is that the UK government has decided to launch its own Space Agency!

Which is a fantastic piece of news, if it wasn’t the fact there’s a recession on …

Well, that’s a debatable point.

I personally think that something like this is preferable to the amount’s handed to various banks.

Simplistic? Certainly!

I’m the first to admit I’m not Mr Educated.

I’m not.

But I do know that, after we stopped the various Black Knight launches, Britain started to lag behind in the Space race.

We weren’t even a starter, let alone an also-ran!

So, while the news may not be brilliantly timed, it does look like we’re making the effect, if nothing else.

•••••

Can I make a confession, here?

Can I?

I’m going to, what ever …

I do know that I’ve come back to using Safari for the additions to this particular post, as, between toying with the newer version of the editing tools that come with Blogger, and the effect of using Chrome, I’m not sure that I’m exactly pleased with the results.

As I think you’ve probably can tell, from the third picture … !!

Oh — Wowsa!

Drat!

You know, if it wasn’t for the fact that Kevin was over, I’d’ve found out that ITV4 were showing the 1980 film, “Flash Gordon”, a lot earlier!

That’s a shame, it really is.

Because however much fun the cast had, making it — a lot, I’m thinking — it was certainly a lot of fun to watch!

It still is, even after twenty-nine years!

Cheesy?

Certainly!

Loud?

Even more so!

Fun?

Absolutely guaranteed!

•••••

Oh, Hang On!

I’ve just seen an ad for Windoze 7!

That oh so easy to use ‘New Taskbar’?

Look’s like MS has copied OS X …

Again!!

•••••

But at any rate, that’s not necessarily what I was going to write about, when I started this post … !!

Bless ’im, I’ve had Kevin over, again, as he wasn’t to sure about one or two things on the laptop I’d Ubuntu’d up for him.

Most of which were things that were — for those of us a bit more computer literate — relatively simple.

You know, things like drag and drop, cut and paste, right and left clicking, stuff like that.

So today was case of just going over the basics, for him.

But was also a chance to to have Movie Night Adrian — who’s very good with IT — to have a look at it, as well, to see if he could help out.

Well …

It was seemingly having trouble booting up, as it was apparently having trouble with its Master Boot record.

Now if I’ve understood what Adrian’s told me, if we imagine a hard drive as an old fashioned vinyl record, the MBR would be like the lead-in groove that you’d put the needle onto, first.

It basically connects everything up, and tells the processor where to find the operating system, and everything else on the hard drive.

He also had a look at a look at the various bits and bobs that should — in theory — make the computer play sound.

Or play CD’s.

Make noises, at any rate …

I mean, apart from the usual noises you’d expect to hear from a whirring hard drive and CD drive, at least …

I also know that Adrian’s recommended we look at one of the alternative versions of Ubuntu, given the laptop’s not the newest piece of kit on the server farm. (It’s rather old, by modern standards; Adrian feels that running a version of Ubuntu called Xubuntu, would seriously help the performance. Something I know I’d seen on Canonical’s site, but hadn’t thought to use, as I’m not as familiar with it.)

And, again, if I’ve understood what he’s told us, correctly, it looks like I was pretty much right, when I originally guessed that Kevin’s laptop has a sound card best described as …

Well, there’s a few phrases I could put, but I know some of Councillor Chilvers’ younger readers are reading this, so I’ll settle for ‘kaput’, and leave it there.

But either way, I think, for the most part, Kevin’s happy with what he’s got; a sound card, as he said, himself, would be nice. But isn’t essential.

And what he’s got is very easy to use.

A Crowded House …

And when I say crowded!

Boy, do I mean crowded!!

Bless, Tim, and his partner, Adele popped over, today; along with Sarah, who had a piccy she wanted me to diddle with!!

Mostly to say ‘Hi’, and because Tim wanted me to show him round some of the wilder parts of the ’net to see if we could rustle up some form of anti-virus, or basic security software for Ubuntu 9.04.

He’d picked up a rather nasty rootkit, on his desktop PC, a few days ago, and thought it’d be sensible to get some sort of protection for the Ubuntu’d laptop!

Sensible move, actually.

Being at the home user end of Mac User’s, I’m very aware that, while there’s not a lot of viruses aimed at OS X, or Ubuntu.

But there’s quite a lot aimed at the various versions of Windoze, doing the rounds.

So using OS X or Ubuntu means, at the very least, means getting hold of some sort of basic protection … if nothing else, it means preventing various bits of malware attached to emails, and passing them on to your Windoze using friends.

So we’ve managed to find a basic bit of kit — called Avast — and installed it on his laptop. (Quite simple to do, even for me; it’s just a case of downloading it from the site, and installing it with Ubuntu’s on-board package manager.)

It was pretty much the same process for installing aMSN.

Something I know that Tim and Adele are very familiar with is good ol’ fashioned Pester Power! Most in the shape of their eldest, Rhiannon.

The one thing Rhiannon missed about having Ubuntu, rather than Windoze, was the lack of what’s called a Chat client; something that’d let her natter to her friends, through MSN’s Messenger service.

So we all did a little bit of hunting around, and found a couple of clients she could use; although looks like the current version of Emesene won’t work with anything other than Karmic Koala …

Hmmm …

But we did manage to find something called aMSN.

Which looks like it could be working out for them! Hopefully, Rhiannon’ll feel confident enough to leave a comment about it!