Devblog

I’ve got a few movies on my laptop, all of which are in widescreen format and saved as AVIs. They are absolutely fine, play fine in widescreen on my laptop and even using my HDMI connection, play fine in widescreen when hooked up to my TV. I then decided to burn these onto DVD so people could watch them on the TV without having to wait until I wasn’t using my laptop.

Windows DVD Maker is really good. It is easier and better than any of the free tools in previous versions of windows or as part of DVD recording software packages I’ve used in the past. All you have to do is add the video files, choose a menu design and then click burn. This worked fine for the first one I did but since then it’s been taking widescreen videos, adding them to a widescreen menu and then playing the resulting DVD in 4:3 format instead of 16:9. Even changing the very limited options does nothing – it ignors choosing either 4:3 or 16:9 from the options menu – it still burns everything in 16:9!

Turns out the simplest solution is actually more free Microsoft software – namely Windows Live Movie Maker. All you have to do is download it, install it and then follow the below instructions to create your DVD.

1. Open Windows Live Movie Maker, Add your movie.
2. Click on the View tab and set the Aspect Ratio to Widescreen
3. Publish the file in Widescreen format

You can then use the new video file to create your DVD. Simples.

We’ve got a Bosch Exxcel WVD24520GB Washer Dryer and it’s been great – up until now! It has a supposedly “brilliant” feature called a child lock. It is a good idea because you can turn it on and then your children can’t turn the dials or push the buttons and screw up the wash cycle!

Problem is that unless you’ve got too much free time and actually sat there and read the manual from front to back – noone knows how to turn it on and so doesn’t use it. Until the child – in my case my two year old daughter – presses a few buttons and turns it on by accident!

You then got one hell of a task to turn it off. Turns out it’s this easy:

Hold down the clock/time button for five seconds

I just wish I’d been able to find that out without having to read the entire manual from front to nearly the back.

I’ve got one of 1and1 root servers and it just went tits up again and required a reinstall. After going through the Server Re-Image process the server is up and running again – with the following stupid partition setup:

• 1Gb / (on a 120Gb drive!)
• 5Gb /var
• 5Gb /usr
• 109Gb /home

Now unless you run a company creating static HTML files for 100 million small businesses, this is a really stupid setup.

Here’s how you can sort it all out into something more useful. I wanted everything on just one major / partition so I could just forget about it.

• Reboot using the Linux Rescue Mode (from the 1and1 Control Panel)
• The default setup has just enough data on it to fit on the 1GB partition. Copy it all over as follows:
  • mkdir /mnt/root
  • mkdir /mnt/var
  • mkdir /mnt/usr
  • mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt/root
  • mount -t xfs /dev/sda5 /mnt/usr
  • mount -t xfs /dev/sda6 /mnt/var
  • mv /mnt/var/* /mnt/root/var
  • mv /mnt/usr/* /mnt/root/usr
• Next: modify fstab for the new setup: use VI to open /mnt/root/etc/fstab and remove the lines containing /var /usr /home
• umount -a
• Next: move your swap to the end of the drive and resize your main / partition to fill the space:
  • Run: “parted”
  • “resize 2 start end” where start and end are near the end of the drive
  • “resize 1 0 near-the-end”
  • If you get errors, try doing the resize in increments
• Reboot and you’re done

All fixed

With the current political and economical climate I was wondering how much tax I actually pay every month so I spent a quick five minutes working it out. Every month we’ve got those taxes we need to pay:

• Income Tax – 20% a month
• Council Tax – £113 a month
• Road Licence Tax – £15 a month

So that’s the big ones every month but it doesn’t stop there because for everything else (except rent in my case) you pay tax on in the form of VAT at 17.5%. And then if you have any money left after paying all the bills and want to enjoy yourself, you may have to shell out more on added tax on beer or cigarettes for example.

Then there’s the issue with fuel – as well as VAT, there’s also Fuel Duty Tax – an extra 43% per litre.

I’ve worked this out and for my wages it works out that by paying my bills and going to work every day, about 36% of my money goes straight in the governments pockets. And then they piss it all away building big wheels in London instead of using it productively to improve the conditions of living in the country.

Something to think about.

Happy Birthday DevBlog. You’re 3 today.

Carry on…

As a web developer for a SME I try to use automation as much as possible to reduce the staff workload. This is generally the run of the mill stuff:

• Sending out an automated email when someone registers
• Creating a PDF receipt when a payment is made
• Checking the database for irregularities and fixing where possible

The one problem with the last one is that the functions I create are never going to be as good at fixing problems as a real live human would because the computer is incapible of making complex decisions: they don’t like too much variation, cannot improvise and are bound by the rules of the system. So what is the cut-off point for using automation?

I think that it is a good idea to try and use automation as long as it is thoroughly planned out. This was brought to my attention yesterday when I had to kill some time in the new shopping center (mall for those of you over the pond) near work and went to use the loo. They’re brand new and quite good: everything is automated. The hand dryers and taps are all motion activated.

The problem is that so are the flushes on the toilets. This is all very good and hygenic and will save the world, etc, etc but the problem is that they put the sensor right next to the toilet roll so when you lean over, you brush the sensor with your arm and get a freezing cold, wet arse. Brilliant. Nice one whoever planned that one.

I’ve been a fan of the Need for Speed series since the first game came out and it’s always been my favourite racing game – until now. I’ve just been playing the new Need for Speed: ProStreet and it’s pretty much the worst racing game in world, ever! The original ones were great, pure racing games with good (for the time) graphics and great gameplay. The more recent ones (since they started being jointly developed for the consoles) have been even better with more options, gameplay and things to work for and the graphics are even better. This latest one though is absolutely shit!

Before I really start having a go, here’s a few brief points for anyone at EA who might come across this:

• Not everyone likes hip-hop and R&B – enough of the DJ, rapper shit!
• The new ones should have better graphics than the last one if nothing else

As for the game, the concept is similar to the other recent NFS outings where you start out at a low level and build up your collection of cars by winning races. This is a tried and tested formula that although being un-original, works very well. The only problem is that this time they seem to have taken a step back in the development of the idea. This also goes for the actual racing.

This is supposed to be a racing game. It’s not supposed to have nice green arrows on the track showing the racing line that turn red if you’re going too fast. Why, why, why? There might be a way to turn these off but I’ll never know because I got so pissed off with this game after playing it for 30 minutes that I uninstalled it and stuck it on Amazon.

I think it might be time for you people over there to put away the Mims album, bin the Fast and the Furious series and head over here to Europe where we have corners and then have another crack at making a decent racing game!

I’m going to find my Carbon disc and have another go until they sort their acts out.

I got into work after yet another week off (September has been great – only in the office for about a week) and after the usual messing about of rebooting everything that had been turned off or crashed and not booted up again because they thought that not doing any work was a better option than telling me it was broke maybe?

Anyway, after that, checking emails and making coffee, I needed number 1. Our building is being renovated and before I was off they were just finishing the corridor leading to the toilets and the toilets themselves. I walked out into the corridor and all the lights turned on straight away. “Spooky cooincidence someone getting in the other end at the same time as me” I thought and wandered into the toilets where the lights turned on by themselves…

Turns out they’ve fitted motion detectors to the lights. They’re just a little sensor that looks like a smoke detector. Think I’m gonna have a look on eBay and see if I can get some for home. Let the laziness begin.

Note: Probably not advisable if you’ve got a cat….

Well, that would be Pandora.com! (it’s free too)

This site basically asks you what your favourite song or artist is and then plays you random songs that are similar. The selections are based on other peoples recommendations in true “Web 2.0″ fashion (I’m beginning to hate that phrase!) and it’s pretty good for finding out about artists you haven’t heard of.

Apparently they play adverts every now and again, but I’ve been listening for a couple of hours and haven’t heard one yet so who knows what they are about…

From a web developers point of view, it’s also a sweet site: very AJAXy and with graphics that would make an Apple designer jealous.

Check it out

I haven’t mentioned it here before but I’m a MASSIVE Stagte fan. I love it and walways have, ever since the first film. SG-1 did go down a notch after O’Neill became a general and it was a sad, sad day when RDA left altogether. But once I’d got used to the change, I have to admit that Mitchell is a brilliant replacement. But cancelling SG-1 altogether? Why, why why?!?

Luckily the last episode of series 10 was brilliant, a much better way of finishing off the last ever series than going out with a big finale (like, for example, Buffy or Angel), and with the two films coming up at the end of the year (one starring RDA as well) it makes the loss easier to bear.

You also have to remember that there’s still Atlantis coming back for at least another season, and with Carter moving over there as well.

I was reading GateWorld the other day and found out that there’s also going to be a third Stargate series made. At the moment there isn’t much in the way of information flying around about it except that it’s not a spin-off the way Altalntis was, but a completely new concept.

Looking forward to it!