The Misadventures of Dan
Peer into the mind of Dan as he tries to build an MP3 Player for his PDA and searches for the next thing in his life be it an electrical engineering job or graduate school.
Thursday, July 17, 2003
.:10:40:58 AM:.
SQL Jackpot
So I'm reading 'Learn SQL in 21 Days' only I'm kind of doing 3 "days" per night so hopefully I'll be finish soon. Only I'm reading it on my Clie so its kind of hard to reference. Yesterday was difficult because the syntax described in the book are for different implementations of SQL compared to the one in MS Access (I'm boycotting linking to MS while my system still isn't working). I couldn't find a comparison chart because I kept on searching for the wrong thing, finally I went on google and found this chart and then this nice little "gentle"SQL reference.
Ever wonder what two guys playing ping-pong Matrix-style would look like?
.:9:23:16 AM:.
Mind-map
Now that I'm working it seems like I'm thinking even more about jobs than ever.... go figure. Maybe its because I feel all my free time has disappeared. I get home from work eat supper go straight to the gym. Workout for two hours and then come home again, only to start thinking and pondering about the project. Sometimes it looks as if I'm doing nothing but really I'm just thinking about the hundreds of things: how to solve the 25 pin problem for the Pump, Databases on the brain, jobs, 'The Quest', random events, webpage, the computer system.
Dan's Current Mind-map
Future/Job: 40%
Lab Stuff: 35%
Database: 15%
System: 5%
The Quest: 3% (M 2.5% Others: 0.5%)
Race: 2%
Random Stuff:~0%
Monday, July 14, 2003
.:11:56:38 AM:.
ARGH Pain! Thy name is SP4
So I installed the latest Service Pack from Microsoft. A legitimate update for my legitimate computer using legitimate microsoft software like Microsoft Office. I use Office (specifically Word and Access) to keep track of all my applications, cover letters, etc. Now after updating Windows 2000 and defragmenting my drive my computer REBOOTS every time I run Word. No joke. WHY!?! What on earth could this help me? There's not even an error message the computer reboots faster than I can hit the reset button! This is madness! I read around and I'm not the only one who seems to have trouble with this concept. An Update is supposed to help-not HINDER ME!! Gar, now I may have to reinstall Windows 2000 in its entirety. You win Microsoft, take your 'HaHa Pain In the Butt' award.
I'm hungry.
From a recent e-mail to a friend :) Dan's official How-to-make-a VCD guide
How to make a VCD by Dan'
Chapter 1 Introduction
Ahh the wonderful world of VCDs blah blah blah
Chapter 2 Things to note
Some DVD players can play VCDs but the VCDs may have to be pressed professionally. Meaning even after all of this, your DVD player may not be able to play your VCD (sort of like the one in Edmonton). Just to warn you that after all this its not that you did something wrong its just that your DVD player may not play it. I think if it can play MP3 CDs then its very likely it will play your burned VCDs :)
Most of the time you need to convert your files from one format to another and then split them up. Which can be a giant pain but fortunately Shaolin Soccer is already split so all you have to do is convert it. :) You're looking to convert it TO a .MPG format. Files like Shaolin Soccer (and a lot of your Alias episodes) are in .avi otherwise known as DivX, XVid, Avi format. Burning is easy once you have your video files in a .MPG format.
Chapter 3 Tools and 'Da Goods'
You need:
A program to get the sound (Virtual Dub)
A program to convert .AVI to .MPG (like TMPGenc)
A good CD Rom burning program (I highly recommend Nero :)
Chapter 4 What to do What to Do
Once you have all the programs installed you're ready to get cracking.
In three steps: (**see sidenote at the bottom)
1) Rip
2) Convert
3) "Burn baby burn"
1) Rip-you need to get the audio track of the file because although the program to convert avi to .mpg is really good converting video (and its legally free) its not so good doing it all at once. On the other hand Virtual Dub is good with sound but not really great with video. So run Virtual Dub,
File -> Open Video File
Open your shaolin soccer file
File ->'File Information' you should write down the Frame size and fps
(it'll be a number like 352x240 and 29.97fps) this is important for step 2
File -> Save WAV
Save it as some memorable file name like 'Shaolin Soccer Part 1.wav' make sure you remember where you saved it.
Close Virtual Dub (you'll have to do this for the second part so you can do that now or later)
2) Convert-Run TMPGenc, it will give you a warning or a screen click ok
If the wizard does not load up goto File -> Project Wizard
With the wizard running it will give you a whole bunch of choices. Since your DVD can play VCDs you need to select one of the three choices under
Video-CD. Remember the size and fps from step 2? You need to select the choice that matches it. In this case NTSC works perfectly because it
consists of 352x240 and 29.97fps.
Click Next
It asks you for a video file, browse and "open" Shaolin Soccer p1.avi
Do the same for the audio file, browse and "open" Shaolin Soccer Part 1.wav" Click Next
It should now ask you for filter setting-you can skip this part (but if you ever needed to cut some video files apart so that they fit on to CDs this is where you'd do it) so to skip, click Next
It should now ask you for bitrate setting again skip this part by clicking next
Finally it should ask you where to save the .mpg file-remember where this is because you need it :)
Check the 'Start encoding immediately' click "OK" and then when it asks you to create the .mpg file click "OK" again
Then it should start encoding the file. This will take some time depending on the speed of your computer.
3) Burn baby burn
Nero is my program of choice because it does audio and so much more!
After Nero starts you either get a window that says 'New Compilation' or The Wizard. If its the Wizard close it. In the new compilation window on
the left you'll see a some choices 'CD-ROM (ISO), Audio-CD' scroll down until you see 'Video-CD' (beneath CD-Copy). Click on 'Video-CD' once (it
should be selected) then click on New.
If you don't have an explorer window on the right, there's a little folder button to the left of the question mark button. Click on that.
Find your video file (.mpg) and drag it from the right explorer window to the left window in the space that has Track|Title|Duration|Pause|Size.
After its done checking the file, there'll be a blue bar on the bottom stretched closed to the 60 min mark.
To burn your VCD there'll be a button 8th button from the left, with a little flaming finger on a CD. Click on that.
Make sure the box that says 'Write' is checked
Then click the Write button.
After a while your first VCD is burned :) Repeat for part 2
Whew hope this helps!
**A side note, Nero can convert .avi to .mpg and burn them all at once BUT the conversion is often shaky meaning the audio and the video won't be insynch (in this case it might not matter but its just good practice). To RISK it you can skip step 1 and 2, go to step 3 and instead of dragging the .mpg drag the .avi file.**
