1 == Bernie's brain backup for January 2008 ==
5 === Bernie the rockstar ====
7 If you were considering hiring me, or entrusting me to do anything serious, you'd better watch this first:
9 * [[BernieIronMaiden.ogg]] - [1.8MB] if you have the free OggTheora codec
10 * [[BernieIronMaiden.mov]] - [3.6MB] if you're stuck with proprietary QuickTime codecs
11 * nothing - [0MB] if you're stuck with the proprietary MediaPlayer or RealPlayer codecs
14 Q: why doesn't the player come up right away?
16 A: because my wiki doesn't have mime magic
18 Q: why don't you just let apache serve media files?
20 A: because a CGI has no way to "handoff" a file to the web server once they've been invoked
22 ==== Food and Power ====
24 Here's a stupid movie by SamuelKlein, ArjunSarwal and myself:
26 * [[FoodAndPower/FoodAndPowerLow.ogg]] - [16MB] OggTheora stream, quality 5
27 * [[FoodAndPower/FoodAndPowerHigh.ogg]] - [26MB] OggTheora stream, quality 7
28 * [[FoodAndPower/FoodAndPowerMed.ogg]] - [62MB] OggTheora stream, quality 10
30 If your computer cannot play the above links, you should really consider installing
31 a free media player, or just switching to Linux which comes with all the free media
32 players and codecs out of the box. Meanwhile, here's a workaround:
34 * [[FoodAndPower/FoodAndPowerMed.avi]] - [103MB] original AVI stream from our shitty camera
36 These also prove the quality of the OggTheora codec. After seeing this, I think
37 I'd recommend using it for its technical advantages in addition to its legal advantages.
39 In producing these movies, I found out that:
41 * mencoder has bad support for ogg-theora
42 * transcode kinda sucks
43 * ffmpeg seems the best command-line encoder of the three I tried
44 * The easiest solution if all you need is encoding anything to Theora is ffmpeg2theora.
45 All you have to do is:
47 ffmpeg2theora FoodAndPower.avi
55 My good friend ArjunSarwal recently made the [[http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/26/0541205 | Slashdot front page]]
56 with his story about [[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Cow_Power| Cow Power]]!
60 ==== Crank, Crank! ====
62 Today we got this pleasant surprise.
64 See the movie: [[OlpcCrank/StephenReillyCranking.mov]].
65 The guy cranking is DanielDrake, Gentoo kernel maintainer
68 [[OlpcCrank/ArjunCrankingSmall.jpg | ArjunSarwal cranking]]
69 [[OlpcCrank/ArjunCranking2Small.jpg | ArjunSarwal cranking]]
70 [[OlpcCrank/StephenCrankingSmall.jpg | StephenReilly cranking]]
71 [[OlpcCrank/StephenCranking2Small.jpg | StephenReilly cranking]]
73 Larger versions of these pics are available at OlpcCrank.
77 ==== The little computer that just won't die! ====
79 OneLaptopPerChild is not enough. There should definitely be
80 [[OneAmigaPerChild/OneAmigaPerChild | OneAmigaPerChild]]!
82 [[OneAmigaPerChild/OneAmigaPerChildSmaller.jpg]]
84 Look [[OneAmigaPerChild/OneAmigaPerChild | here]] for additional details.
85 A big thankyou to MicheleConsoleBattilana for providing a free copy of
86 AmigaForever, a fine tribute to the coolest platform ever!
90 ==== The XaoS strikes back! ====
92 I enjoyed bundling this OldSkool activity for the XO:
94 http://wiki.laptop.org/images/8/8c/XaoS-screenshot4.png
96 See: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XaoS
98 It certainly needs some more sugarization work for which I have no time.
103 ==== Haiku Laptop ====
105 Today we shipped our machine affected by dlo#5575 (touchpad mostly unfunctional)
106 to Japan for further inspection by ALPS. Just before closing up the plastic case,
107 I've left inside a little fortune cookie for them:
111 If you're wondering what it means, it's a piece of japanese poetry called a HaikuPoem.
116 ==== Trip to Walden Pond ====
118 This really happened on Monday 31st Dec, but who'd go read last year's blog entry now?
120 So, Adam, Arjun and myself went to this [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden_Pond|Walden Pond]]
121 place, where the famous American poet [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau|Thoreau]]
122 lived in complete isolation for 2 years in a cabin made of wood.
124 [[WaldenPond1Small.jpg|Arjun (left) and Me (guess who?)]]
126 On this very nice lake, I stupdily tried to run on the ice and fell badly, hitting my jaw
127 and cheek on the hard ice. Little cut, big bump... no permanent consequences. Maybe I
128 should consider a health insurance?
130 [[WaldenPond2Small.jpg|Me (the really crazy one) and Adam (the really worried one)]]
131 [[ThoreauCabinSmall.jpg|The there of us in the site of Thoreau's cabin]]