1 == Bernie's brain backup for January 2008 ==
5 ==== Another trip to NY ====
7 I'm planning to go to NewYorkCity tomorrow with a bunch of friends.
8 But this time I guess we'll catch a different transportation:
9 we were booking the FungWah (aka ShittyBus), when ChrisBall came
10 and looked at us funny. "Are you sure? Those buses have a habit
11 of catching fire on the highway".
13 Apparently, it is really true:
15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fung_Wah_Bus_Transportation_Inc.#Safety
19 === Bernie the rockstar ====
21 If you were considering hiring me, or entrusting me to do anything serious, you'd better watch this first:
23 * [[BernieIronMaiden.ogg]] - [1.8MB] if you have the free OggTheora codec
24 * [[BernieIronMaiden.mov]] - [3.6MB] if you're stuck with proprietary QuickTime codecs
25 * //nothing// - [0MB] if you're stuck with the proprietary MediaPlayer or RealPlayer codecs
28 **Q:** why doesn't my browser play the link right away rather than asking me to download it? \\
29 **A:** because my wiki doesn't support mime-magic yet
31 **Q:** why don't you just let apache serve media files? \\
32 **A:** because a CGI has no way to "handoff" a file to the web server once they've been invoked
34 ==== Food and Power ====
36 Here's a stupid movie by SamuelKlein, ArjunSarwal and myself:
38 * [[FoodAndPower/FoodAndPowerHigh.ogg]] - [62MB] OggTheora stream, quality 10
39 * [[FoodAndPower/FoodAndPowerMed.ogg]] - [26MB] OggTheora stream, quality 7
40 * [[FoodAndPower/FoodAndPowerLow.ogg]] - [16MB] OggTheora stream, quality 5
42 If your computer cannot play the above links, you should really consider installing
43 a free media player, or just switching to Linux which comes with all the free media
44 players and codecs out of the box. Meanwhile, here's a workaround:
46 * [[FoodAndPower/FoodAndPower.avi]] - [103MB] original AVI stream from our shitty camera
48 These also prove the quality of the OggTheora codec. After seeing this, I think
49 I'd recommend using it for its technical advantages in addition to its legal advantages.
51 In producing these movies, I found out that:
53 * mencoder has bad support for ogg-theora
54 * transcode kinda sucks
55 * ffmpeg seems the best command-line encoder of the three I tried
56 * The easiest solution if all you need is encoding anything to Theora is ffmpeg2theora.
57 All you have to do is:
59 ffmpeg2theora FoodAndPower.avi
67 My good friend ArjunSarwal recently made the [[http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/26/0541205 | Slashdot front page]]
68 with his story about [[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Cow_Power| Cow Power]]!
72 ==== Crank, Crank! ====
74 Today we got this pleasant surprise.
76 See the movie: [[OlpcCrank/StephenReillyCranking.mov]].
77 The guy cranking is DanielDrake, Gentoo kernel maintainer
80 [[OlpcCrank/ArjunCrankingSmall.jpg | ArjunSarwal cranking]]
81 [[OlpcCrank/ArjunCranking2Small.jpg | ArjunSarwal cranking]]
82 [[OlpcCrank/StephenCrankingSmall.jpg | StephenReilly cranking]]
83 [[OlpcCrank/StephenCranking2Small.jpg | StephenReilly cranking]]
85 Larger versions of these pics are available at OlpcCrank.
89 ==== The little computer that just won't die! ====
91 OneLaptopPerChild is not enough. There should definitely be
92 [[OneAmigaPerChild/OneAmigaPerChild | OneAmigaPerChild]]!
94 [[OneAmigaPerChild/OneAmigaPerChildSmaller.jpg]]
96 Look [[OneAmigaPerChild/OneAmigaPerChild | here]] for additional details.
97 A big thankyou to MicheleConsoleBattilana for providing a free copy of
98 AmigaForever, a fine tribute to the coolest platform ever!
102 ==== The XaoS strikes back! ====
104 I enjoyed bundling this OldSkool activity for the XO:
106 http://wiki.laptop.org/images/8/8c/XaoS-screenshot4.png
108 See: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XaoS
110 It certainly needs some more sugarization work for which I have no time.
115 ==== Haiku Laptop ====
117 Today we shipped our machine affected by dlo#5575 (touchpad mostly unfunctional)
118 to Japan for further inspection by ALPS. Just before closing up the plastic case,
119 I've left inside a little fortune cookie for them:
123 If you're wondering what it means, it's a piece of japanese poetry called a HaikuPoem.
128 ==== Trip to Walden Pond ====
130 This really happened on Monday 31st Dec, but who'd go read last year's blog entry now?
132 So, Adam, Arjun and myself went to this [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden_Pond|Walden Pond]]
133 place, where the famous American poet [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau|Thoreau]]
134 lived in complete isolation for 2 years in a cabin made of wood.
136 [[WaldenPond1Small.jpg|Arjun (left) and Me (guess who?)]]
138 On this very nice lake, I stupdily tried to run on the ice and fell badly, hitting my jaw
139 and cheek on the hard ice. Little cut, big bump... no permanent consequences. Maybe I
140 should consider a health insurance?
142 [[WaldenPond2Small.jpg|Me (the really crazy one) and Adam (the really worried one)]]
143 [[ThoreauCabinSmall.jpg|The there of us in the site of Thoreau's cabin]]