Pepp words

I think I first have to say that I read the book after watching the Swedish film and since they were so similar it was almost as if I didn’t need to read the book at all. Both the films are very similar to the book and I think both are very well done.  I just wanted to point out what I thought was most interesting.  Spoilers after the break.

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Currently I’m using http://flixster.com and it’s “meh”.  I don’t really care for the layout or the look of the site.  My profile kinda sucks, searching for movies isn’t that great, and quizes?! sigh.  So the search for a better site starts.

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I started by reading a lot of information on the wet shave, as you probably are doing right now.  I also read so many reviews and forums on products it would probably drive a normal person to insanity.  I’m hoping that you found this post before that has happened.  Getting started if you haven’t found it yet leisureguy has written an amazing post with a lot of beginner information.  For reviews and a forum check out http://badgerandblade.com/ (B&B) although I have to assume you’ve found that already, it’s the first google result for wet shave.

I purchased everything from http://www.bullgooseshaving.net/ and couldn’t be happier, they had the best prices and the best selection of blade sampler packs.  Everything I read on the internet pointed me to buy a sampler pack of blades.  This is the best way to test them all and make sure to pick the right one for you.  I’m new to wet shaving so I can’t tell you if this is bullshit or not but it seems everyone has their brand.  

First you need a razor, this is an easy choice, the Merkur 34C (HD) is the standard for beginners.  Next I went with Taylor avocado shaving cream, you can check the reviews on B&B but people love the smell and the way it feels on their face.  This also goes for the Proraso dopobarba aftershave balm, I choose this because it doesn’t have alcohol and I wanted something to moisturize my face.  The brush is also very important and while the price can become astronomical I went with the Edwin Jagger best badger brush because the general consensus is real badger hair is important.  I picked the medium size, I didn’t want to break the bank just yet but I also wanted something decent.  For the blades just pick a sampler pack that suites you; the MVP pack had all the ones I wanted to try and, of course, I suggest that one.

That’s the bare minimum to get started wet shaving.  Sure there are a lot of different products to try and everyone seems to have an opinion about something.  You can pick up a stand if you want and a shaving cup if you need one.  The good news is you really can’t go wrong if you stick with the Merkur HD.  Don’t get too wrapped up picking out products but I hope my list helps you.  I tried to pick great items for beginners that had the most positive reviews.  Look for a future post about my first time using them all.

This required quite a bit of effort and all the information I found on the topic was very misleading. Do no use the weird programs that are suggested, coverter203 or whatever silly name they’ve come up with.   Some good old fashion tools work perfectly.

The slowest way is to do it in realtime.  That means if you are converting a 40min file it will take 40minutes.  Yeah that sucks but you can always leave it running at night and it’s easy.  First install AviSynth and VirtualDubMod then create a new file with notepad to contain DirectShowSource(“PATH TO FILE”) where PATH TO FILE is the actual path to the file. You have to make sure the file name containing the one line has the extension .avisynth so VirtualDubMod knows what to do. That one line when loaded into VirtualDubMod will start converting the file.  You will have to specify a place to save it.

You’re going to need VirtualDubMod, avc2avi, mkvtoolnix, BeLight, and MKVExtractGUI.  To set this up you should place the MKVExtactGUI files into the mkvtoolnix folder.  Keep track of the output directory for this next step.  Using MKVExtract you must separate the video and audio parts of the file. Then with BeLight you will convert the audio, which is the .ac3 file, to an mp3.  You can leave all the settings default in BeLight, if anything you can change the quality on the mp3 tab to 100.

Now that the audio is converted open a command prompt, “cmd” in run, and navigate to where the avc2avi.exe file is saved.  The command you will use will look something like, “avc2avi.exe -i inputFile -o outputFile”. The input file is the .h264 file that was created using the MKVExtract.  The output file will be an avi file.  Note: You might have to set the frame rate, the default is 25fps however usually files are 29.97. The flag to set the frame rate is “-f”.  If you notice the audio is off on the final file then your frame rate is probably off.

Now after you have the .mp3 audio and the .avi video files combine them in VirtualDubMod and make sure you pick Direct Stream Copy in the audio AND video settings. This is what makes it fast, since everything is already converted all VirtualDubMod has to do is combine them into one .avi file.  After it is combined you’re done!

With the recent password controversy on lifehacker I’m happy I started using keepass a few months ago.  At the time I was more focused on getting my passwords setup than choosing the right manager.  It’s time for me to go back and reevaluate my choice.  I’m only going to be looking at the three most popular keepass, 1Password, and lastpass.

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Subsonic is an awesome application I have come across recently.  I wanted a way to access all of my music on my home computer.  Subsonic was the answer to that.  It’s so simple and has mobile and desktop applications.

It’s very easy to setup, all you have to do is run a small server on your home computer.  This means that you’ll have to leave your computer on all the time you want to access your music but you probably already do that.  You might have to open a port on your router but I imagine you can find out how to do that online.  The real awesome part is now you can install the android application on your phone and listen to your music from home (all of it!) from your phone!  If that’s while driving or running or whatever you want.  There are more advanced features to change the quality of streaming (if you have a problem) and to add additional users so you can share with your friends.

Subsonic’s standard interface is through a browser but I just tried the adobe air application and it worked great.  Anyone who wants to carry around their whole music collection really needs to try this app, it’s simply amazing.  The only issue is that to continue using applications they want a donation of $12-24, it could be worse.  I would really suggest trying Subsonic and you might even end up buying it.

I have a major issue with the way digital music is sold to me.  Downloading it immediately is awesome because I don’t want to wait for a CD to be shipped and then rip it myself.  I also want a safe easy way to buy quality music online without iTunes.  I don’t want to use a bloated program I don’t like.  If anyone is looking for a music player I suggest foobar.  It works great and is very customizable.

After a little bit of research I found out that Amazon encodes their mp3s at 256Kbps VBR but sometimes encodes them at 256Kbps CBR.  They think that “This content will have the same excellent audio quality at a slightly larger file size” but I disagree with them but I need some technical information to back me up.

Digital music is created in two different categories, lossy and lossless.  Lossy(MP3) is missing a lot of the quality from the actual CD which is fine for most people considering the file size differences for lossless(FLAC) is about 100MB.  Furthermore lossy defines the quality in Kilobites per second(Kbps) and there are really only two options there CBR or VBR.  CBR(constant bitrate) keeps the entire file at one bitrate and VBR(variable bitrate) keeps the bitrate changing through the entire file using the best one for the job.

As you can see the high end of the scale is -b 320 (320Kbps CBR) offers the best quality possible but comes at a file size cost while -V0 (245Kbps VBR) gives you the best of both worlds.  Another thing to note is that in this example I’m only using 245 VBR but Amazon uses 256 VBR standard.  If 245 VBR keeps the bitrate between 220..260 that means 256 VBR  must keep it between 230..270 right?  How can 256 CBR possible have the same “excellent audio quality”?

Where are the options when buying music!?  I’m personally interested in buying music at 245 VBR (256 VBR works too) but it’s not stated on Amazon’s page what bitrate the albums are.  I would be disappointed if I purchased CBR files.  Maybe I’m crazy for wanting only quality VBR files but it’s my decision and what about all the other people who want their files at 320 or even 192 for smaller files.  I bet they couldn’t even imagine selling FLAC or OGG!  If Google can offer all of this web space and we know hard drive space is cheap why are companies like Amazon being so stingy?

Holy hell. I thought I was weighed down before with Facebook and Twitter.  I’m often concerned with what status updates I should share on both of them or just one of them.  Now with the introduction of Google’s buzz (http://buzz.google.com) what am I suppose to do.

My initial reaction without using it is that it’s going to replace mass emailing.  From the video I can see it being easier to use to communicate then Twitter where I’m just shouting in the great void for a possible response.  It also isn’t trying to replace Twitter where I can follow millions of people I don’t really know and they can follow me.  It seems to be more for closer friends that you email on a regular basis. 

Facebook is trying email (which I detest) because Gmail is already such a great product.  Trying to get some people to switch to Gmail has been a pain but I live in Google’s web so it’s not fair.  I imagine that it’s going to work for Facebook really well signing up new users for email.  In fact I could see how that’s useful when receiving email, “Here let me check their profile first, oh I remember them.”  However, sometimes I send email to business and I don’t want them to see my Facebook.

Perhaps I need to seriously consider my networks.

NBC airs Chuck, in which a nerdy man is trying to be a spy.  It’s a fairly simple premise and they define his nerd factor by making him work at a Best Buy clone for the nerd herd.  They further the stereotype by making him incompetent at any activity the real spies can do.  In reality that makes him a wimp but being a wimp and a nerd are not mutually inclusive.  It pisses me off to watch this show because in reality no one would put up with this.  They’ve actually started threatening the character that they would stop his training if he didn’t man up.  I know the show wouldn’t exist if he wasn’t such a wimp but his character should lift some weights or train harder because he complains about wanting to be an actual spy.  I don’t see why his character has to be a nerd to be such a bad spy.

The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) on CBS is a much friendlier stereotypical show.  The characters are real nerds and they have real nerdy issues (one can’t speak in front of women).  Even with these issues the characters are perfectly happy being themselves and having their downfalls.  Sheldon wanted to make friends so he went to buy a book about it, thus improving himself.  They aren’t making excuses or feeling bad, they just live and happen to be in funny nerdy situational comedy.

I obviously favor TBBT over Chuck and I’m not even sure why I still watch Chuck. It was almost cancelled last season and I can understand why the numbers are so low going up against How I Met Your Mother.  Sure it has explosions but don’t get caught up watching a dweeb bitch about being a real spy when your time can be better spent watching real nerds have fun with real nerdy situations.

Slidescreen for Android has recently been a hot topic.  I can see how as a homescreen replacement it can be controversial.  I really enjoy having almost all my data on one screen.  You can quickly slide from one area of information to the next and switching between the views is easy.

Get it here:

This kind of interface on this website is cool but it’s just something I would never get around to doing.  I found that website on Nov 10, 2008 and had planned on implimenting something like it on my own website.  I’m finally getting around to deleting the email that I had sent myself and I’m officially giving up on that.  It’s obvious that I’m not going to get around to it if in over a year I still haven’t done it.

I have so many links scattered around my email, delicious, txt files, etc that there is no way I’m going to get around to doing all that and I really need to start deleting everything.  Let the purge begin.

The Motorola Droid is a great phone that after about two months of owning it I’m still pleased with my decision. I know the Nexus One is coming out but I don’t mind. Here are some of my thoughts on the droid.

I at first found it kinda annoying that the front of the phone doesn’t have a “call end” button but I got used to it quickly. The physical keyboard isn’t that great but it’s to be expected because the phone is so thin. I still make some mistakes but it’s completely usable, I’m being picky. You can use the on screen keyboard holding the phone in portrait or landscape so it doesn’t matter. I’ve recently installed Swype which is amazing! You can install it too.

I was fine with the default interface of the phone but after upgrading to DxTop I’m very pleased. I wanted to hide icons that I would never use and it’s possible now. The camera is less then fantastic but video is great. Using FxCamera really makes using the camera more fun. The screen is great and I’ve never had any problems with the call quality. The app selection is much better then my Blackberry so I’m satisfied. I was able to move some of my desktop activities to the phone like todo list (Astrid) and Google calendar. All of the the Google apps work flawlessly and integrate really well into the OS.

I’ve been using Pandora frequently while driving and combined with the navigation goes directly through my car. This way the music doesn’t interfere with the GPS. I don’t even know what I was doing without voice navigation.

Perhaps you’re curious about the apps that are available? I know I’m insanely picky about installing apps and I have no idea why. This is a generalized list I found with some helpful apps but is by no means a perfect list. I also would suggest looking at the winners of Google’s Android developer challenge.

I started working on an image uploader and XML editor for adding images to the dfgallery.  Using simplexml I can already create a list of the albums and add an album.  I don’t understand why a flash gallery would use a XML file to keep track of all the files.  I was looking for something simpler in terms of just dumping files into the folder and it magically working but this will provide a challenge.  The gallery looks too good to not use it and if I can already add children and attributes how far could I be from writing something simple.

The next step is to find a way to easily upload multiple images to the server and process them.  I could write something simple but why reinvent the wheel when there is probably something already out there that does this for me.  I’m worried about incorporating something into the script.  SWFUploader looks promising so far and I hope upon reviewing some of the examples that I can just simply add it.

The packaging says,

For your life in motion, you need a water that does more. Propel goes beyond hydration to provide flavor and choline* for a great-tasting beverage with purpose. *Choline is an essential nutrient in the brain.

The fact that stuck out the most was choline being an essential nutrient of the brain. I was curious how nutritious and went on a fact finding expedition. Of course I headed right over to Wikipedia and found the article. I figured out that it’s 55MG of choline per server of 8FL OZ. in a 20FL OZ bottle so that’s 2.5 servings and a total of 137.5MG of choline per bottle. 550MG is the upper limit of adequate intake for this. It is also noted that too much intake can cause you to smell like a fish. Let’s see what that means then. I’m not certain how much it takes to smell like a fish but choline is found in other foods like eggs and wheat germ. So a typical day for a person could be 2 eggs in the morning, wheat germ in the yogurt for lunch and 4-6 bottles of propel. The person is thinking they are doing a good thing drinking “water”. Once in a while they eat a meal that is high in choline as well. This could be giving the person around 1000MG of choline a day! That’s twice as much!! I think you would begin smelling like a fish any day now. This is besides the other junk in the drink like high froctuse corn syrup, sucrolose, AND acesulfame potassium. All three are different kinds of sweetners. When drinking flavored “water” or any other drink that’s giving you important nutrients just make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into.

I have for a while pondered using a separate email client for accessing my mail. I can see the benefits but with Gmail increasing its features everyday I just can’t make the switch.

Using a client all your email is stored on your own home computer and all your contacts are very handy. I already use Firefox and love all the addons along the same lines I could enjoyThunderbird. (Note: all the outlook people need to get on the Thunderbird bandwagon now!) Thunderbird also integrates well with Sunbird, a calendar application. If Thunderbird is so great why can’t I just make the switch? Well it’s not that simple! Gmail has been in beta for 5 years, that’s a long time, but it’s service has always been amazing. Constant uptime, new features, and huge storage. I remember when getting an email account with 10MB was amazing. right now Google is telling me “You are currently using 256 MB (3%) of your 7316 MB.” Holy crap! At this rate I’m never running out of space. The labels and offline features are changing the way people use email and if I already have a web browser open at all times why should I run another program?

Instant access on my phone or through the web Gmail is always there. I’ve tried to think on multiple occasions why to switch and I’m still stumped. I think I’m letting this one go. Now if only I could get rid of Lotus Notes.

I know, I know. I’ve not been updating the site, I seem to move from one site to another. I’ve got twitter which is really as good a blog as I need. Considering I just don’t have much to say and every time I try and keep this going it fails. I don’t see how people twitter and then write on a blog. Perhaps they have people that read the blog but they don’t talk to them on the phone. Maybe I’ll think of some new crazy idea to put here or I’m wide open to suggestions. I already have another project here for http://wheresgeorge.com which ishttp://pepptastic.com/george.

I think a photo album thing is out, flickr does such a good job without me. There are too many other sites that do whatever I need already. I’ll just post links to each of them on the front page. Oh Social networking how you ruin the need for me to have a website.

I’ve been using twitter a lot more these days and not posting here. It’s easier to put in what I’m doing and it’s only 140 characters. If I littered this area with those besides having in the bar —> right over there it would probably get very annoying.

Anyway I’ve been trying to make a screencast in Ubuntu. I have to admit that there are only two things I have found nearly impossible to do in Linux. Making a screencast is definitely one of those two. First I had to find software to record my screen, I wanted a GUI just to make it easier on myself. I found “recordmydesktop” to be suitable and it records audio and you can choose to have it record only part of the screen.

Editing it together with myself talking through the video as a normal screencast should have, has proven to be more difficult. There is no good editing software available for Linux and with other pure screencasting applications for Windows that can record and edit with some amazing features I have to admit defeat. I can’t believe how difficult this has been and I am finally at the point where I must complete my mission. I have one program that is too basic and the other too complicated. Where is a programmer when you need one to write a copy of a good Windows application? Oh wait…

I have been known to take an accidental nap here and there but I swear it isn’t my fault. The server room at work must be the best generator of natural white noise in south Jersey. I’ve been nudged and made aware of me falling asleep in the server room on more than one occasion. I’ve also been caught by a coworker while I was really out. I tell them that it isn’t my fault and that the servers are must be creating some sort of “super” white noise that I cannot resist. They seem to agree that it is some very potent sound. I don’t think I’m going to be in any sort of trouble over this, although it seems to amuse some people.

I’ve made an attempt to capture the raw power of the sound however it isn’t my fault if transferring it to digital medium made it lose all of its strength. I did not listen to the sample because I’m afraid of falling sleep and waking up hours later. I’ve found out from my lawyers that I have to put up a warning label just in case anything happens.

WARNING: This sound clip may put you to sleep. I hold no responsibility for anything happening to you or anything around you while you are out cold. If you miss the chance to feed your cat, turn off the oven, or are so asleep people mistake you for in a coma/dead you can bring no legal action against me.

Sound clip removed.