Posts

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Video Capture and Playback

Recently at work, I needed to record some screen captures and embed them into a powerpoint document.  No sweat, right?  Well, first I had to find software to do the screen capture (video not audio).  Then, I had to embed it into powerpoint.  I had used CamStudio with great success in the past so I used it.

Well, when I first did it, everything worked great.  However, as time went on, my video began to thrash (not play cleanly).  It did it sometimes but not others.  This was a pain.

I ended up an assigned an action to an item (right-click and choose action settings) to launch Media Player Classic.  Why not use Windows Media Player?  I tried; however, I couldn’t be certain that the exe would be in the same place all of the time.  I couldn’t just copy it because it requires too many dlls to be registered, etc….  MPC has a nice set of command line arguments (including having the player quit once it played the video once) that made it all possible.

Thanks for no help Micro$oft.  Thanks to the Free/Open Source Software community to rising to the occasion!

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Happy 5 Months on the 4th!!

Is it possible that my tiny little one is already 5 months old??  She is so happy and sweet, loves to laugh and play with people and toys, and is growing bigger by the minute!  In the last few weeks, she has discovered how to roll over and amuses herself greatly when she does.  Though she mostly rolls from her back to her stomach using her right side, it’s only a matter of time before she figures out how to roll the other direction.  Lydia has also started rice cereal.  She had some very watery stuff on Monday and really handled it quite well.  She was sucking on the spoon and then grabbing it to play.  We gave her a little more last night and she seemed to enjoy it.  As we were having chicken for dinner, she was staring intently and reaching, so Matt let her hold and lick on a big chicken bone!  She really went for it and it’ll be interesting to see what she does next.  The other big thing was her first trip to the pool.  We slathered her in sunscreen and decked her out in a t-shirt, swim diaper, and matching hat.  Matt even got her a cool float to ride in.  She was one very unhappy camper the first few minutes.  But after a break and some snuggle time with Grandpa, we took her back into the water and she really seemed to enjoy it!!  For all of these precious moments and so many more, we have plenty of pics that will be posted in the not too distant future.

She does so many cute things all the time, but most of all I love to see her smile ad hear her precious laugh 🙂  God has been growing us individually and as a family during these past months and we have been so blessed through our ongoing adventures with Lydia!!

 

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Thailand Podcasts

I’ve set up a podcast module and will try podcasting from Thailand.  I’m still not sure what kind of computer access I’ll have, but I have everything set up and will give it a go.

The podcast link in the menu (to the left) will be everything.  If you only want  my Thailand podcasts, use this url. 

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Which Way?

When a man puts a belt on, which way does he put it on? Does he take the free end (opposite the buckle) and put it through the belt loop on the left side of the zipper or the right side (since right and left can be confusing…imagine wearing said pair of pants). How do you do it?

I take my belt and put the free end through the left hand loop.

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Google Talk instead of ICQ

I just wanted to let you know that I have started using Google Talk instead of ICQ. I had some issues using Gaim with ICQ (I wanted to use it because of the encryption plugin) so I decided to switch. Add talkwithmatt@gmail.com to your list and you’ll get me. One request….use a client that encrypts stuff (I use GAIM/Pidgin and the encryption plugin).

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This is good

The guy suing a dry cleaners for $54mil lost.

A judge ruled Monday that no pair of pants is worth $54 million, rejecting a lawsuit that took a dry cleaner’s promise of “Satisfaction Guaranteed” to its most litigious extreme.

Roy L. Pearson became a worldwide symbol of legal abuse by seeking jackpot justice from a simple complaint—that a neighborhood dry cleaners lost the pants from a new suit and tried to give him a pair that were not his.

His claim, reduced from $67 million, was based on a strict interpretation of the city’s consumer protection law—which imposes fines of $1,500 per violation, per day—as well as damages for inconvenience, mental anguish and attorney’s fees for representing himself.

But District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that the owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the consumer protection law by failing to live up to Pearson’s expectations of the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign once displayed in the store window.

“A reasonable consumer would not interpret ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer’s unreasonable demands,” the judge wrote.