Urban Puddle

About a month ago I wrote a post about converting Railscasts to PSP video using a simple bash script. Well, with the help of my friend Lou, it's now been converted to a Ruby script instead. The files are posted at Github and the public clone url is git://github.com/vince/mp4-to-mobile-video.git so feel free to hack at it and improve it in any way you like. For those too lazy to check out the code, there's a copy/paste version (which of course will not be updated..) below.

In particular I'm posting this to help those familiar with Ruby get started with Ruby scripting since there are some methods you may not have used before if you've only used Ruby via Rails programming.

I've been searching around the Internet trying to find an appropriate command for ffmpeg that will let me convert video for my PSP in 480x272 resolution. There's a ton of outdated info out there.. no matter what I tried I couldn't get anything beyond 320x240 or 368x204 to work. Finally, I managed to get a recipe that does the trick. The resulting railscasts are viewable on the PSP (barely) so if you've been wanting to convert video in linux to use on the PSP this script is for you.

For the second time in as many months, I've put my Dell XPS 1330 in a non-usuable condition. The first time it happened, it was due to the power connector coming loose from the MLB (main logic board or motherboard). At first I'd have to wiggle my AC adapter to get a charge, but eventually my laptop refused to accept any juice at all and I was faced with the dreaded 2 hours of battery life. (on a side note, I'm glad everything is backed up w/ rsync!)

A few days ago, after a late night coding on the couch, I got up and accidentally snagged the cord which brought the laptop crashing down about 2 feet from the coffee table to the floor. This time the screen and AC are toast again.

The other day Sony released a new version of the PSP. It has a list of changes such as a thinner profile and longer battery life, but aside from video out, Sony neglected to add any features that make it a compelling product for current users. Since this is the first revision of the product in nearly 3 years, I can't help but feel extremely disappointed with the decisions of their marketing department.

Nokia released another version of their firmware recently. This time we're up to version 4.0723.2.0.1. At least this time they waited a while. So what's new?

Update: June 19, 2007 See part 4 here.

Nokia is on a roll, for the second time this month, they've released a new version of the firmware for the N73 Smartphone. This time we're up to version 3.0704.1.0.1. (Say that five times fast!) So what's new? Well, back-up your data and then let's find out!

Update Feb 23, 2007: See part iii here.

There's been another rev to the firmware for the Nokia N73. Steps to upgrade are very similar to last time. You'll need to visit the Nokia site, download a new version of the Nokia software, boot into Windows 2000 or XP (if you happen to use OS X or Linux/BSD by default), and then update. (REMEMBER TO BACK-UP FIRST!)

A few months ago I wrote about my experience with Nokia's new N73 Firmware. One of the comments I made was that Sudoku had disappeared afterwards. I was sad to see it go because I found it much more enjoyable than Snakes. Today though, I figured out how to get it back!

Newsflash: We are all not 6'4" tall. Not news for many of you? Well, as it turns out, one size fits all when it comes to earphones. Whether you buy the full sized iPod, a Nano, or some other music player, the cord you get is designed to traverse from your ears all the way to your back pocket. This can be mighty inconvenient if you store your music player in your coat pocket or someplace else. The situation gets even worse if you use a mobile phone though. Why? Because many mobiles, such as the dastardly cool Nokia N73 or the not-so-cool Sony W810, use a special adapter to connect from the phone interface to the microphone. In essence you get an extra two and half feet of cord to contend with which is almost long enough to jump rope. Something must be done!

If you have a Nokia N73 and are using Mac OS X, you may want to take advantage of the phone's built-in bluetooth along with your wireless data package to connect your Mac laptop to the Internet via your phone. After all, not everyone is nice enough to offer you a free WiFi connection and sometimes you just need to get online. Well, the bad news is that by default Mac OS X does not support using your Nokia N73 as a modem. But the good news is that the community has created a way for you to workaround that.