Movies – Kasperian Moving Parts

In Search Of High Speed Network Connection From Basement to Second Floor

Saturday August 25, 2012

… or… man, I really don’t want to have to run CAT-6 wire from the basement to the second floor…. So I have a decently-big house. Thank you, God. 2 floors and a finished basement. I have a MacMini server in the second floor bedroom and it’s acting as the main audio/video server for the house. I want to have as fast a connection as possible between it and the AppleTV and GoogleTV in the main floor living room. I’ve already run CAT-6 from the main house router in the basement to the main living room. That was moderately unpainful as we have a drop ceiling in the basement. But there’s no easy way to get CAT-6 networking wire run Read more…

Movies

Nokia N810 and Videos

Friday September 19, 2008

Dear LazyWeb, I have ripped/encoded a bunch of (my own) movies previously in order to watch them on my PSP. The command I’ve been using is a variation of this: mencoder -sws 9 -af volume=10.1:0 \ -vf pullup,softskip,scale=320:240,harddup,unsharp=l3x3:0.7 \ -ofps 30000/1001 \ -oac faac -faacopts br=128:mpeg=4:object=2:raw -channels 2 -srate 48000 \ -ovc lavc -lavcopts aglobal=1:vglobal=1:vcodec=mpeg4:acodec=libfaac\ :abitrate=128:vbitrate=500 \ -of lavf -lavfopts format=psp \ -aid 128 dvd://1 -chapter 01-04 \ -o $HOME/Movies/Seinfeld/Seinfeld-Season5-11-TheConversion.mp4 … which plays fine on my PSP. Unfortunately, these mp4 movies do not play on my shiney new Nokia N810. I’ve tried using Canola, as well as the built-in media player application, and they both don’t recognize the data as something they can play. I tried installing MPlayer on the Read more…

Life in General, Movies

I wish I was going to Akademy!!!

Friday July 11, 2008

Meaning no disrespect to whomever graphicked the original awesome logo, but I am totally jealous of all who can fly the original banner. Maybe next year? I needs to gets me a Visa or something first, tho. Durnit. Have fun guys!!

KDE, KPilot, Movies, Music

Getting Excited about KDE4 All Over Again

Tuesday April 15, 2008

It started to hit me yesterday as I spent 3.5 hours in this year’s KDE Google Summer of Code mentor’s meeting (thanks again sebr!!). KDE4 just plain rocks, and it feels good to start getting excited about it again. And I don’t just mean KDE 4.0. Don’t get me wrong, KDE4.0 is a nice little release. It’s not perfect and there are some things that are irritating about it and keep me from using it as my main DE. But like Aaron has been saying over and over and over again, KDE4.0 is not KDE4. KDE4.0 is more of a preview of things to come, and what I see coming just plain kicks butt. I am finally getting excited about Read more…

Movies, Music, Video Games

Stream This!

Monday April 7, 2008

Last in our series of “when will that Jason kid shut up?!?” is this short, little ditty wherein I extol the wonders of an ancient Linux file server in my basement with a 250GB drive, my shiny (SHINY!!!) new PS3, my PSP, and the nifty little Open Source project of MediaTomb. Being out of the “being able to spend mad money on Geek toys” for a while (having a family will do that to ya), I was ill-prepared for this new-fangled UPnP thing. As I was setting up my (DANGED AWESOME!!!) PS3, I breezed by the UPnP settings (I don’t need no steenking directions!) with nary a second glance. However, after reading up on the PS3’s media streaming abilities a Read more…

Books, Movies

Susan Cooper, Please Kick Someone’s Butt!

One of my favorite memories of all my growing-up years happened in my 7th grade. It centered around a very under-appreciated teacher of mine named Robin Avant who did something simple and inventive and refreshing and stirring with her class. I wish I knew how to contact her today because I can honestly say that she affected me in a deep, deep way and I’d love to thank her for it. I know it’s hard to believe, dear reader, but I was a most uncomfortable geek in school at all levels. I didn’t fit in, to say the least. I was geek before geek was cool. =:) I was an avid reader, an Apple ][ hacker, and more socially inept Read more…

Movies

Curse of the Golden Flower: Nyet

Tuesday March 11, 2008

I’m sorry, but 2 words: Don’t Bother. You can say what you want about the ornate costumes, the beautiful colors, the amazing sets. Yeah, maybe. But the story? I’m sorry, but if I wanted to be depressed and bored and looking for the fast forward button for 2 hours, I could have watched the housing market reports for a few hours while hitting myself in the head every couple of minutes. Don’t get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to China or the actors/actresses in the film or the director. But as far as enjoying a movie goes, I had a better time watching the ultra-violent Shoot ‘Em Up. At least there the good guys win at the end. Blef. Read more…

Movies, Music

Following The Ninth

Sunday February 17, 2008

I was going to update my previous post about the amazing movie, Copying Beethoven, with this, but I am sufficiently taken to generate a new post. Kerry Candaele commented on my last post with a link to his forthcoming movie called Following The Ninth, so I visited his site and I am very, very impressed. The short, 7-minute preview of his work in progress fully echoes my thoughts and feelings about Beethoven and his amazing Ninth Symphony. Even better, it shows the impact that the Ninth is still having in our generation today. One of my favorite quotes from the clip: “This piece enters your bloodstream and then changes who you are. The entire blueprint of everything… of society, of Read more…

Movies, Music

Beethoven: Still Imminently Magical

I just watched one of the most amazing movies that I have ever seen: the excellent Copying Beethoven. I have always been deeply fascinated with the genius that is Ludwig van Beethoven. I grew up listening to my mom playing his pieces on our piano, and have enjoyed the complexity and overwhelming emotion found both in the observation and participation of his immense talent. In particular, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has something that resonates in my soul like nothing else ever has. The second movement (Molto vivace – Presto) has such passion and raw power and ferocity and strength and beauty and peace!!! It is everything that life should have in it, and I am amazed at Beethoven’s ability to make Read more…

Life in General, Movies

Not to leave the room, even if you come and get ‘im.

Monday August 20, 2007

At least there’s always Monty Python when you’re having a rough day: Son: Ah…ah know. But I want the girl that I marry to have… a certain…*special*…something… King: Cut that out!! Cut that out…. You’re marryin’ Princess Lucky, so you’d better get used to the idea! GUARDS!!! Make sure the prince doesn’t leave this room until I come and get ‘im. Guard 1: Not to leave the room, even if you come and get ‘im. Guard 2: *Hic* King: Nono…. *Until* I come and get him. Guard 1: Until you come and get him, we’re not to enter the room. King: Nono, no… You *stay* in the room, and make sure *he* doesn’t leave. Guard 1: And you’ll come and Read more…