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 N810 and, while I seem to remember it thinking it could play it, I also seem to remember it skipping, stuttering, and falling all over itself in trying to actually make it viewable. I also tried installing VLC, but when I try to launch it, no UI comes up?

Anyway, if someone could point me to either a way to view these movies on my N810 or to the best mencoder command to watch the best resolution/quality movies on my N810, I’d greatly appreciate it. =:)

[UPDATE]  Actually, it looks like MPlayer on the N810 does a really nice job! I think the problem that I was having previously was that i was trying to do something else (why does copying/pasting from a UPnP share use so much CPU??) at the same time that MPlayer was trying to play a video. But I just pulled over an mp4 of Office Space and MPlayer played it beautifully–without any hiccups or stutters. Here’s to hoping I don’t have to re-rip everything I’ve already done for my PSP!

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!!

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 our PIM space again, and that feels really, really good. KMail, KOrganizer, KPilot, and the rest of our PIM suite was what drew me to KDE in the 3.x series. (Well, that and quite honestly I find the intentional dumbing-down and lack of configurability of the other large, free DE irritating to the point of exhaustion.) But lately our PIM apps have suffered from lack of care and have started to look seriously unsexy compared with Thunderbird, Sunbird, and even *gasp* Evolution. But KDE4 gives us a chance to remedy that, in my mind, and looking at this year’s Summer of Code projects, I’m hoping we get some really nice improvements done. There’s a few really sweet ones that I’d love to see get accomplished: the Google Contacts/Calendar integration into Akonadi and thusly KDE PIM, the enhanced KMail view, and (nearest and dearest to my heart) getting KPilot fully functional, and rock solid for KDE4.

And going through the SOC-sorting meeting made me realize all over again how fantastic a community it is that we have in KDE. There’s a lot of respect and comaradarie and friendliness that I just don’t see in some other communities. Not to mention the quality of talented people that we have. PIM might have drawn me to KDE, but it’s the people and our awesome community that we have that has kept me. =:)

Anyway, I just had to say that it feels really, really good to be excited about KDE4 again. In my mind, it’s a really unique opportunity to do something fresh and new and fun and exciting again. It’s a chance to learn from past mistakes and do better. It’s a chance to take the fantastic functionality that we have and rethink how our users can best interact with it. It’s a chance to not be bound to the past and to not have to be stuck with the same old presentation layer we have just because we don’t want to make drastic changes to our applications.

As the pretty graphic says, KDE4 is truly a chance to be free. =:)

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 bit, I downloaded MediaTomb, installed it and configured it (took an hour, max, maybe), and before you know it, Bob’s your uncle and my PS3 was able to stream all of the movies, photos, and music that I’ve been keeping on my ancient Linux file server in the basement. SWEET MAMA!

To make things even just that little extra bit cooler, Sony’s Remote Play allows my and my wife’s PSPs to connect to the PS3 and stream movies, photos, and music anywhere in the house through the PS3.  Now that just plain rocks! I mean, 4GB memory stick modules can hold a decent amount of stuff, but to be able to have 250GB of movies, photos, and music accessible from the PSP in your pocket is just darned cool!

Now all we hafta do is get UPnP client-ness into VideoLAN so I can finally be free of supporting iTunes on my darling bride’s Powerbook….

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 than you’d ever want to admit possible. I grew up reading and passionately loving The Chronicles of Narnia, Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allen Poe, The Hardy Boys, Choose Your Own Adventures, Robin Hood, The Lord of the Rings series, and anything else I could get my hands on. I survived middle school by hiding myself in the library whenever possible. Well, by the time you hit 7th grade, you’re pretty much expected to be past that stage of life, I guess. And for sure, teachers in school had far more important things to do than to read stories to you, right?

My 7th grade teacher, Ms. Robin Avant, didn’t buy that. And I fondly remember that at the end of our school day, she would have us all quiet down, lay our heads down if we wanted, relax, and she would read to us. And the story that she read to us was Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper. And it was magical. In the chaotic world of junior high school filled with constantly watching your back and trying to fit in, here was a space of child-like peace and rest. We could stop trying to be more than we were and just enjoy the simple pleasure of having an incredibly good story read to us. I don’t know what the other students thought of this wild and crazy idea, but to me is was earth-shattering. And the book was so good and so powerful that it immediately consumed me. I read all 5 books in the Dark is Rising series, and then read them over and over again.

For this reason, Susan Cooper and her magical world in the Dark is Rising has always had an extra-special place in my heart and mind. I read through the whole series with my kids, and they absolutely loved them. And then I saw that they were making a movie from the series and I was thrilled. I had hopes of finally seeing all that I had imagined through the years, up on the big screen, as I’d been able to do with the LOTR movies(!).

And that’s where the title of this post comes in. I don’t blame myself for watching The Seeker movie, which claims to have been based on the second book in Susan Cooper’s series called “The Dark is Rising”. I had to see it. But I do wish that I would have read the reviews first. I wish I would have seen the outrage and shock and bitterness from the fans of the books. I think it would have prepared me better. As it was, I found myself getting increasingly angry and frustrated in watching this movie, such as I’ve never experienced before.

To say that The Seeker movie (and no, I won’t link to it *spit*) was stupid, pointless, horrible, wretched, the worst movie I’ve ever seen, a complete waste of time and money and the plastic it takes to create a DVD is a mind-boggling understatement. To say that The Seeker was based on The Dark is Rising is like saying that The Simpsons Movie was based on Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. And the most atrocious part of it all is that there was absolutely no reason for it. Susan Cooper’s books were every bit as magical and compelling as you’d ever ask for in a big-screen movie, just as they were. I don’t know whether to blame John Hodge for the piece of crap screenplay or David Cunningham for the utter abortion that made it to the screen, but whomever was responsible should never be allowed to take part in anything even slightly misconstrued as being creative again. I personally would love to see Susan Cooper come out with a statement publicly condemning the utter trashing of her writing that The Seeker has done. Or better, a lawsuit–by the fans with all proceeds going to Susan Cooper (this is America! you can sue anybody, right?).

But seriously, Susan, please do something.

As for me, I just ordered the boxed set of Susan Cooper’s EXCELLENT Dark is Rising series from Amazon and I’m going to enjoy them again the way that they should be–exactly as they were written. And if you’ve never read the series, I can highly recommend the books. Give them a good read-through and while you’re at it, don’t bother wasting your time with The Seeker.

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. Anyway, if you love Martial Arts movies as much as I do and can’t wait to see the next Jet Li movie, don’t bother renting Curse of the Golden Flower. It’s like taking Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but without any of the really good fight scenes, and the absolute worst Jerry Springer episode ever imagined, plus the daytime soap that was deemed too drawn out and boring to have made it to television, and throw it all together into a 2-hour long fun-fest. Yeah, like that.

I can’t imagine what I’d be looking for in a movie that would make me ever want to watch it again, but if you’re looking for a really cool Martial Arts movie, this ain’t it.

Also, Chow Yun-fat: please don’t kick my butt.

A couple of good reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:

I wanted to be swept away, but even with half of China as extras, I was mostly unimpressed.

Curse of the Golden Flower has no emotional center. There’s nobody to root for here (even the wildly charismatic Chow Yun-Fat seems remote and surly), and the characters’ scheming seems more like an elaborate pageant than a viable drama.

Not even Chow Yun-fat and Gong Li, two of the world’s most impressive actors, can inject any dazzle into this dud.

“This piece enters your bloodstream and then changes who you are. The entire blueprint of everything… of society, of how things should be, of how things are… all the way from subatomic particles to galactic clusters… it’s all here.”
George Mathew: Conductor, Beethoven’s Ninth For South Asia
Carnegie Hall 1/23/2006

Kerry, I sincerely wish you the best of good fortune in your endeavor and I hope your film gets the attention that it deserves!

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 it all fit together and make sense in one place. Every time I hear it, it just overwhelms me with emotion. Watching Ed Harris’s spectacular portrayal of Beethoven as he was conducting the premiere of the Ninth Symphony, I was just absolutely overjoyed beyond words to hear the second movement kick in and finally get some visual confirmation of the pure joy and power and energy that I’ve always felt deep in my soul when listening to it. I was smiling and laughing and air-violining… just such power… amazing. And seeing the expression on Beethoven’s face as he was pouring his very soul into the playing of his music… pure, intense joy.

And then the fourth movement… which is what most people (who are even aware of such things) think of when the Ninth Symphony is mentioned… WOW. I’ve always preferred the second movement over the fourth movement, and quite honestly, I never really grasped what Beethoven was doing with it. Of course, it helps not that the fourth movement played such a prominent role in the deeply disturbing Clockwork Orange. But what I didn’t realize was what ground-breaking stuff Beethoven was doing at the time! A chorale and two tenors in a Symphony–it was unheard of until Beethoven dared to do it. And then to have them do absolutely nothing but stand on-stage for the entirety of the performance preceding their parts in the fourth movement–it must have seemed absolute insanity! But. But… when the chorale joins in in the fourth movement… the incredible power and beauty of it absolutely brought me to tears. It was as if the countless multitudes of angels of heaven had joined in at that very moment and the eye and ear could scarcely take it in. And the effect that it had on those in the crowd on screen was exactly what I felt: pure emotion and power and beauty.

The funny thing is that just a few hours earlier today, I sat through another Ed Harris movie (okay, it was a Nicolas Cage movie), National Treasure: Book of Secrets. As far as movies go, it was a pretty good ride. Laughs and suspense and danger and all the right ingredients. A nice, clean family movie, and I applaud it for being that. And Ed Harris did a very nice job in it.

But Ed Harris’s performance in Copying Beethoven is something extremely special. It was obvious that he gave his whole heart and soul to the part. I don’t think I would have known that the actor playing Beethoven was Ed Harris, quite honestly–and in my book, that’s exactly how it should be. Tremendously done, Mr. Harris. I have complete respect for your abilities after seeing this movie.

In the special features section of the DVD, Agnieszka Holland said something to the effect that seeing people who have never listened to classical music crying from seeing and hearing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony made all the work worthwhile. Well, ma’am, I have loved classical music all my life and your film brought joy, tears, and some of the biggest smiles to my face that you could imagine. I’d say you did a darned good job.

As far as notoriety and high visibility go, I rather doubt that you’ll
be seeing a lot of raving reviews of Copying Beethoven. As a matter of fact, I kind of doubt you’ll find it mentioned much. Its style and
pace and camera work and subject matter and such are very much not the taste of today’s
huddled masses. It lacks too many of the normally-prescribed Hollywood
ingredients to make it palatable for our darling MTV generation.

But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t see it. =;)

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 get him.
Guard 2: *Hic*
King: Right.
Guard 1: We don’t need to do anything, apart from just stop him, entering the
room.
King: Nono. *Leaving* the room.
Guard 1: Leaving the room, yes.
King: All right?
Guard 1: ‘Right.
King: Right.
Guard 1: Oh! If if if uhhhh…. if if uhhhhh…. If if if we……
King: Yes, what is it?
Guard 1: Oh. I-if……. Oh….
King: Look, it’s quite simple.
Guard 1: Uh…..
King: You just stay here, and make sure ‘e doesn’t leave the room.
All right?
Guard 2: *hic*
Guard 1: Oh, I remember! Uhhhh, can he leave the room with us?
King: No…nono, no. You just keep him in ‘ere, and make sure…
Guard 1: Oh yes, we’ll keep him in here, obviously, but if he *had*
to leave, and we *were* with him…
King: nononono just KEEP HIM IN HERE
Guard 1: …Until you or anyone else…
King: No, not anyone else, just me…
Guard 1: …Just you…
Guard 2: *hic*
King: Get back.
Guard 1: Get back.
King: All right?
Guard 1: Right, we’ll stay here until you get back.
Guard 2: *hic*
King: And, uh… make sure ‘e doesn’t leave.
Guard 1: What?
King: Make sure ‘e doesn’t leave!
Guard 1: The prince??????
King: Yes, MAKE SURE ‘E DOESN’T LEAVE…
Guard 2: *hic*
Guard 1: Oh, yes, of course!! I thought you meant him! You know, it seemed a bit daft me having to guard
him when ‘e’s a guard…
King: Is that clear?
Guard 1: Oh, quite clear, no problems!
Guard 2: *hic*
King: Right.
Where are *you* going?
Guard 1: We’re coming with you!
King: Nono, I want you to *stay* here and MAKE SURE ‘E DOESN’T LEAVE!
Guard 1: Oh, I see, right!
Son: but father…
King: Shut your noise, you! And get that suit on.

AND NO SINGING!
Guard 2: *hic*
King: Oh, go and get a glass of water. (leaves)

I SO want to see this movie!