.mod files on a Mac

I recently got some video footage for a project that was shot on a JVC microdrive/compact flash digital video cam. He gave me the CF card, which I put into my card reader on os X 10.5.2 and the video files that came up were unreadable - they were .mod files. I have never heard of the .mod file before, and Final Cut wasn't liking them, so I had to do some digging. Luckily, it didn't take long to figure it all out thanks to the interwebs. [source: Bassist among Douglas Furs]

Here is the important stuff:

1, Record your video as normal. Plug the camera into the AC adaptor, and the USB plug. Connect this to your Mac.
2. A new drive will appear. Open it. Copy the contents of the SD_Video folder onto your mac.
3. Delete anything that isn’t a .mod file as these are irrelevant.
4. Rename all the .mod to .mpeg and change the extension when prompted.
5. Download ffMpegX and the necessary binaries
6. Open up ffMpegX and open the first .mpeg file. Convert this to a .MOV, .DV, .AVi file or whatever format you need. Final Cut is best with DV (although uses a lot of bytes).
7. Repeat as necessary for all your .MPEG files.

This worked like a charm, and now I can import the resulting .dv files into Final Cut no problem and the world is good again. Here is a link for the ffmpegx program too.

Launch videos (not to be confused with 'lunch' videos)

The Launch of Shuttle Endeavour (STS-123) from William Couch on Vimeo.


The Launch of Shuttle Endeavour (STS-123) from OS Graphics on Vimeo.

Making the NYPD accountable in 12 minutes.

They videotape us all day long, but we can't take pictures or videotape them? Here's a very well put-together film examining the NYPD in a recent string of illegitimate arrests. |source-reddit|

Mystery Loophole is not really a mystery.

Our government is now so completely inept is doesn't even know who put a loophole in recently passed legislation that conveniently exempts overseas contractors from having to report their waste. From the article: (washingtonpost.com)

When Justice Department lawyers proposed adding a new rule that would require U.S. contractors to report waste, fraud or abuse they encounter while doing work for the government, they intended it to apply to all of the $350 billion in government contracts each year.

But in a twist that has evolved into a Capitol Hill mystery, the proposed rule that the White House's Office of Management and Budget published late last year includes language that would exempt from such reporting all U.S. contractors who do work overseas. There have been more than $100 billion in such contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past five years.

Of course there really is no mystery to who put the loophole in the bill. It was the White House. If it wasn't, then why are they refusing to simply omit the loophole?

Welch, who called for hearings on the matter in a letter to colleagues Friday, said the White House could easily fix the problem by deleting the exemption language, but he said there has been no willingness to do so.

So all the White House has to do to close this loophole is to simply file paperwork to do away with it and viola, the loophole is closed. Of course they are just simply way too busy to worry about these things, so the loophole remains and government contractors overseas can continue to safely fly under the radar of oversight and waste billions of our hard-earned tax dollars. It pays to have friends in the White House, just ask the 22 year old high school dropout who was given a $300 million dollar contract to supply outdated and potentially dangerous ammunition to our troops in Iraq/Afghanistan.

Walking softly, but carrying it BIG.

The reigning champion of the 'Worst Pants Ever' tournament, via reddit. 

p.s. my first post from the dashboard, via the Blogger widget from uncle Googs. Seemed to work fine, a 2.0 version should include the whole edit bar, so you can link, post pics, etc. Makes it really quick for short posts like this though. 

Wordpress+Fantastico+Bluehost Fix

I recently used the Bluehost c-Panel utility Fantastico to install the latest version of Wordpress (2.3.2) to an account of mine. Everything went great except one thing: people who registered to have an account on the blog were not getting their registration emails sent. These emails contained their password, so obviously this meant that nobody could sign in. Makes for a really boring comments section.

After a bit of Googling, I was able to figure out a workaround: create a new email account called wordpress in your Bluehost c-Panel email addresses utility. You would end up with a new email account called wordpress@yourcoolwebsite.com. Once this email user is created, then the Wordpress software will be able to forward on the registration emails to your new friends. The email will be sent with the name and return address that you setup in the Wordpress admin pages under the 'options' tab.

Hillary can win by losing.

By now it seems to be completely obvious to everyone but Hillary Clinton: she can't, and won't, win the Democratic Party nomination. Unfortunately, she is a win-at-all-costs type of person, even if that means cheating, lying, and disrespect. I'm glad that this primary has drawn out so long - it gave everyone a chance to see how terrible Hillary Clinton's character actually was.

By staying in the race for the nomination, Hillary is exposing herself, her staff, and her husband for the selfish, ruthless, immoral people that they really are. Bill Clinton campaigning on the Rush Limbaugh show the day of the Ohio/Texas primaries? Hillary endorsing John McCain and disrespecting Obama on multiple occasions? Mark Penn every time he opens his mouth? She isn't trying to win for the Democratic Party and all of it's beliefs, she's trying to win for the Clintons.

Hillary lost Texas and only won in Ohio because thousands upon thousands of Republicans crossed lines to distort the race. She knows that without the help of the Republicans in Texas and Ohio she would have soundly lost ground with the delegates. And yet, she continues to defy the will of the people and will waste more money and time by extending her campaign of dirty tactics.

Now it is clear that the only way she can win is by dropping out of the race and endorsing Barack Obama for President. Only then can the Democratic Party become whole again and focus all of it's strength on getting Obama all the way to the White House, and only then can Hillary Clinton begin to rebuild the trust and understanding she lost on millions of Americans.

Is your vote protected?

If you have been following the vote/vote recount status in New Hampshire after the presidential primaries there, then congratulations, you must be related to Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately, the massive fraud and criminal behavior by the New Hampshire government isn't being reported on by CNN, NBC, or even local New Hampshire media. Nope - they would like you to just move on the the next state and just assume that every vote was counted and everything was sunshine and cookies. But wait - what's this!?

Head on over to BlackBoxVoting.org to see what I am talking about. Bbv.org is a collection of ordinary citizens like you and me who just wanted to get a better idea, firsthand, of how the votes were counted and tallied in the state of New Hampshire. What they uncovered is mind-bendingly sad and disheartening. 

They found ballot boxes, made of cardboard no less, that had bad seals, multiple holes, and mismatching serial numbers. They found major breakdowns in the chain of command. The ballots were picked up from each ward in a windowless cargo van by two men named "Butch" (Armand Dubois) and "Hoppy" (Peter Falzone). They found votes placed in a room overnight called a vault, even though this 'vault' had no locks on the doors and multiple people had access to them all day and night without oversight. Watch the youtube clip below to see exactly what I am talking about, and make sure to check back there to see updates and new information when it becomes available.

The moral of this story? Don't trust the media to do real reporting and investigate the elections, because they aren't going to. It is up to each and every one of us American citizens to make sure that our votes are taken and counted properly. Head on over to blackboxvoting.org and check out their press kits to get started. And thanks again to Bev Harris and everyone at bbv.org for their reporting!

On the Road Again

Can't blog at the moment, I'm moving from Hilton Head Island to California via Ohio - brb asap! Lots of posts by Friday I promise! kthx

Interesting Combination

When I purchased these two at Barnes and Noble yesterday, the checkout person looked at them and told me it was 'an interesting combination.' What can I say, I feel equally at home in the bash terminal as I do at the vert ramp. Spend some time learning chmod arguments and the rest of the time practicing nollie heelpflips. Next up is a copy of 'Advanced XHTML Techniques' and a copy of 'Electronic Musician UK.' Have a great Friday!

{my digg} Bush Tries to End PBS, The House says NO!

"The House on Wednesday evening overwhelmingly rejected President Bush's plan to eliminate the $420 million federal subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."

read more | digg story

{my digg} Scholastic Loses It Over Harry Potter/BitTorent Story

It didn’t take long for Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter books, to send us a takedown notice for our post “The Latest Harry Potter Book Hits BitTorrent.”

I don't like Harry Potter at all...yet. I have never read even one page of the books, and haven't seen any of the movies other than previews on tv. But this story I saw on digg brings up an interesting question on free speech.

A few days ago, somebody took digital pictures of every single page in the unreleased Harry Potter book that comes out soon. They then put the pictures into a file and uploaded it on the internet using bittorrent. This file was then subsequently hosted on Bittorrent tracking sites like Pirate Bay and was available to download for anyone.

Of course, if you downloaded the file, you are a criminal - stealing is a crime and there is absolutely no argument available to say otherwise. And yes, downloading a free copy of the book days before it went on sale is stealing, even though it is in digital form.

Regardless, as soon as the word got out, everyone carried the story, including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and thousands of blogs and websites.

In the case linked above, the website Techcrunch got a legal letter from the publisher, Scholastic, claiming they take down the story.

SAY WHAT?

I understand if Scholastic wants to go after people who download the file, or more importantly they go after the companies that are hosting the file on their servers for others to download illegally. But the decision to try and strong arm people from even posting a story about the fact that the file was leaked online is downright scary. Scary because they actually think that there is enough of a legal argument available today to punish people for free speech. So here we go:

The new Harry Potter book was leaked online a few days ago and the bittorrent file can be downloaded very easily from many different locations. I do not recommend downloading the file as you would possibly be breaking laws - proceed at your own risk. You should be responsible for your own actions.

Come and get me Scholastic, I'm so scared lol. Not as scared of course as I would be having to be forced to read any of those books, but still scared :)

read more | digg story

That's So Not Hot

Attention cool people - take off your blinking bluetooth headset, it's really not cool.
[source: 37signals via JG]

More Favorites....

Cerveza = Pacifico
Baseball Team = LA Dodgers
Video Game System = Wii
Sneakers = Puma
Bubblegum = Orbit
Sketchpad = Windpower A4
Cat food = Iams
Shampoo = Ausssie (the purple bottles)
Sequencer = Traktion
Two seat convertible = Honda S2000
Yogurt = Yoplait
Frisbee = Aerobie Pro
Keyboard = Apple Pro Bluetooth
Woodwind instrument = Saxaphone
Giant Robot = Voltron
Magazine = Thrasher
Author = J.D. Salinger
Email Service = Gmail
Mountain Bike = Cannondale
Sampler = SP-303
Ringtone = Doin' Time by Sublime
Fruit = Banana
Wireless Mouse = Microsoft Wireless Optical 2.0

{my digg} Teen Buys PS2 on eBaY, Gets $90,000 Instead

A British teenager who bought a Sony PlayStation 2 on eBay for £95 ($194) got more than he bargained for when he opened the package. Instead of a shiny, happy gaming console, there was a whole heap of euros - €65,400 ($90,000) to be precise

At first I thought - 'why did he tell anyone, just keep the money and keep quiet.' But then I realized he would have Russian Mafia on his doorstep within 2 seconds of them opening the box and instead of 90k they found a used PS2. It's hard to pay Russian Crime Syndicate Bosses in used PS2's. On second thought, he may need police protection.

read more | digg story

{my digg} Proof Bin Laden Tape Is 5-Year-Old, Re-Released Footage

A videotape that was heralded as "new" footage of Osama bin Laden by many quarters of the press has been conclusively proven to be more than 5 year old re-released footage, leading to questions about why the government and the media continue to act as willing propagandists for the terrorists while striking fear into Americans by claiming an attack.

PEOPLE NEED TO OPEN THEIR EYES!

American media just throwing up on screen whatever their bosses in Washington tell them to, without any objective thinking or research on their part. How did our media get so fucked?

Let me ask you this: Why is George Bush so afraid of the 'terrorists' following us home from Iraq if our Homeland Security Department has assured us that our borders and airports are impenetrable by illegal citizens. Oh yeah, that's because the Homeland Insecurity Department is a farce (see FEMA) and after billions and billions of wasteful spending, our airports, borders, ocean ports, nuclear plants, etc, are only marginally, if at all, more secure after 6 years of bad management and wasteful spending.

If George Bush was so confident that his administration is protecting our country from terrorists, then why is so SCARED that they will follow us home if we withdraw our troops from Iraq?

It is SAD that we can't expect our American media to research and verify facts for us - it is now up to free thinking American people who want to know the truth in order to show the media just how wrong and out-of-touch it really is.

read more | digg story