I found a great guide for ripping DVDs for the iPod, and Macs in general using H.264 (thanks to Boing-Boing for the link). I haven’t yet ripped anything because I’ve been looking at average times, and it looks like to rip a DVD with full quality will take about 16 hours on the old 1.5 Ghz G4. Does anyone know of some good settings for ripping a DVD? I don’t really care about keeping the file size under 700 megs, because I’m not planning on burning anything on CDs. I suppose my main question is about the interoperability between the iPod and the computer. I don’t want watch movies at 320×240 on my computer. If I fullscreen that movie, the quality is going to be crap. So can I rip a 640×480 movie and watch it on my iPod? Or something of a higher resolution? I’m going to investigate whether iTunes will down-sample the video, or whether the iPod is capable of doing this on its own.

In other news, Apple released a new media-player like iMac. I’m wondering why we’re not seeing a tv card on the new iMac though. It seems like this is a feature that Apple should definitely look into doing. If Apple is really interested in making the Mac the digital hub, and the iPod the portable extension of that hub, this is definitely where things are going. The problem with that of course, is that then the TV studios wouldn’t make as much money on the sales of their TV shows through the iTunes Media Store (after all, it can’t really be called the music store anymore). I think Apple is trying to infuse their hardware sales while most of the apple fans are waiting until the new Intel chips.

Speaking of the new Intel chips, I was looking at the Altivec to SSE migration guide, and it looks like they aren’t going to be releasing the EM64T chips with the macs, because they haven’t even come up with an API for 64-bit x86 programming! Apple, the champion of the 64-bit desktop, appears to be backing off their big 64-bit push. All of the SSE registers are bigger than 32 bits though, so I guess there are still some 64-bit registers available. I still think this is a mistake though. Apple pushed so hard for 64-bit computing, and this platform switch gives them the opportunity to start over with a clean slate. I know Apple wants more gigahertz for their computers, but this shouldn’t be at the expense of other causes they have supported (especially where the EM64T technology is already available). The flip side of this coin is that the regular x86 P4’s are going to be cheaper. I hope Apple decides to drop their prices though. If they do, the recent explosion they’ve seen in the last year will look like a blip on the radar screen.

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Well they did release the iPod, but they didn’t add the movie-ripping capability yet. That is going to be the real kicker. I haven’t looked at it much yet, what codec are they using?

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We went out for Mexican food tonight! It wasn’t half bad actually. The guacamole tasted like it came out of a bag, but the salsa was kick-ass. The only problem with the place was that the freaking drinks were like eleventy billion dollars!

The other thing I did, was get a pair of K2 Inline Skates today. I got a pair of Kinetic 8.0s, and they are awesome. They are really pretty comfortable, and I skated on them about 10 miles today.

It’s getting to be about bed time, so I’m going to throw in the towel. I think we’re going to throw in a movie, most likely blow. Like Fatty, I’m bonked right now.

Mindcircus (Gabriel & Dresden Remix) from the album “In Search Of Sunrise 3″ by Dj Tiesto

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Well I suppose the question on the minds of a lot of people in the tech sphere is, “What the hell is apple announcing today?

Well the final I had today was pretty tough. I definitely missed something on it, but I’m pretty pissed off about it because the only reason I missed it was because the rules were formatted poorly in the statutory sources manual he gave us. Looks like he pretty much cut and pasted a PDF from the EU Journal, so the page breaks are all off. Well I was looking at the right statute, but apparently the last section is after about 5 blank lines and a title/page number sitting in the middle of the page. If I’d have known it wasn’t the end of the statute, I probably would have factored that into my answer. Oh well, give people a computer and they turn into a moron. It was an important part of the question, but there were other parts of the exam.

In other news, what the hell happened last night? We were up 6-1 and Farnsworth managed to blow it twice. Talk about a real heartbreaker. We got tied up in the 9th, and then finally lost in the 18th. Its just ridiculous. Why the front office won’t put up the money to get a decent bullpen, I’ll never know. We had one of the worst bullpens in the majors this year. I just don’t get it. I’m so sick of watching the Braves win the division and lose in the first round. Bobby Cox is the best manager in the game, but even he can’t keep up what he’s been doing through the post-season.

Well Today is do or die for the Braves, and tomorrow I have a final. Thats some luck huh? Oh well, hopefully by 10pm CET I’ll know whether or not they won. On the other hand, I’m feeling fine for the final.

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Well the last couple days have been pretty fun. We went out both nights. Wednesday there was a party at a friends house, and last night a bunch of us went out to this place called “Music Bar.

Well the Braves lost last night, but the real story is what happened to the Red Sox. I mean seriously, they were partying like it was 1986. Don’t worry Tony, I’m sure they’ll forgive you. It only took like 18 years to forget about Buckner (if you can say they forgot about him).

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Well the teams are set, and it is now time for post-season baseball! The Braves won their division (for the 14th year in a row), and are facing off in the first round against the Astros.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this series. The Astros pitching is lights out — Clemens, Oswalt and Pettitte can throw all five games if they want to. Thing is, Clemens record this year sucks because they Astros just don’t score runs. The other thing to consider is that the Braves are 5-1 against the Astros this year. The most astonishing stat is that the ‘Stros batted .175 against Atlanta this season. Finally, the Braves are tied with the Yankees for 2nd best home record in the Majors (Behind the Bo’ Sox).

The first game of the series promises to be lights out — Andy Pettitte throwing against John Smoltz.

ESPN is predicting that the Astros will win the series in 4 games, but I just don’t see that happening. I know the ‘Stros have an imposing pitching staff, but you can’t win games if you don’t score any runs!

Much to my chagrin however, I will not be able to watch games live this year as I’m in Budapest. This will be the first post-season that I’m completely missing.

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