richardirvine.com

Author: Richard Irvine

  • Where the grass is green

    Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy:

    Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It’s more like reviewing a unicorn.

    It’s like if Jeff Lynne tried to make Out Of The Blue sound more like Fun House, except with jazz drumming and a girl singer from Motown.

    Somewhere in Los Angles, there’s gotta be 400 hours of DAT tape with nothing on it except multiple versions of the “Sorry” vocal. So why is this the one we finally hear? What finally made him decide, “You know, I’ve weighed all my options and all their potential consequences, and I’m going with the Mexican vampire accent.”

  • Two links

    I’m becoming a fan of Charlie Brooker – he wrote Dead Set, the ‘Big Brother house is the only refuge from the living dead’ TV series, and works himself into indignant hilarity every week in the Guardian:

    How annoying is it? Put it this way: James Blunt is also on the list, and he’s the least objectionable person there.

    New Star Trek trailer.

  • Clickity clack, proper typing’s back

    Apple’s Extended II Keyboards and their ‘proper’ clicking keystrokes are back, thanks to Griffin’s iMate ABD – USB converter.  Coveted by the likes of Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber, they feel very different to mushy, modern keyboards. Think more electric typewriter.

    Apple Extended Keyboard II

    Good examples go on Ebay for big money, but I got one of the coveted model M3501s off Trademe for NZD$1, and a slightly cleaner one from Macnut, a ‘highly recommended A+++ would trade again’ trader if ever there was one, for NZD$12. It looks fantastic next to my iMac, it feels good to have this logo back.

    My setup

    It feels ‘right’, and the din suggests an air of effortless productivity. I’m missing the volume up and down keys and extra USB slot of my old keyboard, but it’s fully worth it. Next project – making a cardboard template for those keyboard shortcut guides.

    Link: Low End Mac on the Extended II.

  • Simple guide to burning an .AVI to DVD in OS X 10.4.11

    Here’s how I burn .avi files to DVD. For a guide to why this guide exists, scroll down. You can click the pictures to make them bigger.

    1. Get ffmpegx. It’s free and marvelous. Install and follow all the instructions.

    2. Open your .avi and set it to convert to .mov. I accepted all the default settings, seems fine. Push encode. Wait while it does its thing. You can queue up multiple files and leave them overnight if you’ve got heaps to do.

    Screen.jpg

    3. You’ll now have a file with a ‘.avi.ff.mov’ suffix. You’re halfway there.

    4. Open Toast (I’m using Titanium 9). You could use iDVD, but Toast is heaps faster (and iDVD’s had its’ chance as far as I’m concerned).

    5. Choose the video submenu and DVD / Video disc.

    6. Drag your ‘.avi.ff.mov’ file into the burn area. You can drag multiple files if you’re burning a TV series. Insert a blank DVD (or burn an image) and hit the big ‘burn’ button.

    screen2.jpg

    7. The file will encode for a few minutes, then burn for a few minutes.

    8. Viola. You now have a DVD you can play in a DVD player.

    Why?
    I’ve been trying to perform this seemingly simple task (I’ve got a DVD burner. I’ve got .AVIs. WHY WON”T YOU WORK?) for weeks now.

    I had early success with iDVD, then it all turned to custard, with my cool side-loading DVD slot ejecting blank disc after blank disc.

    After MUCH messing around with free downloads and other stuff that didn’t work, here’s what worked for me. I’m using an intel iMAC with OS X 10.4.11. Good luck.

  • Revelations

    Twitter:

    Woah – you mean email can help you do stuff? Not just rain down tasks you’ll never do like dirt on your coffin? I DID NOT know that!

  • Obamarama

    I’m glad the right guy won. Sarah Palin was starting to freak me out. It’s only a few short hops from electing officials who can’t string a sentence together to this:

    So. Nice one America. See also:

    Jason Kottke’s election map run through. I like the New York Times, the BBC’s and FiveThirtyEight’s has a certain charm.

    Obama photos from the Big Picture.

    The Onion from 2001: Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’

    The Onion, yesterday: Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress

  • Link: How to get a girl

  • Jabba the Katz

    Had a win in the pub quiz last night – here’s a Katz cartoon.

    Katz backstory and Flickr set.

  • Huh? What the…?

    You fell asleep watching a DVD.

    We’ve all been there. Pretty good selection, with Arrested Development and Shaun Of The Dead.

  • Summer Heights High

    In celebration of me figuring out how to embed small youtube videos (it’s actually really easy, how I LAUGHED!), here’s a clip from Summer Heights High. It’s created by Aussie Chris Lilley, the guy behind We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian Of The Year. Enjoy.