Author: isaac

I like cats and compost.

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Rotate video for YouTube

The problem: You recorded a video in portrait format accidentally, most likely because you were using a digital camera and didn’t think about it. For fun, let’s say the video is already at YouTube, so you’re starting with a Flash video file.

The solution: Download the Flash video using something like the DownloadHelper Firefox Add-on. Convert it to an AVI video using VLC. Rotate the AVI video using mencoder, part of the mplayer project. Re-upload it to YouTube.

Convert FLV to AVI:

Choose Convert/Save in VLC. Select the FLV file you want to rotate. On the next screen, check the File box and choose an output file name. From the convenient Profile dropdown menu choose MPEG-4 / DivX. Click Save and the conversion should get started.

Rotate the AVI:

I think mencoder is designed to be difficult to use. Instead of reading the man pages I usually consult Google to see if someone else has already figured the cryptic string of command line arguments necessary to do something. In this case, Scott Hanselman figured it out almost 2 years ago! Here’s the command to rotate an AVI 90 degrees clockwise:

mencoder -vf rotate=1 -o OUTPUT.AVI -oac copy -ovc lavc INPUT.AVI

For some reason, I ended up with a too-fast frame rate. To fix that, I opened the rotated AVI in avidemux, adjusted the frame rate until the clip duration was close to the original, and saved it. Properly, I should have done another conversion to get some black bars on either side of the tall video, but when I uploaded to YouTube those got added automagically.

Update: I got ahold of the original video, in Quicktime format. VLC converted that to an AVI easily, and this time there was no frame-rate change when I rotated with mencoder.

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Pulling a crab pot

A video from last summer of my dad and his friend pulling a crab pot in Kachemak Bay.

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New Orleans and Baton Rouge

I’d only been to New Orleans for Jazz Fest so it was interesting to go there for aimless fun. We pretty much just walked around, shopped, and ate. We stayed at the W New Orleans, which would have been nice enough if we weren’t aware of the W in the French Quarter. Maybe the rooms there suck (I’m sure they don’t), but it’s got a sweet courtyard bar area. We spent most of our time wandering around the French Quarter, and the patch between the quarter and the W is a little ugly, so it would have been nice to stay there.

Piano man

Continue reading “New Orleans and Baton Rouge”
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Photopress 1.5.1

I think I’ve finally fixed a bug that’s been haunting album categories for a long time. This version should fix the dropdown category lists, which I believe also fixes the thing where categories were getting labelled Default upon update. I also made the popup menu a little prettier.

Download: photopress_1.5.1.zip

Oops! Some craziness with the version numbering. It should be 1.5.1 – thanks for pointing out the mistake.

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Egg Nog

Egg Nog

After you make egg nog yourself you’ll wonder why you ever bothered with that gooey yellow stuff in the carton. It only takes a couple of minutes and there are only a couple of ingredients. To make two servings you’ll need:

  • about a cup of heavy cream
  • 2 eggs
  • about a tablespoon of honey
  • nutmeg
  • booze, such as whiskey, bourbon…or Armagnac

Whisk the eggs until they’re very fluffy, then whisk in the honey and booze (which you can pretend will kill any salmonella in the eggs). Folding in the cream may maintain the fluffiness, but I usually just whisk that in too, along with a little freshly grated nutmeg. Pour it into some glasses, grate on a little more nutmeg, and enjoy!