http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/

The other was nice in that besides being free, it also allowed a lot more granular control of the transcoding process. It is a Firefox Plug-in called “FireFogg“:

http://firefogg.org/

It requires Firefox 3.5 or later. I tried it on my last Netcast video file, and the results were pretty impressive, here’s the HTML5 code used to stream it once the file was transcoded to WebM format:

<center>
<video controls width=”640″ height=”420″>
<source src=”DrBillTV021911V-176.webm”>
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>
</center>

</body>
</html>

Also, try this… “click” along the timeline that appears as you “float” your mouse over it. Notice that you can “jump around” in the streamed video timeline to “pick up” anywhere along the timeline. Pretty nice! There are “high end” video streaming software that allows this, but this is VERY simple and totally free!

Pretty cool! Of course, you’ll have to use either Firefox or Chrome, or another browser that supports HTML5 to view it. For now, IE is right out! However, this may, indeed, be the future of webcasting! It sure is simple!

It was a fun Geek Project! Try it yourself if you have a need to!

Netcast Show Notes:

A SPECIAL EDITION Netcast showing how to install Ubuntu – Netbook Edition 10.10! Dr. Bill uses VMware Workstation 7.1 to allow us to install Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition – and uses BB Flashback Express to record the process for the Netcast. BE SURE TO STAY TUNED for our REGULAR Netcast, which will be released tomorrow! (LATE ADDDITION: Due to scheduling issues over the weekend…. looks like it will be Monday evening before I can get the next (regular) show out… but, hey, only late by a day!)

Links that pertain to this Geek Project:

Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition

VMware Workstation 7.1

BB Flashback Express

Download FLV

Download M4V

Download WebM

Download MP3

Download Ogg

I must say, it rocks! Since I am using WordPress to power the web site (on my server) and since I am using Viper’s Video Quicktags plugin for WordPress, it was a simple matter to download the full player after my purchase, and replace the files (after renaming the old ones) in the correct sub-directory. In this case:

../wp-content/plugins/vipers-video-quicktags/resources/jw-flv-player/

Replace the two files:

player.swf and yt.swf

with the ones from the paid-for full version of the JW Player. Then, go into the WordPress Plugin control panel for Viper’s Video Quicktags and add your cool options, to the line:

“Advanced Parameters” (at the bottom of the control panel screen)

Add this string (with your appropriate information, of course) in this format:
image=http://www.drbill.cc/images/DrBillTV-Screen-Image.png&logo=http://www.drbill.cc/images/drbilltv-logo.png

And, bazinga! You have the cool feature of briefly flashing your own logo, rather than the JW Player logo! Of course, the new latest version of the JW Player does much more than this… in fact, it now supports Flash, HTML5, and many, many other formats! By the way, you can create your own transparent logo, by using The GIMP, setting your background to “transparency” then saving in as a PNG file (Portable Network Graphic). PNG is an open source image format that supports transparency, so I use it for everything! And, it is quite compact! Here are some neat links used in this project:

The JW Player from Longtail Video
The GIMP for Windows
WordPress
Viper’s Video Quicktags
Information on the PNG Image Format

For an actual example of PHP Video Streaming of my Spirit of Faith Netcast, click HERE. Notice, when you do, that you can click on the Flash Player’s “time line” at the bottom of the player at any point, and the video will “pick up” at that point immediately. Very cool!

So, how does it work? Well, the “trick” is that there is a tool that can inject metadata into the FLV flash video file that works like a “time mark” for video frames within the file. Then, the PHP code “dribbles out” the video while “keeping up” with the location of the frame “markers” in the file as it does. Neat, huh? So, what you have to do is download the free flvmdi tool to “tag” your FLV file with these internal metatags… that is available here:

http://www.buraks.com/flvmdi/

Also, there is a GUI for this package as well (flvmdi is a command line tool for Windows.) The GUI for flvmdi is available at the same web site as above.

Just download and follow the instructions for encoding! Here’s a shot of my settings in the GUI:

Then, set up your web page. Download the “PHPstreamer.zip” Zip file of the code, available here:

http://www.drbillbailey.net/files/PHPstreamer.zip

Then, read the ReadMe.1st file, and look at my “netcast.html” code for an example for your site. (You can change the HTML to your taste, as I did.) Just be sure that all the accompanying “support files” are in the same directory as the “netcast.html” file. Obviously, the more bandwidth that you can throw at your web site is good! Good luck with that!

Thanks to the FlashComGuru for his article:

http://www.flashcomguru.com/index.cfm/2005/11/2/Streaming-flv-video-via-PHP-take-two

So, look over the examples, read the “ReadMe.1st” files in a text editor, and happy Flash Video Streaming!

Seamlessly Run Linux Apps on Your Windows Desktop

“There’s no doubt that Linux—particularly Ubuntu—is a killer operating system full of excellent apps, but for about a million reasons, you’re stuck running Windows as your main operating system. We understand, these things happen. But what about all those killer Linux apps you’ve left behind when you decided to live the Windows life? Sure you could dual-boot or run Linux in the confines of a virtual machine window, but wouldn’t it be great if you could run those apps side-by-side with your Windows apps—like Linux users can do with WINE or OS X can do with Parallels or VMWare? You can, and today I’ll show you how to seamlessly run your favorite Linux applications directly in Windows with a free software called andLinux.”

Check out the article link above for instructions on getting and using andLinux and do it as a Geek Project! Rock on!

andLinux Web Site

andLinux uses the coLinux Project code to operate: “Cooperative Linux is the first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively. More generally, Cooperative Linux (short-named coLinux) is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine. For instance, it allows one to freely run Linux on Windows 2000/XP, without using a commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware, in a way which is much more optimal than using any general purpose PC virtualization software.”

coLinux Web Site

Enable WPA Wireless access point in Ubuntu

The tutorial has nice screenshots and details on setting up WPA. Go for it!

(Below info from the phpBB Anti-Spam Project)

1) Use spam blocking IP blacklists. Where do you get them? Check the link below:

The phpBB Anti Spam Project

2) Enable your forums Captcha -Turn on your captcha in your ACP, most bots work around this, but it may help eliminate a small percentage of older bots. “Bots” are spammer scanning software robots that spammers set up to spam sites.

3) Enable “Account Activation” (via the users email) – Using the Admin activation may eliminate spam however in the end it will be just as much work as deleting spam and your forums activity will most likely suffer as most users sign up because they wish to immediately and impulsively reply to something they’ve read… If you enable their account manually at a later time, they may not return.

4) Hide from spammers – Make it harder for spammers to find you, without sacrificing surfers being able to find you:

A. Do not use /phpBB2/ as a forum location. – If your boards address is sitename.com/phpBB move your board to another address such as sitename.com/widgets. – This takes less than 30 seconds to do (with the exception of changing links on any HTML pages and emailing your members about the change.
B. Remove phpBB text – Remove the “Powered by phpBB 2.0.21 © 2001 phpBB Group” and replace it with an image of the text (so that spammer scanning software passes do not pick up on the “phpbb”)
C. Use Robots.txt to block spammer scanning software from indexing non vital areas of your forum. If your forum url is http://yoursitename.com/widgets create a text file and place the following in it (substituting widgets with the forums location, name it robots.txt and upload it to http://yoursitename.com/robots.txt )

Other mods you can implement:

1) IP logged upon Registration – good for banning memberlist spammers who do not post, but continually rejoin (A recent study at the phpBB Anti-Spam site illustrated that 53.3% of signups were memberlist spam and that 60% of those that posted used a different ip address to post than what they used to sign up.)
A. URL Censor – good for censoring bad spam urls in posts, memberlist web addresses, signatures, etc.
B. AutoDelete Non-Activated Users – good for removing memberlist spammers who do not confirm
C. AntiSpam Question (easy to install and modify). We’ve made this mod more successful based on other antispam mods.. I would recommend that you change the default question “What color is a lemon?” and the answer “yellow” to something that requires thought. Using the default question and answer will not be as effective as more people use this mod. Better yet, if your forum is a regional forum change it to something users in your country or region would know the answer to, but foreigners most likely would not. If a spammer does figure out the answer and shares it with other spammers, simply changing the question 1-2 times will more than likely discourage them from wasting their time in the future.
D. either one of these:
* Deter Comment Spam adds a rel-nofollow tag to all urls so SE’s do not pick them up. This also includes an add-on mod separately that will allow you to configure it to make exceptions for allowed urls (this add-on is not needed). This is not a bot or spammer deterrent as spambots won’t know about this, however it prevents spammers from ruining your sites Google PR and eliminates the benefit of giving them SE link popularity, however they still can get surfer traffic. The downside is that good members will not have the benefit “spammer scanning software-wise” of posting their urls. If this is an issue, the next mod may be a better alternative.
* There is another mod out there that will restrict new users from posting urls until they have reached X posts and have been a member for X days. (This creates more work for spammer, most won’t go through the trouble. However this mod can be a forum killer as many new members may also become frustrated.)

You will be surprised how much following the above steps will reduce your forum spam content! And, I still say that spammers should be first up against the wall when the revolution comes!

Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800

“If the high price tag for Apple hardware has kept you from buying a Mac but you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and get adventurous, you can build your own “Hackintosh”—a PC that runs a patched version of OS X Leopard. What?!, you say. Apple’s move to Intel processors in 2006 meant that running OS X on non-Apple hardware is possible, and a community hacking project called OSx86 launched with that goal in mind. Since then, OSx86 has covered major ground, making it possible for civilians—like you and me!—to put together their own Hackintosh running Mac OS 10.5. Today, I’ll show you how to build your own high end computer running Leopard from start to finish for under $800. Right now the cheapest Mac on sale at the Apple store is a $600 Mac Mini sporting a 1.83GHz proc, 1GB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive. For $200 more, your Hackintosh can boast a 2.2GHz proc with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB drive, and a completely upgradeable case for expanding your setup in the future. Building a DIY Mac requires some work on your part, so be ready to dedicate time to this project. To make things as easy as possible, I’m going to lay out how I built my Hackintosh from start to finish, from the hardware I used to the final patches I applied to the Leopard install. If you can build a Lego set and transcribe text, you’ve got all the basic skills required.”

By the way, add to that $800.00 price tag a LEGAL copy of OSX. We are not advocating stealing here! It is quite possible that a Mac Mini would be more cost effective at this point… but it is an interesting article!

Original Post Starts Here:
Everyone wants a faster Windows boot time, huh? Well, here’s a cool tip! Clean out your Windows Prefetch Cache! A Geek Project for you!

In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Windows\Prefetch

Once there, delete everything under the “Prefetch” directory. (DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! I ain’t responsible! REALLY!)

Now, reboot your system. This reboot will be very slow, because it will be “rebuilding” the system’s prefetch cache again. This is because Windows needs to “relearn” the prefetch for it’s system files. Subsequent boots will be MUCH faster! However, the Winodws Prefetch cache will soon “fill up” again as you use the system and it’s applications. Sooooo… let’s keep that from happening!

We will need to edit a registry key to fix that. (If you aren’t comfortable editing the Windows Registry, don’t do it… call your friendly local geek and show him this article!) If you are “down wit’” doin’ it… go for it! Open Regedit and browse to this Registry Key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

Under this key you should see a value named: EnablePrefetcher

It has 4 possible values:

0 – Disabled : The prefetch system is turned off.

1 – Application : The prefetch only caches applications.

2 – Boot : The prefetch only caches boot system files.

3 – All : The prefetch caches boot, and application files.

Now, keep in mind, we don’t want to disable the prefetch entirely! This would actually make system boot times much longer! This is because this feature is used to speed up the loading of Windows boot files. So, let’s pick the number 2 option. It allows us to keep the advantage of caching Windows system files, without filling up the prefetch with application data.

Set the value to 2 and reboot your system. The next time that you boot it will be MUCH faster! Cool, huh? So, do this and, like me, you could do from over a minute in Windows boot time to 30 seconds! Very, very cool! You can also defrag your hard drive… that will help too!