Nerdbloke

I have been thinking of ways to build a very compact MAME arcade machine. Something that is only marginally wider than a large LCD computer monitor, perhaps 15 cm deep and maybe only 50cm high. Not to heavy, so it can be mounted on a wall, something like a dart board.

I don’t want to cramp the players by having a really tiny control panel, so the machine would need a mechanism to allow the control panel itself to unfold so that it can neatly (and easily) assemble into a larger control panel. I want the control panel to host at least two players with each player having access to one joystick and six buttons. More buttons would be required for coins and player start. The control panel will also need to contain a trackball.

Not being mechanically inclined, I could not envisage how how this could happen. I had a vague memory of coming across a book that outlined all the advances and knowledge in mechanical devices. My googling skills led me to this wonderful book:  Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Source (Edition 4).

It is chock full of mechanical nerd goodness. More linkages, levers, pulleys and cams than you could poke a lever at. Here is a sample I snagged from page 93:

There are another 551 pages just like this, but different! Fantastic.

I followed this guys instructions to clean out the dust from the CPU fan and exhaust. Got a 20+ degree Celsius drop in temps. Fantastic.

Acer Aspire 5315 Random Shut Down Problem Fixed! – YouTube.

Instructables user [killbox] seems to have come across a process that actually makes magnetic silly putty “better”, depending on your specific needs. He had tons of fun making a batch of magnetic putty, but thought that the addition of iron oxide made it stiff and a bit slow moving for his tastes.

He tried to find a household item that could act as silly putty thinner, but after trying various oils, gylcerin, and rubbing alcohol, he came up empty handed. Undeterred, he researched how silly putty itself is made, and based on its list of ingredients, decided to seek out some sort of silcone-based lubricant.

He headed out to the local sex shop, and spent some time browsing through the “personal lubricant” section, in hopes of finding what he needed. He settled on ”Gun Oil”, a silicone lubricant that also contained Dimethicone, an item on the ingredient list of the lubricant he initially used to make the batch of magnetic putty.

via Enhance your magnetic silly putty with personal lubricants – Hack a Day.

Video2mp3 is a free video to MP3 Converter and allows you to convert and download a video to MP3 file online. This service is fast, free, and requires no signup. All you need is a Video URL, and our software will transfer the video to our server, extract the MP3, and give you a link to download the audio file. So you are able to listen to your favorite YouTube tracks on every MP3 player.

via YouTube to MP3 Converter – Video2mp3 – Converter.

Just found this from Exdous1999 and Baka no Kami: Tested and worked perfectly for me. Messed around a little and finally found settings that work for making nookcolor compatible video. I used a converted called Handbrake which is available here: http://handbrake.fr/ If you need help using Handbrake check the user manual they have on the site.

Set the output container to MP4

On the video tab set the video codec to MPEG-4 FFmpeg .

Set the Target Size to something appropriate for the type of video. I find that 175MB for every 30minutes of video gives a good picture, so an hour long TV show would be 350MB a 2hr movie 700MB, etc.

On the audio tab highlight whatever is in the bottom box and hit the remove button. The audio turned out to be the problem the first couple of times I tried this, the audio on my original file had a sample rate of 48 and the NC wouldn t play it, when I lowered the sample rate suddenly the video worked. So, set the autotab like this:

Source: Automatic or use the drop down to choose which audio track you want if the video has multiple

Audio Codec: AAC faac

Mixdown: Stereo

Samplerate: 44.1

Bitrate: 128

Now hit the Add button. The only thing left is to set the destination for the final file. Browse to whatever folder you want, but be sure to use .mp4 or .m4v as the file extension, if you use anything else the NC will not recognize it as a video file even if everything else is right.

Now hit the start button at the top and go read a book while you wait for Handbrake to process the video. Other settings may also work for video, but so far this is the only thing that worked for me, so it s what I m sticking with.

via Color Nook Color Video Playback – MobileRead Forums.

I am a big believer in open source, open standards, open everything. I noticed this from Digital Standards Organization:

What is an open standard? The Wikipedia page shows many definitions, which specify characteristics of a specification, or of the processes that produce it and make it available.

To understand why there is no single agreed definition, and to let us build a canonical definition, we can start with two observations:

1. The standardization process is driven by two conflicting economic motives. Established vendors see standards as a route to direct profits, while the market at large sees standards as a route to lower costs.

2. As the economic has become digital, governments – both as users and regulators – have become engaged in the conflict between these two interest groups.

Read more here: Digital Standards Organization – Free and Open Digital Standards

P.S. – I love using the letter “z” in words. I never get to use them in UK/Australian english.  :-)

Two things that are awesome:

1. GrooveShark: Stream tunes, save playlists. Very nice. http://www.grooveshark.com/

2. Scale of the Universe: Nifty little flash tool zooms in and out from ultra small to mega big. http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

I have used Drupal previously for a friends site so they would be able to manage the content themselves. (As I don’t want to be their bottleneck). But it seems that CMS’s require a fair bit of maintenance – mainly security upgrades. The latest version of WordPress makes it really easy. Click a link and the upgrade occurs automagically – too easy.

For the next community site I wanted to take the ease of WordPress. The site I am thinking of doing will require a bulletin board. Something like PHPBB would be great But I don’t think it integrates with WordPress that well. A few minutes ago I found http://bbpress.org/. It could be a winner…

Search and Sync your movie subtitles: http://www.subtitlesync.com.ar

As much as I loath Paypal it seems they are providing some good service in the small business eCommerce sector.

ArsTechnica has a write up in November ’09 about how to start using Paypal as a free eCommerce vendor.