Technology 技術

Converting YouTube flv to mp4

Note: The following was originally posted on twitter because I play around with video files a lot and I thought I’d answer some questions that people sometimes ask me.

Some of you might wonder about what I do when I say I losslessly remux FLV files from YouTube to mp4. Here’s an overview:

If you’re slightly familiar with YouTube formats, you’ll realise that YouTube uploads files in a combination of FLV and MP4. All HD formats (720p and above) are mp4s; all non-HD formats are in FLV/3GP (with the exception of 360p which comes in both mp4 and flv).

FLV and mp4s are essentially container formats (i.e. they contain video/audio streams that are encoded using certain codes).

For YouTube, all videos, no matter whether they are FLV or mp4, contain H264 MPEG-4 AVC video streams; audio are AAC streams.

So technically, all YouTube videos can be converted from FLV format to mp4 format without loss in quality.

Subjects: Technology 技術

Mood: Random

Tags: video conversion, YouTube

Twitter as a form of mass protest

And no I’m not talking about the Iran election.

I’m on vacation today. Woke up early and visited my newest internet guilty pleasure ONTD_Ai because it’s just too fking enjoyable to pass. (Not to mention I’ve been in a bit of a depression the last couple of days and needed an avenue to vent.)

I found myself embroiled in the start of a whole controversy pertaning to homophobia related to a certain “scream on” reality person’s family over a private dinner comprising the cast of our favourite TV show.

Subjects: Life 生涯, Technology 技術

Mood: Gratifications, Philosophical Musings

Tags: #gokeyisadouche, Danny Gokey, homophobia, Twitter

Sixth Sense Technology

This is so, so cool:

The original link can be found here.

Subjects: Technology 技術

Mood: Discoveries & Relevations

Tags: MIT, Pattie Mae, Pranav Mistry, Sixth Sense, TED

Gadget want list

The economy is in a tailspin and there is a slump in demand for discretionary goods, but you can’t stop even a poor (jobless) geek girl from making up her gadget wish list can you?

Subjects: Technology 技術

Mood: Gratifications

Tags: gadget, shopping

First blog post on this site using the Asus EEEPC 900HA

Blogging from my latest toy, the Asus EEE PC 900HA. Finally got my hands on it after half a week of painful waiting. But it’s all worth it cos I managed to get it in time for my birthday :)

Had a great birthday dinner today. Thanks to all the friends who came and celebrated with me.

Subjects: Technology 技術

Mood: Gratifications

Tags: Asus, birthday

Mp3tag Export script for organising music in UMS/MSC players

After I bought my new Samsung Yp-U3 (MSC mode) player, I discovered that the latest firmware (1.12WA) has limitations with regards to reading files from file directory folders: it is able to play files in folders in repeat mode or in shuffle mode, but it is unable to play only files within the folder sequentially once. For example, if I have two folders each containing ten mp3s. If I were to select the fifth mp3 of the first folder in the default play mode, the mp3 player will play all the remaining mp3s from both folders sequentially until there are no more files left and the player then automatically shuts down. There is no way that the player will only play songs from one folder, unless it is the last folder in the list. This is a big problem for me because I often listen to music when I’m about to sleep and it’s obviously not a good thing if the music player keeps playing nonstop.

Subjects: Music 音楽, Technology 技術

Tags: Mp3tag, MSC, music, UMS

Abandoning webhost

If you’re seeing this post, it means that DNS nameserver changes have propagated and you’re looking at my site on a new webhost.

It was about time. I liked my old hosting provider but last year they decided to switch convert their plans from a US pricing to Australian pricing, using a really unreasonable conversion rate. They claimed the conversion rate was based on the rate at the time the decision was made to convert the pricings but this meant that my hosting costs were to go up by approximately SGD5 a month, which makes 60 bucks extra a year. Additionally, their services were getting uncompetitive in comparison to similar plans in reputable hosting companies that were a lot cheaper. My biggest problem with switching though was that many lower priced plans in US companies offer only MySQL4 and PHP4, while I’ve been on MySQL5 and PHP5 for a while. Also, I badly needed SSH access, which not all budget hosting companies provide. In addition, I wanted to be hosted on a reliable company with relatively good support.

After hunting around for a bit I finally decided on Hostgator. For about 8-9 bucks cheaper a month I get similar scripting functionality and much much more space. Although I don’t think I will ever use more than 5-10% of the space allocated to me the cost savings are great. Additionally, I managed to get a coupon code which after deductions meant that I had to pay only USD0.01 for the first month: no harm to try out to see how the service is like and if I liked it I only needed to modify the DNS nameservers to point to the location. I’m still testing this host for the current month and will definitely stay on if the current quality of service is maintained for the next couple of weeks.

Subjects: Technology 技術

Tags: website

Internet dependency

The recent internet disruption fiasco due to damaged submarine telecommunications cables, as result of the Taiwan earthquakes, have made me realise how utterly dependent I have become on the internet. The speeds I’ve been getting for some websites tonight are reminiscent of the good ole days of 9.6k PC modems; and it’s driving me nuts!!

Go read a book Terra or get a life.
(On a side note, meeting up with friends over dinner today was really nice)

Funny how I’m perfectly fine without network access while overseas on vacation but having to go (semi-)cold turkey this holiday season, stuck in the little red dot is nearly too much to bear!

Subjects: Technology 技術

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: earthquake, internet

Colibri

Met 傑義 for dinner tonight. He passed me the autographed copy of Fragile Things (which I very shamelessly got him to carry back from San Francisco), but the coolest thing was learning from him about this software, Colibri, which allows one to open software on one’s PC, favourite URLs (FYI: it even opens a new tab on Firefox), etc, without having to use the mouse!

I have a love/hate relationship with the mouse: I need it especially for designing stuff but really hate using it to open software. The XP pinup menu makes it bit easier, but still, you have to either click on the Start button and keyup/down, or search through the gigantic list of items in the complete Start Programs menu AND remember to sort them alphabetically.

Mac users have probably been going nahh nahh ni nahh nahh for ages and ages. Argh, this makes me feel like saying good riddence to WinXP!!!

Colibri Banzai!

Subjects: Books 書物, Technology 技術

Mood: Discoveries & Relevations

Tags: book, Colibri, Neil Gaiman

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

A new CAPTCHA module has been installed. Begone you nasty spam pests. Learn to read before you come again.

Subjects: Technology 技術

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: anti-spam, CAPTCHA

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