I wanted to give props to the guys who developed and maintained a great little program called HandBrake. I’ve used it on a number of occasions to transcode big MKVs to smaller AVIs that my modded Xbox finds easier to handle.

Every other program I’ve tried is either a trial version, difficult to use, or both. With HandBrake it’s as easy as picking the source video, picking the destination location, picking the encoder you want to use, and then “Start”. There are a number of configured presets along the sidebar for standard outputs which cover iPod, QuickTime, PS3, Xbox 360 and more.

As with any encoding program I’ve found there’s a bit of trial and error involved – some devices are pretty picky about what codecs they use, and even about the customizations of said codec. So depending on what you’re transcoding for, your mileage may vary. But I’ve never found a better program for it.

The Interface is easy, as you can see. There are a number of sub-options available such as Audio – obviously for customizing the audio codec and bitrates. Then Chapters for setting chapter points in the video and advanced for some settings that I generally don’t touch – for experts only.

I find that transcoding widescreen video can be especially testy – again, depending on what you intend to play it with. The aspect ratio can get a bit flaky based on whether you pick a strict or loose aspect ratio setting. It’s an easy solution though – just clip a short piece of what you’re trying to transcode and let it process that, then test the results. Or just let it get far enough into transcoding to have a few seconds to examine. Computers tend to automatically correct and adjust aspect ratios, so you’re best off testing on a DVD player if that’s what you planned. Same goes for XBMC – it won’t encoding mistakes.

What’s even better is that it is available for both PC and Mac, so don’t let the screenshots mislead you. I just happen to only have it installed on my Mini so that’s where I took the screenshots.

I just wanted to address the fact that the site name is “Drewcorp Coding” and yet I have maybe three sporadic articles on the topic. I want to apologize and explain this.

Right now I have two jobs. One is as a mobile tech for a local company (think “Nerd Herd” from NBC’s Chuck). The second job is as a ColdFusion and PHP programmer for a US corporation. Things have been slow on the programming front lately, likely due to the economic downturn, especially south of the border. Slow, but not dead. I plan on releasing a few ColdFusion code snippets and tutorials in the near future, so bear with me.

In the meantime, as a mobile tech I’m provided lots of blog fodder. So until the programming picks up, please enjoy my blog anyway.

Thank you all for your support and great comments!

Keep them coming.

I spent a good part of yesterday messing around with Wii’s Punch-Out!!

It was not surprisingly pretty fun and even nostalgic, as the gameplay seems to be an updated version of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! for the NES, whereas the opponents seem to be a blend of Punch-Out!! and Super Punch-Out!! for the SNES.

So there’s Glass Joe and King Hippo from the original in the minor circuit, complete with the original tactic that involves punching Hippo while his pants are down. Then in the next circuit, familiar characters like Bear Hugger make an appearance, this time with some additional details such as the birthplace, which in Bear Hugger’s case is Salmon Arm, BC. Being from the province, I found that amusing. Then there’s Piston Hondo, Bald Bull and an assortment of other characters.

The coolest feature (in theory) is the inclusion of the ability to use the Wii Fit balance board to provide a more intuitive dodging mechanism. I don’t have a board so I can’t test it, however I can say it is a very good idea.

The only issue I had with the game was that the mechanics were based on the original Nintendo. So you can get super-punches but to earn them you have to punch at a very specific moment to catch your opponent off guard. And once you have a super-punch (represented by a star), if you don’t use it before you’re hit, you lose it. I vastly preferred the SNES method where the more punches you land, you eventually build up your own super-punch meter – and if you’re hit, you lose a portion of the meter but can still recover it by landing more punches.

All in all a decent game for the Wii (for once not a cheap game rushed out the door), but I hope they make another that incorporates more of the Super Nintendo Punch-Out!! fighting system.

In my entire memory, there is no more pesky or nightmarish an un-install process as with the MS Office Activation Assistant.

For the uninitiated among you, the Office Activation Assistant (OAA) is a tool that pc and laptop manufacturers preinstall on your computer at the factory. Here’s a blurb from the Microsoft website:

The Microsoft Office Activation Assistant is a tool that allows customers who have the 2007 Microsoft Office system preinstalled on a new PC to:

Buy a product key; or

Get a key to activate a 60-day trial version of Office Professional 2007.

Now I’m all for helpful tools to make things simpler, but this is not one of them. This may very be the worst tool ever created. This functionality could easily have been a plugin built in to the MS Office suite itself, and in the case of my mom’s laptop which I worked on all day yesterday, it proved once again to be the bane of my existence.

In a previous post, I sent away my mom’s laptop to HP with various hardware-related problems. Yesterday I got it back, and to HP’s credit, it worked. I’m very satisfied that they got it working and did it free as an extended warranty due to a manufacturing error. However, I decided to start her off again with a clean slate, so I ran the recovery partition and reset everything to factory defaults.

I knew somewhat what was coming – I’d dealt with it before many times, but it never gets any less frustrating. In the same post I mentioned earlier, I noted the “crapware” installed by many manufacturers. HP is one of the worst offenders in this regard, along with a “Factory Default” image that is flawed.

What it’s supposed to do is work alongside a preinstalled Office 2007. The laptop in question had Office 2007 Home and Student Edition. What’s supposed to happen is you open OAA and it detects the version installed and automatically grants you a trial or (once you buy one) a retail license. Problem is, this absolutely untouched Pavilion dv2310ca image is broken: OAA doesn’t recognize Office install, and doesn’t state what it’s looking for. What’s worse, you can’t uninstall OAA until you’ve used it to activate Office.

I discovered there were two viable solutions, but neither one are ideal.

A good Samaritan named “richi” over at techarena had some tips that I remember being more useful last time, but this time didn’t work well for me, but that’s not to say it won’t work for someone.

1.
Use "Regedit" to nagivate to
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{65DA2EC9-0642-47E9-AAE2-B5267AA14D75}
or search HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for "Activation Assitant".
To use Regedit, use Windows-Start-> Run and type in "Regedit"
HKLM is an abbreviation to HiveKeyLocalMachine, which appears as "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" within the registry editor.
2.
Change Values for Keys "NoRepair", "NoModify", "NoRemove" from "1" to "0"
as there is no Key "UninstallString", only a value vor "InstallSource"

I tried this and when I attempted to uninstall, it said I needed to have MS Office installed and activated first. It offends me that someone would be held hostage by a stupid tool to buy a program that a consumer my not want. That being said, I do want Office 2007, but not while held at gunpoint. So I obviously had to uninstall Office 2007 since it wasn’t recognized by OAA. Then I installed my personal retail Office 2007 copy, and tried that. Keep in mind the install of Office is a rather time consuming process. Once it was installed, I ran OAA again. This time it seemed to recognize the Office install since it automatically opened up Word for me, but then it just sat there and did nothing.

The techarena link above also indicates that another way to remove OAA is to download a trial version of home and student (a ~300 MB file), use OAA to get a trial key, apply the key, and then uninstall the Assistant followed by the unwanted Office install, so that I can reinstall the version of Office I do want. This ended up being the solution that worked, and I knew it would, but I wanted to do everything in my power to find a simpler solution.

I failed.

And yes it is Vista, but ultimately it not Microsoft’s fault. Yes they wrote a stupid tool. But who installed it? The manufacturer (in this case HP). Who created a faulty factory image? The manufacturer. If they’d just set up the image properly and tested it, the tool might have worked properly out of the box.

The sad thing is with all the stigma attached to Vista (which I completely believe to be a great operating system flawed only by Apple-fuelled propaganda), people will blame the OS for the problems. Vista’s acceptance has greatly been hindered by manufacturers crippling their own systems with bloated crap preinstalled on it. Case in point I just spent all day yesterday uninstalling tools, such as ones telling me to buy AOL or Verizon – one of which I’m amazed people still use, and the other not even available in Canada (keep in mind this laptop was specifically designed for Canada hence the “ca” part of dv2310ca).

I entreat all manufacturers to stop loading your systems with junk. Nobody wants it. And Microsoft should discourage crapware that makes its OS look bad.

Wow.

I just read a post that defined my last job to the letter.

I got tired of being expected to be an expert on a thousand different pieces of technology and being $#%@ all over whenever something went wrong.

Check it out at http://www.thenetworkadministrator.com/ITGeneralist.htm

Edit: Having said that, I did gain intimate knowledge of systems like Oracle Database, Tomcat, Apache, Red Hat Linux, and some fairly advanced Windows user logon scripting, to name a few. Not to mention it laid the framework for my eventual entry into programming.

I just finished playing Xbox Live’s edition of 1 vs 100 Beta.

I’ve had my Xbox 360 offline for a while. I get some games, beat them, rack up a disgusting amount of gamer points and sneak up on Daribus with my fattened Gamerscore. The only reason I plugged the network back in was I was afraid someone hacked my Live account, which wouldn’t be the first time.

The first thing that popped up was an update. An update which probably had something to do with the 1 vs 100 game but I can’t be sure.

Then the spotlight said something about 1 vs 100, which I’d heard of but then again I don’t watch much TV – just very specific shows. Perhaps it’s not as popular in Canada as in the US.

It took me a while to figure out that the game is played within a certain timeframe on certain days, exactly like a television game show. In fact, this game represents a fresh approach to online gaming. It’s a Massively Multiplayer Online Game Show. This beta is exclusively Canadian, featuring Canadian trivia (and yes, it includes an inordinate number of hockey related questions). The finished version or “Season One” will launch in North America and Europe sometime between now and June 21, 2009 (Game details page claims Spring 2009).

I played with my whole family and it was oddly entertaining for everyone. I’d experienced similar gameplay before from titles like Scene It!, but the scale of this game was obvious from the 7000 other players I was competing against.

According to xbox.com’s 1 vs 100 Game Details page, there are prizes to be had which includes a laptop and an Xbox 360 (which seems odd since theoretically you must already own one to compete…).

The different versions of 1 vs 100 are 1 vs 100 Live and 1 vs 100 Extended Play. 1 vs 100 Live is a two-hour game with a live host in which players may be selected for high-profile roles like the Mob and The One. 1 vs 100 Extended Play is a fast-paced, half-hour show—the more you play, the better your chances of being picked as the Mob or The One in 1 vs 100 Live!

Could this be the start of a new genre of games? I smell a MMOGS Jeopardy in the works.

More details available here: http://www.xbox.com/en-CA/live/1vs100/

I just stumbled across a great article on NETTUTS which goes through the ColdFusion8 install process complete with screenshots and goes over some cool things CFML can do, including a pretty nifty Captcha function I didn’t know about. Check out the article here.

Also found a site called coldfusionBloggers which is a collection of CFML-centered blogs. Of course we all go off topic but I’m happy to see a collection of blogs like this – I’ve been looking for this kind of thing for a while!

The small project I’m working on was going quite smoothly using Railo. I had the application.cfc working fine which housed the session handler, which a login form I wrote used to login and stay logged in. Then I had a cfm template that was designed to be called by a flash or flex page and would output XML.

Finally it came time for me to write a registration form and I discovered a problem. Railo doesn’t support the validateAt=”onServer” attribute. To some programmers, using ColdFusion’s automatic server-side validation generation might be considered a cop-out. But it’s one of the beauties of writing CFML. No programmer can honestly say they love writing client-side and/or server-side validation for registration forms. It’s tedious and time-consuming. And if you’re like me, you hate JavaScript.

So I tested all my code with Open BlueDragon, with more success. I’ll test more tomorrow and post my findings.

One thing I picked up from my time working with HP and our regional hospitals, it was the novelty of naming conventions. Being a closet Star Trek nerd I recognized the names pretty quick. Enterprise, Reliant, Defiant, Antares. These are federation ship names. This piece of trivia escaped most of my colleagues and I wasn’t about to make fun of them for not being nerdy enough.

Then my another job site featured space objects. Our Firewall server was Sun, our file server Earth, a giant beast of a server we purchased and called Galaxy (which contained a number of VMWare servers), our secondary Domain Controller was Mars, while printers were typically named after orbiting moons. I’m sure you see the correlation.

I never much liked the names of our planets due to Roman mythological origin. For some reason I always took it personal that it was blatantly stolen from the Greeks and simply relabelled. The Greeks were far more inventive and original. And so I always had in mind the naming convention my domain would have.

A year or so ago I began to realize that vision.

I configured a local domain controller which I named Zeus. The domain I called Pantheon.local. My “Windows Home Server” is Athena, the goddess of Wisdom (as my backup server, this is the repository of all my information). My development server is Haphaestus: the god of the forge, and the inspiration for my site banner. My wife’s PC which she inherited from me is Aphrodite – the goddess of love.

I rent a suite from my parents upstairs. But it’s not a typical nerd living in his mom’s basement kind of situation. As such, I’ve included my mom’s system in the domain and her laptop is Hera. Technically this is a departure from the naming convention since Hera was the wife of Zeus and thus should have equal power, say, as a secondary domain controller. But somehow I remember Hera as “mother” better due to my fondness of the TV shows Hercules and Xena. And don’t think the parallel is lost on her, as I think she’s mildly offended I equated her with the evil queen of the gods.

There is also Demeter, who I configured as a secondary development server and yet I can’t recall why I named her that – she was the bringer of seasons. Of course then I have my trusty Samsung CLP-610 ND (Color Laser Printer with Network+Duplexing), which is Hermes the messenger of the gods, whose label I found particularly fitting.

And that pretty much covers it. My server needs are always expanding as do the names. Some servers have come and gone like Strife, Atalanta, Hercules or Hades, so these names sort of sit in a pool until I have need of another.

Anyone care to share their domain server naming convention?

Yep, that’s right. I still have my launch console with up to four green lights and I’ve never had a problem with it. How many others out there are like me?

Some anecdotal reports claimed the failure rate of launch systems to be in the range of 1/3. I have a hard time believing that, considering I’ve played on my launch system far far more than the average gamer.

Don’t believe me? Check out my Gamertag. I’m the one on the left.

I’ve got an Achievement points competition going between myself and this other seasoned gamer. I had about a 16000 point lead to start, but he’s catching up fast, as you can see.