Found on the Intarwebs

Zamzar Converts Your Files

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

Zamzar LogoA few days ago a friend asked me how to embed YouTube videos into a powerpoint presentation. I assumed it wasn’t possible but I went searching anyway. I didn’t come away with a miracle but I did come away with a new tool for my arsenal. Zamzar will convert any that you either upload or send it a URL to. Zamzar is also smart enough to convert embedded items such as YouTube and MetaCafe videos. They have a whole slew of other sites that are supported in a similar fashion. Don’t think Zamzar is just for videos though. Oh no, they support word processing conversion, compression type conversions, image conversions, video conversions and music conversions.

Zamzar is your one stop shop to convert your files.

The way it works is really quite simple and eloquent. You fill out the from on their main page (shown below), click ‘convert’ and wait for the E-mail. The E-mail will contain a link to the downloadable converted file(accessible by anyone who has the link, so feel free to forward it to friends or whatever).

Zamzar Convert Form

Be careful the converted file is only available for 24hrs. That’s probably how they keep their costs low. If you’re interested in storing your converted files on their system, they do have pay plans available with pricing for just about everyone.

Disclaimer: Like everything these days, the service is in ‘Beta’ and as such it might come with a few bugs. I also know the site has some pop-up ads so don’t turn off your pop-up blocker.

Goodmorning from Hulu

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

I finally got into the Beta at Hulu last week. I am very excited about the service which, if you’re not aware, is a new web video service that offers network video content over the internet. It’s free of charge, developed by the big networks and is ad supported just like regular network television. The reason I’m excited about this service is that it’s one step closer to the video entertainment of tomorrow.

The future of TV will be an on demand service. You watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it. Some people might say we’re already there with DVR’s. I say no, a DVR is nothing more than a carry over from old video tape technology and thought process. Sooner or later all your television will be streamed over the internet directly to your TV and that means you can select the specific show and episodes you want to watch (or even categories or tags if you so desire) rather than channels which sometimes have shows you want to watch on but mostly just have garbage.

Removing the need for a person to know what they want to watch before they watch it is a huge benefit of streaming. You can go back weeks, months or even years to get back to the beginning and watch all the episodes of a particular show. It also opens up the door to a feed system similar to RSS in which you get notified when a new episode is available so you can have a list of shows in your queue. Another benefit is the space limitation is now gone you stream the video when you want to watch it as opposed to watching it from your own local copy.

I can’t wait for the day that all movies are available online on demand. I’d love to have a paid premium service that removes the ads. I’m hoping that Hulu will add a premium service eventually that removes the ads all together for a nominal fee. If they were to do that and build the content into Media Center or some other interface that is easily adapted to the television then I would immediately switch over to paying for the service and drop Cable all together.

Thus far my only complaints for the Hulu service deal with their interface. The idea is solid but their UI needs a little bit of work. For starters I’d like to see playlists that contain entire seasons of episodes. I’d also like to see feeds that contain only the episodes of the subscribed show not video clips.

One really neat and brand new feature built into Hulu is the ability to select portions of a video to share. I’ve selected a fitting section of the latest Family Guy to demonstrate below:

http://www.hulu.com/embed/ItwmCm9zM1JbyFheEsAehUCwRB8IH2-v

All in all I think the cable and satellite companies have some new competition and if they don’t adapt quickly they might be in trouble. If I were Time Warner I’d be working on ways to getting online versions of the same content to my subscribers as quickly as possible.

Bee Movie

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We finally saw Bee Movie the other day and it was quite funny. I rather enjoyed listening to Matthew Broderick and Jerry Seinfeld fight over the plights of life as a bee. The cast was impressive, From Sting to Larry King and Chris Rock. Even though the movie poked fun at the situation, it was interesting to think about how much bees really are needed. Granted lots of other critters pollinate, and the wind even plays its part, but I’d be willing to bet that a majority of pollination happens thanks to our little yellow (and black) friends. What would the world look like without pollination? Rachel would be out of a job (she’s a florist remember?) for sure.

If you haven’t already seen it, take a look at the trailer below, and if you enjoy animated movies like Shrek and Ice Age I’d suggest watching Bee Movie.

Bee Movie Trailer

Yelp for Rochester

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Yelp LogoA true Web service is only as good as it’s users make it. I just recently discovered Yelp and luckily they have a Rochester page. I have recently been trying to find a website that lists local restaurants along with ratings. Yahoo and Google business results return too many chains that aren’t of interest to me since they’re available anywhere. I’ve been looking for results that are more locally oriented such as the listings found within a Frommer’s guide.

Fortunately Yelp provides everything I’m looking for in restaurants and even has lots of extra categories such as Night Life, Beauty and Spas and Shopping. I was interested to find they also have a list of romantic restaurants which is always difficult to find in Rochester. In order of highest ratings these are the following Rochester romantic restaurants on Yelp:

  1. Rooney’s
  2. Oasis Mediterranean Bistro
  3. Tapas 177
  4. Lucano Ristorante
  5. 2 Vine
  6. Max of Eastman Place

The only one of these that Rachel and I have been to is Tapas (which was excellent and I’ll be sure to rate it thus). We haven’t even heard of any of the others. There are a few missing from this list, like the Triphammer Grill, that we have been to but it’s always great to find new ones.

If you’re looking for new restaurants or shops to check out, look no further than Yelp.

The 2 Billionth Flickr Photo

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

It’s interesting to see the 1st or a significant nth item posted to any service. So often though they turn out like the first youtube video. A waste of space. It’s nice to see when a milestone is actually something worthwhile. That’s the case with the 2 billionth flickr photo. It was posted a while ago I just haven’t had the chance to post it yet. Here it is:

Originally uploaded by yukesmooks Just in case you were wondering how to find the Nth Flickr photo simply use the following:

http://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=XXXXXX

Simply replace the X’s with the photo number you want to take a look at.

Hollywood Sucks but Beowolf Rocks

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

We saw Beowulf tonight at the IMAX in 3D. Wow. I think any epic movie must be seen at the IMAX and if possible in 3D. It added a whole other level to the movie experience. Until now I had never seen an entertainment movie in an IMAX (I have seen some short educational specials at different times). Adding the 3D effect to Beowulf was simply incredible.

Beowulf the movie itself was okay but without the graphical eye candy it’s nothing special. However; it’s still a must see especially in 3D at the IMAX. The story was changed quite a bit from what I remember of what I’ve heard before. I only have two real complaints. The first is the lack of a fight with Grendel’s Mother. The second is the ending which is horrible and typical Hollywood bull.

Can’t they just let a story be? It’s bad enough that every movie these days is either a sequel, prequel, remake or based on another piece of entertainment(book, comic book etc). Why do the stories of our times need to be left unfinished? The songs of old (such as Beowulf) were never sung until after the story itself ended. Why are today’s stories any different? Isn’t it better to know the ending than to be left in suspense?

Trailer below. (High quality Trailer from stage6 here).

[metacafe]http://www.metacafe.com/watch/920271/beowulf_trailer_2/[/metacafe]

Carbon-Free Stackable Cars

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Carbon-Free Stackable CarI recently ran across an idea from MIT students for Carbon-Free Stackable Cars. The idea is to simply extend the range of public transportation. Public transportation typically only allows travel to the most common places. Often your real destination is off the beaten track. If that’s the case and the distance is too great people will often choose private transportation instead. This idea attempts to close that gap.

This reminds me of ZipCar in Boston. They leave cars in residential neighborhoods and allow you to reserve them online. You simply walk to it and pick it up to make use of it by the hour or the day. There’s no attendant and no complications. It’s simply a service you use at your convenience.

The fact that the cars are Carbon-Free is a huge bonus. Since the idea is to travel just small distances it seems like the plugin electric idea is a great fit. I can’t wait to see something like this put into place.

The Mist

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Last week at bowling The Zone was giving away prizes for strikes in the 9th and 4th frames. We didn’t get either but figured we’d try our luck with The Zone anyway. As luck would have it they weren’t checking and we walked away with a book (Gone Baby Gone) and free movie tickets for The Mist. I had wanted to see it anyway and this was the preview showing. Great!

I haven’t read any of Stephen King writings yet, but thus far every movie has been awesome. The Mist did not disappoint. I particularly loved the ending. I will have to read the short story now though to find out if it ends the same. I have a hunch it’s at least slightly different. That being said if you like scary movies I’d recommend it.

The only thing left for me to say is “man that bitch was crazy!”

Trailer below.