YouTube Video Settings

I was uploading a video to YouTube and got a message that my video might have video/audio sync problems. At the link below it said, “MOV/MP4 files exported from programs such as iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and QuickTime Pro have certain elements that are not handled well by YouTube transcoding.”
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1297408

I originally was going from a DVD to the hard drive and had Handbrake code the file into an MP4 file. That file was still fairly large so I opened it in QuickTime Pro and use the “Export for Web” option and chose the “Desktop” option. I ended up with a file which was .36 Gb. Large, but not gigantic.

I then followed the instructions on the page above. I ended up with a file that was 3.57 Gb – ten times the size of my smaller video. You might think that the video quality was ten times better, but to my eye it looks the same.

I also checked my video on YouTube and I did not appear to have any sync issues.  The lesson learned is try the smaller size option first and if that looks ok then you won’t have to try a higher quality setting.

Reading a Kindle ebook on a Computer

I recently was looking for a book on Amazon and was amazed that it was only available in Kindle format. Since it only cost $3.59 I thought I’d give it a try.

You first have to download the app.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771#

Then run it and sign-in with your Amazon email and password.

When I went to search for my book in the Kindle search function,
“How to Reduce Everyday Pain and Inflammation in Your Body”, it couldn’t find it.
I can certainly find it in the Amazon regular store, but not in the Kindle store. I decided to take a chance and pay for it and hope it would show up in my reader – luckily it did.

Here’s what the library looks like and below is how the book looks on my screen.

You can change the look to full screen and it also allows you to change the brightness, font size and color background. All together I’m impressed. This works great for me.

Note – that if you’re a Prime member you could get this for free, but it does cost $79/year.

Cool Clock – Alarm Clock for Chrome

Veronica Belmont recently recommended an alarm clock program, but which you need to install on your computer. I did a little searching an found an extension I can add to Chrome which seems to offer the same basic functionality.

It’s called Cool Clock2.1 – add it as an extension and it hides up in the top right of your tool bar. Click on the icon, then the Alarm icon to set an alarm. When you open “Organize” it will show you all your alarms. Now – as long as you have your browser open, the alarms will work.

Another nice option is that if you need to be reminded every hour or so to get up and move around, you can set the hourly alarm with a song you like. Here’s how.
If you open up the Options under the
Wrench – Options – Extension - Then under Cool Clock – choose Options.
Then click “enable hourly timed announcement sound” and choose the audio you would like played.

Printing Trick with Google Chrome

What is baffling is that sometimes when I print, Ctrl P, Chrome hides a secondary popup screen underneath my main screen. I only know it’s there because I see a secondary Print- Google Chrome message on my Taskbar. That the screen which allows me to print what I am seeing.

One feature I’m missing is the ability to “shrink the page to fit” on one page. A lot of pages I set to shrink about 70% in Firefox, but don’t see that capability in Chrome. I have found that if I use the Ctrl and Mouse scroll wheel I can reduce the size of the type on the screen and when I go to print that it reduces the text size on the paper.

You will probably have to “allow” popups for this to work.
Wrench – Options – Under the Hood – Content Settings -
Pop-ups – Allow all sites to show pop-ups.
Note - you can disallow all pop-ups, but then you have to look for a small box with a red X on it – this indicates that a popup has been blocked.
If you click on this you can say if you want this particular site  to be allowed pop-ups.

Moving from AT&T U-verse to Charter and Magic Jack

I’ve got a friend who is paying $88/month to AT&T U-verse for slow internet and phone service. He wanted to reduce his bill and so we tried this solution.

Charter has a new $20/month internet promotion, so we called and signed up for it. They also charge you $50 for installation and $17/mo for a cable modem and router. We decided to buy our own modem and router for about $150 total and save the monthly charges. When we were done with the installation we tested the connection and were getting 41 Mbps download and 3Mbps upload – FANTASTIC. He was used to a 3 Mbps download with AT&T.

To get phone service we decided to try Magic Jack Plus. It costs $69 at Walmart and includes one year of service – after that it is $30/year. Make sure you get the Plus version as this allows you to connect it to your router directly and don’t need your computer to be on.

The installation is fairly straight-forward if you follow the instructions. They will try and sell you numerous add-ons – just stay no – be careful what you click on.

This will get you a new phone number. If you want to transfer over your old phone number to Magic Jack you can do that also for a fee of $20. They offer you that in the initial setup, but we declined since we wanted to make sure Magic Jack was working in the first place.

To transfer your number go to My.MagicJack.com and Click the “My Subscriptions” tab, and then the “Details” button under “Transfer Your Phone Number to magicJack”. Follow the prompts to submit your transfer request.

My friend received an email from Magic Jack saying that it might take up to ten days to do the transfer, but I tested the phone number about 36 hours later and the phone number had been transferred. For some reason though the phone did not seem to be ringing, although I could leave a message. – My friend later got an email that said she had to unplug her Magic Jack and plug it back in for the phone to work. Now the phone is working correctly.

My friend now has reduced his yearly bill from $88/month to $23/month – quite a savings. Do keep in mind that you will need an initial investment of $290 for the router, modem and Magic Jack Plus, porting your old phone number over, and cable installation.

Also keep in mind that in twelve months, you’ll have to call Charter up and bargain with them for their best rate.

Note – one thing we noticed is that AT&T seemed to be using Charters cable for AT&T’s service. When we hooked up Charter, then we lost the AT&T service.

Making Your Own Coloring Books

One of the interestings things you can do in Photoshop is create your own coloring book for your kids or grand-kids. This is a picture I took and turned it into a coloring page. Here’s how the process works.

After opening the file, go to:

Filter – Sketch – Photocopy.
You can the experiment with the Detail and Darkness to adjust the picture.

You can also change the picture into a cartoon – here’s the process.

http://www.howtogeek.com/102351/how-to-make-photoshop-cartoons-in-about-one-minute/

 

Hiding the Taskbar

 

While I normally don’t care if the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen is showing, sometimes it’s a bit of a distraction. I was watching a Hulu video and even in Full Screen mode, the Taskbar would always show up.

To get rid of it, go to the Control Panel.
Choose Appearance and Personalization.
Choose Taskbar  and Start menu.
Then under the Taskbar tab click on the  Auto-hide the taskbar.
Then click Apply.

Now the Taskbar will disappear until you move your mouse down by that area and it will magically appear.

Note – I also like to “Lock the Taskbar” so that you don’t accidentally move it.

Google Chrome – Tips and Tricks

I’m starting to use Google Chrome a bit more these days, but find that it has certain eccentricities. Below are the tips and tricks that I have learned.

Printing
I miss the stand Windows FILE – Print interface. Now I have to hit Control P or click on the wrench menu to print. I have found a “Print” extension which puts a printer icon up on the screen.

What is somewhat baffling sometimes is that sometimes when I print, Ctrl P, it hides a secondary popup screen underneath my main screen. I only know it’s there because I see a secondary Print- Google Chrome message on my Taskbar. That the screen which allows me to print what I am seeing.

One feature I’m missing is the ability to “shrink the page to fit” on one page. A lot of pages I set to shrink about 70% in Firefox, but don’t see that capability in Chrome. I have found that if I use the Ctrl and Mouse scroll wheel I can reduce the size of the type on the screen and when I go to print that it reduces the text size on the paper.

You will probably have to “allow” popups for this to work.
Wrench – Options – Under the Hood – Content Settings -
Pop-ups – Allow all sites to show pop-ups.
Note – there should be a way to do this with the manage exceptions, but you would thing Google Print would be smart enough to allow its own pop-ups.

Saving

When you save a file or download a file from google docs, it automatically puts the file in your Downloads folder. If you want to speicify exactly where the file should go, do this.
- Click on the wrench icon – top right
- Options
- Under the hood
- Click on the box – “Ask where to save each file before downloading”

Yahoo Calendar – Screw Me Twice – Shame Shame on You

Last year about this time Yahoo Calendar came up with a “New and Improved” calendar. Unfortunately in the process of transferring all my events over, they got all the times messed up. I had to go in and manually fix the time on every event for 2011.

One year later, Yahoo Calendar is down and won’t come up on any of my computers. I had an idea though – I know that my iTouch is synced with my Yahoo calendar and wondered if somehow their servers/computers still had the correct dates?

I tested this theory out and was rewarded with the dates and times for all my 2012 events. I quickly typed down all the dates before the Apple computers were somehow thrown into disarray also.

What this has taught me is, “Don’t Trust Yahoo Calendar.”

What to do?
I’ve resorted to a text based calendar that I kept for years. While I do use the computer to type in the data, I can print it out and save it as a file and have a backup.

If you’d like my 2012 Calendar you can download it here-2012-calendar

I use the first column for reoccurring events and the 2nd column for one time events.

Note – I now keep this calendar in my Google docs and share it with my wife. Now we both have access to our calendar anywhere in the world, but I still do keep a printed copy.

 

What Is That ********* Password?

Every once in a while I run into a situation where I have setup a password to be entered automatically. When that happens, I get a series of asterisks ***********, where my password is entered.

If I want to know that password or check on what I think it is, it’s not easy to do, but I’ve found a solution which works.

SnadBoy’s Revelation 2.0.1.100

After installing the program, you run it and then when you get to the point in a program where you have all those asterisks, you go over to the Revelation program, drag the circle over to the asterisks and it will show you the password.