There was nothing in my blogger profile for privacy's sake. However, I tried to update the "interest" with some of my current interested topics: tennis, golf, jogging, ...
When viewing the updated profile, I noticed that a hyperlink is provided for each of the keywords in my interests list. When I clicked on it, it showed a number of people that share the same interest. However, the weird thing I found out is that most of the bloggers sharing the same interest with me had their latest post either in 2004 or 2005 (It is 11/28/06 today). Am I really out of fashion or what?
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
DVD Ripper and IPOD video
Just collected a number of free tools to convert my favorite DVDs into ipod video files.
DrDivx is the tool I used to covert DVD into AVI (divx encoded) files. I also tried several other tools but none of them meet my purpose:
DVDx: This one can covert DVD to VCD format, mpeg or AVI. But somehow it is not working with the divx 6.4 codec I installed.
DVD Decrypter: Rip DVDs in file, IFO, or ISO modes. However, the size is not shrinked.
DVDshrink: Do not shrink the file enough.
The ripping process takes very long though. 4~5 hours on average for each of the 4.7G DVDs.
After getting the AVI file, Jodix is used to convert AVI files into mp4 files for importing into iTunes.
Another tool that I found useful for iTune/iPod is mp3tags. You can easily change tags for mp3 files in various ways.
DrDivx is the tool I used to covert DVD into AVI (divx encoded) files. I also tried several other tools but none of them meet my purpose:
DVDx: This one can covert DVD to VCD format, mpeg or AVI. But somehow it is not working with the divx 6.4 codec I installed.
DVD Decrypter: Rip DVDs in file, IFO, or ISO modes. However, the size is not shrinked.
DVDshrink: Do not shrink the file enough.
The ripping process takes very long though. 4~5 hours on average for each of the 4.7G DVDs.
After getting the AVI file, Jodix is used to convert AVI files into mp4 files for importing into iTunes.
Another tool that I found useful for iTune/iPod is mp3tags. You can easily change tags for mp3 files in various ways.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Switching DSL providers
Yes, I am trying to switch from Yahoo DSL to Earthlink. The reason is none other than cost. I have already had one year contract with SBC Yahoo and they increased the price to normal and refused to offer any discount for existing customers.
Ordering for earthlink is easy. Just search deals with google. They require 1-year commitment with 6-month discount and 6-month full price. On average, I save about $20 per month compared to Yahoo DSL.
Earthlink connection quality is also better than Yahoo DSL. I observed the same download throughput for their 1.5M offering as that obtained from Yahoo 3.0M service. Earthlink connection is also more stable, my Yahoo DSL breaks a lot.
One problem during switching is that I activated Earthlink on 11/1/06 and stopped Yahoo DSL on 11/6/06. When Yahoo DSL de-activated service, they also de-activated the Earthlink service. I called Earthlink customer service and was constantly directed to some tech center in India. The people there really only knows about power on/off modem, switching ends of cables, observing indicator lights etc. They are polite but nonetheless annoying. I have to explain the problem again and again before I was able to convince them to direct me to US installation team who then called SBC to check that my earthlink DSL was indeed de-actived. This was after 3 hours of call to customer service and being re-directed between the tech support and installation team a number of times.
It is great that 24/7 customer service is available, but talking with someone who can only follow trouble-shooting manual (power on/off etc) is really annoying.
Earthlink turned out to be very fast and actually did the re-provisioning within 3 days. The only problem is that none of the installation guide or cable modem default setting includes the DNS server settings. I have to call the tech service line again. Even though my DSL line green light is blinking, the tech support people actually told me that the status is still showing the line as pending and they don't know how to fix the problem. I asked them directly for DNS IP addresses without trying to convince them more that the line is already provisioned. After adding the DNS addresses, the connection works fine. This again shows why tech support that only reads from manual does not help in most cases.
Lessons learned: forget about smooth, non-break switching; just stop your old service first and then activate the new one.
Ordering for earthlink is easy. Just search deals with google. They require 1-year commitment with 6-month discount and 6-month full price. On average, I save about $20 per month compared to Yahoo DSL.
Earthlink connection quality is also better than Yahoo DSL. I observed the same download throughput for their 1.5M offering as that obtained from Yahoo 3.0M service. Earthlink connection is also more stable, my Yahoo DSL breaks a lot.
One problem during switching is that I activated Earthlink on 11/1/06 and stopped Yahoo DSL on 11/6/06. When Yahoo DSL de-activated service, they also de-activated the Earthlink service. I called Earthlink customer service and was constantly directed to some tech center in India. The people there really only knows about power on/off modem, switching ends of cables, observing indicator lights etc. They are polite but nonetheless annoying. I have to explain the problem again and again before I was able to convince them to direct me to US installation team who then called SBC to check that my earthlink DSL was indeed de-actived. This was after 3 hours of call to customer service and being re-directed between the tech support and installation team a number of times.
It is great that 24/7 customer service is available, but talking with someone who can only follow trouble-shooting manual (power on/off etc) is really annoying.
Earthlink turned out to be very fast and actually did the re-provisioning within 3 days. The only problem is that none of the installation guide or cable modem default setting includes the DNS server settings. I have to call the tech service line again. Even though my DSL line green light is blinking, the tech support people actually told me that the status is still showing the line as pending and they don't know how to fix the problem. I asked them directly for DNS IP addresses without trying to convince them more that the line is already provisioned. After adding the DNS addresses, the connection works fine. This again shows why tech support that only reads from manual does not help in most cases.
Lessons learned: forget about smooth, non-break switching; just stop your old service first and then activate the new one.
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