Compressing digital camera videos

I love making videos on my digital camera. I know it is not ideal, but it is much more convenient because most of the time, I am taking pictures. It is much more easier to change it to the video mode rather than dragging the big camcorder along all the time. Another reason is that it is much easier to transfer the videos from digital camera to the computer.
However, most of digital cameras create huge-sized videos because they do not use compression at all. They use MJPEG format for the video. So, even a 3 minute video could end up using 450 MB of space, which is ridiculous.
So, I need to convert these videos to much smaller sizes while still maintaining the same quality. That means, I need to use compression formats like XviD, DivX, x264, etc.
The tool which I have been using is WinFF (Graphical User Interface for FFMPEG, which is a free/open source video convertor). I have been using it on Linux (Ubuntu), but they have Windows versions as well. It is free and easy to use. I am pretty sure there are other tools out there as well, but I could not find a decent one for Ubuntu.
It is pretty straightforward. You can either use the default options, or specify your own bitrate. For the most home videos (non-HD), a video bitrate of 500 should more than suffice. You might want to experiment a bit to find your right balance, but 500 should server as a good starting point.

Improving Firefox startup speed

Starting firefox used to take longer than Chrome and Opera on my laptop. However, after making some changes, the startup speed of firefox has improved dramatically. Here's what I did:

• Looked at the list of installed extensions, and disabled the ones that I am not actively using. I did not really uninstall them because I use them pretty rarely (every few months), and would not want to hunt for them again. It is much easier to re-enable them.

Path: Tools -> AddOns -> Extensions -> Disable

• Unchecked the option 'Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser'.

Path: Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Last checkbox on the 'General' tab.

• Unchecked all the options to automatically check for updates. From what I can tell, this had the highest impact on the startup time.

Path: Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Update tab.

Note: If using linux, your options will be in Edit -> Preferences.

Ubuntu: Annoying password prompt to unlock default keyring

I have my desktops and laptops (running Ubuntu) set to timed auto-logins. However, as soon as I did it, I found that soon after logging me in, Ubuntu would ask me for the password to unlock the default keyring. For laptops, it would say network-manager wants the key. For desktops, it would say evolution (I have google calendar synced to evolution).
I tried a lot of things after reading Ubuntu forums, but the only thing that worked finally was to delete the unlock password:

1. Choose Applications --> Accessories --> Passwords and Encryption Keys.
2. In the application, chose Edit --> Preferences
3. Highlight the 'login' text in the main box, and choose 'Change Unlock Password'.
4. Enter your normal login password for current password. Leave the new password fields blank.
5. Click 'Change'. Click 'Accept' on the message box saying that having no passwords is insecure.

Ubuntu shutdown problem - CIFS VFS related

For the past few weeks, my laptop (running Ubuntu) would not shut down completely. It would say "CIFS VFS: Server not available". It was pretty annoying, but I thought it was a random message, and might go away with one of the updates. However, it turns out that the problem was due to the conflict in the order of shutting down of the network manager and samba shares. Samba shares need to be unmounted before network manager is shutdown for obvious reasons. Here's a blog entry with a more detailed solution:
http://blog.avirtualhome.com/2008/03/10/ubuntu-shutdown-problem-cifs-related/

* Update *
This solution stopped working once I upgraded to Jaunty (9.04). Here's the solution which works now:

• Edit /etc/gdm/PostSession/Default (using sudo)
• For each Samba mount, add this line to the top: umount to the top (right after the line: #!/bin/sh.

I read this from this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=288534, which says that just adding /etc/init.d/umountnfs.sh should work, but it did not work for me. Adding individual umounts did.

Apple's Cool New Devices

I highly doubt it, but if you have not already heard about the latest Apple products, here are the links to iPhone and Apple TV.
Apple TV seems to be okay, as most of the functionality that it offers is already available by one way or another (Media center laptop and other products). Of course, it is way cooler with its sleek appearance, small footprint, and a tiny (and cute) remote :-). Right now, it is priced at $299, which seems pretty appropriate to me (compared to the prices of the LCD TVs, home theater systems, and other home entertainment stuff).
However, iPhone is truly revolutionary. Apple has really put in a lot of effort. As always, Apple has thought out of the box, and kept each and every comfort of the user in the mind. NO BUTTONS ON A PHONE! Yeah, that will qualify as revolutionary :-). The whole phone is just a LCD screen, and is the slimmest phone to date (yeah, even slimmer than Razr). Among many other cool new functionalities (it has supposedly 200+ patents), it can detect when you rotate the phone from portrait to landscape mode. It also detects when you are moving the phone close to your ear so that it can make the LCD insensitive. They have even put Google Maps over there! I can just go on and on.
I have read some people questioning if the price tag of $499 is too high. I don't think so. There are already phones out there which are pretty close in price, but nowhere close to functionality. And, with time, I am sure Cingular (participating network) will provide more rebates to bring the price down and entice new customers.
The only thing I am curious about is what Apple has in mind about handling the lawsuit from Linksys as they already have a phone out there by the name of iPhone, and have already sued Apple.

Using Skype to make international calls (using your existing phone)

For the past few months, I have been using AU-600 to place and receive international calls through Skype. It is a USB device about the size of a deck of cards. The USB cable, of course, plugs into your PC running the Skype. Apart from that, it has two telephone (RJ11) jacks. The first one takes the telephone cable coming from the wall, and the second one goes out to your telephone.
With this setup, whenever somebody calls you on Skype, the installed software hijacks the call, and rings your phone instead. You can also initiate Skype calls from your phone using some prefixes (default is ##).
Other useful features include call forwarding (for example, to your cellphone), conference call, among others. I have been using it for around 3 months, and have been very happy with it. I have installed it on both ends (caller and callee). It frees you up from the PC (as long as you have a cordless phone, but who doesn't).
The only factor for some people might be that you have to have your PC on all the time. This was not a problem for me, as one of them is on all the time anyway.

Free flash slideshow for your website

If you are looking for a cool, free flash slideshow player for your website, check out Simpleviewer. As suggested by the name, it is pretty simple :-).

Some nifty features include:

• Automatic resize according to the browser window size.
• It automatically starts downloading all the pictures in a particular gallery (folder) in the background. So, if the picture size is bigger, and your speed is low, it helps you to have a smoother experience, instead of waiting for each picture to load after clicking on the thumbnail.
• Control over the thumbnail strip (number of rows and columns).
• Backcolor, forecolor control.
• Easy gallery (xml) generation from Picasa.

Missing features:

• There is no auto advance feature (or slideshow). So, you have to click on each picture manually.
• No option to download the picture by right-clicking. You do, however, get an option to open the image in a new tab or window.
  

If you do not anticipate the total size of your albums to grow beyond 250 MB, I would suggest using Picasa web albums for hosting your images.
There are other free Flash albums available as well, but they all seemed to be lacking some features, although they looked cooler in whatever they did (For example, Slooz).

Airfare predictions?

Another airfares-related website referred to my by one of friends is Farecast. As indicated by the domain name, this website predicts the trend of the airfares between important US airports (it says 75+ cities right now) for the next few weeks. They also allow you to search for fares, but I would suggesting using Kayak or Sidestep for that purpose. I would suggest starting from Farecast to help you decide when to buy, that is, if you are fortunate enough to be flying from one of their listed airports. After deciding the time, use Kayak or Sidestep to search for the right website to buy from.
I did not find this information in their FAQ section, but I am guessing they are using historical data to predict the airfares.
I have not yet had a chance to use it. So, I am not sure of how reliable this really is, but check it out anyway if you get a chance, and let others know if it is any good.

Searching for lower airfares

For over a year, I have been using Kayak to search for airfares online. It is a really great tool, and you will never need to visit multiple travel sites (travelocity, orbitz, expedia, etc.). It is a one-stop place which will actually go and visit all of these and lots of other sites, and give you the lowest fares out of all of these. I found out about this site while I was watching CNN (they have a news section related to airfares).
Kayak has a really simple interface, and is super-easy to use. I love the way how you can use a slider to change your departure and arrival time ranges. Another nice feature is how they completion-match (guess) your airport while you are typing (Take a hint Orbitz :-)).
A friend of mine told me about another website which is based on the same concept: Sidestep. Sidestep and Kayak are pretty similar. Historically, they have given me the same results. I like Kayak because it has a slider for times, while Sidestep has a slider for price instead. Kayak also lets you see the flight details in a popup (that javascript type in-line popup), while in Sidestep, you have to click on a link to see the details. Then you need to go back to look at other options. Which one you end up using, in my opinion, depends on your personal preference. My friend still likes Sidestep better, and I still prefer Kayak.