Quickly trim videos using QuickTime

As far as media players go I have never rated QuickTime at all. It only supports a handful of file types and it’s not as fast to open like similar programs such as VLC and MPlayerX. In fact, if iTunes didn’t require it, then QuickTime would have no business at all being installed on my computer.

Fortunately it was, and it helped me out when I needed to extract a certain part of a video file for a client. I have outlined the process for doing this below and it really could not have been simpler -

The hardest part of the process would be having QuickTime open the file. Especially if it was in mkv or avi format. If the file isn’t compatible you will need to use a program like Handbrake to convert the file to MP4.

Once QuickTime is playing the file you can click on Edit, then Trim.. to start the trimming process.

Step 1: Click on Edit, then Trim

This lets you drag the yellow lines and select what part of the video you want to extract and save separately. When you’re happy with the selection click the Trim button in the lower right. It’s worth noting that this method QuickTime uses isn’t very precise. It can sometimes be difficult to get the exact part at start or stop. This problem can be overcome by trimming the finished product again or by using some AppleScript.

Step 2: Find part to extract, then click Trim

Next click File and then Export for Web. This option allows you to save a few versions of the file for different qualities and size. It is useful if you want to email a smalled sized video but upload a higher quality video to YouTube.

Step 3: Click File, then Export for Web...

Give the Trimmed version a name and click Export to have the video saved in the Where: location.

Step 4: Give the trimmed version a file name

And we’re done. If you’re in need of a way to extract part of a video and don’t want to use any other 3rd party software then QuickTime might be the tool for you. If you’re considering using it to play video file I’d recommend giving VLC (windows/mac/linux) or MPlayerX (os x) a shot instead.

On a soggy and wet Sydney night, Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor of Slow Club played a not-to-be-missed show at the GoodGod Small Club.  Hailing from Sheffield England, Slow Club are currently touring the world after the release of their second album “Paradise”.  The two-piece have stopped off in Australia to play a couple of shows before they head to America and then back to England.  ‘Paradise’ was my favourite album of 2011 and the second I heard they were playing a show in Sydney, I didn’t hesitate to book my tickets.

My boyfriend and I arrived at GoodGod just after 8:00pm.  This was the time that doors were meant to open, but punctuality has no meaning at these events.  GoodGod consists of a little bar/restaurant and a ‘small club’ at the back.  Luckily, arriving early worked out well for us as a sizable queue had grown by the time we were finally let in at 8:30pm.  It was a good turnout and the crowd were generally well behaved throughout the night, the only exception being the standard rude idiots who squeeze into spaces that don’t exist.

The venue itself was aptly named, as it was a small club.  This meant that wherever you stood, you’d probably get a good view of the stage as long as someone tall didn’t stand in front of you.  We were fairly close to the front and had a good view of everyone on stage, which was great as there was a lot of movement when Slow Club came on.  Live music sounded great in the club, which was a pleasant surprise unlike other venues where the music sounds too distorted to be enjoyed.

Slow Club were supported by two local bands – Palms and Achoo! Bless You.  Palms kicked things off at 9:00pm and played a pretty tight set of energetic indie rock.  I thought these guys were pretty good and had some catchy tunes.  Next up were Achoo! Bless You and I don’t know what else to say except they were a bunch of hippies.  Being a boy-girl folk duo, they played your typical soft acoustic pop songs with fragile and nasally vocals.  There was a lot of loud chatter during their set and you could tell the audience weren’t really paying too much attention to them.  The guy was too busy sharing his stoner stories while the girl had a glockenspiel that made no noise, though she did have ukulele!  Needless to say I was glad when they announced their last song.

We don’t care about your mop inspiration

By 10:30pm we were getting pretty sleepy and tired of standing.  However, the sight of Slow Club walking around and setting their gear up picked me right up and by the time they were ready to go, I was pretty excited.  Slow Club were absolutely brilliant and played their whole set with utter charm and amazing energy.  You could tell that they were thoroughly enjoying themselves and this passed onto the audience.  They played mostly songs from “Paradise” mixed with some from their first album, “Yeah So”, and two new songs to boot.

I’d be hard pressed to pick my favourite songs from the night because they were all so good.  Songs like “Where I’m Waking”,  “All Our Most Brilliant Friends”, and “If We’re Still Alive” were full of liveliness and fun and it was great to see the band bouncing around on stage and having a good time.  “Horses Jumping” and “Never Look Back” were beautiful and filled with emotion and “Hackney Marsh” needs to be mentioned just because of the saxophone solo (even if they did stuff up after)!  A lovely acoustic rendition of “Gold Mountain” towards the end of the night showcased their wonderful musicianship with their vocals, which sounded fantastic by the way, beautifully melding together.

Charles’ guitar sounded clear and rich the entire night and he played with so much energy that by the last song, he only had 2-3 strings left on his guitar!  Which wasn’t too surprisingly considering he was shredding it up the whole time, especially during “The Dog”.  Rebecca played with equal vigour, whether it was on guitar or drums and had some fun interactions with the audience.

Things wrapped up by midnight, but I could’ve easily stayed and listened to them play all night.  On a side note, Charles and Rebecca are a lot taller than I thought!  All in all, it was a fantastic night and Slow Club were better than I could’ve imagined.  I really hope they come back to Sydney soon.  You can bet I’ll be there!

We’re from Sheffield, England!

Slow Club Paradise on Amazon

Harry Potter The Exhibition 2012

My Tech on Things isn’t just about gadgets, gaming and operating systems. Well it was, until now. I’ve thought it a good idea to broaden the horizon a little and review an exhibition I went to see recently. If you haven’t guessed by the title it’s the Harry Potter Exhibition which is on display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia (until 18th March 2012).

If you’re a big fan of the films you might want to check out this collection of props. Sessions sell out very fast so if you’re thinking of going it would be a good idea to book ahead online. Photographs were not allowed to be taken inside the event however I managed to snap a pic of Ron’s flying car (in the second movie) whilst waiting in line to enter.

The layout of the exhibition was as follows – First we were taken inside a room with a woman and the sorting hat. She proceeded to put the talking hat on a child’s head and it would call out which house they wanted to be put in. Unfortunately no child wanted to be put in Slytherin, instead all wanted Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. We then proceeded into a more open room where we could look at the different items at our own pace.

Some of the cool props on display that spring to mind include the giant chess pieces, Hagrid’s costume (he’s really freaking huge), the Horcruxes, various wizard’s wands and the hippogriff.

It took my girlfriend and I about an hour to see everything inside. Our favourite item of the collection was Snape’s potion book from when he was a student. It contains Snape’s handwritten notes over the text and is really quite detailed! We thought there would be more to see and were a little disappointed there weren’t any scale models of Hogwarts Castle.

Another thing I thought let the exhibition down was the lack of quality in the gift shop. The scarves were made of really thin material and, like the ties, did not actually have a house logo on them. Priced at around $30 I thought I could definitely find something better on eBay. And sure enough - http://goo.gl/fV64J

It was an ok way to spend part of an afternoon however given the opportunity again I probably wouldn’t see this exhibition. There wasn’t really enough to do and the headache getting through the over crowded gift shop at the end didn’t seem worth it.

Harry Potter: Complete Collection on Amazon

OSX 10.7 – All My Files … are killing my computer

One of the new features in OS X Lion is “All My Files” which shows you a list of your most recently opened files in Finder. I didn’t really see the point but kept it there in Finder as it didn’t seem to hurt. That was until updating to 10.7.2…

Post update my computer would slow down to a crawl and Finder would crash frequently. After changing what is shown in Finder on startup from “All my Files” to my Home folder (or I guess any other folder) everything has returned to normal. To do this open Finder (if possible) and click Finder -> Preferences. In the General tab locate “New Finder windows show:” and change to another folder.

Change the "New Finder windows show:"

I hope this helps anyone with the same problem.

Sick with the Halo Flu

Tired? Fever? Sore throat and a bad cough? You could be catching it too. What started as a one off sick day back in November 2004 just after the release of Halo 2, could now be an epidemic as gamers all of the world might fake an illness to have a full day to get into Bungie’s latest Halo title: Halo: Reach.

So the question is does the newest Halo game “reach” expectations? The answer is YES. If you own a 360 and do not own this game then go out and buy it, you won’t be disappointed.

Reach Noble Team

The single player campaign is epic. Superb level design, excellent graphics, fantastic gameplay. It has the lot. Like all prior Halo games, Reach has 4 different difficulty settings to cater for all skill levels of player. This time round you can play the campaign co-operatively with up to 4 of your friends or enter the returning Firefight to take on wave after wave of Covenant troops*.

Reach combines everything great about the past Halo games and adds many extras to make it truly outstanding. The most noticeable is the abilities each player can choose from. No, this isn’t an episode of Heroes but damn it sure feels like it. Perks such as Sprint (run faster), Active Camo (invisibility), Jetpack (look Ma I can fly) and my personal favourite; Hologram (which one is the real Slim Shady??) add a much welcome extra dimension to the game.

In one level you even take control of a spaceship, bringing the fight to the stars. This reminded me of the N64 classic Rouge Squadron and is one of the funnest levels during the campaign. If Bungie released a game which was just about flying this craft all over the universe I would definitely be buying.

Piloting a spacecraft

I’m going to go as far as saying Reach is the best multiplayer first person shooter I have played on 360. Plenty of different game types to choose from, fast matchmaking, unlockables from levelling up, there is lots to do and achieve in multiplayer. Each game is recorded too so you can download and share with your friends through the file share. You can also check your stats at Bungie for a detailed overview of just how badass (or pathetic) you are.

Customizing your character has also been taken to the next level with The Armoury. Here you can use credits earned from playing single and multiplayer to buy different armour items. Although none give you any real advantage they do make your character more unique.

CBF doing a conclusion, I wanna play some more Reach right now. My Live Id is jase7777 so if you’re up for a game add me.

* Achievement whores like my friend Drez should download this Firefight custom game to quickly rack up hard to get achievements like Killionaire and earning 1 mill points in Firefight. 1 000 000 Points in 10 mins

The Legend of BJenkins

I love to win. It is for this reason that I will not play poker machines. How Sir Losealot and his band of (not so) merry gamblors can get enjoyment out of feeding a machine I will probably never understand. I mean seriously how can you win at a game which is specifically designed to take your money? Yes, it’s a scam!

The purpose of today’s post is not to gloat and boast at my own self discipline however, but to acknowledge a man (whom I have never met) by the name of Brett Jenkins. As legend has it Brett walked into the casino with $9 and left $27,000 richer. How did he do this? As the tale goes he was down to his last 50c and was playing a Queen of the Nile linked to Train Jackpot machine. Brett was playing Max Bet by 1 line when his luck turned. A feature was triggered. Then four golden heads and a Cleopatra substitute aligned perfectly on the middle line. The pay was $1,200! Not bad at all for a 25c spin. This max bet by one line style of play has from then on been known as BJenkins.

Mr Jenkins then went on to turn that $1,200 into $27,000 by pushing his luck to the limit in Blackjack and horse races, however it is the BJenkins credit management style that made him famous among pokie losers all over Australia.

After hearing the story I decided to put aside $100 for “research” purposes in a hope to replicate this extraordinary accomplishment. The plan was to put either $10 or $20 in a machine and play it BJenkins to see how often it would pay on the middle line. The results were quite surprising. Nearly one in three machines paid 5 of a kind on that middle line.

Although I never got a pay anywhere near Brett’s $1,200 effort one of my pays (5 eyes) covered the initial cost of the experiment plus more. Once getting a BJenkins pay I would take a picture with my camera phone of the achievement. Here are the 5 of a kind pays:

5 Octopuses BJenkins

5 10s BJenkins

5 10s BJenkins

5 Qs BJenkins

5 Eyes BJenkins

Sir Losealot assures me that he once got the same 5 Golden Heads on Queen of the Nile playing BJenkins in the feature also. The picture exists on a long lost microSD card and once he finds it I’ll be sure to add it here.

If you are playing the Max Credit by 1 Line a helpful hint would be to play a higher denomination machine. For example playing 25 credits by 1 line on a 1c machine pays less than playing 5 credits by 1 line on a 5c machine, even though it is the same type of machine and costing you the same amount per spin. This trick was submitted by The Smearbird.

In conclusion although playing BJenkins thus far proved a profitable success I daresay my beginners luck contributed to most of it. Whether the story of Brett Jenkins is 100% true I do not know. What I do know is if you continue to play poker machines you will lose in the end; and that definitely isn’t good.

Pokie Review Part 5

Hit The Heights

Positives: Wow what an impressive looking machine from afar. Jungle beat, Space King, Wild Ned, Wish Big…..all machines have features that involves spinnings wheels, dice and multipliers. However if your really lucky the Hit The Heights feature will randomly go off. Rockets, fireworks, Cobras, Tigers etc etc….and a sign on top of them all that says “They all go off”. I’m in a trance!!!

Lows: With all the lights, noise and excitement you’ll be distracted to the fact you’ve dropped your arse. The only thing that will “go off” is the missus when you rock up at home at 4am broke. At that point you’ll realise it should be called “Hit the Lows”.

Queen

Positives: Well i nearly forgot what a great singer and showman Freddie Mercury was. When I saw this machine I couldn’t wait to play it. It incorporated all of the hit songs, Freddy shows up randomly as a wildcard…there’s even actual footage of the band live on stage and music videos. Before you know it you have an adrenalin rush with the tunes of We are the Champions, Killer Queen and We will Rock You blaring in your head. Yes its very much a nostalgic trip down memory lane…

Negatives: If its a trip down memory lane your after may i suggest purchasing the Best Of Queen DVD…its alot cheaper! The music can really make your brain go a bit “ga ga”. Before i knew it i was very much “under pressure” and “bit the dust”.
I should also mention the Bicycle feature whereby you try to pick the winner of a bike race between Freddie and a couple of glamours. My Techs admin Jase thinks it’s actually a sexuality test. I’m just not sure if you’re a fairy from the dairy if you win the race or lose.

Releasing the Handbrake

Finding the right tool for a job is often easier said then done. Especially if the tool is a quality software program. My recent dilemma was finding a good video convertor to transform movies and videos from AVI format to a more Apple friendly format such as MP4. Yes, Apple are bastards when it comes to format restrictions (among other things) on their devices. Usually a Google search is enough to find what you’re looking for, but in my case it only produced results of commercial software with poor reviews. The next trick is to search forums (Neowin and Whirlpool are two of the best) to see what other people are using. Bingo.

Handbrake is an open source, free utility for converting a variety of popular video formats into MP4 or MKV. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and is relatively straight forward and easy to use. Select a file to convert, select a preset for the device you will be using it on, click start and wait for it to finish.

Converting video to MP4 or MKV using Handbrake

As of the current version (0.9.4) there is no iPad preset. However, Handbrake has a great community and a thread search produced this guide containing specific settings to use when converting for the iPad.

Next time you would like to transfer movies/videos in an unsupported video format to an iDevice, or just want your vids in MP4 or MKV format, look no further than Handbrake. It does the job, and it does it well.

My Tech on iPad

Is the iPad’s 15 minutes of fame almost up? In the last few weeks the only gadget on everyone’s mind has been the iPhone 4. Nonetheless the iPad isn’t that bad…but it’s missing so much that could have really made it a lot better. No doubt all part of Apple’s game plan for future generations.

When the iPad was released earlier this year I was in no rush to buy. No front or back camera, low RAM and no flash support, and this product was meant to “revolutionise” mobile computing :S. A couple of associates had imported from the US, so we were able to have a peek before it was officially released here in Australia. First thing I noticed was how easily the screen smudges. The good news is that when the screen is on you can hardly notice the greasy marks. My first impression was this is just an iPhone on steroids. Many others obviously disagreed as they were prepared to wait in queues hours long to be first to get one. Since then there has been very limited stock, especially of the 3G version.

Fast forward a couple of months and iPads have been trickling in here in Oz. I received one as a gift recently and after using it for a while I must say my opinion has changed. This thing actually has a lot of potential! I can tell because after loading up some frequently used apps, bookmarking my favourite sites and setting up my email accounts I’ve hardly used my laptop since.

I doubt I would ever read a physical book again thanks to iBooks. Save any PDF document from Safari and it’s there in iBooks ready for offline reading. Perfect for a plane or train trip. There is a variety of books in the app store, but also check out the Kindle app for an even larger selection of titles (and generally cheaper) from Amazon.com.

The iPad's screen is amazing for reading digital books

Unfortunately compared to the large amount of iPhone apps in the App Store, only a small percentage of them are iPad optimised. I’m hoping this is because the iPad is fairly new and developers are still hard at work porting their mobile apps. All iPhone/iTouch apps can run on the iPad, however most I’ve tried look horrible magnified 2x. There are exceptions such as Bejeweled, Trees of Doom and Fruit Ninja (which also has a HD version). Here is a list of iPad apps which I have installed and use often:

Team Viewer HD – Easily gain secure access to your own or a friends PC for remote help; this is the best remote desktop client app I have ever used. Free for personal use and works great with Windows and OSX.

Bloomberg – Excellent finance and share watcher. Looks amazing on the iPad plus it’s free. Watching your stocks drop in high res sort of makes up for the loss….well almost.

Dropbox – I’ve discussed Dropbox previously and it’s only natural an iPad version exists. One of the best free cloud storage solutions.

IMDB – Read up on and rate movies and television series’ using the Internet Movie Database App.

WordPress – Fantastic free app for admins whose sites use WordPress. Easily connect to write new posts or edit existing ones.

Feeddler RSS – Awesome free RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader.

Evernote – Synchronises notes across multiple platforms. I’ve stopped using the built in notes as Evernote is all that plus more.

Jumbo Calculator – Why Apple thought the iPad didn’t need a calculator I don’t know. It could be useful. Jumbo is free anyway so if you need a big ass calculator check it out.

Surprisingly a Facebook for iPad app does not exist. If you don’t want to use the iPhone version check out touch.facebook.com. This site is presented very nicely on the iPad but there is no FB Chat.

If you come across any iPad games or applications you would like to recommend please use the comment section below.

Currently running on special version of iOS 3, the iPad doesn’t yet support multitasking (unless you jailbreak). This is set to change later in the year when a new software version is released. It is definitely much needed! Some other minor OS improvements I believe would make the iPad better include being able to attach more than one file to an email and having way to connect to a printer from the Email and Safari apps.

Pokie Review Part 4

More Chilli

Positives: Gay Chihuahuas, Tobasco sauce, Chilli carts and a character who looks like ex Telstra head honcho Sol Trujillo….Mexico here we come! Get the feature, get 30 chillis and you have 4 mini screens spinning with the last 3 reels on each totally substituted. Is this just a license to print money quicker than Speedy Gonzalez?

Negatives: Most Mexicans live in poverty. You too will be living in poverty if you get hooked on this machine. It can fleece you quicker than Sol and his amigos fleeced Telstra and its shareholders. Ay Carumba!!

More Chilli - You are lucky feature

Sheer Magic 2

Positives: Heres an old classic. Fellow gamblor The Smearbird works out if you get the feature all pays with the Lantern is times 10 of your bet. That theoretically means you could get a pay big enough to warrant taking the machine home.Is it too good to be true…….

Negatives: ……..unfortunately it is. David Copperfield has nothing on this machine when it comes to making things disappear. Dont believe me? Play it and then check your wallet at the end of the night!!!

Dean Martins Wild Party

Positives: Finally a machine that provides entertainment! Get the feature and youll be reminded what a great singer Martin was. The casinos generally have this machines speakers blasting. This is to attract the attention of other patrons when you get a “Big Win”. It works. One evening after getting a $900 pay i turned around and half of China was standing behind me!!

Negatives: Dean Martin could command a hefty sum for a concert ticket in his heyday with The Ratpack….however it would be chicken feed compared to what you can lose on this black hole.
I think that there should be a Aussie version. Replace Dean Martins Wild Party with Ray Martins Subdued Conference.