No problem. I used to do this sort of thing often with my Macs, so I may need to have my memory refreshed, but there are plenty of tools out there.

See also "MacTheRipper" which took to having its beta distributed via torrent.

Probably doesn't matter any more but Openshiiva could be helpful as well.

There are tools like Handbrake and Diva that can rip specific chapters off a DVD with no more hassle than waiting time, depending on CPU speed. Those are OSX, though.

One thing to take into account is that you're transcoding from one format that's already compressed, so you should render in the highest quality and format available, or you'll end up with crap, specially since you're going to re-process it further. Of course, the ideal solution is to ask for the original source material but that's usually just not possible/practical.

I think this one might require the specialised skills of Gil:



Any ideas why it's acting like this? Apart from the fact that it's 24 years old and I as surprised it worked at all. The power input has been stripped of it's protection, but if it were shorting I don't think I'd have got this far. The "pixels" (for want of a better word) flicker and move.

There is another image on my flickr stream that hasn't had the contrast/brightness adjusted if that helps at all.

It seems reasonably likely that the video processor and or memory in the Spectrum is b0rked. Can't really be sure, though.

quote:

Originally posted by colin:
It seems reasonably likely that the video processor and or memory in the Spectrum is b0rked. Can't really be sure, though.

Or, my Dad has modded it in some way. He was an electrical engineer who started designing computers back in the 50's.. I had many strange little attachments he made for my sprectrum, so who knows what he might have done to it. Have emailed geeky eldest brother as he is most likely to remember!

quote:

Originally posted by fuldog:
There are tools like Handbrake and Diva that can rip specific chapters off a DVD with no more hassle than waiting time, depending on CPU speed. Those are OSX, though.

You know, recent inspection of Handbrake's website reveals that they have a Windows variant too.

Also, from recent personal experience, I can say that there are some DVDs that are copy protected such that Handbrake no workey.

graphics mode b0rk3d?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum_graphic_modes

So my butt seems to have written a check I may not be able to cash.. I told my boss that I wanted to help come up with a flyer for my Wednesday night job that we could hand out. She finally sent me a few things to put ont he flyer but mostly I am on my own. I have never done this before though. Does anyboyd have experience/suggestions/ or examples I can use. I am trying to do a simple one sheet that includes following info

PORNAOKE

The Best Karaoke in the Tampa Bay Area! $2.75 Jager Shots; $6.00 Pitchers, Hot Sexy Girls!

Pegasus Lounge 10008 N 30th Street
(across from Busch Gardens) Poinsettia Plaza
Tampa, Fl 33612 -- 813-971-1679 -- www.pegasusniteclub.com

It doesn't have to be art but I was wanting to use the image of a pegasus from the website as a watermark.

Unfortunately it seems this is beyond me. Any suggestions?

quote:

Unfortunately it seems this is beyond me. Any suggestions?

outsource to one of the nice folks with Photoshop in the Draw Something Now thread.....

Let's talk media centers :

I have a computer in my living room, plugged to the TV.
I also have an XBox, a PS2 and a PS3.

I have another computer in a different room, where all my media files are stored.

I want to be able to use a single system to play my mp3s, videos and DVDs (any region) on my TV.

So far, I've happily been doing all this from my living room's computer, using windows XP, in combination with an ATI Remote Wonder controller, so I can control the computer from my sofa.

I'm thinking of finding a better system to do all this.
So, I deleted XP and installed GeexBox.
It works like a charm : it's more convenient than XP. A lot fancier and faster. But for now, it does not handle DVD menus.

So I installed Linux MCE. Then I realized it had nothing to do with what I wanted.

I plan on trying MythTV (via Mythbuntu).
Knowing full well I don't want to use any of the TV features.

If that doesn't satisfy me, I'll reinstall XP, and try Media Portal, which I had forgotten all about.

In the meantime, I'm using GeexBox, because I love it, and as soon as it can handle DVD menus, it will be the ultimate weapon.
(but when? ah, that is the question)


Who has experience with that topic?
Any experiences to share?

1. You could presumably have (albeit a bit more cumbersomely) lef XP in place and booted GeexBox from the CD each time, saving some settings to the HDD. Might be an option for the future.

2. I adore their distribution names, which are in the same league as Iain M Banks' ship names: 'GeexBox 1.1 - Not a substitute for human interaction'.

3. I have no experience, but thanx for sharing. If I ever get a real intawrweb connection back I'll be trying it out.

I use this as my media client.

A warning, it requires a hefty hardware model, should your Media Server have 250K+ files. I had to go to 8GB RAM to solve that issue.

quote:

1. You could presumably have (albeit a bit more cumbersomely) lef XP in place and booted GeexBox from the CD each time, saving some settings to the HDD. Might be an option for the future.

Short answer : No.

Linux MCE nuked my existing partition.
It didn't leave me any choice.
And it crashed straight away on first boot.

I installed Mythbuntu this morning : it's working, but seems to be too tv-oriented.

I have not found how to access my samba shares yet.

Anyone know a good freeware/shareware/trial image editing app for the Mac? Gotta do some web development stuff at work today, and it would be handy to have something on the lappie anyway. Haven't played with iPhoto enough to know whether it will let me do the things I need to do, like edit jpgs.

What kind of editing, Bravus? iPhoto lets you resize, crop, and adjust levels pretty easily, I've found, and it has a sweet little thing to let you square away your tipped pics (mine are often a little off level).

It's no substitute for Photoshop though.

I need to edit a photo into a larger header graphic for a website, so it's a bit more than just editing an existing photo. It might be possible to beat it around to make it work, but another solution would be easier/nicer. I see The Gimp is available for Mac, so that's one possibility, but I find it a bit clunky. I have used Photoshop in the past but my day-to-day choice is Paintshop Pro.

Photoshop Elephants might be doable.

You can download 30-day trial Photoshop itself if you haven't already at http://adobe.com/photoshop.

There's also a GIMP variant for OS X. There's Graphic Converter which is relatively cheap shareware. And I think I've heard decent things about PixelMator, IIRC but you should research that one more.

Also, you might check out ArtRage if you have access to a tablet.

EDIT: Aha, given what you're up to, I think I would start by checking out Graphic Converter.

Elements is all I've ever used for that sort of thing.

Weird, they've disabled trials of Elements until July 1 o_O