OT: Technology and Geek Stuff Thread

[Topweasel]

Yes, a lot of his story lines are made into video games.

Nah he sold his name to Ubisoft so outside the books for the next like 100 years Ubisoft is allowed to attach his name without any input from him and without paying any royalties.

[Drew]

Please get some binoculars and look at Jupiter and its four major moons. All four were clearly visible last night. Tonight, only three will be clear, the fouth could still be seen, but it's creeping behind the planet.

Jupiter has been rising in the east at about 9pm EDT nightly, and getting earlier every night.

The coolest thing about Jupiter is that it's clearly a sphere and not just some point of light.

[DanO]

I'll check that out Drew if my memory doesn't fail me.

GO LIONS "10" !!!!!!!!!!

[tdbark]

Anyone here know of a good, relatively cheap program for creating DVD-player ready DVDs from AVIs and other video programs?

[LionsFanInJapan]

This is probably going to be too expensive for what you're looking for, but I use a program called TMGPEnc Authoring Works. Last year, we were getting the ultrasounds on a dvd from the doctor. Long story short, the file type on the dvd was some weird type, and this was the only program I could find that would convert it for me.

If you're only going to be doing avi files, there are probably other cheaper programs out there. Authoring Works is probably overkill anyways, but I've been happy with it. Anyways, here's the link to their products page: http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/compare.html

[tdbark]

Yeah, a bit too pricy for me... Though I might upgrade to that in the future. My budget is about $40 or less.

[LionsFanInJapan]

Hey TD,

EDIT 3: Here's a Roxio program: http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/ea...t/default.html

I've never used it, but it looks like it has everything you're looking for. Maybe someone else has experience with it or other Roxio software?

One thing I will say, stay away from avs, vso, and other free converters. I tried a few and none of them work. I'm still suspicious they are glorified malware (although I never had any problems after uninstalling them).

[Coop]

tdbark - I know of a free solution that will work. How familiar are you with transcoding?
The program is called "Super"

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

it's fairly simple to use, however you do need to know what you are doing...I've used it for converting DVD's to h.264 for watching movies on my phone, and it works well.

[LionsFanInJapan]

I saw that during my searches today Coop, but I wasn't sure enough about it to link it. Glad to know it's safe, and I hope it works for TD.

[Coop]

getting to the download link is pretty tricky as they want as many clicks on the stupid site as they can get, however it is completely safe and 100% free.

[Topweasel]

Handbrake I think can create the files then in theory most DVD players will read a Data disc with the Audio and Video folders set up correctly as a DVD-Video disc.

[Panoptes]

I had been looking at the microsoft game just for the fun of it. But after seeing the video on that one...JFC, that is amazing. Graphics and all. I just may have to get that one with all the extras.

It became available for PC/PS3/XBOX on 9/10

I'm trying to land a PS3 copy soon.

I have been a big fan of the Playstation ACE COMBAT series up until the jumped ship from a PS exclusive to XBOX with their last iteration.

I missed out on HAWX I but I do not intend to miss out on this shredding looking game.

EDIT IN AT 11:42AM PST ON 9/16/10: Just won a two day old used copy of HAWX2 off of Ebay for $25 delivered. Sniped it at the last second from a couple yahoos bidding quarters against each other in the last 2 minutes.

[Coop]

Ordered components to build my first HTPC - I have been experimenting with streaming as well and have two good Hauppauge solutions. I'm really sold on what Microsoft has done with Windows Media Center and I'll also be using ORB and WinTV to stream at home and remotely when needed. Going with a Blu Ray optical drive as well, should be a nice enhancement for my a/v system.

[Sweatpants Murphy]

Anyone heard/read about the new Samsung Galaxy Tablets that are supposed to be released for the holidays?

Seems like a waste to me. They run Android, however not all apps in the Android Market will be compatible. They will not run on 4G, so you're basically looking at an oversized Android Phone that doesn't make phone calls and has a limited number of apps on a soon to be outdated network.

[Panoptes]

You have been warned (past tense) and re-warned.....

Texting Taking a Deadly Toll on Roads
*HealthDay Reporter by Steven Reinberg, Thu Sep 23, 7:07 pm ET

THURSDAY, Sept. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Distracted driving fatalities caused by cell phone use and texting soared in the space of three years, according to new U.S. government research released Thursday.

Texting alone caused more than 16,000 deaths in car accidents from 2001 to 2007, the researchers estimated. But auto deaths involving cell phones and texting while driving rose 28 percent in just three years, from 4,572 in 2005 to 5,870 in 2008.

"The increases in distracted driving seem to be largely driven by increased use of cell phones to text," said lead researcher Fernando Wilson, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.

"Overall use of cell phones have been pretty steady, but texting volumes have increased dramatically in the last few years," he added.

Distracted driving and its deadly toll was the focus of a government summit this week in Washington, D.C., at which officials called for tougher laws to counter the growing trend. They reported that more than 5,000 people were killed last year in distracted driving crashes.

In January, the government banned truck and bus drivers who travel interstate roadways from using a handheld device to send text messages.

The latest report, published online Sept. 23 in the American Journal of Public Health, uses data from the National Center for Statistics and Analysis's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which recorded all fatalities that occurred on public roads in the United States from 1999 to 2008.

Wilson's team found that drunk drivers are less inhibited about using cell phones as they drive. And there were also increased crashes into light poles, trees and other objects, with men involved in growing numbers.

"All this is consistent with people not paying attention while they are driving," Wilson said.

Solving the problem is complex, Wilson noted. He has no ready answers, but he suggested that "we need technologies that inhibit cell phone use while driving" and that more effective law enforcement of cell phone bans would also help.

Frank Drews, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Utah, said that "this is a timely study that adds another piece to the literature on driver distraction."

Drews added: "With work like this, it will be a little bit harder to deny that cell phone use while driving has a significant negative impact on public safety. I think at this point, once again, the question comes to mind, how much more scientific evidence will politicians need to put laws in place that protect the public from the dangers associated with cell phone use while driving?"

Jennifer Smith, a board member of FocusDriven, which advocates against cell phone use while driving, put it more bluntly.

The more than 5,000 traffic deaths each year from cell phone use is "equivalent to a major airliner going down every week in this country," she said. "If that was happening, they would ground all flights until they figured out what the problem was and they solved it. But because everyone likes their cell phones, we have to debate this."

Smith noted that all cell phone use when driving -- including hands-free cell phone use -- is dangerous. "All we need to be doing in our cars is driving. No phone call is that important that you can't wait until you stop," she said.

More information

For more on distracted driving, visit the U.S. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.


*Stay off your GD cell phones while driving. I see far too many jerk offs on their precious little hand held phones yapping away every single day (at all hours) when it is already ILLEGAL in CA to use anything but a hands free unit. Their pathetic lonely lives are not worthy of my families lives in an auto accident just because they are so GD narcissitic to think that someone in the world can't live without their voice for 20 measely minutes while they are en route to their next destination.

ENOUGH ALREADY!