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My Toshiba 37Z2000 TV has a cool feature that allows me to record TV over my network to a CIFS (aka Samba) file share on my FreeNAS server. Unfortunately, however, the TV is extremely sensitive when it comes to the settings on the server. Upgrading FreeNAS to a newer version almost always broke the TV recording feature because new features & settings would be introduced. Here's a summary of what I painstakingly discovered.
Read more: Toshiba 37Z2000 TV - Sensitive CIFS Settings on FreeNAS
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There was a recent issue where the Playstation 3 Netflix app stopped working with Getflix--a service I use to watch Netflix here in Japan. Fortunately, Getflix took swift action and resolved the issue. Unfortunately, the issue was resolved for everyone except me!
I wasn't overly surprised since I have an awesomely powerful (yet complex) UTM firewall called PFSense. I targeted the settings for Squid--a proxy / cache server. My hunch paid off...here's the fix if you happen to be the 0.01% of Getflix users in the same boat as I.
Read more: Getflix - Netflix Still Not Working on PS3
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I wanted to figure out a way to quickly and easily combine an image file (jpg) and audio file (mp3) into a video file (mov) using the free media converter tool ffmpeg. This would allow me to upload my podcast episodes and songs to YouTube. After extensive googling and testing I found the combination that finally worked. And since I'm such a nice dude, I'll share it with you:
ffmpeg -loop 1 -i image-file.jpg -i audio-file.mp3 -shortest -acodec copy -f mov video-file.mov
Notes
* The above is on Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS. Other ffmpeg versions may require tweaking of command options, hence the reason this took me extensive research and testing.
* Ffmpeg accepts a very wide range of file formats, so png, aif, wav, etc. can also be used.
UPDATE
* On Ubuntu at least, ffmpeg has been replaced by the avconv command; however, the exact same command format above works with avconv. Here it is again for copy/paste convenience:avconv -loop 1 -i image-file.jpg -i audio-file.mp3 -shortest -acodec copy -f mov video-file.mov
* Here's how to install avconv:apt-get install libav-tools
* Working fine on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
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Read more: Computing in Japanese - Dealing with Mojibake
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* Click the View tab, Change View.
* Change to a List view.
* Sort the list by end date.
* Highlight old past events and delete them.
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In the hopes of reducing my monthly smartphone bill, I've been investigating the current state of VoIP and its potential to completely replace the traditional mobile phone. I made a list of just about every free calling app/service I found on the iPhone app store.
Specifically, I was looking for a VoIP service boasting these features:
* Inbound phone number, particularly a Japan phone number (e.g. 050...)
* Call recording - not a must-have, but would be nice for when I crank-call friends in the USA
Here are my snap impressions and notes I made during my research.
Read more: The Hunt for the Ultimate Free Calling App