I recently bought a Panasonic HD camcorder which records the videos in m2ts format. m2ts is a high definition MPEG format used in Blu-ray discs and AVCHD. After I copied the files to my desktop, when I tried to play the video using VLC, it was jerky. It wasn’t smooth at all. When I played the video using the Panasonic supplied HDWRITER software, it was smooth. After Googling, I got VLC to play the video smooth. All you have to do is, go to Tools – Preferences in VLC, select Input & Codecs option and select ALL from the drop down menu for Skip the loop filter for H.264 decoding (picture below). Save the preference and play the video. The video should be smooth and perfect. I tried this in Ubuntu 9.10, but it should work with all OSes.
Chromium project has laid out the UI concept for Chrome OS tablet. The UI is pretty similar to iPad. Here are some possibilities that might be explored:
Keyboard interaction with the screen: anchored, split, attached to focus.
Launchers as an overlay, providing touch or search as means to access web sites.
Contextual actions triggered via dwell.
Zooming UI for multiple tabs
Tabs presented along the side of the screen
Creating multiple browsers on screen using a launcher
If you want to see your Google calendar schedule when you boot and login to your desktop, here is a simple way to make your Google calendar as desktop background.
Go to your calendar, click on the the arrow next to your calendar as shown in the picture below and select calendar settings.
Go to the bottom of the settings under Calendar Details. Under Private Address, you can see 3 options, XML, ICAL & HTML. Click on HTML button. You will be presented with a link. Copy that link.
Now right click on the desktop and select Properties. Click on the Desktop tab and Click on Customize Desktop button at the bottom.
Click on the Web tab, Click the New button on the right.
Paste the link in the box and click OK. Make sure the check box is checked. Click OK again and click OK again to close the desktop property window.
You should see the calendar in the desktop. You can expand the calendar to the size you want. Point to note: You cannot add or edit calendar events through the desktop background calendar.
Mozilla Messaging team has released Thunderbird 3.0 after several months in development. Here are some new features in Thunderbird 3.0.
Tabs and Search
Thunderbird 3.0 introduces tabs that lets you load emails in separate tabs so you can quickly jump between them.
Search results open in a new tab too. You can search based on timelines, whether it’s the one from yesterday, last month, or several years ago.
Add-on Management
Thunderbird brings the Firefox add-on management to Thunderbird which lets you search and install add-on directly from add-on manager.
Account setup
It’s easier to set email accounts in Thunderbird 3.0. All you have to provide is your name, email address and password. Thunderbird will add the server information. This will work for most emails. I have tried with my GMail and Google Apps accounts and it worked fine.
If you are using Thunderbird 2.x, you can easily upgrade by going to Help – Check for updates. I upgraded mine and it’s working without any problem so far.
If you want to compose a mail in GMail, but at the same time you want to be able to refer to old emails while composing, all you have to do is hold the SHIFT key while clicking the Compose Mail link with the mouse button. It will open the compose mail in a new window. If you want to open a particular mail in a new window in GMail, hold down the Shift key while clicking the particular email. The pop up blocker might block the window the 1st time you do it, but once you add mail.google.com to the exception list, it should work fine from the next try.
Gboard is a mini keyboard specifically designed for GMail as a replacement for keyboard shortcuts. It contains 19 color coded keys in the size of numeric keypad and each key performs a particular keyboard shortcut. The keyboard can be used with other application as a normal keyboard.
The device is USB powered and required no drive (good for Linux users). You have to make sure that you have enabled keyboard shortcuts in your GMail settings to make it work. The price is also decent ($19.99).
Google has announced a competition to show your community love by creating a 3D portrait of your community and sharing it with the world through Google Earth. All you have to do is build 3D models of the buildings in your community using Google’s free tools, SketchUp and Building Maker.
Here are some notes regarding the competition.
Modeling teams may include up to six members.
Buildings can be modeled with SketchUp, a free and relatively easy-to-use 3D modeling program from Google. You use SketchUp in combination with Google Earth to give models a precise geographic location.
Buildings can also be modeled with Google Building Maker if your town is located in an area where Building Maker data is available. These models can also be edited and improved with Google SketchUp.
Each completed building model should be uploaded to a dedicated town collection on the Google 3D Warehouse.
Join our Google Competition Group to discuss ideas and issues with other modelers. It’s also a great way to find people to help you form a team.
To enter, each team must complete and submit an online entry form.
The competition submission deadline is 11:59 PM PST on March 1, 2010.
According to Google, entries will be judged on the basis of the following general criteria:
Accuracy: Your models’ scale, location and orientation must be as true-to-life as possible.
Photo-texturing: “Paint” your models with photographs of the actual buildings. Use photo-editing software to create textures that are devoid of trees, cars, people and other visual clutter.
Efficiency: Make sure your town loads quickly in Google Earth by keeping your models simple.
Detail: Create a sense of place by emphasizing things that make your town unique.
Metadata: Include plenty of text information about the buildings you upload.
Coverage: While quality is more important than quantity, model as much as you can to provide a compelling 3D experience for online visitors.
Elegance: Strive for a combination of beautiful textures, lightweight models and rich metadata.
Prizes
The winning individual/team will receive:
USD$10,000 for the town’s public school district (or international equivalent)
a visit from a Google team, along with an event in the winners’ honor
a video profile of the winning team and their town, to be featured on YouTube
a virtual tour of the winning town that will be added to the Google Earth website
international publicity in the form of blog posts, tweets and other media
Youtube has announced that it’s planning to support 1080p HD videos in full resolution starting next week. From next week onwards, Youtube’s HD mode will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p depending on the resolution of the original source. For people who had already uploaded their videos in 1080p to Youtube and were getting only 720p playback, Youtube is in the process of re-encoding those videos. so they can be watched in full 1080p resolution. That’s cool as long as your internet provider is not metering your usage.
OpenOffice.org team is going to start selling OOmouse soon. The mouse is going to be manufactured by WarMouse. The mouse will have 18 buttons, 52 commands, and a joystick which you can configure the way you want.
For example, you can use the joystick as arrow keys to move around the spreadsheet cells in Calc or Excel, then use it as a joystick to rotate 3D objects in 3D Studio Max. In Writer or other word processing programs, you can click a button once to Copy, double-click the same button to Cut, and click another button to Paste. In Adobe Reader, you can turn the page, switch between views and zoom levels, or search for text with single button clicks. In AutoCAD, you can assign a function that is nested four menus deep to a single button click. In Adobe Photoshop, you can rapidly switch between layers without ever taking your hand off the mouse or moving the pointer away from the pixels that you’re painting. Macros can be recorded and assigned to button clicks, double-clicks, joystick movements, or scroll wheel positions. You can even use it as a number pad for fast data entry, according to OOmouse.
The mouse will cost $74.99 and is compatible with Windows, Linux, Mac, PS/3, unlike the competitors. The mouse has 512k memory, can store 63 profiles and has a dimension of 110 x 68 x 43mm. For more information, visit OpenOfficemouse.com.
