Paul Hartrick » Technology http://paulhartrick.com -have the courage to live your own life- Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:32:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Gundam in Tokyo http://paulhartrick.com/gundam-in-tokyo http://paulhartrick.com/gundam-in-tokyo#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:08:09 +0000 -Paul http://paulhartrick.com/?p=1179 I thought I would have been one of the last people in Tokyo to visit the 18 Meter Tall Gundam robot in Odaiba. I was also hoping that choosing a work day to visit Gundam would also pay off with less people. That was until I reached Shimbashi Station and walked over to the Yurikamome Line. Oh well I suffered the crowds and continued on to Diaba Station and found my way to the Gundam Robot.

Once at Gundam the crowds weren’t that bad, only a 5 minute wait to get to touch the 59 foot tall Robot and pleanty of room to get any angle shot you want, however it was very hot without any shade so I didn’t mess around, got my photos and headed back to the station.

For those looking for directions to Gundam in Tokyo take the JR Yamanote line to Shimbashi Station then take the Yurikamome Line to Diaba Station, get of the train, head down the stairs and walk towards the park then turn left once your near the waters edge… or just follow the crowds. Here is a google maps image and link that maybe useful.

Gandam_Location

Select image for Hyperlink

I will probably head back down this weekend and get some more photos during and after sunset to get some more dramatic shots. For now here are the daytime photos. You can see the full resolution shots at my Flickr Page.

]]> http://paulhartrick.com/gundam-in-tokyo/feed 12 Sneak Preview, Apples Latest Notebook Innovation http://paulhartrick.com/sneak-preview-apples-latest-notebook-innovation http://paulhartrick.com/sneak-preview-apples-latest-notebook-innovation#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:44:14 +0000 -Paul http://paulhartrick.com/?p=793 Just ahead of the Macworld San Francisco 2009 here is a sneak look at the latest and greatest Apple Notebook  that will take the world by storm.

I love Alex Zalban’s comment, “I’ll buy almost anything if it’s shiny and made by Apple” Apple “Fan Boi” spirit is alive and well.



With this kind of great innovation I can’t wait to get a look at the next generation iPhone or “iPhone Nano” !

]]> http://paulhartrick.com/sneak-preview-apples-latest-notebook-innovation/feed 7 Apple meets The Simpsons http://paulhartrick.com/apple-meets-the-simpsons http://paulhartrick.com/apple-meets-the-simpsons#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:37:40 +0000 -Paul http://paulhartrick.com/?p=709 Aside from the primeval instincts all men enjoy, two other personal favorites of mine, all things Apple and all things “The Simpsons”, have been compiled into an amusing Simpson’s episode.

“To start press any key. (reading screen) Where’s the “any” key? I see Esc, Catarl, and Pig Up. There doesn’t seem to be any “any” key. Wo! All this computer hacking is making me thirsty. I think I’ll order a Tab. (presses TAB key).”

]]> http://paulhartrick.com/apple-meets-the-simpsons/feed 3 iPhone Webclip Icons http://paulhartrick.com/iphone-webclip-icons http://paulhartrick.com/iphone-webclip-icons#comments Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:18:17 +0000 -Paul http://paulhartrick.com/?p=620 *Warning Geek Content*

With the advent of the iPhone populating the world I have been inspired to develop at least one application for the iPod/iPhone. Part of development process is obviously creating the graphics for the application, and in particular the Icon people will see in the AppStore and on the iPhone desktop.

As a website owner you can also create your own iPhone Icon for the iPhone desktop, so when people bookmark your website on their iPhone instead of getting a crappy scaled snapshot of the Webpage they will get the Icon of your choosing.

Here are the steps to create your own website icon for the iPhone

  • Create a 57×57 PNG
  • Name it “apple-touch-icon.png”
  • Upload the file to the root folder of your website.
  • Safari will automatically round the corners and apply the standard “glassy” overlay so it will looks like a built-in iPhone or iPod application.

Apple has more info on their iPhone Dev Center (you need a developer ID to access)

If you want more flexibility you can use a link tag in the head of the document, such as:

<head>
    <title>Paul Hartrick</title>
    <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/icon.jpg"/>
</head>
]]> http://paulhartrick.com/iphone-webclip-icons/feed 3 Encoding HD Video for Vimeo http://paulhartrick.com/encoding-hd-video-for-vimeo http://paulhartrick.com/encoding-hd-video-for-vimeo#comments Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:58:29 +0000 -Paul http://paulhartrick.com/?p=415 One of the problems with HD Video is the massive video file produced and trying to share that video with the world. For example a 5 minute 1280×786 High Definition video file is about 330 megabytes. Sure you can upload to Youtube but the quality is really bad and looks like it was taken with a video phone.

The best solution for sharing HD video is currently Vimeo which allows the HD playback. Unfortunately at the moment Vimeo doesn’t have a premium service that removes the 500meg per week upload limit. So basically I get to upload 1 HD 5 minute video from my Xacti HD800 per week or I have to re-encode my video to reduce the size, I now use the later and now I don’t kneed a premium service…

At home I use a Macbook and have settled on Final Cut Express 4 as my video producing software, it has a good mix of easy to use and enough advanced features for most.

My first attemp was screwed up because I didn’t set the Sequence Properties before starting so trash 1 hours work.

So after I made my movie and added sound tracks etc I exported the final movie with the following settings.

Make Sure the Format is MPEG-4

Set the Video Format to H.264 and Data Rate to 4000kbts/sec, this made my 5 minute video about 150 Meg, small enough for 3 videos a week…

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