The blog is moving to FreeBaxter.com!

Not that there are a ton of readers here…but just in case you are looking for the blog, I have moved it to a new domain (for now).

www.freebaxter.com/ryan

See you there!

Twitter gets the shaky fist!

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The TerVINator

DSC01571, originally uploaded by Yank 24.

Making the switch from disc to streaming

If you take a short stroll around the internet you will find some varied opinions about the future of home entertainment.  Some say that DVD is on its last leg, and that Blu-Ray simply doesn’t offer a compelling reason to upgrade.  Still, it seems that the general public is quite a long way from shifting entirely to download/streaming services (AppleTV, XBOX360, PS3, Netflix, etc.).  You also can’t count out the lingering consumer preference to having a physical copy of the movies and music they purchase.  These conflicting opinions and preferences make the prospect of declaring a truly dominant format to be very difficult.

I, for one, understand that preference for an original, physical copy.  When CD burning first started to go mainstream I resisted because I simply had to have that jewel case and liner notes.  If I didn’t have them I felt like my album wasn’t really an album.  But with the introduction of the iPod I realized that CD cases were nothing more than a pain in the ass.  Trying to store and organize 2,000 CDs surely contributed to the annoyance, but even a smaller amount would still have been a challenge.

Somehow I failed to learn from that mistake and decided to collect DVDs with the same obsessiveness.  This resulted in an entire closet dedicated to DVD storage of titles that were seldom watched more than once.  I also found that having such a collection often made it more difficult to make a selection when it was movie time.  I can’t count the number of times my friends would just stare, eyes glazed over, unsure of which movie to pick.  I finally broke down when I learned that my fiance would routinely select a cropped, low quality, IN DEMAND version of the same movie I already owned, just because it was easier than facing the wall of movies.

Then I visited a friend who had made the jump to AppleTV.  Initially I thought I’d never be satisfied with the ATV solution, given the reduced resolution and lack of 5 channel surround.  Much to my surprise the picture quality was great. In fact, depending on your encoding settings it can be just as good as the source.  Also, the wonderful guys at Handbrake also added support for 5 channel encoding, meaning I was ready to charge ahead.

There are some important things to consider when you are making the jump to streaming.  First of all there are some titles that can be challenging to encode.  I find that it happens most frequently with titles from Disney and Sony.  Ultimately it happens infrequently enough that I don’t mind keeping the originals in a convenient place.

Second thing to consider is the amount of time it takes to encode your video.  Depending on your computer (I’m using the latest Mac Mini) it can take as long as an hour to copy the DVD content to your drive, and somewhere from 1-2 hours for Handbrake to encode.  You also have the option of encoding directly from the DVD, but I’ve found that it’s more efficient to backup several movies to your drive and then queue up several encodes for when I’m away from the machine.

The last major challeng you will run into is storage.  At the settings I use most of my movies end up around 1.5 to 2GBs.  This means that your drive space will go quickly.  To make matters worse, if the time spent encoding represents a significant expense you will want to have your files backed up.  This means double the drives, as well as a backup strategy (weekly? monthly? where you keep the backup drives for safety).

If you aren’t entirely sold on the value of the AppleTV, you can also stream the movies through an XBOX360 or PS3, but I find the interface of the ATV much easier.  It’s also nice to easily access your music, podcasts, and other content from the ATV menu.

Anyway, I should probably also include more details about my setup.

• Mac Mini (Intel Core Duo – 2GHz – 3GB RAM)
• 2 AppleTVs (40GB each, 1 for the living room, 1 for the movie room)
• 2 MyBook 1.25 TB drives for movies (1 backing up the other)
• 2 MyBook 750GB drives for TV Shows (1 backing up the other)

This was clearly not as coherent as I expected, but I think it still gives some good background.

Technorati Profile

Word Cloud Resume

All props to Melissa (over at new2oldmedia.com) for blogging about this interesting way to showcase your resume.

I was perusing Oliver Blanchard’s “The Brand Builder” blog a little bit ago and came across a post that showed his blog as a word cloud. I’ve seen this done in the past, but what caught my eye was Oliver’s mention of David Bernardo’s Resume as a word cloud. I clicked. Yep, it was awesome, and expressed a resume in a truly unique way.

So here is mine, and surprise surprise…Community came up BIG.

To create your own, visit Wordle and give it a shot.

Economy got you down? Need some motivation?

It started a tad slow, but I lost count of the goosebumps by the end.

Apple to revolutionize the laptop

I’m still digesting the announcements from the MacWord keynote, but in the meantime thought this would be fun to share.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Which ESPN Mag commercial is the best?

Now that Marbury may be rejoining KG in Boston, it got me reminiscing about one of my all-time favorite commercials.

You may remember back when ESPN the Magazine was debuting, ESPN ran a series of commercials.  Just about all of them were pretty forgettable, but there was one that has endured as a classic.  I’d argue that it has even popularized (to some degree) the usage of “tastefully done” when describing anything that might qualify as NSFW.

No matter how many times I watch this, I’m both creeped out and amused by the look on Marbury’s face.  With that kind of charisma can you really blame the MSG intern for wanting a backseat sex romp?

But now there is another commercial that has tickled my fancy.  Sadly, I don’t think Oden is the kind of guy who will participate in the same type of Marbury style antics over the next 10 years, so the commercial won’t benefit from added awkwardness.

Unless of course we find out that he is actually 20 years older than he claims, and has a doctored birth certificate from the Dominican Republic.

Anyway, why can’t more commercials be this funny?

Getting the party started

I keep telling myself that I’ll start blogging on my own blog, and there’s no time like the present to get started.

If you are an obsessive iPod user, like me, there is a good chance that you have upgraded devices despite the fact that your existing devices work adequately.  During that updgrade you may feel the desire to migrate all of the stuff from one iPod to another, without hassling with recovering stuff back to your iTunes library.  You may be asking why you wouldn’t just copy stuff from your library directly to the new iPod, but what if you have very carefully pruned your selections over time, and never had a playlist in iTunes that reflects that pruning?

Or, maybe you just want to share some stuff with a friend (that said friend will of course delete and then purchase properly if they find it to their liking)

If these scenarios interest you, iit’s time to check out misu (http://misuapp.com/).

It makes it easier than ever to synchronize content between two iPods.

-Ryan

Blogging from the iPhone app!

Wow, could it be any easier?