Oreo Cereal

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License

To the extent possible under law, Phloating Man has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to “Oreo Cereal“.

Video Rendering (xkcd compiling remix)

I remixed one of my favorite xkcd comics that people over at /r/videography might appreciate. Here’s the original “compiling” version.

Video Tutorial – How To Download Any Streaming Video Using StreamTransport (Hulu, YouTube)

Last time, I showed you how to download videos using Google Chrome. However, that method does not work on rtmpe encrypted video streams such as the ones found on Hulu. Here’s a Windows only solution that will work on any video stream including Hulu. If you do not have Windows, please consider installing VirtualBox to install Windows within your Mac or Linux environment.

Here are written instructions on how to download any stream using StreamTransport followed by a video demonstration.

1. Download and install StreamTransport from here.
2. In StreamTransport, visit the web page that contains the streaming video you want to download.
3. Pick the highest quality video available.
4. Download the associated stream.
5. Upon completion, locate the downloaded video stream and test it out.
• If you are having trouble playing the .mp4 or .flv file, try using VLC to play it.

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License

To the extent possible under law, Phloating Man has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to “Video Tutorial – How To Download Any Streaming Video Using StreamTransport (Hulu, YouTube)“.

Video Tutorial: How To Download Almost Any Streaming Video Using Google Chrome

Edit (2012-12-04, 2:49pm): Updated instructions here.

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Here are written instructions with a video demonstration below. The demo is on a Mac, but the process is the same on Windows and Linux using Google Chrome.

1. Activate “Enable resource tracking” in Google Chrome
2. Sort the resources by size
3. Go to the web page that has the video you want to download
4. Pick the highest quality video available
5. Copy the largest resource’s request URL
6. Leave the current page
7. “Paste and Go” to the copied URL
• If the video is a .flv, it will download automatically
• If the video is a .mp4, right-click the video to “Save Video As…”
8. Check to make sure the whole video downloaded at the size you wanted
• If you are having trouble playing a .flv file, try using VLC to play it instead.

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I’ve tried a bunch of other video download solutions before. Some use a bookmarklet or plugin. Others are websites where you paste in a link, and it gives you the option to download. Some are programs you need to download and install which are not cross platform. When video websites change the way their links are formatted, then these solutions break. You have to wait for the developers to update their software. Sometimes they never do. Also, they don’t have support for lesser known video websites.

I’ve been using the standard Google Chrome browser to download almost any video from any website. It may not be a one click affair, but it has proven to be quite reliable even if the video website changes the formatting of their links. I’ve been able to download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and some other adult oriented websites. The only one that has given me trouble is Hulu. If anyone has a good Hulu downloading solution, please share in the comments. Thanks! Hulu downloading tutorial here.

Here are some good reasons to download the videos you like.

• You can create a mashup or remix of the downloaded video in a NLE.
• Sometimes videos get taken down without notice, and you’ll have a backup to mirror.
• Sometimes the audio of videos are disabled due to copyright, and you’ll still have the original version.
• You can transfer the video to a portable video player or DVD.
• I like cover songs performed by YouTube singers. With the downloaded video, I can make an mp3 of their cover and import it into my mp3 player.

Hope you found this helpful! What video download solution do you use?

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License

To the extent possible under law, Phloating Man has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to “Video Tutorial: How To Download Almost Any Streaming Video Using Google Chrome“.

Tutorial: How To Align and Resize YouTube Videos on wordpress.com

The following code yields the embedded YouTube video below.

<p class="alignleft">
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTMwwMaipSw&w=320&h=205]
</p>
<hr />

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Here’s the same video using the default YouTube embedding settings.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTMwwMaipSw]

What’s wrong with the default settings for embedded YouTube videos on wordpress.com?

1. The default alignment is automatically centered horizontally. I want mine aligned to the left.
2. The default size is 425×350 pixels which adds black borders to the top and bottom of the videos. Also, I like my embedded videos to be 320 pixels wide for people browsing on smartphones.

To modify these settings, we’ll use the HTML editor on a wordpress.com post.

Adding class="alignleft" to the <p> tag takes care of the alignment issue. Use class="alignright" if you want it to align right.

Without the <hr />, the text would flow around the video like this.

text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text

Appending &w=320&h=205 to the YouTube shortcode lets us control the width and height of the embedded YouTube video.

If I wanted a 16:9 video to be 320 pixels wide, then the height would need to be 180 pixels. YouTube’s player bar is 25 pixels tall, so the final YouTube embedded video height should be 205 pixels. You’ll need to do your own math if you want to use a different width or have a 4:3 video.

I hope this helps my fellow wordpress.com users. Also, if you know a better way, please leave a comment. Thanks!

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License

To the extent possible under law, Phloating Man has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to “Align and Resize YouTube Videos on wordpress.com“.

Pure Black Nexus One Wallpaper

I recently bought a used Nexus One phone from craigslist. It has an AMOLED screen which uses less battery when displaying black pixels. I’m a bit of a battery Nazi, so I created a pure black wallpaper.

If you’re viewing this post on a Nexus One and would like to use this black wallpaper…

1. Click here to view the wallpaper image.
2. Touch and hold on the image until a menu appears.
3. Choose “Set as wallpaper”.

Edit (1/25/11):
Per Kadin’s suggestion, if you’re viewing this post on a computer, you can use your Nexus One’s barcode scanner with this qr code to get the black background as well.

Here’s how I made the black background.

1. I googled “nexus one wallpaper resolution” to get the correct dimensions for the Nexus One wallpaper which is 960×800 pixels.
2. I used Aviary’s online image editor Phoenix to create a 960×800 image with a black background.

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License

To the extent possible under law, Phloating Man has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to “Pure Black Nexus One Wallpaper“.

A New Beginning!

This is my fourth and hopefully last blog.