Handbrake for iPod Nano (5th Gen)

Handbrake is a descent tool. Recently I was working on a project that compress a homemade DVD into my iPod Nano (5th Gen). The steps are:

1. Install the Handbrake 0.9.5
2. Get the source video file into the local disk from the DVD
3. load the source video file in Handbrake
4. Select preset - Apple - iPod
5. Change the Average Bitrate to around 1000.
6. In "Picture" tab, change the Anamorphic to Strict.
7. Start to make the video file.
8. Load the output video file to iTunes.
9. Plug the iPod Nano. (I'm always set it to manual synchronize
10. Transfer the video to the iPod.
Done


But if you did not start from the preset, then there will be possible that even you have all the codec for video and audio set correctly, the video file cannot be transferred to the iPod nano.

Lambs

Just for everyone who loves lamb:

Ticketing Broaday Broadway

One of the important reasons for me to choose NYC as my vacation
destination is to experience what the Broadway is. I've watched STOMP in Kuala Lumpur, TPTO in Shanghai, Cats in Ottawa, Aida in Beijing. but all were the tours. I really want to have a feeling of the center of Broadway.

So, this time, after spending 500 Bucks for the flight tickets, I arrived in Manhattan, the Time Sq, and the heart of Broadway!

I'm
not going to talk about the show itself. It's never enough unless
you've been to the show. Just something about purchasing the tickets.

The first night (Nov 24) was the West Side Story.
The ticket was bought on Broadway.com when I was still fighting with my
work, a week ahead. $121 for the ticket and another $36 for the service
fee. yeah, the extra 25% surcharge was totally paid to Broadway.com.
(Reasonable? and we all know part of the extra goes to Google also.) Seat is not too bad. A102 in Palace Theater.
That is the first seat to the right of middle, at the second row of
Orchestra. The only problem is, the stage of Palace Theater is higher!
I can see the face of each actors but not their feet!. Dancing is a
great part of WSS, and it was too close.

If you've been to Time
Sq. now you will see a rad-lighted stair platform at the north part of
the square. That is a very good spot for taking photos of "I've been
here". And actually it is the roof of Tkts disconnect booths.
So the second day, and after returning back from WTC site and wondering
what to do, I came to Tkts. This time I choose South Pacific, totally
unkown to me. I've got 40% off and only paid $80. The seat is not bad.
Currently the show is at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre of Lincon Center, where the New York Juilliard Music School is located.

So the third day, Nov 26, the Thanksgiving, after a busy day containing Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Empire State Building (also here), the revisit to Financial Street and harbour tour, I returned back to Tkts, and tried Avenue Q, this time. for 40% off with only $50, with also a good seating.

Not
all the broadway or off-broadway shows are listed in Tkts. But for a
tourist who just want to select any of the shows, there are still a
good selection shows with good last minute tickets. And, if you want
only buy one ticket, the the chance of good seat will be much more.

BTW, there are also a bunch of discounted online ticketing sites, I have no time ( and not network either when I was in NYC) to try it.

GFW down

Surprisingly, the GFW is down! and I can go to anywhere - Youtube, Picasa, Flickr, ...!, at least just for now.

Do not know how long it will be,

Thank the god!

Glimps of Shanghai

The Weaving Lady
Originally uploaded by littlemalt

To most of the modern Chinese, Shanghai means the villa from the time of colonial, the skyscrapers in the LuJiaZui Peninsula, the 2010 Expo, the shoppings area west of the HuangPu River.

But to me, the normal people who live in the shadowed room, along the narrowed community are more reflect the true image of the Big Shanghai.

I came across this old lady, sitting on her bamboo made chair, weaving with her needles and cotton threads. Above from her, the lights try to fall down but need to penetrate through the cloths hung outside the windows, the classic image of the low level people living in the historical city with hundread year of high and low.

Star Trek (2009)

I just could not get the mood to Star Trek, at least before having
watched the trailer for "Star Trek" (2009). Either because most of them
were too old or because the newer was too bad. And one big defect is,
why they don't have a seatbelt in those spacious seat in the bridge of
USS Enterprise? That also the reason I prefer Star Wars.

I'm not the trekkie, and I did not like Star Trek until this morning. I watched the "Star Trek" (2009).

The
trailer and teaser released earlier time gave me the impression that this would be a really cool movie. And the spending 4$ on the big screen in Beijing
UME is really a wise deal. The cast, the story, the editing, the
directing, and the effect and plus the sound/music, I must say, it is
really let me start to think about following the coming two sequels.**

7 Eleven

第一天上岗非常紧张。看出来好像是刚从学校毕业？带着一副眼镜的小男生站在银台收帐中。

前面一位顾客递给他一碗好炖，鉴于他第一天上岗，或者因为好炖里东西太多的缘故，卖好炖的人给了小男生一张清单。
“53.8”，小声说道。
“大声一点”，旁边的领班督促说
“五十三块八毛”，男孩大声重复了一遍。
顾客抽出一张半新的50，一张破旧的伍块递给他。男孩接过五十，小心地在验钞机的金属探头上前后擦拭。
“正常！”机械的女中音从机器上报告。
男孩很高兴，打开收银机下面的抽屉，把钱放了进去。同时又收过伍块，找回壹块加两个硬币，“谢谢光临”。
旁边的领班问道“怎么样？还行? 小心点啊，有事找我”，走回办公室

下一位，我，走上前，递上两盒酸奶加一块巧克力。
男孩用扫码器规正地依次扫过，检视了一眼显示器，然后回头看了看旁边——领班不在——，大声说道：“二十块八毛”
我递过去两张拾块，一张壹块。
男孩收过钱，按下几个键，抽屉弹开，然后他就木了。

我一瞅，乐了，“实收款”被他输成了“221”，看来键盘有问题。

“遭了！”他明显不知道该怎么办了。
“你找我俩毛不得了？”我随口说到。
“ 不行不行，机器打开了，你只给了21……”（然后是一堆术语我没听见）想把银屉推进去又不敢关上，想找cancel键但是又无处下手。想了几秒中，把银屉 虚掩但不推进去——保护现场——然后跑向办公室寻求技术支持。看来对我还是比较放心，旁边那么多人呢，估计我没胆儿偷钱。

我乐了，看他冷汗直冒，不如帮帮他。乐呵呵地又掏出了两张毛爷爷，“我这里有两佰”，我大声招呼他说.
男孩一见我有两佰，于是就跑了回来，非常不好意思地接过钱，然后小心地在验钞机的金属探头上前后擦拭。
“正常”，机械的女中音从机器中报告。
我说“这个还要验啊？”
“嗯，怕有假币”。男孩又把第二张钱小心地在验钞机的金属探头上前后擦拭。
“正常”，机械的女中音从机器中报告。

接下来，他又愣住了，估计在想，倒底要找我多少钱呢？两百零两毛，可打开银屉发现里面的钱不到两百啊。他四下里翻了翻，估计想凑出那两佰。
“你手里不是有两百吗？”
“噢，不好意思”，他擦了擦眉头，把两张毛爷爷又谨慎地“找”给了我，然后又拉开银屉，找出两张崭新的一毛纸币。

“什么事”，领班过来了，男孩马上和他讲述刚才的输入错误……
而我在想，还好只多揿了200，如果多揿了2000，我这今天还没钱付帐了呢，估计得打白条了。不过，至少我知道手上的这两张不是假币，否则被他报案、没收就惨了。