* Bad, really bad cold. Fever, tendency to throw up, unable to stay awake but also unable to sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time, couldn’t breath when lying down, and heart arrhythmia (I was feeling that my heart was stop beating when falling asleep). I caught the bug from JBQ, but I really think I had a worst time than he had… He was driving to work and all, I was unable to even walk as far as the toilet.

* I am thinking of buying the DELL Mini 9 for $480 (fully spec’ed) when my 12″ Powerbook dies. I prefer it over the Acer Aspire One as it also has Bluetooth and a 3G card onboard. I guess the next big thing in these nettops are the 1280×768 resolution at 10″. The res is the main reason I prefer XP over Ubuntu. A large number of GTK+ utils just don’t fit on 600px vertically. And this is something I was shouting at the Gnome devs for years now, and they were coming back to me to say “nobody uses 800×600 anymore”. Well, too bad for you, but the latest trend is 800×480 and 1024×600 res nettops, and some of your badly designed utils don’t fit. So I am going with XP.

* [Spoiler] Ancient Egyptians will be seen on the new season of “Lost”. Man, can’t wait for February.

As you know, I try to help out people with my video tutorials. But the dumbest question that someone could ask me, and usually I am asked via email, IM or on forums, is this:
“How to export my video to get the best possible quality“.

If I was to take that question literally, the right answer would be “use a lossless codec, like Huffyuv, or uncompressed”. This would create a file that’s several GBs per minute.

But that’s not what these people want as an answer. They usually ask this question meaning how to export in a codec that it’s viewable at a reasonable bitrate, and it’s web (youtube/Vimeo), DVD, PS3/XBoX360, and PC friendly — and by retaining a good visual quality.

Problem is, there is not a single format or way that covers well all these viewing platforms. Depending what the user wants to do, different options or codecs must be used. In general though, h.264/AAC in the MP4 container, progressive, is the best way to export. In detail (assuming HD camera):

DVDs: just use the way your video editor usually exports for DVDs. On Sony Vegas for example, you export separately audio (AC3) and video (mpeg2 template), and the Sony DVD Architect app puts them back together.
Vimeo: 1280×720 at 4-5 mbps MP4. Example.
iPod/iPhone/YouTube: 640×360 at 2mbps MP4 is more than enough. Adapt tutorial above.
PS3/XBoX360: Same as Vimeo above if you own a 1080i TV, or 1920×1080 at 12 mbps if you own a 1080p TV. These devices don’t support h.264/AAC in MOV btw, but only in MP4.
PC/Mac: Like Vimeo if your computer is not very fast, or in 1080p if it is.

Of course, then there’s the problem of your video editor not supporting h.264/AAC in MP4, in which case you might want to investigate XViD AVI or WMV. No matter the codec used, just use the same bitrate/settings as discussed above.

If you don’t use an HD camera, then it gets more complicated as PAL/NTSC use different resolutions and there’s the point of 4:3 vs widescreen. Some ideas here.

So next time you want to ask me this question, always tell me four things:
1. Format that video was shot (e.g. miniDV PAL 50i, HDV NTSC PF24).
2. Aspect ratio of the said video (e.g. 4:3, widescreen).
3. Video editor or video tools owned.
4. Target viewing platform.

I am not religious at the slightest, but my brother’s family is. They were fasting during the first 15 days of August (Orthodox Christians usually fast before Christmas, Easter and leading to Mother Mary’s day). Greek Orthodox fasting disallows all blood animal products, meaning that eggs, dairy and meat from fish/birds/mammals are disallowed, but shellfish are allowed (because they have nothing that resembles red blood — obviously a convenient technicality even if the Bible mentions pork and shellfish as unclean in general). On Good Friday, olive oil is disallowed too.

As a kid I was forced to fast for Easter (usually just the week before), and I hated every minute of it (even if I loved the Easter time in general). Truth is, while my mother is an excellent cook, she has a limited repertoire when it comes to recipes and ingredients. She only wants to eat and cook the recipes passed to her by her mother. She is extremely closed-minded regarding new ingredients and tastes (I can easily picture her face of disgust when I mention mushrooms or shellfish, for example). This severely limited our tastes during the Holy Week, making it almost as unbearable (on purpose, I suppose) as the tortures Christ had to undergo for the week.

So here are some very nice recipes I have gathered that could really make the fasting time pleasant. They are all Mediterranean-inspired, and delicious, all carefully cooked by Kalofagas — a Canadian Greek cooking blogger. Some of the recipes might include some dairy elements, but these can easily be omitted without diminishing the taste of the dish.

– Mussels Saganaki With Mustard. Omit the feta cheese. Great with mushroom wild rice.
– Vegetarian pizza, with non-dairy (fasting) cheese (sold in some places in Greece). I did this twice for my brother and his wife in August. I used non-dairy hard cheese, bell peppers, chili peppers, tomatoes, olives, onions. Mushrooms are equally nice but unfortunately in my home area, Epirus, very few people trust mushrooms so I didn’t use them.
– Prawns saganaki. I cooked this last night! It was delicious. Omit cream cheese.
– Prawns Tourkolimano. Again, omit feta cheese.
– Grilled Sesame Scallops. Great when served with some pasta or fries.
– Tomato Fritters (omit the egg) and Kolokithokeftedes (again, use fasting cheese). Serve with a fasting dip, like the Macedonian Makalo (which is the Greek version of ketchup), or Hummus.
– Tagliatelle With Zucchini, Tomato and Fresh Herbs. Add some stir-fried shellfish or mushrooms to make this recipe even better.
– Potato Salad for Good Friday (no olive oil). And another potato salad too.
– Vegetable soup.
– Briam Florinis.
– Thai Green Curry With Scallops & Shrimp. Might be a bit difficult to get all the ingredients in Greece.
– Soup With Mussels and Ginger. Omit the heavy cream.
– Greek Chickpea Soup. Substitute chicken stock with vegetable stock (note: not all vegetable stocks in the market are vegetarian).
– Scallops Provencal.
– Shrimp With Capers and Dill
– Octopus and Pasta Bake
– Cuttlefish Lemonato, and Artichokes a la Polita
– Dolmades Gialantzi
– Black-Eyed Pea Salad, and Octopus With Vinegar
– Ladenia (Greek pizza)
– Kampanoules With Peppers and Basil (omit the cheese)
– Seafood Pasta
– Shrimp With Mastiha liquer
– Cuttlefish With Saffron and Potatoes
– Melitzanosalata (Eggplant Salad)
– Spanakorizo. Another local variety asks for more spinach, and some lemon too.
– Rice salad
– Shrimp Salad With Avocado and Pasta Shells
– Roasted Red Pepper Dip
– Imam Baildi
– Rice Salad
– Leonidio, Tsakones and Eggplant (replace feta cheese with tofu)
– Fassoulotavas Makedonikos
– Shrimp and Pasta

And of course, there are all the “normal” Greek fasting foods, ranging from bean soups to lentils (in this lentils recipe omit the sausage, and use olive oil), and from yemista (use some olive oil) to green beans (use some olive oil).

Today I tried Google’s new web browser, Chrome. I liked what I saw. It is fast to load, fast to render, and it’s streamlined. They pretty much pulled a new Firefox (comparing what Firefox did to Mozilla with its speed and streamlined interface). Even the Flash plugin seems to run a bit faster, as full screen 480p at Hulu.com has fewer frame drop outs than on Firefox/IE on my dated 3Ghz P4.

However, unless Google creates the equivalent of NoScript, I am not going to move away from Firefox — at least in regards to my Windows machine. Malware is so common these days, and spyware so disturbing, that I simply do not browse anymore without NoScript on Windows. This little Firefox extension disables any Javascript code from web sites that you don’t have manually authorized. While it is time consuming in the first week you use NoScript to instruct it to allow/disallow all these hundreds of web sites you usually visit, eventually it pays back with its added security.

Chrome uses Google’s anti-phishing/malware information regarding “bad” sites” in order to protect the user, but who’s going to protect you from the sites that are not marked as dangerous yet, or from sites that use spyware via third party ads and their code changes all too often for Google to track properly?

However, I must say that I don’t expect Google to create something like NoScript because the whole noise around Chrome is about their javascript engine. Adding the option that actually disables scripts by default until a user authorizes it goes against that model — in expense of my security.

After a hacking of gnomefiles yesterday, I think that was the final blow to the site — which was in decline anyway. It’s now offline (redirects to osnews), and it will probably stay that way — unless someone wants to spend days of reading logs in order to find and patch the hole. I hope the Gnome community find a way to replace it eventually. It was a good run.

Update: There’s a small chance that Gnomefies might return in a few days, but I can’t promise anything.

My late grand mother told me ~15 years ago that during the World War II she had to eat quite some “stinging nettle soup” (σούπα τσουκνίδας) to survive. Since then I’ve been meaning to learn how to cook this food, but it wasn’t up until 10 days ago when I asked a great aunt of mine (now in her mid-70s), that I learned how to cook it. Since then, I also learned that Scandinavians, Turks, Romanians, some villages in France, and native American Indians also eat nettles. I haven’t tried the recipe as it’s not the right season to harvest them, but I am transferring the recipe as told by my aunt.

So, first, you need to wait for the time that nettles grow, around February-March. You have to use some thick gloves in order to not get irritated by the nettle stinging. Harvest the nettles while young, before they have bloomed. Wash well.

On a big pan put lots of water, bring it to boil, and cook the nettles until tender. Drain the water away, and bring the nettles into a blender to make them a puree (traditionally, Greeks would use a wooden tool to “beat” the nettles until they become somewhat mashed instead of puree). Add some water on a pan, bring to a boil, and add the nettle puree.

While stirring, add some salt, tender onion greens (chopped), one garlic clove crushed, olive oil, a bit of lemon juice, and just enough of white flour to get the soup thickened. Eat warm.

As a variation, for these modern days we live in, I guess you can also use some vegetable stock instead of salt, to give it a more distinct flavor.

My mother, Barbara, is showing us how to cook macaronopita (also makaronopita), a pasta-based Epirus-Greek pie recipe. One of the best foods to take with you on picnics or trips.

Shot with a cheap Kodak V1233 digicam. The video has no editing niceties or direction, it’s just a point-and-shoot handheld video at my mother’s kitchen. HD version here.

Sony Vegas Platinum 9, released a few days ago, is the most flexible consumer video editor out there. To me, it’s the best bang for the buck editor for the $85 it costs. Sony added full customization support on its h.264 encoder now, it has full 1920×1080 read/write AVCHD support, better HDV support and more. If you are looking for a cheap editor that’s full featured and not “dumb and drop” like iMovie or Ulead, then this is the one for you.

I have two problems with Platinum 9 though:

1. The newly added “new project” wizard. I think the wizard was a good idea, but the screen where it asks you what kind of project you want (e.g. DVD, Blu-Ray etc), is the worst thing ever. I really don’t understand how Sony could make such a tragic usability and technical error. You see, it’s very easy for someone to pick the DVD option while his/her source video is HD. Problem is, when this person comes back to that project weeks or months later and wants an HD export, several elements in the timeline will not automatically adjust to the new resolution (e.g. the text frame sizes must be changed manually throughout the video if the project properties change). Let alone that most people don’t know in the first place that they must adjust the project properties before export in HD (and that can lead to massive quality loss). Heck, there’s not even a 1920×1080 option in that list! To add to that, editing in a non-native resolution/frame rate, has up to 50% speed decrease in overall performance. So what the hell was Sony thinking when introduced this wizard that asks what your target export is? Don’t they know that people export in more than one formats/targets? Don’t they know that most people don’t even use the project properties so they won’t go change them before exporting in HD? Don’t they know that performance goes down? Thankfully, for those few of us who know, there is still the “match media” icon in the project properties dialog. Moral of the story: always edit in the native properties of your video. Decide how to export at the very end. All Sony needed to do in the wizard was to launch the “match media” procedure instead of the “how do you want to export” dialog. On a mixed-format project, all it was needed was to ask the user to “match” a file that represents the dominant format of the project.

2. After enough bickering, Sony added 1920×1080 AVCHD export in the free update v9.0a (the original v9.0 didn’t support this). Unfortunately, the AVCHD “custom” export screen still doesn’t let you specify 24p even if it easily could let you do that (23.976 frame rate and progressive field order, that is). Consumer camcorders like the Panasonic SD9 support such formats. While this omission doesn’t affect everybody, there is no workaround.

If Sony fixes these two issues, I think we are looking at a near-perfect consumer editor.

A few new TV shows start this season, some of them might turn to be interesting as it seems to be a trend to have a sci-fi/fantasy elements in them, although they certainly are rehashes of older ideas we’ve seen before:

* Crusoe. A guy shipwrecked on a tropical island tries to make it back home.
* Eleventh Hour. A tech/science-type detective. Obviously a crime drama geared towards geeks.
* Fringe. An X-Files/Alias type of paranormal drama. Might make it big, might not.
* Kings. The biblical story about David, but set in our time and world.
* Knight Rider. This one is going to suck, just like its preview movie did.
* Life on Mars. Yet another detective drama, but this one has some time travel elements. Remake of a BBC drama.
* The Mentalist. Another detective story. Between “Psyche” and “Life” last year, we’ve seen it all before.
* My Own Worst Enemy. Multiple-personalities spy thriller.
* Dollhouse. Multiple-personalities spy thriller. You read that right.

* Back from Greece. Too long of an overall flight time for my taste (15 hours, 3 flights one of which had a stop).

* To everyone who is looking for a business idea: bubble-bursting touchscreen device for babies. My 8-month niece would usually throw away her normal-looking toys after 15 seconds — she quickly grew bored with them. But when I gave her the iPhone… with the iPhone she was totally surprised. She wouldn’t stop bursting bubbles with the two such iPhone bubble games I had installed in it. Especially with the one of them, where she could use more than one finger on the screen at the time, she wouldn’t stop playing! Now, that’s a toy for smart babies!

* I am thinking of growing some tomatoes on our balcony. I got jealous of the nice tomatoes I had in Greece during my stay from our vegetable garden.

* My mom prepared and cooked some kokoretsi for us. That’s most of the animal internals, well-cleaned, and tangled together. Then, roasted.

* This was the first time that I felt that I didn’t want to leave Greece after being vacating there for a few days. I was happy there.