City Eyes Blog

Author: Kyle

  • Preparing for NC

    Getting ready for a road trip is exciting. I love running out to the store and buying all sorts of crap to eat and drink on the way treats include:

    • A delicious 24 pack of water with some of those cool crystal light packets for flavor.
    • Some random doritos flavor that I haven’t tried
    • Cheesy pooooooofs!
    • Chocolate covered cookies
    • String Cheese
    • Fruity gum (I don’t know.)

    …also it was nice to clean up my car so it looks pretty for the drive. I’ll be leaving for my first stop, Reston, VA tomorrow at 6:30 AM, so hopefully I’ll have all sorts of interesting shots of my journey or at least an entry or two from a random wireless hotspot along the way.

  • Eagle Vs. Shark

    As crafty as Cristin is, she got us (herself, me, Elise, and Andrew) tickets to see Eagle vs. Shark (a nice little movie produced by a studio in New Zealand…woah), which I’d been wanting to see for a while and it turned out to be damn good. Not only did I get some free cups (With Eagle and Shark on them), but I got to see an absolutely hilarious movie with my bestest friends. Whoo.

    To sum up the movie in a few words, Andrew put it best when he said that at first it seemed like it was going to be Napoleon Dynamite II, but it turned into something deeper, something with an actual story..and that’s just about what you should expect. Filled with all sorts of awkward hilarity, dysfunction, and some sort of odd love story, Eagle vs. Shark managed to hold that goofy Napoleon Dynamite-esque feeling while actually maintaining an interesting storyline.

    I’d go more into it, but I suck at this sort of stuff. All I can say is that if you’re a fan of Napoleon Dynamite or just about any recent Independent-type comedy, I’d really recommend it.

  • Testing Testing

    Just messing around with “ScribeFire” a Firefox extension that allows me to directly write to my blog without even touching the WordPress Admin page. Spiffy, huh? Hopefully my amount of posts will ramp up due to this because it’s a lot less of a hassle to do.

    Here’s a brief update on my life:

    • I’m working at the Northwest Indiana Times as a freelance photographer.
      Been taking pictures all over the area and it’s really great finally
      seeing my stuff published and doing what I love.
    • Getting ready to go to North Carolina with my family and Elise. An
      awesome road trip to pick up my cousin Cameron will precede this and
      hopefully I’ll have lots of fun pictures and updates from the road if I
      can get a decent wireless connection.
    • Out of school and back in the NWI region. Nice to be up here with friends. Going to Chicago a lot so hopefully I’ll shoot out some pics from my last trip when I can manage to do so.

    Powered by ScribeFire.

  • PC to PS3 Media Streaming Tutorial (Subtitles/Xvid/Divx working!)

    TVersity LogoAfter a lot of troubleshooting/experimenting, I’ve found the best method for serving files to my PS3 for myself with the help of this great little program called “TVersity” and FFDshow filters. (it’s on a pretty low end computer so it should work for everyone..)

    Here goes:

    1) Uninstall ALL codec packs/standalone codecs that you might have on your computer.
    2) Download Tversity here: http://tversity.com/download/

    –THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO GO FROM HERE–
    You can either:

    A) Install K-Lite mega codec pack and make sure ALL types of video are handled by FFDshow (you do this by clicking the little circle buttons below all of the different video and audio formats) Also make sure DirectVobSub is not installed (that one is toward the bottom of the list…I’ll tell you why you do this later).
    or, if you don’t want the bloat of K-lite
    B) Directly install FFDShow and make sure it handles ALL media formats you plan to be transcoding into your PS3 format. (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm)

    –OK back to the tutorial–

    3) In either of these instances, when it has the little check boxes at the end of the installation, check “Set up FFDSHOW Video codecs” (or something like that) In this screen make sure you click the check box next to “subtitles”.
    4) Install Tversity
    5) Start the Server
    6) Add all media folders to the library and let it process…this takes quite a long time the first time you do it.
    7) Now if you’re connected to the PS3 correctly, you should be able to find and view your video, audio, and mp3 files.

    TROUBLESHOOTING:
    – If your subtitles or xvid/divx movies don’t all properly work, shut down the server and go to Start>Run and type in “mediaserver -debug” I actually have to do this every time I start it myself because subtitles don’t work otherwise oddly enough.
    – If your PS3 isn’t recognizing your connection, go to start>control panel>network connections and under the “advanced” menu on your toolbar, scroll down to “advanced settings” Make sure the connection that your PS3 is connecting to your server computer on is at the top of that list. If it’s not, move it there.

  • Wis.dm

    I’ve been a member of this site for a while, but I just recently started it up again. Really great stuff. Basically you just type in stupid one line yes/no questions and answer/comment on others. Sometimes insightful, sometimes hilarious, sometimes just plain weird. Register and become my friend!

  • I painted myself green for The Human Giant.

    Picture explains it all. Really.

    I'm Green

  • Updates!

    I’ve updated WordPress and as such, I’ve added a few things to my blog:

    – An updated Twitter Widget will post my collective twitters of any given day as a single blog post (hope this doesn’t get too annoying!)
    – Widgets are all messy at the moment, but I’ll get them fixed when I’m a bit less lazy!
    – Hopefully look forward to more writings! I’ve been freelancing for the Times a lot so I should have plenty of stories to tell.
    – Finally, I’m stealing my neighbor’s internet right now…A huge storm swept through my hometown and blew trees, powerlines, and all sorts of communication lines all over the place. I have electricity, but my net connection is still out – chances are I won’t update too often until it’s up again!

  • I hate parking cops in general.

    Stupid parking ticketOk, flash a week back. I’m nonchalantly walking back home from my day at school, excited about the week to come which was full of relaxation and no classes…wait…what’s that….a parking ticket? But why? I have an official Bloomington parking sticker which I had to pay $15 for to park on the street in front of my own rental house…so…what gives?

    Apparently, they didn’t like the fact that I had to change my license plate. They have all of my info including my VIN which is prominently displayed on the dashboard of my car – not to mention the fact that the parking permit is permanently affixed on the inside of the back of my car – they cited me for “parking permit mismatch” which apparently is considered tampering and costs me $20. I contest it, write an explanation, and tell them that I’m a bit pissed about the situation and that I’ll be displaying my old license plate in my back window from now on.

    End of story? Not at all.

    Flash a week forward. The bastards have the audacity to give me another of the same type of ticket. My license plate is sitting happily in the back window next to the permit, yet I still get a ticket. The asses at city hall actually expect me to pay for another parking pass and I’m going to be moving back home in three days! What the hell is wrong with these people? Do they have souls? Can they take a little bit of pity on this broke college student with only a few days left in the city, or are they looking to ticket me as much as possible before I leave?

  • The Digg Cycle

    DiggOk, everyone who even pays half attention to Digg saw what happened today. Some guys in charge of the HD-DVD key screwed up and posted it, people started freaking out and digging any news available that mentioned it resulting in Digg trying to cover their asses by banning a few people and deleting a few stories.

    But this post isn’t as much about a certain event, but rather, a cycle that only the most popular of Digg trends go through (Including, but not limited to: Chuck Norris, Will it Blend, this…is…SPARTA!!):

    1. Immense popularity (3 days to a week) – anyone who uses the phrase or alludes to the event will be showered in a veritable orgy of approval, no matter the content, intelligence, or sanity of the comment. Digg submitters rush to scour the web for any mention of it and opportunists blog about it and submit.
    2. Winding down (1-2 weeks) – Every once and a while when the phrase is used in a manner that makes sense to the conversation, the comment will be dugg up. Other comments on the formerly trendy phrase/subject are ignored or buried.
    3. Total Digg Destruction (2 weeks on) – Mention of the phrase in any form results in the comment being dugg into oblivion. Other Digg users throw in some scathing replies for good measure.

    I find two things odd about the last trend. One is that the same people using it without warrant when it becomes popular on Digg are often the same that destroy the latecomers and the second is the fact that even months after a popular phrase passing, there are still people that, as if they were stuck in some sort of Digg time capsule, come out and use it.

    Just to straighten things out, I believe there are a few Digg trends that stay at position one for quite a long time. Although the last few years’ “Nintendo sucks”/”Nintendo is for kids” was boomingly popular, the success of the Wii has secured just about any positive comment about the Wii a thumbs  up.

    So am I insane or does this make sense?

  • Everyone should be using Pidgin IM.

    If you don’t know already, Pidgin is the new GAIM. AOL freaked out about the old GAIM name so they decided to cut their losses and go for a whole new name/look….and I must say it’s working wonders.

    The first public beta of Pidgin came out today and it’s beautiful. Everything just looks 100x better with this iconset and as always the program is running perfectly.

    The transition between the programs went smoothly. Even though many of the folders and files changed, all of my settings went over with the install.

    Here are a few real quick shots while I explore. The second is tiny, but give it a click for full size. I’ll be sure to note some changes when I find them:
    Pidgin IM Screenshot

    Twitter Im Screen
    Pidgin IM: http://www.pidgin.im
    Download Link: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/pidgin/pidgin-2.0.0beta7.exe