Ever try to watch a YouTube video where someone said, "Skip for to the 5:20 mark to see..."? Yeah, that first 5:19 usually blows great big gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts. Anyway, here's something that will make the viewing a lot less painful: Splicd. Check out this description from Lifehacker:

Web site Splicd creates custom links to embedded YouTube videos that start and stop at any time you define, allowing you to skip straight to the good part and avoid the rest. Let's say, for example, you've stumbled onto a gem on YouTube but had to suffer through 10 minutes of complete boredom to get there. You want to share the video with a friend, but you don't want her to have to sit through the whole mess for 20 seconds of pure gold. Just paste the URL of the video into Splicd, give it your desired start and end time, and it generates a custom link that starts and stops the video where you told it to (like this one).

Pretty cool stuff.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 08:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As good as computer games are today, I sometimes feel a twinge of nostalgia over games that I played long ago (the 1980s and 1990s). My current computer thumbs its electronic nose at these games, and will not allow me to play them. At least, it didn't allow me to play them. I give you DosBox, a DOS emulator which will play some/most/a lot of old DOS style games. You can find lots of games to download here.

Here's how you setup and install DosBox, including how to run your old games.

One thing that I'm not entirely clear on is whether or not I can install my old games via DosBox. I'll give it a try and report back to you. Feel free to try it yourself and let me know.

Yeah, that last part was a nudgenudge-winkwink sort of a hint.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:33 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Yes you can install from DOS Box... I am a huge fan of this thingy myself. I've been able to play all my old games (Sierra, LucasArts, etc)... my fave is still Space Quest (I,II,III,IV,V and 6)

Posted by: KK at September 23, 2008 09:49 AM (mzTFh)

2 Excellent news. I'm a big fan of Roger Wilco,galactic janitor, myself. Also, I prefer the old DOS version of Hero's Quest I & II(renamed as Quest For Glory due to some copyright claims by Milton Bradley). I happen to still have those floppies lying around. I look forward to playing those games again for the first time.

Posted by: physics geek at September 23, 2008 10:50 AM (MT22W)

3 I'm stuck in Quest for Glory I, and I refuse to read the walkthroughs

Posted by: KKnocheinmal at September 23, 2008 05:47 PM (K94Ij)

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I don't actually own and iPod, but a friend of mine asked me last week how to go about converting DVDs that she owns into video viewable on her itty bitty screen. There are several methods that I'm aware of; here are a few:

• Use DVD Decrypter and Videora iPod Converter. Note: While I use DVD43 a lot, I'm not certain that its' entirely necessary for this to work, as DVD Decrypter does a fine job removing the protection from commercial DVDs. Also, I don't own an iPod and am therefore unfamiliar with Videora. However, here's one site for you to download from.
  
• Use DVDx, Xilisoft and iTunes 6.0. This article is several years old. For all I know, iTunes 60.0 is available for download.
  
• Use Handbrake (Mac OS only): Okay, there is a version of Handbrake for Windows available, but it shat itself rather spectacularly on my laptop, which means that I won't recommend it. For Mac people though, it might be your best bet.
  

And there you have it.

This political season, while quite entertaining, is starting to bore me. It's become so predictable on both sides of the political aisle that I can make more accurate predictions than Nostradamus. Except for this year's winner, of course, because I have no freaking idea. Anyway, I'd much rather post entries about geeky computer stuff, beer and stale jokes In fact, I plan to get back to my Brewing Beer series, which I left woefully incomplete.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 03:14 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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