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iDentify

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iDentify LogoTime was, my media library was populated with lots of files with inconsistent titles, and worse, TV episodes like “Showname_S01E05.mp4”. This is great if you know “episode name -> episode number”, but that usually required me to get online, and look that info up. Worse, DVD’s don’t necessarily have episodes in the same order they were aired (like, Firefly’s DVDs). The thing is, my media collection is rather large, and I REALLY didn’t want to go through and name all the episodes by hand. And it really came to a head when I bought my new AppleTV (Gen 2). So, I did some searching online, and found the answer in a software product called iDentify, by Justin Pulsipher.

One word comes to mind: genius! I could suddenly drop all my TV shows, and movies into the program, and it would look up the title, and cover art online, and rename the file using variables that I set (in my case, “Showname – SxxExx – Episode Title.m4v”. And if you/I wanted, it’d then add them to my iTunes library. It does this all extremely well, and the new version adds a few other nice touches. It adds the ability to name episodes in aired or DVD order (see Firefly comment above), and the ability (thought I haven’t tested it yet) to name files based on DVD numbering. So, using the default Handbrake naming scheme for TV series encodes, iDentify should be able to chew through those and name them appropriately.

My only complaint, and I thought it was something with iDentify, but in fact it’s an Apple issue, is you can’t have colon’s in the filename. I thought that Apple had removed this restriction, but it appears this is not the case. iDentify replaces colon’s with two asterisks. I think I’d prefer just omitting the offending character, but I’d guess there are reasons for not.

The app is extremely easy to use, and with the latest feature improvements (like being able to say which service to use for TV show lookups (I’ve had very mixed results with tagChimp, but TVDB works very well)) it’s a rock solid app. Is it worth the $9.95 that is charged for the file naming feature? Absolutely! Some people have called it crippleware, but that’s a joke. The app works great in it’s free version, it just doesn’t do renaming, which is largely what I wanted. I gladly paid the $9.95, and it is probably worth more than that.

My only real complaint, is the name. Unfortunately, the name is also a commonly used english word (that says what it does). Googling for the app name can be rather difficult because of that. The author is trying to get the app into the Mac App Store, and when that happens, I’d imagine he’ll see a significant boost in sales due to exposure.

If you have a media library (of mp4’s) that you’ve ripped from your DVD collection, and haven’t already named, or filled in metadata info for, I’d highly recommend the application. Download it, use it, love it.

[xrr rating=5/5]

Buckyballs

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BuckyballsA short review this time, as there are many a review online about Buckyballs ((Notice the lack of camelCase. The website for Buckballs lists them with no camelCase, as does the shipping box, however the storage box for said magnets has it capitalized “BuckyBalls”. This might be something they should address.)) but since I just got some from ThinkGeek with some geek points I’ve been building up for a while, and I’ve been spending a good amount of time playing with them for the last few days, I thought I might write a review.

For those that don’t know, Buckyballs are small (5mm) spherical neodymium (N35) magnets. The standard set is plated in chrome, while they also have ones plated in silver, gold, and black nickel (which I’d guess you’d want to avoid should you have a nickel allergy). They’re listed as a desk toy, and all and all, that’s probably a good description, though I think bringing them to work might make actual “work” difficult as they can be a serious time suck. I’ve spent hours playing with them at work… though thankfully not all in a row.

So are they worth it? I’d say yes. $30 is a bit high for something like this, but they are a lot of fun. And whether you get Buckyballs, Zen Magnets, or any of the other brands there are, they’re all basically the same idea. Though it seems Buckyballs are the only ones that have the 4 different finishes.

All and all, the only problem being price, but I’m guessing that’s a function of Neodymium costs, and manufacturing, rather than any huge profits Zoomdoggle is making.

[xrr rating=4.5/5]

UPDATE (10/27/2011): I purchased a 3 pack of colored Buckyballs from Woot.com a few months back, and after playing with them for a while, I can unequivocally say, they suck. The color is just a very thin coating of paint over normal buckyballs which wears off (even when they were new you could see blemishes in the coating), and the tolerance on the balls is pretty crappy. You can easily tell that some balls are not the same size as others because they don’t want to “play nice” when making shapes. Also, as a warning, Buckyballs now makes a package with a 5×5 cube, and extras, rather than the old 6×6 cube. I didn’t realize this when I ordered them, and was disappointed. The price of Neodymium has gone up lately, and I’m pretty sure this is the reasoning for the change. Anyway, my rating on the standard balls that I received before stands. My rating on the non-standard non-chrome balls is below.

[xrr rating=1.5/5]

Some common shapes:
Small Triangle: 6 (make a 6 round, squish the top together, and bottom up)
Larger Triangle: 9 (make a 9 round, squish the top together, and bottom up. Will be hole in middle)
Useful “rounds”: 5, 6, 9
Small “sphere”: 12 5-rounds. Link. Total balls: 60.
Larger “sphere”: 20 9-triangles. Link. Total balls: 180
Cube: Not the easiest thing to make, but the easiest way I’ve found to make the cube is take the long string, and make an “S” then let that fall together into a long strand of 72×3 wide. Then cut that in half to make a 36×6 ribbon. Then simply fold a 6×6 piece of that onto the ribbon, then fold again, and again, and again.

Ecomposter

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Ecomposter w/ Spider Base

Ecomposter w/ Spider Base

A few weeks back (12/30/2010), woot.com ran a $99 deal on the Ecomposter 33301, which online normally sells for $150-200. Due to weather in the NE, it took a while for the order to be shipped out, but just today it finally arrived and I spent the afternoon of my day off (Martin Luther King Jr. day) putting it together.

The box consisted of 16 panels, about 200 rivets, several dozen linking pieces, and random other stuff. All told, it took me about 2 hours to put together. While it wasn’t hard, it is a bit time consuming, and really bugs the hand (putting the rivets in is really hard on the thumbs). I got the the point when joining the two halves together that I was just using a hammer to pound the rivets in rather than pushing it in.

You’ll need a hammer, 8oz is what I used (also a rubber mallet is highly suggested), a phillips screwdriver (electric if you have it, mainly for the base), and if you have them, a couple metric sockets (I think a 8mm and 10mm, if I recall… also for the base). And for the love of god, have a thimble, or a padded glove… just to protect your thumbs.

As for what the directions say, vs what you should do. They’re pretty much the same, though I found it easier to put two panels together, then all the other panels together in sets of two, then two sets of two together to make a quarter sphere, then put two of those together to make a half. Doing it one panel at a time was just a pain around the 3/4 of a half point… it was flopping all around.

The base actually took a while to put together all in itself, but if you have an electric screwdriver (like the PS20) I’d highly recommend using it. It’s a lot of screws (36 to hold the legs together, and another 24 for the rollers, so 60 in total).

I got it situated in the yard after finishing building it, and it does indeed look like a tiny Death Star. Right now, with not much in it (some yard debris, coffee grounds, and a few other things), it’s pretty easy to turn, but reviews online seem to indicate once it’s near full it becomes almost impossible to turn. So, we’ll have to see. Also, I have no idea how long it’ll take to make compost, or how the compost will turn out. So, I’ll revisit this review once I have something to report.

At the very least, it’s the coolest composter you’ll ever see. How it performs will more than likely impact that score. Will come back in the next few months and report.

[xrr rating=4.5/5]