Archive for Tips & tricks

Wintec WBT-202 on Apple using Wine

One of the advantages of the Wintec WBT-202 GPS data logger is that you can read the logged GPS data on any computer.
To change the configuration, Wintec has made available the WBT_Tool utility.
However, this is only available for Windows. That’s an issue if you have a Mac (or Linux).
Luckily, there is a pretty easy way to use wbt_tool to configure your Wintec GPS data logger on your Mac (or Linux).
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My favorite Dropbox uses

“Hi, I am Winfred and I am a big Dropbox fan”. There, that is out of the way. This post describes the various ways I use Dropbox, a storage cloud service that acts as a local folder on your system(s). By no means is it meant as a definitive list, so feel free to share your favorite uses in the comments.
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From TV show torrent to iTunes: an automated workflow

The other day I was reading about the number of TV show downloads on BitTorrent and that for some shows (like Heroes and Dexter), the downloads now exceed the average viewership on US television. This must mean there is a need…

If I were one of the millions to download US TV shows like The Office, House,  (because locally they are not available or months/years later), this is how I would do it on my Mac. Use iTunes/Hulu for that you say? Mmm, not available in most countries outside the US.

I would be looking for a way to: monitor new torrents, get them to my computer, convert them to H.264, add metadata and add them to iTunes. And, do this in an automated way and preferably a decentralized way, so I could remain flexible.

This workflow takes advantage of Dropbox, there is a separate page dedicated to smart ways of using the free Dropbox cloud storage.

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Parse Humax 5050C metadata files

This one is related to the post describing the workflow to transfer and transcode video files from a Humax 5050C.

This time I will describe how I read the metadata that is stored in the .hmt file on the Humax. The most important reason: to show the description of the recorded event.
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Transfer and transcode to iPod/iPhone

This post describes how I copy video files from my Humax 5050C DVR, and how the result is transcoded for use on my iPod/iPhone/Apple TV. And: how these two things are done in parallel, to save time (in my case: 35%) and disk space.

It has been a hobby project putting multiple pieces together. As with many things in life, the trip itself is often more interesting than the destination. So, I decided to share the details of the trip. If you are interested in the destination: you can download the complete (be it proof-of-concept) script as well. For that, scroll to the bottom of the post.

Suggestions, thoughts, etc? Let me know and/or leave a comment.
Continue reading: Transfer and transcode to iPod/iPhone