Moo! The Musings of a Plaid Cow

“[Go, Diego, Go](http://www.nickjr.com/go-diego-go/)! Diego Likes The Beavers” sounds way too much like a porno to me.

With all of the computer technology today, I do not understand why the insurance policy I just got in the mail is made up of a main policy and then a number of endorsements. Since these endorsements are effectively just point out the differences between what was and what is, why not apply them to the main document and send me a single policy document? It would have to be heck of a lot shorter that is and a great deal easier to understand.

Now that it is up to version 3.0, I thought I might give [MarsEdit](http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/) another try. The goal is less to know if the application is any good, but more to figure out if I can adjust my workflow to fit it. (Some would argue that based on the lack of posts, there is a lack of work flowing. I tend to agree. Hopefully this can remove some of the friction and let me be more prolific.)

The first thing I noticed was that the tags were not auto completing, so I searched and found there is no way to automatically download all of the tags. So in the interest of wasting time, I figured out how to do it.

1. Export the content from your [Wordpress](http://wordpress.org/) blog to an XML file on your desktop.

2. About 50 lines in, notice that there a bunch of `` lines. Copy all of these lines to a new text file.

3. Using a power editor of your choice (I use [TextMate](http://macromates.com)), remove the first part of every line (up though the second greater than symbol), then replace everything from the less than symbol to the end of the line with a comma.

4. Now that you have a list of your tags (one per line, with each line ending in a comma), select them all and then paste them into MarsEdit’s tags field for a new post.

5. Save the post as a draft (to make sure it caught up with everything you just pasted), then select all and delete.

6. Your tags should now auto-complete for you.

Note: I am sure that there is some sort of limit in the number of tags that MarsEdit supports–I just don’t have any idea of what it is, other than it is over the 282 tags that I pasted in at once.

Also Note: There is nothing specific about this (except how to get the list of tags) that would limit this to working just with WordPress.

And if this works well for you, please let me know.

I got an email from [Family Link](http://www.familylink.com/) the other day which gave some possible relations that I haven’t marked yet. The guy in blue looks a bit familiar, but I just can’t place where I might know him from.


[A Plaid Strategy Guide for Las Vegas Slots on Facebook](http://moo.plaidcow.net/2009/10/a_plaid_strategy_guide_for_las_vegas_slots_on_facebook) has once again been updated. After laughing at me for the first six levels, Monica was kind enough to do the math and fill out the table for Level 8. If you’re playing [Las Vegas Slots](http://apps.facebook.com/playluckyslots/) on Facebook, this guide will help you level up faster!

As [I mentioned 3 months ago](http://www.loopinsight.com/2010/01/22/the-virtue-and-disadvantage-of-owning-a-jalopy/), I’ve got my QuickSilver G4 “Doctor Worm” sitting on the floor in my office. The fan in
the power supply burned out, so it has an external one strapped to the
outside. The on board ethernet port has been fried for as long as I can
remember. The superdrive has been scavenged to an external case for my
current computer. The computer overheats unless the case is opened and
laid out flat while running. But I still can’t bring myself to get rid of
it.

Giving up on a former workhorse is hard. Three months later and the case hasn’t moved.

Since getting a [WD TV Live][0] back in December, I have spent way too much time converting media to be watchable on it. At least it seems like a long time. The prcoes shas been very different for each type of media, so I thought it would be a good idea to chronicle my workflow used to convert TiVo programming to MPEG-4 using almost all free software.

1. Record the program with TiVo. It still on the lowest quality settings.

2. Download the program off the TiVo using [TiVo Butler][1].

3. Trim off the beginning and ending commercials using [MPEG Streamclip][2]. (In the case of [Max & Ruby][3], currently the bane of my existence, also trimming out the commercials in the middle of the show.)

4. Delete the files downloaded from the TiVo.

5. Change the extension from the files saved out of [MPEG Streamclip][2] from `.mpeg` to `.mpg` (using [R-Name][4]). (This step allows [iSquint][5], in the next step, to get the file name correct. If the original file is `.mpeg`, it leaves an extra period at the end of the filename after conversion.)

6. Drop the files on [iSquint][5]. Set the “Optimize for TV” and “H.264 Encoding” options, as well as change the video size to 640×480.

7. Copy the files out to the network storage device and enjoy!

Most of the shows are very watchable and end up in the range of 175–190MB (after starting out at 313MB MPEG-2 files, 299MB after trimming). I don’t really care that the files get converted to MP4. I would be happy for them to remain in MPEG-2 **if** I could find a lossless way to reset the aspect ratio. (The TiVo uses an odd aspect ratio.)

The only software which has a charge is not even in this list. It’s the Apple MPEG-2 component which MPEG Streamclip requires to be able to operate on the files. (VLC can play back the MPEG-2 files with no problem, so I don’t see why MPEG Streamclip shouldn’t be able to do the same. Unfortunately, VLC won’t do all of the editing and saving….)

Any suggestions on shortening this work flow?

[0]: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
[1]: http://www.baurhome.net/software/tivobutler/index.html
[2]: http://www.squared5.com/
[3]: http://www.nickjr.com/max-ruby/
[4]: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12259/r-name
[5]: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19769/isquint

Is Quicken Essentials 2010 better than Quicken 2007 for Mac? Probably. Will I switch to Quicken Essentials 2010? No way in hell. Let’s look at a couple of questions they left off [the FAQ][1].

**Can I still track my investments?**
No

**Not even my 401k?**
Nope.

**Can I export my data as with previous versions?**
Nope. We prefer to have our customers locked in tight.

**Well, at least you didn’t take out essential features like scheduled transactions…**
You must be new here.

**At least Quicken Essentials 2015 will be better, won’t it?**
Don’t count on it.

[1]: http://quicken.intuit.com/support/articles/using-quicken/features-and-tools/7696.html

The [Evil HR Lady](http://evilhrlady.blogspot.com/) had a post a while back about [facial hair during interviews](http://evilhrlady.blogspot.com/2008/06/hairy-situation.html). The crux of the question is “should you shave it before an interview.

I tend to agree with one of the commenters who said “You don’t want it to distract you or cause you to worry and walk into an interview with less confidence”, but in the opposite direction. This comment agreeing to shave it, but I felt so self conscious without it when I was interviewing, I bombed the first set of interviews out of college. The last interview, I said screw it—I’m not shaving. More confidence == a job offer, and the rest is history.

When [Netgear](http://www.readynas.com/forum/faq.php#Is_there_a_way_I_can_verify_if_my_memory_is_good%3F) says they added a “comprehensive memory test that you can run”, they aren’t kidding. It’s an eight phase process which takes a good 2 hours (for a 1 GB chip). And, you need to run it twice.