Participatory Culture Foundation’s Miro

The Participatory Culture Foundation works on the development of Miro, which is a free open-source desktop video application that is designed to make mass media more open and accessible for everyone. From the screenshots, it looks so seamless it’s almost too good to be true.

UPDATE [2011-03-25]: I now use Iomega ScreenPlay Director HD and MediaPortal instead.

UPDATE [2012-06-20]: I found SMPlayer to be a very nice, cross-platform and lightweight alternative to both Miro and the popular VLC media player.

VirtualDub

VirtualDub is not only a free, powerful video processing application, it is also one of the most cleanly written applications that I’ve ever come across. An outstanding example of quality software: zen-like user interface, stable, fast and adaptable.

Those were the Days…

How many times have you installed the latest-bestest-coolest version of your favourite application, only to wonder at the developers’ sanity and wish you could go back to the previous one, which worked just fine? (Or like me, did you have your PC dual-boot to Windows 98 only to be able to run Need for Speed 2 to watch the game videos?)

OldVersion.com and OldApps.com offer archives of old applications that are no longer supported/hosted by their developers. They’ve helped me rediscover a lot of stuff that I had before my hard disk crashed (the first time).

Txt2Palm

This nifty little piece of software converts text files into Palm-readable documents. Also I found tons of ads… erm, software… for my Palm device.

Software

The essential selection… this is what I would install if my brain was augmented by a hard drive.

4200 Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701

Scale:	1:???
Make:	Polar Lights
Model #:	4200
Year:	2006
Name:	U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701
Description:	Star Trek NCC-1701, from the original TV series; 1st and 2nd TV pilot

“Space, the final frontier… These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

This snap-together model kit is an exact replica of the original series starship, with 50 highly-detailed pieces.

Success and Enthusiasm

“A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.”

-Charles Schwab

I had read this in the newspaper maybe about 5, 6 years ago… I must have forgotten the quote, but the idea stuck in my head. Just came across this again today. A sophisticated way of saying, “Impossible is nothing”.

Life Summarized, In Three Words

The Art of Praying

“When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and asked for forgiveness.”
-Emo Philips

Waiting for Success

“I couldn’t wait for success so I went ahead without it.”

-Jonathan Winters