Cutting Credits with EDL in XBMC

MythTV has been serving me wonderfully for years. It's an incredible system and is still my primary media solution to this day. Unfortunately, the tools provided for managing video metadata have fallen a little behind. I recently switch away from Boxee and gave XBMC a try. What a fantastic front end and the media management tools are perfect.

My wife and I watch Star Trek Voyager each night to fall asleep (I hear you snickering). A minor frustration is that I have to fast forward through the intro credits, and I also have to exit out at the end, select the next episode and then get through those intro credits in a few minutes. It's a really minor annoyance but one I am proud to say I have overcome with the build-in EDL (edit decision lists) that are supported by XBMC.

iStolen? iGotItBack: Tales of recovering a stolen iPhone

It was winding up to be a normal Friday evening when I received a call from my wife, someone at the school where she teaches had gotten into her purse, taken all of her cash and her iPhone 4. "What do I do?", she asked.

It's a really dangerous game, stealing an iPhone, it's even more dangerous when the owners husband is a geek and fancies himself a bit of a detective.

Dabbling in Android

My school district recently switched from Verizon to Sprint for service allowing me to select a new phone to replace my Verizon Blackberry 8830. In the interest of understanding the Android camp, I choose a Samsung Epic 4g (Galaxy S) running Andoid Froyo 2.2.1. Based on release dates this puts the generation on par with my iPhone 4. My goal is not to replace my iPhone 4 but to understand if it would be possible and what I would lose (or possibly gain) in a switch to Google's promising mobile OS. 

Importing Outlook 2011 to GMail or Google Apps

My company finally made the switch to Google Apps. I have been using Outlook for the last few years to access my email from a FirstClass server and upgraded to Outlook 2011 a few months ago. I love the Google Email interface so now it's time to ditch Outlook completely. Unfortunately there isn't a direct import utility from Outlook 2011 to GMail or Google Apps so I combined a few. Here's  how:

1. Download, install and run EagleFiler (Free 30-day trial/$40 to buy)


2. Close the how-to guide.


3. Create a new library in EagleFiler called Outlook Export (name doesn't matter)


4. In Outlook, select the emails you want to import (use ⌘-A) and then press F1 (Fn-F1 for most Mac keyboards)


5. Let EagleFiler do it's work. If you have Growl, you will see notifications as it processes the email into mbox format.


6. Repeat step 4 for all of the folders you want to import


7. Open Mac Mail and setup a dummy account if you don't already have one


8. In Mac Mail - select File - Import Mailboxes and select Files in mbox format and select Continue


9. Browse to the location that you created your EagleFiler Library (mine was in Documents:Outlook Export) and select the Outlook Export Folder and Choose


10. After a bit of Searching for data... you will receive an Import box allowing you to select the folders you want to import. Check the ones you want and click Continue


11. Google makes it easier to get from Mac Mail to GMail by using the Google Email Uploader Mac. Go get, install and run it.


12. Google Email Uploader Mac will detect the Mac Mail account automatically. Enter your credentials for GMail or Google Apps.


13. Make sure you have Apple Mail selected and clock Import

It took me about 3-hours to upload 9500 messages but it worked. Special thanks to C-Command software for making a great product. I wish there was a donate button on their site so I could shell a few bucks their way for making this possible.

Automating Outlook 2011 with Applescript

I am continuing my automation work with folder actions and applescript and had a desire to be able to email from the new Mac Office 2011 using Outlook. There are several examples for how to do it with Entourage but the syntax has changed regarding mail to recipients. Without further delay, here is a working script:

tell application "Microsoft Outlook"
 set newMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:"Hooray for automation"}
 make new recipient at newMessage with properties {email address:{name:"Jim Shank", address:"jim.shank@example.com"}}
 open newMessage
end tell

After hours of searching, I finally came across this fantastic example from Bobby Kansara at Microsoft. Thanks to the early adopters and beta testers.

OS X Folder Sync with Google Docs

Here is a little script that I adapted that allows you to assign a Folder Action that uploads anything you add to that folder to Google Docs. Here's how:

1. Download google-docs-upload


2. Create the script below in /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/transfer - Google Docs.scrp


3. Right-click on a folder in finder and select Folder Actions Setup...


4. Select the script and you are good to go!


5. Now anything you put in that folder will be uploaded to Google docs!

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
 repeat with aFile in added_items
  do shell script "java -jar /Users/OSX_USERNAME/Library/Scripts/google-docs-upload-1.3.2.jar " & quoted form of POSIX path of aFile & " --skip-all -u EMAIL_ADDRESS_FOR_GOOGLE_DOCS -p PASSWORD >> /Users/OSX_USERNAME/Library/Scripts/GDocs-upload-log.txt"
  end repeat
end adding folder items to

The script as-is will upload to your root folder in Google Docs, however, by adding the --remote-folder switch, you can specify where you want it to be. You could create a number of different scripts for different destinations.

Happy Birthday Angel!

VMWare Fusion 3.1 RC is out

I just upgrade to 3.1 RC and it is awesome, everything is quicker and I haven't seen any Unity artifacts. Looking very good.

Go get it - http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/fusion