Mark L. Smith's Blog — Research, Discoveries, and Musings

Converting from M2TS to AVI

by msmith on 2010/04/08

I’m using ffmpeg to good effect to convert from M2TS from an HD Canon Camcorder to AVI:

ffmpeg -i 20100408133825.m2ts -vcodec libxvid -b 2000k -acodec libmp3lame -ac 2 -ab 128k -deinterlace -s 720×540 1.avi

{ 1 comment }

AdWords Learning

by admin on 2010/04/04

People look at an AdWords ad in this order:

1. headline

2. Second description line

3. URL line

4. First headline

{ 0 comments }

A friend asked what things they could do to live healthier. My wife put this together for them.
Avoid combining heat, plastics, and food (especially BPA!). Use glass, ceramic or steel containers for reheating food and for food storage.
Choose organic produce when possible to avoid agricultural chemicals that are closely linked to some cancers. Some produce [...]

Read the full article →

Homegrown Evolution

June 27, 2009

Cool blog about clean living and healthy food.

Read the full article →

Dark leafy green vegetables

June 26, 2009

For dinner, I’ve been eating a lot of what might best be described as jambalaya. I’ve been putting in baby spinach tossed in sesame oil in a skillet over high heat. This is a good article on different leafy green vegetables and their tastes.
I think I might try mustard greens — I’ve been looking to [...]

Read the full article →

SMTP Mail Server Testing Utility

June 23, 2009

Awesome SMTP server testing utility: http://www.zoneedit.com/smtp.html

Read the full article →

Prescription Database

May 30, 2009

Prescription database from NIH.

Read the full article →

Health Information Link Dump

May 30, 2009

Microsoft’s take on HIPAA is “we’re not a covered entitiy, go away”
Microsoft has a personal health tracker.
Here’s another one.

Read the full article →

eBay Market Data

May 30, 2009

I’ve been involved with eBay auctions heavily on and off for about 10 years. There are some opportunities at using theirmarket data to look for gaps between supply and demand.
Some handy links for that:

eBay’s API
ResearchAdvanced free APIs for eBay
Official providers of eBay data.

Read the full article →