I'm a little late on this one, but a new version of Handbrake was released last month with significant improvements.  One of the things I noticed right away is that the Windows GUI has drastically improved (the presets are no longer collapsed by default!).  Also, there is now a preset for the Xbox 360!!!

I am always trying to walk people through ripping their DVDs to play on their Xbox.  This is one less step I have to explain!

Friday, March 28, 2008 6:36:04 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)      Comments [0]  Handbrake | Xbox | Tech Support

If you're reading this blog, you're probably like me and have at least *some* technical skills.  While I am nowhere near qualified to run an IT enterprise, I know enough to fool the average Joe. 

So I'm probably not the only out there to have become "technical support" for a growing list of friends and family.  I have set up wireless routers for a couple of my neighbors, and it always makes me smile over the way they think how amazing my mad technical skills are.

The other day we were having a neighborhood happy hour in somebody's front yard.  One of the people for whom I set up a wireless router told me a story about going over to her mom's house that very morning.  Apparently, her mother bought a new laptop and was trying to get on the ol' interweb.  Her mom was furious that she couldn't get the browser on her new fancy and expensive laptop to connect to anything.  My neighbor asked her mom, "Well, where's your wireless router?"  At which point her mom looked at her with the same look you'd get from George W. Bush if you asked him to divide 3,670,879 by 47,546. 

So my other neighbor said, "Chris, you need to open a business for people like us.  Just be brutally honest and call it, 'You're a dumbass - Give me a $100 and I'll fix your shit.'"

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 11:44:56 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)      Comments [0]  Dumbass | Humor | Tech Support