Sunday, November 11, 2012

Fanedit.org - Greatest FanEdits of All-Time

  5:01 PM            No comments
Fanedit.org - Greatest FanEdits of All-Time:

This is a selection of the greatest true fanedits (not extended editions) ever created. To make it to this list a fanedit needs at least 5 ratings with an average of 8.5/10 or at least 10 ratings with an average of 8.3/10. It was you, the great FE community, who created this list with your ratings. Your participation is needed, so others will know, what is great and what is not. 


AMDS films

Monday, November 5, 2012

Encoding video for Nook Color? - Barnes & Noble Book Clubs

  2:15 PM            No comments
Encoding video for Nook Color? - Barnes & Noble Book Clubs


FINDINGS
----------------

ok, the Nook Color has a resolution of 1024x600, which is an aspect ratio of 1.71

720 seems to be the maximum width of a video, so at 1.71 aspect ratio the correct width should be 421 pixels.

I encoded a video with a width of 721 pixels and it would load the player, but then crash and say it couldn't play the file. Anything larger than that and it doesn't even attempt to load it. So apparently 720 pixels is the built in maximum width for video files.

I did not discover a maximum height, however it's irrelevant.


ENCODING
-----------------

I encoded all of my test videos with MPEGstreamclip which is a free tool. I would assume these settings would also work in HandBrake.

MPEGstreamclip - http://www.squared5.com/

(if you're unfortunate enough to be on a Windows computer you will also need Quicktime Alternative 1.81 to run MPEGstreamclip properly)



BASICS
------------

Just make sure you're set to MPEG-4 encoding, 720x421 (640x480 for 4:3 content) and you should be good.

Here are my Compressor presets (if you have a Mac and Final Cut Studio)

And here is a test video


Hope this helps.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

‘Iron Man 3′ Trailer: Mandarin Makes His Move

  9:13 AM            No comments
Mandarin
When it was first announced that Sir Ben Kingsley would be playing the main antagonist in "Iron Man 3," fanboys and fangirls all across the globe were ecstatic and eager to find out who the Oscar-winning actor would be playing. With rumors ranging everywhere from Aldrich Killian to the Controller, only one Iron Man villain seemed big enough to step up to the plate: The Mandarin.
‘Iron Man 3′ Trailer: Mandarin Makes His Move

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Warp drive looks more promising than ever in recent NASA studies

  12:08 PM            No comments
Hope I am still around for this...
"Warp drive looks more promising than ever in recent NASA studies

"Interstellar travel may still be in its infancy, but adulthood is fast approaching, and our descendants will someday see childhood's end." The Starflight Handbook
The first steps towards interstellar travel have been taken, but the stars are very far away. Voyager 1 is about 17 light-hours distant from Earth and is traveling with a velocity of 0.006 percent of light speed, meaning it will take about 17,000 years to travel one light-year. Fortunately, the elusive "warp drive" now appears to be evolving past difficulties with new theoretical advances and a NASA test rig under development to measure artificially generated warping of space-time...."
"The warp effect uses gravitational effects to compress the spacetime in front of a spacecraft, then expand the spacetime behind it. The bit of spacetime within the warp bubble is flat, so that the spacecraft would float at zero-g along the wave of compressed and expanded spacetime. The net effect is rather like surfing, where you are nearly stationary with respect to the wave, but are traveling with the speed of the wave. Whereas many of the theoretical studies consider a warp bubble moving at ten times the speed of light, there is no known limit to the potential speed.
Such a warp bubble could in principle be used to enable subluminal travel (travel slower than light) as well as superluminal travel (travel faster than light). This may seem a silly choice – why travel slow rather than fast? However, it is likely to turn out far easier to achieve a subluminal warp drive for a number of fundamental reasons. Besides, space travel at 90 percent of the speed of light is far superior to anything we currently have on the books."

Schematic illustration of the warp bubble symmetry problem (Image: NASA)

Friday, September 21, 2012

Silverado ABS Module failure > 4X4REVIEW.COM: 4X4 Discussion Forums > 4X4REVIEW.COM

  11:30 AM            No comments
Silverado ABS Module failure > 4X4REVIEW.COM: 4X4 Discussion Forums > 4X4REVIEW.COM:

There is no easy solution. But there is a relatively inexpensive solution. www.circuitsolutions.info will fix it for about $150 if you do your own labor. That is the uneasy part. Gavin (on the site) makes it sound easy. It is not. You have to make sure the torx heads are clear so you can get the bit into the hole. Removing the circuit card is not ideal on a lift in a garage. It will be difficult at home. STOP if you think you are going to break the torx bolts. It is easier if you remove the whole manifold, but DO NOT take his advice about not having to bleed the manifold. You will have to bleed your brakes twice a week for a month. Even at the dealer with the GM computer I need to put pressure on the brake reservior to completely bleed the brakes. A standard OBD II will NOT cycle the pump and the valves to clear the air from the manifold. You need a GM shop computer. Finally, I see many people who are happy that GM fixed it under warranty. I have bad news for you: Standard procedure is to scavage parts from a truck just off lease and put them on your truck when we do the work under warranty. We put your part on the lease truck and return the truck to GM (most vehicles off lease go back to GM). Then we charge the "new" part to GM as a warranty part and pocket the profit. So your new parts are probably just as old as the truck you have. Sorry. To sum it up. It is easiest to remove the circuit card if you remove the manifold from the truck. It is very hard to bleed the brakes if you take the manifold off the truck. If you can get the card off the manifold without taking the manifold off the truck you are in luck. -Bill 
--
Hey guys, Does puling the fuse kill the ABS idiot light on the dash? I have another problem besides this one, My emergency brake idiot light is also on. Mine is a 99' 2X Silverado, the same one used for a few of the product reviews on the site. Any one swapped out the module themselves and saved the $60+ an hour labor rates? 



Jody 



------------ Eric at 6/18/2002 2:40:00 PM 

I had the same thing happen on my 99 Z71. The dealer agreed to pay about half of the price, 500.00. I had 55,000 miles on mine before it acted up. Seems like chevy needs to replace these things for free but we all know how that goes. 



------------ Kevin at 6/4/2002 3:08:40 PM 

All I had less than 36,100 miles on my 199 4 x 4 Silverado and the same module failed. Took it to chevy dealer and they were mover concerned with the 3 recalls on my vechicle than the ABS lights. I took it home and have not had ABS since. Now it seems the 4x4 won't work. Was working fine before I had the ABS lights come on. The just told me to get my 4 x 4 working again it was going to be 1850.00 Doesn anyone know how to clear the computer codes so my 4 x 4 starts working again. I know that is the problem because when I took it in to Chevy to fix they told me 950.00 I left with out it getting fixed, tried going into 2 x and it went in fine. Next time I used 4 x it would not come out. Tok it to them and now they said it will be 1850. 

I will NEVER by a CHEVY again, The salesman said they know about the ABS problems yet he never told me. ANd they want to charge me to fix it. I am going to register a complaint with NHTSA. Thank you Eric for your input. ------------ David Dorman at 12/11/2001 6:37:44 PM 



------------ Edward at 10/29/2001 11:32:18 PM 

I have a 99 Silverado 2500 4x4. Last week I got in and started up my truck and the ABS module energized the pump after I turned on the key. The only way I was able to turn the pump off was to pull the 60amp fuse under the hood on the ABS system. It appears that the ABS Relay in the EBCM has stuck closed, keeping the pump energized. Has anyone else had this experience? If so, did you have to have the EBCM replaced or was there something that could be done to repair it? 

Thanks! I work at a Chevrolet Dealer in Columbia, Missouri and I just replaced a Module on a truck with the same problem as yours. (pulling fuse.) You are correct about the Relay being stuck internally in the EBCM. They are not serviceable and must be replaced. It is a fairly easy job as long as you get all the dirt out of the torx screws. The controller then must be reprogrammed for the correct tire size using the TechII scan tool. We charged an hour for the whole job. You can also just leave out the fuse and not have any ABS like back in the good ol' days. David


1999-2006 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 ABS CONTROL MODULE (AC DELCO OE REPLACEMENT ABS CONTROL MODULE)

Priced from:
$341.80 - $639.05

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Thursday, August 9, 2012

supercharging via smog pump

  7:01 PM            No comments
smog pump supercharging
"Well, the smog pump is an airpump, a supercharger is nothing but an airpump, so of course a smogpump can be adapted as one! My experiences with this cheap and plentiful smogpump is all good! But like everything else, the equation must sum up. Pumps have different sizes, and maybe not the size needed! The most trouble I have had with a smog pump supercharger was a wrong sized pump! Intended use is important too! I have used the smog pump as a supercharger on a racebike for short distance races. I have not used the pump as a part of a daily transport vehicle. Unlike the situation of a racebike, which is "supposed to be" taken apart and inspected, before next racemeeting, a daily driver would present other problems. Will the five roller- bearings inside the rotating drum be washed out, by the fuel- mix present?
The most common, and cheapest, smog pump is the one mounted on GM and Ford V8 engined vehicles from 1969- onwards. Also known as an A.I.R. pump, this device can be found attached to the front of the engine, driven by a v- belt. These pumps gave a steady 5psi reading, when tested for functionality, and their mission was to ingest air, via small tubes to each exhaust manifold, just outside each exhaust port. This air- injection helped igniting the catalytic- converter, reducing emissions emitting the exhaust pipe."
At left a standard smog pump - right modified smog pump.
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