Download DVD PDF Podcast Limewire and YouTube video to iPod

This iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video guide includes the following ten parts:
1. How to watch PDF files and electronic books to iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video.
2. How to rip DVD and convert video to iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video.
3. How to watch iPod Video on large screen TV.
4. How to download youtube video to iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video for free.
5. How to download free podcast to iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video.
6. Where to download music and movie for iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video.
7. How to manage two iPods on one computer or transfer music between iPods.
8. How to copy and backup iPod files to computer.
9. How to hack iPod Nano to play games and music videos.
10. Why is that your iTunes converted videos has no sound

Part1. How to watch PDF or electronic book on iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video
iPod cannot directly display PDF files, you have to convert your PDF file or electronic book to *.txt format, and make sure the file size is smaller than 4KB, and then copy the *txt file to the “Note” folder of your iPod. Here are the detailed steps:
1. Enable your iPod as a portable hard drive, plug in your iPod to computer and run iTunes, in the summary tab, check the option named “enable iPod disk mode”
2. Download and install iGadget, it can convert and cut your files to 4kb .txt files. Here is the download link: http://www.youtubetoipod.biz/software/igadget.html.
3. Connect your iPod to computer, open “My Computer”, open the iPod drive (the new drive with your iPod name), and copy the txt file to the “Note” folder, done. Then you can read the text file on iPod note.

Part2. How to rip DVD and convert video to iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video
iPod can only play MP4 and H.264 video, but DVD movie is MPEG-2 video and CSS protected, so you need an application to rip DVD and convert video to MP4 video, and then sync it to iPod via iTunes. I strongly recommend Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite; it can rip protected DVD and convert limewire, youtube video, AVI, MPEG, WMV, MOV, FLV, XviD video to iPod. Also, I always use the iPod Movie Converter embedded in it to transfer video, and from my tests, it fully support all series of iPod including iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video. A really cool application.



Here is its official download link:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/dvd-to-ipod-suite.html
Here is the official step by step guide:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/dvd-to-ipod-converter.html
If you are Mac user, you can use this DVD Ripper for Mac to rip DVD to iPod:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/dvd-ripper-for-mac.html

Part3. How to watch iPod Video on large screen TV
Set up your iPod video options. On your iPod choose Videos -> Video Settings from the main menu. You will see three options: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Select the “TV Out” option.



Get your A/V cable. If you don't have an eighth-inch-to-RCA cable, you can pick one up on eBay for five or six bucks shipped. Search for "camcorder A/V cable." Remember, you want a three-plug yellow/red/white RCA connection at one end and a three-banded eighth-inch (3.5mm) A/V plug at the other.



1. Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
2. Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
3. Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.
After making these connections, you're physically ready to begin playback.

Part4. How to download youtube video to iPod for free
iPod can play only MP4 and H.264 video, youtube video is stream video (.flv), so you need special software to capture the stream video to MP4 video, and then sync it to your iPod via iTunes. Here’re two ways to do that for free:
With free online flv converter such as http://vixy.net when you find your favorite youtube video, just copy the video URL (like this format http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs ) to the input box, choose the output format as iPod video, and then click start. When the conversion finished, you will get the MP4 video download link, just download and sync it to your iPod.



With Firefox + videodownloader, if you’re using Firefox browser, just install a plug-in named videodownloader, and then you will see a small icon in the bottom right, when you watch youtube video, double click it, and then you will get the flv download link. And then convert the flv video to MP4 video with Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite, done.

Free Trial: Download Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite

Next part: How to download podcast to iPod and copy music between iPods ?

How to Remove DRM from WMV

Windows Media Video (WMV) was developed by Microsoft and these files are playable using Windows Media Player. There are numerous portable media players available which support WMV playback. You can use a .WMV file for either streaming or downloading. Downloaded Windows Media Files come with the protection by the DRM License itself. If you try to play it for the first time on your PC, then Windows Media Player will try and look for the license on the PC.
It's explicable that you would like to remove DRM from WMV files. You can play a windows media video file without obtaining a license from the digital rights management server. There are several ways of achieving this task of removing of DRM from WMV. Here are a few of freeware to help you to remove DRM from WMV:

1. freeme2
freeme2 (Download freeme2) is a free and open source DRM remover. It is used to remove DRM from Windows Media audio and video files. freeme2 is a command line application. You need to learn how to use console applications to run it.
How to use freeme2 (drag-n-drop)
Drag-n-drop method is much easier than the one using command line console:
Put your DRM protected media files in the same folder as Freeme2.
Extract your license keys. You can do this with drmdbg. If you use drmdbg you can take the drm2-i.key file generated by drmdbg, rename it to drm2.key and copy it to the FreeMe2 folder.
Drag your sample.wma file onto FreeMe2.exe. It starts up and runs fine.
How to use freeme2 (command line console)
Put your DRM protected media files in the same folder as freeme2.
Run the Windows command console: Hit "Start"->hit "Run..."->type CMD->Hit the "OK" button.
Then, once in the command console, chage the directiry by using the "cd" command to the directory where your FreeMe2 is located.
Extract your license keys. You can do this with drmdbg.
Type the following in the command line console: "freeme2" (without quotes) and press the Enter button.
2. Aiseesoft Total Video Converter
Aiseesoft Total Video Converter is a powerful video and audio converter for all popular media formats including: WMA, WAV, WMV, M4A, M4P, M4V, AAC, M4B, 3GP, AVI, ASF, MP4, FLV, MP3, etc. so users can easily enjoy the DRM protected formats with their mobile players like iPhone, iPod, PSP, etc.
How to use Aiseesoft Total Video Converter.
Click "Add File" to import files to the program.
Click "setting" to customize the parameters for output audio and video.
When you finish all the necessary settings, you can start conversion. The selected files in the file list will be automatically converted one by one after you click Start button. if you convert files that bought from iTunes Store, you need to do some setting as the image shows.
please click here to learn the full guide.



3. AnalogWhole
AnalogWhole (Download AnalogWhole) is a free Windows application that allows you to consolidate all your music into iTunes as MP3 files. Any music that is playable in Windows Media Player can be re-recorded as an MP3 file. Just tell AnalogWhole where your music library is, and it will automatically re-record the files as an MP3 file. In addition, it will add the converted song to iTunes for you.
With AnalogWhole you can convert all those WMA or WAV files you have that won't play on your iPod into MP3 files that will play on iPod.
The way AnalogWhole works is pretty straightforward. Almost all PC soundcards have the ability to simultaneously play music out one channel while recording music on another channel. The standard Windows audio mixer component allows the output channel to be routed back into the soundcard input channel. AnalogWhole uses the COM interface to Windows Media Player to play the music file and while it is playing, it records it and encodes it as an MP3 file. All tagging info (i.e. artist, song title, album et cetera) is transferred to the MP3 file as well.



4. Automate unDRM.
Free DRM removal from .WMV, .ASF, .WMA (Windows Media audio/video files). Included in the download pack: drmdbg, drm2wmv, DecryptIt.
You can Download Automate unDRM here.
Automate unDRM v2.0 can't crack DRM license. You must have VALID license files on your harddrive and be able to play the DRM protected files without restrictions. Automate unDRM v2.0 is intended to be used to make fair-use backups only. Please do not abuse this rule.
Automate unDRM is used to automate the DRM removal process by drmdbg and drm2wmv. drmdbg and drm2wmv don't convert your original Windows Media audio and video files, they just remove DRM header of the media file, so you get lossless conversion of DRM protected media files.
Automate unDRM works only with Windows Media Player 9 or 10.00.00.3646 (unless you update your drbdbg.exe).

5. FairUse4WM
FairUse4WM (Download FairUse4WM) can't crack DRM license. You must have VALID license files on your harddrive and be able to play the DRM protected files without restrictions.
FairUse4WM is intended to be used to make fair-use backups only. Please do not abuse this rule. FairUse4WM is a GUI version of drmdbg (DRM removal tool). drmdbg doesn't convert your original Windows Media audio and video files, it just removes DRM header of the media file, so you get lossless conversion of DRM protected media files.
FairUse4WM supports Windows Media Player 9, 10, 11 (individualization version up to .3930).
Basic requirements: Only works on individualized DRM file.
Requires Windows Media Player (WMP) 9, 10 or 11 beta 1 and 2. Although there is no support for WMP 11 final. Works with both individualized content and some DRMv1 files. Does not work with Win98 or similar.
The program's functioning can be verified by stripping DRM protection from Demo files from ezdrm.com, as well as those from other Microsoft Solution partners.
Note that some Windows Media Player installations will have multiple ECC key-pairs, so you will likely have to "Extract Keys" using multiple licensed files. If you find a file that doesn't convert, try extracting keys with it. Once your whole set of keys is extracted, you will no longer need to run Windows Media Player per file.

How to download free youtube, yahoo, google, stream video for free

This step-by-step guide will show you how to download video from YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo and other video download website. Videos come from those websites are streaming videos. You need special software to capture steaming videos. Today we take YouTube video for example, write a guide about how to download streaming video to computer for free. This guide provides two methods:
1. with free online flv converter;
2. with firefox
This guide is also fit for other video websites as follow video list:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/free-download-video-list.html
3. How to transfer the downloaded youtube video to iPod PSP Zune iPhone Cell Phone and other MP3/MP4 player?

1. With free online flv converter
Step1. Open this website: http://vixy.net/. It's a free online FLV converter.
Step2. Then go to YouTube http://www.youtube.com and find a video that you love. Copy the URL that in the Red box. Like this format: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs



Step3. Paste your video file URL to the input box (figure as follow), choose the right format you want. If you want to edit the video, AVI is a good choice. And MP4 is fit for iPod, PSP, Zune, Apple TV and other MP4 players. This online converter also can rip audio to MP3. Then wait for the conversion.



Step4. When the conversion finished, we got the download link of the output video. Click the download link to download the video and save in your computer (remember where you save it in). Done.

2. With Firefox
If you have Firefox browser, you can follow these steps.
Step1. Install the videodownloader extension. This is a free plug-in for Firefox. It enables you capture streaming video from website. Here is the Download link:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2390
Step2. After installing videodownloader, restart Firefox. In the bottom right, you'll see a little box. Go to the video you want to download, double click that little box, and select download link. Then you could download the streaming video you want. (Note, you have to rename the file extension from “html” to “flv”)





You have to rename the file extension from “html” to “flv” when you save the link. (Make sure your compute is show file extension)

3. How to transfer youtube video to iPod PSP Zune Phone and other MP3/MP4 player?
For iPod: if your download youtube video already is MP4 video, drag it to your iTunes library (or click iTunes "file" -> "add files to library"), plug in your iPod to computer, and then select your iPod device on the left panel of iTunes, click "Movies" tab, check the videos you want to sync and click "Apply", done.
If your downloaded YouTube video is not MP4 video, you have to convert it to iPod format at first, take a look at this free iPod converter, it embeds an iPod manager that can convert and transfer YouTube video to iPod directly without iTunes, here is a step by step guide about it:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/ipod-movie-converter.html
For PSP: PSP is the same as iPod, they are both support MP4 video, if you have converted the YouTube video to MP4 with above method, you can copy the MP4 video directly to the "Video" folder in your memory stick (if there is no "Video" folder in your memory stick, you can create by yourself). If your downloaded YouTube video is not MP4 video, you have to convert it to PSP format at first, take a look at this PSP Movie converter, it t can convert and transfer YouTube video to psp directly, fully support all firmware version of PSP, here is a step by step guide about it:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/psp-movie-converter.html
For Zune: Zune can play WMV video, if you have converted your download YouTube video to zune format, then open the Zune software, drag the wmv video to your Zune software, plug in your Zune to computer, and then Zune software should detect your Zune automatically, then click "Start to sync", the video will be transfered to Zune player.
If your downloaded YouTube video is not WMV video, you have to convert it to Zune format, take a look at this free Zune converter, it can convert video to Zune format, it can also convert YouTube video to MP3 for other player, here is a step by step guide about it:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/zune-movie-converter.html
For cell phone: Cell phone accepts 3GP video and MP4 video, just convert your downloaded YouTube video to the proper format, connect your cell phone to computer, and then copy the videos to your cell phone memory card. If you don't know how to convert video, take a look at this step by step guide:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/total-video-converter.html

Cell Towers For the Home Work Best in Worst Sites

Verizon (VZ), Sprint (S) and AT&T (T) all have started selling gadgets that act as mini-cell towers, broadcasting wireless phone service just like a real cell tower does, though over a much smaller area: a single house.

I’ve been testing one of these devices, AT&T’s $150 MicroCell, in two very different homes—my own house in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and my son’s basement apartment in New York City. I chose AT&T for my tests because its network typically attracts the loudest complaints about bad coverage and dropped calls.

My verdict is that the AT&T MicroCell can, indeed, dramatically improve cellular reception and reliability, but it’s not a silver bullet. I found it works best in truly dire coverage locations, with little or no service, like my son’s apartment.

It is less useful in places like my house where the carrier’s outside towers provide some reception, even if you find that outside reception unreliable. I also ran into limitations on where you can place the MicroCell and how much of a home it can cover.

An AT&T spokesman insisted that the MicroCell is meant only for “a very small subset of customers with no or very poor coverage,” even though its Web site, at http://bit.ly/njH2s, includes videos touting the product for use in game rooms and home offices in any house. AT&T says it plans to tone down the Web pitch.

These devices, technically called femtocells, work like small versions of a cell tower. You plug them into your home broadband network, through which they acquire a signal from the carrier’s network. Then, they wirelessly redistribute that signal inside the home. Your cellphone treats this signal as if it came from a real outside tower, and latches onto it. But the signal supposedly is stronger and better, because it’s much closer and more focused.

While some people will welcome these devices as a godsend, others will resent the idea that they have to spend anything extra to get cellphone service they are already paying for.

Plus, when you make calls while your phone is connected to the MicroCell, you are still using up the minutes in your AT&T plan, just as you would on a regular outside tower, unless you buy an optional extra-cost MicroCell service plan. The company defends this by noting that you are still using its network, even though you are connected to it differently.

However, at least two of the carriers—AT&T and Sprint—are quietly giving away these devices to selected customers with terrible coverage whose patronage they presumably wish to keep. It is unclear to me how to qualify for these free devices, which appear to be handed out on a case-by-case basis.

The MicroCell, built for AT&T by Cisco (CSCO), is an 8.5-inch tall white, plastic gadget with an upside-down V-shaped base. As noted, it costs a one-time charge of $150, though AT&T will knock off $100 if you buy an optional $20-a-month plan that gives you unlimited voice minutes while using the MicroCell. It is only sold at AT&T stores.

3G-Capable

AT&T’s device is 3G-capable, meaning it can also be used for data services at decent speeds, though the company recommends you rely on Wi-Fi for data. Verizon’s rival device, which isn’t 3G-capable, is called the Network Extender and sells for $149 after a $100 rebate, with no monthly fee. Verizon is working on a 3G model. Sprint’s version is called Airave. It costs $100, but requires a monthly plan ranging from $5 to $20. It also lacks 3G capability, though Sprint has just announced a 3G model that isn’t yet being offered for sale.

In both of my MicroCell test homes, the setup, which takes about an hour, went fine. You have to specify on a Web site which phone numbers can work with the MicroCell. Up to 10 phones can be listed, though the MicroCell can only handle four calls at any one time.

Range of 40 Feet

AT&T says the MicroCell has a range of 40 feet in any one direction, and can cover up to a 5,000-square-foot house. At my house, which is considerably smaller than that, it worked fine with both an iPhone and a BlackBerry, as long as I was in the same room as the little transmitter. In those spots, calls were made and received fine, and hardly ever dropped.

But it didn’t magically give me great coverage everywhere. First and foremost, because I do have fair AT&T coverage in most of my house, my two phones kept switching between the MicroCell and the outside AT&T tower when I wasn’t close to the device. When this happened, once in the midst of a conversation, the call cut off. Also, I could only plug in the MicroCell in the two locations where I had an Ethernet jack, neither of which happens to be in the two places in my house with the worst coverage. So, in those bad spots, the MicroCell signal was weak, and the outside tower kept taking over, even though it barely covers those two places.

AT&T says you can get around this problem by using a powerline adapter to create an Ethernet jack where you’d like one. These adapters route your Internet network through your electrical wires. But, in any case, the MicroCell mustn’t be located within a foot of your Wi-Fi base station and AT&T suggests it be within 3 feet of a window—further limitations on location.

In the Basement

At my son’s basement dwelling, where he barely got an AT&T signal on two generations of iPhones, things went much better, but only after some fiddling. His only standard Ethernet jack happens to be upstairs (it’s a two-level apartment). When the MicroCell was plugged in there, the signal was very weak in his basement abode directly below, constantly battling with the almost useless outside AT&T signal.

The problem was temporarily solved with a long, snaking Ethernet cable running down the stairs, but he viewed that an untenable solution. He finally plugged the Microcell into a basement jack on an Apple (AAPL) Airport Express gadget, which he uses as a Wi-Fi signal booster. While AT&T doesn’t officially support this approach, it worked, and the MicroCell has been a dramatic improvement for him.

Overall, I can only firmly recommend the MircoCell for situations where coverage is virtually nil, you are willing to spend an extra $150, and you can locate it in a way that works. If you just want to improve a spotty signal, or a few weak areas in your house, you might be disappointed.

Kindle Outselling iBooks 60 To One

If you follow the ebook market you were likely stunned this June when Steve Jobs claimed to have captured 22 percent of the electronic book market overnight with the release of iBooks and iPad. Many of us who watch this market with careful eyes were leery of the numbers that Jobs was tossing around, they sounded too good to be true.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

How to Minimize Politics in Your Company

In all my years in business, I have yet to hear someone say: “I love corporate politics.” On the other hand, I meet plenty of people who complain bitterly about corporate politics—sometimes even in the companies they run. So, if nobody loves politics, why all the politics?

Political behavior almost always starts with the CEO. Now you may be thinking: “I hate politics, I’m not political, but my organization is very political. I clearly didn’t cause this.” Sadly, you needn’t be political to create extreme political behavior in your organization. In fact, it’s often the least political CEOs who run the most ferociously political organizations. Apolitical CEOs frequently accidentally encourage intense political behavior.

What do I mean by politics? I mean people advancing their careers or agendas by means other than merit and contribution. There may be other types of politics, but politics of this form seem to be the ones that really bother people.

How it happens

A CEO creates politics by encouraging and sometimes incenting political behavior—often accidentally. For a very simple example, let’s consider executive compensation. As CEO, senior employees will come to you from time to time and ask for an increase in compensation. They may suggest that you are paying them far less than their current market value. They may even have a competitive offer in hand. Faced with this confrontation, if the request is reasonable, you might investigate the situation. You might even give the employee a raise. This may sound innocent, but you have just created a strong incentive for political behavior.

Specifically, you will be rewarding behavior that has nothing to do with advancing your business. The employee will earn a raise by asking for one rather than you automatically rewarding them for outstanding performance. Why is this bad? Let me count the ways:

1. The other ambitious members of your staff will immediately agitate for raises as well. Note that neither this campaign nor the prior one need be correlated with actual performance. You will now spend time dealing with the political issues rather than actual performance issues. Importantly, if you have a competent board, you will not be able to give them all out-of-cycle raises, so your company executive raises will occur on a first-come, first-serve basis.
2. The less aggressive (but perhaps more competent) members of your team will be denied off-cycle raises simply by being apolitical.
3. The object lesson for your staff and the company will be the squeaky wheel gets the grease and the political employee gets the raise. Get ready for a whole lot of squeaky wheels.

Now let’s move on to a more complicated example. Your CFO comes to you and says that he wants to continue developing as a manager. He says that he would like to eventually become a COO and would like to know what skills he must demonstrate in order to earn that position in your company. Being a positive leader, you would like to encourage him to pursue his dream. You tell him that you think that he’d be a fine COO some day and that he should work to develop a few more skills. In addition, you tell him that he’ll need to be a strong enough leader, such that other executives in the company will want to work for him. A week later, one of your other executives comes to you in a panic. She says that the CFO just asked her if she’d work for him. She says that he said that you are grooming him to be the COO and that’s his final step. Did that just happen? Welcome to the big time.

How to minimize politics

Professionals vs. Amateurs

Minimizing politics often feels totally unnatural. It’s counter to excellent management practices such as being open minded and encouraging employee development.

The difference between managing executives and managing more junior employees can be thought of as the difference between being in a fight with someone with no training and being in a ring with a professional boxer. If you are in a fight with a regular person, then you can do natural things and they won’t get you into much trouble. For example, if you want to take a step backwards, you can pick your front foot up first. If you do this against a professional boxer, you will get your block knocked off. Professional boxers train for years to take advantage of small errors in technique. Lifting your front foot first to take a step backwards will take you slightly off balance for a split second and that’s all your opponent will need.

Similarly, if you manage a junior employee and they ask you about their career development, you can say what comes naturally and generally get away with it. As we saw above, things change when you deal with highly ambitious, seasoned professionals. In order to keep from getting knocked out by corporate politics, you need to refine your technique.

The Technique

As I developed as a CEO, I found three key techniques to be extremely useful in minimizing politics.

1. Hire people with the right kind of ambition – The cases that I described above might involve people who are ambitious, but not necessarily inherently political. All cases are not like this. The surest way to turn your company into the political equivalent of the US Senate is to hire people with the wrong kind of ambition. As defined by Andy Grove, the right kind of ambition is ambition for the company’s success with the executive’s own success only coming as a by-product of the company’s victory. The wrong kind of ambition is ambition for the executive’s personal success regardless of the company’s outcome.
2. Build strict processes for potentially political issues and do not deviate – Certain activities attract political behavior. These activities include:

   - Performance evaluation and compensation
   - Organizational design and territory
   - Promotions

   Let’s examine each case and how you might build and execute a process that insulates the company from bad behavior and politically motivated outcomes.

   Performance and compensation – Often companies defer putting performance management and compensation processes in place. This doesn’t mean that they don’t evaluate employees or give pay raises; it just means they do so in an ad hoc manner that’s highly vulnerable to political machinations. By conducting well-structured, regular performance and compensation reviews, you will ensure that pay and stock increases are as fair as possible. This is especially important for executive compensation as doing so will also serve to minimize politics. In the example above, the CEO should have had an airtight performance and compensation policy and simply told the executive that his compensation would be evaluated with everyone else’s. Ideally, the executive compensation process should involve the board of directors. This will a) help ensure good governance and b) make exceptions even more difficult.

   Organizational design and territory – If you manage ambitious people, from time to time, they will want to expand their scope of responsibility. In the example above, the CFO wanted to become the COO. In other situations, the head of marketing might want to run sales and marketing or the head of engineering may want to run engineering and product management. When someone raises an issue like this with you, you must be very careful about what you say, because everything that you say can be turned into political cannon fodder. Generally, it’s best to say nothing at all. At most, you might ask “why?”, but if you do so be sure not to react to the reasons. If you indicate what you are thinking, that information will leak, rumors will spread and you plant the seeds for all kinds of unproductive discussions. You should evaluate your organizational design on a regular basis and gather the information that you need to decide without tipping people to what you plan to do. Once you decide, you should immediately execute the re-org: don’t leave time for leaks and lobbying.

   Promotions – Every time your company gives someone a promotion, everyone else at that person’s level evaluates the promotion and judges whether merit or political favors yielded the promotion. If the latter, then the other employees generally react in one of three ways:

   1. They sulk and feel undervalued
   2. They outwardly disagree, campaign against the person, and undermine them in their new position
   3. They attempt to copy the political behavior that generated the unwarranted promotion

   Clearly, you don’t want any of these behaviors in your company. Therefore, you must have a formal, visible, defensible promotion process that governs every employee promotion. Often this process must be different for people on your own staff (the general process may involve various managers who are familiar with the employee’s work, the executive process should include the board of directors). The purpose of the process is twofold. First, it will give the organization confidence that the company at least attempted to base the promotion on merit and second, the result of the process will be the information necessary for your team to explain the promotion decisions that you made.

3. Be careful with “he said, she said” – Once your organization grows to a significant size, members of your team will, from time to time, complain about each other. Sometimes this criticism will be extremely aggressive. Be very careful about how you listen and the message that it sends. Simply by hearing them out without defending the employee in question, you will send the message that you agree. If people in the company think that you agree that one of your executives is less than stellar, that information will spread quickly and without qualification. As a result, people will stop listening to the executive in question and they will soon become ineffective.

   There are two distinct types of complaints that you will receive:

   1. Complaints about an executive’s behavior
   2. Complaints about an executive’s competency or performance

   Generally, the best way to handle complaints of type 1 is to get the complaining executive and the targeted executive in the room together and have them explain themselves. Usually, simply having this meeting will resolve the conflict and correct the behavior (if it was actually broken). Do not attempt to address behavioral issues without both executives in the room. Doing so will invite manipulation and politics.

   Complaints of type 2 are both more rare and more complex. If one of your executives summons the courage to complain about the competency of one of their peers, then there is a good chance that either the complainer or the targeted executive has a major problem. If you receive a type 2 complaint, you will generally have one of two reactions: a) they will be telling you something that you already know or b) they’ll be telling you shocking news.

   If they are telling you something that you already know, then the big news is that you have let the situation go too far. Whatever your reasons for attempting to rehabilitate the wayward executive, you have taken too long and now your organization has turned on the executive in question. You must resolve the situation quickly. Almost always, this means firing the executive. While I’ve seen executives improve their performance and skill sets, I’ve never seen one lose the support of the organization then regain it.

   On the other hand, if the complaint is new news, then you must immediately stop the conversation and make clear to the complaining executive that you in no way agree with their assessment. You do not want to cripple the other executive before you re-evaluate their performance. You do not want the complaint to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once you’ve shut down the conversation, you must quickly re-assess the employee in question. If you find that they are doing an excellent job, then you must figure out the complaining executive’s motivations and resolve them. Do not let an accusation of this magnitude fester. If you find that the employee is doing a poor job, there will be time to go back and get the complaining employee’s input, but you should be on a track to remove the poor performer at that point.

Closing Thought

As CEO, you must consider the systemic incentives that result from your words and actions. While it may feel good in the moment to be open, responsive and action-oriented, be careful not to encourage all the wrong things.

Download limewire free music and video to iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune

This guide is mainly about how to use limewire to download free music and video to computer, and then transfer the limewire free music and video to iPod, PSP, Zune and iPhone. If you think it's useful, please digg it to let more people know it. This guide will include five parts as follow:
How to download free limewire video and music to computer?
How to put limewire free movie to iPod?
How to transfer limewire free movie to Zune?
How to add limewire free movie to PSP?
How to import limewire free movie to iPhone?

You can download limewire software free from its official site: http://www.limewire.com If you want to download youtube video to iPod, Zune, PSP, you can refer to this step by step guide: http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/free-download-youtube-video.html

Part1. How to download free limewire video and music to computer?
1. Download Limewire software, it’s totally free. http://www.limewire.com/download/version.php.
2. Install and run the Limewire, Just type in some words that you may be interested in, choose the type, and press search, then you can get a lot of files to download.



Find the just file and click download to get it. You can also download multiple files in one time. After you download the file, then right-click on the download files and choose “explore”, then you can locate your download files on your computer. You can also click Option, then you can set the default downloaded directory. Click tool folder for saving your file.

Part2. How to put limewire free movie to iPod?
Because iPod can play only MP4 and H.264 video. If your download limewire videos are not compatible with iPod, you can use Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter to convert them to MP4 video for iPod Touch/Nano/Classic. (Don't use iTunes to convert limewire video, because most limewire videos are muxed video, muxed video converted by iTunes will lost sound, you can learn more info about this problem by referring Apple official document: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302588 )

Please follow these steps:
1. Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Movie Converter, you can Download the latest version for free from here: http://www.aiseesoft.com/ipod-movie-converter.html
2. Run Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter, click “Add” button to import your downloaded limewire videos, then click “Start” to start the conversion, the default setting works perfect.



3. After conversion finished, You can use iTunes to transfer the mp4 video to your iPod, here are the steps:
1). Open iTunes and click "File" to add your converted videos to iTunes library.
2). plug in your iPod to computer, then iTunes will detect your iPod as a device.
3). Select your iPod device on the left panel of iTunes, click "Movies" tab, check the videos you want to sync and click "Apply", done.



By the way, you can use another useful software – iPod to Computer Transfer, which is made by Aiseesoft. The best iPod to Computer Transfer to help you backup iPod video/audio files to computer, you don’t need to worry about losing anything. If you have any iPod/iPhone device, you can safely play your iPod/iPhone with this iPod Transfer software.
For More info, please visit: http://www.aiseesoft.com/ipod-to-computer-transfer.html

Part3. How to transfer limewire free movie to Zune PSP and iPhone?

How to extract MP3 Audio from DVD and Video files

This tutorial shows you how to convert DVD movies, Video and Audio files to MP3 format easily and quickly. It contains 4 parts:
Part 1. What's MP3?
Part 2. How to extract audio from DVD to MP3?
Part 3. How to extract audio from video to MP3?
Part 4. How to convert among all popular audio formats?

Part 1. What's MP3?
MP3 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer III. It is not a separate format, but a part of MPEG-1 video encoding format, developed by MPEG group in early 1990's. MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3) is a method to store good quality audio into small files by using psychoacoustics in order to get rid of the data from the audio that most of the humans can't hear.
Now MP3 is the most popular format for downloading and storing music. MP3 is supported by all computer systems, all partable players (iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Zune, PSP, PS3, Creative Zen, iRiver, Video Mobile Phone, PMP, Archos, etc.), all DVD players and some car stereos.
Part 2. How to extract audio from DVD to MP3?
Sometimes you may want to extract a certain beautiful section of music or dialog from your DVD video file and save them as MP3 files. So, How can you get the perfect output mp3 music as the originals from DVD movies for burning CD or playing on your Computer and portable players? Please follow this guide:
Software you need: Aiseesoft DVD Audio Ripper
Aiseesoft DVD Audio Ripper (Mac Version / Windows Version) is an ideal solution of ripping music DVD movies and converting DVD to MP3, M4A, WMV, AAC, AC3, WMA, WAV audio file with excellent quality. It lets you choose the audio of any chapters or titles to convert, select DVD audio track, trim the audio of your DVD title or chapter, and even merge the audio from selected titles or chapters into one file.
Note: The following is the DVD Audio Ripper for Mac step by step guide, by the way, the DVD Audio Ripper for Windows has the same function with the DVD Audio Ripper for Mac, so you can take the same steps to convert DVD to MP3.

Step-by-Step guide: How to convert DVD to MP3:
Step 1: download and install Aiseesoft DVD Audio Ripper for Mac, then run this program.



Step 2: load your DVD, choose any titles or chapters that you want to convert.
Step 3: Choose the output format (mp3). Set the output setting.
Step 4: Start the conversion after finishing the output settings. Now you have successfully converted you DVD movie to MP3 music, you can put them on you iPod, iPhone, or some other mp3 players and enjoy them on your pocket.

Part 3. How to extract audio from video to MP3?
How can you extract audio from video such as AVI, WMV, MP4 to MP3?
Software you need:Aiseesoft Audio Converter
Aiseesoft Audio Converter (Mac Version / Windows Version) can extract the audio track from your video files to popular audio formats such as MP3, WAV, AAC, AC3, M4A, etc with high sound quality. This Audio Converter provides you with very useful features such as trim audio, and merging added files into one file.
Note: Aiseesoft Audio Converter and Audio Converter for Mac has the same functions and similar interface, just for different OS (Windows PC and Mac OS X). We'll take Audio Converter for Mac as an example in this guide, the steps are the same as Audio Converter for Windows.

Step-by-Step guide: How to extract audio from video to MP3
Step 1: download and install Aiseesoft Audio Converter for Mac, run this program.



Step 2: Add Video files you want to convert to the program.
Step 3: Choose the output format (mp3).
Step 4: Click the “Start”button to start conversion.
This program completes conversions in seconds, and you can convert and play batches of files at a time.

Part 4. How to convert among all popular audio formats?
Sometimes it is necessary to convert one audio format to another because of some hardware/software restriction that the user comes up against or for some other reasons. Luckily, Aiseesoft Audio Converter has this function to suit for your requirements.
WAV to MP3: convert .wav music files to .mp3 format to reduce the size of the files by roughly a factor of 10.
WMA to MP3: A prime example of this is the Apple iPod which can’t play WMA files.
Software you need: Aiseesoft Audio Converter

Step-by-Step guide: How to convert wav, wma to MP3:
Step 1: Download and install Aiseesoft Audio Converter then run this program.
Step 2: Import the audio files you want to convert.
Step 3:Choose the output format (mp3).
Step 4: Start the conversion.

How to make iPhone Ringtones on Mac and Windows for FREE

I have many iPhone Ringtones on my iPhone, and I change them once one day. But I don’t buy them online. I just make iPhone Ringtones myself by Ringtone Maker Shareware. Actually, iPhone Ringtone maker is m4r Ringtone Maker, such as mp3 Ringtone Converter, WMA Ringtone Converter and WAV Ringtone Converter. There are also iPhone Ringtone Converter for Mac or iPhone Ringtone Creator Mac.

Here I will share how to make iPhone ringtones on Windows and Mac.
For Windows:
Firstly, you need download iPhone Ringtone Maker.



Step 1: Load Music
Click “Browse” on the right side of “Input File” to find your music that you want to make as your iPhone ringtone and click “Open” to load it into iPhone Ringtone shareware.
Step 2: Choose iPhone Ringtones
1. Drag your “Start Slider” to the beginning of the “Slider Bar” and “End Slider” to the end, then to listen your whole audio file.>br/>2. a. Drag the “Start Slider” to find where is the beginning of your ringtone and Drag “End Slider” to make an End of it.
b. Type the exact “Start Time” and “End Time” in the box to choose your ringtone.
3. Clickto pre-listen your ringtone.
4. If you want to put your ringtone directly on your iPhone, just plug your iPhone to your computer and check “Export to iPhone” (4). If you just want to put it on your computer, click “Browse” on the right of “Local Output Folder” to find a place to put it.
Step 3: Generate iPhone Ringtones After you have done the 3 steps, just click “Generate” to make your iPhone ringtones.

For Mac:
If you are a Mac user, you need to find iPhone Ringtone Converter for Mac or iPhone Ringtone Maker for Mac.
Here I have one for you, just download this iPhone Ringtone Maker for Mac.


The process of making your own iPhone ringtone on Mac is the same as on Windows.
Hope you enjoy this DIY process.

Cult of Less: Living Out of a Hard Drive

Let’s face it – digital files, applications and web services are replacing the need for many of the physical goods that pepper our homes, crowd our desks and fill our closets.

From online photo albums to virtual filing cabinets to digital musical instruments, hi-tech replacements are becoming ubiquitous.

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AP to Improve Obits of the Famous and Newsworthy

The Associated Press began an initiative this week to give more attention to obituaries, an area of content that is “enormously popular” with readers, said AP Senior Managing Editor Mike Oreskes.

As part of the upgrade, the AP has assigned Deputy National Editor Paula Froke to oversee its obit coverage of famous and noteworthy individuals.

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HP’s Legal Woes Mounting

Hewlett-Packard is having another bad day. Not only is the Justice Department demanding internal records in connection with allegations that Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) execs paid bribes in Russia to win a plum contract, but a Connecticut law firm has filed a shareholder suit against the company’s board for failing to perform its fiduciary duties during the series of events that culminated in the resignation of CEO Mark Hurd last week. Hurd is also named as a defendant, as is his interim successor, Catherine Lesjak.

How to Convert video and DVD to DV for DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie

This is a tutorial on how to convert video and DVD to DV for DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie.
Here are 2 parts:
Part 1, How to convert DVD to DV on Mac?
Part 2, How to convert videos such FLV to DVD on Mac?

Part 1, How to convert DVD to DV on Mac?
You need the following two software:
Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac
MPEG Streamclip
Step 1, Rip DVD to formats that are compatible with MPEG Streamclip
Many free Mac DVD Rippers don't support ripping encrypted DVD. We recommend you Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac (Intel Version, PPC Version) which can rip encrypted DVD to many other video formats such as MP4, FLV, MOV etc.
MPEG Streamclip Supports the following input formats: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AUD, AVR, VDR, PVR, TP0, TOD, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3.
You need to use DVD Ripper for Mac to rip DVD to any video formats such as MP4, MOV compatible with MPEG Streamclip. After conversion, you can find the converted files in the output folder.
Tutorial on how to use DVD Ripper for Mac

Step 2, use MPEG Streamclip to convert videos to DV
Click 'File'>'Open Flies' to Open the converted files in the output folder.
Click 'File'>'Export to DV' to convert videos to DV.
That’s all.
Now you have converted DVD to DV on Mac. Then you can put the DV to DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie to edit.



Part 2, How to convert videos such as FLV to DV on Mac?
Software you need:
Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac
MPEG Streamclip
Step 1, Convert videos to the formats compatible with MPEG Streamclip (Optional)
MPEG Streamclip Supports input formats: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AUD, AVR, VDR, PVR, TP0, TOD, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3.
If your videos such as FLV, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, XVID are not the above formats, you need to use Video Converter for Mac to convert your videos to MPEG Streamclip format.
Here is a tutorial on how to use Video Converter for Mac.
If your videos are compatible with MPEG Streamclip, please go to step 2.

Step 2, use MPEG Streamclip to convert videos to DV on Mac
Click “File”>”Open Flies” to Open the converted files in the output folder.
Click “File”>”Export to DV” to convert videos to DV.
That’s all. Now you are succeed in convert DVD to DV on Mac.
Then you can put the DV to DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie to edit.

How to convert MTS/M2TS video

MTS or M2TS format is the equivalent of h.264 or MPEG-4 AVC. It is a fairly new High Definition codec that provides greater compression than the regular MP4 and others. Those two High Definition format always be used on HD Camcorder, such as Sony, Canon or Panasonic.

As they are HD video, most of our video editor such as windows movie maker can not edit it directly. And also you can not upload it to youtube.com and share with your friends.

So you need to convert them into normal video format, such as wmv, mp4, avi and so on.

Here I know a really powerful MTS Converter and M2TS Converter
And the process of operation is really easy and fast.

Part 1: How to convert MTS video
Step 1: Load Video
Click "Add File" to load the video that you want.

Step 2: Choose Your Output Profile and Settings
From "Profile" drop-down list you can choose your output profile according to your need.
For example, if you have a iPod and you want to convert video for it, you need to choose "iPod" from the profile list and then it also provides the second chance to specify your iPod generation.
You can also click "setting" adjust the settings of your output video, such as "video/audio encoder", "Video/audio Bitrate", "Channels", "Resolution" and so on..

Step 3: Conversion
After you have done all the steps above you can click "Start" button to start your conversion.

Part 2: How to convert M2TS video

Step 1: Add File
Load your M2TS video.

Step 2: Choose Profile and Settings
Select your output profile according your need and adjust the settings of your output video if you like.
(the default setting works well)

Step 3: Start Conversion
Click "Start" to begin your conversion.

Here I also recommend you a really nice HD Video Converter, which can convert HD TS, HD MTS, HD M2TS, HD MPEG, HD WMV, HD MPG, HD MP4, QuickTime HD MOV, HD H.264, HD RM video, etc

How to Remove DRM protection from iTunes

iTunes is a champion of music, video downloading services. The user-friendly iTunes makes downloading music, videos quick and hassle-free; however, iTunes purchased songs and videos will not run on any other media player except for Apple products due to digital rights managements (DRM) which limit usages of devices or files.
This is a tutorial to remove DRM protection from iTunes. Then you can burn the iTunes videos to DVD and convert the iTunes videos to other format files.

Part 1, Remove DRM protection from iTunes Music using iTunes + CD-R/W
Probably the most widely accepted method for stripping purchased songs of DRM protection is burning tracks to a CD-R/W then re-importing back into the iTunes library. A method guaranteed to free you of DRM madness.
Create an iTunes playlist containing your purchased songs.
Insert a blank CD-R or a CD-RW.
Burn the playlist to disk.
Re-import the songs after a successful burn.
Delete the original purchased tracks.

Part 2, Remove DRM protection from iTunes using software
1. Remove DRM protection from iTunes music and videos for free on PC.
QTFairUse. It can Remove DRM protection from iTunes music and videos for free.
QTFairUse(.) for ITunes will allow you to convert protected m4p format files purchased in the iTunes Music Store to unprotected m4a files, playable everywhere. It supports fully automated conversion of all protected tracks in your iTunes library.
It will confirm whether you want to convert all the files in your library. Press 'y' and Enter to do that. Next it will ask if you want to skip already converted tracks (e.g. from the previous run). Press 'n' and Enter to overwrite them, 'y' and Enter to skip. After that, the script will begin conversion of all files in the library. Converted files will have m4a extension and will reside next to their m4p counterparts. To stop the conversion in process, press Ctrl-C in the console window. You can also close iTunes.
If you want to convert specific m4p files, pass their filenames as the commanding parameter. You can do that by e.g. dragging and dropping the files on QTFairUse6.exe. QTFairUse6 will convert them and exit. You can find converted files next to the originals, with m4a extension.

MyFairTunes. It can Remove DRM protection from iTunes music for free.

2. Remove DRM protection from iTunes music on Mac.
The software I introduce:
FairGame It is a freeware to Remove DRM protection from iTunes music on Mac OS X. FairGame(http://seidai.50webs.com/Seidai%20Software_files/FairGame.zip)will convert the songs you bought on the iTunes Store to an unprotected format (using iTunes default encoder) and keep all the original metadata, lyrics and artwork. FairGame doesn't do lossless DRM stripping. It re-encodes protected AAC files purchased in iTMS into unprotected AAC file using Apple's iMovie software.
What you MUST DO (only once) to get FairGame to work:
enable "Access for assistive devices" in the "Universal Access" system preference
select "Place clip in Movie Timeline" in the "Import" preference of iMovie HD
Then you can simply
select some songs in iTunes
click on the "Process songs" button
then don't touch anything and wait until it's done...(FairGame is scripting iMovie's interface to process the songs, don't interfere)



Tips:
If you want to burn the iTunes video to DVD, Just follow these steps:
1. Get the iTunes video to computer. You need to transfer the videos to iPod or iPhone and then use free iPod manager to get the videos from iPod or iPhone to computer.
Here is a tutorial: How to get videos from iPod and iPhone to Mac and PC for free?
2. Use freeware to burn the iTunes video to DVD. Here are the tutorials:
How to convert iTunes videos to DVD on PC for free?

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
iPod Video Converter for Mac
It can convert MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, RM, MPEG, ASF and FLV to iPod video with high output quality and various features.

Is Hollywood Suffering From Clip Overload?

Have you seen the seven or eight extended clips from “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”? Did you watch the seven or eight that were released in advance of “Despicable Me”? Did you watch the seven or eight released in the weeks prior to “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”?

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The Art of Printing Secrets

No government wants even its most junior secrets divulged. So last week, when the New York Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel published stories based on the 92,000-document Afghanistan stash obtained and distributed by Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, U.S. officials obviously deplored the coverage.

But after the stories ran, Assange and WikiLeaks became the target of official ire, not the publications. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, White House national security adviser James Jones, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen condemned the WikiLeaks founder. Perhaps the only hostile critic of the press–as opposed to WikiLeaks–was Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Meet Condé Nast’s Digital Gurus

More shoes dropping in the wake of Bob Sauerberg’s move into the No. 2 slot at Condé Nast last month: Sauerberg has created a new post of chief technology officer for the publisher and hired Viacom veteran Joe Simon to fill it. Simon will “lead all digital and technology operations and focus on innovation and the development of the next generation of digital products and services.” More fun to read about: Wired Creative Director Scott Dadich, who has become the company’s iPad frontman and who the New York Observer says is publishing’s new “it boy.” Hate words? You can hear and see him in this clip.

MKV file, MLV player, Free MKV Converter and MKV Burner on Mac OS

What is MKV file?
.MKV is a container format developed by Matroska. Matroska file types are .MKV for video (with subtitles and audio), .MKA for audio-only files and .MKS for subtitles only. The most common use of .MKV files is to store HD video files.It can hold different types of video and audio. For example, there might be an .avi file contained within the .MKV file. High Definition movies in 720 or 1080 pixel width format are often encoded and packaged as a Matroska format video with a .MKV file extension.

How to play MKV file s on Mac?
I recommend trying either MPlayer OS X or VLC Media Player. They are all free.
These excellent and free multimedia players can tackle many of the video formats unknown to QuickTime. They contain a decoder to decode the .MKV files. They will also play many of the formats you will find inside the .MKV file.
How to convert MKV to DVD, MP4, AVI, etc on Mac for free?
I recommend VisualHub to convert MKV to MP4, AVI, etc on Mac. It can convert MKV to iPod Nano, convert MKV to iPod Classic, convert MKV to iPod touch , convert MKV to iPhone, convert MKV to Apple TV, convert MKV to Xbox 360, convert MKV to PSP, convert MKV to PS3, AVI, convert MKV to MP4, convert MKV to MPEG, convert MKV to Flash, convert MKV to WMV and convert MKV to DVD.
Techspanion (The developer of VisualHub) has closed shop and after an outcry from fans, VisualHub, the popular video converter on Mac OS X have now gone open source. It has got new name Film Redux. You can download its open source and built it by yourself. Here is a tutorial: How to build iSquint and VisualHub?



Step 1, Run Film Redux (VisualHub)
Step2, Load MKV videos
Insert your MKV files from your Mac .Click the Add files button to load your MKV videos.
Step3, Convert MKV to MP4, AVI, iPod, etc.
Here is the list of the formats that VisualHub can convert MKV
They are iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iPod touch , iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox 360, PSP, PS3, AVI, MP4, Quicktime, MPEG, Flash, WMV. Choose the format you want to convert MKV to and click Start.



That’s all. Now, we have converted MKV to iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iPod touch , iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox 360, PSP, PS3, AVI, MP4, Quicktime, MPEG, Flash, WMV.
How to convert DVD to MKV on Mac for free?
I recommend you use Handbrake to you to convert DVD to MKV on Mac . HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter. It can convert DVD to MKV on Mac eaisly and for free.
Step 1, Download and Install Handbake
Download the free program Handbrake. Check to see if your Mac has the system requirements; click on the apple icon in the top left corner and About this Mac. Then install HandBrake.



Step 2, Run it and insert DVD.
Select your favorite DVD disk and put it in the disk drive. Then run HandBrake and click Detected Volume to choose source. Click Open and you will be able to see many titles included in this DVD disk. Choose the longest title if this is a movie DVD, or choose your favorite chapter if this is an episode.
Step 3, Select Output setting
Select MKV files as output format and select other settings such as video quality, audio track, Audio Sample Rate, bitrate, Picture Settings, etc.

Step 4, Rip DVD to MKV on Mac
Check all settings and click Rip. A progress bar will show its ripping speed; depends on many factors like speed of Mac, filesize, etc.
That’s all. We have converted DVD to MKV for free now.
Note: Handbrake can not rip encrypted DVD movies. If you want to rip encrypted DVD movies, you can use this DVD Ripper for Mac. You can also use Mac the ripper which is free.

iPod Compatible Video

This article is divided into four parts separately introduce what is iPod Compatible Video, which video format is better for Apple iPod Video, is my video iPod compatible and how to make the video compatible with your iPod.

Part One: What is iPod Compatible Video?
Part Two: Which video format is better for Apple iPod video?
Part Three: Is My Video iPod Compatible?
Part Four: How to make the video compatible with your iPod?

Part One: What is iPod Compatible Video?
Firstly, I will introduce you what is iPod Compatible Video, iPod Nano Compatible Video such as iPod Video MP4, iPod Video H 264, the specifications page lists the following:
Apple iPod video specifications from their official website:
H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats;
MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.

That’s a little confusing, but there’s only a few numbers you’ll need to remember for each format.

The highest video bitrate with the H.264 codec is 768 kilobits per second. The biggest picture size for your H.264 movie is 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, the exact dimensions of your iPod’s screen. Your iPod can play H.264 video at framerates up to 30 frames per second. Every one of the applications that we’ll be using encodes with the Baseline Profile. Your audio needs to be encoded as AAC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, and it can be in either stereo or mono. As long as you follow all the guidelines, your movie can be a QuickTime movie or an MPEG-4 movie file.

Your other option, MPEG-4 video, supports a much higher bitrate than H.264 video - 2,500 kilobits per second. Using higher bitrates will also create larger files. The result: you’ll have less space for additional songs and movies. The biggest picture size for your MPEG-4 video is 480 pixels wide by 480 pixels high - three times as many pixels as your iPod’s screen is capable of displaying. Your iPod will shrink the picture proportionally so that everything fits on the screen. Again, the iPod can play videos up to 30 frames per second and our audio and file format options are the same as H.264 video.

Part Two: Which video format is better for Apple iPod video?
That’s a tough question. H.264 is arguably better because it offers high quality and a much smaller file size when compared to MPEG-4. However, both formats look quite good when you encode your video at the higher supported video settings. One thing that most people will agree on is that H.264 video takes longer to encode than standard MPEG-4. This means that converting a two hour movie to iPod video can take considerably longer using the H.264 codec (especially with QuickTime Pro’s pokey Export: Movie to iPod video option). Still, I prefer the H.264 codec in most instances.

Part Three: Is My Video iPod Compatible?
Some of the video files that you download from the web or from file sharing networks like BitTorrent may be iPod compatible - even if they’re not marked as such.

The easiest way to determine whether a video can be played on your iPod is to open the file in QuickTime and select Window: Show Movie Info. In most cases your video should be iPod-ready if the format is H.264 or MPEG-4, the audio is AAC, and the size of your video is 320 x 240 (or smaller) for H.264 or 480 x 480 (or smaller) for MPEG-4. Also, look at the data rate and make sure it’s not over 900 kbits/sec for H.264 or 2600 kbits/sec for MPEG-4.

Part Four: How to make the video compatible with your iPod?
If you have QuickTime Pro ($30 and worth every penny) or the latest version of iTunes (free!), this is, by far, the easiest conversion that we’ll talk about.

In iTunes, after you’ve added your video to the library, right click it. Select Convert Selection for iPod. iTunes will let you know if your video is already in the correct format. If it’s not, your video will slowly be converted to an H.264 video.

UPDATE: I’ve heard several complaints of iTunes creating iPod videos without sound. You should probably avoid using iTunes to convert your videos.

In QuickTime Pro, open your movie and, in the file menu, select Export… and in the export drop-down, select Movie to iPod (320 x 240) and click Save. QuickTime will create an optimized H.264 video with AAC audio.

You may want to go pour yourself a cup of tea or take a nap. If your file is large, QuickTime’s slow conversion process can take several hours.

If you’re an inexperienced user, I recommend using QuickTime Pro or iTunes because they’re absolutely foolproof. However there are other much faster, more powerful applications for converting your videos. Read on!

Don’t have QuickTime Pro? Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter!
Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter supports so comprehensive video formats including converting MPG, MPEG, MPEG2, VOB, MP4, M4V, RM, RMVB, WMV, ASF, MKV, TS, MPV, AVI, 3GP,3G2, FLV, MPV, MOD, TOD to iPod Video MP4, iPod Video H 264. You can customize your own output video by the settings function. For example, if you want a high quality video you can raise the values of Video Biterate, Audio Biterate and Audio Sample Rate, if you want a smaller file you can reduce the value.



If you want to make your DVD compatible with your iPod and even transfer your iPod video to Computer, you can choose Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite which is an all-in-one solution to convert DVD to iPod Video MP4, iPod Video H 264 and convert video to iPod Video MP4, iPod Video H 264. Moreover, it can transfer video from iPod to computer. You don’t need to worry about losing anything.
For Mac user, you can choose Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac and Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite for Mac.

How to Convert video and DVD to DV for DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie

This is a tutorial on how to convert video and DVD to DV for DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie.
Here are 2 parts:
Part 1, How to convert DVD to DV on Mac?
Part 2, How to convert videos such FLV to DVD on Mac?

Part 1, How to convert DVD to DV on Mac?
You need the following two software:
Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac
MPEG Streamclip
Step 1, Rip DVD to formats that are compatible with MPEG Streamclip
Many free Mac DVD Rippers don't support ripping encrypted DVD. We recommend you Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac (Intel Version, PPC Version) which can rip encrypted DVD to many other video formats such as MP4, FLV, MOV etc.
MPEG Streamclip Supports the following input formats: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AUD, AVR, VDR, PVR, TP0, TOD, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3.
You need to use DVD Ripper for Mac to rip DVD to any video formats such as MP4, MOV compatible with MPEG Streamclip. After conversion, you can find the converted files in the output folder.
Tutorial on how to use DVD Ripper for Mac

Step 2, use MPEG Streamclip to convert videos to DV
Click 'File'>'Open Flies' to Open the converted files in the output folder.
Click 'File'>'Export to DV' to convert videos to DV.
That’s all.
Now you have converted DVD to DV on Mac. Then you can put the DV to DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie to edit.



Part 2, How to convert videos such as FLV to DV on Mac?
Software you need:
Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac
MPEG Streamclip
Step 1, Convert videos to the formats compatible with MPEG Streamclip (Optional)
MPEG Streamclip Supports input formats: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AUD, AVR, VDR, PVR, TP0, TOD, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3.
If your videos such as FLV, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, XVID are not the above formats, you need to use Video Converter for Mac to convert your videos to MPEG Streamclip format.
Here is a tutorial on how to use Video Converter for Mac.
If your videos are compatible with MPEG Streamclip, please go to step 2.

Step 2, use MPEG Streamclip to convert videos to DV on Mac
Click “File”>”Open Flies” to Open the converted files in the output folder.
Click “File”>”Export to DV” to convert videos to DV.
That’s all. Now you are succeed in convert DVD to DV on Mac.
Then you can put the DV to DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie to edit.

Microsoft to Mount Antitrust Challenge to Google-Yahoo Japan Deal

So guess what Microsoft thinks of Yahoo Japan’s decision to swap it out for Google as main search partner?

Yeah, not too happy about it. And it’s going to do all that it can to thwart the deal. “We plan to present evidence to the Japanese FTC explaining why we believe that this deal is substantially more harmful to competition than Google’s deal with Yahoo in 2008 that the DOJ found to be illegal,” the company said in a statement issued Friday afternoon.

Not all that surprising given the situation and Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith’s lambasting of the deal last week. “This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google’s deal with Yahoo in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal,” he said. “The 2008 deal would have locked up 90 percent of paid search advertising. This deal gives Google virtually 100 percent of all searches in Japan, both paid and unpaid. It means there will be no search competition in Japan and that Google will end up controlling all personal search information for all Japanese consumers and businesses.”

Perhaps, but does that even matter since the Japan Fair Trade Commission has already publicly blessed the deal? Hard to imagine the JFTC backing away from that endorsement without losing face.