Blog | mechdrew

I’ve know about Adium for a while. Adium allows you to have an instant message (IM) chat with most major chat clients such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger. If you are familiar with Trillian you have a good idea what Adium is all about. Another cool feature about Adium is it can also connect to Facebook Chat and, in the latest beta releases, can update and track your Twitter account. It’s kind of like a Swiss army knife for instant messaging.

I just barely got back into the craze of online chat. Years ago my family and I used Yahoo! Messenger to keep in touch with my brother while he served in Iraq. We were on dial-up trying to video chat, but it worked okay. Since then I haven’t had much use for instant messaging, but recently I found it useful for collaborating and tech support. Since I started using Twitter yesterday (yes, yesterday) I found the beta helpful for tweeting from the desktop without needing another app or browser window open. The beta is really stable, so if you want to enable Twitter support visit the Adium Beta page to download the latest release. And remember: it’s free!

So here goes my attempt at a recurring feature, Tech-on-the-Cheap. Either save money or get more bang for you buck out of today’s (and yesterday’s) technology.

One of my recent passions has been the most low-tech innovation of the past three years: netbooks. In theory, netbooks should never have been successful: paying close to the same price as a normal laptop for inferior hardware? The old me would have said, “No way, Jose,” but after actually owning one for a year and becoming immersed in the the Mac netbook scene I have a whole new understanding and appreciation of function-over-specs.

One huge problem with netbooks is that they really are limited in their modern capabilities. For example: Adobe’s Flash Player software, commonly used on YouTube and online games, is just barely functional on most netbooks. Soon newer models with new processors and video technologies will lure a lot of current netbooks to ditch their old model for an upgrade.

So what’s a person to do with an underused netbook? Here’s a few ideas to keep you netbook in practical use beyond just the normal e-mail and web browsing.

1. Portable Video Player
You know those little portable DVD players that you can buy at most retailers? They are usually junk unless you start getting into the $150+ range. By that point you can almost pay for a decently-discounted netbook! So why not make your netbook a non-DVD video player? Continue reading

I noted in my post for Handbrake that it lacked the ability to convert a video file into a DVD. While this would normally be a non-issue since I watch my personal videos directly on my computer, it’s nice to be able to share some videos with others where a computer isn’t the optimal viewing device.

That’s where VideoVangelist kicks in. It’s really simple: either drag-and-drop or use the Open menu to select you video(s), select you preferred output (there are tons of presets including iPod, Xbox 360, PS3, Flash, and of course DVD) and then just press Start. If there are more advanced features, it will prompt you when you enter the file name. It’s really nice that you can have it either just create the VIDEO_TS files, create a burnable ISO, or just have it burn the DVD automatically. The flexibility of the software is what makes it amazing.

There are only two flaws I find with the program. First, it’s Mac-only, so there’s no way I could use it on Windows or Linux. Second, if I want to get really technical with the settings, some of the advanced settings that Handbrake provides aren’t there.

Overall, I love VideoVangelist. Oh, I almost forgot- it’s totally free, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

Update 5 December 2009: As Leeward mentioned in the comments, it looks like Whimsplucky Software, the developer of VideoVangelist, has closed its doors. You can still get the software, now at the updated Download.com link, but there will not be any updates coming to this application.