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Small Utilities – The Right Tool for the Right Job

The phrase “The right tool for the right job” applies to software as well as working on projects around the house. If you’ve ever tried to take a nail out with pliers instead of the back end of a good hammer or tried to open a can with a knife instead of a can opener you can appreciate this.

I had to do some quick video edits recently and I was hard pressed to find something built into the Windows Media Player that made this as simple as “Save As”. The kind of edits I’m talking about are just as simple as saving out a portion of the time code as a separate movie.

If you look around for a little bit you will find a Windows utility called Windows Media Encoder which includes Media Encoder, File Editor, Profile Editor and Stream Editor. The File Editor portion of this is exactly the tool I was looking for. A really simple tool to save out portions of a WMV file.

The question that came to mind after I used the tool was,  Why isn’t this part of the Windows Media install?

Posted by Tom Risse | Filed in Uncategorized | No Comments »

(mt) Media Temple Relocation

We’re big on standardization because it helps us to squeeze every last drop of productivity from each task that we complete. Naturally, hosting providers are a prime opportunity for process improvements and we’ve been reluctant to switch hosting providers until there’s a really solid set of benefits that we’ll see when working on website maintenance tasks for our clients.

Some of the providers we’ve used in the past include: Sirius, Best Internet, Interland, Hostway, and Dreamhost. All of these providers have served their purposes well and depending on the time period, some were stellar and others were less so.

Our newest hosting provider is (mt) Media Temple and we’ve decided to go with their (dv) Dedicated-Virtual plan for our own site as well as our client’s sites.

We’re switching to (mt) because they have built a solid reputation as a stable provider with great support, a great control panel (Account Center), Plesk for hosting control (love it or hate it), access to a lot of developer tools, including make, curl, subversion (svn), and root access if you really think you need it.

The migration to Media Temple has been smooth thus far.  We evaluated the (gs) Grid-Service plan and although the control panel is really nice we opted for the Dedicated-Virtual plan because the database access was available via localhost.  This detail makes a big difference for WordPress and Drupal based sites and is well worth the extra expense. A number of our client sites have been relocated already and we’re close to completing the transfer of all out internal sites to Media Temple as well.

Previously we had been recommending DreamHost, I love their control panel, the ability to configure independent multi-site environments with sandboxed user permissions, access to svn binaries via ssh for deployment and rollbacks. Unfortunately, their lack of telephone support (I’m still waiting for a callback from months ago), poor reputation, and loosely maintained status blog eventually became deal-breakers.

I’ve noticed that we’re in good company at Media Temple and look forward to a long productive stay at our new hosting provider.

Posted by Paul J. Martinez | Filed in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

That’s Cause it’s Good Sh%$ Man!

So, here it is at long last – the Flickerblog (sorry, Paul). So why does Flickerbox want to blog? Will anyone even care to read the missives of 9 media-obsessed, technology-driven, pop culture-addicted, BG-watching, fun-loving (trite, but true) individuals who have found a shared love of bringing smart, useful online marketing solutions to companies who need them? Sounds like a modern-day Robin Hood tale, but really, it’s just about finding ideas that interest us and work that we’re good at, and sharing with others (for a small fee, of course).

Blogging, says Wikipedia – a blog is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

So what’s our goal, Flickerbloggers? Flickerbox news? Social commentary? A shallow marketing device? Diary of some madmen? Me, I like to share. I’ve always been a sharer, a giver. Most of the time, I’m sharing my time, my energy, my love, and the constant radio running through my head. But maybe this time I’m being selfish – maybe I think if I share some of the teensy pearls of wisdom I’ve picked up over the years (as it relates specifically to multimedia production, of course), and maybe if somebody reads it, and maybe if that somebody is a client or client-to-be, then maybe it will make my job just a little bit easier. Or maybe I think that clients-to-be will be impressed by our vast knowledge and assured by our many relevant experiences, made obvious by the content we put out here, and will seek us out. Or maybe blogging before bed quiets the voices and helps me sleep better at night. Whatever it is, i’m willing to give it a shot.

What about you guys?

Posted by Aretoula Hickson | Filed in Uncategorized | No Comments »