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Read this if you have a PayPal account and don’t like receiving advertising emails

Read this if you have a PayPal account and don’t like receiving advertising emails

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If you have a PayPal account you may be receiving emails from PayPal partners.  Here is how to stop it.  BTW, I was alerted to this from PayPal themselves.  I decided to actually read their email titled PayPal Annual Privacy and Error Resolution Notice.

If you do not want PayPal to share your personal information with eBay companies for the purpose of marketing their products or with other financial institutions for the purpose of marketing our jointly offered products to you, please log in to your account and uncheck the box in the Information Sharing section of the Notifications and Information Sharing page. This page can be accessed by going to the Profile subtab under the My Account tab.

Personally, I think it should be criminal to automatically opt in someone and require them to jump through hoops to opt-out.

Lake Travis Parents

Lake Travis Parents

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I’ve recently spoken to several parents about their kids school schedule because we were wanting to make some adjustments to Cassidy’s.  It helps to know the experience of other parents with kids in LTISD, especially if they have older kids!   I got some great insights and information from friends which motivated me to setup a blog to help us share our experiences and offer advice.  Lake Travis Parents is now live and I invite everyone to visit, subscribe to it (via RSS) and to register so that you can be a part of the discussion.  You don’t even HAVE to be a Lake Travis parent!  Registration is not required to post comments.  Click here to check it out.

Facebook Places

Facebook Places

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This week,  Facebook opted everyone into a new feature they call Places.  It allows you to easily post to your wall where you are. It also allows others to post that they saw you at a particular location.  I’m recommending you Opt-Out of this feature and I have created this webpage to show you how.  If you’re wondering why this is a bad idea, check out this PleaseRobMe website.

Recommended HD Render options for Sony Vegas

Recommended HD Render options for Sony Vegas

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I’ve been struggling to find the best settings to use to save my edited videos.  My video camera takes 1280×720 HD footage and I edit with  Sony Vegas.  There are many formats to choose from and I want  a balance of low disk usage and high quality.  I  found this post and the settings recommend appear to be work well.  After selecting Sony AVC I select the “Internet 16:9 HD 30p template and verify the settings as described (except Audio  format is ACC).

File>Render As>
Save as type “Sony AVC”
Click “Custom”
Project Tab:
Video Rendering Quality: Best
Video Tab:
Format: AVC
Frame Size: Custom
Width: 1280 Height: 720
“Uncheck” Allow source to adjust frame size
Profile: Main
Entropy Encoding: CABAC

“Uncheck” Allow source to adjust frame rate
Field Order: None (Progressive)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0000
Bitrate (bps): I recommend anywhere from 4,000,000 to 6,000,000 for Vimeo. Only go below for longer videos.

Audio Tab:
Format: AVC
Sample Rate: 48,000 Hz
Bit Rate: 128,000

System Tab:
Format: MP4

RESULT: quality indistinguishable from the original. and if you wanna push it even further, add a ‘light shrapening’ effect to your footage, and the outcome will be EVEN BETTER than your original MTS file quality.

SIZE you ask? between 45 to 60% of the original MTS size.

The output format is the perfectly universal and usable MP4.

Sanyo Xacti HD VPC-ZH1R Video Camera

Sanyo Xacti HD VPC-ZH1R Video Camera

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I bought a new HD video camera this summer to replace my Canon DV that was dieing a slow death.  I LOVE the Sanyo camera I got and the bundle that included a nice case, a 1g memory card, an EXTRA battery, and a HDMI cable,  all for under $200.  $180 to be exact.  I ordered it from Best Buy online.  Fry’s had it but it was over $200.  The camera shoots 1280×720 30fps.  That’s the introductory size of HD, most camera’s now offer 1280 x 1080.  I’m happy with 1280×720 and it will help with file sizes of the video.  The camera has a nice 3″ LCD screen and 30x OPTICAL zoom!  It also has a photo taking mode.

Here is some sample footage that shows you the powerful 30x zoom:

Salt (2010)

Salt (2010)

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Salt *****. 3.7.4.  I LOVED this movie.   Took all 3 kids this afternoon for Cassidy’s birthday.   I’ve never been a HUGE fan of Angelina Jolie but I really liked her in this movie.  The movie is an action packed thriller with a good plot.  The action is over the top just like every action flick now a days.  There was no gratuitous graphic violence.   Very little bad language.  And no sex.  Goes to show you can make a terrific action  movie without that  stuff.   I thought it had a great ending and I can’t remember ever thinking before a movie was over that I couldn’t wait for the sequel.

InkLInk

InkLInk

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Played InkLink with my kids last night.  Still one of the best free online games EVER.  There is not a whole lot of activity, which is just fine with us because we are happy to have a private room to play in.  You can find it at shockwave.com.  It’s basically online Pictionary