For quite some time, FFDShow’s XviD thumbnail generation has stopped working on my main box. I first realized this when I uninstalled the XviD codec because it was crashing explorer whenever it was trying to create thumbnails for what I can only assume to be faulty formatted XviD files. After unistalling the XviD codec, explorer no longer crashed, but it would no longer create thumbnails for XviD files. I thought maybe uninstalling the XviD codec removed something FFDShow installed, so I reinstalled FFDShow, checked the reset all settings box and tried again. I even rebooted my machine just because it said something similar to “To complete the setup, you must restart the computer.” Anyway, XviD thumbnail generation still didn’t come back. I even logged into my administrator account (since I’m running as a non-admin user for my default account) to see if it could be something related to being an administrator. That didn’t fix it either.
I actually resorted back to installing the XviD codec so thumbnail generation would work and avoided directories I knew which would crash on me.
Anyway, after Ryan brought up the issue a few days ago, I decided to to get to the bottom of this once and for all. Once again, I uninstalled the XviD codec and installed the latest FFDShow. And it still didn’t work. I tried forcing FFDShow to decode every codec possible in the list provided. That didn’t work either, which I then reverted.
Finally, I remember these 2 new pages in setup that asked for a whitelist of programs that FFDShow should only be allowed to be used in. I remember, I had to add oblivion.exe and morrowind.exe before to the do not use FFDShow in list. I went into the Video Decoder Configuration and in “Info & Debug”, after the “Don’t use ffdshow in:” line, there was a “Use ffdshow only in:” line. I was like, this wasn’t here before… I check the list and indeed, explorer.exe was not listed in there and the checkbox was enabled. I added “explorer.exe” and guess what… my thumbnail generation for XviD files via FFDShow is working!
Random Crap:
GDC: LittleBigPlanet ‘Full Demo Run’ (from MS newsgroup) – MUST SEE demo of new, amazing PS3 game. I have to say, that game looks rather cool and fun. Not enough to get me to buy a PS3 though. Kudos for those game developers! In the same thread, someone posted La réalité augmentée (Augmenting Reality) which I was totally amazed with what it could do. You have to see their live demonstration. Do note, this is in real time and not post-processed.
Piotr Fox Wysocki – The Artist himself (from Digg) – A very realistic human facial 3d rendering.
Electricman2HS (from Digg) – a very fun stick figure fighting game. Reminds me of Xiao Xiao. I beat all x levels on Easy, but it was an amusing 30 minutes.
Fable 2 Dog Demo (from Digg) – With Fable 2 just around the corner, they’ve introduced a new aspect to the game, which is your dog. Really cool. Reminds me of the level of interactivity with your pet in Nintendogs. The dog’s awfully cute. I wonder if I could choose which breed it is.
Stereo Eclipse (from Digg) – “What an extraordinary view,” says Lika Guhathakurta, STEREO Program Scientist at NASA headquarters. The fantastically-colored star is our own sun as STEREO sees it in four wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light. The black disk is the Moon. “We caught a lunar transit of the sun,” she explains. The stereo eclipse looks like an eye ball that needs some eye drops.
Wonder Woman, Your Car Is Ready… (from Digg) – Computer-generated outline? Nope. It’s real. Dubbed “Modern Japanese Classic,” this 1:1 Subaru Impreza wire frame sculpture is the work of British artist Benedict Radcliffe. Apparently local traffic cops weren’t pleased that the art was parked outside of the gallery on the street, as over the course of a few days, it was issued a few parking tickets! The marilyn-bmw-hood.jpgpiece was recently displayed as part of a larger Radcliffe show at the Paul Smith Gallery in Mayfair last month, and we’re sorry we missed it. I was thinking and thinking… where’s the car? All the images looked like there was a computer outline of a car on them. However, upon closer inspection, that is really a frame and not CG.
Wipe out a single memory (from Digg) – Drug can clear away one fearful memory while leaving another intact. A single, specific memory has been wiped from the brains of rats, leaving other recollections intact. Neat! This can totally be like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
Tremendous Symbiosis of Progress and Nature (from Digg) – The Stockholm Metro, or Stockholms tunnelbana, is the metro system in Stockholm, Sweden. The system has three main lines and one hundred stations, 47 of which are subterranean and 53 are aboveground (surface and elevated) stations. This subway station is totally awesome!!!
The Best Auteur You Never Saw (from FuzzyWuzzy) – Svankmajer has spent much of the past 40 years working in the relative cinematic obscurity of Prague, his hometown, where he has handcrafted 32 wondrously bizarre, funny and deeply disturbing films. Though he remains the most anonymous of the world’s essential filmmakers, Svankmajer’s also one of the more influential: Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and David Cronenberg are all students of what might be called the Svankmajer School of the Grotesque. Those moving meat are rather creepy. Interesting film though.
OK kids, colour in a gangsta… (from Angelus) – FURIOUS parents last night demanded that a colouring book for kids showing gun-toting rappers should be taken off the shelves. The 30-page Gangsta Rap book, which has a loaded pistol on its cover, is on sale at Topshop for £6.
The extreme end of stubbornness (from Derek) – Developers came and bought up all the houses around these guys. They refused. The bulldozers came anyways. Apparently the family has government connections, and is not expected to be forced out. According to one of the commenters:
This is in Chongqing, China.
The problem was this. The owner of the house would not leave without getting paid a large sum of money, how much? 20,000,000RMB, that’s about $2mil. No one is living in there, but the owner would not move unless the money is paid. And house owner claims to have connections with the officials, and dares anyone who destroys his house.
http://news.cq.soufun.com/2007-03-11/975176.htm
Throughout IRAN (from Digg) – This is a gallery intended to show views of other side of Iran, different with what you may have seen in the media. And now after about 4 month, this gallery obtains more than 100,000 hits, locates among top popular galleries in 90 days period and the most importantly, attracts attention of those nice people who visits, leaves COMMENT and VOTE; I appreciate all these supports. This encourage me to keep this Gallery live with new views of my country, as long as I can take picture. (12.03.07)
Hope to enjoy it. I have to say, Iran is a lot more beautiful than I had imagined.
Ants test nonviolence of Buddhist monks – Buddhist monks, who are bound by faith to nonviolence, are grappling with how to rid a temple of a severe ant infestation without killing the insects. I think leaving a trail of coke to another temple would work. ;p
