The Open Source Ministry Blog

I had to convert a video to FLV to play on a Flash Video Player, but I was on a computer where I couldn’t just install a regular converter to get a WMV (for Windows Media Player 9) to become a FLV.

Instead I used a simple little trick with Youtube.com. REgister for an account and then upload your video. Once you video has been uploaded and processes (this may take a while and seemed to take longer on my first video even though it was short) you can access its link.

Let’s go for an example.

Start off with the video you want to use, perhaps the Granger Community Church Volunteer Appreciation.

Once it is loaded do a View Source on the page (typically by right clicking on the page and selecting “View Source”) and search inside the file for the letters “swf”.

This will bring you to a line with the following: “/player.swf?video_id=niDQVULGZcY&l=477&t=OEgsToPDskJ9Tcx_4TKhuIiMxGWp-X5k

Highlight everything after video_id= until you reach the &s= (you can actually include everyting up to the ” and take in the full end of the URL, but that is unnecessary). Copy that for later pasting in the address bar.
YouTube has left their video handling php file available so you can link to it from outside. Just put the file address together with the video ID and you get

http://youtube.com/get_video.php?video_id=
niDQVULGZcY&l=477&t=OEgsToPDskJ9Tcx_4TKhuIiMxGWp-X5k

(Broken to fit in the blog better)

When you save it to your computer you have an actual working flv file.

Unfortunately the video I did had some audio/video sync problems so we ended up just using the wmv for now.

I guess this is one of those things that we would rather not think about, but one day I may need this link. Reviving a Hard Drive.

Freezing seems to be the top suggestion, along with hitting it. Then of course there are the software suggestions.

I have used my USB 2 to IDE cable to bring up some stubborn drives. Some that were beyond that got little more than a few technical taps if nothing of real value was going to be lost.

My last personal hard drive issue was actually just a cry for affection from my computer.

Talk about a problem that every network is in danger of facing: The VLAN. Our network is straining to the point where a flat setup just is not going to work much longer.

It seems as though almost everything needs an IP. I use 35 of them right now for cameras, the maglocks, and the computers that manage them. Toss in the servers, IP printers, wireless access points, and 60 users and 10.1.1.x gets awfully crowded. I plugged in a spare camera for some testing and found that its IP was being used by another system so either take the other offline and change the camera settings or reset to factory and start from scratch.
Now we are adding in the off-site campus and integrating the network at the school.

On top of that we are going VOIP with VoxIP.

I have been looking at Jon Edmiston’s VLANing post for some inspiration, but I am wondering how other churches handle this. This is one of those things we want to do the right way first time.

Not that there is any chance of things getting messed up and ministry staff hunting us down when the connection has problems. THey wouldn’t do that, they are too afraid we will shut off their iTunes.

One thing I dislike about doing network changes at the church is the lack of potential downtime. We have people in the building 105 hours per week, the office is used 7 days a week. The only only time it is unlikely for someone to need access to a network resource is in the middle of the night or on a holiday.

St. Cloud, FL has a free Wi-Fi network. Sure, that may not sound exciting to everyone, but considering that I used to live right outside of St. Cloud and did my shopping and dating at the St. Cloud Wal-Mart (the lawn and garden section is so romantic in the evening) it did catch my attention.

St. Cloud seemed like a very boring place to me. It was what Kissimmee would have been if Walt Disney World had not set up just a few miles away. But now I hear that you can surf Wi-Fi for free on the shores of lake Tohopekaliga. instead of just sitting there swatting mosquitos.

I would love to have a free Wi-Fi network along the main streets where I live now. It would keep me from having to eat at Krystal so much. I love their free wireless internet logo. They use (|] since it looks like their tiny square hamburgers made from steamed buns and a meat like substance. It would be great to pull out my laptop and have internet right there when waiting in a parking lot. Even better to have an umpc in hand and surfing the net in the store.

I would not rely on it in my home, however, not as long as I could afford something more dedicated. Especially since I feel like the T1s at the church are too slow sometimes.

I would also fear sitting on an open network where anyone could tap in and seek out my computer from anywhere in town. Sure, cable internet is not as secure as DSL, but it seems better than Wi-Fi.

Then what about the issue of people becoming open bridges between our netowrk and the city’s network.

Am I paranoid? Does this whole post sound like I need to just go to bed and then wake up in the morning and watch the future come my way?