Today Was A Good Day

Today was a work day. And it was a good day. I finally got some movies ripped to my iPod Touch. I started with Good Will Hunting and Batman Begins. My first try - a couple days ago was to use Handbrake. Handbrake is supposed to be software that will rip a DVD right into a file that can be loaded onto your iPod. I could never get it to work. The audio was fine, but the video was all broken up. After three tries I gave up. I did some more research and I found out that Handbrake works better on a Mac. I use a PC so that is no good. I finally found another way to rip the files. Here is the link: http://www.anders.com/guides/convert/video/iPod/windows.html. The software has been updated so the screen shots are not exact, and it takes HOURS to get everything done. The files end up being HUGE. Both movies are about 2GB. The picture is crisp and gorgeous. Better than TV or a movie theatre. If you want to rip movies to your iPod - you should do it, it is pretty easy. After I got that done I went to work, which with the Europe conference coming up things are a bit crazy for me, which is good, I like the end rush excitement. Many things to get done before I go. I fly next Wednesday and am gone for 9 days. I, of course, will be blogging the whole thing and will be reviving "Things Overheard At Catalyst," everyone's favorite feature when I travel.
Jordan had an Orthodontist appointment today to, so I took him. That was fun and there was good stuff there too, but Diana wants to announce that, so keep checking her blog for a MAJOR family announcement.
If you need help converting DVDs for your iPod, give me a shout-out.

For my next trick

This video is for my wife. So when she checks the blog next she will see some fun stuff.


So the blackberry enterprise server at work has been down. I haven't been getting work email for the past two days. It is a totally different feeling now. I will be away from my computer and when I get back I will have 7 emails and be like - "when the heck did I get these?" I don't like it. I have gotten so used to having my email when I need it. Actually, not when I NEED it, but when I WANT it. And I want it as soon as it is sent to ME! If it is not real-time it is too slow.

Yesterday at work I gave a presentation during the company meeting on collaboration. It was an overview of what I spent the first three months of the year on. Basically, I took SharePoint sites that had multiple lists and built filtered views into the lists. I created things like rolling date filters and status filters. I then took lists from other sites and imported them into the pages to give our service directors a consolidated view of everything that they need to keep track of. After that was done I built automated email reminders for the lists. These reminders have to go to analysts and consultants and when items are past due the reminders need to go to the service director as well. It is pretty amazing stuff (to me). But during the meeting I felt like the person in the meeting that keeps going and going even after everyone has stopped listening. I heard some compliments on the presentation today and now our consulting organization wants me to build something for them that is like the R&A dashboards. We will see. I had a long meeting today with Stu, the VP of Consulting. I am giving myself a week to try and get something built for him, after that week I have to focus on Catalyst, and I think I will be on Catalyst stuff from early May to the end of Catalyst.

A couple last items. If you want to use an RSS feed put the URL http://mattroblyer.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss into your feed reader or if you use IE7 you can use their RSS reader, I played with it and it worked good for me, just add me as a favorite and you will see when things get updated. We got Juno and something I can't remember from Blockbuster, so be ready for some more reviews coming up. And, "It's All Mac's Fault."