Handbrake is an open source video transcoder available for Windows, Mac and Linux and comes equipped with various conversion setting presets. Handbrake can convert a single video file, a queue of video files or a DVD video in a few simple steps:

1. Select the source video file or DVD title/folder
   
2. Select a destination for the converted file
   
3. Select a conversion preset or configure the specific audio/video settings
   
4. For a single file conversion click the Start button or click Add to Queue if you wish to convert multiple files. Click Start once you have added all videos to the queue
   
5. The conversion process will start and notify you once all videos in the queue are complete

Note: For greater compatibility with iTunes, enable the ‘Use iPod/iTunes friendly (.m4v) file extension for MP4′ setting

Handbrake is by far the best free MP4 video transcoder that I have come across. Let me know your opinions or alternatives that you may use in the comments.

Searching through the logs pointed me in the direction of the Exchange services and sure enough one of the services had not started automatically as it should have. The service in question was the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant. Starting this service resolved the issue straight away. I have since restarted the server and the service continues to not start automatically. One to watch…

• Start -> Administrative Tools -> Services
• Right-Click Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service
• Select Start from displayed context menu

1. Edit the requiresignorseal registry setting:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters
   • requiresignorseal - Change hex value from 1 to 0
   • RESTART PC
2. Map a drive to the SAMBA share and select “Reconnect at login“. Usually at this stage you would use the “Connect using a different user name” option. However, do not use this option as it will not allow you to save your credentials.
   
3. Click Finish and you will be prompted for your credentials. Input your user name and password (SAMBA sever credentials) and select “Remember my details“.

As I mentioned there are numerous solutions out there to resolve this issue. This is just what worked for me…

TouchMouse from Logitech allows you to control your computers mouse and keyboard in three easy steps:

1. Download and install the Logitech TouchMouse Server computer application (www.logitech.com/touchmouse)
- The server app is available for Windows XP/Vista/7 and OS X

2. Download the TouchMouse iPhone/iPod Touch app from the App Store.

3. Open TouchMouse on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The app will find any available computers on the same network that have the TouchMouse Server application installed.

Connect and enjoy!

The app has many options including; two finger scrolling, tracking and scrolling speeds and a nice settings for prohibiting your device to go into sleep mode.

However, we still required the ability to control some of the settings within these extensions. I was able to achieve this by creating Group Policy ADM templates for these extensions. The ADM templates are written to control the about:config settings of the extension which can be found by browsing to about:config in Firefox and filtering for the desired extension. The preferences are set at as a MACHINE CLASS (Computer Policy) and are locked preferences. Below is an example and explanation of a couple of settings of an ADM template for the IEView extension (comments in red): [Complete ADM example attached at the end of this post]

- Define the CLASS type
CLASS MACHINE

- Set the main category name (folder under Administrative Templates in Group Policy)
CATEGORY “Mozilla Advanced Options for Extensions”

- Set the preferences to be locked preferences
KEYNAME “Software\Policies\Mozilla\lockPref”

- Set the category/extension name (level under main category)
CATEGORY “IEView”

Boolean type preference for the Close Page on Reload setting (On or OFF)

- POLICY = Setting name
POLICY “Close Page on Reload”
- EXPLAIN = Explanation of what the setting does
EXPLAIN “Enables or disables the close page after reload option”
- VALUENAME = about:config Preference Name for the setting
VALUENAME “ieview.closeReloadPage”
- VALUEON = The value for the setting when enabled in Group Policy
VALUEON 1
- VALUEOFF = The value for the setting when disabled in Group Policy
VALUEOFF 0
- END POLICY = Ends the options for the current setting
END POLICY

String type preference for the Filter List setting (string of values)

- POLICY = Setting name
POLICY “Filter List”
- EXPLAIN = Explaination of what the setting does
EXPLAIN “Sets list of sites to always open in IE. Sites are separated by spaces. Use * for wildcard.”
- PART = “list” EDITTEXT, sets the values for the “list” part of the setting and edits the current vales
PART “List” EDITTEXT
- DEFAULT = When the setting is enabled in Group Policy, the DEFAULT string values will automatically be filled in
DEFAULT “file:///* http://*update.microsoft.com/ http://www.windowsupdate.com/”
- VALUENAME = about:config Preference Name for the setting
VALUENAME “ieview.forceielist”
- END PART = Ends the options for the current PART of the setting
END PART
- END POLICY = Ends the options for the current setting
END POLICY

- END CATEGORY = Ends the extension name category
END CATEGORY

- END CATEGORY = Ends the main category
END CATEGORY

I hope that made at least a little bit of sense.

Find a complete example here.
Download the RAR file here.

MP4Cam2AVI allows you to convert and/or join MP4 or MOV files to AVI in four easy steps:

1. Browse to the location of the video file/s you wish to convert.
2. Select the video file/s from the listing.
3. Select the appropriate action to perform on the video/s (Join or Batch Convert).
4. Select the Output directory and start the conversion.

The resulting video file/s can now be imported into Windows Movie Maker.

(http://in.geocities.com/shahshaileshs/menuaddins)

The add-in adds a new section to the add-in ribbon of the application that mimics the Office 2003 menu (Word example):

Installation:

1. Download the add-in for each application from the links above.
2. Unzip the macro-enable template files to a location on your PC.
3. To install the add-in: Windows XP:
   
   • Copy the appropriate macro-enabled file to the applications startup folder.
     Word example (Word Menu 2003.dotm):
     (C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\Startup)

   Windows Vista:

   • Copy the appropriate macro-enabled file to the applications startup folder.
     Word example (Word Menu 2003.dotm):
     (C:\Users\<username)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP)

   To run the add-in once off:

   • Double-click the appropriate unzipped macro-enabled file.

Now bring back the memories of a simpler time…

Below is a screen capture and video capture from my device…

VidCap3

More on the Windows Mobile PowerPoint controller soon…

With all Mac access completely offline and LDAP authentication for some odd (and at this point unknown) reason not able to hold a constant connection, I decided to use and configure the Directory Services Active Directory (AD) plugin. I could see the advantages and disadvantages of using the AD authentication method. However, my main concern at this point was to relieve the pressure on me from the powers to be with a quick-fix solution.

The main advantages would be a single set of user credentials for all computers (Mac & PC) in the school and easy (mapped) access to the users Windows hosted home folder. The disadvantage was that with the time constraints I was unable to find a way to map the users Windows home folder, Mac home folder and possible other AFP mappings at login. The workaround I used was to create a shortcut to the servers AFP path on all the Mac computers, which allowed users to list the directories that they had access too. During the coming holiday break I will be investigating further to find a solution.

So, I bound the XServer to AD without any hassle, opened Workgroup Manager, selected AD as the search path, authenticated and the users populated from AD. My colleagues and I then went to each Mac one by one and bound them to AD using a unique name. The only problem we ran into was that AD requires that the time on the client computer be the same (or close to the same) as the Domain Controller. With the occasional hassle, we synchronized the time settings on all Mac clients to our Domain Controller, which then enabled us to successfully bind.

With that all done I am now waiting for a full class login to occur to test the server reliability and authentication method. We will be purchasing a copy of Leopard server in the not too distant future and with the installation of this server upgrade, I am contemplating rolling back to the LDAP authentication as it allows for more flexibility and customisation considering the somewhat unique options our Mac network requires.

This is definately not the last I have seen of this issue…