Convert and compress Flip video on Linux with ffmpeg

January 14, 2010 by R.R. Nederhoed

A quick note to make sure I won’t forget how I did it:
ffmpeg -i hedde-soul_singing.mp4 -acodec mp2 hedde-soul_singing-compressed.mp4

Reduced my 15 second Flip UltraHD movie in mp4 format from 13.8 MB to 2 MB.

The results:

FFMPEG compressed (2 MB)

Original (13.8 MB)

USA Soldiers are waking up (video)

December 30, 2009 by R.R. Nederhoed

I couldn’t agree more.

Ordering food online: a short adventure

December 13, 2009 by R.R. Nederhoed

Okay, I had decided not to post my experience online, but to give feedback on the customer response form Just-eat provides. But since that didn’t work…

My experience in short:

  • Ordered Japanese food with Zensei (The Hague) using Justeat.nl on Friday (2009-12-11 20:00)
  • No confirmation email
  • No response on the online chat they offer
  • Called the restaurant at 21:10. They said the food was on it’s way.
  • Received the order around 21:30
  • Found out today (Sunday) that a confirmation had been sent, but was delayed by their email servers
  • Tried to give feedback using their website: Server Error

Luckily, my experience with customer feedback forms trained me to copy my input to the clipboard, just in case.

So here’s the feedback I was trying to give (in dutch):

Goedemorgen,

vrijdag had ik om 20u Japans besteld.
Dat ging vrij eenvoudig. Maar ik ontving geen bevestiging.

Toen ik na 15 minuten per chat een vraag stelde kreeg ik geen antwoord. Terwijl er stond dat “Hidde” online was.
Elke 10 minuten even mijn mail gecontroleerd (niet het idee van ontspannen eten laten bezorgen)
Na een dik uur heb ik het restaurant gebeld en die zei dat het eten onderweg was.

Zojuist zag ik dat ik wel een bevestigingsmail ontvangen heb vrijdag. Die is om 20u27:33 verstuurd, maar kwam pas 21u20:54 bij mij aan. In de mail headers zie je een vertraging van meer dan een uur:

Received: from mailfilter1.sitebytes.nl (62.197.128.40) by nederhoed.com
with SMTP; 11 Dec 2009 21:20:54 +0100
[...]
Received: from relay.armadahosting.com (relay.armadahosting.com
[195.190.153.92]) by mailfilter1.sitebytes.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id
22A87708073 for ; Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:20:52 +0100 (CET)
Received: from BI (unknown [217.116.236.111]) by relay.armadahosting.com
(Postfix) with ESMTP id 0A9D36F9672 for ; Fri, 11 Dec
2009 20:27:33 +0100 (CET)

Dus, jullie verstuurden wel een bevestiging, maar deze bleef bij “armadahosting” een dik uur in een wachtrij staan, voordat deze werd doorgegeven aan Sitebytes. Daar heb ik mijn hosting.

Misschien iets om te onderzoeken?

En over het design. De layout is duidelijk en fris. Een prettige website.
Ik vind die dozen rechtsboven minder. Ik gebruik just-eat niet om dozen te bestellen: ik bestel eten. :-)
Mooier zou ik het vinden als je daar eten uit de wereldkeukens zou zien.

Succes met jullie bedrijf, vriendelijke groet uit Den Haag, Robert-Reinder Nederhoed
rr@n…d.com

Here is was happened when clicking Send:

by nederhoed on Flickr

A bit disappointing. It probably has to do with the mail header in the comment. But, hey, what about escaping user input?

Now, let’s see if they can be reached on Twitter: @JustEatNL.

Effective use of social media tools

June 28, 2009 by R.R. Nederhoed

This news item shows how social media tools can be applied to reconstruct dramatic events. It’s an enlightening example of accidental collaboration using mobile phones and services such as Twitter.

Needless to say: we had a good laugh.

Klein Geluk

June 17, 2009 by R.R. Nederhoed

Margie: “Ik wordt juist gelukkig van kleine dingen. Bijvoorbeeld een hommel”.

Een memorabel moment op ons dakterras, waar een wilde klaver zich heeft gevestigd in de pot van een andere plant.

(Margie: “Especially small things make me happy. A bumble-bee for example”.)

Evening photoshoot with Margie (and more)

May 22, 2009 by R.R. Nederhoed

Margie and I went for a walk in the evening sun. We had a mission: try out my new SLR camera. I’m very pleased with the resulting photography. And how I love Flickr! My PC is still busy uploading… we took 300 pictures of which about a hundred passed our judgment.

What do you think?

margie grob

robert-reinder nederhoed

Other shots of the day:


Dave at his little shop, around 13:00h


My colleague Danielle during lunch break, around 12:30h

New camera Canon EOS 1000D

May 18, 2009 by R.R. Nederhoed

And I’m happy with it. Went to a nearby park yesterday with Kessie.

kessie reflected in a pool
A mysterious pool

A Japanese Monkey will cheer you up

April 8, 2009 by R.R. Nederhoed


via Reddit

Restored balance

March 14, 2009 by R.R. Nederhoed

Okay, I’m almost back. After a few months of too much work and no play, combined with no sporting (painful knee), the revival of a nasty habit (smoking) and hardly any motivation to cook a healthy meal, I seem to have refound a balance.

Two weeks ago I stopped smoking and stopped working long hours. I even took some days off. Today I will be running the 10km CPC in The Hague. As a preparation I have been on a high-protein diet and trained regularly. With results:

last 3 months

last 30 days

Oh I have to leave. The run starts in 2 hours, wish me luck!

Where is my mind?

January 20, 2009 by R.R. Nederhoed

I just love this song originally by the Pixies. Especially this version, since I also love Placebo.

On Youtube I collect decent versions in a special playlist. In case you’re interested.