A frequently updated and free piece of Mac OS X software useful for making perfectly legitimate -- under French law, but by no means everywhere -- copies of DVDs goes by the cryptic name of 'ffmpegX', the work of Fabrice Bellard "et al".
The French are hot in computer video technology.
ffmpegX gets mentions on VersionTracker each time it's updated, but can be a right bugger to install because you need to fetch other ... "bits" to make it work properly. These binaries are sometimes hard to track down, but the best place to start is at major4's Mac page (Eng).
If all seems as clear as mud there, the linked forums are very helpful. That was how I managed finally to update to the latest version of this very remarkable tool, which was released three days ago.
Still on the DVD front, Amazon UK get a special mention tonight for being ... as cool as ever.
The most avid reader may remember how delighted I was when the full, four-hour version of 'Lawrence of Arabia' (David Lean, 1962, should anybody need reminding) came briefly last year to Paris's biggest and best screen, the Max Linder Panorama (Allociné; Fr).
Thus the Kid saw this masterpiece as it should be seen. I must have been eight when I was taken to see it after its release -- in a cut version. This left out scenes that reflected the nastier sides of T.E. Lawrence's charismatic and tortured nature. I didn't even know Lean had filmed them until I saw the full version on French telly, when I had one.
Amazon UK posted me the DVD version of reference more than a month ago, but it never arrived. At the weekend, I asked them about it by e-mail, to be told virtually by "return of post" that a new order had been placed at no charge. It was sent by DHL, arrived yesterday when I wasn't in, and delivered for a second time today, to the concierge in my building, who passed it on to me when I got home from the Factory.
So this is a good time to mention that out of many orders I've placed with Amazon in the UK, France or the States over a decade now, their staff have been unfailingly polite, efficient and swift to remedy the problem for free on the rare occasions one has arisen. That is why Amazon features on this site.
I get a tiny cut should you ever order something via this log, but I'm not in this partnership to "earn" a few euros per year. Amazon is here because it's a first-rate online store and I'm happy to promote it.
I wouldn't say the same for the Royal Mail, or whatever it's called these days. Unlike most other European postal services, they make "parcel tracking" via the Internet either impossible or so expensive that I can't afford it.
Consider me ancient if you must, but people look askance at me when I go to Britain -- which I haven't done for about two years now -- and talk about "British Rail". How the hell are we expatriates supposed to keep up? Things used to be so much simpler before Thatcher.
I've mentioned before that I don't promote Amazon US since so many other people do, but if you read blogs and want to buy American, Blogcritics needs the cash they make from their Amazon links to survive. As well as being a fun place to disagree with people completely.
I nearly forgot. Zapping around the blogosphere today when I needed a break from a heavy workload at the Factory, I found Lee's ongoing account of her very real travels a long way from Odessa Street exceptionally entertaining.
8:40:05 PM link 
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