Note: This post is regarding getting 64-bit HandBrake to rip DVDs on 64-bit Windows 7. The instructions in here may work on other operating systems, adjusting for paths and library versions, but no guarantees.

VLC 2.0 was recently released, but with that release it broke HandBrake for ripping DVDs. This happened because HandBrake relies on VLC to provide the libdvdcss library to break the copy encryption on DVDs. I’m not sure about the details, but VLC 2.0 does not give HandBrake the ability to rip encrypted DVDs.

The solution to this: download a copy of libdvdcss just for HandBrake. This sounds simple, but it required a lot of research and trial and error. Luckily, I’ve done all that for you.

1. Download and install the latest version of HandBrake. Make sure to select the 64-bit version. If you already have HandBrake, make sure it isn’t the 32-bit version (if it is, uninstall and install the 64-bit version).

2. Download the latest version of libdvdcss for 64-bit Windows.

3. Rename libdvdcss-2.dll to libdvdcss.dll and copy it to the HandBrake folder in your Program Files folder (for me, C:\Program Files\HandBrake\).

4. Right-click the HandBrake shortcut on your desktop, and select “Run as administrator.” Accept the security elevation dialog.

5. Open Tools > Preferences and go to the Advanced tab. Check “Disable LibDVDNav.”¹

You should be able to rip DVDs no problem now. For instructions on how to do that, refer to the guide in the HandBrake user manual or search for a how-to on Google.

If you are confused about quality settings for ripping your DVDs, here’s a thread on the HandBrake forums with users chiming in about their preferences.

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Refresh Facebook, and it’s gone forever.

Today I made my first purchase (ever) from the Mac App Store. I can’t say I’ll be purchasing anything from there again, but seeing as Sparrow was only available on the App Store, I didn’t really have any choice.

Sparrow

Which brings me to the app itself. I first heard about Sparrow back when it was in beta, and at that point it wasn’t developed far enough for me to be interested. But today I read on Daring Fireball that it had hit 1.0. The screenshots looked cool, the video looked cool, and I guess $10 isn’t that much.

No Demo?

This is where a demo would have been nice. I’ve used Gmail from the web since the beginning, so switching to a desktop client was iffy for me. Luckily it worked out, and I love Sparrow so far, but this almost made me didn’t want to purchase the app — videos and screenshots are one thing, but actually demoing a product is another experience entirely.

The lack of demo versions of the software on the App Store has been one of its main criticisms; that being said, I can’t say I really see a solution that not only offers a demo version, but is a clean and efficient way of handling the demo period and prevents piracy.

Sparrow So Far

The problem I’ve had with desktop clients of originally web-based apps is that the UI’s didn’t really transfer over well, and I had yet to use a desktop app that made it worth moving away from the web-based interface.

An example of this is Reeder, which is intended to replace Google Reader. While it’s a nice-looking app and does everything it advertises, I still couldn’t see why I should be running an extra app to do what already works so well in the browser.

I can now say that Sparrow is the first desktop client of a web-based app that actually improves on the experience. The UI is arguably less cluttered, as well as improved:

• I don’t have a junk mail box in the main column (spam gets auto-cleaned every 30 days anyways).((However, if you want to view your junk mail, there’s an option for that.))
• I don’t have to deal with the contacts and the chat; I use neither.
• Messages’ chronology is bottom-to-top, whereas the web goes top-to-bottom.
• The quick reply is magic. Hit R, type your quick message, and send (Apple-Shift-D, like Mail.app).
• Of course, cool Mac OS X-style animations.

I think that Sparrow’s design is something that I can use for a long time, and it will certainly help speed up the minimal amount of time I spend on email on a daily basis.

It Looked Like the Twitter App

From first glance, it had a similar UI as the Twitter app. Thankfully, it actually works well, doesn’t sacrifice usability for the sake of an attractive UI, and doesn’t involve Twitter.

Conclusion

Overall, I’m very satisfied with my purchase. Assumably I’ll be getting free upgrades for the lifetime of this app, which makes my $10 go very, very far. Thankfully the lack of a demo didn’t affect my decision, but if the app was, say, $50 or so, I’d have my doubts.

That being said, I’m hardly an email power user, so my observations are largely from the perspective of a casual emailer; people who spend hours on their email every day may have a different experience with Sparrow. So far, though, Sparrow is awesome.

So, why has the Last.FM iPhone app still not updated? From what that Apple page I linked to says, Pandora can play music in the background. Has Last.FM abandoned their iPhone app?

I’ve gotten my hands on a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. Not like it could have been worse than Vista. The upgrade process went completely smoothly, copying all my programs, settings and files over from my Vista installation. I’m still planning to install a clean version, but first I need a hard drive and more RAM (more on that later).

• Speed — for all the reports of improvements over Vista (which slowed down on a regular basis), it doesn’t seem that much faster. Start up and shut down times are only marginally faster, and Windows Explorer seems a bit faster (especially with large folders of videos). So far, Flash seems to be the most problematic — Firefox slows up a lot when I’m watching Flash movies.
• Taskbar — the redesigned taskbar was pretty weird until I changed it to small icons, so it matches about the height of the previous taskbars. So far, the new icons aren’t too great of an improvement — the running applications are indistinguishable from the quick launch buttons. That said, the new system tray is great.

To be honest, there doesn’t seem to be many groundbreaking changes.

64-bit

One large change with Windows 7 has been that Microsoft has been promoting 64-bit a lot more. I decided not to go immediately switch to 64-bit since that would have required a clean install, and I didn’t have the resources to back up. Not to mention I only have 4 GB of RAM, which makes 64-bit a lot less worth it.

My plan is, however, to buy a new hard drive (already done at a Black Friday sale) and 4 more gigabytes of RAM (not yet done). Once this is done, I’ll install a clean version of Windows 7 64-bit and experience the magic (drivers and programs not working with 64-bit).

I looked at the process list, and apparently bzip2 was the process taking up so much CPU. What the hell? I’m not running anything that would even think about needing bzip2 to compress something — just Safari. And about 10 seconds later, the bzip2 process was gone, and the computer’s back to normal.

Googling didn’t help, so: what the hell?

Instead of the minimal (and cryptic) Printer Setup Utility that’s been there since 10.2 (at least, as far as I know), you’re now met with a much friendlier screen that shows you everything you actually need to know about the printer, and buttons to tweak it further. It even automatically added the printer when I plugged it into the USB port, whereas before if I wanted to use it I had to navigate through the printer list in print dialogs.

Even though these kind of improvements are minor, and most users most likely won’t notice them, it shows that Apple is still committed to polishing up all aspects of OS X. Every version just gets better and better.

Seemingly months after everyone else has marveled at OS X Leopard, I’ve taken the plunge and upgraded from Tiger to Leopard. Instead of upgrading, I decided to wipe the disk (backing up first, of course) and do a clean install. The first time, the install went fine, but Leopard hung with a blue screen when I booted it up the first time. So, I wiped the disk clean, again, and reinstalled, and everything is fine now.

The first thing I did (after installing Firefox) was change the dock to the “flat” version, then disabled the translucent menu bar. I have to tell you, Leopard is much better now that I’ve done those things.

Negatives aside, I do like the upgrade, but I don’t really see any great leaps similar to what it felt like upgrading to Tiger. Spaces is pretty cool, but Stacks is pretty annoying. I’ve been using Stacks to manage my built-in Downloads folder (new thing in Leopard) and it’s annoying the hell out of me, at least most of the time. Often I just click the huge arrow to navigate to the folder and Finder and just do whatever there, which defeats the purposes of Stacks.

The new UI (the “unified” look) is nice, but the window control orbs (close, minimize, maximize) look really gimmicky. They don’t look like they were drawn right, either — the bottom looks like it was horribly blended. Not to mention the “shine” is really overdone. I do like the new look for Leopard, though, and to me it’s familiar from using Uno on Tiger.

Unfortunately I don’t have an external drive that’s available for use, so I haven’t tried Time Machine out, but I don’t think it would be that great — I’ve been able to do the same thing for years with tools like SuperDuper!. Overall, while Leopard is a solid upgrade, the “wow” just isn’t now (to borrow Windows Vista’s slogan).