Google is awesome, everyone should use Google services as much as possible. Especially after April.

I have a couple intermittent problems:

1. My Windows 7 box networking. It seems to go to sleep and never wake up. The simplest way to get it back on the network is to switch the port in the hub with another cable. Nothing I can do *at* the computer gets me back onto the network, as far as I can tell. Manually trying to stop and start networking, ipconfig, all that stuff, nothing. But it can take days for it to drop off the network.

2. My Powerbook webcam. It stopped dead again right now. If I restart, it'll be working again, but it's dead to Photo Booth and Skype right now I can't work out how to google this intermittent problem usefully.

Any ideas for what I could be missing?

I finally got the last of the copyright permissions I need for my graphic book - which means I can now start soliciting bids for a graphic designer. Right now I'm thinking of just asking the for bids on a print version, maybe with some e-book friendliness (for instance in font choices), with the idea that I will pay later for development of the ebook. (There are issues that will require layout changes between ebook and print layout - an electronic image of the print edition won't work well .) Is making this a separate process an expensive decision? Of course this will cost me more than doing both at the same time, but is it likely to cost a lot more? Cause if the difference between doing both at once and doing the two versions separately is less than $100 it is worth the money to separate the two processes. Much more than that, and I probably should bite the bullet and ask that both layout versions be done at once.

I'm just discovering that TV show renaming apps work. Now I can't find the right one! I'm trying to automate two things--converting into a mkv format after a remotely-triggered upload (I can do the triggering fine), and then renaming it to something more human readable would be great, including putting it in the right folder.

Everything I've found so far is drag and drop with the renaming and moving to correct folders. Does anyone know anything (PC preferably) that would poll a directory and move and rename (god, and convert format would be brill) video files?

And now I need to search the thread for DVD ripping suggestions. I always think "Oh! I have Handbrake!" forgetting that's not what it's for. Okay, I do have Mac The Ripper. Anyone prefer anything else for OS X?

(I've had a sudden craving for a portable version of TPB)

I've used RipIt. But I don't use it much so it's not the loudest rec I've ever made. It's been effective though.

Also I always try to use Handbrake first too. I feel like it should rip dvds for me.

I've been using Handbrake to rip my DVDs for use on the media server connected to a couple of Apple TVs. It's been working like a champ for me. For Blu Ray, I use Make MKV and then run the resulting files through Handbrake.

How does it not rip DVDs for you?

When I open the DVD, it just shows me chunks of movies, not a "disc" than I can rip into one file. What am I looking at wrong? It seems to be file oriented, not movie oriented.

The titles on the DVD each turn up as a section. In the case of a DVD with episodic TV there should be a title for each episode. You can set up a queue to rip each title. I think run those resulting files through iDentify which looks up and embeds the Meta Data.

In the case of a movie DVD there should be one Title that is the main feature, if there are lots of extra features then those should turn up as additional titles. I typically just rip the main feature, as that is all I really want from the DVD. There are also settings for how it will rip different audio tracks and if you want subtitles, and how you want those embedded into the image.

Clearly the answer is that Handbrake will do this but I might have still made the sidetilt dog expression at the explanation.

I am however giving it a try right now. Sadly on a Netflix disk but I am totally happy to trash the file once I watch the movie. And after my having the disk for about two months, they'll likely be happy too. Me and disks are unmixy, it seems.

Possibly why I quite like library checkouts through Kindle. I either read it and return it or the file magically goes poof. No guilt-ridden envelope and disk on my coffee table for months.

Yes, it is true that the interface for Handbrake can be complex, but once you get it all worked out it works like a charm. I set mine up to rip for Apple TV2 in the presets since that and my iPad are the main devices I watch things on.