collecting sounds for theatre, ffmpeg converting, howto ffmpeg + amr

I'm collecting sounds for the theatre people. Need a cassette tape screech sound, doorbell, jolly Christmas song. It's jolly difficult to find jolly christmas songs jollily sung! :) We don't have

This is for the play Season's Greetings.
 http://www.milltheatre.com/shows/seasons-greetings
 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6065036825

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season%27s_Greetings_(play)
 http://seasonsgreetings.alanayckbourn.net/


I'm recording sounds with my mobile phone (Nokia E65). Converting sounds and vids with ffmpeg.

Ubuntu jaunty default ffmpeg kindof did amr to wav or ogg. But didn't mostly. I first tried ffmpeg source + older amr codecs with licencing problems. Found ffmpeg now uses libopencore. AND actually also I have the older amr codecs installed already as ubuntu packages  anyway. Anyway fresh built ffmpeg converts all amr ro wav or ogg.

So 15/Nov/2009 how to get ffmpeg working a bit better with amr format:

http://opencore-amr.sourceforge.net/
  tar -zxvf opencore-amr-0.1.2.tar.gz
  cd opencore-amr-0.1.2/
  less README
  ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
  make
  sudo make install

  cd ../
  svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg-svn
  cd ffmpeg-svn
  ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-gpl --enable-pthreads --enable-version3  --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb
  make
  sudo make install


  # if you install in /usr/local you'll need to set the LIBRARY path:
  export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib

  # This converts all .amr files in dir to .ogg (and doesn't do it if already done)
  for F in *.amr ; do
    echo F=$F;
    N=${F%%.amr};
    if [[ ! -e $N.ogg ]] ; then
      ffmpeg-amr -i "$F" "$N.ogg";
    fi;
  done

Songs of the 80s.
http://www.afn.org/~afn30091/


Also. VLC crashes if try to do things  with playlist?
Individual VLCs are fine open and playing together which is  what is wanted.

cycle in the hills, Nokia E65 SIM hack, rabbits

We went on a cycle today, I cycled over to Kilmashogue (start of Wicklow way near Marlay park).
Yeow! Steep hill. Fionn drove with kids and kids bikes.
Then we cycled up the hill, had a picnic and cycled back down.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015681&id=1118555017&l=59f1dcfc6b
We found 2 burnt out cars. One micra in car park.
One white/black BMW up the hills.
Then I cycled back home over the hills instead of on the road.
More steepness. Up and Down steepness. After Three Rock extreme rocky downhill steepness.
Trails deteriorated into very interesting cycling.
I had to walk a bit,
I think there might be an easier track to cycle (as I joined it 100m from bottom of hill!) only it has moved since the map I had was done.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/gaoithe/traces/432302
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.25161&lon=-6.25589&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF

My mobile phone (Nokia E65) has been misbehaving.
Saying "Insert SIM card" and "General System Error" reset needed and crashing/resetting itself (more often than normal).
The web votes for jamming something in behind the SIM and it seems to be working for me :)
I quite like hardware hacks like this :-D
http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/discussions/board/message?board.id=hardware&message.id=7926&jump=true#M7926
http://ocpdesign.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/nokia-e65-sim-card-registration-failed-insert-sim-card-error-cant-update-firmware/
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58081238

New hutch for the rabbits.
They're not impressed.
Ran around the edges of the garden alot at bedtime.
Twinkle Star is inside nice and cosy but Jack isn't - though he is inside the chicken run so safe.
I also saw a rabbit/hare up in the hills today.

At home GPS trace uploading of the cycle ensued and I wanted an elevation graph.
Here one is: http://www.dspsrv.com/~jamesc/map/Kilmashogue_to_ThreeRock_gpxreport.pdf
http://utrack.crempa.net/
http://code.google.com/p/wherewasi/wiki/WhereWasI
wherewasi.py --eprof -g wami-20090704-00.gpx
wherewasi_gui.py
http://www.fsckin.com/2008/04/06/review-four-linux-gps-packages/
http://www.mapability.com/blogs/gps/2008/07/gpx-route-map-technical-detail.html
http://utrack.crempa.net/
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Making_Tracks_with_Homebrew-ware
http://www.nabble.com/Displaying-the-properties-of-GPX-points-td22432909.html
sudo apt-get install viking
http://www.ncc.up.pt/gpsman/wGPSMan_1.html