Are you sick of having to download many players? Many sites like youtube utilize FLASH. I wanted to figure this out for my own site. I have gone the Semi-Free way, which always takes some time… Here are the steps. You will need three pieces of software, that are open source. Start downloading them from the various sites: 1. 7Zip compression software a. A new high compression software to replace zip b. Download this and install it c. 7-Zip Compression 2. FFMPEG – Converts your video file to FLV a. Flash video is the key to the player problem, as it’s installed on 99% of browsers! b. You can read about it here: ffMpeg Converter c. Its very geeky, but ill make it a little easier with a simple Batch file d. Download the file here: FFmPeg download i. Grab the one with the most recent Date e. Unzip it with the 7Zip software above 3. A Web Player – JW FLV Player a. It’s a player that’s free for personal sites and cheap for commercial b. It’s very extensible c. FLV Media Player Download

My wife and mother in law said I should begin blogging. I don’t know what they are thinking. Most of my family, friends and co-workers know I am the worst at grammar and spelling. My English teacher would laugh at the thought. Well, ill give it a go, as I do have a bit of insomnia. I should start writing down some of these thoughts. To cut to the chase, what is this blog about? It will be about the Northern California Experience: Work (c# coding), Wine, Adventure, and Travel. Ill post all of our weekend getaways and links to information about the areas. If anything, it will be a diary our kids and family can read.