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

Lessons learned, and tips for learning to KiteBoard. Buy a trainer kite, and go to the park / beach: First, buy a trainer kite, and get very good at flying it. If you can’t keep it up in the air for an hour, how are you going to stay out on the water for an hour, with a bigger, stronger kite, a board, current and swell? Practice diving the kite from the zenith (neutral), and signing it to 6 o’clock and back up to the top. Work on one side, then the other. Also try to fly the kite toward the “Edge of the wind window”, and hold it there very long without dropping it out of the sky. Very hard to do with a trainer kite, but this is how you launch and land a big kite. And the people who are helping you probably appreciate it if you have good kite control.

Alissa, Danny, and Geoffrey skiing Flatstar (Northstar) Backside in deep and getting deeper snow.

Alissa and I just got back from Costa Rica. What a wonderful country. We were able to do lots of nature hikes. It is a pretty diverse place; we were in rain forest, cloud forest, and beach side forest. All of the places were very exciting and interesting, although it is getting quite touristy. I would highly recommend it for the adventurous couples and families. Kids really like seeing all of the animals, especially the monkeys in Manuel Antonio.

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.