Figured out how to export Audio from concert videos in Final Cut Pro

Tried half a dozen tricks in VLC and could not split out the audio from a final rendered clip of our latest band concert.  Would not give the full 13.5 minutes of audio.  So I read the fine manual.  In Final Cut Pro X, you can export a 'Master File' - and there's even options!

Just select your project in the project window.
Choose File - Share - Master file.
Choose your Audio options from the options in the Master File.
You'll end up with a big AIFF file, uncompressed.

With that, you can dump it into SoundCloud for embedding in blogs, sharing with others and so on:



So - that's how you get your Audio out of a project in Final Cut Pro X.

-- Will England

Do Members of the US Congress Get Paid For Life?

tl;dr - No, elected officials do not get paid for life the day they retire. They are subject to the same Federal defined benefit system as all other federal employees.

A report on "Retirement Benefits for Members of Congress," prepared in November by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, outlines how pension benefits are calculated.

The key provision: no member of Congress is eligible for any pension unless he or she has served in Congress for at least five years. (Senators serve six-year terms; House members must seek reelection every two years.)

To collect, a congressman or senator must be age 62, or be at least age 50 with 20 years of service, or be any age with 25 years of service.

Under the most recent pension program, adopted in 1984, the size of a pension is based on the highest three years of a member's salary, the number of years of service and a multiplier, which is 1.7 percent for the first 20 years of service and 1.0 percent for subsequent years.

Here’s an example, using a typical 25-year rank-and-file member who retired this year. The pension would be the sum of two calculations. First, multiply $172,443 [the average salary over the last three years] times 20 years times 0.017. Then, multiply $172,443 times 5 years times 0.01 and add that number to the first calculation. The total: about $67,250 per year.

A three-term congressman (or one-term senator) who has now reached retirement age would be eligible for an annual pension of $17,588 for six years of work. That's generous, but not close to full pay.

Federal law prevents members of Congress from getting full-pay retirement when they leave office. The report says, "By law, the starting amount of a member's retirement annuity may not exceed 80 percent of his or her final salary."

Under the formula, it would take 67 years of service to hit that limit.

So the email saying that members of Congress can "receive full pay retirement after serving one term" is blatantly bogus. It's never full pay and the only one-term members who would be eligible for any pension would be senators.

https://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2013/jan/11/chain-email/can-members-congress-retire-full-pay-after-just-on/
And from the horses mouth:

https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/ac0d1dd5-7316-4390-87e6-353589586a89.pdf
https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/9c14ec69-c4e4-4bd8-8953-f73daa1640e4.pdf
https://www.gao.gov/assets/230/221239.pdf
https://www.cbo.gov/about/careers/benefits

The Three Rules

I quote to my kids quite often Rule 1, Rule 2 and occasionally Rule 3.  What are they?

Rule 1 - the Golden Rule.  Do unto others as you would have them do to you; corollary, love they neighbor as you love yourself.

Rule2: The Will Rogers rule:  "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all"

Rule 3: The Junkie rule -  "Never trust a junkie."  Corollary: Everyone's a junkie for something.  Food, attention, games, TV, drugs or alcohol. 

My Certified Ironbutt Rides

I've gone and done a lot of riding.  A couple of the rides I stopped and got reciepts, start and end witnesses etc.  Three of em in particular.  They earned me the IronButt Association Number of 11,383. Only way to get a lower number would be to finish the Iron Butt Rally.


So, follows are the rides that I got certificates for from the Iron Butt Association:

Extreme Rides:

William England
Overland Park, KS
08/20/05
Honda ST1100 Not Stock - Russell Day Long Seat, Clearview XL screen, 6" Ron Major Dogbone Bar Risers. 
1,551 Miles in 24 Hours; KC to Winnipeg, CA and back. 

This one never got a write up, and I can't even find the couple of blurry photos I took of the "Welcome to Winnipeg" sign.  Not much to say - sit here, twist that, watch rainbows, run WFO on I29 in the dark of the night, get a half a cup of bad coffee at a gas station in Winnipeg, turn around ride home.


Will England
Overland Park, KS
04/06/13
Stock Honda CBR250R
1,030 Miles in state - Trip Report on the SS1K In-State ride
KS-1000
* * * Combined with Tour of Honor Sites - www.tourofhonor.com * * *

Normal Rides:

William England
Overland Park, KS
06/01/02
Honda VFR750, Stock.
1,078  -- Overland Park to Downtown Chicago and Back.
Had to get a Blues Fest T-Shirt for my wife at the time.  :-)

The Now

also:

How to reset the Maint Required light on the 2005 Scion xB

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/scion-xb-1st-gen-owners-lounge-1602/2004-scion-xb-maintenance-required-light-21507/

The above forum link describes what is going on with the Maint Required light and the blue / red thermometer looking lights.

Assume that they are just on solid - you're due for the 5k service.

To reset on the 2005 Scion Xb, set the trip odometer to 'odo'. Power off car. Press and hold trip odometer reset stalk. Turn car to 'on'. Continue to hold the button down until both lights turn off.

Thanks to the Scion Life forums for this easy solution!

Will England

Video Recording Time for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Lot of questions about how long you can record on a cell phone - DSLR's are limited to file size (4gb) or 30 minutes (European directive).

So I'm sitting here testing apps and chatting with the wife, so I put the Note 9 on it's Spigen kickstand and have it record the kitchen floor, with the occasional cat or dog wander by.  There is apparently no European limit to the recording -- we're at 39 minutes so far -- and no file size limit.  I have 128GB on board, and a 256GB chip installed; I think I have the video set to record to the 256 MicroSD chip.

In a nutshell, I haven't found a hard limit to how long you can record with the Samsung Galaxy Note 9; I got bored and shut it down before I hit a limit.

You don't need the brightest flashlight

When you are out camping, especially in durable high impact campgrounds, you will never need a 200 lumen super flashlight. It just fries your night vision and the vision of everyone else around.

"all you really need is a zipper pull-style pinch LED light."

Read more - https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2018/07/26/lets-shine-some-light-on-flashlight-etiquette/

Thanks all,

Will England

Conecting Windows 10 Laptop to USB connected network drive on an Apple Airport Extreme

I have had for a good while now the Apple Airport Extreme base station.  Yes, I know it's time to upgrade to a Nighthawk, but I'm lazy.  And have kids,

Speaking of kids, I rebuilt and lit up a refurbished Windows 10 laptop for my Dear Daughter to use going back and forth to college.  We keep all our backups, music,  movies etc on a pair of drives connected to the USB port on the Apple Airport Extreme base station.

So, I tried to map the base station shared drives using the typical UNC network protocol (\\10.0.1.1\) in the Explorer bar.  No dice.  Tried the 'Map Network Drive' button in Explorer.  No dice.

Then I got around to searching and found a post in a long-dead thread that mentioned you should install the Airport Utility for Windows .  So I did.  And while it was installing, I noticed it was also installing Bonjour drivers.  Once it completed, I still couldn't connect.

Mapping a drive from the file explorer finally threw a useful error message - the Airport Extreme uses old SMB1 protocol, and that's blocked by default due to old insecure protocols.  Well, this is a home network and has nothing sensitive on the shared drives.  So, I found that you can enable SMB1 Sharing Protocol in Windows 10 by running 'optionalfeatures.exe'.
Hit Windows Key and R for 'Run Program' and run optionalfeatures.exe.

From there you get a nice dialog box with everything you can, and cannot enable.  SMB1 is disabled.  Enable it.  Restart the PC.

Now, from Explorer, you can connect to a Network Share or Map a Network Drive.  Easy, eh?

-- Will England

Will England on Tumblr

Some time back (five years back to be precise) I lit up a Tumblr blog on advice of my mentor to discuss technical stuff.  So I did, when I was a social media geek.  Then it got ghosted for 5 years.

Now I'm back with Analytics stuff going out there.  You can find me at Will England on Tumblr

and everywhere else to find Will England too!

Enjoy, be excellent to each other and be present!

-- Will England

Snow, Ice anda dopey dog

My dopey dog, SamTheDog, thinks winter is the best ever - the whole world is covered in fresh, new edible crunchy!  When he was younger his water bowl would freeze solid and make a puck-shaped ice disk.  He'd chase that around the deck with abandon and joy, or at lest until it slipped under the deck rails into the yard.

During the summer, his favorite treat wa an ice cube fresh from the tray. Kerrunch, nom-nom-nom!  I doubt it was good for his teeth, but he certainly enjoyed them!

Surprisingly I captured a few on video with the cell phones:

As he gets older, he's more interested in just sniffing the snow and taking a few licks at it.  But my dopey SamTheDog loved his icepucks!

-  Will England 

Buttons and turning on the AKG Y50BT

THe AKG Y50BT Bluetooth headphones are very nice cans with great sound and a fantastic battery

AKG Y50BT Headphones

life.  However, they are sorely lacking in documentation - so here is my take on the 'fine manual' about operating all the buttons, pairing and more.

On the Left earpiece is a MicroUSB B port to charge the phones.That's it.

On the Right earpiece are all the buttons. Starting from the top:

• Button labeled '+' - increase volume 
• Black button with a dot - One press for pause, / play two presses for track forward, three presses for track backward.  And they mean *quick* taps.
• 3.5mm hole - to plug in the headphones for a non-bluetooth experience.
• Black unlabeled button - power on, power off, pair.
• To power on the headphones rapidly tap one time the unlabeled button.
• Fast flashing blue light indicates it's on, and unpaired
• Slow flashing blue light indicates it's on and paired.
• Slow flashing red light indicates  low battery.
• Black button looking thing - not a button but the microphone!

Hope this helps someone else out -- remember, *quick* tap on the button to turn it on / off.

-- Will England

References: 

AGK y50BT Quick Start Guide

Reddit Thread about how to power up the Y50BT headphones.

Netflix not working with OpenDNS / Cicso Umbrella?

Netflix can get caught up in the blocking many families use to restrict visiting illicit movie sites by

Blocked Netflix Content Domains by OpenDNS

their kids.  You'll find that movies in Netflix spin the orange circle for a while before throwing out an error code, Netflix error code M7037-1101.  You can't play any Netflix movies on Chrome or on Safari.    This error code  means your local machine cannot connect to the Netflix servers to play the movie.

It's quite simple to resolve when Netflix won't play because of OpenDNS filtering - go into your Umbrella control panel and whitelist:

• services.wmdrm.windowsmedia.com (the Silverlight player)
• netflix.com (just in case)
• nflxvideo.net (their content distribution network)
• nflximg.net (more of their content network)

Within 2 or 3 minutes of whitelisting these domains, your Netflix will be working again and you won't have to worry about error code M7037-1101!

-- Will England

Lg’s Flagship Phone Is A Media Forward Device - Sprint Product Ambassadors

For starters, when you first pick up the phone and turn it on, you are greeted with a gorgeous 6.4 in display. Even after using this phone for a while now, it still makes me fill with awe when I see it.  Partially this is due to the amazing specifications it holds. At 1440p, the phone has crystal clear images, and with it enhanced with HDR 10, a feature usually seen on high end televisions and computer monitors, the colors and contrast are stunning.  Another cool perk with the screen is its OLED panel, which allows it to have not only true 100% black, but also have an always on display. This is handy for when you need to check the time, or need to see why your phone just chimed for your attention without turning it on.  However if your battery is running low, and a USB port is nowhere to be seen, you can switch it off and conserve power. Battery life shouldn't be an issue though, with the phones 3,300 mAh battery, you should be able to have consistent use through the day without problems. If you do manage to need to plug it in during the day the phone is equipped with Quick Charge 4 so you can get more use from your phone in minutes.

Another big feature is the cameras, 5 of them to be precise.  The triple camera array on the back of the device allow for a wide variety of camera uses, from stunning macro shots, to breathtaking wide angle images.  The cameras themselves go as follows: A 12MP main shooter with optical image stabilization, a 16MP wide angle lens, and a 12MP telephoto lens. A cool feature that LG put in their device called Triple Shot.  All three cameras open up and when you take the photo they all fire sequently, making it possible to have gorgeous photos from 3 different angles with a single button. Along with Triple Shot, after taking the photo, you can have the phone stitch together the 3 images into a little .gif.  It's more of a novelty feature but its still cool regardless. For the confident type, there are two more front facing cameras. One is an 8MP standard lens, for taking pictures of yourself, but if you want a groupie, also included there is a 5MP wide angle lens. They both meet expectations for a flagship device and have included a suite of beauty features to smooth and artificial light your world.

Now, we all know that Apple has made it clear that the consumer will be fine without a headphone jack, at least that's what corporate sees. Unfortunately, to make sure that they stay relevant, android phone makers have begun to follow suit, removing the precious jack to make the phones a millimeter thinner.  Thats where LG comes in. While Samsung may still have their jack too, they don't have the best built in DAC ever seen in a smart device. Everyone uses their phone for audio at one point or another. Weather its Spotify Daily Mixes or Sprints complementary Tidal Premium account, or watching the latest viral video on YouTube or binging American Horror Stories on Netflix.  If you were to listen to the same song on the Note9 and the V40, i would say that the V40 will sound better. Everything will sound clearer, and if you turn it on, the V40 also has virtual surround sound, for the best cinematic experience on its amazing display. Now will the audio sound just as good out loud? I would say yes. The V40 has a special resonance chamber built into the phone, to make the sound louder and clearer.  Be careful though, max out the volume on the speaker and it may sound a bit distorted.

In sum, the V40 is an amazing device that's worth every penny.  With its great screen and huge battery, you can watch video with stunning clarity all day long. Paired with the amazing DAC that LG has given us in the phone your listening experience will also be cinematic.  When you manage to pull yourself away from its awesome screen and look around, you can capture the world around you in crystal clear detail.

-- Will England, Sprint Product Ambassador

The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. The PA's do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond to Community members in an official capacity. #sprintemployee

LG V40 ThinQ Triple Shot Demonstration - Sprint Product Ambassadors

With three excellent cameras on the back of the LG V40 ThinQ, each having their own zoom range, you can take some pretty interesting photos.  One cool feature is the ability to create a brief video with all three cameras!  Check out how this works in this video:

I can see a lot of potential beyond filming a brick - from 'I Was There' to even more artistic creation with this excellent camera feature on the LG G40 ThinQ!

-  Will England

The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. The PA's do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond to Community members in an official capacity. #sprintemployee

Mac OS X 10.14 Mojave Problems and Solutions

Backing up my 2015 Macbook Pro getting ready for the 10.14 update (Mojave). While I'm waiting for the backup to complete I checked out what problems I'll be getting into.

First, what to look for - MacWorld.co.uk has a great overview of Mojave.

SoftwareHow.com has some solid tips on the most common problems and resolutions for them in Mojave.

Ensure your Mac is backed up, and you have updated all your applications.  Also, after the update, update your apps again, as there may be new versions just for Mojave.

Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be as many issues as previous updates.  Once the backup is done I'll be installing the 10.14 Mojave update.

On Riding

Stolen from so many sources I can't even give proper attribution -
"Riding a motorcycle doesen't call to everyone. It carries a level of risk that is an anathema to most. It demands a level of competence, a degree of engagement that is unusual in today's society. Like an old craft, the skills and the wisdom necessary to be successful at it don't come quickly, but emerge slowly, over time. Most people today simply don't have the patience or the inclination to deal with that sort of thing.
But for those of us who do, to that tiny minority who are drawn to it, the rewards are immeasureable. For us, riding imbues life itself with color, tinges it with adventure. It connects us to a time when people weren't perhaps quite so shy about how they lived. A time when everything wasn't a careful, exacting calculus of risk and reward. A bolder time when a fear of getting hurt didn't stand as an impenetrable shield to the simple enjoyment of life.
So, yeah, those of us who ride are deffinitely different. But it's a good difference. We carry something that once was common but now is rare. Something of the distilled essence of what got us all here.
We're the last wolves, in a land of sheep." — with Will Rutland.

My favorite GPS error, Somewhere in the Texas Hill Country

Following the GPS on an MSTA ride after Lukenbach TX.  Nice two lane windy road, and all of the sudden the GPS pops up and says Turn here! 

Where?  There may have been a road there 10, 20 50 years ago but there sure isn't one there now!
-- Will England

LG G7 ThinQ Concert Recording - Fantastic -- Sprint Product Ambassadors

I used the previous LG V30 for several band concerts when my 25 year old AKG Stereo mic broke and found it to be as good, if not better than my professional microphone.  When I got the G7 I couldn't wait to try it out -- but it was in the middle of the summer and no band concerts . . . .

So I waited and waited - and last week we had our first outdoor marching band show of the year!  I dug out the G7 and went up to the press booth at the stadium and recorded the show.  How'd it do?  Absolutely amazing!  Superior bass response, excellent stereo separation, amazing color capture.  I dumped the completely unedited untouched video to YouTube - put on some headphones and check it out!

So, the LG G7 ThinQ is just as good if not better than the V30 for live recording!  You can compare it to the $400 Sennheiser MK440 professional microphone on a Canon T3i here (also a straight dump to YouTube, no editing).  The Sennheiser has more gain, but less bass response and less stereo separation.  I had a wind blocker on the MK440 so you don't get the initial wind noise you hear on the LG.

Thanks for watching and enjoy your LG Phone!

-- Will England

The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. The PA's do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond to Community members in an official capacity. #sprintemployee

2011 Ducati Diavel Key Fob Battery

Battery died in the proximity sensor key fob for the wife's Ducati Diavel. We (I) being cheap, order some generic batteries. Never worked. Used the PIN code to ride it around for a while, then heard a tip - use *Energizer* brand batteries in the key fob and it will work.

Well guess what? It worked. One $3 Energizer CR2032 battery later and the 2011 Ducati Diavel starts just like it's supposed to!

- Will England