For those of you still anxiously awaiting a working version of Albatross, we are one big step close!  The latest test builds of VLC 0.9.9 have fixed on-the-fly transcoding and streaming to Flash video format (.flv)!  Okay, it’s almost fixed.  They still haven’t fixed the problem where transcoding the audio to any sample rate other than the source file’s native sample rate causes the audio and video to speed up or slow down accordingly, but at least it’s working again!  You can download them for Mac OS X here:

http://jones.videolan.org/~videolan/0.9.9-test/

I’ve only tested this on the Mac so far, but history tells me that it should work in other environments as well.  Works with a stock installation of Albatross 0.5.1.

The new 2.7.1 release of WordPress was just too good to pass up.  I had installed it on another clients site (soon to be launched), and just fell in love with the new interface.  It’s very snazzy, I love the auto-updates, and the layout is fab! But there’s one thing that was still missing… themed login pages.

If you follow the mailing list and the TRAC ticket, you’ll know that they’re looking for a more extensive patch for themed login pages, where as I’ve taken a more minimalist approach.  Both approaches are valid with their own pros and cons, but given my choices between upgrading without a themed login, waiting until I found time to create a “more extensive” patch (I’m an impatient person), and just updating the old patch, I chose the third option.  The blog you see before you is the result!

If you already have a themed login page from the previous patch, all you need to do is update to WordPress 2.7.1 and apply the new patch.  Your existing login.php theme template will work just fine with the new patch.  The new patch is attached to the TRAC ticket linked to above.  Feedback is welcome, as always!

Original Themed Login post

Update – I’ve updated the patch so that you no longer include error messages in the custom login_header() function.  This means they can’t be “forgotten” by the template designer.  Unfortunately, it also means that your existing login.php template won’t work.  Luckily, making it work is as simple as removing all references to login_header_error() in your template.  A new sample login.php has been posted on the TRAC ticket.

Update 2 - For those of you who have difficulty patching, here’s the patched file for 2.7.1.

WordPress Themable Login patched for 2.7.1

The TyStreamer page has moved from its old home on wiskars.com to the main Still Designing web site!  This by itself is not necessarily “blog-worthy” as the content hasn’t changed much… yet.  But some of you may have noticed that the VideoLAN team has just release VLC version 0.9.0-test1.  TyStreamer now requires version 0.9.0 for its ability to stream flash video, allowing you to use 98% of all web browser installations to watch video on your TiVo or home computer anywhere on the internet.  There hasn’t been a new release of TyStreamer in a while largely because VLC 0.9.0 has been a bit of a moving target.  Now that we’re starting to see some slightly more stable releases from VLC, TyStreamer can likewise start showing its stuff.  Some of the cool new features you can look forward to over previous versions:

• Streams Flash video
• View video files on your home computer as well as TiVo programs
• Support for multiple video sources from the same TyStreamer installation
• Cool new Web 2.0 user interface using jQuery!
• Streams to the Nintendo Wii’s Internet Channel!