Everybody swears by HandBrake as the free, open source tool for ripping DVDs. But every time I’ve used it, it hasn’t been able to rip movies. The trick, it seems, is to also install DVD43, which runs in the background waiting for you to stick in a DVD, at which point it strips off the copy protection. Voilà, Beetlejuice to Amelia’s iPod.

Update: But wait, Flushed Away continues to resist, even in the face of the Handbrake/DVD43 combination. Handbrake kept freezing trying to read the disc. So in this case, I used VLC Media Player instead, following these instructions: Rip a DVD to iTunes using VLC. Worked great, but note that in the case of Flushed Away the movie was on track 34, so step 4 of those instructions required some patience.

This 10-minute action scene from Bollywood movie Endhiran may be the best—or at least the most jam-packed—action scene in the world, ever. Sure, the CGI is weak in spots, but just some crazy stuff. Be sure to stick around to when the robots start attacking in various formations. Looks like this is actually the finale of the movie though, so it’s a big ‘ol spoiler.

Do I really need to say anything more than Bohemian Rhapsody, virtuoso ukelele edition

I love these little coincidences. Previously mentioned Bohemian Rhapsody, virtuoso ukelele edition arrived in my inbox the same night as Smooth Criminal, duet cello edition, also awesome:

Roger Ebert, posts a letter from Walter Murch, “the most respected film editor and sound designer in the modern cinema,” why 3D doesn’t work and never will:

The biggest problem with 3D, though, is the “convergence/focus” issue. A couple of the other issues — darkness and “smallness” — are at least theoretically solvable. But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen — say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what.

But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on, depending on what the illusion is. So 3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before. All living things with eyes have always focussed and converged at the same point.

I hate 3D. Loved Avatar, but everything else so far was just darker, more expensive, and gained nothing from the 3Dification. If my local theater gave me a choice, I would never opt for 3d.

Onion awesomeness: Gap Between Rich And Poor Named 8th Wonder Of The World.

Always excellent, always brutal, The Beast’s 2010 edition of their 50 Most Loathsome People In America list is up. “You” has made the list every year, but this is the first time at #1:

• 2002 (#3)
• 2004 (#3)
• 2005 (#4)
• 2006 (#16)
• 2007 (#9)
• 2008 (#43)
• 2009 (#26)
• 2010 (#1)

Here’s a sample, chosen not really at random at all, Jenny McCarthy at #19:

OK. Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s been revealed as a fraud and conman, and his study linking autism to the MMR vaccine was fully retracted by The Lancet. The “debate” is done, but this former Playboy Bunny is not. She initially believed her son Evan was an “Indigo child” (a creepy, Aryan wunderkind with telepathic powers), but after that didn’t pan out, she needed another equally plausible explanation for his condition and desperately latched onto the vaccine conspiracy. By convincing easily-duped moms that vaccines aren’t safe, she’s endangered their kids, compromised herd immunity and killed more Americans than terrorists have in the last nine years. And that’s not hyperbole.

Here’s something I didn’t really consider in such stark terms: a big chunk of AOL’s income is derived from collecting membership fees from people who don’t realize they already have Internet access from their DSL or cable providers:

A former AOL exec explains that this is AOL’s “dirty little secret” - “that 75 of the people who subscribe to AOL’s dial-up service don’t need it.”

80 of AOL’s profits come from their subscription service.

2010 winner of the Best Visual Illusion of the Year:

Sitting for long periods of time is looking pretty harmful. I’ve read other reports that suggests the 8 hours in the chair pretty much negates the hour in the gym, perhaps not for sports, but for long-term health (and for sports I’m sure the glute deactivation, hip flexor tightening, and back rounding don’t help). I have toyed off and on with the idea of a treadmill desk, but in the end I just don’t want to sink the money or space into a treadmill.

So a standing workstation has looked like a nice compromise, and today I put one together. I wanted cheap and easy, so I built something to sit on top of my workbench rather than my office desk, because the workbench is already higher, and I know I can build something that looks nice enough for the workshop, but not really nice enough for the office. Here it is:

Cost about $90, almost all of that in 3/4" pipe nipples (8) and floor flanges (12). The MDF shelves are 16" x 36" by 3/4". The legs have a flange on one end and rubber feet on the other end, and the flanges screw into the bottom of the unit. The uprights between the first shelf and the second shelf have flanges on both ends. In all cases, you thread the flanges onto the pipes really tight and then you screw all the flanges to the shelves. The top shelf is set slightly to the back relative to the bottom shelf.
I don’t think I’ll want to stand all day, so I’ll probably move from my office to the workshop periodically.
Rock solid, very happy with it. Posting this from it right now.
P.S. I also bought this"wireless keyboard/mouse combo":http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VANO7C/ ($45) to keep in the workshop, and"this router":http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LIFB7S/ ($70) to get better wireless coverage in my house. Pleased with both so far.

Ross Enamait, whose training products are my favorites, has a new double DVD set out on training the hands, neck, and core: The Missing Links. If you’re new to Ross, he walks the walk, total monster:

Nothing like the joy of endless video game mayhem, which the original Robokill delivered in spades. Paid to register it, feel like I got my $10 worth and then some. Of course I had to give Robokill 2 a go when it came out awhile ago, but at the time it just didn’t take. Too hard to advance, which hampered my joy of blowing stuff up. But I just tried it again, and loved it. I think they rebalanced it since it first came out. Registered and loving it.