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ffej
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Joined: 22 Jun 2004
Posts: 595
Location: Kurrajong, NSW


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BotClips.net

Just letting people know that come the 22nd of November, BotClips.net will be no more, replaced by BotScoop.net - a new site hosted on a new server. The change allows me to give anyone who wants it an FTP account and multiple sub-domains. Theres also virtually unlimited space available, lots of room for hosting anything bot related.

Apart from the change of server, the domain name change is supposed to indicate a shift toward more of a news based site, rather than just videos. Ideally it would evolve into a portal for all bot happenings around Aust and the world. IMO, thats something we need badly. For example, after telling a prospective competitor at Uni all about what we do, they wanted to know where they could see video and find out more. Where could I direct them ? YouTube and the forum ? Not exactly great . . .

I mean, when you think about it, theres no real news site around for bots . . . you have to rely on the forums and builders sites, both here and in the US, to know what happend at the most recent event . . . you then spend the next few days asking around for event pics / vids, which often show up only as a crappy YouTube / .flv based thing. Its a PITA for clued up builders, imagine what its like for the spectators. . . A news site would allow for all of this, event write-ups, videos, pictures, robot build pages . . .

What I propose is that we start off using a wiki, and build up from there. People can upload pictures via HTTP (in the wiki) and FTP event videos to the server before linking to them in the wiki. The event pages can then be written and maintained by the community. When this starts to work, it can be built upon, to allow easy upload of large files via HTTP, better suit the site to video (automatic thumbnails ...) etc, and turn it something more suited to the task.

At the moment, theres a very basic DocuWiki setup, the layout is crappy and doesnt suit the page. All of this however is easy to change by editing the CSS theme files. Id love some suggestions / basic layout ideas. Anyone good at CSS / PHP who wants to play with the site just ask and ill set up a test site for you.

Also, anyone who wants an FTP account and sub-domain, say so here and ill PM you a user name and password - I did ask before but no one responded (I hope that was more of a "didn't see it" than a "CGF")

I'm payed up for two years, so you don't have to worry about the data going anywhere for at least that long. I guess at the moment im really just looking for comments, and help lol. The aim is for the site to be community driven, and that cant happen without a community willing to keep it up to date.

What does everyone think ?
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Post Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:58 pm 
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Philip
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Joined: 18 Jun 2004
Posts: 3842
Location: Queensland near Brisbane


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How large could the video files be? I hate compressing the fights down to 100 Mb. DV25 would make a 3 min fight about 600 Mb IIRC. Would that size file be alright?
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 4:33 am 
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Nick
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Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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Location: Sydney, NSW


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Sounds like a good idea! The only thing I can think of is that the wiki will need an editor to keep the structure fairly flat and weed out off-topic content. Making the wiki easy to browse will be a key requirement to making it popular.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:29 am 
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ffej
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Joined: 22 Jun 2004
Posts: 595
Location: Kurrajong, NSW


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quote:
Originally posted by Philip Taylor:
How large could the video files be? I hate compressing the fights down to 100 Mb. DV25 would make a 3 min fight about 600 Mb IIRC. Would that size file be alright?


I cant quite tell whether that was a genuine request or sarcasm lol, but on the off chance that it was genuine, as big as your willing to upload.

I agree with the editing too, Nick. But then I guess the Robowars Technical wiki hasn't been too bad IRT off topic areas, so it would seem there not as prone to it as the forums.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:09 am 
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dyrodium
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Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 6476
Location: Sydney


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As long as people aiming to keep it on topic outnumbers those trying to make it off topic, it should work out OK.
Regarding the news and such, i'm happy to manage the NSW side of things, and will manage filming from now on, now we've got a reliable harddrive camera which doesn't need unreliable, complex film. Smile
First things first, we need a page on the arenas! Very Happy Heh would be cool to compare them, and what damage they've taken/withstood.
EDIT: In otherwords an overview of each states robot situation. I'm happy to do the NSW, the rest I don't really know much off! Smile
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:30 am 
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Knightrous
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Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 8511
Location: NSW


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@Jeff: I'll be getting the same hosting myself, so if you need a mirror, I'm prepared to add an extra 80-100GB of space for videos. I'm familiar with PHP, and I'm interested in picking up skills in CSS. I'll be happy to help out where possible Razz

I also believe getting the ranking system currently upheld by the mighty efforts of Daniel, put onto this site in the form of a PHP/MySQL combo. We could have it so you can query the database, and pull out figures that currently would take a lot of Daniel's time. ie: comparing two bots status directly with each other.

Possibly even borrow the idea from the buildersdb and have robot profiles with rankings attached, just we'll have to keep ours a bit more up to date then the buildersdb Smile

I'll also put my hand up for maintaining all the QLD based information and news. I always take my digital camera to events and I'm happy to upload event reports.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 10:07 am 
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Valen
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Joined: 07 Jul 2004
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Location: Sydney


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One suggestion.
do not in any way use wmv for the movies, or anything to do with flash.
mpeg4 codecs by Xvid is the preference.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 10:36 am 
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dyrodium
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Joined: 24 Aug 2004
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Location: Sydney


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Problem with that is that most people wouldn't be able to play those files easily... they'd need to download extra stuff am I right?
A major problem at computers that arn't yours... Confused
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 11:23 am 
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Nick
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Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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Location: Sydney, NSW


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We can put in the Xvid codec download link - I just started using them and it was dead easy! The alternate is the H.264 Codec championed by Apple in the latest Quicktime - also easy to get. I would say to just use one of the top 3 codecs that your editing software supports and make it easy for visitors to get the codecs if they need to.

Just another thing we need to watch: the new copyright laws will make it illegal to use virtually any background music unless its public domain or an original composition or you have a proper license for public use. The new laws give copyright owners real teeth to prosecute!
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:07 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia


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So, Its too hard for users to play a file format that Microsoft doest want you to play huh ?

Might as well just hand them your wallet now.

Tell them to get a clue.. VLC Player will play anything.

If some twit doesnt want to install a program that frees him from the Microsoft format monopoloy, then start stamping "Propert of Microsoft" all over their music/video/book (yes, they're trying for that too) collection.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:10 pm 
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Valen
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Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 4436
Location: Sydney


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mpeg4 or mpeg2
not quicktime or microsoft or any of those ones, only use a format that anyone can get without paying for it or needing digital rights ass !@#$$ing to use it.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:25 pm 
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Knightrous
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Joined: 15 Jun 2004
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Location: NSW


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Anything BUT Quicktime! Down with Apple! Up with Pants! I hate Quicktime, <insert rant here>

I don't mind WMV (Not saying it's good), because it just works and I can queue a bunch of videos at once, plus editing can be done on any win xp system. VLC player is wicked, play-it-all player, except it's another one of those open source, very rough around the edges programs. Interface is ugly and you cannot queue videos from what I have seen...

I hate downloading codecs, it's a PITA, you can never trust them either.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 1:25 pm 
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Philip
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Joined: 18 Jun 2004
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Location: Queensland near Brisbane


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quote:
Originally posted by ffej:
I cant quite tell whether that was a genuine request or sarcasm lol, but on the off chance that it was genuine, as big as your willing to upload.
It was a genuine question. I use Avid Free DV on Alex's computer when I upload robot videos. Avid uses DV25 as standard. I hate blurry grainy pictures. Many people now have broadband or know someone who has broadband so the size of the download should not be too much of an issue.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 4:24 pm 
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Valen
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Joined: 07 Jul 2004
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Location: Sydney


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if you get the xvid codec you can play all the divX stuff and do so in media player with all the crud that does, without having to pay for it. You can also encode in it with all the windows things too I believe. I've only used windows media encoder but when you are specifing the output file you can pick your encoding. So rather than just hitting "ok" on windows media player with DRM and added phone home goodness, just pick Xvid.

Doing compression well requires at least some knowledge, any idiot can make something but it takes half a brain to make it well. Around here at least there shouldn't be a shortage of people with brain.

Re: trust, I'd trust Xvid over DivX any day, heck I'd trust anything you can get from sourceforge over something from the big bad intarweb lol. DivX has too much motivation to mess with your puter. Like RealPlayer in the bad old days, (like now) at least nobody has suggested RM format. Even now RM still tries to take over every single media type when you install it, and post install you have to manually clean out your startup stuff in the registry to get rid of all the crap it tries to do. GRRR.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 5:47 pm 
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Nick
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Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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What's so bad about Quicktime? I never had a problem and you can encode AVI files with different codecs nowadays. The $30 pro Quicktime is really handy for fixing other program's shortcomings.
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Post Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:30 pm 
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