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How to:

Fix pseudo-streaming videos by moving Moov Atom

Relies on some *nix CLI utilities: mediainfo; and qt-faststart (part of ffmpeg). I used homebrew to install them on OS X.

What is pseudo-streaming?

Pseudo streaming is simply a video that can start playing before it's fully dowmloaded. The videos are not streaming but rather progressively downloaded. What's important is that the file metadata (the Moov Atom) is at the start of the file rather than at the end. Usually this is an option set when encoding the file (called quick start or web start). If the files have not been encoded this way you can either re-encode or use a utility to move the Moov Atom. Re-encoding takes much longer than using a utility to move the Moov Atom so here's how to do it.

Steps

First check with mediainfo to see if video 'is streamable':

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Fixing npm On Mac OS X for Homebrew Users

Installing node through Homebrew can cause problems with npm for globally installed packages. To fix it quickly, use the solution below. An explanation is also included at the end of this document.

Solution

This solution fixes the error caused by trying to run npm update npm -g. Once you're finished, you also won't need to use sudo to install npm modules globally.

Before you start, make a note of any globally installed npm packages. These instructions will have you remove all of those packages. After you're finished you'll need to re-install them.

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#!/bin/bash -e
####
# Helper script to update the Last modified timestamp of files in a Git SCM
# Projects working Copy
#
# When you clone a Git repository, it sets the timestamp of all the files to the
# time when you cloned the repository.
#
# This becomes a problem when you want the cloned repository, which is part of a 
# Web application have a proper cacheing mechanism so that it can re-cache files

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My iTunes Match Track upgrading and process info:

If you have less than 25,000 tracks:

1. First let iTunes Match do its things and find all possible matches in your
library and finish uploading any non-matching tracks.

2. Once its done, make a new Smart Playlist (I made a folder for all my Smart
iTunes Match Related Playlists)