Companies that make the world a better place (if you are a programmer)

This organization actually certifies that a company makes the world a better place. They even have a job board where companies that are certified can post their jobs.

9 Tech Companies Making the World a Much Better place

Here are my thoughts on them...

Change.org
I really like Change.org's cause which is to facilitate change on a global scale, but starting with communities. I like their work-life balance and 5 weeks paid vacation. The question is do I want to move to San Francisco?

Etsy
Etsy sounds like a great place to work for their work-life balance and gentle atmosphere. I don't see myself moving to Brooklyn though.

Rally Software
Really awesome that starting out I would get 3 weeks vacation PLUS between Christmas and New years, and the standard US holidays. They really seem to embrace time off. They pay 100% medical and offer Sabbaticals. They are all about Agile. Several locations to choose from. Several US locations to choose from and also some around the world like London. I like how transparent they are, they post their benefits and values online. As far as working for a software company this seems like a great place to work. I don't really see that they do much for making the world a better place other than their green efforts and their respectful attitudes and their charitable giving of 1% of profits. They do have a UK office, but it appears to be for Sales only.

AZAVEA
They offer a lot of nice benefits also like 4 weeks vacation and truly subsidized healthcare. They plainly say they believe in having time to be with family and friends makes you more productive. It is in Philadelphia. I'll have to check out the city. I like that their product has a bit of BI or AI and make GeoSpatial data and also believes in open source.

Okay, so I didn't finish the list. It turns out that these are all great companies, but I will have to move if I want to work for them. I'm not ready to do so. So, I looked to see if there are any in Arizona specifically. As it turns out there are a handful. Here is a link to the Certified B Corp in Arizona. In 2015 there will be even better things happening like businesses can actually be a legal entity called B Corp. Things will start to change then and there should be more options.

Here are the 5 AZ companies that are B Corp certified to choose from as of right now:

Goodmans Interior Structures
Goodmans is a furniture company and doesn't seem to have much need for developers right now.


Carter Law Group is a law firm
Here is their new website. They seem to be a good company and reasonably close, but they don't appear to have a job board or us IT a lot judging from their simple website and industry. I can't seem to find their job page.

Technicians for Sustainability
I really like the idea of working for a solar company. I wish they were based in Phoenix, not Tucson.

Veritable Vegetable
I think one step nicer than a solar company would be an organic produce company. Unfortunately, no IT here that I can tell, and it is in San Francisco, not AZ.... GRRR!!!!

Manzimvula Ventures, Inc
They are in Chandler, AZ and reasonably close to my home. They seem to be consultants for businesses and they want to leverage technology, but I cannot figure out a single job listing for them anywhere.

So, for now B Corp Certifications seems to be a dead end until they are really a thing in Arizona. So, it looks like my timing is off and should maybe wait another 6 months to a year. I can make that work for me.

Just looking around, here are some companies that I like.

Glassdoor.com
I like the transparency they bring to the employment process. I like what they offer from a benefits package with the company: Unlimited vacation days, flexible work schedules, etc. I would have to move to San Francisco though. Sigh.

Tangent:
Job Titles and their salary ranges on Glassdoor.com
Data Scientist -$80K - $146K ($115 Average)
Senior Web Developer - $65K - $112K ($90 Average)
Solutions Architect - $72K - $140K ($105 Average)
Senior Software Engineer - $75K - $130K ($100 Average) ($66K - $109K, $90K Average for Phoenix)


33 Entrepeneurs Who Make the World a better place
This may be a good place to start looking for companies that make a difference.

VHS to DVD using iMovie

What’s Important

Goals:

1. No loss in quality from VHS to DVD
2. No loss in quality from VHS to file format
3. File format must be playable by Picasa on Windows
4. Compatible with iMove and iDVD on iMac
5. US and UK playability

I don’t care about:

1. File size is not a concern, but quality is

VHS

VHS is a video tape that uses magnetic tape to store data. Data is written in analog encoding, NOT digital as a DVD.

Can play in VCR with an adapter. Content can be recorded in different speeds. With the different speeds comes a difference in quality.

Popular NTSC Resolution: 350 x 480 (250 lines)

There are two common length of tapes. They are T-120 and T-180. The number is the number of minutes it will play at SP (full quality)

Here are the typical play speeds

Values are in the format (SP / LP / EP). EP is also SLP

T-120 (120 min/ 240 min / 360 min)

T180 (180 min / 360 min / 540 min)

 

VHS-C

Same as VHS, but shorter tape.

Here are the typical play speeds

• SP – Standard Play – 40 minutes
• LP – Long Play -
• EP – Extended Play – 120 minutes (aka SLP or Super Long Play)

References

VHS Wiki

DVD

Frame size and frame rate

DVD’s in the US use one of the following formats:

• MPEG-2 compression at up to 9.8 Mbits/s
  • 720 x 480 pixels at 29.97 frames/s, interlaced or progressive
  • 704 x 480 pixels at 29.97 frames/s, interlaced or progressive
  • 352 x 480 pixels at 29.97 frames/s, interlaced or progressive
• MPEG-1 compression at up to 1.856 Mbits/s
  • 352 x 288 pixels at 25 frames/s, progressive only
  • 352 x 240 pixels at 29.97 frames/s, progressive only

All resolutions support 4:3 frame aspect ration. Only full D1 resolutions support widescreen (16:9) video. MPEG-2 also supports progressive.

Audio

Audio on a DVD can be PCM, DTS, MP2, AC-3 (Dolby Digital). PCM takes a lot of space on a DVD that could be used for high quality video. Dolby digital has great compression and is supported by most fairly recent DVD players now. DTS may or may not be supported. PCM is not well supported.

Container

DVDs use a VOB container format. VOB contain Video, audio, and subtitle streams all multiplexed. The vidoe stream is MPEG, but must be at the specifications noted above and here. So, all VOB files are MPEG, but not all MPEG are VOB files.

References:

Lots of details on DVD

More on VOB files

 

iMovie

Native formats:

• DV (Ditial Video) like from a camcorder
• DV Widescreen
• HDV 1080i (25 and 30 fps)
• HDV 720p (25 and 30 fps)
• MPEG 4 Simple Profile
• iSight

NOTE: MPEG-2 which DVD’s use is not shown. This just means we can’t take a video from a DVD and put it in iMovie. It does NOT mean that we cannot use iDVD to convert and burn a DVD from what iMovie EXPORTS.

Export formats:

iMovie can export to virtually any format with most any setting. The number of choices and options can actually be a bit overwhelming.

The one that I found to be the played the best on Mac and PC is what iMovie exports very easily and without much thought. Just go to the iMovie. Go to the Share menu and choose Export Movie… Select Large. From a resolution standpoint Medium should be sufficient for VHS, but I think Large is safer. Depends on your hard drive and amount of video as to which one you choose. Large is saved with a .m4v extension and uses H.264 for compression at 30 frames/s which is 4mbps.

Archive Format

I chose DV (digital video) because that is what it is captured in when I use FireWire. I believe the format that it is saved in is DV/DV PRO, but that should be verified. DV is a lossy compression. It is NOT lossless contrary to popular belief. It is an advanced codec that does a very good job of keeping quality and still give a good amount of compression. The DV files are still quite large, but I think it is worth it to archive videos with. I think it is overkill to just view, etc.

References

iMovie: Using footage from DV and non-DV sources 

 

Analog to Digital Converter

If you are converting from a VHS or VHS-C tape, there are a few ways to convert them to digital. There is NO way to do this without a analog to digital convert. The converter does NOT have to be a stand alone converter, but it is 100% required to exist in the process somewhere. A converter can be a camcorder with firewire connection. These have analog to digital converters built in. In can be a VHS to DVD dubbing machine. It could be my choice, the Canopus ADVC300 Advanced Digital Video Converter. With an around $400 price tag, this can be expensive for small projects. I have over 85 VHS or VHS-C tapes so this is good investment for me.

My theory is that if I spend that kind of money on any of those devices, I want all the money to go to the analog to digital converter, not the lense on a camcorder, a dvd writer, etc. I believe this is the most important part of the process because if this is done poorly, there is nothing you can do to recover.

Be sure that the converter can sync audio and video even on long recordings. This is very important. The ADV300 noted above does this.

References

Using analog/Firewire convert devices with iMovie

VCR / Camcorder

If you have the camcorder or vcr that a tape was recorded on I highly recommend using that device as the player for the tape. The reason is that in many cases, a tape will never play as well in another devices as it does in the one that records it. I have read this on the internet, and been told that by a couple professional conversion shops. In fact, often professional shops have several decks to try to find the best playback quality of a tape. If you have the original device, you have the best already.

If you don’t have the original vcr, you may consider a new one and clean in between tapes. At the very least clean you existing VCR before you start the batch of tapes. The reason is that I think this is another critical place in the process. If the heads that you are using to read the tape are dirty there is no amount of hardware or software that fix the problem. Well, you can try, but you will create side effects.

It is best to get a 4 head and wi-fi sound.

Tips

How to Convert VHS to DVD – excellent tips!

Converting VHS to DVD or Computer Media

General Tidbits I learned

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-91509.html

Use s-video instead of standard composite (RCA) when possible. S-video will give you the best possible quality and less loss of signal. Well, see below for this debate. :)

VHS or VHS-C is 330×480 (250 lines)
DVD is 720×480 (520 lines)
8mm film (including Super 8 film) is about 1000 lines (I don't know how many pixels that is)
HDV (MiniDV) is: 1440×1080 (810 lines) NOTE: This file format uncompressed is enormous (like 50GB per hour!!!!)

DV, AVI, and MPEG-2 have a max resolution of 720x480 pixels

It is best to store video from film as AVI uncompressed on hard drive (Windows) or store on MiniDV. DVD has the resolution to hold it, but really we are talking about the MPEG-2 standard when we talk about DVDs. This is a lossy technology and not good for frame based film.

This means VHS can safely be archived on MiniDV or AVI. MPEG-2 / DVD may be good enough also. If it is good enough for DVD, it is probably good enough for VHS sourced video. MPEG-2 has a great resolution than VHS, so only issue is the lossy algorithm, but again, it is usually not noticed. Look at all the DVD's we accept as great. However, with High Definition TVs now, some DVDs don't look as good as they used to. It is hard to say if VHS as an uncompressed file would look any better than MPEG-2. Theoretically it is, but will anybody every see it, that is the question. I think the answer is: maybe. ;)

Recording Formats:
http://dvr.about.com/od/dvrs/f/ancamform.htm

Good Overview of different formats used in video records (i.e. camcorders)
http://www.high-techproductions.com/formats.htm

File Formats
NOTE: The following table shows the data rates and file sizes of various compression schemes and their most likely application. Formats were converted from a 30-second DV file. Unless otherwise noted, all formats were produced at a frame rate of 30 frames per second (fps), with CD-quality audio (44.1 kHz, 16-bit sample rate).

File format
Frame size
File size (MB)
Data rate (KB/s)
Application/comments

DV
720x480
103
3527
Excellent quality. DV captured with IEEE 1394 card. Output back to DV, Hi-8 or S-VHS.

AVI uncompressed
720x480
893
30519
Excellent quality but file size and data rates are too high for convenient storage and playback.

MPEG-2 (high data rate)
720x480
39
1336
Excellent quality. Suitable for output to DV, Hi-8 or S-VHS.

MPEG-2 (medium data rate)
720x480
19
657
Excellent quality, but under some conditions compression artifacts may occur. Suitable for output to DV, Hi-8 or S-VHS.

MPEG-2 (low data rate)
720x480
3.6
123
Quality ranges from fair to good, due to obvious compression artifacts. Suitable if large frame size is required, where quality is less important.

MPEG-2 (medium data rate)
640x480
18.5
631
Excellent quality. Suitable for output to Hi-8, S-VHS, or full-screen computer video.

AVI compressed (Indeo video 5.06 compression)
640x480
47
1622
Quality ranges from good to excellent, depending on the compression codec and setting.

AVI compressed (Cinepak compression)
320x240
25
860
Good quality. Suitable for output to standard VHS or video in a window.

MPEG-1 (medium data rate)
320x240
7.2
246
Good quality. Suitable for output to standard VHS or video in a window.

WMV (ASF, MPEG-4)
320x240 Audio: 16 kHz mono
0.39
13
Fair quality. Extremely low file size and data rates make this format ideal for Internet e-mail or posting to the Web.

REAL Video
320x240 Audio: 16 kHz mono
0.39
13
Fair quality. Extremely low file size and data rates make this format ideal for Internet e-mail or posting to the Web.

Copied from: http://www.techimo.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-5551.html

Analog and Digital Signals
Excellent breakdown of each of the types of signals and if they are digital or analog. S-Video and component video are analog.
http://www.rivercable.com/cable3.html

Computer Formats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_codecs

Different Media and Resolutions:
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-VHS

Analog:

• 350×240 (260 lines): Video CD
• 330×480 (250 lines): Umatic, Betamax, VHS, Video8
• 400×480 (300 lines): Super Betamax, Betacam (pro)
• 440×480 (330 lines): analog broadcast
• 560×480 (420 lines): LaserDisc, Super VHS, Hi8
• 670×480 (500 lines): Enhanced Definition Betamax

Digital:

• 720×480 (520 lines): D-VHS, DVD, miniDV, Digital8, Digital Betacam (pro)
• 720×480 (400 lines): Widescreen DVD (anamorphic)
• 1280×720 (720 lines): D-VHS, HD DVD, Blu-ray, HDV (miniDV)
• 1440×1080 (810 lines): HDV (miniDV)
• 1920×1080 (1080 lines): D-VHS, HD DVD, Blu-ray, HDCAM SR (pro)

Cable to use
Source: http://dvr.about.com/od/howtos/ht/a2dvdr.htm
In short use the best possible that your player has. For example if your camcorder has s-video then use s-video. If it or your vcr only have composite (RCA) then use that. According to about.com, you don't need s-video unless your source is something better than vhs such as s-vhs.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-Video
Here is one way I thought about it. Theoretically since S-Video is a signal, not a format it is best to always use s-video over composite because it eliminates the dot crawl and other less desirable "features" of composite signal. The way I understand it is that VHS cassette is a medium, and audio and video information is written on it using magnetic encoding. This is analog, not digital. I can output that video information using composite or s-video signal. In this case, I am not using all the resolution possible in s-video, but I still get the other benefits of it. This is similar to plugging your dvd player into your tv using composite or s-video, but reserve logic. In this example, the video is at a hight resolution than s-video and composite. Using composite is still limiting my output to the constraints of composite. A digital example of this would be watching a video you download off the internet that is at a low resolution. Your Monitor can display high resolution video, but it doesn't have to if the source is not high.

Wikipedia says:
"The situation with VCRs is a bit unusual; the common S-Video connector was designed for Super VHS and Hi8 VCRs as a high-bandwidth video connection, and has been used for the same purpose on a great number of other consumer devices, coming into greatest prominence with the rise of the DVD format. Many digital, and all Hi-8, and S-VHS-C camcorders support S-Video out as well. Standard VHS VCRs do not put out a high enough resolution signal to saturate an S-Video connection, and therefore most such units, even those in combination units with DVD players (which commonly use S-Video or component outputs), require the output from the VHS deck to go through a composite video or RF connection."

I have read in forums of people stating that they DVD / Combo unit does output VHS via s-video, so I don't know who to believe. If the people in the forum are right, how is this being done by the manufacturers?

I also read from a person in another forum that you should not convert back in forth unless a good reason. For example if source was originally recording using composite then transfer to DVD using composite. I'm not sure that makes sense to me. S-video is a signal used to transmit the video information over the cable, not an encoding of information on the tape itself.

Here, someone else says the opposite: "Composite i/o will subject the signal to much more processing (and quality degradation) than S-video will. A copy made via composite i/o will always look worse than a copy made via S-Video i/o no matter what the source format is. Also, the copy will always be inferior to the master (source) tape in terms of quality. All you can do is limit the amount of damage you do to the signal.

I have no clear proof of whether s-video is better to use for analog camcorders that didn't have s-video output, but it makes sense to me that s-video should always be used when possible. However, I have found some hard evidence and reasoning to use s-video. (My logic was right). I think I found the best reason and clear explanation of why to use s-video over composite. The answer is dot crawl and it is only in composite, not video. It basically makes the picture not as clear. It is recommended to use S-Video to transmit analog video (which is what vhs is). Check out the info here.

The real question is what is the best and most cost effective way of getting VHS to be transmitted on s-video. There are three options.
1. Get a S-VHS vcr. They seem to be extremely expensive and for the most part professional equipment (with a couple of exceptions). I think I found a consumer model for around $500 if I remember correctly. The rest where professional line and cost in the thousands typically. I can't see this as being very economically feasible for the difference between composite and s-video.

2. Get a VCR/DVD combo. Most of them seem to have s-video built into them. The only question is which of them run the vhs out on them. I have read that some of them only use the s-video for DVD, and not the VCR. So, this may be trial and error until the right unit is found that uses s-video for vcr also. Do NOT worry about the up-conversion features even the ones that say they do it for VHS also. It just doesn't matter since it is display only. Meaning you have to use the HDMI connection and connect it to you tv. I don't know of any computer that accepts HDMI as a source for video capture.

The second part of this choice is whether to get the DVD Recorder instead of just a DVD player. This is a nice option if you want to not use a computer and just burn to the DVD directory from the tape. Please be advised that DVD's have a relatively short shelf life and will need to be recopied every 2-5 years or so. The source for this is: http://www.film-to-video.com/dirty_little_secrets.html and http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/303864 or just do a google search for dvd shelf life and you will see. The manufacturers of DVD's (the ones we burn with our dvd burners on our computers, not commercially produced ones) clain much longer shelf lives, but user experience and physics say differently. Some people have experiences issues with DVDs only 6 months old. This may be because of cheaper quality DVDs, but this is unknown. Play it safe, if you are going to buy a DVD or CD for that matter, make sure it is a high quality disk. The easiest way to do that is to stick with name brands. MiniDV is still one of the best archive mediums as they can last between 30 and 100 years. No medium is forever though. A quality Hard drive is a good choice also.

So, this is why I am choosing Hard Drive and a backup of that drive also that will be stored offsite for all my family archives. DVD's are nice for convenience, but not for archiving.

whether or not to buy a dvd/vcr combo just to get s-video output that may or may not work on a particular model and if it does, is it really helping the quality of the signal. I guess one way of looking at it is if I buy a combo unit that has a dvd writer built in, I don't really have to think about it, and just hope they chose the best way to do so. If I do this, I can also try the s-video out port with vcr to see if it works. Hey, I can even compare the the machine vs. computer made dvds. :)

It hit me after looking for s-video vcrs. Why not go to component video, it is analog as well and provides superior quality to any other analog medium! Unfortunately, my capture card does have connectivity for it. And I don't think I want to mess with component video given the less than industry standards that exist. I think I will be able to get much more consistent results with s-video.

Regardless of whether you choose s-video or component video, I have found that http://www.crutchfield.com is an EXCELLENT place to research the connections each DVD/VCR combo unit has and if they work for VCR or DVD or both. So far, I have found the following units that they say have s-video and / or component video for the vcr portion of the unit.

LG RC797T $299
LG RC700N $199 (may work, it doesn't say for sure)
Sony RDR-VX555 $229
Toshiba D-VR650 $250 (My guess is that it will work, but it is not clear Crutchfield or other Toshiba manuals). Toshiba also seems to have bad reviews in general, especially for their low end models. I can't really recommend this one based on that.
Panasonic makes a model that has "DVD priority" output like the Toshiba (no bad reputation though that I know of), but again, I don't know exactly what that means. This product was not on Crutchfield though.

Analog to Digital Capture Cards and USB devices for computers
http://www.videoguys.com/vidcap.htm

Good article on how to convert VHS to DVD
http://www.signvideo.com/conv-v-to-d.htm

My first real computer (1996)

I was going to ASU in 1996 and I decided that I needed to get a computer so that I could do my work from home instead of driving across town to stand in line for a computer in the over crowded computer labs. Prior to this I had used Mac IIx, Mac LC, and even a Powerbook Duo 280c. The 280c was very cool, but it was nothing in comparison to the new PowerMac desktop machines. This is where the power was, so I went out and bought a brand new PowerMac 7200/90 (MHz, not Ghz) with 8MB RAM (yes 8 MB) and a 500 MB drive (yes MB, not GB).
I bought it from the ASU Computer store on 5/14/1996 for $1215.07 including tax. This was several hundred dollars less than I could buy in a retail store then. I was so proud of this computer. It was so fast and powerful. Wow, how things have changed.

All I can say is wow, how impatient with computers we are today. To put this in perspective, I have a several old PC now that emulates a faster version of that same computer. I actually transferred 100% of what was on my old Mac hard drive and put it in a virtual partition on my PC. It now runs about the same speed as it did then, only now it is emulated. Amazing. Simply amazing how computer technology changes in just over 10 years.

I soon upgraded the RAM since even back then 8MB was not enough to run everything I thought I needed to run. So, I added 16MB DIMM so that I now had 24MB total. I thought that was good. Then I started programming. In order to do what I needed then I got more than I thought I would ever need. I got 64MB for $264.00 with tax. I thought to myself, I'll never need more than this. I can't even think of enough programs to open to use all that. Little did I know then, that now on program can take more than that especially if you count virtual memory.


Amazing how things change. I'm sure, things will change just as much if now more in the next 10 years.

Computer Temperature

It is a good idea to keep you CPU on your computer running less than 90 degrees Celius. The hard drive should not exceed 50 degrees Celius.