Saturday, April 11, 2015

[Sk8Factory/Mimic Review] Skateboard manufacturing scum

I've been wanting to write this review to a skateboard deck manufacturer called Sk8 Factory. -- btw, they also own Mimic Skateboards.  Since there is no real way of informing other possible customers of these sub-standard manufacturer, I really think this review is needed to be posted to keep this money-sucking sub-standard Sk8 Factory away from the industry.

Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY from Sk8Factory (or Mimic Skateboards)!!!

They sell cheap because THEIR PRODUCTS ARE CHEAP!

The skateboard decks that Sk8 Factory (or Mimic Skateboards) produces gets easily delaminated.  This is due to their lack of experience in having a dyed ply mixed in the 7-ply deck -- the paint/color they use in dying the ply causes the dyed ply to not properly bind with the other plies.  This other skater's review shows that Sk8Factory (or Mimic Skateboards) were originally not using dyed ply.

Also, they only produce deck on demand but waits for a bulk batch to maximize the labor cost -- which is understandable to any business-minded individuals BUT this is a deadly combination for your skateboard decks.  After a month of production, they will start shipping your products hoping they cure while being delivered.  They need to deliver the product soonest the graphics are dried because you as their client have been waiting months when they were still waiting for other others.  And here you are so gullible and eager to test their product upon receiving it not knowing that the boards have not cured to its maximum curing time.  You'll only realize once it's all too late.

Their price is too good to be true because they are experimenting on the products that you will order from them.  So, whatever you do, DO NOT BUY anything from Sk8Factory or from Mimic Skateboards!

There's another video review which is basically a shallow review, IMHO.  The client is (or was) happy because finally his orders came in with his own graphics.  That same reviewer has a second video review where it shows how the board works, but as you can see the skater is kind of beginner that any sub-standard deck would probably pass his standards -- the reviewer can't even pop the board proper to level a proper ollie.


The only thing they got right is that their graphics doesn't easily come off like most brands.  But would that actually matter to you if the wood won't even last?

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

[Android Studio] Error : Failed to find: com.android.support

It's nice that Google is trying to make a full-fledged Android Authoring Software, complete with what is expected from an authoring tool.  But as of now, the tool itself is in Beta which has a few hiccups hidden somewhere, and one of this is not being able to compile an Android Project. o_o

Like, really?

So if you, like me, had encountered this problem saying:
Error : Failed to find: com.android.support
Relax and open SDK Manager then install the Android Support Repository and/or Android Support Library.  Better yet, install those two. :)

Upon restart of Android Studio, that problem should go away.

Happy hacking!

~creek23

Thursday, October 9, 2014

[FFMPEG] Adjust video volume

Before anything else, here's a quick disclaimer:  I do not promote the use of torrent for downloading movies you do not currently own.  Yes, I do download movies but only if I have a DVD/Bluray copy of it.  The only reason I download it so I would have a soft copy -- yes, I suck at ripping DVD/Blurays.

Okay.  Now, onto the issue at hand.

It seems that this torrent group called YIFY is famous among torrent freaks because of quality Bluray rips packed in very small HD files.  Sadly, YIFY configured their rips to lessen the quality of audio.  Which is not a problem for people watching the video on their computers since VLC Media Player can double the movie's volume and everybody's happy.

Well, not quite.

People who have LED TVs happen to enjoy the quality of the movie they downloaded by watching it on their 40~50in TVs.  And it so happen that their TVs doesn't have the feature VLC Media Player has (doubling the volume) -- so they are stuck with the audio quality that YIFY offers with their small-size HD movies.

So how do you fix it?

Have I mentioned my disclaimer, yet?

Anyway, let's use FFMPEG! Just type this into your Command Prompt:

ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -c:v copy -af "volume=10dB" "thanksToCreekCodes.mp4"

Above ffmpeg command should make sure that you should now have a louder audio while having the same video quality.

I'm pretty sure you understood my disclaimer right?  Well, happy viewing!

~creek23