How To Merge Avi Movies With VirtualDub

VirtualDub is a software with the ability to merge avi files.
You can also use this tutorial for other purposes, for instance to merge episodes of a TV series, or multiple videos that you have shot with your camcorder, digital camera or smartphone. Everything is possible as long as the input format of the videos is avi.

First download the latest version of VirtualDub from the official website. Unpack the portable software to your hard drive after download, and run the VirtualDub.exe afterwards.

You load the first movie with a click on File --> Open Video File. Click on File again and select Append Avi Segment for each additional part that you have as a file on your hard drive.

You can only load one movie at a time, which makes the process somewhat unhandy if you have many different parts.

Switch to the Video menu and make sure Full Processing Mode is selected there. Click on Compression under Video afterwards, and select one of the available video codecs. Please note that you need suitable codecs installed on your system for a solid result that offers a good image quality and suitable file size.

You can furthermore add filters to the process, for instance if you would like to resize the video, change the brightness and contrast or add a logo to one of the corners. You can preview the changes by pressing enter or by selecting File > Preview Filtered.
Once you have made your selection select File > Save as Avi and pick a directory on the local hard drive to save the video to.

 VirtualDub will display a status window where you can get information about the current processing status, as well as an estimation of the file size of the new video file. You can jack up the process priority if your computer is idle otherwise.
And that’s it. Just wait for the process to finish. It is recommended to play the video once on your hard drive to make sure that the merging was successful and without errors like out of sync audio.

Malware Steals Your Bitcoin

Bitcoins have become popular as an alternative to government-controlled currencies, but a new Trojan seems to be specifically targeting Bitcoin wallets in an attempt to steal funds, security firm Symantec warns.

The malware, Infostealer.Coinbit, is fairly simple: It targets Windows machines and zeros in on the standard file location for a Bitcoin wallet. It then e-mails the wallet — a data file containing private crypto keys — to the attacker by way of a server in Poland, according to Symantec, which was first to alert on the attack.

“If you use Bitcoins, you have the option to encrypt your wallet and we recommend that you choose a strong password for this in the event that an attacker is attempting to brute-force your wallet open,” Symantec’s Stephen Doherty wrote in a blog post Thursday.

Current exchange rates place the value of one Bitcoin to about $23.50 USD as of late Friday afternoon, according to bitcoincharts.com. For an overview of how the system works, see the currency's official site.

Earlier this week, a hack on a Bitcoin user's Windows computer was said to have resulted in the loss of the equivalent of $500,000 USD. While the amount is said to be disputed -- such a large amount transferring would have caused a drop in the value of the Bitcoin, and some claim the system wouldn't have been able to handle such a large transfer.

Regardless of the claims validity, it is believed that hackers have been able to develop botnets to exploit the Bitcoin system, Symantec reported earlier this week. It is believed that based on current valuations, these efforts could be netting these botnet owners the equivalent of $100,000 per month.

Related articles

• There's a Virus that Will Steal all Your Bitcoins [Bitcoin] (gizmodo.com)
• New Bitcoin malware steals Bitcoin wallets: Infostealer.Coinbit (zdnet.com)
• Trojan Goes After Bitcoins (it.slashdot.org)