mcored :: gmail.com

Importing photos and videos from the phone

2011-01-05T09:34:00.001+08:00

Both Google Picasa and Windows Live Photo Gallery import photos and videos to the same folder e.g. My Pictures. I find it bizarre as to why common logic is not used to import photos to My Pictures and videos to My Videos.

Android 2.2.1

2011-01-05T09:29:00.001+08:00

Pre-installed Swype version is much faster with Android 2.2.1. The GPS is also more responsive.

iTunes naming convention in foobar2000

2010-12-26T09:23:00.001+08:00

$cut($ifgreater(%totaldiscs%,1,%discnumber%-,)%tracknumber% %title%,36)

PC2003 HDD configuration

2010-12-25T12:19:00.001+08:00

Nothing much has changed since last year’s configuration apart from a failed hard disk drive.

SATA0 – WD1001FALS
SATA1 – None
PATA PM – ST3750640A
PATA PS – WD3000JB
PATA SM – DVDRW
PATA SS – None

I bought a 2 TB hard disk to replace the failed 750 GB. The failed hard disk will be used as an external drive for archival as Archive003. The 2 TB hard disk will be Movies002.

WD1001FALS

Partitioned to 3 partitions: WINDOWS, DOCS and DATA, the WD1001FALS is the booting hard disk in this PC.

DATA is used for Music, ASOT, Photos and all other data storage purposes.

WD3000JB

Labelled as DUMP, it is used for downloading torrents.

ST3750640A

Used as the SERVER hard disk.

It is used to temporarily store Music Videos, Software until they are copied to dedicated external hard disks.

Samsung Galaxy S issues

2010-12-11T08:26:00.001+08:00

Battery not properly charging (possible solution – recommended every ~30 charges, or when the battery won't hold charge)

Phone POWER ON (Enter PIN) – charge to 100%
Disconnect charger
Phone POWER OFF
Connect charger – charge to 100%
Disconnect charger
Phone POWER ON – Enter PIN and wait until idle
Phone POWER OFF
Connect charger – charge to 100%
Disconnect charger
Phone POWER ON

IIS 7.0 components for Inventor 2010

2010-02-28T07:46:00.002+08:00

Configure Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0

If you will be using Internet Information Services 7.0 with Autodesk Data Management Server, IIS 7.0 must be configured before installing Autodesk Data Management Server. Install IIS 7.0 and then configure the following system options in addition to the basic IIS configuration options.

TipIIS 7.0 will be loaded and configured automatically when installing Vault Server on a Windows Vista operating system.

From the Windows Start menu, select Control Panel.

In the Control Panel, double-click Programs.

From the Programs and Features group, select Turn Windows features on or off.

You are prompted to allow the application to run. Click Continue.

In the Windows Features dialog box, expand Internet Information Services > Web Management Tools > IIS 6 Management Compatibility.

Turn on the check box for IIS Metabase and IIS 6 configuration compatibility.

Expand Internet Information Services > World Wide Web Services > Application Development Features.

Turn on the check box for ASP.NET. Verify that the following settings are also turned on: .NET Extensibility, ISAPI Extensions, and ISAPI Filters.

Click OK.

Pentium 4 HDD Configuration

2009-12-28T20:11:00.001+08:00

SATA0 – WD1001FALS
SATA1 – WD750
PATA PM – ST3750
PATA PS – WD3000
PATA SM – DVDRW
PATA SS - None

Having to remove shoes before you enter someone’s house

2009-12-27T21:30:00.001+08:00

I have to put this in writing before I forget it over the time. While at work, I got a called from a friend of mine to help him connect to his new ISP. I drove after work to his house and as I approached the main door, I noticed all the shoes being removed and placed at a side. Conscience told me I had to remove the shoes I am wearing. The steel toe shoes I was wearing were strictly indoor and only had house-dirt if you call it that way. I drive to work and I have separate boots to wear during site visits. The shoes came up to my ankle so it took some time for me remove both and finally enter the house. The guy was just waiting at the main door like it was part of normal activity, but *not* for me it was!

After I set up the new router it came to the point where I needed the new ISP username and password. Without a surprise he had no idea about it and he said that we will have to go to his cousin’s house to check his email and get the login details from the ISP’s email. I got out of the house with him, put my shoes again, and we drove to his drive which was a 2 minute drive. His cousin’s house was similar or more strict with the custom of removing shoes. The cousin’s mom just had the door half opened and looking down until both of us removed the shoes. We went to the cousin’s room, he quickly checked the email, got the username and password and we were out of the house within 5 minutes. I had to put the shoes again. In another 2 minutes, we were back to his house and I removed the shoes again!

After setting up the username and password, and a few unsuccessful attempts sync, it turned out that this specific ISP required their local server address appended to the username. I wasn’t familiar with the ISP I didn’t know anything about this ISP server. We had to go again to his cousin’s house to get the ISP server address. This time I said, “look, I don’t want to go inside, you can write the server address and come back”, and I waited outside of cousin’s house. I was thinking how much of a hassle this removing shoes is.

In our house, we force people not to remove their shoes. We welcome guests with the full dress they were happy to wear. Girls would wear all these nice high heels and what’s the point if they have to remove this before they enter someone house? What’s the whole point of buying all these nice shoes just to wear them inside the car?? Hosts should offer house-shoes if they want the guests remove their shoes they are wearing. If that is not at least the case, then I find this whole custom highly offensive.

I will take a pair of thongs with me hereafter and keep them in my car so that I can wear them whenever the house I go to requires shoes to be removed.

Stereo to Surround in Panasonic SC-HT65

2009-10-19T21:14:00.001+08:00

It turns out that no ffdShow setting is necessary. Using the following instructions of the page in SC-HT65 manual, I was able to get stereo to surround upmixing working.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0ywocRL7KCFMTE3Y2UzMjYtNGRlNC00MDE5LWJlMWEtNDVlMTZjZjIxMjhk&hl=en

Shark007 and HTPC

2009-10-18T09:00:00.001+08:00

Audio woes with the Media Center PC are finally over with Shark007’s latest Windows 7 Codec Pack. In order to get all my music video files and movie files working, these are the customized settings I would need to apply:

Disabling AC3Filter

Passing-through FFDShow and enabling Audio normalization

Setting H264 to use FFDShow

Using ffdShow is important for MP2/3 and disabling WMF so for TS files with x264 and AAC, no need to remux it using MetaFox to create a MKV file.

We can upscale stereo to mirror the 2 channels in read left/right speakers using this setting:

This does not work under SPDIF for some reason.

Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed!?

2009-05-24T08:39:00.001+08:00

WHY???

[Window Title]
Open Folder

[Content]
\\mike-pc\g$ is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again.

[OK]

Latest footage from my Vostro 1510

2009-05-22T09:41:00.001+08:00

The DELL Tech Support person is coming today to replace the Motherboard, LCD and LCD Cable. What are the chances of this not happening again?

Never buy DELL again? or Never buy NVIDIA again?

Update: some experience problems when watching soapbox video, so here is the same video in YouTube.

Ideas for Windows 8

2009-05-08T16:43:00.001+08:00

Use proper units

Rename “KB” to “KiB”

Rename “MB” to “MiB”

Rename “GB” to “GiB”

Rename “TB” to “TiB”

etc.

http://members.optus.net/alexey/prefBin.xhtml

http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

Enhanced Windows Setup

Reuse Users folder

If Windows 8 finds a “Users” folder in the partition you are going to install Windows, it will attempt to reuse data inside this folder. For example, if the Users folder has a Mihajlo folder, then it will move all the folders other than the folders listed below, to a folder called Mihajlo.Old.

Later on in the Windows Setup, when you create an account called Mihajlo, new %appdata% etc. folders will be created but all the data folders will be preserved and ready to be used from last install.

This means in other words:

Old D:\Users\Mihajlo\AppData is moved to Old D:\Users\Mihajlo.Old\AppData
D:\Users\Mihajlo\AppData will be created new.

The following folders will stay:

D:\Users\Mihajlo\Documents
D:\Users\Mihajlo\Music
D:\Users\Mihajlo\Pictures
etc.

Even better, if Windows 8 can give us an option to reuse the entire Users folder. Pretty much like how other Linux distributions do if we mount an existing \home during the Linux setup as \home.

Customize Users folder location in Windows Setup

Everytime I install Windows, I use Autounattend.xml to customize the Users folder location. So I have:

C:\Windows
D:\Users

Almost all the Linux distributions support this in the GUI setup. \home can be mounted to a different partition.

Why not let us format another partition and let us specify to have Users folder created there?

End of µTorrent usage

2009-05-06T21:45:00.001+08:00

This is not the first time µTorrent refused to continue seeding completed torrents when my external HDD was temporarily unavailable. Its design makes the torrents take the ‘red cross’ which forces me to recheck each torrent. Having about 200 torrents with over 150 GiB of data, this is a very time consuming task.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5342/torrent1822009050621405.png

With Vuze, this is not the case. A simple restart of Vuze after the HDD replugged, would make Vuze happily continue seeding torrents. No recheck is necessary.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2ikuvlu.png

Outlook mindfucks

2009-05-06T12:21:00.001+08:00

Going from this view:

to this view:

has no hidden Outlook options involved.

It is simply a matter of moving the second vertical splitter leftwards until you see the above view. WTF.

Power button action not seen in Start Menu

2009-04-26T23:14:00.001+08:00

Why can’t WLM remember these settings in their servers?

2009-04-26T18:44:00.001+08:00

Everytime I reinstall Windows, I have to go through a routine of customizing WLM settings…

If they can remember the Display Picture and the Personal Status Messages these checkbox settings can’t be that hard.

Windows Media Player 12 and DiscNumber

2009-04-25T18:21:00.001+08:00

WMP up to version 12 now, still does not support displaying multi-disc albums properly.

In this screenshot you will see how tracks from disc 1 and disc 2 are mixed up together.

Dynamic Region Border and Ruler

2009-04-06T00:44:00.001+08:00

Dynamic Crosshair used within a Dynamic Region Border

Dynamic Crosshair used within a Dynamic Region Border with a Ruler

foobar2000 : Autoplaylists

2009-04-04T07:55:00.001+08:00

An autoplaylist of ASOT in foobar2000 using can be made using: %genre% IS "Trance/ASOT" AND "$upper($ext(%path%))" IS "CUE"

You need Playback Statistics 2.1.7 or higher to get this to work

Future of the HDD with label MUSIC

2009-03-28T12:24:00.001+09:00

The MUSIC is 300 GB (279 GiB) and it is losing its free space rapidly. 64.9 GiB left. When MUSIC reaches 15% free space, I will buy another 1000 GB HDD and label it Music0001. There are two DVDs already with Music0001 and Music0002. I will move them to Archives. The current Music album will only have Music Video DVDs.

Current MUSIC drive will act as DUMP. The current DUMP will become Archive0148.

First HDD being burnt using HDD Burner

2009-03-21T22:51:00.001+09:00

Content so far, as catalogued using CD Bank Cataloguer. Application name is quite a misnomer. It can catalog CDs, DVDs, and also HDDs.

Continuing from the old naming schemeTV0097 is the first HDD being burnt.

HDD Burner

2009-03-20T21:23:00.001+09:00

Got my USB Disk Dock with eSATA today for $49. I like to call it a HDD Burner as I will be using HDDs similar to DVDRs.

Now you can hook up a dirt-cheap SATA disk drive to your PC or Mac by simply plugging it into this USB docking station that works just like an iPod dock. Until now, if you wanted to add a bare hard drive to your computer, you either had to put it in some sort of enclosure, or open up your PC and install it next to the other drives in there. The USB Disk Dock couldn’t be simpler, accommodating 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA disks that you simply plug into the unit. Now features eSATA connectivity for super fast data transfer. The package includes 1 x eSATA cable and 1 x USB2.0 cable.

HTPC Screen Freezes without watching TV

2009-03-14T21:09:00.001+09:00

Disappointingly my initial assumption bites the dust. TV Tuner may be not be the faulty device after all.

This happened in Windows Vista 32-bit after watching a local video file. My options:

Remove TV Tuner completely from the Casing and run for a few days
Run Windows 7 build 7022 for a few days to see if same thing happens

Install Windows Updates before Restart?

2009-03-14T20:56:00.001+09:00

Why is this not possible? I have not seen this possible in Windows XP, Vista or even in 7. I have to shut down in order to install Windows Updates.

Choosing Restart makes the “install updates” option disappear.

What gives?

ZScreen & Greenshot

2009-03-07T21:36:00.001+09:00

I believe we should both get together and release one killer app for us – for our users.

Google shows both ZScreen and Greenshot has an equal userbase. An amalgamation would be very attractive.

ZScreen to get Text Uploading facility

2009-02-19T19:57:00.001+09:00

This is going to change scope of ZScreen. The program will now handle screenshots/images and text. Here is a preview:

ZScreen handling Text Services means that in the near future we will be able to have support for paste2.org and pastebin.ca to easily copy text to clipboard and retrieve paste2.org or pastebin.ca URL of the text.

Movies Management 2.0

2009-02-11T12:13:00.001+09:00

Changes from previous discussion:

Purchase movies from MIKE-PC
Copy them to 320 GB 2.5” External HDD
Create MoviesXXXX folders in 320 GB 2.5” External HDD and organize movies into those folders
Burn MoviesXXXX folders
Copy the content in MoviesXXXX to HTPC

The 250 GB 3.5” External HDD will be unplugged from the HTPC after all of its movies are burnt to DVD. The role of the 250 GB 3.5” External HDD will be to store the BESR Images.

þeeja PC 2009

2009-02-11T11:42:00.001+09:00

The Intel PC that Austin assembled:

Intel E7300 Core 2 Duo Processor - 2.66GHz, 45nm, FSB 1066MHz, LGA775, 3MB-L2 Cache, 06-PCG- BX80557E6300
Intel BOXDP43TF Box Mainboard - Intel P43, ATX, LGA-775, 4-DIMM-8G, Audio, I/O, Gigabit Lan, 12-USB2.0, 6-SATA,2x1394a, 1 x serial port, 1x P-ATA
IDE,2xPS2, 1xPCIe2.0x16, 3xPCIex1, 3xPCI
750GB 3.5" SATA-II Samsung Hard Drive 32M Cache 7200rpm [HD753LJ]
Kingston KHX8500D2K2/4G - 4GB-kit 1066MHz DDR2 PC2-8500 CL5 (5-5-5-15) 240-Pin DIMM (Kit of 2)
Asus EAH4650-DI-512MD2 Graphics Card - RADEON HD 4650, 512MB, DDR2, PCIE2.0, DVI, On board HDMI, HDCP
Thermaltake Matrix Case with 430W PSU Black [VD2430BNSA]
Pioneer DVR-216BK DVD-ReWriter - Black, SATA, with Nero Software, 20x, Faster, quieter, higher quality

Resizing Desktop to fit HDTV Screen

2009-02-09T01:56:00.001+09:00

HTPC2008 had an NVIDIA 7100 video chipset which made it possible to resize the desktop using their NVIDIA Control Panel. With the Intel 4500HD integrated video card in HTPC2009 it is even more easier. For our VIERA TH-50PX70A 50" (127cm) HD Digital Plasma TV, choosing the value 60 for Horizontal and Vertical, resize the 1920x1080 resolution fit the HDTV screen perfectly.

Windows 7 would say the resolution 1280x720 is recommended however 1920x1080 works fine.

Inventor 2009 on HTPC2008

2009-02-09T01:06:00.001+09:00

The current installation of Inventor 2009 x64 is having some issues in Content Center. When you delete a component and refresh the library, the deletion is not taken place. The plan is to

Restore Vista 32-bit using BESR
Rename HTPC computer name to CAD-PC
Install Inventor 2009 and its SP1
Take image of the WINDOWS partition

Renaming computer name after Inventor 2009 causes various problems. Renaming the server using Inventor 2009 Management Console does not fully solve the problem.

Movies Management

2009-02-09T00:39:00.001+09:00

Now that I figured out the need to keep movies in the internal HDD of the HTPC, the movies management needs a rethought. Purchased movies from MIKE-PC will be transferred to the HTPC using the 250 GB External HDD. I thought earlier that before this step, the movies should be burnt to DVD but it is not really necessary (or is it?). Do I need to keep files in HTPC which are safe to delete at any time? This means no burning ever using HTPC.

The 250 GB External HDD has 69.5 GiB free space. The movies in there are currently being burnt to DVD. The process involves creating Movies0xx folders and dragging movies into those folders to make sure they don’t exceed 4700 MB. If a rule is set to burn movies from this HDD to DVD before copying them to the HTPC, now there is an added hassle of going through all the Movies00xx folders to copy the movies inside them into the HTPC. So the best thing to do is to burn the movies from HTPC. This way you can create the appropriate Movies00xx folders and delete them after burning. I will not keep empty folders anymore because cataloguing them to CD Bank Cataloguer is enough.

So here is the procedure:

Purchase movies from MIKE-PC
Build up cache in the 250 GB 3.5” External HDD or 320 GB 2.5” External HDD
Copy the movies to HTPC
Burn the movies to DVD as they get old
Delete the old movies from HTPC

Looking good.

Windows 7 on HTPC

2009-02-08T12:00:00.001+09:00

It seems that Windows 7 setup fails to go passed Completing Installation… in the HTPC for both 32-bit and 64-bit. I think the reason is that HDD and DVDRW are connected to Channel 1 rather than Channel 0. In Device Manager it looks fine but in POST it’s not.

Next HTPC

2009-02-04T13:19:00.001+09:00

So Intel Viiv is dead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Viiv and that’s not something to ask from the shops anymore.

Next HTPC I am eying at to buy is: http://austin.net.au/COMPUTERS/Desktops/CustomizeYourSystem/tabid/128/ProductCode/SYS-AT-MEDIAPC/Default.aspx

Some changes I need to remember for the HTPC:

Intel Motherboard (Intel Chipset and Intel integrated Video Card)
Dual Digital TV Tuner
Wireless PCI Adapter with Atheros chipset
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Black casing that matches the HDTV

Keyboard & Mouse: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=080&active_tab=overview

Update:

Another thing I want to make sure if fixing HDD in SATA0 and DVDRW in SATA1.

Windows 7 build 6801 on the Desktop

2008-12-26T07:40:00.001+09:00

I removed Windows 7 from the Laptop for trying Windows Vista x64 so I didn’t have Windows 7 installed anywhere. I am going to install Windows 7 build 6801 on the Desktop while waiting for the public beta.

Reordered the HDD boot sequence again.

ST3500 - WINDOWS/DOCS
WD7500JB - BACKUP
ST5750 - SERVER
WD3000JB – MUSIC

The only difference from last time is that I swapped BACKUP and WINDOWS/DOCS. I probably shouldn’t have done that because I realized it doesn’t make any difference to how Windows 7 setup lists the HDDs. It does

PATA0 = SERVER
PATA1 = MUSIC
SATA0 = BACKUP
SATA1 = WINDOWS/DOCS

no matter what your HDD boot order is.

So I have Windows XP SP3 installed in BACKUP.

You have to understand the drive letter mess-up Windows Vista or 7 does when you install Windows, especially when you are using Autounattend.xml to relocate your Users folder.

Because Windows 7 setup follows the PATA and SATA sequence I listed above, the setup would initially show you that it is going to assign drive letters this way:

C: SERVER
D: MUSIC
E: BACKUP
F: WINDOWS
G: DOCS

Suppose you are installing Windows 7 to WINDOWS HDD and if you configure your Autounattend.xml to follow these drive letters, then you are stuffed. After installing Windows, the WINDOWS HDD will take the drive letter C: so that could change the drive letter for DOCS HDD. After installing Windows:

D: SERVER
E: MUSIC
F: BACKUP
C: WINDOWS
G: DOCS

OK that time DOCS drive letter didn’t change because initially DOCS was listed after WINDOWS. The logic still remains.

Windows 7 build 6801 did something strange when I installed yesterday. It fully ignored assigning a drive letter to BACKUP. So BACKUP wasn’t even listed in Computer. That made DOCS to be F: rather than G: so my Autounattend.xml rendered useless again. This is why I had to reinstall it today.

MediaMonkey Attempt 2

2008-12-09T18:14:00.001+09:00

After almost 9 months, I thought of giving another shot at MediaMonkey. This time I made sure not to enable auto organization of music files until I was very sure it would auto organize identical to iTunes. For this to happen I had to edit the ini file. I started a new thread in MediaMonkey forums to get file naming happening similar to iTunes.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34788

I came out with bad news. I wasn't able to retrieve the DiscCount of a track so I wouldn't be able to set auto organize rules identical to iTunes. It is bad because this means I have to completely give up on one player. If I choose MediaMonkey then I have to uninstall iTunes because it wouldn't find the tracks that MediaMonkey renamed. If I choose iTunes, then I have to disable the auto organize function in MediaMonkey. What good is it just to have a player? I can do better with foobar2000.

There were performance issues as well.

I did the following tweaks to get it working like iTunes.

1. Make MM3 replace illegal characters by underscore rather than dash

[FilenameMappings] 3A=5F 2A=5F 3F= 3E=5F 3C=5F 22=27 7C=5F 2F=5F 0D0A= 19=

2. Showing all tracks

http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=60&nav=0,3

By default, the Album Art + Details view displays a subset of tracks that appear on the Album, and you can click an arrow to display the full contents of the album. If you would prefer to always display the entire set of tracks by default, you can set the following in the MediaMonkey.ini file:

[System]

ExpandAlbumsByDefault=1

3. Relocating DB

http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=46&nav=0,2

MediaMonkey allows you to change the database's location by editing the MediaMonkey .ini file.

To change the location:

   1. Close MediaMonkey (so that it doesn't overwrite any of the changes)
   2. Back up the .ini file. If you're not sure where to find it, see:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=17
   3. Move the database from the default location to a new location
   4. Add the following line to the [System] section of the .ini file: DBName=full pathfilename.DB (for example DBName=C:\Users\Alex\Documents\Databases\music.DB)
   5. Restart MediaMonkey

Nevertheless, the end result is that I am back to iTunes.

All I wanted was

%TrackNumber% %Name%.mp3 for single disc albums
%DiscNumber%-%TrackNumber% %Name%.mp3 for multi disc albums

However this is not yet possible with MM3.

Under the hood, a quick look at browser engines

2008-09-08T19:33:00.000+08:00

For the better part of the last 10 years, browsing the Internet for most meant using Internet Explorer. However, the recent release of Google Chrome as well as the continued popularity of Firefox, Safari and Opera have given users unprecedented choice in what software to use. But, most users don't know much about the engines and technology that actually powers their particular web browser.

Without an engine, all you'd see when you visited Neowin.net, or any other website, would be the raw HTML, CSS, and javascript that our developers use to create the site. Sure, you'd also be able to find the content hidden deep within all those tags and instructions, but not in a pleasing format and without any multimedia enhancements. The browser's engine is what takes all of that code and renders the information for you, on the fly.

Today, most of the Internet is rendered by four main browser engines. Trident, Gecko, WebKit and Presto. Neowin takes you under the hood and gives you an unbiased (but brief) overview of these engines, where they came from and who's using them.

Trident
Popular Browsers & Applications: Internet Explorer, Avant Browser, Maxathon, Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, AOL Browser
License: Closed-Source
Acid2 Compatible: Yes (in version VI included in Internet Explorer 8)
Acid3 Compatible: No
Operating Systems: Windows
Major Contributors: Microsoft
Share: Prior to 2004, 95% of browsers on the Internet, now approx 70%.
First Released: April 1997

First released with Internet Explorer 4.0 and still in use today, Trident was designed as a software component to allow software developers to easily (and freely) add web browsing functionality to their own Windows applications. The overwhelming majority of third party developers that integrate web browsing into their software use the Trident engine (mshtml.dll) such as Avant Browser and Maxathon as well as programs such as AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Valve Steam, Pandion and many others.

However, a few notable Microsoft products no longer use Trident as their rendering engine, which may be an indication Microsoft is developing a replacement for the now 11 year old engine. Expression Web uses its own engine which Microsoft claims is the most standards-compliant on the market today. Internet Explorer Mobile also does not use Trident, but a engine custom developed for the Windows Mobile platform.

Internet Explorer 5 for Mac did not use the Trident engine, but a custom engine known as Tasman, although previous versions of Internet Explorer for Mac did use Trident. Development of Internet Explorer for Mac was halted in roughly 2003, but development of Tasman continued to a limited extent, and was later included in Office 2004 for Mac in their Entourage product.

It had been rumored that Tasman would replace Trident in Internet Explorer 7, but as of the Internet Explorer 8 beta, Trident is still Microsoft's engine of choice.

Gecko
Popular Browsers & Applications: Firefox, Camino, Flock, Thunderbird, Seamonkey, Epiphany, NVU, Netscape, K-Meleon
License: Open-Source
Acid2 Compatible: Yes
Acid3 Compatible: No
Operating Systems: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/BSD
Major Contributors: Mozilla Corporation, Netscape (originally)
Share: Approx 20%
First Released: December 1998

Development of the Gecko layout engine began at Netscape in 1997. The original Netscape rendering engine was considered to be slow and not compliant with W3C standards, compared to the one used in Microsoft Internet Explorer at the time. Ironically, today these are two complaints now typically directed at the Trident engine used by Internet Explorer. First called Raptor, this name was changed to NGLayout due to trademark issues. Netscape later changed the name to Gecko. In July 2003, AOL (which had purchased Netscape in 1998) spun off development of the Gecko engine to the Mozilla Foundation.

Because Gecko (and the popular Firefox browser that drives it's development) are open source, other companies use it to develop their own browsers and applications. Gecko is now seen by some developers as a superior alternative to the Trident engine because it is cross platform and also lacks many of the security vurnalibilties of the more popular Trident engine.

WebKit
Popular Browsers & Applications: Safari, Chrome, Adobe AIR, iCab, Epiphany (experimental), Konqueror (KHTML)
License: Open-Source
Acid2 Compatible: Yes
Acid3 Compatible: Yes
Operating Systems: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/BSD
Major Contributors: WebKit Foundation, Apple, Nokia, Adobe, Google, KDE Team (originally)
Share: Approx 7%
First Released: January 2003 (forked from KHTML, which was first released in October 2000)

The first applications based on KHTML were released in October 2000 by the KDE team, around their Konqueror file and web browser. WebKit was forked from the Konqueror browser’s KHTML library, by Apple, Inc., for use as the engine of Safari web browser.

Google's recently released Chrome browser, along with the upcoming Android mobile phone platform, also use WebKit as their browser engine. WebKit is used on the iPhone and iPod touch to render content within the device’s web browser and email software. Adobe also uses the WebKit engine to render HTML & javascript inside of Adobe AIR applications. The team behind the browser Epiphany announced in April 2008 that it will use WebKit exclusively, and stop using the Gecko layout engine. Epiphany is a web browser for the GNOME desktop used by Linux.

Presto
Popular Browsers & Applications: Opera Desktop/Mobile/Mini, Nintendo DS, Wii Internet Channel, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and above, Adobe CS 2 and above
License: Closed-Source
Acid2 Compatible: Yes
Acid3 Compatible: Yes
Operating Systems: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/BSD
Major Contributors: Opera Software
Share: Less than 2%
First Released: November 2002

Presto is the code name for the engine for the Opera web browser developed by Opera Software replacing the Elektra engine used in versions 4–6 of the browser. Unlike Trident, Gecko and WebKit... Preseto is available only as a part of Opera browser or related products. Neither the source or binary forms of the engine are freely available for integration into third party products.

Adobe has licensed Opera technology for use in the Adobe Creative Suite applications, however, given Adobe's recent promotion of WebKit inside of AIR, their use of Presto technology in CS should be short lived.

Apple passes WalMart, now #1 music retailer in US

2008-04-03T16:29:00.001+08:00

Over the past few years, we have watched Apple climb the music sales chart courtesy of the iTunes. Last month we learned that Apple passed Best Buy to become the number two retailer in the the US. Now, Apple has ascended to the top of the charts, surpassing Wal-Mart for the first time ever, according to the NPD MusicWatch Survey.

read more | digg story

Tagging Classic Music albums with Mp3tag for iTunes and Last.fm

2008-03-28T21:38:00.001+09:00

I realized a lot of people having trouble with tagging Classic music. Initially, I got into Classical music to take up this challenge but now I am hooked into it because of its nice sophisticated melodies. There has to be a very straight forward way of tagging music. The ID3v2 specification provides us frames for the following tags that can be used to organize classical music:

Artist
AlbumArtist
Conductor
OriginalArtist
Composer
Album
Name

My goal is to devise a plan to fit all of these tags into Classical music appropriately, so that

the Classic music composers will appear in Last.fm statistics
music will be organized and displayed well in iTunes

The primary focus is given to how the music is organized. This means tagging conventions for track names is not one of the primary concerns in this article.

First we familiarise ourselves with the ID3v2 frames for the tags above.

TPE1
The 'Lead artist/Lead performer/Soloist/Performing group' is used for the main artist. This is our Artist tag. In Mp3tag this is %ARTIST%.

TPE2
The 'Band/Orchestra/Accompaniment' frame is used for additional information about the performers in the recording. This is our AlbumArtist tag. In Mp3tag this is %BAND%.

TPE3
The 'Conductor' frame is used for the name of the conductor. Conductor is a person who conducts an orchestra or choir. This is our Conductor tag. In Mp3tag this is %CONDUCTOR%.

TOPE
The 'Original artist/performer' frame is intended for the performer of the original recording, if for example the music in the file should be a cover of a previously released song. This is our OriginalArtist tag. In Mp3tag this is %ORIGARTIST%.

TCOM
The 'Composer' frame is intended for the name of the composer. This is our Composer tag. In Mp3tag this is %COMPOSER%.

TALB
The 'Album/Movie/Show title' frame is intended for the title of the recording (or source of sound) from which the audio in the file is taken. This is our Album tag. In Mp3tag this is %ALBUM%.

TIT2
The 'Title/Songname/Content description' frame is the actual name of the piece (e.g. "Adagio", "Hurricane Donna"). This is our Name tag. In Mp3tag this is %TITLE%.

iTunes, at the time of writing, does not support the following tags:

Conductor
OriginalArtist

However we will be populating these frames for future use.

The easiest way to demonstrate the usage of these tags is by examples.

Example 1:

From the cover art, we gather information about the following people/groups.

Academy of Ancient Music
Christopher Hogwood
Jaap Schröder
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Immediately we realize

Album: Mozart: The Symphonies

The band/orchestra is obviously Academy of Ancient Music.

AlbumArtist: Academy of Ancient Music

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the music, and also the original artist.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

OriginalArtist: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Christopher Hogwood and Jaap Schröder conducted the band/orchestra.

Conductor: Christopher Hogwood, Jaap Schröder

What to use for Artist is the biggest argument in Classical Music. Last.fm only scrobbles Artist tag. It does not yet scrobble original artist or composer tag. For useful and meaningful charts, we require Last.fm to scrobble original artist e.g. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Artist: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Example 2:

Artist: Ludwig van Beethoven
AlbumArtist: London Symphony Orchestra
Album: The Nine Symphonies
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor: Josef Krips

Example 3:

Compilation Discs such as "Best of" will cause a disc to have multiple bands according this logic. However, to keep all the tracks in the album organized under one album folder, it is recommended to use "Various Artists" in the AlbumArtist tag if this is the case.

Artist: Johann Sebastian Bach
AlbumArtist: Various Artists
Album: The Best of Bach
Conductor: Hans Swarowsky

For tagging Name, follow MusicBrainz conventions.

Catalogue: number and opus
- Always use "No. " and "Op. " Examples:
  - 'Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67'. Note the spaces after the stop character, and the use of comma (i.e. "No. 5", not "No.5" and "Op. 67", not "Op.67").
  - 'Mazurka in B major, Op. 63 No. 1'. Here the 'No. 1' is a subpart of 'Op. 63'. Note that there's no comma between them.
Chord: minor and major
- Always use the expanded form and lowercase including a hyphen for German. Examples:
  - 'Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47' (English)
  - 'Prélude No. 1 C-dur, Op. 28: Agitato' (German)
Keys
- Always use uppercase for English and German notation "A, B, C, D, E, F, G" and proper case for Italian (and French and Spanish) "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si". Attribute "in", "en" or "em" should be inserted according to release language. Examples:
  - 'Trio in A minor, Op. 50;' (English)
  - 'Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp major, BWV 858' (English)
  - 'Concerto No. 1 in Sol minore, Op. 8, RV 332' (Italian)
  - 'Concerto No. 4 en La mineur' (French)
  - 'Prélude No. 2 A-moll, Op. 28: Lento' (German)
  - 'Prélude No. 8 Fis-moll, Op. 28: Molto agitato' (German)
- For more combinations refer to English Musical Keys and to the complex German notation
Italian tempo markings
- Since they are Italian they should follow CapitalizationStandardItalian such that only the first letter of the phrase is titled. Example:
  - 'Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in D major, KV 175: II. Andante ma un poco adagio'
Common names
- Common works names can be omitted, yet it's preferable to add them. They have to be entered within double quotes:
  - 'Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata": II. Andante con moto' (do not use 'Appassionata' or «Appassionata» or -Appassionata-)
  - 'String Quartet No. 17 in B-flat major, KV 458 "Hunt": II. Moderato'
  - 'Sinfonie in e-moll, Op. 95 "Aus der Neuen Welt": II. Largo'
  - 'Cantata, BWV 17 "Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich": Part II, V. Aria "Welch Übermaß der Güte"'. Same as before, but note that it also applies to the very track title.
Vocalists
- Entering vocalists (tenor, soprano, bass) is not mandatory. They are entered after the track name, but before the common name if present:
  - 'Cantata, BWV 17 "Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich": Part II, V. Aria (Tenor, Soprano) "Welch Übermaß der Güte"'

Sources:

Digsby Launches- One App to Manage IM + Email + Social Network

2008-03-26T07:08:00.001+09:00

Digsby is the first application that lets you manage all your existing IM, email and social network accounts from one easy to use application. it supports 15 services and integrates them into a clean user interface

read more | digg story

Mozart - The Symphonies (Hogwood) [1997/MP3/V0(VBR)/Log]

2008-03-24T14:15:00.001+09:00

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Satellite Dishes

2008-03-21T17:18:00.001+09:00

It seems that despite you own your house and your land, you cannot simply buy and install a satellite dish at your will. The Canning council paper mentions the following:

If you are thinking of installing a satellite dish, please ensure you contact the City before making any final decisions on the type of dish or where you want it installed.

It is advisable to speak with the City's Planning staff to find out if the process before you purchase or make arrangements for installation.

It may save you heartache in the future!

Planning staff can be contacted by ringing the City of Canning on 9231 0606 and asking for a Planning offer.

I am thinking why the heck would I have to. It is not like I am installing it on the road.

del.icio.us Tags: satellite,canning,council,rules,dishes,number,call

iTSfv - Hands down the best iTunes addon you could ever ask

2008-03-08T20:55:00.001+09:00

iTunes Store file validator is an open source add-in for iTunes for automatic genre tagging from Last.fm, exporting iTunes Store artwork, downloading Lyrics from LyricsWiki, Synchrocleaning iTunes Music Library, recovering playedCount from Last.fm, automatic rating according played pattern, creating statistics for your music library, and many more.

read more | digg story

iTunes to MediaMonkey to iTunes

2008-03-02T00:19:00.001+09:00

I gave MediaMonkey 3 a shot today, after a successful trial in VMware Workstation last night. The reason I tried MM3 was, it being the first media player I heard that can automatically rename files and move them immediately after renaming tags. This behavior is not enabled by default however. I added the my proper iTunes managed 19910 tracks to MM3 and noticed

tracks getting moved. For example a song belonged to AC/DC artist folder moved into a AC-DC artist folder
tracks getting renamed (variant 1). For example 1-03 Secrets.mp3 renamed to 03 Secrets.mp3. I realized MM3 did not by default use the DiscCount tag to rename files.
tracks getting renamed (variant 2). For example "07 What is Love_.mp3" which has the Name tag as "What is Love?" renamed to just "07 What is Love.mp3". iTunes used underscore for illegal characters but MM3 just did not include them at all.

All this damage was done without me even enabling Automatically organize files. I understand this behavior (such as using underscore for illegal characters) can be customized using the MM3 ini file. However by default doing such damage is certainly undesired.

I noticed another disastrous thing happening. A bunch of files with the AlbumArtist\Album\Track structure were moved into the AlbumArtist folder "AC/DC". I am really not sure how this happened but it did. I immediately terminated the process, uninstalled the piece of crapshit.

Lesson learnt to have only one music manager.

I managed to get everything back to normal with the help of Synchroclean® using iTSfv.

del.icio.us Tags: mediamonkey,itunes

Shell Uploader

2008-03-01T22:50:00.001+09:00

ShellUploader is a Windows utility that adds the ability to upload files via the right click context menu.

read more | digg story

JetAudio (Thinstalled)

2008-02-03T16:31:00.001+09:00

JetAudio can be thinstalled however for limited functionality. Anusha didn't have like at all with JetAudio in Windows Vista x64.

Issues:

Videos will not play.

Need to try:
Installing XviD and AC3Filter and then post-scanning.

Windows Live Writer (Thinstalled)

2008-02-03T16:27:00.001+09:00

This post is made using Windows Live Writer that is Thinstalled.

Issues:

None

Anusha's Techno Portal: Why did Vista designers take us to last decade?

2008-01-17T19:55:00.000+09:00

Anusha's Techno Portal: Why did Vista designers take us to last decade?

iTSfv Explorer enhancements

2007-12-27T19:37:00.001+09:00

Enhancement #1

iTunes Users with "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" setting disabled, can use iTSfv to add new music to the library to a specified folder in the folder structure they like to have.

For example, if you have Default Music folder location set to be F:\Music in iTSfv Options > Explorer and you have music folder structure set to %Genre%\%AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album% then when you add / drag new music (e.g. Artist: Infected Mushroom, Album; Vicious Delicious) to iTSfv it will first copy the files to F:\Music\Psy-Trance\Infected Mushroom - (2007) Vicious Delicious\ folder and start adding to iTunes

Status Bar in the screenshot below demonstrates a similar instance:

The options required to archive this are below:

Enhancement #2

iTSfv can also automatically add newly found music to iTunes. For this option to work you will need to enable Folder Watch.

Windows Vista Media Center uses 200x200 Artwork

2007-12-27T16:47:00.001+09:00

Some interesting findings about VMC and WMP11.

Both WMP11 and Windows Vista Media Center (VMC) cache the artwork from the tracks in the WMP library as 200x200. In a Windows VMC PC there will be two locations: one by VMC and the other by WMP11.

The artwork cache by VMC is a DAT file. The VMC artwork cache location is as follows:

C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\eHome\Art Cache\ UrlToCoverArt.dat

The artwork cache files generated by WMP11 are named based on some sort of a GUID which is not yet figured out by me.

The WMP11 artwork cache location is as follows:

C:\Users\%UserName%\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\Media Player\Art Cache\LocalMLS

C:\Documents and Settings\%UserName%Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\Art Cache\LocalMLS

To make VMC use higher resolution artwork you would need to replace 200x200 files in C:\Users\%UserName%\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\Media Player\Art Cache\LocalMLS and/or update the reference in the UrlToCoverArt.dat file to a higher resolution artwork file

Internet Explorer 8 and Acid2: A Milestone

2007-12-20T22:01:00.001+09:00

As a team, we’ve spent the last year heads down working hard on IE8. Last week, we achieved an important milestone that should interest web developers. IE8 now renders the “Acid2 Face” correctly in IE8 standards mode.

If you’re not a web developer, the details of this blog post probably aren’t all that interesting for you. I’d like you to know that we’re building IE8 for many different customers (consumers, web service providers, independent software vendors, enterprises, web developers, and others), and we’ll cover more details of the non-developer oriented work (e.g. user experience, reliability, security, etc.) in other posts in the future, after MIX.

While web developers will immediately recognize what Acid2 means, I want to step back and offer some context for other readers of this blog who may not be familiar with web standards. Briefly: Acid2 is one test of how modern browsers work with some specific features across several different web standards.

Office 2007 SP1 Download Links

2007-12-12T22:23:00.001+09:00

Office 2007 Service Pack 1
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=DC102486291033&Origin=HH102511011033&CTT=5

Visio 2007 Service Pack 1
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=DC102486301033&Origin=HH102511011033&CTT=5

Project 2007 Service Pack 1
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=DC102486311033&Origin=HH102511011033&CTT=5

Microsoft Office Visio Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B109187E-6FEE-48B7-B822-9D9143A2891A&displaylang=en&hurl=7A3FFFD36A32B0E9980C4EAB6772B2E0&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=12&rt=2&pid=CD102003431033

Microsoft Office Project Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D322BA67-B199-4503-8AFF-6813B320D708&displaylang=en&hurl=79C9FEA313EF2478A25AEF9F85488A05&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=15&rt=2&pid=CD102179521033

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8D72B284-24F7-4CFB-9D22-D2A2651D4734&displaylang=en&hurl=E11AD8E1D90B9EDEF334F8EF1910F63F&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=16&rt=2&pid=CD102119941033

The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Language Pack Service Pack 1 64-Bit Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=56681742-7D2C-4A6F-9178-DACD32AADC6C&displaylang=en&hurl=76B7D33A6FA8D5B7632CBC753D5ABAF3&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=17&rt=2&pid=CD102041601033

Microsoft Office Visio Viewer 2007 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=14C4DE7E-D940-45EC-8D56-EC2FCDF346A5&displaylang=en&hurl=31DC980ABC1A830F9E10468EE8D8A108&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=19&rt=2&pid=CD102071301033

The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD59175C-AD6A-4027-8C2F-DB25322F791B&displaylang=en&hurl=1595E2BCC8AB338D01B397F11461B0DD&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=20&rt=2&pid=CD102041601033

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B57C805D-2821-4625-A6F1-80725267F887&displaylang=en&hurl=8AC741170A02552806DD4E078BA5E5A2&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=21&rt=2&pid=CD102119941033

Microsoft Office Proofing Tools 2007 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9F31CCC2-6E4B-4384-A997-C0CC3B31B3B7&displaylang=en&hurl=C354C06E561CE347AC4E3C31A14BDE77&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=22&rt=2&pid=CD102041601033

Microsoft Office InterConnect 2007 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BBE8AB61-0F88-4CF0-85FD-2F113424401F&displaylang=en&hurl=7EB8EB77FF6C9DF5C3B81409C769BCBD&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=23&rt=2&pid=CD102041601033

Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1F5C7D10-B4F9-482D-B0E5-9547A7F508E5&displaylang=en&hurl=4463C25542FAAAC6A32C7FEC19D1A9B8&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=33&rt=2&pid=CD102041601033

Calendar Printing Assistant for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6D4A4E82-171D-4D9F-A32B-9EFEE09B2711&displaylang=en&hurl=F0BC87FD4DCA30C3788F470E2037EC07&QueryID=_AaCbOCQ00&respos=42&rt=2&pid=CD101995361033

Eyes Of Eden - Faith

2007-12-12T20:21:00.001+09:00

An awesome album for this being their debut album. I have bolded the really good ones.

01 Winter Night [245 Kibit/s] [6,758 KiB]
02 When Gods Fall [229 Kibit/s] [6,350 KiB]
03 Star [228 Kibit/s] [6,602 KiB]
04 Pictures [240 Kibit/s] [7,595 KiB]
05 Dancing Fire [233 Kibit/s] [5,833 KiB]
06 Sleeping Minds [217 Kibit/s] [6,626 KiB]
07 Daylight [234 Kibit/s] [7,221 KiB]
08 Man In The Flame [228 Kibit/s] [7,563 KiB]
09 From Heaven Sent [231 Kibit/s] [7,534 KiB]
10 Not Human Kind [201 Kibit/s] [15,072 KiB]

Windows XP SP3 RC1

2007-12-12T20:12:00.001+09:00

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system.

This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers experience with the operating system.

Microsoft made a build of XP SP3 available to subscribers to its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet subscribers on December 3. At that time, company officials declined to say when the company planned to make a public test build of XP SP3 available.

Microsoft officials have said the final XP SP3 bits should be available some time in the first half of 2008. Who knows: If the Windows team follows in the Office 2007 team’s “underpromise/overdeliver” footsteps, maybe we’ll see the final XP SP3 release a few months early….)

XP SP3 is primarily a collection of fixes and updates that Microsoft has released over the past few years since it rolled out XP SP2 in 2004. XP SP3 also does include a few brand-new features, like black-hole router detection; support for Network Access Protection (NAP) security-quarantining; enhanced security for administrator and service policy entries; inclusion of the Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module; and Windows Product Activation modifications.

Download: Windows XP SP3 RC1 File Size: 336,070 KiB

iTSfv now integrates TreeGUI functionality

2007-12-02T19:19:00.001+09:00

It all worked out smoothly.

The next build of iTSfv will include a new checkBox in File System tab to export the index file of the album as TXT or HTML to the album folder.

ExtractorX - an update

2007-12-02T07:10:00.001+09:00

You probably remember the initial version released a few weeks back. Here is an update.

1.0.1.0 Made compatible with .NET Framework 2.0 instead of .NET Framework 3.5
1.0.0.1 Only copied the first NFO file if there were multiple NFO files present
1.0.0.0 Initial Release

Download: v1.0.1

Unlocker 1.8.5 - 07/09/2006

2007-11-26T19:07:00.001+09:00

I thought I was not gonna find this again. It had been a while since last used this. While in Vista I didn't install this and after went back to Windows XP I had the need of this again.

Download Unlocker

Visual Studio 2008 GUI Quality

2007-11-23T23:23:00.001+09:00

I was amazed to see the checkBox was not positioned properly.

Feels like going back to Windows XP

2007-11-23T18:49:00.001+09:00

A bit more than a year passed since Vista installed. Actually this is the first time I have survived more than a year without formatting. However there are some annoying problems.

1. The shortcuts in the start menu for Office applications do not work. When you click on them nothing happens.
2. If you reboot the PC you have to rebooted several times again and perhaps also reboot the router, just to get the internet working again. Otherwise you will have timeouts.
3. Whenever problem 2 happens the songs played pause every 20 or 30 seconds fcuking up the listening experience.
4. Whenever problem 3 happens the mouse freezes for about half a second fcuking up the mouse movement.
5. Mozilla Firefox installers have fcuked up the hyperlink clicking in Office Outlook emails. If you click on a hyperlink in an email you get the error: This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

6. CD Bank Cataloguer has stopped working!

Once I go back to Windows XP I will have

1. Windows Movie Maker 2.1

2. Dual recording TV Shows

Do I deserve to go back to Windows XP?

Windows Live ID First To Support Multiple Accounts

2007-11-23T13:41:00.001+09:00

I just learnt that Windows Live ID has added a huge new feature, the ability to link multiple IDs together and switch between them by just clicking an arrow. If you have more than one Windows live ID, go to account.live.com and link them together, linking multiple (at least four, maybe more accounts). Then, in newer Live Wave 2 products, you can hit a drop-down arrow to switch between accounts, without logging out and back in again.

Of the big authentication systems, only Windows Live has enabled this feature, which now makes using their ID systems a whole lot easier (instead of a big pain). Out of necessity, I have two Live IDs, one linked to my ten year old Hotmail account, one to my domain email, and now I can safely use both. For now, you get it on Live hotmail, plus Live Home, Live Spaces and SkyDrive (according to Jamie below) to switch between email accounts, and it should be expanded to more Live services soon.

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

2007-11-23T07:16:00.000+09:00

This Office Outlook error has driven me nuts.

The damn thing is not even spelt properly: canceled.

This happens usually when you uninstall a Mozilla Firefox Beta in order to install a later build of it. No rock solid solution yet found.

Stop Windows Vista from blacking the screen out (Without Disabling UAC)

2007-11-23T00:42:00.001+09:00

Windows Vista Business/Ultimate Users:

To get to the configuration screen for this, type in security to the start menu search box. You should see the Local Security Policy as the top search item.

In the Local Security Policy window, browse down to Local Policies \ Security Options

Over in the right hand part of the window, scroll down near the bottom and find the item titled "User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation"

Double-click on the item, and change it to disabled and then click OK.

Note: This does make your system slightly less secure, so be warned.

Windows Vista Home Users:

For Windows Home users, you will need to open up regedit via the start menu search box. Browse down to this registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]

You should see a key called PromptOnSecureDesktop. Double-click this and change the value to 0

iTSfv to validate music without depending on iTunes

2007-11-23T00:41:00.001+09:00

I was thinking - it is possible to implement that in iTSfv. Don't know why I didn't think of it before. As simple may it sound, I haven't seen such a validator before. Next build of iTSfv will have iTSfv Lite which will be loaded in the absence of iTunes. iTSfv Lite can be also accessed via Tools > File Validator from iTSfv.

del.icio.us Tags: itsfv

Class modifiers in VB.NET

2007-11-22T23:38:00.001+09:00

Thought it would be nice to refresh memory on this.

Public
There are no restrictions on the use of a class declared as Public.

Private
A Private class is accessible only within its "declaration context" including any nested entities. A nested procedure is an example of a nested entity. A Public variable in a Private class is accessible from inside the class, but not from outside that class.

Protected
Protected means that elements are accessible only from within their own class or from a derived class. Protected can also be used with the Friend keyword. When they're used together, elements are accessible from the same assembly, from their own class, and from any derived classes.

Friend
Friend access means that elements are accessible only within the program. Friend is the default access modifer for any class that does not have a modifier.

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

2007-11-22T12:54:00.001+09:00

This error has annoyed me a hell lot. It usually happens to me after uninstalling a beta version of Firefox in order to install a later version of it.

The Microsoft KB article: You receive an error message when you click a hyperlink in Outlook does not really help much.

However this Doug's VBScript seems to work!

fix_internetoptions.vbs - Disable/Enable Set Internet Options in Win95/98

You really have to log off and log on again to see it working.

AskMen.com - Things you didn't know about breasts

2007-11-22T08:36:00.001+09:00

There are far too many synonyms for breasts for us to list here; besides, you probably know most of them. But due the fact that our language is so well-endowed with reference to these funbags, we have to ask: Why are there so many slang terms for an aspect of the female anatomy that, medically speaking, is little more than an asymmetric pair of modified sweat glands?

One possible answer could be that we’ve created alternate terms as a means of subverting a topic that’s considered taboo. This purpose is especially applicable in America, where family values, proper neonatal care and breast frenzy have collided to form a prudish, hypocritical function of titillation. So, echoing throughout America is this sentiment: ”Don’t bare them in public if your goal is to feed an infant; that’s a distasteful turnoff.”

AskMen.com - Things you didn't know about breasts

Force XHTML View in Internet Explorer

2007-11-21T22:01:00.001+09:00

Paste the following in Notepad++ and save as a .reg file.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/xhtml+xml]
"CLSID"="{25336920-03F9-11cf-8FD0-00AA00686F13}"
"Extension"=".xhtm"
"Encoding"=hex:08,00,00,00

Double click and enjoy.

del.icio.us Tags: xhtml,ie,windows

ExtractorX – Easily extract downloaded movies

2007-11-21T20:48:00.001+09:00

You might ask what's so hard about that. If you have about 10 movies to extract, especially when some of those are 2 disks so that you have CD1 and CD2 as sub-folders, you will realize how time consuming it is. According to the way I organize my movies, I keep the CD1, CD2 and Sample (if exists) video files in a new folder of the movie name. I copy the NFO file there as well. So I needed a tool to automatically do this for me with a simple drag & drop.

You can try it out yourself http://wmwiki.com/mcored/downloads/ExtractorX

Brief 1.0.1

2007-11-21T19:51:00.001+09:00

Brief makes reading RSS feeds as easy as it gets. It is designed to have the right set of features to be both powerful and simple. Brief stores feeds on your disk and presents them on a seamless, interactive page.

Easily mark articles as read and star the interesting ones. Browse your feeds anyway you want - view the unread or starred entries, display a single feed or a whole folder, show full entries or only their headlines. Quickly find a piece of news using full text search. Be notified when feeds are updated in the background and track the number of new entries using the status bar. Customize the Brief's look by creating your own styles. Use keyboard shortcuts to faster navigate through the pile of news.

Download Brief - Firefox Extension

Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK

2007-10-31T10:45:00.001+09:00

The two talk about Oink, the record industry, Radiohead, and more. Very interesting read.

read more | digg story

iTunes 1425x1425 Artwork Batch Download for your Library

2007-09-22T19:17:00.001+08:00

All you gotta do is press a button and this tool will attempt to get artwork for every album in your iTunes library. Be sure you check the Validate options if you don't wanna embed the artwork. If you are paranoid you can select the tracks of an album and press Validate selected Tracks also. Enjoy. I did.

read more | digg story

Microsoft & Digg - New Partnership Launches [Microsoft Press Release]

2007-07-26T22:38:00.001+08:00

As part of the relationship, Microsoft will be the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising on Digg. The two companies also agreed to work together on future technology and advertising initiatives. “Our collaboration with Digg is about bringing our advertising technology and sales force to one of the fastest-growing sites o

read more | digg story

Stop Windows Vista from blacking the screen out (Without Disabling UAC)

2007-03-11T23:14:00.001+09:00

Probably one of the most annoying things about Windows Vista. You can easily tweak UAC to not black the screen out. The only way this lowers security is by not getting your attention as much.

read more | digg story

iTunes 7.1 update is available!

2007-03-06T13:56:00.001+09:00

Get it from apple now. It has full screen coverflow!

read more | digg story

Vista cracked totally by Paradox

2007-03-05T19:48:00.000+09:00

Turns out Paradox has worked out a way to crack Vista so that you may even get all of the automatic updates just the same as any legitimate Vista user could, the main story explains fully...

Using Word 2007 for Blogging

2006-10-03T18:28:00.000+08:00

So it seems that every time I press the publish button in Word 2007 it uploads a new post to Blogger. I don't mind that. I expected it to edit the existing post if I was working on an older post.

ROKR E1 and iTunes Play Count

2006-10-03T14:35:00.000+08:00

Just realized that iTunes also syncronizes the play count between iTunes and my ROKR E1. Played Nick Lachey - I Do It For You in the ROKR, which had a play count of 16 in iTunes. After the track was played, I connected the ROKR via USB. iTunes play count incremented by 1.

Microsoft shows off JPEG rival - WMP

2006-05-25T19:09:00.000+08:00

If it is up to Microsoft, the omnipresent JPEG image format will be replaced by Windows Media Photo.

read more | digg story

Office Word 2007 Blog Post

2006-05-24T15:48:00.000+08:00

Trying the new Blog Post feature in Word 2007 Beta 2. Looks like can come in handy in the future. You can download Office 2007 Beta 2 from http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/getthebeta.mspx and try yourself.

Seagate Announces 750 GB Hard Drives

2006-04-21T09:31:00.000+08:00

3/4 of a terabyte and that's just the first 7200.10 Barracuda drive Seagate announced! We might see 1TB drives before the end of this year.

read more | digg story

Seagate ships first perpendicular 3.5" hard drive

2006-04-18T13:21:00.000+08:00

Seagate will announce on Tuesday the industry's first 3.5" hard drive that is based on perpendicular recording technology. The new Cheetah 15K.5 doubles the capacity of its predecessor and promises 30% more performance.

read more | digg story

AutoCAD 2007 and Inventor 11 released!

2006-03-24T17:33:00.000+08:00

Title says it all. :)

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Fedora Core 5 Released

2006-03-18T22:07:00.000+08:00

It seems as though Fedora has released the next installment of Fedora Core three days early. On the Fedora Forums, there's a link to an ftp server servering isos for the x86_64 and i386 DVD versions. Someone get these and start serving them on bittorrent! Yay!

Here are the links to the ISOs:

32-bit
64-bit

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Time to worry about another bug (the 'real' Y2K)

2005-12-28T17:10:00.000+08:00

Remember the Y2k bug and the hype surrounding it? It seems the hype is back. ( this ain't 'new news' but alot of people don't know about it )

read more | digg story

Microsoft Buys Out Opera

2005-12-23T19:06:00.000+08:00

At the moment, the deal is almost through with Microsoft and Opera planning on locations for the browserâ��s research and development centers throughout the world. One of such locations includes India; other locations at this time are unknown.

read more | digg story

Why Mozilla is behind standards?

2005-12-16T14:21:00.000+08:00

It's interesting to see Mozilla is Valid HTML 4.01 Strict while MSN is Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict!

This is very ironical because Mozilla Firefox boasts about supporting latest W3C standards but their homepage is still HTML.

Who is ahead supporting the latest Web standards? Mozilla or Microsoft?

TreeGUI 2.0 RTM

2005-12-15T08:28:00.000+08:00

TreeGUI 2.0 went final yesterday (2005-12-14) and can be downloaded from Downloads page or Softpedia. The Softpedia link is not updated yet.

Dating an Apple Developer

2005-12-12T08:30:00.000+08:00

Emily: "I date a geek and I thought I was the only one that had to face these sort of situations. If you're a geek and you have a girlfriend let her in on the read. That's what my bf did and after reading this, I was a lot more understandable about my bf and his need to be with the computer almost all waking hours that he isn't with me."

read more | digg story

TreeGUI 2.0 BETA 1

2005-12-06T20:34:00.000+08:00

Changes since v1.5.8.0

* NEW: Create XHTML 1.1 compatible index files that are customizable using CSS
* NEW: Compress large index files after indexing
* NEW: Tasks folder to index multiple config files at one time
* NEW: Integrated Tree.NET Indexing Engine to show Folder/File Sizes
* NEW: Index according to an Interval or Date & Time
* Windows Service to configure and forget

Discussion thread at BetaONE.

Why Java Will Always Be Slower than C++

2005-11-27T09:53:00.000+08:00

Anybody that has ever used a non-trivial Java program or has programmed in Java knows that Java is slower than native programs written in C++. This is a fact of life, something that we accept when we use Java.

read more | digg story

Say Hi to MiB, GiB and TiB

2005-11-25T11:03:00.000+08:00

A CDR is 700 MiB, yes it really has 700 mibibytes!

A DVDR is 4.7 GB or 4700 MB, roughly 4483 MiB as you see in Nero Burning ROM or any other popular burning software.

A 200 GB Hard Disk has roughly 186 GiB, so you don’t have to think anymore where the missing space is gone.

Doesn't it make more sense now?

read more | digg story

Seeing is Believing?

2005-11-23T13:05:00.000+08:00

Various illusions and paradoxes.

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Azureus 2.3.0.6

2005-11-23T12:41:00.000+08:00

The long awaited 2.3.0.6 is out, grab it from the dowload page or use the auto updater to grab it from a torrent in azureus.

read more | digg story

Mac OS X x86: 10.4.3 Security Broken

2005-11-21T21:52:00.000+08:00

Sources indicate that Mac OS X x86 10.4.3 - which contains increased hardware restrictions - has now been cracked in the same fashion as 10.4.1. Maxxuss has done it again. Right now it seems the score is Apple: 2 releases, Hackers: 2 releases.

read more | digg story

How to: Structured Wiring

2005-11-20T11:42:00.000+08:00

The ideal time to install a home network is while your home is being built. It is so much easier to run all the cabling throughout your home before the walls are finished. This web page will describe the network that I installed in my new home as it was being built with a focus on the 'How To' aspect.

read more | digg story

Napster attacks Apple's iTunes in the UK with "Provocative" Ad

2005-11-19T23:53:00.000+08:00

The video ad shows a sexy female in a Peep Show setting, and teases....Well, you'll know what I mean. This ad would never air in the U.S.

read more | digg story

Nasal Spray Arouses Women's Desire To Have Sex In Minutes

2005-11-19T08:08:00.000+08:00

Doctors said women who used the drug PT-141 in test studies felt a tingling or throbbing followed by a strong desire to have sex immediately after spraying their noses.

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The Complete Concise History of GNU/Linux

2005-11-19T00:43:00.000+08:00

As a Linux user, do you know how Linux came to be the robust OS it is now? I didn't until I read this excellent article on the history of Linux. And as the title indicates, it is really short too. Moreover you can come face-to-face with the stalwarts of GNU movement.

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C++ Wiki

2005-11-18T19:51:00.000+08:00

This tutorial is almost 15 pages long. The entire site is a wiki, so you know its peer-reviewed and correct. Also, anyone can add content, edit articles, and change things. The C++ tutorial is one of the biggest things on the site so far. There are also sections on: console modding, hacking, programming, operation systems, etc etc.

read more | digg story

Biggest List of Open Source Apps

2005-11-18T09:32:00.000+08:00

Surfing around I found this awsome yes again "wikipedia" article. It is basically the biggest list I have found of open source software all nice and neat categories. Enjoy!

read more | digg story