gigajosh.blogspot.com

Save That Word

2009-02-01T00:57:00.000+01:00

I was just alerted to an interesting website that tries to get people to "adopt" a word that is verging on extinction. Actually, if you see the words, you understand why they're becoming extinct.

It's like one of the laws of web 2.0 - keep things simple, nobody really wants or needs lots of different ways of saying something, or words that encapsulate the meaning of 4 or 5 other words.

It's easier to remember the 4 or 5 other common words than the one funny word that nobody ever uses.

But despite the above reasoning, I do find new words interesting. And I reckon if one took my fancy, I may just be tempted to slip it into conversation sometime (sure, right, and I live in Holland so that's gonna go down great!.. we'll see :D)

Here are 3 words that I just noticed on the site:

Casitive - Has grammatical cases - e.g. you could call a language that uses cases a casitive language. ... I think German is a casitive language come to think of it... :)

Lubency - pleasure/ willingness

Impudicity - hmm. I've lost that word now.. but it sounded kinda cool :)

The web site is: http://www.savethewords.org/

Super simple Twitter bookmarklet (aka Twitlet)

2009-01-15T14:12:00.000+01:00

I just made a super simple Twitter bookmarklet. Here it is :::> Twitlet+

Here's the javascript:
javascript:void(document.location.href='http://twitter.com/home?status='+encodeURIComponent(location.href));

Thanks to ClipClip for the tips.

And by the way, if you need to find this blog post again, use the sn.im link http://sn.im/twitlet

Redirect for my Mac install list

2009-01-02T13:03:00.001+01:00

The Mac install list you're looking for is here:

http://gigajosh.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-mac-install-list.html

Mac wishlist snurl renamed :)

2009-01-02T12:49:00.003+01:00

I renamed the original snurl (http://snurl.com/9cmq6) for my Mac wishlist.
You can find what you're looking for here:

http://gigajosh.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-mac-help-wishlist.html

Macbook apps & mods

2009-01-02T02:23:00.000+01:00

This is just going to be a list of all the apps I install on my new Macbook :)

Could get long. We'll see. [I've also decided to add any kind of customisations I make in square brackets]

Skype

Adobe Air (for Twhirl)

Twhirl

OpenOffice (so I could view a darn Powerpoint lol!) (2/1/09)

MacPorts (so I can install aircrack-ng :)) (3/1/09)

Evernote (4/1/09)

Firefox (4/1/09)

[hide the dock: http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2168/os_x_hide_dock/] (11-jan-09)

uTorrent (11-jan-09) (surprised this didn't happen earlier :)) (http://mac.utorrent.com)

[TwitterFox add-on for Firefox] (this doesn't really count, but I'm kinda enjoying logging this stuff!) (11-Jan-09)

[Changed annoying Mac alert sound to "Hero" sound and reduced volume :)) - do this in Sound dialog - key-combo ctrl+F12] (11-jan-09)

GIMP (photo editor)

UnRarX (compressed file extractor - free - need it to unpack the VMWare download. Am wondering if there's a free rar/ zip decompressor for Mac out there with a nicer GUI)

[made TextEdit default app for opening NFO files]

VMWare Fusion

Quicksilver (31-1-09)

Google Earth (31-1-09)

Adobe Flash (prerequisite - kinda - for adobe air)

Adobe Air (oops, hang on, I already installed that..)

Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0.1

Growl 1.1.4 (Because Peer Guardian suggested it)

PeerGuardian (to fight against baddies)

MS Office 2008 (v12.0.0)

[update Open XML File Format Converter for Mac to v1.0.2]

[update MS Office 2008 to v12.1.0]

Please feel free to suggest an app you think I can't do without :)

Mac keyboard shortcuts and other tips

2009-01-02T01:34:00.000+01:00

I've just bought a Macbook (13.3" aluminium, 4gb ram, lovely | battery, non-backlit keyboard, less lovely) and cos I've always been a Windows user there's a lot that is new to me.

Before I give up and install Bootcamp I'll probably discover a bunch of things that I'll want to remember. So I'm going to record them here.

I definitely need a comprehensive reference to Mac keyboard shortcuts. I'm sure there are plenty out there.

It's amazing how disabling it is not knowing all the keyboard shortcuts that one's gotten so used to over time. I shall battle on :)

Here is a list of URLs with keyboard shortcuts.

http://tinyurl.com/axudxr (thanks @vkoser)

http://tinyurl.com/5q86qh (thanks @murdamw)

http://tinyurl.com/5jjp95 ( " )

Nr.	Action	Key combination	Source
1.	Make a screenshot anywhere where you can select the area of the screenshot with the mouse (screen capture)	cmd+shift+4	http://www.intermedia.net/support/kb/default.asp?id=923
2.	Safari: Jump to the address bar (or location bar)	cmd+l	-
3.	Safari: quick page search	fn+(search term)	-
4.	Minimise active window	cmd+m	-
5.	Find my Mac IP address	Apple -> System Preferences -> Network	-
6.	Show desktop(?) (hides like EVERYTHING on screen)	fn+F11	-
7.	Hide window	cmd+H	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-

N.B. Finally got a table going on in Blogger! Thanks to:

http://mlawire.blogspot.com/2007/01/table-formatting-in-blogger.html

How to format (prettify) XML

2008-12-29T16:59:00.000+01:00

Today I used Eclipse with the XMLBuddy plugin to format (prettify) a chunk of XML.
I then tweaked it with TextPad... as follows.

1)
Get Eclipse at http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. The IDE for Java developers will probably be fine for you. (It may seem like serious overkill for formatting a bit of XML, but that all depends on how badly you want to format that bit of XML now doesn't it? :))

2)
Get the XMLBuddy plugin: http://www.xmlbuddy.com/2.0/download.php

3)
You just need to unpack the XMLBuddy plugin ZIP file to the Eclipse "plugins" directory, but here are some XMLBuddy install tips in case you have problems: http://www.xmlbuddy.com/2.0/faq.html#install

4)
Then just open your XML file with Eclipse and choose "Format" from the "XML" menu.

5)
The only problem is that it uses tabs to indent the XML, which you may find a bit of a pain, so I then tweaked it in TextPad as follows:
Copy the XML you formatted in Eclipse into TextPad (or some other text editor with search&replace) and use F8 (find/replace) to swap the tabs for spaces, and you've got a decently formatted bit of XML!

Good luck :)

Automatisch opnieuw opstarten in XP uitschakelen

2008-12-12T00:07:00.000+01:00

Voor het geval dat je het wilt weten, om te zorgen dat Windows XP zich niet automatisch herstart na het installeren van Windows updates, moet je de volgende stappen volgen:

1. Ga naar Start -> Uitvoeren en tik gpedit.msc

2. Druk op OK en komt het venstertje "Groepsbeleid" tevoorschijn.

3. Deze instelling uitschakelen: "Niet automatisch opnieuw opstarten als gebruikers zijn aangemeld na geplande installaties van Automatisch updates"

Je ziet het ook in het plaatje hieronder.

bron: 4sysops

Recover data on a restored iPhone

2008-12-10T22:59:00.000+01:00

I haven't yet attempted to or succeeded in recovering any data from the previous increment of my 2G iPhone, so this is more of a note-to-self.

After screwing it up with a new version of Installer (don't touch Installer with a long barge pole people, stick to good old Cydia.. and u know what they say about curiosity and what it did to the cat, well I was the proverbial cat) I restored it in iTunes.

My shopping list for trying to dump the iPhone disk image to my PC in URLs is:

A tutorial from the people that know:

http://www.modmyi.com/forums/file-mods/237321-how-iphone-data-recovery.html#post1484071

A guide to setting up an SSH server on Cygwin

http://lifehacker.com/software/home-server/geek-to-live--set-up-a-personal-home-ssh-server-205090.php

And er, a newbie's guide to Cygwin

http://lifehacker.com/software/cygwin/geek-to-live--introduction-to-cygwin-part-i-179514.php

Wish me luck!

Found CSCCMD v1.1 on Jackson Technical

2008-11-07T17:18:00.000+01:00

CSCCMD, the Client-Side Caching Command-Line Options command-line tool is very evasive. One has to contact Microsoft to get it.

But thank goodness somebody stuck it on their web site so as to help others in their quest for freedom (or something equally vallant).
Jackson Technical is the place where v1.1 of this little tool can be found. Check it out:
http://www.jacksontechnical.com/article.htm?id=34
(Can also be found here on MediaFire)

What does this tool do you ask? Well, you can see that for yourself here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;884739

Nokia PC Suite v7

2008-11-06T13:53:00.000+01:00

Looking for Nokia PC Suite v7? Frustrated that the links on Nokia's website are dead?!
The link below might help you.. until of course they remove the file, or rename it :(
http://snurl.com/nokiapcsuite7
Good luck!

Print those pesky PRN files with PrintFile

2008-10-31T00:50:00.000+01:00

Have you ever wondered what that little checkbox "Save to file" does when you go to print something?

Well, guess what? It saves your print job to a file instead of actually printing it - uncanny huh? ;)

When you save such a file, it's a PRN file.

Well, that was kinda supposed to be funny, but the serious part of this post is that there's a utility out there that will let you print those otherwise useless little files. It's called PrintFile and you can get it here:

http://www.lerup.com/printfile/

Make a note of this, cos one day you'll be like - heh, I can't access the printer, but I know, I can save it to a file and print it off later (on another computer) with that cool little utility PrintFile.

And by the way PrintFile is free. How about that :)

EDIT: also check out EscapeE by RedTitan

NOTE: these apps won't always print your document perfectly! but if you're printer is messed up it could be a life saver.

Toodledo - King of the to-do list managers

2008-10-29T23:12:00.000+01:00

I've been using Toodledo for a good while now and it's a great to-do list manager.

It's free, and manages to offer lots of useful features for organising your tasks while still remaining very simple to use.

Also there are 3 different mobile interfaces you can use on your mobile phone or PDA, and there are integration options with sites like Google Calendar, Twitter etc, so you can send yourself notifications and synchronise your tasks etc.

All in all, a really cool to-do list manager :) so check it out at Toodledo.com

Computer Management in XP (MMC)

2008-10-28T13:42:00.000+01:00

This is more of a note-to-self than anything else, but nonetheless something that was bugging me.

I'm in a locked-down work environment and couldn't open the Computer Management console.

Pity, because I wanted to see if I was running XP with SP2 or SP3, and the only way I know to do that in my environment is via the Computer Management console.

Unfortunately in my environment:

- the "Properties" option in the My Computer context menu has been removed

- System has been removed from the Control Panel.

- and when you run the sysdm.cpl command from Start -> Run, nothing happens. (this should normally bring up the System Properties panel.

Anyway, I finally found the command to launch the Computer Management console directly:

compmgmt.msc

This worked.

Then it was simply a matter of selecting "Properties" from the context menu of the "Computer Management (Local)" item on the left-hand side.

And voila, there was the System Propeties panel (only this way the title of the panerl is "Computer Management (Local) Properties".

For a list of other .msc commands, take a look here: http://www.theeldergeek.com/microsoft_management_console.htm

Google Chrome in-page search shortcuts

2008-10-27T16:06:00.001+01:00

I couldn't work it out by myself: The keyboard shortcuts for jumping through one's Google Chrome in-page search results.

Well, I think I'll use Ctrl+G, hell, why not?! :)

Ctrl+F	Open find-in-page box
Ctrl+G or F3	Find next match for your input in the find-in-page box
Ctrl+Shift+G or Shift+F3	Find previous match for your input in the find-in-page box

Google Chrome in-page search shortcuts

2008-10-27T16:06:00.000+01:00

I couldn't work it out by myself: The keyboard shortcuts for jumping through one's Google Chrome in-page search results.

Well, I think I'll use Ctrl+G, hell, why not?! :)

Ctrl+F	Open find-in-page box
Ctrl+G or F3	Find next match for your input in the find-in-page box
Ctrl+Shift+G or Shift+F3	Find previous match for your input in the find-in-page box

Audacity great choice for recording audio stream

2008-10-20T18:03:00.001+02:00

Just wanted to share my great experience with Audacity yesterday.
I've always been annoyed with BBC online radio. Not because of its quality or content, but because I can't rip/ record/ copy the bloomin' stuff.

Now I tried recording the 1Xtra Drum n Bass chart, one of the shows I listen to every now and then, with some pitiful piece of recording software that I won't name, and it sounded rubbish. Like I'd used an old portable audio cassette recorder or something!

Yesterday however, I was listening to the MOBO awards, which you can maybe still catch here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/1xtra_aod.shtml?1xtra/mistajam_wed

I was once again determined to try to record the stream (it's a RealPlayer stream) so I did a quick Google for a recording software.

My Google search returned Audacity as the first result. Obviously I'm slightly confused as to why it never popped up before. Anyway here's the Audacity link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

I just downladed the zip file for Windows and unpacked it.

I fired up the program and there was a record button staring at me. I pressed it and baboom, a sound wave signal thingy started moving from left to right. It looked like it was recording.

So to check it was working, I stopped recording, stopped the stream, and pressed the play button (in Audacity) and it played back the little gem it had just recorded. It sounded great, no crappy cassette-like sound.

I've used Audacity in the past to edit audio (had to get that one in so as not to sound like a pleb) but never knew it could record (maybe it couldn't back then).

Anyway, Audacity is my recorder of choice for the time being. And it's damn well free!

P.S.

I'd just like to add, so as not to mislead anybody, that Audacity doesn't actually record the stream directly, it records the audio channel on your PC.
So be careful you don't play any other sounds on your PC or mess around with the volume (I think you can safely change the main volume, but not the others - you'll have to test it and see). Basically, any change to the sound you hear will likely be captured by Audacity.

Obviously, if you are able to record an audio stream directly with another software, this will probably be a better option. This is an EASY option for recording ALL TYPES of audio, but essential for audio where the stream can't be recorded directly.

Audacity great choice for recording audio stream

2008-10-20T18:03:00.000+02:00

Import Tiddlers from another TiddlyWiki

2008-10-20T17:30:00.001+02:00

This TiddlyWiki plugin (below) lets you import Tiddlers from another TiddlyWiki.

I was actually looking for a plugin to import a text file as a tiddler. But this is also nice. I'm sure It'll come in handy some time. :)

ImportTiddlersPlugin

Import Tiddlers from another TiddlyWiki

2008-10-20T17:30:00.000+02:00

Installing the CoreTweaks plugin for TiddlyWiki

2008-10-17T18:31:00.001+02:00

As mentioned by Darrel Austin on the MN Interactive blog it's not easy to figure out how to install a TiddlyWiki plugin. He describes it nicely, but even so, I couldn't quite work out what I had to do on the CoreTweaks plugin page to get the thing installed!

It's a piece of cake once you know how of course. This is what I did:

1. Click the "view" link on the top right-hand side of the CoreTweaks tiddler (because yes, this is actually a tiddler, even though it looks nothing like an out-of-the-box tiddler. It's been customised you see to look cool ;))
[If you're still lost, note that the "view" is only visible when your mouse is actually hovering over the browser window]

2. When the "view" link has been clicked, you can see the source of the tiddler. Just copy this, create a new tiddler in your own TiddlyWiki and paste the CoreTweaks source into your new tiddler. I don't think you have to call your new tiddler CoreTweaks, but I did anyway just to be safe.

3. THE IMPORTANT PART is that you add the tag systemConfig to your tiddler. This makes the TiddlyWiki actually use the content of the tiddler.

Installing the CoreTweaks plugin for TiddlyWiki

2008-10-17T18:31:00.000+02:00

Retrieve lost download on iTunes

2008-10-12T23:25:00.001+02:00

If you ever lose a song you were downloading in iTunes - i.e. you thought it was downloaded butit wasn't (I don't mean you deleted it) try the following.

Go to iTunes -> Store (menu) -> "View My Account" -> (you'll need to sign in probably)

Then IF there are downloads still waiting for you to finish off or start, they'll be sitting right at the top of the Account Information page above your Apple ID. There should be a button called "Download now" or something just a above the "Edit account info" button.

If not, and you've paid for music that you haven't received. Contact Apple.

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/browser/

Retrieve lost download on iTunes

2008-10-12T23:25:00.000+02:00

If you ever lose a song you were downloading in iTunes - i.e. you thought it was downloaded butit wasn't (I don't mean you deleted it) try the following.

Go to iTunes -> Store (menu) -> "View My Account" -> (you'll need to sign in probably)

If not, and you've paid for music that you haven't received. Contact Apple.

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/browser/

Stanza eBook reader for iPhone looks and feels great

2008-09-23T10:50:00.001+02:00

I've only just installed the free eBook reader, Stanza, on my newly upgraded iPhone and I already feel compelled to write about it.

To cut a long review short it looks and feels great.

- It's free to download in the AppStore

- You have access from inside the app to an online list of publications, including plenty of free ones

- You can change the font and the size of the text

- You can change the text colour and backgorund colour (I prefer light text on darker background)

- The page turning is quick

God I love the AppStore and the fact that there are so many great free applications to download :)

Stanza eBook reader for iPhone looks and feels great

2008-09-23T10:50:00.000+02:00

I've only just installed the free eBook reader, Stanza, on my newly upgraded iPhone and I already feel compelled to write about it.

To cut a long review short it looks and feels great.

- It's free to download in the AppStore

- You have access from inside the app to an online list of publications, including plenty of free ones

- You can change the font and the size of the text

- You can change the text colour and backgorund colour (I prefer light text on darker background)

- The page turning is quick

God I love the AppStore and the fact that there are so many great free applications to download :)

BBC 1Xtra Drum n Bass top 10

2008-09-21T16:14:00.001+02:00

I had some trouble listening to the BCC Drum n Bass top 10 this week. The BBC was telling me that iPlayer couldn't find the recording when I pressed the "listen now" link on the DnB chart page.

Oh well, luckilly I still had a rtsp link in my RealPlayer favourites and was able to play directly from RealPlayer. The BBC isn't too keen on their streams being played directly through RealPlayer; something to do with it not being all that kind to their servers. But if it's the only way.. :)

Here's the direct rtsp link.

rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/1xtra/mistajam_wed.ra?start=9300

You need to open this link in RealPlayer by the way. It's the only player that will play it I'm afraid. I've spent countless hours looking for an alternative without success. MPlayer can't play it, even though it supports rtsp streams. It's something to do with the way the streams are encoded.

Enjoy the bass ;)

BBC 1Xtra Drum n Bass top 10

2008-09-21T16:14:00.000+02:00

I had some trouble listening to the BCC Drum n Bass top 10 this week. The BBC was telling me that iPlayer couldn't find the recording when I pressed the "listen now" link on the DnB chart page.

Here's the direct rtsp link.

rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/1xtra/mistajam_wed.ra?start=9300

Enjoy the bass ;)

iPhone upgrade: 1.1.4 (ZiPhone) to 2.1 (Custom ipsw) [via 2.0.2 QuickPwn]

2008-09-20T23:08:00.001+02:00

I followed a bunch of stuff I read on the Code Retard blog and found my way from a 1.1.4 iPhone (unlocked and jailbroken with ZiPhone) to a 2.1 iPhone (curtesy of Pwnage)

Now I'm going to be short and sweet.

- First I installed iTunes 8. Now that was kinda unintentional, but heh, what can you do!

- I hooked my 1.1.4 iPhone (ZiPhoned) up to iTunes 8.

(You can skip the red bits if you want because I finally resorted to custom firmware)

- I did Shift+Restore (hold down Shift and press Restore button) and loaded up an original 2.0.2 firmware image.

- After the 2.0.2 firmware was in place (took a while) iTunes was moaning about the SIM card being no good blah blah blah. Don't worry, that's what QuickPwn is for.

- I then ran QuickPwn 2.1 GUI and voila my phone was unlocked.

- iTunes was happy again

- Then I tried to upgrade to firmware from 2.0.2 to 2.1 in iTunes. Something that the Code Retard blog had said was possible (I thought). Anyway, it didn't work for me and I don't know why. My phone was showing the QuickPwn Pineapple, and then the catoon of a dude saying something is Russian(?) and then it would reboot.

- iTunes wasn't recognising it... oops.

- Anyway, I managed to get it into DFU mode (not exactly sure how) and iTunes finally recognised it. So it was ready to receive a new firmware.

(This is when I decided to go for the custom firmware, as recommended by Code Retard in another post)

- I got the custom firmware via BitTorrent and it was a very healthy torrent I can tell you. Here it is. I had it downloaded in no time!

[!!! N.B. THIS CUSTOM FIRMWARE IS FOR THE 2G iPhone ONLY !!! - See the Code Retard post for the 3G custom firmware.]

- In iTunes 8 I simply did a Shift+Restore (hold down shift and press the Restore button) and selected the custom firmware.

(According to the Code Retard article on upgrading to a custom firmware you DO NOT need to put the iPhone in DFU mode first, so don't! Just have your iPhone connected to iTunes as normal.)

- A short while later my iPhone was upgraded to 2.1 and iTunes recognised it immediately.

- I was able to restore the backup that iTunes had previously made before I tried (and failed) to upgrade to 2.1 via iTunes.

- This results in all your personal customised iPhone settings being restored, like ringtone settings, SpringBoard settings etc.

- Then I did a Sync and got all my lovely music, photos, and videos back.

- Then I was a pretty happy bunny ;-)

- 2.1 firmware means AppStore means free legit applications. And the added benefit of the free apps downloaded from AppStore is that if you check the box in the Apps tab in iTunes 8, iTunes will Sync any apps that you've downloaded from AppStore! This means if you do an upgrade to another iPhone software/firmware version, even though this wipes the entire iPhone, iTunes will put all your AppStore apps back on the iPhone when you next Sync it. Great!

iPhone upgrade: 1.1.4 (ZiPhone) to 2.1 (Custom ipsw) [via 2.0.2 QuickPwn]

2008-09-20T23:08:00.000+02:00

I followed a bunch of stuff I read on the Code Retard blog and found my way from a 1.1.4 iPhone (unlocked and jailbroken with ZiPhone) to a 2.1 iPhone (curtesy of Pwnage)

Now I'm going to be short and sweet.

- First I installed iTunes 8. Now that was kinda unintentional, but heh, what can you do!

- I hooked my 1.1.4 iPhone (ZiPhoned) up to iTunes 8.

(You can skip the red bits if you want because I finally resorted to custom firmware)

- I did Shift+Restore (hold down Shift and press Restore button) and loaded up an original 2.0.2 firmware image.

- After the 2.0.2 firmware was in place (took a while) iTunes was moaning about the SIM card being no good blah blah blah. Don't worry, that's what QuickPwn is for.

- I then ran QuickPwn 2.1 GUI and voila my phone was unlocked.

- iTunes was happy again

- iTunes wasn't recognising it... oops.

- Anyway, I managed to get it into DFU mode (not exactly sure how) and iTunes finally recognised it. So it was ready to receive a new firmware.

(This is when I decided to go for the custom firmware, as recommended by Code Retard in another post)

- I got the custom firmware via BitTorrent and it was a very healthy torrent I can tell you. Here it is. I had it downloaded in no time!

[!!! N.B. THIS CUSTOM FIRMWARE IS FOR THE 2G iPhone ONLY !!! - See the Code Retard post for the 3G custom firmware.]

- In iTunes 8 I simply did a Shift+Restore (hold down shift and press the Restore button) and selected the custom firmware.

(According to the Code Retard article on upgrading to a custom firmware you DO NOT need to put the iPhone in DFU mode first, so don't! Just have your iPhone connected to iTunes as normal.)

- A short while later my iPhone was upgraded to 2.1 and iTunes recognised it immediately.

- I was able to restore the backup that iTunes had previously made before I tried (and failed) to upgrade to 2.1 via iTunes.

- This results in all your personal customised iPhone settings being restored, like ringtone settings, SpringBoard settings etc.

- Then I did a Sync and got all my lovely music, photos, and videos back.

- Then I was a pretty happy bunny ;-)

Google Chrome has poor performance with PDF documents

2008-09-18T10:48:00.001+02:00

I always found opening PDF documents a drag in Internet Explorer, and just as bad in Firefox. All that waiting for Adobe Reader to load up its umpteen plugins...

But I must say that the PDF experience seems far worse in Google Chrome.

My CPU goes crazy and the browser hangs every time I try to scroll down a PDF document inside Chrome. I've already resorted to downloading the PDF first and then opening it, otherwise it's just not usable.

Hmm, wonder if anybody else has experienced this? I'll have to go check the Chrome bug list.

Google Chrome has poor performance with PDF documents

2008-09-18T10:48:00.000+02:00

I always found opening PDF documents a drag in Internet Explorer, and just as bad in Firefox. All that waiting for Adobe Reader to load up its umpteen plugins...

But I must say that the PDF experience seems far worse in Google Chrome.

Hmm, wonder if anybody else has experienced this? I'll have to go check the Chrome bug list.

Google Chrome is a "must have"

2008-09-08T15:58:00.001+02:00

There's no getting away from it. Google Chrome is the browser of choice.

A beautifully simple and bug-free browser that's just dying to get onto every single desktop on the planet.

I'm certainly using it already as my browser of choice. Partly because I'm admittedly a bit of a Google addict. In the sense that I loved Google from the moment they found exactly what I was looking for (no, not that) back in 2001 or something. And partly because I just can't wait for another browser to gain market share over Internet Explorer, and give Microsoft another reason to make Windows truly user friendlier.

If you haven't tried Google Chrome yet, go and get it :) Here it is:

http://www.google.com/chrome/index.html?hl=en

Even if you don't have administrator rights on your PC chances are you can still install it. I could.

Now if you've already installed it and just happen to be thinking, like I did, that it would be nice to be able to make it look a tiddly bit different. And if you're not afraid of a bit of simple tweaking, go and download the Google Chrome theme manager XChrome here:

http://chromespot.com/index.php/topic,745.0.html

And here is a nice pack of 23 themes:

http://chromespot.com/index.php/topic,746.0.html

Enjoy the buzz of using a fast browser!

Google Chrome is a "must have"

2008-09-08T15:58:00.000+02:00

There's no getting away from it. Google Chrome is the browser of choice.

A beautifully simple and bug-free browser that's just dying to get onto every single desktop on the planet.

If you haven't tried Google Chrome yet, go and get it :) Here it is:

http://www.google.com/chrome/index.html?hl=en

Even if you don't have administrator rights on your PC chances are you can still install it. I could.

http://chromespot.com/index.php/topic,745.0.html

And here is a nice pack of 23 themes:

http://chromespot.com/index.php/topic,746.0.html

Enjoy the buzz of using a fast browser!

Embedding a tune from imeem

2008-06-21T02:18:00.001+02:00

I've been hunting about a bit for an easy (and free!) way to embed music into a web site.
I just signed up for imeem, a social music and video sharing site, and I've chosen to embed the lovely bit of drum n bass below to see how it looks in the post :)

Hope you enjoy the tones ;)

Rockstar - TC

Embedding a tune from imeem

2008-06-21T02:18:00.000+02:00

Which vid do you dig?

2008-06-20T12:18:00.001+02:00

Hi readers :))

Which of these 2 vids do you dig the most. Please vote below :))

Vid 1

Vid 2

Vote here :))

Which vid do you dig?

2008-06-20T12:18:00.000+02:00

Hi readers :))

Which of these 2 vids do you dig the most. Please vote below :))

Vid 1

Vid 2

Vote here :))

LATO

2008-06-19T16:50:00.001+02:00

Just wanted to stop to big up a band that you guys (my loyal readers :)) should know about.
The band's called LATO and is a sort of rock / indie /alternative type of band.

Loads of great melodies - very listenable and relaxing in a rocky way. Definitely worth checking out :))

Their website is www.lato.co.uk where you can see when their gigs are - there's one on this coming Saturday at 333 Motherbar, Hoxton, London EC1V !

They've also got some vids up on YouTube, and of course a MySpace page.

Check them out!

LATO

2008-06-19T16:50:00.000+02:00

Portable CD / DVD / image writing app

2008-06-19T10:17:00.001+02:00

I'm a sucker for portable programs as I hope will become more and more evident as I get into gear and start sticking some reviews up here.

I found this little baby today: http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/

It's a portable CD, DVD, image writer.
Now, in all fairness (or unfairness) I haven't checked the actual CD or DVD writing capabilities (although I've no reason to doubt them) but I did create an ISO image with exceptional ease.

You can download a zip file, so when I say the program is portable, I mean you just unpack the zip file and run the program.

So this is definitely one to add to your GMail collection. (what do I mean?). Well, if you get the GSpace extension for Firefox, you'll find it's a really neat little way of storing stuff on your GMail account, and I'd highly recommend using this to store little portable programs that you can later copy pack to your PC if and when you need them.

Portable CD / DVD / image writing app

2008-06-19T10:17:00.000+02:00

google4life.tk

2008-06-09T14:35:00.001+02:00

Doh, once again I haven't posted anything for far too long.
Well, this is just a quick reminder of my custom Google downloads search engine, google4life.tk.

You can either go to http://google4life.tk/ or just use the search box on the right-hand side of this blog :)

The search engine is good for finding direct downloads (i.e. zip files, mp3s, and stuff) and also lets you search for serials (for registering software) and torrents (for, er, bittorrent).

google4life.tk

2008-06-09T14:35:00.000+02:00

Transfer data from the Nokia 6101

2008-04-15T03:08:00.001+02:00

To transfer your data from the Nokia 6101, including the copy-protected ringtones, themes, wallpapers etc you need the following.
- 1 DKU-5 data cable
- Nokia PC Suite
- MobiMB

1. Install the Nokia PC Suite. This will also install the drivers for the DKU-5 cable

2. Then connect the DKU-5 cable to your PC and connect the phone. The cable should be recognised. If not, try another USB port.

3. Install MobiMB and setup as follows.
- Go to File -> Settings -> Connections -> Add connection
- Choose the Nokia DKU-5 cable connection
- Right-click the new DKU-5 connection -> Properties -> Port settings
- Choose "COM10 Port 1 on Nokia Adapter". The phone should be recognised.

4. In MobiMB go to File -> Settings -> Advanced and tick "Always show built-in ringtones".

5. Now just copy stuff from MobiMB to your PC. You can even drag and drop.

Transfer data from the Nokia 6101

2008-04-15T03:08:00.000+02:00

Mobile GBlogger

2008-04-08T10:39:00.001+02:00

Just trying out Mobile GBlogger, a Pocket PC app with which one can blog from one's Windows Mobile device.

- Posted using Pocket Watch Software Mobile GBlogger.

Mobile GBlogger

2008-04-08T10:39:00.000+02:00

Just trying out Mobile GBlogger, a Pocket PC app with which one can blog from one's Windows Mobile device.

- Posted using Pocket Watch Software Mobile GBlogger.

JMeter Config Element 'CSV Data Set Config' notes

2008-03-31T10:47:00.001+02:00

This post is for any other poor souls that can't figure out how to get the values accessed by the CSV Data Set Config configuration element in JMeter into the HTTP Request Sampler (or any other Sampler).

For some reason the JMeter User Manual page for the CSV Data Set Config doesn't explain this.

The key to getting your values used by your Sampler is to reference your values in the sampler in the following format:
${variable_name}

This is shown in the screen captures on the left.

Simple when you know how :)

JMeter Config Element 'CSV Data Set Config' notes

2008-03-31T10:47:00.000+02:00

Viigo wishlist

2008-03-06T09:43:00.001+01:00

I do like Viigo quite a lot. It's a free news reader for Pocket PC. You can choose from a huge list of predefined channels or add your own if you know the feed URL. You can also add news search feeds, let it find feeds from a specified web page, and other methods of getting feeds. (Hungry? ;)

I've already ramped up a fairly long wishlist however of features that I'd like to see in the next version. Here they are.

1. Be able to set a maximum number of news items per channel. At the moment only a max for all channels is possible. This means channels like BBC news that have loads of news items end up pushing items off of other channels.

2. I'd prefer if the application didn't crash when I rotate my screen from portrait to landscape or vice versa. It doesn't always happen, but often enough!

3. Then I'd like to see some kind of mechanism that ensured your changes and updates are permanently saved immediately they're made. Thus ensuring you don't lose all your changes if the program crashes (i.e. closes unexpectedly ;))

4. The "Mark Prior as Read" option which marks news items as having been read should be available in the menu when a news item is highlighted, and also in the main feed screen when a feed is selected. At the moment "Mark Prior as Read" is only available when the header of a group of news items is selected.

5. I'd definitely like to be able to make a backup of my saved articles. This would also mean I could move them elsewhere, freeing up space to download more news items. Otherwise my saved news items are eating into the max number of news items that I have specified.

6. I'd also really like an option to expand a news item title onto multiple lines when it's highlighted. At the moment, especially when in portrait view, but also in landscape view, if a news item has a long title it can't be read fully, forcing you to open the item to read it.

7. Another useful feature would be "keep at least X unread items" option for each feed. This would stop unread items in favourite news feeds being removed before you've had a chance to read them. Which as I mentioned above can happen if you have feeds that produce lots of news items, like BBC news for example.

7. It would also be nice when viewing an individual news item to be able to use left and right on the Pocket PC toggle button to jumps to the previous or next news item respectively. This saves you going back to the previous view and having to select the next item each time.

8. Also, for those of us with a hardware keyboard, or even a decent on-screen keyboard, it would be nice if the Backspace key took you up one level. E.g. from a news item to the list of items, or from the list of items to the feed overview page. Just like in a web browser.

9. Talking of browsers. Please add an option to open links in an external application or web browser. This would be great as both a one-off menu option, and also a global option so that all links would be opened externally.

10. Subscribe to feeds direct from Viigo browser. If you're going to have a built-in browser and you're product is a feed reader, please let us add feeds directly from the browser.

11. It's be great to see some more work on the browser too. It's too clumsy to be nice to use. A fit-to-screen option is a must, and a good tip may be to a text-only rendering option so that the reader can quickly get the full page without bothering with the images (see the NetFront browser for magnificent text-only rendering).

12. Another idea for left & right on the Pocket PC joystick(?) when you're in the news item list view is page-up and page-down. Scrolling through all those news items can be tiresome ;)

13. And how about this for an idea. Viigo channels, "ViiCasts" ;)) (think ClipCasts) where a personal channel is created from my saved articles (if I opt-in of course.. privacy and all that) so that other people can subscribe to my personal channel (or ViiCast :)) Then you can have a list of most popular channels etc.

14. Ok ,I'd also like to be able to sort my news feeds on the main page. Alphabetically, by most unread, or just a custom sort. So I can group all the technology feeds together, all the gossip feeds etc.

15. Next up I'd love to see an option to put a whitelist or blacklist filter on news feeds. E.g. A horoscope feed where I only see my starsign. Or a gossip feed where I can filter out news about some boring celebrity!

16. Then I'd love some built-in means to email or SMS links to my friends, or even to myself as a reminder. And what would be beautiful is if we could directly blog stuff. Yes please :)

Bugfixes.... got a few I'm afraid.

- There's the crash when switching between portrait and landscape that needs fixing.
- Then it seems my Viigo is updating my feeds even when I have the auto-update switched off.

Well, I'm done for now. Viigo is a great little feed reader so go check it out.
If you're looking for an alternative, a friend pointed out NewsBreak to me the other day. It's not free however, although the interface is nice.

Viigo wishlist

2008-03-06T09:43:00.000+01:00

Intel Atom processor gives 500 MHz for less than a Watt

2008-03-03T13:04:00.001+01:00

These little critters sure look fantastic. Or at least *sound* fantastic.
I could do with my TyTN II's battery life being a bit better, and although it never will be maybe it's successor's will!.. or maybe a generation or two down the line. When I upgrade at least
Check out the article for the juicy details of these eco-friendly power-punchers.

clipped from www.dailytech.com

Hardware
Thinking Small: New Intel Architecture Champions Sub 1 Watt x86
Brandon Hill & Kristopher Kubicki - March 2, 2008 8:12 PM

Silverthorne, a two-issue processor designed from the ground up, is now known as the Intel Atom processor. Atom
processors based on Silverthorne are aimed at Mobile Internet Devices
(MIDs).

Silverthorne-based Atom processors heading for MIDs will have a TDP
ranging from 0.6W to 2.5W and will top out at 1.8GHz. Sources inside Intel hint that the 0.6W version of the processor reaches just over 500 MHz.

Intel Atom processor gives 500 MHz for less than a Watt

2008-03-03T13:04:00.000+01:00

clipped from www.dailytech.com

Hardware
Thinking Small: New Intel Architecture Champions Sub 1 Watt x86
Brandon Hill & Kristopher Kubicki - March 2, 2008 8:12 PM

Silverthorne, a two-issue processor designed from the ground up, is now known as the Intel Atom processor. Atom
processors based on Silverthorne are aimed at Mobile Internet Devices
(MIDs).

Silverthorne-based Atom processors heading for MIDs will have a TDP
ranging from 0.6W to 2.5W and will top out at 1.8GHz. Sources inside Intel hint that the 0.6W version of the processor reaches just over 500 MHz.

Blog with Blogger in 4 additional languages

2008-02-18T15:02:00.001+01:00

A week or so ago I clipped something about being able to blog on Blogger in Hindi using the typical a-z character set.
Now it seems one can blog in 4 additional languages, namely: Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu.
Knock yourself out people :

clipped from www.blogger.com

Blog with Blogger in 4 additional languages

2008-02-18T15:02:00.000+01:00

clipped from www.blogger.com

(AppReview) Masterful NoScript could have predefined blacklist

2008-02-18T14:32:00.001+01:00

NoScript is a great extension. It blocks JavaScript from running on websites unless you explicitly allow it to run. Of course it’s packed with features like the ability to whitelist websites and to allow sites to run scripts temporarily. It also blocks certain types of dangerous script attacks even if you’ve decided to trust a website.

Considering I’ve heard tell that this year will be a biggie for attacks via websites, cross-site scripting and suchlike, this is a browser extension that no Firefox user can afford to be without.

I am however a great lover of things that do things for me J And I’d love to see integration of a predefined blacklist, or a choice to enable/disable such a list (or lists). This way I’d be warned in advance of a site that was a known offender, and wouldn’t fall prey to the desire to simply temporarily allow the site to run scripts so I could “get my content” if you see what I mean.

What I mean is, NoScript blocks script, which normally means it will stop parts of the website being displayed. A less advanced user - or even someone like me ;) - will probably get into the habit of just allowing websites (even if it’s only temporarily) because they want to be able to view bits of the content that are being hidden. This sort of behavior could easily result therefore in a user being stung by a bad site even if they use NoScript.

So I call for a built in way to enable known blacklists J

(AppReview) Masterful NoScript could have predefined blacklist

2008-02-18T14:32:00.000+01:00

Considering I’ve heard tell that this year will be a biggie for attacks via websites, cross-site scripting and suchlike, this is a browser extension that no Firefox user can afford to be without.

So I call for a built in way to enable known blacklists J

(AppReview) Could Download Statusbar have a smaller footprint?

2008-02-18T12:11:00.001+01:00

I just updated by Firefox plugins, of which I have a healthy number (or rather an unhealthy number), and I could help but (yet again) notice that the extension Download Statusbar is pretty BIG. It’s about ~650kB. That’s more than half a meg. Surely this little baby could be reduced in size?

I refer to it so lovingly because it really is a fab extension. Just simply showing you the status of the download as a progress bar in Firefox’s status bar. It shows speed and size, and lets you open the download with a double-click. Nice job. Could it be made smaller?

(AppReview) Could Download Statusbar have a smaller footprint?

2008-02-18T12:11:00.000+01:00

(AppReview) My humble opinion about apps and stuff

2008-02-18T12:04:00.001+01:00

I’ve decided to start a new collection of blog posts where I comment on applications/ utilities/ extensions etc.

I’m going to do this cos I find I’ve always got ideas/ an-opinion on these things, and like every human being, I like to think that other people are actually interested in what I’ve got to say! ;))

This post doesn’t contain an opinion about an app/ extension/ utility because I just needed to get this little introduction out of the way. I’ll try to remember to begin my review/ ideas posts with (AppReview) so that my excited and massive reader base knows what to look for. J Enjoy folks.

(AppReview) My humble opinion about apps and stuff

2008-02-18T12:04:00.000+01:00

I’ve decided to start a new collection of blog posts where I comment on applications/ utilities/ extensions etc.

Assign multiple functions to individual Pocket PC buttons

2008-02-11T00:51:00.001+01:00

Ok, just spotted this little pocket pc application.
It let's oyu assign multiple applications to a single pocket pc hardware button.
I'm definitely going to give it a whirl asap. You can imagine that if this works like it says it does then it'll give great speedy access to your pocket pc apps.

clipped from hundera.dyndns.org

HButton is program for PocketPC (2003, WM5, WM6), which allows you to asssign unlimited number of applications to one hardware button on your device.

HButton is, and will be, FREEWARE. You can use it without any payments or limitations

Usage is very simple. If you press and hold button on which HButton is assigned, names of selected applications will be shown in given order. When you will see name of application you want to start, just release button.

Actual version 2.2 could be downloaded here

Assign multiple functions to individual Pocket PC buttons

2008-02-11T00:51:00.000+01:00

clipped from hundera.dyndns.org

HButton is program for PocketPC (2003, WM5, WM6), which allows you to asssign unlimited number of applications to one hardware button on your device.

HButton is, and will be, FREEWARE. You can use it without any payments or limitations

Usage is very simple. If you press and hold button on which HButton is assigned, names of selected applications will be shown in given order. When you will see name of application you want to start, just release button.

Actual version 2.2 could be downloaded here

Donateware for artists

2008-01-28T09:32:00.001+01:00

Something just occurred to me. Why don't music artists accept donations for their music.
I mean I can't honestly say I always pay for the music I listen to *cough* but if I happened to really like something, I'd be happy to cough up some cash for it.

I mean sticking donate buttons on music sites and.. well, all over place actually, could be an decent additional revenue stream for musicians.

If you happen to read this in 2008, please drop me a comment and say what you think of this fantastic idea. ;)

Donateware for artists

2008-01-28T09:32:00.000+01:00

Convert Word documents to MediaWiki markup

2008-01-25T14:21:00.001+01:00

This little bit of wisdom may help me feed Word docs to my corporate Wiki.
Needs to be tried and tested )

clipped from openwetware.org

Converting documents to mediawiki markup

Word Documents

Saving a relatively simple Word document (no images or tables) to html and then running that through the converter here produced good mediawiki formatting. A document including images, tables, and centered text did not work as well. The images would need to be added to OWW separately, the table also didn't come out quite right and centered text was no longer centered.
A direct converter can be found here.
A series of Word macros for doing simple conversions (including tables) is here; they seem to work reasonably well but aren't designed for sophisticated layouts.

Convert Word documents to MediaWiki markup

2008-01-25T14:21:00.000+01:00

This little bit of wisdom may help me feed Word docs to my corporate Wiki.
Needs to be tried and tested )

clipped from openwetware.org

Converting documents to mediawiki markup

Word Documents

Saving a relatively simple Word document (no images or tables) to html and then running that through the converter here produced good mediawiki formatting. A document including images, tables, and centered text did not work as well. The images would need to be added to OWW separately, the table also didn't come out quite right and centered text was no longer centered.
A direct converter can be found here.
A series of Word macros for doing simple conversions (including tables) is here; they seem to work reasonably well but aren't designed for sophisticated layouts.

Live Amsterdam video feed

2008-01-24T16:30:00.001+01:00

Live video from Amsterdam

Wanna have some fun. Ok, some geeky fun then..!

I came across THIS video feed via one of the mashups on Programmable Web (Google it).

It points to a cgi file that somehow also spews out an mjpeg stream.

Unfortunately I don't really have much of a clue how this works. Well maybe that was a good thing cos otherwise I wouldn't have had any fun playing around with it.

Essentially, I discovered that if I loaded this url in Firefox, waited a few seconds to watch the url stat loading, then hit the refresh button, I got a weird realtime video stream in the browser window. It was flickery, and I think what was happening is that the page (I guess this has something to do with the cgi file) was refreshing very rapidly, spurting this mjpeg stream out.

But bah, I don't really get it. What don't I get? Well I don't get that I still can't get any other application to play that video stream with the same url (http://82.92.73.206:443/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi).

So, did I get anywhere? Yes. I tried opening the url in IE, but you immediately get prompted to download the thing. OK, I tried downloading IT (not really knowing what *it* was). Well, it turned out to be the cgi file.. but not as I was expecting it..

The thin just kept coming in. A few minutes later I had a download of several megabytes and growing. Of course, I soon realised this was the actual video stream being dumped to my pc haha.

Well, I couldn't find where IE was storing this temporarily of course (even tho you'd think that would be simple grrr) so I went back to trusty Firefox and used the 'Add URL' function in the Download-them-all add-on to repeat the exercise - i.e. download the cgi url.

The temp directory for DTA is easy to locate from the add-on's options, so I quickly found the growing temp file and copied the little blighter. Having safely placed it out of harms way (I waited till it had grown to about 10MB) I tried opening it in VLC player.

It opened! Great, there was a busy street in Amsterdam. Funny thing was it seemed to play in high-speed as if it was being fast-forwarded. I guess the video dump thingy didn't have any frame rate parameters or goodness knows what (lost in video ignorance).

I tried hard to get the thing to actually stream from the url, really I did. I got down and dirty with mplayer, thinking something with a command line might give me a bit more power. Well, to cut a short story shorter, it didn't help. I did get a tiny bit further tho. I at least got the following result from mplayer:

C:\MPlayer-1.0rc2>mplayer
"http_proxy://proxy.corp.name.com:8080/http://82.92.73.206:443/axis-cgi/mjpg/vid
eo.cgi"
MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.1 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.60GHz (Family: 6, Model: 13, Stepping: 8)

CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.

Playing http_proxy://proxy.corp.name.com:8080/http://82.92.73.206:443/axis-cgi/mj
pg/video.cgi.
Resolving proxy.corp.name.com for AF_INET...
Connecting to server proxy.corp.name.com[123.456.78.901]: 8080...
Cache size set to 320 KBytes
Cache fill: 17.50% (57344 bytes)
Stream not seekable!
Stream not seekable!
libavformat file format detected.
[ingenient @ 00E1E768]Could not find codec parameters (Video: mjpeg)
LAVF_header: av_find_stream_info() failed

The bit up to and including the "Cache fill.." is before I kill the process with Ctrl+C because it seems to be doing nothing. The positive result when killing the process is the error message.
This seems to be telling me I simply don't have the necessary codec.. or is it? I question this because GSpot (codec identification utility) tells me I *do* have an mjpeg codec.

So, the search continues. I can't yet play this stream in a video player. And I would so love to be able to. A live video feed of a random street in Amsterdam :)) Just for a bit of geeky fun!

Live Amsterdam video feed

2008-01-24T16:30:00.000+01:00

Apple Macbook Air

2008-01-18T12:18:00.001+01:00

When I saw this I started drooling and (nearly) headed straight to Ebay... and I'm not a Mac fan at all.
So here are some pics.
Note however the "fatal flaw" according to Gizmodo. You can't open it up.
To be honest, I don't really see that as an issue. I think many laptop owners, especially those that go for eye-candy never go near the inside of their laptop, or change the battery.

clipped from www.computerworld.com

The MacBook Air is only 0.75 in. thick at the hinge.

clipped from www.computerworld.com

The super-svelte MacBook Air. Courtesy of Apple.

clipped from gizmodo.com

MacBook Air's Fatal Flaw: Battery, RAM, HD Sealed Like an iPod

Apple Macbook Air

2008-01-18T12:18:00.000+01:00

clipped from www.computerworld.com

The MacBook Air is only 0.75 in. thick at the hinge.

clipped from www.computerworld.com

The super-svelte MacBook Air. Courtesy of Apple.

clipped from gizmodo.com

MacBook Air's Fatal Flaw: Battery, RAM, HD Sealed Like an iPod

PocketPC hacking abbreviations

2007-12-23T20:21:00.001+01:00

I finally found these abbreviations on xda-developers!
I'm planning to try flashing some other ROMs to my HTC Kaiser, so I need to understand what the hell all this stuff means.
First I'm going to dump my existing ROM so I can get backto the original state if desired.
After that I'll stick the Hard-SPL on my Kaiser. This apparently lets you play around more safely with ROMs. I.e. there's less chance of ending up with a very expensive brick instead of a phone!

clipped from wiki.xda-developers.com

Describe Acronyms here.

Adaptation Kit Update ( AKU ) - they usually patch up existing bugs and enable several new features. Each newly released AKU pack retains fixes found in previous versions of AKU

( CID lock ) - aka VENDOR LOCK put on your device by the manufacturer to prevent installation of a ROM not released by them

Radio Interface Layer ( RIL )

ROM Upgrade Utility ( RUU ) - Its the s/w used on ur PC to do ROM upgrade for your PPC

( IPL/SPL ) - Its the bootloader for PPC. IPL is the Initial Program Loader. It boots up SPL - Secondary Program Loader. SPL in turn loads the actual OS.

World Wide English Edition ( WWE Edition )

XIP - Execute-in-Place

More at FAQ section

PocketPC hacking abbreviations

2007-12-23T20:21:00.000+01:00

clipped from wiki.xda-developers.com

Describe Acronyms here.

Adaptation Kit Update ( AKU ) - they usually patch up existing bugs and enable several new features. Each newly released AKU pack retains fixes found in previous versions of AKU

( CID lock ) - aka VENDOR LOCK put on your device by the manufacturer to prevent installation of a ROM not released by them

Radio Interface Layer ( RIL )

ROM Upgrade Utility ( RUU ) - Its the s/w used on ur PC to do ROM upgrade for your PPC

( IPL/SPL ) - Its the bootloader for PPC. IPL is the Initial Program Loader. It boots up SPL - Secondary Program Loader. SPL in turn loads the actual OS.

World Wide English Edition ( WWE Edition )

XIP - Execute-in-Place

More at FAQ section

Essential Bluetooth hacking tools

2007-12-20T11:15:00.001+01:00

Just for fun people

clipped from www.security-hacks.com

Essential Bluetooth hacking tools

BTCrawler -BTCrawler is a scanner for Windows Mobile based devices. It scans for other devices in range and performs service query. It implements the BlueJacking and BlueSnarfing attacks. Download BTCrawler.

CIHWB - Can I Hack With Bluetooth (CIHWB) is a Bluetooth security auditing framework for Windows Mobile 2005. Currently it only support some Bluetooth exploits and tools like BlueSnarf, BlueJack, and some DoS attacks. Should work on any PocketPC with the Microsoft Bluetooth stack. Download CIHWB.

Essential Bluetooth hacking tools

2007-12-20T11:15:00.000+01:00

Just for fun people

clipped from www.security-hacks.com

Essential Bluetooth hacking tools

BTCrawler -BTCrawler is a scanner for Windows Mobile based devices. It scans for other devices in range and performs service query. It implements the BlueJacking and BlueSnarfing attacks. Download BTCrawler.

CIHWB - Can I Hack With Bluetooth (CIHWB) is a Bluetooth security auditing framework for Windows Mobile 2005. Currently it only support some Bluetooth exploits and tools like BlueSnarf, BlueJack, and some DoS attacks. Should work on any PocketPC with the Microsoft Bluetooth stack. Download CIHWB.

Barcode reader applications

2007-12-20T10:08:00.001+01:00

Want to somehow get something like this on my PocketPC.
you know, scan your shopping when you take it out the bags so you know what you've got in the cupboards, and scan stuff before you throw it away so you can keep track of what you need to buy!
Geeky, but it'd be fun to get something like this working

clipped from barcode-camera.qarchive.org

ClearImage Barcode 1D Basic

ActiveX easily reads Code39 Code128 Code 93 Interleaved 2of5 and 13 other barcodes from any scanned or faxed image. Automate the data capture with VB C++ or Delphi applications. High performance solution comes with FREE SDK and Consulting services

ClearImage PDF417

ActiveX easily and accurately reads high density PDF417 2D barcodes from any camera, scanned or faxed image (TIFF JPG). Automate the data capture with VB C++ or Delphi application. High performance solution comes with FREE SDK and Consulting services

Barcode reader applications

2007-12-20T10:08:00.000+01:00

clipped from barcode-camera.qarchive.org

ClearImage Barcode 1D Basic

ActiveX easily reads Code39 Code128 Code 93 Interleaved 2of5 and 13 other barcodes from any scanned or faxed image. Automate the data capture with VB C++ or Delphi applications. High performance solution comes with FREE SDK and Consulting services

ClearImage PDF417

ActiveX easily and accurately reads high density PDF417 2D barcodes from any camera, scanned or faxed image (TIFF JPG). Automate the data capture with VB C++ or Delphi application. High performance solution comes with FREE SDK and Consulting services

Absolutely fabulous! James Bond style.

2007-12-19T01:53:00.001+01:00

Could really think of suitable title for this post. I just found this fun application for my HTC Kaiser. It's called "QuickMark".
It's a barcode scanner. I wasn't sure what to expect really, I just liked the idea of being able to scan barcodes with my phone's camera!
Well, it's early days (I've only had it installed about 30 minutes) but this thing I just did with the app made me laugh and I had to post it.
The little barcode picture above left is google.com... but not as you know it. Obviously, cos instead of saying google.com it's just kinda saying.. nothing except a weird little pattern.
But if you download, install and run QuickMark on your phone and zap the image with your camera the program immediately picks up the url "http://www.google.com".
I have no idea whether this is useful or not.. I'm still deciding! But it sure is funny :)

Absolutely fabulous! James Bond style.

2007-12-19T01:53:00.000+01:00

Smashing breakthrough this morning!

2007-12-17T09:41:00.001+01:00

I'm a very happy bunny this morning. Not that you'd know it to look at me tho, hunched over my laptop with headphones on and a glazed slightly moody look on my face...!
Anyway, I'll get to the point, and why I'm a happy bunny.
I finally managed to find a way to play BBC archived radio on my laptop.
You see, the special thing about my laptop is that I don't have admin rights and so can't install programs like normal people. That means any program I use has to be a portable program that doesn't actually need to be installed. (ok, some programs install, but not all).

The program in question for the BBC archived radio streams is of course Realplayer. This has to be installed, and not only that, your browser needs to recognise the plugin so that when you press play on the online BBC radio, it knows what to do!

1.
So let's cut to the chase. I found this fabulous portable Realplayer HERE.
It's a fully fledged version of Realplayer 11 as a single executable.

2.
Then I sparked up the BBC radio page, the one with my fave DnB top 10 show. Click HERE to go straight to the radio page.

3.
Then I used the UnPlug Firefox extension to show me what media links were floating around on the page. Well, UnPlug found a single link to an RPM file. So I downloaded this file and opened it up in Textpad. There was a single long rtsp address!

4.
Opened up my standalone Realplayer and opened the rtsp link. BINGO :) I was a happy bunny cos the 1Xtra DnB chart started playing for like the first time ever! (oh yeah, I had to change the default directories in the Realplayer settings cos my no-admin-rights pc wouldn't write to the default ones.)

All in all a complete, blinding success.

Shouts go out to the genius that created the standalone Realplayer and the UnPlug Firefox extension!!

I'm outta here to listen to some other archived BBC radio streams. Oh Yeah!!

EDIT:
By the way, if you somehow manage to break Realplayer by fiddling around with the Settings like I did just a moment ago, you'll probably need to delete the application data stored at:
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thinstall\RealJukebox 1.0
(where [username] is your windows login name)

Smashing breakthrough this morning!

2007-12-17T09:41:00.000+01:00

Open .XLSX Spreadsheet Files Without Excel 2007

2007-12-11T11:05:00.001+01:00

I went for the Microsoft download. Worked like a dream.

clipped from reviews.qzizp.com

Open .XLSX Spreadsheet Files Without Excel 2007

If you have an .xlsx file attachment in your email inbox but the computer has no Office 2007 to open that extension, what are the available options?

The xlsx files is the default extension for spreadsheets written in Microsoft Office Excel 2007. The format is currently not support by GMail attachment viewer or any of the online office suites like Google Docs.

However, you can easily convert .xlsx spreadsheet to the traditional .xls format using the Microsoft Office compatibility Pack available here. This will help you open, edit, and save .xlsx files in Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003. More details on Office 2007 FAQ.

Alternatively, you can convert .xlsx to .xls or other text formats online using the Zamzar.com service here. Unlike the Microsoft compatibility pack, the Zamzar .xlsx to .xls conversion services will not require a copy of Microsoft Office on your computer.

Open .XLSX Spreadsheet Files Without Excel 2007

2007-12-11T11:05:00.000+01:00

I went for the Microsoft download. Worked like a dream.

clipped from reviews.qzizp.com

Open .XLSX Spreadsheet Files Without Excel 2007

If you have an .xlsx file attachment in your email inbox but the computer has no Office 2007 to open that extension, what are the available options?

The xlsx files is the default extension for spreadsheets written in Microsoft Office Excel 2007. The format is currently not support by GMail attachment viewer or any of the online office suites like Google Docs.

However, you can easily convert .xlsx spreadsheet to the traditional .xls format using the Microsoft Office compatibility Pack available here. This will help you open, edit, and save .xlsx files in Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003. More details on Office 2007 FAQ.

Alternatively, you can convert .xlsx to .xls or other text formats online using the Zamzar.com service here. Unlike the Microsoft compatibility pack, the Zamzar .xlsx to .xls conversion services will not require a copy of Microsoft Office on your computer.

Trijntje Oosterhuis werkt aan een nieuw CD met Burt Bacharach

2007-12-07T09:49:00.001+01:00

clipped from trijntje.nl

AMSTERDAM - Zangeres Trijntje Oosterhuis werkt aan een tweede cd met de wereldberoemde componist Burt Bacharach. Dat meldde zij dinsdagavond tijdens haar optreden in theater De Kleine Komedie in Amsterdam.

Trijntje Oosterhuis werkt aan een nieuw CD met Burt Bacharach

2007-12-07T09:49:00.000+01:00

clipped from trijntje.nl

AMSTERDAM - Zangeres Trijntje Oosterhuis werkt aan een tweede cd met de wereldberoemde componist Burt Bacharach. Dat meldde zij dinsdagavond tijdens haar optreden in theater De Kleine Komedie in Amsterdam.

Google Maps Mobile 2 Beta

2007-11-29T11:56:00.001+01:00

Here's a tiny bit more information on the My Location feature in Google Maps Mobile 2.
http://www.google.com/gmm/mylocation.html?hl=en

At the moment it can't seem to pinpoint my location (without GPS). I'm in Amsterdam....
Let's see if it finds me during the course of today!

Well, I'm impressed :) The My Location feature did indeed kick in later in the day when I was on my way home. It told me (and showed me) that it had pinpointed my position to within "1700m". There was the familiar little blue dot, but this time with a faded blue circle around it. The position of the solid blue dot was in fact a fair bit closer than 1700m. It was about 900m away from my exact location.

So, this is pretty impressive. Not so great for door to door navigation. I mean, if you were in a car you'd be pretty screwed, driving through parking lots and over the edge of cliffs. No, "to within 1700m accuracy" doesn't cut the mustard. But for location-based news, weather, alerts it's perfect. I really really hope to see Google quickly allow users to sign-up for third party localised info via this technology.

For me this would have to work in such a way that the third parties were not able to access my location data (I'm obviously not too keen on random IT support guys knowing where I'm hanging out!) Only Google would know that (ok, ok, ok, Google, CIA, etc, etc!)

But it really would be very cool to get a spontaneous alert if I came within walking distance of a Chinese restaurant, and I had a particular weakness for Chinese food. Or telling me that it was about to rain!!! I mean, we can do pretty accurate weather these days right? I mean, a day or so in advance may still be iffy, but I reckon a weather prediction an hour or so in advance is going to be pretty good. The same goes for speed cameras, cinema's showing my requested film.. etc etc.

I think though that Google first needs to launch a mobile application a bit like Yahoo's nearly-there Yahoo! Go application. Yahoo! Go is a bit.. lumpy somehow. I still can't quite say what I don't like about it, but it's stuff like not being able to add attachments to emails - I mean I've got 3G for goodness sake! And I can only see my Inbox - when I've got a bunch of custom folders fed via custom filters. Then the Flickr part doesn't let you display images via keywords, and what about something simple like a feature that let you automatically update your background picture with a new Flickr photo on a schedule. Come on guys, let's see some meat! :)

So I've had my mobile moan. Till next time!

Google Maps Mobile 2 Beta

2007-11-29T11:56:00.000+01:00

Google Rolls Out Mobile Phone Locator: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

2007-11-29T11:51:00.001+01:00

This new Google service sounds fun and scary. God knows who'll be able to hook into your exact location!...
Well, I guess all the big brothers of this world were able to do that anyway using your mobile phone signal.
So now we'll just have to add a bunch of hackers to that list of people that know where you are...
To be continued.. after I've had a go using the new feature on Google Maps Mobile 2!

Google Rolls Out Mobile Phone Locator: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

2007-11-29T11:51:00.000+01:00

Rigveda quote

2007-11-22T17:23:00.001+01:00

Just need to jot down this little rigveda gem before I lose it. :))
प्रासादशिखरेऽपि सन्न काको गरुडायते ॥
Means something about a fool...

Rigveda quote

2007-11-22T17:23:00.000+01:00

Just need to jot down this little rigveda gem before I lose it. :))
प्रासादशिखरेऽपि सन्न काको गरुडायते ॥
Means something about a fool...

More Kaiser niggles

2007-11-20T10:16:00.001+01:00

- Missing the Home and End and Ctrl and Alt keys badly

- Also my Google password just got auto-completed by Opera Mobile. Though I'm not sure if that's Windows Mobile 6's fault or Opera's.

- Then, I also need to be able to modify my auto-complete list... not only to remove that password!!.. but...

More Kaiser niggles

2007-11-20T10:16:00.000+01:00

- Missing the Home and End and Ctrl and Alt keys badly

- Also my Google password just got auto-completed by Opera Mobile. Though I'm not sure if that's Windows Mobile 6's fault or Opera's.

- Then, I also need to be able to modify my auto-complete list... not only to remove that password!!.. but...

TyTN II wishlist

2007-11-18T00:08:00.001+01:00

I'm gonna start a little wishlist. This is stuff that I can't/ don't know how to do on my HTC Kaiser (aka TyTN II, MDA III etc etc) that I either need to, want to, or simply HAVE to know how to do.

I actually started writing this post on the 16th of November, so some of my original issues have already been resolved. Where this applies I'll mention the solution..

- Use t9 (or similar) completion of words when entering text into apps.

- Keep the screen flipped horizontal even when the keyboard is shut. -> Solutions: Found a place where I could remap my hardware shortcut keys and lo and behold, there was an option to set a button to flip the screen. So I applied this to one of the hardware buttons and now I can indeed flip the screen on demand. Unfortunately the button is also the walkie-talkie (or soundclip) button in MSN, so now I can't use that. Oh well!

- get back the block recognition (kinda like the scribble(?) input on Palms) that I have on my ancient Asus A620... it's a shame that ain't standard :(

- Close apps immediately so they're not running in memory. I.e. Pressing OK just "minimises" apps without actually closing them. I want to be able to close them, and preferably with just 1 click. -> Solution is offerd in the Task Manager options. You can set it up so that tasks actually close/end/exit when you press the little red cross, and don't just minimse.

- Better control over switching between WiFi and 3G. I want my phone to recognise when my chosen WiFi networks are in range, and switch over from 3Gto WiFi.

- Also ability to automatically connect to any non-secured WiFi network automatically if I'm using 3G.

- Switch between open/ running apps via keyboard. -> No solution as yet, but I'm aware of a program (cab) that allows you to map keyboard cobinations to specific functions. Hopefully I can use this to let me switch between tasks via the keyboard.

- I need to be able to turn off the screen after I've locked my Kaiser, preferably automatically (well it'll have to be if the Kaiser's been locked). I need this for Windows Media Player. If I press the standby button it kills the stream when I'm streaming music. It only seems to kill the stream over WiFi funnily enough though, not over GPRS (3G not yet activated - *sigh*).

- Next up, I want a registry tweak so that I don't have to keep on authorising Opera Mini to connect to the Internet each time I restart it. -> Solution for this has been found on a forum. It's a bit fiddly and envolves using a HEX editor. I may get around to applying it some time :)

TyTN II wishlist

2007-11-18T00:08:00.000+01:00

Problem 2.. easy solution :)

2007-11-18T00:01:00.001+01:00

The source of my 2nd problem was my FON connection...
To be more specific, I couldn't use my internet connection (or so it seemed) with any apps other than Internet Explorer!
Then I realised I was using the free signal on my FON router. It dawned on me that either the FON boys don't allow other apps to connect over the free FON connection, or it was simply down to the fact that I wasn't logged into FON, so it wasn't letting any traffic thru.
..Although I'm sure there was a moment when I was definitely logged onto FON... hmm.
Anyhow. I decided to connect to my non-FON router and my other apps (Skype, Opera mini etc) are happy again :)
Grrreat.

Problem 2.. easy solution :)

2007-11-18T00:01:00.000+01:00

Problem 1 on Tytn II.. solved

2007-11-17T21:55:00.001+01:00

Just got a new phone. The HTC TyTn II, also known as many other things including the Kaiser, the p4550, the T-mobile MDA III... :)

It's grrreat, but as with any new gadget there are bound to be some stumbling blocks along the way.

My first issue was that the Opera Mini browser that I have grown to love having used it on my Nokia 6230i for ages didn't want to connect to the internet :(

Eventually I found the very very simple solution on the site above (even tho the solution was in the Opera Mini error msg).

I had the date on my phone set incorrectly, and the Opera server apparently didn't like that very much. Once I'd fixed that it worked fine... EXCEPT over WiFi. It works over GPRS (gotta wait 2 months b4 I can use my UMTS sim) but not over WiFi... oh well, that's the next problem that needs to be solved.

Problem 1 on Tytn II.. solved

2007-11-17T21:55:00.000+01:00