kundaistreet: hacks-ideas

Showing posts with label hacks-ideas. Show all posts

December 01, 2010

Export Android Created Playlists To PC

From time to time I come across little things that are quite frankly annoying given the awesomeness of android. The lack of a Phone to PC export function for playlists is surprising and annoying

Scoured the web but could not find a solution until I came across Meridian Player. It does not have this function but it has something called PlayQ. Which allows the user to make playlists real quick hence the name. I also found you can enter whole playlist into this function. I also learned that the player kept each playQ plalist in a folder as a standalone file not database (which I suspect the stock player does)

In Meridian Player

Long press on the playlists you want to export to PC, a pop up menu appears
Select export to playQ
choose the appropriate name
choose audio type
Export as many playlists as you like using procedure above above

Now connect you phone via USB and choose Hard Drive Connection

Navigate to folder PlayQueues.
Inside will be all your playlist!

You may have noticed they are in .mpq format not .m3u, don't worry.

Its not complicated as its just a text file, here comes the tedious bit

Open the file with notepad++ (notpad opens too but is a real mess)

you will find a playlist like listing but with some tags e.g.
NB: yours will be different depending on the directory in which your music is stored

LocalAudio<>file:///mnt/sdcard/MP3/Alice Deejay/Alice Deejay - Alice

Assuming that you phone music library matches your PC all you have to do is replace the front portion of the above url with the computer url

Important: First delete the first line with a single digit in it

C:\Users\Administrator\Music/Alice Deejay/Alice Deejay - Alice

To change the whole playlist use the replace function. Now you will notice the URL is encoded, to uncode or decode it use a tool like on is website
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/

Copy the whole playlist and past inside the box then select decode. Magic!
Copy the decoded list and paste back in file and save
Change the file extension from mpq to m3u
load into you PC music player
Music!

This is quite a simple process, I am no programmer but I reckon it would not be such a hurdle to come up with a script/ batch file tool that can do all these steps automatically.

July 30, 2010

Get Old Google Images Back

Imagine my shock when i turned on my laptop to do a an image search this morning. At first i thought that my add-ons where acting up again so i went tinkering but I soon found out that the new layout was a "feature" from silicon valley.

To say it straightforward the new google images is atrocious. Horrific to the point of physical pain on the eyes. The frustration from time wasted clicking through silly java pop is beyond words.

I have devised a way to bring back google images back to what it was, as much as possible. But be warned it requires some sacrifice.

So far all the 'fixes' i found on the web only fix the search result page but when you click the link the stupid java is still there.

First get your google image search results page to look like the old one

Some use this url trick or the cumbersome google work around which both have the disadvantage of working only once
Some use the grease monkey script
Me, i used the drastic no script for google.com, google.co.uk to get my search result page looking familiar again(painful, i know)

after this it looks nice and all but when you click the link...the pop up is gone too but there is still the grey box and the truncated page!

NB:If you used the greasemoneky script, to get rid of the pop up picture right click adblock plus and select element to hide. Click mouse over image

images.google.com##DIV#il_fic

Now in this part you need firefox adds adblock plus and element hiding helper

right click and select element to hide. Click mouse over greyed area

google.co.uk##A#il_fb

(or google.com) click add filter rule. The grey box is gone now (or google.com)
But the page is still just an image and truncated to see the actual web page containing the image

right click and select element to hide. Click mouse over static page

google.co.uk##DIV#il_fic

(or google.com) click add filter rule. The page is now scrollable like it should be

Now you google images works almost like before.

June 24, 2010

Korean Translatation and Romanisation

This Script is the the sole property of Midori and their
subsidiaries by association. No Copyright infringment is implied by its
representation on this page. Any uncredited reproduction of this code
in whole or in part is strictly forbidden and will be met with strong
legal and civil action. Midori (c) 2008-12

Romanisation:

annyeong haseyo!

Thank you for using our Midori Service. We hope you found it useful

December 26, 2009

Creating Destiny Ep20 Subtitles

Decided to make subtitles for Creating Destiny episode 20 (Creating.Destiny.E20.091219.HDTV.XViD-HAN).

WithS2 is the primary on this project but I couldn't wait over the xmas break for my dose of kdrama. So I mad these subtitles...

This is my first so bear in mind...

Get file Creating.Destiny.E20.091219.HDTV.XViD-HAN-[Melo].srt

Enjoy

December 11, 2008

Permanently Disable Youtube Annotations

I'm not particularly a fan of youtube but youtube has its uses

Recenlty they have introduced annotations to vidoes which \I find to be distracting and annoying more than 'helpful'. They are like spam or pop up ad or something develish like that

Here is how to get rid of them.

first you need to be browsing using firefox with the adblock plus extension installed
open youtube and visit any video page that you know has annotations
right click the adblock plus icon
click 'open blockable items' on the context menu
type in 'module' in the search bar window that open at bottom of browser tab and press enter
right click the result* that comes up and select 'block this items'
close the 'open blockable item window' and reload page
* result should look something like this :
http://s.ytimg.com/yt/swf/iv_module-vfl68978.swf

no more annotations ...!

from now on all youtube videos in your browser have no annotations!

June 25, 2008

Download Any Flash Video with Firefox

Firefox is a great web browser as it allows high levels of customisation in aesthetics and functionality. Especially functionality. You don't have to be content with factory defaults or company cheddar.

If you love anime like I do or just into collecting videos and music you know what I am talking about. You wouldn't be able to do half the things you don in Firefox in any other browser.

I have no qualms with the video download add-ons available for Firefox BUT they seem to have shortcomings. Their are usually for a specific website like youtube and some sites are to much for them to handle and some don't even recognise a video on a page and some are just memory hoggers. That is unnecessary baggage given Firefox is fighting to loose weight in that department.

Instead of having an extra add on for video grabbing let AdBlock Plus do it for you!

ABP can grab any video for you.

1. Navigate to desired video web page.

2. Right-Click the ABP icon and select Open Blockable Items.

3. In the search-bar type in flv
[for youtube videos type in get]

4. The list will shrink to just one URL. That is the URL of the video! Right-Click that URL and select Open In New Tab

In a few seconds a Firefox download pop-up will appear. Save the video file to wherever you like.

NB: Make Sure that before saving the video has a flv extension e.g. rrrrrrr.flv

This should work on any site. No extra add on needed

ADP two in one...

April 27, 2008

Why XP can beat Vista Anyday

I have no love for Vista. The sight of Aero makes me sick, and the sight of that turning wheel almost drives me to near computicide.

Aero drains too much resources for what it is worth...which is just eye candy. No one in their right mind would sacrifice power for eye candy. The economic (or rather the sensible) user wants all the memory and graphics resources dedicated to actual work not making the desktop look pretty.

Vista assumes everyone has a souped up computer which frankly just like Santa Claus is just not true. The irony is that most of the machines being shipped with vista are not configured to vista...they just barely manage to keep the guzzler going. Whilst on the other hand Xp is just the right candidate...low power demand and is the 'green-car' of OS's...it performs well on low RAM even better so on souped up machines

Besides it has been demonstrated again and again that Vista becomes sluggish on the average computer. Microsoft was asked about this...they said Vista was designed for machines of 2GB memory and up. In other words

"Poor people we hate you..."

So the average machine has already been written off by Microsoft...so logically one would think they would encourage us serfs to stick to XP, no they are killing XP in a few months....so much for support.

The most compelling reason to hate vista is that it is half-baked. It does not come with all the necessary drivers for printers, audio and video drivers. It is just too much hassle to get hardware to work on vista that works effortlessly on XP. Microsoft's response....

"You just get vista...vista is the future...we'll fix things as we go along...look we have a service pack less than a year after release..confirming vista WAS half baked...now get in line."

Vista completely ruined the folder heirachy system that all XP users had gotten so familiar with. The Purpose of an upgrade is to make the user experience easier and better...not harder and inconsistent...Microsoft seems to miss that tit bit of information. I believe what makes a winning OS is consistency...users should be able to do the same operation the same way regardless of what version of the OS they are using...they should NOT need a new manual because they got an upgrade

With XP you don't have to break a sweat to hunt a file or folder down. When a problem occurred you can actually declare war on the XP system. The folder hierarchy in vista makes that almost impossible and the 'Vista's permission feature' almost guarantees that.

in Vista the folders are all over the place. have new names...virtually unidentifiable...roaming, appdata, history and the sea of dead links do not make anything easier. What is the purpose of the dead links by the way. It completely eludes me.

What was so wrong about XP's files heirachy? If XP was working so well,which I and +70% windows users assert, why did they not just improve XP and not chuck it out of the window like a puppy with rabies only to grapple with something untested and frankly not so user friendly

The UIA and search indexing is one of the most annoying features on vista. Who ever designed that...you weren't doing any user any favours buddie...it is like being stopped by the police every 100 feet on the highway. Almost every folder operation requires permission or some kind of verification...its not helpful...its annoying. Who told Microsoft users want that anyway?

For an OS that users buy it sure does little to listen to the users or consider what the user wants...fast and hassle free computing . I realised you need permission to delete certain files. Hell, I paid for the computer...I should have access to ALL my files from the get go. I shouldn't even loose a minute tweaking anything. This should be a given as long as you are the administrator and not a standard user.

What is with the new sidebar...horrendous. The folder display makes me ill. XP had the sidebar display just perfect. It had the things you actually needed on it...and the switch from folder to features is completely gone in Vista.

Vista is far from turning my fancy...its not ready...it is too heavy on the system with very little to show in as far as improved performance...and considering the time spent trying to solve its myriad of glitches and problems it certainly has not made a positive user experience and certainly decreased actual work efficiency

Talk about counter productivity.

March 26, 2008

EboNeo 2.0 and Simplicty

EboNeo 2.0

This is the new EboNeo 2.0 template with a horizontal navigation bar.

This is a move up from EboNeo , NeoColours and most definitely Samurai in as far as better management of screen real estate

If you are a person with a lot of labels and prefer having a linklist on the horizontal bar instead then this is the version you want.

follow similar installation instructions as explained here

Simplicity

This is the clean cut Simplicity Template, plus generous amounts of open space

If you prefer a navigation link list on the horizontal bar instead of the labellist then just switch them in the page elements view and save...and you are done!

[there might be need to manually remove the title of the labellist or linklist once in the navigation bar for a more streamlined appearance]

....
(both these templates are Neo Type Templates....they have a post fetching function in javascript meaning you do not have to load each post on a different complete, only the selected post is reloaded on the same page... This saves on browsing time and is much more cool I think...)

March 25, 2008

Horizontal Label Bar Solved!

I have been working on a horizontal label bar for sometime now

I always hit a snag when it came to the display properties but that is now all sorted

To have a similar kind of label bar or navigation bar as the one above first you must modify the header-wrapper id so that it looks like below.

<div id='header-wrapper'>
<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>
<b:widget id='Header1' locked='true' title='YOUR BLOG TITLE(Header)' type='Header'/>
</b:section>
<div id='header-right'>
<b:section class='header' id='header-right' showaddelement='yes'>
</b:section>
</div>
</div>

After this then find the header-wrapper code and header code and replace them (red) with the ones below and add the new header-right code as shown below(black)

#header-wrapper {
width: 950px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:1px solid $bordercolor;
clear: both;
word-wrap: break-word;
overflow: hidden;
}

#header {
width: 180px;
float: left;
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid #;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
padding: 5px 5px 5px;
}

#header-right {
width: 700px;
float: right
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid $bordercolor;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
}

#header-right ul {
background-position: center;
background: black url(http://kundaistreet.googlepages.com/iddle.gif) center center repeat-x;
padding:7px;
}
#header-right ul li {
display: inline;
padding:2px;
}
#header-right a {
color: #e6e6e6 !important;
}
#header-right a:hover {
color: #FFFFFF !important;
background: transparent url(http://kundaistreet.googlepages.com/active.gif) center center repeat-x;outline:none;
padding:7px;
}

Save the template after inserting the second block of code (!important) and navigate to page elements. Move the labellist widget or your linklist widget to the header bar and save.

Your chosen widget list will now show inline as a horizontal bar

March 22, 2008

New Template: Samurai

This is the new template Samurai, a very daring but assertive design.

It has live colours compared with it's predecessor EboNeo.

Besides kundaistreet Samurai is shown on all its glory here

If you want to apply Samurai to your blog get it here end save to your computer.

UNO: BEFORE STARTING ANYTHING BACK-UP YOUR CURRENT TEMPLATE

1. If you wish to save some of your own widgets read at the bottom of the post to see how to include them with Samurai. Otherwise continue with step 2

2.Upload Samurai and save it to your blog.

3. You should not get any Widgets are about to be deleted message.

4. If you do go and make sure you copy all the widgets shown in the message and paste them in Samurai again as shown below (otherwise they will be deleted).

5. Upload Samurai again and save . The template should save without any error or message pop ups. Check the new look!

NB: If you have your own widget you wish to use within Samurai, then open Samurai in notepad (or similar text editor) and find this section and insert the widgets you want to preserve. they will be uploaded together with it. make sure you copy the unexpanded widgets correctly otherwise they will be permanently lost.


<div id='newsidebar-wrapper'>
<b:section class='sidebar' id='newsidebar' preferred='yes'>
<b:widget id='Posts' locked='false' title='Posts' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<div id='LabelDisplay'>
<div id='LabelTitle'>
</div>
<div class='widget-content' id='LabelPosts'>
<script language='javascript'>fetchLatestPosts('<data:blog.homepageUrl/
>', '');</script>
</div>
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
YOUR WIDGETS HERE...
</b:section>
</div>

(The asynchronous loading of posts and LabelDisplay will not occur if your blog is set to private)

NB: You might want to put your posts in categories like I did instead of each post having unique labels. if you insist on unique labels then you might want to consider a label cloud. Here are the simple instruction on how to do it. Promise, this will look better than a long list of labels.

March 21, 2008

Adding Fourth Column in EboNeo Template

Hi, i just wonder whether you can help me modify your script so i can have a 4 columns neo instead of 3 columns ?? I'm still trying to modify the script but still not working.

Thanks

I figured responding to this via comments was going to be too long so i decided to make it a post.

First of all you need to define the properties of the new column:

First give the new column a unique name here I have called it xtrasidebar

#xtrasidebar-wrapper {
width: 100px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
margin-right: 10px;
}

Next you have to decide how wide (width) it should be, always note, with regards to width:

outer-wrapper
= main-wrapper + sidebar-wrapper + newsidebar-wrapper + extrasidebar-wrapper

So what ever you decide this equation should balance. Most likely the space for the new column will come of the main column space as it has the larger real estate

Place the above code just below :

#newsidebar-wrapper {
width: 220px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
margin-right: 10px;
}

After this you need to set up the template id for the extra/ new/ fourth column

insert this code. This code will contain the widgets for the new column. It is initially blank. You can cut and paste widgets from other columns and insert them blank space or you can move them more easily via page element function.

<div id='xtrasidebar-wrapper'>
<b:section class='sidebar' id='xtrasidebar' preferred='yes'>

</b:section>
</div>

Change the names appropriately and then save the template.

Go to your page element and you will find a new column as you defined.

Download Youtube & Veoh Videos Directly

Here I am going to outline how to download veoh.com videos

Veoh Videos (<30mins)

Navigateto the desired veoh video page

Right-click on the AdBlock-Plus icon and select

Open blockable item

Then type in the following

content.

The text that comes up is the URL of the veoh video.

You can either copy the URL, place it in your flv player and watch the stream.....or

You can place the URL in the address bar + enter and download the videos onto your computer

If the video is more than 30 mins long. Veoh.com will only show a preview of the video
so following the steps above will only land you a 5 minute clip of the video or movie you wanted...read further notes at end of article

Youtube Videos

Navigate to desired video page

Right click the ad-block plus icon and select....

Open blockable item

Then type in the following text

get

The text that comes up is the URL of the youtube video

Copy the URL and place it in your flv player to stream ......or

place in the address bar + enter to download the video file onto your computer.

Make sure to add in filename.flv as you save the file. (adding this extension is essential for your flv player to recognise and play the files)

No hassle, no dodgy downloader software or website that give you lossy files. Yo will no longer need to have that youtube downloader extension on Firefox.

Notes: Veoh Videos (>29.59mins)

I have managed to work out how to get the full video URL off of veoh without using veoh just using firefox.

Here is how I did it

Type in the following after right clicking the ad-block icon and selecting "open blockable items...

execute.

copy the first line of text that appears and place in the address bar then press enter.

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
The above text should appear

Go to the line that says for example

video videoId="1497807" permalinkId="v14978074wEfGZEM" length="45 min 10 sec" tags="the host 2x02 x files" isExternalMedia="false" isDotComPlayable="true" isTvPlayable="true" extension=".avi" fileHash="bcc7c6cb2a737ea9e139b0ea61fa630c71e1ff91" previewHash="82bbdbb8b8eebdc2778486988d3330b611aa0634" previewHashLow="82bbdbb8b8eebdc2778486988d3330b611aa0634" numDownloads="0" portable="false" ipodLink="" fullPreviewHashPath="http://content.veoh.com/flash/p/1497807/82bbdbb8b8eebdc2778486988d3330b611aa0634.flv?ct=2a3d23e9190f59d4abd8973ded06067c8410ede57ac06a15" fullPreviewHashLowPath="http://content.veoh.com/flash/p/1497807/82bbdbb8b8eebdc2778486988d3330b611aa0634.flv?ct=2a3d23e9190f59d4abd8973ded06067c8410ede57ac06a15"

By substituting the green text with the italicized red text I was able to the URL of the full length video.
i.e
substituting the previewHash with the fileHash

http://content.veoh.com/flash/p/1497807/bcc7c6cb2a737ea9e139b0ea61fa630c71e1ff91.flv?ct=2a3d23e9190f59d4abd8973ded06067c8410ede57ac06a15

Unfortunately i found out the hard way that veoh does not allow directory browsing of their site. So access to this file or ant other >29.59mins videos is restricted,

I got a 403 return. That is veoh.com for you right there.

March 17, 2008

Top FF Extensions & WebApps

Fiddesian Top FF extensions.

1. Adblock Plus

Pros:
Anyone who has used this will never be able to browse without it. It blocks out so much crap that is thrown at you on the internet. It filter the bulk of internet adverts

Cons:
Can block useful items on specific sites like Veoh.com and distort their functions

2. Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper

Pros:
Hides unwanted page elements from view. It can also reclaim page real estate by removing unsed frames. Just highlight and click away

Cons:
Hair trigger selection, might remove unintended frames or content, but this is reversible

3. Scrapbook
Pros:

Utterly indispensable to te real web-surfer. It can collect individual webpages or whole websites to be available for surfing OFFLINE!...on the train, on the bus...or 200miles in the jungle!
Allows trimming down of intended content, so can edit the saved pages to your hearts content and even add images, comments and sticky notes

Cons:
Downloading whole websites takes some time. Downloading java scripts is not recommended and bigger websites require bigger storage space.

4. NoScript

Pros:
Blocks out uninvited scripts. Gives you the power to activate only the scripts you want to. Stops animated sites from auto-starting or executing unwanted tasks

Cons:
It takes times time to build a white-list but it is worth the effort (as oppossed to building a black-list)

5. OnlineBookmark Manager

Pros:
Allows you to backup you precious bookmarks. Enables you to auto-synchronize bookmarks between different computers.

Cons:
All exported(PC to internet) bookmarks MUST have text tags , not just icons, otherwise they will not be imported (internet to PC) with the others.

6. Tiny Menu

Pros:
Allows you to increase real estate on your FF. Increase the vieawabe page size. This extensions makes it possible to remove one of the top toolbars

Cons:
Unknown impact on RAM with regards to effect vs benefit

7. Copy Plain Text

Pros:
Allows you to copy content from web pages without any formatting. Anyone into research will know how useful this is. It saves the hustle of having to format the content to fit with your work

Cons:
Unknown impact on RAM with regards to effect vs benefit

8. All-In-One-Sidebar

Pros:
Puts a lot of functions within easy reach. It is essentially a vertical toolbar. Since most web pages have a fixed page width this extensions rarely intrudes on real estate. It is highly customizable

Cons:
Possibility of real estate intrusion.

9. Distrust

Pros:
For those who are not keen of handing over their PC to friends. With this extension anything your friends do will be removed when you turn distrust off. It would be as iff they never touched your PC, no browser history, download history, all downloaded files are automatically removed.

Cons:
Text (only the actual word present at that moment not the history) in the search bar is not removed

10. Research Word

Pros:
Allows you to add custom searches to the context menu for selected words. This is a gem to an research minded person. You can add custom searches from images to medical journals, gossip blogs to the stock exchange. Some useful searches are already loaded for you!

Cons:
Requires a bit of knowhow, to write the URL codes to get highly specific searches done automatically

SHOULD NOT BE EXTENSION BUT BE BUILT INTO FF

Dictionary

Pros:
If you are serious, at all, about what you write on the internet then this is a no brainer

Cons:
I dare you to find any

FEBE or Password Exporter

Pros:
FEBE can back up your FF profile, or part of it, according to what you prefer. The profile can be restored at anytime. This also allows you to export your profile onto different machines

Password Exporter does what exactly it says it does, it can also encrypt the file with the passwords

Cons:
FEBE profile restoration is a bit tricky

Other cool software found here

WebApps

Web Applications are web programs or real programs designed to be used on the web site using a browser. Example of web application would be e-commerce web site, web banking, stock exchange on the web, web games and many others. ...It is also a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language (such as HTML, ASP, PHP, Perl, etc.) and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable
{ref1, ref2}

Humyo Online Storage is a nifty way to free up your harddrive or extend your collection. This web applications acts as your online hardrive storing files from word documents to divx movies.

There is no upload size limit
Upload anything
You can view you media files online...pictures movies and music.
Over 20GB of free storage
Easy file transfer
Fast download and upload
Allows file fetching from other online sources, all ou need is a URL code.

Another recent webapp offering similar but less developed features is jooce. It offers the promise of an online desktop plus instant messaging capabilities

February 18, 2008

Installing Flash and Divx-Web Player on Ltd Admin Permissions

The USB craze is rife in the student community. USB drives now can have environments for their portable software. Students are be able to use this software on any computer with the same setting as their PC/Laptop.

However University computers are a stumbling block. The do not allow you to install anything. So you cannot watch flash videos in the portable Firefox. The admin just wont let you instal the player for the browser when you try the regular 'install missing plugin'.

Here is a work around the system to enable you to install the flash player on a restricted permissions computer.

-Download Player Plugin XPI archive file.

-Extract and Copy the files flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll

***FirefoxPortable\Data\plugins [the key word here is the plugin folder]

-Restart Firefox, Flash Player now works

courtesy of fabio's blog

The same thing with Divx

You must get these files from an existing Divx installation**

Here is how to apply Divx-web player to Portable Firefox:

Download Divx Plugin Archive file

or

- Copy these files

npdivx32.dl.........npdivx32.tlb........npdivx32.xpt from

C:\Program Files\DivX\DivX Web Player

to

\FirefoxPortable\Data\plugins

-Restart Firefox

-Divx web player should now be available and functional for portable firefox.

The method for the divx is most likey to work if you have divx codec on the computer in question. I have not been able to test on vacant computers.

If that is the case then you may want to try Portable Divx Player (PDP). Using VLC Player to stream divx videos works just fine.

But unlike the VLC Player:

PDP allows seeking

PDP downloads the video as well!

PDP allows video streaming while downloading!

[download PDP here]

Hope that helps...

December 07, 2007

Divx Stream w/out WebPlayer

Tired of the bugs and instability in Divx Web Player (DWP)?

Tired of it constantly crashing your browser, making you loose precious time or work.

Well there is a way out of the muddy waters, a way to avoid DWP.

Divx media plays on mostly proprietary software but you can watch then on VLC Media Player (VMP)

Just browse to the page with the divx media and note the URL

Using the 'page source' function to find the url of the video....

it must end with -------.divx

For stage6 this is even simpler e.g.

http://www.stage6.com/The-Pretender/video/1585862/The-Pretender-S2E08---Hazards

becomes

http://video.stage6.com/1585862/.divx

I think you notice the pattern to apply it to any divx video from stage6 (the major site for divx media)

Then just paste this link under

File>Open Network Stream>HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/MMS and then paste the modified URL there

in a few seconds you will be watching the video stream....!

Some people may say that they need to watch the videos on the move and not necessarily on their own computers. For example most internet cafes or university computer labs do not have DWP installed (no grief for them)

In comes Portable VLC Media Player. All you need is a USB and you can watch any divx stream anytime on any computer.
(provided you got a fast enough connection to allow real-time playback.)

The only drawback is that VLC Player does not allow seeking.

For alternative solution that allows seeking read here.

November 26, 2007

Can't Download? Just Load it!

Ever wanted to download a video or song from the internet?

Do you always have the rotten luck of finding the video but you cant download it (or have to pay), you can only watch it.

Well all is not lost my friend because this method has a very good success rate.

If you have Firefox then there is a way to get around this. (Plus a file unlocking program...a good one is Unlocker 1.8.5
[please assess safety level yourself and install at your own discretion, here is one review of this programs safety]

1. Open Firefox and clear PRIVATE DATA ( if not sure got to your 'Temp' folder and make sure it's empty.

2. Visit the website with the video you want. Watch it or just let it load to max.

3. Now visit the Temp folder again. There is now a very large -------.tmp file there! (increasing with quality and length of video, movies ca 300MB+)

4. In Firefox, Menu>Tools>Page Info. Here you will find Media tab. Scroll through until you find

'Embed'.

This will tell you what kind of player the website is using to play the movie. Once you know the player you know the file format!

If the site has a WMP then most likely the format is wmv if video or wma if audio. But most multi-media sites use flv or swf.

some most likely, under 'Embed', will say.......http://freeflashplayer.net/flvplayer.swf

This will mean it plays an swf or flv but most likely flv as it is the most popular format for online video

5. In the Temp Folder right click ------.tmp and select Unlocker.

A window will open. Go to bottom left corner and select Copy from the drop down menu. Save file where you like

Unlocker is used because windows does not allow manipulation of files in process

6. Go to where you saved the file. Now things get a bit iffy, so to avoid disaster make a 2nd copy of the tmp file for back up (i.e. copy2.tmp)

7. Change, edit, the extension of the copy.tmp to copy.flv

Play the file with you flv player!

try it with this any flash based video (youtube video are a good starting point...small file size to handle)

[you can now delete copy2.tmp....don't worry about the original tmp (------.tmp), it will be deleted when you navigate away from the web page, close Firefox or clear private data]

October 01, 2007

DivX Web Player Crushing Firefox

I am up to my head in this upgrade hype.

I found out the hard way that newer is NOT always beta. This supposed better upgrade of the web player to 1.3.1 came with serious bugs. (pun intended).

When you clicked the play button on a stage6 video the video proceeded to load but then just a few seconds later the divx web player would crash taking the browser with it. It didn't matter whether the browser was IE, Firefox or Safari.

All kinds of tricks like reinstalling, booting and reinstalling did not work. Other people even tried formatting , which I believe is a bit extreme and too much hustle for such a problem, but it did not produce 100% good results.

The support team on stage6 suggested upgrading to divx web player 1.4.0 beta version. Little headway there, without a surprise. It all seems like they are churning out half baked pies and just testing them one people who fill fall the 'upgrade to the beta one' trick

A roll back would do the fix. Since the bugged web player was a new version then rolling back to an older version would fix the problem.

The logic was superb only that trying to install divx web player 1.3.0 was proving futile since the installer would automatically just install 1.3.1 (could not find out why)

To be absolutely safe I completely removed the divx pack 6.6 so as to start afresh. 1.3.0 had its little issues so I went for a much earlier version.

Then I installed the divx pack 6.3 (matter of preference really, you could choose any on the list). The list of the older versions are found on this OldVersion site.

One final step as suggested by core8583

The aim is to wipe out the settings of the web plug-in in your register. This is to correct the unstable error checking programming.

NB:You are about to attempt a registry change. Any mistakes you make might cause serious OS malfunction. You edit the registry at your own risk. Read instructions carefully before proceeding.

On the left hand column, Click the + signs next to the following folders.

++ USERS
++ S1-5-21-448539723-1592454029-725345543-1003 (This exact number sequence may vary depending on your system, so look though theses until you find the correct following sequence.)
++ Software
++ DivXNetworks
++ DivXBrowserPlugin

In this folder you should see the following keys

alertMe REG_DWORD
autoSaveAllDownload REG_DWORD
createSubfolder REG_DWORD
deblockLevel REG_DWORD
.....
(so on)

Highlight them and delete them all. The player will reset them to default when it next plays.

When you next visit stage6 or similar site your videos will stream like they ought to.

September 22, 2007

Recording Internet Audio- getting the real free song!

Sometimes there is that song you like so much but you you can't find it on itunes, napster or any other music site. Maybe you just dont want to pay for it.

Only one option left. Download it direct from the internet from sites like youtube or imeem. But just one problem. There is no download function on any of these sites, you can only watch and listen.

So how can one get this cool song onto an mp3 player for a bus ride to work?

Internet reocrding.

A neat idea but most of the software out there claiming to do just that comes with a lot of unwanted extras like your random trojan or malware. Or they dont actually do internet recording but record from your microphone, which is lame since any sound you make will be on the recording so unless your room is a sound booth forget about it.

The good internet rocorders require you to pay. Well that just defeats the purpose doesn't it. Even if you think you are being smart and you instal the trial version planning to just use it once and dump it you are in for a rude awakening. When you play you cool song after the 'free' trial recorder has done its wonderful work you will become aware of a mechanical voice saying the company logo every 30 seconds or so.

So what to do.

NHC Wavepad is the answer to your problems.

Downlaod this software for free and start recording in two minutes (or you can buy the Master version for more functions). The package comes with other cool software like a CD Burner and Converter (unless you need tem just untick the boxes during installation and instal wavepad only)

When you start Wavepad. Click on the 'record' button. On the window that comes up select 'stereo' then ok. On the new window that comes up on the 'input' side select 'stereo' from the drop down menu.

Then lower the input volume to between 1/4 and 1/6 of the way. Once this is set click the record button.

Go to the website and play the cool song. You will notice the bars on the recorder start to move as soon as the music starts. The bars stop moving when the music stops. This is because the recorder is recording directly from the sound card and any noises you make in the room are not recorded. So what you get is crisp digital quality recording.

The reason for lowering the input volume is to make sure the bars of the recorder are not saturated. They should flactuate with the sounds. If they are constantly saturated (red to the end and no movement) then the recording will have a scratching sound. Any saturation means a scratching sound.

You can also help the recorder by lowering the volume of the song on the website. This makes sure the bars flactuate without ever saturating.

Once you got the volume adjusted right, restart the song and record to the end. When finished click 'stop' . Now the recording is shown to you in wave form, you can edit, crop out the unwanted parts. The menu has a rich selection of option and things you can do with your recording.

You can save the recording in wav, mp3, mp4(ipod), wma and a whole lot of other formats with varying degrees of sophistication.

Now that is what I call a free song.

Visit NCH and see their amazing audio and internet video capture and video converter software

August 20, 2007

View favourite blogs without leaving your blog!

The epitome of boredom.

Tinkering around is the inevitable result.

So today I came up with this after performing a blogospy on several blogs and combining the functions.. Ramani's Neo blog gave me the idea.

This new function...i donno how to classify it...can be put as an HTML page element.

What does it do...?

It allows you to check the most recent posts of your favourite blogs without you having to leave your blog. In other words you do everything in one window. say you want to check on Y's latest posts just select Y on the drop down menu and the little function will fetch Y's latest posts and display them in your blog. You can do the same for X and Z without needed to open a new page or refreshing.

As a bonus you get to view your favourite blogs in your template style....!

Not only can you just view the latest posts from your favourite blogs, you can also comment, using your comment link, on them from within your blog...!

All you have to do is substitute the BLOGID from www.BLOGID.blogspot.com with the relevant blog throughout the form for each different blog you like....

Then copy and past into an HTML page element.

Save and you are ready with your "Blog Reader"/"Check-Em"?

The highlighted colours show the parts of the code that can be changed without affecting functionality.
The text in italics can say anything you like as long as it is not too long, otherwise the form will loose symmetry.
The Red text can be changed to "Go" if it suits you better (or other similar button functions)
The option values is set at 5 in this one but you can add as many as you like by adding more

<option value="BLOGID#"/>BLOGID# to the bottom before </select>

Similarly you can reduce the number of options.

(NB:For blogs with Neo type functionality)

August 17, 2007

Horizontal Label Display:SOS!

I have always wanted a horizontal label display.

UPDATED:
Whenever I tried to implement it something never seemed to work. Either the display was not exactly linear but zigzag or the labels blinked when i hovered on them. So for a while i gave up this dream. but now i got rid of the bugs and here is the updated , works-in all browsers (including IE) -horizontal label display.

It was only when I saw on a couple of blogs that Ramani had achieved this, the yesterday i saw Belajimez had a similar function but using LinkList.

I figured this was easier to blogopsy and what i have come up with you can see here in the different browsers. THE DISPLAY WORKS FINE IN ALL THESE BROWSERS

Iceweasel.....Firefox....Konqueror......Firefox.....and now IE too!

Here is what I did after the blogopsy:

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1 showaddelement='no'>

changed it to:

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='2' showaddelement='yes'>

Save.

Move this

<b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Labels' type='Label'/>

from under this section:

<b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>

To under this section:

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='3' showaddelement='yes'>

NOTE: You can change the function if you like to a linkList. Just replace all the Label1 with LinkList1 or Label# with any LinkList# if you have multipe linklists or labellists.

CSS body:

#Label1 h2 {display:none;}

#Label1 ul {
margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: left; width: 98%;
font--family: Tahoma; font-size:13px; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px solid #50575F;
background: black url(http://kundaistreet.googlepages.com/iddle.gif) center center repeat-x;
padding: 7px;
}

#Label1 li {
display: inline;
list-style:none;
padding: 7px
}

#Label1 a:hover {
color: #FFFFFF !important;
background: transparent url(http://kundaistreet.googlepages.com/active.gif) center center repeat-x;outline:none;
padding:7px;
}

Then paste this code (or your edited version) in the CSS body and save...

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.
Unless specifically otherwise attributed, all content is the authors personal experiences-fact or fantasy, opinions-learned or otherwise plus the occasional cited sources.