Computer Adventures

Autotag your MP3 files with MP3Scrub

2011-08-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

It's been bothering me for a while that my MP3's didn't all have album art when I was looking at them on my phone. I just kept looking at the default note image on quite a few of the artists I had. It was really getting annoying because I'm all about eye candy. After countless searches, and wasted time trying other software to clean up my collection of over 5500 songs, I found MP3Scrub.

It has a very simple interface, and "scrubs" your MP3 tags to clean them up and lable them properly. Most of the album art comes when you RIP a CD or download music but if it doesn't Winamp can find it pretty quickly... once it's tagged correctly.

The link below will begin the download for you, unzip the file to your desktop and double click the mp3application Application to start it. Then click the magnifying glass to load your music directory. Once it's loaded click "Action" then "Clean Tags". The software uses libraries on the internet to find the right tags for your music and your library is now "scrubbed" and clean!

MP3Scrub

The HTC Inspire 4g coming Sunday

2011-02-10T07:49:00.001-08:00

... and I'll be getting one!

The HTC Inspire 4g is the first 4.3" touchscreen phone offered by ATT and it's a powerhouse of a phone. 2nd generation Snapdragon Processor, 768mb of RAM, 4gb of internal memory and comes with an 8gb micro-sd card which can be replaced with up to a 32gb micro-sd. It runs on Android 2.2 or "Froyo", and boasts the latest version of Sense which looks to be very nice. For those of you that have iPhones and like the remote wipe option, htcsense.com allows you to track your phone should it be misplaced or stolen, lock it, or wipe it from any computer. If you lose it in the house somewhere you can make it ring loudly... even if it's on vibrate.

There's a lot of buzz going around with dual core processor phones coming out later this year and a couple including the Atrix will be available by next month. Yea, dual core sounds cool, but in reality the phones are only designed to use one core at a time unless your multitasking, say surfing the web, email and playing a 3d game at the same time. The game will take 1 core, and the other apps will run on the other. So do you get an increase in speed? Not really, but it might be slightly more efficient. I certainly don't need that now. When the technology is better and there is software out there that will really utilize it, then maybe I'll think about upgrading again, but I don't expect that to happen until next year.

ATT is expected to release around 20 more phones before the years end, but if you're ready for a new phone now, I don't see how you can go wrong with this one. I've always been a big fan of Google and I'm excited to be getting this phone on Friday.

How I remove fake antivirus programs / malware

2011-01-31T20:46:00.001-08:00

Lately it seems there is a rash of fake Anti-Virus programs going around and some of them look pretty convincingly real. Nobody knows how they get them, but they appear on the computer and warn you that your computer is infected and if you pay them some money to activate the program it will remove them. At the same time this disables your real antivirus software, and prohibits you from being able to install anything else to remove it. They come with many different names, Security Suite, Antivirus 2011, Antivirus Live, MS Antivirus and Spyware Protect to name just a few.

For those of you who are currently struggling with this, or for those of you who might end up with it, here's how to get rid of it yourself using free software.

If you're lucky enough you can boot into safe mode and run SuperAntiSpyware (free from Download.com) and clean it up. Then just run a couple of scans with SAS and your AntiVirus software after updating both and be done with it.

If not, here's the steps I take:

Download the following programs to a flash drive from another computer:

Rkill (there are 4 versions, get all 4 from BleepingComputer.com)

SuperAntiSpyware (download.com)

TrendMicro Housecall (trendmicro.com/housecall)

Combofix (http://www.combofix.org)

Now go back to your infected computer and close any running programs you were using when the malware poped up. Run Rkill.scr This is a screensaver file, so hopefully the Malware won't recognize it and prevent it from running. If it does, try the other versions, one should work. This should kill the program from running and pop up a text file with the location of the malware file it killed. Navigate to that folder and delete the file it specifies. BE SURE not to delete the wrong file!

Now you should be able to install and update SuperAntiSpyware. Run a full scan with this.

At the same time launch the Trend Micro Housecall scanner. It will update itself, then follow the prompts to start the scan.

One will finish before the other and prompt you to reboot but wait for the other to finish, it will ask you to do the same. Reboot your computer and you should be clean.

If you still have problems run ComboFix on your machine. This takes a while, but scans your computer and removes malware efficiently, and will even create a restore point for you on Windows XP machines or newer.

Always update your local Antivirus software and run a full scan after this to be sure that there are no remaining files infecting your computer. If you don't have an antivirus program, Microsoft Security Essentials is a good and free antivirus program that actually provides LIVE protection. AVG did not the last time I used it. (microsoft.com/security-essentials)

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for anything that happens to your computer. These are the steps I take to remove malware and it's worked for me on many, many computers.

DIY Digital Photo Frame

2009-05-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

This is something I read about on Lifehacker and just happened to have an old laptop sitting under a bookshelf collecting dust. I've also been wanting one of those digital picture frames, but $100 for a 7" screen just wasn't worth it to me. It took me about a week to find the right version of linux that would just run on it since this laptop has no ethernet port (to update drivers etc) and the flash drive wouldn't recognize either. Linux Puppy is what worked, and after modifying some files to alter the display settings (no screensaver, no standby or power save mode) then completely tearing the thing down to a pile of screws, a motherboard and a monitor I have a new digital photo frame.

The benefits of this laptop are that it has a 5gig hard drive, lots of space for a ton of pictures. It's already setup on the wireless network, so all I have to do is plug a pcmcia card in it and drag the new images over and add them to the slideshow. A 14" display. It was free. And I only spent about $25 for a glue gun and the frame.

Dell Latitude CPx:

After cutting the matting on the frame and the backboard, I put down the screen inside on the matting and hot glued it to the matting. Then put the backboard down over it.

Added the motherboard and hot glued that into place with some spacers I made out of my kids popsicle sticks they use for their projects. Also had to secure the hard drive since it was originally held in by the frame.

Cut up some coat hangers to use for a stand

Plugged it in, turned on the sildeshow and I'm rockin!

Using the Wii as a video/audio server

2009-04-23T00:41:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to find ideas on how to get my music library on my PC over to my home theater system. I have an Omnifi Media Server, but it doesn't do video, so that's been my quest. Today I came close... still don't have the theater speakers included, but I figured out how to play music and videos from my computer over my wireless network and into the TV from the Wii.

I found a link mentioning Orb server, which I'd used before but had forgotten about. Orb basically streams your content over the internet so you can access it anywhere you have an internet connection. I've been using Winamp Remote for quite some time to get my music remotely, which is also Orb software, so this is what I stuck with.

All you need now is the Internet Channel on your Wii and you're all set. Navigate to your remote music, ie: www.winamp.com/remote and use the mobile display. Don't forget to turn the autohide on the wii menu, and you'll have full screen streaming media.

edit:
After playing with streaming video on my Wii I discovered that there was a pretty heavy buffering going on and the movie was jumpy and would stop a lot to catch up. I did a little more research and found that I could up the streaming rate on Winamp Remote which so far seems to help a lot.

To do this, open up your Winamp Remote through your Wii internet browser www.winamp.com/remote and get into your settings. Turn off the speed test and change the default 1500k to something higher, right now I'm at 6000k. I doubt I'm getting that, but I'm playing with the settings.

I'll update again when I dial it in.

edit II:
After some playing around with that, I decided to try the original ORB software on my laptop, I liked it much better on the TV screen so I loaded it on the main computer as well. It has a different layout which I think looks nicer, unless your into the black thing, and it has some more options. The quality of the video still isn't great, but it's good enough for me and the kids. And the Wii's version of Flash is 7 even though the latest is 9. (something to do with proprietary code).

Also, both versions are supposed to automatically detect the LAN and stream locally... however I wasn't seeing this. After some more research I found that you have to open up a couple of ports on your router other than 80 in order to stream over your LAN.

If you have a firewall on your router or a software firewall, add these ports, it will make your video streaming much faster.
Orb-TCPReal- 554
Orb-UDPReal-13398

Have fun!

Email attachments "Cannot create file"

2009-04-21T23:59:00.000-07:00

Another user on the network was having issues opening .txt files on her computer. Word docs, PDF files and pretty much everything else would open, but the .txt files were getting an error that they could not be "created".

It seems the problem is that the temp folder is located on the server, and somewhere along the line the permissions had changed. Fortunately there's a quick fix for this, which doesn't seem to have any drawbacks as of yet. A quick edit in the registry to change the file path from the server to the local hard drive and the problem is gone.

Here's the link to Microsoft with the solution: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305982

Windows XP low disk space error

2009-04-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

One thing that I've had to tackle lately which took some research was a "low disk space" error that kept popping up on an XP Pro machine on our network. The user only had about 10gigs of documents/images etc on his computer, but his 80 gig hard drive was almost completely full.

After some research I figured out that it was the offline synchronization folders which were taking up all that space. Seems that databases are created for the sync purposes and those databases were getting quite large.

To figure this out follow these steps:

click Tools
Folder Options
View tab
Select "View hidden..."
Uncheck "Hide protected Operating System files"

Go to the folder: C:/windows/CSC and check the file size of that folder... too big?

This is the folder that contains the databases for offline synchronization.

Re-initialize the database and sync process. When I did this, it simply recreated the databases and no data was lost... but it's always good to create a backup just in case.

Click on

Tools / Folder Options and the Offline Files tab

hold CTRL and Shift and click the Delete Files button, it will confirm that you want to re-initialize the offline folders. Click yes.

MS Has the link with more instructions here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/230738

After doing this, I freed up about 50gigs of space on the hard drive, and created a happier user.

As always, do this at your own risk, this was my experience, but might be different from user to user, and OS to OS. If the computer is not using Offline Synchronization then this probably won't help.

MS Outlook, MS Office, DreamWeaver, Photoshop... FREE REPLACEMENTS!

2006-09-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

Since my explorations into the linux community I've found that there are many different options available to replace my Windows needs. Best of all, it's free! With Ubuntu Linux, there's no going to the store to buy it, there's no ordering online, no activations, no authorizations... if you need something, just install it. It's right there on the internet for you waiting to be installed! Did I mention it's free?!!

Well, some of this software is being made available to the Windows community as well, and as I find more I'll keep adding them, but here are some great applications that I think you'll appreciate.

Evolution: An email client which is the equivalent to Microsoft Outlook.
OpenOffice.org - A complete office software suite which includes Word processing, spreadsheets, database, and a lot more. Your replacement for MS Office.
Gimp: Image processing to replace Photoshop
NVU: Web authoring software to replace DreamWeaver

--------------------
Evolution Email
MS Outlook - ~$100.00
Evolution - $0.00/free/nada

Evolution is an incredibly versatile email/calendar/PIM that took the Linux world by storm a few years ago. It has been called an 'Outlook replacement' by every tech site from ZDNet to InfoWorld. Evolution played a major role in allowing the Linux desktop to move into the enterprise by being able to connect to Microsoft Exchange Server and schedule/accept Microsoft Outlook Meetings. Here's a screenshot of how it handles meeting invitations sent by Outlook.
From:http://shellter.sourceforge.net/evolution/

Download: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=159440&package_id=194380&release_id=429758

--------------------
OpenOffice
MS Office - ~$250.00
OpenOffice - $0.00/free/nada

OpenOffice.org the product is a multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office, and the vendor-neutral OpenDocument standard from OASIS.

Download:http://www.openoffice.org

--------------------
The Gimp
Adobe Photoshop - ~$650.00
Gimp - $0.00/free/nada

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint pNVUrogram, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

Download:http://www.gimp.org/windows/

--------------------
NVU
Macromedia DreamWeaver - ~$250.00
NVU - $0.00/free/nada

A complete Web Authoring System for Linux desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Nvu (which stands for "new view") makes managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.

Download:http://nvu.com/download.php

The Great Google Calendar syncs with Outlook

2006-07-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I really like the Google calendar. It's super simple to use, easy to update, add appointments, and now I've found a way to sync it with Outlook. I dont really use Outlook anymore but I need it to sync with my Blackberry, and this just makes things work together so nicely.

It was a little strange to set up, but once you figure it out, everything runs very well. I had to download and install Remote Calendar from sourceforge and install the software that is in the 'prerequisites' folder, then I was able to install the Remote Calendar software.

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=144247

Most of the setup is pretty simple, but there was one part that had me stumped until I figured out the Google Calendars iCalendar link. When you're logged into your Google Calendar, click the down arrow next to your calendars name, then click settings. Now you should see the ICAL button. Click that, and it will give you the link you need for Remote Calendar to sync with outlook. You will most likely want the 'private address' unless you're sharing your calendar.

I havent had any time to mess with it since, but I haven't figured out how to get Outlook to send my appointments to Google yet. When I get that squared away I'll post an update.

Free useful programs to help your computer

2006-03-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

This is a list of free programs that you might find useful for your computer. These are all programs I use, and are free from adware/spyware.

Antivirus: Trend-Micro Housecall
This is a free online virus scanning utility which checks for adware/spyware and malware. I was using Norton AV until I ran a scan with this and removed 3 viruses that Norton did not detect. Now I have the full version.

Antivirus: AVG Antivirus
AVG is free anti-virus software that installs to your computer and runs thorough scans on a schedule that you setup. It also scans incoming and outgoing email for added protection. AVG is pretty good, but does not provide "live" protection against websites that might be running scripts that harbor viruses or trojans.

Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla is just a great browser! When I heard it was more secure than IE, I couldn't understand how it could be, but since using it, I haven't had even 3% of the problems I had when I was using IE. And it has more options!!

Cleaning: EasyCleaner
This was a good find. This utility does everything I wanted it to do. Cleans the registry, finds duplicate files, clears history and much more. After cleaning the registry I definately noticed and increase in speed.

Spyware Prevention: SpywareBlaster
This little program protects you from spyware. After installing it you might forget it's there until it does it's job... but dont forget to update it once in a while!

Spyware Prevention: SpywareGuard
This is another great little tool that keeps your browser from being hijacked. If you've ever had it happen to you, then you'll know what a valuable program this is.

One gigabyte of RAM isn't enough?!

2006-03-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

I recently built my first computer from scratch thinking that I was building a pretty darned good machine. I know it's not top of the line, but I really expected a performance improvement over the last one. While the computer does run faster, I notice that when I have a lot of applications open, it tends to slow down and even hang for a few seconds. Part of the new build included installing one gigabyte of RAM, which sounded like a lot at the time. Now, with the computer slowing down, I'm wondering if it's not enough?

I've spent plenty of time on the internet in forums and ICQ getting help and from what I gather I just need more.

Cheap?
I was originally thinking that the RAM I purchased was just cheap, and that newer more expensive RAM would be better. But that's not the case. Sure the new RAM might be better, but probably would not help my situation.

Too Slow?
My RAM is PC3200 which is DDR400. This is what my motherboard was rated for and when I was building it, figured that's what I should get. It is the appropriate RAM to buy unless you plan on overclocking your system, in which case you'd want to buy higher level ram that would make your OC a little easier.

Not Enough?
This seems to be my problem. With all the applications I'm running simultaneously, the RAM just isn't enough storage space to keep them all in memory (Random Access Memory) and allow my computer to still run fast.

I've ordered another gigabyte of RAM and will be installing it right away. If you'd like to know the results, check back soon and I'll have an update.

Here's my system specs:
AMD 64 3200+ Venice
Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 nVidia nForce4
Zalman CNPS7700-ALCU 120mm
Corsair 1GB DDR 400
WD Raptor 10,000 RPM SATA
XFX 7800 GT

----------------------------------
Edit:

I recieved and have installed the extra gigabyte of RAM into my PC and I will say it's making a difference. There's no longer a lag in between switching programs, and the computer overall just seems smoother.

One thing I tried before installing it was checking out Google Sidebar that comes with their desktop search. There's a plug-in which shows your systems performance specs in real-time. Before installing the RAM my memory usage was up to 80%... after the installation it dropped to 20%.

If your computer is running slowly, I would recommend finding out if it's the extra memory that you need... it's a cheap way to cure your headaches.

Setting up Ubuntu Linux on my laptop

2006-03-03T00:55:00.000-08:00

There's actually not much to tell here. Ubuntu makes everything extremely simple and easy to understand. I'd played with other Linux distributions before and even FreeBSD (a flavor of Unix) and Ubuntu is by far the easiest to get going. The installation is straight forward and walks you through everything, even a someone new to Linux could follow it.

This installation is on an old Dell CPx which runs a PIII at 500mhz and 128mb of ram. The hard drive is 7gb and the installation hardly used any of that. Let me take a step back and mention that I'd installed the full Ubuntu package with the Gnome desktop prior to this, and it just ran too slowly. After opening up the Gnome Desktop... it barely moved. I wiped the hard drive and re-installed and stuck with only the server base of the distribution.

From there I installed a window manager called Fluxbox. I've used it before on a previous install that I played with and really liked it. It's very minimalistic and hardly uses any resources. Then I worked on installing the programs which I like working with like Firefox, Thunderbird and a few others.

The other great thing about Ubuntu is that it comes loaded with almost everything else you need. During the installation it promted me for my wireless SSID and Encryption key... after it booted I was online. It doesn't get much easier than that.

I will say that I've read about people trying to use Ubuntu on new systems, the only problem with that is the drivers might not have been written for newer hardware yet. In many cases there are workarounds, you just need to put in a little time. Hey, it's free!!

edit: There are some things that I've learned since posting this. If you like the look of Gnome, but prefer the speed of something like fluxbox or blackbox, you can run the gnome-panel in your lightweight shell as long as that window manager is installed. I discovered this through some reading after installing XFCE thinking it would have more eye candy, but still remain lightweight. I was able to run the XFCE panel (xfce4-panel) and wondered if the same would be true for Gnome. It works!

Open up a terminal window and type in: gnome-panel

Now you have a fast window manager, with a highly customizable toolbar!