Traders Little Helper

I have been trading Dave Matthews Band concerts via the internet for many years. Traders of these shows prefer to distribute the concerts in a lossless format as opposed to an MP3 that has a loss of quality. This creates a bit of a problem when you go to add the files to something like an iPod or MP3 only player. For years I was using the mkw Audio Compression tool, but now that I am on Windows 7 64bit it no longer is working for me. I found a new solution – Trader’s Little Helper.   It will take your flac, mkw, or shn files amongst others – and convert them to wav, flac, or mp3. The only thing I did to convert it to MP3 was select Format>Convert encoding format then selected the Target Format to be mp3. Added my .shn files, and BOOM – 3mins later on a quadcore I was in business. Check out the software here: Trader’s Little Helper at easytree.org

-DPollitt

Unlock Global Themes for Windows 7

Although there are already several different transparency and wallpaper options available for the Aero Theme within Windows 7, there are several global options that are hidden by default.  These include specialized themes for the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and South Africa.  The following explains how to utilize these hidden themes:

1. Navigate to Computer/Local Disk (C:)/Windows/Globalization
2. The folder in question is hidden by default, so click on the ‘Organize’ dropdown tab and select ‘Folder and Search Options’
3. Click on the View Tab and select the radio button that says ‘Show hidden files, folders, and drives’
4. A folder entitled ‘MCT’ should appear, and within it contain five folders, which correspond with the themes available for the corresponding country
5. Selecting, for example, MCT-AU, and opening the Theme folder within, double-clicking ‘AU.theme’ will both apply this theme and all wallpapers to your theme menu
6. After applying the themes, consider hiding the hidden files to prevent ‘desktop.ini’ files from showing on your desktop.

NAT Issues with XBox Live + DD-WRT

If you are having issues with Xbox Live, such as not being able to hear some friends talking in a chat, or not being able to join a party with certain friends, your NAT settings could be to blame.  NAT stands for Network Address Translation and it essentially comes into play here when you look at port forwarding and what XBox Live require for open ports.

I will give some general info on what needs to be done, but if you are using the DD-WRT firmware on your router, I’ll continue on with how to configure that specific software.

The first thing you will want to do is figure out how to login to your routers settings.  If you are not familiar with this, or do not know your username/password to login to the router – start with your routers documentation then come back here.  Once you are within your routers setup page, you will want to head to the port forwarding section.  The first step that I would try is to open up three ports.  Open up ports:

88 UDP

3047 UDP

3047 TCP

Depending on if that works or not – The next step if you were unsuccessful would be to try out UPnP in your routers setting. This is Universal Plug and Play, which essentially allows your XBox to determine the port settings however it wishes. Personally, I find this to be a bit too much control for Microsoft and the Xbox to have over my network, but if you want to give it a try here it is:

Simply setup UPnP in your router to be enabled. This is just an option on your routers setup page, and you can see an example of that from a DD-WRT router at the end of this article.

Now make sure that you restart and cycle everything within the network. That would be your Xbox, router, and possibly modem if you feel so inclinded. Make sure to shut them off completely and start them up in order from the incoming connection to the final destination. Once you do that, you should be in bussiness to join any XBox Live party you wish. The following links my help you out if you are still experiencing issues.

Links:
Xbox Support Forums: Link
Noddegamra Blog Post: Link
Microsoft Support: Link

Can you upgrade from Windows 7 RC to the Final RTM Version?

If you have installed any of the Windows 7 Beta editions or release candidates, you might be wondering if an upgrade to the Final RTM Version is possible.  Well right out of the box, the answer is no.  Windows officially does not support this, and recommends a full wipe with a fresh install.  As reported by Engadget, Microsoft recently updated us with the knowledge that you don’t have to wipe your drive off, but instead of upgrading, it really just stores all of your old files in its own folder that is available to you within a fresh copy of Windows 7.  Finally, to confuse you even a bit more, there is a workaround that is very easy to do that will allow you to do a regular upgrade.  It can be found at howt0geek.com.  Essentially you just open the file that does the version checking, and do a simple hack.  To take care of it yourself, simply open up the cversion.ini file in the sources folder and change the MinClient value to 7000.  Head to this article at howtogeek for the more detailed instructions with screenshots though.

-DPollitt

Blackberry Software updates using Windows 7

After Windows 7 Beta 1 came out many people were experiencing issues with OS updates on their Blackberries.  Most would end up temporarily bricking their phone till they did the full restore.  Now user bmerdinian via the crackberry.com forums has found a solution for us all.

Apparently the following fix applies to both Windows Vista and Windows 7.  I have been updating my Storm via Vista since the first leak came out, and have had no issues.  So for me at least, I’m just using this fix on my Windows 7 install.

Method 1

-Click Start, and type “device manager” in the Start Search box.
-Click Device Manager in the Programs list.
-If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.
-In the Device Manager dialog box, expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
-Right-click USB Root Hub, and then click Properties.
-In the USB Root Hub Properties dialog box, click the Power Management tab.
-Remove the check from the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power check box.Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each USB Root Hub listed in the Device Manager.
-Under Power settings, check the ‘USB settings’ -> ‘USB selective suspend settings’ and make sure it is disabled.

-Check Thumbnail, highlited: Open Deivce manager, Double click on Universal Serial Bus controler at teh bottom, Double Click USB Root Hub, Click Power Management on top right, Uncheck Allow Power…

Method 2

-You can disable the USB Selective Suspend feature as a workaround by editing the registry. The USB device may become unresponsive because of a rare issue in the Selective Suspend feature. The Selective Suspend feature suspends the USB device to efficiently maintain battery power by enabling the computer to turn off the USB device. However, sometimes this feature may not correctly wake up the USB device. Therefore, the USB device is unresponsive when you try to use it.
You might want to disable this feature for server products where power management is not important or required.
-To disable the Selective Suspend feature, follow these steps:
-Click Start, and then click Run.
-Note If you are running Windows Vista, click Start, and then use the Start Search box.
-Type regedit, and then click OK. Registry Editor opens.
-Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\USB
-If the DisableSelectiveSuspend registry entry is present, double-click it. If it is not present, create the entry. To create the entry, follow these steps:
-On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD.
-Type DisableSelectiveSuspend, and then press ENTER.
-On the Edit menu, click Modify.
-In the Value data field, type 1 to disable the Selective Suspend feature, and then click OK.

According to resident experts on the Crackberry.com forums – Updating your Blackberry on Windows 7 is still not recommended.  But hey, it’s a Beta OS, and you are probably trying to install a piece of leaked Beta software on your Berry, so you know how it goes.  Just be ready to do a recovery if you brick your phone.

Source:  Crackberry.com forum thread

-DPollitt