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

PlayOn for Windows 7 64bit

PlayOn is software that you run on your desktop PC, that allows you to view Hulu, YouTube, CBS, and other online video streams directly on your Xbox or similar device. If you haven’t heard of it, check out playon.tv to learn more.
So I installed PlayOn in Windows 7 64bit, and thought it would just show up right away on my Xbox 360. That wasn’t quite the case. My Xbox didn’t recognize the device as on the network. I knew my network should support how I was attempting to do this, because prior I had tested out the software on a local VM and had no issues. After a bit of searching Google, I figured out that it was just Windows firewall trying to prevent my fun. Here are the steps to get in business:

-Close PlayOn Server
-Open up Control Panel>System Security
-Select Allow a Program through Windows Firewall
-Change Settings
-Scroll down to MediaMall Server, and check the box for Home/Work

After you change the above settings and fire back up the server, you should be set. I am assuming this bug will be fixed in a soon to be released edition of the software, but for now, this is what works!

-DPollitt

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

AdBlock+ With Google Chrome

First off, you’ll want to grab the Dev Channel edition of Google Chrome if you don’t have this already[here].  You want this version because as of about a month ago this version includes an extension manager that will make this entire process easier for you.  Plus, now you are on the bleeding edge of Chrome releases.

First you will want to install AdSweep.  When you head to the page, make sure to click on the Google Chrome Extension link and not the user script[here].  After clicking the link for the extension, Chrome will ask if you want to save the file.  Say yes, then a box will automatically pop up asking if you would like to install, click “Install” and you are done.  Adsweep is basically your meat and potatos ad blocking program.  It will remove just about everything that you dont want.

Another way to block ads in Google Chrome is to head to userscripts.org and get the AdBlock+ for Google Chrome [here].  Make sure to click on the link for the Chrome extension, save it, and click Install after it is done downloading.  This script will allow you to selectively block advertisements on an ad by ad basis.

The one two punch combination of these programs should give you what you need to have a very nice online experience with Google Chrome.

Tips:

-To disable or enable extensions on the fly, click the wrench(or settings icon) in Chrome, then scroll down to “Extensions”

-Ctrl+Alt+B – Turn off the new AdBlock+ toolbar that you now have

-You can also get to your extensions setup page by typing the following into the superbar “chrome://extensions/”

-DPollitt

Why you should be using Google Chrome

You may ask yourself, why should I switch from Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari to Google Chrome? Well, I think I have plenty of reasons for you to at least give it a try and maybe you’ll convince yourself.  One of the biggest reasons that I think Chrome rocks is the JavaScript engine behind it.  The JavaScript virtual machine that Chrome is based on, V8 – is one of the fastest on the block.  Give it a test for yourself on javascript heavy websites such as Gmail, Google Docs, or Facebook.

Some major features you’ll love-

• Automatic root URL highlighting
• Every tab runs independantly, so if one crashes, everything else will stay
• Drag any chrome tab out of the window and into a new one
• Drag and drop downloads out of Chrome’s status bar and onto your desktop to save them there, or into any Explorer window to save them there.
• Click and drag any textarea corner to resize it to your liking, such as in a comment box on a blog
• Extremely fast startup and loading of pages

If you are serious about testing out Chrome, I would strongly suggest trying the dev channel.  Google has three different versions of Chrome that you can try.  The first is the main public release(stable), then the beta, and finally the dev edition.  They are supposed to progressively become less stable as they push the newest features and test less as you go down the line.  I have been on the dev channel for a few months now and have had few issues.  So if you don’t mind being a bit risky with your browser, this is the way to go.

The Google Chrome Early Access Release Channels(beta/dev) can be found here:
http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel

If you want to try out the stable current release just head over to http://www.google.com/chrome

-DPollitt

Blackberry Storm Tip: How to turn your Storm into a flashlight

Sure, you might be saying, turn on the screen and its a great flashlight. Well, there is a better way. If you have played with the camera at all, you know that the flash is extremely bright. But you only get the flash for a second or two before you take the picture. What if you want to keep the flash on for 20seconds? The trick is to head to the Video Camera function, then to Options. From there select the option that says “Video Light” and set this to On. It will warn you that your battery life will be impacted by this, give it a “Yes“, and now you are set.

Now you will get a seriously bright flashlight.  If you rotate the phone, it will delay for a second while it rotates the screen, but the light will come back on.  Now if you add a shortcut on your home screen to the Video Camera, you’ll have a free built in flashlight app!

-DPollitt

Next Page »