David Pollitt

Traders Little Helper

// January 14th, 2010 // View Comments // Software, Windows

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

// December 13th, 2009 // View Comments // Software

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

Blackberry Software updates using Windows 7

// April 28th, 2009 // View Comments // Blackberry, Windows

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

Setup Outlook Web Access with Blackberry Devices

// March 2nd, 2009 // View Comments // Blackberry, Popular

I have a personal Blackberry Storm but I still wanted the ability to check my work emails.  Of course most businesses will give you the option, but they will also take full control of your device – requiring you to setup a secure password and they will also control all software upgrades.  I did not want to lose control of my Blackberry.  Fortunately my company does provide the option to connect to Outlook Web Access to check my emails outside of the company network.

Just head over to your carriers BIS website:

Verizon – AT&T- Nextel – Sprint – T-Mobile

Next just click “Set Up Account” and provide the email address along with login information for your Outlook Web Access credentials.  Thats it, now a new icon should show up on your Blackberry and you can access the outlook account.

-DPollitt

Run LogMeIn with Windows 7

// January 19th, 2009 // View Comments // Software

Update – From what I can tell, if you install the newest version of the LogMeIn desktop software, you shouldn’t have any problems on Windows 7.  Thus, this is now outdated and might be useful to a few for reference purposes.
How to use LogMeIn Free with Windows 7 Beta:

1. Download the LogMeIn software to your desktop from this site: https://secure.logmein.com/logmein.zip

2. Unzip the folder to a new folder on your desktop named “logmein”.

3. Go to the start menu and search for “cmd. When you find the Command Prompt entry, right click it and select “Run as Administrator”, and Click through the warning prompt.

4.In command prompt type “cd\users\\desktop\logmein\x86” without quotes and press enter. (If you are running 64-bit Windows change the ‘x86′ to ‘x64′)

5. In command prompt type “logmein install” without quotes and press enter.

6. The installer will run and you should then see the tray icon when it’s finished. Right click on the icon and select “Open LogMeIn…”

7. Firefox will open and you’ll get an error box. Just click “OK“.

8. Copy and paste this address into the address bar: https://127.0.0.1:2002/

9. Click through if you get a popup warning you about a certificate. On the page itself you will see something to allow an exception. Click on that and then click ‘Get Certificate‘ in the next box. Again you will probably get another warning but just click add anyway.

10. You should see the familiar LogMeIn screen. UPDATE- Make sure to login using COMPUTERNAME/USERNAME, then your regular computer password.  For example- davidscomputer/david as the username.  There are comments below outlining this as well.

It is a pretty straightforward process, but does take a bit of workaround to get it setup. Hopefully over the next few months LogMeIn will add support to Windows 7 for its installer package.

Thank you to user doober for the directions via the LMI forums.

-DPollitt

LogMeIn Free – Access any computer from anywhere

// December 29th, 2008 // View Comments // Software, Technology

Have you ever forgot that one Word document back home when you were at work?  Or maybe you just have that one song remix on your desktop and you want to send it to your friend from his house.  Remote desktop access is what you need.  Windows does have a built in option if you are running Windows XP Professional or Vista Ultimate, but it typically requires a bit of networking and firewall knowledge and setup.  Theres a free option out there, that requires essentially no setup or technical knowledge and works fantasticly.  LogMeIn Free allows you to acces any Mac or PC that you install the software on from any browser.  You aren’t even required to install any software for basic access.

So if you want to give this a try for yourself, simply create a free account at LogMeIn.com and download and install the free software.  Then when you are away from your machine, log into the website, and it will fire up a live view of your machine from within a browser.

-DPollitt