Very useful as a remote for your HTPC, and the app is only $1.99

Microsoft has made available SteadyState. This program allows you to create a user, and control what they have access to. It also allows the user’s changes to be rolled back when they logoff.

Great for the kids, or guests that want to use your machine to check their email, but you don’t want them making any accidental changes to your system.

I’ve found a very good donateware program for converting video for the iPod. It’s called iPodMe, and it works very well. Select videos you want to convert, select a profile and screen size. Can add additional files to be converted while it is currently converting.

Well worth checking out

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I recommend DVDFab for ripping DVDs. Just download the installer, and when it starts, it will ask which version you want to run.

A 30 day trial to the full-blown version, which has built-in functionality for splitting and merging dvds in various ways. There is also an option that never expires that allows for copying of the dvd to your hard-drive. Either then entire DVD or just the main title.

Once it’s on your hard drive, you have to convert it.

If you have Nero, Nero Recode is very good for taking a dvd and converting it to iPod format. Also works for most data files.

I imagine Roxio has tools that are similar to this, but have no personal experience.

If you don’t have Nero, then Super is a very good free converter. It doesn’t handle dvd files ‘elegantly’, but works very well for everything else. The interface is a bit tough to work with initially, so expect a learning curve.

Super will convert DVD files, but a movie is broken into 1GB files on the DVD. So, you’ll end up with 4 or 5 files/movie, instead of one file.

I haven’t looked for other free options that will convert a DVD nicely, so don’t have any suggestions.

Also, if you do decide to purchase Nero, don’t buy it directly. Right now, the Nero site is showing $79.99 US for download, but you can buy it boxed at Future Shop/Best Buy for $69.99.

If you’re really comfortable with computers, then Super will work, and there are likely programs around that will convert a DVD nicely. If you’re willing to invest a little money to have an easier to use experience, I would suggest Nero or Roxio.

Also note that this conversion is very CPU intensive. If you have a relatively new dual-core computer, expect the conversion to take about 1/3 of the length of the movie. i.e. a 1 hour movie would take 20 minutes to convert. If you have a really fast machine, it will obviously be faster.

For television shows, I recommend uTorrent for downloading, and EZTV for finding show downloads. If you’re interested in this as well, I can provide more specific information.

Digital photo recovery – ZAR image recovery function

Also, it’s free!

PhotoRescue Home Page – PhotoRescue Wizard, PhotoRescue Expert, PhotoRescue Advanced

• javascript.options.showInConsole
• javascript.options.strict

Firefox will then show more detailed information.

DIM: Digital Image Mover

browser.urlbar.hideGoButton [Boolean] – true. I never use it, so why have it taking up space?

keyword.URL [String] – ‘http://www.google.com/search?&q=’ . When set to this, typing something that isn’t a URL into the address line automatically goes to google and does a search.

browser.tabs.loadFolderandReplace [Boolean] – false. When open a group of tabs, won’t replace tabs already open in browser.

Tab Mix Plus – Gives much better control over Tab appearance and functionality, as well as including a Session Manager. Well worth the download

FireBug – For all your web page development tasks. CSS, Javascript, Ajax development. Layout problems etc. Well worth checking out and installing if you do ANY web page development with CSS or Javascript.

Download Manager Tweak Extension – Allows the download manager to be opened in a tab, and a few other minor enhancements.

Image Zoom – for zooming in and out on images.

Feed Your Reader – Will re-direct RSS feeds to your favourite reader. I use this to ‘feed’ them to Feeddemon

IETab – If you want to open a window in Firefox, but it really needs IE, then this extension is for you. Used the IE control inside a Firefox tab.

CSE HTML Validator – if you use the CSE HTML Validator, this plug-in lets you use it on a loaded page. Can have it validate all pages you load, or only when you do a View source. Note, the plug-in works with the free version too.

Old:

Web Developer Extension – Essential if you do any web development. Allows for quick selection of information, and selective control over stylesheets, cookies and other items related to web page design.

I will be getting an Archos video player of some sort. Deciding between 504 and 604. Same price, so have to decide if want 10GB extra or 5mm less (the 504 is a 40GB vs 604 30GB, but 604 is 5mm thinner).

Anyhow, this is about using the Divx Converter to create avi files for playing on the Archos units. Divx Converter is part of Divx for Windows. It has a 15-day trial of all the components, and after the 15 days, only the basic codec and the Divx Player still work.

It isn’t too expensive, and in my experience, it works very well. It’s $19.99 USD for the Converter and Pro codec. If you want to convert MPG2 or VOB (i.e. DVDs), you need an additional plug-in for $9.99USD.

For burning files from the web (i.e. downloads via bittorrent), first try it on the Archos. If it’s a divx file with mp3 audio, it will most likely play without any conversion.

To burn files, copy them onto the Converter. I was using the portable profile for conversion. Select the view list option and then edit the entries. For 4:3 entries, make the height 272, and accept the width. For widescreen entries, set the width to 480 and do the conversion. You’ll notice that 2.35:1 movies end up being 496×208, and this is because that is closer to 2.35:1 then 480×208 is. The restriction is that MPG dimensions have to be a multiple of 16 pixels, so end up with ‘weird’ dimensions. It’s close enough to the Archos screen dimensions that you won’t notice.

For burning DVD’s, I recommend using DVD Converter (I’ve provided the file here as it isn’t easy to find on the web anymore). Rip the DVD in IFO mode. This means you’ll have to rip each ‘piece’ individually, but it makes it easier to convert in Divx as you don’t have to know the aspect ratio of the file in order to convert it. Also, Divx recommends installing AC3Filter as volume levels can be low otherwise. They have links on their site to it, or you can search the web. You can try doing a conversion without it and see what it’s like. I found the levels were on the low side on the Archos, so I installed AC3Filter.

Divx also provides a utility that sets the configuration in AC3Filter to be compatible with Divx. Basically, the settings boost the volume a little from default, and ensure that SPDIF out is disabled. For burning to the Archos, you have to ensure that it only burns stereo audio. Otherwise the Archos can’t play it.
Copy all the VOB files onto Converter (all files starting with VTS_xx_*.vob), and it will recognize that it’s one item, and it will join them. It will display the options dialog, so set the width to 480, and leave the aspect ratio locked! Don’t worry that it isn’t 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. Divx will do the right thing for the output file.

Unfortunately, Converter doesn’t provide an option for overriding the saved file name, so you’ll end up with the same name for output (something like VTS_01.divx), so you’ll have to remember what it was and rename it after the conversion is done.

Have fun with this, and feel free to leave a comment to ask questions. If I know the answer, I’ll update this post to reflect it.

mozdev.org – ietab: index

Web Developer Extension

1. Quit Outlook 2000
2. Modify registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Application Compatibility by adding DWORD value Outlook.exe and give it a value of 1
3. Make changes to Outlook Today.
4. Reset above to 0 or remove Registry key

TrueCrypt – Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows XP/2000 and Linux