prostheticHead.Blog

Me with my just updated iPod

I had not used my iPod for almost 6 months and after next weekend I have a reason to use my iPod again but I had a problem. I have in that time of iPod neglect dumped iTunes as my music player/manager so I had no way of getting my new songs onto it without major hassles and flaky foobar plugins.

I decided it was time to give Rockbox another go. I had previously used Rockbox a while ago and did not like it and had a lot of random problems but I have to say Rockbox has changed a lot since then. What I was most impressed with was how easy it was to setup now. Simply download the automated setup, connect the iPod to your computer and you are away.

The defult GUI of Rockbox is well to put it bluntly crap compared to the original firmware and even with skins dose not improve that much. Any issues with the GUI though go out the window when you can finaly play Ogg media files and Doom on your iPod.

I recomend giving Rockbox another swing and seeing if the new version 3 fixes any problem you had with the older versions. If you have never heard of Rockbox but wish to dump iTunes for any of the much better music players/managers avalable have a look into Rockbox 3 it just may make you like your old iPod again!

Rockbox can be downloaded from the Rockbox website

Today bored at work I noticed a service on my laptop running called ##Id_String2.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762## what is this I thought, my first idea was it could be something bad like a virus or some malware why else would it have such a nonsense name. Opening the properties of the service I then noticed it was Apples Bonjour Service but I had no Apple programs on my computer anymore why would some strangely named service be still running on my PC?

Turns out this service is what seems to make iTunes network sharing of songs work and replaced the old iTunes Helper process and if you have recently uninstalled iTunes (like I had) it may still be running on your PC too.

To get rid of it is simple although not just a matter of uninstalling it like it should be.

1. First open CMD and type in “C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe” -remove
   if you are running 64 bit windows it will be in “C:\Program Files (x86)\Bonjour”
2. Open the folder C:\Program Files\Bonjour\ in windows explorer and rename the file mdnsNSP.dll to mdnsNSP.old
3. restart your PC
4. delete the C:\Program Files\Bonjour\ folder

Why this service isnt just removed automaticly when you uninstall iTunes is beyond me but thats Apple for you.

I worked out a very cool feature of Facebook today, Emailing photos to your Facebook profile.

I get free emails on my mobile phone plan so I wondered if there was a way of sending photos to my account using an email like Picasa Web Albums allows. After a bit of hunting I workout there is an option to do this is very easy to setup.

First send an Email with a photo attached to “mobile@facebook.com”. After about 1 minute you will recive an email back from Facebook instructing you to goto http://facebook.com/mobile to claim your phone using the supplyed code. Enter the code into the page and thats it you can now email photos to your profile.

Soon I will be a married man! Its all very exciting I know my relationship with Nicole will be no different then the day before seeing as we have been living together for like 6 years but its all still VERY exciting! I think I’m mostly looking forward to going away for a week to stay in one of my most favorite places for the honeymoon!

I think I’m a little more excited now also as I was best man in my best friends wedding recently so that really got me pumped now for mine and how much fun its going to be.

Posts will probobly be very sparce for a few weeks as the wedding gets closer but after its all done I have some more news to share!

Well I got the Toshiba Portege M200 working want to know how?

Took it to a Toshiba Repairer and got it reimaged for $66. I know I felt dirty doing it but at least it works now.

It was a nightmare though really I do not recommend ever getting a notebook without any optical drive not unless you know it will work with a majority of USB drives on boot.

Had a nice problem today, one of the girls at work could not shutdown her PC it would always pop up that Windows could not end CiceroUIWndFrame. Seems like an odd name for a process so checked around in task manager and could not find anything with even a similar name.

I later did a quick Google search and found that its a part of Office´s Speech and handwriting recognition. Of course! That makes perfect scene why else would they have named it CiceroUIWndFrame how silly of me…

I removed the “Alternative User Input” fetuers in office 2003 and problem solved. To remove “Alternative User Input” (its the handwriting and voice recongnition parts of Office no one ever uses) simply follow these steps.

• Open Control Panel then open Add Removing Programs
• Select Office and select Change
• Expand “Office Shared Features”
• Click in “Alternative User Input” and choose “Not Available”.
• Click update

I have been living a Nightmare for the last week trying to get Windows XP Tablet Edition to install onto a Toshiba Portege M200. This tablet dose not come with an optical drive and will not boot off any USB CD drives I can find. I have tried everything PXE network installs, SD Card, USB drive every CD drive I can find all no Luck.

So far though one really cool thing I did workout is how to make a retail copy of windows XP able to use a OEM key!

Before you burn the CD locate a file on the cd called “setupp.ini” ( it should be in the \i386 folder) and look for a string called “Pid=XXXXX000″ (with the X’s being numbers), you will then have to replace the three zeros with the words OEM. this way your OEM key will work.

Simple! unlike this Tablet Notebook.

Once I get this tablet working I will post how I did it. I will get it working even if it kills me!

Last night I was board as Age of Conan is starting to lose my interest (once they have fixed some bugs I will go back) and the MediaBox is ticking along wonderfully now its back on Windows XP so I had nothing to play with, but I soon fixed that problem.

I had a few spare parts building up and thought it would be cool to finally have a box dedicated to running Linux on so I can play and not worry about having my gaming PC or Mediabox not working 100%. I rangeled up all my old bits but I had one major problem, I had no case to put it all in.

As I cooked tea I thought what could I put all these parts into? I thought “Leave it open and just sit it on the desk!” but the cats would sit on it to steal warmth. I thought “Put it in an old Mobo box!” but I would not be able to fit every part into the box. Then as I was mashing the potatoes it hit me “PUT IT IN THAT OLD METAL SUITCASE YOU FOUND” perfect!

I quickly ate my tea and set about trying to fit all the parts into the case and get it to shut enough to stop the cats getting in. I got it all to fit in and I was very proud of myself. The lid dose not shut all the way but this provides air flow! there is no Power button on a suitcase so 2 wires fix that problem!.

Hopefully I find an old case to fit all these parts into evenly but for the moment the Ghetto Suitcase-PC is rocking along nicely!

Pictures coming soon!

Why would they do this to me? Just as I’m about to move into a new chapter of my life with marriage and soon children they do this!

I almost failed University thanks to the second one. Hours upon hours of time taken from study and work as I slayed the hoards of hell for the thrill of a gold item dropping from the corpses of my victims. Now they are trying to destroy my life again.

Please Blizzard for my sake make Diablo 3 suck so I do not neglect my future family!

Just had an odd problem with Windows Update in Windows XP it would download updates but not install them showing the very informative error of ‘A problem on your computer is preventing updates from being downloaded’.

Quick search uncovered this easy fix.

Open Start and click run type in
regsvr32 wuapi.dll
do this again for each of these WU dll files
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups2.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll

Then it should be back to normal.