spencerkam.com

Download Any Video On YouTube

2008-04-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

While messing around, I Stumbled Upon a cool little website that lets you download any video off of YouTube. I have yet to play around with it more, it definitely looks like a very useful tool.

The website is called YouTubeLoader. You can simply enter the URL of the YouTube video that you want to download into the website, and it will return a link that you can save. Save the file as an FLV file and you're good to go.

You can play the resulting file with VLC Media Player which is an awesome media player.

MacBook Firmware Update Issues

2008-04-04T09:01:00.001-07:00

When trying to update my MacBook's EFI firmware, I came across this odd error message. The message read "An unexpected error occurred (0). Your firmware can not be updated."

The problem lies wen trying to update the firmware on an Intel-based Mac that does not have a standard GUID partition table. Essentially, this means that if you have Windows installed on your Mac, you won't be able to install these firmware updates.

There is a way to get around this, however, it takes a bit of work to make it happen. You could simply backup your data, and reformat the drive to a GUID partition table. Or you could install OSX on an external FireWire drive, boot to the external drive, and then install the firmware from there.

Full details can be read on this Apple support article.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303609

April Fools Day 2008: Google Style

2008-04-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

When I logged into GMail today, I noticed a link called GMail Custom Time. I clicked the link, and was a bit puzzled at what I was seeing...then I realized its April 1st.

Check out GMail Custom Time.

C'mon Apple, Make Up Your Mind

2008-03-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

What is it that you want? First you tell me 6 characters or longer then you want me to enter an 8 character password. Which is it?

Create Tables in Word Without Your Mouse

2008-03-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

In Microsoft Word, or any application that uses Word as a text editor, such as Outlook, you can easily create tables with only typing in a string of characters.

Typing in +----------+----------+ then pressing Enter will create a row with 2 cells. After you press enter, you can then press Tab to create more rows.

Try it if you don't believe me.

Take Finer Control of Your Speakers in Leopard

2008-03-20T09:04:00.001-07:00

In OS X Leopard, you can take finer control of the volume control. Simply hold Option and Shift and then press volume adjustment buttons, you can adjust the volume in 1/4 bar increments.

Deploy Office 2008 via ARD

2008-03-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

Deploying Microsoft Office 2008 via ARD to your company's Mac isn't much of a difficult task as it is tiresome. However, for Office 2008, Microsoft was a little bit nice in the sense that the installer is in package format.

Roughly, my deployment strategy was the following.

Remove Office 2004.
Remotely install Office 2008.
Push out preference files.

And away we go...

Step 1: Remove Office 2004
We only want to remove Office 2004 applications. We're not necessarily concerned with wiping out their Entourage database or what other goodies they may have created. It's important that you don't delete their Microsoft User Data folder in their Documents folder because this folder contains their Identity that we're going to need to transfer to Office 2008.

With that said, we're only going to remove the Microsoft Office 2004 folder from the Applications directory. To do this, send this unix command to the target computers.
rm -r "/Applications/Microsoft Office 2004"

Step 2: Install Office 2004
I won't go into the details on this step because its more on how to use ARD, but I will give you what you need to know.

Since the installer on the DVD is in .mpkg format, we can simply push this out through ARD. Use the install package option in ARD to do this.

Step 3: Set preferences
If you're not particularly concerned with making sure that your users have particular settings, then you can skip this step. If this is a concern, then we'll need to create preference files to push out to your target computers. One setting that may be of concern is saving in the new docx, xslx, or pptx file formats. This process isn't very difficult either.

Launch the Office 2008 application that you want to have special preferences. Open that application's preferences and make any changes that you need. We now need to find this preference file and make a copy of it.

The preference files can be found in ~/Library/Preferences/, where ~ is your home folder.

For Word, the preference file that you need is com.microsoft.Word.plist.
For Excel, the preference file that you need is com.microsoft.Excel.plist.
For Powerpoint, the preference file that you need is com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist.

With your copy of preference files, set read and write permissions.. This will allow you to push this out to many computers without having to worry about the user being able to access that file. I don't think that giving full permissions to a preference file is really going to affect anything, as the user will be free to make changes to that file anyways.

Copy these modified preference files to the users Preference folder within their library.

Step 4: Transfering Identity
When the user logs in, their dock will still contain shortcuts to Office 2004 applications. The user will need trash their dock icons and recreate new icons for the new Office 2008 applications. When the user launches an Office 2008 application, they will have to run through a wizard to complete the setup. The wizard basically walks them through transferring their identity and entering their name.

Once the user has completed transferring their identity, they will be all set to go. Wasn't that better than running around with the install DVD and installing one by one?

spencerkam.com is now assigned PageRank

2008-03-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

WooHoo! After about 6 months of writing off and on, I've finally received my ranking from Google. I'm a PageRank 2! Better than nothing I suppose.

Windows Key Shortcuts

2008-03-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

A Brief list of my favorite Windows key keyboard shortcuts.

[Windows Key] + D: Minimize or restore all windows
[Windows Key] + E: Launch Windows Explorer
[Windows Key] + M: Minimize all windows
[Windows Key] + Shift + M: Restore all windows
[Windows Key] + L: Lock the computer
[Windows Key] + R: Launch Run command dialog
[Windows Key] + F: Search for files
[Windows Key] + CTRL + F: Search for computers
[Windows Key] + F1: Launch Help and Support Center
[Windows Key] + Pause/Break: Launch System Preferences
[Windows Key] + U: Launch Utility Manager

Watch YouTube Videos in Higher Quality

2008-03-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

To watch YouTube videos in high quality, all you need to do is add the string "&fmt=18" to the end of the link.

So if you had this YouTube link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU, you could watch it in high quality by viewing this link instead, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU&fmt=18.

Enable the Root User in OS X Leopard

2008-03-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

Launch Directory Utility. This can be found in /Applications/Utilities/.
Pull down the Edit menu and select Enable Root User.
Set a password for the root user and click OK.

Why are My Videos All Pink?

2008-03-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

What happened to me was that after running a Windows Update, suddenly all of the videos that I played in Windows Media Player played with a pinkish/purple tint. I couldn't figure out what happened. Videos that played in other players weren't pink tinted at all. VLC Media Player was fine as was Apple Quicktime.

What it ended up boiling down to was that an update for Windows Media Player broke my video card drivers. So I reinstalled the video card drivers for my NVidia GForce 7900GT and rebooted my computer. After the reboot, all of my videos were back to normal.

General Failure Error in Outlook

2008-03-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

A message generated by Microsoft Outlook "General Failure. The URL was: [website]. The system cannot find the file specified."

This error is caused when you have other browsers installed and Microsoft Internet Explorer is not the default browser. Yes, pretty dumb if you ask me.

Send SMS Messages through Email

2008-03-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

To send a text message through email, you can simply send an email to one of the following addresses with the [recipient's phone number]@[carrier]. Below is the format for 6 popular carriers in my area.

Cingular - [Phone number]@cingularme.com
Nextel - [Phone number]@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint - [Phone number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile - [Phone number]@tmomail.net
Verizon - [Phone number]@vtext.com
Virgin Mobile - [Phone number]@vmobl.com

Firefox Fails to Launch

2008-03-05T16:44:00.000-08:00

If the FireFox web-browser fails to launch, it often means that something in your profile is corrupt. I've experienced this a few times on Windows systems, but not so much on the Macintosh platform. To correct this on the Windows side, simply navigate to the following folder and move it to your desktop. You'll want to make sure that you show hidden files and folders.

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\

Windows Vista
C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Local\Mozilla\

After you've copied this folder, relaunch FireFox. A new profile will be created. If you had any bookmarks, you can restore them by drilling into the copied Mozilla folder and locating bookmarks.html. Copy this file and place it into the new Mozilla folder that was created.

Lock Your Windows Computer with 2 Clicks

2008-02-28T20:03:00.000-08:00

Right click on your desktop and select New -> Shortcut.
Enter rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation as the location.
Give the shortcut a name.

Now you've created a shortcut on your desktop that will lock your computer with 2 clicks.

UPDATE:
Yes, I am aware that [Windows key] + L will lock my computer. It isn't really a matter of what is easier, but a matter of because-I-can.

Reset the Password on a BlackBerry

2008-02-28T11:05:00.001-08:00

If you've acquired a BlackBerry smart phone and the device has a password on it, you can remove the password by simply typing in a wrong password 10 times. Doing this procedure will erase all data on the phone and will allow you to set a new password. After the device is reset, you will be prompted for a new password.

Test your Antivirus Protection

2008-02-27T17:57:00.000-08:00

Sure, we all purchase antivirus software. The names Symantec, McAfee, AVG, Avast, Panda, Kaspersky may all ring a bell when it comes to protecting your system. But how do we know that the software is actually doing anything? Here's how you can test to see if you're antivirus is working or is just dead weight.

Open Notepad
Enter the following string inside of notepad.
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
Save the document.

When you save the document, your real-time virus protection software should detect this file as a virus and prevent you from opening the document.

You can read more about this test file at ecair.org in this article.

Prevent Scratches on your Gadgets

2008-02-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

I really hate when I get a new toy, and after a few weeks of its use, I notice little scratches. This especially bugs me on phones. I found a cool screen or even full device protector. The website had a good explanation so I'd rather not reiterate.

ZAGG's invisibleSHIELD™ is a thin, polyurethane film originally created for the military to protect the leading edge of helicopter blades. What's unique about this military-grade film is how tough it is - it doesn't scratch. Introduced in early 2005, the invisibleSHIELD is the first product of its kind. Its patent-pending, full body protection has revolutionized the industry and has changed the way people think of protecting their devices. Others have tried to imitate it and have fallen short.

Apart from keeping your devices scratch-free, the invisibleSHIELD provides some unexpected benefits. Unlike cases, its uncompromising design doesn't take away from the look and feel of your device. It adds no bulk, allowing you to freely hold, carry, and dock your device without interruption. Also its "grippy" feel allows you to be far less likely to drop your once slippery device.

This stuff is so strong. The following video is a demonstration of testing the strength of invisibleShield.

Definitely check this stuff out on their website. They have more videos and explaination about this stuff.
http://www.invisibleshield.com/

Wierd Detox Foot Patches

2008-02-22T21:40:00.000-08:00

On TV, I recently saw in infomercial for these little foot patches that you supposedly put on your feet and they are supposed to help draw toxins out of your body in order to regain health and vitality. The ones that I saw on TV was the Takara Patch. The infomercial talks about putting these patches on your feet before you go to bed and while you sleep, the patch draws toxins from your body. How it works? I don't really know. I thought it was quite a bit interesting. On their website, they have an ingredient list.

I went to some Chinese herbal store and asked them if they had the Takara Patch. They didn't have that specific brand, but they had this other patch called the Chikusaku Detox Patch. For the 12 dollars that it cost, I figured it was worth a shot.

The kit came with 8 bamboo vinegar detox patches, 8 adhesive sheets, and instructions.

The directions were simple.

Peel the backing off of the adhesive sheet.
Remove the detox patch from its plastic wrapping.
Stick the detox patch onto the adhesive sheet.
Apply the sheet to the center of your foot.

I put socks on top of it because I wasn't sure if this thing was going to release some kind of juice and leak all over my bed sheets.

In the morning I removed the patch. I won't post pictures because its kind of nasty. My patch wasn't as dark as the patch that was on the website. However, what the website didn't mention was the smell. The smell was absolutely horrid. The only thing that I could really compare it to is maybe sour BBQ sauce. Also, the bottom of my foot was really slimy.

I can't say that the patch necessarily made me feel better, but it didn't make me feel worse. That in its own is a good thing.

StumbleCard

2008-02-21T10:46:00.001-08:00

Stop Automatically Sending Read Receipts

2008-02-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

Read receipts are really dumb. It feels like the person who sent the email feels so important that they need to know when you're read their email and consistently looking over your shoulder.

At work, I have a few people who use them, and each time I have to elect that I don't want to send a read receipt. While this works, it gets old really fast. Here's how to prevent sending read receipts in Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.

Click Tools then Options.
Click on the Preferences Tab and click Email Options.
Click Tracking Options.
Towards the bottom, there is an option to Never send a response for read receipts.
Click OK.

Tada! No more Big Brother feeling.

Download Old Versions of Filezilla for OSX

2008-02-21T08:42:00.001-08:00

The latest version of FileZilla (version 3.0.7.1) requires OS X 10.5. This means that everyone running on OS X 10.4 is unable to run the latest version. This doesn't cause much of a problem, if you knew about this of course. If you didn't, then setting up FileZilla on a new computer running OS X 10.4 can be a little frustrating.

I don't think that this was necessarily a good move by the FileZilla developers because it seems that they've kind of cut off users who haven't updated to OS X 10.5.

SourceForge.net hosts old versions of the popular FTP client for people who haven't made the upgrade. You can head over to their download site to get a version that runs under OS X 10.4.

Convert HD-DVD to Blu-Ray

2008-02-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

With the end of the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, I thought that this was a pretty cool article that might help relieve the pain for the early adopters of HD-DVD.

Wired has an article about converting HD-DVD movies into Blu-Ray.

With the end of this war, I am very happy that I choose to purchase my Playstation 3. Now if only Gran Turismo 5 would come out quicker.

Windows Vista SP1

2008-02-19T17:29:00.000-08:00

I installed Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on my system today. So far initially, I haven't noticed anything drastically different. The install went smoothly. It did, however, require a few system reboots and it did take quite a long time for the system to finally come back online.

In addition to the install going smoothly, I also didn't experience any software issues. Good job on that Microsoft.

You can find full details about Service Pack 1 in this fun packed document from Microsoft illustrating all of the new features.