Flat Cat 6
This year I’m moving to HD at home, but streaming HD over a wireless connection is far from ideal. The next step up from that is to use the Ethernet over power adapters (like Homeplug) which are supposed to be pretty decent, yet expensive. However, I’ve gone for a wired connection using some really flat Cat 6 gigabit Ethernet cable.
Usually it’s a really hassle running cable from your router to the device, but because this cable is so flat it’ll go easily under most doors and you can then run it under the carpet.
At about £14 from CPC (for 15 meters) it’s not a bad price compared to buying wireless or power adapter kits.
Freeview to DVD with the Topfield TF5800
After owning the Topfield TF5800 freeview PVR for about 15 months I’m still bowled over by the functionality it offers. The latest features I’ve just found useful are to move series linked programs into a specific folder, plus a setting that allows you to only keep the last X number of episodes.. deleting the oldest.
Another feature I never thought I’d use was the ability to copy off the recorded files to a PC. It’s allowed me to take some episodes and (with the help of a script) burn them off onto a DVD.
At first I thought the process for putting the .rec files onto DVD was going to be a case of using Super(c) to convert them into something that DVDFlick could deal with. However, there’s a fantastic script called rec2dvd which deals with multiple files & requires no transcoding (so therefore doesn’t take long to create the DVD).
Before I let rec2dvd do it’s magic, I used MPEG Streamclip to clip any unwanted video from the file. Perfect!
Power Meter Plus 1.6 Released
This release of Power Meter Plus – the popular replacement for the standard Windows power meter – adds 4 new features/settings. These have been added after feedback from users.. a lot after it was featured on Lifehacker.com and in PC Pro magazine :)
The features/settings now available are:
- Hide the meter instead of switching sides.. it then fades back a few moments later
- Change the transparency level of the message that appears across the screen for certain warnings
- Flash the warning message (optional)
- Start the meter on the right of the screen (which is where it will stay if you set it not to move sides)
Click here for the Power Meter Plus download page.
Using 3rd Party batteries with the Canon HF100/HF10 Camcorder
The Canon HF100 is a great HD camcorder, and I’d really recommend it, especially for the price. You probably want a spare battery to go with it, but be careful which battery you choose. In their “wisdom” Canon has put a stranglehold on the 3rd party battery market by making the camcorder *very* picky about the voltage tolerances when charging a battery that’s attached to the camcorder.
The one I tried from this company would power the camcorder, but just refused to be charged. The camcorder LED blinked quickly, indicating there was a problem with the battery.
Watch out for sites like B2C Shopping; in their terms and conditions they’ve got clause which says they won’t pay your return postage costs… even if the reason for your return isn’t your fault! Their product description categorically says the battery is 100% compatible with the HF10/HF100.. but it isn’t! They eventually refunded the item cost, but none of the postage costs I incurred sending the incompatible product back!
I’ve seen on eBay that any non-Canon batteries for the HF10/HF100 come with their own charger.. getting around the problem of the camcorder refusing to charge these 3rd party batteries. Even when you do buy one of these, the batteries aren’t “intelligent” like the official Canon batteries.. which means each time you switch it on, the camcorder will tell you it can’t communicate with the battery & is that okay. Very annoying.
Binatone IR804 Price Increase at Argos
For a few weeks I’d had my eye on the Binatone IR804 DAB, FM, and Internet Radio. It was listed at £60 which seemed like a good deal for something that was of reasonable quality. Okay, the sound isn’t going to be earth-shattering, but functionality-wise £60 seemed about right.
However, I saw today that Argos have their new prices out and it’s shot up by £28 to an outrageous £87.99! All the adverts on TV tell us how they bring down their prices, but they don’t tell you about all the prices they’ve increased!
Power Meter Plus in PC Pro Magazine
Power Meter Plus has been getting a lot of coverage this month; it’s been mentioned on dozens of blogs and now in PC Pro magazine issue 172, in fact I think Lifehacker might have picked up on it from there & the blogs picked up on Lifehacker’s article.
Power Meter Plus featured on Lifehacker
Lifehacker is one of my daily visits, so it was brilliant to see that it had Power Meter Plus as the Featured Windows Download :-D
Power Meter Plus 1.5 Released
This release of Power Meter Plus – the popular replacement for the standard Windows power meter – fixes a bug with widescreen monitors.
Click here for the Power Meter Plus download page.
Netvibes UWA
Netvibes is a pretty awesome personal homepage web app. It’s very similar to iGoogle, but IMO it’s a lot more stable & a lot better looking. Netvibes offer a unified API that allows you to write using their API and deploy your gadget to multiple providers, such as iGoogle, Opera, iPhone, MacOSX and Vista.
I’ve been writing a gadget for my company but decided I also wanted one to take the first image out of an RSS feed and present so that it takes up all the space in the gadget. Useful for things like LOLcats. It was surprisingly simple to create.. so with some UWA coding, and a simple pipe at Yahoo Pipes, I’m now able to bring in the first image from a specified RSS feed.. assuming the image’s URL has been put into the item.content tag.
Here’s the finished gadget.. and the source code is below…
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:widget="http://www.netvibes.com/ns/" >
<head>
<title>Single Image Display</title>
<meta name="author" content="Matt Collinge" />
<meta name="author_email" content="gadget@mattcollinge.co.uk" />
<meta name="description" content="Display an image from the content section of the first item in an RSS feed. Useful for feeds like those from LOLCats. Use Yahoo Pipes to get the image URL (only) into the item.content tag." />
<meta name="version" content="1.1" />
<meta name="website" content="http://www.mattcollinge.co.uk/" />
<meta name="keywords" content="image, rss, lolcats, single, full width" />
<meta name="autoRefresh" content="15" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.netvibes.com/themes/uwa/style.css" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.netvibes.com/js/UWA/load.js.php?env=Standalone"></script>
<style type="text/css">
.imageDisplay {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
</style>
<widget:preferences>
<preference name="title" type="text" label="Title" defaultValue="Single Image Display" />
<preference name="url" type="text" label="URL" defaultValue="" />
</widget:preferences>
<script>
var BasicRSSReader = {};
BasicRSSReader.feed = false;
widget.onLoad = function() {
if (widget.getValue('url') === '' || widget.getValue('url') == undefined) {
widget.setBody('Please edit the preferences and enter the URL of the RSS feed where you want to take the image from.<br><br>The image URL must be in the item.content tag otherwise this will not work. Use feed a reformatter like Yahoo Pipes if you need to tinker with a 3rd party RSS feed such as LOLcats.');
} else {
widget.body.addClassName('imageDisplay');
widget.setTitle(widget.getValue('title'));
UWA.Data.getFeed(widget.getValue('url'), BasicRSSReader.display);
}
}
BasicRSSReader.display = function(feed) {
var feedList = 'Unable to load feed.';
if (feed) BasicRSSReader.feed = feed;
var item = BasicRSSReader.feed.items[0];
feedList = '<img src="' + item.content + '" width="' + widget.body.getDimensions().width + '" />';
widget.setBody(feedList);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<p>Loading...</p>
</body>
</html>
Using JSLint with Notepad++
I’m doing a fair amount of development using the ExtJS framework. IE is a bit picky about getting JavaScript properly formatted (otherwise it refuses to render the page). That’s why I’ve found JSLint really useful for locating stray commas or semi-colons.
To make it a bit quicker to put the file contents in the JSLint box I decided to hook it up to the Run menu in Notepad++. However, the JSLint web page doesn’t allow us to pass in data to it. To get around this you can copy the HTML + JS files from the authors website an copy them locally. Once you’ve got them locally you can modify the source to allow the passing of data.. here’s the change I made to do it on my system:
jslint.php changes.. add this right near the end
<script src="javascript.js"></script>
You’ll then need a way to take the file contents and fire it off to the page. At first I tried passing the file contents via the GET request, but it’s limited in length. Also, Notepad++ won’t let you send the file contents via the Run command. In the end I chose to use a piece of VBScript to bring up the webpage in the default browser, and some JavaScript to read in the file & place it into the page.
launchJSLint.vbs
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(wscript.Arguments(0), 1)
Dim strCharacters
Do Until objFile.AtEndOfStream
strCharacters = strCharacters + objFile.Read(1)
Loop
strCharacters = Escape(strCharacters)
Set objFileSystem = CreateObject("Scripting.fileSystemObject")
Set objOutputFile = objFileSystem.CreateTextFile("c:\progra~1\notepad++\jslint\javascript.js", TRUE)
objOutputFile.WriteLine("document.getElementById(""input"").value = unescape(""" & strCharacters & """);")
Dim wShell
Set wShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
wShell.Run "c:\progra~1\notepad++\jslint\jslint.html", 9
Finally, this is the Run command you can use in Notepad++ to launch the script…
wscript "C:\Program Files\Notepad++\launchJSLint.vbs" "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"
Switching FoxyProxy Profiles using Script
FoxyProxy is a useful extension to Firefox, but I’m always having to switch profiles back and forth as I take my laptop from work to home, and vice versa. I experimented with proxy PAC files without any success (mainly because laptops have multiple network adapters and the PAC scripts only detect your first IP address). Plus, as far as I can tell, PAC files are checked for every single HTTP request which must be a hit on browser performance.
Anyway, what I decided to do was directly modify the FoxyProxy config file before Firefox was run, and this would then select which FoxyProxy profile was used. The script below detects the host of something on my local network (which doesn’t exist at work) and switches accordingly. You could get it to switch on anything you like, but this works for me.
runfirefox.vbs
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
' Code to determine where you are and switch profiles accordingly
if (Ping("somehost") = "201.69.34.132") then
ModifyFoxyProxy("3402440320")
else
ModifyFoxyProxy("patterns")
end if
' Run Firefox - this uses a specific profile.. your command line can simply exclude it
ReturnCode = WshShell.Run("""C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"" -profile ""z:/firefox/profiles/qtxjee58.default""", 6, False)
sub ModifyFoxyProxy(sProfile)
' Path to your foxyproxy.xml file
xmlfile="Z:\Firefox\Profiles\qtxjee58.default\foxyproxy.xml"
outfile="Z:\Firefox\Profiles\qtxjee58.default\foxyproxy.xml"
set oparser=createobject("msxml2.domdocument")
with oparser
.async=false
.validateOnParse=false
.resolveExternals=false
.load xmlfile
end with
if oparser.parseerror.errorcode<>0 then
wscript.echo "xml file " & xmlfile & " is not well-formed." & vbcrlf & "Operation aborted."
wscript.quit 999
end if
set oroot=oparser.documentElement
oroot.setAttribute "mode", sProfile
oparser.save outfile
set oparser=nothing
end sub
function Ping(strHost)
dim objPing, objRetStatus
set objPing = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").ExecQuery ("select * from Win32_PingStatus where address = '" & strHost & "'")
for each objRetStatus in objPing
if IsNull(objRetStatus.StatusCode) or objRetStatus.StatusCode<>0 then
Ping = ""
'WScript.Echo "Status code is " & objRetStatus.StatusCode
else
'Ping = True
'Wscript.Echo "Bytes = " & vbTab & objRetStatus.BufferSize
'Wscript.Echo "Time (ms) = " & vbTab & objRetStatus.ResponseTime
'Wscript.Echo "TTL (s) = " & vbTab & objRetStatus.ResponseTimeToLive
Ping = objRetStatus.ProtocolAddress
end if
next
end function
Using OpenDNS with the O2-supplied Router
One thing that O2 didn’t put into the web interface for the Thomson TG585 wireless routers they supply you with, is a way to change DNS servers. It’s therefore a bit of a pain if you want to use OpenDNS. Luckily it’s not that hard to make the changes via a telnet connection:
telnet 192.168.1.254 Login name: SuperUser Password: O2Br0ad64nd
Now make a note of your existing DNS setup using this command:
dns server route list
It’ll give you something like this;
DNS Server Entries: DNS Server Source Label Metric Intf State Domain D 87.194.0.53 10 O2_ADSL UP * D 87.194.0.52 10 O2_ADSL UP *
The ‘Intf’ column is the type of connection you have (yours might differ from mine).. you’ll need this for the next commands;
dns server route flush dns server route add dns=208.67.222.222 metric=0 intf=O2_ADSL dns server route add dns=208.67.220.220 metric=0 intf=O2_ADSL dns server route list saveall
That’s it. Release and renew your IP address on all connected equipment and you’re all set.
IBM Thinkpad Hardware Control
The ‘Access IBM’ button on my laptop doesn’t get much use, so I decided to map it up to the PC release of XBMC (Xbox Media Centre). That’s the easy part, because you either set that in the registry, or use this small app.
When XBMC fires up I’d also like to set the volume levels of the laptop so that they output properly for the AV equipment I’ve got hooked into it. Once XMBC shuts down I’ll set back down so that the sound is at a lower level. The IBM laptops use a hardware volume control (independent to the Windows volume control) so I’m using some Python scripts to access the IBM hardware.
Here’s the finished scripts (the first one calls the second):
xbmc.vbs
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
'Set windows volume level
SetSoundLevel 90
'Set IBM ThinkPad volume level
ReturnCode = WshShell.Run("C:\win32app\startup\thinkpadsetvolume.pyw 14", 1, true)
'Run XBMC and wait until it exits
ReturnCode = WshShell.Run("C:\Progra~1\XBMC\XBMC.exe -fs -p", 1, true)
'Set IBM ThinkPad volume level
ReturnCode = WshShell.Run("C:\win32app\startup\thinkpadsetvolume.pyw 3", 1, true)
'Set windows volume level
'SetSoundLevel 30
' ------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Function to set the Windows sound level
' ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub SetSoundLevel ( iMyLevel )
On Error Resume Next
Err.Clear
Dim blSoundDevicePresent
Dim objSoundDevice
blSoundDevicePresent = False
For Each objSoundDevice In GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").InstancesOf ("Win32_SoundDevice")
blSoundDevicePresent = True
Exit For
Next
If Not blSoundDevicePresent Then Exit Sub
Dim iDefaultLevel, iSoundLevel, objSoundLevel
iDefaultLevel = 5
If Not IsNumeric ( iMyLevel ) Then iMyLevel = iDefaultLevel
MyLevel = CInt ( iMyLevel )
If Err.number 0 Then iMyLevel = iDefaultLevel
If iMyLevel 100 Then iMyLevel = iDefaultLevel
Err.Clear
set objSoundLevel = CreateObject ( "SetSoundLevel.SoundLevel" )
If Err.number 0 Then Exit Sub
iSoundLevel = iMyLevel * ( objSoundLevel.GetMaxSoundLevel - objSoundLevel.GetMinSoundLevel ) / 100
objSoundLevel.SetSoundLevel iSoundLevel
set objSoundLevel = Nothing
End Sub
thinkpadsetvolume.pyw
import thinkpad
import time
import sys
if __name__ == '__main__':
try:
c = int(sys.argv[1])
except IndexError:
c = 14
hk = thinkpad.Hotkeys()
hk.set_volume(c)
BT i-Plate
There have been a bunch of articles on the web about the BT i-Plate; a self-fit component that you stick into your master socket to improve your broadband speed. PC Pro gave it a good review, and so did a bunch of sites on the web.. for a tenner I thought I’d give it a try.
.
.
.
.
Speeds before:
5975 kbps (747kB/s) 376 kbps (47kB/s)
5812 kbps (727kB/s) 377 kbps (47.1kB/s)
5453 kbps (682kB/s) 373 kbps (46.6kB/s)
4873 kbps (609kB/s) 378 kbps (47.3kB/s)
Speeds after:
6151 kbps (769kB/s) 379 kbps (47.4kB/s)
5227 kbps (653kB/s) 379 kbps (47.4kB/s)
5350 kbps (669kB/s) 379 kbps (47.4kB/s)
4141 kbps (518kB/s) 366 kbps (45.8kB/s)
3622 kbps (453kB/s) 358 kbps (44.8kB/s)
4409 kbps (551kB/s) 360 kbps (45kB/s)
So far the results don’t look any different from before. Hey Ho. Maybe the connection will improve over time, with better line stability.
