Format Large SD Card for Android

I’ve got several older devices laying around that I use for various things (media players, cameras, etc.).  Recently I tried to upgrade the Micro SD card in my HTC Droid Incredible (ADR6300) running Android 2.3.4 from 8GB to 128GB and I had a heck of a time getting it to recognize the 128GB card.

Formatting via Windows for anything over 32GB can’t be done using Disk Tools (you can only format as exFat and NTFS).  Thus, if you’re going to format with what you’ve got in Windows, you have to use a command line.  Using the “quick” format command in the command line ( format <drive letter>: /FS:FAT32 /Q) almost always causes failure for disks over 32GB, and when you don’t do a quick format, it almost always pretends like it’s formatting for a couple of hours, then fails.

I actually got the Droid to recognize and format the card using its own utility at one point, but then the phone just went into boot loop and finally hung on the HTC screen.

I am loathe to download and install programs from weird locations around the web, but after about an hour and a half of trying all the routes that DIDN’T involve installing software, I finally broke down and installed FAT32Format from Ridgecrop Consultants, LTD (a guy in the UK).

Here is their fancy logo.

While their graphic design may leave something to be desired, their code rocks.

Lemme tell you… I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out “other ways” when I could have just done this in the first place.  The executable is tiny (76KB), and the disk was formatted and working in my droid in less than 60 seconds.

Kudos, Ridgeway.

…

Windows Doesn’t Always Load ICC Color Profile for Monitor

I recently installed a new EVGA GeForce 750Ti video card in an older machine.  I had some points on a credit card that would make a card in the sub $200 range “free,” so I did some research on video cards and upgraded my rather ancient GTX 260 (which I actually used while cutting our feature film in 2009!) to decrease my rendering times and allow for a bit more oomph when utilizing CUDA processing for effects and on-the-fly rendering in Adobe Premiere.

The GeForce 750Ti is basically the “sweet spot” for cost/power in gaming cards, which are the poor man’s video-editing cards (though, as of this posting, NVIDIA has released the GTX 960, which is the new sweet spot in this category).  I would have loved to install a higher-end “Adobe Approved” Quadro card(s), but this option is cost is prohibitive at the moment (we’re putting money into camera equipment), so this is a decent band-aid for this particular editing rig.

We use Xrite EyeOnes (i1) with EyeOne Match 3 (v.3.6.2) software to calibrate our monitors.  However, after installing the card, I kept getting the dreaded “pink screen” hue almost every time I’d reboot the machine after calibration.  The most common cause for this malady is a bad video cable (I’m using a super-thick (24AWG) and fairly long 15 foot DVI Cable, so this was definitely a possibility).  However, I checked my cables (using DVI, HDMI, and even Display Port), and the cable was not the issue.

I also checked my system defaults to be sure Windows was calling up the custom i1 color profile as the profile for the monitor.  The profile was marked as the default and appeared to be the active profile in the color settings, so I assumed it was being used.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on, so I thought maybe it was the card.  I RMA’d the card, and Amazon sent a new one.  p.s. I really appreciate their policy of sending a replacement before they require you to send the defective unit back.  They give you a month to return the item once they send out the new one, so I didn’t have to go without a video card while waiting for the replacement (yes, I could have put the old one back in, but I was enjoying the decreased rendering times too much).

The new card arrived. I installed it and ran color calibration on the monitor.  For a couple of days, everything seemed great, until one day… the dreaded pink screen had returned.  I spent three more days researching the issue before I finally came across the solution.

It turns out there are not one, but TWO places where Windows 7 64-bit has settings for loading the monitor’s ICC color profile.

Yes, you can set your monitor’s ICC color profile at Control Panel>Appearance and Personlization: Adjust screen resolution>Advanced settings>Color Management (tab)>Color Management (button), but there is another place you need to do some tweaking in order to tell Win7 to actually USE these settings.  How stupid is that?!

So on the Advanced tab where you can select your defaults, there is a button at the bottom called “Change system defaults…”

In that panel, there is an “Advanced” tab, and at the bottom right of that panel there is a box called “Use Windows display calibration.” You must tick that box to get Windows to actually use your ICC monitor calibration setting each time it starts (even though it would appear, from the previous panel, that Windows IS using the default).  Unbelievable.  Why even have the option to set a default if the system isn’t going to USE that default without this “secret setting?!”  It’s not really a default if you aren’t using it, is it. Grrrrrr.

Many thanks to user “badspell68” for posting the solution to this problem in this thread:

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/162431-color-profiles-calibration.html

p.s.  I think it’s worth nothing that the “pink hue” we experience when the EyeOne custom ICC profile isn’t properly being utilized is a result of the physical monitor settings.  I usually just calibrate the monitors using the “easy” setting in the EyeOne software, but at one point I actually went through the “advanced” setup which involves calibrating your calibration device to the ambient light in the room (our room is currently fairly warm on the color spectrum) as well as adjusting the physical settings on the monitor (not just changing the settings using software).  When I did this, EyeOne had me set the red hue of the monitor higher than it had previously been (higher than what looks good to the eye), thus when the custom color profile is not being utilized (when the monitor is displaying “as physically set”), the screen has a pink (red) hue in the white areas.

…

Enabling CUDA for Adobe Premiere Pro

I’m pissed at Adobe, and I feel like a chump.

For several years I’ve been using Premiere Pro (CS4/CS6) without harnessing the CUDA capability of my graphics card (192 CUDA cores, to be precise).

How could this possibly happen?

Well, Adobe’s software will only “look” for the cards that are listed in a text file called “cuda_supported_cards.txt.”  This text file is by NO MEANS comprehensive.  In fact, it lists VERY FEW cards.

There is a program in the Premiere Pro system directory (C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Premiere Pro CS6) called GPUSniffer.exe.  If you run this program from the command line, it will show you the exact name of your installed video card(s).  When you add this card (be sure to use the exact name listed by GPU Sniffer) to the “cuda_supported_cards.txt” file, only then will Premiere harness the CUDA power of your graphics card.

Once you have added the name of your device to the approved list that Premiere Pro uses to verify the card, the “GPU accelration” option will be available under the General tab of your Project Settings.

Specific instructions:

1. Type CMD into your Start Menu search field (at the very bottom of your Start Menu).
2. Right click the cmd.exe program in the list and select “run as administrator.”
3. Navigate to the appropriate directory (C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Premiere Pro CS6) first by typing “cd\” to get to the root (c:) and then “cd Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Premiere Pro CS6” to get to the Premiere Pro directory.
4. Type “GPUSniffer.exe” and take note of the card listed in the information returned.
5. Open Notepoad with admin privileges (right click on the Notepad program icon and select “run as admin”), then navigate to the same directory (C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Premiere Pro CS6) and open the “cuda_supported_cards.txt” file.
6. Add the name of your card to the list (it must be EXACTLY as it was listed in the GUP Sniffer dialog), and save the file.
7. Next time you open Adobe Premiere Pro, GPU Acceleration will be available from the drop down in your project’s “General” tab of settings.

UPDATE: You may also need to do a regedit fix documented here: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1061522?tstart=120

• Go to Regedit
• Find this key by selecting Edit and then Find at the top:- " 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 "
• Within this key, there is a value called: "ValueMax"
• This value represents the % number of cores the system will park - the default is 100% (ie: all Cores are potentially park-able)
• Change the value from 64 to 0 so the "ValueMin" and "ValueMax" are both zero
• You will have to find the key a few times and repeat the process for each time it is found - the number of instances will depend on the number of power profiles in your system

…

TeraCopy: Better than Windows Explorer but still lacking

I do a lot of file copying.  Most people do.  However, as a filmmaker, photographer, and recording artist, I do a lot of copying of massive amounts of data (my machine is currently running a >800GB transfer that’s been going for more than 20 hours).

The native Windows Explorer copy feature makes me nervous, because sometimes it drops data or runs into trouble with transferring data, and basically, for lack of a better term, just craps out.

A while back I finally found a copy program I like to replace the simple “cut and paste” in Explorer.  Checksum verification was the single most important feature I was looking for.  Basically this means each file is analyzed and assigned a number and then checked against the transferred file once copied.  From the ubiquitous Wikipedia: “A checksum or hash sum is a small-size datum computed from an arbitrary block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage.”

When I shoot photos or video, I need to be absolutely sure the data is not lost or corrupted during transfer.  Checksum verification helps mitigate this problem.  I never transfer anything important without running checksum verification.

For this reason, I love TeraCopy.

I also love that you can pause a transfer, and also that you can initiate several transfers that will run in the order you set them up (rather than try to run them all at the same time… though that options exists as well).

I wish you could pause a transfer or test, shut down your computer, and come back to it.  It doesn’t seem like there is anything that would prevent this from being possible (TeraCopy would just need to store the same “pause” information and then access it once the computer was restarted).  This would be AMAZINGLY helpful for when you’re in the middle of a large file transfer but need to shutdown or restart your computer.

My biggest complaint with the program is that Code Sector brags about how FAST TeraCopy copies files.  They say it over and over again.  It’s even their freaking TAG LINE (see photo).

In all my personal experience and in EVERY review I’ve seen online, TeraCopy is proven slower than just about any transfer program out there… including Window’s native “cut and paste.”

But the thing that has REALLY been annoying me lately is just how insanely slow the file check runs after the actual transfer takes place.  It actually takes CONSIDERABLY longer for TeraCopy to run the Checksum verification after the transfer than it does to actually transfer the files.

I would REALLY like to know what is going on there.

There have also been quite a few times where I’ve initiated a large file transfer and then left it to run overnight, only to come back in the morning to see an error from TeraCopy that states simply “TeraCopy has stopped.”  Uh, ok.  What about all the bragging on the TeraCopy product page about how TeraCopy will try again and again to transfer a file, but ultimately if it fails it will simply skip the file instead of crapping out (like Windows Explorer)?  From the product page: “In case of a copy error, TeraCopy will try several times to recover and, in the worse case scenario, will simply skip the file, not terminating the entire transfer.”  This has not been the case in my experience (on many occasions).

Still, though slower than Windows Explorer copy, I feel more secure transferring my precious data with TeraCopy.  Perhaps it’s a false sense of security, but at least I sleep a little better at night knowing that checksum verification has been run after the file transfer.

…

No Signal After Turning TV Off and Back On

I built a Media PC out of some older parts I got from a friend.

It’s fantastic having a Media PC, and I love using it, but because it’s made of older parts, I come up against a problem every once in while.

 

The biggest problem I had on a regular basis was that when I turn off my Sony Bravia television and then turn it back on, the TV no longer has the HDMI signal from the PC (I get a blank screen that states simply “no signal”).

 

I searched for a long time for the answer before stumbling upon this solution.

 

User “th3dude” at Superuser.com states:

This problem seems to affect many people (as per search engines) with the most suspected/mentioned cause being insufficient drivers from ATI (NVIDIA apparently has updated its drivers for related issues successfully, while ATI tried that too, but some users still seem to have the same issue afterwards).

I tried updating my ATI Radeon HD 3200 video drivers to the latest version before coming across the solution below; it didn’t work.  I even installed AMD Catalyst when another thread suggested there’s a setting in there that will help (there isn’t, and I’ll likely be uninstalling AMD Catalyst as it’s just bloatware taking up space).

 

User Steffen Opel points out that the cause is EDID, or extended display identification data.  When you turn of your TV, the “handshake” between PC and TV is lost, thus when the TV is turned back on, the PC no longer has the information identifying the television and can’t communicate properly.

 

The solution?  There are evidently physical devices that can store the HDMI ID, but why spend money on a physical device (not to mention add that eyesore to your hardware setup) when Travis Hydzik has your back?  Travis created a three line program called hdmiOn.exe that goes something like this:

#include <windows.h> int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow) { // Turn off monitor SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, (LPARAM) 2); // Turn on monitor SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, (LPARAM) -1); return 0; }

It just turns the HDMI signal off and back on, thus your PC is able to reacquaint itself with your television.

 

Because you won’t be able to see your computer screen to mouse-click a shortcut or the actual program (to run hdmiOn.exe), you’ll need to assign the program to a hotkey.  Luckily god gave us AutoHotkey. (Don’t worry; it’s easy!)

 

Here are all the steps to fix your “no HDMI signal” problem:

 

1. Download hdmiOn.exe and place it in the root directory of your system drive (you can put it anywhere you want, but this location makes it easy to find and access).

 

2. Download and install AutoHotkey.

 

3. Create a hotkey script as follows.

1. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop or in a folder of your choice.
   
   
2. In the menu that appears, select New -> AutoHotkey Script. (Alternatively, select New -> Text Document.)
   
3. Type a name for the file, ensuring that it ends in .ahk. For example: hdmiOn.ahk
   
4. Right-click the file and choose “Edit Script.”
   
5. On a new blank line, type the following:
   
   #space::run C:\hdmiOn.exe (obviously you’ll need to be sure the path matches the location where you installed hdmiOn.exe)
   
6. Save and close the file.
   
   
7. Double-click the file to launch it. A new icon appears in the taskbar notification area.
   
   
8. Hold down the Windows key and press the space key.  Your screen will cycle, letting you know that the computer in fact ran hdmiOn.exe
   
   
9. To have this script launch automatically when you start your computer, create a shortcut in the Start Menu's Startup folder like this:
   
   
   1. Find the script file, select it, and press “Control-C” (copy).
      
      
   2. Right-click the Start button (typically at the lower left corner of the screen) and choose "Explore All Users."  In Windows 7 you need to go to All Programs>"right-click" on the Startup folder and then select "Open All Users" so you're not just altering the Startup folder for the account you're currently logged into.
      
      
   3. Navigate to the “Startup” folder inside the “Programs” folder.
      
   4. From the menu bar, choose Edit -> Paste Shortcut (or right-click Paste, or Control-V).  The shortcut to the script should now be in the Startup folder and will automagically run each time you start your computer.

You’re golden.  Turn your TV on and off all you want, all you need to do is click your windows key and the spacebar at the same time and your PC screen will reappear on your television.

…

Windows Media Center PC (Breaking the Shackles of Cable)

After years of thinking and talking about, I've finally got a Media PC (also called HTPC or Home Theater PC) up and running.  I had been waiting for this and that, but as with all things technology, you have to just jump in the pool at some point.  I went the less-cred/much easier route of building around Windows Media Center instead of building an XBMC box.  Yeah, you can customize the hell out of XBMC, but I know I'm going to be using a Win 7 PC, and I'd like my girlfriend and guests to easily be able to use the system, so WMC it is.

Hardware

• MOBO with many internal SATA ports (at least 6), Gigabit ethernet, and many external USB/eSata ports, and I decided on a motherboard with on-board HDMI video instead of an additional video card (one less component to buy and manage)
• 128GB SSD for system drive
• multiple 2GB hard drives for file storage (in RAID or just as is)
• Hauppauge 1250 tuner card with remote (yes it works to control Windows Media Center)
• As many silent fans as your case will accommodate (I've got six fans in mine, and it's still pretty quiet)
• BluRay/DVD/CD burner

Software

• Windows 7 Professional (thus Windows Media Center)
• AVG antivirus
• MalwareBytes (anti Malware)
• Launchy (I don't like shortcut icons cluttering my desktop)
• iTunes
• Airport Utility (for streaming audio to a Mac Airport via iTunes or Airfoil)
• Hulu Desktop (I’ve actually stopped using this, because I like watching Hulu with AdBlock in Firefox)
• Hulu Desktop Windows Media Center plug-in (again, no longer using because I don’t use Hulu Desktop anymore)
• Amazon Unbox (for playing Amazon Instant rentals and purchases in WMC -doesn't work for instant streaming; to my knowledge, nothing does)
• DVD Decrypter I’ve switched to HD Decrypter; it breaks a lot more encryption (for ripping purchased DVD's to my hard drive)
• AdBlock Video (doesn't work for Hulu Desktop, but it's great for eliminating commercials when viewing browser-based Hulu, NBC, CBS, etc. via Firefox)
• uTorrent
• TED (Torrent Episode Downloader)
  

Why your Hauppauge remote isn't working: chances are the infrared cable's not plugged in all the way. The cable likely has an eight of an inch more to go before it will work.  You'll hear it "click" when it's actually in all the way; it may feel a little like you're forcing it (because you are), but this is the trick!

myRemote Android App for Windows Media Center

I am in heaven.  I had been using gRemote to remotely controller my computer when watching media.  It basically turns your phone screen into a track pad.  There’s another screen with play, ff, rew, etc., but I honestly have no idea what good it does, as I’ve never seen it work with any program.

I just downloaded myRemote from Viclabs on the Android Market.

All you do is download the msi from the link above (it’s the server software that allows your phone to communicate with your computer), download myRemote from the Android Market, right click the myRemote icon in your tray to find your computer’s IP, and enter the IP into myRemote on your phone (make sure WiFi is enabled on your phone).

Now you have a robust, suberb remote to control Windows Media Center.  Not only are there plenty of buttons specifically for Media Center, but you can click the mouse button on the myRemote interface and use your phone screen as a track pad to control your entire computer (like gRemote).  The trackpad screen also has a text input field at the top, so you can input text.  Click your dpad or trackball to apply the text you’ve typed.  Very slick.

Probably my favorite feature of myRemote is the fact that it has volume control and a MUTE button (sort of).  If you long-press either volume button, it will jump in 15 point increments.  I no longer need my TV remote control to handle the volume.

The dedicated full screen toggle button is great.  You can also open and close WMC right from the application.  The power button will close whatever window is currently in focus, so not only can you use it to close WMC, but any open program.  In the bottom right of the main area are two buttons to toggle between a full screen view and a scrolling carousel view of all your open windows.  Very, very cool.

There are dedicated shortcut buttons to Live TV, Internet TV, Video Library, and music library.  For some reason there is no button for the Movie Library, but if you press the windows logo button it takes you to the default screen so you can scroll to the correct library.

The plus/minus buttons function as skip forward/skip back during movie playback. The FF/RW buttons at the very bottom to the same, but in greater increments.

I have no idea what the camera icon button does, so someone please tell me (it’s driving me crazy).

I run Hulu and Netflix via WMC.  I’ve also found that you actually don’t have to run Hulu from Media Center to control it with the dedicated myRemote keypad.  For Hulu, use the center arrow keys.  Ok is play/pause, left and right are fwd/rev.  The dedicated FF key at the bottom left functions as a full screen toggle for Hulu.

For added fun-ness: you can run the server over 3G instead of WiFi. Forward port 9876 (UDP) to your PC and then use your router’s IP address (from your ISP) in your myRemote app.

…

Fix Windows Media Center and/or VLC Video Washed Out (too bright)

Whenever I try to watch my ripped DVD’s the video is washed out (too bright).  For the record: I rip the DVD’s I’ve PURCHASED so they don’t get scratched and they’re all on a media server so I don’t have to load DVD’s.   It doesn’t matter if I use VLC or Windows Media Center, the picture is always too bright.

Windows Media Center doesn’t really have a way to adjust your picture settings (stupid), so there is no obvious way to fix the problem via the software’s controls.

VLC at least allows you to make adjustments to how your picture appears, but since the video was washed out in both programs, I assumed something else was wrong.

I downloaded the latest drivers from NVIDIA and updated my settings, but still the problem persisted.  The blacks just aren’t black (the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are MUCH darker than the blacks in the video).

I spent a couple of hours searching for solutions, and while there seems to be a fix for ATI cards, a documented fix is lacking for NVIDIA (it’s outlined at the end of this post).

For your general knowedge, Here is the ATI reason and fix (from Stephen Neal on AVForums.com):

Bottom line... Microsoft appears to have messed up and stipulated inconsistent support for SD and HD (or SD and HD protected path?) video in Vista's EVR (and probably else where)

This results in SD DVD and TV appearing to have set-up or raised black levels and dull white levels (i.e. grey blacks and dull whites and washed out colours) OR HD Blu-ray (and AIUI HD TV) content having crushed blacks and clipped whites.

Cause is inconsistent handling (and I suspect downright ignorance) of broadcast and pre-recorded video running with black at 16 not 0, and white at 235 not 255. (This dates back to 1982 when the first major international digital video standard - ITU 601 - then CCIR 601 - was ratified, and has remained the standard - for very good engineering reasons to do with retaining image quality - for both SD and HD video ever since)

There IS a registry fix for ATI cards and IGPs - called the BT601CSC=1 registry hack which changes ATI's SD handling to match their HD handling, and works well.

There appears to be no such fix for nVidia - I've raised it with Gigabyte and nVidia but have had no constructive solutions offered yet. (Gigabyte hilariously suggested I try a new video card to solve the problem on my newly built 9400 IGP HTPC...)

AIUI the problems are as follows :
HDMI Displays expect 16-235 video as a norm (though some can switch to 0-255 inputs this is no use if you are using an HDMI input with an AV amp, and your other sources switched through your amp are 16-235 standard) Bottom line - HTPCs feeding HDMI displays should be operating in 16-235 colour space. Both ATI and nVidia cards appear to support this.

DVDs, SD and HD TV broadcasts, DVDs, HD-DVDs and Blu-rays all use 16-235 video levels as well.
PCs use 0-255 levels internally.

What seems to happen is that SD content is kept with black at 16 and white at 235 in the PC 0-255 representation, which means that when this is converted to 16-235 HDMI output PC 0 is mapped to HDMI 16, and PC 16 - input video 16 to quite a lot above this in HDMI, PC 255 is mapped to HDMI 235 and PC 235 - input video 235 - to quite a lot below this... However for HD this doesn't happen and instead the input 16 is output as 16 and the input 235 is output as 235...

With nVidia cards you need to run in 0-255 mode to get 16-235 SD content passed through cleanly, but run in 16-235 mode to get 16-235 HD Blu-ray content passed through cleanly.

So the fix I found was to use the NVIDIA control panel to control your video playback instead of the video player’s settings.

1. Open your NVIDIA Control Panel (type NVIDIA in your start menu search field and select NVIDIA Control Panel).
2. Go down to Video and select “Adjust video color settings.”
3. Under #2 (How do you make color adjustments), select “With the NVIDIA settings.”
4. Under the Advanced tab change the Dynamic Range with the drop down to “Full (0-255)” (not “Limited (16-235)”).
5. For my display to look as it should, I had to uncheck “Dynamic contrast enhancement.”

My video now appears as it should (not washed out).

…

Sync Folders Across Multiple Computers

In their continuing brilliant renaming schemes, Microsoft has replaced and/or renamed Live Mesh (beta) with Windows Live Mesh 2011.  What happens in 2012?  Why use “Windows” in the title?  Of course it’s Windows, you dumbasses.

Anyway… I had been using Live Mesh (beta) to keep just a few folders synced (both between computers and to the cloud).  I’ve started using WLM2011 to keep folders synced from my home (main) machine to my laptop (skipping the cloud part, as I’m syncing huge folders that would quickly decimate the 5GB’s allotted for my SkyDrive).

Until today, I used SyncBack for keeping folders synced.  Every time I left for a trip, I would select the folders I wanted to sync and click run.  This was a huge pain in the butt every time I was going somewhere.  Yeah, I could have mitigated some of the annoyance by setting up a “container” folder within SyncBack to run multiple syncs, but I still would have to run the sync manually.  I could have set up scheduled syncs, but what I’m really after is “live” syncing.

SyncBack also always made me nervous that I was overwriting or copying something that I didn’t want to.  Furthermore, if you make changes to folder structures on one machine, then run a sync, the files that you moved will be recreated in their old location.  This sucks big time when you’re an OCD freak and reorganize your files/folders all the time.

I think Windows Live Mesh 2011 (what a STUPID and ridiculously long name) is going to work well for my needs.

My biggest gripe is not being able to sync two pre-existing folders.  To set up a folder sync with a folder that already exists on the remote machine you have to first sync an entire folder to the remote machine, then deselect it from your synced files on that remote machine (it will automatically be placed in your “user” folder –nothing you can  do about that), then move the folder to where you want it (and let the folder write over everything in the folder that already exists there if you’ve already been syncing the folder), and click sync again.

This is a pretty big pain in the ass.  I would MUCH prefer to be able to simply enter a folder path manually, or better yet be able to “explore” to it from the machine you are using to set up the sync.

From the WLM2011 help site:

If you want to select where the contents of the folder sync on a computer, don’t select the computer in the list. Instead, click OK and go to the [remote (this is important)] computer, click Sync this folder, and then select where you want the folder contents to sync [select the already existing folder that should sync to the other]. Note that if you select a folder that has files in it, these files will be included in the synced folder.

Nifty.

The biggest thing I really, really, really wish you could do with WLM2011 is set it to sync over your local network instead of having to send everything over your internet connection.  This seems like a no brainer.  Why in the hell would I need to send all that data “out into space” when the two computers are sitting right next to each other and are connected with a Gigabit ethernet connection?  I understand syncing over the internet is necessary if you are syncing to your SkyDrive (the cloud), but if you’re not… it just seems like Microsoft wants to sift through your data. Boo.

One more wish: I’d like to be able to rename the root (synced) folder and have it also change on the other machine.  Currently, if you change the name of a synced folder, it will be recreated from the other synced machine, and then you’ll have two of the same folder on the same machine.

Finally, I’m hoping I can find an Android app that will allow me to bring my phone into the mix.  I don’t have my hopes set too high though.  Worst case scenario: I’ll set up a “mobile” folder to sync between all my machines, and then just set up a separate sync (using Double Twist or some other Android program) between that folder and my phone.

One more thing… I wish you could organize your folders in the WLM2011 interface.  Currently, all of your synced folders are just listed alphabetically.  I’d like to be able to organize synced folders into categories (photos, artwork, video, documents, etc.)

[update]  The ability to organize the folders you are syncing is ABYSMAL.  In other words, there is NO WAY to organize your synced folders.  This is a massive over site on the part of Microsoft.  Your synced folders are simply listed in alphabetical order in your Windows Live Mesh window.  You cannot organize them in any other way.  If you have hundreds of synced folders, you simply have an alphabetical list of hundreds of folders (you can’t group them in any way).  Very, very, very stupid.

Also, I really miss the visual differentiation of synced folders that the old Live Mesh had.  It used to be that synced folders turned blue when you synced them.  Now there is NO VISUAL INDICATOR that a folder is synced.  You could manually change the folder icon, but that’s not realistic for hundreds of folders.

…

Windows “Restart Computer” Pop-Up Dialogue Sneak Attack

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, frustrates me more with the Windows experience than the “take focus” aspect of a Windows Update “restart now” dialogue box.  I realize there are more than a few frustrating things about Windows, but this is the one that has consistently been the biggest pain in my ass for the past decade plus.

The scenario: you’re typing away at an e-mail or other document, you see a momentary flash on your screen (what the eff was that?!), and suddenly your entire system is shutting down because you hit “enter” while typing just as Windows popped up a “restart your computer now?” dialogue without your knowledge.

WHAT THE FUCK MICROSOFT?!  This is a HUGE problem with the way the Windows system dialogue works and has always worked (or NOT worked, as it were).  Do people not complain about this ALL THE FUCKING TIME?!

This would be such a simple fix… SO FIX IT.

There are a few “solutions” posted on the web that purport to fix this problem, but in my experience none of them work… at all.  If you know of something that actually does work, please post it in the comments!

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Windows Mobile Device Center :: “No Default E-mail Program” Error Dialogue Box

Every time I fire up Windows Mobile Device Center, it pops up a window telling me I have no default e-mail program installed:

There is no email program associated to perform the requested action. Please install an email program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel.

This is clearly not true, as every time this happens I go to the “default program” center in the Control Panel and make sure I have Windows Live Mail selected as my default for ALL THINGS e-mail.  I have also tried choosing the computer’s “email default” from Internet Explorer, just to see if that made any difference.  It didn’t.

So… to reiterate… my Microsoft program won’t recognize another Microsoft program it’s requiring.  I could understand some third-party program incompatibilities, but you’d think Microsoft could at least work with it’s OWN software.

What gives?!

It’s incredibly frustrating, especially considering Windows Mobile Device Center won’t open up until I click OK in the “no mail program” dialogue box.  Thus, instead of being able to just open WMDC and keep working elsewhere, I have to open it, wait for the damn error box, click OK, and then it will open.

I searched for a solution for an hour this morning and couldn’t find anything.  There was promise here, but it doesn’t work.  I went through the steps listed to alter my registry, but it didn’t fix anything.

There are lots of forums and blogs reporting this problem, but Microsoft seems to be ignoring the issue, as there is no response from Big Brother anywhere.

Argh.

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I found that my Windows Live Mail is rather outdated (version 12 something instead of 14 something).  I think it’s awesome that if you click “check for updates” under “help” in Windows Live Mail, you’re taken to a screen capture showing you how to use Windows Update from the Start Menu to check for updates… but then when you do that, it doesn’t check for updates for Windows Live Mail.  Awesome, Microsoft, just awesome.

So I found the latest install for Windows Live Mail (14.0.8092.0805) and am currently installing it.  Warning: the install will try to install a bunch of other Windows Live crapware, be sure to deselect all the garbage Microsoft is going to try and load your computer with.

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Installing the latest version of Windows Live Mail did nothing to solve the problem above.

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GRemote Is My New Best Friend (remote control for PC via mobile device)

I’ve been trying to configure my Omnia i910 as a remote for my PC, and thus Windows Media Center (via Bluetooth and Windows SideShow), for a while.  I have been extremely unsuccessful in this endeavor, so today I decided to see if I could find a decent 3rd party app to take care of this seemingly simple task.

Hello GRemote!!!

There are two versions of this program (both work on Windows Mobile and/or Android): GRemote Pro ($14.95), and GRemote free.  I went with GRemote free, and it seems to do everything I need it to.  GRemote Pro has a larger suite of features, but since I’m just looking for a media controller, GRemote free is perfect for my needs.

Evidently GRemote Pro will work with .Net 2.0, but the free version requires .Net 3.5 or later (no big deal –just make sure you have .Net 3.5 installed on your device).

To make GRemote work, you’ll need to install the GRemoteServer program on your PC and GRemote on your device.  You can configure GRemoteServer to spawn on startup, or manually; I have mine configured manually, as I’m not always using my laptop as a media center.  Be sure to install the appropriate CAB for your device’s resolution.  The first time I installed the program on my device, like an idiot I installed just the “qvga” version instead of the “wqvga” version appropriate for the wider screen of the Omnia.  Because of this, the app was crashing on me quite a bit until I figured out what was wrong.

You can configure the app to work with multiple profiles, which means you can have a profile for all your computers (just make sure you install GRemote Server on any computer you wish to use with GRemote).  Configuring profiles is extremely easy thanks to the “find” button used to automatically retrieve the IP address necessary for communication between the server (your PC) and the device.

GRemote will work via USB, WiFi (my choice) and Bluetooth.

The free version includes these main parts:

	GCenter, where you select the control type you’d like to use,
	Gmouse, a virtual mouse that works with your device’s gravity sensor to control your PC (on the Omnia I have the HTC Emulator installed, and it works beautifully! Make sure to hold your finger on the screen to make it work (it took me a little while to figure that one out). If you click the “touch free” icon, the feature will work without touching the screen),
	Touchpad, a virtual touchpad to control your PC,
	GPad, specially configured for navigating around things like Media Center,
	GMedia, for directly controlling media program features (volume, stop, start, forward, reverse),
	Keyboard, an interface that you can type with,
	and GRace, a 2 axis, 12 button (?) game controller.

 

The app works perfectly with Hulu and Windows Media Center.  In fact, since it can function as a gyroscopic mouse and touchpad, it works perfectly with damn near anything on your PC (like Miro and VLC)!

Extra points for a really nice, clean looking interface with simple, finger friendly buttons and great design.

I love it.  One of the best (if not the best) apps I’ve installed on my Omnia to date.

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Mounting an External eSata Drive AFTER Windows Boot

I use a couple of external eSata drives (Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme).  When they start out plugged into the computer, there is never an issue with them showing up in Windows Explorer.

However, if I want to hook them up or move them once the computer is running, I sometimes have issues.

After a little research, I found that while Firewire and USB are fully plug-n-play, eSata is not.  This does not mean that you can't hot-swap eSata drives, it just means there is a trick.

It seems that the power to the drive is what triggers it being recognized by Windows. Plug and unplug that eSata cable all you want; it won't do a thing.

However, if you unplug the drive's power cable (I do it at the back of the drive, not the source) and plug it back in (assuming the eSata cable is already plugged in), your drive should appear in Explorer!

Hope this helps.

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Windows 7 Power Plan Constantly Returns To Defaults

For some reason, my laptop keeps returning to the default settings for the Power Plan, which means, even though my laptop is plugged in (not running on battery), every time I turn it on, the screen is at less than half brightness, and I have to go in and update the Power Plan settings every time I turn the computer on.  Very annoying.

I have tried altering the existing Power Plans, and I have tried creating new Power Plans, both to no avail.  My laptop is a Dell Precision M4400, and does have a light sensor, but I've got it turned off, so it shouldn't be affecting my settings.

I have not been able to find a solution to this problem.  Anybody with similar problems or a solution, please post in the comments!

Archiving Gmail

I've had enough problems with losing data "in the cloud" that I know not to think my data is safe anywhere but mirrored to multiple hard drives in my home or business... and even there you have to remember nothing is really ever totally safe (man, I sound paranoid).

My first experience with losing important communique material was back in 1999 when Microsoft decided to completely delete my Hotmail account for no apparent reason.  It was a personal account that I used on a weekly basis, and NEVER sent out any mass e-mails.  Yet one day I went to log in, and the account was simply gone.  Any time I tried to contact Microsoft about the issue, they told me they wouldn't even talk to me if I didn't have access to the address in question.  Since they had terminated or lost the account, I obviously couldn't use it to communicate with them.  But since it HAD been a legitimate account at one time, I couldn't created another account with that name.  In other words, Hotmail just completely fucked me and then walked away.  Nice.

So I learned the hard way to never trust that your data is safe with a third party.  I've never lost any data with Google, but I know people have, and there have been times when Gmail has been down long enough to make me start worrying.

Thus, the need to download (backup/archive) all my e-mail messages from Google.

There are two Firefox plug-ins that look good at first: Gmail Backup and Gmail Keeper.  However, both are written by individuals, one in the Czech Republic and one in China.  Call me paranoid again, but since downloading and archiving your files requires entering your Gmail user/pass, I'm going to pass on this option.

Recently, there came a new player to the realm of Gmail backup.  A company called Backupify has introduced a service that will download all of your precious data from online services like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, Blogger, Wordpress, Hotmail, etc...  They seem to be on the up and up, they have a service hotline listed on their front page, and from all evidence they seem to be a legitimate and secure option (albeit still a third party).  However, within the first two weeks of launching the service, Gmail started viewing the onslaught of downloading as an attack, and blocked the service from accessing material on their servers (and forced many Gmail account holders to reset their passwords).  Backupify has since been in dialogue with Google, and it looks like Google is being extremely cooperative with helping them get their service back on line (the simple fix is apparently setting a "slower drain" on the data), but as of this writing, the Gmail section of Backupify still states: "temporarily disabled," and I need something that will work NOW.

So the simplest method for backing up e-mail is obviously just setting up an e-mail program to download my mail, so that it is stored locally, and then backing up those files.  This requires an e-mail program and making sure everything is set up just right.

I used to use Eudora, because that's what the University I attended had on all their computers.  My oldest e-mails exist on a hard drive somewhere in Eudora format.  Later I switched to Thunderbird, but didn't really like the interface, and thus became satisfied with just using Gmail (it's all I've been using for the past five years).  Obviously, this has it's own problems (data is all stored in the cloud, and if you can't get on line or if Google's servers are down --it happens more often than you'd think, you're screwed).

Outlook has always seemed like the WORST option, as MS had a policiy of keeping such an insane choke-hold on their programs.  However, with Google getting so much good press (and money) for appearing "benevolent," MS has glommed onto the idea of actually making things easier for everyone (whodathunk?!) for "free."  They've gone through a couple incarnations of a free mail program over the past five years (some of them were awful), but I think they've finally got it.  Windows Live Mail integrates nicely into Windows 7, and also cooperates well with Windows Live (an online service like Gmail that I use to store all my contacts, as it syncs superbly with my WinMo phone).

So I created POP accounts for any e-mail address that I've ever used with Gmail.  I prefer POP to IMAP because I want to make sure that my messages stay "as is" in my Gmail account.  IMAP can be extremely useful, but it can also cause problems, in that it makes changes to your server when you alter things from your E-mail Program.  Since I'm only doing this to back up my online messages, POP is the better choice.

Windows Live Mail will only download the e-mail of a single address.  Since I have multiple e-mail personalities that all forward to my Gmail account (daniel@, info@, web@, not to mention multiple domains), I first saw this as a problem.  I wanted to simply download ALL the e-mails stored in my Gmail account.  But I'm going to go ahead and view this "problem" as a bonus, in that all my e-mails are grouped according to the e-mail address to which they were addressed (or by which they were authored).  It's kind of a pain in the ass setting up twenty separate accounts, but in the end, I supposed it's nice having everything compartmentalized.

The final step in downloading everything from Gmail in order to create a back up all of your online messages is to go into your Gmail settings and make sure you select "Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded)" from the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.

 

[UPDATE]  It would seem that though you have to enter every e-mail address you've ever associated with your Gmail account to make sure you download all your e-mails, Windows Live Mail doesn't necessarily download messages to the correct corresponding account.  For instance, e-mail for my "daniel" account was often downloaded to the "music" account, etc.  I have no idea why this is happening (I carefully studied the message headers, and they don't seem to have ANY correlation), but since my ultimate goal is just making sure ALL my e-mail is backed up to a local hard drive, I'm not going to worry about it too much right now.  And I can still search "all e-mail" to find things, so I suppose it's not incredibly critical where each message is being stored.

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Using Windows Live Writer

Oh, wow this makes things easier!

If there's one gripe I have about Blogger, it's how difficult it is to see what your post is going to look like when you hit publish (their web preview does not show your backgrounds, columns, etc.).

The only thing I wish Live Writer had was a function to download your formatting options from your template's css styles, so you could just use your css options from the drop down menu that allows you to choose heading 1, 2, 3, etc. and paragraph.

With Windows Live Writer, you can compose blog entries that look like they'll end up looking as you type them.

Very nice.

I'm looking forward to posting this and seeing how the post looks online.

[EDIT] Perfect!  I'm loving Windows Live Writer!  It's also great to be able to compose a blog post while offline (say, while on a transatlantic flight), and then post it when you have connectivity again.

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Solution to Problem Pairing Bluetooth Device to Windows 7 (or Vista)

I am in the process of setting up my Omnia to act as a remote control (via Bluetooth) with Windows Media Center (more importantly, Hulu desktop plugged into Media Center).

I was having a HECK of a time pairing my device to my computer (Windows 7). Always there was a "bang" and when I would have Windows 7 troubleshoot the device, it couldn't come up with an answer.

I finally found the solution in a post by Rajiv Singh Suwal (Computer Engineer / Senior Software Architect). Thank you, Mr. Suwal.

1. Make sure Windows Mobile Device Center is installed on your computer. If it's not, you can download it from here.
2. Right click on "computer" in your start menu to access the Device Manager.
3. There will be an "Unknown Device" named "Bluetooth Peripheral Device" with a "bang" on it (exclamation point).
4. Right-Click "Bluetooth Peripheral Device" and click on "Update Driver Software."
5. Click "Browse My Computer for Driver Software" button.
6. Click "Let Me Pick from a List of Device Drivers on my computer".
7. Select "Bluetooth Radio" from the list. In the Company List choose "Microsoft Corporation" (not just Microsoft).
8. From the drivers list there may be one or more drivers with the name "Windows Mobile-Based Device Support" with different driver versions. Select the most recent.
9. Ignore the warnings about the driver not being trusted (hilarious, or perhaps telling, that Windows 7 doesn't trust drivers from MICROSOFT) and jump through the hoops.
10. Now "Device Manager'" should display "Windows Mobile-based device support"when you click on "Bluetooth Radios."
11. You may need to remove the device in your Bluetooth panel and then reinstall it. You may also need to restart your computer.

Worked like a charm for me! This should work for iPhones, WinMo devices and Android phones, 'cause it's all about the Bluetooth.

DO NOT install Broadcom's bluetooth driver software update to Windows 7

I was messing with syncing my Omnia to my laptop via Bluetooth, and my MSI Bluetooth dongle didn't seem to be working properly. I decided to download and install the update from Broadcom's site.

Everything seemed to be going well, until...

Suddenly my machine seemed to be possessed. I watched in horror as the icons from my desktop started disappearing. An error popped up saying the install couldn't find the cab file it needed. The popup dialog said I needed to verify that the file existed. I looked, and the file DIDN'T exist. I was offered no help and no alternatives. The only two choices were find the file (that didn't exist) or cancel. So I canceled, and then the computer completely crapped out. When I went to reboot, the machine told me I was fucked.

I am currently trying to repair via a restore point with my Windows 7 disk, but I'm pretty freaking unhappy about this.

On top of this mess, the whole "deleting icons from the desktop" thing REALLY FUCKED ME, because it deleted files from my Microsoft Mesh environment. How in the world does a driver update ERASE YOUR DATA?! I am worried that I am not going to be able to recover some EXTREMELY important files that this "update" deleted from my Live Mesh folders (stupid me for thinking something "in the cloud" was safe --I thought because it was synced to three computers I was OK, but since those computers were all on when this happened, Mesh "synced" them by deleting all the files that were erased from my laptop).

So... DO NOT install the Bluetooth driver/software update from Broadcom's website. It will KILL your computer. Thanks, Broadcom. You suck. Bad.

[UPDATE] This is much worse than I'd thought. Not only is my machine completely out of commission, but when I plugged the system hard drive into another machine to simply retrieve my data before having to do a complete new OS (and all programs) install, I found that the VAST MAJORITY of my data has been wiped clean. Music folder, Pictures folder, Videos folder, Documents folder... all GONE.

I would say that the file SetupBtwDownloadSE.exe hosted on the Broadcom site is a virus, not a Bluetooth driver update.

I'm not sure how Broadcom can defend hosting a file that will completely destroy your computer and all your data, especially when they are purporting that it is a Bluetooth driver update. I am astounded (and at a total loss).

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