Deposit some DRM related links - just for my convenience when visiting back this in future:

Windows security component upgrade (use IE):
http://services.wmdrm.windowsmedia.com/indivSite/en/indivit.asp

Recently bought a Leadtek 3200h that comes with WinFast PVR2 software, able to watch the HD channels perfectly on WS but the software is unable to display subtitles...

Did a couple of search and found this:

Using Winfast PVR2

v2.0.2.42 or earlier works with subtitles.
v2.0.3.01 up to v2.0.3.07 partially work with subtitles. The reason is teletext opens in new window on top of current tv program. Press subtitles button up top right of teletext window or type 801 will load subtitles in current teletext window. Problem is the minimise/overlay subtitles into current tv program button up the top righ corner of teletext window has been dissabled. So subtitles will only be available in seperate window.

Subtitle will never work because WinPVR2 use DVB Subtile that will not work in Australia. Need support for VBI Subtitle for Australia to work subtitle duh !

The 801 trick worked on the teletext, but it's on a separate small window, and it's not even transparent! I can place the window on my 2nd monitor but it still looks strange...


I found the old PVR2 v2.0.2.40 if you want to downgrade the software.

Hardware and software giant IBM released a new package of free office productivity tools on Tuesday. The office suite, called Lotus Symphony, consists of a word processor, spreadsheet application and a presentation builder. It's a free download available from IBM's website. IBM plans to offer paid support for Symphony on Windows XP, Windows Vista, SUSE Linux and Red Hat Linux. A Mac OS X version is expected in the near future.


More on Wired

Google has also release their Google Docs & Spreadsheets as well.

Who says Microsoft is monopolying the market when we got free products flying everywhere in sky ? =)

话说上个星期下载完 300 多集的 《海贼王》 动画 (爽啊~） 下是下到手软了，不仅如此，档案都是 rar 文件，发片人还设了密码……tnnd 每解压一个文件 WinRAR 都还是会跟你要密码，如下：



想一想每解压一个文件就会停下来，弹出窗口要密码。 一两个文件还好，不过当你有上百个的文件要解压时，你肯定会砍人了。 还好我发现了一个好办法，现在就跟大家分享一下如何在 WinRAR 免手动输入密码来解压 N 多个压缩文件 (每个文件都需要同一个组密码来解压)。

1. 首先打开 WinRAR 程式。
2. File -> Set default password。
   
   
   
   
   
3. 输入解压的密码， 然后OK 。
   
   
   
   
   
4. 在 WinRAR 里游览到你存放你的 rar 文件的文件夹，然后选择你要解压的文件全选。
5. 接下来的步骤就如平常一样，选择路经然后就开始解压。
6. 如果密码设对的话 WinRAR 不会跟你要密码。
7. 这时候你可以去睡觉或做其它事情了。怎么样？不错吧？

Opera 9.20 is out. Upgrade your Opera or grab yourself a new copy here.

So, version 9.20 huh? Opera 9.20 is packed with a few more new features compared to 9.10. They're Speed Dial for lazy people and Developer Tools for non-noobies.

Speed Dial
Opera Speed Dial is basically a 9 small clickable boxes displayed in a blank page (when you open a new tab). The interesting part is, above the 9 boxes, it has a simple search input powered by Yahoo!. It's kinda like Firefox and Google, IE and Live search, Opera and Yahoo! thing... It's the battle between search engines and browser, accept Microsoft owns IE and Live search...weird thing...

Opera Developer Console
Opera now includes a developer console that can be added into the browser with many new features. The developer console includes new tools including DOM inspector, JavaScript inspector, CSS editor and HTTP header inspector.



*NOTE*
These are developer tools that have been used internally for some time by Web Application developers at Opera Software. These tools are meant as early previews, and should be considered alpha quality software. They are provided on an as-is basis, in the form of buttons that can be dragged to any Opera toolbar.

All of the tools should work in Opera 9.0 and later. To learn more, look through the documentation page.

Finished on the intro part, one thing I found annoying is that the 'Detach' is disappeared in the tab menu (right click on any tab) after I upgrade from 9.10 to 9.20. According to somebody in Opera forum, that's a bug and the 'Detach' shouldn't appear in the menu originally. Can't verify the correctness but that sucks. I have to drag and drop the tab out of the program in order to detach it, I still think a simple click on the menu is a better option for lazy people like me.

Okay, up until now, I assume everybody who lives on earth should have already be aware that Windows Vista is out for private/home users. Having doubts to upgrade from your Win98 ? See the flowchart below to get the answers for your question


Oh ya, I've seen the tv adds about the pc guy and Mac guy, they're funny, and both looks nerd haha...

Are you still a Winamp die hard fan?


I've been using Winamp for almost 8 years, back to the time when I'm still in high school. Their simple and easy to use interface, minor resource usage and ability to display chinese song titles (in playlist) are the main reasons that makes me a loyal fan to it.

But not anymore, after I update my Winamp to version 5.32 yesterday night, I've trouble to get Winamp to display chinese song titles. SimHei font isn't doing the trick anymore, even tried font rendering settings on the modern skin and also throw in Microsoft AppLocale to aid the encoding thing but it just won't work. The weird thing is, v5.32 supports Unicode better than the old Winamp version I got but I can't understand why it won't work the way I want on the new version.

So, a friend intro me 千千静听. Best thing of this is, the player is using Simplified Chinese for the interface and encoding. That means it shouldn't have a problem to display chinese song titles in the playlist and in player. The downside is, it assume you're running on Simplified Chinese version of Windows. You'll still got trouble to display the chinese song titles if you're running a english version of WindowsXP.

To correct that and make life feels good, download Microsoft AppLocale utility. Install it and run it.
Once you got the utility running:

• Choose "Launch an application"
• Click "Browse..." to navigate to the 千千静听 folder and target TTPlayer.exe
• Click Next, select 中文（简体）
• Click Next and choose "Create a shortcut"

Once you're done, there will be a shortcut added. You can always copy that shortcut and place it in QuickLaunch toolbar. Each time you need to run the player, just use the shortcut created by AppLocale. Depends on how your songs info are stored, if you still having trouble to display the song title, try this:

• Click any song in the playlist
• Right click and select 文件属性
• On the 读取类型优先级, change to ID3v1 > ID3v2 > APEv2

You should get something like below:


It's good when you can read and understand the song titles On top of that 千千静听 also has auto lyrics download and showing... what else do you need ? Life's good ~~~

The last time I played around with the themes on my operating system, manually, is when I'm still in high school, a place where the teacher pwns the classroom hmm... that time I'm still using Win98/ME or whatever. Then later on while I'm in college, a place where students pwns the classroom, I played around with LiteStep and WindowsBlinds. First encounter with LiteStep to me is "Wow, this is kick ass !", it has a shell to replace windows' one. Had a lot of fun to modify and adding new things to it. WindowsBlinds was free (I think so) that time. Now you need to pay $19.95 for it, and also, now it's a component of the Object Desktop suite.

Story ended after I upgraded to WinXP, I sticked with the original theme that came along with WindowsXP. It's been years, until now =) I'm bored with my desktop look and feel, also affected by the Windows Vista's drooling-vista-aero effect... I've made some changes created a disaster to my desktop...



If you're a poor bastard like me, who's unable to become a beta tester for Windows Vista to enjoy the Vista-Aero due to slow/old computer, or for other N reasons, you can download Brico Pack Vista Inspirat from CrystalXP.net. Install it, and you'll be able to duplicate the disastrous outcome that looks exactly(almost) like the above screenshots. It also comes with a dock thing (top center in the screenshot) that acts similar to Mac OS X Dock.

Don't understand why I said it's a disaster ? Oh well, for most time of the installation it says "Modify xxxx.exe" instead of "Extracting xxxx.exe" or "Copying xxxx.exe". It seems like it's patching the executable files. That makes me feel nervous. There's a "Uninstall" option but the "damage" is done, how clean they can undo it ? But anyway, up until now, I haven't encounter any system crash or weird acts yet.

ps: To make the above screenshot looks more like Windows Vista, I've changed the wallpaper from cute anime girls to Vista-like wallpaper which somehow focus on the leaves and grasses... Mircosoft Windows Vista is sending a message to the public - "We're environmentally friendly products !"

Amazon.com has started to offer Microsoft Windows Vista operating systems for pre-order.

You can own the Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate DVD-Rom at the price of $USD399.00 (or around $AUD523.00) and it will be available on 30th January, 2007.

However, according to Amazon, item can be shipped only within the U.S. for now. It seems DVD will be the main-stream media used. Geez, I'll get a new computer when Windows Vista is availabe next year, my notebook does not comes with DVD-rom, and I doubt it will be able to run those nice AERO-style animation in Vista... so I'll get a new desktop then ^^

Pricing info on more Windows Vista products

• MS Vista Ultimate Upgrade - $USD259.00 (around $AUD339)
• MS Vista Home Premium - $USD239.00 (around $AUD313)
• MS Vista Home Premium Upgrade - $USD159.00 (around $AUD208)
• MS Vista Home Basic - $USD199.00 (around $AUD261)
• MS Vista Home Basic Upgrade - $USD99.95 (around $AUD131)

By the way, a new copy of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate is over AUD500, I just think it's too pricey !!! Anybody going for a Linux switch and forget about their favourite MMORPG ??

Found a nice & small utility from Matthias Wandel that manipulate EXIF data inside JPEG files.

Jhead is a command line driven program for manipulating the non-image parts of Exif flavour JPEG files that most digital cameras produce.

Jhead v2.6 program Features

• Extracting camera settings from Exif image files
• Able to set and/or adjust the Exif time field
• Manipulation (extrac, replace, regenerate) of Exif integral thumbnails
• Transplant Exif image header from one JPEG to another
  Edit JPEG comment fields
• Automatically rotate images upright (using jpegtran) according to "orientation" tag.
• Manage running programs on large batches of Jpegs and restoring Exif header information afterwards.
• Display embedded GPS info (if present)