Extracting RAR files online

As a Windows user I occasionally receive .rar files that I need to expand. In the past I’ve had to install a piece of software (I generally went with Stuff It Expander) to extract the contents. Of course every piece of software you install wants to add context menus, program groups and system tray icons – something I wanted to avoid adding to my new machine.

I’ve found www.wobzip.org that will allow me to extract the contents of .rar files online. As my need to do this is infrequent the overhead of uploading the file isn’t too much pay. The beauty of this site is that as well as downloading individual extracted files you can also download a .zip file that can be handled natively by Windows XP/Vista.

Media PC

I recently updated my main production machine and was left with a fairly recent (three years old) machine. After pondering what to do with it I remembered it had a silent power supply and this would make it an ideal candidate for a media PC.

I did some research on open source media software and had almost settled on Media Portal when Microsoft released the Windows 7 RC. The RC is the Ultimate version and has Windows Media Centre included. With W7 being a freebie for the next six and a bit months (before it begins to nag) I thought I’d give it a go.

After downloading the .iso and burning it to a DVD using the free burner program ImgBurn I put it in the DVD drive and rebooted the PC. A fresh install of Windows 7 took about 15 minutes. From memory I only had to make three selections for the entire process. Once the install had finished there were a couple more reboots that added about 10 minutes to the process but once these were done Windows 7 was set to go.

First impression is that Windows 7 is quick. Very very quick. I have Vista running on a Quad Core with 4GB of RAM but Windows 7 on a Dual Core with 2GB seems snappier. It takes the best of the visual elements of Vista and improves the task bar with icons and great preview thumbnails.

Setting up Media Centre was a breeze, all I did was point to the directories I wanted to use for movies and television shows, change the setting to make Media Centre run on start up and it was ready. The interface is stylish and intuitive, although options once are playing a file and you wish to quit can be a bit confusing.

I want to keep the media PC as lean as I can so this meant finding a way of getting content on to the machine without installing uTorrent. The answer was Windows Live Sync. I added a wireless network card to save running CAT6 through the roof and installed LiveSync. Now all I do is add/download the media I want on my main PC and it automatically syncs to the media PC at the other end of the house. It takes about 5 minutes to transfer an hour tv show, about 10 to do an average movie.

The biggest plus is that we may now actually get around to watching all the shows we have stored up. Prior to this we would have to decide what we wanted to watch and either convert them to DivX or create a DVD, burn the DVD and watch it that way. Given the time this takes, and the media we went through (we always seemed to loose the RW discs) we’d just sit and flick through channels instead. Now everything we have is there, ready to watch straight away.

I’m impressed with the set up and Windows 7. I’ll be upgrading my production machine and the media PC once the final version is released. Microsoft certainly seem to have got it right with W7.

iTunes with less bloat

(Part of my project to re-install my main home PC.)

I’ve been re-installing my main home PC, and trying to avoid putting junk on it.

iTunes 8 has blown out to a 70Mb download, up from about 20Mb just a couple of years ago with version 4, 33Mb for version 5, 35Mb for version 6, and 49Mb for version 7.

Part of the reason is that they bundle in a bunch of stuff: Quicktime, Bonjour (for networking), Apple Mobile Device Support (for iPhone and iPod Touch), MobileMe (for syncing with the service previously known as .Mac) and Apple Software Update (automatic updates, but includes shovelling in more stuff you don’t want).

The very intelligent Ed Bott investigated and found the following solution to cutting out the crap.

Download the iTunes setup. Then open it with an archive program such as 7-Zip or WinZip or WinRAR.

For people like me who have only old iPods, Nanos and Minis in the house, all you need is iTunes itself, and Quicktime. So extract and run the following:

Quicktime.msi /passive

iTunes.msi /passive
(For 64-bit: iTunes64.msi /passive )

…and that’s it. Done.

More details from Ed Bott — including what to do if you have an iTunes Touch or iPhone.

I hate relative time

As I’ve mentioned in passing before, I hate relative time on updates.

Twitter is the obvious one here. “About 8 hours ago”. “About 9 hours ago.” WTF use is that? Why not just tell me the time it happened, so I don’t have to mentally work it out?

It’s particularly useless if I want to compare the time of that Tweet to something outside Twitter.

Likewise the ABC Online News “4 hours 37 minutes ago” … jeez, just give me the publish time.

It’s doubly-annoying when presented on web pages, which may or may not get read immediately, and sometimes sit there for a while without being refreshed or updated. I come back half-an-hour later… “About 3 minutes ago”… oh really? When was that? 3 minutes before I last refreshed the page? Again, useless information.

The annoying thing is some programmer has actually jumped through hoops to display the time like this.

PLEASE, just give me the option of showing the ACTUAL time, not the relative time.

Now, does anybody know of a good Windows Twitter client that will show me actual times?

(OK, some people on Twitter reckoned Tweetdeck is one to try.)

Directing Mailman replies

For an announcements list, you don’t want people replying to the list, which will reject their messages. I had to do some digging to find out where to set this in Mailman. It’s under the General Options:

Where are replies to list messages directed? Poster is strongly recommended for most mailing lists. — which lets the recipient replies go back to the list, to the poster (which is the old-fashioned way to do it on discussion lists) or you can set to go back to an explicit address — which for reasons I won’t go into right now, is the way I wanted it.

OK, so this setting probably should have been really obvious, but I only just found it. Call me slow if you like.

Gamecube controllers for Wii

If you want to play a Gamecube game on the Wii, you need a Gamecube controller. Nintendo’s Classic Controller won’t do it. (Makes me wonder why they bothered releasing it, since you can use a Gamecube controller for Virtual Console classic games.)

Anyway, the youngest wanted one to play some Gamecube games, so we went hunting (in Melbourne). You can’t buy original Nintendo controllers retail now (might find them on ebay I suppose), but the (clone) options we found were:

Harvey Norman — corded, $30.
KMart — had nothing.
Dick Smith — cordless, $40.
EB Games — corded, $30 (not listed on their web site).
Game — corded, normally $24, on sale for $19.
JB Hifi — same as Dick Smith.
Big W — corded plus a Gamecube memory card (needed for Gamecube saves) $29.

As he wanted a memory card, and they appear to be pretty scarce, we ended up with the latter, which works well, though it would have been nice with a slightly longer cord.

It’s nice to know that (for the moment) you can still buy these things and play the old games. Viva la backwards compatibility.

Server move!

Oh, the joys of fiddling with web servers.

This one’s being moved. Comments disabled until it’s finished.

PS. 23:18. Hey, what gives, this JPG won’t display, though others will. Oh well, re-delegating anyway, will sort it out in the morning.

Office 2007: Menus and SP2

Try as you might, you can’t get used to the Office 2007 ribbons, and you want the menus back?

There have been a few paid solutions, but here’s a free one (for non-commercial use): UBitMenu (Corporate licence applies for business usage for €10 + €0.65 per user).

It adds a Menu ribbon which has the traditional menus, with extra items added for new Office 2007 functionality. Neato; I’ll be giving this a try pronto.

(via Office Watch)

By the way, Office 2007 SP2 is due out on April 28th… this MS blog article previews some of the new features included. (via Malcolm)

Xbox incompatibility

Back before Christmas, I had pondered getting an XBox 360. Hey, it would let me play the new Pacman, and that Braid game sounds really good.

Then I discovered according to Wikipedia and Microsoft, there are a number of XBox games we have at home that can't be played on the 360.

So I’d have to keep the old XBox going to play them. That sucks.

And at least one of them is a Microsoft game.

  • Midtown Madness 3
  • Shrek 2
  • Wallace and Gromit
  • Midway Arcade Classics
  • Pro Evolution Soccer 4

Evidently each game needs an emulation profile. Which means I suppose that alas the XBox 360 is not sufficiently advanced as to be able to fully and properly emulate the original XBox, which is why each game needs to be made compatible individually.

We ended up getting a Wii for Christmas. Admittedly the old XBox hasn't been switched-on since.

At least Nintendo do their backward compatibility properly. Having seen how Microsoft's dealt half-heartedly with the old XBox, I wouldn't have wanted to buy into another technological dead-end.

I might see what's out there to turn it into a Media Centre instead.

Psyb0t worm infecting modems/routers

The new “psyb0t” worm infects modem/routers by getting in via unsecured ssh/telnet ports on common MIPS Linux-based models such as those by Netcomm, Netgear and Linksys. Apparently a lot of these devices are shipped unsecured… and of course, most people don’t know how to check and change that. I know I don’t.

My router has DD-WRT on it. The DD-WRT web site has an article saying they believe they are not vulnerable, unless WAN management has been enabled.

It’s probably worth checking with your router or firmware provider to see if you’re vulnerable, and/or steps to check and secure your equipment.

APCmag: New worm can infect home modem/routers

ZDNet: ‘Psyb0t’ worm infects Linksys, Netgear home routers, modems

DRONEBL: Network Bluepill – stealth router-based botnet has been DDoSing dronebl for the last couple of weeks — which clarifies the conditions under which the infection can spread.