Saturday, January 31, 2009
Vista Media Center and Pod Casts
Ok, so I have been trying to get podcasts in VMC. After installing several plug ins that broke my computer I decided to see if there was an alternate route. With a few google queries, I found a plugin that would allow Windows Media Player to play files in the MP4 format. http://shark007.net/ is a good place to find a package that will give you everything you could what or need to make playing podcasts in VMC possible. The developer does create a x86 and x64 plugin package (NOTE: if you are running an x64 computer, install both packages). Once the plugings are installed, now it is time to get your podcasts. I have started to use the Zune software from MS but it doesn't launch in the background and get my podcasts automagicly, so I am going with iTunes. Just subscribe to your podcasts and have the software manage the storage for you. Next it is time to configure VMC. In your libraries area, have VMC scan each individual folder; you can also have it scan the root podcasts folder, it all depends on your preferences. Now your podcasts will be in one of 2 places in VMC, video casts will be under the videos section and audio will be under the music section.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Make FireFox Better
Lately I have been having some issues with my (current) favorite browser Firefox. It has started to get a bit slower loading pages, pop-ups have been getting by it's protection, and I am starting to get frustrated. This is really starting to remind me of Goldfish Crackers, I started off loving them then after too many I start to hate them. So this lead me to making a resolution for the New Year that I know I could do: make Firefox the beautiful browser she once was. After about an hour of web searching I came across a few consistent tips hack the about:config and a few extensions.
about:config
These are the 2 main hacks that I did to my about:config area to help make the browser faster
-Pipelining
Search for "network.http.pipelining" and enable it (set value to true), also note that you may also want to enable the proxy "network.http.proxy.pipelining" component also.
Next set the "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to 40
-nglayout
Right-click in a white space and select New > Intiger
Set the Name to "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and the value to "0"
This may not actually speed up the browser but it will display content as it loads, giving the illusion of faster load times
Extentions
There were 3 main extentions that I added to help fight ads and make browsing the web a bit safer.
-Adblock Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
This will do just what it says, block ads. Actually it will go farther than that and strip the ad's tag out of the code when the page loads. So instead of gettting a "blocked" white windows over the ad you will see nothing. In addition, it provides a tab over flash based content that may be an ad for easy removal.
-NoScript
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722
This program will disable 3rd party scripts that can be malisious to your browser and computer.
See my notes on "Click Jacking" for some more info.
-TrackMeNot (optional)
http://www.mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/
For the more paranoid out there (I am somewhat) this program is for you. If you are afaid that
'big brother' is watching your search queries this program will help make you more anonymous; you can set it to auto query 4 major search engines every few minutes with random search term making it harder for the powers that be to actually see what you are searching for.
Hope this helps someone out there
about:config
These are the 2 main hacks that I did to my about:config area to help make the browser faster
-Pipelining
Search for "network.http.pipelining" and enable it (set value to true), also note that you may also want to enable the proxy "network.http.proxy.pipelining" component also.
Next set the "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to 40
-nglayout
Right-click in a white space and select New > Intiger
Set the Name to "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and the value to "0"
This may not actually speed up the browser but it will display content as it loads, giving the illusion of faster load times
Extentions
There were 3 main extentions that I added to help fight ads and make browsing the web a bit safer.
-Adblock Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
This will do just what it says, block ads. Actually it will go farther than that and strip the ad's tag out of the code when the page loads. So instead of gettting a "blocked" white windows over the ad you will see nothing. In addition, it provides a tab over flash based content that may be an ad for easy removal.
-NoScript
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722
This program will disable 3rd party scripts that can be malisious to your browser and computer.
See my notes on "Click Jacking" for some more info.
-TrackMeNot (optional)
http://www.mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/
For the more paranoid out there (I am somewhat) this program is for you. If you are afaid that
'big brother' is watching your search queries this program will help make you more anonymous; you can set it to auto query 4 major search engines every few minutes with random search term making it harder for the powers that be to actually see what you are searching for.
Hope this helps someone out there
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