A while back, I purchased a Napster membership. At $14.95 a month I could download all the MP3 files I could find, and listen to them as much as I wanted. No restrictions right? Wrong. Unless you use their proprietary MP3 player to play the music, then you can’t listen it on any other device. IE… the Ipod. I couldn’t believe it. What an utter crock of shit. I didn’t particularly like iTunes soley on the fact, I wanted free reign to all the music I could find. Sound wrong? No, I fucking paid what they wanted, now give me my fucking music!

Much to my dismay, Napster instituted a form of DRM protection on their music. This fucking sucks. What am I supposed to do? I bought this subscription purely on the intention of filling my iPod with lots of music to listen to. /sigh indeed.

So I was on a conquest to figure out how I could get this music to play on my Ipod. One method was using a winamp plugin to record the the soundcards output, and save it to a file. Apparently it took a long time to complete, and was buggy. Great, so what next? The next option, was burning all of the files to a CD, then bringing them back to the computer, thus removing the DRM protection. Wow, that’s not going to take for-fucking ever!

There HAS to be some sort of software to fix this right? At the time (this was about two years ago) there wasn’t much honestly. A few proof of concepts here, and few alphas there. Nothing. - Flash forward 6 months, and I stumbled across FairUse4WM, which worked marvelously. Albeit EVERY song was prefixed with a damn FAIRUSE4WM_ tag, which was… annoying to say the least, I dealt with it. It worked fine, and then stopped working, and I gave up. Meh…

Well apparently there is a new kid on the block, for everyone dealing with DRM issues. This will handle not only music files, but video, and even streaming files!

From the Author:

From the author - After many hours of fighting with WM-DRM protection I decided to create new tool that would allow people to remove it from from files and streams. Of course FairUse4WM is great tool and it works nice but there are few reasons why have decided to create a new one:
1) FairUse4WM is closed source. Everytime MS releases new version of IBX people have to make binary patches or start from scratch.
2) FairUse4WM doesn’t work with video streams since it wasn’t intended to. Of course it is possible to record video stream and then undrm it but this is pointless when we are talking about tv channels.
3) There is no platform independent tool for ms wm-drm. There is no point of running windows every time you want to undrm some file or stream.

FreeMe2 is the program. Based on famous freeme app created by Beale Screamer and based on viodentias (FairUse4WM) findings. It strips wm-drm protection from wmv/asf/wma files as well as video/audio streams.

Download and info at SourceForge
More Instructions and information at Stream-Recorder.com

FootNote: I canceled my Napster subscription long ago. This rendered my music unusable, and my files were removed. They billed me for another year afterwards, after repeated complaints to them, the credit company. Finally it stopped… they gave me $30 back. Fucking morons.

Wow, ran across these just now. Very cool!

StumbleUpon Alerter

StumbleUpon Alerter is a small tool that sits in the system tray. It keeps an eye on all of your discoveries on StumbleUpon and plays a noise whenever someone reviews or gives your sites a thumbs up. Open the main window to view information about each discovery - including a list of people who have reviewed, thumbed up or thumbed down your sites. More details »

Digg Alerter

Used by some of the influential Digg users. Digg Alerter is a program that sits in your system tray and plays a little noise whenever your submissions are “Dugg”. You can also click on a submission to view a list of people who have dugg and commented on your articles. Click here for more details »

Creators:  http://blog.adamant.com.au/

Not sure why you would need this, but BitLet.org allows you to download bit torrented files (Movies, Music, etc…) to your computer, without the need for a client (useful in some network situations at work etc..).

1. First choose your desired torrent file from a torrent site which you want to download
2. Copy its torrent metafile url.
3. Go to www.bitlet.org in your favorite browser and paste the torrent metafile link in the box.
4. Click the download torrent button.

BitLet Features:

Resume feature:
You can resume your torrents again by just clicking save in the same location where you saved the download the first time (the applet will propose it by default), and your download will be resumed.

Upload and seed torrents:
You can upload and seed torrents by keeping the download window opened.

View Upload/download stats:
You can view the upload and download stats of a particular torrent by clicking the arrow buttons.

Generate BitLet links:
You can create a bitlet link of a particular torrent file by going here which will allow the user to directly download the torrent with bitlet. When the user clicks the link, a bitlet download box will open and prompt the user to select the location to save the file.

A great article on overclocking the EEEPC with the EEECTL utility can be found at the link source below. I personally bought the 900MHZ system anyway, but there are some other great features such at:

The most recent feature changes of the utility display the following:

Definitely worth checking out. I may push my EEEPC Beyond the 900MHZ, stock barrier, but we’ll see. Some interesting pictures with regard to post performance, and a comparison of prior performance below.

Source: Scale Gamer

On MacOS, the option key functions as a modifier key like the shift key. Hold it down and press another key simultaneously. For option - shift, hold down both the option and shift keys and press another key simultaneously.

On Windows, the Alt key functions as a modifier like the shift key. To make special characters, hold down the Alt key and type in the numbers from the numeric keypad.

Your trusted windows OS for your PC is stealing 20% of your net connection! All that for just updates! Here’s how to get it back.The first thing you have to do is go to the start menu. Then use”RUN” and type in gpedit.msc. On the left side of gpedit you will see computer configurations. And under it you’ll see Administrative Templates, click it.

 Now under that there should be more folders. Click on the Network one. Now click the Quos folder. In the main part of the window on the right look for the option “Limit reservable bandwidth”. Turn the feature on. By clicking the properties box you will now enable this and change the amount from 20% to 0% or if you want to be able to reserve a little bandwidth for
the updates set it to 2 or 5%. Even if it says its not enabled it is. Restart your computer and the change should take effect.
If you don’t believe this run a speed test on you internet. I personally noticed a fairly marginal increase overall from this, however I have heard of some individuals gaining major amounts of speed from this little trick. Give it a try.

 Note: This works on Microsoft Windows XP Pro. I don’t know of an alternative for Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, or Vista (just haven’t had the chance to test it).

If you are defied by AJAX and want to have better experience, then you
may want to try AJAX Webshop because it features IDE and visualization
and allows beginners to develop Rich Web applications quickly. Let’s
look at some of its features:

Based on standard component library it allows Ajax IDE in the pattern
of rapid application development (RAD)

Integrated development and management tools are available. Easy-to-use
visual Unified Modeling Language and visual IDE; complete component
and object-oriented development pattern

Rich Web component library

Troubleshooting IntelliSense support, code editing support, project
release and deployment support.

Java, PHP, C#, VB support

Compatible with IE, Firefox

Download: AJAX Workshop

Regardless of how long you’ve been programming in a language, let’s face it, here and there, it’d be nice to just pick up a sheet of paper, view a simple image, click on a single link, and get a good reference table to aid you. In todays time, there are so many languages that people are trying to cram, that they sometimes lose focus, and mix and match, or just dilute them selves so heavily (think of the butter spread to evenly on the bread example), that they know a language, but sometimes just can’t recall some of the functions.

Below you will find a list of as many cheat sheets as I could find on the internet. If you have one you’ve made, or links that you know that contain cheat sheets, let me know via comments. Thanks!

Visual Development

• Photoshop CS2 shortcuts
• Photoshop CS3 shortcuts
• Maya
• Maya
• 3D Studio max shortcuts

Web Development Cheat Sheets

• JavaScript
• CSS
• CSS
• CSS
• CSS Shorthand
• Hex Codes
• HTML
• XHTML
• HTML Entities
• XHTML / HTML
• HTML Character Entities
• RBG Color
• UMBC Semantic Web Reference Card
• DreamWeaver

Databases / SQL Cheat Sheets

• MySQL
• MySQL
• Oracle
• SQL
• Sybase
• PostgreSQL
• SQL Server
• SYSBASE IQ

Language Cheat Sheets

• ColdFusion - work in progress
• PHP
• Ruby
• Regular Expressions
• JSP
• Java
• Python
• Perl
• Perl
• ASP/VBScript
• Ruby On Rails
• AJAX
• ASP.NET
• C
• C++
• C# vs VB.NET Syntax
• WML
• JSP 2.0 XML
• LATEX
• LUA
• XSL/XPATH
• ActionScript 1.0
• ActionScript 2.0
• XML
• RUBY
• Prototype
• DOJO

Version Control Cheat Sheets

• CVS
• Subversion

Other

• Google
• Windows
• Unix
• Unix
• Unix
• Vi
• Vim
• mod_rewrite
• ASCII Character Codes
• htaccess
• Regex
• Subversion
• Debian
• UML
• Microformats
• Movable Type
• XSS (Cross Site Scripting)
• Clear Case Commands
• VI
• VM
• ANSI
• EMACS
• GNU Screen
• Smarty
• WordPress
• Drupal
• Drupal
• Digg
• Google
• SEO
• SEO
• Textpad
• RSS 2.0

Commercially Printed CheatSheets

• Visibone - javascript, browsers, colors, fonts, html.
• TechnoChallenged - web dev, programming, os, software

Be sure to favorite, backlink, pingback, and bookmark this, as I will be adding a ton more shortly.

Update:

If you’re looking for some UNIX & Perl Cheat Sheets, among others such as BASH, and GAWK,  check out Peteris Krumins blog. Intersting, well developed cheat sheets.

 A buddy of mine over at Scottklarr.com wrote a pretty cool shell script to convert a director of .m4a sound files, to mp3 files. Check it out!

Link: Linux: M4A to MP3 Convert Shell Script

Some people find it a lot easier to learn when there is a visual aspect throw into the mix (kinesthetic learning). That holds true with programming as well of course. I just wanted to link to a fairly unknown, seemingly random list of programming videos in the following languages:

1. SQL
2. CPP
3. Visual Basic
4. DirectX
5. JAVA
6. HTML

Step by step videos, with audio, in readily available IDE’s from the learning blocks, to some more advanced techniques. They are all in flash format, so no need for extra codecs or third party software.

Link: Sean Cruels

Related to the last post. When switching to the Cricket network, you will not have web, and picture sms abilities. The post below over at howard forums will give you all of the information you need.

Link:  http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=9772640&postcount=2

A lot of people are beginning to take advantage of Cricket Mobile. It’s really gaining speed here in San Diego, and has been for quite some time in the more eastern regions of the U.S. Why wouldn’t it? The prices are great, there is no contract, unlimited sms, picture sms, internet, all kind of thing. Albeit, the internet from this network is a joke, but it’s generally pretty limited by the phone its self. Which brings me to my next point.

With all of these great prices and deals coming out of Cricket, people often get to the store, or start doing their research. Then they find out, the phone selection for cricket is terrible. The only thing close to a ‘cool’ or interactive phone, is the Kyocera Lingo. The lingo has a terrible internet display, comes with no serial cable, headphones for driving, and often de-synchs from the Cricket network causing missed calls, the inability to send sms messages, and more really weird issues. It breaks very easily, and costs well above what it should ($200.00). But it’s arguably the ‘best’ and most popular phone in their line up. What can be done about it?

Cricket works on the CDMA cellular network. That means a lot of VZW (verizon), and SNXTL(sprint) will work (granted sprint phones getting internet access is a bit trickier.) The two most common phones to be ‘converted’ are the Treo 600/650, and the LG enV. This guide is for the Treo 600/650. I may do one for the enV at a later date. Also, it should be said now, you may render your phone useless if caution, and patience is not exercised while doing this. But in the end, you will have a PDA on the Cricket network, even though Cricket tells you that just won’t work.

Guide just after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve ever tried to flash, hack, crack, transfer, do anything with a cell phone, that you really aren’t supposed to be doing, you will have heard of this tool.

QPST is a in-house cellphone manufacturer utility program that is used to edit many of the cell phone features that are not editable in any other way.

It was never meant for public consumption, so you can’t buy it anywhere, but it is in wide use. The reason it isn’t for everyone is that it is VERY powerful. You can destroy your phone at the click of a button and your cellular manufacturer will be under no obligation to fix it. If you don’t have a couple hundred dollars available that will allow you to replace your phone at full retail cost, don’t run this program.

You can do most things you might want, like uploading MP3’s to your phone or downloading pictures, through the somewhat safer program BitPIM. That program is available for download from SourceForge at the site http://www.bitpim.org/.

Direct Download (rapidshare): http://rapidshare.com/files/9279799/QPST_2.7_B215.zip

Torrent Download: http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3516150/QPST_2.7_Build_215

If you’ve ever come across code from a previous PHP programmer, and want to make change but can’t because it’s been Zend encoded, you know how frustrating that can be. Programmers can hide back doors, shell code, anything they like, as the code has been fully obfuscated with the Zend encoder.

 W4k1ng.net has released an online De-Zending script. Simple submit your Zend encoded files, wait for the file to be decoded, and download your decoded PHP script in a .ZIP file.

Check it out. I’ve tested it, and it works!

W4k1ng De-Zender 

The creators over at Meebo have listed a few of the ways they obtained capital funding for Meebo. They started out on home computers, and eventually raised some money. Here are their stories, a long with some tips for others who would like to do the same.

Milk Money, Part One: http://blog.meebo.com/?p=84

When to Raise VC: http://blog.meebo.com/?p=374

They also have a few other noteworthy blog entries as of late:

Getting started with Ajax: http://blog.meebo.com/?p=23

Happy Camper: http://blog.meebo.com/?p=96

Nuts and Bolts: http://blog.meebo.com/?p=126

JavaScript Riddle: http://blog.meebo.com/?p=301

JavaScript, and Internships: http://blog.meebo.com/?p=385

All a good read. You can check out the Meebo blog over at blog.meebo.com.