Using ImTOO DVD Ripper

Just tested using one of the popular software for DVD ripper from ImTOO Software Studio, DVD Ripper Platinum. Never try to convert one of my favorites DVD movies to my Google Android-based mobile phone. Hopefully can accompany me in a trip by watching movies using my phone next weekend.

After a quick installation, the software is ready to begin ripping from DVD to AVI. Conversion feature are extensive, can convert to different type of format such as AVI, MPEG, WMV, XviD and many more to mostly existing portable players.

Although the software has a lot of options, the interface and layout are quite nice and makes me feel easy to use for a beginner. The default setting is using high quality version, remember to change it to different optimization that suit your needs.

For more details you can visit their site here and mac version here.

How to delete Yahoo Messenger Custom Status Messages

Today I just realized that YM don't have the menu/setting to delete the custom status messages.

So, how to delete it anyway?

1. Just type another custom status message
From the Yahoo Messenger official site:

Yahoo! Messenger "remembers" the last 9 custom status messages you create. If there are currently 9 custom messages in Messenger's memory and you add a new one, it forgets the oldest one and replaces it with the new one.

Although there's no way to manually delete the old custom status messages, they'll be deleted as you make new ones.

That's why no available setting/menu to delete it right? It's automatically deleted!

2. Delete it the hard way

a. Click START
b. Click RUN
c. Type "regedit" without quotes
d. Select the tree with the following:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\yahoo\pager\profiles\"Your YM ID"\Custom Msgs

At this point you can see all the custom messages.

e. Right click on the selected messages in NAME column and click DELETE
Repeat this step if you want to delete more status

3. Delete it the easier way

Just download Andy's Clear/Edit Yahoo Messenger Status History utility.

4. If nothing works for you, try to reinstall YM again :)

Just give comments if you want to share more tips to delete it.

Joomla at a glance

Joomla is an open source content management system referred by tens of thousands as the best CMS (Content Management System) in the world.

After being installed, we can set up sections, categories, content items and much more add-ons to our new website. Forget the HTML, PHP, Ajax and any other languages for coding the websites, because using Joomla means create a website using friendly menus. With just point and click interface, it will be much easier.

Sounds interesting right?

The fact is, you must really get used to the menus and the terms in Joomla. The terms "easier" means everything are much easier than coding it entirely from the first place!

So, the first thing you can do is find the best source in the internet to learn it or for me I have my own “Joomla! For Dummies” book as guidance.

Next step you have to download the latest version of Joomla (you can download it here for the latest version). And remember to download the database component (I'm using XAMPP it means linuX, Ajax, Mysql, PHP, Perl). You can download XAMPP from this link.

The hard part (for me) is selecting the best template that suits you.
I prefer some FREE templates you can choose:
- Joomla24
- JoomlaShack
- SiteGround

Now you will begin sweating and swearing, it is not that easy as it says huh?

If you are a serious user and want to design it more professional you must find website professionals or get some help from ecommerce web services if you want to get the best of your internet business.

Not to worry if you are just starting new business and using website as your media, because generally web services can help you in the retail business.

Quick Media Converter

Quick Media Converter is a powerful and completely free tool for audio and video conversion.

For me I call it all in one converter tool because Quick Media Converter can converts from different formats such as flv, avi, divx, xvid, mpeg4, ipod, iphone, psp, 3GP, 3G2, AVI, DIVX, XVID, TS, DVD, VCD, MPEG, MPEG2, MP3, WAV, amr, m4a, mp4, vob, mov, h264, h263, wmv, wma.

Also support multiple files (in different formats) with a single process and have the Easy and Expert mode options. In easy mode everything are using the standard conversions settings. You don't have to change everthing, just select the file and the conversion type. Everything is good to go. But if you are a skilled user just try expert mode to more enhanced conversions setting such as bitrates, aspect, sizes and many more codes that require more knowledge of video and audio conversion.

For bonus, Quick Media Converter includes CamStudio which can capture your desktop activity to video.

I try this Quick Media Converter for a few times by convert mp4 iPod and VOB files to avi. The results are great.

You can download it here.

Auslogics Disk Defrag

I just received a brand new hard drive for my notebook. My previous hard drive was crashed due to bad sectors. After a couple hours of installing and set up some default software, I try to find a better defragmenter tools that are available to use from the internet.

So, after spending two more hours searching and comparing, at last I choose this Auslogics Disk Defrag that was more recommended by the users. And it's absolutely FREE.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a good utility for fast hard drive optimization. After optimizing it will speed up your hard drive start up and shutdown time, also increase the bottleneck of the system performance. As you know, hard drive is the slowest component in our computer. CPU and memory work faster because they don not have moving parts.

Auslogics Disk Defrag supports FAT 16, FAT 32, and NTFS volumes.

I already try this utility a few times and it works out great.

You can download it from their website here

MP3 bitrates converter using CDex

I've just downloaded one of my long time favourite mp3. The huge file size about 13 MB really took me by surprised. What the heck?! 13 MB for one mp3 file?

It's sure big because of the sound quality is marvelous, near CD Audio quality!

Below are the common bitrates for mp3:

96kbs: The sound clearly lacks definition: as an example, hall's noises are perceived as some breath. The result is comparable to a good FM radio.

112kbs: The sound seems less present and less natural than the original. The definition is a bit less good, the voice is less clear. Attacks are less spontaneous. The spatialization is different from the original recording: the sound seems to be located more far and more lower. There is however a very noticeable improvement compared to 96kbs.

128kbs: Hall's noises are slightly less defined than the original. The violin is a bit less present and the piano attacks a bit less sharp. The voice is nearly identical to the original recording but sibilants are less pronounced. We can notice the same spatialization problem as with the 112kbs's one although there is again a good improvement compared to the 112kbs rate.

160kbs: The sound is more natural than 128kbs but the improvement is less spectacular than during the two preceding stages. The sound is different from the original, without however being possible to tell in what. I think that the difference resides more in what we feel rather than in what we hear.

192kbs: The sound is not felt as the original recording. It is however totally impossible to tell in what.

320kbs/256kbs: The sound is indiscernible from the original. It is impossible to make the difference with the original recording.

After understanding the bitrates quality stuff, I wanted to convert that 13MB file for standard listening in computers. That is 128kbs. I don't want to waste my hard drive space for only one song.

So, I found this great software, called CDex (it's FREE!).

CDex is a tool to do all sorts of things audio related. Mainly focused on ripping and converting, things like turning your home Compact Disc collection into an mp3 collection on your hard drive become extremely easy.

I try to convert the 13 MB file using 128kbs and the size had been change to 5MB. Whew, that's really save my space a lot!

But remember not to improve your sound quality from lower bitrates to higher bitrates, because whenever mp3 file has been compressed to lower bitrates, it is certain that part of the volatile sound which can not be compressed has been lost. So the result after the conversion is the same quality!

Ever try to convert mp3 before? Drop your comments to share your experiences.

You can download CDex here.

Funny Flash Drive

This is one of the geek gadgets that will make people smile or scratching their heads.

Actually it's only a 2 GB flash drive, but it appears as though you've ripped the end of a USB cable and stuck in into your computer.

The little gizmo is called Hacked! The OH!*#% Flash Drive.

With this gadget you will be less concern if someone might took away your USB cable...

You can visit or even buy that from here.

PicMarkr - Free Watermark

PicMarkr is online tool that will add custom watermark (image or text) to your images. Usually image watermarking being used to protect your copyrights or add some descriptions to your pictures. You can see the image examples from my previous posts.

The steps for creating this watermark are easy:
1. Upload your photos
You can either import it from Flickr (you must have the account) or just upload it from your computer. You can upload 5 files and total file size less than 25MB. PicMarkr has the option to resize your uploaded pictures to 500 pixels, 800 pixels and 1024 pixels.

2. Set watermark to your images
PicMarkr has 3 options, Text watermark, Image watermark and Tiled watermark. It has the option for the presets and watermark align.

3. Save your images
After creating your watermark, you can upload the images back to Flickr or save it to your own computer.

That's it, with minimum settings and don't need to download or install everything, PicMarkr has help me to create watermark the easy way. And yes, it's FREE.

Email notifier for multiple email accounts

I'm very sure that all you guys out there were having more than one email accounts.
There are lots of free email services available and it might be weird to have only one email account on these days.

On the other side, it's really waste a lot of time to directly log in to every email account you have. And I had found three email notifiers to make life easier.

1. Gmail Notifier
The original notifier for Gmail. Supports checking multiple accounts as well as Gmail Hosted accounts. Allows you to monitor multiple Gmail accounts right inside your browser's UI.

2. Gmail Manager
Allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. Displays your account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets.

3. WebMail Notifier
WebMail Notifier checks your webmail accounts and notifies the number of unread emails.
You can use multiple accounts in a same host. Currently supports Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail/MSN/Live and many more.

I personally prefer WebMail Notifier, because it support different email service.

Do you have other email notifier better than my list?
Just drop your comments...

SpeedConnect Internet Accelerator

SpeedConnect Internet Accelerator is a powerful Windows application designed to optimize existing Dial-Up Modem, DSL, Cable, Wireless, LAN, High-speed internet connections.

This Web Accelerator adjust certain settings on your Windows TCP/IP settings, to result faster Web browsing, faster e-mail, quicker downloads, and improved overall Internet performance.

SpeedConnect prevents fragmentation in data transfer using the TCP/IP protocols used on the Internet, greatly increasing modem throughput and download-upload speed.

The installation steps :
1. After installing SpeedConnect, you can try the Connection Tester by downloading certain files. The default is Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. You can change it with other file. Below is my Telkomsel Flash internet connection result: POOR.


2. In the main menu, select Tools & Wizards tab and click next
3. Connection Type : Using Broadband connection that is always on
4, Connection Details : LAN / Cable/xDSL connection
5. Network adapter : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
6. Maximum Bandwith : 4000 Kbps (Telkomsel Flash maximum bandwith is 3600 Kbps)
7. Optimization mode : Automatic
8. Click Optimize and Apply Changes
9. Restart windows

For Windows Vista, XP.
Note: Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 to run.
You can visit their official homepage here.

Do you have any comments after using this utlity? The connection getting better or still the same as usual? Want to suggest better utlity? Just leave your comments ...

ColorfulTabs

Want to change the looks of the current FireFox tabs differently?

You can try the ColurfulTabs add-on. This customizable add-on can display a different color in each tabs and make it easier to distinguish from each other. Still have other color options to play with, such as random tabs color, background tabs visibility or colorize tabs by individual tabs.

Works with: Firefox: 3.0b2 – 3.0

You can install it from here.

Or you can try to visit the author's site from here.

Universal Portable Battery Bank

Already planning for the holidays yet? Don't forget that all your electronic gadgets have limited power such as your cell phone, digital camera, camcorders etc. But not to worry, because the Lacor company have battery bank products to help you.

The universal portable is a rechargeable Li-polymer battery (2300mAH;6S1P) 50W capacity 500 times cycle. Have selective voltage output (5, 6, 7.5, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19 V) including dual output 5V/1A USB port output to adjust your needs to various gadgets. It has 8 pcs of multi-connector tips (More than 50 types of tips as options, full range tips for DSC, DV, Mobile phones, Games, Phones ...)

Also has pass-through charge function (Charge and supply power at the same time). And if you staying too long on the car, it has optional car charger.

Power and charges
* Laptops 4 hours
* Partable DVD Player 7 hours
* Camcorders 14hours
* Poratble media players 14 hours video, 35 hours music
* iPod: 48hours
* Poratble CD player 110 hours
* PDA 16hours
* Mobile phones 70 hours

You can visit the Lacor homepage here.

Canon PIXMA MP145

Canon PIXMA MP145 is a multi-function (all-in-one) ink jet printer from Canon that has scanning, printing, and copying functions. With the price range absolutely cheap around USD$80-USD$85, this printer will delivers standard quality printing, basic copying and scanning needs. And if you are not mind the decent printing speed, Canon PIXMA MP145 is considered a very good bargain.General Information :
Device Type : Multifunction, Inkjet

Dimensions (WxDxH) : 443 x 381 x 181 mm
Weight : 6.3 kg

Printer
Print speed (b&w) : 15 ppm
Print speed (color) : 20 ppm

Print Resolution (up to)
Black: 600 x 600 dpi
Color: 4800 x 1200 dpi


Copier
Copy Speed (up to)
Black: 19 cpm (as fast as 3.1 seconds per page)
Color: 15 cpm color (as fast as 4.0 seconds per page)


Scanner
Scanner Type : Contact Image Sensor (CIS)

Scanner Element :
600 x 1200 dpi (Optical)
19,200 x 19,200 dpi (Interpolated)

Color Depth : 48-bit internal

Max. Document Size : 8.5" x 11.7"

For the detail features, specifications or driver just visit here.

Solid-state drive (SSD)

What is SSD ?

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data. Unlike flash-based memory cards, a SSD emulates a hard disk drive, thus easily replacing it in most applications. An SSD using SRAM or DRAM (instead of flash memory) is often called a RAM-drive. (Wikipedia.com)

If you pay attention to the latest laptop storage configuration, there is a choice between using the hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SDD). For example take a look at the latest Asus Eee PC ,
Type Eee PC 1000 : SSD with 40GB capacity
Type Eee PC 1000H : HDD with 80GB capacity


Which one is better ?

SSD is not much difference to a flash drive. They store data on a non-mechanical device. That means no mechanical failures such as stop spinning like the hard disk drive being doing all this time. From this advantage will result :

* Faster speed (no moving parts)
* Consume less power usage (work great on laptop!)
* More reliable (not that fragile and sensitive material)

Great performances by the SSD are not yet followed by it's expensive price tag compared to the old hard disk drive. Maybe because only a few big manufacturers produce it. For the price comparison, a laptop with a SDD instead of a standard HDD costs about 50% or 60% more. And the biggest SDD available today is only 60 gigabytes.

Another disadvantages :
* Limited number of write cycles before they wear out
* Available capacity remains much lower than HDD
* Difficulty on data recovery (just like your flash drive when fails, it's done)

Just hope this guides can help you all to decide which type of storage suits you.

Speed up Firefox browser

There are ways to increase your browsing speed with firefox:

Tweak the browser

1. Start Firefox and type: about:config in the address bar
2. Type network.http.pipe in the Filter search bar on top
3. Double click on the network.http.pipelining string to change its value to TRUE.
If you use a proxy, set network.http.proxy.pipelining to TRUE as well.
4. Double click on the network.http.pipelining.maxrequests string to change its interger value to 35.
5. Right click anywhere on the Configuration screen and select "New" and then "Boolean".
6. Enter browser.turbo.enabled as the new Boolean name and click "Ok". Now set the value of the Boolean to TRUE

Browser settings

1. Disable Images
Firefox allows you to disable loading images automatically. To disable image in your Firefox browser, from the menu bar choose Tools-Options-Content and uncheck "Load images automatically".

2. Disable Stylesheets
Disabling stylesheets help to keep website load times down as well. From the file menu choose View-Page Style and select "No Style". It's important to note that websites will display differently with their stylesheets disabled, but in most cases the navigation will not be negatively affected.


Using add-on or software

- Download Fasterfox (Requires Firefox 1.5 - 2.0)

- Download FireTune for Firefox

Huawei E169

Telkomsel Flash is the latest products from Telkomsel that provide users with unlimited broadband internet access. On the earlier stage, they using Huawei E220 as their standard modem. But later on they upgrade their product using Huawei E169.

What the difference between Huawei E220 and Huawei E169?

The E169 is more updated with the latest wireless technology and devices. Also included a MicroSD slot that will allowing user to use it as memory stick and modem.

As we can see from the comparisons, the major differences are in download speed and the 3G band.

Technical Details for E169
Download speed : 7.2Mbps HSDPA services
Upload speed : 384Kbps
Chipset : Qualcomm MSM7200
Technologies : HSDPA/R99/EDGE/GPRS
3G Bands : Dual (950Mhz/2100Mhz)
Advanced receivers : Equaliser


Technical Details for E220
Download speed : 3.6Mbps HSDPA services
Upload speed : 384Kbps
Chipset : Qualcomm MSM6280
Technologies : HSDPA/R99/EDGE/GPRS
3G Bands : Single (2100Mhz)
Advanced receivers : Equalizer in latest firmware

Mobile Technology Jargons

You will never quite understand what it's all about speed, packet or transmissions talk, but at least you have learn something from these abbreviation.

HSDPA is High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, is a new protocol for mobile telephone data transmission. It is known as a 3.5G (G stands for generation) technology. It has the ability to receive large files to your mobile device such as email attachments, PowerPoint presentations or web pages.

HSUPA – High Speed Uplink Packet Access – this is a further enhancement to increase the speed by which you communicate from your mobile device – for example, this enables you to upload videos to YouTube in secs so that you can share the experience in real time.

UMTS is Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. UMTS is one of the emerging mobile phone technologies known as third-generation, or 3G. Third-generation systems are designed to include such traditional phone tasks as calls, voice mail, and paging, but also new technology tasks such as Internet access, video, and SMS, or text messaging.


GPRS is General Packet Radio Service. GPRS is a series of functionalities that allow mobile data streaming and transfer to users of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) mobile phones. GPRS is sometimes called 2.5G, since it predates 3G but is more advanced than 2G.


EDGE is Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution. A close cousin of GPRS in the technology family tree. EDGE allows higher bit transmission rates at a price of lower bandwidth available for plain old phone calls. EDGE is particularly useful as a GPRS solution for the larger data services described above, such as streaming
video and video conferencing.


A SIM card is Subscriber Identity Module is a portable memory chip used in some models of cellular telephones. SIM cards are used with carriers that operate on the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) network.


CDMA is Code Division Multiple Access

Huawei E220 HSDPA USB Modem

Cheap internet access is getting easier and available everywhere. As long as you have 3G trasmission covered in the area, you are ready to surf.

One of the tiny design and high speed modem is Huawei E220 USB Modem that redefines mini fashion for the elite. The irresistible creation features the eye-catching sleek design and a great speed up to 3.6Mbps. Its USB cable can be used by both laptops and desktop computers. Put the chic near your hand and enjoy the charm of mini fashion.

1. Main Features

HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM
- HSDPA packet data service with a maximum transmission rate of 3.6Mbps
- UMTS packet data service with a maximum transmission rate of 384kbps
- EDGE packet data service with a maximum transmission rate of 236.8kbps
- SMS service
- Auto installation, convenient for use
- Windows 2000 and Windows XP Operating system

2.Specifications

Technical standard :
HSDPA/UMTS: 3GPP R99, R5
GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 3GPP R99

Operating frequency :
HSDPA/UMTS 2100MHz
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900MHz

External interface :
Mini USB interface: supporting USB 2.0 Full Speed
Antenna: Internal antenna
SIM/USIM card: standard 6 PIN SIM card interface

Dimensions : 89 mm (D) x 43 mm (W) x 14.5 mm (H)

Weight : 50g

* Dependent on network, usage and battery condition

How to speed up your PC

It is a common question to all PC users when sometime they feel that their PC is getting slower. But we can not entirely blame the PC, but rather the applications are getting fast. Every program was developed using the latest computing technology.

Another possibilities are because PC users spending most of their times working with fast computer. And felt the older PC at home is getting slower and slower. Actually it may be just as it ever was.

Below are some steps to increase the speed of your PC. But before proceeding to any of those tips, I recommended to backup all important documents, emails and favorites software.

Full scan for virus and malware
You never know what kind of malware that hiding inside our PC. Some of them are not harmful, but will slow your PC if you have lots of malware or adware. Just use the general anti virus program such as AVG and Adware. It's free and very helpful.

Clean up and defrag the disk
Remove unneeded software and try to run Disk Cleanup. Don't forget to delete the internet temporary files from your browser. After that try to Scan and Defragment the disk. It may take hours if you run it for the first time. It is getting faster if you can do it regularly.

Check auto start up and registry
You can try to run msconfig at the prompt to check what programs are include in the start up. Select the start up tab to view it. Uncheck anything that looks useless. But try not unchecking the windows system files. And for cleaning the registry you can try CCleaner. It's free.


After performing all those steps and the pc still running slow, maybe it is the time to:

Reinstall windows
Try formatting the drive and install all the windows and other software. It's really
clean up your drive from junk temp internet files, orphan registry and other old applications that had been upgraded. Please backup all the important files before doing this.

Upgrade the drive and increase RAM
This trick really can boost your PC speed. Using the bigger RAM and faster hard drive also increase the performance.

Any more tips from other readers? Please submit your advice.

How to extend cell phone battery consumption

One of the features in today cell phones is gaming. There are lots of good games to play. Playing more games mean juice up the battery. Here are some good tips how to reduce the power consumption:

1. Turn off Bluetooth and the dual band feature when you are not using it. It is one of the most power hungry applications.
2. Lower the screen brightness.
3. Disable the vibrating alerts and sounds. You do not need keypad tone when playing right? And just use vibrating alerts in a meeting or crowded places.
4. Disable any animation on screen saver mode.
5. Turn off the cell phone in remote area such as no signals places. Your phone will use much juice in attempts to find a network.

Want to add more tips about this topic? Just leave some comments to share it.