Assorted News 19 – Music and Movie Special 🙂
In this edition:
This one contains the long-promised guide to internet music and movies, plus some other small bits and pieces.
Generic News
How to watch and download music and movies on the Internet, safely.
Fibre to the Home?
Online Accounting.
A new technology that could change computing.
Tips
A way to get rid of Junk Mail.
Drunk or Drugged?
Get back deleted photos and files with Recuva.
Trivia:
Still in the Nissan.
Life as usual…
Freeview Update?
My New Green Tele 🙂
How to watch and download music and movies from the Internet, safely.
A few times lately I have promised some of you that I would be providing a comprehensive guide onto how to download music and movies from the Internet, safely. This has become more important recently as more customers have been moving to Wireless Broadband, because if you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing, it’s not hard to run up a bill of $100 or more.
This article has many images, so to be fair to all of you; rather than emailing the article to everyone, I have posted the article on the blog.
Even if you’re not planning on ever downloading music and movies, you might still find it interesting.
You can get it here: http://auzzie.net/cccblog//index.php?title=how_to_download_music_and_movies_from_th&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
It covers a broad spectrum of programs from 100% legal to those that are often used illegally, and includes the following programs and sites:
* BigPond Music
* BigPond Movies
* iTunes Music
* iTunes Movies
* YouTube
* ABC Podcasts
* LimeWire
* TVU Player
* Mininova
* uTorrent
Fibre to the Home?
Well, the latest bit of news in the Internet world is the idea of Fibre to the Home. At the moment, I’m a bit pessimistic about it; but in years to come it could be just like the Sydney Harbour Bridge – an investment in the future. In short, this is what has happened as I understand it.
1 – The original Optus Elders plan fell through / was canceled
2 – The government put out a request for tender to build a “national broadband network”
3 – Telstra’s bid appeared / was declared invalid as it didn’t answer all the requirements of the Tender process.
4 – The government determined that all the other bids were not capable of achieving what they wanted – only Telstra could do that.
5 – The government could no longer trust Telstra either, so were in a no-win situation.
6 – The government decided to go it alone independently and build a new wholesale network.
The good things in this proposal are that being a wholesale network means that existing providers can offer services on it, so it won’t kill off existing businesses (except perhaps Telstra if they can’t differentiate themselves enough on the level playing field) and of course the speed will be much better and finally obsolete the failing (rusting) copper network that currently exists. Fibreoptic cable doesn’t rust, and has theoretically no speed limit so it is relatively futureproof.
While I would like to see continued investment in wireless Internet because it’s so much more economical than digging up everyone’s road and footpath; I can also support that having faster internet will enable new services to exist that don’t exist currently. The 1000 person minimum town limit sounds reasonable to me too.
Online Accounting?
While casually reading on the Internet (which is what I do to relax) I read a Whirlpool thread where a number of people were arguing about which was better – QuickBooks or MYOB. See http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1139912 but be warned it gets a bit techy at times. One of the interesting things they talked about was the concept of ‘online accounting’ where you don’t actually buy an accounting program for your computer, and instead do it all online. Some sites that might be worth checking out are http://www.saasu.com/ and http://sba2k.com/
A New Technology that could change computing?
Well the world of computing is still changing… Increasingly more things are done on the Internet and less on a standard computer; making it increasingly possible to have a basic computer or even a high end mobile phone and still be able to do most of you daily work on it. It is not far from the point where it won’t matter whether you have Windows, Mac, Linux, Ubuntu or something else as long as it can get on the ‘net and run Firefox, etc. (Which is a bit of a worry for Microsoft.)
A recent podcast I listened to (while mowing the lawn) mentioned that there is a new service coming out in the US where you can play some of the latest games through your TV with just a tiny iPod-sized box. To play these games at home would normally require a computer with special parts that would cost more than $2,000. Instead, the company offering the service owns the high tech expensive computer(s) and does all the work for you, sending you the picture to your TV and receiving the signal from whatever the controller is that you’re mashing. http://www.twit.tv/ww100
Why is this a big thing? Well it means that rather than having to buy your own expensive computer or games console and having to buy the games as well taking the risk that they might be crap, you could buy a cheap little box (or use a basic computer) and as long as you have fast internet you’re ready to go!
Gaming is one of the hardest things for a computer to do – so in theory with this kind of service you can do just about anything computer-based without having to have your own high powered computer. It’s also a good example of how the Fibre to the Home scheme would be beneficial, as this sort of service needs at least 1Mbps and up to 5Mbps – possible now with ADSL but only just.
Getting Rid of Junk Mail?
Now that 95% of email is Junk Mail, it’s more important than ever to be able to get rid of it. To date I’ve still only found one free method that works really well, and the good news is that it can work with most email addresses provided your ISP lets you forward email. (This includes BigPond email addresses.)
The simple solution is to get yourself a free email address on Google – that is an address at gmail.com; and then tell your current email provider to forward your email to this new address.
The reason it works so well is because Google is huge. They can see the junk mail as it arrives to multiple places at once and remove it automatically. They also have a ‘report spam’ feature so if someone gets a junk message and reports it; it’ll get rid of it for you, and also for anyone else who gets a similar one.
Another advantage in adopting this new address is that it then frees you to choose a new internet company in the future without being tied to your current company’s address – a common problem for those stuck in a big pond or a chariot with broken wheels. (In other words, you’ll always have the google address no matter what internet company you move to.)
You can access Gmail from Outlook Express and other email programs just as you do now; so the change, once set up, is effectively transparent.
(This tip assumes that Google won’t suddenly die – but so far they’re pretty reliable.)
As an example of how to do this, go to http://gmail.com/ and register for a new account – might take a few guesses because the downside of having billions of users is that there’s likely to already be someone with your name on there – who of course you can email later if you want to meet your alter ego?
Next step is to go to your current internet company and ask them to forward your mail to the new address – you can do this yourself if you’re on BigPond, but the process varies for other providers.
It can be a bit tricky getting Gmail working in Outlook Express / Outlook / Incredimail but it can be done – you know who you can call if you need help 😉
By the way, your junk mail won’t get delivered to your computer, but you can access it from the gmail.com website so in the rare case that it could bit something important, you can still get it.
Drunk or Drugged?
If there is one thing that is guaranteed to annoy me, it’s ringing me while drunk or drugged. Repeat offenders are added to my voice call management systems as ‘do no answer’. If it takes more than ten minutes to get you to find type something into the Google box and left-click the search button… I may just hang up 🙂
Get back deleted photos and files with Recuva
Have you ever accidentally deleted a file that you wanted to get back? Up until recently you had to buy special software to get it back. Now, there’s a free program called Recuva which does quite a good job of retrieving lost stuff. The key with this sort of mistake is to stop as soon as you’ve accidentally nuked something because when you nuke a file, all that happens is that the space where it lived on the drive or memory card is marked as free to be overwritten. It works for cameras, memory sticks, hard drives, etc. Free from http://www.recuva.com/
Still in the Nissan…
Well, I’m still in the Nissan. It’s still doing just under 9 litres per 100KM which is surprising for it’s age. However it’s quite anonymous at the moment so I’m doing one or two things to help here. One is to get some new signage on the rear window similar to what’s on the Kingswood – although I’m thinking of going upmarket this time and getting a transparent type. The other idea is to take advantage of the dead paint on the bonnet and use the entire bonnet for signage. (It spent 6 years in a shed in Mildura under that laserlite roofing – baked the paint off the bonnet.)
The Kingswood is going in for overdue repairs next week and will be back on the road soon. Some of you have missed it. Some are happier with the boxy Nissan. I must admit I’m spoilt by the Auto transmission in the Nissan – went to start the Kingswood after a two month break last week and forgot it was a manual! (Crunched a cardboard box against the wall with the starter motor, no harm done.)
Life as usual…
So far the GFC hasn’t really affected me that much. Work is still pretty busy 🙂
FreeView Update?
Want to know more about what’s happening with FreeView? You can find out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9JGdE-p4dQ – note, a little bad language.
My New Green Tele 🙂
Well as you’ve probably heard, they’re planning on hiking our power bills by 20%. Now, my bills are usually around $500 a quarter as it is so it’s not an attractive proposition. As a result – and this partly explains why this newsletter’s late – I’ve gone on a power saving binge around the house. (Plus we have a new tropical fish tank which of course is not a green choice.) The changes made:
One computer – previously used as a TV – permanently decomissioned.
Another computer – previously used as an answering machine and remote access – now only on 5% of the time. (Wakes up, syncs with another system, hibernates.)
One always on set top box decomissioned.
Three video sender / receiver units decomissioned
One VGA to Composite unit decommissioned.
Multiple idle wall warts removed
Office rewired for switched circuitry for charging, etc.
Countdown timer added to bedroom heater (runs for 10 mins, then cuts out)
Sensor light replaced for Garage – weatherproofed this time.
Sensorlight fitted to front door – energy saving bulb always on, 100W spot only runs on motion
Negative: Built a heated dog bed, maintains 19 degrees when no dog present, can monitor from the Internet.
Decommissioned one full time VCR, TV standby circuit, radio standby circuit.
Time will tell how much I have saved, but it should be a little. At the moment, the sensor light units are only $6 each at Sams Warehouse so most rooms in the house now light up as you enter them 🙂
The most time consuming process was building the new TV computer – it has two digital tuners, one analogue tuner and an FM radio built in. Dual flat screens, and a new $30 remote control. It’s great 🙂 Here’s why:
It automatically loads the TV guide from the digital television signal.
You can search the guide alphabetically and mark off the shows you want to watch (including entire seasons)
You can watch live TV or recorded shows from any other computer in the house. (Only need one antenna.)
This computer is also the answering machine – links in to my home made accounting system so it can read out the names of who’s calling.
It displays random photos on the second screen every few minutes using “John’s Background Switcher”
Because of Microsoft Virtual PC, this machine also runs the Auzzie Dialup Accounting System, remote backups and a few other network monitoring processes, making optimal use of the dual-core hardware.
It’s not hard to build such a computer using free programs. The key program in this case is gb-pvr which is free from http://gbpvr.com/
I can give you a demo on the laptop if you track me down 🙂
Anyway, that’s it for this newsletter – took ages to write so hope you enjoy it 🙂
Cheers, Mike
Old Editions
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