How to batch render and stretch in Sony Vegas 11 Pro

 On The Front Line, Sony, Sony Vegas Scripting, Vegas Pro, Video, Video Editing, Visual Studio  No Responses »
Dec 212011
 

batch render 300x195 How to batch render and stretch in Sony Vegas 11 Pro

Selecting batch render in Sony Vegas Pro

If you have prepared regions in a video which you wish to output as individual files Sony Vegas Pro has a simple script called “Batch Render” that will do the dirty work for you. However it won’t stretch to fill video for you and if this is a requirement then you need to change the script.

Research reveals Vegas Pro versions before 9 would handle stretching to avoid letterboxing too. However the default installation no longer does. This is how you do it:-

  1. Locate the script directory (usually C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 11.0\Script Menu)
  2. Make a copy of “Batch Render.cs” and call it “Batch Render Stretch.cs”
  3. Open the new file in a text editor and find the two lines that begin “args.OutputFile =”. You will find them around line 97 and 106.
  4. Create a new line below them and add “args.StretchToFill = true;” (without the quotes (see below)
  5. Save your changes, refresh the script listing in Vegas and use the new script to render files as before but use this new script instead

    6. After your changes the code should look something like this:-

    if (RenderMode.Regions == renderMode) {
	int regionIndex = 0;
	foreach (Sony.Vegas.Region region in myVegas.Project.Regions) {
		String regionFilename = String.Format("{0}[{1}]{2}",
				filename,
				regionIndex.ToString(),
				renderItem.Extension);
		RenderArgs args = new RenderArgs();
		args.OutputFile = regionFilename;
		args.StretchToFill = true;  // <------------ Add this line
		args.RenderTemplate = renderItem.Template;
		args.Start = region.Position;
		args.Length = region.Length;
		renders.Add(args);
		regionIndex++;
	}
} else {
	filename += renderItem.Extension;
	RenderArgs args = new RenderArgs();
	args.OutputFile = filename;
	args.StretchToFill = true;  // <------------ Add this line
	args.RenderTemplate = renderItem.Template;
	args.UseSelection = (renderMode == RenderMode.Selection);
	renders.Add(args);
}

    If programming’s not your thing you can download a copy of the script ready-made by clicking here.

    If you’re interested in programming Vegas this is a good starter video:

 Posted by Martyn at 4:32 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , ,

How to disable the annoying audio warning to clear cache

 Annoyances, Google Software, Google Toolbar, Software, Utilities  2 Responses »
Nov 292011
 

1951881 blog 300x219 How to disable the annoying audio warning to clear cacheDo you keep hearing a voice message warning you to clear your cache and cookies? I don’t, but my father experiences it and when he described it I could not believe it. Why would such a pointless and stupid message be played every time you opened the browser?

At first I thought it was something wrong with Internet Explorer but removing the Google Toolbar solves the problem. Further investigation results in problem with Google’s data gathering process (surprise surprise).

If you wish to keep the Google Toolbar this is what you need to do:-

1. Click the Toolbar’s wrench OR the dropdown arrow beside the search .
2. Click Manage.
3. Click Privacy.
4. Then select Turn off features that send information

However this has not worked for everyone – with some claiming they disable it and it automatically enables itself again later.

On the subject of People have said….

Some think this is a ploy by Microsoft to stop people using or supplying information to Google. No one has suggested that it might be Google trying to get people to switch from IE to Chrome which is a more likely result (Google Toolbar does not work in Chrome!).

I think it is more likely a programming error and the issue, apart from being extremely annoying, Google are taking so long to fix it.

As for whether this is a Microsoft or Google problem IMO it is Google at fault, if they want to offer their Toolbar on IE then its up to them to get it to work properly.

 Posted by Martyn at 1:19 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to change text size in chm help files

 Annoyances, Help Files, Microsoft  No Responses »
Nov 092011
 

hard to read fonts Custom How to change text size in chm help files
I am experiencing a problem with fonts in help files. As you can see from the picture the font used for the Index is readable. The font used for the content is too small.

read using magnifier Custom 150x150 How to change text size in chm help files

Read with the magnifier

Once so desperate and in a hurry the only solution I found was to start the Magnifier which proved awkward and intensely frustrating but that had as much to do with the useless information in the help file as the sheer stupidity of not being able to read it. I remember swearing if I ever found out who was responsible it would take an army to stop me from blinding the bastard.

A little research resulted in a suggestion to change the Accessibility options. I felt a little resentful at the suggestion my eyesight was in some way to blame but I gave it a try. Here’s what you do:-


Open the CHM file.
-> Options -> Internet Options -> Accessibility -> Ignore Fonts Sizes on specified Web pages

Presto! You can read the help file but don’t get too excited, now go to Internet Explorer and visit your favourite website, what do you see? In most cases it will be a mess with silly font sizes.

I was crushed.

Further research suggests CHM Authors set font sizes but all files were using tiny fonts. Either the entire help file writing fraternity had gone bonkers or something else maybe wrong.

Clearing cache, using various mouse and keyboard combinations changed nothing. The fonts remained too small in the content area.

Forums, Microsoft and Yahoo Answers and other searches were not coming up with any results so I loaded Sysinternals Process Monitor, set some filters and nosed around the registry to find a bizarre call being made to some default entries buried deep under ‘International’ settings for Internet Explorer. It’s not surprising it has been difficult to fix, anyway, this is how you do it:-

How to change text size in chm help files

Easy way

1. Download this .reg file unzip and double-click fix-font-in-chm.reg and follow instructions to change your registry.

Not so easy but less risk as you are in control of the changes

1. Open regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\International\Scripts\3
3. Change IEFontSize to 03,00,00,00

 Posted by Martyn at 6:56 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to Solve WHS 2011 Connect in one simple step

 Annoyances, Business, Microsoft, Software, WHS 2011  No Responses »
Oct 292011
 

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23621

Explanation

I spent an entire hour trying to figure out why one of my PC’s would not connect to my fresh Windows Home Server 2011 installation. I don’t mind admitting I was mighty pissed off. How come every other PC connected via http://myserver/Connect – as per the instructions supplied by my new server’s post installation tableau and not this’n?

A little research quickly reveals many people experiencing similar problems. A bunch of them just gave up and did a complete reinstall. This made me think the problem was probably a router issue (firewalls and routers often to blame for connection issues and often forgotten by frustrated users staring at tubes and not cables).

I checked my hosts file – nothing odd there.
I checked my router – updated as per WHS 2011 via upnp.

It appeared my one naff PC had nothing stopping it gaining the same access the other PC’s on my network enjoyed. So a little more research using different phrases…

2478716 blog 200x300 How to Solve WHS 2011 Connect in one simple step

  • Unable to connect to WHS2011 Server when installing the Connect
  • Whs 2011 Client Connection Failure
  • WHS2011 Cannot Install Connector
  • WHS Connection Issues
  • download windows home server connector
  • WHS 2011 Connector Software Won’t Install
  • Cannot Install WHS2011 Connector

You get the idea. 5 minutes of this revealed nothing obvious. Plenty of replies and suggestions but zero solutions “Turn IPv6 off and it will work – it worked for me” with others suggesting “Solution is easy, you just need to install Windows Home Server twice”.

Microsoft knowledge base is often the place for solutions but it has been difficult to find stuff in there due to contaminated google searches full of rubbish. As the big G is not a Microsoft fanboy answers are buried many pages away from view.

Bing has none of these hangups and offers the right kind of bias, and thus, anyone of the above search terms will lead you to articles that often refer to Microsoft’s own solution to the problem which is a small executable file that once run solves all the issues and connects your disgruntled PC.

But why don’t Microsoft supply that as part of the Connector software? Perhaps the answer for that lies in Bing.

That link again if you missed it at the top of the article is http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23621

 Posted by Martyn at 8:50 am  Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Sanitize Gmail Contacts For Windows 7 Phone To Avoid Error 80070057

 Annoyances, Business, Gmail, Gmail Contacts, Google Software, Hardware, HTC, Mobile, Software  25 Responses »
Oct 102011
 

Update

Mike Mongeau, a forum moderator at Microsoft Answers says as follows, I would point out the error I experienced was with one of the custom fields and not date but I think the date field will be the most common of the two. If this doesn’t work for you move beyond the update section for another potential remedy:

Everyone: I’ve done some digging and believe I know the cause behind the error code. It seems Google contacts allows for birthday fields of many formats, including something like Month, DD, YY. So, a birthday like “October 17, 11″ will cause a sync failure. The phone sees the year not as 2011, but actually as year 11. It naturally balks at this. Here are some other notable findings with this:

What’s odd is that Google doesn’t allow you to enter birthdays in this format (at least, not any longer). Instead, to get myself into a “bad state” I had to import my contacts with the birthday field entered like this. Meaning you guys either (1) imported your contacts or (2) had entered these birthday values in some older interface of Google’s contacts.
This isn’t a regression. Any contacts with this birthday value will, in fact, fail to sync pre-Mango – just the error code isn’t shown.

To fix: simply edit the birthday field of your contacts in this format (or delete) to be MM, DD, YYYY. Finally, remove and re-add your Google account.

3082818 s Sanitize Gmail Contacts For Windows 7 Phone To Avoid Error 80070057The Problem
After installing Windows 7.5 (Mango) on my HTC Mozart Windows Phone all worked well for a couple of days. I noticed that Gmail was sometimes not synchronizing but put it down to poor cell coverage. I began to receive calls showing the number and not the contact, and then, when trying to make a call one day I found all my contacts missing.

I searched for solutions online. I found similar complaints however these were for the earlier version of Windows 7, 7.5 better known as Mango had only just been released and surely, the problems in the older version of the software had not been brought forward to the new?

They had.

I followed several suggestions on forums and blog posts but failed to solve the problem. I raised my question on Microsoft Answers but that, at time of writing this still offered no solution. Strange name for a website “Microsoft Answers” because they never bloody do.

The Solution For Me
To understand the solution it’s best you know what I think the cause is first. That way you may find a better solution for your own particular set of circumstances: I believe the cause is WP7′s inability to understand Gmail’s Custom field used in their contacts list to store miscellaneous information. At first I thought it might be some of the character sets in use in my contacts. I have Asian, Eastern European, Russian, Greek and several other contacts all of whom have shared their Vcards with more information in their own characters, but after summarily deleting these Microsoft remained incapable of importing them.

Some had large quantities of information, so I targeted these next, but still, Microsoft could not import them.

I was left with a few that had HTML tags which I removed and still Microsoft could not import Gmail contacts.

I then removed all Custom fields in Gmail and at last, Microsoft managed to import the records. So this is my solution and these are the steps I took to successfully import Gmail Contacts into my Windows 7 HTC Mozart Mobile Phone.

  1. Export all Gmail contacts to Outlook CSV
  2. Open CSV in your editor (I used Excel)
  3. Delete the Notes column (in Excel click the top of the column and hit delete)
  4. Save your CSV
  5. Import CSV into Windows Live Contacts (this maybe unnecessary but I figure if Microsoft Phone cannot read Microsoft Windows Live contacts then I may as well have bought brick)
  6. Delete all contacts in Gmail (Don’t panic, Gmail has an easy to use recovery feature if you screw up)
  7. Export from Windows Live to CSV
  8. With Gmail Contacts empty, use Gmail’s import utility to import the contacts you exported in the above step from Windows Live
  9. Go to your Microsoft Windows 7 Phone and Synchronise

That did it for me; I hope it helps you.

Epilogue
Chrissakes Microsoft get this sorted. I can see people dumping your phone because of this one tiny-itty-bit of a problem and your choice to ignore complaints exacerbates the rush for alternatives. I decided against iPhone because I have Windows everything around me, I chose not to go for a Galaxy S because a friend complains the O/S and programs often crash. I am happy with the decision but frankly, if I can’t get access to my contacts the iPhone or Android make much more sense.

 Posted by Martyn at 10:54 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Moron Skype! Sorry, that should be more on Skype

 Annoyances, Microsoft, Updates, Upgrades  No Responses »
Aug 012011
 

I have liked Skype for too long. The service is responsible for the reduction in communication costs worldwide. I used it to keep in contact with friends, family and business while living and travelling for the past 10 years. I know, my story is typical.

But Skype, you are throwing that love away…

A few months ago Skype began to force updates on three of my PC’s, each running a different version of Windows, and each of them refusing to run the new code. I even blogged about it in May Stop Skype Auto Updates, Don’t want to upgrade Skype Thanks

Selective Customer Support

I tried the forums (see this) and received no reply to my direct requests for support.

As if it wasn’t difficult enough there is a confusing and circular process just to arrive at the support input form which includes having to login twice. I’m sure someone will dispute this, perhaps their website can’t handle Google Chrome or IE, but the location of this form is not clear and at each stage they want you to read the FAQ or analyse your input to show a list of totally irrelevant answers. This despite pasting the precise error code and message. Ironically the only information to be found on the site about this issue is in the forum where complaints on this subject are either injudiciously slammed by a Skype techie or ignored.

I eventually found the form again and decided before downgrading to a working version of Skype again, I would keep the forced update (on a machine I rarely use) and try work through a fix with them and thus apply the fix to my other two machines so I can put this time-wasting nonsense behind me.

No such luck.

Skype, again, ignored my request, but the next day I received this incredible email from them:-

Skype email Moron Skype! Sorry, that should be more on Skype

First complaint is perhaps picky but why do so many companies thinks its ok to write emails that start with something like “This is an automated email, sent by a friendly Skype robot, please don’t reply.” Control freaks! Another example of “Its ok for us to talk at you but oooh no, we’re not going to listen back!” To be fair Skype and other companies that do this often provide another means to communicate, but in Skypes case… well see above.

I took the survey and gave 100% low rating on everything to do with the customer service representative as he/she never contacted me despite having my phone number, Skype name and email address in the original request for help. I use Gmail and this was used in my request for help. However I have had Skype longer than Gmail existed so just in case they still use my old email address I checked its working. All mail to this address is successfully sent directly to my Gmail account. All spam filtering handled by Gmail so just in case I regularly checked the trash folder and as Google is my witness, Skype never sent a thing.

Downgrading Again

As I needed Skype (and there’s a clue as to why they do so well by ignoring their customers) I decided to follow my own instructions and return to a working copy. After running the uninstall my browser is forced open (having been required to close all programs for the installation to run) to display this message:-

We just wont answer your support request emails or let you phone us Moron Skype! Sorry, that should be more on Skype

You see that handy little link just by the-big-green-download link? The one that says “Do you need some help?” Wonderful! It takes you to the FAQ.

Epilogue

The latest version of Skype, as of a couple of days ago, still will not work on three of my PC’s. As the majority of Skype users do not have a problem I have to conclude its something I have done to make it go wrong though after spending time comparing the machines only Microsoft Office (various versions) and Skype are in common. Perhaps now Microsoft owns Skype they may turn their attention to this problem but I hold out little hope.

One thing that is wrong and can be fixed is their customer support and the attitude of some of their technical staff. I recently paid $25, its not a lot, but I still expect something for my money which right now is impossible to use without Skype attempting to force me to update, at my inconvenience.

 Posted by Martyn at 10:59 am  Tagged with: ,

Create a Route Card in Word 2010 & Garmin Mapsource

 Microsoft Word, On The Front Line, Programming, Utilities, Video, Walking Hiking Navigating, Word VBA  6 Responses »
May 272011
 

Part of the fun in walking is navigating your way along paths and areas of public access with unfamiliar surroundings. Another important part is the place, I would rather be walking through woods or interesting countryside than shooting the sun in the middle of the Atlantic, and I am sure there’s an even amount of people who prefer the reverse.

One thing in common between air sea and land navigators is the preparation they make before a journey. The more information they have to hand during the journey the easier and safer they and their fellow travellers will be.

<Lecture Warning>
Pilots inform ATC of their intended routes, sailors give the coastguard with their routes and walkers give details of their route to family and proper authorities, at least that’s what is supposed to happen. Have you ever heard a child told off for not letting mum and dad know where they have been? Maybe it’s not so common with mobile phones today but really, if you are a regular walker, runner, climber or enjoy any activity outside it’s a good idea to provide someone with as much information about your activity as you can. This makes it easier for you to be located by rescue services should the need arise.

A Route Card is ideal for this purpose.
</Lecture Warning>

What is a route card?
It’s a list of waypoints and useful information to help you find your way across unfamiliar locations. Combined with a map and compass the route card will make sure you know where you are always. Here is an example:

SDC10327 Create a Route Card in Word 2010 & Garmin Mapsource

Example Walking Navigation Route Card

The idea is simple, you walk from one grid reference to the next after the pre-prepared magnetic bearing. If you have a good eye for distance (or are a neurotic pace counter) you don’t need much more that you see in this example. If you are interested in route cards you already know that.

This walk is straight forward because it follows the shoreline. Ordinarily I would add more notes, things I expect to see at some of the points to help me find them. Google Earth and Bing Maps are good for this.

Bing Maps include Ordnance Survey. You cannot draw your route with a mouse like you can on Ordnance Survey’s website but you can use it to check your folded map is up to date and switching between views helps you to understand the terrain better.

You can print your map from Bing or Ordnance Survey and add bearing checks. By preparing your route card and maps at home you can use satellite views to research potential waypoints and markers for bearings. Here’s the Bawdsey Walk map I prepared:

image1 Create a Route Card in Word 2010 & Garmin Mapsource

Bawdsey Beach Walk Ordnance Survey Map

The dark blue line is the intended track. The numbers are taken from the Route Card. The red lines point to a marker on the map, in this case the church. It doesn’t have to be a single point of course but on this map there are only three distinctive things outside Martello Towers and that’s Sea, Sand and a Church.

The red lines are numbered and I have spaced them at convenient points throughout the walk. At any point in the walk it will be easy to work out my place so long as I can see the Church.

How to use the Route Card Template
I have only tested the template in Microsoft Word 2010, I have no idea if it will work in any other version. You will also need Mapsource from Garmin. You do not need any of the maps, it’s just a way of creating a formatted list of waypoints. Garmin allows you to import KML and GPX files which covers most software, if you are stuck try Getamap from Ordnance Survey, there are some free options, I’m not sure if that allows you to export gpx files but the paid version does (they had a launch offer with 50% off when I bought in April 2011). Go to http://www.getamap.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/ for more information.

The video demonstrates the Route Card template, hopefully that will be enough to get you started but if you find any bugs, have any suggestions, or need help using it please leave a comment.

Download Template

Release Date: 21 July, 2011

  • Now shows elevation and climb
  • Calculates page numbers

Download the Walkers Route Card Template for Word 2010

 Posted by Martyn at 12:51 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,

Stop Skype Auto Updates, Don’t want to upgrade Skype Thanks

 Annoyances, Business, Microsoft, Software, Updates, Upgrades, Utilities  17 Responses »
May 232011
 
Important Update

Chris has found a better solution for some installations and explained how to stop Skype updating by modifying the policies applied to your PC. Click here to jump to his post in the comments. I would try his suggestion first and return to mine only if his doesn’t work. If my solution is brutal then his is subtle; should the Skype installed on your PC follow common standards, it will comply despite Skypes T&C’s

Like several million people I have utilised and enjoyed Skype for many years. Having lived in four different countries in the last 10 years it has been useful to keep in touch with friends and family. Best of all its free.

Stop Skype Auto Updates
Click here to cut the BS
I have it installed on two PC’s and a Laptop, version 5.1.0.112, but now and then I get asked to upgrade and each time it tries the result is the same. Skype no longer works. This has been going on for several versions. Skype support have not been able to fix the problem and forum suggestions have not worked. This is the same for the three machines I use.

So something I have done, some software on each of these three machines is to blame but each machine runs all the software I want from them without problem and as long as I stick with Skype 5.1 then everything is satisfactory.

Forced Upgrades

Skype is the only software I have ever used that forces upgrades. I know how ridiculous that sounds, all software gives you the option to upgrade or not and for good reason. Normal software gives you the choice so that you can manage compatibility issues, if any exist, between it and other sub systems.

Skype is different. They think its OK to take control of your desktop, without permission, and force an upgrade. This is wrong on so many levels that I do not believe they have considered how seriously this could damage their reputation.

Over the last few months I have experienced the following problems because of forced downloads:

1. While rendering videos causing the desktop to freeze. Support says I should not use Skype on the same PC. Nice solution Skype, very intelligent.

2. While completing an online payment form, with my credit card information, address and several fields painstakingly filled a Skype forced download forces a reboot in the background too. No questions asked, no chance to cancel. My time wasted and potentially a security risk. Nice solution Skype.

3. While watching a movie. Do you remember the days when adverts interrupted movies? Well it was a bit like that except on reboot the movie doesn’t start and or find your place again.

The fact that the upgrade never works and means I will have to uninstall and reinstall 5.1 again is more than annoying, its enough for me to look for alternatives.

Read our T&C’s…They Say

Perhaps the most remarkable situation in this horrid affair is the attitude of the Skype folk themselves. Until this issue arose I always imagined them to be a happy bunch of fluffy bunny kind of business men and women who want to do no more in life than please their customers. How sad and let down I felt when I discovered they are actually a bunch of tossers, at least the ones answering forum questions and support enquiries are.

Here are a few replies to people asking why they cannot stop forced downloads:

SKYPE may do things we do not like, but NEVER “dishonest”
It’s in their T+Cs that we all agree to

Yes, you can turn off automatic updates.
BUT
You can NOT turn off forced updates

Skype rarely does that, but their T+Cs allow it

and perhaps the best (and seriously misguided response)

You may not like it, indeed I may not like it, but the Law is The Law.
You agreed to SKYPES Terms and Conditions, and that IS the law.

I’m not sure which country has enshrined the use of Skype on to its statute books but I am sure I don’t live in it.
 

How to Force Skype to stop Forcing Updates

..or here’s one solution to all this nonsense

If Skype 5.3 and 5.2 do not work for you and you want to stick with the version you have and you want to block Skype updates then this may work for you. While hunting the Skype entries in the registry for clues they have an entry called DownloadEtag. An ETag is usually used to find the version of something, usually a cached page in a browser, but I suspect they are using it to decide the last time a forced download is used. Currently the value is set at 12150 but you may see a different value depending on when you read this (possibly depending on whether they have read this too).

Since setting this blank none of my machines have gone through the forced installation process. You can find it in your registry here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Skype\Installer\DownloadETag

Just set it to blank. Alternatively I have put together a .reg file to do it for you, just download and double-click the .reg file in this zip

And Skype, if you are reading this

I cannot believe you really want to do this. What makes you think you have the right to force people to do things against their will? My desktop belongs to me, not you. I paid for it, I support it and I decide what software I put on it and what I don’t. You cannot legislate away people’s rights through unreasonable “T&C’s”. Just ask Microsoft, they tried it in the 80′s and 90′s and look what happened to them, what makes you think you can do better?

Really, I *love* Skype the product, but this stupid policy is untenable, especially when TWO versions of the upgrades have failed (and judging by your forum continue to fail). Sort it out or you will be on the receiving end of a major disruption. There are huge players waiting for you to screw up, but that’s just the opinion of one, for now.

 Posted by Martyn at 10:12 pm  Tagged with: , ,

BEWARE facemoods scam is bullyware!

 Annoyances, On The Front Line, Software, Web Browsers  4 Responses »
Mar 032011
 

897048 low 300x200 BEWARE facemoods scam is bullyware!

I am aware of some of the tricks used to persuade people install malicious software.  It is rare that I get caught but at times I can be gullible too.

It was my turn this morning, and it took a couple of hours to recover from my lack of vigilance.  I don’t suppose facemoods will want to cover that cost though (consider the many hours of productivity lost worldwide down to scams like these).

Fortunately not many organisations take the nasty bullyware approach to business like facemoods. What they hope to gain from such tactics mystified me until I read a complaint by someone called Yang from facemoods in response to complaints flooding in to the Firefox add-on reviews page.  He said “We have millions of users worldwide“.  A cynic would say they have managed to bully millions of users into installing their conware.

He goes on to say the addon is offered 100% free but he’s not telling the truth.  His software replaces adsense publishers codes with his own.  That’s right, he’s hijacking content owners reason for publishing.

Not only have they replaced search engines with a poor quality copy affiliate page (and thus benefiting from the affiliate income any ad clicks they produce) they replace many affiliate links with their own thus hijacking the income from bloggers and other organisations that have worked hard to produce a reputation and good rankings.

Wait a minute – say that again – what do you mean facemoods hijacks income?

bware BEWARE facemoods scam is bullyware!
Yes, its important to understand this.  If you own a blog and earn an income from affiliate revenue, facemoods is hijacking your income.  How does this happen?  Its so easy it’s embarrassing but let’s give you a real world example:

Let’s say you are a famous blogger, and your subject is dog training.  You love dogs, take photos every day, create video and podcasts, and help people with all aspects of dog training, grooming, behaviour therapy, and you are accepted as a leading authority.  To cover the cost of your work and the expenses you have you make book and DVD recommendations and gain a small commission through Amazon for each purchase people make.

I buy a lot of books and I love the idea that I reward the blogger who has taken the time to review the book by purchasing from the link on their page.

This has become the de facto standard method for rewarding bloggers and content providers for their efforts and facemoods thinks it ok to steal it.

So if Mr Yang’s boast of “millions of users” is true then he is making an absolute killing through deceit and dishonest practices.  Hardly 100% free.

Is this really happening?

Those of you familiar with Adsense are going to ask “Surely Google know about this and stop it?” I don’t know but what’s the incentive for Google to do that?  They proved they do not care much for their adsense publishers when they cut 90% of the commission income, and it hasn’t stopped Mr Yang from trying.

 Posted by Martyn at 3:06 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

How to open PDF files without Adobe Reader

 Annoyances, Reading, Software  No Responses »
Jan 252011
 

Did you know Adobe pre-loads itself each time you start your PC with the default installation?  This presumably so when you call upon it the results appear fast, make them look good.

Capture 300x195 How to open PDF files without Adobe ReaderIn the mean time other applications fighting for memory are robbed of this resource.  If you are not a heavy user of the reader then the overall effect is to slow your productivity.

They also add a bit of code that checks each time you tart your PC to see if they have any new updates so frequent interruptions to update their sloppy application is necessary too.

I have been using Adobe Reader a couple of times a month but had as many as 20 requests to update it.

Adobe Reader is slow to load (even with its pre-loader) when compared to Foxit and Nitro PDF Reader so I find it difficult to see why so many of us promote their free reader over other free readers.

My preference is for Nitro, it looks better, has the functionality I want, is not supported by ads or any other interrupting messages and works on the same principle as Adobe, if you like it and want more features there is a pro version.  Take a look at something new and rid yourself of the slow performing Adobe Reader here: http://www.nitroreader.com/

 Posted by Martyn at 9:09 am  Tagged with:
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