mp4 to AVI converter tool

MP4Cam2AVI Easey Converter
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mp4cam2avi/

MP4Cam2AVI is a MP4/MOV to AVI repackaging tool for digital photo-video cameras, it makes their clips editable in VirtualDub, MovieMaker and other AVI editors. No video recompression, no quality loss, fast operation (5-20x realtime), no quicktime needed

MS Office Word 2007 paranoia

After a crash, MS Office Word 2007 messed up my documents' formatting and stopped to highlight the special fields and spell check.

Also, the Document Map view become useless... Turns out that it has the "intelligence" to mark short phrases as "titles", for instance captions for figures and tables.
To fix it and remove the unwanted titles, make sure the caption style is formatted as "body text"  instead of as outline "#level" - click in a caption and press Ctrl+Shift+S, then click Modify... Click Format - Paragraph, and in the Indents and Spacing tab, check the Outline level drop-box.

The spell check highlight was restored by deleting the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word (MS Article ID: 822005).

Wordpress local install (Windows)

Recently started to explore Wordpress and it's wonders...
Here's what I've done to install Wordpress locally on my host.

Requirements:

• Apache HTTP Server 2.2.x
• httpd-2.2.15-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi
• PHP 5
•  php-5.3.3-Win32-VC6-x86
• you need to be using the VC6 release candidates, not the VC9. VC9 is for use with IIS
• MySQL
• mysql-essential-5.1.49-winx64.msi
• Wordpress 
• wordpress-3.0.1-pt_PT.zip

Procedures:

1. Install PHP
• config file php.ini
• short_open_tag = On
• magic_quotes_gpc = On
2. Install local web server (Apache)
• config file httpd.conf
• Listen 127.0.0.1:8080
• Listen 8080
• Config PHP to Apache
•  LoadModule php5_module "C:/Program Files (x86)/PHP/php5apache2_2.dll"
• AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php
• PHPIniDir "C:/Program Files (x86)/PHP"
• SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
3. Install MySQL
• create database for wordpress
• mysql> create database wordpress;
• create user for wordpress
• mysql> create user wordpress identified by '123qwe';
• mysql> grant all privileges on *.* to wordpress with grant option;
4. Confg localhost to hosts file
• Add new line to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
• 127.0.0.1    localhost
5. Wordpress install
• unzip wordpress inside Apaches' htdocs folder
• config database connection on file htdocs\wordpress\wp-config.php
• define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');
• define('DB_USER', 'wordpress');
• define('DB_PASSWORD', '123qwe');
• define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
• The famous 5 minutes install !
• http://localhost:8080/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

Windows Mobile - configurar ligação GPRS/MMS

Como configurar as ligações GPRS e MMS para os operadores Vodafone e TMN, num Windows Mobile.

Portal PPC - CONFIGURAÇÕES - GPRS / MMS

Music playlists part 1 - iTunes Genius

I don't own an iPod, neither I'm an usual iTunes user, so just about a couple weeks ago I've started to hear about iTunes Genius. I'm more of a Winamp kind of guy, but I got curious and decided to give Apple a try...

For those who don't know iTunes Genius, it's a feature to generate playlists with similar songs from your local library. It requires an internet connection to do its magic, and the first thing it does when the feature is activated is to send information about your entire library back to Apple servers.
I confess, at this step I felt a shiver in the back of my head.. not good, not good at all. Nevertheless, I closed my eyes and pressed Next.
I mentioned it generates playlists with similar songs (and not only similar artist) because it's just like that. The concept is to mimic human-made playlists, emotional playlists as I tend to say. For instance, I recall a mix-tape I made containing Phill Collins's In the air tonight, and Metallica's Mama said (just to prove my point).
When you are playing a song and press the Genius button, the (en)Genius remote server looks for previously generated playlists containing that song and retrieves a mashup from songs on those playlists and your entire library (hence the need to upload your local library info, and to keep it updated when you add/remove/rate items). The freshly generated playlist is itself added to the Genius system, so it can improve next collections.

For me, the most helpful thing about it is to provide playlists on-the-go, so I can upload them to my PMP of choice for that roadtrip I'm about to make...
At least one downside (without mentioning privacy and legal issues): the generated playlists tend to ignore less known artist and songs so, if you have a purely alternative library, the Genius won't do you any good... No one have yet made a Genius playlist staring b (fachada) ?! Not useful either to discover hidden treasures on your library...

part 2 will focus on an alternative, using MediaMonkey and Last.FM...

JWS debugging

How to debug applications launched using Java Web Start

Just set the following parameter:

set JAVAWS_VM_ARGS=-Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=8200

where address specifies the port on which you can connect for remote debugging. Then launch your application using javaws yourfile.jnlp

Outra alternativa:

1.1) Using version 1.5.0 or 1.6.0.

Use the Java[TM] Control Panel to turn

on console and tracing to a file. By default the file will be put in log directory under $deployment.user.home. (for per-platform definition of $deployment.user.home see the Deployment Guide )

Turn on additional tracing messages by adding the following property to the deployment.properties file:
deployment.trace.level=all.

You can also use specific options delimited by "|", all is the same as:
deployment.trace.level=basic|cache|net|temp|security|ext|liveconnect.

The last 2 in the above may only apply to Java[TM] Plug-in and have no effect on Java Web Start apps.

Autenticar aplicação Java

Em algumas situações, é necessário que uma aplicação Java seja autenticada por um certificado digital para que tenha, por exemplo, acesso ao disco local ou mesmo à rede.
Ora, isso é exactamente o que acontece ao executar uma aplicação com o Java Web Start.
Então, para assinar os ficheiros JAR da aplicação (com um certificado self-signed) existe aqui um pequeno guia.

Se for uma aplicação JWS (Java Web Start), no ficheiro JNLP devem introduzir o seguinte para que a aplicação deixe de ter restrições de segurança ("sandbox"):
<security> <all-permissions/> </security>

Java Web Start

Despertei para o Java Web Start (JWS) quando surgiu o desafio de migrar uma das nossas aplicações Java (MobileIPCentrex, consola de operadora) de forma a que fosse integrada no web browser ou invocada remotamente, para evitar instalações de software no cliente e controlo de versões...

Com o JWS é possível executar uma aplicação Java através de um link numa página web. O link aponta para um ficheiro JNPL que descreve a aplicação alojada num Web Server, fazendo com que o JWS descarregue, coloque em cache e execute a aplicação.

A execução da aplicação é independente do web browser (ao contrário das Java Applets), e o utilizador pode eventualmente executar a aplicação off-line, desde que esta esteja ainda em cache.

Por ser uma aplicação "on-line", existem alguns constragimentos de segurança, por exemplo no acesso ao disco local e à rede (aplicações serão executadas num ambiente limitado - sandbox). No entanto, a aplicação pode ser autenticada com um certificado digital e, se o utilizador o aceitar, a aplicação poderá aceder ao disco local e à rede.
Ver este post para assinar aplicações com um certificado self-signed (para testes).

NDrive S300

I recently brought the NDrive S300, released at the end of 2007 with the tag "the first portuguese mobile phone" (even if it is based on a form made in China, and the only thing portuguese being the GPS and camera software).
But in fact is way more than just a mobile phone... It's a PocketPC (Windows Mobile 6.0) with GSM, GPRS, GPS (SIRFIII), 802.11 and bluetooth support (just to mention the network features).
For some weeks, I tried to look for a GPS client. I was very teased by the features on TomTom Go520, oh and NDrive G280R has navigation with satellite pics available for a couple of cities, but frankly it was a bit confusing for me to give away €250~€300 for something that I would use once, twice a week, or mostly during road travels (another drawback of those popular navigations systems is that they are made for the road, and not for the off-road). Another issue that I give importance is how to keep the maps up-to-date...
So, I ended up with the choice of buying a cheap GPS or, instead of a top GPS, get my hands on a PDA with GPS! Since at the time my mobile phone was already old-school, it seamed the perfect choice...
So the NDrive S300 was the winner! And how lucky and happy I am! =)

PS: check this blog for some more user experience on NDrive S300 (in portuguese)

RoR: script/console autocompletetion

script/console is a very useful tool when building your RoR application.
And one of my favorite features is the ability to autocomplete the method name (just by pressing tab).
This gives me a kind of Ruby on Rails IDE taste, since when I'm at Windows I (happily) use Notepad++ (which has a ruby plugin) to code.