The list below shows a list of free cloud storage services, limits are not always clear but I think every service will shut you down eventually if you start to generate serious amounts of traffic.

Demo (using Ubuntu One):

It’s been a great ride and I want to thank the members and visitors of the website. Your input helped me a lot in maintaining the website. Hopefully you’ll find a new safe haven for your WD TV (Live) tweaks. Be sure to check out http://wdtvforum.com. As of now it is the best source for your WD TV tweaks and homebrew apps.

Thanks for everything, kind regards.

Here’s what to do:

1. Create a Google AdWords account if you don’t already have one.
2. Redeem your voucher or deposit a small amount.
3. Create a dropbox account if you don’t already have one.
4. Go to: https://www.dropbox.com/referrals and copy the top link in the right box
5. Create a new campaign using the link from dropbox, make sure you create 4 or 5 ads it works better and faster.
6. Set max budget per day to 5 or 10 euro/dollar
7. Set max CPC to 0,01
8. Sit back, relax….

For more detailed instructions watch the youtube video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

//via: http://warnaars.com/

The idea: Dual tuners, combining DVB-S and DVB-T with the possibility to watch and record at the same time on multiple devices (TV, PC and mobile) with network streaming.

The hardware:

• 78cm dish  (4 LNB’s  w/ Diseq switch)
• Skystar USB 2 HD CI (DVB-S)
• Cinergy DVB-T MKII
• Infinity USB Unlimited (DVB-T)
• AMD Athlon dualcore 64-bit / ATI 1950XT / 2GB RAM / 2TB storage
• Nokia N900 (for bluetooth and IR remote control)

The Software:

• DVBLink TVsource (connected version)
• Windows 7 Media Center
• Hadu CCCam client (DVB-S)
• Acamd plugin (maybe Splug) (DVB-T)
• Infinity USB software (DVB-T)

Reporters Jesper Huor and Bosse Lindquist have traveled to key countries where WikiLeaks operates, interviewing top members, such as Assange, new Spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson, as well as people like Daniel Domscheit-Berg who now is starting his own version – Openleaks.org. Where is the secretive organization heading? Stronger than ever, or broken by the US? Who is Assange: champion of freedom, spy or rapist? What are his objectives? What are the consequences for the internet?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Youtube mirrors:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

I like to ‘watch’ video will i’m working or surfing the internet. My major problem is when I start a video and enable full screen as soon as I click in the other monitor the video player resizes to default resolution. All web video players do this. It doesn´t matter if it´s Silverlight, Flash, Windows Media Player or even Youtube´s new HTML5 player they all refuse to stay fullscreen when using the other screen. So, since all web video players show this behavior one might think the root of the problem isn’t in the web players but probably browser or operating system related. I’m a Windows user (Win7 at the moment), so that will be the start of my research. First test: Windows’ default player Windows Media Player.

A small success, with full screen enabled I’m able to use my other screen as I like. But my main focus is on web video players so this will prove it’s not the operating system being the problem. But let’s do a another quick test to rule out the OS. I’ll use the free open source player VLC Media Player. It works, again I’m able to use my main monitor while full screen is enabled in the VLC Media Player. I think it’s fair to say it’s not Windows preventing the player to stay full screen when using another monitor. This is good to know because this will come in handy when you have the deeplink of the video or livestream you’d like to watch full screen at that moment. Next up, browser testing.

For some, it might be obvious that the browser is the problem. This because your browser is continuously ‘listening’ for click actions. Once you click somewhere in your main screen you browser window playing the video will lose focus and exit full screen mode. I don’t think this is something developers can enable using their own build players because of this. Aobde and Microsoft claim it is because of security issues and it is not possible by design. The tests as shown below kind of explain this theory:

X – Video does not stay maximized when losing focus

Solution

According to a reply to a bug report on Adobe there’s nothing that can be done when using Flash Players:  ”We understand that many users would like fullscreen on one monitor and to be able to interact with your OS on another monitor. However, due to security requirements, we require that Flash and Browser must be the current focus of your OS. Apologies if this causes any workflow or usability issues. We will continue to review our security policy and consider changes in the future.”

No matter what Adobe might be saying there is a solution regarding Flash it’s players. You can replace npswf32.dll file for a modified version which allow you to have a Flash video player stay maximized while you are using the other monitor. Of course you can also hex edit a flash binary youself. (More info) (Download modified npswf32.dll) Apparently unchecking “Hardware Accelerating” also fixes it but I don’t want to disable my hardware accelartion. (Right click on the video, Settings…..)

Now how about Silverlight and Windows Media Player? In a podcast from december, which a can’t find no more, I heard that the Silverlight team is currently fixing this. Searching some more on this topic brings us the news this feature will not be released untill Silverlight 4. According to Mike Taulty “A Silverlight 4 application can go full-screen without those security limitations if that application marks itself as requiring elevation at installation time ( i.e. it’s a trusted application ) and in that case the security sandbox is relaxed and one of the things that enables is full-screen apps without those security restrictions.”

So i’ll guess we have to wait for Silverlight 4 for this functionality. On the other hand  Windows Media Player will play all video that a Silverlight player could show. So searching for the deeplink and copy/pasting it into Windows Media Player will also work. This because Windows Media Player will stay full screen when losing focus as said earlier in this article. Finding the source or deeplink can be done by looking at the embed code of the object in the source code of the webpage it is embedded in or look for it using Firefox web developer plugin Firebug.

It seems the solution stopped working in Google Chrome after the latest updates. Thanks to Henrik there’s a solution:

“Hey, i use chrome, and they recently applied an update, which invalides this operation to flash.

The solution is simple though:

In your chrome install folder (which usually is):
C:\Users\Heknu\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\5.0.375.86

Replace the gcswf32.dll with the file downloaded modified file (npswf32.dll) and ur good to go :)

U might want to keep your original chrome file, just in case. And if chrome release another update, the solution might just be the same :) “

After my good old TomTom Go 700 passed away I got a new TomTom Go 740 Live and soon found out it’s really easy to play video on a TomTom navigation device. This way you can use your navigation as an in-car entertainment centre. With TomPlayer you are able to watch full screen video’s in AVI (divx or xvid) or MPEG video and listen to mp3 or ogg audio files.

The documentation on tomplayer.net can be a bit confusing and installation is not the same for all TomTom models. In this post I will explain how to install and configure TomPlayer on an external MicroSD memory card. This method will work for models Go 740/750/930 Live and will probably work for a lot of other models. At the end I will explain another configuration which might work for your model.

Installation

1. Insert SD-card into TomTom slot
2. Download the Tomplayer zip archive and extract it
3. Connect TomTom to PC and quit TomTom Home
4. Copy The Following folders to your external SD-card: audio, tomplayer, video
5. Rename the folder “SDKRegistry” to “SdkRegistry” and copy this folder to the root of your TomTom internal memory

I’ve read the different descriptions for installing on the internal memory and on an SD card, and I was still a little confused by the terminology… especially references to /mnt/movinand and to /mnt/sdcard.

It seems like:
1 – /mnt/movinand refers to the removable storage (i.e., SD-card)
2 – /mnt/sdcard refers to the internal memory.

On Windows PC, these show up as external drives H: and I: respectively. So when we modify the configuration files taking these assumptions into consideration, Tomplayer worked correctly.

Configuration

1. Open tomplayer.ini (the file is in tomplayer/conf/ folder)
2. Change:
   video_dir                      = /mnt/sdcard/video
   audio_dir                      = /mnt/sdcard/audio
   to:
   video_dir                      = /mnt/movinand/video
   audio_dir                      = /mnt/movinand/audio
3. Open tomplayer.cap (the file is in SdkRegistry folder)
4. Change:
   AppPath|/mnt/sdcard/tomplayer/|
   to:
   AppPath|/mnt/movinand/tomplayer/|
5. Disconnect your TomTom from PC and restart it

Now you will have a fourth screen in your TomTom main menu. Start TomPlayer by pressing the icon. On first start TomPlayer will start with screen calibration. Touch the crosses and proceed. Last thing to do is to copy some audio and video to their respective folders on the SD-card. Have fun!

An alternative method is to copy all files of the distrib folder to your external SD-card. The ttfilesytem (do not copy this to your TomTom internal memory!) will load your TomPlayer as soon as the SD-card is inserted and normal TomTom will load when it’s ejected. This didn’t work on my TomTom Go 740 Live, even worse it made it crash, but I have read this method should work on most TomTom models. You can also install TomPlayer to your TomTom internal memor. I did not do this because I don’t to run out my internal flash read/write cycles. If you have any problems installing or configuring TomPlayer visit the tomplayer.net forum for more help.

If you want to watch video on your TomTom convert your video’s to avi or mpeg. Try MediaCoder as it’s free and it has everything you need. TomTom screen resolutions are 480*272 for the widescreen models (TomTom XL or GO) and 320*240 for fullscreen models (TomTom ONE).

Righto……..

The BUMA/STEMRA (abbreviated BS, which is by coincidence also the abbreviation for bullshit) announced some new rules yesterday during their press conference for embedding videos from online media streamer sites (youtube, dailymotion, whatever). starting from 2010, EVERYBODY must pay 30 euros per year for EVERY clip that you embed from youtube; if the embedded video falls under the copyright list of bullshit/stemshit (to be known: 17k musicus in the Netherlands and 1,2 mil worldwide –source: SP!TS).

Here’s a screenshot of today’s SP!TS Newspaper where this news is covered.

The idea is that the BS will (if not already) develop a script/robot/crawler to go, multiply and overpopulate the internet with one mission: to index where on internet (copyrighted) videos are being embedded. Those bots will call home. For those who doesn’t have the permission (= did not pay) to embed the videos, are getting a warning letter to take off the embedded clip. If not? they will get the invoice (the Joel Tannenbaum-RIAA story is a similar story — go google).

This guy from twitter (@coenjacobs) developed the Block Buma Crawler WordPress plugin, and I quote:

“This plugin is capable of keeping computers outside of your WordPress installation, that are blacklisted via this plugin. You can download the Block Buma Crawler plugin right now, version 0.1 is available. Drop the folder that’s inside the download in your /wp-content/plugins/-folder, activate the plugin and enjoy!”

–source: http://coenjacobs.net/blog/steps-blocking-buma-crawlers-wordpress

Furthermore…

Alongside with @coenjacobs, @madbello covering a good tutorial to block BS’s IP address before they can crawl your site. Read the steps in his blog: http://madbello.nl/?p=6997 (in Dutch). The red lines is the following: block the IP belongs to BS by using .htaccess file in your website. If you are using wordpress and not sure what to do, you would be way better off using WP-Ban plugin.

From the comments in madbello’s blog, the suggested IP range is 213.208.242.160 – 213.208.242.167  (.160 and .167 are included!)

UPDATE – THE WAR HAS ENDED AND WE HAVE PREVAILED!!!

I must admit I was a bit late with this story as it has been hot news here in the Netherlands for a few days now. But, not nearly an hour after publishing this article BUMA/STEMRA has thrown in their towel and risen the white flag. They have stopped all active searches on embedded music and will not continue their hunt untill further notice. (Official statement / translation)Since the dutch government has also spoken against BUMA/STEMRA tactics we probably won’t hear from them on this subject for a while. Bye Bye zwaai zwaai!

Hello Everyone

I thought that you might like to see the detailed response which I have sent to someone who contacted me regarding the picture quality issues which are under discussion here:

“…Your complaint refers to the introduction of the new transmission encoders for BBC HD which were introduced into operations on Wednesday 5th August. There was an extensive process of assessment in advance of the selection of new encoders for the BBC HD service, using both objective and subjective criteria. The encoders which were chosen then went through further testing in advance of operational use, not only for picture quality but for compatibility with the Sky and Freesat platforms and their ability to deliver other services such as subtitling and surround sound successfully.

The new encoders were intended to help us in handling the wide range of material which the BBC broadcasts in HD, and to help to improve the picture quality of some of our most challenging programmes. These may combine progressive and interlaced shooting or where the BBC has limited control over some aspects of the broadcast chain. I believe that the new encoders have achieved this in relation to programmes such as the series of BBC Proms broadcast, Gardeners’ World, Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes and the recent Athletics World Championships, for which our coverage using the host broadcaster feed was as good as and sometimes better than other broadcasters covering the same event. However we of course continue to assess coder settings against the wide range of material which they have to handle to determine the best settings on an ongoing basis.

Following the introduction of the new encoders, there were some issues around the handling of some pictures – primarily mixes and fades – which we acknowledged through the BBC HD blog on picture quality almost immediately. We have worked with our encoder supplier to address these issues in the long-term, and also put in place interim changes to minimise the difficulties. That the encoder change should generate problems for viewers watching BBC HD content is of course a matter for regret, but I do not believe that this was the result of errors in the preparation process.

You have also highlighted the issue of the bit-rate at which BBC HD broadcasts, and the changes to this over time. I do not believe that the problems that arose following the introduction of the new encoders had anything to do with the broadcast bit-rate, even though they coincided, as you have rightly identified, with a reduction in bit-rate for the channel.

One of the central issues in selecting new encoders for BBC HD was to deliver pictures at the same or improved quality while allowing a reduction in the channel bit-rate. As MPEG 4 coders have evolved, the relationship between bit-rate and picture quality has also shifted. This is not an issue that is specific to BBC HD, or to the encoders that we have selected.

The BBC has an absolute responsibility to use bandwidth efficiently – whether on digital terrestrial muxes or on satellite. Bandwidth is not unlimited, and on UK-footprint transponders the demand for capacity is very high. The current bit-rates were selected through a process which directly evaluated quality on the new and old encoders, using a wide range of programme material and both subjective and objective assessments.

Bit-rate is not the only factor affecting picture quality and a higher bit-rate will not automatically deliver higher picture quality.

HD is still an evolving production technology. A variety of production techniques are – in my view quite rightly – deployed as experimentation continues to explore what HD can delivery creatively.

As in standard definition, it is also important that HD delivers a range of “looks” for producers, appropriate to the nature of the subject matter. I do not prescribe a single standard for HD work for the BBC. Decisions regarding frame rate and progressive versus interlaced styles are the responsibility of individual producers. These choices do not impact on quality provided that the camera is set up properly and the shutter speed set correctly, issues on which the BBC HD team provides ongoing advice and guidance. As the discussion on the BBC HD blog suggests, there is a range of views around these issues, and the degradation or quality they may bring to HD pictures. It is worth noting that 25 frames progressive mode in fact has more resolution than a 25 frame interlace image, and is used by the majority of drama, documentary and natural history programmes to great effect.

While very clear, sharp images have become closely associated with HD, it is important not to confuse “sharpness” with resolution. The use of electronic sharpening on standard definition pictures can make images clearer but does not increase the amount of information in the picture, one of the defining features of HD.

Electronic sharpening is not a characteristic which BBC HD encourages since we prefer images to look more natural, and to allow directors to offer contrasting focus in order to highlight the key features in a scene. Indeed, some of our dramas are now using the latest large image format cameras.These cameras use an image sensor about the same physical size as a 35mm film frame that gives the image a very shallow depth of field. This will put all but the key subject out of focus and allows a director to use focus as a story telling tool.

HD picture quality is not purely about a crispness of image, but about a richness of image which comes from the amount of detailed information included.

Within the BBC HD team we work consistently to explore new HD technology with a particular view to enhancing picture quality across the range of programme projects with which we are involved. Filming in certain environments or using small cameras remains challenging, and where it is not possible to deliver HD pictures to the standards we set, we limit the use of lower quality images to a maximum of 25% of an individual title.

Finally, you raise the issue of surround sound and the number of programmes broadcast which offer a 5.1 sound mix. Wherever possible we buy series and films with surround sound tracks, and try to ensure that sound is captured in this format for outside events. But 5.1 sound is not always available, and a genuine surround sound mix can add substantially to production costs in HD at a time when we are concentrating the resources available to increase the total volume of programmes made in HD. At present we do not routinely “up-mix” programmes from stereo to surround.

I can assure you that picture quality is a very important part of the work that we are doing in BBC HD. We clearly have different views on the picture quality that is delivered and the factors that contribute to it, but I do believe that we share a perspective that the quality of images is central to delivery of HD television.

I want to add that the BBC HD blog is a very important discussion and communications forum for us, but as you have clearly observed we don’t respond to every single comment raised on it. We do take on board all the views expressed, and look seriously at substantive issues that are highlighted, whether they attract one comment or many.

I am sorry that in this case you feel that your original contribution did not receive the attention which you believed that it should have done.”

Danielle Nagler | Danielle Nagler is Head of BBC HD, BBC Vision

Download Hadu 0.116

Hadu is a CardSharing Client plugin for DVB softwares on PC using DVB TV-Cards (Windows). It works as a MD plugin, a DVBCore plugin (eg. ProgDVB) or as a DVBViewer plugin. Currently, it only supports the CCCam protocol (without the AU option).

Installation:
————-
Just put Hadu.dll and Hadu.ini into the directory affected to plugins, regarding your current DVB software. It can be the directory of the software (i.e. for old versions of ProgDVB), or a given subdirectory (i.e. ./Plugins for MyTheater and Alt-DVB, …).

As it is compatible with the DVBCore API, use it as a DVBCore plugin (for DVBCore softwares) instead of using it with MDWrapper. With DVBViewer, use it as DVBViewer plugin instead of using it with SoftCSA.

Don’t use two or more CardSharing Clients and/or SoftCam Emulators at the same time (like Yankse, S2Emu or VPlug), unless you know perfectly what you are doing.

Directories of installation for the main DVB softwares:
——————————————————-
Put all the files (i.e. only Hadu.dll + Hadu.ini currently) in the same directory , as indicated hereafter:

• ProgDVB : main directory of the DVB software (or /Plugins subdirectory for version 4.38 or later of ProgDVB)
• Alt-DVB : /Plugins (or /Plugins/av0) subdirectory, and/or /Plugins/pip subdirectory for the pip, and others (/Plugins/av1 to Plugins/av2
• MyTheater, RitzDVB: /Plugins subdirectory (to use Hadu as a DVBCore plugin). Try to avoid the solution MDWrapper.dll in /Plugins subdirectory and Hadu in /MDPlugins subdirectory (MDWrapper is a workaround to make old MD plugins working with MyTheater and other DVBCore softwares)
• DVBDream 0.xx: /Modules subdirectory since version 0.85 (to use Hadu as a DVBCore plugin). /Plugins subdirectory (to use Hadu as a MD plugin) for precedent versions
  -DVBDream 1.xx and above : /Plugins/pip00 and others (/Plugins/pip01 up to /Plugins/pip19) subdirectories, to use Hadu as a MD plugin
• WatchTVPro: /Plugins subdirectory (Hadu is using the TT Trick automatically if it is possible)
• HispaDVB: main directory of the DVB software for old versions, and /Plugins subdirectory since version 2. Hadu is no more using the TT Trick automatically for this software, because it is no more needed for HispaDVB version 2 and above
• MultiDec: main directory of the DVB software (Hadu supports natively the different versions of the SS1 firmware)
• DVBViewer: /Plugins subdirectory. Avoid the solution SoftCSA.dll in /Plugins subdirectory and Hadu in /MDPlugins subdirectory. Please, note that the CSA.dll (coming with the SoftCSA package coded by Pikachu) is recommended for faster unscrambling, though not absolutely mandatory. The CSA.dll must be located into the /Plugins subdirectory (or KeyPath2) or into the main directory of the DVB software. Otherwise, Hadu will use its own internal CSA algorithm (code kindly provided by courtesy of Pikachu. Thanks!). With DVBViewer version 3.4 and above, you can also use the FFDeCSA.dll (both with the CSA.dll) : depending of your DVB card, the ‘Open whole Transponder’ Hardware option in DVBViewer will have to be checked or not, to optimize the video/audio CSA unscrambling treatment.
  The ‘Has CI module’ entry option into the hardware options of DVBViewer must be checked.
  It is also possible to use Hadu with the recording service of DVBViewer, if you install first the Wrapper for recording service of Pikachu. Caution : currently, this option might lead to unstable behaviors of DVBViewer (especially when closing this software).
• SkyView: /MDPlugins subdirectory
• DvbTn: /Plugins subdirectory (to use Hadu as a DVBCore plugin)
• WinSTB: /MDPlugins subdirectory
• DiavloB: /Plugins subdirectory (to use Hadu as a MD plugin, though the software is based upon the DVBCore SDK)
• MajorDVB: /Plugins subdirectory
• TSReader: /MDPlugins subdirectory
• WinClip: /Plugins subdirectory

Caution: For DVB softwares based on the DVBCore SDK, don’t install Hadu as a MD plugin and as a DVBCore plugin (choose either the first or the second solution, but not both !). Same thing for DVBViewer.

Do not use the DLL TTTrick.dll: Hadu has its own TT Trick implemented.

Server Configuration (Hadu.ini):
—————–

For each server declared, the convention for its declaration is to create a section with (note the “Serv_” string at the beginning) : [Serv_whateveryouwishforyourservername].

Then comes the different parameters for the server. Only the “Server” parameter is mandatory.

Syntaxe for the “Server” parameter :
Server=Protocol:Server:Port:(unused):Username:Pass word

Sample: Server=CCCam:MyServer.com:12000:0:MyUsername:MyPas sword, where:

• CCCam: Declaration for a CCCam server (other protocols currently not available),
• MyServer.com: URL or IP address for the server,
• 12000: Port for the CCCam server (decimal value),
• 0: Caid/mask. Not used (may be empty), see “CAIDProv” and “NoCAIDProv” parameters instead,
• Myusername: Name of the user (limited to 20 characters for CCCam protocol),
• Mypassword: Password for the user.

Others parameters (each of them is optional):

• Active ([1] or 0): Server active or not active. A non active server cannot be started.
• TimeOut (0=None, or 3-7 seconds. Default is [5] seconds): Timeout value if the server is not answering,
• PadTime ([0=None], or (TimeOut+2)-N seconds): interval of time for which a “pad” command is sent to the server if no other commands has already been sent (usually must be kept to 0),
• WantEmus (0=No or [1=Yes]): similar to WantEmus option in CCCam.cfg. If set, friends emus are also used (if the server has authorized them for the user). Even if WantEmus is not set, the concerned nodes are displayed into the list of nodes, but are not available.
• MaxHop ([0=None], or 1-N): if WantEmus is set, nodes with a hop value superior to this limit are not used. A null value indicates no limits.
• CAIDProv ([None]): list of CAID/Providers ONLY used to make requests to the server(s). Each entry may concern a whole CAID, or just only one provider for this CAID. Entries are separated using a comma character. Samples:
  CAIDProv=0100,1801 : only CAIDs 0100 and 1801 will be used.
  CAIDProv=0604,0100:0084,0100:006A : only CAID 0604 and CAID/Providers 0100/84,0100/6A will be used.
• NoCAIDProv ([None]): list of CAID/Providers EXCLUDED. Syntax similar to the “CAIDPRov” option. Samples:
• NoCAIDProv=0604,0500 : CAIDs 0604 and 0500 won’t be used.
• NoCAIDProv=0100:6A,1810,0500:032100 : CAID 1810 and CAID/providers 0100/6A,0500/32100 won’t be used.

Limits:
——-

• Here are the main current limits applied into the plugin:
• Maximum number of CCCam servers (active or not active): 6
• Maximum number of nodes per server : 2048
• Maximum number of providers per nodes : 16
• Maximum number of hops per node : 16 (though more than 3 or 4 is probably useless)
• Maximum numbers of CAID/providers entries into to “CAIDProv” and “NoCAIDProv” options : 32
• Maximum length size for user and password: 20 for the user, 128 for the password.