Music Track Not Showing on Google Talk Status

Showing the current music track as your Google Talk status is very easy. Just click on the dropdown menu of the status and click on "Show current music track."

If your current track doesn't show on your status, try reinstalling Google Talk as administrator.

1. Uninstall Google talk.
2. Right click on googletalk setup, then choose "Run as Administrator."

This should work, because that's what did it for me.

Update:
I found out that when your computer crashes, MediaPlayer tends to disable the plugins. To show music track on your status, follow these steps.

1. open MediaPlayer
2. click Organize
3. click Options
4. select Plug-ins tab
5. select Background
6. select Google Talk Music Plugin
7. click Apply

You will now see your music track on your status.

Capture Streaming Audio Using NCH SoundTap

I got a transcription contract from oDesk. My main concern was that the audio was embedded on the webpage through a Flashplayer and AudioAcrobat. I tried looking for audio downloading or grabbing software but I could not find any that really worked according to how I needed it. I tried several .swf to mp3 converters but they're either paid or did not work as I wanted to.

On one forum, I found one post that says try Microsoft audio recorder, but there was another comment that says it didn't work for him so I kept looking. Until out of frustration I typed "audio recorder" and the search led me to the NCH SoundTap installer that came with the ExpressScribe I downloaded the other day. So I installed it and learned that it's an audio streaming recorder.

When I used it, it recorded the audio that I needed very well. It recorded the audios into the default .wav extension. You can change the format to MP3 however, just change the settings in the options button.

One thing though, your audios may get recorded separately if your streaming lags or stops like how it happened on mine. I suggest to load the audio file completely first to avoid this especially if you don't have a high-speed internet and a powerful computer like I do.

All in all, this is a powerful tool than actually trying to download .swf audio files or trying to grab the audio file from the page itself. What's best is you can record the audios directlyy to MP3 format.

The program has a trial version and a pro version. I of course have the trial version. Not sure about the differences between the two, aside of course from the fact that you can enjoy the full features and not be bugged with a buy the software reminder every time you open it.

Download it here:

http://www.nch.com.au/soundtap/index.html

Unstable Facebook Photo Viewer... Totally Sucks!!!

You see friends uploaded photos and created albums on Facebook. It looks interesting. You flip over - or in the case of Facebook, you click over - only to find the photo goes back to the first photo even before the next one completely loads. Or...  you click and find a horizontally stretched photo. If that's not annoying enough, you find a combo of the two.

Over the 2 years or so since I joined Facebook, I think it has changed its photo viewer twice (I may have missed one). From how I remember it, Facebook first changed the photo viewer into a lightbox. What was annoying about it was that scrolling down to view the comments hides the photo from your view. Then you get so engrossed reading the comments that you forget what photo you were viewing :p. So, you scroll back up to see the photo. Another thing is, when you're done reading the comments, you have to scroll back up so you can click on the "next" button.

I had a feeling, a lot of people didn't like more than I didn't. So Facebook came up with a clever idea to upgrade it to the current photo viewer. You can now see the photo side by side with the comments. You can now scroll down to read the comments at the right side of the photo. Seems like a great idea! Unfortunately, the whole photo viewing experience got worse. I would say it is the worst photo viewer among social networking sites right now.

I have been trying to bear with it for months now, hoping perhaps Facebook will do something to stabilize it. But no, they didn't. I wonder if they even know their new photo viewer sucks in performance!!!

It is crappy. It sucks. And it is totally annoying!!!

I can't grasp why they're not fixing it!! And if they are, I don't get how a billion-dollar company can't hire programmers that can fix it FAST and EFFICIENTLY!! Bust the bugs people!!!

I am pissed because it is a waste of time when the same photo loads 2 or 3 times after clicking the next button. I am pissed because this has been going on since they UPGRADED the photo viewer, which means it has been going on for months now!

Bust it Facebook! Bust it!

How to Flash Acer AO 721 from Windows 7

This is an update re: my previous blog on flashing an AO721.

This morning I was proudly telling my boyfriend that I have successfully recovered and flashed my laptop's BIOS. He asked if I had flashed it from Windows. I said 'no, I followed the instructions that was on the manual which said to flash from the USB drive similar to the recovery procedure. We had a bit of a light argument because he insisted that I do it right then from Windows while I insisted I have already done it.

To prove my point that my BIOS has updated to the latest version, I opened my system information (Run> msinfo32.exe) to show the BIOS version that I have. I was surprised to see that I still had the original version 1.06 and not 1.18 as I had expected. I gave up, admitted defeat, and followed his orders.

I tried to flash from Windows but failed after several attempts. Here are the steps to flashing BIOS from Windows.

OS: Windows 7 Home Basic

1. Make sure your battery is attached and full or at least 50% charged. My first attempts failed because I only had the AC adapter plugged and the battery was not attached. Another important thing is if you attached the battery while the power cord is plugged, reboot your system so it will work. I had to do this because I had another failed attempt after attaching the battery while the laptop is running.
2. Close all running programs. Yes, another failed attempt. My boyfriend asked if I had any programs running, and I said yes. He then advised me to close all programs that are running even those that are on the system tray (this includes AV and everything).
3. Open the BIOS_Acer_1.18 folder. Run the BIOS.BAT file as Administrator. Do not click on the JVI0N118.exe file inside the Winflash folder it won't work. I have tried it, it failed.
4. Wait. Wait for the update to finish its work and reboot. In my case, it rebooted and went back to what I thought was the black screen problem I had previously. I left it alone uninterrupted (it is important that you do not interrupt with the process while it's ongoing as it may be fatal to your computer) thinking it would boot up after a few minutes. I got worried thinking I had to redo a recovery. After about 30 minutes, I decided it's time I can turn it off safely because flashing usually only takes around 7 minutes or so. So I turned it off then turned it on again hoping the screen would fire up. IT DID!!! (Phew!!) That was a great relief.

I checked my BIOS version by running msinfo32.exe again with my fingers crossed. I was glad and relieved to see that the BIOS my computer has now is 1.18.

If you have done the flashing following the one on the manual, check if your BIOS has updated. If not, follow the steps above. Better yet, if you have an Acer laptop and haven't flashed your laptop's BIOS, do it now. Make sure you have the latest version of the BIOS for your computer so you won't have to go through the same headache that I did, TWICE, because apparently, the black screen problem is common in Acer laptops.

Acer AO721 Powers Up but Nothing Shows on the Screen (Black Screen)

Applicable for:

Aspire 1430/1551/1830T Series

Aspire One 721/753 Series

UPDATE: Flashing AO 721 from Windows

Last Wednesday, my Acer AO 721 screen went blank mid-way while booting-up. I was afraid it's another "motherboard issue" again.

Last July 2011, the same thing happened to my laptop. I could see the power button lit up but nothing showed on the screen. Since it was still covered by the 1-year warranty, I brought it to the Acer service center at SM North EDSA. Two weeks after, the technician told me they couldn't figure out what the problem was so they endorsed it to the main Acer service center. A month after, I got my laptop back and they said that it was a motherboard problem so they replaced the motherboard with a new one.

This time, I was seriously worried to bring my laptop again to the service center because:

1. It's no longer covered by warranty so I will shell out some serious amount of cash if they replace the motherboard.
2. Repair takes a minimum of 2 weeks at the service center and I needed my files soon because I had to compute my students' grades.

Thankfully that night, I told my ex about the problem. When I told him it was updating registry when the screen went blank he said it's a BIOS problem. He said I need to flash (update) my laptop's BIOS. I spent the whole night till the wee hours of the morning searching for and trying solutions specific to my computer model.

Apparently, according to my research, this common problem has something to do with a faulty BIOS and not really the motherboard. Perhaps that is why the service center technicians thought that it was a motherboard  problem after reseating hardware and nothing worked.

Here are the steps to the solution that worked. They may be found at page 78 of this manual.

 Important:

** Files needed:

     BIOS firmware ver 1.18 (download from Acer site under BIOS tab)

     Crisis Package Source (You can download from my Public Sky Drive folder)

** Battery should be inserted and power cord plugged because a power interruption during update can make your computer inoperable.

Step 1: Create a Crisis Disk

1. Prepare a removable USB storage device with a capacity size greater than 10 MB. Note that all data on the USB storage device will be cleared during the creation of the Crisis disk. (Use only a flash drive. I have used an external HD and it didn't work.)
2. Set up a system running the Windows XP or Windows Vista OS and plug in the USB storage device into an available USB port. (Crisys Disk setup can only be done in a XP or Vista x32 OS. I have tried XP compatibility mode and Virtual PC XP mode on Windows 7, they didn't work.)
3. Decompress the Crisis Package Source.
4. Select WINCRIS.EXE and then select Run as administrator. (It has to be run as administrator to copy the files into the flash drive, otherwise it won't work. Copying the files manually will not create a working program.)
5. Keep the default settings and then click Start button. (Choose USB drive as destination.)
6. When the pop-up warning dialog box appears, click OK to create the Crisis disk.
7. Click No if you do not want to create another Crisis disk.
8. Eject and reconnect the USB removable storage device, and make sure it contains the following three files:

        • BIOS.WPH

        • MINIDOS.SYS

        • PHLASH16.EXE

* Credit goes to our school technician, Edgar Blanco, who created the Crisis Disk for me because I do not have Admin access to our school computer which runs an XP (I don't have an XP computer at home anymore.)

Step 2: Perform a BIOS Recovery

1. Shut down the BIOS failed computer.
2. Connect the USB storage device containing the Crisis Disk files to the failed system.
3. Press and hold the <Fn> + <Esc> keys (this is the BIOS recovery hotkey), then press the power button. The BIOS recovery process begins. When the process is complete the system will automatically reboot. (A youtube video requires that you press the power button continuously. However this is not necessary in this process. Press power button only once. Hold Fn+Esc for about 5 seconds before releasing them. Also, the power light doesn't blink while the recovery is ongoing.)
4. Disconnect the USB storage device from the system. (Do this once the system shuts down otherwise you will have to start from step 1)
5. Perform a BIOS flash procedure to update the BIOS firmware. Refer to Running the Flash Utility section below.

Step 3: Flash (update) BIOS

1. Rename the BIOS file as “XXXXXXX.FD” (This is the JV10N118 in the Winflash64 or Winflash32 folders in the BIOS_Acer_1.18_Windows files.)
2. Copy the “XXXXXXX.FD” file to the bootable USB device containing the Crisis Recovery disk files.
3. Turn off the system.
4. Insert the USB storage device containing the renamed BIOS file and the Crisis Recovery disk files to any USB port.
5. Press and hold the <Fn> + <Esc> keys (this is the BIOS recovery hotkey), then press the power button.
6. Release the <Fn> + <Esc> keys after POST.

The whole recovery and updating process took me about 15 minutes as recovery and flashing take about 7 minutes to complete. However, the whole searching for solutions and working on them including creating the Crisis Disk took around a day and a half.

Follow the instructions carefully and be patient in doing this so you can recover your computer and don't lose your computer in the process.

Good Luck!

Unlock Samsung Galaxy S "Too many pattern attempts" error

My cousin's Samsung Galaxy got screen locked and showed the "Too many pattern attempts" error. It asked for her gmail so she can open it. Unfortunately, she could not remember her email password and didn't have an alternate email to retrieve her email password. She only registered a gmail account for her phone, so she never used it. So she couldn't answer the security questions either.

I went looking online for answers and found this forum to be helpful. One forum poster, blackstonesx, has this to say:

The solution: 

1) I put my SIM card 
2) I called from another phone and answered the call 
2) Press the touch button that is on the left winged “home” button 
3) There appears a menu with 3 options, "Contacts", "Notes" and "SIM services” 
4) I selected "SIM services" and lower the drop-down menu at the top.
5) Press the home button (the square in the middle), I went to the main menu, Settings, Privacy and data factory reset. 

I tried it, however it didn't work. I tried another solution which was posted by another person, Deanman6:

You might have to hard reset the phone....turn off the phone or just pull the battery out and put it back in. While the phone is off press and hold the volume up and volume down button at the same time (keep holding down those buttons..with your other hand press and hold the power button for 2 seconds. A menu sould come up (Recovery) now you can let go off the power up and down button and navigate with them (up or down on menu selection). use power button as an "enter" key. and click on "wipe data/factory reset" then navigate with the volume buttons and push the power button on the "yes..." selection. This should wipe your phone and start fresh as if you just got the phone.


However, that didn't work either, because everytime I push the power button, it just powers up regularly and leads me back to the "Too many pattern attempts" error. This solution, posted by Richardj, was what worked:

As Goots said, Recovery mode is volume up + Home + Power(international version) and not volume up and volume down. On the many variants of the Galaxy S and SII the key combinations are different. And your fix will not work on newer firmwares.


So, depending on when you bought your Samsung Galaxy S, one of these solutions may work for you. I have to warn you though that resetting your phone will erase all the data from your phone. Be sure to remove your SD card first before doing the reset, so you won't lose the data from your SD card. However, you will lose your data from the phone memory.