Ebersviller.com

MP4 File Support in Windows Media Center / Media Player

// December 30th, 2011 // 2 Comments » // Other

Today I wanted to consolidate all my various music purchased from Apple iTunes along with my Amazon MP3′s, and all of my ripped CD’s.  I consolidated things, added everything to the proper Windows 7 library, and yet my iTunes MP4 music wasn’t coming up.  I had a handful of songs that were still encrypted with the old iTunes/AAC.  I could have burned them to a CD and re-ripped them, but I took the easy out.  I paid Apple to upgrade them all to iTunes Plus and quickly had pure MP4 copies without the DRM.  Even after doing so the songs weren’t showing up in the album list, but I could open them directly with Media Player without an issue.

I did some searching and found that Windows Media Player couldn’t read the meta data from these files.  There was a great piece of freeware called WMP Tag Plus that takes care of that: http://bmproductions.fixnum.org/wmptagplus/index.htm

If you install that, but still can’t play those files you should install the following:

1. This DirectShow filter: http://www.xiph.org/dshow/
2. Haali Media Splitter: http://haali.su/mkv/
3. DirectShow filter: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDshow.htm
4. WavPack: http://www.wavpack.com/downloads.html

A more complete REG hack is listed below (with credit due to http://weinioli.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/xbox360-vista-media-player-11-mp4-video-streaming/):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

The Cloud, and RackSpace

// August 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Other

The last 15+ years of server infrastructure has been pretty incredible to say the least.  I’ve been in the field and spent a lot of money on a lot of different hardware and providers.  I clearly remember spending tens of thousands on hardware to build critical infrastructure to then colocate it so I could handle rapid growth when it hit.  I’ve had dedicated servers, colocated servers, and more recently cloud servers.

During that time there was nothing worse then receiving that 2 a.m. page that a customer’s server was down, and they couldn’t reach a critical web page.  The frantic SSH session that failed to connect lead to using an APC MasterSwitch to reboot that outlet and to hope it brought the server back so you could work on it remotely.  Once in a blue moon you were so lucky, but all to often you’d have to leave your house to go work on the server.  Even worse you may be on vacation and stuck paying $150+ hr for remote hands and eyes to read back what they see so you can advise them how to fix it.  Incidents like those quickly convince you to pay for the Remote KVM over IP’s that cost thousands and to start buying built in HP ILO (Integrated Lights Out) and Dell DRAC (Dell Remote Access Card) cards, regardless of cost.  If the server had hardware problems it could take even longer to get parts on site to fix the server..

Thankfully that’s starting to become the distant memory as we now have Amazon EC2, RackSpace Cloud Servers, Microsoft Azure, VMware, and oh so many other players emphasizing redundant virtual servers and cloud servers.  Being the technology geek that I am I’ve signed up for all of the above solutions above and evaluated them.  There are different niches in the market for different needs, but as a general “cloud server” provider RackSpace does a great job.

With RackSpace I got started back when I signed up with SliceHost.com in 2008.  They were bought out by RackSpace and provided the technology to power RackSpace’s cloud solutions.  Admiring RackSpace’s reputation in the industry for solid customer service I quickly signed up for a cloud server when they introduced them.  During that time I’ve tested their functionality to grow and shrink servers, setup automated backups, perform restores, used their iPhone application to remotely manage the server, and their web based console has saved me a few times.  These are all standard features that haven’t cost me a dime extra, but have been incredibly convenient to have.

I’ve been using 3rd party monitoring and have experienced excellent performance and uptime for the last couple of years.  My first real issue came up on July 4, 2010 at 3:16 AM CST (8:16 UTC).  The cloud server went down, and at 3:25 AM CST RackSpace contacted me to inform me of the issue.  They were quick to tell me that a chassis swap was necessary and that was completed by 4:14 AM.  At which point they immediately notified me that the work was complete.  In this case they dealt with a hardware failure while I was sleeping and I never had to leave the house to resolve it.

I think it goes without saying that their service was superb during this issue.  Although this is a very pro-RackSpace story it might as well be a very pro “cloud” review.  If your servers and solutions are architected well up front you’ll save yourself a lot of time and grief later on.  Virtualized servers in the cloud aren’t the right fit for everything, but when the fit is right they can be a life saver.  This is just one example of that fact, I could have just as well posted about the ease of scaling up, quickly handling large deployments, providing redundancy throughout the world, and so on.  The cloud isn’t the next big thing; the cloud continues to be the current big thing.  Its just time for the rest of the marketplace to catch on.

ESPN insider Discount

// June 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Other

As a tech geek that loves sports I frequently come across ESPN insider only articles all the time. If you’re reading this then you’re probably familiar with them. They have the lovely image next to the article name. That’s your way of knowing stay away, because you don’t feel like paying $6.95 a month or prepaying for 1+ years to read their articles. (After all we have access to blogs, Google, Facebook, twitter, and a ton of other places to spend our time to read sports commentary..)

Interestingly enough if you have an ESPN The Magazine subscription you get free access to all those insider pages. I purchased that subscription on Amazon for $5 for a year. Meaning you could either pay $6.95 a month through them, decide to pay for a year at their 52% discount of $39.96, or pay a one time fee of $5 and get a whole year. Hmmm.. I wonder what price you guys prefer? Kidding aside enjoy your 94%+ discount, basically free magazine, and ESPN Insider subscription for a flat $5 (or less).

If you don’t want the magazine send it to your closest hospital or doctors office and I’m sure a patient there will appreciate the donated subscription. As of today (6/11/2010) Amazon wrapped up their promotion, but other magazine sites are still offering great deals (even better than the $5 I paid):

“ESPN Magazine is on sale through Saturday for $3.75 per year when you use the code WKLYSPEC at checkout from Best Deal Magazines.”
http://www.bestdealmagazines.com/title.asp?title=ESPN

Even without that coupon code it’s still cheaper than the $5 I paid. My point is to run a quick Google search, buy the magazine, and save yourself some money:
Click to check Google

Now if only I had a work around to when the eBook in the Kindle store costs the same (or even more) than the paperback version at Amazon…

OS X BlackBerry Bold 9000 Tether

// September 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Other

If you use Apple OS X with a BlackBerry Bold 9000 and AT&T this post should be a handy reference.  It provides the settings that you’ll need to configure to use the Bluetooth Dial Up Networking with your 3G phone. At first I used a login script from a BlackBerry 8800 and it worked with my 9000.  However, to take advantage of the full speeds I’d suggest the second script made for the Bold 9000.

1. First things first you’ll need a working modem script: Download 8900 Bluetooth Modem Script or Download 9000 (faster) Bluetooth Modem Script
2. Download that file to /Library/Modem Scripts
3. Start the pair process
   1. On the Bold 9000 go to Setup > Set Up Bluetooth > Listen
   2. On the MacBook click the Bluetooth icon at the top right by the clock > Set up Bluetooth Device > Select your Device, Continue > and then enter the pair code.

   

4. Configure the connection, and make sure you select your phone model as BlackBerry 8800 from the script you copied under step #1.
   Phone Vendor: Other
   Telephone # (APN): wap.cingular
   Username: [email protected]
   Password: CINGULAR1
   
5. Once that’s all done Click on your Phone Icon and click Connect Bluetooth DUN
6. My throughput speeds did vary between the two scripts that I used.  The one created for the 8800 returned 606 kbps down, and 109 kbps up from Minneapolis Comcast to SpeakEasy in Chicago:
   The same test run with the 9000 script showed a huge improvement:
   That’s all there is to it.  You should now be connected!  If you come across other modem scripts that you find helpful drop me a message and I’ll upload them.  There’s no reason that you should have to register on a message board to download a small script file!  I hope this helped.