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4676

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Deozaan on March 10, 2012, 11:19 PM »

Just booted into Windows 7 on my son's laptop, and the folder in question is there, not hidden.

-Edvard (March 10, 2012, 08:20 PM)

Thanks for the tip. Now that I know how to change USB Mount method, I'll hook it up to my Win7 machine and give it a try.

DIR /AH came up with "DID.bin" (the firmware, I presume) and a folder named FOUND.000.
In there are a bunch of files named "FILE[4 sequential numbers].CHK" that are taking up a surprising bit of room (303 Megs)
Dunno what they're for, and not about to just erase stuff willy-nilly to see what happens.

-Edvard (March 10, 2012, 08:20 PM)

AFAIK the FOUND.000 folder and its files are created when scandisk/chkdsk found some sort of problem and decided to move/rename a bunch of files rather than delete them. One time I thought I lost my entire music collection after a checkdisk, but found all the files in one of those FOUND.000 folders.

4677

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Unity Mobile Addon (iPhone and Android ) Free till 8th April 2012.

« Last post by Deozaan on March 07, 2012, 08:02 PM »

Wow! Awesome!

4678

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Deozaan on March 07, 2012, 02:32 PM »

It is supplied with USB mode set to Mass Storage (MSC) (because Apple doesn't work with MTP mode).

Change the USB mode in the device itself to MTP and it works fine.

Press home and find Settings, go to System Settings and then USBMode - select MTP, plug it in to your PC and it should work.

-Carol Haynes (March 05, 2012, 01:13 PM)

I think it was on Auto Detect by default. I changed it to MTP and it doesn't seem to do anything except charge. But when I change it to MSC it finally showed up in Windows Explorer -- but I couldn't find any music files anywhere on it. All of the built-in directories are empty.

I took a look at it in WinDirStat to see where all the files are, in case they were hidden in an obscure Rockbox folder, but for some reason it is only showing about 450MBs of the 4GBs on the drive. Most of that is the free space. The rest is the Rockbox directory and anything else in the root directory. But wherever my music is hiding is. . . hidden. But not in the "Hidden Folders" sense of the word. I have my OS set to display hidden files and folders.

Does anyone else have any other tips on how to mount this thing as a normal USB storage device?

I did notice when I'm browsing the files on the Rockbox firmware that the music isn't in those directories either. It's in a folder called ##MUSIC# which then has the default categories (Albums, Audiobooks, Music, Playlists, etc.) in it. So how do I access this ##MUSIC# folder when Windows doesn't seem to recognize that it exists?

4679

General Software Discussion / Re: Can anyone be a Hacker!

« Last post by Deozaan on March 05, 2012, 12:20 PM »

These days if you use your friend's Facebook account from their phone or PC because they didn't log out, your friend will likely say that you hacked their Facebook account.

The term "hacker" is generally used these days for just about any undesired access to accounts, systems, or information.

But I'd say yes, anyone can be a hacker (even a "real" one), just as anyone can play piano or learn any other skill. Some people have more of a natural knack for the sort of thing, but if you can learn, you can do just about anything you'd like.

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Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Deozaan on March 05, 2012, 12:08 PM »

I'm also trying to figure out how to connect it to my PC. In Windows 7 I just plug it in and it automatically pops up some SanDisk thing with information about the device and free space, etc. But when I plug it into my Windows XP netbook, XP doesn't even seem to recognize that there's a new USB device plugged in. It simply charges.

How can I connect the Sansa ZipClip to my machine and mount it like a normal USB device on XP? Or even on Windows 7? I don't like the SanDisk driver/software. It sometimes does strange things to the music, like renaming the files/folders on the device, so they are hard to find using the RockBox firmware and they play out of their proper order.

Any tips on getting this thing to mount like a regular USB storage device on XP and Windows 7?

4681

Living Room / Re: Renew Encryption Key for offline PS3

« Last post by Deozaan on March 04, 2012, 04:36 PM »

We just put in a Harry Potter 7 Part 2  Blu-Ray and it worked. I thought that if the encryption key had expired that all Blu-Ray discs would no longer play.

I'll talk to my dad about the jailbreak option, he may go for it.

4682

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by Deozaan on March 04, 2012, 02:41 AM »

I can't remember if I mentioned this already or not, but I recently read the Hunger Games trilogy. I think it was back in January when I read them.

I loved the first book so much that I pretty much read it and the following two books in a single sitting. There may have been a bathroom or food break somewhere in there, but other than that I did nothing but read those three books from start to finish.

The first book was the best. The second book surprised me but made me like the protagonist a bit less. The third book was the worst, IMO, mostly because:

minor spoiler

in that book the protagonist was almost completely unlike how she was in the first book.

4683

Living Room / Re: Renew Encryption Key for offline PS3

« Last post by Deozaan on March 04, 2012, 02:29 AM »

So there's no way to upgrade or update or renew the encryption key without doing a full system update?

That's pretty ridiculous making a $500 Blu-Ray player obsolete simply because it hasn't been connected to the internet for a while. . . And here I thought that Blu-Ray was supposed to be better than DVD.

4684

Living Room / Renew Encryption Key for offline PS3

« Last post by Deozaan on March 03, 2012, 09:54 PM »

Hi folks,

When Sony decided to require all PS3 customers to lose advertised features by removing OtherOS if you update the system, my Dad decided he didn't want to update his PS3 anymore.

Just tonight we tried to watch a new Blue-Ray and it shows an error message saying that in order to watch the movie we need to renew the encryption key. And it says the way to do that is to perform a system update.

Aside from the fact that my Dad doesn't want to update the PS3 system software, their internet connection here is so poor that he couldn't download the multi-hundred megabyte update files if he wanted to.

Does anyone know of a way to update the encryption key on the old fat PS3 models without performing a system software update?

The movie is Hugo, if that helps at all.

4685

General Software Discussion / Re: A Siri challenger emerges. Meet Evi.

« Last post by Deozaan on February 23, 2012, 03:42 PM »

There were those 2 college guys who set up www.ahugfromtaylorswift.com and she heard about it and ended up doing meeting them. But thats been done now, so I need something else.

-Fred Nerd (February 19, 2012, 05:22 AM)

I can't believe you haven't thought up www.akissfromtaylorswift.com yet!

* Deozaan registers the domain.

You snooze you lose! It's mine now.

4686

DonationCoder.com Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for February 14, 2012 - "Heart of a Bird"

« Last post by Deozaan on February 16, 2012, 12:34 PM »

Somebody murdilized Cody and ate his heart?

4687

General Software Discussion / Re: Tagging audio files in itunes+ipod is an absolute NIGHTMARE!!

« Last post by Deozaan on February 16, 2012, 12:22 PM »

Every time I pick up the new Android device I can immediately tell how awful the touch-features are compared to Apple's.  Immediately.

-superboyac (February 14, 2012, 10:33 PM)

I have never been able to get an iPod's touch-features to work correctly.

The only nice thing about the iPod is the large storage space, IMO.

4688

Living Room / Re: May I Have A Download Please?

« Last post by Deozaan on February 14, 2012, 05:01 AM »

I didn't know Broken Saints was on YouTube!

I actually own the DVD set. I should watch it again sometime soon.

4689

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by Deozaan on February 14, 2012, 02:57 AM »

This is hilarious!

It's reminiscent of Gary Brolsma's Numa Numa video.

And he's got a lot more videos, too.

4690

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Deozaan on February 13, 2012, 12:08 PM »

Well, it is pretty raunchy. I see no problem with there being an age restriction on it.

4691

General Software Discussion / Re: color area

« Last post by Deozaan on February 13, 2012, 03:20 AM »

Hmm... That's right. It doesn't select all similar colors. Only connected ones.

I don't use Photoshop, but I remember in PSP several years ago you there was either an option to make the Magic Wand select all similar colors in the entire image, or you could select a color and then use a menu option to select all similar colors. Something like that. . .

Once you've got all the pixels selected there is still a bit of a problem counting them. One way to do it could be to make the selection one color and make everything not selected a different color so you've got just a two-tone image and then use coding magic to figure it out from there. That's based on the assumption that it's easier to count specific pixels in a two-tone image than a 32-bit color image.

If it sounds like I don't know what I'm talking about, that's because I don't. I'll shut up now.

4692

General Software Discussion / Re: color area

« Last post by Deozaan on February 12, 2012, 11:06 PM »

Isn't this what the Magic Wand does in just about every paint/photo program out there?

4693

Living Room / Re: Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker: Very cool article on why songs give you chills

« Last post by Deozaan on February 12, 2012, 06:16 PM »

I listened to it and I didn't cry or even get goose bumps. But I did notice a physical response:

When the chorus enters, Adele's voice jumps up an octave, and she belts out notes with increasing volume. The harmony shifts, and the lyrics become more dramatic: "Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead."

When the music suddenly breaks from its expected pattern, our sympathetic nervous system goes on high alert; our hearts race and we start to sweat. Depending on the context, we interpret this state of arousal as positive or negative, happy or sad.

-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577213010291701378.html

I'm not sure if it happened when she sang those exact lyrics, but there was a part of the song in which I felt my heart rate increase (in a manner not dissimilar from being slightly startled) after she began to sing louder and at a higher octave, as described in the article.

That said, the repetitive pattern that plays throughout the song reminds me of One Republic's Secrets (which starts at about 10 seconds in):

4694

Living Room / Re: U.S. Air Force May Buy 18,000 Apple IPad2s for Flight Crews

« Last post by Deozaan on February 11, 2012, 10:47 PM »

Not too certain about FAA rules but it's probably a US thing.

-lotusrootstarch (February 11, 2012, 08:17 PM)

Yeah. Sorry. I forgot who I was talking to. For some reason I was thinking you were from the USA.

That said, these iPads are to be used for the USA military, in which case 40hz may have had a point:

Unfortunately, the FAA will not allow them to be switched on while the plane is in the air for fear they may interfere with aircraft's flight instruments. hahahahahahahahahahahahah!!! 

-40hz (February 11, 2012, 04:48 AM)

4695

Living Room / Re: U.S. Air Force May Buy 18,000 Apple IPad2s for Flight Crews

« Last post by Deozaan on February 11, 2012, 07:32 PM »

Unfortunately, the FAA will not allow them to be switched on while the plane is in the air for fear they may interfere with aircraft's flight instruments. hahahahahahahahahahahahah!!! 

-40hz (February 11, 2012, 04:48 AM)

That's what "Airplane Mode" is for.

-lotusrootstarch (February 11, 2012, 05:51 AM)

Have you been on an airplane recently? Every flight I've been on in the past few years I've been instructed to turn the devices off completely "even if the device has an airplane mode."

4696

DC Gamer Club / Re: Indie Royale: Valentine's Bundle (Zeno Clash, Hoard, Lume, Soulcaster 2)

« Last post by Deozaan on February 11, 2012, 07:21 PM »

I played something like the first dozen levels of Soulcaster (1) and it seems interesting and fun. It's almost reminiscent of a tower defense game since you place units down that do not move, and they need to stop the monsters from reaching the target (you!). You're pretty much defenseless on your own. So there's some strategy in placing your strong units in front to block enemy passage while using ranged units to bomb from the back.

It's not exactly a tower defense game. And since what you need to protect (yourself) is mobile, there's not necessarily one specific way to beat any given level. Also, as you move around the map, enemies will spawn from different places. And sometimes the map changes (e.g. walls break down or bridges appear). So it's actually fairly difficult at times.

As for Zeno Clash, I bought it and beat it back when it first launched. I really loved the concept, story, art and sounds. Actually I really loved pretty much everything about the game except the combat. Maybe they've fixed it since then. But so much of the game is just purely combat, which is hard, punishing, and felt unfair to me at the time. Like my character wouldn't do what I was trying to get him to do. I had to fight several battles over and over and over several times. I probably "ragequit" a few times. The only thing that kept me going was that I wanted to find out what happened in the story and see more of its universe. I can't remember if there was an option to turn the difficulty down or not when I played it.

I'd love to revisit the world and the story, but I've been hesitant to put myself through that torture again. It might be worth another playthrough on an easier setting. Sometimes I wish games would unlock a video mode after you beat them, so you can just watch the whole thing like a movie to get a refresher on the story without all the time and work involved.

EDIT: One thing people complained about at the time was the poor translation of the game, since the developers are not native English speakers. I actually didn't notice that it was a poor translation. I thought the people just spoke somewhat oddly because they themselves were somewhat odd characters. In my opinion, it actually added to the charm and mystique of the Zeno Clash universe which is a quirky and strange place.

4697

Living Room / Re: New weapons in the file sharing war.

« Last post by Deozaan on February 11, 2012, 12:41 AM »

Are you guys crazy? Why would you want the Unabomber to return? What the heck is wrong with you?

4698

DC Gamer Club / Re: Indie Royale: Valentine's Bundle (Zeno Clash, Hoard, Lume, Soulcaster 2)

« Last post by Deozaan on February 10, 2012, 09:16 PM »

But I suppose I can give those games away and keep Lume and the Soulcasters to myself.

-Deozaan (February 10, 2012, 04:20 PM)

Can you give them away independently?  I know you can't with some others...

-wraith808 (February 10, 2012, 08:47 PM)

Yes. Indie Royale always gives separate Steam keys for games redeemable on Steam.

Their Desura keys, however, always bundle everything redeemable on Desura.

4699

DC Gamer Club / Re: Indie Royale: Valentine's Bundle (Zeno Clash, Hoard, Lume, Soulcaster 2)

« Last post by Deozaan on February 10, 2012, 04:20 PM »

Zeno Clash has an interesting (if not confusing) story and amazingly surreal visuals. Unfortunately the combat in the game is not very fun, IMO, and that's what you spend most of the time doing.

Hoard is a decent arcade-like game where you try to get the highest score within the time limit. The two Hoard DLC packs are also included with the bundle.

Lume doesn't look that interesting to me, but I haven't played it so I can't speak about how fun it is or is not.

The Soulcaster games look a bit retro but they look like they could be pretty fun.

It's a pretty good bundle this time. I'd feel better about it if I didn't already own Zeno Clash and Hoard+DLCs. But I suppose I can give those games away and keep Lume and the Soulcasters to myself.

4700

Living Room / Re: Could someone convert a .png into an .ico for me?

« Last post by Deozaan on February 10, 2012, 04:11 PM »

Deo, app said that she couldn't get it to spit out anything bigger than 256x256, see 3rd post.

-Krishean (February 10, 2012, 08:09 AM)

Whoops! You're right.