I actually had gotten the security tab via a shell extension a while ago, but it seemed to be the source of instability problems, so out it went. There are other ways to do it, but MS lets you have it for free with the Windows NT SP4 Security Configuration Manager. I haven't tried it out yet, but it sounds pretty sweet. Not that I really need it, but hey, it's power for nothing.

Here's the download page, here's the FTP folder it's in, and here is a direct link. If you check out the FTP folder, the file you want is SCESP4I.EXE.

[found via Grand Stream Dreams]

Update, December 19, 2009: Having just had to install this due to a couple of folders on my external hard drive getting locked by my previous XP install, I can now recommend a specific install procedure. Run SCESP4I.EXE, select a folder in which to extract the files. Go to the folder, right-click setup.inf, click Install, and wait for the magic to happen. It will inform you, if I remember correctly, that you will need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. That, fortunately, is not true. You can test this by right-clicking a file, going to Properties, and going to the Security tab. There it will be in all of its XP Pro glory. Enjoy.

Thanks to a comment on that DownloadSquad free music post I linked to a while back, I wanted to see if I could grab some free music from brother-sister.net, mewithoutYou's official site for their latest released album, Brother, Sister. Four songs from the album are available for streaming.

So, like the commenter, I installed the Firefox add-on Live HTTP Headers, which is kind of fun… it let's you see the HTTP calls the browser makes. So I pointed Firefox to brother-sister.net, and it let me see the calls the Flash element, in this case, was making when I switched songs. I saw that it was pointing to .swf files, Flash files.

Yesterday I grabbed all the URL's and downloaded two of them with Free Download Manager. Since they were Flash files, my idea was to convert them to mp3 (or maybe something else) or grab the sound out of them via decompilation.

The two programs I grabbed to do that were HooTech's SWF FLV to MP3 Converter trial and Decompile Flash Free Version. Neither would open the .swf files. I admitted defeat.

But, later that night, I thought… I did download something… and they were several megs each. Then it occurred to me that maybe they were actually MP3's, so I tried it out, and boom! They absoballylutely were! So, there you are, four free mewithoutYou songs with a small effort.

The following instructions are for Windows using Firefox, but the process is fairly similar with other operating systems and browsers.

The .swf links:

a Glass Can Only Spill What it Contains (track 5)
Nice and Blue (pt. Two) (track 6)
C-Minor (track 9)
O, Porcupine (track 11)

So, if those don't download and just sit there, just right click the links and select Save Link As… Or, if you have a download manager, add new downloads for the files… right click the links and select Copy Link Location to get the proper address and then paste them into your download manager.

Then, when the .swf's have finished downloading, open the folder you downloaded them to, and change the extensions to .mp3 (for example, change C-Minor.swf to C-Minor.mp3). This can easily be accomplished through right clicking the files and selecting Rename. If you can't see the extension (so C-Minor.swf would just look like C-Minor), you need to turn on known file extensions.

And there you go, you have your MP3's. And at a fairly good 112 Kbps quality. They don't have any tags, though so you could automatically tag them (put in information like artist, title, album, album year, etcetera) with Mp3tag or Auto-Tag in Winamp. Or you can manually tag them with a program such as Windows Media Player or iTunes (album information here).

Enjoy.

Also, I further tried out Decompile Flash Free Version and SWF FLV to MP3 Converter this morning using a real Flash file. SWF FLV to MP3 Converter seems to work OK, but it's only a trial; on exit you are told that it's a trial version and "The version only converts 50% audio and extracts 5 sound elements at most." Decompile Flash Free Version, however, extracted all of the elements of the same Flash file for me… for free. And it's not a trial. I extracted all the sound elements just fine. So, if any of you Windows users need a decent (to me) Flash decompiler and partial editor for free, this looks great.

Because of the ever expanding world of social networking some people complain about just another thing to update. I quite concur… if you have say five different services you want to post the same message to, it can be a bit of an annoyance. Or a drag. Or whatever you care to describe it as. However, I think that that problem could be at least partially solved by the use of services such as Ping.FM, an online tool that lets you update many services at once (though I have never used such a service… yet).

But, that's not what I do. I have a few services I have joined over the years, and in my mind I have a purpose for each. And here they are:

• Blogs (my current platform is Blogger): for posting longer stuff… sort of textual works of art sometimes: discourses, arguments, current events, reviews, etcetera. Also, questions to the masses, guides, longer write-ups on personal life and experiences, and so on. Or sometimes, just less formal stuff and perhaps shorter stuff.
• Twitter: for microblogging, as the service is described. Short things I want to say or just whatever I want to say; sometimes randomness or seemingly such. Also, it's good for plugging in updates and notices from stuff, like twitterfeed (pulls feeds to a Twitter profile). Also, I like that it's microblogging… it's limited to 140 characters, so it can make you be creative. It can be the art of brevity.
• Facebook: a great all around social utility for me. Text, images, and video are supported, so any such things may be posted. And what's alluring about this is that it is a sharing just within your circle of friends, not public (though I think you may choose to do so… I doubt many users do). It's very pluggable-in, which I like. You can post and link to your heart's content, and it's really popular with some people, which can make for perhaps the most effective means of communication to some people. Also, it has a community aspect within the privacy; many interactions between can be publicly seen by their circle of friends, who can easily join in. And, back to the pluggable-in aspect, there are many, many Facebook Apps, some of which plugin in to other services, or let other services plug into Facebook. And by the way, if for any reason you got confused, it's Facebook, not FaceBook.
• Delicious (previously called Del.icio.us): It's social bookmarking. Personally, I'm not too into the whole see what's up on Digg or Delicious thing, but it works good for putting a linkroll on my blog, so people can see what I've recently bookmarked, thus I share it with them. I use the bookmarklet, which works great for bookmarking pages I want to share. Also, it can create a record of where you've been on the web of sorts… not a strict statistical or analytical record, but a sort of what-I-thought-the-best-then collection. And you can add your comment to stuff you bookmark, which works with the collection idea. Not to mention if something isn't any longer in your browser history and you want to find it, maybe you bookmarked it on Delicious (or Digged it, for that matter). As I said at first, I'm not really too much into the see-what-floats-to-the-top idea, but maybe I would be if I had a better internet connection. I guess we might see in the future.

So that's what I use. How about you? What's your social networking philosophy? Or do you even have one?

This is it, the last day of eight years of Bush. And I honor him for his service to our nation; even thought he made mistakes, he still has stood up when it was right but not fun.

And today we remember Martin Luther King Jr., a black man who dream that one day his children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Well, I think you'd be proud today, Mr. King.

And, it really is amazing, a country that 40, 60 years ago still had a lot of segregation between whites and colored people. And now, a black man becoming arguably the most powerful man in the world.. tomorrow?

It's just… blowaway amazing, really.

And I ask that God will protect President Obama, shield him from those who would harm him, give him great wisdom, and turn his heart. I think it's really great that such an event could actually be happening, with a host of supporters in the nation, but after all, he was either one of the most or the most liberal congressmen in our nation. And we will certainly see his radical views affect our nation in big ways.

But, this is just crazy. It's almost hard to believe it's happening… both for the part of life that I've paid attention to politics (or most of it), Mr. Bush has been our president. I haven't really known anything else. But now, a Democrat, a very radical one at that, a black man, and a fairly young-ish President-elect, about to take power.

Puh-retty amazing.

Not to mention how much the inauguration… like $150 million or something like that. Insane. I can understand security and safety costs, but a bunch for partying, too? (I don't actually know the breakdown). Seriously, Mr. Obama.

So, I just have to say today, wow. Like, really wow. A new year and likely enough we're about to launch into probably one of the craziest times in our history. So hold on tight and pray like crazy.

Well, it looks as if Google has finally gotten on it. They are stealthily removing copyrighted audio from user made and uploaded videos (like ninjas). Bam. There goes the YouTube way of getting music for free.

I suppose it's really the right thing to do, but it does also take away that quick and easy way of checking out a new song: YouTube it.

Oh wells.

Yeah, so I'm sorry for not getting in a huge post about all my computer workings recently, but I expect it will be forthcoming. What I'm here to say right now is that I did a quick mod on my wallet/billfold thing. I bought this little deal at a yard sale out near the Hostetter ranch, on my way back to work, actually. Brian Buck and I saw the sign and headed out to the sale. It's slim, durable, attractive, and holds everything I need it to. Come to think of it, I didn't actually buy it, because they gave it to me for free, considering it's low worth. It's just a plastic wallet for holding papers or something, I guess - one of those cheap courtesy trinkets companies give to their customers/potential customers. This particular one says "Courtney Motors" on it, although the lettering is too faded now to read except at an angle. I picked it up because I figured it could hold my timesheets that I wrote my hours for the day on; it being plastic might keep them dry through the weather and irrigation work. It's taken a beating, that's for sure! I've used it to keep myself from electric shocks while shutting down engines by breaking the circuit, and it's resided in my pocket through all sorts of weather and actions. Finally, the seams started to crack because of the wear. I had been repairing it with layers of clear tape, but they didn't last long....and didn't have the classy look of DUCT TAPE!!! Enjoy the pictures. Sorry they're not more thoughtfully captured, but my camera was running low on battery. (By the way, my camera gets points for surviving a car-rollover.)

OK, yeah, I know, feeds, both Atom and RSS are really popular. But apart from the techies (read: geeks), how many know what the little orange radio wave icons means?

Or do people even care? Would they use it if they knew what it meant? Would they be interested in efficient ways to keep up with an information source?

And another question, I suppose, is how do we deal with feeds? There are a bajillion feed readers out there, and the major browsers support it out of the box, either through Firefox style live bookmarks, or through a built in reader. What I would like to see is a cloud style movement, which I think might already be happening. Like Google Reader (accessing your Google Reader feeds from somewhere else than the web interface).

It seems to me that there is profit to be made in making this more accessible/popular with the masses.

Lol, that's maybe an awkward post title. Notwithstanding, I do have a cool idea.

Say you've just met someone and you're just about to leave when you pause, remembering, and arrest them before they can take off too. "Just a sec," you say. "Can I get your picture for my contacts?" "Sure," they respond, and you whip out your mobile telephone and snap a pic. "Hey, nice meeting you," you say. "See you later."

After they leave, the pic has been uploaded to your Gmail contacts and you fill in the details, grabbing their email address from the business card they gave you. Easy.

Alternately, you could store it in an internal database on the phone, which would sync with your PC software (Outlook or whatever). Or maybe you could get some kind of cloud storage service for it with your cellular service provider or some other company.

Oh, and of course, the app would provide easy access and viewing of these contacts, preferably anytime (sync with a cloud service?). Maybe it could even be a Gmail feature (or a browser add-on or something) that would do this.

How does it sound? Any idea or improvements? And, this is just an idea right now, no code that I know of =).

Hummm… more like a linkshare.

A-PDF Extractor - I was looking for an app to convert PDF to text over the holidays, and this was one of the two I downloaded. I actually didn't even get through the installation of the other one because I didn't like their terms. Which is fine, because A-PDF Extractor does the job: nice, simple, and quick. Warning: not a portableapp as far as I can tell (no .ini's or such in the Program Files folder).

How To Send Email To Any Cell Phone (for Free) | MakeUseOf.com - I have to say this could come in handy… if I ever need it for some reason. What is nice is there is an address for Unicell, which is what my dad is on. And the Gmail Labs way doesn't work. Although I think Unicell has a place on their site where you can text message phones using the service.

Bug 105843 – Cache lost if Mozilla crashes (Mozilla Bugzilla) - Nice to know that this is actually tracked. But… it's intentional, from what I read, there is a chance that the cache might be corrupted, so it just dumps it. Which is really annoying if you are on dial-up. Seems to happen to me occasionally when browsing offline. There was a patch on the page, I think, but if I recall right it was for Firefox 1.5 or something… not Fx 3.

May you see deep snow. =)

I have to say I am very impressed with the new Picasa. It seems to be faster (I think) and has gained a lot of polish. I don't really want to write a review, so I'll just list some improvements and additions.

• improved - full screen slideshow: it is a lot faster this time around. Much more viable for doing quick full screen showoffs to people clustered about your laptop or curious family members. Extra transitions have been added (take that, Windows Photo Gallery!); Cut (I think all the old one did was Dissolve), Pan and Zoom, Wipe, Circle, Push, and Rectangle. And a exit transition/animation. Very pleased with this.
• addition - tags: nice to see this in there. I don't use tags right now, but I'm sure it could be useful.
• improved - search: now does a sort of auto-complete/suggestions drop down thing. Also, you can just start typing, instead of having to hit up the box.
• improved - folder/album buttons: added some stuff: a slideshow button (labeled 'Play'), movie button, and gift CD button (that's better… I guess the old place for that at the top was kind of *out* of place).
• addition - faces filter: now you can search for photos with faces in them. Great. Also appears in the folder/album buttons. I heard you can tag people, too, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.
• improved - folder/album bar: now it has transparency, which varies fluidly, depending on where you're scrolled too. Picks up the folder/albums button bar as you scroll by. Kind of cool.
• addition - Projects: a section for projects you do in Picasa. Appears if any exist. Useful if needed, I guess.
• addition - retouch (under Basic Fixes): it's like a magical cloning tool. Animated and very cool. I like it.
• improvement - Picasa Web Albums integration: I can't actually say much about this, as I haven't ever logged into Web Albums from Picasa, but just from looking around the app, it looks tighter… stuff like Sync to Web and Share buttons on the folder/album bar.
• addition - Geo-Tag: uses Google Earth. I think this might have actually previously been an experimental feature, so maybe not quite "new." Didn't fully try it out, but looks good so far… I suppose a direct lat-long entry might be nice (on a guess).
• improvement - Collage: still at home on the bottom button bar, but vastly improved. Launches in it's own tab, so you get a lot more room. Adds a Frame Mosaic option, which has one bigger picture in the middle. Better format (size and shape) options. Pictures are now draggable, and can be scaled and rotated in the Picture Pile. Multiple Exposure has an animation to tell you it's working and a x out of y progress meter (nice, because the old one could take seemingly forever if you dumped a big load on it). Also, it appears you can save drafts of your collages… do I hear photo gift projects coming on?
• addition - tabbed interface: Sometimes… not quite like Firefox tabs. But some actions bring down a tab bar and give you another tab with a working screen (and we find out the main view is called 'Library'). The ones I've found so far are Collage and Movie Maker. And yes, you can have more than two tabs open. And Ctrl+Tab switching works (yay!).
• addition - Movie Maker (or could the old Picasa do movies? I don't remember…): quite impressed with this. You get some transitions from the slideshow and some different ones. Lots of other nice stuff, including broad dimension support (320x240 to 1920x1080), slide duration (fit to music included… sweet!), MP3 & WMA soundtrack support, text slides, basic video clip support, and integrated YouTube upload. Playback in edited mode is pretty fast and smooth.
• improved - movie playback: lots better. No longer are we stuck with a play button. Now we have a seekable progress bar and what looks like editing via start and end points. Also, there's an edit button for videos with saved projects. Woot.

 

Well, that's all for right now. The only other thing is the Picasa Photo Viewer, which is pitched to you at update/install or first run (I don't remember which… it gets installed even if you don't set image file associations to it). I declined then tried it out later. It's pretty cool… filled with Picasa tricks (starring with Picasa closed, anyone?) and pretty quick to boot. The interface is a nice full screen overlay with pretty effects (though you can get it into a window with Alt+Tab). It's not replacing Windows Picture and Fax Viewer for me right now, but it's definitely a keeper.

Looking around the internet, I see this isn't quite unknown, but you can actually unzip .u3p files and get at the stuff inside. Most interestingly, the .exe files. Yes, you can run at least some of them. But, as I thought could be the case, Tim Clark on a PortableApps Forums thread pointed out the flaw:

As stated above not all U3 programs can be extracted and run. Some depend on the U3 platform to run.

So, you can get it out and run it, but don't expect true portability without the U3 software (and even then I've heard some U3 apps do leave traces on the host computer).

If you don't know what I'm talking about with the traces stuff, check out this page at the PortableApps Forums and read John Haller's first reply.

Short post, but something I wanted to write about. Happy New Year!