Windows Vista service pack 1 (sp1) Released!

It has 23 security updates, 550 hotfixes, and is packed into a 434.5MB package or 726.5MB for the 64-bit version. That’s a fat service pack if I do say so myself.

Some of the more apparent fixes include file copying ETA being more accurate, UAC should pop up a bit less in certain areas, and DirectX has been fixed to support DX9, DX10, and DX10.1 hardware. They also fixed WGA to fix the two most common exploits of the system and they’ve added some more support for third party search solutions.

Prior to getting the service pack you must have,

1)935509 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935509/) A software update is available for versions of Windows Vista that include the Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption feature

2)938371 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938371/) A software update is available for the Windows Vista installation components

3)937287 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937287/) A software update is available for the Windows Vista installation software feature

What I really want to know from you, the readers, is does this new SP make Vista usable? You see I’ve had a copy of Vista Home Premium ever since it was released and I installed, and then promptly uninstalled it, shortly after I got it, but if Vista is now usable again, myself, and I am sure countless others, would be interested in knowing if its worth the update.

The link for 32 bit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&DisplayLang=en

Blue ray wins the format war!! (Killing HD DVD)

Neither side is close to conceding, but the death match over which format will dominate the next generation of movie disks is swinging in favor of Blu-ray, the technology backed by Sony and most of the studios that produce the flicks themselves. Blu-ray was outselling Toshiba-backed rival HD DVD by 2 to 1—though sales for both are still slight—before recent word that Blockbuster, the movie retailer, would not bother stocking HD DVDs.

The move gave weight to predictions by Blu-ray backers that stores would begin to have a say. “Retailers are ultimately going to weigh in, because they only have a limited amount of shelf space,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told analysts in May.

That’s what drove the decision at Blockbuster, which said it would stock only Blu-ray disks in its next 1,450 stores to get high-def movies. HD DVD will still be available online and at 250 locations that Blockbuster used in testing rentals of both formats. “We found that, at this point, Blu-ray is worth the shelf space, and HD DVD is not,” says Blockbuster’s Matthew Smith.

Next up. The stakes for retailers and studios alike are massive: Which technology will replace the DVD? The DVD is a profit engine with yearly sales of more than $16 billion, but it’s beginning to sputter; growth has fallen to the low single digits from double digits a few years ago. Sony and partners, including most big studios, pushed Blu-ray, while Toshiba and Microsoft backed HD DVD.

HD DVD advocates say it’s too early to suggest either format has the upper hand. For one, Blockbuster’s business is primarily rentals—sales of disks at retailers like Wal-Mart are more important, says Kevin Collins, spokesman for a group promoting Toshiba’s format. And so far, the new high-def disks account for less than 1 percent of today’s DVD sales.

Sony last year boosted Blu-ray by including the drives in its PlayStation 3 game console. That resulted in a steep, $600 price that has hurt its gaming sales but put Blu-ray players in about 1.4 million U.S. homes. Sony gambled that sales of Blu-ray disks would more than offset a loss in games share, says Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities. The advantage might widen as studios loyal to Blu-ray have potential big sellers in Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

But the HD DVD camp notes it has sold about 150,000 stand-alone players, compared with Blu-ray’s 90,000. Consumers with those players will eventually buy more movies than those with game consoles, Collins argues. Those Sony drives, the theory goes, will eventually get busy with PS3 games, which so far are lacking, and those consumers will rent fewer movies or buy a separate player.

Also, as sales volume picks up, the cheaper cost of producing HD DVD drives and disks could become more important. Already, Taiwanese manufacturers are racing to produce cheap HD DVD players under licensing deals with Toshiba. Toshiba now sells one for $300, versus $500 for the least-expensive Blu-ray. A $200 player would appeal to Wal-Mart shoppers, who also buy more than 40 percent of all DVDs. That would be a far bigger “get” than winning over Blockbuster. Then there is online movie rental giant Netflix, which has yet to pick sides.

The HD DVD folks have taken to suggesting the two formats can coexist, much as three game consoles share most of that industry’s $12.5 billion in retail sales. They’re talking less of vanquishing the competition. For now, at least, the smack is left to Blu-ray.

UPDATE :

On February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced it would cease developing, manufacturing and marketing HD DVD players and recorders. On that same day, Universal Studios announced it would release its titles in the Blu-ray Disc format, following two years of exclusive HD DVD support. The studio will release two more HD DVD titles: Fletch on 2008-03-11 and Atonement on 2008-03-18. On February 20, 2008, Paramount Pictures announced it would back Blu-ray, becoming the last of the Big Six studios to do so. Paramount ceased HD DVD production on February 28, 2008, with Things We Lost in the Fire and Into the Wild becoming the studio’s last HD DVD releases, both released March 4, 2008. The first Paramount Blu-ray Disc release since August 2007 is expected in summer 2008^. Paramount sister DreamWorks Animation followed suit by canceling its only remaining HD DVD release: Bee Movie.

Microsoft stopped production of Xbox 360 HD DVD players while considering how its HDi and VC-1 technologies could be applied to other platforms. Microsoft has since entered into talks with Sony regarding Blu-ray, although Windows Vista has supported basic filesystem and shell functionality for both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD since launch, relying on 3rd parties to implement movie playback. Rumours of a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 have been officially denied by Microsoft

Dude where is the party?

Excellent movie!

This movie is by far one of the best comedy I have seen in years!

Very close and similar to Blake Edwards’ 1968 The Party, but in a more modern sense. In addition, similar comedy can be found only in Indian movies, and producers of this movie have done a good job to bring it to the US.

It might contain some rather racist actions and comments towards Indians, but its more like racism you can laugh about rather than getting angry at. I wouldn’t call this an all racist movie because characters in this movie all had different personalities ranging from smart to stupid, ugly to nice, and rich to poor, which is basically found in every type of society.

In addition, Sunil Thakkar was a classic in this movie and really made the movie worthwhile! I couldn’t find a single scene by him that I didn’t laugh at!

Well done job for a well done movie!

Artificially Raise Your Windows Experience Index

When you first install and run Windows Vista, it will calculate your Windows Experience Index score to evaluate your computer’s speed and graphics capabilities. Microsoft defines the Windows Experience Index as the following: “The Windows Experience Index is a new feature built into Windows Vista that is designed to help you better understand how well Windows Vista and other software will perform on your PC.

Your computer, running Windows Vista, is assigned a rating number called a “base score” that is achieved by measuring the capability of your computer’s hardware configuration. This base score rating will help you to more confidently buy additional hardware, programs, and software that are matched to your computer’s base score.”

WEI has been a point of contention for many Windows Vista users because the WEI scores tend to be extremely low. Unfortunately, some software requires your WEI score to be above a certain threshold for all the features to work. Fortunately, it is easy to artificially raise your WEI score by modifying the configuration file.

1. The first step is to check your current score. In order to check your WEI score, go to to Start >> Computer >> System Properties >> Performance

2 .Click Rate this computer. It will take a few minutes while Windows evaluates your computer.

3.Your baseline WEI score will now be set.

4.In order to raise this score, navigate to the following directory: C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore

Note: You will need to have your UAC temporarily disabled to proceed with the rest of these steps

5. You will notice one or more XML files. Every time the WEI test is run, it will create a new XML file. Open the most recent file in Wordpad (Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> Wordpad). Lines 14 – 21 have a simple score on each line with XML tags. You can manually change these scores to whatever value you want.

6.Re-save the file with the same name and close Wordpad. If Windows prevents your from saving the file, ensure that you have disabled UAC. When you check your WEI score again, you will now notice a major improvement. Start >> Computer >> System Properties >> Performance

Your new and improved Windows Experience Index will be permanently saved until you rerun the performance test. Any features of software relying on your Windows Experience Score will now be enabled. Don’t worry if you accidentally mess up the file. You can delete the file and rerun the performance test and Windows Vista will recreate the file automatically.

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Hilarious Stoner Comedy…Everything “Dude Where’s My Car” should have been!!!

“Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle” is an amusing, hilarious comedy not to be taken too seriously and not to be dismissed as just another silly stoner comedy. Certainly there are plenty of elements which appeal to those dophamine, “good times” movie-goers, yet there are also some classic instances of comedic greatness. Aside from chronicling two inane potheads on a quest to satisfy their appetites, “White Castle” offers a great coming-of-age and funny coincidence premise, which reminds us of the heavy, sadistic curveballs life hurls at us, sometimes when we merely desire something simple and cannot attain it. Here is a story of a simple goal by two simple minds: to find a White Castle hamburger joint and fulfill the lasting effects of “the munchies”. Yet, as these two stoner friends come to realize, even the seemingly simplest of goals in life can be impossible to achieve, due to such disturbances as irony, circumstance, error, and misfortune, as they are all encountered in this journey. The comic elements are listless: stoner instinct-gone horribly awry, catastrophic error, not-so-pleasant raunchy surprise, near-death escapes in the most unlikeliest of ways, and the eventual finesse of overcoming all obstacles to finally enjoy a binge at a hamburger joint. This is a fresh, original, and satisfying comedy, and though it is nothing of a brilliant production or a cinematic masterpiece, there are plenty of the elements here which constitute for a barrel of laughs and a genuinely entertaining experience at the movies

How do I fix audio sync in AVI file ?

Solution 1: using AVIMUX

Step 1. Download AviMUX: Click here to download AviMUX

Step 2. Unzip it into separate folder, and launch AVIMux_GUI.exe

Step 3. Load your avi file into Avi_mux (right-click -> add). Click on the avi file to select it.

Step 4. Click the “Generate Data Source From Files” button. Information about audio and video streams will appear in the bottom window.

Step 5. Click on the audio stream. Now, you must see “delay [ms]” showing on the right side of the window.

Step 6. Enter audio delay value, for example:

If you see in the movie that a person speaks, and you can hear the voice only several seconds later (Audio is after Video), then you must choose negative value (in milliseconds), for example:
-5000 = shift audio by 5 seconds before video

If you can hear the voice in the movie too early, and only after several seconds you can see & determine who has said that (Audio is before Video), then you must enter positive value (in milliseconds):
5000 = shift audio by 5 seconds after video

Step 7. Finally, click start button, choose output avi filename. DONE!

Solution 2 : Using VIRTUAL DUB

Step 1: Select video then select direct stream copy

Step 2: Select Audio the souce stream selected there also.

Step 3: Select interleaving in audio menu and do the following

Delay audio track by XY ms is what you’re looking for…

[SOLVED]Safely Remove an external hard disk/USB Thumb drive in Vista

[UPDATED]

(THE USUAL WORK AROUND IS SHUTTING DOWN THE PC OR SLEEPING IT AND THEN REMOVE. THIS IS THE ALTERNATE AND PROPER WAY OF DOING THAT)
Powering down USB-powered external hard disk in Vista

USB-powered external hard disk In Vista, even after safely removing USB-powered external hard disk will not work in the same way as the safe removal would do in Windows XP. What it won’t do is powering down the hard drive(Hard Disk Wont spin down in vista). You will notice this when you unplug the USB cable, because of the clickin sound coming from the hard disk, similar to the one you would hear if the power supply got suddenly cut off.

Steps Involved:

1) Download Sdparm for windows from http://sg.torque.net/sg/sdparm.html#mozTocId166213

sdparm.exe is now here:
http://sg.danny.cz/sg/sdparm.html

2) Download Unlocker Software (google it)

3) Use unlocker software to stop processes accessing the disk. So that we made sure disk is not getting accessed.

4)To detach,  stop the usb hard disk spinning,  by entering the following  in  command window

(sdparm.exe should be there inside the folder and You have to run that command in elevated command prompt otherwise sdparm does not see the drive.)

sdparm –command=stop [device]  (that is sdparm hyphen hyphen command=stop G:)

Replace [device] with the drive letter , and that’s it:

Example : sdparm –command=stop G:

If G is your Usb hard disk.

your hard disk will spin down , in the same way it would do in Windows after a safe removal.
Note :This how-to is based on my experience with a Western Digital WD Passport hard disk.
NB: it looks like this how-to won’t work with some Lacie external hard disks.

4) Then unplug it. (Physically pull the usb plug out)

Note : After Spinning Down the Hard disk Using sdparm “Please do not click windows safely remove function @ the taskbar as it will spin up the Hard disk again “
You can also use a batch file to spin down hard disk .

To create batch file

1)open notepad

2)Enter the following in notepad

sdparm –command=stop G:
pause

3) Save the file and name it as Spindown.bat

4)Place it in Desktop

5)To run it right click on it and Select “Run as administrator”

Safely Remove an external hard disk in linux(tested in ubuntu)

Powering down an USB-powered external hard disk
An USB-powered external hard disk

In Ubuntu, unmounting an USB-powered external hard disk will not work in the same way as the safe removal would in Windows. What it won’t do is powering down the hard drive. You will notice this when you unplug the USB cable, because of the nasty sound coming from the hard disk, similar to the one you would hear if the power supply got suddenly cut off.

Thanks to this post on Ubuntu Forums, I’ve figured out the solution.

First of all, you will need to install sdparm:
sudo apt-get install sdparm

At this point, unmount the drive and then issue the command:
sudo sdparm –command=stop [device]

Replace [device] with whatever you need, and that’s it: your hard disk will spin down and rest, in the same way it would do in Windows after a safe removal. Now you may safely unplug your hard disk.
Notes

This how-to is based on my experience with a Western Digital WD Passport hard disk.
NB: it looks like this how-to won’t work with some Lacie external hard disks.