Phil writes:

I am having a problem when I open AVI files that I create from the video camera. When I select them I get a message that reads ' Dr Watson Postmorten Debugger ' you have a problem’. When I click the box to close it, it locks up the computer and I have to do a soft boot.
Sometimes it brings up the Microsoft error reporting message that you have a problem and closing you down. I click on don't send message and I go back to the desk top.
I opened [Windows file folder for error message debugging]. There is a lot of files in the folder telling me what has been done.

I also am getting the Window Explorer message, when I click on a AVI file and when I click don't send message it closes me back to the desk top.

Do you know what might be happening.

I know Phil does a lot of video editing and makes some great photo and video keepsakes for his family. Like most of us he has tried a few different programs and Windows being the complicated software that it is he has in the past had some trouble with file formats and such. So I was thinking that this might be another recurrence of your old problems.

But a little bit of research reveals some more info. Once again the sheer volume of help available from Google is mindboggling – you just have to know how to search.

I found this discussion thread at a forum called MovieCodec.com. The details here are exactly the problem Phil is having.

Windows has a default habit of offering you a preview of multimedia files when you are searching through Windows Explorer. You know how when you open My Videos or whatever and select a video and Windows wants to show you a little preview copy – that’s what I mean. Ok so what happens is Windows (well Windows Explorer actually) takes control of the file and then when you try to access it the file is ‘in use’ and Explorer locks up and requires a restart which a lot of the times will mean restarting your whole system. This lock up triggers the Windows error reporting messages and Dr Watson which is Windows debugging program.

What the linked info suggests doing is to de-register the Windows settings, specifically a DLL file, that do the preview function. By so doing it can avoid this lock up problem altogether

The easiest way is to run a command through the ‘Run’ setting or to save the settings as a Batch file. A batch file is just a plain text file but with the extension changed from txt to bat. Running a batch file is like double-clicking a program file – the simple code written in the file will run. For that reason some antivirus programs will rightly try to block batch files. More Info on Batch files  is available here at Wikipedia

To help out I have made the batch text files for you and you can download them below. There are 2 files – one turns the setting off as described and the other turns it back on.So if changing it didn’t help or you wanted to go back to having the preview you just run the On file.

WinShellMediaOff – turns OFF the Windows Shell Media Handling

WinShellMediaOn– turns ON the Windows Shell Media Handling

Click and save the file somewhere like your Desktop. Once saved right click and choose Rename and change the extension (the bit after the dot) from name.txt to name.bat. Then double click the bat file to run it. If you want to see the contents of these files just open the Text file and read before you change the names to bat or read the website.

So give this a go Phil – I reckon it will work and shouldn’t do any harm if not. Other people on the site say that downloading the newest DivX codec solved their problem.So if this fix doesn’t work that would be my next suggestion. The latest version is always available at DivX.com

Let us know how you go :)

I found this posted on LifeHacker. I reckon there might be plenty of people who would like a nice size, near indestructible mobile phone.

It’s probably a bit late for a Xmas present recommendation but it is still a good idea and $550 with a 3 year warranty is quite reasonable for a good phone. Most people wouldn’t keep a mobile longer than 3 years – planned obsolescence is a killer these days

There's nothing more infuriating (or expensive) than a mobile phone that doesn't stand up to the most everyday of activities, like being smashed by a hammer, dropped in a beer bath or strapped to a rocket. If you've ever found yourself in this situation, Sonim has a sturdy solution to your woes. Engineered for sports enthusiasts and those who work in harsh environments, the military-spec, Bluetooth and Push-to-talk enabled XP1 is shockproof, waterproof, dustproof, extreme temperature-proof and, considering the 3-year unconditional warranty, moron-proof. Despite having been on the overseas market for over a year, the indestructible mobile remains the only one of its kind in Australia and is available at Crazy John's for $549 outright. The device is hardly pretty, but it is something to consider for any adrenaline junkie, drunk, klutz, brickie or astronaut on the lookout for the ultimate in non-breakable mobiles, this Christmas.

[LifeHacker Christmas Gift Guide]

Details here via BBC

Just goes to show that the spammers/scammers will use any medium – email, IM, Facebook, MySpace, Filesharing and Torrents -  to try and infect the dumb users on the net.

To get this virus you need to:

1. Open a Facebook message (probably from someone you don’t know)
   The title is “you look funny (or ‘awesome’) in this new video” 
   I mean, wouldn’t you know if you had been videoed???
2. Click on a link that says “secret video by Tom” 
   You know Tom your best mate who videoed you – yeah right
3. Click on a prompt to download a ‘new version of Adobe Flash’
4. Sit back and watch yourself get infected

My point is you need to break the sensible rules of internet usage not 1 but 3 times to get this virus. Maybe those who get it deserve it.

For those who might not know:

1. Don’t open email or messages from people you don’t know
2. Don’t just do it anyway cause like your antivirus software is really good and that
3. Don’t open any attachments to emails or links in messages unless you were expecting to get an attachment for a legitimate reason. And make sure you have ‘Hide extensions for know file types’ turned off in Windows so you can really see what the attachments are
   To do this: Open windows explorer or MY computer, Click Tools menu, Go to folder options, Go to view, Uncheck the ‘Hide extensions’ option in the list
4. Don’t click on links for program updates you didn’t ask for deliberately. If you think your Flash or other program needs an update run the ‘check for update’ function built into the program or else type/Google the programs website and download the update directly. This ensures you are getting a legitimate version. Reputable download sites like FileHippo.com or Download.com are ok too

Fishing the net is some articles of interest I have found whilst trawling newsletters and internet sites. Here you go:

Tips for Better Portraits

5 tips for taking better portrait photos with your digital camera

A brief history of Computers as told via TV ads

If you have used computers for a while you will recognize some of these ads and the machines in them. Just goes to show how good Apple usually is at it’s marketing.

Bit of trivia – as a teenager I owned both a Tandy TRS80 and a Commodore 64. The C64 was an excellent machine for playing games – I still remember some

Backup Your Mozilla Profiles

For users of Firefox, Thunderbird, Flock and even (god forbid) SeaMonkey.

Did you know that all the customizations, cookies, bookmarks, and plug-ins you add to your programs can be backed up? You can save them in case of a problem, copy them to another PC and so on. This link gives you a howto tutorial using MozBackup

Ultimate Windows Tweaker - Tweak UI For Windows Vista

Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a Tweak UI Utility for tweaking and optimising Windows Vista. It is modelled after the TweakUI program that was an ‘unofficial’ Microsoft product available for Win XP but never released for Vista. The Win XP version is available here.

Details of Tweaks :

The tweaks are classified under seven categories and can be accessed through a common interface, just like your Windows Vista Control Panel.
1) Personalization,
2) User Accounts & UAC,
3) System & Performance,
4) Security,
5) Internet Explorer (IE7 / IE8)
6) Network Optimization
7) Additional Options

 

 

The Complete Guide To Speeding Up Your PC's Startup

A good summary of tips from Lifehacker on how to make your PC start faster. Follow the tips to speed things up. You can also investigate switching off some of the services on your  PC, although this is probably for more advanced users. I have personally tried the startup Delayer program they recommend and pretty quickly stopped using it – your mileage may vary

28 Powerful Photoshop Lighting Effects

Some tricks and tips for adding fancy effects to your pics using Photoshop or similar editing programs

Learn Photoshop in One Week

Interested in all this digital photography editing and manipulation but have never used Photoshop? Well here is a beginners tutorial that may suit you

 

There you go – that’s a few tidbits to keep you reading over the weekend :)

Following from a recent post about Gourmet Recipe Manager I received a question from Dawn:

Hi Matt,

This looks interesting.  I went to download it and notice a second one that has the word "unstable' in the title and am feeling nervous. 

What does that mean?   Regards Dawn.

Good question Dawn. We all hear about Beta software on the internet but what is it and when should you use it?

When writing programs from scratch the authors usually go through a development cycle as depicted in this graphic from Wikipedia (click the pic for more detail)

However once a program has reached Gold or general release it can still be under development and further Beta builds testing out new features or changes may be available.

As a typical or average user it is best to avoid beta releases of programs for which you have a full working version. The old adage ‘if it ain't broke don’t fix it’ applies here. However if the beta program solves a problem you are having or includes a feature that you need then that may motivate you to try out the new Beta version.

Of course all software can have bugs and by running Beta software and reporting the bugs back to the authors you can help to have some input and improve the programs you are using. Most of the software in the Linux world and increasingly in the Windows sphere works this way too

In this case Dawn is downloading the program for the first time and she has a choice between the known Stable full release version and the Beta or unstable ‘experimental’ versions. So Dawn should download the Stable version the first time. Later on you can try out the cutting edge releases if you want to.

The link I gave you for download – this one - is linked to the most current Stable release (for Windows). Or go to the program’s website for Beta and Linux releases

Many people have seen the light and have stopped using Internet Explorer as their main browser. Opinions differ but I think alternative browsers offer better features and security than IE. Of course Firefox is the main contender but there is also Opera, Google’s new browser called Chrome, Apple’s Safari and 3 or 4 people even use SeaMonkey.

One of the things you will want to do if you are trying out an alternative internet browser is copy your bookmarks across from your current browser. One easy way to do so is with the program below – Transmute

More details via TechSnack

Some of us install and use more than one browser on our system. For example, I am using Opera, Firefox, IE, and Google Chrome. So, managing my bookmarks across different browsers bring a lot of trouble to me. Luckily, there is an free application called Transmute, which can copy your bookmarks from one browser and then export it to another browser.

Simply choose the source and target browser and click the Export button. Currently, Transmute support Google Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera and Safari. the advance settings allow you to create a backup for your bookmarks and append timestamp at your export file.

This application require .NET Framework to run. Before performing any conversion, remember to close all browsers, else you will get error messages. It is because your browsers will lock the bookmarks database and prevent any write action on it.

Download Transmute

Apparently there is a use for computers other than email and freecell – who knew?

Seriously though there are an ever increasing number of handy little programs available for free from sites around the net. Many of them serve a specific purpose and Gourmet Recipe Manager is one like that.

If you do a quick Google you can find a recipe to cook anything, yes anything. There are some very comprehensive free sites with many recipes on them. But some people like to keep and save these recipes, maybe make a few variations and share with friends. The GRM program seems like an ideal way to do this to me.

So if you are interested in cooking why not give this a look.
Just don’t spill the sauce on you computer, OK?

 

Further Info from Barry's Computer Tips

I've been looking for an application like this for a long, long time!
"Gourmet Recipe Manager is a simple but powerful recipe-managing application. Gourmet is intended for the GNOME desktop environment, but works on any platform that gtk supports, including windows.
Gourmet allows you to collect, search and organize your recipes, and to automatically generate shopping lists from your collection. The latest version also allows you to calculate nutritional information for your recipes using the USDA food database (or entering custom information by hand)."

 

The direct link for the latest Windows release is here)

Gourmet Recipe Manager [via Barry's Computer Tips via Lifehacker]

Grant asked me a question a few weeks ago and I thought I would share the answer

Do you know of any good free apps that can convert DVD video to Xvid or DivX? I have a Media player (think it only supports DivX) that is filling up and I need to convert to smaller formats

I have tried a few different programs and I am not totally happy with any of them. Among the ones I have tried are

WinFF and MediaCoder and both are open source and thus free

WinFF is a simple program to change file types. A couple of clicks and you are done. It doesn’t really support whole DVDs or FLV video from websites (like YouTube). But it’s handy if you want a simple program to change say an Apple QuickTime MOV file to DivX or similar

MediaCoder is a much more sophisticated program with many, many options. For the casual or new user it can therefore be very complicated. However it is powerful and offers lots of options.

Both WinFF and MediaCoder use the FFmpeg engine for decoding and are free and open source.

For ripping DVD’s to alternative files like DivX I use DVDFab with the mobile option. It has lots of settings for converting DVDs to formats for your phone, iPod or portable device. It is also my program of choice for DVD copying and back-up. Unfortunately this program is not free. You should also be careful when dealing with copyrighted materials.

To back up my opinions and provide a few alternatives here's a link to a newsletter I read a while ago
http://www.windowssecrets.com/2008/09/25/04-Converters-maximize-your-video-file-options

Windows Secrets newsletter is pretty good. There's a free version or you can get the paid version for $1 US (or however much you want to pay). Highly recommended reading!

When you are converting files for a specific device or purpose be careful what codec you select for the conversion. Grant will probably find his media centre can play at least some version of Xvid and/or DivX codec but it may be an older version. I have 2 different brand DVD players that play DivX and they play Xvid too. You just need to experiment a bit with what version of the codec you rip/compress to so for best results convert to the format that the player supports. Read the manual for the media centre and download the DivX codec version it specifies for maximum compatibility.

Being able to play the compressed files directly is great as you can fit lots of files on a single disc and still watch them in good quality. I have whole seasons of a TV show on a single DVD. Obviously you need a special kind of DVD player for this but they are pretty common these days.

The next question arises – what if I have a pile of compressed video, maybe from your camcorder or TV shows you have recorded, and you want to watch them or share with friends who don’t have a special DVD player?

You need to turn them back into a DVD of course and I will give you a list of programs to try for this too in a separate post.

Hint – check out the user name – no wonder he got negative feedback.

As always on eBay – caveat emptor

 

Found on MakeUseOf - Geeky Fun