New OS

After a virus attack on my computer on 1st May 2011, I had a computer that on booting up gave me a blank blue screen. It had a Vista OS that was attacked when I used a programme that shielded my identity and my ISP. AVG the anti-virus shield that I was using was temporally disabled by this programme and thus the attack by malware and other viruses. One of the malware was an anti-virus programme that asked for US$50 for virus and malware removal. Rather than pay this amount (which I felt had no guarantees, I decided to reformat reinstall the OS.)

Reformating and reinstalling Vista could not be done because I had no installation disks. I also did not make a recovery disk.

Since this was a six-year-old computer, I decided to use XP as the replacement OS. I had several several XP installation disks and thought at least one would work.

However all the XP installation disks I had would not copy into the computer several essential XP files during installation. I gathered that there were some hidden Vista OS files on the hard drive that was preventing it from being overwritten. The only way to get rid of these Vista files was to reformat the hard drive, but I did not utility disks to do this.

Doggedly I tried more than one XP installation disk but all behaved similarly, they refused to copy the several essential files during installation.

Then I decided to use a Windows 7 pre release disk which was given free with PC Users Magazine from Australia. This disk was a full version, given before the official release of Windows 7, for users to try out the then new OS, but it had a limited life and would not work beyond a certain date after the official release for sale of Windows 7. Well, the disk did install a workable OS; there was none of the problem of not being able to copy into the hard drive essential files as the XP installation disks had.

I changed the date of my computer to a date when this trial version of Windows 7 was valid and did the installation. When the installation asked for a product key, I gave none. I was surprised that I was required to give a product key, since originally, this version of Windows 7 was meant for a trial period and I thought it would be disabled after the period had lapsed and so no product key was required. Apparently, this was not the case and this disk actually contained a genuine, complete installation of Windows 7. What luck.

Although I did not have a product key, and the legitimate copy was not activated, the non-activated copy still worked. After this I changed the date to the present, and ignored all the messages that proclaimed that the copy of the OS I was using was not genuine. (This message appears just after startup).

So now I have a working Windows 7, which is "not genuine."

I remember vaguely, that once I tried "upgrading" my Vista computer using this same disk but unsuccessfully. The upgrading attempt took place while Vista was the OS. I think I was successful this time because the Vista OS had been completely wiped out by the virus and booting had to be done via CD/DVD.

DVDFab Decrypter

Is there any dvd that the free decrypter that comes with DVDFab8 cannot decrypt? I have yet to find one. When DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter do not do the job, who you gonna call? DVDFab Decrypter...the best so far.

Acer Aspire Easystore D110 1TB

Bought the D110 1TB external hard drive for archival purposes. The disk drive itself was a Western Digital Drive but I was disappointed because the electronics in the otherwise solid enclosure were not robust enough to last more than one and a half years.

One day, after 18 months of use, there was no indicator light and I was unable to access the drive. The tell-tale smell of burnt / overheated components, suggested to me where the fault lay -- power supply failure. I swaped connection AC wires and adaper with compatible sets but with no success, so it had to be the components in the enclosure itself. I had no choice but to junk the enclosure and get a new one.

Opening up the casing was a challenge because there are no screws on the casing -- everything is tightly sealed. There are two possible places to attack when trying to get the case open. The back where the inputs are and the front where the indicator light is. The gap between the plastic front panel and the aluminum casing was a little wider than the one at the back panel, so I inserted a butter knife into this gap and pried the front panel off. It was not easy because there were hooks securing the thing to the body, but with a measure of strength and care, the front came out. I was then able to get the top of the casing off to expose the WD drive. A nudge and the drive was pushed out from the connectors and free.

Bought a new external case ZoomXtreme 3.5 Aluminum HDD enclosure which cost about SGD $69.00 and within 5 minutes I was able to access my disk once again.

I wish that Acer would do a better job with this and similar models of portable HDD.

Avidemux and mov files - Different versions different settings

I used my Panasonic camera to create a home movie. I needed to edit the movie, mainly remove parts of it it for better continuity, and decided to use avidemux as my movie editor. Having done the editing, I found saving the edited file as a playable mpg file rather difficult because I did not know what settings to use. After a visit to several discussion sites and using trial and error I got setting that worked for me. By this I mean it could be played back by VLC and Windows Media player. Here are the settings I used with Avidemux 2.5.2:


Video = DVD(lavc)
Audio = AC3 (lav) In additon you need to set filters to enable resampling of 48K
Format = MPEG PS (A+V)

Don't forget to save the file with .mpg as the extension.

Using Avidemux 2.5.3, I found that the list of input codecs were not the same and had to use a different set of settings to get what I wanted. For this later version of Avidemux I used the following:

Video = MPEG4 ASP (AVCodec)

Audio = Copy

Format = AVI

This gave me a xxx.avi file which worked fine with VLC. I had some problems with Media Player - the sound synchronization with the video seemed a little bit off, but it was not too noticeable.

I tried several settings that gave me a .mpg file but these all seemed to have a bigger problem with sound synchronization.

When I used these settings

Video = Copy

Audio = AC3 (lav) with resampling at 48K

Format = mepg video

The synchronization problem was solved. But this file I did not use because Nero Vision Express, which I use to compile different movie segments and save or burn as one dvd file, would not read it.

Video Converters

Just want to convert from one video format to another? Try the converters from
www.leawo.com
I used their converter to convert mpg and mov files to avi files and saved space without noticeable loss of quality, at least on my computer. Very easy to use, fast and, best of all, it is freeware.

Some problems with Avidemux

I opened a .vob file with Avidemux and made several deletions.
Then I saved the file, using the defaults on the opening page of Avidemux.
That is, I left the Video option as "Copy", the Audio option as "Copy", and the Format as "AVI".
I was careful when saving the file to include the extension .avi because I read somewhere that Avidemux does not automatically give saved files extensions.

The resultant file had no sound. The video was fine but audio track was missing.
When I tried saving it as an .mpg file, as an alternative to a .avi file, it again played without sound.
I tried changing the audio to .mp3 but to no avail.

I scanned the forums and discussion pages and discovered that a poster had the same problem and he solved it by changing the Format to MPEG-PS(A+V), leaving the other options without change, and using the extension .mpg when saving the file.
I tried this and it worked. Appended below is the screen with the options I used (thanks to the poster) to overcome the loss of audio when converting .vob to .mpg.

The Lord's Prayer

While saying the "The Lord's Prayer" recently I recalled someone saying that this was the perfect prayer because after acknowledging the power of the Almighty and submitting to his holy will, the words of the prayer asks for just enough for our physical needs (daily bread) and then asks for forgiveness, inspires us to make a promise to be charitable to all and finally requests for spiritual strength and protection. The focus of the prayer is almost totally on our spiritual needs and this should be as the material only distracts us from focusing on what is really important in life. There is an strong element of trust in this prayer that God will look after all our earthy needs as long as we focus on our salvation.

A more elaborate explanation as to why it is a perfect prayer can be found in The Perfect Prayer
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Additionally, in http://www.how-to-pray-the-rosary-everyday.com/our-father-prayer.html
we have this:

When you take a closer look at this Biblical prayer, you can see this prayer is perfectly arranged.
You offer yourself to God and ask Him for the best things for yourself and your family and friends.
Let's look closer at each of the phrases of the Lords Prayer.
It is led by a greeting "Our Father..." then followed by seven requests:
"Our Father who art in heaven" You belong to God. He created you and watches over you. He wants you to live with Him in heaven forever.
"hallowed be Thy name," You pray that God will be respected by all
"Thy kingdom come," You pray that God will be loved and worshiped throughout the world
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," You pray that God's laws will be followed on earth as willingly as they are followed in heaven
"Give us this day our daily bread," You ask for your spiritual and physical needs
"and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," You ask God forgive your sins you have committed against His laws and promise Him that you will forgive people who cause you harm
"and lead us not into temptation," You ask God to keep you safe from all people and places that may lead you to sin
"but deliver us from evil," You ask God to protect you from both physical and spiritual harm The Lords prayer asks God to grant you peace and when praying the Lords Prayer, you ask for all your spiritual and physical needs.
It truly is the perfect prayer.

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Over time I have contemplated on this prayer and I have come to see that there are other reasons why it can be considered a perfect prayer. I see in this prayer acknowledgement of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

The first verses acknowledge the Father. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,"

The next two verses acknowledge the incarnate Son who revealed to all God's kingdom, and who perfectly showed us how God wants us to live -- in total obedience to His will. Thus in this Son, God's kingdom had come and the Son did his Father's will on earth as it is being done in heaven,
"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,"

God in the Person of the Son then instituted the Eucharist and the practice is carried on to the present and so we have this request being fulfilled: "Give us this day our daily bread". The Son also forgave sin and urged us to forgive those who offend us, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". In the Church we treasure not only the Eucharist but also the sacrament of Reconciliation which the Son instituted.

Then there is acknowledgement of the Holy Spirit who we pray to for guidance and spiritual strength, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We ask not be tested and if we fall, as we are most likely to, we ask for His grace to seek deliverance.

So while addressed to the Father, this prayer allows us to contemplate the the Holy Trinity -- the unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This is, indeed, the perfect prayer.