Internet Explorer 9: “Tracking Protection List” and “Do Not Track”

Posted by on 14 April 2011 Comments Off

For those who prefer to use Internet Explorer (IE), IE9 has a new nifty feature called Tracking Protection List (TPL) and Do Not Track (DNT). This two features addresses consumer concern over their privacy while browsing.

DNT is a technology, to tell websites that you visited, to not to track you. Of course, whether the said websites will comply, is up to their discretion. As such, DNT is a passive technology to maintain your privacy over the internet.

TPL, on the other hand, is actively limiting the capabilities of websites you visited, to collect your information. TPL work using a list. There are several organizations providing such list, which you can get here: IE9 TPL.

Personally, I used EasyList, which is a community project, based on a well-known AdBlock Plus extension for Firefox Web Browser.

You can read more about TPL and DNT at these sites:

For those who cannot use IE9 for several reasons (still using Windows XP, workplaces won’t upgrade to IE9 etc), you can use Firefox 4, which feature DNT technology as well. For TPL-like feature, you can use AdBlock Plus extension. Simply visit that link using Firefox and click [Add to Firefox] button, then there’s a dialog asking your confirmation, then asking to restart Firefox, and first time after restart, AdBlock Plus will ask you which list to use. I personally use EasyList.

Internet Explorer 9 Has Been Released!

Posted by on 15 March 2011 Comments Off

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), the next generation browser from Microsoft, has been released. This releases comes amidst dwindling Internet Explorer userbase. To succesfully install this browser, make sure you have up-to-date Windows Vista (SP2) or Windows 7 (SP1).

Microsoft has been slow to upgrade its browser. Proponent may argue Microsoft strive for compatibility with existing userbase, but others browser maker has been very aggresive implementing new technologies (notably, Google Chrome).

For those who still using Windows XP, there’s another modern browser around, Google Chrome (and, of course, Firefox). Google Chrome automatic updater will update the browser to new major version (and it’s intergrated flash plugin) for you. For those who have a not-too-computer-savy families, I think this is the best browser for them.

Here you can download Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Offline Installer. You can also read IE9 Release Notes and IE9 Guide for Developers.

WordPress 3.1 Released

Posted by on 24 February 2011 Comments Off

WordPress 3.1 has been released. You can update to this version straight from your dashboard. Among the enhancement in this release is faster linking workflow. WordPress is not known for fast linking workflow. Not this version.

Read the release notes.

Firmware Update, CC46 for Seagate 7200.12

Posted by on 23 February 2011 Comments Off

Some while ago, one of employee’s personal harddisk (Seagate 7200.11 320 GB) in my workplace broken. It spin up, showed in BIOS, but cannot boot. Hooking it in another computer will make host computer hang while loading Windows 7. In typical classic, these employee doesn’t have backup.

So I try to detect the problem using Seagate SeaTools. Upon detecting these drive, SeaTools recommending checking Seagate website. It might have firmware update. So I fire up Google search and found these page.

Turns out:

  1. This drive doesn’t need firmware update.
  2. My OWN drive need it (I’ll talk about it later).

So, back to this drive problem, SeaTools said there’s problem, but can’t/won’t list it, while running Basic Test and Long Test, and producing error code. I’m supposed to use this code for RMA procedure. Yea right. Most drive selling in my country, is OEM drive, come in anti-static bag, with nothing else. The catch with OEM drive is:

  1. It cheaper.
  2. It supposed to be used and tested by computer integrator, like HP/Compaq, Acer etc.
  3. When it broken, said computer integrator (HP, Acer etc) will replace it according to their warranty.
  4. It’s not intended for consumer retail (it’s OEM drive, after all).

Any attempt to detect problem with these drive using another tools (MHDD, Victoria) result in disc not ready etc. So… I think I’ll leave this problem to data recovery professional.

Now, let’s focus on my own drive. It a ST31000528AS, with 1 TB of capacity and CC38 firmware version. These page list firmware update to version CC46. I’m a bit wary, firmware update to harddisk is dangerous, slight mistake (or unluckiness, for example, power failure while updating firmware) will result in your drive inoperable (bricked).

After taking deep breath, and knowing that my most important data (500 GB of it) backed up in another harddisk, I downloaded and executed CC46 firmware update utility (while AV is disabled). In runs in several step:

  1. It restart Windows 7 with SP1.
  2. It boot to firmware update utility screen. It list drives connected to PC, and update them if their version matched.
  3. It begin countdown. Harddisk will spin down, stay like that for several second, and then begin spin up. This will indicate firmware update successful.
  4. It restart your PC.
  5. Windows 7 SP1 detect new hardware. It asked to restart your PC. I do.
  6. Windows 7 restart and voila, brand new firmware installed and running.

I hope this new firmware doesn’t bring problem to my harddisk. I’ve used this harddisk for about 5 months now.

PCMAV 4.6 Download

Posted by on 19 January 2011 Comments Off

PCMAV 4.6 has been released. Read the news from VirusIndonesia.com. I’m packaging an all-in-one PCMAV 4.6 download with ClamAV library 0.96.5 + GUI. Then you’ll need to download cvd update from ClamAV.net, and place downloaded cvd files in PCMAV 4.6\plugins\clamav directory.

This is the screenshot. I intentionally obscured Locations to Scan. Virus definition update as of 2011-01-19:

PCMAV 4.6

PCMAV 4.6

Download link:

Public Bittorrent Tracker

Posted by on 17 January 2011 Comments Off

Two public, free bittorrent tracker that I know:

You’l need to update your torrent tracker to take advantage of it (more seeds/peers). To manually set it, go to Trackers tab on uTorrent, right click anywhere below tab and choose Add Tracker…

Paste these two lines:

udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80/announce

udp://tracker.publicbt.com:80/announce

Or you can use online torrent editor like http://torrenteditor.com/. Please note that there’s some torrent that disallowed you to change their tracker.

Howto: Make Windows XP SP3 Installer in USB Flashdisk

Posted by on 17 January 2011 Comments Off

Today I’ll share my experience creating Windows XP SP3 Installer on USB Flashdisk.

What you’ll need:

  1. Windows XP CD, preferably with SP3 already integrated. If you’ll use this to install fairly new computer/motherboard with SATA drives, maybe you’ll need to integrate SATA text-mode driver.
  2. USB flash disk, with at least 2 GB capacity. All data from this flash disk will be erased. Make sure you create backup.
  3. PC capable booting from USB HDD/Flashdisk, any PC made in last 3 year most likely will do. If in doubt, check your PC/motherboard documentation or contact your PC/motherboard manufacturer. If you do this, don’t forget to write down your PC/motherboard series/model number.
  4. Several small program, which is: USB_Prep8, PeToUSB (I use version 3.0.0.7),  and bootsect. You should Google it or, if you trust me, I’ll provide them in one nicely packaged archive.

Read more »

MySQL 5.5.8 Released As Generaly Available

Posted by on 14 January 2011 Comments Off

New major MySQL version has been released, bumping version number from 5.1 to 5.5. The 1st generaly available version is 5.5.8. For this release, I think I’ll wait for 2nd generaly available release for community server version, so most bug which escape 1st release get ironed out.

MySQL 5.5 bring much needed improvement on scalability. A lot article on web showed that MySQL can’t take advantage of SMP system with a lot of core/processor, which I think will explained why MySQL favoring scaling-out (as opposed to scaling-up).

InnoDB also has become the default storage engine and has improved performance, which is good, because there’s alot of novice programmer just install whatever is default, and I think InnoDB will better serve them, with support for referential integrity and transaction. Too bad most webhosting companies default to MyISAM and charges more for InnoDB support.

You can read release notes and go to download page.

Unicode Subtitles with DirectVobSub

Posted by on 12 January 2011 Comments Off

DirectVobSub enable you to display overlayed subtitle for your movie. It support various external subtitle format like the popular srt and ssa and also embedded subtitle in video container like matroska (mkv).

But today I encountered a problem. I have 3 video file:

  1. A video in matroska container, with embedded subtitle, which display diacritics character correctly.
  2. Another video in matroska container, with embedded subtitle, which display diacritics character incorrectly.
  3. Another video in mpeg4 container, with srt subtitle (downloaded from OpenSubTitle), which display diacritics character incorrectly.

I examined subtitle file for video 3 using Notepad++, but to my surprise, Notepad++ display diacritics character correctly. My suspicion then placed to DirectVobSub, who responsible for displaying subtitle in video. Googling revealing nothing useful, but this page gives me enough hint.

Maybe DirectVobSub doesn’t recognize that srt file is encoded with unicode? So, using Notepad++, I’m able to determine that srt file encoded in Unicode UTF-8 without BOM (Byte Order Mark). I changed it to UTF-8, then save it. Played it in Media Player Classic and voila, diacritics character displayed correctly.

For video number 2, I’ll explained it in the next post.

Thermaltake Lite Power 400W

Posted by on 10 January 2011 Comments Off

Some days ago, power supply of a computer in my office, short-circuited. So I ordered a replacement PSU. Because this is an office computer, I reckon it don’t need a high-wattage, 80+ PSU. A decent one will do. When I looked at catalog from our supplier, a better one, cost about US$40, is Thermaltake LitePower 400W. Trusting Thermaltake name brand, I ordered one.

Fast forward to today, I installed it, and took a moment to note it’s UL number (E199442). Quick searching revealed it made by Compucase, which got me surprised. I vaguely remember Compucase by HEC brand. Some googling revealed troubling info, they say, this line of PSU is BAD. Not “fair”, but BAD.

Uh oh.

Next time, I think I’ll buy Gigabyte Superb instead. At least their OEM is FSP. I have FPS Saga II 500W, and it’s power connector to peripheral is too tight (example, SATA power). But Gigabyte Superb 460W, also made by FSP, doesn’t have this problem.

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