Offline Valadoc and CHM

Finally after 3 days, wget has now completely retrieved http://www.valadoc.org
Inside this 7zip archive is localized-link of valadoc and vala-draft, I also supplying HtmlHelpProject for compiling into chm format (requires HtmlHelpWorkshop). All you need is load the project file and click compile, valadoc.chm will be created after a while. Due to filesize (around 50MB) I was unable to upload it for now.

valadoc-051510 (valadoc.org as retrieved at May 15 2010, 453MB uncompressed; 52MB as CHM)

Recover Corrupted Archive Download with cURL

This post actually started in late April...

It never cross my mind till bad thing happened. I was start download a nostalgia "DBZ" game called Bid for Power 5.0 (a mod of open source quake 3) several days ago. For my 128Kbps connection it took several days to complete. Worse, the file is single 2.2 GB file of rar archive (luckily not an installer).

I have once downloading ISO DVD of CentOS 5 before and that time due to corruption I need to re-download dozen of individual packages and rebuild the ISO image file from scratch using cdrtfe (It really painful). So it's not surprising if Bid for Power also corrupted too. Initially I start to blame Free Downloader Manager for letting it happen since it has rollback feature which should prevent such thing occurred. Anyway, the download is multipart (2) mode across 2 different server source.

Multiple Dropbox (Do It Yourself)

Great chance you know already how to run multiple dropbox... the very easy way
Yes, by using run as (that is right click on the dropbox shortcut choose "run as.." then select user other than current user) in XP, best candidate for "other user" is administrator because it's ghost user (not shown in login screen by default)

Or you can use dropboxen

But let me tell you another way, no need additional programs, no need to create another users, much flexible, portable and more DIYer :)

Right click on dropbox shortcut in startmenu, click properties, in target box look for where dropbox.exe installed in my case:

7-zip reveals thumbs.db content for you

Once again I was shocked by 7-zip tremendous decode ability. Especially the compound format or I'd say "the custom way to pack something with/without compression", other known 7-zip ability is to unpack chm file.

So what I have here? first choose thumbs.db somewhere in explorer (make sure you've checked "show hidden file" option).

Got one? Now right click and choose open with.. select 7zip archive manager. Tada! inside it you'll see numbered files there and a catalog file (where the number being mapped to a filename that got thumbnailed, probably with other info).

Convert your MP3s into Ogg Vorbis

It's seems downloading valadoc.org is like downloading a CD image :D. So lets do something fun...

This is not about how to use fancy converter like mediacoder. I'll show "the hardway" to convert all of your MP3s to Ogg Vorbis using open source tools only.

I'll assume you have a quick access to command prompt from explorer. If you don't have it, try googling "Command Prompt Shell Extension" and install it.

1. download the CLI (Command Line Interface) tools here. Inside the zipped file, you'll find:
lame.exe -> Mp3 encoder version 3.98.4 (with mpg123 decoder builtin)
venc.exe ->AoTuV(Aoyumi Tuned Vorbis) encoder 2.2.2
oggd.exe -> ogg vorbis decoder 1.0.1
vorbisgain.exe -> vorbis replaygain version 0.34
tag.exe -> universal audio tag writer version 2.0.52
m2v.bat -> recursive mp3 to vorbis batch command
v2m.bat -> recursive vorbis to mp3 batch command

Wget 1.12 for windows

I know it kind of old version. but I've been given up with stupid unclean yet inconsistent Teleport while trying to mirror valadoc.org. I'm planning to make chm version of the sites, but there is some gotchas with retrieval process currently (could be fixed with v-grep though).

For anyone interested  here is win32 binary wget-1.12  (545KB builtin OpenSSL 1.0)
Alternate build (see update notes below) wget.exe

Wget source is available at http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/

February 23, 2015
Updated downloads moved to main page 

October 29, 2014
wget-1.16 (with openssl 1.0.1i, pdf manual, wget.ini sample, locales and ca certificate)
Use 7zip/WinRAR to extract the archive

January 22, 2014
wget-1.15 (with openssl 1.0.1f, pdf manual, wget.ini sample, locales and ca certificate)

August 11, 2012
wget-1.14 (openssl 1.0.1c) optional files (locales, ca-bundle)

February 1, 2012
wget-1.13.4 (openssl 1.0.0g) locales ca-bundle-crt (expired 2018) [patch]
- wget should lookup wget.ini and locales relative to where wget.exe located not from current directory
- by default search for curl-ca-bundle.crt for secure protocol when ca-certificate-file not defined

December 7, 2011
wget-1.13.4 (openssl 1.0.0e) locales
- fixed gnulib stat() that return invalid filesize >2GB (patched mswindows.h)
- use wget.ini in current directory for default wgetrc
- apply apache's dirlist patch

End of FLV player?

Wow the buzz getting louder recently, some days ago I just found really nice (and pretty damn small) open source flv player http://flv-player.net/ but now everyone is talk about HTML 5 video already. Started by IE9's plan to support H264 and AAC. IMO that's good decision though I hope at least vorbis get supported, cause it (ogg) undoubtly kick AAC's butt at EVERY bit rate comparison.

That tag will eliminate requirement to install flash player in most situation but that's not the only attack from HTML 5. When SVG & SMIL matured, HTML 5 is serious contender to Flash technology entirely. We'll wait when that time come...

The video format itself seems has been an internal decision of each browser. For example webkitgtk will rely on Gstreamer which stand for the whole multimedia framework ever imaginated (from midi, video, sound and a lot more). Even with Flash player adoption to H264 some time ago HTML5 video is unavoidable, Adobe eventually given up for sure and preparing a decent HTML 5 editor instead.

Good thing not much effort has ben put on creating open source alternative for Flash IDE. Inkscape in fact is on the right path (going to SMIL).

Yet another backdoor: lsasvc.exe and csrss.exe

Due to my stubborness of ignoring Antivirus for the sake of "performance", once again another backdoor under filename lsasvc.exe in (C:\Windows\system32) and csrss.exe (C:\Windows)  infiltrate my aging XP. Not sure which browser that let them break free :) but they always appeared together every reboot (which is rare) and like most backdoor they break some winsock policies and eat my internet bandwidth for their own activities.

What can I do? simple! since they always use the same filename and path I create a folder named "lsasvc.exe" under Windows\system32 and "csrss.exe" under Windows directory. done, it's just impossible to create that filename there anymore