Winamp + AudioProc + SB X-Fi = Amazing Music Listening Experience.

Some say, Foobar + Noise Sharpener produce amazing audio output (read: for non-purist) which I personally will not argue. Only if you can live with Foobar ugly GUI for today standard. Some just happy with Windows Media Player or any player that can play their music collection. Some still use one of the oldest MP3 player which is Winamp.

Recently due to nostalgic reason, I download and install Winamp 5. What can I say is Winamp produce an OKish audio output out of the box but the overall package is hard to beat. The choice of plug-in practically unlimited. Tonight, while browsing winamp plug-in page, I stumble upon AudioProc 1.8. This DSP got 5 star from Winamp community which indirectly encourage me to try it.

I am really surprise with AudioProc 1.8 capability. I use ‘Enhance’ preset and my pair of ears thanks me 99999 times already. Seriously, if you are a Winamp user or wiling to use Winamp as your audio player, you should give this plug-in a shot. 99% of the chance, it will blow you out

It is hard to describe how well this plug-in enhance my thousands of MP3 collection listening experience. But suffice to say, this nifty plug-in made me spend USD40 and never regret even for 1 second. For the record, I rarely take out my credit card and do online purchase due to bad currency exchange (1USD = RM3.50 where fresh graduate engineer roughly made RM2000 a month). Furthermore, 40 US Dollar is quite expensive for Malaysian average worker (including me heh). But…what the hell…at least it is cheaper than a set of high end hardware amp and DSP

Link:

http://www.winamp.com/plugin/audioproc-broadcast-audio-processor/221887

http://www.audioproc.ca/index.php?page=P_AudioProc

PS : Is it better than Foobar + Noise Sharpener?. Well, my personal answer is HELL YEAH! Don’t take my word. Let your ears be the judge

Maxis Broadband 4.5 mbps (actual real world test)

You gotta be kidding me…Maxis broadband (my sis in law pay RM88 for this kind of connection…omg)

 

The best part is, actual download speed (using IDM) from youtube is faster than speedtest.net where this connection get somewhere around 2 mbps.

 

Weird isn’t it. Actual download speed is faster than speedtest.net. Not satisfied…let test another download from nzones which I know has very fast server.

 

Gosh… 600 to 700 kBps (more than 5 Mbps). This is basically 3 times faster than my RM110 streamyx.

Still can’t believe my eyes.

 

Location : Sg. Buloh,

Time : 3.10 – 3.34 AM

3 Months AV

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/antivirus-partners/windows-7.aspx

check it out.

note : Norton AV 2010 (3 months). Others, I m not sure ;p

ASP.net (VB.net) simple login page

 

Dim connStr As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings(“MainConnStr”).ConnectionString

 

Dim sqlconnet As SqlConnection

Dim MyComm As SqlCommand

 

sqlconnet = New SqlConnection()

sqlconnet.ConnectionString = connStr

 

MyComm = New SqlCommand(“”, sqlconnet)

 

MyComm.CommandType = Data.CommandType.Text

 

MyComm.CommandText = “SELECT * FROM login WHERE (username =’” & txtUsername.Text & “‘) AND (password = ‘” & txtPassword.Text & “‘) “

 

sqlconnet.Open()

 

Dim result As SqlDataReader = MyComm.ExecuteReader(Data.CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)

 

If result.HasRows = False Then

‘MsgBox(“login failed”)

‘Response.Write(“Fail”)

Lstatus.Text = “Your login or password doesn’t match. Login Fail”

 

Else

Session(“username”) = txtUsername.Text

‘MsgBox(“login success…!!!!”)

Response.Redirect(“success.aspx”)

‘Response.Write(“Success”)

End If

result.Close()

Java Servlet Simple Login System (with MySQL)

Servlet :

package com.arham.servlet;

 

import java.io.IOException;

import java.io.PrintWriter;

import javax.servlet.ServletException;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import java.sql.Connection;

import java.sql.DriverManager;

import java.sql.ResultSet;

import java.sql.Statement;

import java.sql.SQLException;

 

 

 

public class logincheck extends HttpServlet {

 

 

protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

throws ServletException, IOException {

 

String username = request.getParameter(“username”).toString();

String password = request.getParameter(“password”).toString();

 

 

Connection connection = null;

try {

 

String driverName = “org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver”; // MySQL MM JDBC driver

Class.forName(driverName);

String serverName = “localhost”;

String mydatabase = “arhamjava”;

String url = “jdbc:mysql://” + serverName + “/” + mydatabase; // a JDBC url

String sqlusername = “root”;

String sqlpassword = “MyP@SsW0rD”;

connection = DriverManager.getConnection(url, sqlusername, sqlpassword);

}

catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {

// Could not find the database driver

}

catch (SQLException e) {

// Could not connect to the database

}

 

Statement stmt = null;

ResultSet rs = null;

 

String checkUsername = null;

String checkPassword = null;

int checkAccessPower = 0;

 

try

{

stmt = connection.createStatement();

rs = stmt.executeQuery(“SELECT username, password, accesspower FROM account WHERE username = ‘” + username + “‘ AND id > 0″);

 

PrintWriter out2 = response.getWriter();

 

while(rs.next())

{

checkUsername = rs.getString(“username”);

checkPassword = rs.getString(“password”);

checkAccessPower = rs.getInt(“accesspower”);

}

if(checkUsername != null)

{

if(checkPassword.equals(password))

{

out2.println(“Welcome ” + username + “<br/> <h2>Login Success</h2>”);

if(checkAccessPower > 150)

out2.println(“Status : ADMIN”);

else if (checkAccessPower > 50)

out2.println(“Status : Normal User”);

else if (checkAccessPower < 9)

out2.println(“You have been banned by admin. Contact your administrator for clarification”);

}

else

out2.println(“<h1>Login Fail</h1> <br/> Click back to relogin!”);

}

else

out2.println(“<h2>Login Fail</h2> <br/> Reason : Your username not exist in our database.”);

 

}

catch (SQLException ex)

{

// handle any errors

System.out.println(“SQLException: ” + ex.getMessage());

System.out.println(“SQLState: ” + ex.getSQLState());

System.out.println(“VendorError: ” + ex.getErrorCode());

}

 

response.setContentType(“text/html;charset=UTF-8″);

PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();

try {

 

out.println(“<html>”);

out.println(“<head>”);

out.println(“<title>Servlet Login Check </title>”);

out.println(“</head>”);

out.println(“<body>”);

out.println(“</body>”);

out.println(“</html>”);

 

} finally

{

    out.close();

    }

 

 

}

 

// <editor-fold defaultstate=”collapsed” desc=”HttpServlet methods. Click on the + sign on the left to edit the code.”>

@Override

protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

throws ServletException, IOException {

processRequest(request, response);

}

@Override

protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

throws ServletException, IOException {

processRequest(request, response);

}

 

@Override

public String getServletInfo() {

return “Short description”;

}// </editor-fold>

 

}

 

***********************************************************************************

Firefox 3.5+ now really rocks

Once upon a time, when Netscape Navigator ruled the browser world, I was an Internet Explorer user. If my memory serves me well, I started to use IE since version 3.x. Perhaps I was a person who doesn’t like to follow the majority at that moment. Netscape was the king and everyone used it to browse WWW. But heck, I don’t give a damn about this popular browser even though some websites required me to use Netscape due to incompatibility.

Fast forward several years, IE become the default choice of browser to browse WWW due to it’s preloaded with Windows OS installation. Netscape at that time was almost out of business. (Heck, who want to buy a browser if you can get it for free!) At the end of Netscape vs. Microsoft battle, Netscape release it latest browser engine to the open source world and Firefox was born.

Then Microsoft’s browser faced a lot of attacks, bugs and security issues. Perhaps they tried too hard to introduce too many new technologies and features till they fail to polish their current release as best as they could. Firefox start to become popular alternative browser in the world. I was among the early adopter and love Firefox for its simplicity, extendable and less security flaws.

However, when Google released Google Chrome last year, I start to become a Chrome convert. Firefox and IE still exist in my machine but 90% of the time, I use Google Chrome. I LOVE it simplicity and fast loading time. Firefox 2.x at that time suffer slow loading time (when I started Firefox from its shortcut at desktop) and eat too much my screen vertical space. I still can bear with slow loading time but I can’t resist Chrome unique approach to maximize screen vertical estate. As a widescreen monitor user, I really appreciate this approach.

At that moment,

I love Firefox because of :

• Its extensive choice plug-ins such as no-ads, streaming video downloader etc
• Security
• Relatively small memory foot print
• Webpage layout compatibility

I love Chrome because:

• Very simple yet elegant
• Provide maximum screen estate to web contents
• Each tab has separated process (which if one tab crash, else doesn’t, well theoretically). Some more, tab on top of browser’s window frame look pretty natural to my eye. Like flipping hard copy folders J
• Very fast loading time when I launch it from my desktop short cut (I honestly can’t detect any significant webpage loading improvement between firefox 2 and chrome 1 with my 1.5 mbps ADSL. Perhaps other users who use better broadband can tell. IDK)

I hate Chrome because:

• Argh…virtually no add-ons. Favorite add-ons such as no-ads etc doesn’t exist for Chrome platform.
• Damn…I have to see those irritating ads. Steal my bandwidth too
• I can’t use IDM or Orbit effectively to download some streaming video straight from the webpage.

OK..enough with history. Fast forward to today story J

Since last 2 days, Google Chrome start to crash (the whole browser, not tab) and this problem really irritate me. Even though it can restore the crash pages, it still annoys me. Some more, I need to open Firefox to download video from streaming site effectively.

So, I update my Firefox to version 3.5 (version 3.6 and above still beta, alpha and even pre-release alpha lol). And spend about half an hour to browse its latest add-ons and extension. My objective , I want to eliminate advertisements, make Firefox’s frame support Aero (like 3.7 onward), less cluttered and if possible doesn’t eat my vertical space too much.

To my surprise, I can achieve all my objectives with Firefox 3.5 + Windows 7 Theme for Firefox 3.5 Add-On Collection.

Windows 7 theme for firefox 3.5 Add-On Collection : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collection/enkei

This collection of add-on has 11 carefully selected add-ons. They are:

• Firefox Showcase
• Hide Menubar
• Search Preview
• Google Redesigned
• Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper
• Adblock Plus
• Glasser
• Stylish
• Skip Screen
• Video Downloader
• FastestFox

Among these 11 add-ons, I believe Hide Menubar, Search Preview, both ad-blocks, Glasser, Skip Screen, FastestFox really improve my browsing experience using Firefox. These add-ons really change my opinion toward firefox. And I have to admit, Firefox + this add-ons make Firefox become my main browser now. It may not load as fast as Chrome (when I double click its short cut from my desktop), but it has improve a lot. The speed difference now is not much. In my system (Phenom 955BE @ 3.6 GHz, Windows 7 x64 and 4 GB DDR3 1333), Chrome load INSTANTLY. Firefox 3.5 requires 1 to 2 seconds.

BUT…there is a but. Firefox now loads webpages WAY FASTER than Chrome. I type loads not render. With my connection, I consistently found that Firefox 3.5 + FastestFox add-ons (I believe so) load any webpages faster than Chrome. From my understanding, with this add-on, Firefox load webpages in parallel fashion. The different is not much but pretty significant.

Best of all, my Firefox now could provide almost as much screen space for web content as Chrome could. Some more, I no longer need to see those irritating ads. Could download video from stream website as easy as clicking on the video and websites appear faster than Chrome

Chrome 3 vs Firefox 3.5. Note that Firefox able to provides almost as much screen space for web content like Chrome

.

. Effectively, with no ads to steal space, Firefox generally provides more actually.

I don’t say Google Chrome is a bad browser. It is very good actually. But Firefox + its add-ons somehow make it better than Chrome.

Now I am a happy Firefox 3.5 user. Welcome back Firefox.

How to cut or trim mp3 file

Often you find that your favorite mp3 song introduction is too long to suit as your mobile phone ring tone right?

You want to skip that lengthy song introduction and straight away want your ring tone start at the chorus of the song. So, how to do that in real quick and of course, free of charge? (I have been asked this question number of times actually, which lead me to write this short tutorial).

It is pretty simple actually. The concept is you just need to highlight the area (of your song track) that you don’t need and cut it out. As simple as that.

Tools of choice range from free and extremely small software to professional class application such as SoundForge or Adobe SoundBooth.

But since this tutorial is focus to average user who doesn’t need to waste hundreds of megabytes and couple of hundred bucks for a software that 99% of its function will never been used, we will use a free tool called mp3DirectCut.

Steps:

• Download mp3directCut from author site or mediafire mirror.
• Install that application.
• Run this application from your desktop.
• Main application graphical user interface will be like screenshot below.

  

• Click on File -> Open (or alternatively you may press Ctrl + O)
• Choose your favorite song that you want to cut/edit/trim as screenshot below. I choose Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow song for this tutorial. Click Open after you select your favorite song.

  

• Then, you will be prompted with this windows. Just click OK.

  

• Now your mp3directcut windows will show something that below screenshot if you successfully open your mp3 song.

  

• A bit confuse eh? Well don’t. I will explain several key features that need your attention only….in order to reach our goal.
  • As in any media player, here is your play and stop button.
  • Here is indicator to point up where in your mp3 song track is being played.
  • “Set Begin” button is the button that will mark your Starting Point of track selection (that you want to be played as your ringtone).
  • “Set End” button is the button that will mark your ending point of your track selection (track after this end marker will not be saved as your ringtone).
  • Omit this one if you just want to highlight certain area in your mp3 song and save that selection.
• So what you need to do is:
  • Press play button. Your mp3 song will be played. When you hear the chorus area that you want to make it as your ringtone, press stop button.
  • Then click on Set Begin button.
  • Press play again until you listen to the point that you don’t want that area of song to be played as ring tone.
  • Click stop.
  • Then click Set End button
  • Now, a portion of your mp3 song will be highlighted as the screenshot below.

  

• Click File -> Save Selection and you are done.

  If this text guide confuses you, feel free to watch this tutorial’s video at youtube.

An early but pleasant experience with Norton Internet Security 2010

Well, before I go berserk and directly compare NIS2010 with other high profile Internet Security Suite, I decide to write an overview of Norton Internet Security 2010. Honestly, this is a very good product and I personally feel that this product deserve to consume couple of writing hours of mine just for an overview. I will highlight its’ features base on my experience for this writing phase.

 

Less than 10 seconds after I double click on installer file. Note the completion percentage: 80%. Impressive!

 

By default, you get 15 days trial period to evaluate this product. 15 days is enough to evaluate how well it protects your pc while not hogging your PC resource. Please note that I have been use this product for more than 2 weeks (non beta one) and for the sake of this article, I restore my PC to clean state Windows 7 + latest driver + Microsoft Office.

 

Since my Norton Internet Security 2009 still has around 200+ days’ active subscription, I can use that CD key to activate Norton Internet Security 2010 without any drama.

Yes, you read this correctly. Contradict to yesteryears product, current antivirus maker doesn’t sell product actually. They sell subscription period. So, as long as your subscription still valid, you can always download their latest product and use your current key instead. No need to buy a copy of Norton Internet Security 2010 (NIS2010) if your NIS2009 still has subscription period.

You may upgrade your Norton product here : http://updatecenter.norton.com/

Note: If you want to choose your upgrade product manually, click on “Choose My Product Manually – (For Advanced Users)” located at right below of that page.

 

240 days left. Nice.

 

Time needed from the moment I double click the installer file to this screen: Less than 30 seconds. You may ask, what’s the biggie right? Well, since Norton keep advertise that their product will be completely installed in your system within a minute, I can’t help the temptation to validate that statement myself. Well, they are right. In fact, on quad core system with at least 4GB RAM (I use Phenom II 955BE @ 3.6GHz, 4GB DDRIII 1333), time required could be just 30 seconds.

 

Main screenshot

 

Performance Screenshot

Optimizing

While optimizing, this small notice box inform user that NIS is doing some background task. This is a good touch since, on slower single core machine, while NIS2010 optimizing, it may slow down their pc a bit. But, frankly speaking, I don’t feel any slowdown while NIS2010 is optimizing my system.

 

Norton Tasks

 

Norton Insight Screenshot

 

Those are default setting screenshots. Pretty comprehensive eh?

 

Scan option

Custom scan

 

Finding:

• NIS2010 could be installed within 1 minute.
• Nice GUI
• Comprehensive setting option
• Install and forget approach
• Performance indicator for those who are really concern about how much NIS2010 bog down their PC resource

Verdict:

• A very good consumer based security suit
• 2 weeks experience with this product (non beta) really impresses me. I could say, [my system+NIS2010] is more responsive than [my system + Avira classic]. Avira classic only an Antivirus while NIS2010 is a suite of anti-virus, firewall, anti-spam, anti-spyware, identity protection, safe web and browser protection. I still can’t explain how Norton engineer able to craft this piece of software to be lighter than Avira Classic which previously I think one of the fastest AV. Furthermore, it is completely not fair to compare an complete security suite with a standalone anti-virus product but, yeah..that is my own personal experience. In short, my computer with NIS2010 feels more responsive than my computer with Avira antivirus only. This is pretty subjective, but worries not because when time permitted, I will conduct a series of benchmark to measure this quantitatively.
• Able to use previous product CD key with latest product is a very nice approach. Now, I am not worry to pay 3 years subscription (which is always cheaper than 1 year subscription) since I know I could always download latest version of NIS and use my current subscription CD Key without any problem.

 

..to be continued…

• Explanation of each features and screenshot.
• Virus detection capability
• Memory consumption on idle and scanning
• CPU consumption on idle and scanning
• <reader suggestion thru comment section>

 

How to add VirtualBox shared folder in Windows Server 2008 as guest OS

I need to develop an ASP.net and ASP websites recently but I decided not to install IIS7 on my Win7 OS due to this is my gaming machine as well (since IIS7 will run a lot of other services in background even when I am gaming or doing nothing related to webserver task). Therefore, with the power of virtualization software (virtualbox, free of charge), AMD Hyper-V (from phenom 955 BE) and Windows Server 2008 free for 8 months (grace period), I think running Windows Server 2008 in Virtual Environment is not a bad idea. Furthermore, beside IIS7, I could use other stuff as well especially DNS. And the best thing is, virtual OS could be moved from one machine to other machine (read: from my PC to my laptop, for demonstration purpose) without much headache of redeployment.

 

Host OS : Windows 7 x64 (to fully utilize 4 GB ram)

Guess OS : Windows Server 2008 (x86 to minimize size of memory need to allocate to this guess OS)

Software used : VirtualBox (v3.08)

 

The Problem

Unlike Windows XP, adding shared folder in Windows Server 2008 as guess really pain in the arse. The networking (search) feature seem to be, errr… not working for my setup. I simply can’t find my shared folder.

 

Solution

@ VirtualBox software menu bar à Devices àShared Folders

Note : It is highly recommended that you install Guest Addition to improve your guess OS performance and capability

 

Click on button

 

Add the folder that you wanna share from your host OS (PC) @ ‘Folder Path’ à Chose Other

 

Choose your shared folder (this folder exist on your host OS)

The Click OK.

Note : VirtualBox Disks folder is created by me in my storage partition. Yours one might has different name.

 

Then name your shared folder name @ ‘Folder Name :”. Any name will do. In this example, I choose MyShare

Click Make Permanent Checkbox

 

‘MyShare’ shared folder now exists (actually, now I have 2 shared folders, one is the one we just created, and the other one is my actual shared folder that I use for work)

Click Ok

 

All screenshot below this text is taken from virtual os aka guess OS (in this case, my WinServer 08)

Now logon on your Windows Server 2008 (guess OS).

 

From Windows Server 2008 explorer (or run windows), type net use Z:\vboxsvr\MyShare

Z is your map drive (you can change to any letter as well, as long as it will not conflict with your current Windows Server 08 drive letter)

MyShare is my logical shared folder name.

 

And..tadaaa…

 

From now on, I can access my shared folder by using Z drive.

 

Done.

Windows 7 Shortcut Keys to Improve Your Productivity and SPEED!

Doesn’t matter how fast you can use your mouse and click, nothing can beat the speed of keyboard shortcut key. Windows 7 has come with a lot of interesting shortcut keys which are waiting to be fully exploited by speed junkies.

 

Keyboard Shortcut	Function
Win+Up	Maximize Window
Win+Down	Minimize Window
Win+Left	Snap Window to left
Win+Right	Snap Window to right
Win+Shift+Left	Jump to left monitor
Win+Shift+Right	Jump to right monitor
Win+Home	Minimize / Restore all other windows
Win+T	Focus the first taskbar entry, similar to ALT +TAB
Win+Shift+T	Same as above in reverse order
Win+Space	Peek at the desktop
Win+G	Bring Gadgets to the top
Win+ [Num]	Launches the numbered app running in the Super bar
Win+P	Connecting displays to computers and switching from single monitor to dual-display
Win+X	Mobility Center
Win + + Win + -	Zoom in and out of Windows
Alt+P	Show/hide Preview Pane in Explorer
Win + Tab	Windows Aero Task Switcher
Shift + Click on icon (Taskbar)	Open a new instance
Middle click on icon(Taskbar)	Open a new instance
Ctrl + Shift + Click on icon (Taskbar)	Open a new instance with Admin privileges
Shift + Right-click on icon (Taskbar)	Show window menu (Restore / Minimize / Move / etc)
Shift + Right-click on grouped icon (Taskbar)	Menu with Restore All / Minimize All / Close All, etc.
Ctrl + Click on grouped icon	Cycle between the windows (or tabs) in the group

 

 

And if you are multi monitor user (I just join this group with my new Samsung SyncMaster P2350 24 inch wide + old 19 Samsung SyncMaster 931BW wide monitors, these short cut keys are really a bless J

Keyboard Shortcut	Function
Win + Spacebar	Aero desktop peek, just like that small rectangle at the right bottom corner next to the time display.
Win + Left Arrow	toggle docking to half the screen starting by the left half
Win + Right Arrow	toggle docking to half the screen starting by the right half
Win + Shift + Left Arrow	move the window one monitor left in a multi-monitor display
Win + Shift + Right Arrow	move the window one monitor right in a multi-monitor display
Win + Up Arrow	maximize
Win + Down Arrow	minimize
Win + Home	minimize/maximize all inactive windows
Win + P	show presentation mode projector options
Win + G	show desktop gadgets
Win + Any number (1, 2, 3, .., 0)	open the corresponding taskbar pinned program
Ctrl + Click a pinned taskbar icon	to cycle through the program’s open windows (e.g. IE)
Ctrl + Shift + Click a pinned taskbar icon	to run a new instance of the program as administrator
Shift + Click a pinned taskbar icon	to run a new instance of the program

 

How to delete locked file/folder in Windows 7

Have you come across that you can’t delete certain folder or file even you are the administrator?

And you are damn sure that no one is using that folder or file as well. This is very frustrating isn’t it. Well, at least I felt that way.

2 solutions that I come across:

• Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit) compatible unlocker : lockhunter
• Take Ownership.

  All files could be downloaded from HERE
  

 

If windows keep telling you that you can’t delete or move that folder because somebody or something is using it (even you are the only user on that pc), you may need a nifty application to release that folder or file from OS hand. As for myself (for Windows 7 x64), I use lockhunter. You may get it at : http://lockhunter.com/ . Best of all, it is a freeware.

 

But, if Windows keep telling you that you need to have xxxxx privilege from xxxxx in order to delete that file mean you need to take ownership of that folder/file. The easiest way to do so is by adding premade registry entry and take ownership by right clicking on that folder/file.

1. Download Take Ownership registry : HERE

    

2. Unzip it and right click à merge

   

    

3. Go to the locked folder and right click à Take Ownership

   

    

4. Done. Now you can delete that locked folder/file.

Recent Upgrade (AMD Dragon Platform)

Finally, can’t resist anymore.

Last 2 years, I spend approximately RM1k for low cost pc upgrade, to upgrade my very old (2003 pc). The upgrade detail as below :

• AMD Athlon 2500+ (always OC to 3200+)  –> Pentium Dual Core 1.8 GHz
• 2×256 MB Corsair TwinX DDR400 –> Kingston Value RAM DDRII 667 2×1GB (max slot occupied)
• Abit NF2 Ultra mobo –> Gigabyte 945 mobo.
• GeCube ATI Radeon 9600XT –>XFX 8600GT
• Acbel 350W PSU –> iCute 450W PSU (have to buy this since new mobo got 4pin atx socket..damn)
• Cost : RM270+150+190+500+90 = RM1200

Windows 7 oh Windows 7

Where to check windows 7 status (RTM or not) : http://www.haswindows7rtmed.com/

Where to get it?

Underground source. Microsoft doesn’t release this version to public for free unlike beta version and RC. X86 (32bit version) and x64 (64 bit version) could be find there. Be sure to check SHA-1 key to ensure that your downloaded ISO is unmolded or untouched version.

What the…. How to check that. How on earth could I check my downloaded ISO SHA-1?

Use this open source SHA-1 (and also MD5) checker from sourceforge. Download here.

You may need to download java runtime to use that tool. Download java runtime here.

Run Ash’s MD5/SHA-1 Checker, click on open button.

It may take 2 to three minutes to check the SHA-1. Don’t worry if you don’t see any progress bar what so ever. As for myself, the screen above remain like that for 3 minutes or so. Just give it some time to abuse your CPU computing power okay (^_^).

Finally…after 3 minutes…

Ping pong…. I found out that my RTM Win7 SHA-1 doesn’t match original HAS-1 key. Why the hack this happen. Short answer, this ISO might not be the untouch version (if I am lucky, the uploader doesn’t put anything nasty but if I am not lucky, only heaven know what he put in this ISO).

Untouched SHA-1 key :     0xBC10F09B86DCBAF35B31B0E6FBA7D006ACAAD28D (where to check this key for entire list? Refer below)

My previous download :     606ce48c4f1af04fee97a6852aa382fb7899829e

Same name, same size but unfortunately not the very same file. Action: Delete L

Additional Info: As for now, I am not pretty sure to believe 5395DC4B38F7BDB1E005FF414DEEDFDB16DBF610 as untouch key or not (base on this website : http://www.haswindows7rtmed.com/

According to technet blog, actual untouch SHA-1 key as below :

• Windows 7 Retail Ultimate E englisch (x86)
  Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x86fre_cliente_en-us_Retail_UltimateE-GRMCEULFRER_EN_DVD.iso
  CRC: 0×953EFBCC
  SHA-1: 0xBC10F09B86DCBAF35B31B0E6FBA7D006ACAAD28D
  
• Windows 7 Retail Ultimate E englisch (x64)
  Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_cliente_en-us_Retail_UltimateE-GRMCEULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
  CRC: 0×77BE890E
  SHA-1: 0×029DCCEDD7691206010F84CE58343405A4DA92C9
  
• Windows 7 Retail Ultimate englisch (x86)
  Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULFRER_EN_DVD.iso
  CRC: 0xC1C20F76
  SHA-1: 0×5395DC4B38F7BDB1E005FF414DEEDFDB16DBF610
  
• Windows 7 Retail Ultimate englisch (x64)
  Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
  CRC: 0×1F1257CA
  SHA-1: 0×326327CC2FF9F05379F5058C41BE6BC5E004BAA7
  

Note : Even so, my previous downloaded ISO is not match with above SHA-1 key either. So, confirm delete and re-download. I personally believe technet blog more than anything else.

OMG, is there any easier way to check either the ISO is valid or not?

Yes it is actually. You may use Windows 7 ISO verifier to verify either your downloaded ISO is valid or not. No need for you to compare hash or SDA-1. It will do automatically with its known valid hash key (its databsase). The above method can be used at any files or iso (not limted to windows 7 only).

Download link : Get it here

Can I use Win7 RC or Beta key in this RTM version?

No, you can’t. Without a proper key (or, ahem crack (hint : one of them is orbit30, so google it ^_^), Microsoft only allow you to use Win7 for 30 days + 3x rearm (total days, 120 days, not to shabby isn’t it). Orbit30 is not the only crack (what it did right now, is replacing Win7 RTM activation files with Win7 RC activation files). So, your RTM Win7 will expire March 2010. Need to wait better and proper crack. Cough cough. Academic purpose only right…right? XD

How to rearm Windows 7?

1. Install Windows 7 without any product activation key.
   
2. After installation is completed, use the Windows 7 for 30 days and wait for the remaining days left to activate Windows counting down to 0, or almost zero.
   
3. When the activation grace period (or evaluation trial period) is almost expired or ended, log on to Windows 7 desktop, and open a Command Prompt window (i.e. type Cmd in Start Search and hit Enter).
   
4. Type any of the following commands into the command prompt, and then hit Enter:
   

   sysprep /generalize
   

   slmgr.vbs –rearm
   

   rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows
   

   slmgr /rearm
   

5. Reboot Windows 7 to enjoy another 30 days of free usage without worrying about activation nor even need to crack Windows 7.
   
6. When the activation grace period countdown timer almost running down to 0 again, repeat the ‘rearm’ trick to enjoy another 30 days of Windows 7 for free. User can run the rearm command for maximum of 3 times.
   

Can I install windows 7 without DVD disc (by using pendrive or thumb drive)?

Yes you can. Further read : HERE

Why should I install win7 by using my pendrive or external hdd?

SPEED!!! If you have decent speed pendrive (for example even the cheapo Toshiba (sequential read 24 MBps), it is hell lot faster than installing from DVD disc. Furthermore, you help to save our earth (and your pocket) by not wasting optical disc (made by plastic, and plastic is petroleum product). Save the earth, yeah…you hear me right LoL. But, honestly, save the earth. Seriously. Furthermore, the step is totally newbie friendly.

How to check my current (installed) Windows 7 build?

From start menu à type winver

You will get something like this. (There is no expiry date because I decide to re-arm it instead of use RC activation crack. 120 days should be enough until October 2010. Honestly, genuine Windows 7 worth every single cent even at Malaysia :: Personal Opinion).

Err…what is RTM actually?

Accronym for Release to Manufacturer. Oppose to Beta or RC (Release Candidate), RTM is a complete software (or operating software in this case). Beta and RC well, it is beta right. Mean, still in testing. RTM is a complete copy, which Microsoft distribute this copy to PC or laptop manufacturer (even hardware vendor if I am not mistaken) such as Acer, Dell, HP etc. RTM version doesn’t has watermark or send report link anymore. In short, RTM code = retail code that you could buy at your local store this October.

What else eh….. feel free to dump your question or idea, critics etc in the comment box below.

Winzip, WinRar, 7zip, WinAce rematch

Couple of months ago, I posted a mini article regarding Winzip vs WinRar and 7zip and found out that 7zip beat em’ all. However, due to not so proper method that I used in that short test, the result is questionable. Furthermore, Winzip just launch their latest version of Winzip, known as Winzip 12.1 and according to their web, they are pretty confident with Winzip latest algorithm (zipx instead of good old zip). So, I guess it would be nice if I could compare Winzip, Winrar, 7zip and WinAce best compression algorithm.

I Love Streamyx!!!

Hate me if you want but I will stay shout I love Streamyx.

No, I am not working with TM, not even have any relatives or friends that work with TM, but I can’t hold my hands and brain to type I Love Streamyx any longer.

Am I going nuts? Yeah, maybe LAWL.

It is all started when I subscribe Streamyx Combo 60, which is an ADSL 384 kbps service from them (Dec 2008), to replace my pathetic over promised Izzi broadband (which based on iBurst technology). I saved RM50 per month there and yet still getting 300% of Izzi broadband speed (at that time). Fast forward to 24 June 2009, after satisfy with my phone line stability and ADSL reliability, I did myself a favor. I went to Shah Alam TM Point and decided to upgrade my Streamyx 384kbps to 1.0 mbps (Streamyx Combo 110).