A feature of Firefox is that it calls your Anti Virus program to scan the downloaded files automatically upon completion of the download process. This feature is nice that it adds an additional layer of protection. However, there are times when you want to disable it. I was downloading a huge file from a trusted source. After the downloading was done, Firefox froze while the file was scanned. It took me a while to kill the crashed Firefox process.

There is no option to disable this feature in the Options dialog. You have to use the configuration editor. Here are the steps:

1. Enter about:config in the address bar and press Enter key. You might see a warning dialog. Click on I’ll be careful, I promise! to continue.
   
2. Enter scanWhenDone in the Filter box. Notice the the preference name browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone is set to the default value true.
   
3. Double click on the preference and it changes to false.
   
4. Close Firefox. The next time you use Firefox to download files, it won’t scan the files.

Once you have downloaded those files that have problems with scanning, you might want to enable this feature again.

When I purchased my Brother Laser Printer HL-2170W, I was aware of the notorious premature “toner life end” problem. The printer has a sensor for the toner, it would stop printing when the toner is low. The problem is often times the printer stops working even when the toner is perfectly fine.

My printer stopped working when the page count is only about 650 pages. To get around this problem, there is a trick that you can do it by yourself. Here are the steps.

1. Follow the printer’s instructions to take out the toner.
2. There is a round hole to the right side of the toner. Use a strip of non-transparent tape to cover this hole. If you do not have non-transparent tape, you can tape a small piece of paper there instead.
   
3. Insert the toner back to the printer.

When you run a Java application on Snow Leopard, the 64-bit Java is used by default. This might be problematic when you run some older applications. We ran to this problem earlier when a user tried to activate his Matlab license. The message he got is

There was an unexpected exception: Can’t load library: / Applications/ MATLAB_R2009aSV.app/ / bin/ maci64/ libactivation.jnilib See the log file (/ var/ folders/ Mp/ Mp0PQFo9GbKznsjhgBiZf++++TI/ -Tmp-/ TMW_svact_christophergiuliano.log) for more details.

The solution is to set the 32-bit Java as default. Here are the steps:

1. Invoke Java Preferences in Applications -> Utilities.
   
2. Click on the entry of Java SE 6  32-bit and drag it before Java SE 6  64-bit in the Java Applications section.
   
3. Close Java Preferences. The 32-bit Java will be used next time you run a Java application.

If you want to try Fedora 11 without buying a new machine or partitioning your hard drive, VirtualBox is a good choice. This guide assumes you have downloaded the Fedora 11 KDE iso and you also have installed VirtualBox 2.2 or above. You also need enough disk space to hold the virtual disk on your hard drive.

1. Run VirtualBox and Click on New to create a new virtual machine.
   
2. Click on Next to continue.
   
   
3. Name your virtual machine and select the proper OS Type. Click on Next to continue.
   
4. Set the memory size for the virtual machine. I used 512MB. Click on Next to continue.
   
5. Click on Next to create a new virtual disk.
   
   
6. Create New Virtual Disk Wizard starts, click on Next to continue.
   
   
7. Select Dynamically expanding storage and click on Next to continue.
   
   
8. Specify a location for the disk image and size. If your system drive is low on space, you might want to use a different drive. Click on Next to continue.
   
9. Click on Finish to finish creating a new virtual disk.
   
10. Click on Finish to finish creating of the new virtual machine.
    
11. Now back to the main windows of VirtualBox with the newly created virtual machine for Fedora. Double click on CD/DVD-ROM. Note that a lot of features are turned off by default. If you want to change the settings, click on Settings to modify them.
    
12. Check Mount CD/DVD Drive and select ISO Image File. Click on the folder icon.
    
13. Click on the Add icon to locate the iso image you downloaded. Click on Select and you will be brought back to the dialog in previous step. Click on OK.
    
14. Click on Start icon in the upper left corner to start installation.
    
15. Click anywhere inside the virtual machine window, so that you can use your keyboard and mouse inside the virtual machine. If you ever want to release the mouse and keyboard from the virtual machine, press right Ctrl key. Double click on Install to Hard Drive.
    
16. The installer runs. Click on Next.
    
    
17. Select the language and click on Next.
    
18. A warning dialog shows. Click on Re-intialize drive to continue.
    
19. Set a hostname and click on Next.
    
    
20. Select a time zone and click on Next.
    
21. Create a user and click on Forward.
    
22. Enter root’s password and click on Next.
    
23. Use the default scheme for partitioning. Click on Next.
    
    
24. A confirmation dialog shows. Click on Write changes to disk.
    
25. The installer copies the live image to the virtual disk. When the installation is done. Click on Close.
    
    
26. Click on the Fedora icon -> Leave -> Shutdown.
    
27. When the virtual machine is in the shutdown state. We want to un-mount the Live CD, so the virtual machine won’t boot to it again. Double click on CD/DVD-ROM and uncheck Mount CD/DVD Drive. Please see the screenshots for step 11 and 12.
    
    
28. Start the virtual machine.
29. When the VM boots up the first time, a setup wizard runs. Click on Forward.
    
30. Click on Forward.
    
31. Create a user and click on Forward.
    
32. Click on Network Time Protocol and check Enable Network Time Protocol. Click on Forward.
    
33. Click on Finish.
    
34. The basic installation is done!
    

In my next post, I’ll show you how to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions. Stay tuned. Ok, here is the link to the guide on Guest Additons.

My original package was designed for Navigon 2100 US model. A lot of people have adapted the package to be used on other Navigon models. There are some reports about my release 4.2 causing some GPSs other than Navigon 2100 to reboot continuously.

The cause for this problem is that my script reboots (resets) the GPS after successfully unlocking. The problem is some GPSs’ registry got wiped out clean after each reboot. Therefore, the next time system boots up, the script thinks the unit is not unlocked and does the unlocking again and reboot.

To fix the problem, I have changed the script so it won’t reboot again. I also made some modification for the taskbar to show up correctly. Two packages have been made for this release. The first one is the whole package which is for people who have not downloaded my release 4.2 before. The instructions are the same as the release 4.2. Here is the link to the zip file.

The second package is for people who have download the release 4.2. The second package has only two script files: autorunce.mscr and StartBtn.mscr. Please replace these two files in your old downloaded package. By default, autorunce.mscr goes to the root of the SD card and StartBtn.mscr goes to the Script folder on the SD card. Here is the link to the zip file.

Please consider making a small donation to my site if you find my package useful. Thank you!

Playstation 3 supports a lot of media types, but it’s not clear about what are the media types that support subtitles. I tried several different formats and found that DivX format supports subtitles on PS3. I wrote a post about how to convert .mkv file to .avi (DivX) earlier. Even though I can finally watch the video with soft subtitles, the process is long and the video gets degraded because the encoding process. The conversion is also sometimes buggy.

Later, I found AVCHD on PS3 can also show subtitles. There is an excellent program multiAVCHD which can convert .mkv file coded with H.264/AC3 to AVCHD without re-encoding the video.

1. Download multiAVCHD from the author’s site.
2. (Optional) If your .mkv file uses AAC as the audio codec, follow this post to convert it.
3. Run multiAVCHD.
   
4. Click on MKV/*TS/MPEG/MOV files to select the .mkv file you want to convert.
   
5. Click on Menu tab and select the correct TV System. Use NTSC in North America.
   
6. Click on the Audio/Subtitles tab and check Use embeded ASS subtitles if your .mkv file uses ASS subtitles.
   
7. Click on create multiAVCHD to start the process. By default, a subfolder called AVCHD will be created under the multiAVCHD folder.
8. When it’s done processing, copy the AVCHD folder to the root of your USB flash drive.
9. Safely remove the USB flash drive from your computer, insert it to PS3 and enjoy!

Note that AVCHD is kinda picky about the resolutions  and the H.264 level of the video source. If the generated AVCHD folder is not viewable on PS3, you might still need to convert .mkv file to a different format.

While I was looking for a better way to convert mkv file with soft subtitles to be played on my Playstation 3, I found there are some tools that allow me to to the conversion. Most of the conversion tools assume the mkv file uses H.264 as the video codec and AC3 as the audio codec. Even though most mkv files stick to H.264 for video, a lot of them use AAC as the audio codec.

Without re-inventing the wheel, I came up a way to convert the AAC sound track in mkv file to AC3 without re-encode the video.  Here are the tools needed. Download and install them. Note that MKVToolnix doesn’t require installation, just extract it to a folder.

MKVToolnix
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/downloads.html#windows

MKVE Wizard
http://coreforge.org/frs/?group_id=33&release_id=20

VLC Player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

1. Run MKVE Wizard to extract the audio. Specify the file location and click on Next.
   
2. Select the AAC audio track and click on Next to continue. Note that if the Wizard cannot find where you install MKVToolnix, you have to click on Settings to specify it manually. After a few moments, the AAC audio track is saved. It’s save as test_Track2.aac in this example.
   
3. Run VLC player to convert the AAC sound track to AC3. Click on Media and select Convert/ Save.
   
   Change the Filter in the dialog window to All Files (*.*) , so you can select the AAC file extracted by step 2.
   
4. In the Stream Output Windows, check File box and enter the file name. I named it test_Track2.ac3. In the Encapsulation tab, select RAW.
   
5. Click on the Audio codec tab, select Audio check box and change the Codec to A52/AC-3. Specify the Bitrate and Channels if needed. Click on Save to convert the audio.
   
6. Run mkvmerge GUI(mmg.exe) from the MKVToolnix folder.
   
7. Drag and drop the original mkv file (test.mkv) and the converted audio track (test_Track2.ac3) to the Input files box. Uncheck the A_AAC track and move the AC3 track up before the subtitles tracks. Enter an output file name. Click on Start muxing to create the new mkv file.
   

There are quite a few steps, but the whole process doesn’t take long because the video is not re-encoded.

Under Windows, you press Print Screen key to capture the full screen or alt + Print Screen to capture the active window. However, there is no Print Screen key on a MacBook. How can you capture the screenshots when you boot the machine to Windows OS?

One solution I found is to use the on-screen keyboard. Click on the Start and type On-Screen and click on On-Screen Keyboard to bring up the keyboard. Click on PrtScn to capture the whole desktop or press and hold the alt(option) key on the keyboard while click on PrtScn to capture just the active window.

The problem with this approach is that when you capture the whole desktop, the on-screen keyboard is also captured. This also happens when the keyboard overlaps with the active window because the on-screen keyboard is always on top. Here is a screenshot demonstrating this situation.

The other option is using a 3rd party program. The one I have been using is called ScreenHunter. I tested it under Windows 7 Beta and it worked great. You can download a free version here. Note that the default hot key is F6. If you have Boot Camp installed under your MacBook, you have to press and hold fn key when you press F6. Otherwise, it won’t capture the screenshot.

Does ScreenHunter work for you? Let us know what you think.

A new feature of Windows 7 lets you search remote sites directly from Windows Explorer. To use it, just download the search connector files (*.osdx) to your computer. Double click on the search connector file to install it. Once it’s installed, a new link is created under Favorites. Here is a screenshot for searching “Windows 7″ pictures via a flickr search connector.

I was wondering if I could create a connector for my site. It turns out it’s also very easy to create one if you are fine with using search engine for servicing out the results for your site.

Here is an example of a search connector for my site using msn.com search engine. The reason that I use msn.com is that Windows 7 expects the results in RSS format which google doesn’t support.

Download the kombitz search connector here. To customize it for your site, just search kombitz and kombitz.com and replace them with your site name and address.

The mkv file format for video is getting popular these days.  Even the new DivX standard supports it. However, PS3 still does not support mkv files. If you want to play the mkv files, you have to convert them first. There are several guides about converting mkv to vob or to mp4 without subtitle. Here are the steps that I use to convert mkv to avi with soft subtitle using free programs.

There are quite a few tools you need for this project. Download and install the following packages. MKVE Wizard, Subtitle Workshop and AVIAddXSub don’t require installation. Just extract them.

MKVToolnix
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/downloads.html#windows

MKVE Wizard
http://coreforge.org/frs/?group_id=33&release_id=20

Subtitle Workshop
http://www.urusoft.net/downloads.php?lang=1

Dr. Divx
http://labs.divx.com/DrDivX

DivX
http://www.divx.com/

AVIAddXSubs
http://www.calcitapp.com/AVIAddXSubs.php

Note that this guide is not a step by step guide, I will only highlight some key points with some but not all screenshots.
1. Run MKVEWizard to extract the subtitle.

If the Wizard cannot identify the MKVToolnix directory, browse to it and click on OK.

Select the subtitle track(s) you want and click on Next

2. Run Subtitle Workshop to convert the subtitle to SRT format(Optional). This is only needed if the subtile extracted is not in SRT format. Just load the subtitle and save it as SubRip (*.srt) format.

3. Convert the mkv file to avi file using Dr. DivX. Dr. DivX is the most unstable program of this guide. If you have lots troubles using it, you can use other programs to convert the mkv file to avi file with DivX codec. You can drag and drop the mkv file to the Dr. DivX’s window. I often select the Extreme Quality to achieve better results.

Note that sometimes Dr. DivX insists on resizing the video file. If that happens, you might want to configure it, so that the size is preserved. Click on Advanced tap. Under the Video presets, slide the slider all the way to the right.

Click on Pre-processing tab and slide the Resize resolution all the way to the right. If the size of the video is still not the original one, use the Resize to width to specify the correct size manually. Click on Done to add this to the batch.

Click on Resume to begin the process. This process might take a while to finish.

4. The final step is to use AVIAddXSubs to combine the avi file generated in step 3 and the subtitle (srt) file generated in step 2. Please refer to my earlier post about how to do this.