Computers – Cedric's Cruft http://www.ce3c.be Yet another blog about ... stuff. Fri, 04 Jul 2014 23:13:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.12 Rip music from Imeem.com http://www.ce3c.be/92-rip-download-music-from-imeem-com/ http://www.ce3c.be/92-rip-download-music-from-imeem-com/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 18:04:39 +0000 http://www.ce3c.be/?p=92 In this blogpost I assume the world uses Firefox. If you're still using another musty browser, it's never too late to change your sinful life.

Imeem is a social media service where users interact with each other by watching, posting, and sharing content of all digital media types, including blogs, photos, audio, and video. The founder, Jan Jannick comes from the original Napster. Knowing Imeem's background history, we're ready to roll.

Method

  1. To download music from Imeem.com (and other media sites), we have to download an additional firefox plug-in first. Imeem sends a header to its users to prevent music files to be stored in the local cache. It's the notorious "Cache-Control: no-store"-header.
    Install and enable the FireFox add-on BetterCache. It'll remove the vicious header and files will be stored in your cache.
  2. Use a downloadmanager, like Orbit (that's it!), or continue with step 3 for the manual way.
  3. Type "about:config" in your address bar and look for the key browser.cache.disk_enable, and assure its value is set to true.
  4. Fire up an execute dialog by hitting the windows key + R and type in "%USERPROFILE%".
    Next, navigate to the following path:
    %USERPROFILE%/Local Settings/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/*********.default/Cache
  5. Open up imeem.com and try to play a file, wait till it's loaded completely (important if you want the complete flv).
  6. Locate the file you're searching for manually, its name prolly has the form of "9DDB6E15d01" and its size should be bigger than 2MB.
  7. Copy/Rename/(Convert)/Play

Notes

  • This method also works for any other media site.
  • If you want to cache large files you should set browser.cache.disk.capacity to a high enough value.
  • You can work with a downloadmanager for firefox to save your files (like FDM and Orbit). That way you don't have to look in the folder, searching in a haystack for the correct flv.
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Resolving lag spikes in games over a wireless connection http://www.ce3c.be/88-resolving-lag-spikes-in-games-over-a-wireless-connection/ http://www.ce3c.be/88-resolving-lag-spikes-in-games-over-a-wireless-connection/#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:34:42 +0000 http://www.ce3c.be/?p=88 The average gamer between us, having a wireless connection, might experience latency spikes in their multiplayer games. It's quite frustrating when you're about to frag someone, they shoot you instead 🙂

We could blame the router, the wireless adapter or the OS. I tried two different wireless adapters which didn't solve the problem. I tried different computers, but still no go.
So, for months, I thought the blame was on my router which wasn't sending a consistent signal. Even when a new router came in with QoS support (a D-link DSL-2740B for those who are interested 😛 ) I still experienced lag each ~minute.

When pinging the router, you can see an extremely high ping result aka lag in the command prompt.

> ping -t 192.168.1.1

Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=3 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=3 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=1065 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=3 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd<1 ms TTL=64
..........
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=5 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=1707 ms TTL=6
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=4 ms TTL=64
..........

You can't find anything on the net but useless advice on this issue.

Now here's the key:
Windows has an implemented wireless configuration tool, the "Wireless Zero Configuration Service". This service automatically loads on startup and is the dialog you use to connect to your wireless network. Every minute the service will scan all wireless channels in an attempt to find wireless networks. However, this scanningprocess will cause the lag spikes. Blame microshit.

How to solve:
Disable the Wireless Zero Configuration Service by going to the Configuration Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Services.
You can also do this by fireing up a Run-dialog, and typing "net stop wzcsvc".

If you want to use the wireless configuration tool again after you're done gaming, you'll have to do the reverse process or "net start wzcsvc".
You can also create shortcuts on your desktop ofc or use an alternate configuration client.

> ping -t 192.168.1.1

Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=3 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=4 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=2 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd<1 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=1 ms TTL=64
Antwoord van 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 tijd=1 ms TTL=64

GL/HF! 8)

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