Tuesday 24 November 2009

Make Live recordings on Your Laptop or PC

How can you use your laptop to record from your Mixing desk?

I have been using audacity it free to download software, and a 2 port USB sound adaptor which has 2 x XLR balanced inputs and 2 x phono out (£25 from CPC - Farnel). (there are numerous adaptors with a range of inputs, normally only stereo).

1. Connect up the usb adaptor (mine doesn't require additional  drivers, uses the standard window susb Drivers).
2. Start up Audacity
3. You may need to change the sound source with in audacity (File Preferences or edit - Options)
4. Click the record button and it should record.

There are many options and settings within the software which makes it very versatile.

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Home PC security need not be Rocket Science

Home pc security need not be rocket science; I have stumbled across “Get Safe on Line” its founding partners are UK government, Banks, Microsoft, SOCA…


It gives simple advise.



Monday 9 November 2009

Imaging disks with Microsoft Vista installed with Ghost 8.0

Vista and Ghost 8.0
I have had to image two failing disks with vista Home basic on. The process even using Ghost 8.0 was not as easy as XP!! I have imaged many disk over the years as an IT pro, this was the first time with Vista.

Connect up the new disk along side the disk to be imaged (using sata, IDE, usb caddies etc)

Boot the system using a Boot environment, Ghost or other.
I use BartPe boot disks with the Ghost 8.0 plugin, and Intel sata drivers added (see BartPe for information)

Open Ghost, and select the options box.
Set option within Ghost 8 gui –FRO, and then image all disk partitions.
(If you need more information on Ghost look on the web)
Wait a while the disk is imaged, swap old and new disks.
(Laptop PC now has the freshly imaged disk installed, old disk removed)

Boot from vista install DVD (set language) and then select repair option, if prompted to repair say no, we don’t want to repair at this stage.
You should see the Vista install you wish to sort listed, select with mouse (now highlighted)
Now select Next
Select Command Prompt from list of options.

Type bcdedit (press return)
This will show the contents of the BCD file (the new boot.ini)

Look at the device boot and osdevice

If the imaged disk is failing to boot the following can be run at the command prompt.

BCDEDIT /set {bootmgr} device boot

BCDEDIT /set {default} device boot

BCDEDIT /set {default} osdevice boot

This worked for me, there are other references to vista failing to boot on the web following disk imaging using Ghost 8.0

I also ran Bootrec from the command prompt
Bootrec /fixmbr

Bootrec /rebuildBCD 
(plenty of advise on line about bootrec)

Vista should now boot, as with all advise online search around and verify that other folks have done some thing similar. Data is important back it up prior to imaging etc.

Helpful Sources on Ghost 8.0 and Vista

http://www.bobnedved.com/post/2007/11/How-to-restore-Vista-Ghost-Image-(Ghost-80-or-82).aspx

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/windowsgeneraldevelopmentissues/thread/443251a3-46e6-4868-8f9d-5fdc5b838343/

Thursday 5 November 2009

Can't open DOCX Office 2007 files

Have you just received a .DOCX attachment or .DOCX file on a memory stick?


When Microsoft released Office 2007 the default document format became .DOCX, these new file may have additional office formatting which is only available to office 2007.

So what can you do with your office 97 and no intention of buying Office 2007?

Microsoft has some free software which can easily be downloaded and installed. The “Office 2007 compatibility pack” this will allow you to open these new files in an older version of office (2000 upwards), some new features will not be carried over, but 99% of the time the document will look fine.

Once the Office 2007 compatibility pack has been installed (Just a few clicks) you will be able to open up the new .DOCX files with your current Microsoft Office software and then save as .DOC. If there was any special formatting this may be lost when it is saved.

If you don’t want to buy Microsoft Office of any version or have office 97, Microsoft has a range of office Reader software which will enable you to open and print Word Documents. (You can get a reader for most Microsoft Office applications)  MS Word Viewer upto 2007

If you are a student or work in Education you may be able to get a good deal on a student package. Lesser known is that the majority of Registered Charities may be able to buy Microsoft software cheaply as well. (Check the Microsoft.com site)


Note:- As with all software downloads, check you are happy with the source.

Acer Aspire L320

How to get into a Acer Aspire L320 Case

1. Remove Screw from rear of Case




2. Slide the top to the rear. (Should come off)


3. Removing the disk Caddy, remove the single screw (see screw driver)

4. Remove the front Bezel, Release black tabs(highlighted by paper), The bezel will tilt forward, mind the locating lugs at the bottom.


5. The caddy will lift , may need to slide slightly (The sata hardisk cables will need to be released prior to lifting to far) The disk unscews with 4 screws.

Monday 2 November 2009

mp3 - upload to Blog - podcast

Put mp3's on your blog (remember copyright)
You can upload video's and pictures to Blogger, but what if you want to upload an mp3?

To covert the mp3 file to a video,

You need
Your mp3 file
Windows Movie maker (or equivalent)
May be some pictures

How to
Open Movie maker and import the audio mp3 file.
Drag audio to "Audio time line"
You can add text caption (you can drag this along the time line so it is visible for the whole Video.
(You can now add pictures etc if you wish)
Now you need to save to "my computer", when saved movie make will play the video.

Post into Blog
Now login to your blog and upload the video (may take a while, there are size limits)


Remember copyright, and make sure that the mp3 is yours to use and make available on line.