The Doves are Back!

Doves Kingdom of Rust
Doves Kingdom of Rust

One of my favorite bands ever have realised two new songs from there upcoming “Kingdom of Rust”. The First song is the new single Called “Kingdom of Rust” and its fantastic the other song is called “Jetstream” a Free Download available from the doves website. Both songs are brilliant and if you like music you are bound to love the doves.

The Album doest come out until the 6th of april and i cant wait for it. Forget U2 coming up with the same old sound again with their new Album and usual Over-the-top Hype and Bonos huge Ego.

Official Site:
http://www.doves.net/

AnotherFriend.com – Online Dating Website and its Crazy Message Board Rules


I recently joined a dating website AnotherFriend.com and while the site has a lot of members and a good track record of couples i just dont like the rules on the site. The message board is the worst message board service ive ever seen there are like Nazis really with all there rules;

SHORT MESSAGE BOARD RULES:
  • No Gossip please – Publicly discussing or referencing other members is prohibited.
  • Think ‘Appropriate’ – No overtly sexual, voilent, insulting, racist or argumentative postings.
  • Spamming or selling is not allowed.
  • Posting messages for others or advertising your personal profile is prohibited.
  • Insulting postings regarding public companies will be considered as libilous.
  • Discussing the operation & admin policy of AnotherFriend.com is prohibited.

Crazy rules:
Now i can understand the first 3 rules but the last one “Discussing the operation & admin policy of AnotherFriend.com is prohibited.” is just crazy. You are not allowed to critise the site in anyway no thats what i call freedom of speech. You cant make suggestions about the site or say anything bad about it, your post simply wont appear.

Poor Profile:
There a few things on the site that i dislike the profile is just not good enough there isnt enough information there about somebody really. You need to know as much as possable about a person before you make contact even if its the small silly things like;

  • Favorite Movie
  • Favorite Actor
  • Favorite Bands, Albums
  • Last Movie you seen

The site seems more concerned about somebodys “star sign” that their personality. With many options about star-signs appearing. Who gives a monkeys about somebodys star-sign.

Worst Message Board Ever:
The Message board is the worst ive ever seen. I tried to make a post about the site and the things i dislike and it was never displayed on the site not only this but to send a message on the message board seems to take 10mins! I mean what the hell and to top it all and this is the worst when you click on a topic being discussed on the message board it takes you to the last page instead of the first! So you have no idea what the original poster of the topic’s question was unless you go all the way back to the first post. To make matters worse the text on the website is very small i know you increase the text size in your web browser but even so.

Virus Removal – And Free Online Virus Scans

My Avast! found “Win32:Tibia-BU [Trj]” in the lsass.exe which is a Trojan Horse virus while today i was using my PC and i started up my Anti-Virus “Avast 4.8 Home Edition” which is a great Free Anti-Virus package. Anyway when it started up it informed me that i had a virus which was surprising to me because i keep my PC Updated and im careful with what i download. Anyway alarms bells went off and i let the Anti-Virus Program delete the file that was infected.

So of course i had to run a full scan which took over 4 hours to finish. No other serious viruses were found however most of the reported viruses were from “Dodgy Software” i downloaded.

Online Virus Scans:
I wanted to be 200% sure that were no viruses so i went looking for an online virus scan website that would tell me if i had more nasty viruses.

Trend Micro:
Was the first online scan i tried and getting it to work was difficult and when it did work it gave strange results im going to run the scan again as im not sure if said i had more viruses or just that used it incorrectly.

Norton Online Virus Scan:
The Most popular anti-virus i would guess and so downloaded the installtion file and after 2 mins the viruses definitions were updated. I did a full scan so everyfile on my PC would be scanned and its very slow and seems to be slowing down my PC a good bit as it works away. However it has found a lot of viruses but most again are from “Dodgy Software” “Cracks,Keygens” etc.

Other Online Virus Scan Sites:

Kaspersky
Jottis Malware Scan
ESET Online Scanner

Fallout 3 Crashes all the Time – Solution

Fallout 3 is a great game but it can suffer very badly from crashes if you installed any codec packs. I recently bought the DLC pack “Operation Anchorage” and the game crashed all the time on me and was unplayable. This happened in the Orignal game as well but it wasnt as bad. Anyway after some searching i found this tip on a forum that has solved the problem for me;

Fallout 3 does seem to have a conflict with FFDShow codecs. You have to
either uninstall them from your system or add fallout3.exe to FFDShow
audio and video decoders exceptions list. Although you may not know it,
FFDShow codecs may be present on your system if you have installed
codec packs such as CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack).

How to add Fallout 3 to FFDShow decoder exceptions list

1. Launch the ffdshow video decoder configuration window. You may
access this through the start menu. If you have installed any codec
packs, check the start menu entries of those. If you can�t find it on
the start menu, right click the ffdshow video decoder (red) icon that
appears on the taskbar when a supported video file is playing, and
select �ffdshow video decoder� option from the menu. ffdshow_icon

2. Tick the �Dont use ffdshow in� checkbox if not already checked

3. Press the edit button that is next to the text field. A new dialog
box will pop up. Press the Add button. The �Add incompatible executable
file� dialog box will be displayed. Browse to the Fallout 3
installation directory and locate fallout3.exe file. Select it and
press open. Close all dialog boxes currently open by pressing ok.

(OR you can simply type fallout3.exe at the end of the text field next to �Dont use ffdshow in� checkbox)

4. Repeat steps 2-3 in ffdshow audio decoder configuration (the blue
icon in taskbar) window as well. It is important that you add
fallout3.exe to both ffdshow audio and video decoder�s expections list.

Source:

Bono

I read a very interesting article the other day in the Sunday Independant’s magazine about Bono and how the irish public see him as some sort of sacred cow. It got me thinking about “Bono” or “Bonio” as my old irish teacher insisted on calling him and how much of hypocriate he is. Now i repsect “Bono” for the work he tries to do as he uses his “starpower” to influence politicians to get stuff done but… Theres always a “but” and here its while he does what he does, he keeps U2’s investment company over in holland avoiding having to pay taxes to the irish economey.  Dont believe me read it here;

U2 move their rock empire out of Ireland

Now if you think about this its some state of affairs really considering how bad not only the world economy and irish economy are doing. Its like going round the country on your “Soap Box” and yelling to the citizens to “come drop money in my hat for the poor” while keeping your own wallet tightly shut. thats not to say U2 havnt done anything for the poor but moving your company so you can avoid to pay taxes while im sure its very “Rock and Roll” its a real insult. Thats not to say if anyone was in the same shoes would you do the same? One of the things about being rich ive noticed is that the more people get, the more they want the tighter and meaner they become.

Im sure Bono will re-appear quite soon to promote U2’s new album and will cry if and when it gets “leaked” online before the realise date. Now i like U2 im not a “die-hard-fan” but theyve written some of the best songs over the past many years. Im not sure what to make of the new single at first i hated it now i hate it less but it still didnt impress me. The “Joshua Tree” is a great album what this album is new like i dont really care ive no interest in it.

Alternatives To Using P2P to download Music

With Eircom now watching what you MP3’s you download from Bit-Torrent and P2P Networks a lot of folks are wondering what now? Well you can stop using “LimeWire” or “Kazaa” to get your music fix and buy your music online which you should do. 

You have three choices here;

1) An Online Digital Music Store (e.g I-Tunes which are going DRM Free)
2) Buy them online at CDWow.ie ,Amazon.co.uk,Play.com
3) Your local music shop which will more than likely rip you off (shop around recommend here)

Buying music is a great whay to thank the artist for the great work they have created and downloading MP3’s without paying for them is illegal. If your a fan of “XYZ” band then you should buy their CD.
If your not going to play fair then there are some alternatives that may get around the problem of Downloading of MP3’s.

A) Alternatives to Peer2Peer Networks:

1)Rapidshare.com / Megaupload.com
The biggest and fastest site on the net used to share files of all kinds. You cant search the site (you can use 3rd pary sites to search) and you will need to know a link before you download anything. Typically links will be found in various websites sites.
Note this site requires a paid subscription for unlimited access.

2) UseNet:
Usenet is just as fast as Rapidshare.com and probably better as you can search for whatever your looking for.
Note this site requires a paid subscription for access.

B)Hide Your IP Address:
These methods involve hiding your PC’s IP Address from prying eyes and continuing to download MP3’s illegally.

1)hotspotshield.com
“Hotspot Shield creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your
laptop or iPhone and our Internet gateway. This impenetrable tunnel
prevents snoopers and hackers from viewing your email, instant messages,
credit card information or anything else you send over the network.
Hotspot Shield security application is free to download, employs the
latest VPN technology, and is easy to install and use. So go ahead – Get
behind the Shield – Try Hotspot Shield today!”

2)www.relakks.com/?cid=gb

“You’ll exchange the IP-number you get from your ISP to an anonymous IP-number .
You get a safe/encrypted connection between your computer and the Internet.”

Only EUR 5.00 per month or EUR 50.00 for 12 months

3)ivacy.com
“You can simply use a VPN solution where all your incoming and outgoing
traffic goes through a secure VPN connection. This technology is often
used by companies which need to provide access to their internal
network from all over the world and not just from the office.”

4) Proxy Servers:
Are special servers on the internet that Hide your IP Address from websites and assigns you usually a IP Address that looks like your in another country.
These are usally very slow and youll need to pay for a good one.

All these methods require a certain know-how and they’re all abit “messy” its simpler to buy music that mess around with different services like that.

ATI Radeon 9.1 – Drivers Hugely Improves Performance in GTAIV and Saints Row 2

I had some serious problems with both the PC Versions of GTAIV and Saints Row 2 and ATI have released a new Graphics card drivers that solve most of the slow downs. Both games run very well now on my PC where as before they would hardly hit 15fps and were unplayable.

GTA IV looks incredable in high-resolutions like 1680*1050 plus of course you need a very good PC but its good to see that it was a Graphics card problem that sorted it all out in the end.

I might add that i run Windows Vista 64 bit as my main O.S and i was getting huge problems with both games until i also ran a Windows Update and installed every single Windows Update that i was missing.  It seems the combination of these sorted out the huge slow-down problems i was having.

Saints Row 2 now is playable at last but still makes we wonder if the Xbox 360 version is better.

Eircom And Record Labels go after Mp3 Downloaders

Well the news yesterday that Eircom and 4 major record labels are on the attack against illegal Mp3 downloaders came a bit out of the blue tbh.

Basically its a 3-strikes/warnings and you get disconnected. This is going to cause such a storm and how eircom are going to police it will remain to be see. I stopped downloading Mp3’s at least 2 years ago and joined the I-Tunes bandwagon as much i hate I-Tunes at least now there are going “DRM-Free” so you can play your “legally purchased music” on other Mp3 Players.

From what ive read on various forums it seems folks are going to be using there neighbours un-secured Wifi connection to download Mp3’s which is probably gonna end up with innocent folks getting wanring letters and maybe even disconnected.
It looks like its going to be a free-for-all so if you have a WiFi (Wireless Net Connection) make sure its secured.

Some links on the story;
Torrentfreak.com
boards.ie

“svchost.exe” Process takes up too much CPU time?

I recently installed the new Realtek audio Drivers for my Vista 64 installation only to notice that while i played Youtube videos there was a bit of slowdown during the videos.

Anyway to cut a long story short by downloading a tool called “procexp64.exe” (Process Explorer) i was able to find out that the problem came from the process “svchost.exe”. it was using up to 30-50% of the CPU time. Meaning that things were running way slower than normal.

It took quite a few hours to figure out the problem and them i found it, by disabling the ATI HDMI outout in the “DEvice Manager” of the Control panel and restarting did the problem go away. Im Posting this this for future reference by anyone who finds this page. I was using ATi Catalyist 8.12 Drivers at the time with Vista 64 and a Ati Radeon 4870 512mb graphics card.

Fuck Apple and I-Tunes!

Today i was searching my Music libaray and i realised that something was wrong, i didnt quite know at the time but then i remember that Current Operating system i was runing (ive got 3 setup) didnt have the “Coldplay” album i had bought from I-Tunes 5 months ago. After searching i found the album but of course the files i found where “.m4p” i.e they were “protected Mp4” music files so i couldnt have them in the Mp3 format.

I only wanted to listen to the music i legally bought online with my money  but it wasnt to be, so fuck Apple and fuck I-Tunes i hate them both with such a passion. So now im stuck with 12 “.MP4” Files that i cant listen too in anything but apples “Quicktime” and “I-Tunes”.