Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Solution) is a great way to store (and optionally share) large amounts of data. It's cheap, fast, and reliable. If you're a casual user, you may not know that you do much more than just store and sever data of HTTP, as long as you use an advanced application such as Bucket Explorer (or read through the S3 documentation and code it yourself.) Here's a list of 9 features you may not have known about.

1. Torrent Tracking and Seeding: Amazon S3 can server as an ultra-reliable torrent tracker; share/seed the files from your local PC and let S3 act as the tracker. Or let S3 handle both the seeding and the tracking. Here are the details on how to do it.
2. Enable / Disable directory browsing: If you are sharing files of HTTP, you may or may not want people to be able to list the contents of a bucket (folder.) If you want the bucket contents to be listed when someone enters the bucket name (http://s3.amazonaws.com/bucket_name/), then edit the Access Control List and give the Everyone group the access level of Read (and do likewise with the contents of the bucket.) If you don't want the bucket contents list-able but do want to share the file within it, disable Read access for the Everyone group for the bucket itself, and then enable Read access for the individual files within the bucket.
3. Prevent the contents of a bucket from being indexed by a search engine: If you don't want the contents of a bucket to be indexed by Google and company, place a file named Robots.txt in the bucket and share it with Everyone. (This trick works for any webserver.) The file needs to contain the following two entries to prevent indexing:
   • User-agent: *
   • Disallow: /
4. Use your own domain name: You can use your own domain name (http://s3.carltonbale.com) instead of the default Amazon URL (http://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.carltonbale.com/). You just need to edit your DNS settings. Here are the details on how to do it. Bucket Explorer has an option to "Use bucket name as virtual host" to make sharing files in this manner even easier.
5. Temporarily share a file using an auto-expire link: You many want to allow someone to download a file but prevent them from sharing the link and having 100's of people download it as well. With S3, it's possible to create a link that expires after a defined period of time expires. The easiest way to do this using Bucket Explorer. First, make sure that the file has permission set so that it is not readable by everyone, since temporary access is what you're going after in the first place. Then select the file, right-click, and select Generate Web URL. Select Signed URL and specify the expiration date. Then send the URL to the person with which you are sharing the file

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6. Share your bucket with a someone - whether they're an S3 user or not. The Third-party bucket features allows you to share the contents of a bucket. In Bucket Explorer, right-click on the bucket and select "Update bucket's access control list…" and set the permissions and add the other persons email address. See this documentation page for more details.
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7. Upload any file extension as an HTML file (to redirect to another location.) Say you have a picture shared on your account and it is being leeched by multiple, external sites. Instead of just deleting the picture, you can create a web page to replace it that directs people to your site. If you picture name was picture.jpg, create the HTML file and save it as it on your local computer. Then change the file name to be picture.jpg. Now if you just upload this file normally to S3, it will be treated as a jpg image and will not download properly. But you can use BucketExplorer to upload it as an HTML file, which specifically tells S3 to treat it as a HTML file and not a jpg file. Here is an example of picture that I converted to a HTML redirect: http://carltonbale.com.s3.amazonaws.com/distance_chart.png
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8. Store your media on Amazon S3 while running your WordPress blog on a different server. If you're like me, your web host has overly limited storage space restriction. If you have a bunch of small pictures or just a few large videos, it can quickly consume your available disk space. To combat this, you can use the Amazon S3 plugin for WordPress. Instead of uploading files to your web server, it instead uploads them to your Amazon S3 account and automatically links to them, all within the WordPress admin interface.
9. Compare local and remote file versions using MD5 check sums. Wondering if version of a file on your local computer is the same as the one stored in your S3 account? Perform a MD5 check sum and see if the results match. On you local computer, you can use a program such as HkSFV to calculate the MD5 sum. To see the MD5 sum of the file on S3, right-click on it and select Properties within Bucket Explorer. If the sums match, the files are identical.
   • 

Those are all of the "hidden" features I've found, but I'm sure there are more. Please let me know of any features I've missed.

Windows Media Center can automatically download the metadata (cover art, movie name, cast, plot summary, etc.) for DVDs. If you place a DVD in your drive, this occurs automatically. However, if you backup your DVDs to a server and access the moive via Windows Media Center, this data is not available. But there is a work-around and it involves creating a DVDID.XML file when you back-up the DVD to your media server. Here's how you do it.

The easiest way to do this is to use My DVD Settings, a program created by Gelano over at TheGreenButton forums. Unfortunately, Gelano and his program have both disappeared. Fortunately, this software is still available from an alternative location: my_dvd_settings.rar.

You'll need to download, install, run My DVD Settings, put the DVD in your optical drive, and have My DVD Settings create the XML data. Finally, save the resulting xml file to the folder containing the movie backup. When you are finished creating/coping all of the files, your folder structure will look like this:

\Minority Report\ (parent folder for movie)
\Minority Report\folder.jpg (not necessary, but I like to manually save a cover art picture to the directory)
\Minority Report\MINORITY_REPORT.dvdid.xml (metadata file)
\Minority Report\VIDEO_TS\ (*.ifo, *.bup, *.vob files are in this sub-directory, created using DVD Fab, Slysoft, etc.)

Using this xml file, Windows Media Center will connect to the AMG library and download all of the available details on the movie.

Note 1: If you use DVD Profiler to catalog your movie collection, My DVD Settings can the DVD Profiler data to create the dvdid.xml file. Alternatively, you can go to dvdxml.com and search for and download the XML file.

Note 2: You'll need to enable DVD Library in Vista to access this feature. Once active, go to DVD Library and add the folder containing your backed-up movies. You can also install the MyMovies Media Center plug-in.

How is the DVDID.XML File Created?

I really wish the software I used to backup my movies would also create the DVDID.xml file. Unfortunately, there is very little documentation on how this file is generated. I did quite a bit of reading and some investigation using Process Monitor and have some preliminary details. The dvdid is a CRC64 number generated by scanning the *.IFO and *.BUP files in the VIDEO_TS folder, combining that with the VOLUME_ID from the DVD disk itself. The inclusion of the VOLUME_ID is what prevents Windows Media Center from being able to automatically generate this information for DVD that are backed-up to a media server; there is no VOLUME_ID for the individual folders.

Once this process is fully understood, it should be possible for programs like DVD Fab and Slysoft CloneDVD to create these files when the DVD is being backed-up. This would eliminate the need to use the additional program (My DVD Settings) all together. Here's hoping for inclusion in an upcoming release!

Update 2008-May-01: The version 5 of DVDFab Decrypter supports the automatic creation of dvdid.xml files!

I'm used to companies offering less than stellar customer care in this age of low-cost, low-margin business. So when a company goes above and beyond to take care of their customers, it get my attention.

Everyone pretty much know that the High Definition Disc Format war would end one format would become obsolete. Which is why I'm surprised that Busy Buy and Circuit City are both compensating customer who choose the losing format. Best Buy will be giving a $50 giftcard to anyone who purchased a HD-DVD Player prior to February 23, 2008 (just go to BestBuyTradein.com and register.)

Circuit City has taken a different approach, extending the return period for player by "several months." So the customer can return the player for full credit, but obviously will be unable to play any HD-DVD movies they purchased as they will no longer have a player. It's interesting that Bust Buy officially announced this while Circuit City made this an unofficial policy.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart, the low-cost advocate of HD-DVD, is offering their customers nothing.

Netflix, which whom I've been a customer for 8 years, had a massive outage last Monday, lasting about 12 hours. As a result, they were unable to ship the two movies I was to receive until Tuesday. A 1 day delay, not a big deal. I was just glad that they acknowledged and apologized for the the problem. But I was elated when they went above and beyond by offering a 10% discount on my fees for the month.

Since it's tax time, I feel the need to complain about Intuit TurboTax. The software is great, but the price gouging is terrible. They find every way possible to charge the customer more, right up to the unreasonable filing fees. I generally have faith in the free market, but the TurboTax / Tax Cut dual-opoly is not yielding the fruit competition should. I'm just hoping that these companies learn something from Bust Buy, Circuit City, and Netflix about doing what is right for their customers.

I firmly believe in paying for the movies you own.  In doing so, I believe you should be able to move them to your media server and play them back however you please.  BD+ protection (DRM) prevented this with recent Blu-Ray titles, but latest version of Slysoft's AnyDVD HD overcomes this limitation.

Here is the update notification:

6.4.0.0 2008-03-19

• New (Blu-ray): Removes the BD+ protection from Blu-ray discs! (for increased compatibility with titles released by Twentieth Century Fox )
• New (Blu-ray): Added option to enable / disable BD+ removal
• New (DVD): AnyDVD ripper no longer uses the Windows filesystem, it has now its own UDF parser / reader. Discs which cannot be read by Windows can now be copied with the AnyDVD ripper.
• Fix (Blu-ray): Black display with some BD discs, e.g., "Layer Cake", second release, "The Fugitive", "Wild Things" (all Region B)
• Fix (DVD): Small bugfix in "repairing defective disc structure" function of AnyDVD ripper
• Fix (DVD): Problems with some Arccos protected titles, e.g. "The Grudge", R1, US
• Some minor fixes and improvements
• Updated languages

The update is free for all registered customers, of course. Just install the new version on top of your current version, regardless which version you have installed: http://www.slysoft.com/download.html

Update 8-Apr-2008: Chris Lanier just posted about the program MC Menu Customizer, which automates editing of the start menu. A great alternative to what is posted below!

I recently posted about automatically launching plugins within Vista Media Center. I just came across another improvement that allows editing the order and contents of the Vista Media Center start menu. This, combined with automatic plug-in launching, goes a long way toward giving whatever startup experience you desire.

Quoting bluebucket on The Green Button forums:

I've found a way to edit the standard start menu items in Vista Media Center, but its a hack.

Using this hack I've successfully removed items and even entire strips from the start menu. I suspect that its also possible to change the position of menu items, but I haven't tried yet.

You'll need a resource editor like ResourceTuner from HeavenTools.com.

1. Make a backup of the %SYSTEMROOT%\ehome\ehres.dll
2. Change the security settings of the %SYSTEMROOT%\ehome\ehres.dll to give yourself ownership of the dll. Afterwards change the file rights to full control. If you're running with UAC, then you might need to do some more steps here.
3. Open the ehres.dll in the ResourceTuner.
4. Expand the HTML node

Now the files we're interested in are among others:

STARTMENU.XML - defines the main start menu stripes
SM.ACTIVITIES.XML - defines the menu items under the Task menu
SM.MUSIC.XML - defines the menu items under the Music menu
SM.PICTURES.XML - defines the menu items under the Pictures & Video menu
SM.TV.XML - defines the menu under the Tv menu

5. Choose SM.MUSIC.XML for example, rightclick the node and select Edit Resource. The XML file opens.
6. Now remove the XML tags defining the menu items you do not want. Alternatively make the element into a comment by changing the tag to <!– old tag content –>. It might take a while to get an overview of the structure and maybe some trial and error before the logic of the xml file sinks in. Do not remove the <home:App /> elements though.
7. When you're happy with the changes, click Ok and accept the changes.
8. Select Save As and select the original file (overwriting the existing).
9. Open Vista Media Center and check that the changes work.

Now, since this is a hack, I take no responsibility of how you might break Vista Media Center, destroy your computer or otherwise corrupt the world using this hack.
Also note, that a software update might overwrite your hacked ehres.dll file effectively removing your changes.

For me, Brian Binnerup's My Movies plugin is the most important function of Vista Media Center. It's so useful that I want it to be the default start page every time I turn-on my Vista Media Center PC.

I couldn't figure out how to do that, and this I came across this post on TheGreenButton forums. Here are the details on launching a Media Center plug-in from via the startup folder or from a key on your remote control.

Associate Media Center Plug ins with the Media Center Application:

• Open My Computer or Explorer and navigate to: C:\Program Files\MCE\My Movies\
• Right click on the file MyMovies.mcl
• From the menu choose Open With and choose Media Center.
  • Make sure the checkbox for "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" is checked.

Option 1: Set the Plugin to Automatically Launch when the computer boots:

• Right click on the file C:\Program Files\MCE\My Movies\MyMovies.mcl and create a shortcut
• Copy that shortcut to the Startup folder in the Windows Start menu

Option 2: Have the asterisk key on the remote launch the plug-in:

• Down load a program called HotkeyP (free / open source)
• In the program add a new Hotkey:
  • Check the box for the Shift button
  • In the input box type: 8
  • In the Command input type or navigate to: C:\Program Files\MCE\My Movies\MyMovies.mcl
  • Click OK to save

HotkeyP will need to be running in the System tray, and Now when you press the Asterisks key it will open My Movies.

If you are using the Harmony 880 remote, you can add a button to the LCD display window and name it My Movies. This is necessary because these remotes do not have an Asterisk Key.

Option 3:  Have the Media Center Button or some other dedicated button lauch the plugin
The key c0mbination of Windows logo key+ALT+ENTER launches Windows Media Center. Assign this hotkey to launch the Media Center plugin file instead. For a list of all available keyboard shortcuts in Media Center, see the Microsoft article.

I received a class action law suit notice a couple of weeks ago for my Palm Treo 650. Long story short: the settlement is worthless to the cosnumer and benefits only Palm and the Lawyers. Here's a link to the official settlement site, here is my summary:

• You must provide proof that you sent your Treo 600 or 650 to Palm for repair and fill-out the claim forms.
• You wait for the settlement to be finalized.
• You then purchase a new Palm phone.
• You return your old Treo to Palm along with proof of purchase.
• You receive a $75 rebate.

Here are the reason I think the settlement is terrible:

• The rebate amount is market value for the old phone. Looking a prices of used Treos 650s on Ebay, $75 is somewhere near market value ($50 for a Treo 600). So basically, the settlement gives you market value for a used phone only if you purchase a new Palm phone. Where is the benefit to the consumer? Anyone can sell their used phone for market value, and you don't even have to purchase a new Palm Treo.

• Most repairs were a very long time ago; receipts aren't kept that long.  I had a terrible experience getting my Treo repaired: post 1, post 2. They fixed my screen but flashed an old version of firmware that locked-up the phone and then blamed me for water damage. That was 32 months ago; I don't still have a receipt.  Palm should be providing proof of repair, not the consumer.

• Most people get new phones every two years and won't have 4-year-old Treos to send back to Palm. Treo 600s came out much, much longer than 2 years ago. How many people are going to still have their old Treo 600s to send back to Palm? I replaced my first Treo 650 about 29 months ago and would have already gotten rid of my second one since my contract is up.

• Who wants to buy a new Palm phone anyway? I know I don't. Compensate me for the problems with the old phone; don't force a new one on me. Especially after the bad experiences people are apparently having. Most people want either a Blackberry or an iPhone to replace their Treo. Not a new Treo that looks and acts the same as their old Treo — it's not as if they have some new, compelling products.

Here's what we as consumers can do: Complain. We need a representative in court to complain about the fairness of this settlement. Here are the details from the official claim site:

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Final Fairness Hearing, previously scheduled for May
2, 2008, has been continued to May 23, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. at the United States District Court for
the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, 280 South First Street, Courtroom Number
6, San Jose, California 95113.

At this hearing the Court will consider whether the settlement is fair, reasonable, and
adequate. If there are objections, the Court will consider them. Judge Whyte will listen to people
who have asked to speak at the hearing. The Court may also consider how much to pay Co-Lead
Class Counsel. After the hearing, the Court will decide whether to approve the settlement.

I recently needed to removed the drive from a Western Digital My Book External USB/eSATA drive enclosure. Unfortunately, this wasn't an obvious process and this excellent article by Scott Cramer didn't apply to the newer version (1 TB drive) enclosure I have. So here you go, the steps required to disassemble a new-style Western Digital My Book drive enclosure.

1. Locate the two rubber pads on the bottom of the enclosure near the front, curved surface. Remove these two pads. Depress the two tabs below using a small flat-head screwdriver.

1a. With a couple of credit cards, pry the back edge of the casing apart and hold them open with the credit cards. There are some locking mechanisms there that need to be held apart. You can now slide the plastic casings apart.

2. Slide the clear plastic LED front panel conduit forward and remove.

3. Rotate the hard drive/carrier assembly sideways and then lift away from the case

4. Remove the two screws holding the metal connector casing. Slide it upwards and remove it

5. Slide the circuit board upwards (away from the drive), just like you did for the metal casing.

6. Remove the 4 screws holding the hard drive to the metal carrier. You'll see that it is a standard 3.5" desktop SATA drive.

You're done!

Repeat the steps in reverse order to re-assemble the enclosure.

I was very excited to get my new TiVo HD DVRs due to the fact that I didn't have to hack them, add a network adapter, and install MFS_FTP to pull shows (which was a ton of work for my DirecTV TiVos.)  Unfortunately, TiVoToGo show downloads fail on almost all of the programs I've tried to pull.  For example, for a 1 hour show, I can only download the first 1 minute (68 MB).

At first I tried using TiVo Desktop (free download from TiVo.com) to download the programs and experienced the problem.  I figured it was an issue with that software, so I searched for a different method of downloading.  It turns out you can download shows directly from with your browser (details here.)  I tried downloading multiple shows from different browsers on 2 different computers and came up with the same result each time: a very short, partial, incomplete download.

I think this is a bug with the TiVo HD sofware not being able to properly generate the *.tivo file that is re-packaged as it is downloaded to your computer. Each shows bugged-out at the exact same spot regardless which download method was used.  In fact, the only show that downloaded fully was one that pulled from TiVo HD 1 -> TiVo HD 2 -> computer (using multi-room viewing, then downloading to PC.)

At this point, I don't know what the solution is.  It's probably going to require a new version of TiVo software.  I'm hoping they fixed it sooner rather than later.  I know it's not just me; I've seen a few other posts on TiVo Community Forum.  I'm guessing as more people play around with the feature, it will become more of an issue.

I'll post an update when I have one.  In the meantime, if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

I received my "private beta invitation" from hulu.com a couple of weeks ago and I've been thoroughly impressed from day one. It has a great selection of shows, a near-perfect user interface, and fast, high-quality video.

For those not familiar with Hulu, it started out as a joint venture between NBC and Fox to showcase their primetime shows and has grown beyond that.

Here's what I like about Hulu:

• Great show selection.
• Simple, easy-to-use, uncluttered user interafce
• Automatically resume playing a show right where you left off (even recovers from browser crashes)
• Full-screen viewing option
• Descent video quality: you will notice macro-blocking and the lower frame rate in full screen mode, but it is by no means distracting, especially if you scoot back from your screen an extra foot or two
• HD Video: this will eliminate all quality complaints, but it's only available for a few movie trailers at this point
• Commercials: there is one 30 second commercial every 15 minutes. Not bad. And all of the commercials are for the same company, so you kinda know what to expect when it is commercial time, which makes them almost enjoyable. Yes, you read that correctly, I was actually enjoying that Toyota commercial by the end of the show.

You can catch episodes of Firefly, Heroes, The Office, Scrubs, Chuck, 30 Rock, House, Battlestar Galactica (new and classic), Rosewell, Arrested Development, Journeyman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mary Tyler Moore, and many, many more.

Conclusion

It's great entertainment when you need a break (such as from visiting your family over the holidays.) Sign-up for an invitation now; it took me about a week to receive mine. In the meantime, you can view shows on openhulu.com.

Just Playing Around

And finally, one of the coolest features is that you can embed your favorite shows into your own website. Instead of simply posting about how great a show is, show an episode. Here are some of my favorites:

Firefly: Perhaps one of the best science fiction TV shows ever shown on network TV. You can watch the entire series online; here is the first episode:

Roswell: I'd never watched a single episode but noticed its high rating on Hulu. I watched the pilot and decided that I missed out on a great series. This is definitely something I'll be watching via hulu. Here is the pilot:

Journeyman: NBC has apparently canceled this show (yet decided to keep the unwatchable Bionic Woman remake alive.) I think people found Journeyman too difficult to follow, especially if they missed an episode. Out of all current shows on TV, I thought it has/had the best theme song and background music. Maybe watching it online will cause a revival. Here's a clip from Episode 8: