XBMC and XBMCHub

Well, they're no more. XBMC has been renamed Kodi, and XBMC Hub has restyled itself as TVAddons.

As of this writing, Kodi is now at v14.0 "Helix" Alpha. Thought it best to stick to the more stable Gotham XBMC. After installation, grab the Config Wizard from TVAddons.

Go to System, then File Manager. Create a Fusion source that points to http://tvaddons.ag
Back to main menu, go to System, then Settings, then Add-ons.
Select "Install from zip file", select Fusion, select start-here folder, download plugin.video.hubwizard-1.1.5.zip
Back to main menu, go to Programs, select Config Wizard. Once completed, restart XBMC/Kodi, and your system should now be properly set up.

Now, this didn't work for me because it was taking too long in downloading the scripts from TVAddons.ag, and simply errored out. What I did instead, is to install the add-ons manually.

Repeat the same steps, this time download the plugin.program.addoninstaller-1.1.7.zip
Select the add-ons you want, and wait for them to be installed.

Movie 2014.09.28 - Transformers: Age of Extinction

Basic premise is that a bounty hunter by the name of Lockdown is assisting the humans in cleaning out the Transformers, in exchange for Optimus Prime. Meanwhile, Megatron now Galvatron means to detonate the Seed to generate enough metal to build an army to wipe out the human species.

In once scene, this engineer announces the discovery of the holy grail. I thought it was the cup from the last supper, but it turned out to be a blob of metal they named transformium. Who came up with the name?! Anyway, it's programmable matter. Pray tell programmable through what interface? Mind control? The Pill! Awesome product placement there, Dr. Dre.

Given that these are obviously alien robots, why would they be created in the image of motor vehicles? Helicopters? Samurai warriors? Dinosaurs?! I mean, if these Dinobots are so fearsome and powerful, why would they subject themselves to Optimus Prime's control? "We must join forces, or else forever be their slaves. So today you stand with us, or you stand against me. Only together can we survive. Let me lead you!" Can they even understand what Prime is blabbering about, given their tiny little robotic brains?

tl;dr Came for the Michael Bay explosions; stayed for the cheesy dialogue and bad voice acting.

Sugar on a Stick on a VM

Been playing with VMware lately, so I thought I'd try running Sugar on a Stick on a virtual machine. I've installed SoaS on a hard disk before, so this is something new. No new SoaS release since then (still the 10th iteration using Fedora 20), but the anaconda installation is simpler, since I have the whole "hard disk" to myself.

Sugar Labs has some documentation on this topic, but VirtualBox is the hypervisor of choice. Using VMware is not much different. Basically, you create a new VM, and boot using the SoaS live ISO image. In my case, I gave it 1GB of memory and 8GB of diskspace. Once you're in the Sugar environment, run Terminal, switch to root user, and type liveinst. HDD installation starts once you've decided on the partitioning. To complete the installation, you need to set the root password and optionally create a normal user. I strongly suggest you complete the second part because Fedora won't allow you to log in as root. Learned this the hard way.

Neat thing with VMware is that you can actually suspend your session, and continue where you left off the next time.

Swatch Buff

Nope, not a new Swatch model. Dropped by the Swatch store below QVB to have a couple of Swatches buffed. Did you know they offer this service for free? Actually, all Swatch stores worldwide do. Don't expect too much though. Mine was fininshed in less than a minute, literally.

Noticed that the SISTEM51 is already available. Staff said they came in just a couple of weeks ago. Costs a hefty $195, but they do look interesting. (Only U$150 in the US.) Also saw some boxes of Mystery Vintage on offer. You have a choice of Originals Gents, POP, Scuba, and Lady models. Three Swatches for the low, low price of $95. (U$70 in the US.) The good thing about this is that instead of being a "mystery", someone (probably the local staff) has already pre-marked the box, so you know what models are inside.

Manual Windows Update

This how-to is more for Windows XP, where your only options for Windows Update are:

• automatic update on a specific day at a specific time
• download updates, but do not install
• notify, but do not download or install
• no automatic updates

No option to "Check for updates" on demand like in Vista or Windows 7.

To get around this, you can run 'wuauclt /detectnow' on the command line to force an update check.
Another option is to restart the Windows Update client by turning off Automatic Updates from Control Panel, then turning it on again. This also forces interrupted update downloads to restart.

Google Security

With news that 5 million Gmail passwords leaked on a Russian Bitcoin forum a couple of days ago, I started looking at how to make my Google account more secure.

First thing you want to check is whether there have been logins from unfamiliar devices and/or locations. Head over to security.google.com to check recent activity.
Second thing I did is to enable 2-step verification, the second step being a security code that Google sends to your mobile number via SMS. Every time you need to sign in to your Google account, you enter your password, plus this security code. Just be aware that as soon as you enable this feature, you have to re-authenticate your apps, devices, and browsers that use your Google account.

This works fine for Google sign-ins on the desktop. On Android, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Some newer apps are 2-step-verification-aware, and will allow you to enter the security code. Some apps will simply say that your password is incorrect. Couple of ways to go around this:

• Remove Google account, then add it in again. Enter account password as usual. A browser page should pop up asking you to enter the security code.
• On my older Android (Gingerbread) phones, this didn't work because it doesn't allow you to remove Google account, unless a factory reset is done. For this, you need to generate an app/device-specific password in lieu of your standard Google password. Works as advertised.

Worst case, if things aren't working out well, simply disable 2-step verification, and change your password regularly.

Win7 on T41 and T43

Why install an unsupported OS like Windows XP, when you can install Windows 7? As long as your clunky old laptop has at least 1GB of RAM and at least 40GB of hard disk space, I don't see why not. People have reported that Win7 actually runs faster than WinXP on these old laptops. For me, I'm just after the updated patches and drivers.

On the T43, installation is pretty straightforward. You format the HDD, install Win7, let Windows Update pull in all the latest drivers and patches for you. Software installation took about half an hour. Downloading the 100 or so drivers and patches (and installing them) took over two hours. The driver for the display adapter is always the tricky one. In this case, Windows Update found the proper Intel X3100 driver for the T43.

Not so lucky for the T41. After 5 hours of software and updates installation, I ended up with the standard VGA display adapter, instead of the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000. I mean, it's still able to support the maximum display resolution, but no sleep option, only hibernate. Apparently, the GPU is considered too weak to run Win7, so no official drivers from ATI. Your best option are modded drivers. Check the below links for more discussion about this specific issue, and how people went around it:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=83758
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=77964

Most of the download links mentioned in the posts are now dead. The one that actually worked for me is from http://www.mediafire.com/?5tieomimroy

Unpack the archive, select the display adapter from Device Manager, and update the driver. For some reason, after updating to ATI Radeon 9000, the resolution is reduced, but I now get the sleep option.

Updating Microsoft Security Essentials

Got an old IBM ThinkPad T41 that needed an OS reinstall. Windows XP went in without a hitch. Tried installing the latest Microsoft Security Essentials, and it won't install due to unsupported operating system. Apparently, WinXP reached end-of-support on April 8, 2014. No more patches, no more security updates. Easy fix is to simply get an older version of MSE from elsewhere. As of this writing, latest MSE engine is version 4.5. I downloaded version 4.4, and it installed without any complaints.

With respect to antivirus definitions, Microsoft will supposedly keep them coming until April 15, 2015. With my v4.4 MSE, I was able to get the latest definitions without doing anything special. If that's not the case for you, there are other official ways to get the latest virus definitions.

Either that, or simply install a different security product.

YouTube Download

Seen a YouTube video that you liked? Flag it for watching later. If you find yourself watching the video repeatedly, might as well download it for offline viewing. Save the bandwidth for something else.

Firefox and Chrome has a lot of YouTube downloader extensions out there, and they work just fine. Whenever you watch a YouTube video, you get an extra button that allows you to download the video in different formats and resolutions. But that means that extension is running all the time, slowing down other browser tabs, even if you're not on YouTube.

Nowadays, I just use an online YouTube download service like dirpy. You simply enter the YouTube video URL, then it gives you options for bitrates and start/end times. You can also enter the ID3 tag information before you download. Downloading the actual video in different resolutions is also supported.

Music Clips is another good alternative.

Carpark Problems

Lately I've noticed that the carpark of our local shopping centre is getting more crowded. Not only that, there's always a long queue to exit the carpark. I mean, how hard can it be? Before reaching the exit point, make sure car window is rolled down, paid parking ticket is on hand, slide it into the ticket slot, and off you go.

But no, that would be too boring. Instead, some people do the following to spice things up:

• Look for the parking ticket once they are right at the boom gate (and have difficulty finding it).
• Insert the parking ticket only to find that payment needs to be made.
• I've seen people get out of their car and walk over to the pay terminal to pay in coins, instead of simply using their credit card at the exit point. Credit card surcharge must be a killer.
• This guy in front of me was waving his parking ticket at the LCD screen of the boom gate terminal. He would press some buttons, then tap the ticket on the machine again. I presume he must've pressed the intercom button because after a few minutes, eventually the boom gate went up. I was really tempted to get out of my car, and sort help him out. I looked at the terminal screen, it says "Scan your ticket". Insert would've been a better word.
• Then there's this guy who would insert his ticket, and the machine would spit it out. He'll insert it again, and same thing happens. I shout "Wrong slot, dude!", then he inserts it into the ticket slot instead of the credit card slot.

 Interestingly, I've only seen these things happen in my local carpark.

Movie 2014.09.02 - Dragonwolf

I have mentioned before that my vote for worst movie of all time goes to Spawn. Looks like we have a new winner here.

Dragonwolf is so bad, I thought it's a subtle comedy. Honestly, I've seen better acting in high school plays. The actors stand around looking cool, and reciting their lines. Once in a while, they'll put in some naked girls and sex scenes to spice things up, but it only helped a little bit. There's no flow in the storyline. Heck, what storyline?!

The only redeeming part is that fight scene between the TRIO of gangsters and Mozart. (Who comes up with such names?) The bad guys are obviously no match for Mozart, but they still take him on one by one. The black dude with the bright yellow outfit was dancing around, saying things like "I'm gonna bust yo' ass, mother-fo!", switching from scorpion style to monkey style, etc. Still got his butt kicked miserably. So funny.