Speeding Up My Ghost Backup

Files on my C: drive are fairly static, consisting mainly of just the Windows system files, page file and other programs that I may install or upgrade from time to time. All my work files and TV captures go into different partitions - backups consist of just a simple "copy" to a flash drive for these files.

I will initiate a (Symantec) Ghost backup on the C: drive only after when I have installed/uninstalled new/existing programs or after when there are many changes in the Windows registry due to parameter changes in the Windows system or software program settings that I have made.

This is what I do to speed up my the Ghost backup on my C: drive.

V2CRS Does Not Like Windows System Restore

I do not really need a user login account for my Pentium Dual Core computer that I use for TV captures. Security is not a concern as I am practically the only user on this PC. But I have a need to use V2CRS for scheduling my VirtualDub TV recordings. And one of the requirements of V2CRS is that it needs a user login account with a password.

Windows Scheduled Tasks

In the documentation of V2CRS, there is no mention of what the user login account should be. So I just create an account called "user" (with administrative privileges) that requires a password to login. Since I can use V2CRS to schedule and record without any problems, I did not give much thought to this after that. I thought everything was alright. That is until when I did a "Restore my computer to an earlier time" via the Windows System Restore. Some, but not all, of my scheduled V2CRS task will not launch. A look into the Windows Scheduled Tasks window, which V2CRS actually uses to schedule the task, shows a status of "Could Not Start" next to the task.

Solved: Freezing Problem On Nintendo DS And TTDS/MicroSD

My Nintendo DS Lite (with a TTDS cartridge and a MicroSD memory card) used to freeze a lot while loading. It will either display the happy face MicroSD graphic (and doing nothing else) or the "No Card" error message with the sad MicroSD graphic. It also used to freeze at times if I accidentally touch the TTDS cartridge/MicroSD. A temporary fix for me is to just reseat the MicroSD card. Numerous attempts may be necessary at times. If this does not work, I will try reseating the TTDS cartridge.

As this looks like a contact problem to me, with a tinge of similarity to one of my previous post "Bad Contact In The PC Slots", I decided to coat the metallic pins of the MicroSD card and the TTDS cartridge with some contact enhancer - I use Electrolube's "EML Contact Cleaner Lubricant".

It has been about a year now, and I have not encountered the 'freezing' problem with my Nintendo DS since.

TV Captures On-Demand - An Easier Way

One Touch Recording or OTR. A function on my old VCR that enables me to record a TV program immediately without delay. And with the ability to set a countdown timer, the VCR will shut off once the countdown reaches zero.

I wanted something similar to OTR on my PC for my TV recordings with VirtualDub. There are times when I wanted to start recording a TV program immediately without scheduling a task in V2CRS. Task scheduling is easy with V2CRS but it takes time keying in the parameters. Consequently, there is an undesirable delay when I want to start recording immediately.

Batch Files To The Rescue

The easiest method that I could think of in creating an OTR like function on my PC is to use Windows batch files, that will in turn call the V2CRS program "Scheduler.exe". VirtualDub capturing will start almost immediately plus I will get a countdown timer, courtesy of V2CRS.

A command for immediately capturing TV1 (channel 6 in my case) into the file name "TV1" in the directory "F:\RecordedTVPrograms" for a length of 30 minutes will look like this:

Is Sulfur An Effective Snake Repellent?

I saw a thin green snake in my back garden last Saturday morning - lizard hunting and slithering up and down a tree branch. Its head is about the size of an adult human thumb and it is about 3 feet in length. Immediately after noticing this snake, I went out and sprinkled some sulfur within the vicinity of the back garden thinking that the smell of sulfur will cause the snake to go away. I was careful to leave some space sulfur free so that the snake could escape. Instead, it did nothing. The snake just continued lizard hunting. It seems to be unperturbed by the chickens and ducks walking around its vicinity nor was it threatening them. Likewise when I was standing about 6 feet away from it. It just stared at me and did nothing.

Building My Own UHF TV Antenna

I built my own UHF antenna for the TV in my hall by using the plan that I found at http://www.tvantennaplans.com/. The given plan is meant to be an indoor antenna. I placed mine under the front porch away from the sun and rain. With this antenna, I can receive both UHF channels (NTV7, 8TV, TV9 and TV Alhijrah) and VHF channels (TV1 and TV2 and TV3). This is a surprise to me as this antenna design is meant for UHF reception only! I do not have any explanation. Perhaps this is because there are not many high-rise buildings in Ipoh, the place where I live. Irrespective, I am not complaining. It saved me the trouble of building a separate antenna for receiving VHF channels.

VirtualDub Post Capturing: Deleting Advertisements

There are two things that I do before I start cutting out commercial breaks from my TV captures:

• I make sure that the audio and video are in sync; and
• I remove all MP3 artifacts.

The Problem With VirtualDub

VirtualDub was the first tool that I used for cutting out these ads found in commercial breaks. But AVI capture files that have been resynced (and MP3 artifacts removed) will gradually go out of sync again after cutting out the ads. No matter what I did, I could not cut out ads correctly with VirtualDub.

Avidemux To The Rescue

So, I now use Avidemux to edit out these advertisements from my TV captures.

Avidemux is a multi-platform video editor and it is free and open-source. The version that I have installed on my PC is version 2.5.4 (r7200). I only use 7 keys on the keyboard to locate, mark and cut out advertisements.

Posting Churp Churp Campaigns To Facebook

My first Churp Churp campaign posting to Facebook was a disaster. I have assumed that I could easily do the posting with just a single click of the mouse on the "Like" button (see picture below) but ended up sharing the advertisers site instead - with no URL to my unique campaign link in the posting. Good for the advertiser but not good for me as I will not be paid for the mouse clicks generated from this advertisement.

TV Alhijrah - Now In Ipoh

I accidentally detected TV Alhijrah in Ipoh airwaves while doing an "Auto Tune" to fix my TV reception problem with RTM's TV2 on 29th August 2012. I am not sure when TV Alhijrah began transmitting to Ipoh. I tried tuning in to this station in April 2012 but could not get any signal back then. TV Alhijrah is transmitting to Ipoh on Channel 55 on the UHF band.

My VirtualDub Capture Mode Settings

Below are the VirtualDub settings that I use in VirtualDub for all my TV captures (my XVid settings can be found in my earlier post).

My captures are encoded in XVid (for video) and MP3 (for audio).