Some Restriction With FlashGet At Oracle

I tried downloading the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) from the Oracle website using FlashGet but failed. It seems that Oracle has placed some restriction in using a download manager utility software (FlashGet in my case) in performing downloads. I wonder why? I never had this problem 5 or 6 years ago when Java was still owned by Sun Microsystems - albeit I have to use Sun's own download manager. If not for a dial-up line, I do not need to use FlashGet.

In the end, I downloaded the JRE from http://oldapps.com/ - with FlashGet. Fearing for Trojans, Virus or Malware, I scanned the download file with Avira and it appears to be clean. To be safe, I double checked the site http://oldapps.com/ with McAfee SiteAdvisor and it reports that the site is safe.

Scribefire Can Only Retrieve The Last 25 Posts

It seems that there is a limit to the number of posts that ScribeFire (an offline blog editor) can retrieve from my blog. All that I can see is just the last 25 posts when ScribeFire connects to my blog. For the moment, I will have to use the online blog editor at Blogger for any updates to my older blog posting that ScribeFire does not retrieve. This defeats my purpose of using an offline blog editor in the first place. I have been happily using ScribeFire for about 8 months, but now I am disappointed.

It is a pity really. Although it is no longer supported, I find ScribeFire Classic version 4.0.0.1 for Firefox to be quite a decent offline blog editor - and to be the best among all versions of ScribeFire. I am using ScribeFire on Firefox version 3.6.8.

One Snake Too Many

Help! A Python

I do wonder why has there been an increase in the number of snake encounters around my house in recent months. Between 1998 and 2011, we have had only 3. But during the last 12 months, my wife and I have had 5. The latest being on the morning of 3rd March 2013 when I found a python in one of my Ayam Cantik's (a bantam breed of chicken) chicken coop. 3 out of 5 chickens were killed - 1 missing, presumably eaten, 1 being coiled and another lying motionless. I had to call the Fire Department (the default snake catchers in Malaysia) to help me remove the python. It is about 6 feet in length.

Accessing Facebook Via Facebook Mobile Site From My PC

With a dial-up line and a 14 year old Windows 98 PC, accessing Facebook via the URL http://www.facebook.com/ is a pain for me. Compared with Firefox version 3.6.8, the Opera web browser provided some improvement in terms of speed in rendering the Facebook pages. But on the whole, things are still crawling. Disabling the loading of graphic images does not help much. It has more to do with the heavy usage of Javascripts, I believe.

It is a welcome relief when I started accessing Facebook via the Facebook Mobile Site http://m.facebook.com/ on my desktop PC. My experience on Facebook has certainly improved. I have been using this URL instead of http://www.facebook.com for about a week now. With less graphics and Javascripts, the responsiveness of Opera is certainly much better, even when I have 3 other tabs opened simultaneously in Opera - and this is on a Windows 98 PC with 128 MB RAM and AMD 333MHz processor. Also, I do noticed that hard disk activity is significantly less compared to previously.

The user interface design of the Facebook Mobile Site is definitely plain, with not much bells and whistles. But I believe all the functions on Facebook that one normallly use are still there. I think I will be adding more Facebook Pages to my news feeds in the days to come. I could not do much previously as Opera was crawling all the time when loading Facebook.

Converting YouTube's .FLV files to .MKV format

This is what I did to convert YouTube's .FLV files to the .MKV format with Avidemux. Video and audio in the .FLV files are encoded in the H264 and AAC codec, respectively.

FM Radio Stations In Ipoh

Here is a list of FM radio stations that I can tune in to in Ipoh. There is a total of 21 radio stations in all. I do not think I have missed any out. I wish I could tune in to more FM radio stations like what they have in the Klang Valley, especially the news and talk radio stations (e.g. BFM - The Business Station).

Traxx FM, Broadcasting To Ipoh In Stereo But Audio Output Is In Mono

One can tell if a radio broadcast on the FM band is in stereo by just looking at the LED indicator on a radio set. When a broadcast is in stereo, the LED indicator will be illuminated.

One can tell if the audio output is really in stereo by using a pair of stereo headphones, or by just placing ones head directly in the middle between a pair of speakers of a radio and listen attentively. In mono, the audio output in the left and right speakers will be the same, while in stereo it will be different.

I find it strange that RTM's Traxx FM (formerly Radio 4, Blue Network) is broadcasting to Ipoh in stereo but its audio output for music and jingles is in mono. I have tried it with 2 radio sets, Winamp TV (on Windows XP), and Gnomeradio (on Ubuntu) and it is all the same. It has not always been this way though. I have some tapings of BBC World Service's "Top Of The Pops" that were broadcast about a year ago by Traxx FM and all were in stereo till around January 30th 2012. Everything went mono after that. And it still is today. I wonder why? Perhaps somebody forgot to flip on a switch or something at the transmitting station at Kledang Hill.

Where Are The Free FM Radio Tuners For Windows?

I find it odd that there are not many free FM Radio tuner software for the Windows platform. FM Tuners for Linux, yes - and with the source code too. But for Windows there is none. The best that I could find is just a plug-in for Winamp called Winamp TV version 1.9Beta8 - the page on this link says version 1.9lite10 but upon installation the Winamp TV documentation says version 1.9Beta8.

Defective Card Reader From DSTT

I just found out that the card reader that came along with the DSTT For NDS cartridge is defective (see http://www.dgemu.com/forums/index.php/topic/400563-flashcart-dsttttds/). During the last 3 years or so, I have always been curious as to why IPodDS will misbehave, or why MoonShell or any other .NDS program will not load successfully after some months of DS usage. A reformat and a restore from backup to the MicroSD is the only option when this happens. For a time, I was having suspicion that I have got a defective MicroSD flash memory card, but I was having trouble believing this.

Guess I have to get a new card reader now. A multi-card reader would be a better investment for the long run I suppose.

Cranky Power Button On My Nintendo DS Lite

I thought I have found an alternative way to power on my Nintendo DS Lite by simultaneously pressing the L, R and X button without using the side Power Button slide switch. After doing some thorough investigation, it turns out that I was wrong.

The Power Button has been cranky for about 4 months now. There was a time when the DS will power itself on without anyone touching it - and it can even turn itself off sometimes. This morning, I found out that I could trigger the DS to power itself on/off by just pressing down hard on the X button. And if I have used the slide switch, and everything is just in the right orientation somewhere in the DS, a gentle push on the X button is all it needs.

Still, this is an option that I could use when the power slide switch is not responsive.