WauloK’s BangRocks Blog

Okay, a couple of things I’ve discovered recently which may help out other people seeking answers.

First off, I use my Sony/Ericsson K800i mobile phone to record movies. These come out in 3GP format which is compatible with Apple QuickTime and so will play fine on your computer, but what if you want to play them on another device… say Pocket PC (or possibly even Palm)?

Here’s your answer: TCMP (The Core Media Player). It handles 3GP files very nicely. The link on the left here gets you the beta version which I believe does not expire. The newer version is Commercial and you will have to pay for it. I expect you can find a beta version for the PalmOS as well. I load it up with stuff I’ve filmed and let my 3yo Sienna loose with it and she can sit there watching everything for ages. I wouldn’t suggest recording her favourite TV shows on there (only 16Mb per 22mins) as that might not be legal.

Supported file containers:
- AVI (*.avi)
- Matroska (*.mkv, *.mka)
- MP4 (*.mp4, *.m4a)
- Ogg Media (*.ogg, *.ogm)
- ASF (*.asf)

Supported audio codecs:
- Mpeg 1 Layer III
- Ogg Vorbis
- Musepack
- Windows Media Audio (on Windows Mobile devices)
- AC-3
- AMR
- Adpcm, uLaw

Supported video codecs:
- DivX
- XviD
- MPEG4-SP (plus B-frame support)
- MPEG1
- M-JPEG
- Windows Media Video (on Windows Mobile devices)

The next tip is for Windows XP and iTunes with your keyboard’s Media Keys.  I want to use the Play/Stop/Skip >/< Skip / Pause buttons on my Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro but the media keys only want to work with Windows Media Player.  Well, Andy comes to the rescue with ITunesKeys. I’ve just downloaded it and tested it on my PC and it works flawlessly.  I’ve just set up a shortcut in my StartUp folder to kick it off whenever my PC starts Windows. Handy stuff!

I finally decided to set up my PocketPC to remotely control my Windows XP box. I figure if Sienna wants me to sit and watch TV with her I can still do what I want on the PC but keep her company all the same. Mostly I try not to use the PC when she’s around, but when she’s really tired she might want to drift off while watching “Little Einsteins”.

A couple of good articles to start with:

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=400033&rl=1

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/bridgman_02june10.mspx

The best place to start is: http://www.filesaveas.com/wifi.html. This will get you set up with WiFi and set your IP Address. Make sure your Windows XP WiFi network card has it’s IP in the same range (eg. set the PPC to 192.168.0.3 and the Windows XP box to 192.168.0.2 both with subnet mask 255.255.255.0).

Run the Terminal Services application on your Pocket PC (I have an HP 4150 PocketPC). Type in the IP Address of the Windows XP box ( 192.168.0.2 ) and hit CONNECT. Now your XP box locks the screen with a login window. Don’t log in again as it will log the PPC out again.

Type in your username and password. You may get this:

You cannot initiate a Remote Desktop Connection because the Windows logon software on the remote computer has been replaced by incompatible software. To correct this problem, please have the administrator of the remote computer contact the program vendor for a version that is compatible with Windows.

Referencing MRVGINA.DLL. There is an article on the Microsoft Support site. You will find suggestions on the web to delete a registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/Current Version/WINLOGON/GinaDLL

Deleting registry entries like this is not really a good idea. Better to put it back where it was. Edit this registry entry and change “MRVGINA.DLL” to “MSGINA.DLL”. This is the original Microsoft GINA DLL. The other is a “Marvell” DLL from NetGear. Microsoft Remote Desktop doesn’t like this Gina file.

The next possible issue (which I came across):

Unable to log you on because of an account restriction

If you see this, make sure your login has remote access. Usually your login will be an Administrator so this isn’t an issue. You may just need to set a password. For security reasons, you require a password to log on via Terminal Services. Log back into your XP box and hit CTRL+ALT+DEL (Bill Gates’ favourite combination. He’s famous for it!). Change your password and try again with Terminal Services on your PocketPC.

I was very surprised to discover that although my Linux server had slow limited connection to my XP box in the next room, I could take my PocketPC to the other end of the house (in the loo!) and still navigate my way around.

Enjoy surfing from the comfort of your lounge! The colour resolution seems to be 16 colours or something so it’s not great and zooming around a huge desktop with 240×320 ain’t great, but it’s still something

Geez! This sounds all right…

Game Editor is the game design software that gives you the power to create the games of your dreams, with little or no programming or technical knowledge required.

Game Editor lets you design and develop 2D games for personal computers and mobile devices. No need to worry about system issues or compatibility, no need to do anything other than come up with the ideas! Game developing has never been easier!

Game Editor is designed to be portable across all popular platforms, including Windows (95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, 2003, XP), Linux, Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based Smartphones.

Purchase Game Editor and receive the following:

• Game Editor Professional for Windows
• A permanent license (no additional licensing fees are required)
• The opportunity to create and sell games without restrictions  
• The chance to market games created with Game Editor in the Buy Games
   section of the Game Editor website.
• The ability to create and sell games for Windows (95/98/Me/2000/2003/XP),
   Pocket PC / Windows Mobile 2003, 2005, Windows Mobile-based Smartphones and Linux!
• Technical support

Package Options and Pricing:

Package Choices	Number of New Full Version Updates	Price (USD)
Basic Package	Purchase the current FULL version.      No Version Updates.	$14.95
Silver  Package	6 months of free FULL Version Updates.	$54.95
Gold  Package	1 year of free FULL Version Updates.	$94.95

Go check it out on their website! This is amazing! This is something I’ve been looking for. A decent game editor at an affordable price. I’d be very tempted to go for the Silver or Gold package. You even get a 30 day trial to see if you like it. I’m always getting ideas for games, but it’s soooo time consuming coming up with all the programming in C or whichever language you want. I’d prefer to have simple tools to let me do it and concentrate on getting my game out there rather than worrying about creating memory handles, playing sound the right way and all that nitty gritty that’s involved in creating games or other programs. I just want to get it done!

I’ve just been checking out a very detailed article about going from Palm usage to a PocketPC. If you are interested in the differences and what may lay ahead, please check out the article:

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/editorials/Palm_to_PPC_1.htm

*ACHOO* Still got the flu *sniff*
On some Chemist’s Own day & night flu tablets.

I’ve just been setting up my Motorola Bluetooth dongle.
I don’t have the drivers at work, so I had to find out how to get it working by surfing the intarweb.

It’s a difficult process. Not the surfing, the finding of the correct info and haxing your way through it.

You see, Widcomm aka Broadcom release drivers specifically only for each device (via a special license file). You can’t just download ANY Widcomm bluetooth driver and expect it to work. It will ask you for the location of your license.txt file (or whatever it’s extension is).

There is a way around it. You need to replace some of the files after installing the drivers (which are not available from the Widcomm or Broadcom sites).

To get the info you need, head to the mp3car forum. It has all the details on the site. It worked for me when I did it just now. You will need to reboot into Safe Mode in order to install the updated .dll files, but it’s worth it. Now I can ActiveSync via Bluetooth at work.

Trying to ActiveSync without a cradle seems impossible, though. It seems you have to ActiveSync at least ONCE through the cradle before the ActiveSync software will let you change the settings to allow you to sync via a Bluetooth serial connection. (eg COM3). Otherwise the ActiveSync software will continue searching for your device connected to the PC and won’t let you sync until it has synced via the cradle. What a pain!!
If you select “Connection Settings…” it starts the ’sync’ process. It won’t let you edit the settings first. Stupid thing.
Oh well. At least I won’t have to bring my cradle to work again. Just my Bluetooth dongle and the HP4150’s charger cable

I didn’t sleep much last night. Felt sick all night.
I took a Valerian before going to bed and two hours later I was still awake. I took some Panadiene to see if that’d help and slept for about half an hour.
I lay awake for another hour and went back to sleep for an hour then woke up again and had more Valerian.
Spent the rest of the night mostly awake with spots of unconsciousness. It was horrible.
Eventually, I woke again around 7am and got up. I called in sick at work around 8:40am and tried several times to go back to sleep but it didn’t work.
I watched lots of cartoons to try and cheer myself up (still not totally over the incident from Saturday). Re-watched so much Futurama and some South Park and tonight, Shrek. I also watched Mythbusters tonight. That’s a great, fun show.

I went back to bed about 1pm and at some stage fell asleep for a while. I was awake around 2:35pm. Not sure if that’s because Sienna came knocking on the door or if I just woke up.

I didn’t feel like eating much today. At about 10:30am I had some plain toast with Philadelphia cream cheese on it. Didn’t eat much the rest of the day until about 5pm when I had a couple of reheated pork ribs with some coleslaw.

If I get some more sleep tonight, I’ll head in tomorrow. I think I will probably be right by then.

Blake was very well behaved tonight, so I let him stay up until 8:40pm. He didn’t even know it was that late

I think some of my Palm friends are cranky with me. Oh well, so be it. I couldn’t get what I wanted from Palm or any other Palm device manufacturers. I do see a bunch of other people heading to Pocket PC these days, though. Even one of my beta-testers said she’s getting rid of hers as she’s lost interest.

Speaking of beta-testers.. I’m considering redoing my ZigZag.Soft website COMPLETELY as soon as I find a good CMS. There’s so many around in various stages of complete-ness (is that a word?). Mambo is nice, but it seems all of the plugins are in alpha or beta status. e107 is nice, but the new version 0.7 has been In Progress for quite some time and has no ETA on completion. PostNuke and PHPNuke have more security holes in them than a er Swiss Cheese CMS (?) and Xoops/eXoops aka RunCMS doesn’t do it for me either. I don’t really like Drupal, so I’m still looking around.
I’d have liked to have replaced all of the AusPUG website with e107 0.7 if it will ever get completed! I could convert the Database to e107 and then more people would have more access and ability to post news and add links, etc. One day…

I have SO much to learn about Pocket PC programming. A friend of mine says it’s really crud to program, but so many people have managed it, so I think I will persevere.
Let’s see just how long before I get sick of this project, right? Huh? Huh? Everyone knows I change projects more times a year than there are weeks, but my interests change fast. Even I have trouble keeping up with myself

It turns out there are some people going to my Bangrocks Shop site and even a couple have registered accounts on there! Woah! I better get it updated at some stage. When I have time and CBF. Oh well.

I gave up on that freeware PHP editor called Syntext. It kept locking up when I tried closing files on a shared directory from my FreeBSD server. It’d take about 30 seconds or so to close. Now I’m using PSPad. It seems to handle the situation much better.

I also uninstalled SmartFTP. It kept asking me to register even though it was the free version. Pissed me off, so now I’m using FileZilla. Tomcat suggested that one to me a while ago. Looks like I had it installed for a while as when I ran it, it already had some settings for my old webhosts from long ago.

I’ve downloaded the free Microsoft Embedded Visual C++ IDE and compiler. I should be able to use this to program some PPC games. I had already started designing graphics for a new game for Palms, but they are designed for 320×320 and Pocket PC uses 240×320 for the standard devices and 640×480 for the VGA ones. I’ll have to redo some of it. I might start with something else first. Something simple so I can get used to programming PPC before I go onto somewhat more complex applications.