Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on May 31, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

When it comes to PDF documents I’m not really one that likes to read them online. If they’re only about 10 or 15 pages I’ll go ahead and print them out to read later on when I’m away from my computer. However, some people remove the ability to print a PDF when it is created.

I’m against that sort of thing because if I can open and read the PDF, then I should be able to print it for reference later on. When I received a PDF last week that was like this I was determined to find a way to get around it.

Some ways I found included taking a screenshot of the whole document and then printing out the image, but that seemed like way too much work for both me and my printer (printing an image is much more intensive than printing a PDF). Then I found the exact freeware application that I was looking for: PDF Unlocker!

Unfortunately the homepage was removed for this program, but I was still able to find it on Download.com (Download Mirror). It removes 40 or 128–bit passwords from a PDF, including the one preventing you from printing, but you must be able to view the PDF. By that I mean the whole PDF can’t be password protected.

Here is an example document that I created with a screenshot of Google’s homepage. The red boxes show that printing has been disabled and that the document is considered “secure”:

After you get it setup here is what you want to do:

1. Download and install PDF Unlocker.
2. The installation should have created a shortcut on the desktop that has a key for an icon. Drag your protected PDF onto that icon:
   
3. Now a screen will quickly flash, it doesn’t require any interaction on your part so just wait for the screen to disappear before proceeding:
   
4. There will now be another PDF file in the same location as the protected one, and the only difference is the new one has “_no PW” attached on to the end of the filename. Double click on the new PDF to open it:
   
5. Now enjoy all of the features that had been removed from the document, such as printing and page extraction (a.k.a. copy and paste functionality)!
   

Even though the process here is listed as being 5 steps, it will really only take a few seconds for you to complete it. This program has removed the burden and hassle of being able to only read certain PDF’s on my computer, so I thought that this was something that I had to share.

Of course, I guess I should say that you are not to use this in any illegal ways…yada yada. You know the drill.

Download the Freeware PDF Unlocker (visit the now deceased homepage of PDF Unlocker)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on December 22, 2006 by CyberNet.

I think people are starting to go patent crazy and the latest move by Microsoft is just proof of that. CNet was able to scrounge up some patent information that shows how Microsoft is trying to patent the use of feed readers!?! This patent covers:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: presenting a user interface having a subscription control to enable a user to subscribe to a feed; receiving, via the user interface, a user selection of the subscription control; and responsive to receiving the user’s selection, initiating a feed subscription process.

8. A computer-implemented method comprising: storing a list associated with feeds that are offered by one or more web sites; maintaining state information associated with the list; ascertaining, from the list, whether a web site has any new feeds; and providing user-perceptible indicia to distinguish any new feeds.

15. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a user selection in a reader to launch a web browser to view an item in a feed; launching a web browser; making the item available for viewing using the web browser; and using the web browser to make other feed-associated items available for viewing, without requiring the user to return to the reader to make subsequence item selections.

Now I understand that there can be a lot of value in a patent, but feed readers have been around for ages and Microsoft didn’t submit this patent until June 2005. There might be some underlying information that I don’t completely understand but it sure looks like this isn’t headed in a good direction. Dave Winer, a self-described co-inventor of RSS, said “Presumably they’re eventually going to charge us to use it. This should be denounced by everyone who has contributed anything to the success of RSS.“

So you better hold on to your underwear, because you never know who will be coming after that!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Looking forward to April 19th? If you just so happen to hold a Windows Phone 7 device on AT&T, you are now. According to a leaked memo posted up over at Winrumors, Ma Bell has just wrapped up its testing of the famed NoDo update, and if all goes well, it’ll be pushed to end users on Tuesday. Owners of the LG Quantum and Samsung Focus will see it first, while HTC Surround owners will need to watch this video on loop until “mid-May.” Just think — next week, you’ll be copying and pasting this very article as often as you please. Huzzah!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

AT&T’s Windows Phone 7 NoDo update coming April 19th? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Winrumors  | Email this | Comments

This article was written on February 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Online video is the latest rage on the Internet, and it is almost mind boggling how much of a household name YouTube has become. Some people, such as lonelygirl15, have become YouTube SuperStars. In fact, lonleygirl15 even appeared on the Jay Leno show!

That is just one side of what the video sharing sites are used for. Besides for personal use, many sites (especially DailyMotion) are becoming a hub for copyrighted video content. Ashley recently covered a site called PeekVid which brings television shows and movies into a central location so that they can easily be viewed. Alluc is another site similar in nature to PeekVid, and between those two sites you can surely find something good to watch.

So what can you do if you don’t want to watch the videos while being connected to the Internet? Simple! You can download them and play them at your leisure. I’m going to give you a bunch of tips on how to get the videos onto your computer.

–Download a Video–

Downloading the videos that you want is probably just about the easiest part of the video process. There are so many tools out there to get the job done and they are so easy to find. Depending on what you’re looking to do these three tools will get the job done fast:

• VideoDownloader – This is a Firefox extension that works with all kinds of sites and content. Not only can you download videos from YouTube, Google, MetaCafe, iFilm, and DailyMotion but it will also let you save MP3′s and QuickTime videos that are embedded in sites. The list of sites that it supports is quite extensive so I’m not going to list them all here, but rest assured that this extension should get the job done.
• KeepVid – This is my personal favorite because it doesn’t require you to install any extension or application to download the videos. You can simply enter a URL into the site or you can use the bookmarklet that they have available for even faster conversions.
• GrabYouTubes – I wanted to include this service because it will surely come in handy when downloading videos from the PeekVid service that I mentioned above. All you have to do is provide the URL to the PeekVid movie or TV show that you want and it will quickly provide download links for all of the parts listed on that page. This is a lot easier than retrieving the download links one at a time. For more information on how to use the GrabYouTubes read Ashley’s post on PeekVid.

–Convert a Video–

If you didn’t notice most of the videos that you will download will be in the file format FLV. This isn’t something that most computers will recognize immediately and let you start playing, so you might want to convert it into a more recognizable format. Here are two ways that you can do the conversion:

• Online FLV Converter – This service is free and the great thing is that you don’t have to install a single application on your computer to have it converte videos. It can take a FLV file and transform it into an AVI, MOV, MP4, or 3GP so that you can watch the video on just about any device. This service is primarily geared towards YouTube since it does allow you to directly enter in a YouTube URL, but you can also enter in the URL to a FLV file (found using one of the utilities mentioned above). After giving it that information the service will download the video from the site and re-encode it into the format that you want. I tried it out and on smaller files (1MB or so) it works great, but I also tried a 10MB file that ended up error out. So if you’re trying to convert a large movie try the next solution.
  
• Super Video Converter – This video conversion utility is by far the most popular and happens to be one of the most CyberMarked articles on our site. This free application will let you convert a FLV file into a large array of other file formats, including AVI, MOV, iPod, Pocket PC, WMV, and PSP. It also allows you to customize various options so that the resulting video is exactly what you want.
  

–Play/Watch a Video–

You don’t have to convert a video just to watch it, though. If you have the right tool you can actually watch the FLV file right on your PC bypassing the whole conversion process. I looked around for at least an hour trying to find a nice player that was not only simple but offered what I thought was some very necessary features. I wanted to be able to play from a file that I downloaded and most importantly I wanted a fullscreen mode. Actually, the most important thing was that the application be freeware that wasn’t bloated with things that I didn’t want to use, but the fullscreen mode was still a critical deciding factor.

The result that I came up with was nFLVPlayer (download mirror). The application takes just seconds to install and it is simple enough for anyone to understand. The configuration options are minimal so power users may not get much joy from it, but you can still adjust the brightness, contrast, and a few other things. This program definitely gets my stamp of approval!

Download nFLVPlayer from our mirror

–Overview–

Now you’re going to be all set the next time that you want to take your videos with you on the go, which is great for those of us who don’t have access to the Internet 24/7. There are so many tools out there that can replace any of the ones that I listed above, but I covered the ones that I had experience with. With that being said we want to hear what you’re using to download, convert, and watch videos.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on May 19, 2006 by CyberNet.

Microsoft has finally released a patch that will fix the battery drainage issue that can be found in Windows XP Service Pack 2 machines. Currently the patch is only for x86 machines and we are not sure if they have plans to make a 64-bit compatible version. Here is what Microsoft has to say about the patch:

Install this update to address an issue where a Windows XP-based portable computer may not have as long a battery life under certain circumstances when certain USB 2.0 devices are connected.

This problem may occur if one of the following conditions is true:

• The portable computer cannot enter the deeper Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) processor idle sleep states.

This occurs when the USB 2.0 driver leaves the asynchronous scheduler component running continuously. This prevents the processor from entering the deeper ACPI processor idle sleep states, or C-states. C-states save power when the processor is not busy. These states range from C0 to C3 or C4. Typically, an idle portable computer uses the C3 and C4 states to preserve battery power. If an idle portable computer cannot enter or maintain the C3 or C4 states, the battery power drains more quickly. This problem is fixed by installing the download that is available in this article.

• The USB host controller is unable to turn off.

This typically occurs when devices are removed from a nested USB hub that is attached to the host controller. The host controller does not recognize the device removal. Therefore, the controller is never turned off. This prevents the processor from entering the ACPI processor idle sleep states. This problem is not fixed by installing the download that is available in this article.

• The USB host controller uses the periodic scheduler for USB 2.0 devices.

This typically occurs when devices that rely on the periodic scheduler are attached to the host controller. These may be isochronous (Isoch) devices such as audio devices. Alternatively, they may be interrupt devices such as mouse or keyboard. This problem is not fixed by installing the download that is available in this article.

Note Various factors can affect the battery life of different portable computers that use different types of batteries. Therefore, you may not notice any improvement in battery life after you apply this update.

It looks like this will only help some people and not everyone. Hopefully this will extend your battery life.

The download link below links directly to the download file so that you don’t have to waste your time going through the validation steps.

Download The Patch From Microsoft

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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