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| How to rip DVDs to your hard drive [Online Tech Tips] Posted: 12 May 2008 06:24 AM CDT Looking for a quick and free way to rip DVDs? Maybe because you have a crap load of DVDs in your movie collection? With devices and software like Apple TV and Windows Media Center, what’s the point of having DVD discs anymore! Just rip all your DVDs to your computer or external storage, install a plugin for Windows Media Player (if you have it), and you’ve now got a digital library of movies that you can watch at any time from anywhere! If you have an xBox 360 or Apple TV, it’s super easy to get your DVDs onto your HDTV. The process is relatively simple, so even if you are not technically savvy, you should be able to rip all of your DVDs without an issue. What You’ll NeedSo there are a few things that you will need in order for this process to work. Technically, all of the items mentioned are not needed if you simply want to copy your movies to a hard drive and watch them on your computer. However, it’s definitely more fun to watch movies on a giant HDTV while sitting on the couch! DVD Ripping SoftwareThere are basically two types of software you need (possibly) for ripping and storing DVDs. Firstly, you need an application that can actually rip the DVD, as in copy it off the DVD by breaking the encryption, and a second application to compress the ripped DVD into a much smaller size. If you have the right hardware and enough space, you can actually not shrink the DVD rips and keep them at full quality. You’ll get better quality, but you’ll also be using up 8GBs per DVD most likely. There are many applications out there that can rips DVDs, but I’m going to only mention the ones that I know have worked and that are free. DVD Rip - a full featured DVD copy program written in Perl. It automates the entire DVD-to-hard-drive backup process for you. RipIt4Me - Is a tool that helps you handle ARccOS or other DVDs messed up by structure based copy protections. DVDFab Decrypter - Is all-in-one DVD copying/converting/burning software. In just one or two steps, you can copy any DVD to DVDR/PSP/iPod/etc. You’ll need to use this one if you want to rip HD DVDs. One of those should definitely get you going on ripping your DVDs! Now if you want to shrink the DVDs after they are ripped, you’ll need another piece of software. If none of the programs above can break the encryption on your DVD, try DVD43, a free DVD decrypter that runs in the background and decrypts DVDs on the fly. Here are my suggestions for shrinking your DVD rips if you want: DVD Shrink - Works in conjunction with DVD Rip and compresses the DVD image. HandBrake - Is an open-source, multi-platform, multi-threaded, DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for Windows, Mac and Linux. If you want things to be really easy then just install DVD Shrink with DVD Rip and both of them together will rip and compress the DVD. HandBrake requires a little bit more technical knowledge since you have to tweak the settings, but it can shrink a DVD down to only 750 MB (instead of 8GB)! Hardware For Ripping DVDsIf you’re planning on ripping a lot of DVDs, it is advisable to go out and but a huge external hard drive, preferably over 1TB. However, these are fairly cheap now, you can grab one from Lacie for only $279. If you don’t feel like spending any money and you have a spare computer laying around, you can turn it into a NAS! Yes, you can create your own NAS server using a cool open-source software called FreeNAS. I’m not going to go into how to set it up, but it’s not terribly hard. You’ll also need a home network setup, probably with some kind of wireless router also. This is just so that your computer can connect with your NAS and to your TV to steam media files. Also, you might want to consider a networked media player, such as an Archos or TviX. These are definitely cool devices to have! You can also have an xBox 360 Live, an Apple TV, or a Windows Media Center computer. All of these will allow you to play your newly ripped media files to your HDTV! Playing Your DVDsNow that you have your DVDs ripped, you need to be able to play them. If you have used HandBrake, you can actually convert your ripped DVDs into DivX format. This is the most popular compressed format and most media players will automatically recognize them. Note that now you should have a folder for each DVD and inside of it two folders, usually VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. The cool thing about keeping the files in this format is that you can watch the DVDs complete with menus and special features (i.e. subtitles, etc). Also, you can easily burn back these files to a DVD and it’s ready to play in any DVD player. In order to play your ripped DVDs and browse them easily, you have to use a different application! Yes lots of applications are needed, but it’s worth it. DVD Play is a helper application that works the media player, VLC, to help you browse and play back your ripped DVDs. Image Source: LifeHacker Finally, you can play your DVD library in Windows Media Center with a small little tweak. For some odd reason Microsoft disabled the feature in Windows Media Center on Vista operating system to automatically show ripped DVDs, but it can be enabled very easily. Earlier versions of Media Center show the files fine. Check out this Microsoft KB article on enabling the DVD library in Media Center for Vista. You can also install several pluins for Windows Media Center that turn it into a cool ripped DVD browsing monster! My Movies 2 is for Windows Media Center and is a great movie collection management and playback tool. It integrates with Media Center and matches the interface also depending on which OS you are running. Obviously, there are lots of ways for ripping DVDs, managing them, and streaming them, so feel free to post your own ideas or methods on the subject! Enjoy! Source: LifeHacker Technorati Tags: rip dvds, how to rip dvds, dvd rip, rip a dvd, dvd rip software, free dvd rip, dvd ripper, rip hd dvd Copyright © 2007 Online Tech Tips. Aseem Kishore (digitalfingerprint: a59a56dce36427d83e23b501579944fcakmk1980 (66.150.96.121) ) How to rip DVDs to your hard drive        | ||||||||||
| Revealed at Last: Keyboard Shortcut Secrets from MS Word [Online Tech Tips] Posted: 12 May 2008 06:14 AM CDT Keyboard secrets. Students used to trade them in college like a more sophisticated version of baseball cards. Microsoft Word has long been suspected of keeping an immense log of shortcut keys, written in longhand and available only to Bill Gates. This legend is slowly losing its cachet, however – it's time to reveal at least a teaser on those fabled secret shortcut keys.
If the curious computer user has MS Word on his Windows PC or OS X Mac, he can pull together a printable list of all the keyboard functions in his word processor. This amazing feat can be accomplished with MS Word 97, 2000, 2002, or 2003 in Windows – MS Word X or Word 2004 will work on an OS X Mac.
Here are the quick and dirty clues to MS keyboard secrets. Click the "Tools" menu, then hit "Macros In." Next step – pick "ListCommands" in "Macro Name." Then, hit the "Run" button. When the "List Command" box appears, choose the "All Word Commands." Click OK. There it is…the list can be saved under any name and printed whenever the urge strikes. Instead of being keyboard secrets, these shortcut keys are yours to use and enjoy and share with your friends. The more word gets around about these obscure functions, the more they will enter into keyboard life and start performing the functions for which they were intended.
Note: For users with different versions of MS Word, hit F1 to access the help file and then type in “keyboard shortcuts” to see the list as well. Now that users have the list that once was open only to Bill Gates, here are a couple of keyboard secrets for those who don't feel the need to print off the entire list. Say, for example, that the user has been working on a Word document. He leaves it for a day or two, after which he then abridges it, adds some more material, plays around with it a little bit. Then, if the user wants to go back to where he originally left off, he can open the document and press Shift-F5. And there it is, another of the legendary keyboard secrets revealed. Another former keyboard secret that's fun to use and share is the calculator function. To use Word as a calculator, hit the View menu, choose Toolbars, then Customize. Choose the Commands tab in the Customize box. On a new, blank line, type 300 and hit Enter. Type 200, hit Enter. Type 1457, hit Enter. Select all the numbers, click Calculate. Now get this: the sum of the numbers will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the window. Use the numbers you want and paste the result into your document by pressing Ctrl-V. No longer a keyboard secret, try this and see how it goes. And have fun revealing the rest of the keyboard secrets to all your friends so the functions can at last be put to good use.
This is a guest post by Karen Worthy, a tech enthusiast. Technorati Tags: MS Word, Microsoft Word, Microsoft, Word, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Keyboard Tricks, Shortcut Keys
Related postsCopyright © 2007 Online Tech Tips. Aseem Kishore (digitalfingerprint: a59a56dce36427d83e23b501579944fcakmk1980 (66.150.96.121) ) Revealed at Last: Keyboard Shortcut Secrets from MS Word        | ||||||||||
| Posted: 12 May 2008 05:21 AM CDT There are various plugins which allow you customize the feed items of any WordPress blog and one of them is FeedLayout plugin. It’s an excellent plugin and it allows you to put almost anything in the feed. The good features about this particular feed plugin is that it processes PHP codes too, so if you want to display something which is generated by any other plugin for e.g. if you’ll put <? php echo bookmark_me(); ? > (provided you use the bookmark me plugin from the same author), then it will display the bookmarking icons in the feed. Like this you can include images and whatever you can imagine in the feeds, just don’t try to put javascript stuff in it (read : google adsense). Note : I’ve just activated this plugin and this is sort of a test of the plugin too (I’ve put some code in it, lets see that how it goes). © BloggingSaurus - ReviewSaurus | TipsoSaurus Partner : TechZilo - useful software reviews and hacks, web tips and applicationsCopyRights : ReviewSaurus       | ||||||||||
| Amazing Striped Iceburgs or Photoshop ? [Technospot.net] Posted: 12 May 2008 04:18 AM CDT Icebergs in the Antarctic area sometimes have stripes, formed by layers of snow that react to different conditions. Blue stripes are often created when a crevice in the ice sheet fills up with melt water and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form. When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe. Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea. or Its Photoshop ?Disclaimer: I got this in one of the forwarded email. If you know the author or original post please tell us so that we can give the credit back or contact them
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| IZArc2Go - portable version of IZArc archival software [TechZilo] Posted: 12 May 2008 01:54 AM CDT Shortly after our review of the free IZArc archival tool, Aseem asked whether there was a portable version that does something similar to IZArc. In fact, there is a portable version of IZArc itself. It is called IZArc2Go. The clunky name apart, it is similar to IZArc in all aspects. Most features of IZArc have been integrated to IZArc2Go too. Perhaps the only features that are missing in the portable version is Explorer shell integration and association of file types (both of which requires registry entries which cannot be done by a portable app). Installation is very simple and similar to other portable applications - download and install IZArc to the portable drive (USB drive, hard drive or something else if you desire). Once the setup is over, you can launch IZArc2Go by double-clicking on its executable file ( IZArc2Go does not store any user data or customization data in the computers’ hard drive - instead, it stores them all in the installation folder. Also, it leaves no trace of activities after usage, which protects your privacy (invaluable when using others’ computers). Download IZArc2Go (make sure to choose IZArc2Go installer, because that page contains installers for IZArc non-portable version too) You might also want to read our reviews of freeware tools like ImgBurn (burn discs), Dexpot (desktop switcher), NetMeter and FeedDemon (feed reader) Partners:
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| How to Enable Thumbnail previews of Friends in Facebook [-| Life Rocks! 2.0 |-] Posted: 11 May 2008 01:40 PM CDT Facebook has various options to show your friends like Online now, Recently updated, Recently added etc. All these shows friends in on default layout. You can also see all your friends in thumbnails previews. To see friends in thumbnail previews, click on the friends link in the main menu. In the friends list select the more tab. Once the more tab is selected, a dropdown is visible where you can sort the friends list. Now select the option ‘—’ and you can see all your friends in thumbnail previews.       | ||||||||||
| Posted: 11 May 2008 09:43 AM CDT Psiloc Connect is a new application that manages and automatically switches between 3G, GPRS or Wi-Fi Access Points on your Nokia S60 3rd Edition mobile device, choosing the fastest and least expensive connection for use by programs and applications. Upon installation the application will create a new access point on your phone - Psiloc Connect. Using that access point in any of your applications will let Psiloc Connect handle the connectivity. It will do so by initially searching your current surroundings for available WLAN networks and establish a connection to the best available wireless network. However, if there are no WLANs in your vicinity, Psiloc Connect might use 3G, EDGE or GPRS to connect to the Internet. Key features of Psiloc Connect include: + Speed: Psiloc Connect always makes sure you use the fastest possible Internet connection available. + Save money: Psiloc Connect allows you to save some money, by not using 3G connectivity when WLAN is available. + Auto Switch: Psiloc Connect handles access point switching for you Click here to download Psiloc Connect for Nokia S60 3rd Edition mobile devices.          |
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