Bobs Dollops 
* NEW 2013 - STM32 Flasher - JWorker
* Laptop Repair tips
for; Patriot/EI system/DSG320/PCWorld laptop
* Fractal art
*
Handy App
- ComAvail
* Stereo Dawn Chorus
* Crazy Levitation
* Make your mark - without cash
by Bob
Seabrook.
All Original
All Free – but you can
A free utility
.zip JWorker NEW A
simple Windows [7, XP] STM32F10xx flash programmer for low-cost JTAG devices
with FT2232c
chips.
Description:
JWorker is a FREE
single Windows application download that uses FTCJTAG.DLL
from FTDI to program STM32f10xx
devices via their JTAG
interfaces using the low cost simple USB-to-JTAG devices such as the Amontec JTAGKey-Tiny or
the Olimex
ARM-USB-Tiny. Useful to program a loader for subsequent field programming
via USB.
Installation:
Download the zip file for free and run the setup.exe inside to install this
application. This site is the home of JWorker so no
intermediaries have been at it. It is assumed that the Amontec or Olimex
drivers are already installed via their .inf files.
Preview: Help How it works How
to obtain and install the Amontec JTAGkeyTiny device Driver in Windows7
Some help
.Htm DIY Laptop fix Models;
Patriot 3070, 307x, EI System 3081, Generic DSG G320 laptop Motherboard. Similar others too.
Background:
Through no apparent fault of the computer manufacturers, duff components are
fitted in some computers. The
components are the big electrolytic capacitors used to stabilize the DC power
supply in the PC. The electrolyte fluid was incorrect so the capacitors fail.
This can stop the computer turning on or the computer may misbehave
intermittently affecting the integrity of the data on the hard disk.
DIY* Repair: Four
of the eight relevant capacitors can be quickly checked for obvious signs of
venting via the CPU hatch underside. To access the remaining ones remove the
laptop keyboard via the four ‘door
like’ latches on its front edge furthest from the display. The rest of the
disassembly and reassembly is obvious but the page is still helpful
because photos locate the capacitors and the order of re-assembly is
prescribed. Plus the tip about Blu-Tacking removed screws next to the holes they came from is worth
a try. Visit
DIY repair tips page now. *Note for translators; DIY means “Do it
yourself”.
Offline alternatives
.DOC Word doc 987kB free download. updated – Dec 2010.
Alternative Word 2000 document form of the online article.
.PDF Click here 711kB free download. updated
– June 2011
Most
up to date. Easily Portable and printable PDF form of the online article, for non Word
2K and Linux users
Donate
donations
to 14bFzEQfcP34dh2MosgmNVUg58zSHTipfe . Here is
the Exchange
rate. Go here for Free bitcoins. Info on Securing your wallet.
(for backup purposes, your Wallet
location on XP is: C:\Documents and
Settings\ username\Application
Data\Bitcoin\wallet.dat)
A free app
.zip ComAvail NEW Have you
ever thought Windows should pop-up the USB serial COM port number it allocated
to the port that you just connected without having to go into Device Manager to
find out? ComAvail does just that and a
little more.
Description:
ComAvail appears as a system tray icon that watches for added com ports. It
shows a balloon containing the port(s) added or removed. Also, if you move the
mouse over the icon a tooltip message lists all the ports currently available, that is, the ones associated
with functioning hardware right now.
Installation:
Download this ComAvail zip file for free and run the setup.exe inside to
install this application. It should be virus free because I wrote it myself
rather than downloading something from a festering file farm. Once installed help is available by
double-clicking the icon. ComAvail
was written and tested under F-Secure (professional) protected Windows XP
Professional (32bit) and uses Windows Frameworks 4. It includes Help in PDF
format. No Tricks, No Adware, No Viruses, No Crippleware
Some fun
.AVI Fractal zooms Zoom in on a
point at the edge of the Mandelbrot
set tastefully revealing detail at ever increasing magnifications. All movies end where they start for
continuous repeat viewing. Low-loss Cinepak
compression (good quality) picture, all at 15 frames per second.
.GIF previews
Ariel 2MB free download
17s play
Tiny area - 190x198y pixel
High zoom speed.
Gem 9MB free download
34s play
Small area - 261x278y pixel
Medium zoom speed.
Promise 19MB free download
29s play
Medium area -445x438y pixel
Medium zoom speed
Emerald 23MB free download or youtube or youtubeRepeat
51s play
Medium area 423x392y pixel
Low zoom speed
Twister
78MB free
download. hosted by Mediafire(+adverts)
96s play
big
area 640x480y pixel
Medium
zoom speed.
Below is what YouTube
made of my original 1278x954y .avi Twister video.
It compressed well using only 19MB* of
your bandwidth to view it at 360p default resolution.
The original HD upload was 288 MB. You can choose resolution from 240p,
360p, 480p, 720p HD depending on your resources. And once you have seen the
whole video it is buffered in your computer memory and I have configured –the
embedded link below to replay forever without using up your allowance - until
you leave this page or select another viewing resolution. See site-mod-blog ahead for more about youtuberepeat
vids.
* Bandwidth found by
downloading Medium Quality - 640x360 file
from http://www.saveyoutube.com/watch?v=dPFLBTj74bo
which is the normal youtube link with the word save
inserted.
More information These zooms previewed above reach the
resolution limit of 64bit floating point numbers corresponding to
magnifications over billions of times (>1e24). They took an old 600MHz PC
many days to produce. BMP frames created with my MandelBrother Program written
in VB6. Images compiled into AVI’s with Bink and Smacker -
CinePak Codec, 15 frames/s.
New Offline
youtube Virus infections most easily come
from executables (apps) that you innocently download an run, so you should
suspect apps that do something your browser can already do - like download
content from a site. Do you have an app just to download youtubes? If you get
the well established “VLC Player” you can play more video types than other
common players AND save youtubes so that you can replay your favourite video
forever without using up all your internet bandwidth (or play them where you
don’t have access to youtube). Follow this guide…..
1.
if you don’t already have VLC Player get it from
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
use the [Installer-Package] button. Then install the download.
2.
Run vlc Player - From the VLC Player menu bar select
-- Mediaàconvert/save
-- Select
tab _/Network\_
-- Paste
in your youtube url where requested e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqXYK8HMszI
-- click
button [Convert/Save]
-- click
button [Browse] in the destination frame
click
the [desktop] button/icon
for the filename type; my.flv
click [Save]
button
in the
settings frame; select from profile list;
Video – MPEG2 +
MPGA (TS)
Click [Start] button
Wait for movie
to be saved to file.
3.
Drag my.flv file from
desktop onto VLC Player window to play it. Enjoy.
.AVI Fractal Julia set animations. Morphing shapes. Not as good as zooms above. All 15 frames/s, CinePak Codec.
Nose 3.4MB
free download
8s play
Medium
area 495x407y
Taken
from under the nose of the Mandelbrot set beetle ;-)
Auto3
4.5MB free download
8s play
Medium
area 496x496y
.JPG Fractal Posters. Big high
resolution poster images especially selected for printing on A2 or A3 and
framing behind glass. Consider viewing in portrait style.
Some images
have been posterized
and/or colour saturated
to look great when printed but it makes them look worse when displayed on your
computer. Don’t be discouraged by this.
.MP3 Birdsong New Clear digital Stereo birdsong recordings. From Dorset, England. Made on ICD UX512
SONY
- ICD UX512 - a much newer STEREO
recorder than the old ICD ST10 further below.
Made these
FebDawnChorus 23MB
free download –
25 minute play Absolutely Top quality Bliss. Stereo Dawn Chorus. February 2012
Crisp dawn
air hits you. Listen for the woodpecker. Good on laptop speakers because they
suit birdsong frequencies. Better still on headphones.
Play online
Note
- Gain is low on this recording –
you may need to turn up the volume or use headphones.
- File was edited with Audacity to
remove unwanted events. Edit also cut bandwdth from 192k to 128k.
This ICD UX512 recorder is just
INCREDIBLE, so much better than the old ICD-ST10 it is hard to know which
improvement listed below to like best.
Improvements ; ICD UX512 improvements (over the ICD ST10).
1. Superior stereo recording
+
Better stereo mics facing opposite directions (left right) with bigger
grill holes so true stereo no longer sounds like it was recorded inside
a barrel
+
Stunning crispness. Higher bandwidth. 192k
+
Long recording time - well over 24hours in 1Gbyte flash at highest
quality bandwidth
+ Namable recording files – in namable
folders – not just numbers.
+
Wind noise elimination - Low freq noise rejection reduces
wind noise during recording – it actually works REALLY WELL.
2. Better battery.
+
Standard, easily replacable 1.2V AAA battery that lasts
for hours of recording - so you can carry spares,
+
Chargeable, low cost
+
USB chargeable, incidental charging while exchanging recordings
+
Single cell only
+
Level meter works properly since designed for the 1.2V cell.
+
Lower power consumption – longer recording endurance.
3. MP3 Files - Records direct
to common MP3 files and plays them direct too.
192k bandwidth and several lower
bandwdths supported if even higher storage density required.
4. ANY Files – use like
any USB stick for general file storage too – generous 1GB as standard. +2GB memory
card slot.
Wish list
1.
A playback progress bargraph. – that’s all.
.MP3 Dawn Chorus Digital Stereo birdsong recordings
. From Dorset, England. Made on Old ICD-ST10.
Preview 1.8MB free download
2 minute play Stereo Dawn Chorus. March 2005
Birdsong.mp3 Plays well on a continuous loop.
Play online
PathsMeet 32MB
free download
22 minute play Top quality Stereo Dawn Chorus. March
2005
Crisp dawn
air hits you. Listen for the woodpecker. Good on laptop speakers because they
suit birdsong frequencies.
Play online
Blackbird
Solo 2.1MB free download
3 Minute Play
Ringtone Ready
- Good quality solo recording using internal (stereo) microphone of Sony
ICD-ST10 pictured left.
Play online
Tip.
Play Blackbird
solo simultaneously with PathsMeet as the orchestra – and balance the
volumes to taste.
Good when
·
Chilling out
·
Far from home and homesick – on an oil rig – in a desert –
boxed in a motel
·
Stuck in a clattering hospital ward
·
Caring for yourself after caring for others.
Make your
XP PC play birdsong.mp3 at 07:30 AM tomorrow
1.
Copy birdsong.mp3 to your My Music folder
2.
Using Windows Notepad create a file called alarm.bat
on your XP desktop
3.
Copy and paste the red text
below into your new file
4.
Save it.
5.
Run it. (double click the icon on the desktop)
AT 07:30 /INTERACTIVE "C:\Program
Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe" "%userprofile%\My
Documents\My Music\birdsong.mp3"
.WMV Levitation
Silly mobile phone
clip showing my experimental Biefield Brown
‘Lifter’ or ‘Flyer’ device that levitates due to a
flow of down moving ions.
Thin
horizontal wires at deadly dangerous 20kV 1 inch above the foil cause an ion draft that lifts the
device. It crackles, buzzes and stinks of ozone. The 20KV HT was taken from an
old computer monitor. Danger of death –
do not attempt without qualified adult supervision. The risks are high because the necessarily slack supply
wires can move suddenly due to electrostatic charges and touch a bystander. All
persons should stand well clear – unlike the individual (JC:-) who recorded
these clips.
Flyer1 400kb free download.
21s play Small area 208x160y pixels,
Flyer2 is better.
The device is
actually held DOWN by threads attached to the red tape.
Flyer2 660kb free download
35s play
Small area 208x160y pixels,
Close up is supposed
to show no visible means of support but it’s too fuzzy.
HELP ! www.wcgrid.org. www.worldCommunityGrid.org The potential to save an innocent
life.
March
2nd 2010 - grid delivers
useful results see the video
more.
Please donate your computers idle
time to medical and other research
for at no cost to you. Join 430000 people worldwide. Get crunching. You can choose which projects to help. There is even a project to
aid development of a new solar power
source.
Instructions are on
this very professional site run by IBM
at considerable cost to them, download the free software and get
crunching at no cost to you – except the trouble you took to install it. Take a look. There is even a busy forum with
community advisors. Get business computers onboard with the owners permission.
FYI
If you’re interested my user
statistics can be seen here; seabrookb or here
but often during updates some of these details are inaccessible. You are
welcome to join my tiny team delta, that way
I know you came here. I have been committed to crunching for www.wcgrid.org - on numerous computers for
over year, and before that for United Devices until
they closed their grid. With my current
machines my ranking has levelled out at around 20000
out of about 430000
which is just in the top 5%, i.e. 20000
members have done a lot better. (2008 figures). Now there are 558000 members
(2011) and my ranking is proably lower due to having fewer PCs running to cut
energy use.
You can help
by joining the grid or donating to me your useless old broken
but fixable Windows-XP laptop for a redeeming
retirement. This will also help you reduce unnecessary WEEE. Obviously donated laptops
must not be stripped of parts, must include power supply, 256MB+ RAM,
etc, no major mechanical damage like smashed display or hard disk, but filthy,
cracked and chipped case through wear and tear is OK. I believe laptops use
energy more efficiently than desktops, make less noise, and use less space, so
laptops only please.
Get your business
computers onboard. They can be scheduled to use CPU and network resources at
times that suit you. Be sure to get the owners permission. Once installed with
your preferences it can run without attention for months or years – I know. The
reputable BOINC
software is superbly robust and well designed and there are versions for
Windows, Linux and the MAC. The software runs at a low priority so it gives way
to your foreground work – however it does use RAM, it will run fine on a 256MB
RAM PC, but 512MB + would be preferable.
To save on the cost of dialup
internet access for the grid I changed my ISP to PlusNet Broadband Your Way option 1 – here:
Shi t e mod Blog
June 2008 Created page. Initially
the laptop repair tips were on the home page. Later moved them to a separate page to cut bandwidth
use. At the same time improved that page so that clicking the motherboard
picture revealed more detail. Also added a reminder to check/replace the
clock/date battery.
Site hosted by Plusnet BBYW1 since I don’t plan to squander bandwidth on video and audio streaming,
and since other use is seasonal and I already have a phone line, the attraction
was
a)
broadband
only, up to 8Mbps. I know what I’m
paying for, no confusing bundles, I already have a line and that is complicated
enough,
b)
low cost. To save more
for you too click the PlusNet logo above (it helps me too at no cost to
you). It is only £9.99 per month (inc VAT,
excl BT line),
c)
no long term contract(1 month),
[The only trouble with this is that the terms can change quickly month
by month (see e below) ]
d)
free help on the phone, or by email, and via busy
expert forums,
e)
flexible
pay as you go currently £1.25 per gigabyte
beyond the first two gigabytes in a month, or upgrade to option2 for many more
Gb, or pay nothing more and still have limited bandwidth of 128kbps for the
rest of the payment month.
f)
faster than 6Mbits/second, after
some RWIN
/ MTU tweaking. Before tweaks download speed never > 3Mbps. But even
that is good.
g)
if you cancel your
direct debit, you won’t get a scary letter from a debt collection agency a year
later for a service you didn’t use, you’ll just loose the service you didn’t
use – after being informed of course. No great loss. No demonically diabolical
labyrinths to escape from. I had a bad time with Demon Internet Ltd– stopped using them for YEARS and eventually cancelled my
contract. No confirmation. Years later I get a letter from a debt collection
agency demanding an extortionate amount for services not used. Demon Internet Ltd said they could not tell if
I had used it or not so I should pay. In that case what was the logon user
authentication for? Nearly as traumatic as robbery. Eventually negotiated paying half the amount demanded.
So Demon Internet Ltd Suck IMHO. Avoid Demon Internet Ltd like the plague – would be my advice.
h)
Referral scheme.
5 July 2008 Added jpg fractal posters
and made the links to the avi files relative to the location of the home
page so that one might save the webpage with File->SaveAs for offline
viewing, because that helps folks with limited access get what they want for
later use at minimum cost.
The
beauty of fractals first captivated me after reading James Gleiks illustrated
book Chaos published in the 1980s. The first and only publication that showed
me how to create Mandelbrot and Julia set pictures was Personal Computer World
vintage December 1986 article entitled Fractal Sets on pages 196 – 1999.
Mandelbrots own book was no help at all! Today the first place to look would be
Wikipedia of course.
12 July 2008 Regrettably I had to replace
relative refs to avi and mp3 files with absolute ones for 2 reasons. (1) when
relative refs were used, Word used \ where / wanted which understandably upset
Firefox3.0 browsers! Explorer6 is OK. (2) Plusnet advice documentation suggests
it’s better to discourage slurpers (robot crawlers that suck in the whole site
content).
Rant follows; Whilst I fully understand
PN’s POV from a cost of bandwidth perspective, and a fair access to bandwidth
perspective, I think in some cases this POV is hugely against the public
interest. Since if they found themselves hosting a popular site that was
loosely in the public interest, that interest would be restricted, customers
would be embarrassed, visitors would be unimpressed and disappointed. It may
even be counter-productive for PN hosting the site. Before this date I had
assumed visits to a site would be limited to the equivalent of thousands of
slurps/day, not 1!!! More sinister is the moral injustice of all the
cash stopping at the likes of the service providers (mostly BT
[ipsteam/datastream-etc]) rather than the good content providers as if
they are just service consumers with nothing to offer. It may partly explain
the high proportion of drivel (like this;-) on the web. Sorry PN, BT have you
by googlies.
20 July 2008 1)
Simplified title text. Removed the date updated from title text because (a)
when seen in search engine results is does not tell visitors about what the
site contains (b) contains many complex font changes that confused Yahoo cache
display software (c) this site change record contains the same information, (d)
required manual update.
2)
Inserted www.wcgrid.org widget. Oops, no it does not display properly when the
grid is updating the database of user statistics. Maybe when they fix it. For
now I have just inserted a logo.
3)
Added unique visitor counter from http://www.bestfreehitcounters.com
. The sponsors name is nearby and in the counters tooltip.
30 July 2008 1) discovered that the hit
counter is very poor at busy times – not displaying the digits reliably, seems
like I may have to go over to a CGI web page. Cannot believe it is sponsored by
a company that sells baby toys in Australia – who would be interested in that
here in the UK?
2) Added
proper graphical links to my PlusNet ISP for those interested in a good
broadband deal referral with no wretched long term contract.
6 August 2008 1) Added Banner for NHS Blood Service. We often see
people receiving blood or blood products and you can’t help wondering how the
heck there this always enough. I understand that sometimes there isn’t! A similar concern is that donors also cease
giving because there are times when it is not OK to donate. With this in mind
the donor [and the grid] community is a bit like a relay race in the sense that
it is important to know there is someone fresh to take the batton from you to
keep the race going. Also like the grid giving blood is another direct way to
make a small difference without cash.
2)
Neatly listed (a to h) reasons for choosing PlusNet BBYW1.
7 August 2008 1) 630AM:
Corrected backslashes to forward slashes in links to first 3 of the
posters at top of page. Used dot forward- slash notation rather than absolute
path.
2) 10PM: Added graphs to www.wcgrid.org section
to illustrate my actual member ranking as a percentage of total members, and to
show growth in total members.
8 August 2008 1) 530AM: poster links corrected yet again, now
absolute. The editor was STILL changing my / to \ on subsequent file saves when using dot forward-slash notation.
2)1045PM:
Separator lines added .
3)
1046PM wcgrid section paragraphs re-ordered.
19 September 2008 1)6pm; removed unique hits counter
because its cr@p!
My counter from http://www.bestfreehitcounters.com reset back to 0 which has to be the ultimate
sin for a publicly viewable counter. I now know about 2 unique hits per day
occur. Those hits are probably bots of one kind or another. Anyway at least “bobs dollops” gets found by
Yahoo and Google, but it took a 2 –4 months.
Probably because of some of the errors corrected more recently as listed
above.
3 October 2008 Added
my name to the top of the page. It can’t be found if it ain’t there. Not that
it matters. Noticed ‘Bobs Dollops’ is not be found by Google or Yahoo again
since I stopped hitting my own site in order to see who the real visitors might
be (using webstats). Maybe it does pay to look up yourself;-)
4 October 2008 Added
text to fractal posters section (first section) to suggest the enigmas that
they represent.
28 October 2008 7PM
- Added Grid utube video. 11:20PM changed my rank from 18000 of 400000 to 19000
of 410000 (my rank is slipping – must enlist another computer). Seabrookb
membername and rank of 20000
are now hyperlinked to my public statistics, and delta
teamname is hyperlinked to a page where you can JOIN my team delta by clicking
the [join-this-team]
button there. The current number of members of about 420000 is hyperlinked to the global statistics page for a
more up to date figure. However readers should be aware that figures are sometimes
unavailable while they are being updated at least once daily and nightly for a
couple of hours. For the same reason I don’t use widgets that brag up to date
details because they display garbage during these updates.
2 November 2008 5AM
– Embedded another Grid Utube video because the first was not my favourite –
and I wanted to see if different defaults could be embedded. Also added more
text to the first section in connexion with the fractal posters.
27 January 2009 12PM
– Added Twister to collection of fractal zooms. This file was created in 2000
but only today reduced from 288MB to 80MB by Shrinking its area
without loss of resolution using NCH Prism Video Converter. The original video is huge at 1284 pixels wide and
288MB in size. I am beginning to like the smaller version here already since is
presents well on a 1024x768 laptop display.
1 February
2009 4PM
linked to twister on mediafire.com instead of the copy on my webspace. This is
because mediafire quickly show me the number of downloads started. If you have
trouble getting the file from mediafire you can download my bigger 113MB
800x600 website copy from here.
10 February 2009 Previews for AVI’s added. They are
GIF’s. Made from AVI’s with NCH Prism
Video Converter to reduce size, then Movies13
from Jansoft
to make GIF’s. Also used NCH Prism
Video Converter ‘shrink’ on original Twister
AVI to halve its area and cut file size from 288MB to 113MB maintaining
resolution. 288MB too big for my paid-for plusnet account - limit is 250MB.
Mediafire
host unlimited files for free, but each file may not exceed 100MB.So I
tried Mediafire for a 78MB 640 x 480 pixel version of the
Twister file. Mediafire reveal to me quickly how many downloads were
started. Mediafire are disappointing. I
expect them them to advertise but they open explorer windows with video
advertisements (commercials) that can get hidden behind your foreground window
and use up loads of your precious paid-for bandwith before you discover it –
this is a great shame. So sorry Mediafire, very nice try, good software, but if
you are allowing these you suck on this
issue alone IMHO.
1 March 2009-03-01 Added
picture of the problem laptop that can be repaired. Promoted laptop repair
section to top of page since it is attracting visits. Added background
information paragraph crediting www.badcaps.net.
Used more advanced formatting to wrap text around picture. Corrected spelling
of Blu-Tack and linked to a Wiki entry for it and IBM in the grid section. Oh
heck – in the end I went all the way and re-layed out the whole home page –
more or less as I had always wanted to, with pictures/icons/previews on the
left and text wrapping on the right around a central gutter. But paying
attention to detail took hours.
22 May 2009
730PM Added
blackbird solo to MP3 section. This little chap makes it worth leaving your
garden alone in spring for the birds. These critters - especially the
youngsters - have a short life because of hurrying traffic. If only we’d
remember them too in our busy lives.
For the earlier recordings made in 2005 I built a
homemade stereo microphone plugged into the same ICD-ST10 recorders 3.5mm
stereo jack. It was simply made of two
electret microphone elements (from Maplin) stuck on the end of a Y shaped lead
so the elements were several inches ( 10 to 20cm) apart facing outwards. This
produced much more discernable and realistic stereo channel separation. Also
the larger elements produced better recordings than the smaller ones. Both
external stereo microphone sizes were always more sensitive (better) than the
internal one. The internal mic recordings sound like they are made in a box
with a one inch (2cm) hole – because
they are. All microphones need shielding from wind.
The Sony ICD-ST10 recorder is very mobile measuring
less than 1cm thick and about 8x4cm. It can just about run from two 1.2V AAA
chargeable NiMh cells – but the battery level indicator always reports a low
level and has a short usable time. So my biggest wish for future products would
be for one with a hi capacity chargeable lithium-ion cell/battery that could be
charged in the recorder from the 3V supply jack and/or the 5V USB port giving
enough charge time to fill the recording memory and play it back. I’d like to
turn off completely the timed LCD backlight to conserve power. The VOR (Voice operated recording) is
excellent because it pre-BUFFERS sound so that you never miss the start of the
event that activated the recording. The recording trigger level is reasonably
sensitive too although I’d sometimes like to make it even more so.
The best thing about digital stereo recorders for
sensitive recordings is that there is no tape drive motor noise to eliminate
from the recording. Plus recordings can be downloaded to a PC MP3 file via the
USB port file for quick and easy sharing.
26 July 2009
0001AM. Birdsong
section improved. Inspired by the clean and fast implementation of online audio
presentation on the New Forest National Park Authorities Web page called Voices
of the Forest by Jo Holmes and team, I added the same audio widget here for
online listening of birdsong.mp3. Most
thanks to Martin Laine for so
diligently showing the way
The online audio widget is really cool because
1.
it uses the robust and
fast flash player activex
plugin already on over 90%
of machines of all types from PC to MAC.
2.
as a result its
presentation is consistent across platforms
3.
it does not require
fiddly bloated proprietary downloads like Quicktime or Realplayer or
Mediaplayer to the client computer.
4.
it does not cause MS
Internet Explorer to irritatingly block the javascript it employs.
5.
once played, the
recording is cached so you can replay without wasting your bandwidth
downloading again.
6.
it starts playing almost
immediately - before the whole file is downloaded.
7.
its purpose is obvious
from its appearance
8.
when activated the
widget expands showing name of file and progress.
9.
when stopped the volume
fades out rather than abruptly switching off,
10.
can be configured with alternate
colours – although the defaults are well chosen.
11.
its free from here
but you can donate via paypal
12.
very well documented in
more than one place, here
and especially here.
The only unnecessary extra I would like is volume
control. Looping can be permanently enabled or disabled successfully from the
html – see last link next para below. Realtime loop enable does appear when you
right click the widget but it does not seem to change the fixed enabled/disabled
looping behaviour.
Only a few steps are needed to get the widget
working. First, download audio-player.zip
and copy the player.swf and audio-player.js to your website root
(alongside your index.html). Second, in a new browser tab visit simple demo, view->source,
copy-and-paste the html from <p> to </p> into your web page and
change the URL of the MP3 file to access one of yours. That’s it!
2 August 2009
0600AM. Birdsong
section improved further. Now all of the recordings can be played online
without having to download first.
20 Oct 2009 0100AM.
Changed the last picture on this page to the unknown gentleman soldier. A picture
tells a thousand words….
1 Nov 2009 0600AM
Added PDF version of laptop repair document. It was created using PDF Creator.
Small changes made include changing the word “without” in bullet point d of the
aims/audience paragraph and adding explicit links [that begin www. Or
http://www.] so that the homepage and some hi resolution photos of the
motherboard can be accessed from the pdf file. Also updated the reported size
of the doc version from 820kB to 980kB. Considering adding a link to a web
accessible backup of the laptops driver cd because that was sought after quite
recently.
18 Nov 2010 Removed
the 113Mb/800x600 version of my free Twister video download from this site
after my ISP – Plusnet - deliberately stopped anybody accessing this site after
>250MB were downloaded from it in a 24Hour period as documented in the
service terms and AUP. [see rant entry para2 of 12 July 2008 above – for my
views on this]. I changed the direct link to my 113Mb .avi download to say
(email me) and the link took you to my email address.
Also added a
.htaccess file to my site to prevent so called bandwidth theft via my
rather big .avi download files. IMHO bandwith theft is a moronic concept –
embraced by bankers. It is clearly and obviously completely at odds with the
whole idea of the web, it’s as simple as that.
Once
.htaccess was uploaded to my site it became hidden because of course linux
hides files starting with a dot (period). This is great[not] because I can’t
get a handle on it in explorer to delete it should I want to – but I’m sure
there’s other solutions, like simply overwriting it with an empty file of the
same name.
27 Nov 2010 Midnight.
Uploaded to youtube my
original-original huge sized 288MB ‘Twister’
Mandelbrot zoom video having recently withdrawn the smaller sized 113Mb version
from this site as described immediately above. I did not entitle the vid
‘Twister’ because doing so got it mis-categorised with the real meteorlogical
twister vids. My youtube username is MrZoomZone
because several other names were already taken. In hindsight should have
gonefor Mandelbrother because that is the name
of my VB software that produced the video frames – although it is probably
taken too.
Once the huge twister vid was uploaded to youtube I
gave it a boring title “pure mandelbrot zoom in and
back out” because as said above it got mis-categorised with a name like
Twister. I gave it a description containing the word beautiful which ensures
the vid can be found on google with the string “pure mandelbrot beautiful”,
Then I gave it metal genre soundtrack called Evidence
2 from the youtube library because (a) it’s exactly the same length as
the video (1:37) – fading out nicely at the end, (b) changes tempo at exactly
the point that the vid changes from zooming in to zooming out, excellent, and
(c) the strong beat is actually helpful with a stream that stutters from time
to time. I hate to admit that it took me blimin’ AGES to appreciate the youtube
checkbox to offer soundtracks only of similar length.
For some reason the soundtrack does not play on
youtube at 360p and 240p is not even available. However it hardly matters
because its all just a bit of fun and learning. It’s great that at last the
internet and youtube can accommodate this bandwidth even if my laptop
and/orconnection and ISP can’t. Frankly my 2004 vintage 1.2GHz Laptop, or
broadband, is not up to playing this youtube video smoothly anyway, even only
at 360p, and HD is completely out of the question. Maybe the youtube server is
so intelligent that it has a silicon SOH and fails to pass on the soundtrack
because it’s still laughing at my laptop or connections inadequacy J, but I am very confident they will play stunningly
well on your much more powerful computer and that’s why its up there. After all
I already have the 288Mb original avi file to play with and the quality of that
is stunning.
28 Nov 2010 Embedded
the youtube Twister video on this homepage.
29 Dec 2010 Changed
the soundtrack in the youtube twister video from Evidence 2 to Galu nobéél by Wasis Diop because it is the right length, gentle enough to
enjoy multiple times, and the brief French lyrics would be understood by
Bernard B Mandelbrot who brought the Mandelbrot set to public attention.
1 Dec 2010 Looped
the embedded Twister video using &Loop=1 parameter (twice) in the embedded
script shortly after the youtube url to the video.
5 Dec 2010 Small
hours. Because of the way that my zoom vids end where they start I wanted
youtube to repeat (loop) them ad-infinitum. With a few googles I found at least
3 ways that worked.
1)
using
&loop=1 in the embed script after both youtube urls in the one script as mentioned
above for Twister vid mod entry of 1
Dec 2010. like this;
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dPFLBTj74bo?fs=1&hl=en_GB&loop=1"
This
smoothly loops backto 1st frame without any fuss, but it only works
with an embedded url like the twister youtube near the top of this page.
2)
on
youtube itself simply by editing ANY url by inserting repeat
before .com into any youtube url like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPFLBTj74bo
becomes
http://www.youtuberepeat.com/watch?v=dPFLBTj74bo
The trouble with this is
that you don’t get all the familiar suggestions and comments etc just the vid
and a huge youtube logo.
The page looks like one
I might produce with a simple embedded script.
3)
on
youtube by creating a playlist, and appending &playlist=1 to the end of the url for that playlist like
this
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8EA56510E67AE585&playnext=1
I
learned this trick by acccident because one of my favourite vids [Emmilie Simon
– Desert (French)] just happened to loop
for me which was just fine – here is that lovely but slightly weird vid url J enjoy the qualities;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI_nkXUpvJk&list=MLGxdCwVVULXflDCZEn3kUP7H1Sc66h3ux&playnext=1
23 Dec 2010 11:32.
Updated laptop2.pdf to include a diagram showing exact position of keyboard
retaining latches showing how to press them in and lift up the keyboard simultaneously
using a credit card under 3 keys – to spread the load.
8 June 2011
Midnight.
Added Bitcoin logo, link to www.bitcoin.org,
my bitcoin address and link to bitcoinprices.com . Bitcoin is an experiment,
its monopoly money.
4 March 2012
Midnight. Added
ICD UX512 FenDawnChorus recording.
31 May 2012
Midnight. Added
ComAvail section at top of page with link to version 1.0.0.1 zip.
Version
1.0.0.0 was produced in half a morning, 1.0.0.1 includes basic help in
printable PFD file format.
2 June 2012
Midnight-to-1530.
Upped ComAvail to version 1.0.0.3. All
versions are available from the archive. . Much more time was put into the
later versions. It’s the attention to the details (like coping with all 40
ports, multiple port removal, providing link to Device Manager), more rigorous
testing and the documentation that a absorb this time.
Notice
that manual downloads are directed to the latest single self contained zip file
in the archive with everything you need which at the time is www.seabrooks.plus.com/comavail/archive/1003/publish-ComAvail-1003.zip and NOT to www.seabrooks.plus.com/comavail/update
which is intended for automated machine-machine interface updates and does not
contain a single compressed file.
Improved
appearance, graphics and wording of comAvail section.
Improved
appearance, graphics and layout of page title.
18 June 2012
Midnight. Upped
font size and boldness. Demoted comavail to 2nd entry. Elaborated on
ICD 512 improvements – esp namable files.
2 July 2013 0830.
Added jworker v1.0.0.0. OpenOCD is great and superior by far, but a simple
single application that takes advantage of FDTI’s FTCJTAG.DLL was the aim here.
3 July 2013 2100:
add jworker version 1.0.0.1, 1.0.0.2.
And linked main download to version 1.0.0.2.
5 July 2013 Added
jworker v 1.0.0.3, but not linked to it from main download because the tooltip
for the [kB] button still referred to erase-blocks which are now transparent to
the user.
?WTF?
NOT Everything should be monetized.
If you disagree
Monetize me
£1
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