Steve's Blog » Technology

Site improvements

Steve — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:35:50 +0000

Hello all! It’s been quite a while since I last blogged. I have been quite busy in the interim, but not with what I really wanted to work on. I find myself working more on my site’s infrastructure than on it’s content. Not the best of ideas, considering that content is king. However…

You probably didn’t notice, but I have totally rebuilt TitaniumKnights.net from the ground up, including this here blog. Well, if you were paying attention, you would have noticed the blog changes – I coded the blog template to look identical to that of the main site. Furthermore, you would only have noticed any changes to the main site if you looked at the source code. I wanted to make the code cleaner, faster, and source ordered while keeping the site visually the same.

The site rebuild took about a month or so since my XHTML and CSS knowledge was very limited. But it was a great learning experience. I can now build websites from scratch using just a text editor and a graphics program. (And the occasional code reference off the net…)

The source ordering, to my surprise, really made a huge difference. Before the site rebuild, I received very little traffic via search engines – about 4%. Now, according to Google Analytics, it’s about 20%. With the same content. Cool. I only wish that I had done it sooner…

So, now I have an average of about 200 visits per month. Of course, I intend to have much more than that! So, I’m learning about web marketing. I have pretty much no backlinks yet, but that’s okay. I have a proven track record of learning new things and achieving measured results using my newly learned skills. I also need to get back to my content creation goals. But I have so many of them… maybe that’s the problem…

Er…

Anyway, I also set up an online community forum on my other site at SteveWexlerIT.com/Forums. It is a place for discussing technology, audio/video, creative ventures, entertainment, and console/pc gaming. And since I’m plugging other sites here, check out CookiesNCupcakes.com. It’s run by my wife, and she is an excellent baker! I’ve put on quite a few pounds eating her desserts, why not join me?

Take care all!

Sony Network Walkman Issues

Steve — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:18:38 +0000

I love listening to music in my spare time. For that purpose, I find that an MP3 Player is very useful! My personal favorite MP3 player is the Cowon iAudio 5. However, that is not exactly what I am writing about in this article. I am actually writing about issues with the Sony Network Walkman, particularly model number NW-E002F. My wife decided to pick up this MP3 Player for her listening enjoyment, despite my advice to the contrary. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love Sony products. It’s just that the Sony Network Walkman products require you to install Sony’s “SonicStage” software if you want to load songs to the player – and I detest any device that requires the installation of proprietary software just to operate. (This is also why I won’t touch an iPod.)

After my wife received her new Sony Network Walkman, I set it up for her. I was annoyed by having to install the SonicStage software, but I did so anyway. The SonicStage software was very difficult to tame! As I didn’t want my wife to have any difficulties with her new MP3 player, I decided to do a little research into alternatives to SonicStage. I found some information scattered around the internet in bits and pieces.

As of this writing, there are still no official Sony alternatives to SonicStage for this particular model. (NW-E002F) Sony has released a standalone driver and a basic MP3 File Manager program for models NW-E103 / E105 / E107 / E403 / E405 / E407 / E503 / E505 / E507 – PA_Driver.exe and MP3FMv2_ENG.exe. (Found here and here , respectively.) It will probably work with other Sony Network Walkman models, but I have found that it definitely does NOT work with the NW-E002F – the software installs and transfers files, but the files will not play at all. Probably a different type of file encryption. So now what? I continued my search… apparently there are currently only third party solutions for this model…

The solution I found and am currently using for my wife’s Sony device is NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager, found here. It is a Java based solution for transferring music to the device. Since it is Java based, it will work on any platform with Java support. The only tricky part is installing it properly. First off, it must be installed the device itself! A step by step tutorial follows:

Before plugging the device into your system for this procedure, I usually initialize the device. WARNING! Initializing will delete any data you have on the device! Back up your data if it is important to you.

Delete any folders and/or files on your device using Windows explorer. (Never use the Windows format disk option for your Sony device, by the way!)

Download NW-E00X_MP3_File_Manager-0.13.jar, ffmpeg-win32.zip, and OMGAUDIO.zip from here. Unzip/extract the files from the zips.

Copy NW-E00X_MP3_File_Manager-0.13.jar, ffmpeg.exe, pthreadGC2.dll, and the OMGAUDIO folder to your device. Note: ffmpeg.exe and pthreadGC2.dll are optional, and may be skipped if desired.

Now, double click on NW-E00X_MP3_File_Manager-0.13.jar, and you will be presented with a file manager. Use this to copy your music files to the Sony device. Be sure to click on the button in the lower right corner (with the diskette icon) to write the files to your device when you are finished.

Alternatively, there are two other file managers for the NW-E00xx series that I have discovered:

SWEx_0032.zip is a Windows only MP3 file manager, which I have tested and found fully functional. It is installed in the same manner as NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager. Just copy the files from the zip (id3lib.dll and SWEx.exe) and use the OMGAUDIO directory from NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager. It can be found here. (Free registration required) I will also provide a direct download link to the file from this site soon, for your convenience. Update! File available here.

voidMP3FM from DrVoid.com is another Windows only MP3 file manager, which I have not tested. It appears to work just like the last two file managers, and is installed in the same manner. Get it here.

Well, I hope this article has been helpful to you. The software I mentioned in this article should work with Sony Network Walkman models NW-E002F, NW-E003F, NW-E005F, NW-E002, NW-E003, and NW-E005. I make no guarantees, however, and anything you do with the information I have provided is solely at your own risk. Enjoy your Sony Network Walkman without SonicStage!

If this article has helped you, please consider leaving a donation. Thank you.

Ever get tired of just a few desktop wallpapers?

Steve — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 08:11:29 +0000

I love desktop wallpapers. Usually anime and CG wallpapers grace my desktop. For years I had my favorite wallpaper on my primary PC, and my second favorite wallpaper on my secondary PC. After a year or so, I would change my favorite wallpaper to a new favorite. But then I would miss the old one…

I eventually ran into a larger problem – having too many favorite wallpapers! I then wondered if there was a way to automatically change wallpapers in Windows. I didn’t find any way to do it with Windows XP’s built in features. I did, however, find several little known programs to do this for me. I tried out several, with my primary concern being with the program’s simplicity, size, and memory usage. After many trial runs, I had decided to stick with a program called dWall.

dWall sits in my system tray and automatically changes wallpapers at any time interval I request. (I set mine to change every 10 minutes.) I love it. Now I can enjoy all of my favorite wallpapers all the time. Yes, I do get bored very easily…

You can find dWall at the at the author’s site here.

By the way, those lucky MacOS X users out there have this feature built in to the OS. Those Apple guys definitely have vision…