12 years of Digital Photography

Having been taking photos using digital technologies since 2000 I have decided to consolidate my photos that have spread out over multiple drives and computers. This reminds me why I was so pissed off with Joshua Sham and my subsequent dealings with Wayne McAlpine and OneWorld.

It was the back and recovery of digital photos that set me off on my series of posts relating to the OneWorldDataRecovery service that I saw on the Canada Computers website. I was probably in the process of purchasing an additional drive to backup my photos when I came across it and thought that it was too good to be true. I made a blog post to that effect and I received a comment from Joshua Sham, shown below:

Joshua has left a new comment on your post "One World Data Recovery Protection Plan":

You obviously didn't read the website properly. First off, I wanted my DATA back, and I paid $$$ to get my DATA. I didn't care about getting my hard disk back because I wanted my pictures from my vacation to New York.
The $14.99 does cover the cost of the actual data recovery. There are no other charges other than those listed in the FAQ. Get your facts straight! Total Bill $220.34 because everybody pays tax. I think you should probably know that data recovery from CBL or seagate start at $400 and climb easily to $2000 and more. Good luck with your blank drive through the manufacturers warranty. A whole lot of good that will do you when you want back your DATA.

The comment was followed by a series of other communications from Joshua Sham and Wayne McAlpine and it became clear that the original comment was not only a Shill comment (Joshua was an employee of Wayne McAlpine) but it was also "blog Spam" (i.e. it was only made in an attempt to show the OneWorld service in a good light).

I took exception to the statement that I didn't read the website (OneWorld's) correctly and I was subsequently proved right, the service WAS to good to be true.

The fact that Joshua was claiming that he got his data back from his New York trip struck a note with me. I am not sure of his math and the total bill of $220.34 for his data recovery, that sounded like an awful amount of tax! but, that was not the main issue I was commenting on.

Links:

• My post on Joshua Sham - the Shill
• The truth about Wayne McAlpine and Oneworld.

Using Robocopy to backup My Documents

Having attempted to use robocopy.exe to make a backup of a users data files I came across the following behavior.

I was trying to be "pure" and use the command line and not just to use drag and drop using Windows Explorer. The theory here was not only that it should provide a more robust copy, i.e. I could restart the copy if it was interrupted, but also I could then incorporate the command into a backup script.

It became obvious that the file structure for Windows 7 was not as simple as it first might appear and I was concerned that all the iPad and iTunes files, plus others, were being copied as well as the contents of the directory that I wanted a copy of. The resulting copy reported 52G Bytes of data when the actual data that I wanted to copy was only 8G Bytes. The copy took 1.5 hours as opposed to a matter of minutes for the copy that I wanted.

Junction Points and the solution:

Like a lot of the replies you see to problems that you find on blogs and forums this is no exception. Many of the solutions posted had nothing to do with the original question. However, having read the solution (linked below) it made sense to what I was seeing.

The answer was to use the /XJ switch telling robocopy to ignore the Junctions or the directories that the Windows 7 file system includes behind the scenes.

Running the help for robocopy shows that the response detailing the answer to the problem is actually the case. I guess that I could have worked out the problem for myself.

The other thing that is confusing is that the answer on the Microsoft Windows 7 forum is that it is not easy to see who is replying to whom. The answers are there but a lot of what there is in the post is occluded. The original question was phrased in a way that an infinite loop was being seen, my problem and solution was not that but I guess that I could have been fooled into thinking that there was one.

In addition, there is another answer to what I was seeing in the Microsoft forum replies. A commenter was warning that there could be other problems if a robocopy command was used to change the target of a junction directory as there would be problems in the future. In my case the copy on the target drive ended up hidden as I guess that the permissions and/or the resulting junction confused Windows Explorer when the drive was viewed. Searching the drive for the copied files revealed that the files were there but could not be seen. I will have to re-format the target drive as the disc space is being used but I cannot see the files!

Links:

• The solution to the problem was found here - see the most helpful reply
• The VistaTips post with a question from Nicholas Hall relating to the copying of "non-permitted" directories.

Folder permissions and other things found when using robocopy:

 In addition to the behaviour that I describe above you may also find that you will get "permission denied"  messages when you try and copy files and directories from the root of a drive. The cause of this is due to a similar to reason as the directories that are attempted to be copied in this instance are again Junction directories.

I covered this on my website in more detail and possibly made another post on this blog. I discussed the command syntax that you need to use to stop the errors due to these "forbidden" directories asking to be copied:

robocopy /mir k:\ \\Mybookworld\public\ /XD dirs $RECYCLE.BIN /XD dirs RECYCLER /XN /XO

In the command above the directories are excluded from the robocopy processing - I had not found a way to set the Windows permissions to allow the copying of these directories. However, I would suggest that you would not want to in any case as it would probably give you problems in the future.

Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County is the region of San Francisco that is the home of Google at Mountain View.

Links:

• When someone complains to Google about your content
• Santa Clara visits
• If you think that you have information about yourself removed from the Web by Google
• You probably think that this blog is about you
• The Googleplex on WikiP

---

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Six Strikes and Copyright Law

Today I logged a search for: will peerblock stop the six strike law?

The answer to this is "No" - as Peerblock will not protect you against anything! (see my other posts on the subject). In fact I was not aware that there was a "Six Strikes" law, I thought it was just a proposal by the media industries in an attempt to contain piracy. I will not try to enter into this argument, you can read this for yourself on the links below. I am just taking issue with some of the technological issues that are raised by this discussion.

Following some of the links that I have found on the pages linked below, I take issue with some of the statements that I find.

The discussion here was prompted by some of the comments on the articles I found when making a search for "Six Strikes" - i.e. the article by Ian Paul, PCWorld,    Jul 8, 2011 and others.

Like most forums the nature of the comments is more from the nature of appearing smarter than the other participants and insulting each other.

---

RIAA MPAA and CopyrightInformation.org (The Center for Copyright Information)
Hardly an independent organization:

• Executive Vice President & General Counsel - Executive Vice President & General Counsel Steven M. Marks, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Recording Industry Association of America    (RIAA)

• Member - Marianne Grant, Senior Vice President, Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.  (MPAA)

• Chairman - Thomas Dailey, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Verizon Communications, Inc.

Plus representatives from Verizon, Viacom, Comcast, iKeepSafe.org, Future of Privacy Forum, 
Jerry Berman, Chairman, Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee 
Gigi Sohn, President and CEO, Public Knowledge

---

Some quotes from the Center for Copyright Information:

I don't really see what the following means:

"..... helping consumers take action to protect themselves, their internet accounts and home networks."

The only ones that are possibly being "protected" are the music and movie industry themselves. I think that it is very much "wishful thinking" on the part of the "industry" here. The threats that they are proposing are not likely to be so, the "six" that is, and they are unlikely to be passed into law.

Also, the information is hardly "educational" as it is purely FUD being spread by the "industry"
"........ the educational information provided in an alert will lead to very few subscribers who persist (or allow others to persist) in illegal file sharing."

It is not likely that those that are persisting in file-sharing  are not likely to be frightened off by idle threats and are more likely to step up their efforts to avoid detection in the first place.

Those allowing others to persist are likely to be the ISPs themselves - I would say in general that the ISPs are more interested in staying clear of the "industry" and are probably just paying lip service to them as they do not want to appear as being um-cooperative or not obeying local laws.

Links:

• ISPs Fight Piracy: Meet the Six Strikes - Ian Paul, PCWorld,    Jul 8, 2011
• Copyright Alert System (CAS) - www.copyrightinformation.org
• Europe seems to be more aggressive with a "3 Strikes" rule

Outlook Web Access

OWA

I came across this when troubleshooting Outlook email, etc, on a corporate network that had done "sour".

A 3rd party IT company were using it temporarily to access an Exchange server while the main accounts, served by PC based Office installations, were rebuilt.

What was not known at the time was if the local Word and Excel files (not to mention the local calendar and contact list) were accessible from OWA.

Why I think Outlook is seriously flawed

Don't get me wrong, I think that Outlook is probably the best that there is in integration of an Office suite on a Personal Computer. The ability to tie all elements of document creation with your messaging and scheduling is almost perfect.

However, I have observed many what I would term "legacy" problems over the time that I have had experience with using the MS Office suite. I won't go on to detail the versions that I have had dealings with as I think that my observations go beyond the differences between them. In addition, I think that the flaws transcend these versions and as such maybe be beyond redemption.

The fact that the user base is spread across multiple versions and platforms makes a fix" neigh on impossible. My initial suspicions were based on the notion that I either didn't know what I was doing, quite possible, or it was just that the version that I was using was fundamentally different than the versions and data files that are used in the enterprise. What I was seeing was inconsistencies in .pst files when I was migrating users from old computers to replacement ones.

What I was seeing was multiple folders, inboxes - outboxes etc - with data that seemed to have broken links between them. I was kind of expecting to see more than one set of personal folders, one from the old install and a new one. However, what I was seeing was that the linkages that seemed to have worked before were now broken in the migrated data. Contacts that were in the original contact folder were either not there or could not be found when emails were initiated to recipients that had been mailed frequently in the past. Often these contacts had to be added back to the personal folder that contained the in-box that was wanting to be used.

As I was saying, I thought that this behavior was due to something that I was not "getting" or doing wrong. I have now seen almost the exact same thing happening to an organization that I thankfully have no commitment to their IT well-being.  In this case a failure in the organizations email seemed to have resulted in the corruption of their users Exchange servers accounts. Whether this is just I coincidence with the firing of their complete IT department I just don't know!

A final note about Windows 8 (RT) and Office:

I am of the opinion that there are likely to be a lot of "pissed" Microsoft customers that are waiting for the Surface and other "Windows" based tablets. As far as I can see Outlook, the email, calendar and contacts, are not going to be available for RT based machines.

If the tablet format is to be viable in the workplace an Outlook solution (or something like it) is essential.

Asus products that I have owned

Having seen multiple visits from Nei-Hu, Taiwan I thought that I would make a mini index of the posts that I have made relating to Asus products on this blog.

• Transformer Prime - TF 201
• Using Digi+ VRM

More to come.

Links:

• Neihu District on WikiP

Cinavia watermarking

This method of DRM (Copy Protection) has started turning up on BD and other theatrical digital recordings and is currently (starting in 2012) detected by Sony PS3 and maybe some other Blu-Ray players.

It is an additional protection method to AACS and is also designed to protect media that is captured by video cameras, CAM or TS recordings. The detection of the "watermark" in the recording by the playback device will suspend the playback of the media after a period of time. It is supposed to be able to determine whether the copy was made from a camera or a direct copy of the BD, i.e. a "rip".

• The Wikip page

The location of resources discussed on this blog

Since a lot of searches seem to find this blog made by those looking to download files and utilities I thought that I would clarify what is and what is not to be found on this blog and my website tempusfugit.ca.

I have in the past made certain resources available for download by visitors to tempusfugit.ca - As I am not a download service this was only on a "demand" basis and would have been through a User ID and password via a link to my intranet server.

Not all of the resources that I have at my disposal were made available and certainly not files that are readily available from legitimate sources. In some cases I only allowed download when the visitor had ensured me that they had followed all proper procedures to obtain the resource through the proper channels.

If you require one of the resources that I discuss on this blog please send me a message and I may arrange for my intranet server to be forwarded to the Internet. At the present time, Summer 2012, my website is not active. It is my intention that it will be put back on line in the near future.

Configuring the Acer AO725 as a Mac Book Air

I should first say that I own both a Mac Book Air and an Acer AO722 11.6" notebook.

The Acer was 1/3rd of the price of the Apple but in my opinion the extra that you pay for the MBA is well worth it. Sure you could attempt to configure the Acer AO725 as a Hackintosh but it would not perform the same way or at a similar level of performance. This is, of course, if you can find a way to unlock the UEFI so that OSX can be installed on the Acer.

The Apple hardware is far better and if anything the superior build quality may prompt the opposite and the configuration of the MBA with Windows. 

Boot Camp:

I have installed Windows 7 on a Mac Book Air using Boot Camp.

Links:

• Configuring a Mac Book Air with Windows 7 - the "reverse Hackintosh"
• The differences between the BIOS on a PC and the Macintosh
• The Myths about the Mac Pre-boot environment

File Sharing Scams

Services such as RapidShare, FileSonic etc. - should be boycotted.

The rub here is evidenced by the fact that there is a reseller program.

It doesn't matter if you have files and stuff that people want to download. Just say that you have and set up a billing system to sucker people in and then, after they have paid, they find out that you don't have what they are looking for. You may have suckered them in by giving a file that they were looking for and hopefully you have convinced them that you have a lot more of the same thing.

Once you have a "punter" signed up they have little chance of getting their money back.

Links:

• Filesonic website - a list of resellers
• Rapidshare reviewed on this blog
• Alternative file sharing services (to P2P that is)
• The SideReel Scam - a service that claims to have an archive of all TV shows, but doesn't

Rapidshare are just in the business of trying to get your money

Rather than being a file-sharing service they are a premium download service that go out of their way to get you to sign-up before telling you how much it is going to cost.

You have bound to have come accross RapidShare in your quest for content to download from file-sharing sites on the Internet. My advice is to stay clear of Rapidshare as their business methods are so devious.

If the service was worth it they would not have to resort to such deceptive activities. Not only do you have to wait to make your download, your session will time-out if you leave your computer and come back to it later:

You will have to wait even longer if you have made a "free" download:

A RapidPro User will be favoured ---- do you really believe this after all the other nonsense that they    present you with on their website?

If you search the Internet to find out how much the service costs most of what you will find is conjecture. If they were serious about things they would say on their website and people wouldn't have to search! A German success story......" - indeed!

This post is an older post (circa 2011) that featured on www.tempusfugit.ca - my website - it has been re-posted on The Technology Muse.

Links:

• Pricing for Rapidshare 29/06/2010  - digitalspy.co.uk
• techdirt.com - Rapidshare Countersues Perfect 10 For Being A 'Copyright Troll' Who Only 'Shakes Down' Others
• Downloading movies
• Downloading the Canon SDK's - this is a common activity that you will find yourself on this type of service.
• Other File-Sharing Download Scams

Assadintosh

It is nice to see that life goes on. Even though the violence is stepping up in Syria there are still those looking for ways to configure a Hackintosh.

Visits to my pages relating to the unlocking of Insyde H2O BIOS and other pages that cover the configuration of a Windows computer with OSX were seen today from Damascus.

The previous visit from Damascus, most likely from another visitor, was possibly more relevant to the situation in Syria and could be from someone concerned about or working for the Assad regime.

There was another visit, from Rabat - Morocco, that was made to my post on the use of Tor and TorButton - The search here was from someone looking to download the version of Firefox that is used with the current version on the Tor bundle:
Firefox ESP version 10.0.5 - the search was in French (not Arabic), as telecharger was used in the search string.

Links:

• Syria conflict: Central Damascus hit by clashes, BBC News 17 July 2012
• Other post that was accessed from Damascus -  If you are concerned that your government is seeing what you are saying online.

BIOS Whitelist

Or "white-list".

Apparently HP, Lenovo and maybe others have a whitelist in their machines BIOS to limit what peripherals you can use.

As far as I know this is nothing to do with the Unlocking techniques discussed on many forums that reveal hidden menus to allow the adjustment of CPU settings, Memory Timings and other BIOS related items.

Links:

• Do-It-Yourself to remove the "White-list" restrictions from Lenovo's S10 Netbook
• Unlocking Insyde H2O UEFI/EFI BIOS  
• The DMI table and how this relates to a "white-list"

You're so vain - You probably think that this blog is about you.

Similar to the Carly Simon song I can think of a change to the lyrics:

"You're so Wayne, you probably think that this blog is about you"

Back in 2006 I started a study of "Vanity Googling" - or the act of looking for yourself on the Internet. At the time I coined the phrase "Narcisurfing" and it was also used by others to describe the activity.

The reasons for this are obvious and I have managed to attract many visits from those that are either looking for themselves or they are interested in this type of "vanity" search. Often there is a concern that there is misinformation about the person making the search and it is part of a "damage control" exercise.

When I see searches from a particular location, Saskatoon for example, and I see search strings such as "Wayne McAlpine" I cannot but suspect that this is not an example of this. In addition, the pages that are viewed are only those that are found by why what appears to be a single individual and the searches are made on a consistent periodic basis. Normally, unless the page is of popular interest (such as the unlocking of system BIOS), pages are accessed at random and from locations spread throughout the world.

Links:

• The 2006 ABC News article

How do i keep my isp from knowing what I search (for)?

This post was prompted by the search that comprises the title of this post. The post that the was found by the visitor from Morehead City was my post relating to whether PeerBlock was any use in stopping your ISP seeing what you are downloading.

The question of what you are searching for and what you are downloading are two separate issues and Peerblock is useless in both cases

Downloading from YouTube

Using the Python YouTube downloader script by Ricardo Garcia Gonzales.

Making a search for "youtube-dl" you will be able to find a place to download the script. You will also need to download a Python interpreter for your operating system. I use Python 2.7 for Windows quite successfully with the Gonzales script.

Since I was on the download page there seem to be a few more enhancements that have been made to the script and there are far more command line options than I remember the first time of using it. It is quite probable that I can do what I am describing here by using those options but this is what works for me. I basically copy and paste the YouTube URL into a DOS command line window and then rename the resulting download so that it no longer has a cryptic name based on the YouTube URL.

For example,  can see that there is a filename option for the output file (I presume) and there are other "playlist" and batch options. Similarly, there are other options for Video and Audio formats. I use VLC to play back the download so a conversion into a format other than the default .flv does not present a problem for me.

Links:

• My previous post on the YouTube downloader script - some pictures and more how-to here
• The Git-Hub developers page for the downloader - shows all the command line options and even a way to make an executable that runs under Linux.
• Python 2.7 for Windows

Windows OPK and Windows 8

In a recent article on ZDNet, by Ed Bott, there was another reference to the Windows OEM Pre-installation Kit (OPK).

Probably the most interesting thing to come out of this is that you are probably not supposed to be using an OEM copy of Windows in the first place. I know that I should not have and I put a lot of blame on the retailers such as Tiger Direct and Canada Computers here in Canada.

Links:

• Is Microsoft changing its policy on System Builder licensing for Windows 8?    Ed Bott for The Ed Bott Report ZDNet, July 9, 2012

iPad LTE real-world usage

This is a real-world estimate/actual measurement of wireless usage on an LTE iPad 3 (The New iPad)

The usage was maybe half a dozen web pages with a medium amount of graphical content. There was no streaming activity during this web access. Pages with You Tube content are likely to result in far greater usage.

In this case the iPad plan included 10M of usage for the minimum charge of $5. Here we see almost 5 times overage (49.35M) and takes the charges well into the $17 tier (from 10M to 250M). Luckily there was 5 days to go on this billing cycle and there was no fear in getting into the next tier (from 250M to 5G for a charge of $37).

One way of looking at this is that the 10 minutes of web usage cost $17 but it does allow a margin of doing the same for next 5 days. However, if you did the same this every day of the plan you would be well into the $37 tier. At 1.5G for 10 minutes a day you could possibly get 20-25 minutes a day and not run into the 2 cents per Megabyte above 5GBytes (for $37). The 50M example would have cost an extra $1 on the $37 tier - or around $6 per hour.

Out of date posts

It is my observation that there are many hits on posts that are WAY WAY old and that the only reason that the posts were found was due to the fact that they contained keywords that were similar to the problem at hand.

An example of this is the post on ZoneEdit being unreachable. Now, it is possible that this does occur from time to time it is not my experience that it is a common occurrence.

The morality of torrenting (file sharing)

I really do have a problem with the morality of this. I know that it is wrong, but it is so easy. There is little chance of being detected if you use a service that obscures your identity. It would also seem that in certain jurisdictions that the penalties for doing this have either not been decided or they allow violators to have 3 instances where they are found out before any action is taken against them.

This is not the case world-wide and some countries and regions do prosecute illegal file downloaders. There are always stories in the press where a file-sharer has been "made an example of" and has been sued for large amounts of cash. These, of course, could be just "scare" tactics to convince those that are thinking of making these downloads that it is too risky.

It is strange that when I poll my colleagues that many take no measures to obscure their identity and just ignore any violation messages that they get from their ISPs. Others have not even received any such warnings - I am confused.

Kindle Ireland online shop

This store uses Blog Spam techniques to promote their website.

In other words they comment on other blogs and include links to their website with the sole purpose of generating inbound links. The theory behind this is that the greater of incoming links that you have to a web page the higher its page rank. This does not happen on this blog as when comments are detected of this nature they are either deleted or they are re-posted without a hyperlink.

In this case an additional post was made, this one, that indicates the placement of a spam link.

Other links related to this marketing technique:

• Comments with the sole purpose of promotion 
• More about Blog Spam 
• Why I delete or re-post some comments on this blog - because it is TOTALLY non-commercial! 
• The post that the offending comment was placed - RPi as a Media Server (not sure what the relevance to Kindle is?)

WHS - Windows Home Server - RIP

So MS have decided not to continue with this offering.

Loosing out to Linux, maybe? (read the comments on the ZDNet post - link below)


Links:

• Microsoft confirms enthusiasts' fears: No more versions of Windows Home Server  -  Mary Jo Foley for All About Microsoft ZDNet July 5, 2012
• My attempts and successes of using Ubuntu as a Home Server.
• My previous post on Windows Home Server

TigerDirect compared to Canada Computers

A shopping experience comparison

Most of what Tiger Direct Canada have in their retail stores is crap! You vast on-line cannot ignore the catalog that is shared with the US. If you order on-line you can get anything that appears on their websites, both sides of the border. If you find an item on the Canadian website it will not necessarily be available in a store. In fact, my experience is that it is more likely NOT to be.

I have ordered things on-line from Tiger Direct and I can report that the orders were filled on time and correct. However, the only reason that I have ordered on-line is that the same components were not available from Canada Computers.

Canada Computers have the advantage that they have a store availability feature on their website, while, not entirely accurate, is better than the "lottery" of Tiger Direct

• My post on Canada Computers

The Shopping experience at Best Buy and FutureShop

In general this is quite favourable. The fact that you have a 14/30 day return policy makes all the difference.

FutureShop tend to be more aggressive when it comes to pressuring the customer to purchase an extended warranty.

As FutureShop is owned by Best Buy the product ranges are pretty similar as are the prices. I have purchased a lot of equipment from both stores. I have even purchased product from the FutureShop on-line store. The on-line experience was very positive and the product was ordered and delivered with minimum fuss and on-time as promised.

The return procedure for both stores is excellent, even when the purchase was made on-line.

Performing a BIOS Mod - Unlocking your BIOS

Most computer enthusiasts have heard of the phrase "to flash your ROM", but many don't really know what this means. This page is not meant to be a comprehensive "how-to", either from the perspective of the actual  "flash" or from the exact details on what to change in a specific BIOS product to achieve the desired effect.

"Flashing your BIOS" is not necessarily the same as modifying your BIOS to enable functions that were not available before. Many computer and motherboard manufacturers supply a BIOS Flashing program so that you can update your computer.

In most cases the cutomization of a computers ROM BIOS is too difficult for the novice computer user. However, flash updates are often made availble.
 
I have seen no reason to modify the BIOS on any of the computers that I own that have the Insyde H2O BIOS.

Why would you want to Modify and Flash your System BIOS?

There are multiple reasons, some of which are fixes to problems that affect your computer in operating in the way that it should. Others are to extend the capabilities of your computer  beyond that for which the manufacturer intended.

Un-hide Items or Options
These include:

• Enable or disable virtualisation (if your processor has that capability)
• Allow the correct handling of SATA hard drives or other hardware within your computer.
• Reveal settings for voltages and multipliers for overclocking CPU and Memory

Programs to use to create a Custom BIOS
All tools stored on my intranet

• AMIBCP8 for Windows
• MMTool(AMI BIOS)
• cbrom1.82 (and other versions) Phoenix
• Insydeh2o Utilities
• EzH20 (official Insyde tool) that has been leaked. - 06-25-2009 DannyRes (poster on a well known notebook site) - may also be known as EZH2O

Links:

• SLIC Tables and the information that they contain.
• My main post relating to UEFI/EFI and BIOS  

Resetting BIOS passwords

This is something that visitors to my BIOS unlock pages seem to be attracted to.

How to reset a BIOS password.

The way that you do this is to clear the data from the CMOS storage chip in your computer. Many desktop motherboards have jumpers to allow this to be done, laptops often require that you know what pins on the motherboard to short.

Unlocking a computers BIOS is not the same thing as unlocking the BIOS that has been password protected and that password had been forgotten. However, the BIOS settings are stored in the same CMOS as the system BIOS password. So, if you are unable to boot your computer the BIOS needs to be unlocked.

The ACPI Table

A storage area (In BIOS) that contains information of subsystem operation of a PC. ACPI - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface

ACPI_SLIC - controls and/or contains information about the software and operating system running on a computer. The licenses, product keys etc.

The DMI table is stored here as well. The name of the particular table will be vendor specific. Some BIOS vendors will provide toolkits to allow you to enter inventory data into your DMI table. Phoenix and AMI have toolkits but they only provide details on their pre-boots to manufacturers.

The ACPI Table for the Gigabyte m/b is presumably ACPITBL.BIN

The screenshot above shows the tables that are stored in the BIOS for a Gigabyte GA-EP45-U3DP motherboard. The table names and their offsets within the file are given and are to be used when the data is dumped and re-flashed.

This screen-shot shows an Asus BIOS dump (the SLIC Table)

The data in these tables can be dumped, edited and re-flashed to the BIOS or EFI storage media.

Activation of Windows by means of a BIOS MOD

The exact specification and location of the required certificates are known by the manufacturer of the hardware to be activated. This data is checked by the Windows Operating system to determine whether the copy of Windows is activated and genuine.

The Windows certificate can be placed in the ACPI table manually or by the use of a script.

If you have corrupted your BIOS

There are many ways you can  do this. If you apply a "patch" to your BIOS and it fails you will probably be in a position that your computer will not boot. It is for this reason that the manufacturers warn users when they attempt such actions.

To recover from a corrupted BIOS you will need to restore the BIOS to the factory settings and start over. This is why a Gigabyte motherboard is particularly useful as it has a Dual BIOS.

Links:

• ACPI Modules - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
• SLIC Tables and Mods
• The DMI table and the Desktop Management Interface  
• ACPI loader for Windows 8 RT

SLIC (Software Licensing Description Table)

A comparison and motivation for SLIC BIOS modifications both both the unlocking of BIOS features and the Activation of Licensed Software). What is more effective for Windows 7 activation, a "raw" BIOS mod and a BIOS Flash or a software loader (script)?

The activation of licensed software is certainly easier using a "loader" script. The use of the word "loader" is a little misleading as the thing that gets "loaded" is the OEM Certificate into the SLIC table that forms part of the system BIOS. The entries in this table (ACPI_SLIC) are read by the operating system (Windows 7 and Vista) and the copy then appear "genuine" if the appropriate certificate and serial number is found.

The modification of menu items and other functions of the System BIOS can be made by editing the contents of the BIOS ROM and then the BIOS chip is "flashed" with this new BIOS configuration. To make changes to the binary image that is stored on the BIOS Memory chip requires a detailed knowledge of the functions of the computer w.r.t. BIOS and how the computer boots, recognizes system components and how they interact together. If you do not know what you are doing you can render your computer so that it will not boot.

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)

The ACPI specification is an open industry standard for hardware and power management.

The ACP Interface consists of various modules stored on the System BIOS chip in a computer and are responsible for various functions.

For example: the ACPI_SLIC module (table) controls and/or contains information about the software and operating system running on a computer. The licenses, product keys etc. Some PCs has non-standard ACPI_SLIC tables

Links:

• The ACPI Table - how to view and edit  

Windows RT is a nonsense

The WikiP page explains that RT means "Runtime" but not to be confused with Windows Runtime.

The reason for this post was my disgust with the nonsense in the article "Qualcomm bets on Windows RT tablets and hybrids"  by John Morris & Sean Portnoy,  ZDNet  30 June 2012

I really don't think that the "kit" buying public will "get it" - A Windows device is going to be perceived as one that runs Windows applications, when it is discovered that RT is just a touch-centric tablet/phone o/s a lot of people are going to be disappointed.

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Links:

• A ZDNet article - the original article that spawned this post seems to have been pulled?

Blogger Page views and Analytics

My theory is that the page view counter in Blogger is generated from a server log analysis. It is generally reporting a higher count than the visits that are recorded by Google Analytics.

This is probably  due to the fact that Google Analytics uses JavaScript to record the data from the visitors. If this is the case it also is an indication of the number of Internet users that browse and search the Internet is a "safe" manner - by turning off JavaScript in their browsers or by blocking the action of scripts.

Using Gedit for developing HTML pages

To use gedit as a web development IDE the Micah Carrick website has more details (see link below).

The use of gedit plugins is the key here, a file browser pane, code snippets and the ability to ftp to the webserver can all be built into the gedit application.

Links:

• Micah Carrick  - Customizing gedit as a Web Developer's IDE
• Snippets  - sernaferna on Linux Ubuntu (I need to search for this again)