Thursday, November 26, 2009
The Call
Why is it that I ALWAYS end up with the greatest happiness and the greatest misery eva.. all in the same call?
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Winamp vs Google Talk
Ok,
Here's the final word on a debate that's been raging for ages now..
The History
Google Talk launched a new option that allowed you to set your status message to whatever track you're listening to in Winamp. (Support was added later for several other media players).
The Problem
Suddenly, out of the blue, Gtalk started freezing up and/or using up 100% (50% in case of true dual core CPUs) CPU whenever the "Show current music track" was selected for the status.
The Cause
Winamp v5.5 onwards, the temporary file winamp.m3u, which was created by earlier versions of Winamp to store the currently playing playlist, ceased to be created. Gtalk desktop app used to get the currently playing track info from this file. So, in it's absence, the app started freezing up.
The Great Debate
Forums all over the world started buzzing with this issue and potential fixes.
Google was quick to point out that this issue occurs only with Winamp v5.5+. and they quickly posted a fix - execute the command (highlighted in bold) in a run prompt or the command prompt
nul: >> "%programfiles%/winamp/winamp.m3u"
and voila! problem solved.
Now, this was released at a time when The latest Windows was XP. So, all was well..
Well.. almost. As many of you must've realized by now, most internet users are downright dumb.
Irresponsible noobs who incite pandemonium and irrational panic at the drop of a HAT (pun intended, if u get what I mean :P). The world would be a better place to live in if they can be rid of..
NM.. I digress..
So, when Vista was released, this fix stopped working and all hell broke loose..
What nobody realized was that nul is some sort of device file, a system file created by Windows, and Vista onwards MS has withdrawn support for direct user manipulation of this device file (alongwith several othres like CON) from the command prompt/Run prompt.
By this time the 64-bit versions of Windows were becoming popular, what with the slow yet steady acceptance of the amd64 architecture as being far superiorto the x86. This introduced another glitch - the %programfiles% needed to be changed to %programfiles(x86)% for reasons obvious.
Another issue came up with the launch of the Windows 7 Beta and RC versions - none of them supported this bandy-around-with-system-files-from-the-command-prompt style fixes..
Noobs unite!!!
A war cry came up against both Winamp and Google - for unleashing on them poor (roflmao) souls software that's got more bugs than features.
Winamp folks were quick to deny any responsibility - saying that it was Gtalk's prerogative to fix the issue.
Google didn't respond directly, but they placated several perplexed users by offering a not-so-elegant-yet-simple (arent all simple ones so?) solution - simply create a blank file with the name winamp.m3u in the Winamp installation directory. Voila!
There isn't a version of Windows/Winamp/Gtalk that this fix wouldn't work with.
Yet, if you go to some of the forums, you'll see these damn noobs wailing away to glory (Why do I get a feeling that I should have titled this post - War against Noobs ?!!) all over the forum walls, whereas any above-average surfer would be able to read the exact foolproof (as of now) fix somewhere in the first page (of the many scores to follow) itself.
Now that I've solved your problem - Trust me, if this doesn't solve your problem, you're either the very kind of computer/internet user whose existence I despise, or u're not using Windows, which boils down to the same - here's the Disclaimer: ALL instances above have been from the author's personal experience. No slander/whatever-it-is-that-invites-lawsuits is/was/ever will be intended wrt Nullsoft/Winamp/Google/Windows.
Happy chatting..
-ONE
Is marrying one's comp illegal?
Here's the final word on a debate that's been raging for ages now..
The History
Google Talk launched a new option that allowed you to set your status message to whatever track you're listening to in Winamp. (Support was added later for several other media players).
The Problem
Suddenly, out of the blue, Gtalk started freezing up and/or using up 100% (50% in case of true dual core CPUs) CPU whenever the "Show current music track" was selected for the status.
The Cause
Winamp v5.5 onwards, the temporary file winamp.m3u, which was created by earlier versions of Winamp to store the currently playing playlist, ceased to be created. Gtalk desktop app used to get the currently playing track info from this file. So, in it's absence, the app started freezing up.
The Great Debate
Forums all over the world started buzzing with this issue and potential fixes.
Google was quick to point out that this issue occurs only with Winamp v5.5+. and they quickly posted a fix - execute the command (highlighted in bold) in a run prompt or the command prompt
nul: >> "%programfiles%/winamp/winamp.m3u"
and voila! problem solved.
Now, this was released at a time when The latest Windows was XP. So, all was well..
Well.. almost. As many of you must've realized by now, most internet users are downright dumb.
Irresponsible noobs who incite pandemonium and irrational panic at the drop of a HAT (pun intended, if u get what I mean :P). The world would be a better place to live in if they can be rid of..
NM.. I digress..
So, when Vista was released, this fix stopped working and all hell broke loose..
What nobody realized was that nul is some sort of device file, a system file created by Windows, and Vista onwards MS has withdrawn support for direct user manipulation of this device file (alongwith several othres like CON) from the command prompt/Run prompt.
By this time the 64-bit versions of Windows were becoming popular, what with the slow yet steady acceptance of the amd64 architecture as being far superiorto the x86. This introduced another glitch - the %programfiles% needed to be changed to %programfiles(x86)% for reasons obvious.
Another issue came up with the launch of the Windows 7 Beta and RC versions - none of them supported this bandy-around-with-system-files-from-the-command-prompt style fixes..
Noobs unite!!!
A war cry came up against both Winamp and Google - for unleashing on them poor (roflmao) souls software that's got more bugs than features.
Winamp folks were quick to deny any responsibility - saying that it was Gtalk's prerogative to fix the issue.
Google didn't respond directly, but they placated several perplexed users by offering a not-so-elegant-yet-simple (arent all simple ones so?) solution - simply create a blank file with the name winamp.m3u in the Winamp installation directory. Voila!
There isn't a version of Windows/Winamp/Gtalk that this fix wouldn't work with.
Yet, if you go to some of the forums, you'll see these damn noobs wailing away to glory (Why do I get a feeling that I should have titled this post - War against Noobs ?!!) all over the forum walls, whereas any above-average surfer would be able to read the exact foolproof (as of now) fix somewhere in the first page (of the many scores to follow) itself.
Now that I've solved your problem - Trust me, if this doesn't solve your problem, you're either the very kind of computer/internet user whose existence I despise, or u're not using Windows, which boils down to the same - here's the Disclaimer: ALL instances above have been from the author's personal experience. No slander/whatever-it-is-that-invites-lawsuits is/was/ever will be intended wrt Nullsoft/Winamp/Google/Windows.
Happy chatting..
-ONE
Is marrying one's comp illegal?
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