Tech Tips

MSIE Slow Open Tab – Solved

Disabled FoxyTunes add-on and now opening a new MSIE tab is quick.

To fix this, open MSIE, then go to TOOLS >> MANAGE ADD-ONS.

Select FOXY TUNES and disable it. Voila, 4+ seconds of your life returned to you each time you open a tab.

Here’s how I set my open tab internet options:

And my browsing settings:

I still prefer FireFox by a couple of orders of magnitude but YouTube is still flaky for me.

Google Chrome – The evil empire owns your life

Never sign anything that you don’t read. Never agree to an end user license when you don’t know what it says. Watching the google monsters gobble up the internet makes you long for the days when the tech world grew to Bill Gates dreams.

Bill got rich, often with buggy bloated code. But he was a real innovator and the technology he and his guys brought to the world changed the world.

The octopus at Google is based on a whole different philosophy. They are the kings of “Reintermediation”. Their only accomplishment is to get in between searchers and content, between writers and readers. Nothing new is created. Nothing new is contributed. Their only skill is capturing a part of the transaction and information costs for themselves. But this week they outdid themselves. They released a new slick browser. They suggest that it is faster and more efficient than Firefox or Explorer. (we have our doubts, which we’ll discuss on another post) but here’s the catch.

THEY OWN EVERY THING YOU EVER WRITE OR POST OR CREATE USING THEIR BROWSER AND THEY CAN SELL IT TO ANYONE THEY WANT TO AND THEY NEVER OWE YOU A DIME.

amazing. unbelievable.

oh please bring back the old king bill.

Here’s more from Gizmodo:

So, are you enjoying the snappy, clean performance of Google Chrome since downloading yesterday? If so, you might want to take a closer peek at the end user license agreement you didn’t pay any attention to when downloading and installing it. Because according to what you agreed to, Google owns everything you publish and create while using Chrome. Ah-whaaa? Update: It was a copy & paste mistake, apparently, and the offending language is being removed as we speak. Thanks, Googe!

Here are the juicy bits in question:

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

Well, I guess I shouldn’t have used Chrome to put some posts up yesterday, because I certainly do not have the rights, power or authority to hand over my work from Gawker to the Googe. Oops! You’ll have to pry the rights to my posts from Nick Denton’s cold, dead hands, Google.

In any case, it’s a pretty unnecessary and unreasonable thing to put in the EULA for a browser, of all pieces of software, which makes it pretty questionable. Why in the hell would Google want ownership of every single blog post or email written in its browser? It’s so unreasonable that it borders on the insane. I can’t really imagine Google actually invoking this and suddenly publishing heavily edited entries from your LiveJournal for profit, but I think a lot of people would feel much better about hopping on board with Chrome if this little piece of sketchy legalese was axed.

What say you, Google overlords?

Don’t Pay for Ring Tones – Instructions

Ingredients:

* Cell phone with MP3 ring-tone support
* CD or MP3 of the song
* Any method of transferring the ring tone from computer to phone (USB, Bluetooth, e-mail, instant message, etc.)
* Audio-editing software that allows export to MP3. If you don’t already have this, Audacity is a good open-source program you can download for free, and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. You’ll also need the LAME library for Windows, Mac or Linux. (LAME is a free downloadable MP3 codec that enables Audacity to encode to MP3.)
* About 20 minutes

Instructions:

If you’re creating your ring tone from a CD, rip the song you want as a WAV (Windows) or an AIFF file (Mac). Using iTunes, specify this type of ripping in File/Preferences/Advanced/Importing. It’s a good idea to specify a new ripping location, too, so the ripped song doesn’t end up lost in the rest of your collection. In iTunes, set the “rip to” folder in File/Preferences/Advanced/General.

If you’re creating your ring tone from an MP3, just copy that MP3 into a new folder so that your ring-tone editing won’t affect the version of the song in your digital music collection.

Once you have the song as a digital music file (whether WAV, AIFF or MP3), run your audio-editing software. I highly recommend Audacity for this task. It’s free, it’s open-source, it runs on all major platforms, it rocks. If you don’t plan to use it, skip the rest of this tutorial and consult your software documentation.

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Audacity converts — read on!

Before Audacity can export audio to the MP3 format your cell phone wants in a ring tone, you’ll need to download the LAME library. LAME is open-source MP3 audio-compression software that rates among the best anywhere for recording fidelity. It also claims a legal exemption from MP3 patent royalties, meaning it’s free, for now at least. Find the link for your operating system listed above on this page, and download LAME to a new folder on your computer (it will need to stay there for Audacity to access it for MP3 encoding).

Run Audacity, go to the Audacity/Preferences menu, and click the Find Library button near the bottom of the screen. Navigate to the LAME Library on your hard drive, and select it. I recommend setting your bit rate to 128 Kbps. You can choose a lower bit rate to save space on your phone, but you’ll get lower-quality sound.

In Audacity’s File menu, select Open and find the song you ripped for your ring tone.

You’ll see your song laid out from left to right. Click the cursor around until you find the section you want for your ring tone. You’re looking for a phrase of 10 to 15 seconds or so. Take a few passes at highlighting your future ring tone. Press the space bar to preview the selections. When you find the right one, you can export it as is — or you can personalize the ring tone with audio effects.

Audacity comes with several effects; to try them out, leave the ring tone selected in the Audacity window, and then select anything in the Effect menu.

I recommend trying the Echo and Phaser. Each has various settings to tweak. Adding these effects is a matter of taste, but I figure it adds a bit of spice to the ring tone and makes it more of an individual statement.

Creating a derivative work of a copyright song is technically illegal. I’m no lawyer, and this does not constitute legal advice, but I am fairly certain that one could successfully defend these highly unlikely charges on the grounds that creating — and not distributing — a ring tone from a legally purchased song is covered by the affirmative defense of fair use.

After you’re happy with whatever effects you’ve decided to use (the Edit/Undo function often comes in handy here), leave the ring tone selected in Audacity and choose File/Export Selection as MP3.

It’s time to transfer the MP3 ring tone onto your phone. The easiest way to do this is with Bluetooth, assuming you have already paired your computer and cell phone. If your phone came with a USB connection, use that; otherwise, try e-mailing or texting it as an attachment. Put the ring-tone file into the Audio folder if your phone has one, and then select the new ring tone in your Tools or Options menu.