Registry Cleaner and General System Maintenance Issues with Windows XP

I hear over and over again that geeks and experts strongly recommend NOT using any registry cleaner software to clean up and fix your Windows XP registry database.

Chris Pirillo from Live.Pirillo.com posted a video and blog entry about it a few days ago where he explains why he thinks that most cleaner software potentially causes more harm than good to the system if used by an inexperienced user.

What is the Issue?
I see the point that determining if an entry is really not needed and obsolete or vital to a programs or even operating system operation is in many cases nothing more than an educated guess.

However, I also know that programs are also often doing a bad job with cleaning or removing registry entries they created, extended or removed, if you decide to uninstall the software via the control panel or uninstall link (if one was created by the software application when you installed it originally).

If you would install 50 programs and afterwards uninstall them again without even launching any of it once, your windows registry files would still become multiple times larger than they were before the installs.

A large registry database means slower access by programs and Windows itself to the entries they need or create during normal operations. With growing size also increases the risk of corruption or fragmentation that could make entire sections of the registry unreadable.

Re-Install Windows Again and Again? What?
So what are you going to do? One suggestion that I hear all the time is to "simply" reinstall everything once every 3, 6 or 12 months or so. Great idea!

I use my computer daily and even if I have a detailed plan or script to install and update all the software that I use and need, does a reinstall take me several days without the ability to do anything productive with it during that time. Some software requires several hours to install itself (MS Visual Studio is probably the software that holds the world record for the time it takes to install it), then you still have to reboot the computer several times before you can continue to install software. Then you have to get updates and service packs again and install those, to make sure that you have all the latest patches and security updates applied to your system and closed known security holes.

I tweak or customize the settings of many programs to streamline the processes where I use the software for. In most cases is it not possible to backup the settings and restore them on another system. In some cases exists a feature, but it is hidden somewhere in the application and has to be done manually. Let's face it, chances are that you either don’t do it or wanted to do it, but forgot it or cannot remember who to do it properly. The result is the same in any case, the reinstalled software has to be configured by hand again to make it work the same way it used to before you started the re-install of your system.

Nope...That does Not Work Either
Making a backup of the program folder and doing a restore on your fresh installed Windows XP will not work in 90% of the cases, because most software copies some of the files needed to run it properly to directories outside its own program directory. The most common place where software copies files to is the Windows System32 directory. Add to that the fact that most programs write critical configuration settings to the Windows Registry database and are have problems if those entries are missing or are unable to start entirely.

No matter what you do, you end up being screwed.

Even if you don't uninstall any of the software, Windows is able to manage to pollute itself more and more just during normal operation. Also most software developers are not doing a good job and contribute significantly to the pollution of your system. Non-essential stuff is being written to the registry, just in case, files copied to the system directories, also just in case, existing versions of the file with the same file name are simply overwritten, regardless if it is the same version or not, or worse, an entirely different file from another software application that happens to use the same file name for a file it copies to the Windows system folders. Why are they doing it? … Because they can.

Faceing the Truth!
System failure or a system that is messed up beyond hope of ever being able to clean up again is inevitable. It is not a question of IF but WHEN the only option you have left to solve your problems with your PC, is biting the bullet and waste your time again on a complete re-installation of everything. I always dread this day and often delay it as much as I can, even if that means that I have to tolerate flaws and problems with the computer that compromise my daily work, slow me down or in the worst case cause the loss of data or something you worked on for an hour or more without saving it to have a system crash take everything you did with it to its blue screen grave.

Tools that I use, anyway
I use tools like the freeware utility CClean and also commercial tools from Uniblue, such as their Registry Booster and SpeedUpMyPC, once in a while to clean up some of the mess that is created by normal system usage to regain some performance back. I never had the case yet that using a registry cleaner was killing my system, but I am aware of the risk. Each of the tools I use show you first what they want to do and let you decide on a per item level, if you want it or not. They also provide a backup option that is enabled by default in the case that a vital entry was removed from the registry by accident.

Solutions to the Dilemma, Anybody?
I have not found a solution that is practical and working to solve this dilemma. I am still searching for options and solutions that either help me to keep the system clean or as an alternative help me to reduce the time it takes to re-install and reconfigure my entire system to make a frequent re-install of Windows a viable option for me.

1. Changing How Software is Installed
Forcing software to install all files only to its own program directory and not to use the windows registry to store vital settings, but save them also somewhere in its own program directory (e.g. in an .INI file or something like that), sounds good and like a plan, but how can you do this in reality. Software that offers you a choice is the exception. Not using software that does not offer this feature is also out of the question. I wish I could make this choice. So how can we do it? I am unaware of any tool that will do the trick for you. Is there anything? Is it even possible to create something like that?

2. Speed up the Windows XP Re-Installation
The alternative is to speed up the process of re-installing your entire system. Windows XP comes with a tool that you can find under Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools. It is called "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" and lets you backup several of your Windows desktop and other settings. This tool was designed specifically for the case of a reinstall of Windows to make it easy for users to re-apply their customization settings to a fresh installed Windows XP system. Unfortunately, this does only work for some of the configuration settings that I do worry about. It does not support third party software, not even for other products from Microsoft itself, such as Microsoft Office.

It would have been great, if Microsoft would have made it an open solution, or better, a mandatory solution, that software developers could use to allow the export (and import) of their software’s configuration settings.

So what settings does the tool support?

• Accessibility
  
• Command Prompt Settings
  
• Display Properties
  
• Internet Explorer Security Settings
  
• Internet Explorer Settings
  
• Mouse and Keyboard
  
• Network Printer and Drives
  
• Outlook Express
  
• Regional Settings
  
• Sounds and Multimedia
  
• Taskbar Options
  
• WinAmp Media Player (how got that in there?)
  
• Windows Media Player

Also some folders are backed up

• Quick Launch folder (for the current user)
  
• Desktop
  
• Fonts
  
• My Documents
  
• My Pictures
  
• Shared Desktop
  
• Shared Documents

Also the settings for the registered file extensions can be saved. This are basically the file associations for "open", "view" and "edit" that you can use to tell Windows, which application to use for known file types, depending on the desired action taken for a selected file (in Windows Explorer etc.)

The advanced mode allows experienced users to add files, directories and file types (extensions) to the list, if they were not selected by Microsoft automatically already. Folders like your Internet Explorer favorites (C:\Documents and Settings\ (Username)\Favorites) or the "Sent to" folder (C:\Documents and Settings\ (Username)\SendTo) are probably folders that you want to transfer over to your new installed system, just to mention a few.

The appearance of WinAmp in the list made me think. Maybe there is the option for programs to tap into this backup wizard, but nobody knows about it, thus don’t use it. The wizard even told me in the process that I have to make sure that WinAmp has to be installed on the new computer first, before I restore the settings for it to avoid problems.

You cannot add custom settings via the wizard, not even in advanced mode. You also cannot add specific blocks from the system registry to be included in the backup (and restore).

Ideas? Anybody?
Does anybody know about a tool that scans the computer for any installed software, its registry entries and file locations (including the files that were installed outside the program directory) and then adds all the needed settings, files, folders and file extensions to the settings of the backup wizard?

What else can I do to speed up the re-install of the system? Being able to create a setup CD or DVD for Windows XP itself and for the larger applications like MS Office etc. which already contain the latest Service Pack and any additional update and security patch would be helpful. I read somewhere that there are ways to do that somehow, but it looked very complicated and not as if a regular Windows user would be able to do it himself.

I am open to any suggestion at this point. If you have any ideas, comments, additional questions, recommendations or opinions to this general problem, feel free to comment in the comments section at the end of this post.

Thank you
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Googlefight - Karsten vs Carsten

I stumbled across a funny gimmick tool via the John Andrew's "SEO Secrets" page (which is also funny). It is called Googlefight.com.

John used it to demonstrate that Black Hat SEO is winning the Google game over White Hat SEO. Well according to Google fight it does hehe.

How does the tool work? Simple, you enter any two phrases into the specifically designed form at Googlefight.com and the tool will check the Google search results for each of the two phrases to see which one has a higher figure for estimated number pages found in the Google index. The phrase where Google returns a higher estimate wins. That's it, no more and no less.

Just for the fun of it did I initiate a Googlefight between "Carsten" and "Karsten", which are both comon spellings of my first name. I always thought that Karsten is the more widely used spelling than how my first name is spelled, "Carsten", with "C" and not a "K" at the beginning. So I was a bit surprised about the Googlefight results, which shows "Carsten" as the winner with 11,7000,000 results versus 8,080,000 for "Karsten". This is a clear victory by over 3,000,000 pages.



I don't think that my internet activities, which contribute a large number alltogether might caused this unexpected result, but hey, even I did not produce 3,000,000+ pages with my name written on it hehe.

Or how about a battle between "ansi art" and "ascii art"? Well, said and done. I knew already who would win this one, ASCII art of course with 2,030,000 versus just a meager 419,000 for ANSI art.



or how about AMIGA demos versus PC demos? A classic :).



Oh, I thought PC demos would win by a much higher margin than that. Maybe I underestimated the power of the Commodore AMIGA hehe.

Okay, enough of this! Well, it has been fun. Try it out yourself and fight out some "battles" of your own. :)

Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Major Windows XP and Microsoft Media Player 11 Rant.. plus some tips

I wasted today and in the past months a lot of time on solving a problem that is actually very simple and if you would believe the advertisements than there shouldn't be a problem at all or a simple solution right around the corner. Well, that is obviously not the case.

Lets start with an explanation of what am I trying to accomplish.

Part 1. The Simple Idea
I have multiple computers in a home network. They all see each other and permission are set that each computer can access resources and data on each of the other ones.


I also have a lot of media data. Music, Videos, Clip arts, Foley Sounds, Video Snippets etc. I converted most of my 300+ CDs to MP3's, but only converted a fraction of my 200+ DVDs for several reasons. Anyhow, what I already have is a lot and nothing that I could copy from A to B with a thumb drive or USB stick. I also don't want to have all those GB of data on each computer (which would not fit and does not make sense).

No problem, you can buy for a fair price something called Network-Attached Storage Devices, which are basically hard drives in a smart external casing that allows not only access to them via USB 2.0 or Fire-wire, but to hook them up into the network and make them visible via network share to any other computer in the same SUB-C class network, if it authenticates itself properly. Well done, now I have a nice network storage and all the data on it. I can browse it and play individual stuff.

Now I wanted to do the easy part (so I thought), creating a library with all that stuff in it. Nicely updated with the Meta Data that are already in the files themselves or from one of the large media databases on the Internet. Get the Album art for great looks, categorize stuff and can apply nice filters like "Show me all songs from artist XYZ that I have" or "Show me all the movies by director ABC".

Part 2. It Smells Like Trouble
Okay, there was one tricky part that I was aware of, the various video formats and also the increasing number of audio formats that compete with MP3. While the "Codec" world is still a mess, is it still possible to get a solution. I was able to manage to teach my computer to play back virtually any media format that I threw at it. It took some searching and digging sometimes, but it is out there.

There are various players that work great, but only few offer a good library option. Most are limited to play-lists. Well, some developers rather spend time on the ability to change the "skin" and every single optical aspect of the player by the user than provide stuff that is actually useful, but there is obviously a market out there that proves them right and that this is the way were money is to be made (at least from a financial point of view).

If you start adding DRM protected content to the mix or live streaming, the options regarding players which can play back everything and also offers a decent library feature is becoming rather small.

Actually it seems that it is almost impossible to get stuff to work without Windows Media player being involved at some point. The latest installment is Version 11 and the only improvement that I found so far is the looks of it. In almost any other aspect did the user lose something that wasn't trivial, but very important, only not used on a daily basis. With Microsoft Vista is only WMP 11 available and for XP users is it also getting harder and harder not to be forced to an upgrade from version 9 or 10 up to 11.

Well, lets say that I am stuck at this point with Media Player 11 and try ever since I started my project to make things work, only with marginal success to this date, unfortunately. I learned a lot of crap that I don't care about and didn't wanted to know about either, because it did not have to do with my problem and what I tried to accomplish. Only because you want to watch a European movie on your American TV, do you not know and learn what FPS, the unit of frequency that is equal to one cycle per second (Hertz), number of DOTs on the screen and stuff like that, right? I mean you just want to watch the freaking movie that you heard about or saw during your last trip to Europe and a friends house or movie theatre. Oh, if you want to know though, be my guest.

Lets start talking about the issues one by one.

Part 3. It Does Not Only Smell like ... It Actually Is ...
1st WMP 11 does not like network shares very much, also not the ones that are mapped to a local drive letter and reconnected to again, every time the computer is started. With XP is it possible to specify a mapped drive as path and WMP 11 automatically changes the drive letter to the path using the network share instead.

For example "Z:\My-Media\" on "Computer-A", which is share "Shared-Music" on "Computer-B" mapped as "Z:" will be changed to "\\Computer-B\Shared-Music\My-Media\".

This does not work so well under Vista from what I have heard and the solution some guys came up with sounded very similar to the one that I came up with myself for different reasons. More to that in a second. Okay, WMP 11 on Windows XP is always indexing your stuff using the network share. This might be better, if you do not map the share all the time to your computer, because Media Player would still be able to access the files from your library, as long as it can see the other computer in the network, but you cannot move the storage locations around or change the name of it, even if you mapped the drive to the same local drive letter and have the exact same file structure as on the previous storage location. The option to use either or would be the best for not only this simple reason, but others as well, which are much more severe.

The problem with WMP storing the network location instead of the local drive letter are that in some cases WMP can't playback videos with certain codec over the network share (\\share\) and in other cases is it able to play back, but the "seeking" does not work (WMV files). Both of those type of video files play back fine in WMP, if I browse to them via Windows Explorer and say "play with" and select Media Player, because it uses in that case the drive letters where I mapped the network shares to.

I found this MS Knowledge base article regarding this issue with the Intel Indeo video codec, which is the most severe, because the play back via opening it with a network path as reference does not work at all, WMP shows an error that does not make sense and that's it.

However I got also other issues with videos that were encoded with TMPGEnc MPEG-1 video codec and MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2 audio codec for example. The "seek" function does not work, but it works fine again, when opened via browsing the mapped drive and opening it from there.
Lets start talking about the issues one by one.

Part 4. A Solution that Creates Another Problem, Thanks You
Microsoft's recommendation is to not use a network drive (which is out of the question) or to convert all those videos to a different format using a codec that does not have these kind of issues. Fine, I would like to do that in one afternoon or over night in a batch job. So give me the list with all videos that were encoded with those codecs and I will use a converter that I bought in a bundle with other nice tools to convert it to something of your liking. Oh, you can't tell me... that's ... "inconvenient". No, I did not look through the library one by one yet, because I also have other things to do than sorting data by hand in an excel spread sheet. Oh, Excel has a sort and a filter option.. sorry guys, nothing against you (today).

So I thought to myself what happens, if I can get Media Player somehow to index files with the local drive letter instead of the network path. The add to library interface converts automatically local letters to network paths, but what happens if I change it back to the letters where Media Player stores to remember the paths it should crawl and check for new media files.

Part 5. You can't Trust ... Didn't Do Yourself
I found something. Search the registry (click "start", "run" and enter "Regedit.exe" , then press CTRL-F or F3) for "TrackFoldersDirectories" (it's different in Vista. See comments of users at this forum thread for details and info)

It should find a match like this (note: the search might run a while, depending on your computer and what you have on it).

HKEY_USERS\[s-some big numbers-dashes]\
Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences\TrackFoldersDirectories

(line-break added for editorial reasons)

That value should contain as data a simple number. This number should be the number of folders that you configured to be scanned by WMP minus 1. So if you told WMP to check 10 directory locations where it should look for files, the data for "TrackFoldersDirectories" should say "9". There are circumstances where it does not match and shows a larger number, but that is nothing to get worried about.
Under the same key "Preferences" should you also find Values like TrackFoldersDirectories0, TrackFoldersDirectories1, TrackFoldersDirectories2 .... TrackFoldersDirectoriesXX. Each of them should be string and have as data one of the directory locations the library should check. If there are some that are empty, this would explain why the data for TrackFoldersDirectories shows a higher figure than the number of directories that you actually specified. "TrackFoldersDirectories" simply states what the highest value is for X as in "TrackFoldersDirectoriesX". It starts with "0", which explains why the number is less than the actual directory count. It seems that Media Player expects to find values from 0 to the data value of "TrackFoldersDirectories" in the registry. TrackFoldersDirectories = 4 would mean that you have to have entries for:

TrackFoldersDirectories0 = C:\DIR1
TrackFoldersDirectories1 = C:\DIR2
TrackFoldersDirectories2
TrackFoldersDirectories3
TrackFoldersDirectories4
TrackFoldersDirectories5 = \\computer\share\DIR3

Even if you only have 3 directories specified as in my example, but TrackFoldersDirectories shows 4 (=5 records), all 5 records must be there, even if they have no value. Just as a heads up, if you are going to mess with them as I did. I did exactly that, changed all paths etc. and WMP started indexing nicely files with z:\ etc.

Part 6. WTF?
Then it started to fall back to the same old behavior again and the network share names started to appear again. When I removed the files that were wrong (and for the most part duplicate) I killed (or WMP did) too much entries and lost some good ones. Media Player won't index some of the files for the sake of it, even though I specified that it should re-add files that were previously removed. I guess only a full rebuild will work. See: Rebuilding your Library after WMP 11 f*cked it up.

The odd thing is that when I click on "Add Folders" to see if WMP changed my z:\ settings back to the \\share one is that it still shows z:\ for the folder destinations to search in.

I contacted Microsoft about all this, but they didn't even know what I am talking about and played stupid. I even sent them illustrations and a step by step explanation of the problem with links to their various own articles that point out some of the issues, but offer no solution (convert stuff, don't create a centralized media archive with a network storage in a local network to be shared between your computers at home... yeah right).

Part 7. Enough is Enough
What ticks me of the most is the lack of the basic option to say "Add THIS file to my god damn library .. NOW!" Here is the Genre, Artist, Composer, Release year or whatever.. just go and add it. If I could do that with multiple files that would even be better or how about the content of a play-list? There it takes the local drive path all by itself, if loaded from the mapped drive via Windows Explorer. It stores the Network path, if you add it with Explorer from a network path. tsts. Well, this issue is still unsolved, but I was getting new ones during my quest to create centralized library.

I found this post, which explains how to get WMP 11 to create its library files on a removable storage device.

Now I got the idea that I want to move my library to the network as well to avoid the need that each computer has to index and monitor the same stuff. All have the same network shares mapped to the same drive = all paths are the same, but I am not so certain yet, what WMP says if he (maybe) realizes that his library files reside on a network share that is mapped to local drive letter Z: :)

Part 8. Drops of Water in the Desert
I got my Media-player to be able to play back .MOV and .FLV files what made me very happy. You can find links with details and downloads at the end of this post.

Now I have the problem how I can tell this stupid Library to add them to itself, because it still thinks that it cannot do anything with it... the player does, but the two do not seem to talk to each other very often or at least not very clearly.

Part 9. Swiped by a Sandstorm
You cannot backup DRM licences with WMP11, which is also great. I had to reinstall my laptop because of some other Windows "features" and could not save the licences. I did fortunately not buy anything from Google Video, my vendor is still in business, however, I can now go and contact him to get licences again for every single file. I think its two vendors, but I will find out once I played all files at least once to see who I have to contact because of a missing licence that I bought 2 years ago on some website.

Part 10. Radical Changes are in Order
I am seriously looking for practical alternatives to WMP, something that can handle large amounts of audio and video (I own a lot and converted all into digital format and mostly purchase stuff only in digital format now), it also must support the various video formats or must be expandable to add the support via plug in (AVI, MP3, MPEG, WMV, ASF, MOV, FLI, DIVX, WMA, WAV and now also the new RAT format) and last but not least be able to handle all this DRM bs. I started to look for unprotected versions of my stuff to be able to actually use it without the need to contact people, convince (proof) to them that I actually purchased the stuff to them get the honor again to watch or listen to what I actually paid for.

This is unacceptable and big time bull!

I started 16 years ago with MS DOS 5.0 and after all those years am I hearing that things get easier. This is simply not true. Back then I could fix stuff myself. This is today impossible, even as advanced user. It's a full time job to keep up with everything that can go wrong. The booming video/audio space is worse than most others and the current workarounds and tricks used by manufacturer to make it somewhat work is to sacrifice security and broadcast all your stuff virtually publicly to anybody who knocks on the door and asks for it. If you are "lucky" then they even let anybody "in" and take a stroll across your network and peek into your stuff on your computers.

Part 11. I Did NOT Trade Satan for the Devil
p.s. I use XP and and did not switch to the heap of bugs and junk called Vista, so the share your videos does not work.. well I can share with anybody but myself, because WMP 11 on XP is unable to access other shares. That works "great" if you have three computers with Windows XP pro and WMP 11 on them.. doesn't it.

Part 12. Apologies
Sorry for the rant. It feels much better now. I just had it. I spent obviously too much time on trying to find a solution for a relatively simple issue. The non-existence has nothing to do with "too complicated" or "too exotic", the Internet is full of forum threads that end nowhere a real solution. The missing options are because of greed and to protect businesses from "pirates".. the irony with that is that it only makes paying customers mad and turn to pirates to get fixes for the things that were artificially broken.

Part 13. Some Band-Aid for the Open Wounds
Okay, I will finish this (looong) post with something good, a list of very useful tools and resources to windows, codecs and windows media player.

• Windows Media Player Resources collection from Microsoft's website on Google Docs & Spreadsheets


• RAT-DVD Tools, Encoder and Decoder. The new revolutionary tool that lets you convert DVD's to a video file that has only 20-25% of the size, without noticeable quality loss. It's free and also has a plug-in for Media Player to play back the RAT DVD's there.


• Combined Community Codec Pack Project, a free codec pack with tools and a very good support infrastructure, resources and guides, such as this very detailed troubleshooting guide.


• FourCC (Four Character Code Codecs) list for a complete list of available .AVI video and audio codecs.


• Sherlock Codec Detective (actual download like, short .EXE file), a free powerful tool that shows you all codecs that are installed in your system and their status.


• GraphEdit (7zip compressed) draws the entire filter chain for you to look at. Only recommended for more experienced users.


• Free FLVSplitter (7zip compressed), which is a Flash Video codec. The archive contains "FLVSplitter.ax" and no install program. To install it, copy the file to "C:\Windows\System32\" and register it to Windows via "Start", "Run", "Regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\FLVSplitter.ax".
  Alternative: How to play FLV files Guide at Afterdawn.com.


• How to play .MOV (Apple Quicktime) files Guide at Afterdawn.com.


• How to get WMP 11 to create its library files on a removable storage device?


• Rebuilding your Library after WMP 11 f*cked it up.


• SolveigMM WMP Trimmer Plugin, is a nice plug-in that lets you cut and save parts of a movie from within media player. No need to fire up an external cutter tool while you are watching a movie and see a scene you want to cut out for other purposes. It cost $20 or so, but you can test it out for 30 days, free of charge (trial version download).


• Windows Media Player News Group at Microsoft's Windows XP Newsgroup. I guess I will pay those folks over there a visit and point them to my post here.


• Also nice to have handy, the list of Microsoft OEMs, computer manufacturers who deliver their PC's with a pre-installed Windows system (who doesn't?) May be they have some help available for your own issues, if you yell at them hehe.

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Update 2/16/2008: I started working on the move of the Media Player library to a network location and share it between my computers. I found out the hard way, that there is by default no reference anywhere, including the registry, about the location of the media library. Media Player must look for the hard coded location "(User Directory*)\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\CurrentDatabase_360.wmdb". The user directory is usually "c:\documents and settings\(username)"".

I found this interesting thread at a user forum, which first started to talk about how to speed up media player, but then became a discussion about the media player library in general. Along the way did I learn about a useful tool called Link Magic to create so called "Junctions" in NTFS (basically mounting a directory to another directoy). I also learned that you can (and how) create Mount Points instead of Junctions to get a similar effect from the disk manager of windows itself.

All that was not a good thing to mess around with when it came to moving the library to a network share.I already feared to reach another dead end, but then came the posr that saved my day. You can change the path of the library by adding an undocumented string value to the Windows Registry.

Open RegEdit and go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences
Create a new String Value called "LibraryDatabasePath" and then open it to specify the location of the library. I simply entered the local drive, which is a mapped network share on the machine and sub directory that I created for the shared libary. I copied into that folder the local Media Player library of another computer and moved my local one to somewhere else to make sure that Media Player cannot find it.

When I started Media Player, it did really load the library from the network drive. Now I have to check how it behaves if I do the same with a second and later on a third computer. Multiple people accessing the same library might cause issues. To keep the potential problems to a minimum I will probably disable the check for new media files on all but one of the machines who will be designated as the sole indexer of new content for the library and then take it from there.

Custom ASCII Art Prints

While I was at DefCon in Las Vegas did I check out a vendor who did custom t-shirts. This stuff is often very cheaply done and the t-shirts don't last very long. Three times washing it and the print would fade out. What caught my interest was the fact that they actually did very professional and high quality print and that for a reasonable price.

I always wanted to have some nice ASCII or ANSI printed on a shirt so I showed them a few ASCIIs and asked them, if they could do it. I am not an expert in this kind of stuff, but it turned out that block ASCII was actually very hard for them to do, because they convert the image to vector graphics first and use that pattern when they do the actual print. They said that the creation of that vector pattern will take forever, because it has to break down all the individual lines. And there are a lot of lines in Block ASCII hehe.

I agreed for the higher price tag, if I can get in return the vector file, which will allow me to do additional copies fairly easy without spending a lot of money. They agreed and said that it will take a while and that it will be impossible to do it right there at the conference and be done the same day. No problem, the conference was still on for another two days so I agreed to give them time until the last day of the show.

The Results
... were pretty amazing. I had them make me two t-shirts, one with a SAC ASCII logo by Hetero and another one with my own Dytec ASCII logo. Here are two photos showing me wearing the t-shirts. The Dytec logo color is a gray, like the original font color in MS DOS. The SAC logo is in bright and shiny white.

Below each photo is a link to the original ASCII art piece on my website for comparison.


See original ASCII


See original ASCII
Pretty cool eh? I was thinking about creating some more t-shirts and may be sell them off my site, but I don't know if there is any interest in that kind of stuff. If you are interested, leave a comment here at my blog to let me know. If enough people are interested, I will consider it. If you can't wait and would like to get the same t-shirts, which I am wearing in those pictures, read the next paragraph.

A Little Gift
I was thinking about it and said to myself "what the heck!". Here are the vectorized versions of the two ASCIIs, which were used for the prints and were the most time consuming and expensive part of the whole process. I zipped them up and the file is about 2 MB in size. The file format is ".ai" whatever that might be, but the shop I used for the prints is able to use them and print additional t-shirts very easily and cheap, because they can load it right into their printing machine without any pre-processing.

ASCII-VectorImages-Print.zip

You can thank me for it by linking to RoySAC.com, making a donation (see any of my arts detail pages) or buying some of my mouse pads or something like that. I nice thank you and a drink (if we ever get a chance to meet in person) will also do I guess hehe.

Where Can You Get Something Like This?
The shop that did the t-shirts also does other types of custom prints. I was asked a few times where you could get ANSI art as a poster or large picture to hang it on to your wall. Here is the answer to that question: custom print. It is not cheap, but it also does not cost an arm and a leg. You also have to worry about a frame. You might want to ask them if they would take care of the framing for you. Keep in mind that a framed picture is harder to ship and would increase the cost for that.

I can recommend the print shop that did the t-shirts for me, it is called LBGFX Solutions. You can visit their website at LGBFX.com. They are located in National City in California. You can also contact the owner directly via email. His name is Liz Dela Cruz and his email is lizdcruz at gmail dot com. Tell them that I recommended him. He will not remember my name, just tell him "the guy with the ASCII prints at DefCon 15" and he will remember :).

Another print shop I know who does this kind of print and also understands what you are talking about if you ask for an "ANSI" to get printed are the guys from ShadowVex for whom I created the custom DefCon ANSI. They are located in Oregon and their website is more or less under construction and promotes their DJ'ing and not their custom printing. They organized the sound and music for one of the official DefCon parties btw. and they do sell t-shirts and a lot of other custom printed merchandizing for DefCon at the conference for over 10 years now. I talked with them about the need of a website and maybe some ecommerce features while I was in Vegas. It is on their to-do list. In the meantime is the best way to contact them via email. The name of the guy is Kevin Whitesmith and his email is Kevin at shadowvex dot com. Say "Hi" from me, if you decide to email him.

Cheaper Alternatives
For simpler prints do you not have to get fancy. I used deviantART for some stuff, like my ASCII and ANSI mouse pads and postcards. I blogged about them last November in greater detail.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Buy ANSI Print	Buy ASCII Print

Another alternative for this kind of stuff would also be CafePress. They also do t-shirts, but be careful and keep in mind that the quality of those t-shirts is probably not getting even close to the quality print done by a professional custom print shop.

Good luck and happy printing :). Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Access Your Zune from Windows Explorer

I have a Zune I and hate the Zune software that comes with it and is needed to synchronize your files between your Zune and your PC.

I learned today about an easier way to access the content on your Zune device directly via Windows Explorer, which makes things a lot easier.
I thought that I share this information with you, in case you own a Zune player as well.

Requirement: Your Zune must have been connected to the computer at least once and have the driver and Zune software installed and configured.

Step 1
Click on start, select "Run", type "Regedit" into the text box and hit enter. It should launch the Windows registry editor.

Step 2
It navigates just like Windows Explorer. Go to the following node (or "directory"):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USB\

There are a bunch of dynamically generated keys (Vid_XXXX&Pid_XXXX), one is for your Zune.

Step 3
The easiest way to find the right entry is by using the search function of the registry editor. Right Click/Find, enter "portabledevicenamespace" as string to search for and press "Find next". It should jump to the details (Node "Device Parameters") of the entry that is for your Zune.

Step 4
There are three keys that need to be changed. To change a value, just double-click on it. It will open up a box with the details of the key and its current value.

Key Name                                Current Value       New Value
---------------------------------------------------------------------
EnableLegacySupport                             0               1
PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell         1               0
ShowInShell                                     0               1

Step 5
Now connect the Zune to the computer (disconnect and connect it again, if you had it connected to your computer during the registry change).

The Zune should now be visible in Windows Explorer as "Portable Media Player" under "Other" ("My Computer"). It is shown by its name, which you specified when you configured your Zune for the first time.

Done!

The interface and software of the Zune sucks compared to the iPod. Microsoft just unveiled recently the Zune II, which will have many improvements over the original Zune I.

There are good news for Zune I owners like me. The firmware version 2.1 for the new Zune is supposed to be compatible with the Zune I and bring at least all software improvements to the old Zune devices.

From what I heard does the update include the support of additional video format (in addition to the Windows Media format .WMV) among other things. It is expected that the new firmware will become available when the new Zune II will hit the market later this year, probably sometimes in November.

I hope you enjoyed this little hack.
Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

The Colors of YouTube Custom Players

The announcement of the YouTube custom player feature is already a while old and I even created a player, but never used it yet.

I thought it is time to show it to you :).

Here is a custom player with all my YouTube Videos (stuff I uploaded there)

Update. I removed the one player, because that account I were talking about was closed. I have several other accounts now.

Here some players for my favorite play lists... such as the EBM Playlist



Here is another one, my Cirque Du Soleil Play List, which has my favorite videos and videos uploaded by me at YouTube about Cirque Du Soleil.



Noticed something? Right, different colors hehe. You can also select between two styles of players, The one for the EBM play list uses the smaller format. I am not sure if I like it, but the video selection comes kinda cool. Mhh...

Sweet, isn't it?

Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Image to Text Converter and Fun with Matt Cutts

I came across a nice free tool that converts images to ASCII. It is called Photo2Text.com and produces very decent results. I have looked at a bunch of such converters since the early nineties and the results can vary a lot, depending on the quality of the algorithm that has to decide which text character is the best to get it as close to the original as it possibly can.

I was never a fan on image to text converters. Mostly because those converters were and are often used by guys who are cheats and try to "sell" converted images as their own creation, as in made from scratch and by hand. Real pieces of ASCII art are being created without the use of any special tools other than editors that allow to assign text characters to specific keys on the keyboard and let you easier move around to change individual characters ("insert" off and the ability to move with the cursor to the right without the need to create "spaces" manually first). A number of different tools are available for download at my site.

Anyhow, I take the converters as what they are, a nice tool to have fun with, nothing serious. Nothing is wrong with good old fashioned fun. The only person who is serious about it, is the coder who spent his time figuring out how to produce the best possible result.

To demonstrate the quality of the Photo2Text.com converter, did I use an image of the Google engineer Matt Cutts, who has a blog where he talks to webmasters about SEO and search engine spam (and his pet, a cat). I had my arguments with him a bunch of times, so it just right for me to use him as guinea pig and demonstration object hehe.

You can see the GIF image of him, which I used to the right. I optimized it a bit to increase the contrast for better result. I also made sure that there is not too much going on, like stuff in the background, which would overload the picture and harder to get an ASCII back where you can identify anything.

The tool lets you choose from eight different character sets to be used for the converted image.

Set 1:  @#MBHA&Gh93X25Sisr;:,.
Set 2:  @#MBHA&Gh93X25Sisr;:,.__
Set 3:  #WMBRXVYIti+=;:,.
Set 4:  #Xx+=-;,.
Set 5:  @%#*+=-:.
Set 6:  #¥®Ø$ø0o°+=-,.
Set 7:  01
Set 8:  █▓▒░

An interesting and rare feature is the "slider" to adjust the image's "brightness". It is more than just a gimick and you should play around with it, because it can improve results significantly if you increase or decrease it, depending on the original image.

Also nice, the option to save the final ASCII to your computer. Okay, lets have a look at the results for the Matt Cutts image.

First Version using Character Set: @#MBHA&Gh93X25Sisr;:,.

I used the default "brightness", which is a bit darker. For that reason is the face also filled with characters.

                                ..,ri52G@@HXX2i;::;:                                    
                            rAr;@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#i,                               
                       ,iH@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Mr                            
                    .r@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@s.                        
                 .i#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@;                      
               ,h@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r                    
             .s@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r                  
            .2@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@2                
            X@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@,              
          :#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@S             
        :#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@X            
       3@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r           
      s@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@H           
      &@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@;          
      H@@@@@HG#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@A          
      A@@@@G2i9@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@.         
      ,@@@Gi552#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@;         
       s@Bri22SG@@@M#@@@#@@@@@@@#@##@@@@@@##MM##@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@s         
       s@5iXX2S5h#@@@@@@#@@@@@@@####@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@3         
       i@S39X55ss5G#@###@@GH@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@H         
       r@299X2Siiir;r;;;sii;,:iXA@@@@@@@@@@#952A@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@M         
       ;#299XX2225issrrr;::;;,   ;h2;rrs2Xisrr2A##@@@@M@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@2         
       ,Ah3XXXX52225isiSiiiiSisr:,,,,:::::rsiSih##M@@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r         
       .3AXXXXX25522iiSiSissrsSs;::;;rsrrsii22i3@@#@@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@G          
        5G522XX2iSX5i55iis;;;;rr;;rsss55sSXSiS22H@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@s          
       :hX2SsiSisi52Sii5rr;;;r;;rrSi55555Siiii52&#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@H,          
      .GMA3Siisiiii5Siisrr;;;rrrrrsi52552SSSSS522B@@M#@@@###@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#,          
     ;@@@#XSS5iisriisr;ssrsrrsssrrri2252X5555SSSrX@@###@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@h           
 ;r;X@@@@@@M#BG5iirsirrs2iSSsisr;:rsiS55225SSiiSssS&@@@##@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r           
.@@#; ,A@@@@@@@H9&32&h3XX2S5SSXh3irssi52XX5S25522SiSG@@@@@@#@@@@@@M2ssSXA@@M,           
  H;   ;#@@@A#@@@#95G@@@@@@@@#@@##AAAhh2SXX22iSSSX3X&@@@@@@@@@A2Sr:;sisS5h@5            
  s;.  ,hH@#hXA@@@#&9G9&B@@@@@@@@@@@#M##AX3hX3hHHM#M#@@@@@@@@9:.:sSSi52Ss2Bs            
   s:  iA3G&B#@@@3S5A#5ri2SA@@@@@M##@@#@@@@#HAGX222S5B@@@@#@@5;i2; :r2G5s2@A            
   ;2,,3AGG&AG9@ASs;sH@@&2X&###A322H@h3AAXr;;;;rsiSSi2M##@#@M33BArsXSSG3rh@B            
    ,ihAHAh&h223XisisS23922hBBAh32i23r;s;;;;;::rS52X22H@@@@@AhHMGr;XXiGXs@@             
     ;#AXX2X29GXisSirri22ssS2XXX2S53irrsiisrr;rS2523X2XBHA##hiX3; :iSi2i#@;             
     rA2522553X5i5X2isrri22555XhhX5SrsissiissiS222XXXX22X9AHhsS2:;S5S2rA@i              
     SM22252XAh22X33X25irrsiSiiiisr;;rrrrriiS25XXXX3hXXhGAHB&2hAXA3S2rX@r               
     5B225S2GX2i55XG&A&9SiiSisrrrrssssrrsiiS22X33XXXXX9h&AMMA3i;;SA3s9@3                
     2M2X5S2XS;;iS5XXXhhX22XXisiiiiiiiiSSSS52222XX22XXX3AAH#H9i;;riiH@h                 
     SBXX2Xh35SXX225SiXAG22X25Siiii55522Sii5S52223XX93X9G&B#Xr2352iX@2                  
     r#BA&M@@#HAA&M#AAH&2sS2Siiiiii222222Sii5SS529G9399&hHM#3;;S39#@A                   
     .3#M#@@@@@M@@@@@HXiiiisiissrii5255552SS2X293hh2XGA&ABMB@#&A#@@h                    
      :@#H###@MM@###HAAXX25SSSisriis5555SS522X3hh&hhGGAAABMM@@HB@#:                     
      :##&HAG9#@@Ah9GAA&&G&hG&3XSiiiiS5225523X9h93XXG&AAAB###BGA@h                      
      ,A@#MHAX522is2&AB#BGHHGAG22sssS5S522233999X393GA&BMHH##H&H@M                      
       rBHH#@@@#MA9939ABBMMBAAA9XSssi5SSS523X3h99GG&AAAHBHB#MBHH@@                      
       ,@B9hA&HM@@@@#&&AHHH##&A#AiiSiii525239hh99&AAAHHHHMMMBBB#@@                      
       :@@MA9Xi2AHG3XX3G&5rSG&G&92isiS522Xh9339hG&AABHAAHMMMHHM#@@                      
       ,@@@M##AAA&&&&HAhisiii3HA9X52222XXX9&hhG3&HAHAAHABBHBHAM#@@                      
        r@@#M@@@@@@#BA33XXGh9&B@#9hG923h933399&AAAABHAHHBBMHBBB#@@                      
         r@@AGH####BA3X52ABMBAM@#AA9GGhG93XXhh9AAGAHAA#MBMMAB##@@@                      
          H@#HG9G32X3X5SS9BABMB###GhhGh223X3hhGG&AHAHHBBBHAAM##@@#                      
          ;#@@A9&AA&h39hhhBBAHHHM#Ah333XX9X99AAAAAAHHHAHHAHHM##@@#                      
           B@@#A&B#H9XAHBGABHAAH#B&3XXhGhh99&AAAAAHBHAAA&&HHM#BB@&                      
           ,#@@@BB#HhAA#@BHBM@@@@@AXhGh&AAA&AHAAABHAHAA&&ABHBMMh2G:                     
             X@@@@@@@###@@@@@@@@@#&XGGGG&HHAAAAAAAA&AGGGG&AAHBAXsSs.                    
               sB@@@@@@@@@@@@#B&X2XG&&AGGHHABB&AAA&&G3GAG3ABA&XS5s;                     
                 :BH#@@#BAGX2SSX3XG&AAGAA&AAAAG&&&9hGXX99G&BMAXSs;.                     
                  .5S2GM##MAhAHAAAHHHAAHA&AA&GAAhh9X3993XG9&BG2i;.                      
                  .9Xr;ri&#@@@@BB#MMHA&&AAGG&AAh39hXX3X333GAG2r;.                       
                  :hh3ir;;ri&#@@@#BAHAGAAAA&hhh9XX222XX9h9Ahs,.                         
                  ;XXA35srr;rrS9ABMHBAG&&h332S2X25X22XX9h&9S,                           
                  ,si239X5ir;rsii5239X2X2SSS55iSSSS2X39GG3X;.                           
                     :i2XX5irrrsiisiSiiiiiii55555Si23992sr:,                            
                      :sri55isrrssiiiiSSiS522222i53225ir:                               
                       .;r;rSSisrrsiiiiSSS5255225S2Sssr;.                               
                         ,;;rsiSsrrrsssssssiisiSSsrsis,                                 
                           .,:;sssssrssrsssssrssssir,.

Now a different version using the

Block ASCII Character Set: █▓▒░

I also increased the "brightness" so that the face does not require as much characters. It makes it look much cleaner IMO.

                                   ░░                                              
                                ▒████████████████████▓                                  
                          ▒███████████████████████████████                              
                      ░██████████████████████████████████████░                          
                    ████████████████████████████████████████████░                       
                 █████████████████████████████████████████████████▓                     
               ▓████████████████████████████████████████████████████▓                   
              ▓███████████████████████████████████████████████████████▓                 
             ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████▒               
            ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████              
          ███████████████████████████████████████████████▓█████████████████             
        ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████            
       █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████▓███████            
       ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████           
       █████▒░▓██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████           
       ████▒  ░█████████████████████████▓█████████████████████████▓██████████▓          
       ▓██░    ▓██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████          
        █▒  ░  ▒███▓▓███▓███████▓▓▓▓██████▓▓▓▓▓▓██████████████████████████████          
        █  ░░   ░▓██████▓▓█████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓███████████████▓▓████████████████▓██████          
        █ ░░░     ▒▓█▓▓▓██░▒▓█████████████████████████████████████████████████░         
        ▓ ░░░░                 ░▒█████████▓▓░  ▒▓█████████████████████████████░         
        ▒ ░░░░░                   ░      ░     ▒▓▓█▓██▓███████████████████████          
        ░░░░░░░                                ░▓▓▓███▓▓██████████████████████          
         ▒░░░░░░  ░                            ░▓█▓███▓██████████████████████░          
         ░ ░ ░░   ░                       ░     ▒██▓█████████████████████████           
                                               ░▒▓██████████████████████████▒           
        ▒▒░                                      ▓██▓▓▓██▓▓▓████████████████▒           
      ▒██▓░                            ░░        ░██▓▓▓▓████████████████████            
     ▒█████▓▓▒░                         ░          ▒███▓▓██████████████████▓            
 ░█░   ░███████▒░▒░ ░░░        ░        ░░     ░░   ▒▓█████▓██████▓    ░▒██▒            
        ▓███▒▓▓██▓░ ░▓███████▓▓█▓▓▒▒▒░░░ ░░      ░░░▒█████████▒          ░▓             
        ░▒█▓░░▒███▓▒░░░▒▓██████████▓▓▓▓▓▒░░░░░░▒▒▓▓▓▓████████░            ▒             
        ▒░░▒▓▓███░  ▒▓     ▒█████▓▓▓██▓████▓▒▒░░     ▓████▓██         ▒   ▓             
        ▒░░▒▒░░▓▒    ▒██▒ ░▒▓▓▓▒░ ░▒█░░▒▒░            ▓▓▓█▓█▓░░▒▒     ▒░ ░█░            
       ▒▒▒░▒░ ░░░     ░░░  ░▒▓▒░░   ░              ░  ▒█████▒░▒▓░     ▒░ █▓             
      ▒░░░ ░ ░░░             ░░░░  ░               ░░ ░▒▒▒▓▓░ ░░        ▓█              
      ░      ░░   ░           ░░░░                ░░░░░ ░░▒▒░          ▒█               
      ▒     ░▒░  ░░░░                          ░░░░░░░░░░▒▒▒▒ ░░ ░░   ░█                
      ▒ ░  ░░░    ░▒▒▒▒░                      ░░░░░░░░░░▒▒▓▓▒░    ▒░ ░█                 
      ▒ ░   ░      ░░░░░░  ░░                 ░ ░░  ░░░░▒▒▒▓▒░      ▒█░                 
      ▒░░ ░░░  ░░░░   ░▒░░ ░░                   ░░░░░░░░▒▒▓▓░  ░   ░█                   
      ▒▒▒▒▓██▓▒▒▒▒▓▓▒▒▒▒                        ░░░░░░░▒░▒▓▓░   ░░▓█░                   
       ▓▓▓█████▓█████▒░                      ░ ░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓░▒▓██░                    
       ▓▓▒▓▓▓█▓▓█▓▓▓▒▒▒░░                    ░░░░▒░░▒░▒▒▒▒▓▓█▓▒▓█▓                      
       ▒▓▒▒▒░░▓██▒░░░▒▒▒▒░▒░░▒░             ░░░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓░▒█░                      
       ░▓▓▓▒▒░ ░    ▒▒▓▓▒░▒▒▒▒░         ░ ░░░░░░░░░░░▒▒▒▓▒▒▓▓▒▒▒█▒                      
        ▒▒▒▓███▓▓▒░░░░▒▒▒▓▓▒▒▒▒░          ░░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▒▒▒█▒                      
        ▓▒░░▒▒▒▓████▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▒▒▓▒         ░░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▒▒▓█▒                      
        ██▓▒░░ ░▒▒▒░░░░▒▒   ▒▒░▒░        ░░░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▒▒▓▓█▒                      
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The 3rd version of the ASCII uses the Character Set: #WMBRXVYIti+=;:,.
I continued to use the higher brightness to make the look of the ASCII more clean and sharp.

I also inverted the colors to have white characters on black background, which is closer to the look and feel of MS DOS. MS DOS used a gray font on black background, but I did not try to make it authentic. I was more going after the looks of it.

                               +###################WI                                  
                          ;B#############################B                              
                       #####################################R                           
                    ############################################                        
                 X################################################V                     
               t####################################################I                   
              Y###################W######################M############V                 
             ####################################WW###########WW########:               
            ######################################################W#######              
          ############################W##################BWWMW#######M#####             
        #############################WW########W#########WW#################            
       ######W########################W#############################MW######            
       ######W#############################W################################M           
       ####Wt;X#####################W##################W##########W##########           
       ###W;  ,#####################W##WBM############WW##########B##########t          
       X##;    X###WW#############M#####################W###W################B          
        #I     ;W#MVR##WR######MRBRRMWW##WBRVVXBMWWW####WM############W######B          
        #       :X##M###XB####BBRRRRBBM#######WMWWMMMBBWM####WM#######MBM#####          
        # .:      ;VBRXR#M;tR#################W#######WW#WW#####W######W######          
        V ,:                    ;B########BX:  +B#MM##W#######################.         
        + ,:.                     .            iRRMBMMV#########W#############          
         .. .                                  :BVVWWWXB#####################M          
         ;                                     .B#BM##B##MW###WMW########WM##           
         ,                                      t#WXW###########W#########M##           
                                                =RMMWW#W###W############MW##=           
        ++.                                      Y#MYRBW#BRRM###########WW##+           
      +##V                                        W#RRXBW###WWMW############            
     =####WIVt,                                    =BW#RR####WW######MW####X            
  #    ,#######+ :  .                               ;B#####BM#####Y     +M#+            
        YM##+RBMWV. ,R######WVXBYI::;,,           ..=M#######Mi          :R             
         iWX:.+W##X;,:,;I#########WRYYRR+ .,  ,itYXVB#####M##,            i             
        ;.;=YRM#W,  =R     +####BYXRMBX###WV+=,      Y####R#M         :   V             
        =;;=i;:Bi    t##=  =VRXi.  IM: ==             VBBWBMY. i;     :. ,#             
       :++:=;  .       .,  :IIi:.   .                 t#####+,iI      :  WX             
      ;:   . :;                    .               ..  ItiRR;           X#              
      .      ,.                ::                  ..   .:+t:          =#               
      =     .+:                                    ,:  :;iII= ., .     #                
      ;     ;.     :;=;                           .   ::=iYVi.    :   #                 
      =               :,                              .,+iIXi.      +#                  
      ;    :.          +:                        ,..:. ,;+YB        #                   
      =i==Y##V+=+=YRi+t;                         ,;:.::=:tYX     .X#,                   
       IIR####WYM#W#Wt.                        ,.:: .=+=iIVIRY:;Y##                     
       VVtXXXMVVMXVRti+                       .::=;:=;i+iIVYMRiIMV                      
       iV=ti;:X#Mi:,;ii;;:;.,,                ,::, .;=++iIXVRY;iM                       
        XXVt+.      =+IRI:ii:;,            ..,,,.,:,;i=IVtIXXt=t#;                      
        +itRMWWRYi:,.,+IIYYI+++.           . .:,:;;=+i+IIIYXVItI#i                      
        Yt,:i=tV####V==iIttRV=iV;          .,::::=i+iIItIVVYYIIV#+                      
        R#Yi:.  it;. ..;+   ;=;;.         :,.,::;=+iIIt+tVVYtIVR#=                      
        i##YVX++i====t+:     .t+,         ,=;:;,+tiItiI+IIIItiYR#i                      
         Y#RYM#WBWWXI+,.  ;:,=YBV.,,  .,,,.,,,=+i+iIt+ttIYYtYIIR#V                      
          R#+;IXXRRY+,   iIYI+V#R+=,;;:;:.. ;:,i+=+t+iXYIVViIVXW#i                      
          ,WVt=:;. .,    ,IiIYIRXX;::;;  . ,::;==itittIYItiiVXRW#;                      
           t#Bi:+i++:.::::YIiIttVXi;,., .,.::+++++itttittitIVVVM#;                      
           .##Vi=IXt:.+tY;+Iti+tRI=...:;;:::=++++iIItiii+=tIYVYIX                       
            =##BYIXt;+iXMItYVMMM#M+.:=:=++i=+t+iiIIiti+==iYtIYY:                        
              YW####MBVBW########B=.;;;;=tti+iii+i+=+==;;=titIt                         
                ;############RY=   ;=+i=;ttiYI=+++==;,;+=.+Ii=.                         
                  ;+X##RY+;.    , ;=+i;+i++ti+====,;; .::=+IV+                          
                      ;VRXY+;+ti+itttiiti=+t+;++:;:.,::,.=:=I;                          
                         =XW##MYYRVYt++=++=;=i+:.::  ,.,.,;+;                           
                    .       ;RMW#RIit+=++++=:::,.     .:::+:                            
                     =         ,+YYIY+;==:..           ::;,                             
                                   .,                ,:;;                               
                                                    .,,

Last but not least the "Geek Version" using only 0 and 1. Well, Matt Cutts is an engineer and geek and probably loving this version the most hehe.

                               1000000000000000000001                                  
                          10000000000000000000000000000000                              
                       00000000000000000000000000000000000000                           
                    00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000                        
                 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001                     
               100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001                   
              100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001                 
             000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001               
            00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000              
          00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000             
        00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000            
       000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000            
       0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000           
       0000011100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000           
       00001   000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001          
       1001    100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000          
        01     100010000000000000000000000001110000000000000000000000000000000          
        0       11000000100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000          
        0         110010001100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000          
        1                       100000000001   1000000000000000000000000000000          
        1                                      1000000100000000000000000000000          
                                                011000100000000000000000000000          
         1                                      00000000000000000000000000000           
                                                10010000000000000000000000000           
                                                10000000000000000000000000001           
        11                                       1001000000000000000000000001           
      1001                                        00001000000000000000000000            
     100000111                                     1000000000000000000000001            
  0     00000001 1                                  100000000000001     1001            
        1000100001   0000000010011111               10000000001          10             
         101  100001 1 110000000000011001      11101000000000             1             
        1 1110000   10     1000001100000000111       10000000         1   1             
        111111 01    1001  11011   101 11             1000001  11     1   0             
       111 11               1111                      1000001 11      1  01             
      11      1                                        111001           00              
                                                          111          10               
      1      1                                         111111          0                
      1     1      1111                                111111     1   0                 
      1                                                 11111       10                  
      1                1                                1110        0                   
      111110011111101111                          1    1 111      10                    
       110000001000001                               11111110111100                     
       1111110110110111                          11111111111001101                      
       111111 1001  11111 1                         1111110101110                       
        11111       1110111111                      11111111111101                      
        1110000011    111111111                  11111111111111101                      
        11 1111100001111111011111                11111111111111101                      
        0011    111    11   1111                111111111111111001                      
        100111111111111       11           11 1 111111111111111001                      
         1001000000111    11 1101             11111111111111111001                      
          00111111011    1111110011 1111    11 1111111111111111001                      
           0111 1         1111101111 11     1111111111111111110001                      
           1001 1111   11 1111111111         111111111111111111001                      
            00111111  1111111111011    111  111111111111111111111                       
            10001111111001111000001  1 1111111111111111111111111                        
              100000001000000000001 111111111111111111111111111                         
                1000000000000011   111111111111111111 111 1111                          
                  111000111       1111111111111111 11    11111                          
                      1101111111111111111111111111       1 111                          
                         1100001101111111111111           111                           
                            1000001111111111  1           1                             
                     1          111111111                1                              
                                                       11                               

Pretty cool, eh? Go check out Photo2Text.com yourself and have fun with it.

It's fun. I actually had that much fun, that I am thinking of creating a little gallery with people in the search engine marketing space in ASCII format. Maybe even people from the affiliate marketing industry. This would maybe bring some people closer to the subject of text art and make them realize that you can do amazing things with something as simple as plain text.

Too bad that the converter does not support ANSI, to create colored version of an image. Maybe they develop a version in the future that supports that.

The history of text art dates back hundreds, if not even thousands of years and were not an invention that came with the computer as many people tend to believe. The first "modern" text art was created on typewriters, which are around for well over 100 years.

I also blogged in the past about things like ASCII animations, called ASCIImation. The music video example that was made up entirely of text was cool too.

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

PCBoard BBS Software

Something else was even longer on my to-do list than the post about leveraging sites like deviantART for online marketing.

It has been on my list for over one year now and I also got finally around to do it. What am I talking about? The article to the PCBoard BBS Software at Wikipedia.

I extended the article significantly and also added a photo of the box of the software, which I took myself with my digital camera. You can see the picture here in the post as well. For the folks who don't know, I used to run a BBS myself called "Closed Society". I wrote about it on the homepage of my RoySAC.com website.

I used as BBS Software PCBoard. First via multiple PC's under MS DOS and then all Notes on one machine running under IBM OS/2 Warp. The BBS was up 24/7 for over 2 years in my one bedroom studio. Did the noise of the running computers bother me when I was asleep? Actually quite the opposite.
I had a problem sleeping when the BBS was shut down and offline.

PCBoard was a great software and the best thing about it was the availability of its own script language to change the look, feel and behavior of the BBS. I wrote and published a bunch of tools myself. You can download all of them here.

I launched the BBS shorty after SAC was founded. The existence of the BBS did cause me to create more ANSI art than I would probably have done without it. So it was kind of a good thing to have a BBS of your own and do ANSI text art. It also did not make me depend on the time and talents of other artists hehe.



Clark Development, who created the software did unfortunately go bankrupt in 1997, the year when I shut down my BBS. They saw the reign of the BBS coming before most sysops at the time (including me) and started development on a product called PCBoard Metaworks, which was the attempt of the creation of a BBS like environment on the internet. The product was not finished to save the company. It died together with the company and never saw the light of day.

That's fate I guess, but no whining will change anything and we have to move on.

Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Tools of the Trade

I get often asked what tools I am using for my did my ASCII and ANSI Text art.

I used first a tool called ANSIDraw which was a piece of junk. The maximum number of lines per ASCII or ANSI the program was able to support was 23 (which is exactly 2 lines less than a page in DOS. Anything above 23 lines triggered a "pause", if "page breaks" were not disabled.) It was unable to load ANSIs which meant, that you had to get the colors right the first time or you had to load the ANSI as ASCII (without colors) and start colorizing from scratch ... argh. You can download Ansidraw at my download page like all the other Tools I am mentioning in this post and experience the pain yourself, it's only 20 KB in size.

I got over this pain fairly quick when TheDaw entered my world. This was a really advanced ANSI Editor compared to anything else that was out there. TheDraw is the Editor I am using to this date. It runs without problems under Windows.

Others preferred the very similar tool which came out a bit later than TheDraw called ACiDDraw, which was developed by the legendary ANSI Art Group ACiD (which stands for ANSi Creators In Demand).


The only feature worth mentioning which sets ACiDDraw apart from TheDraw is the fact that TheDraw is restricted to maximum 100 Lines for a single ANSI File and ACiDDraw had no limitations.

At the Moment seems the Windows Editor PabloDraw to be very popular. It allows multi user collaborations in real-time over the Internet. Multiple user can edit the same file at the same time. Crazy!

If PabloDraw is too crazy for you and the DOS Editors not manageable for you (It's tough if you are not familiar with MS DOS at all), you might want to have a look at TundraDraw for Windows. That might be the perfect alternative for you.

You should try them out, it's Fun!

Cheers,
Carsten aka Roy/SAC