Uploading and downloading your music with Google

For those who have access to the Google Music service, it feels nice to be able to upload your music collection onto a cloud environment and then listen your songs from just about everywhere using just a web browser.

However, one my issues was how to retrieve back the musics to the hard drive if necessary.

This was solved with a nice look on the "Music Manager" from google. It comes with a nice option to download your music directly from the cloud down to your machine without any nuisance.

So, enjoy the service with some good songs and no worries.
:)

Downloading torrent files from the command line using rtorrent

Recently I need to download some drivers from driverpacks.net and noticed that now they only offer the option to download through torrents.

Unfortunately, my workstation is limited and does not allow either admin rights or access to ports other than 80.

I do have access to SSH on a Linux machine running Ubuntu that is outside my firewall. However, I had no access to a desktop through VNC or NX clients.

So, command line is all that is left to get torrent files. On this short blog post I will show how it can be done in a few easy steps.

1) Install rtorrent using "apt-get install rtorrent"
2) Use "cd" to change onto the dir where you want the files to be located
3) Run the program, type "rtorrent"
4) Press backspace to open the dialog for a new torrent
5) Type the full download URL with http:// (I use http://goo.gl to shorten the direct URL address)
6) Press enter, watch rtorrent work

To quit rtorrent, press "ctrl+q".

This is not complicated and from there I can grab the files using direct download onto my workstation.

I hope this tip helps other people out there. If you have any doubts, just write a comment below.

Take care!
:)

Creating ISO images with Java

I'm happy to have stumbled on a nice project that allows creating ISO images from Java.

You can find it at http://jiic.berlios.de

Haven't had yet a chance of trying out the code to see if it can be used in lieu of the old mkisofs. However, reading the code at the test case already gives a good idea that it is suited for the task.

In the past, interacting with mkisofs has always been a troublesome relation. Just to keep things in context, I have been wrestling with the non-elegant mkisofs command line progress window for six years now: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16829

Kudos to Jens Hatlak at http://jens.hatlak.de/

:)

Installing Windows 7 in Hebrew language

For the first time I am installing a Windows under a language and character set that I am nowhere familiar with. The idea is to test some of my software under a different localization and verify what else needs to be dynamically be converted from English to other languages.

These are the times where I really see the work from Microsoft as a deep effort to make the install coherent and intuitive across the globe. For those curious, I leave a screenshot of my installation screen.

:)

WinBuilder supporting the WIC program

WinBuilder is helping the WIC (Women and Infant Children) program that is provided by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Besides providing past and future versions of our software royalty free for their use, we are also committed to help them with active support their technical projects where our knowledge can be applied.

I'm really happy to see our software helping others in such a positive manner.

:)