Where do All the Movies Go in Windows?

I used an application (called Camera) that comes with my MS Windows and using it was easy but, when I tried to retrieve the movie itself, it all became something like Mission Impossible.

I finally found the answer: Found!

Basically, they all go to the folder called Pictures, inside of the subfolder called Camera Roll. Just look there and you will see them all, I promise you. 

The application is interesting because, different from the others, you do not need to save the movies after you record them, it suffices pressing the red button. In compensation... . 

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Windows 10: Updates, Turn Off, How

These guys rock: Solution to Updating

Yet another solution involves unrestraining your Windows\SysWoW64 and your Windows\System32.

The instructions on the link allow you to stop the disgraceful, and possibly harmful, definitely harmful in my case (had to reinstall the system several times for receiving bugs together with the updates), updates forever. Yes, we have beaten the MS bastards (I chatted with them and they told me that it was impossible to turn off the option updates. I know, I know what you will say: At least it is free to ask questions to MS. Yes, with that, we have to agree: It would definitely be worse if we had to pay for it)!

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

MS Windows 10 and Updates

I just had to address a problem that happened to a MS client: They wanted to get rid of MS updates because they deeply believed that those were bringing problems to their computer systems each, and every, time. That is when I contacted MS and they let me know that we cannot turn off updates in this version (MS Windows 10).

Well, MS was prosecuted in the past for issues like this and it looks like we need to do that again: Australia has privacy laws in place. Our computers are ours, so that who has to decide on whether we get something or not is us, not them. I think they are once more working inside of illegality and this person has deep beliefs that they might even be being targeted by a certain class of people working at MS at this stage, given the so many problems that come associated with their updates, repeated instances. 

Whoever has the time, not sure about bucks, but it always ends up in the press, so that it must be at least good publicity, especially if it is an IT company that does that, please do it in the name of all of us, mortals. 

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

From .JPG to .PDF

The best place ever: Free and perfect!

JPG to PDF

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Can`t Run Chkdsk

I called MS and all on this one, so listen to me: Don`t call them. They will even ask to enter your computer but things are realistically quite simple if your problem is the same that I had: I was at the DOS terminal and I typed the standard thing, so that I typed chkdsk/f/r. I got a mistake. I saw NFTS on my screen and the computer saying that it could not run the command because it was locked. I then did not get the standard message, where we have an option to choose to run the command on reboot and that is when I got worried. 

MS will tell you to do the unimaginable. Don`t try them if that is your problem. Simply realize that you are in the wrong drive. In my case, all I had to do was literally typing C: and repeating the command, believe it or not. 


At that height, the MS guy had already convinced me to even format a USB with the NFTS option, believe it or not. 

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Windows 10 and Boot Issues

If your computer is freezing at the boot and you are not succeeding in going beyond the troubleshooting screen, like you have tried all options there and nothing works, you can try the freezers page here, and all those strategies, including chkdsk, and, if that still doesn't work, you will probably need to reinstall Windows 10. The good news is that MS became smarter on this version, as if it had been my suggestion, and you now do not need to format your disk again. The bad news is that you may end up losing all your files and programs for simply forgetting to unplug your USB after it is reinstalled. I have just done that! Poor me!

To make a USB that you can use for that purpose, you go to the own MS, and get a program called Media Creation Tool: Media Creation

You will need a blank USB disk of at least 4 Gb. It will probably take you 30 minutes after you have downloaded and installed the tool to get the USB ready for action.

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Suppressing Page Numbers: MS Word

Basically, go to the page that precedes the page whose number you intend to suppress, choose the tab that says Page Layout, position your cursor in the end of the text of the page that precedes the page you want to change, make sure you are not inside of the footer, put the cursor over Breaks and, as it expands, choose Next. Only that action should already solve your problem. If if doesn't, then you will probably succeed after watching this video: Video

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Formula that Escapes the Intended Margins

Latex is a very flexible tool: You can actually reduce the size of an entire formula in the middle of your paper quite easily. Most of us get into trouble with that because we forget that the commands to do that do not work in Math Mode: we have to place them before the double or single dollar sign at the beginning of our formula and after the double or single dollar sign in the end. 

We have several options available:

tiny	scriptsize	footnotesize	small	normalsize
large	Large	LARGE	huge	Huge

All we have to do is adding a {\ together with the option we want, so say {\small in front of our formula and } in the end of it (after the dollar signs in the end and before those in the beginning). 

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Items: Dash or Bullet?

If you are having the same problem I had today, which is that when you use \begin{itemize} you get a dash instead of a bullet for your \item, the solution is adding the following line to your preamble: 

\renewcommand\labelitemii{$\bullet$}

You can actually use any symbol you like to mark the item. A quick way is:

\item[*]

if you want to see * instead of the bullet, for instance, marking the start of the item. 

If you want to see a plus, then write 

\item[+]

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Latex: Page Numbers

To insert page numbers in Latex, all you need to do is typing \pagestyle{plain} after your \begin{document}: You put this command wherever you want to start having page numbers. 

You may wish for changing the style of the page numbers. If you do, then you can use \pagenumbering{style}. 

The sigmatoid style can be replaced with arabic, roman, Roman (uppercase roman numerals), alph (letters, lowercase) and Alph (uppercase). 

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Bibtex Entries: fields, classes, etc.

Bibtex sorts out one of the main doubts we usually have in terms of the Bibtex: What the fields that we can use in the description of an item are, what classes are allowed, etc. As far as I understand, Latex is a programming language, so that you could actually change all that if you wanted, and had studied Latex enough, but it is much nicer getting it all from the oven, after cooked, is it not? 

At the moment, I do believe what the mentioned source states, so that we should have: 

article 

An article from a journal or magazine. Required fields: author, title, journal, year. Optional fields: volume, number, pages, month, note.

book

 A book with an explicit publisher. Required fields: author or editor, title, publisher, year. Optional fields: volume or number, series, address, edition, month, note.

booklet

 A work that is printed and bound, but without a named publisher or sponsoring institution. Required field: title. Optional fields: author, howpublished, address, month,year, note.

conference

 The same as INPROCEEDINGS, included for Scribe compatibility.

inbook 

A part of a book, which may be a chapter (or section or whatever) and/or a range of pages. Required fields: author or editor, title, chapter and/or pages, publisher,year. Optional fields: volume or number, series, type, address, edition, month, note.

incollection

 A part of a book having its own title. Required fields: author, title, booktitle, publisher, year. Optional fields: editor, volume or number, series, type,chapter, pages, address, edition, month, note.

inproceedings

 An article in a conference proceedings. Required fields: author, title, booktitle, year. Optional fields: editor, volume or number, series, pages, address,month, organization, publisher, note.

manual 

Technical documentation. Required field: title. Optional fields: author, organization, address, edition, month, year, note.

mastersthesis

 A Master's thesis. Required fields: author, title, school, year. Optional fields: type, address, month, note.

misc

 Use this type when nothing else fits. Required fields: none. Optional fields: author, title, howpublished, month, year, note.

phdthesis

 A PhD thesis. Required fields: author, title, school, year. Optional fields: type, address, month, note.

proceedings

 The proceedings of a conference. Required fields: title, year. Optional fields: editor, volume or number, series, address, month, organization, publisher, note.

techreport

 A report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series. Required fields: author, title, institution, year. Optional fields: type,number, address, month, note.

unpublished 

A document having an author and title, but not formally published. Required fields: author, title, note. Optional fields: month, year.

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Chapter/Section Numbers in Latex: Format

The problem that I had today I had already had in the past but, because I forgot the solution, I was here struggling another two hours or so, so that this blog post is also to help me in case I forget again. I was getting 0.0 as a chapter number. 

To get rid of complications, I used sections instead of chapters when building my pages but I then wanted to use Table of Contents to get a nice index. 

That is how the problem appeared. The solution is quite easy but it takes us a long time to get there on our own.

We have to then add this to the preamble: 

\renewcommand\thesection{\arabic{section}}

\renewcommand\thesection{\arabic{chapter}}

And we then  have to add this to the body: 

\begin{document}

\setcounter{tocdepth}{1}

\setcounter{chapter}{1}

\setcounter{section}{0}

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{1}

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Adding Signatures to Your Electronic Letters

If you have a Google or a Yahoo account, it is really easy to add a small chunk of text to better tell others who you are, so say your titles, address, fax and telephone numbers. 

I have just done that in a professional way for the first time, like I had it once but it was more like a marketing token for a few of my products. Now I am telling others who I am and how they can contact me inside of those final lines of my electronic letters. 

It is all free and easy with both Google and Yahoo: All you have to do is right clicking (with your mouse) over the button that means settings, which is a button in the shape of a machine gear. You will then see a menu containing the option settings, which is the option you must choose. With Yahoo, you then click over Accounts and, after that, over the electronic address you have with Yahoo. With Google, you just scroll down up to Signature, when you will then choose adding one. After you clicked over your yahoo address with Yahoo, you have to scroll down up to Signature as well and then tick the box Append instead of Add (Google). Now, you can just type whatever you want to appear at the bottom of your every electronic letter: It is that easy!

You can have Positive Thinking messages there, if you want. You can have reassurance messages. You can even tell people when you will be away. It is a very useful resource that you can use for free and that can make an actual difference in the way you communicate with people, since, once you set it up, you will be able to communicate whatever is in your signature without having to think about it. If it is important, then it is a way of never forgetting to put the information in your letters. 

It is part of what is called Good Business Practice, I reckon. 

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Add-Ins and the Microsoft Packages

If you are trying to use the Visual Data Manager tab on the Add-Ins tab of the Visual Basic options inside of the Developer tab of Excel, you might be in trouble: If you have the wrong version of MS Excel, the tab might not be available at all. 

The good thing is that you can fix that absence by building the tab yourself. The bad thing is that it will give you a bit of work. You can save hundreds of dollars by building it yourself, however.

Here is an excellent guide: How to Build Add-In

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Recording Computer Images for Classes

After a lot of experimentation, I found out that the best technique to record computer images is not using one of the commercial pieces of software that are currently on offer but a digital camera instead, transferring it all to the computer and then reformatting, if necessary. 

Today, I needed to satisfy the demands of Google and upload movies that respected their limits in terms of size, so that I had to grab the resulting recording from my digital camera and use Movie Maker to get the needed reduction. With the second movie, and I am talking about the blog post that precedes this one, I had to convert the image to e-mail format, what made the quality of the item decrease but kept it all inside of the limits in terms of size. 

I now take the computer to be simply another world object, so that we can record what goes in it in the same way we record other things. The evolution of the techniques for building screens and machines now allow us to do this sort of thing. It gives a lot of work and it is very hard to do it if we are on our own but it is feasible and you can see the good results on the previous post, inside of this same blog. 

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Voice and Powerpoint

You probably have faced the situation of not being happy with the recording you have for your Powerpoint presentation. It is not very easy to find a way out of that.

Basically, Powerpoint creates an icon and gives you the opportunity to give a name to the recording for each slide, so that you can use that resource a bit better than you currently do: Name all recordings in a unique way. Then use the search button from MS (the rectangle that is found to the side of the MS button) to find the file. Click on open file location after right clicking over the name, which will appear at the top of the rectangle that is built over the MS button after you press enter on the search bar. 

You then convert the file, if necessary, or you record the message using the Voice Recorder from your computer. You can even use iTunes to rename the extension of the file, as we have explained here earlier on (will give you a .wav). You then drag the file to inside of Audacity and perform at least these actions: Leveling, Noise Reduction, Equalizer and Normalizer. This sequence, per se, will give you a much better quality of sound. You then must export the file to be able to insert it in your Powerpoint presentation. You will use the resource Insert Audio in this case. 

Audacity is a free program. 

________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Embedding Movies in POWERPOINT Presentations

Ever had problems with it?

Today I faced the ultimate in these regards: I even had a .wmv but THE THING would not cooperate. No, sir: It kept on telling me that the codecs whatever. 

Oh, well, Google comes, Google goes, and I found something of interest that came from the own Microsoft (MS). Shame it did not work as they said it would, so that I went to the page they told me to visit, for third parties' CODECS, and downloaded absolutely everything that seemed to be even remotely related to my problem. After that, I installed everything, even something with the Communist flag on it, with no fear (what we should never do) and... and...: Yes, that's right, FABULOUS OLD NOTHING!

I finally dug to the right side of the Google Universe and found a gem: All, second choice, XP Codec Pack, and, if your problems are of the same type, you should be just fine (the MS message was install codec or Apple product x). 

These guys have all codecs inside of this single batch file, so that you click install and it all works as if you had a Genie. 

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you

Free Conversion: Movies

Sometimes you just need to convert .mp4s to .avis, right? The problem is then finding a reliable program through which you can do that. Most of what is available is going to cost you.

I found this website, however, where you can convert all for free and the output is of reasonable quality. It is probably not acceptable for most of what you want to do but if you are going to use the movie in a Power Point presentation, it should be something. 

Convert

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you by acquiring one of our online courses: 

A Few Really Refined Hints, IT 

_____________________________________________________

Itunes: Free Conversion

So, I had this musical file in .m4a shape. My computer was going crazy and there was no way programs would converse. They finally decided that .m4a was too advanced for them in an incredible programs insurgency. 

And now?

Google goes, Google comes and I watch: Jee, it is going to cost me a lot if I want to be serious about this.

Finally, a friendly approach: Just use Itunes!

I had Itunes, I did not pay for it, and I converted it all in a way that all my programs became happy and therefore in a way my computer became OK again. 

We change a setting only but mine was already to what I wanted and Itunes converts to .wav upon receiving the order to import music from somewhere. After that, all you have to do is right clicking on your musical item and choose Create WAV Version.

Wow, what a miracle in terms of simplification and costs!

_________________________________

Please help us keep on inspiring you by acquiring one of our online courses: 

A Few Really Refined Hints, IT 

_____________________________________________________