Web Talk

Every now and then, while trying to open a folder containing video files, you might encounter an error like this: “COM Surrogate has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available”. The message, apart from being irritating and preventing you from opening any video files, won’t disappear even after having closed the folder. The cause of this error message is due to the fact that you are using a software to watch videos which has not been updated or it is not compatible with Windows Vista. There are a lot of tricks and hacks to solve this issue, some of them will work for you while other won’t. Find out which one is the right solution to solve the problem.

First Method

1. Click Start.
2. In the Search Box type CMD
3. Right click on the Command Prompt icon.
4. Click Run as Administrator.
5. In the Command Prompt black window type: regsvr32 %windir%/System32/vbscript.dll and hit Enter.
6. The system will return with the following message: DLL Register Server in C:\Windows\System32/vbscript.dll has been successful.
7. Now click Start.
8. Click Computer on the right.
9. Click Folder and Search.
10. Click the View tab.
11. Tick Always show icons never thumbnails.

Source: Mydigitallife.info

Second Method

Another easier solution is to upgrade your programs such as: Nero and Divx. Anyway sometimes even after having updated those software the issue could persist. If that’s your case try this trick:

1. Rename C:\Program Files\Common Files\Ahead\DSFilter\NeVideo.ax to NeVideo.ax.bakup.
2. Rename NeVideoHD.ax to NeVideoHD.bakup

Third Method

The ffdshow codec pack has been known as one of the reasons that causes the COM Surrogate error. In this case just try to update it here: http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/

Fourth Method

Update all of your codecs to the latest version here. As a matter of fact it has been reported that the COM issue just disappears after having installed the above download.

Fifth Method

Just upgrade all of your software used to watch videos.

A few months ago I posted an article where I spoke about a hack which let you watch YouTube videos with a higher resolution. A few weeks ago YouTube has started offering high resolution videos as default. To take advantage of this new feature it is sufficient to follow this simple trick:

1. Go to your YouTube account (if you don’t have one, you have to create it!).
2. Under Account , click the Video Playback Quality link.
3. Select the radio button I have a fast connection. Always play higher-quality video when it’s available to play video in higher quality by default.
4. Click Save Settings.
5. Next time you watch a YouTube video, you could see a link teasing you to watch it in high quality.
   

There are a lot of ways to hack YouTube videos nowadays. In fact, you can download a video without using any software or you can even watch videos with a higher resolution than the one offered by YouTube itself. Today I want to speak of another hack which lets you embed high resolution videos in your blog (MP4 -H264 with AAC audio encoded at 480×360). This hack is completely different in comparison to the one offered by following the link above because the famous strings &fmt=6 and &fmt=18 won’t work in this case. In fact you will have to use another string namely &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 at the end of the video clip’s URL. Once done, you will have to put the modified URL into a special code and paste it into your website. But let’s see an example.

Let’s say that you want to embed this high resolution video in your blog:

1. Click on the right bottom icon in the YouTube video, copy and past the code you want to embed in your blog:

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/DFYfbHLkaRQ”></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/DFYfbHLkaRQ” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

2. Now add the string &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 as shown here:

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/DFYfbHLkaRQ&ap=%2526fmt%3D18“>
</param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/DFYfbHLkaRQ&ap=%2526fmt%3D18” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

Hp has recently made official the forthcoming launch of its new thin TouchSmart 2 desktop computer which will be distinguished by its touch screen and, as its name suggests, its thin design which promises you to get rid of all those annoying cables and wires giving you a lot of room on your desktop. But let’s see together its most interesting features:

• 22-inch diagonal, high-definition.
• 500GB hard disk.
• 256MB of NVIDIA GeForce 9300 M HS HD graphics.
• 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo T5850 processor.
• 802.11n WiFi.
• Prices for the base model HP TouchSmart IQ504 PC and the TV-tuner equipped IQ506 PC start at $1,299 and $1499, respectively.
• The launch will be next month in 17 countries next month including the UK, Japan, and the US.

If you want more info, read the press release directly from HP website.

Source: Engadget.com

Samsung has just unveiled its new cellphone i900 Omina. As you know, I don’t review cellphones that often but this one struck me for its incredible features which turn the i900 into a powerful competitor of the well known iPhone. But let’s see together its features:

• Windows Mobile 6.1.
• Quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE support (7.2Mbps HSDPA).
• 3.2-inch WideQVGA display (240 x 400 pixels).
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera.
• Wi-Fi.
• Bluetooth.
  
• FM Radio.
• Available in 8GB and 16GB version.

Source: Engadget.com

Yesterday I was browsing YouTube videos, looking for something funny to put on the blog. Among the other things I found something quite amazing. If you want to eat pop-corns but you don’t have any microwave oven around, here is a very original but “disturbing” way to make them. I wonder if this is what happens in our brain when we make a phone call…

A few months ago Google launched its new service to create web sites from scratch without knowing any programming language. Anyway the service was just reserved to companies and organizations that wanted to use it on their own domains. Starting from the 21st of May 2008 the service is open to everybody who wants to share their knowledge, hobbies, interests and such on the Internet. A Google website will have an extension such as: http://sites.google.com/[your-website]. On it you will be able to add as many pages as you wish and there will be no advertising nor any pop-ups, banners, buttons etc. It will be a space just for you. Your personal, free space where to experiment your creativity and let other people know about what you like. To help you create your website, Google Sites gives you a full set of tools to add pictures, documents, calendars, videos and gadgets to your pages. To start creating a website you need a Google account and sign-in to Google Sites. To know more about this new service visit this link.

Have you ever wished to manipulate your videos and create something totally different or funny out of them? It would be nice, right? I know what you are thinking about. You think that you need a software to modify your videos and most of the times this software is very expensive. Today modifying you videos won’t cost you a thing anymore, thanks to a new freeware software called DimP! But how does it work? DimP works in two simple ways namely:

• DimP automatically extracts object motions from the videos.
• DimP then allows the user to control video playback by scrubbing these objects on their trajectories.

If you want to know more about it click here. If you want to download the software, click here. DimP requires the following features on your computer:

• Windows XP and Vista compatible.
• 1 GB of RAM.
• Microsoft .NET 2.0 runtime. Download it here (22 MB).
• A VfW (Video for Windows) MPEG-4 codec such as ffdshow.

If you want to know how DimP works, watch the video now!