Guitar Chasers

Although I have been using a computer for about seven years I still consider myself a digital newbie. With that disclaimer as the preface to this page, I would like to turn you on to several good programs and tweaks I’ve found that have transformed my Windows XP into a pleasant and trouble-free multimedia tool. Because I am a newbie, I hesitate to recommend anything so I’ll just say that this is how my computer is set up and it has been pretty much stable, consistent and fast for the five years I have been using it. My computer specs: HP Pavilion 760, Pentium 4, 1.9 ghz, 120 gb hard drive, 512 mb ram, cd burner drive, dvd play drive.

I consider a broadband connection to the internet the single most important factor in finding satisfaction in computer usage. Tasks and downloads that require hours on dial up are reduced to minutes on broadband (dsl, cable, etc.). I’ll never use dial up again unless I have no other option.

Windows Updates: My computer came with Windows XP Home Edition early version. I upgraded to SP1 as soon as the service pack was released and never had any problem. When I upgraded again to SP2 there were no problems, but I wasn’t happy. It seems that SP2 changes the number of TCP connections permitted, and as a result file download times increase significantly. This was especially noticable when using p2p clients or operating as a server (I did Shoutcast for a while). It only took a couple of months for the frustration of slower downloads to drive me in search of a solution. I had already decided that if I couldn’t find a fix to speed up the downloads, I was going to revert back to SP1. Thank goodness there was a patch available that fixes the SP2 cap on multiple connections. Now, I’m still using SP2 with its increased security features, and my download times are still as fast as they were when using SP1.

For p2p file sharing I use the Shareaza client. It has proven to be rock solid, with an intuitive interface and no commercial ads whatsoever. I love it. It’s free.

Anti Virus program. The free version of AVG Anti Virus is a winner in my book. I update the virus definition library once or twice a week.

I have tried several software firewalls just for fun. My early favorite was the Agnitum Outpost Firewall, free version. Unfortunately, Outpost is now outdated and it appears that development of the free version has ceased. So I switched to Zone Alarm, which worked well until I uninstalled it. After uninstalling, my os seemed to become unstable and performed erratically. I don’t know if Zone Alarm caused the instability, but it was the only change I had made when things became quirky. I did like Zone Alarm (free version) while it was installed and working.

Audio. I’ve tried lots of different audio software and still don’t consider anything my favorite. Each program seems to have some outstanding feature or features that others don’t. For instance, Windows Media Player (newest version) has an advanced ID3 tag editor that is great. WinAmp is maximum cool. db Power Amp and Music Converter is excellent for quick, right click access conversions. While I don’t have any absolute favorites, there are three programs I can’t live without. Audacity for audio editing, MP3Gain for normalizing, and CDex for some ripping and conversions.

Video. I wanted back-up copies of my dvd library, but my computer didn’t have a dvd burner. So I searched for video encoder software that would copy my dvd collection into a format that could be burned onto cd. I tried several different programs and found all but one to be unpredictable and difficult to use. My favorite, without question, is DVX. To use DVX requires the installation of the Microsoft .NET framework, which is no big deal other than .NET’s huge file size. DVX can encode different formats using a variety of video codecs including XVID and DiVX. Each format has its own benefits. I prefer DiVX with Lame mp3 audio. I don’t know if the DVX software is still under development, but the version I’m using works flawlessly. For those of you who have never encoded a movie before, please note. Encoding a movie takes a long time. The audio portion usually requires at least a half hour wait, and the video portion can take several hours depending on the resolution and how many passes you choose to encode. Each pass improves video quality.

Gaming. I have a large family, so naturally pc games are a part of daily life. The main problem with video games is the need to put the cd in the tray and wait for it to load. One day I discovered the world of virtual cd/dvd drives. With virtual drives there is no need to load the cd tray then eject, then load, eject Simply make a 1:1 copy of the cd with Alcohol 120%. Then load the virtual disc (I prefer the ISO format) onto one of the virtual drives and leave it there forever. I can have an unlimited number of virtual drives, so I can leave each game loaded into its own drive permanentley if I choose to do so. Another thing; virtual drives can access the hard disk faster than a real cd drive, so the games run more smoothly with quicker response. In my eagerness to implement virtual drives into my os, I failed to research all the do’s and don’ts of installing them. When my real dvd drive and cd drive disappeared from the My Computer display, I was forced to learn about the aspi layer required to make virtual drives work. For the correct aspi layer I use ForceASPI. I use aspiCheck to verify the existence of the correct aspi layer. Now my kids play all sorts of video games. They’re always trying to chase me off the computer so they can play. I’m too busy playing my favorites; Diablo II Lord of Destruction, Halo or The Sims Makin’ Magic. Hahaha.

If you are looking into building your own website, here are some things I have messed around with while building and maintaining this website. Running a website requires a certain amount of dedication and a suite of software apps that make the job easier and quicker. The original Guitar Chasers was built with modest html, so first on my list of needs was a good html editor. I’ve tried plenty of different editors all of which work great, but I keep going back to Stone’s Webwriter 3. For some reason things just happen quickly and more easily when I use Stone’s. It’s free for non-commercial use.

Website operation also requires a good FTP client. My favorite is Filezilla. It’s free.

When Guitar Chasers began offering podcasts, the need arose for programs that create rss feeds with enclosures so the mp3 files would be accessible to audio feed aggregators (podcatchers). That’s when I started dabbling with blogging software. Our podcast site is currently built with the Wordpress blog software, which I consider the grooviest.

There are other great blogging software and CMS available, each capable of producing an attractive and impressive website. Each are comfortable in their own unique ways. My alternate favorite to Wordpress is called PHPWebsite. I have also built Guitar Chasers site on Drupal, Joomla, Xoops, Website Baker and Typo. In my opinion it all boils down to which one fits my operational abilities most easily at any given time. I honestly cannot think of anything bad to say about any of them.

There is an alternative available for podcast websites that do not have access to an sql database. Its called Thingamablog. The database resides on the home hard drive and the program ftp’s completed pages (in pure html) to the host upon clicking Publish. Thingamablog doesn’t apply media enclosures in its published feed, so an additional rss feed builder program is necessary. The best I’ve used so far is called rssEditor. Together, Thingamablog and RSSeditor can provide a very nice podcast site without the server hosted database. The downside is that comments and feedback in real-time become impractical. These programs are free.

Here are some other free software apps I really dig. TinySpell spelling checker. Total Uninstall software installing app. Photo Filtre image program. Wallpaper XChange. Zero Footprint file encryptor. Daemon Tools virtual drives. IZarc zip tool. FastStone screen capture. Zip Genius zip tool. PsPad editor. NagaSkaki chess.

In closing I’d like to stress two points. Nearly all the items listed in this article are free, and all have worked correctly for a good long time.