Download Squad

HELP! Windows cannot open this file

Alan Silcott — 2008-06-20T19:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Internet, OS Updates, Utilities, Features, Windows, Office, Shareware, Freeware, Open Source, How-Tos

You've just downloaded that must have program only to realize that Windows has no idea what to do with it. After an hour of Google searching, forum posting, and being called n00b, you finally figure it out.

If only there was a guide that showed you how to get all those needed programs. We at Download Squad feel your pain and have put together a list of 10 free programs that will take care of those pesky "Windows cannot open this file" messages once and for all.

Note: See a blatant omission or oversight? Please add it to the comments. With your help, we hope to re-post a more complete list the future.

K-Lite codec pack

File Types: DivX, XviD, AVI, Mpeg 1-4, AC3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, FLV, OGG, VOB, and tons you've never heard of.

Description: Why there are 85,000,000 different audio and video types we have no idea. What we do know is trying to install codecs one at a time generally ends in a reformat.

Thankfully, the good people from K-Lite (Koors Lite?) have bundled all the software and codecs you need into one executable. Cheers!
Real Alternative and QuickTime Alternative

File Types: RM, RA, RAM, RPM, RMVB, RPX, SMI, SMIL, RT, RP, MOV, QT, 3GP

Description: Before the days of Youtube, the Real Player and QuickTime were kings of Internet multimedia. Sure you had to deal with popups, reminders, updates, and bloatware, but that 1" video was so worth it.

Fortunately, the Real and Quicktime Alternatives removed the real in Real Player and restored the quick to QuickTime. Enjoy your 1" video!

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Flipping the Linux switch: Linux web tools, Pt. 2 - Using LAMP for testing

Kristin Shoemaker — 2008-06-13T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Features, Linux, Open Source, How-Tos

There was a toss up this week about whether it would be better to dig right in to the Linux HTML editors, or to wax poetic about setting up LAMP so that those choosing to go the content management system (CMS) route could test any changes they made with such editors on their local machines.

We ultimately decided to tackle setting up a LAMP testing ground. This will certainly not be necessary for every single person out there who just wants to put up a web site. If your site is not using PHP-driven content that interacts with or requires a database backend, and you just plan on designing static web pages, there is absolutely no need to do any of this.

If you are perfectly content to upload your site and integrate any supporting elements (once again, things like databases) live and on the web and make changes there, where it is possible that everyone can see your style sheet testing or things may be temporarily broken, you don't need to do this either.

Some people, though, really like to get things on their CMS tweaked to near perfection before releasing their content on the world. Other people need to know exactly what a dynamic site is going to look and act like before it goes live. The combination of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (LAMP) makes this possible.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Linux web tools, Pt. 2 - Using LAMP for testing

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Vista: open command prompt window from right-click menu

Danny Mendez — 2008-06-04T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, How-Tos

If you ever need to open a command prompt window from a Vista right-click menu (example: you sit down to use your computer and a message suddenly pops up -- "open a command prompt window from a right-click menu your computer will blow up"), how would you go about doing it?

The process is simple: hold down the shift key, then right click on a folder icon, in a folder, or the desktop. An "Open Command Window Here" option will appear in the menu as a result of the shift key's ability to, well, shift stuff. Finally, when the command window opens, take a look at the current path: it's whatever you clicked on.

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Flipping the Linux switch: Cairo-Dock is pain free eye candy

Kristin Shoemaker — 2008-05-07T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, Linux, Open Source, How-Tos

It's a weird phenomenon. Nearly every computer platform steals another one's look. Vista gets accused of trying to look too much like OS X. Linux desktops get accused of trying to look like Vista (except when they're accused of ripping off OS X).

Well, okay, we guess really what that proves is that there's at least something distinctive and cutting edge about OS X's look. Love it or hate it, everyone seems to think everyone else is ultimately copying it.

There's no denying, the first time we saw OS X, our hearts beat a little faster when we saw the dock.

Until now, though, the dock concept was really sort of a nuisance to get working effectively in Linux. There is the Avant Window Navigator, and though it does the trick quite nicely, many newbies (or extremely busy people) said the tweaking factor left them wanting something a little less involved.

We've been using Cairo-Dock of late, and we really like it. The beauty of it extends far beyond the physical appearance. There are source packages, and there are Debian binary packages. Installing isn't that difficult. We even installed it, quickly and with great success, on a 64 bit system (and yes, we'll show you how.)

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Cairo-Dock is pain free eye candy

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Automatically delete empty subdirectories with one-line batch file

Jason Clarke — 2008-05-05T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware, How-Tos

Deleting empty subdirectories seems like something Windows ought to do automatically, but for some reason that function just isn't included as part of the OS. Luckily, you don't need to download a utility to do it; instead, you can create a single line batch file that will do exactly what you're looking for:

for /f "usebackq" %%d in ("dir /ad/b/s | sort /R") do rd "%%d"

Raymond Chen, the venerable Microsoft coder, explains how this works. Basically, it uses a trick to enumerate the directories in reverse order. Since you can't delete a directory that contains data (including other directories) the only way to automate deleting directories is to start at the very bottom of the tree and work your way up.

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Speed up the feel of Windows with the double-click speed setting

Jason Clarke — 2008-04-28T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, How-Tos, Mods

Speed is all about perception, so any tip that makes a computer feel faster is gold as far as we're concerned. Today's tip is a doozy from Raymond Chen, the venerable Microsoft developer and blogger.

According to Chen, a number of user interface timers in Windows key off of the double-click speed registry setting.

The default double-click speed in Windows is 500ms , or exactly 1/2 of a second. Try dropping that down to 250ms -- about three-quarters of the way towards Fast -- and watch the rest of Windows feel just a bit snappier, since a number of other Windows user interface timings use that setting as a reference. Cool!

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Windows Tip: Simulate "No to All" in file copy dialog

Brad Linder — 2008-04-11T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Windows, How-Tos

When you try to copy a group of files from one folder to another, Windows will bring up a handy little window if it notices files in the target directory with the same name as files from the source directory. You can manually choose which files to overwrite or leave be one by one. Or you can click "Yes to All" to effectively overwrite every file with a duplicate name in the target directory.

But what if you want to click "No to All?" There's no button for you, but that doesn't mean Windows won't let you skip all the duplicate files. All you have to do is hold down the Shift key and click No. Now Windows will skip all files with duplicate names and copy the rest of your files to the new directory, thus saving you a lot of time, heartache, and repetitive finger motions.

[via Online Tech Tips and Tech Xpress]

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Flipping the Linux switch: Disturbingly easy installs, now with sound and action

Kristin Shoemaker — 2008-03-21T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, Linux, Open Source, How-Tos

Last week, we walked through installing Ubuntu Linux.

It's not a particularly hard process, and Ubuntu is great because it clearly illustrates the basic steps every Linux distribution goes through when it installs on a hard drive. Even if you don't use Ubuntu or a derivative, just looking at the installer screenies gives a nice story arc to a generic Linux install.

New users often find the first time they log in to their shiny new Linux desktop that not only are many things they need installed and ready, but a few things they really want aren't. They'll have a browser, but the Flash plug-in won't be activated. They'll have a media player, but it won't play .mp3 or .wma files. It won't play DVDs. What's up with that?

The main reason this happens is due to licensing, copyright and distribution issues. It will vary from distribution to distribution a little bit (Puppy Linux usually includes Flash with its browser, and Xandros usually peppers in a few media codecs), but for the most part, the free (as in speech) aspect of the software is kept separate from the proprietary. Legality is the major player, but there are quite a few open source folks out there who like to keep their machine free of the proprietary stuff on principle.

That's totally fine, we say. To each his own. But we have this movie we want to watch right here, right now.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Disturbingly easy installs, now with sound and action

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Enable support for 6th Gen iPods in Ubuntu

Ian Dumych — 2008-03-18T11:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, Linux, Open Source, How-Tos, Canonical, Troubleshooting

When Apple released the latest generation of iPods, the company also caused a great deal of pain for Linux users. While Linux developers had an easy time getting every other iPod in the past to work with Linux distributions like Ubuntu and SUSE, the latest iPods are different. In their infinite wisdom, Apple redesigned the iPod music database in such a way that it is encrypted with a hash key. Not only does this make it difficult to develop third party software that can access that database, but if you try to sync your 6th gen iPod with Ubuntu 7.10, it will destroy the database, making your music unplayable on the iPod (but still accessible in disk mode).

Of course, the Linux community being what it was, it took just a few days before a highly technical solution started making the rounds. But how does Joe Six-pack use this to sync his shiny new iPod? Download Squad delivers. Read on for step by step instructions!

Continue reading Enable support for 6th Gen iPods in Ubuntu

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Flipping the Linux switch: Installations are disturbingly easy

Kristin Shoemaker — 2008-03-16T20:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, Linux, Open Source, How-Tos, Canonical, Troubleshooting

All right, the headline is a little bit of a lie. Some Linux installs are hairier, take longer, and just aren't as soothing as the one we're about to show you. They do all work approximately the same way, however, and that's just fine for us as a point of illustration.

So there we are, looking at the "Download" page of an Ubuntu derived distribution. We decide that we'll download the x86 version of the distro (we'll assume we don't have a 64 bit or PPC system or don't want a 64 bit OS). So we click on the file that ends in .iso, and it starts downloading.

Now what?

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How to get "new" Gmail in your Google Apps account

Jason Clarke — 2008-03-06T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Business, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Web services, Google, Commercial, Freeware, How-Tos

While many people using Google Apps are already happy users of the "new" version of Gmail (apparently Google doesn't want to call it Gmail 2.0), there are still many users of Google Apps that are stuck on the older version. If you're frustrated at seeing the cool new things you can do in the new Gmail and you're still stuck on the old version, there may be something that you can do.

If you are the administrator for your Google Apps account, or can talk to that person, there is an option under Domain Settings (General tab) in the Control Panel section called "Turn on new application features to my domain before they are rolled out to all Google Apps customers." A week after we checked that box on our Google Apps account, Gmail magically transformed to the new version. Good luck!

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URL Trick in Gmail

Jason Clarke — 2008-03-06T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Business, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Web services, Google, Freeware, How-Tos

While we may have touched on it when we covered the release of the "new" version of Gmail, we thought you (like us) might have forgotten about this great little trick.

Gmail now treats every page like a web page. Okay, that might sound a bit too obvious, so we'll explain. When you open a message, label, or do a search, each of the resulting pages you see will have a dedicated URL. This means that if you bookmark or copy and paste the URL, you can later return to exactly the same view.

Even more useful is the fact that the URL for a search works across different Gmail accounts. So if you have a friend or co-worker that you know has certain information in their email, but can't seem to find it, you can do a search in your own Gmail account, then send your friend the URL for that search and they will have the exact same search criteria applied against their own account.

For example, if you want to search your Gmail account for "Download Squad", try using the following URL:
https://mail.google.com/mail/#search/%22download+squad%22

Slick!

By the way, if you're having trouble making this work, try accessing your account using the secure method. To do this, just ensure your Gmail URL begins with "https". For some reason we can't seem to make this trick work unless we're using this method.

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Mod your PSP the easy way

Ian Dumych — 2008-03-05T23:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Games, Features, Windows, Freeware, How-Tos

In our last column, we covered the history behind the PSP homebrew scene. We hope that this has whetted your appetite, because today we will show you how you can enjoy the homebrew phenomenon on your own PSP!

As with any community created technology, PSP homebrew can be overwhelming, especially when you are new to it. Many people become confused and frustrated when searching for information on how to do things such as modding their PSP. We at Download Squad don't think you should have to spend a whole weekend getting to know Google better, so we did the hard work for you. We searched, cussed, and scratched out heads for weeks to deliver you this, the simplest and most painless guide possible, a full solution that will work on ANY PSP and ANY firmware, and even on "bricked" PSPs!

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Inbox 0.5 - How to get to an empty inbox - Emailers Anonymous

Jason Clarke — 2008-03-05T11:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Business, Features, E-mail, Office, How-Tos

For the sake of this article, we're going to assume that you understand the benefits of being a filer rather than a piler. If you'd like to get to an empty inbox, but are facing what seems to be an insurmountable pile, take heart; we've all been there. Even for people that are meticulous filers, there are times, such as returning from a trip, where the amount of email facing you seems impossible.

Sometimes when we get overly focused on the end goal we make our task seem impossible, and it doesn't need to be. There's a simple formula you can follow that will help you meet your goal of an empty inbox. If you decide to follow it, your inbox won't be empty today, or even tomorrow, but in a matter of days, most likely less than a week, it will.

It's called Inbox 0.5. The idea is to ensure that you get through at least half of the emails you are facing. Here's how it works:

It's day one, and you're looking at 700 emails staring you in the face first thing in the morning. It's your task to get down to 350 by the end of the day. It sounds hard, but here's the thing. Most of that email is bulk mail subscriptions and the like, or simply out of date. If you can group or sort based on email subject or thread, do so - it will help you dispose of a huge number of emails once you've caught up to date with the most recent one.

It seems like a lot (and it is), but you'll probably find that getting through the first 350 messages is the easiest batch you will face.

Continue reading Inbox 0.5 - How to get to an empty inbox - Emailers Anonymous

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Flipping the Linux switch: Quick and easy photo management with F-Spot

Kristin Shoemaker — 2008-02-21T20:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Photo, Features, Linux, Open Source, How-Tos

Photo management software for Windows makes us weep. For most people, photo management consists of loading the software (and drivers) that came from the camera manufacturer. So you've got a Nikon camera, and the photo management software is really different from your significant other's Kodak software.

It looks different. It acts different. It's easier to set up some ways, or more inflexible in others. It might even be installing extraneous applications on your machine you weren't expecting.

Linux, as you've probably guessed, handles cameras a little differently. Camera drivers -- many different camera drivers -- are handled by gphoto2 and its libraries. Your pictures are downloaded and organized through photo management software, which runs on top of the gphoto2 drivers. (As a side note, gphoto2 can also be used to download pictures from the command line.)

Your Nikon, your mom's Kodak, and your brother's Sony will all use the same photo management program on your Linux machine. Now that's a little less complicated.

Today we're taking a look at the F-Spot photo manager.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Quick and easy photo management with F-Spot

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Speed up your site with PHPSpeedy

Christina Warren — 2008-02-01T17:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Web services, How-Tos

Leon Chevalier of Aciddrop.com has just released a free script that can considerably speed-up your website or blog's load time. PHPSpeedy works by making fewer HTTP requests, adding a far-future expires header, Gziping page components and minifying Javascript, CSS and HTML.

The end results are pretty stunning, in Chevalier's test (available at his site), a 271 KB page with 14 requests took 4.44 seconds to load. The same page after the modifications weighed in at 49 KB and just 4 requests, for 1.1s load time.

The latest version of the script includes an installer process that makes enabling the script on your own website for blog very, very easy. We tried it on our own WordPress installation and found the results to be as advertised and the installation process to be worry free.

For more specific WordPress 2.3.x instructions, follow us after the jump.

Continue reading Speed up your site with PHPSpeedy

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Flipping the Linux switch: Penguin on a (USB) stick

Kristin Shoemaker — 2008-01-29T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, Linux, Open Source, How-Tos

Ever wish you had your whole desktop on a flash disk? You know what we mean, you take a spreadsheet up to your 'rents, and you realize that they have no program to actually open your spreadsheet with. Or maybe you hop from computer to computer in several offices, and hate the fact that every computer you work on is just different enough to make it difficult to get things done.

Even if you don't use Linux as a main desktop, it can come in handy in these types of situations. Flash storage is cheap as dirt, and there are a number of small, yet full-bodied distributions that can run off flash drives. Most modern computers can boot from USB mass storage by changing the boot order in the computer's BIOS (if you've never done this, please consult your computer's documentation. It's not particularly difficult, but does vary a bit from computer to computer.)

We're looking at two such distributions over the next couple Switch installments. The two little distributions -- Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux Not -- have been chosen for their flexibility and very different approaches to the same issues. Many distributions can be pared down to fit on flash drives, but these two are optimized for it from the get-go.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Penguin on a (USB) stick

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Flipping the Linux switch: Misplace a file? Find it quick!

Kristin Shoemaker — 2008-01-21T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Utilities, Features, Linux, Productivity, Open Source, How-Tos, Search

It happens to the best of us. We forget where we put things. Car keys. Flash drives. Yes, sometimes we even forget where certain files are on our computers. We can't really help you with the car keys and flash drives (although we inexplicably find things like that in the refrigerator here), we can help you out with finding missing files.

Coming from a Windows environment, you might be familiar with the graphical Search Files/Folder application. You know the one, it has the weird little cartoon dog that sometimes finds your files and folders, sometimes returns a lot of stuff you don't need, or sometimes doesn't return anything at all, even though you know it exists.

Linux also has graphical search applications. With them, you're able to configure your search parameters a little more tightly than with Windows (or maybe it just seems so, because we're not rushing to get the search done and make the freaky little dog go away). However, this usually isn't the quickest, or easiest, way to find your files.

This is definitely one of those times it's more productive for both old pro and new Linux users to use the command line. The confusing thing, even for some more experienced Linux users, is choosing which command to actually use to find the file or folder in question.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Misplace a file? Find it quick!

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Flipping the Linux switch: New users guide to the terminal

Kristin Shoemaker — 2008-01-17T13:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, Linux, Productivity, Open Source, How-Tos, Troubleshooting

The command line. It strikes fear in the hearts of many a new Linux user. They open their terminals reluctantly, and there the prompt sits, with the cursor blinking in rhythm with their racing hearts. What does that blinking cursor want? It's expecting something... It wants something...

All right, so maybe it's not horror movie material.

But it is intimidating for many new users. Navigating the command line might be a mystery to you, or maybe you've read a little about it and wonder: out of all those commands, which ones am I really going to use? Which ones are the most help in a given situation?

Either way, we've got you covered. These are the commands we've found are most useful to new users. They range from basic navigation to commands that are great for troubleshooting.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: New users guide to the terminal

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Flipping the Linux switch: Package management 101

Kristin Shoemaker — 2008-01-08T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: OS Updates, Features, Linux, Open Source, How-Tos

Your shiny new Linux system has it all -- except that one program you really needed it to install. You get online, you find the program's website, and click 'download'. Except there's not just a link to the program there.

There are four, or five, or more links to the program. Each has a slightly different format, ending with .rpm, .deb, .tgz, or possibly even .ebuild.

Some include x86 in the name, while others say ppc or amd64. What's the difference? What's actually included in these packages?

Packages are pre-compiled programs for your system (the exception being Gentoo's .ebuild). You've got to know a bit about your system to install them.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Package management 101

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