Transfer much?

As an avid collector of movies and TV shows, I am constantly transferring files all over the place, from different drives to external hard disks. But when transferring a few hundred gigs at one time errors are unacceptable which could lead to corrupted files and loss of time. Instead of using the retarded XP in built file transfer program I use Terracopy(TC). A third party program which speeds up and makes transferring easier. The biggest advantage of using TC is the way it transfers files when you want to transfer multiple files at once. XP will transfer them all of them at once, where as TC will transfer them one by one. That way if one file does fail, it will not cancel your whole transfer. The program has a trial and pro version, with the latter being able to cancel certain files while it is queued and other features listed on their website. The pro version is acquired by payment, or for those who can use a certain torrent site they maybe able to find the pro version for free.

[Link: TerraCopy]

Faster than fast track on Aus TV

Living in Australia USA TV shows used to be released 1 season behind, or even not released at all. It is not until recently that all the channels are "fast tracking" their US line up, usually only 1 week behind. Still if you can't wait (like me) or you are trying to keep up with a series that is not showing in Australia, keep a regular eye on the site I bring to you today. Torrents of US TV shows that were shown at night in the US are posted daily, usually in the morning to afternoons. Sometimes downloading the torrents that just came out might get nuked (nuked: being officially announced that it is a redundant) and therefore it is better to wait for a repacked version (repacked: a version which is fixed up). It is also important to take note of the size of the file, unless you have unlimited quota and bandwidth you don't want to be downloading a massive HD 720 episode of your TV show every week. Regular quality shows are around 350mb for 1 hour/45mins (1 episode) and half that if it is a sit com (30min format).

[Link: EZTV]

Chop, Snip, Cut: MSN

Considering all my friends only using msn, I prefer not to use multi-chat programs like Trillian etc, but the Live messenger client is not the best looking thing in my opinion. Not to mention all the pesky ads on the bottom of the contact list and functions I believe should be in built already. The following 2 programs will customize MSN the way you want to work and look.

1. Messenger Plus! Live
This program once installed will become part of your MSN Some functions include MSN skinning, boss protection (hot key to hide MSN in a flash) and MSN locking. There are truly too many features to list here so head over to the website for the full details. But some functions I personally use include tabbed chat conversation and opaque contact list.

2. A-Patch
This program lets you shave ads, buttons or even frames from MSN both conversation windows and contact list. Make sure you match up the version of MSN you are using to the correct A-patch. Its hard to explain what this program is capable of doing so the screen shot comparison should show the differences once you apply the patch.

XP + Vista = XPista?

Out of sheer laziness I have not written a post for a long time. But during my absence I have been doing a lot of research and I have got many updates planned for the blog over the coming weeks. The first update from my return are 3 programs derived from Vista features. Many people say Vista was poorly executed by Microsoft with performance issues and I totally agree, but I must admit there are some features I do enjoy. Here are 3 programs that run in the background to emulate the best features on Vista on XP.

1. Winflip

In Vista you can choose to make your alt tab experience more exciting with screen captures of the programs you are changing to. Similar to coverflow (album art scrolling feature) in Mac products, once you run this program, your alt tab will now emulate Vista's function.

Source: Winflip

2. Desktop Sidebar
From the onset of rumours that there was a new Windows (longhorn now names Vista) in the making, and screenshots of the OS popped up on the Internet, people were fascinated by the idea of the sidebar featured in the pictures. But once Vista was released people realised that the Vista sidebar was not as great as it had shown to be. From personal experience on one occasion loading the Vista sidebar totally crashed my system. Defeated by Vista's sidebar, I came over "desktop sidebar" a third party sidebar program which runs with less strings and hassles attached with the one in Vista. With the sidebar there are so many functions and uses I cannot list them all, but have a play around with this program if your wanting sidebar that isn't "crapsoft". Keep an eye out for my later post, and I'll show you my personal sidebar configuration.

Source: Desktop Sidebar

3. Xentient Thumbnails
A feature on Vista I really do like is icons of pictures are thumbnails of the picture itself. Of course, XP users can choose thumbnails, but they are so big, so i prefer the icon view and now that I have xentient thumbnails the icons are thumbnails of the picture. The developer of this program has now retired these programs, although he still offers them for download there is no support for them. But you never know in the future he may take it off his site so get it while you still can.

I got on to lifehacker in a way

Sad smile. Thats the feeling I have at the moment, I sent a tip to lifehacker recently and its niced to see my tip go to lifehacker, but no credit was given. I believe it was so because I had not mentioned the filter tip specifically. Good thing I have screenshot evidence to prove my part in lifehackers post :D.