Miguel Carrasco's Real World

Vista Microphone Issues Resolved

About a year and a bit ago I had a issues with Vista and my Microphones.  I do a lot of stuff with the Microphone and my computer, and this was a huge issue!  Why on earth could I not get the microphone to work In Vista! Within Vista, there was no way to get the microphone audio to play through the speakers.  It always seemed muted.  How could I un-mute the microphone?

Luckily within a few days of posting the Vista Microphone issue, hundreds of people started posting their solutions to the problem.  The main issue was that the Microphone Line Monitor in the sound control panel was nowhere to be seen.  Therefore, by default as Vista mutes the line, there was no way to turn it on.

If your soundcard uses the Sigmatel Audio Codec, you are in huge luck as there is a simple way to enable the Microphone on vista with a simple registry hack.

Simply go to your start menu and type in regedit and hit enter to get into the Vista Windows Registry

Next you are going to want to find the following folder:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000\Settings\filter\SpeakerHp\

Then you're going to find the key: EnableIntSpkrMute

Change this key from 01, to 00.

Reboot Vista, and you are ready to go!  Next time you go into your sound control panel, you will have the ability to un-mute, and change your microphone levels in Vista!

 

Hope this helps everyone out there with what I have found to be the most annoying issue in Vista out there.  Who knows what made them decided to lock out the Microphone from 90% of the people out there, but at least now you can resolve the issue pretty easily!

Of course if you don't want to go into the registry to fix your Vista Microphone issue, simply download this Reg file, and run it on your machine, then reboot.  Simple.  Enjoy your microphone!

 

Technorati Tags: Vista,Microphone,Microsoft,Technology

Google Calendar Sync

I was researching some online calendar web sites for an application we are working on and bumped into Google Sync for BlackBerry!

One of the major problems I have had with Google Calendar is its inability to stay in Sync with my Outlook Calendar, and my BlackBerry more than anything.  One the main reasons I don't use Google Calendar is the fact that I already spend hundreds of hours a month keeping things up to date in my Outlook Calendar.  Why on earth I would spend additional time keeping Google Calendar up to date is beyond me.

Have you every used Google Calendar?  It's a very slick AJAX application that lets you easily add events, reminders, appointments to an online, always available application.  The fact that you can get to this application on any device, at any time is a real draw, verses having to have your laptop handy.  I personally always have my BlackBerry with me, however in some instances, it would be nice to just pop onto a computer and use a large screen and keyboard to make changes, create new meetings, or even just review the day.

Google Calendar Sync for BlackBerry solves this problem!  Simply point your BlackBerry to: http://m.google.com/sync, download the application, and you are ready to Sync your calendar!

A new icon will appear on your main window.  Simply sign into your Google account, and press "Sync".  You are done!  Enjoy the benefits of having all your information up to date on your Google Calendar, BlackBerry, and Outlook!

How To Get 32 AA Batteries for $5

It seems the more electronics you get, the more batteries you have to buy.  Rechargeable batteries are not bad, but sometimes you need great quality batteries that will last a little longer.  Plus you cant go wrong 32 batteries for 5 dollars!

Here is the video showing you exactly how to do it.  I tried it for myself, and it worked really well lol, I was shocked.

Technorati Tags: save money

How to be the Perfect Girlfriend

Some funny videos from YouTube. They are meant to be funny, but have some good points I thought.

How to be the Perfect Girlfriend

How to be the Perfect Boyfriend

Technorati Tags: perfect boyfriend, perfect girlfriend

How To Chill A Beer, Soda, or Wine in 3 Minutes

So have you ever needed to chill some nice cold beer fast?  How about that bottle of Champaign or wine for that special night?  You usually have to wait at least an hour to make sure the drink is cold enough to enjoy.  Not anymore!  Here is a quick trick that will have you enjoying your cold beverage of choice in under three minutes!

What you will need:

1. Steel Pot
2. Water
3. Ice
4. Salt
5. Wooden Spoon

What to do:

1. Put the drink in the steel pot.  Make sure that the beer or other beverage to be chilled fits in the pot and does not protrude over the top.
2. Take the ice and completely cover the drink with the ice.
3. Fill the pot with water to the top.
4. Add two cups of table salt.
5. Stir with a wooden spoon until all the salt is dissolved.
6. Place the steel pot in the freezer for three minutes.
7. Take the steel pot out of the freezer and enjoy ice cold beer!

Just a small piece of warning, make sure you do not try this with Soda Water, or you will be in for an explosion.

How does it work:

The salt creates Brine, which has a lower cooling point.  Creating ice uses more energy, therefore the energy is used to cool, rather than create ice.  The ice also starts melting, which needs heat to melt.  The heat is drawn from the warm beer, etc, and causes everything to get colder faster.  Cold (Ice Cold) Beer.

Source: Mythbsusters

Word 2007 Crashing?

Recently I cleaned up my development laptop and installed a fresh copy of Microsoft Vista Ultimate, fresh copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate, and everything was running fantastic!  Then I started with the third party applications I use on a regular basis (SnagIt, Camtasia, PhotoShop, Flash).

Next thing I knew, Word was crashing all the time.  And when I say crashing, I mean it.  Every time I would click the "x" and try and get out of Word 2007, it would hang and crash.  Worse yet, any document I opened, the scroll bar would not work, and the mouse would not be able to move  the cursor and highlight text.  Brutal!

I tried going to my Word Options, in hope I could disable some add-ins, however at this point I discovered that my mouse was rendered pretty much useless, and could not click on the add-on's section to do anything.  Tabbing also seemed futile.

After re-installing Office three times, I stumbled across an article on the Microsoft knowledge base to fix this very common problem.

1. Close Word 2007
2. Load the Registry Editor (Type: RegEdit in the run and search box).
3. Navigate to the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename the "Data" Key to "DataBackup".
5. Close Registry and Load Word 2007!
6. Do the happy dance!

This should resolve the problem!  This problem is due to a corrupted key.

How to Download a YouTube Video to your computer

Ever wanted to save that favorite YouTube video to your local computer?  I have wanted to do this for a while now ever since I started using Media Center more and more.  I have most of my videos in a video folder, however all my favorite YouTube videos were on the internet, so I was forced to minimize my Media Center, load up IE7, load YouTube, etc.  I just wanted to have them ready to play in case people came over!

Although some people might have you believe this is a difficult task, it’s actually very simple.  Below I outline the easiest way to rip a YouTube video to your local computer.

1. Load your favorite YouTube video.
2. Copy the URL from the address bar.
3. Go to RipZor.com
4. Paste the URL into the textbox and click "Get Video".
5. The website will generate a flash file for you to download.
6. Click on the "Click Here" link to download the flash file, it will save as an flv file.

At this point as long as you have a flash viewer on your computer, you will be able to play this saved file, without having to connect to the internet, or having to go to the YouTube website!  What if you want to play them in Media Center?  You will need to convert this file to sometime of video format that is supported in Media Center.

The simplest way to do this is to download this zip file.  It includes a program that will convert your newly created flash file to mpg format.  Here are the easy to follow steps.

1. Download the zip file here.
2. Extract the zip file to a folder on your computer and run flvconverter.exe
3. Click Add Files and Browse to the location of your flv file you just converted.
4. Choose an output folder by clicking the browse button.
5. Click "Process"

You should now have a mpg file on your computer that you can play at any time!  Most importantly, you can add this to your video library on your Media Center without having to load YouTube!

Microsoft Calculator Plus

I am constantly having to convert different measurement units from one to another.  Lately I've been using this nifty calculator from Microsoft.  It has some neat features like allowing you to convert from various measurements, to other measurements.  I'm more or less posting this so I remember to download this tool next time I wipe a machine or set up a computer for someone.  Check it out!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=32b0d059-b53a-4dc9-8265-da47f157c091&displaylang=en

Vista Microphone and Line-In Issues?

I've been using Microsoft Windows Vista for almost 6 months now, and recently transitioned my Media Center PC to Vista Ultimate.  Everything has been working phenomenally and I am really pleased with the operating system!  Security is vastly improved, sharing has taken it up to the next level, searching is much better, and it is much more visually appealing.  However I have been running into a few annoying issues as of late, and it seems other people are having the same issues, yet no resolution.  The main annoyance?  Why does my microphone not work?  I should re-state this, I mean the microphone itself works, and if I plug it into the microphone port and record, it works great.  However, I cannot hear the microphone audio through my speakers... and I also have no option of turning it on through the new audio control panel. 

As you can see below, the new design is great, and I love the ability to set audio levels for different applications!  What a concept!  However, I can’t set my microphone audio levels at all, nor can I un-mute its default state.

The new Volume Mixer in Vista

So I did some more poking around the control panel, and found out that my Microphone is definitely working, however, options have changed in Vista, and it seems I have no way of turning on my microphone to play through my speakers.

Sound Control Panel in Vista

Microphone Properties - Levels

Nothing to exciting in Levels either, all I can do is set it to 100, yet Vista still seems to want to not play anything through my speakers.

So why do I want to get things playing through my speakers from the microphone anyway?  Well, on top of Karaoke which is a blast with friends (singshot.com and ksolo.com), I'm trying to learn Guitar and have a few programs that I need to hook up with my Line-In.  However Line-In seems to have the same issue, no audio through speakers.

If anyone has a solution to this, please email me or post in our comments below!  I'll post the solution to this issue as soon as I find a way to do it!

Make your Wii a Media Center!

Well I finally have most of my entertainment system running the way I want it!  Media Center is hooked up and recording all my shows like mad, and I never watch commercials anymore!  My life has improved immensely!  Now, time for some Wii tweaks! Red Kawa has released software that can turn your Wii into a media center extender!

Download today!
http://www.redkawa.com/mediacenters/wiimediacenterx/

It seems to work really well, although not all file types are supported, I am at least able to load images, mp3's, and some videos without too much trouble!  Beats having to use the SD Cards that’s for sure!