[Guide] Pairing SonyPlaystation 3 Dualshock 3 controller with Macbook Pro (Windows)

Abstract
This guide is about how to pair a SonyPlaystation 3 Dualshock 3 controller on Apple Macbook Pro / iMac which has an integrated bluetooth module and running Windows (either bootcamp or VMWare Fusion / Parallels)

I had been searching all over the Internet for guide on pairing up my beloved Sony Playstation 3 DualShock3 controller with Windows 7 x64 running on VMWare Fusion on my Macbook Pro 13' 2011. The obvious answer to do so is of course by using motioninjoy. However, using it is only possible on USB cable, bluetooth, uh-huh. Since it doesn't support MBP integrated bluetooth chipset, which means that I couldn't use the DS3 via bluetooth.

So I thought, is there any other ways to pairing my DS3 with Windows 7 via bluetooth? Well I had finally managed to find a way to do so without using motioninjoy but it might requires additional steps.

Prerequisite
Before you proceed to the rest of the guide, make sure you had enabled the bluetooth on your bootcamp or virtualized Windows. To verify, go to Device Manager and see whether there is a bluetooth item header there. Alternatively, you should see a bluetooth icon in the taskbar. FYI, my test setup was on a 2011 Macbook Pro 13' i5 and VMWare Fusion.

Read more

Guide to install Wine on Mac OS X

Links below are regarding Wine for Mac OS X:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Wine Wiki

List of applications compatible with Wine

WineSkin - Play Windows Game without using Windows

Read more

[Troubleshooting] Folder in pendrive changed into shortcut

Have you encountered a situation in which all the folders in your pendrive suddenly changed into shortcuts? Upon double clicking them it links you to another folder path instead? At this point you might be thinking, oh no, all my university assignments is stored inside!!! And I didn't have any backup!!

If so, do not panic yet as following the steps below will solve it. The reason is because some kind of script or virus has changes the folder attribute into hidden.

1. Go to Command Prompt (Win + Run -> Type cmd)

2. Type the following command to remove the hidden attribute
cd H:\ attrib -H -S "foldername" /D /S

* Assume that H:\ is your removable disk drive.
* To list which hidden folders are inside your drive. Type: dir /A:h
* Replace foldername with the folder name listed.
* Repeat this command until all the folders are cleared of hidden attribute.

Read more

The Perfect CHM to PDF Converter... FOUND!

Update on April 9, 2012: Uploaded link to Peeje.

Since yesterday I had been searching for the CHM to PDF converter because I wanted to read on my iPad. I managed to find iChm and Chmate, which are the apps for iPad, but the former doesn't support highlight feature and the later requires iOS4.0. As a sidenote I'm still using iOS 3.2.2. To add, I have been an avid user of GoodReader which I used to read all my ebooks except comics, which I prefer to use Bookman. I still prefer to highlight stuff using GoodReader, hence the purpose of this post, which is to introduce the best CHM to PDF converter out there. I had tried out various software such as belows:

• ABC Amber CHM Converter


• Atop CHM to PDF Converter


• calibre


• iCHM (Mac OS X)

... but none of them are able to convert the CHM to PDF without flaw. Many pages are missing. The searching ends when I found Softany CHM to PDF Converter v2.02. Softwares aside from Softany is only able to convert some parts of the CHM while missing a total of 202. For example, when converting Oracle 10g: A Beginners Guide.chm, other converter is only able to convert the final PDF into 202 pages while Softany is able to convert it perfectly without any missing parts with a total pages of 405! That's a 50% pages missing! So I would definitely recommend Softany CHM to PDF Converter to convert your CHM into PDF.

Link to Softany CHM to PDF Converter
Megashares

Peeje

Read more

Reopen your running applications or files after restart/shutdown

Have you been in a situation whereby you are so reluctant to update any drivers or programs because you just have a lot of active program running and installing those might restart your PC, afterwhich you will need to re-open those programs again?

Fret not as the following marvellous freeware (yes you heard me alright, it's F-R-E-E! CacheMyWork will solve your worries. Not sure on how it works but it just works. All you need to do is tick on a list of active programs that are running that you would like to restore/reopen after restart. It does not just open the programs, but the last opened files as well, such as the powerpoint slide that you had been working on or the numerous tabs that you keep running on your browser.

Previously I had been putting my PC to sleep whenever I wanted to go to sleep because I don't want to keep track on the programs that I am currently running and need to reopen them upon booting my PC up. With CacheMyWork, I can now put my PC to shutdown with ease of mind.

Links : http://cachemywork.codeplex.com/

Read more

Beginners Guide to C Programming

Here's an interesting guide to share with those of you who wanted to learn on C Language Programming but don't have any prior programming language.

http://masters-of-the-void.com/home.htm

Read more

Mac OSX Software Threads

Mac Software Reviews

Parallel Desktop vs. VMWare Fusion
VMWare Fusion vs. Parallel Desktop : Which is Faster?

Verdict: I would choose VMWare Fusion over Parallel for it's stability and performance over the years even though Parallel Desktop is the first virtualization software for Mac OSX. I had tried VMWare Fusion and the overall installation and ease of use is great.

Mac Software Links:
Mac Software Ultimate Thread - WarezBB

iWork '09 - WarezBB [Alternative]
SplashID - WarezBB
VMWare Fusion - WarezBB

Read more

XBMC Advanced Configuration (Ext Player, DSPlayer..)

XBMC Advanced Configuration

Note: For my own reference only:

Compiling XBMC with DSPlayer
A. Preparing the downloads
1. Download the source files here.
2. Download Visual C++ 2010 Express.
3. Download Direct X SDK June Edition.
4. Extract the tibet20-xbmc-xxxxx download from step 1.
5. Go to projects\BuildDependencies.
6. Run DownloadBuildDeps.bat and DownloadMingwBuildEnv.bat.
7. Wait for it to complete download.

B. Compile the solution using VS2010 Express
1. Go to project\VS2010Express
2. Open XBMC for Windows.sln. If nothing happen when double click right click on it and select VS2010.
3. On the menu bar, select Release (Direct X).
4. Click the Play icon or right click on the Solution Explorer and select Build Solution (F7).

C. Final Build - Building .EXE
1. Go to project\Win32BuildSetup
2. Open BuildSetup.bat. Select 2 when asked.
3. After finished, an .exe file will be created under the same directory. Can also launch by going to project\Win32BuildSetup\BUILD_WIN32\Xbmc\XBMC.exe.

Troubleshooting
* If got libmicrohttpd-5.dll error, copy \Program Files\XBMC\system\webserver from existing working one.

* If there is error when running BuildSetup.bat in Section C, download Nullsoft scriptable install system here.

Can also get the final build for XBMC with DSPlayer here.

---

Wiki
HOW TO compile XBMC from source code
HOW TO use an External Player for media playback (use MPC-HC to play video instead of internal XBMC codec)
HOW TO use DSPlayer (associating media files with filters, declaring filters, etc.)
HOW TO use Advancedsettings.xml (created under username\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\)
Setting up bitstreaming for XBMC using DSPlayer
---
TV Shows Naming
Custom Directory Structure for TV Shows Naming

Forum Threads
Internal Directshow Based Player (DSPlayer)
Internal Directshow Based Player (User Support Thread) (includes tips and tricks)

Resource
Momogram Graph Studio (used to get GUID for the filters)

Read more

iPad Apps that Enrich My Daily Life

So you just found out that Apple will reveal their successor for the iPad on March 2nd. For those that had already gotten their iPad recently, you might felt dismayed and regret for purchasing one yourself? Fret not as the iPad 2 won't be as revolutionary as the original iPad. As rumored, the following are among the bumps up features that might be introduced:

- Upgraded from 256MB to 512MB of RAM
- Dual Core Processor (Apple A5?)
- Front and rear camera
- Lighter and takes a shape form similar to iPhone 4

In fact, I myself just purchased an iPad several weeks ago and it had served its purpose well for my reading and entertainment purposes. Ever since the day of purchase, I had been reading more as I feel more natural reading on the device compared to reading on the screen. Regarding the upgrade, I feel that there is simply no need for the upgrade as the current hardware is more than capable for daily chores.

Below list down the apps that I used the most daily to enrich my daily life:

1. Reading PDF, Office docs
Good Reader
A very versatile app that is able to read almost any documents that you 'throw' at it. This is a great app to read PDF or any documents with fast rendering speed. Personally I like the annotation features in which you can highlight, adding notes, adding markups, drawing shapes and so on. When adding annotation, you can either save it in the original PDF file or save it in another copy. Opening large PDF files with huge picture contents (>100MB) is also very fast.

Worth mentioning: PDFReader Pro, FastPDF+, QuickOffice, Office2 HD

2. Reading comics
iComic
One thing that make it outstanding than other competitors is the ability to view double pages in landscape mode. Although it does not have the eye-candy bookshelves as featured in ComicZeal4, this feature simply outweights it. You can even customize the tap operation when you click on any position while reading. The password feature is another good feature to prevent anyone from reading your protected comics.

Worth mentioning: ComicZeal4

3. RSS Reader
Reeder - RSS reader for my Google Reader RSS feeds.

Worth mentioning: River of News, Go Reader

4. Video Streaming
Air Video - Well you might probably heard of it already as I think it is the best video streaming apps. I had been using it ever since last year.

5. Remote Desktop
TeamViewer HD - Official app from Team Viewer.

6. Organizing Contacts
ContactsP - I used this to organize my contacts into groups. Then I can easily send out messages to a particular group at the same time. Useful when sending emails to a group of colleagues in a college assignment or a department.

7. Audio Streaming
PlugPlayer - I use this since I'm using foobar2k as my media player.

8. Income/Expense Tracker
iExpenseIt - Too bad there is no iPad version for this. It features the ability to export your report in PDF file and create highly detailed graphs based on your criteria (monthly, weekly, yearly, range of date, etc..). It is definitely worth the price tag.

As for game, you can always go to TouchArcade for the latest discussion and news.

Read more

Blog Update: Added Live Traffic Feed

Hi guys, just a quick update. I had just added a Live Traffic Feed just at the bottom of the Chat Box to keep track on who is visiting this blog :)

Anyway if you have any question or articles that you would like me to share, feel free to drop your comment in the chat box or sent it to dsync89@yahoo.com.

Read more