Karthiksden

Shrek Forever After - Platinum Trophy Tips

2011-05-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

My 10th platinum, Shrek Forever After, was good fun. At least better than all the other movie tie-in games that I rented to get easy platinums. The game has lush environment, controls respond fairly well and it is easy to switch to any character or drop in/out a second player. The battles are way too easy even with no upgrades and the puzzles are mostly straight forward. But the game was fun to play, especially with the donkey rambling non-stop.

Resources

PS3Trophies Guide - This is sufficient to cover most of what you need, including a link to the chest locations (given below)
Treasure Locations - This is definitely a handy guide, but is not quite complete since it does not cover many secret items
Docks Level Chest Guide - Very good resource for the docks level
Swamp Level Secret Item - There was one very tricky secret item in Swamp level that I missed twice, and this thread cleared it up for me
Walkthrough of Dragon's Keep Level - Not really needed, but in case you miss some treasures/dronkeys or don't know how to proceed. The treasure guide isn't complete even for this level.
Video Walkthrough - This walkthrough appears complete, but the player is sooooo slow that you'd want to play the game without looking at it (which is what I did). You can get past an entire level in the time this guy figures out one puzzle.
Catacombs Treasure Puzzle - Refer to my tips in the next section

Tips

Do the entire game without bothering much about the treasures as you have to do them again anyway. Buy the money upgrades first to get more coin drops. If you see a "stack of coins" during your battles / crate breaking and you pick it up, any crate you break or any enemy you kill will drop gold coins instead of silver for a short period. Keep this in mind when you play. Remember that during your second playthrough, once you get all collectibles, the game will save and the trophy will pop. You can go back to Ogre Camp after that without finishing it.

Catacombs Puzzle

The only place I found a bit tricky is the puzzle in Catacombs that gives you 4 blue chests, 1 tie and 1 wanted poster. You will figure it out eventually if you work backwards, but in case you are in a hurry, I've taken screenshots of the final positions with my phone. Albeit terrible quality, they should help you finish it fast.

To get to this area, you need to be in that big room where you are asked to rescue many ogres by solving puzzles. You start out by lighting a lantern with Fiona and running down, where you see the 3 mice that give you tips. Run past them, use Fiona upgrade to burn the logs and run downstairs and light all lanterns you see. On your left side there should be two dials and on the right side one map and a waterfall. If you stand between the two dials, the camera shows you the entire area to help you solve the puzzle on that side. One dial will reorient 3 poles, and the other dial turns the other three. There is a 'wanted poster' inside that checkered gate at the bottom. To open the gate, you need to turn another dial that is right at the bottom of the screen (when you are looking at the overall view). To reach this dial, there is a place you can raft to, but this place is not visible on the screen when you get that overall view.

Your first goal should be to light up the small lanterns near the chests by rafting to them. They will enable a few more rafting points, giving you more options to get to your destination. Get the blue chests on this side first, then turn the last dial to open the gate to the poster. Lower the water level and run to it.

I don't remember in great detail to give you step by step guidance on this, but here are some screenshots to help out:

After you light up the two lanterns in the top-middle of this screen, you get more rafting points. If you turn the dials to position the poles this way, you can raft to the left most corner of the screen, giving you access to a blue chest.

After you get the blue chests on the left side, you need to get to the last dial (see bottom-right corner of the screenshot). This dial opens the gate with the wanted poster (see top-right corner of the previous screenshot to locate the gate). The following screenshot shows the position of the poles that will raft you to the last dial.

The following pole positions will raft you to another blue chest on the left side (you get off right above the gate with the wanted poster).

Once you get everything from the left side, you move to the right side with waterfalls and a map. You get a bow tie and a blue chest (or two) on this side. Getting the bow tie is just a matter of turning a couple of dials that are easily accessible, and then rafting to it. To get the very last chest, you need to form a bridge with the boxes. One of the boxes is in a different corner and you need to move it all the way. See screenshot below.

Hope that helped. The fun is in figuring it out yourself and this is not difficult, but the tips are for those who are in a hurry to platinum.

Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Platinum Trophy Tips

2011-05-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 is my first Potter game and 9th platinum. Have read all the books and own most movies on blu-ray though. The game is quite easy to platinum, but takes a long time because you must complete 3 playthroughs and 15 online challenges. The only hard part is the horcrux fight (A Cold Dark Night level) on hard mode.

Resources

I recommend not following the video guide on ps3trophies.org for collectibles because sometimes it is hard to figure out where the location is. Follow the link I gave above instead.

Roadmap

I started the game on hard because I wanted to breeze through the medium and easy modes without thinking much. Hard mode is not hard, except one or two tight spots. In my first playthrough (on hard), I picked up all collectibles, finished all combat trophies except the 1000 kills trophy. This one, I got sometime during the 'Follow Dean' level in my second playthrough. You can get it much earlier (or even at the end of the first playthrough) but I was very bored of killing; so sneaked through most of the time with the cloak. Other than that, the only trophies that remained were the online ones and medium and easy mode completion trophies.

After this, I finished medium mode, followed by easy mode; took about 4 hrs each. Then did the online challenges, finishing up with the Friendly Rivals trophy and the platinum.

Tips

While you'd get a lot of tips on ps3trophies.org, I give below some tips that I discovered / particularly found helpful.

General Tips

There are loads and loads of enemies that spawn several times, so it gets really tedious if you have to fight everyone. Use your cloak to sneak past groups of death eaters / acromantula / pixies. Don't worry too much about the 1000 kills trophy, since you have 3 playthroughs. If Ron and/or Hermione are with you, let them take the heat while you sneak past with your cloak. They will blow your cover if they catch up with you, so while they are busy fighting, you need to make your way forward not accidentally stepping in the line of fire. They will join you when you reach the next checkpoint. If your cover is blown, one good option is to run (holding X button), get slightly farther and put on the cloak.
Use Impedimenta for acromantula, pixies, horcrux snakes.
Stupefy works fine for enemies but takes longer to kill unless you get headshots. Since the auto-aim doesn't snap on to the head that often, you may want to use Confringo instead.
When under heavy fire, run to a corner where enemies can't come behind you. Cast Protego and hold, move your cursor near the next enemy you want to hit, quickly release Protego and hold R2 + R1 to fire. If you are using Stupefy, make sure your cursor is very close to the head when you press R2. Confringo worked very well for me in the survival missions, since it can take out multiple enemies at once (unlike Expelliarmus).
If you have trouble aiming and throwing Doxycides at pixies (I did, initially), use this method. Wait until they all surround you, select the potion, throw it on the ground right where you are standing (you don't need to aim, just look at the ground and throw). This is almost sure to freeze them all. Now step aside, use Impedimenta and take them out.
When you get near Whomping Willows, step close enough until you wake it up, then step backwards immediately. Right after the willow sways, press X and run forward. The willow will not hit again until you cross.
Sometimes enemies spawn right after you cross Whomping Willows. Using the method above, step close enough to wake it up and step back. This usually makes the enemies on the other side spawn. Now you can easily kill them standing from the other side. If you don't do this, you may be surrounded when you've just crossed the willow.
Sometimes enemies stand close to the willows, in a way that it doesn't wake up. If you see more than one standing around it, use Confringo and hit the tree. This will make the tree whack the enemies, possibly taking them out for good. Do this multiple times if they don't die.

Muggle Rescue Mission inside the Ministry
This mission seemed daunting at first but it is ridiculously easy when you know what to do. You don't have to kill anyone if you do it right (unless you do want to kill for the potion - see the next section). Put on your cloak and walk right in between the guards into the cell; the meter will turn red but will reset once you go in. Walk out the same way and get out of that section quickly. Suppose you get noticed when walking into the cell, throw Peruvian Instant Darkness close to the cell entrance and run to a quieter section to put on your cloak.

Liquid Experience
While you'll get all the potions eventually, Elixir of Life is supposedly the rarest. While it all seems random, I noticed that Elixir of Life starts dropping in the muggle rescue mission inside the ministry. This is not random because I confirmed it with multiple walkthrough videos. So when you play that level, make sure you kill the guards standing near the cell door. They will very likely drop the potion.

From Under the Cloak Trophy

Here is how I got the trophy. In Streets of Godric Hollow muggle rescue mission (not the main mission), start by following your Four Points spell. You should first reach an area with two guards and a muggle. After you finish that section, use Four Points again; this will take you to a muggle with a single guard, with enough space in between them. Sneak behind the guard, stand very close, cast Stupefy without aiming. This will definitely take him out. Now walk in the same direction he was facing, keep walking past the entrance until you see a chair. Once you cross that chair, turn around, put on your cloak and walk back to the muggle area. You'll see that the guard respawned. Rinse and repeat 50 times, the trophy is yours. At times you'll see one or two dementors bugging you. If you do, just kill the guard, get rid of the dementors and continue.

Horcrux Battle

This battle on hard mode annoyed me quite a bit. Finally I figured out a way, after which I never died in any difficulty mode. I've posted my method here. Copy pasting from there, in case that link dies:

As soon as the level started, I killed 1 or 2 snakes that were right ahead of me. Then I turned all the way around and ran like hell. After some distance, there was a tree with a big rock right next to the tree, on the right side (when you see from the "snake's point of view"). I hid behind the tree and started taking potshots at the snakes. The spiders mostly came from the side where the rock wasn't there, so as long as I'm watching that side I could kill them easily. They occasionally came from the rock-side too and sat on that rock, but this wasn't very often. The green stuff came flying on both sides, but the rock took all the hits that came its way, so I didn't have to bother about that side at all. After a long time the scene ended, but I seriously doubt if I killed all the snakes! And I had this doubt in each difficulty!

Online Trophies

While the challenges are easy, there are one or two things that may need explanation. In Easy Challenge 5 (Go to Umbridge's Office), the Four Points spell stopped working for me after a while. If it happens for you, keep walking in the same direction until you find an area where there is some crowd, 2 big pillars, some lighting in that area. The door in between the pillars is where you need to go into.

Hard Challenge 5 is the easiest of all, and this will help you with Survivalist and Friendly Rivals trophies. You just need to remember that you can run fast as soon as it starts, until you get to the end of the street. The sneak meter will go red in a while, so you need to refresh your cloak at least once in the middle. A good place to do this is as soon as you enter the ministry fortress (from the street); you should see a guard there facing the other way. It took me about 48 seconds.

The Friendly Rivals trophy, which looks easy enough, warrants some explanation as it gave me a hard time at first. In the Online Scoreboards, once you select a challenge, you'll see the 1000 people who made the best scores. Even if you finished this challenge, if you press the square button (marked "You"), you may not see your name. That is because you need to get a score that is better than the 1000th person's score. Similarly, the friends you added (to compare scores) should also have completed that challenge with a score that puts them on the leaderboard. So when you add a random person for this trophy, ensure that he/she is on the leaderboard for some challenge, and that this challenge is easy enough for you to get a good score. Suppose you choose Hard Challenge 5. Go to that challenge, play it, get a good score. You'll see the "Continue" and "Retry" options; choose Continue here and get back to the online challenges menu (where you see the list of challenges). Now, STAY HERE for a few minutes ... or play some other challenge, but DO NOT quit to the previous menu. The reason is that it takes some 10 mins for your score to be posted to the leaderboard, and it will not be posted if you leave the online challenges menu (it is OK to be playing a challenge). Once you wait for 10 mins, go back to the scoreboard, you should find your name when you press the square button.

WWE Legends of Wrestlemania - Platinum Trophy Tips

2011-05-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

WWE Legends of Wrestlemania was my 8th platinum, and mostly my last game before my Gamefly trial expires. The game was fun, but I often got annoyed with certain moves that always ended up wrong because the key presses were tricky. Apart from that, there is one mode where the game gets very repetitive when you fight 38 opponents in a row. There are only 2-3 fights that are a bit hard to clear, so this is a fairly easy platinum.

As usual, here are some guides that might help understanding what is required for the plat and also help you understand some confusing challenge descriptions -

IGN's guide is not really a platinum guide, but will help you tackle the tour challenges.

PS3Trophies guide is indeed a trophy guide, but doesn't say a lot about different challenges. This isn't required really since most of them are easy.

The tour mode, which is the most interesting, requires that you play several games (that happened in the past) and complete some or all challenges posed to you. The challenges could be as easy as getting the first hit or as tricky as getting yourself beaten up badly and then reversing your opponent's moves. The good part is, all except one match give you the option to skip one or more challenges. So look at the objectives, if something is particularly tricky, don't bother doing those. If all of them appear easy, you could skip the finisher challenges since you need to be at level 3 to execute those. If you see any challenge that requires you to get beaten up, you might as well skip it if there is an alternative. Reason is that, you might get pinned down accidentally if you mess up the reversal button presses or if you become too weak.

The last game in Relive mode (Stone Cold vs The Rock) is what most people claim the hardest since you are expected to clear every single challenge. The only thing I found hard in this is the "Block Bottom" challenge where you need to let The Rock beat you up bad and then reverse his level 3 move. The best tip I can give is - Check out the IGN guide above, and DO NOT follow it! It tells you to do this challenge at the end, and that is the worst advice in my opinion. I tried that and when this was the one of the last challenges left, I let Rock win the game. So use that guide to understand how to do the other challenges, and then ignore the order. After you win the opening move, let Rock beat you up and get his level 3. Then give him a few blows now and then and try reversing everything he does (using L away + Triangle). If you are not good at reversing (like me), you will get hit pretty bad, but try your best to kick out of it and continue. The moment you get the rock bottom reversed (you'll see the challenge completion), then it is your game. NEVER let Rock get better of you after that. Finish off most of the "inside the ring" challenges, then get out of the ring and do everything else. Suppose you can't get to level 3 soon, the easiest option is the pick up the chair under the ring. Two or three blows with this will get you to level 3, and in this game, you will not be disqualified.

The only other match I found hard was the Iron Man fight between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels (last Rewrite challenge). Luckily in this, there was only one challenge that required you to get beaten, but I skipped this since you are allowed to skip one. The other challenge "Busted Open" might be tricky, but follow what IGN guide says - get to level 3, keep doing strong grapples (hold X). Do not do your finisher before you get this, since you'll lose the level 3. About 3 strong grapples at level 3 will make you win this challenge. Keep in mind that Shawn is a tricky opponent, and a few times, I found myself getting pinned down when I least expected, resulting in a loss. Just ensure you have the upper hand always and don't do too many of those "button mashing" combos unless you need to complete a challenge. Those are the ones that might get reversed if you mess up.

As a last note, getting to level 3 appeared quite tedious at first when I was just using the strike moves (square button). Later I realized that the more grapples you do (pressing X), the faster the meter moves. Also, one easy move I found while playing Stone Cold (not sure if it works with other players) is pressing X X near the opponent. This would put you right behind your opponent, and you can press an X now to deliver a good blow. This also contributes to your level increases. Try it with other players, and if it works, you got yourself an easy method.

Terminator Salvation - Platinum Trophy Tips

2011-04-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

I found this game reasonably entertaining, in spite of all the criticisms from hardcore gamers (I'm not one). Some parts were really frustrating but I somehow got through. The worst things about this game are its long reload times after you die and the terrible frame rate issues that pop up now and then. The good thing about trophies in this game is that it is about quality and not quantity. They have just 11 gold trophies and 1 platinum, which you get if you beat the game on hard. So no stupid collectibles, no 100 head shots etc.

Here are my tips, if at all you care:

1) NEVER go guns blazing. All enemies are stronger than you, and the only way to defeat them is by finding the right location to take cover and hitting their weak spots.

2) Kill the wasps / aerostats first, or let your teammates take them out. I say this because you need a good vantage point for the other enemies like spiders, and these flyers tend to annoy you constantly when you move around. All you need to do to kill these is get one good shot with a shotgun. If not, just stay hidden until your teammates take them out; they are pretty good at that.

3) To kill spiders, always find a spot exact opposite to the majority of your team. If the spider is looking at your enemies, shoot its upper back (you'll see a red box highlighting the weak spot). If you can't shoot properly, just shoot until it turns your way, stay hidden and blind fire (press R2 without aiming). This will keep them focussed on you while your teammates get them from the back.

4) T600 / T7s are very hard to kill with rifles, so use your heavy weapons on these and soften them up (you'll see a blue light on them when they are weak). There is one machine gun (not the one you start the game with, but you should find it on the way) that does very heavy damage to these. I can't remember the name though. Most other rifles are very weak against these machines; but if you pick up this machine gun, you can shoot the machines' head and take them out in a few rounds. These machines also have some kind of glitch; if you get them to go near some corner and start shooting them, they seem to sort of freeze up and just stand their without doing much. You can continue firing from your cover, and they usually take a step or two back and forth but that's it. See if you can find this sweet spot and use it to your advantage.

5) In most levels, when you fight a lot of spiders and/or T600/T7s, look for a staircase or a platform to go to the next level. I found these on many locations, and they are perhaps the best vantage points you can get. Just climb up, position yourself right across your teammates and shoot. The enemies won't come up the stairs in most cases so you are very safe. There are 2-3 situations where T600s do come upstairs and screw you, but this is because the game is supposed to proceed this way; as in, it is not like they followed you just because they saw you hiding upstairs, they would've come up anyway.

6) When you shoot rockets at those motorcycle enemies, aim a little ahead of them, but not too much.

7) When you operate the blue harvester in level 7, use the missile fire on the AA guns or HKs (the big flying vehicles) as often as possible. They cause heavy damage but they take time to reload. So fire them as soon as you get them, switch to regular fire, go back to missiles as soon as they are ready. In short, don't forget they exist - they are quite powerful. If you are sure you are aiming right, feel free to press both L1 and R1 at the same to fire both missiles together. This will make sure your target gets hit pretty bad before it moves away, provided you aimed right.

If you are stuck and need some help with good hiding spots, refer to these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLM2aewF-6o&feature=BFa&list=SPEB6A5A9D2DE8F1DD&index=1 (a playlist)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neEhSopOqco (find the other videos in the related videos column)

Pixar UP - Platinum Trophy Tips

2011-04-13T23:29:00.000-07:00

Pixar UP gave me my 6th platinum. The game should be fun and easy for kids except the plane levels. I've always hated plane games, and have never liked inverted controls, and this game had both ... and didn't let me change the controls! The camera angle was poor at times, making it hard to move. Having multiple characters and switching between them is fine, but sometimes it got too crowded and the characters bumped into each other and fell off the cliff.

Anyway, this is a fairly easy platinum; may be 3/10 difficulty, considering the plane levels (or would've been easier). The guides I followed were:

Trophy Roadmap

Artifact/Memento Locations

Video Walkthrough, although I didn't use it much (for the other parts of the walkthrough, look at the suggestions on the right)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Platinum Trophy Tips

2011-04-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

This game is really easy like Megamind and is more kiddish than that game. No one older than 10 is likely to find it amusing. Nevertheless, there is a low hanging platinum trophy, and that is all I needed. You don't really need walkthrough for the gameplay, but there are collectibles in this game that may need some guidance. Most of them are in plain sight while some are not. I give below some resources I used.

Trophy list and tips: http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/cloudy-chance-meatballs/24659-cloudy-chance-meatballs-road-map-trophy-guide.html

Foodpod locations (video walkthrough): http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/cloudy-chance-meatballs/87817-cloudy-chance-meatballs-hydroponics-vids.html

And suppose you get stuck somewhere and not sure how to proceed (highly unlikely), you could look at this text walkthrough and get yourself out - http://www.gamefaqs.com/wii/959204-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs/faqs/61093

Copying data files using Android.mk

2011-03-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

One of the most under-documented areas of Android at present is its makefile. There is of course a ton of those for reference under Android source tree, but they aren't really 'documentation'. THIS is the only one I found that is reasonably adequate. The other day I was trying to find a way to copy an xml file into the image's /system/etc/permissions folder through Android.mk. Upon googling, I realized that many people were looking for ways to run shell commands through the makefile so that they can run copy commands. I was pretty sure that there had to be a better way, just not documented. And then I found it. The template to copy a file is this:

include $(CLEAR_VARS)

LOCAL_MODULE := my_data_file.cfg

LOCAL_MODULE_TAGS := optional

LOCAL_MODULE_CLASS := ETC

LOCAL_MODULE_PATH := /path/to/the/destination/folder

LOCAL_SRC_FILES := sources_files_to_copy

include $(BUILD_PREBUILT)

So if you want to copy an xml file to the permissions folder, you could do this:

include $(CLEAR_VARS)
LOCAL_MODULE := mydata.xml
LOCAL_MODULE_TAGS := optional
LOCAL_MODULE_CLASS := ETC
# Copies mydata.xml to /system/etc/permissions
LOCAL_MODULE_PATH := $(TARGET_OUT_ETC)/permissions
LOCAL_SRC_FILES := $(LOCAL_MODULE)
include $(BUILD_PREBUILT)

The above example is from one of Android's makefiles (location service) found here.  You should be able to use the above snippet and make it copy any file to any folder.

Megamind - Platinum Trophy Tips

2011-03-21T23:31:00.001-07:00

It could be considered a sin to even write a walkthrough for this ridiculously easy game, so I won't bother doing anything more than provide the link I used as a guide. I opened a gamefly trial account just to finish a few easy platinums, and this is the first. Took me 3.5 hrs or so, although people report they've finished it in ~ 2 hrs. Quite possible, it perhaps took me a bit longer because I kept falling a million times on those floating crates in some levels. Anyway, just took me one playthrough and no more revisits.

Here is the guide - http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/megamind/76821-megamind-trophy-guide-roadmap.html

The key things to remember (for finishing in one playthrough) are:

1) Finish one level without dying - level 1 is where I got this as there wasn't much platforming to do.

2) Finish the boss fights in levels 3, 6, 9, 10 without dying. Just use the tips in the above link.

3) Collect 3000 B.I.N.K.E.Ys (those blue objects) in one level - level 2 has plenty of this so just keep breaking the objects around until you get this.

This is my 4th platinum. Rent it (don't waste money buying it) and have fun with the super easy platinum!

Ashes 2009 - Platinum Trophy Tips

2011-03-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

I finished my 3rd platinum, Ashes 2009. Took me a little over a weekend. Very easy game to platinum, mainly because you can get it at any difficulty setting and because you can reload most parts of the game until you get the trophies. While most trophy guides for this game list each trophy and explain how to get it, I'll provide my roadmap that would take you to platinum with minimum playthroughs.

Resources:

First of all, these were my main references:

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=167211 (yeah, it is for xbox but it doesn't matter)

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=168607 (help with Batting Challenge 6, which I found difficult)

http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/ashes-cricket-2009/20324-ashes-cricket-2009-trophy-guide.html (this is the first site I goto usually, but this guide wasn't all that helpful)

Roadmap:

Start off with Legends Coaching and learn the controls well. You may want to complete the tutorial challenges Master of the Blade, Master with the Ball, Dynamite in the Field as you learn, but you could come back to it later too. I found batting challenge 6 very hard so I did it at the end.

Then start with Ashes in easy mode. Pick a team, and before you start the game, edit your opponent team's line up (Edit Home/Away Squad). Pick the worst batsmen and put them in the top 11, making one of them the captain. Set the strongest bowler among them as the wicket keeper. By doing this, it will be easy to get wickets later, and there are quite a few bowling challenges to complete. Make sure you bowl first (save before the toss and reload if you don't get it). Pick a bowler (preferably spinner) you are comfortable with, based on off/leg, left/right handers. This guy will be your "main bowler". Save before you bowl the first ball. Bowl, and make sure you get a wicket. If you don't, reload. Save again. Repeat this for the next 4 consecutive wickets. Once done, you should have The Hat Trick and The Top Hat Trick trophies. After this you don't have to save every single ball (may be once per over), but you MUST get every wicket only with your main bowler. You could alternate between someone else and him, but if the other guy gets the wicket or there is a run out, just reload before the over. Make sure you bowl everyone out before the 10th over ends (reload if you don't). By the end of the session, your main bowler should have 10 wickets and you should have Demolition with the Ball, Raise the Ball and If You Want Something Done Right trophies.

Next you bat. Similar to bowling, pick a guy and consider him as your main batsman. Save every over or so and make sure this guy never gets out. The other guy can technically lose his wicket, but if you lose too many wickets the tail enders may not play well, so just reload. Make your main batsman play a lot - for instance if he is batting at the start of the over, try for boundary shots or 2 runs only; and in the last ball of the over, hit the ball to a fielder near the boundary and take a single, so that he gets to bat again next over. In a while, he should have 500 runs, and you should have Raise the Bat, The Big 100, Double Ton, Triple Ton and Ashes King with the Bat trophies. While playing, keep watching for sixers or fours you hit at the start of an over. If you hit any, save every ball after that, try hitting the boundary shot for the next 6 balls. If you manage, you should get Power Hitting and The Blazing Blade trophies. It isn't as difficult as it may sound because I got the Power Hitting trophy without even trying. Once your 500 runs are done, you can let go of your main guy if you want (don't have to reload if he gets out). But do continue up to 600 runs to get the Test Match Domination trophy. You can declare the game now (Menu > Tactics > Declare).

First match, 2nd innings, you bowl. Once again, your main bowler should take over and get every single wicket. You must also make sure that you get the first wicket in the very first ball. If you do this, The King Pair and Nought and Nought trophies should pop. After you finish getting all 10 wickets, your main guy should have 20 wickets now. Remember that you scored 600+ in your last batting session. Now, you MUST make sure that your opponent's total from the previous innings and this one does not exceed your score. Which means you don't need to bat again. Which means you get the Innings Defeat trophy.

Second match, 1st innings. Make sure that you bowl first, and that your main guy has all the wickets, which would bring his count to 30. When you bat, don't score much and declare early; you need to make sure you get to bat in the next innings.

Second match, 2nd innings. Start bowling, allow your opponents to score above your total. Again, make sure your main guy gets all the wickets. At the end, he should have 40 wickets, and you should have the Ashes Destroyer trophy. Now it is your turn to bat. The only thing you need to watch out is to NOT lose any wicket and win the game. Once done, you should have the 10 Wicket Defeat trophy.

Third match. No rules, just make sure you win. After this, you would've won the series, but you have to play the remaining 2 games for a trophy. To cut it short, you may want to lose the next 2 games voluntarily. For example, you could declare without playing, skipping your batting turns. You win or lose, you should get the Ashes Champion trophy after 5 games.

That covers most of the trophies. Just a few left... Start an ODI tournament, select easy mode and 5 over length. Give yourself a strong team and pick easy teams like Bangladesh, Kenya, Ireland etc. Win the first 3 games of the tourney and get the ODI Champions trophy. Start another ODI match (exhibition), select easy mode and 50 over length. Again, give yourself a strong team and pick a weak opponent if you want. Make sure you bat first, and thrash the ball until your score is 300. That will give you ODI Domination trophy. You can quit the game here if you want. Now start a Twenty20 tournament, do the same thing you did for ODI Champions; you should have 20 Over Champions at the end.

If you didn't finish the tutorial trophies, go back and get them now. Bowling and fielding ones are easy, and batting ones are mostly easy. I found batting challenge 6 hard, and I used the tips from the link I gave above. The off spinner bowls only a few balls to the stumps and spins the rest away. Using L1 + L2 + O, I hit a few boundaries to the leg side when he bowled close to the stumps, and left the rest. With the leg spinner, I left every single ball. With the few boundaries I got from the off spinner and some no balls, my total was 49 in 2-3 overs. I blocked/left every ball after that (unless the off spinner aimed it straight at the stumps).

Finally, enjoy the Best of the Best platinum trophy!

Prince of Persia - Platinum Trophy Tips

2011-03-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

I had borrowed Prince of Persia (2008) from a friend a few weeks back, 3 yrs after its release. Playing little by little, I finally unlocked its platinum trophy on my PS3. For those interested in the platinum, I've listed the resources I used and tips and tricks I discovered by myself. Here we go ...

An overview of the game's layout

The game has 4 main areas along with a 5th one called the Temple, which is the entry and exit point for the game. Each of the 4 areas has 6 sections and is controlled by a mini-boss. The mini-boss will annoy you once in each section, and in one of the 6th sections, you get rid of him/her for good. Your goal is to get to a certain point in each of these sections (in each area) and "heal" that section. This point is called "fertile ground". To access certain sections, you need special powers. There are 4 special powers, called power plates. You can unlock these by accumulating certain number of "light seeds". Light seeds appear in a section right after you heal that section. The game being non-linear, you can unlock the power plates in any order, visit and heal various sections in any order. Finally, you need to get back to the temple to fight the big boss.

Trophy Resources

If you are just trying to get the platinum (like I was), these are the best resources I found:

Trophy guide:

http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/prince-persia/4750-trophy-guide.html

A complete walkthrough of the game, NOT covering trophies, but showing you how to get ALL the light seeds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx8Oykn66WU&feature=BF&list=PL6592296A9199EF37&index=1

The link above is what I followed throughout, since I didn't want to look for the light seeds myself. Now and then, I made sure I got the other trophies by using the first link.

Tips & Tricks from me

While the trophy guide covers them all, there are certain things I had to learn by myself.

Be Gentle With Her & Speed Demon Trophies

These are the most time consuming trophies, and fortunately are glitched. It looks like these will unlock IF 1) you installed the game patch 2) you let the credits roll completely at the end (until it finishes and takes you to the main menu). People suggest various "procedures" to unlock this, but I doubt if any of them matter. But I did follow one such procedure just to be safe, and here it is - http://www.ps3trophies.com/forums/prince-persia/1269-gentle-her-speed-demon-glitch.html

Climbing to New Heights Trophy

While this should unlock automatically (spoiler ahead) after you kill the Alchemist, it did not for me. Luckily, I had a save game just before that, so I reloaded and re-fought this guy. It looks like the trophies need a moment of "standing still" to unlock. Try to stand somewhere in the middle around the time you kill him. Right after Elika heals him, there is a second or two before which the next cut scene would start. Make sure you don't move around in those 2 seconds - just stand still without touching the controller. This is what worked for me.

Combo Specialist

There is a guy in King's Gate's border who is rather weak and doesn't change forms. He respawns if you kill him, go all the way to the other border and come back. I used this guy to do the combos. I did a few combos before he died, I ran all the way back and came back to find him alive. I did more combos, and so on until the trophy unlocked. Remember to redo a combo if that combo killed him.

Defeating the Warrior

I read that some people found this difficult, mostly because of the button mashing requirement. (may be a spoiler). The warrior has to be pushed off the ledge, and there is a cut scene when you get him to the edge, after which you'll be asked to mash the square button. I found it pretty hard myself since my thumb started hurting after a while and he would regain power. But I found an easy way out - I used my forefinger! Somehow get the warrior's back towards the edge, keep doing Elika attacks until he loses balance. As soon as the cut scene starts, put your forefinger on the square button and wait. It is MUCH easier to hit with this finger than the thumb. I didn't lose a single time this way. Remember that you can do the same thing with other people when button mashing is required.

New Laptop Ordered!

2010-11-25T13:31:00.000-08:00

Ordered a kickass configuration:

HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition customizable Notebook PC

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz

• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 Graphics [HDMI, VGA] - For Quad Core Processors

• FREE Upgrade to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)

• 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

• No Additional Office Software

• No additional security software

• 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (over-sized)

• 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)

• No TouchScreen (includes HP TrueVision Webcam)

• Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner

• Intel Wireless-N Card

• Standard Keyboard

• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Quite expensive, but shaved off a few hundreds through rebates and thanksgiving coupons. Still paying $1140!

Mafia Wars Cuban Weapon Requirements

2009-09-11T22:28:00.001-07:00

Cuba is expensive. At least when you begin, and when you reach the highest level. There is bribe for any item you own, so your salary is cut down by a significant portion as you start buying the items required for the jobs. To save some money, you can sell off some items after certain levels after making sure that you won't need them anymore.

I found a nice spreadsheet that tells you exactly what to sell when, but this is very flawed! Here it is anyway -
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=594560&id=1253653159

The idea is great, but there are mistakes in the spreadsheet, and it doesn't consider El Cacique - the most expensive tier. Understandably, this spreadsheet was made even before this tier was released. Anyway, I made a big mistake of following it blindly, and ended up selling the items at half the price and found myself with no money when I came to the last tier. I had to spend all my godfather points for money :((

So I decided to come up with a similar spreadsheet, correcting all the mistakes. I hope it is perfect, if not, leave me a comment with the error.

Here is the spreadsheet I made. Hope it helps!

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmfCn4lM_d7NdE4wMXBITU02cmswejB3NmRjeGNmQWc&hl=en

Mafia Wars (Facebook) Bookmarklets

2009-08-18T22:42:00.001-07:00

Writing some bookmarklet to make mafia wars less painful ... will be adding more / fixing issues with the existing ones. I'm testing these only with Chrome browser, but they should work with Firefox as well. If you use IE, go get a better browser.

To install these, just drag the bookmarket links (like the Add link below) to your bookmarks bar. If your bookmarks bar is already cluttered, then create a folder there and drop this link into that folder (that's how I do it). Once installed, just go to the appropriate page (where the bookmarklet is supposed to work) and then click on the bookmarklet (which should now be on your bookmarks bar).

Add

This joins a user who plays mafia wars AND is on your facebook friends list to your mafia team. The current limitation is that if the user's page does not have an "id" in the link, for example, if it doesn't look like:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=123123231

then this bookmarklet will ask you to enter the id yourself. To find this id, hover your mouse over links like "Send a Message" or "Poke user", which is usually found below the person's profile picture. When you hover, watch the status bar for the link it shows - this will look something like

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?compose&id=123123123

Enter that number when the bookmarklet asks for it.

Special Note: For some reason, this script doesn't seem to do anything when you use it. You'll be taken to mafia wars app, but nothing seems to happen. If this happens, just run the script again keeping some mafia wars window open. This seems to be a reliable workaround.

Heal

This one will heal you completely, saving the pain of clicking the hospital link, and pressing the heal button. Of course, this isn't free, you'll be charged the same amount. Note that, the script currently will heal you in the city you are in - so if you are wandering in Cuba, it'll empty your Cuban bank balance. I'm trying to work on a script that'll heal you in New York hospital, but until then, make sure you fly to NY and then run this script.

Energy

Instead of asking someone to send you an energy pack every day, run this script to use it directly. So if you click this one, you should either see a page that says "You already used your Energy Pack today. You must wait xxx hours xxx minutes before you can use another one.", or your energy level should have gone up.

User Page

If you open a mafia player's facebook profile page and run this script, that user's mafia wars profile page will be opened. Again, the requirement is the same as Add script (see above) - the link needs to contain the user id. If not, an input box will appear asking for it, and you should enter it yourself (using the method described above). If you don't enter anything, your mafia profile page will be opened.

Promote Page

If you open a mafia player's facebook profile page and run this script, you'll see the "Promote Page" - the page you would see if you click the Promote button next to the user (in your group list). This way, if you add a new player to your list, you can quickly pull up his promote page to see if it is worth promoting him/her to a top position. remember that you need to have added the person to your mafia before you use this script. Again, the requirement is the same as Add script (see above) - the link needs to contain the user id. If not, an input box will appear asking for it, and you should enter it yourself (using the method described above). If you don't enter anything, your mafia profile page will be opened.

Group

Opens your mafia group members page (I find it painful to click My Mafia, then click View Your Mafia).

Watching tamil channels on TV using PS3

2009-08-04T22:14:00.001-07:00

The best site I've seen so far for watching tamil tv channels is this - http://www.tamilfms.com/2009/01/tv-zone.html

Reason? No annoying plugin requirements, no popups, works with non-IE browsers like Chrome and PS3 browser .. and finally, it actually works!

While it works fine on my computer, I was tempted to try it out on my Playstation 3 today. Cranked up the PS3 browser and pressed Start button to enter the address. Alternatively, you could press the green triangle, choose File > Address Entry. A couple of warnings about the certificate and plugin appeared, and I said Yes to everything. Once the page appeared, clicked on Comedy TV. And it worked! There was a tiny link right below the video to open it in full screen. That worked too, though I had to move around the cursor a bit to highlight the link.

Over wifi, there is a lot of stutter. But it was smooth when I tried it on my desktop which has a wired connection. Thinking if I should connect the PS3 through Ethernet cable, and get an 802.11n router and adapter for my desktop. But that would cost me a good $150 or more. Damn.

Shooting fireworks with Canon Rebel XS using bulb mode

2009-07-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I'm not a professional photographer, but I did some research on the Internet before shooting the July 4th fireworks, and ended up with some not-so-terrible pictures. So this is a summary of the steps I followed.

I have a Canon Rebel XS (EOS 1000D), an entry level dSLR. Most Canon EOS SLRs have similar controls. The thing you need the most while shooting fireworks is a tripod or a solid surface to rest your cam - if you don't have it, don't bother shooting because that would be an absolute disaster. The next important thing would be a remote switch, but I didn't have this. Not having this would induce some vibrations while pressing the shutter, making your pictures less sharp.

You probably know that the 3 main parameters that control your picture's exposure are aperture, shutter speed and ISO. From what I gathered from books and googling, for fireworks shooting, 11 is a good value for aperture, 100 (or the lowest you have) is a good value for ISO. Most pre-programmed modes will set the 3rd parameter automatically once you set the other two - and some modes (like Manual mode) will expect you to set everything. Bulb Mode is a one such manual mode. In this mode, you'll not set a specific shutter speed - you will hold down the shutter button as long as you want, letting in as much light as you think is right. The picture will be taken once you let go of the button.

These are the things to do:

1) Press your ISO button and set the value to 100 or the lowest available

2) Switch to manual mode

3) Hold the Av button and move the dial to set F11 (thus setting the aperture)

4) Start turning the dial anticlockwise (without holding the Av button) to lower the shutter speed. Once you hit the left-most end, you'll see that the shutter speed changed to "BULB" mode. If this step and the previous are not clear, google "canon rebel xs manual pdf" or whatever your model is, search for "BULB" or something like that.

5) Turn on Long Exposure Noise Reduction - to do this, press Menu, keep pressing the right arrow until you get to custom functions and see "Long exp. noise reduction", set this to "1:Auto" or "2:On". I'm told that if this is enabled, the camera will spend some extra time, and there is a possibility of battery draining out sooner, but it will improve long exposure shots - so you may want to turn it off after your fireworks shooting is over.

6) Now setup your tripod, point your camera somewhere up in the air where you expect the fireworks to show their true colors. Of course, this is not easy to predict, so you could just wait for a few of them to light up and then aim your camera there. You may also want to turn your camera vertical, since most of the action would be vertical. Not a mandate though. I've seen some spectacular horizontal pictures that capture fireworks as well as the rest of the place.

7) Once you lock down your camera nice and good, wait until one of them starts flying up and press the shutter button. Wait as long as you want (usually until it bursts out and you see all the colorful stuff) and release the button. It might be difficult to keep looking into your viewfinder, so don't bother doing that - once you point your camera approximately in the right direction, just look at the sky and control the shutter button. Once done, check your picture to see what you got. If you see very less, you let go of the shutter too soon or there wasn't much activity up there. For example,

If you hold the button longer than that, you will get more, perhaps a combination of the one currently up there and the next one flying up, like this:

If you hold it for a very long time, the effect will be quite different - you can search flickr and see some examples. Remeber that none of these is wrong or right, try out various timings to see which one you like the best.

Though I didn't really do this, it looks like it is a better idea to shoot fireworks at the widest angle possible and later crop it if necessary. I had a 28-135mm lens which wasn't cut for wide angle. Besides, there was a woman in front of me poking head in front of the lens wherever I moved. Thanks to the crowd, there wasn't an option to capture the scene around along with the fireworks.

Here are some of the pics I shot this July 4th - http://www.flickr.com/photos/vkay/sets/72157621005300570/

'Nuff said. Good luck!

Copying music files in a playlist to a different folder

2008-12-14T21:58:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine had his music collection managed by iTunes. He had many playlists, pointing to music files in deeply nested folders. This was the requirement - he wanted to fish out all the songs pointed to by one of his playlists, and copy them to a certain directory.

Playlist is usually a plain text file where each line of the file points to the full or relative path of the music content.

For example,

c:\documents and settings\music\album1\a.mp3

c:\documents and settings\music\ album2\b.mp3

c:\documents and settings\music\ album3\c.mp3

could be the contents of a file called myplaylist.m3u. Also, it is possible that there are "comments" in the file (comments are lines prefixed with #).

Here is a quick and dirty solution I came up with to do this copy -

Fire up notepad, type the following:

for /F "delims=" %%a in ('type %1') do copy "%%a" %2

and save it in a file called playlistcopy.bat. Preferably, put it in the same folder as your play list file (this is to make sure that things still work if your playlist uses relative paths).

Now open a dos prompt, change to the directory where you saved the batch file, type the following and press enter:

playlistcopy.bat "c:\documents and settings\itunes\myplaylist.m3u" "c:\temp"

Replace the first argument with the location of your play list file, and the second argument with any other directory you want the music to be copied to (just make sure that directory exists).

This is not a fool proof way, because if there are comments in your playlist, you will see some errors. That is OK though, those errors won't hurt anything.

Simple, eh?

COM Surrogate has stopped working

2008-12-13T21:16:00.000-08:00

I've been seeing this pain-in-the-ass error for a long time now on Windows Vista.

After some googling, found out that this could happen because of some incompatible codecs installed on the system. I deal a lot with media, especially DivX / Xvid; and it looks like DivX and Nero AAC are the likely sources of this error. Anyway, I don't intend to install the "cure-all codec packs" that people suggest. For one, there is too much garbage in those codec packs. Second, I have a few media editors that need certain codecs, and I don't want the codec pack to interfere with my current setup.

So here is one another solution I found -

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/fix-for-com-surrogate-has-stopped-working-error-in-vista/

Among the solutions suggested, I followed the last one and it seems to work well so far.

In short, right click on My Computer, click Properties > Advanced system settings > Advanced tab > Settings (under Performance) > Data Execution Prevention tab > select Turn on DEP option > click Add > choose the file "dllhost.exe" under Windows\System32. After this, you should see an entry "COM Surrogate" added to the list. Press OK and get out.

I didn't have to restart, though Windows threatened me to.

God bless the one who came up with this workaround.

Transporter 3

2008-12-13T20:18:00.001-08:00

Had a free movie pass that was about to expire in a week. This being a terrible year for Hollywood, and I being further constrained by the terms and conditions of the free pass, had no better choice than Transporter 3.

The lead actress in the movie often says, "Am I in heaven?". Wished I could say, "I don't know, honey, but I'm in hell". In my mind, this movie stands only second to Crank, the worstestest I've seen so far.

Statham seems to accept every offer that comes his way. Sometimes they turn out to be gems like Snatch, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, or dirt like Crank and Transporter 3.

My first car

2007-06-27T21:12:00.001-07:00

Pics of my first car, a used 2005 Toyota Corolla.

Rumour at its extreme

2007-06-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

If you think you've seen the best of rumours, hold your tongue. Here comes one that knocked my socks off... My poor technologically challenged parents got this email forward from someone and were actually scared.

>>
Horrible to digest the following...........

Just read this notice given by CEO Nokia to their staff!!!

>>

Start counting your days now. You are not far from the day you'll get a call from a magnetically charged number :)

My new toy - Roomba Red

2007-06-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

After pondering for a long time, asking people for opinion, comparing products on the net, I finally narrowed down on Roomba Red. For those who aren't familiar, Roomba is a vacuum cleaning robot made by a company called iRobot. It is supposed to detect dirt with its sensors, find its path around the room, go around and clean.

I spent about $150 and bought it from Amazon. It came in last week but I didn't have the time to try it out until today. Had to charge it for 16 hrs before the first use!

Though it didn't really leave my bedroom spotless, it worked fairly well. More than the cleaning aspect, it was great fun to watch it working. Its a pity that it needs to bang into walls and other obstacles to learn that it can't go further. They could've built some sensor in it for detecting obstacles from a distance! :(

There are cool add-ons to this gadget like what they call 'home base'. For extra $60 or so, you can make the Roomba run to its home base automatically when the battery is low! Besides, the home base charges it in half the time. I didn't buy the add-on, but it sounds interesting.

Here is a video of my new toy in action:

Searching Megaupload and Rapidshare

2007-05-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

Ever had the need to search sites like Megaupload and Rapidshare? They store a wealth of files, no surprise if they have something that you are desperately looking for. Recently, I lost the driver CD that came with my bluetooth USB dongle, and I just couldn't find it on the manufacturer's site. I could bet that I wasn't alone - and I was true. Some more search showed that a number of people were crying for their damaged driver CD and the lack of support from this manufacturer.

Then came the spark. Megaupload. But this site doesn't have search facility. Its like an abyss - you can keep throwing your files in, but if you lose the link, don't expect it back. But hey, there is our good old Google!

Basically, there are 2 methods:

Method 1:

Go to www.google.com and click on Advanced Search.
In the first text box, enter your search terms.
Then look for a field marked "Domain". Making sure that "Only" is selected in the drop-down box, enter http://www.megaupload.com/ or http://www.rapidshare.com/ in the text box corresponding to Domain.
Click on Google Search.

Method 2:

The above method essentially boils down to this method.

Go to www.google.com
In th search box, enter the following: site:
For example, if your search terms are that secret file and you are searching megaupload, you need to enter: that secret file site:http://www.megaupload.com
Click on Search

If you are lucky, you should find a number of results. Sometimes, if you click on one of those links, you may not be taken to the page you expected. In this case, try copying the link you see below that search result and opening it in a different window. Otherwise, try clicking on the Cached link below the search result.

That's all folks. Enjoy.

Develop Firefox extensions the easy way. Go Greasemonkey.

2007-04-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest features of Firefox is add-ons. Drop into Firefox add-on site, you can almost always find an add-on that does what you need. But what if you don't? Make your own! Sounds hard, but the good news is there are shortcuts. Once upon a time, I released a few extensions myself. They were a bit popular long back but not any more since the web sites they enhance have introduced the features themselves. But the point is, anyone can make their own. Many people have emailed me asking for some beginner's tips, so I thought it'd be a good idea to collate my replies to them on a blog. So here we go ...

The official way to develop ff extensions is documented here:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Getting_started_with_extension_development

However I should admit that I have never tried all this. I take a shortcut by using Greasemonkey scripts. Greasemonkey is a Firefox add-on that you can install from here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

What does this do? It hides all the gory details of actual extension development from you. Imagine it like a middle man between Firefox and you - if you know some simple Javascripting, you can write your own sweet functionality and hand it over to Greasemonkey, it'll execute it like any other extension. What kind of 'functionality' can you add? The most common ones are tweaking the way some web pages behave when they show up on your browser. For example, lets say that you don't like the pink background color on a certain web page you visit often. You can write a script that'll change it to a different color! Needless to say, this is just the way it displays on YOUR Firefox browser. You won't see the change if you use IE and your friend won't see it if he uses Firefox without this script.

So what do you need to begin scripting? A book. This is the one I used, and its free:
http://diveintogreasemonkey.org/

It doesn't teach you much Javascript, so you'll need to google for "Javascript tutorial" if you aren't familiar with it. It is terribly easy, so don't let it stop you from making your first move. Apart from Javascript, if you are familiar with XPath queries, it is a bonus, but it is OK if you don't.

After writing a few scripts, you can consider yourself an extension developer. But wait, there is a catch. The catch is, these scripts run under Greasemonkey's space, so you won't see your script listed as an extension in the browser's add-on list. Which means, when you distribute your script to others, you'll have to make them install Greasemonkey first and install your script using Greasemonkey. It is probably OK, but your friends may not consider you a proper extension developer. To get around this situation, I used this compiler:

http://arantius.com/misc/greasemonkey/script-compiler

This takes in a GM script and converts it into a proper Firefox extension!

What next? After you are done reading that book and writing some simple scripts yourself, you can do the following:

Take a look at this huge repository of scripts and ideas - http://userscripts.org/
Start learning the 'proper' way to make Firefox extensions from the link I gave above (and no, I didn't do it and I'm not too keen right now)

Also, in case you didn't know, Firefox extensions files are just zip files. Just download any extension without actually installing it (one way to do it would be to use IE) and unzip it using some standard zip program like IZArc or 7-Zip (rename the extension to .zip if necessary). That'll expose the source code of any extension you want. Look at what they've done and see if it helps you figure out how to do something you have in mind.

Once you have a nice extension to show others, do submit it to Mozilla. They'll take a few weeks to test it and release it on their site. And read this when you get to that level:
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Extensions

Happy scripting.

Firefox

2007-04-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

I love Firefox for a number of reasons. I hate it too, for one reason.

Bad things first, it takes up a fat chunk of memory on Windows. It can be argued that some extensions I use do the nasty work, but it is only partly true. Even with no extensions, FF stands out in the task manager. Constant googling showed that, it is in fact a 'feature' of FF - it caches a number of visited pages in the memory so that it loads faster the next time. And this number, by default, is 50. A few tweaks have been suggested by wise men to cool down FF a bit. The most promising one was reducing the number 50. Just open a new window, type about:config in the address bar and press enter. In the list that appears, hunt for the property browser.sessionhistory.max_entries, double click it and change the number to whatever you want. I prefer 5 or 10. Of course, the price you pay is the reduced speed.

The best feature of FF, in my opinion, is its support for extensions. People have gotten really smart with extensions that you have everything ranging from weather display to mini bittorrents inside your browser. Extension development has become simpler than ever with extensions like Greasemonkey (making people like me develop a couple of extns!). Here is some of my favorites (and no, I didn't write any of these):

Drag n drop upload - Attaching files in gmail has become mindlessly simple with this one around. Just drag the files (and I mean all files together!) and drop them on the Attach link on gmail ... magic!

IE Tab - It really annoys me when I'm forced to use IE while visiting Microsoft related sites. Kindof takes away my freedom, you see ... This extn takes care of fooling such web sites.

Downthemall - The rock solid downloader ... performs blazing fast downloads, with easy to use right click integration. Sometimes doesn't do well on FTP sites (doesn't seem to display the actual size of the file while downloading)

AllPeers - The grand, memory hogging, buggy but stunning extension! Lets you create a peer network with friends to share links and files. Works like bittorrent, but is more controlled in that you can share only with people on your friends list. This extn is in beta as I write. The presence of this extn doesn't let FF go below 100 MB, but it is worth it if you want to transfer big files.

That isn't all about FF. I love a number of other things too... like the way its address bar integrates with Google and other sites. If you haven't exploited that feature already, let me have the honor of enlightening you. Say you want to know about a movie ... Open a new tab, type on the address bar "imdb Silence of the lambs" without quotes and press enter. Cool? That isn't just with imdb, you can configure it to react similarly with any site, like fetching stock quotes or showing the weather in your area. If you aren't convinced, here is more ... On the address bar, type each one of the following and be amazed.

100000 + 12312312 + 3443545
100 USD in british pounds
weather 97124 (or your zip code)
53 degree F in C (I use this often coz I understand Celsius scale better than Fahrenheit)
100 pounds in kg (again, I prefer kg to lbs)
stock Intel (or whatever company you are interested in)

Don't you just love it? I do.

A new home for your unused thumb drives

2007-04-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Yet another nice feature in Vista ...

One fine day, I plugged my thumb drive into the USB port. Windows opened the usual dialog box with the list of options like open, play etc. At the very end, I noticed a seemingly irrelevant addition - Speed up my system. Weird. I promptly changed the options, asking Windows to stop giving me wise ass recommendations every time I insert a device.

Later on, some googling revealed the mystery behind that "weird" option. It turned out to be an interesting feature in Vista called ReadyBoost. You can now put your sparsely used thumb drives to good use! All you need to do is plugin your USB 2.0 thumb drive and click on that "speed up my system" option. If you disabled the pop up like me, you can go to My Computer, right click on the thumb drive and choose Properties. In the Properties dialog, choose the ReadyBoost tab and choose "Use this device" and click OK (I didn't disturb the other options). Now you'll see a ReadyBoost.sfcache file in your thumb drive. Simple?

Now how is this supposed to speed things up? The theory is simple. Vista has a related feature called SuperFetch. Briefly, SuperFetch is supposed to learn your usage pattern and preload your favorite applications into memory. If your machine has enough memory, this sounds nice. But what if it doesn't? Leave alone SuperFetch, in general, if the memory isn't too big to hold your programs and data, they are written to a page file on the hard drive. This is usually the file c:\pagefile.sys. The data is shuttled back and forth between the main memory and the page file. The trouble with this arrangement is that, the hard drive takes non-trivial time to spin around and locate your data. While the transfer rate of the hard drives is great, the seek time isn't.

Here is where our thumb drive kicks in. A big selling point for flash drives is their seek time. Since they don't have moving parts, they can locate the data almost instantaneously. ReadyBoost exploits this feature - Vista now uses your thumb drive to store its paged out data. 2+2=4. Cool?

One nice thing about this implementation is that, you can pull out the drive anytime you want, since Windows doesn't cache critical data there, knowing your unsteady mind.

Now, did I notice a speed boost? I don't know. I have 2 GB RAM, and I have been using only a limited set of apps in the past few days. So I didn't notice anything special. But all those expert reviewers have! There is lot of nice material out there explaining the theory and showing good performance results. Here is one:

Windows Vista's SuperFetch and ReadyBoost Analyzed

Take a look. Not bad, eh?

The easy way to create partitions in Vista

2007-04-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

My brand new Dell E520 desktop arrived, and I started playing with Vista. In a few minutes, I discovered something that XP doesn't have (unless I missed it). And this is one feature I've been wanting for ages. If you ever purchased a Dell or HP machine with a fat hard disk, and found that all they gave you was a single C:, you'll know what I mean. I'm the kind that likes to have multiple logical partitions to organize my files - say, a D: for my data, and a E: for my games etc.

Earlier, there were some options - you could format the drive, partition it and reinstall everything (read, pain in the a**); or you could use some utility like partition manager and be married to it until you decide to sell your PC.

That ends my inspiring talk, now let's get on to the procedure. Here is my setup - Vista home premium, a C: with 310 GB space, a 10 GB D: put in by Dell for their recovery files. I'll walk you through the procedure I followed to create a M: for storing media files, a G: for my games, a T: for my data files (D: is already taken!). Here are the steps:

Right click on My Computer (on Vista it shows up as Computer), click Manage.
When Computer Management screen opens, on the left pane, click Storage and choose Disk Management.
In the main panel, right click on C:. You should see a Shrink Volume option; click on it.
A dialog box will open, with the third line saying "Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB". It is convenient to see these things in GB, so divide this number by 1024 using calculator. Let us say that the value is 120 GB. This means that your C: can be "shrunk" to 190 GB (310 - 120) leaving you 120 GB to create your partitions. Note that, no file from your hard disk during this process.
Since I just needed 100 GB for my other partitions totally, I changed this value to 102400 (100 GB * 1024). Once you enter the value you want, press Shrink.
Now look at the bottom panel. You'll see that you have some "Unallocated" space, this being 100 GB in my case. Right click this space and choose "New Simple Volume" (or something similar, don't remember now).
The rest is easy. You can enter the amount of space you want, choose the file system type as NTFS and create the partition. You may want to check the "Quick formatting" check box to speed up things. In my case, I created a 40 GB partition and named it M: (for media). That left me with some more unallocated space (60 GB). I repeated this process and created two more partitions, a 30 GB G: for games and a 30 GB T: for my personal data. Note that, while creating the last partition, you can just leave it to the default value, since it takes the maximum available space (so the partition size would be a little more or less than what you expected, but it should be OK).

I write this from memory, so correct me if there is some minor mistake. Happy partitioning.