What is ffdshow, you ask? Here's the quote from the ffdshow sourceforge page

ffdshow tryouts is a DirectShow and Video for Windows codec with support for a wide range of audio and video formats, such as Xvid, DivX, and H.264. It includes a powerful filter set that can enhance the video quality - with filters for resizing, deinterlacing, and displaying subtitles - as well as audio quality through normalization, down-/upmixing, and resampling.

First of all, you'll need to download the latest ffdshow codec. Although it's "safer" to always use the latest stable builds, in this case however I'd recommend always using the latest SVN builds. Because they are updated way more often including the filters. The latest SVN build, as of the time writing this article was 2011-01-19.

Even the SVN builds are subdivided in 3 areas:

• 64-bit
• 32-bit

Start installing the ffdshow codec now. You'll be asked what you want to install. This is your choice:

After that leave the rest of the settings as they are and continue finishing the codec installation. After the installation a file named ffvdub.vdf should be inside your VirtualDub/Plugins folder:

Now we can start using the ffdshow filter in VirtualDub. Start up VirtualDub, open a video file, then add the filter:

Now the important part: VirtualDub processes the selected filters in their order. Meaning concurrent. This is very important because it affects your quality especially in connection with watermarks.

Say such as if we were using the filters in this order: 1) waterwark, 2) sharpen, 3) resize. What happens is this: First a watermark is slapped on a frame, then this frame including the watermark is sharpened and after that the sharpened frame including the watermark is resized. Now this is not an idea. Why?

Imagine you have a watermark 100*100 pixel. This image is first slapped on each frame, then it is sharpened and then it is resized. You don't want that. You want the watermark to maintain its original quality and size. So the ideal filter order would be:

Resize the frame, sharpen the frame and insert original, unedited watermark. Let's take a look at the selected filters.

ffdshow filter: Resize

It's pretty much straightforward. Enable resize, choose "Specify horizontal and vertical size" and enter the numbers you want to resize it to. It's 1280*720 for 720p HD and 1920*1080 for 1080p HD.

If you're resizing down or up from a 4:3 resolution, remember to enable "Keep original aspect ratio" under Aspect ratio. Otherwise the end-result will look over-stretched/-squeezed.

If you're resizing down or up from a 16:10 resolution, you could ignore this option. The end-result won't look too bad. But check it out yourself to make sure!

ffdshow filter: Sharpen

Sharpen is a bit trickier, and a lot different from VirtualDub's internal one. In fact there are 5 different sharpening algorithms, I haven't experience with them all, but I've made best experiences with "msharpen". Enable "high quality".

Sadly I can't give you ballpark figures like in the previous guides because this filter works very different. I'll do my best to try to explain how it works.

There are 2 sliders: Strength (1-127) and Threshold (0-255). Strength dictates how strong it should sharpen. Threshold dictates how much of the frame should be sharpened. A Threshold of 0 means everything (every pixel) in the frame will be sharpened, a Threshold of 255 sharpens nothing in the frame.

In order for you to see how much of a frame is sharpened enable "only mask" and press "Preview", play with the slider "Threshold" and set it to your liking. All that "white" in your Preview will be sharpened. Once you've set your Threshold to your liking don't forget to turn off "only mask"! Now play with the slider Strength and set to your liking. Each video needs a different setting I've concluded so far.

This is how the different msharp settings look like: Sharpen filter off, Sharpen Strength 127/Threshold 255, Sharpen Strength 127/Threshold 0, Sharpen Strength 35/Threshold 20, Sharpen Strength 30/Threshold 3.

Sharpen filter with "only mask" activated: Threshold 255, Threshold 0, Threshold 30, Threshold 15, Threshold 7, Threshold 3, Threshold 1.

ffdshow filter: Bitmap overlay (Watermark)

First thing fist: The watermark image needs to be a bitmap (.bmp). Everything else is pretty straightforward. Position your watermark with the sliders "Horizontal/Vertical position". Choose the mode of watermark inclusion and its Opacity. Preview your settings.

Related posts:

1. VirtualDub: How to watermark your videos
2. Fraps & VirtualDub: How to save disk space and enjoy good quality, small file size HD video clips
3. VirtualDub: How to use mkv, mp4, flv, mov and other file formats with VirtualDub

Short version: It's the identification of your geological location. Can be good, can be bad. I don't like being stalked though! Firefox, by standard, has geolocation tracking enabled. If you don't want it, turn it off with a few simple steps:

1. Type in "about:config" in your url bar
2. Type in "geo" in the filter bar
3. Look for "geo.enabled" and turn its value to "false"
4. For an extra icing on the cake: look for "geo.wifi.uri" and change its content to "WHATEVERYOUDESIRE"

This is how it looks after the change:

Enjoy your stalking-free Firefox!

Related posts:

1. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
2. Force Firefox Add-ons to work with Firefox 3.6 betas!
3. 5 easy-to-do tweaks to make your Firefox faster!

But no it wasn't. The lag was caused by Firefox's session saving feature. A simple and fast change in it and "poof" went the lag.

• Open Firefox and type in "about:config" (without the ") in the Address Bar and hit Enter.
• Type in "session" in the "Filter" line at the top of the list.
• Find “browser.sessionstore.interval” and double click it. The 10000 milliseconds (equals 10 seconds) is the interval in which Firefox keeps saving your session in case of a crash; same amount of time between video lags.
• Change it to something different. 120000 equals 2 minutes, 300000 equals 5 minutes or something else you desire. I went with 600000 (10 minutes), because I don’t particularly care about session saving.

Related posts:

1. Firefox: “I see where you are!”, Me: “No, ya don’t!” [Turning off Geolocation Tracking in Firefox]
2. Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!
3. Force Firefox Add-ons to work with Firefox 3.6 betas!

A long time ago I had DriverCleaner, a tool to remove certain driver leftovers! Lately I've had to battle with some odd issues about my graphic card driver leftovers. They just won't delete. I wanted a clean de-installation because some games started to act up.

So I set out to look for a modern and up-to-date (and possibly free!) alternative to DriverCleaner and I came across Guru 3D's Driver Sweeper. I recommend this application! It's up-to-date (latest 23.07.2009) and deletes everything (as far as I can see, it resolved my issues at least).

Drive Sweeper deletes ATI (Display), NVIDIA (Display and Chipset), Ageia (PhysX), Creative (Sound), MMouse (whatever that is) and Realtek (Sound) drivers. I wanted it to delete my ATI driver leftovers.

According to Guru3D it also runs on any modern Windows system including Win7:

System requirements:
The Guru3D - Driver Sweeper is fully tested on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows & 7 RC. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are supported.

The absolutely best and sure way to delete anything is first to uninstall it via its official Uninstaller, then reboot your system into Safe Mode and fire up Driver Sweeper. Skiping Safe Mode also works but some files might not get deleted in the process.

Related posts:

1. Real-Time Screen capturing/recording easily done with VirtualDub and VHScrCap
2. WSCC: Windows System Control Center – A convenient collection of system applications!
3. How to unassociate File Types in Windows 7!

Over time it's get filled up with unnecessary and old info if you want, and there's a simple method to ditch those useless info and speed up your Firefox considerably, or like most of the guides say to "vacuum" it.

Use it once in a while, I've seen an improvement on my Firefox since I used it.

1. Go to "Tools" -> "Error Console"
2. Paste this in the "Code" text box:

   Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");

3. Press enter or click "evaluate"
4. Your Firefox will freeze for a short time, just wait
5. Enjoy your speed up Firefox!

Related posts:

1. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
2. Make your Firefox load faster!
3. 5 easy-to-do tweaks to make your Firefox faster!

So I set out to look for an Open Source/Freeware solution, and I've found one! VirtualDub coupled with VH Screen Capture Driver works like a charm!

First you need to download and install VH Screen Capture Driver, then you start up VirtualDub.

In VirtualDub you do the following:

Step 1:  Switch to Capture Mode

Step 2:  Select Capture Device

This is why you need to install VH Screen Capture Driver, before VirtualDub, otherwise you won't have the Screen Capture "Driver".

Step 3: Set your capture file

Choose its name and its location.

Step 4: Configure the capture devide / filter

You need to config VH Screen Capture Driver in order for it to run correctly.

Press "select" then put in your current desktop resolution in Width / Height. I'm running my PC in 1920 x 1200 resolution.

And that's pretty much it. Didn't cost a cent!

You can record uncompressed audio/video and transcode it later:

or you can choose to expirement with those setting to your best liking! I personally record uncompressed and transcode it afterwards.

Enjoy!

Edit: According to some users, this method does not work with Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Addendum 18.08.2010:
If you are a Windows 7 user, I suggest you use Fraps to record your desktop. Fraps has the ability to record your Aero desktop, which is awesome. No more hassle. Start Fraps, and start recording.

Related posts:

1. Fraps & VirtualDub: How to save disk space and enjoy good quality, small file size HD video clips
2. VirtualDub 720p HD settings for YouTube! [Good quality, small file size]
3. VirtualDub: How to use mkv, mp4, flv, mov and other file formats with VirtualDub

Firefox 3.5 is out already a few days! Get if folks! Ditch your Opera, IE, Chrome and Safari!

I thought I'd share my Add-Ons I pretty much use on daily basis.

Adblock Plus:
Ads, oh how I loathe them. This addons takes care of every ad I came across until today. I'm 100% ad-free! Of course websites who rely on their only income, ads, will suffer from this.

So remember, if you have a favorite site you frequently visit and it relies on ad revenue to keep alive, un-block and support it!

Fasterfox Lite:
Remember the 5 tweaks I posted way back then? Well this Add-On takes care of it automatically. Except this LITE version, which is the only one functioning for 3.5, doesn't have prefetching.

If you don't like to do these manual tweaks this is the Add-On for you.

Edit 25.09.2009: Fasterfox has been updated to run with 3.5 since August 26th 2009. Not the Lite, the normal one!

Flagfox:
Since I sometime need to know about the location of a website or its server, Flagfox gives me their IP, location and ask whois detailed information, if needed to be.

Gmail Notifier:
If you own a single GMail account this is small addon to notify you if you got new mails in the inbox. There's a GMail Manager for those with multiple accounts.

NoScript:
Perhaps the most important Add-On for Firefox. It is, assumed it's correctly configured, what makes Firefox and in turn your computer so resilient to scripts, Keyloggers and viruses.

I can pretty much click any link I come across without fear of somehow installing malicious software, keyloggers or viruses.

This Add-On is constantly being updated to keep up against scripts, keyloggers and viruses who try to circumvent NoScript. 3 cheers to open-source!

PDF Download:
I think the name explains it all. It allows you to choose between downloading a PDF file or opening it up

Skipscreen:
With 1-click-hosters such as Rapidshare, Netload, Megaupload, etc. becoming widely popular this Add-On is pretty much a must have if you want to skip all the unnecessary pages to go directly to download.

Saved me a lot of time, this diamond!

Related posts:

1. Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!
2. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
3. 5 easy-to-do tweaks to make your Firefox faster!

Recently, while surfing the net, I stumbled through del.icio.us onto Daily Writing Tips , 40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation and Grammar Girl !

I love them, pretty useful and basically covers every aspect you should know! Got any other site? Feel free to leave them with your comments!

So long,
Don Salva

Related posts:

1. Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!
2. Improve your search results with Google’s new Caffeine Sandbox!

So I went to google and found 5 easy-to-do tweak with remarkable results! Remarkable, because you truly can see the difference between a standard and a tweaked Firefox. One might wonder why such tweaks are not standard options..

Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Look for the following entries:

1. "network.http.pipelining" and set value to true
2. "network.http.proxy.pipelining" and set value to true
3. "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" and set value to 30-40
4. "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set value to 0
5. "config.trim_on_minimize" and set value to true

If you don't have them, create them:

1. Right click -> new -> boolean -> type in "network.http.pipelining" -> set value to true
2. Right click -> new -> boolean -> type in "network.http.proxy.pipelining" -> set value to true
3. Right click -> new -> boolean -> type in "config.trim_on_minimize" -> set value to true
4. Right click -> new -> integer -> type in "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" -> set value to 30 (default is 1)
5. Right click -> new -> integer -> type in "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" -> set value to 0

Now the explanation as to what does what:

network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining:

It enables pipe-lining, which means the browser normally sends 1 request at a time, with pipeline enabled it will send the amount of request you set in "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests"!

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests:

Like I said Firefox usually sends 1 request at any time. By setting a different value than 1, you force Firefox to send more requests thus enabling it to load faster, because he gets more responses at any time.

config.trim_on_minimize:

Each time you minimize your Firefox it will clear the RAM. Firefox is infamous of wasting RAM for Pages you don't need so you can go "back" to them.

nglayout.initialpaint.delay:

If this value doesn't exist or isn't set Firefox waits 250 milliseconds, or 0.25 of a second then starts rendering the requested page(s). People report that setting it to 0, ergo forcing Firefox to begin rendering immediately causes almost all pages to show up faster.

Addendum:

If you are one of the lazy lot, and don't want to manually tweak your Firefox, here's a great Extension with virtually the same effect

Fasterfox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1269

Enjoy your new, faster Firefox!

Related posts:

1. Make your Firefox load faster!
2. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
3. Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!