Facebook - Security/Blocks/Filters

I absolutely hate having my privacy invaded by these intrusive programs.
However I do like the idea that I can keep in touch with a small handful of friends.
Facebook for me is just this.
A place for old friends to look me up.
Then we can exchange email addy's & or phone numbers.
If I don't like you enough to want to do those 2 things then I don't want you anywhere in my life.
It is indeed this black & white. There are friends & then there are wastes of valuable time.
On the web this way of thinking is sacrilege.
In real life this makes perfectly good sense.

For those who do live in the real world & value their privacy.
Who don't want silly applications recording their every move.
Here are some nice You tube videos to help you to secure yourself,
maintain a sense of anonymity, & keep you free from Malware.

Fix The Half Green Screen Issue In Windows Movie Maker

Native MPEG4 decoding is bad under Vista.
(re-enable the XviD MPEG-4 Video Decoder).

Go to
Start Menu
All Programs
XVid
Configure Decoder
In the Output options, check in the box that says
Compatibility Render-er and click OK

This still utilities the XVid MPEG4 codec and resolved the half green screen issue.

WinRAR - Use Recovery Record and then we can Repair corrupt (crc error) rar files

I stumbled upon this great suggestion for all of the posters.

I myself am guilty of not following this, but it will def save some time.

Especially because many of the videos we DL are in several parts & susceptible to CRC errors.

WinRAR - USE_RECOVERY_RECORD and then

we can Repair corrupt (crc error) rar files.

On Keeping Your Links Safe From Harm

This is a piece I found some time back that has saved me tons of grief.
The author is a bit wordy, but he breaks it down so perfectly.
In following these suggestions I have had great success

There’s been some discussion about files being deleted at Rapidshare, and perhaps there’s a little confusion out there about how this works,

so as a person who has been doing this a long time. I thought I’d write up a little essay to explain things.

I apologize in advance if this gets a little lengthy, but I hope it will ultimately make things clearer about how Rapidshare (and the other services) operate their servers.

When you upload a file to Rapidshare, they create a “digital fingerprint” for your file.

This is often referred to as a “checksum”. In essence,

what they might do is to add up all the tiny little 1’s and 0’s in your file and come up with a total.

Since that total wouldn’t by itself necessarily guarantee a unique value to distinguish one file from another,

they might then calculate a second or third checksum using some other method

(such as adding up the 1’s and 0’s that are found only in every OTHER bit of your file, or in every SEVENTH bit of your file, etc.)

Eventually, they arrive at a unique digital fingerprint that clearly identifies your file and which cannot be confused with any other file.

A term that you may have seen in relation to checksums (particularly if you use WinRar,

since WinRar displays these values) is “CRC” or “CRC-32″. That stands for “Cyclic Redundancy Check”.

CRCs are just a more complicated variation of checksumming. Read more here if you really want to know the boring mathematical details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclic_redundancy_check

But enough technical hoo-haw — let’s move on.

So now let’s say you’ve uploaded your files, and each of them has its own special unique checksum value.

Next, someone else out there in the vast world of cyberspace uploads the exact same file to Rapidshare.

Lo and behold, Rapidshare performs a few calculations and their new file magically ends up having the exact same checksum/CRC value as yours did.

Any guesses what Rapidshare does next?

Like any good business, they recognize an opportunity to save money.

Rapidshare says to itself, “It’s stupid for me to waste valuable server space by storing a second copy of the same file.

I’ll just generate a unique link for this second person to use, but it will point to the exact same data that was already uploaded onto my servers by the first person.”

This way, when Madonna’s new CD or Brad Pitt’s sex tape leaks out to the Internet and 50,000 people all upload a copy of it to Rapidshare,

Rapidshare doesn’t need to save 50,000 duplicate copies of the same thing on their server.

They only keep one copy, but have 50,000 links to the same data. Links are cheap — server space is not as cheap.

Now, guess what happens if even one of those links gets reported as “offensive or illegal” material?

As you might suspect, it’s not just the one offensive link that gets disabled, it’s ALL 50,000 links.

Poof! In one fell swoop, all 50,000 links are wiped out — even though only one of those 50,000 links was actually reported.

There’s an important point here that’s worth stopping and reflecting upon for a moment.

What this means is that your own personal links can be deleted even if no one specifically reported YOUR links as a violation of terms.

Let’s now use a pay site example. You are a member of that site, so you download the clip and then upload it to Rapidshare “as is”. Unbeknownst to you,

10 other members of that site do the same thing.

You share your link with 2 of your closest friends. Or 25 other folks.
Or perhaps even NO ONE AT ALL. But one of those other 10 shares HIS link with 1000 of his favorite public blogs and Yahoo groups.

The webmaster of the pay site then sees his precious clip posted at one of those places and reports it to Rapidshare as being in violation.

This also deletes YOUR link, even if you shared it with NO ONE AT ALL.

I have personally verified using 2 rapidshare accounts that it does indeed work this way

a link that has never even been shared can still get deleted with a note saying that it has “been reported”.

So, next time someone says, “I only posted this link to one group, and it got deleted, so there MUST be a spy there”,

remember that this may NOT truly be the case.

It all depends on whether or not the file that you uploaded was unique or if an identical file had also been uploaded by OTHER people out there on the Internet.

The most obvious answer to at least part of this problem is to disguise your uploads in such a way that they are unique to you

and do not ever identically match anything that someone else out there on the Internet will upload.

Let’s now use a second pay site example. A pay site publishes THEIR latest weekly clip. This clip is bigger and is 250000 KB in size.

Pop quiz! What’s the first thing all the uploaders out there do?

Anyone? …Anyone? …Bueller?

Answer: They split it into parts that are of size 100000 KB, giving 3 pieces (100000 KB, 100000 KB, and 50000 KB ).

What’s a better thing to try? Split the file into parts that are of a size no one else out there is using

try 99993 KB or 99985 KB instead of 100000 KB. That way, when the 100000 KB splits get deleted

as they inevitably do — your own links will not be affected.

The key is to always make your own files be something unique that no one else on the Internet is going to upload.

Once a file is reported to Rapidshare as a violation of terms, they retain its unique fingerprint (CRC value) in their database.

If you ever try to re-upload the exact same file, Rapidshare says, “Don’t even think about it, you pirate ~censored~!” and doesn’t let you do it.

(Of note is that they can’t calculate the checksum or CRC value until they have received the entire upload from you,

so the most maddening part of this is that you must first waste 40 minutes uploading a file and THEN you find out that it has already been reported.)

So how do you re-upload a file once it’s been deleted?

(1) Transform it into a .Zip or .Rar file instead of just uploading the original .wmv file

(2) Use Winrar or 7zip to create splits that have a different file size than the file that was deleted

As long as you change the file size, your new file is guaranteed to have a different and unique digital fingerprint.

The object is to make sure that anything you upload always has a unique fingerprint that does not match the fingerprint of anything someone else may have already uploaded.

Once you make a match with something that’s already out there, then it does not matter how careful you are with your own links

if the other person is careless with THEIR links, then YOUR links are at risk.

Eventually, with popular clips, the .Zip version of the file will also get deleted, at which point it cannot be re-uploaded, either.

What you have probably seen many regular posters do is to make a .Zip file that includes 2 things.

The primary thing inside the .Zip file is the .wmv (or .avi or whatever) movie file that they want to share,

and the secondary thing inside the .Zip file is some small .jpeg picture or .txt file. If you’ve wondered why they do this,

now you know. It’s not really for the vanity or the personal glory of sharing that extra .jpeg or .txt file with you.

It’s so their .Zip file contents will be different from the .Zip file that anyone else out there on the Internet might possibly post.

The name of the game for uploaders is to make sure that whatever you upload is always unique.

Once you do that, then the only way your own links will ever get deleted is if someone actually reports YOUR specific links.

One final misconception is that the NAME of the file you upload to Rapidshare makes a difference.

It doesn’t. Rapidshare cares only about the CONTENT, as that is how they calculate the checksum/CRC fingerprint.

You could give your file any of the following names:

Brad_Pitt_and_Damien_Crosse

My_vacation_photos

(ETC.)

but as long as the CONTENT of those 5 files are the same, THAT is the only criteria Rapidshare
will use in determining what to do with your file.

They will either accept it as a brand new file, recognize it as a match for something they have already on their servers,

or reject it as a previously-reported forbidden item. They don’t care about your file NAME,

and they don’t have a team of low-paid slaves who are constantly monitoring incoming file names or looking through what’s inside any of the uploaded files.

That’s an impossible task that can only be done electronically. In a digital world where file names are virtually meaningless, it’s all about the checksums.

However now that there are search engines that can find files on these servers,

it is a good idea to create a unique name that can not be easily searched for and found.

I know this was wordy, but hope it provides some tips for at least one or two of you to help avoid link deletions.

The other important thing to take from it is that getting your links deleted is often not the fault of the group you sent them to

but a failure on the part of the uploader to ensure that their file content was unique.