Monitor Colour gone funny

Just a quick post to hopefully save one or two of you some cash.

I woke up this morning, after a power cut, to find that my 21″ Sony G500 had a bright red / pink tint to the screen.
I tried, adjusting the colours, tried Degaussing, waited 30 mins for it to warm up then tried the ‘Image Restoration’.

Nothing worked…

So Credit Card out and a visit to eBay – new monitor bought and paid for.

As the screen was unusable I replaced it with a couple of spare 15″ I have laying about only to find that one was suffering from the same red haze. Thinking (well, swearing actually) that it might be a fried video card due to the powercut, I tried swapping the leads on the two outputs from the card and hey presto all fixed.
After a bit more fiddling and farting I decided to swap for another monitor cable and both monitors worked perfectly.
After a bit more swearing, I plugged the G500 back in to find it worked perfectly – my problem had been a dodgy cable (most likely due to the power cut I think as it was less than a year old).

So, the moral … try and change leads, before you change monitors but most importantly before you spend a heap of cash on a new monitor that you don’t really need.
(slaps forehead!)

I hope this saves someone out there a few bucks.

Webecho Media

Well, it took a while, but the new Webecho Media website is up and running.
Head over and take a look and if I can help you get started on the web, or improve your current websites performance – get in touch.

Free Breaks Mix

Listen to the Fat Breaks Mix

Download this 50 min Breaks Mix.

• Beat Assasins – Keeping It Jiggy (Groove Diggerz Remix)
• Beat Assasins – We Run Tings (Original Mix)
• Dopamine – System Error
• Curtis B – Next Level (ESP Mix)
• Dopamine vs Bubble and Squeek – In Shallow
• J Break vs Urban I – In Yo Face (Original Mix)
• J Break – Blind (Urban I Mix)
• Kid Blue – Nothing to Lose (James Talk remix)
• KMFX ft MC Collaborator – Collaboration (Original Mix)
• KMFX ft MC Collaborator – Collaboration (Paradox 3000 mix)
• Kid Blue – Nothing to Lose (Original Mix)
• Koma and Bones – Crackhouse

Music Instinct (FB Remix) MP3

Free to download and share is the Music Instinct remix by Blistik & Funkosis.
This remix was authorised by Indabamusic.com and PBS.org to support their new TV show ‘The Music Instinct – Science and Song’.

Music Instinct (FB Remix).mp3 (7.7MB 192kbps)

Toshiba Satellite A200 SATA Drivers

I’ve just tried to re-install Win XP on my Toshiba Satellite A200.
I kept getting the ” … no hard disk found…” message as WinXP doesn’t provide any SATA drivers (even SP3).

If you’re having the same problem then here are some basic instructions and the Toshiba Satellite A200 SATA Drivers. (If you link to this, please link to the page not the drivers – I’ll be moving the files shortly – thanks)

The only way to install XP with these extra drivers intact is to slipstream WinXP using n-lite. Follow the link and you’ll find the program and all the instructions to do it.

I’ll briefly run through the process I used to extract the SATA files in case anyone finds it useful in future.

I downloaded the SA200 ACHI F6-1017-XP file from Toshiba, it comes as a handy exe which installs it onto a Floppy Disk – of course, like most of you, I don’t use or even have a Floppy Disk drive anymore so it was useless .. until … I found a Floppy Drive emulation program – FileDisk-15, a bit fiddly to use but it does the trick. Of course, running the .exe file from Toshiba couldn’t find the Floppy Emulator so I had to download IZArc a handy little freeware ZIP utility, which managed to extract the .IMA files from the toshiba executable … you following?

Once the .IMA was extracted, it was a fairly simple(ish) task to mount it with FileDisk and copy the files off (to three seperate locations – 2 on my Hard Disks and one on the Interweb – mainly so I never have to mess about extracting them again).

Once they were Slipstreamed into XP using n-lite – I had a happy little A200 that is now freshly installed with XP.

Well, I hope that helped you out and saved you a bit of time.

Carmen & Camille “Shine4U” Remix Contest

Carmen and Camille are inviting you to come along for their rise to success. They’ve provided the stems from their previously unreleased track, “Shine 4U”, and want you to remix and re-imagine this song into something entirely new!

In a bold and unprecedented move, the girls have decided to keep the new mixes under a Creative Commons Attribution license, giving you the opportunity to work with the song to create your own success! This means that you can take your unique mix of this song and distribute and share it freely and sell it, as long as you give Carmen and Camille credit. So, come hop on board with this talented duo and bring your remix of their track to the top of the charts!

Check out some of the Carmen and Camille remix submissions or sign up with Indaba to enter the competition.

The Music Instinct – Science & Song Remix Competition

The Music Instinct Competition has started – we’ve uploaded our entry for the theme.
You can listen to our Music Instinct Competition entry here – Music Instinct (FB Remix).

The Music Instinct: Science and Song, premiering Wednesday, June 24 at 9:00pm (check local listings), is a ground-breaking program that offers viewers a new understanding of the power of music. Music is found all over the natural world and in everyday life experiences. The documentary follows visionary researchers and accomplished musicians, such as Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma, Jarvis Cocker, Evelyn Glennie, and Daniel Barenboim, to the crossroads of science and culture in search of answers to music’s deep and abiding mysteries.

This was arranged, mixed and mastered in Ableton Live.

Exclusive Escapes Holiday Homes

Just finished a new website …

Exclusive Escapes Holiday Homes is the freshest holiday rental company in the South West of Australia.

Selecting only the best holiday homes in Eagle Bay, Dunsborough and Yallingup all chosen for their unique location, facilities and ‘feel’.

Freedom - Eagle Bay Holiday Home

Freedom on Eagle Bay is truly one of the exclusive residences in the South West.

Home on the Bay - Eagle Bay

This exclusive holiday home is located within 150 metres of the white sandy beaches and calm, clear waters of Eagle Bay, kid and picnic friendly Meelup just minutes away, and world renowned surf beaches in each direction.

Bayview - Dunsborough Holiday Home

(photograph by Ange Wall Photography)

A beautifully appointed “award winning”  holiday home nestled in peaceful Old Dunsborough, only a 100 metre walk to the beach.

Take a look and maybe come and stay …

Stop website enquiry form SPAM : Round 2

This is just a small update to my previous articleStop website enquiry form SPAM.

While my original hidden URL technique worked very well for a while – the spammers have managed to get around it. Whether they can now ‘read’ the CSS to see that it is hidden and therefore ignore it, I don’t know.

Regardless, we’re getting SPAM through that enquiry form again.

So round 2:

I decide to add a clause to the PHP that disallows links in the textarea – my thinking is that if they can’t post links, then it’s not worth them SPAMming you.

Although it took me a while to work out the code, it’s actually really simple …
www (and thanks to kkeith29 of the Daniweb forums) and http: are the strings I’ve decided to search for as it’s unlikely to come up in a normal question.
In english, the code says:
if the letters www or http: appear together in the message box, don’t email anyone and show them this message “Please don’t post links in the questions box – it looks like SPAM and your message hasn’t been sent”.


elseif (preg_match("/(http:\/\/|www)/", $msg)) {
echo "Please don't post links in the questions box - it looks like SPAM and your message hasn't been sent";


Insert this preg_match comment after …

if (!empty($url)) {
mail( “$email” , “[You're tagged as SPAM]“, … See Stop website enquiry form SPAM for the full code.

Again, I hope this one helps you out and keeps your inbox a bit cleaner.

Get 6 GB of FREE online storage

Free online storage seems to be available everywhere these days.

I regularly use DropBox for syncing files between diffferent locations and I’ve recently signed up with Orbit Files.

Orbit Files are offering 6GB storage for free, all they ask is for your email address and Full Name – not bad!

What’s new you ask?

Well, the main draw for me was the ability to have files accessible privately, by friends you invite or available to the public.

There is also the option to sell your files online for a very small 2% commission.