Where does 116444736000000000 come from?

While dealing with time conversions functions of various languages / technologies, e.g. Windows API or Java, you might come across the magic constant 116444736000000000. You can also find it in several code snippets on the web - however it never nearly explained where it comes from... This I wanna change, here and now!

A time value is simply a counter of ticks since an defined start of time, called epoch. Not only the "epoch date" differs between various systems, but also the counter resolution, that is how often it is updated.

Windows uses in most functions the FILETIME structure, which represents the actual time as the number of 100-nanosecond intervals since January 1, 1601 (UTC).

Other platforms like Java/Android or some Unix functions represent a time value as the number of seconds elapsed since 00:00:00 January 1, 1970.

To convert between both worlds, you need an offset factor and that is... 116444736000000000. This value used as a FILETIME value, meaning 100ns intervals since 01-01-1601, represents exactly the data 01-01-1970!

Proof?
We know that 1ms = 1000000 ns = 10000 * 100 ns.
So 116444736000000000*1/100 ns = 11644473600000 ms = 11644473600 s.
Between 01-01-1601 and 01-01-1970, there are exactly 134774 days.
134774 * 24 (hours per day) * 3600 (seconds per hour) = 11644473600 s.

My Book Word Edition + Twonky Server: How to access the root folder of the NAS

I own a Western Digital 'My Book World Edition' (that's a simple NAS) for some years now, mostly as backup and central data access point.
After having purchased a smart TV, finally I was motivated to activate the TwonkyMedia server to stream media via DNLA.
Everthing went fine, however only the media files in the \public folder of the NAS were indexed by Twonky and I did not manage to get access to the whole NAS via the Twonky browser. Pretty bad as I was used to my private well-known folder structure and not willing to change it.
I did not manage to fix the problem for some time, and for some reason I did not find anything useful on the net, until I came across this topic on WD community forum:

http://community.wd.com/t5/Other-Network-Drives/USB-Media-Share-TwonkyMedia-Server/td-p/28117

Here the main information with the single command to adjust the start location, thanks to user garyg:

This is because the shares start at /DataVolume/Public.  If you change the default start location to /shares, or maybe it's /Shares, you will be able to access anything which has been defined as a share on the MyBook.

The command to fix the USB sharing problem is:
         http://<nas>:9000/rpc/set_option?contentbase=/shares

where <nas> is the name or IP address of the My Book.  This command is entered into your web browser's address bar.  The browser will respond with a page that says "/shares".

Modifying the S100

Hey out there,

I just bought a T-Online Vision S100. That's a media settop box for streaming movies over the internet directly to the TV. As the service was discontinued here in Germany, many of them are sold @ ebay for around 40€. Here are two pictures:
As you can see, it's quite stylish and gives enough possibilities to 'pimp' it. Some technical facts: Intel Celeron 733Mhz, 128MB Ram, Intel 830M for Graphics, USB, LAN, WLAN, Audio Analog/Digital, SVideo, Scart and also an infrared remote control. As there is no fan, it's runs completely silent.
So it's a perfect target to modify it to a personal mediabox, for watching movies, listen to music, surfing in the net or playing old games, all via TV. There are many fansites and tutorials about modding the S100, just use google.

The first thing I did is to tinker a custom cable for enabling the VGA output on the motherboard, similar to this one (picture is from here):


Attaching a monitor enables you to enter the Bios and disable booting Windows CE from the flash memory. You can either boot from usb or embed a harddisk (preferably a 2,5" notebook harddisk as they are more silent and require less power). I am going to choose the second option but therefore I have to modify the power supply and braze additional connectors. After that, an OS and some cool tools are installed, an LED for harddisk usage will be inserted and maybe the LED frontpanel will be removed, but let's see...

Here is picture of my home activity area:

Still there

Hi,
currently I'm very busy with my diploma thesis - I just finished a big part concerning mode decision inside the encoder, now I have to implement some algortihms in VHDL and after that I will start with the actual Rate Controller. Things are getting more complicated and I also have to read some papers and books to build a mathematical theoretical background for my model. Well, nearly half of the time is already gone, so only 3 months left = stress.
That's why there is also no real update on my website. Ok I improved my layout as you can see which took already some time - did I ever mentioned that I'm no friend of html/css/all other web scripting languages - they just look ugly compared to a real programming language!
But I have already two cool tools coded concerning planar 4:2:0 yuv-files which just need some commenting and bugfixing before going to be available on my site - so stay tuned.

(Caution: Advertisment) I came across two cool free downloads - maybe you are also interested:
First of all, google published their own browser chrome for free download. My first impression is pretty positive - it's fast, small and easy to use - most of the screen is used for the displayed website, there is no over-blown gui with thousands of menus and statusbars. I like it but I stick to my lovely firefox - I am used to it and the bookmark bar is better and more comfortable to use in my opinion. But you should give chrome a try!
Second, after releasing Command & Conquer 1 as freeware, C&C - Red Alert is now also freely available as download. It's even better than part 1, in fact it is my all-time favourite realtime strategy game ever. I loved it. So go and download the iso images and start playing. For playing it under Windows XP/Vista, choose compatibility mode 'Windows 95' for both, the setup exe file and game exe file, and install also the provided patch - then you have no trouble.

Command & Conquer 1 for free!

Hi folks,

in a phase of nostalgia I viewed some videos on youtube of old pc-games I played when I was younger - and the first Command & Conquer part Tiberian Dawn was one of my favourite. Of course the dos version with just 320x200 pixels ;-) But it was the perfect real-time strategy game in those days. But I think everybody knows it so why talking much about it - you can play it now for free. In 2006 it was re-released in the 'The first decade' compilation pack - even the SVGA windows version including a patch to work under XP/Vista. Then in September 2007, EA released these iso images for free downloading on their servers. So what are you waiting for - go and get it!

Command and Conquer Gold Download

Firefox 3 is out!

The final reason of Firefox 3 is out and waiting to be downloaded. I have just installed it and I'm fully happy with it. Looks better, seems to be even more stable than version 2 and alone the new "AwesomeBar" makes it worth to get it. Since Firefox 0.8 it's the only browser I use and I'm really a fan of this (in my opinion) best existing browser. It has also broken a world record by being downloaded more than 7 million times in the first 24 hours!

Download Firefox
Firefox Worldrecord

Disabling HP Quickplay buttons

As I wrote some weeks ago, I got a new laptop - a HP Pavillon dv6XXX. Well, everything works and I have no problems so I'm quite satisfied... but one thing really nerves me . There are some so-called quickplay buttons above the normal keyboard, look here:



The problem is that I often accidentally push it. Well, push it is too much, let's say smoothly touch it. This often occurs while coding and I push F5, F8 etc. to compile, build or test something. Then every time it the dvd programm slowly starts and I have to close it down. If this happens a few times, it really pisses me off so I tried to disable them.

Looking at the taskmanager, I noticed some HP programms running. Interesting sounded QPService.exe ("HP QuickPlay Resident Program") and Qlbctrl.exe ("HP Quick Launch Buttons"). But killing these two processes didn't helped.
The only way to solve our problem is to avoid even loading them, so we have to delete the registry keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
Be sure to make an backup of these keys to be able to re-enable it later! Here you have my 2 reg files: the first one disables QuickPlay by deleting the regkeys while the other one enables it by adding the regkeys.
I think that will be useful for some other nerved HP laptop users :-)
Use at your own risk! If they don't work and damage your system, don't blame me.

--- Download Reg Files ---

Update: It seems that I can't re-enable these buttons! So be careful - I don't take any responsibility.

Greetz, Sunshine

Got a new laptop... and Vista.

So,

a few days ago I started with some coding and reversing after I had done nothing for a long time. I code a little game in Java and also a bruteforcer which can give the solution, but there will be more information about that on my website in a few weeks. I also thought about coding my own implementation of Huffman-Encoding-Algorithm, but I'm not sure if I should do that.
Anyway, one incident stopped me: my laptop finally broke down. I had problems with it for some time: the battery didn't charge anymore, the touchpad didn't react and, most important, the display often flickered and switched itself off. And now the graphic card broke down, more than some purple lines on the display could not be seen.
So I decided to spend my saved money for a new laptop: I decided myself for a HP Pavilion dv6000. Main features: Core 2 Duo, 1GB Ram, 160GB and a lot of additional stuff. Runs very nice, but... oh no... no XP was shipped but Vista!!! Well after 3 days I slowly feel comfortable with this new OS, but I like XP more. Perhaps it will just take some time.
But I needed a patch to start Visual Studio 2005!!! What's that? Up-to-date Microsoft products are not compatible with Vista? They are all stupid...
Fortunately till now I had no further problems, but they will come... Let's see what will be next...

Infected by a trojan...

Yesterday I went mad... Altough I use Antivir, a firewall and have all windows updates installed, I fucking little file called 'ibm00001.exe' infiltrated my system. It injects itself into explorer.exe, opens some ports and as soon as there is an internet connection, it sends data out in the world and you cannot use your internet connection anymore.
So I searched from another pc for information and first it looked pretty easy: booting in windows emergency mode, kill the file, kill some registry settings and everything should be fine... and I tried really a lot! And altough I killed everything (all registry info etc.) and there was no sign that this fucking thing is running, as soon as I connected to the web, the same shit again. It has been a long time ago that I was so angry than yesterday. I wasted hours to kill this bastard, but it didn't worked. Seemed I had another harder version than the users in the forums out there. Finally I re-installed my windows and after nearly 6 hours, my system was running again....
WHAT A FUCK!!!!!!! HATE!
If I ever meet a trojan coder, I will kill him!
Bye!

Problems with Outlook :-(

Hi,
just started Outlook to check my mails... and all my contacts were gone! Hm... strange... a few hours ago everything was fine. Clicking on the adress book just gave me a nice message telling me that it is corrupted and I should reinstall it! But all my emails were still there...
Ok, so I searched for the adressbook file (*.wab), and doubleclicked it.... same message. Importing it in outlook also failed (what a surprise ;-)
So I searched in the world wide web... and found:
1) the path in the registry pointing to the adress book is most likely corrupted -> so I had a look but everything was fine
2) the adress book file is write-protected -> no it was not in my case!

So searching again and finally I found it... Three days ago (!!!) I installed the security update KB911567 from microsoft's windowsupdate.com ... That's s the reason. It modifies outlook files and kills the adress book. Fortunately you can uninstall it! But I don't get why it still worked the last days and suddenly (3 days after installing this update) it collapsed.

Well, I hate such shit. You think you do something right by installing updates and then it fucking kills your adresses! Bah! PURE HATE!!!!
I think I will drink a beer know to come down....
Good night!