Spring Boot and Camunda Initializers

 Use the below links for Spring boot and Camunda initializer apps.

1. https://start.spring.io/

2. https://start.camunda.com

Uninstall Eclipse from Windows 10

 There is no uninstaller for Eclipse, so one has to manually delete folders/files to get rid of Eclipse installation entirely. Below are the paths where some of the eclipse related files and folders are stored on windows 10. 

1. Eclipse installation location (most common) : 

         C:\Users\<YourUserName>\eclipse

2. Desktop shortcut icons : 

        C:\Users\<YourUserName>\Desktop

3. Start Menu shortcut icons

        C:\Users\<YourUserName>\Start Menu\Programs\Eclipse

4. Others

        C:\Users\<YourUserName>\.p2 (Cache and other temp files)

        C:\Users\<YourUserName>\.eclipse

        C:\Users\<YourUserName>\.jrebel (JRebel)

        C:\Users\<YourUserName>\.m2 (maven offline repository)

and other folders associated with Eclipse plugins that you have installed.

Productivity Tips for Software Engineers

 If you are not following Scott Hanselman's youtube channel, you should. You will get to learn new things among them some productivity tips as well. Here is his recent video. 

Some comments under his videos which gives some more insights. 

"Programming is hard"  

Some people will give you the impression that it's easy, I guarantee they have struggled at some point. Don't worry if you're not as good as the people you watch on you tube or at work. You will get there if you stick at it. The difference between a beginner and the coding gurus? 10000 hours practice.  

"Break things down"  

When I am tackling a complex issue, I have to break it down into small pieces, then I just try to get one part working. Success in solving a small part of it gives you enthusiasm for having a go at the rest of the problem/feature you're working on. Break it down into the smallest part you can and just get that bit working.  

"Automate all the things"

If you are working on a product or website and notice you are repeating actions on your computer, see if you can automate it with a script. I have scripts that move files around, build the solution, clear the database down or whatever I need them to do to make me not only move faster but also eliminate the boring stuff allowing me to do the enjoyable work. Also, writing scripts is wonderful because you actually solve a real problem that you have and you see the benefit from your code.  

"Continue to learn" 

Even after doing programming for 15 years, I am still watching pluralsight courses, watching you tube, reading books on a wide array of languages and ways of working. I may never need the language or technique I learned but knowing what is out there and what these tools/languages are capable of is a massive win.  

"Don't be afraid to ask for help" 

Even people like Scott Hanselman have to ask for help sometimes. Don't worry what people think of you if you have to ask for assistance, it's all about learning and knowing when you're really stuck and need help from a friend or online source. Having a chat about the issue and explaining it to someone works wonders for your own understanding and often you see the answer while you're trying to explain it to someone else. Hope this helps someone. 

Happy coding.

 

Things I think about:  

- It's not just me. Videos like this prove that everyone feels this way at some point and there are things we can do to help each other. 

 - Go for a walk / have a bath. I don't have a rubber duck to talk to (maybe I should) but sitting away from the PC and sounding out what the problem is normally helps me to find the solution quicker. 

 - Environment. Especially with us working from home at the moment, make sure there is a place you work and your family know that, if you're there, you're working and you can't really be disturbed. 

 - Give it up for the day. Some days we just can't do it, our mind isn't right, something else is eating at us and we just have to think "It's not happening, come back tomorrow" and do one of those jobs around the house you've been putting off for ages or sit and watch that box-set for a bit. You can't force it to happen; 

 - Most importantly, IT'S NOT JUST YOU.! I know I'm repeating myself but it's worth repeating. Everyone feels this way from time to time, some more than others. You've not failed if you feel this way, it's part of what we do As Scott says, this job is hard, it's a lot of concentration sat in the same place for a long period of time. Give yourself a break!

 

This is such an interesting and multifaceted question. There are so many different types of overwhelm and I think each one has its own cause and own solution. In the most general sense, I find the following have really helped me. 1. Try not to compare yourself to others. Only compare yourself to who you were, and don’t be afraid to give yourself some credit. 2. Look to learn from others and adopt there good habits. You’re positive attitude will not only help your team but will foster a healthy learning mindset on your technical journey. 3. Take a breath and realize that you don’t become a coding ninja, guru, whatever overnight. These things take time. You build up your skills incrementally, and soon you will be vastly superior to where you were before. 4. Realize everyone has struggles, self doubt and frustration when working. These things are completely natural. The greatest minds in the world have struggled with these issues. You can draw confidence from this, as you share this experience with some of the greatest people who have ever existed. Worries do not show something is wrong with you, they show you are on the right path. 5. Cover your basic health needs as best you can. Sleep, nutrition, breaks, conversation, training, relaxation. These are all pillars of your health and will affect your performance. 6. Sometimes when I’m overwhelmed I try to remember why exactly I’m doing this. Not the shallow reason (my boss told me to/for a pay-check), but because I love technology and what it enables. The innocent pursuit of what you love is a great reminder of what really matters. Let all other pressures decrease, and you may find your performance increases when you are at ease.

 

 

 

Setting up your Windows Terminal (powerline)

As more and more developers adopt the terminal, it becomes important to bit improvise the experience. 

Scott Hansleman don't need introduction to many programmers. Recently I came across his blog post on beautifying the Windows Terminal. 

 Here I am posting the steps for quick reference. Install Windows Terminal and Git for windows.

For Windows Terminal

 1. Download Cascadia Code font from https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code/releases

2. Using Windows Powershell Install Posh and Oh my posh.

Install-Module posh-git -Scope CurrentUser
Install-Module oh-my-posh -Scope CurrentUser 

3. Install PSReadline

 Install-Module -Name PSReadLine -Scope CurrentUser -Force -SkipPublisherCheck

4.  Open your PowerShell profile

$ notepad $PROFILE

5.  Add the following lines to your Powershell profile at the end of the file

Import-Module posh-git
Import-Module oh-my-posh
Set-Theme Paradox

6. Set Cascadia Code PL as PowerLine font, by editing Windows Terminal Settings and add 'fontFace' and it looks like this

{
    // Make changes here to the powershell.exe profile.
    "guid": "{61c54bbd-c2c6-5271-96e7-009a87ff44bf}",
    "name": "Windows PowerShell",
    "commandline": "powershell.exe",
    "fontFace": "Cascadia Code PL",
    "hidden": false
},

7. For Visual Studio Code terminal, Go to File > Preferences > Settings and search for 'Terminal integrated Font Family' and set it to 'Cascadia Code PL'.

For Ubuntu on WSL2

1. Open Ubuntu in Windows Terminal WSL

2. Run the following commands

sudo apt install golang-go
go get -u github.com/justjanne/powerline-go

3.  Open ~/.bashrc using nano and then add this to end of the file and save it.

GOPATH=$HOME/go
function _update_ps1() {
    PS1="$($GOPATH/bin/powerline-go -colorize-hostname -error $?)"
}
if [ "$TERM" != "linux" ] && [ -f "$GOPATH/bin/powerline-go" ]; then
    PROMPT_COMMAND="_update_ps1; $PROMPT_COMMAND"
fi

 Remember not to add white space around "PS1=". 

For more detailed explanations you can read his blog here : https://www.hanselman.com/blog/how-to-make-a-pretty-prompt-in-windows-terminal-with-powerline-nerd-fonts-cascadia-code-wsl-and-ohmyposh . You can also follow this tutorial from microsoft website from here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/tutorials/powerline-setup

 He also has a nice youtube video explaining how to set it up. 

 

Also use this link to read about setting up Ubuntu prompt : https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-linux-unix-bash-shell-setup-prompt.html

This will definitely improve experience  working with the Terminal in windows. Other thing to note is that Oh my Posh V3 beta is here https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh?WT.mc_id=-blog-scottha#themes , keep an eye on the developments of this and adopt the V3 when it is releases.

Some Useful webbased tools

1. https://squircley.app/

2. https://codepen.io CodePen Editor

3.  DartPad.dev.

Ages of JavaScript

 Recently I came across a nice handwritten infographic showing different ages of JavaScript. JavaScript and associated frameworks have evolved since 1997 and this infographic clasified it in 2 ages of 10 year each duration. What do you guys think what lies ahead this decade?

 

Source: https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1263123032328925186

C and C++ programming on Windows 10

1. Visit Atom Website and Install it : https://atom.io/
2. Open Atom
3. Press ctrl+ comma to open Settings
4. Click on "Install" button
5. Search for "gpp-compiler"
6. Click Install

Now you are ready to go. 

Some Sitecore Resources to follow

Sitecore John : https://community.sitecore.net/technical_blogs/b/sitecorejohn_blog/
 
https://varunvns.wordpress.com/

https://visionsincode.wordpress.com/

https://sitecorebasics.wordpress.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3UMIBODU52DwCe05A_NYjA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ToeYR_AwzYBQMQzTmYohA

https://allthingssitecore.com/

http://www.craigtaylor.us/

 

 

Difference between ASP.NET MVC and SiteCore MVC

I am posting the differences between ASP.NET MVC and SiteCore MVC here from John West's post on SiteCore, for my own reference. 

Stack and Heap Memory

Source: Stack Overflow
I am merely reproducing from the stack overflow. This is for my own study and reference purpose.

Stack and Heap are implementation specific and may vary across compilers and processor architectures. However, here is a simplified explanation.

• Both the stack and the heap are memory areas allocated from the underlying operating system (often virtual memory that is mapped to physical memory on demand).
• In a multi-threaded environment each thread will have its own completely independent stack but they will share the heap. Concurrent access has to be controlled on the heap and is not possible on the stack.

The heap

• The heap contains a linked list of used and free blocks. New allocations on the heap (by new or malloc) are satisfied by creating a suitable block from one of the free blocks. This requires updating list of blocks on the heap. This meta information about the blocks on the heap is also stored on the heap often in a small area just in front of every block.
• As the heap grows new blocks are often allocated from lower addresses towards higher addresses. Thus you can think of the heap as a heap of memory blocks that grows in size as memory is allocated. If the heap is too small for an allocation the size can often be increased by acquiring more memory from the underlying operating system.
• Allocating and deallocating many small blocks may leave the heap in a state where there are a lot of small free blocks interspersed between the used blocks. A request to allocate a large block may fail because none of the free blocks are large enough to satisfy the allocation request even though the combined size of the free blocks may be large enough. This is called heap fragmentation.
• When a used block that is adjacent to a free block is deallocated the new free block may be merged with the adjacent free block to create a larger free block effectively reducing the fragmentation of the heap.

The stack

• The stack often works in close tandem with a special register on the CPU named the stack pointer. Initially the stack pointer points to the top of the stack (the highest address on the stack).
• The CPU has special instructions for pushing values onto the stack and popping them back from the stack. Each push stores the value at the current location of the stack pointer and decreases the stack pointer. A pop retrieves the value pointed to by the stack pointer and then increases the stack pointer (don't be confused by the fact that adding a value to the stack decreases the stack pointer and removing a value increases it. Remember that the stack grows to the bottom). The values stored and retrieved are the values of the CPU registers.
• When a function is called the CPU uses special instructions that push the current instruction pointer, i.e. the address of the code executing on the stack. The CPU then jumps to the function by setting the instruction pointer to the address of the function called. Later, when the function returns, the old instruction pointer is popped from the stack and execution resumes at the code just after the call to the function.
• When a function is entered, the stack pointer is decreased to allocate more space on the stack for local (automatic) variables. If the function has one local 32 bit variable four bytes are set aside on the stack. When the function returns, the stack pointer is moved back to free the allocated area.
• If a function has parameters, these are pushed onto the stack before the call to the function. The code in the function is then able to navigate up the stack from the current stack pointer to locate these values.
• Nesting function calls work like a charm. Each new call will allocate function parameters, the return address and space for local variables and these activation records can be stacked for nested calls and will unwind in the correct way when the functions return.
• As the stack is a limited block of memory, you can cause a stack overflow by calling too many nested functions and/or allocating too much space for local variables. Often the memory area used for the stack is set up in such a way that writing below the bottom (the lowest address) of the stack will trigger a trap or exception in the CPU. This exceptional condition can then be caught by the runtime and converted into some kind of stack overflow exception.

Can a function be allocated on the heap instead of a stack?

No, activation records for functions (i.e. local or automatic variables) are allocated on the stack that is used not only to store these variables, but also to keep track of nested function calls.
How the heap is managed is really up to the runtime environment. C uses malloc and C++ uses new, but many other languages have garbage collection.
However, the stack is a more low-level feature closely tied to the processor architecture. Growing the heap when there is not enough space isn't too hard since it can be implemented in the library call that handles the heap. However, growing the stack is often impossible as the stack overflow only is discovered when it is too late; and shutting down the thread of execution is the only viable option.

Best Explanation for Naive Bayes Classifier

In the following link I found best simple explanation of Naive Bayes Classifier. I am posting it here for my own reference, but others too might find it useful. If you find any such useful explanations please share through the comments.

https://monkeylearn.com/blog/practical-explanation-naive-bayes-classifier/

India for the visiting foreigners!

Living in a new country is not a cake walk for anyone ; getting adjusted to the cultural boundaries, the social differences etc ...And you cannot make any dynamic changes to any of these, (no matter which country it is)..But you can change the way you look at things which will definitely bring in a change to your life.  

You need to get out and about. India, is never boring. In fact, just the opposite. I've lived in places where life passes you by - here in India you live life. That's what's so wonderful about the country and its people.
In some countries you can set your alarm for 7am, get up, have a hot shower, have the same breakfast you've had for the last 264 days, leave the house at 7.45am, get the 7.52 train to work and be in your office at precisely the same time every day.

In India you can guarantee that each day will be different. Just the fact that each day you will meet a different set of circumstances is not boring. Here you learn coping skills for free - no need to attend some expensive training course. India teaches you how to adjust to fit the circumstance, communication skills, negotiating skills, listening skills, empathy, patience ... all for free! 

India is chaos at it's very best and most colourful. I love it to bits.

And you get free comedy ... I've seen so many funny sights and heard so many funny comments, I don't need to attend a comedy show. Although, if you like comedy, there's a lot of great stand-up comedy shows in many major cities in India.

I think you also need to get out and see rural India.  You can go out with a camera and never run out of objects to shoot - there is so much diversity here and things  change all the time. See through all the chaos and frustrations you will see a rather fantastic place.

Don't waste your time in India by only going to work and expat parties. You're living in a country with the most diverse populace in the world - with different races, ethnic groups, multiple languages, customs and cultures. Meet the real people, like the local chaiwalla who will give you an interesting take on politics and philosophy. 

Have fun!

Useful DOS Commands related to Internet and Network

nslookup: This command has many functionalities. One is for resolving DNS into IP. Lets say you know the website URL but you don’t know its IP but you want to find it out.
Eg. nslookup www.google.com (www.google.com is the website for which you want to find out the IP)
Now, another really nice function of nslookup is to find out IP of specific Mail Severs

    nslookup (enter)set type=mx (enter)yahoo.com

This command will give you the mail server IP of yahoo.com. You can use whatever server you want and if it is listed on DNS, then you get the IP. Simple, isn’t it? You can send a spoofed email to your friends using the IP address of the mail server.

    net view
    net use
    net use \ipaddressipc$ “” /user:administrator

(this command will allow you to connect to the target as administrator)
Now if you want to connect to the target and browse the entire C drive, then use this command:

    Code:
    net use K: \computernameC$

(this will create a virtual drive on your “my computer” folder)
Please not that this command will only work if the target PC/laptop has not set a Administrator Password.

    net user
    ping
    
This command will allow you to know if the host you pinging is alive, which means if it is up at the time of executing the “ping” command.

tracert : This command will give you the hops that a packet will travel to reach its final destination. This command is really helpful if you know the route a packet takes before it goes to the target box.

arp : This command will show you the arp table. You can find out if anyone has done arp poisoning in your LAN using this command.

    arp -a

route : This command will show you the routing table, gateway, interface and metric.

nbtstat
netstat
This command will show you connection stats

    netstat -a (this will show you all the listening ports & connection with DNS names)

    netstat -n (this will show you all the open connection with IP addresses)netstat -an (this will combined both of the above)


ipconfig : This command will show you a lot of useful things like your IP, Gateway, DNS in use, etc. This command will give all that info but for all networks you might have it.

    ipconfig /allipconfig /release (this will release your IP)ipconfig /renew (this will renew your iP)

How to Install Hadoop (2.7.3) on Ubuntu (16.04 LTS)

As I am planning to learn Hadoop, I wanted to install Hadoop (2.7.3) on my Ubuntu (16.04 LTS) and I followed the steps mentioned in the documentation on the Apache Hadoop website. I encountered few problems which are mentioned below, spent some time finding solution to them.

Below are the steps I followed and the description of the error is at the end of this post and also I have mentioned what I missed and what caused these errors.


Step 1. Download Hadoop installation file. For Hadoop 2.7.3 version I used the following link 

http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/hadoop/common/hadoop-2.7.3/

         And download a file named "hadoop-2.7.3-src.tar.gz"

        Update: The link is no more valid as it has been archived, you can find hadoop-2.7.3-src.tar.gz file from : https://archive.apache.org/dist/hadoop/common/hadoop-2.7.3/

Step 2. (Assuming you have downloaded the file into /home/<username>/Downloads folder

$ tar zxf hadoop-2.7.3-src.tar.gz

This will extract the files into a folder  "hadoop-2.7.3" .

Step 3. I moved the file to /home/<username> folder (many suggest to move it into /usr/local but I prefer to keep it here, may be once I learn more about linux I might get into that, as of now I am fine with my current setup.)

mv hadoop-2.7.3 /home/kiran/

Step 4. Install the ssh and rsync

 $ sudo apt-get install ssh
  $ sudo apt-get install rsync

Step 5. Edit hadoop-env.sh file located at

            /home/<username>/hadoop-2.7.3/etc/hadoop/hadoop-env.sh

 Find this line : export JAVA_HOME=${JAVA_HOME}

replace ${JAVA_HOME} with the location of java to find where the java is located execute the command "whereis java" and you will get the path. For me it was located at the below path

       /usr/bin/java

 I replaced the ${JAVA_HOME} with "/usr/"

Step 6. Prepare to start the Hadoop cluster

Assuming you are within hadoop-2.7.3 directory type the following command

$bin/hadoop

This will display the usage documentation for the hadoop script. This means you are on the right path :)

Step 7. Configuration

a. Edit the file hadoop-2.7.3/etc/hadoop/core-site.xml , between <configuration></configuration> paste the following and save

 <property>        
    <name>fs.defaultFS</name>        
    <value>hdfs://localhost:9000</value>   
 </property>

b. Edit the file hadoop-2.7.3/etc/hadoop/hdfs-site.xml, between <configuration></configuration> paste the following and save

    <property>
        <name>dfs.replication</name>
        <value>1</value>
    </property>

c. Edit the file hadoop-2.7.3/etc/hadoop/mapred-site.xm, between <configuration></configuration> paste the following and save

    <property>
        <name>mapreduce.framework.name</name>
        <value>yarn</value>
    </property>

d. Edit the file  hadoop-2.7.3/etc/hadoop/yarn-site.xml, between <configuration></configuration> paste the following and save

    <property>
        <name>yarn.nodemanager.aux-services</name>
        <value>mapreduce_shuffle</value>
    </property>

Step 8. Setup SSH

  Check if you can ssh to localhost without passphrase by executing the following command

$ ssh localhost

If you cannot then execute the following

  $ ssh-keygen -t dsa -P '' -f ~/.ssh/id_dsa
  $ cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  $ chmod 0600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Step 9. Execution and testing the setup

a. Format the HDFS, assuming you are in hadoop-2.7.3 folder

 $ bin/hdfs namenode -format

b. Start NameNode and DataNode deamons by the following command

 $ sbin/start-dfs.sh

Now you can browse the NameNode by browsing to http://localhost:50070/

c. Create the folders required to run the MapReduce jobs by following commands

$ bin/hdfs dfs -mkdir /user
  $ bin/hdfs dfs -mkdir /user/<username>

d. You can stop the deamon by the following command

 $ sbin/stop-dfs.sh

e. You can start ResourceManager and NodeManager deamon by the following command

$ sbin/start-yarn.sh

Now you can browse the ResourceManager by browsing to http://localhost:8088/

f.You can stop the deamon by the following command

 $ sbin/stop-yarn.sh

Background story
I missed the configuration step and encountered the following errors

475 ERROR org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.NameNode: Failed to start namenode.

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid URI for NameNode address (check fs.defaultFS): file:/// has no authority.

If you encounter this error check if your configurations are correct or not.

You can also refer the Apache Hadoop Documentation for installation, executing the test jobs and further explanation : http://hadoop.apache.org/docs/current/hadoop-project-dist/hadoop-common/SingleCluster.html

Replacing OpenJDK with Oracle JDK in Ubuntu

You can completely remove the OpenJDK and fresh Install Oracle Java JDK by the following steps:

1. Remove OpenJDK completely by this command:
   

   sudo apt-get purge openjdk-\*

2. Download the Oracle Java JDK here.
   Note: download appropriate file, for example if your system is x64 Ubuntu (i.e, Debian) the download file is named like this: jdk-8u51-linux-x64.tar.gz
   To find which version is your OS, check here
3. Create a folder named java in /usr/local/by this command:
   

   sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/java

4. Copy the Downloaded file in the directory /usr/local/java. To do this, cd into directory where downloaded file is located and use this command for copying that file to /usr/local/java/:
   

   sudo cp -r jdk-8u51-linux-x64.tar.gz /usr/local/java/

5. CD into /usr/local/java/ directory and extract that copied file by using this command:
   

   sudo tar xvzf jdk-8u51-linux-x64.tar.gz

6. After extraction you must see a folder named jdk1.8.0_51.
7. Update PATH file by opening /etc/profile file by the command sudo nano /etc/profile and paste the following at the end of the file:
   

   JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/java/jdk1.8.0_51
   PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin
   export JAVA_HOME
   export PATH

8. Save and exit.
9. Tell the system that the new Oracle Java version is available by the following commands:
   

   sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/local/java/jdk1.8.0_51/bin/java" 1
   sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/local/java/jdk1.8.0_51/bin/javac" 1
   sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javaws" "javaws" "/usr/local/java/jdk1.8.0_51/bin/javaws" 1

10. Make Oracle Java JDK as default by this following commands:
    

    sudo update-alternatives --set java /usr/local/java/jdk1.8.0_51/bin/java
    sudo update-alternatives --set javac /usr/local/java/jdk1.8.0_51/bin/javac
    sudo update-alternatives --set javaws /usr/local/java/jdk1.8.0_51/bin/javaws

11. Reload sytem wide PATH /etc/profile by this command:
    

    source /etc/profile

12. Reboot your system.
13. Check Java JDK version by java -version command . If installation is succesful, it will display like the following:
    

    java version "1.8.0_51"
    Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_51-xxx)
    Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 25.51-xxx, mixed mode)

That's it!
Note: We Assumed that the downloaded file is named jdk-8u51-linux-x64.tar.gz and used this name in all the commands used in steps 2, 4 and 5. It may depends on the type of O.S, processor type (i.e., 32bit or 64bit)

Source: Stackoverflow.com
Reproduced here so that I don't have to find it again, I can simply refer back to my this blog.

Installing Adobe Reader on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Adobe stopped Adobe Reader support for Linux so it is bit of a challenge to find and install the Adobe Reader for Linux. Here I describe how to install it on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

Step 1. First install gdebi

sudo apt-get install gdebi

Step 2. Install required libraries

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386
sudo apt-get install libnss3-1d:i386
sudo apt-get install libnspr4-0d:i386
sudo apt-get install libxml2:i386
sudo apt-get install libxslt1.1:i386

Step 3. Download the Adobe Reader DEB package

Adobe Reader 9.5.5 enu

VB Script to Know Windows XP Product Key

If you ever loose your Windows XP Product Key (CD Key or Serial Key), you can find it through registry. But the value will be encoded, so following code will find the key in registry and decodes it and shows it in a message box. This way you can get back your Serial Key.

Create a Notepad file with title "ProductKey.vbs" and write the following code into it and save the file. If you double click the file, it will show the product key.

******************************************************
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset =52
i = 28
Chars="BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur=Cur*256
Cur=Key(x+KeyOffset)+Cur
Key(x+KeyOffset)=(Cur\24) And 255
Cur= Cur Mod 24
x=x-1
Loop While x>=0
i=i-1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars,Cur+1,1) & KeyOutput
If(((29-i) Mod 6)=0) And (i-1) Then
i=i-1
KeyOutput="-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i>0
ConvertToKey=KeyOutput
End Function
****************************************************

Some Useful Terminologies

CAM (Camera):
A cam is a theater rip usually done with a digital video camera. A mini tripod is sometimes used, but a lot of the time this wont be possible, so the camera make shake. Also seating placement isn't always idle, and it might be filmed from an angle. If cropped properly, this is hard to tell unless there's text on the screen, but a lot of times these are left with triangular borders on the top and bottom of the screen. Sound is taken from the onboard microphone of the camera, and especially in comedies, laughter can often be heard during the film. Due to these factors picture and sound quality are usually quite poor, but sometimes we're lucky, and the theater will be fairly empty and a fairly clear signal will be heard.

TS (Telesync):
A telesync is the same spec as a CAM except it uses an external audio source (most likely an audio jack in the chair for hard of hearing people). A direct audio source does not ensure a good quality audio source, as a lot of background noise can interfere. A lot of the times a telesync is filmed in an empty cinema or from the projection booth with a professional camera, giving a better picture quality. Quality ranges drastically, check the sample before downloading the full release. A high percentage of Telesyncs are CAMs that have been mislabeled.

TC (Telecine):
A telecine machine copies the film digitally from the reels. Sound and picture should be very good, but due to the equipment involved and cost telecines are fairly uncommon. Generally the film will be in correct aspect ratio, although 4:3 telecines have existed. TC should not be confused with TimeCode , which is a visible counter on screen throughout the film. Click here to read more about telecine.

SCR (Screener):
A pre VHS tape, sent to rental stores, and various other places for promotional use. A screener is supplied on a VHS tape, and is usually in a 4:3 (full screen) a/r, although letterboxed screeners are sometimes found. The main draw back is a "ticker" (a message that scrolls past at the bottom of the screen, with the copyright and anti-copy telephone number). Also, if the tape contains any serial numbers, or any other markings that could lead to the source of the tape, these will have to be blocked, usually with a black mark over the section. This is sometimes only for a few seconds, but unfortunately on some copies this will last for the entire film, and some can be quite big. Depending on the equipment used, screener quality can range from excellent if done from a MASTER copy, to very poor if done on an old VHS recorder thru poor capture equipment on a copied tape. Most screeners are transferred to VCD, but a few attempts at SVCD have occurred, some looking better than others.

DVDSCR (DVD Screener):
Same premise as a screener, but transferred off a DVD. Usually letterbox , but without the extras that a DVD retail would contain. The ticker is not usually in the black bars, and will disrupt the viewing. If the ripper has any skill, a DVDscr should be very good. Usually transferred to SVCD or DivX/XviD.

WP (Workprint):
A workprint is a copy of the film that has not been finished. It can be missing scenes, music, and quality can range from excellent to very poor. Some WPs are very different from the final print (Men In Black is missing all the aliens, and has actors in their places) and others can contain extra scenes (Jay and Silent Bob) . WPs can be nice additions to the collection once a good quality final has been obtained.

Retail DVD/Bluray:
DVD's/Bluray's which are available in shops.

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Video Standards:

PAL / NTSC:
PAL and NTSC are two different video standards, the former being European, and the latter being American. PAL has a slightly taller screen (256 lines non-interlaced, non-overscanned) as opposed to NTSC (200 lines), so if you see the bottom portion of a program's screen getting cut off on your American machine, chances are the program was written for PAL, and is running on your shorter NTSC screen. PAL and NTSC differences are somewhat less important to European users; since their machines default to PAL, running an NTSC program is no more than a minor annoyance having the screen only appear in the top portion of the display.

Other important tags for movies / DVD's:

COMPLETE:
A release is COMPLETE when it's a DVD5, so it didn't need any adjustments and therefore is untouched.
Most dvd's though are DVD9, so they need to be compressed to DVD5. DVD5 is much more wanted since all dvd player can read these dvd's, and almost every dvd burner can burn them. DVD9 discs are less popular, they are more expensive and not many people can burn a DVD9. When a release is DVD9 and not compressed, DVD9 is added to the release title. When it's a DVD9 and it's compressed nothing is added to the release title.

LiMiTED:
A movie is LiMiTED when it has a limited theater run. Generally smaller films (such as art house films) are released as limited. The scene considers a movie limited when it has a generally opening in less than 300 UK theaters, or in less than 500 USA theaters. In the scene jargon, it's ussually called 300 UK screens, or 500 USA screens. Officially, it's not the opening weekend's number of theaters that counts, but the peak of the number of theaters. For example; when a movie has 275 UK screens in the opening weekend, and 1 week later it has 325 screens, it's not limited.

iNTERNAL:
An internal release is done for several reasons. The most common reason is because it has already been release before, and with iNTERNAL in title, the release won't be nuked. I happens quite often with DVD's. Also lower quality theater rips are done iNTERNAL so not to lower the reputation of the group. An iNTERNAL release is available as normal on the groups affiliate sites, but they can't be traded to other sites without request from the site ops. Although some releases are iNTERNAL, they still can be very popular. Apart from DVD's also other types of warez are done internal. For mp3's the tag is different concerning internal. For mp3 releases it's releasetitle-year-Group_iNT. That way the internal release won't be calculated into the group's stats. This avoids mp3 groups from doing a lot of internal releases, since they would just do that to get better stats. Some groups rename iNTERNAL to iNT, since this much shorter.

Subbed:
In the case of a VCD, if a release is subbed, it usually means it has hard encoded subtitles burnt throughout the movie. These are generally in malaysian/chinese/thai etc, and sometimes there are two different languages, which can take up quite a large amount of the screen. SVCD supports switch able subtitles, so some DVDRips are released with switch able subs. This will be mentioned in the NFO file if included.

Unsubbed:
When a movie has been release subbed before, an unsubbed release may be released.

Custom.Subbed:
A release can also be custom subbed. Movies often are released earlier in the USA then they are released in Europe. These movies mostly contain a few subtitles, the ones that are spoken in the USA. European groups can create custom subtitles and add these to the dvd. For example, when Dutch subtitles were added to a NTSC DVDr: Madagascar.2005.Custom.NL.Subbed.NTSC.DVDr-Group. Offcourse, it's not just European, also Japaneese movies can be subbed english for example.

Dubbed:
If a film is dubbed, it is a special version where the actors' voices are in another language. Dubbed versions of English-language films are for people who don't understand English.

STV:
STV stands for Straight To Video. These movies were never released in theaters, but they were immediately released on video/dvd. Therefore, a lot of sites do not allow these movies.

SE:
SE stands for Special Edition. Like the name says, it's a special dvd edition of a movie. Often special editions contain extra material like trailers, interviews, making-of.

DC:
DC stands for Director's Cut. A director's cut is a specially edited version of a movie that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit of the movie. It is often released some time after the original release of the film, where the original release was released in a version different from the director's approved edit. 'Cut' is synonymous with 'edit' in this context.

DL:
DL stands for Dual-Language, meaning the dvd contains more than one audio language. Synonym: ML.

FS / WS (Aspect Ratio Tags):
These are FS for FullScreen and WS for WideScreen (letterbox).

Language Codes:
The language of the movie and the language of the subtitles can also be mentioned in the release name. Sometimes the language is fully mentioned in the release name, such as DUTCH, NORDiC, GERMAN and iTALiAN. Sometimes it's shortened, then the ISO standard country abbreviations are used, those are the same which are used for www-domains, for example: NL (Dutch), NO (Nordic), DE (Germany), IT (Italian). For the full list of country abbreviations, click here. When there are multiple languages or subtitles, MULTi or MULTiSUBS is mentioned.

Extended:
Sometimes movies are released again on DVD because now the movie is extended. They have put back deleted scenes. For example, E.T. was produced first in 1982 and years later it was brought on DVD again, but now digitally remastered and extended.

Digitally Remastered:
Digitally remastered means that an older not-digital movie has been re-editted, remastered and is released on DVD. Some really old movies look very bad compared to the new digital movies. Then they remaster it to make it look better, edit it, recolor it etcetera. Remastering generally implies some sort of upgrade to a previous existing product, frequently designed to encourage people to buy a new version of something they already own.

Rated/Unrated:
Rated means a movie is censored, unrated logically means uncensored.

Recode:
A recode is a previously released version, usually filtered through TMPGenc to remove subtitles, fix color etc. Whilst they can look better, its not looked upon highly as groups are expected to obtain their own sources.

R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6 (Region Code):
A DVD gets released in a certain geographical area, or region. This was designed to stop people buying American DVDs and watching them earlier in other countries, or for older films where world distribution is handled by different companies. A lot of players can either be hacked with a chip, or via a remote to disable this. The regions are:
Region 1 - U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories
Region 2 - Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East (including Egypt)
Region 3 - Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong)
Region 4 - Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean
Region 5 - Eastern Europe (Former Soviet Union), Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia
Region 6 - Peoples Republic of China
Region 7 - Reserved for future use, MPAA-related DVDs and "media copies" of pre-releases in Asia
Region 8 - Airlines/Cruise Ships
Region 9 - Expansion (often used as region free)

R1 and R2 are considered the best quality.

More general important tags:

PROPER:
Due to scene rules, whoever releases a certain release the first, has won that race. For example, when a group releases the CAM version of Titanic the first. If there is something "wrong" with the release (poor quality, out-of-sync, audio errors etc.) and another group has a better/correct version, it can release it and add PROPER to the release title to avoid being nuked. However, the source must be the same as the original release. For example: A poor quality CAM release by group A and group B releases their CAM release PROPER. A Telesync release doesn't PROPER a CAM release, because the source is different. PROPER is the most subjective tag in the scene, and a lot of people will generally argue whether the PROPER is better than the original release. The reason for the PROPER should always be included in the NFO.

Repack:
If a group releases a bad rip, they will release a Repack which will fix the problems. It's similar to PROPER but then done by the same group.

Rerip:
A previous rip was bad, now it's ripped again properly.

READNFO:
When something important is mentioned in the NFO or as a replacement for PROPER, READNFO can be added into the tag directory.

NUKED
A film can be nuked for various reasons. Individual sites will nuke for breaking their rules (such as "No Telesyncs") but if the film has something extremely wrong with it (no soundtrack for 20mins, CD2 is incorrect film/game etc) then a global nuke will occur, and people trading it across sites will lose their credits. Nuked films can still reach other sources such as p2p/usenet, but its a good idea to check why it was nuked first in case. If a group realise there is something wrong, they can request a nuke.

NUKE REASONS :: this is a list of common reasons a film can be nuked for (generally DVDRip)

** BAD A/R ** :: bad aspect ratio, ie people appear too fat/thin
** BAD IVTC ** :: bad inverse telecine. process of converting framerates was incorrect.
** INTERLACED ** :: black lines on movement as the field order is incorrect.

DUPE
Dupe is quite simply, if something exists already, then theres no reason for it to exist again without proper reason.

Important tags for mp3 releases:

TV: Audio from television material
Radio: Audio from radio material
WEB: Audio downloaded from an online music store
VLS: Vinyl Single (1-2 tracks)
EP: Vinyl Maxi-single (2-5 tracks)
LP: Vinyl Full-length Album
CDS: CD Single (1-2 tracks)
CDM: CD Maxi-single (2-5 tracks)
CDR: CD-Recordable (CD-R)
DVD: Audio from a DVD. Often cabaret shows or concert/music dvd's.
DVDA: Audio tracks which come on a DVD as a bonus. The DVDA part can't be played by normal DVD players.
MD: Audio from a MiniDisk
TAPE: Music from a tape
Promo: Promotional
XX: Imported
RETAiL: Retail
Liveset: A record of a DJ mixing live. Mostly recorded using:
- DAB: Digital Audio Broadcasting is a system used to broadcast radio programmes.
- SAT: Music broadcasted via satellite channels.
- CABLE: Music broadcasted by radio channels via cable radio.
Bootleg: Illegally recorded and pressed record. Often live recordings, sometimes studio out-takes. The name comes from people who hid a microphone in their boots!

Labelcode/Catnumber:
This is a code which is like a unique code for every music cd/vinyl/etc. The code isn't just some number, but it contains values which are recognisable. For example: Catnumber: WNRD2371 is a cd from WieNerwoRlD Ltd.

Clean: The music is censored. Generally sexual or violent words, which are replaced by 'bleeps' or stripped.
Explicit: The music is not censored.

Now some tags just for movies/TV rips:

Sources:

DVDrip: A copy of the final released DVD. If possible this is released PRE retail (for example, Star Wars episode 2) again, should be excellent quality. DVDrips are released in SVCD and DivX/XviD.
VHSRip: Transferred off a retail VHS, mainly skating/sports videos and XXX releases.
TVRip: TV episode that is either from Network (capped using digital cable/satellite boxes are preferable) or PRE-AIR from satellite feeds sending the program around to networks a few days earlier (do not contain "dogs" but sometimes have flickers etc). PDTV is capped from a digital TV PCI card, generally giving the best results, and groups tend to release in SVCD for these. VCD/SVCD/DivX/XviD rips are all supported by the TV scene.

Formats:

VCD (VideoCD):
VCD is a mpeg1 based format, with a constant bitrate of 1150kbit at a resolution of 352x240 (NTSC). VCDs are generally used for lower quality transfers (CAM/TS/TC/Screener(VHS)/TVrip(analogue) in order to make smaller file sizes, and fit as much on a single disc as possible. Both VCDs and SVCDs are timed in minutes, rather than MB, so when looking at an mpeg, it may appear larger than the disc capacity, and in reality u can fit 74min on a CDR74.

SCVD (SuperVideoCD):
SVCD is a mpeg2 based (same as DVD) video format which allows variable bit-rates of up to 2500kbits at a resolution of 480x480 (NTSC) which is then decompressed into a 4:3 aspect ratio when played back. Due to the variable bit-rate, the length you can fit on a single CDR is not fixed, but generally between 35-60 Mins are the most common. To get a better SVCD encode using variable bit-rates, it is important to use multiple "passes". this takes a lot longer, but the result
s are far clearer.

XVCD/XSVCD:
These are basically VCD/SVCD that don't obey the "rules". They are both capable of much higher resolutions and bit-rates, but it all depends on the player to whether the disc can be played. X(S)VCD are total non-standards, and are usually for home-ripping by people who don't intend to release them.

XViD/DivX (Digital Video Express):
DivX is a format designed for multimedia platforms. It uses two codecs, one low motion, one high motion. most older films were encoded in low motion only, and they have problems with high motion too. A method known as SBC (Smart Bit-rate Control) was developed which switches codecs at the encoding stage, making a much better print. The format is Ana orphic and the bit-rate/resolution are interchangeable. Due to the higher processing power required, and the different codecs for playback, its unlikely we'll see a DVD player capable of play DivX for quite a while, if at all. There have been players in development which are supposedly capable, but nothing has ever arisen. The majority of PROPER DivX rips (not Re-Encs) are taken from DVDs, and generally up to 2hours in good quality is possible per disc. Various codecs exist, most popular being the original Divx3.11a and the new XviD codecs.

CVD:
CVD is a combination of VCD and SVCD formats, and is generally supported by a majority of DVD players. It supports MPEG2 bit-rates of SVCD, but uses a resolution of 352x480(ntsc) as the horizontal resolution is generally less important. Currently no groups release in CVD.

Additional source info for TV Rips:

HDTV (High Definition Televison):
Digital recording from a source stream at either 1080i or 720p at a bitrate from 19,39mbps or higher.

PDTV (Pure Digital Television):
Other resolution digital recordings from source streams at a bitrate of 10+mbps or higher. It is a label given to files that were ripped directly from a purely digital source, having less resolution than HDTV. This is accomplished by using a TV tuner card capable of receiving Digital Video Broadcasts or C-Band.

SDTV (Standard Digital Television):
Digital recording or capture from a source stream at any resolution with bitrate under 10mbps.This includes DirecTiVo but also captures from digisat or digicable with analog capture cards.

TVRip (Analoge TV Rip):
Recorded from analog TV, lowest quality of all TV rips.

More TV info:

Season/Episode code:
A code which shows the season and episode of a tv show.
For example: S01E12 is season 1 episode number 12.

DSR (Digital Stream Rip):
Digital stream rip is a rip that is captured from a digital source stream, such as a HDTV or DVB transmission.

DVB (Digital Video Broadcast):
The standard for direct broadcast television in Europe and the US Based on MPEG2 Compression.

DSR (Digital Satellite Rip):
Recorded from Digital Satellite, quality is similar to PDTV.

PPV (Pay Per View television):
Pay television programming for which viewers pay a separate fee for each program ordered.

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(Console) Games, 0day and Applications

(Console) Games, 0day and Applications don't have a lot of extra tags. Offcourse the app's version, and other tags like repack and proper can be used.

AIO
AIO stands for All-In-One, means an all-in-one software pack. For example: Microsoft Office, which contains Word, Frontpage, Publisher, Access etc.

RTM
RTM means Release To Manufacturing. This release is leaked before it's available in stores. A RTM version of a software title is the final retail version, the one that you will be seeing in stores.

VLM
VLM stands for Volume License Key. This means that the cracked application is already licensed, and therefore doesn't require an activation after installation.

Crack Type
For example crack or keygen.

Machine
On what machine is it compatible, such as Nokia phones, PDA etc.

OS
With which operation system is it compatible. For example Windows / Mac etc.

PlayStation:

PS2
A copy of a Playstation 2 game released to CD.

PS2DVD
A copy of a Playstation 2 game released to DVD.

PS3
A copy of a Playstation 3 game released to DVD.

MULTi3 / MULTi4 / MULTi5 etc
This means the release contains multiple languages. The number at the end indicated the number of languages.

PlayStation Portable:

UMDRip
This applies only to Playstation Portable (PSP) games, and it means that some stuff was ripped from the original game because that stuff was not required or was ripped to save space. For example languages or movie files.

UMDMovie
The Playstation Portable (PSP) is also capable of playing movies. Though a PSP can't playback DVD's or CD's, only UMD discs. So movies for the PSP get released on UMD discs.

PSXPSP
This is a PSX (Playstation 1) game playable on a PSP (Playstation Portable) using custom PSP firmware.

USA, JAP, EUR
Especially PSP releases, but also other console releases, are sometimes tagged as USA, JAP and EUR. These are alternative regions, and they replace PAL and NTSC. USA are off course the United States of America, JAP is Japan and EUR is Europe.

256MS, 512MS, 1GB and 2GB
These tags only apply to PSP releases, and they show the required size of an UMD disc. UMD discs can contain 2 gigabyte maximu. When a game is 100mb it fits on every UMD disc, but when a game is 900mb it will only fit on 1GB and higher UMD discs.

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Movie/TV Rips, WEB Rips and WEBDL

DVD-Rip DVDRip Very common
A final retail version of a film, typically released before it is available outside its originating region. Often after one group of pirates releases a high-quality DVD-Rip, the "race" to release that film will stop. The release is an AVI file and uses the Xvid codec (earlier DivX) for video, and mp3 or AC3 for audio. Because of their high quality, DVD-Rips generally replace any earlier copies that may already have been circulating. Widescreen DVDs used to be indicated as WS.DVDRip.

DVD-R DVDR,[13] DVD-Full, Full-Rip, ISO rip, lossless rip, untouched rip, DVD-5/DVD-9 Very common
A final retail version of a film in DVD format, generally a complete copy from the original DVD. If the original DVD is released in the DVD-9 format, however, extras might be removed and/or the video re-encoded to make the image fit the less expensive for burning and quicker to download DVD-5 format. DVD-R releases often accompany DVD-Rips. DVD-R rips are larger in size, generally filling up the 4.37 or 7.95 GiB provided by DVD-5 and DVD-9 respectively. Untouched or lossless rips in the strictest sense are 1:1 rips of the source, with nothing removed or changed, though often the definition is lightened to include DVDs which have not been transcoded, and no features were removed from the user's perspective, removing only restrictions and possible nuisances such as copyright warnings and movie previews.

HDTV or DS Rip[14] DSR
DSRip
DTHRip
DVBRip
HDTV
PDTV
TVRip
HDTVRip
Very common

TVRip is a capture source from an analog capture card (coaxial/composite/s-video connection). Digital satellite rip (DSR) is a rip that is captured from a non standard definition digital source like satellite. HDTV or PDTV or DTH (Direct To Home) rips often come from Over-the-Air transmissions. With an HDTV source, the quality can sometimes even surpass DVD. Movies in this format are starting to grow in popularity.

Analog, DSR, and PDTV sources are often re-encoded to 512×384 if fullscreen, 640×352 if widescreen. HDTV sources are re-encoded to multiple resolutions such as 640×352 (360p), 960×528 (540p), and 1280×720 (720p) at various file sizes for pirated releases. They can be progressive scan captured or not (480i digital transmission).

VODRip VODRip
VODR
Common, becoming more common

VODRip stands for Video-On-Demand Rip. This can be done by recording or capturing a video/movie from an On-Demand service such as through a cable or satellite TV service. Most services will state that ripping or capturing films is a breach of their use policy, but it is becoming more and more popular as it requires little technology or setup. There are many online On-Demand services that would not require one to connect their TV and computer. It can be done by using software to identify the video source address and downloading it as a video file which is often the method that bears the best quality end result. However, some people have used screen cams which effectively record, like a video camera, what is on a certain part of the computer screen, but does so internally, making the quality not of HD quality, but nevertheless significantly better than a Cam or Telesync version filmed from a cinema, TV or computer screen.

BD/BRRip BDRip
BRRip
Blu-Ray / BluRay / BLURAY
BDR[15]
BD5/BD9 (also known as BD25/BD50) Very Common, becoming even more common
Similar to DVD-Rip, only the source is a Blu-ray Disc. A BD/BRRip in DVD-Rip size often looks better than a same-size DVD rip because encoders have better source material. A common misconception among downloaders is that BDRip and BRRip are the same thing. They differ in that a BDRip comes directly from the Blu-ray source, while a BRRip is encoded from a pre-release, usually from a 1080p BDRip from another group. BDRips are available in DVD-Rip sized releases (commonly 700 MB and 1.4 GB) encoded in Xvid or x264, as well as larger DVD5 or DVD9 (often 4.5 GB or larger, depending on length and quality) sized releases encoded in x264.

BD5 or BD9 are also available, which are slightly smaller than their counterpart DVD5/DVD9 releases. They are AVCHD compatible using the BD folder structure, and are intended to be burnt onto DVDs to play in AVCHD compatible Blu-ray players. More recent types, probably associated with the use of newsgroups and cheaper storage at home, are complete Blu-ray copies (images). They are commonly referred to as BD25 or BD50 and may or may not be remixed (but not transcoded). (Remixing is keeping the original video, but eliminating audio tracks, and/or adding audio tracks in other languages.)

BD/BRRips come in various versions: the m-720p (or mini 720p), which is a compressed version of a 720p and usually weighs around 2–3 GB; the 720p, which usually weighs around 4–7 GB and is the most downloaded form of BDRip; the m-1080p (or mini 1080p), which usually weighs a little bit more than 720p; and the 1080p, which can weigh from 8 GB to sizes as big as 40–60 GB. There are also mHD (or mini HD) versions available, which are encoded in lower resolution and are smaller in size.

WEB Rip WEB-Rip
WEBRIP
WEB Rip
Common, WEB-DL is preferred
This is a rip created by capturing video from a screen, either broadcast or using a service like Hulu or Netflix. Quality can range from mediocre (comparable with low quality XVID encodes) to excellent (comparable with high quality BR encodes). Essentially, the quality of the image obtained depends on internet connection speed and the specifications of the recording machine.

WEB-DL WEBDL
WEB DL
WEB-DL
Common, becoming more common
This is a movie or TV show downloaded via an on-line distribution website (web download) like Amazon or iTunes. The quality is quite good since they are not re-encoded. The video (H264) and audio (AC3/AAC) streams are usually extracted from the iTunes or Amazon file and then remuxed into a MKV container without sacrificing quality.

An advantage with these releases is that they mostly have no network logos on screen, just like BD/DVDRips.

A nice article on Privacy

I came across a good post about Privacy titled " The Birth and Death of Privacy : 3000 years of history in 50 images"

I recommend people to read it.

https://medium.com/the-ferenstein-wire/the-birth-and-death-of-privacy-3-000-years-of-history-in-50-images-614c26059e#.7qhp67srz

Politics won't fix it

By : Alutha Jamancar

 

Politics won't fix what ails our world. Politics is designed to move various existing solutions in and out of favor.

 

The reality of the world as we have known it, has lost its "stickiness," its cohesiveness. It is expiring. We can't patch it up, fix it up, make it better, or swing the clock back to an earlier era.

 

It is not the case that one political party or the other has gone mad and is to blame. Everyone – despite evidence to the contrary – did not suddenly take 'stupid' pills in the course of the last 5 years. The tribal agreements, paths, emotional & psychic watering holes that sustained us, have disintegrated before our very eyes. There is shock, disorientation, & a reflexive clawing at tattered remnants of culture, of safety, of familiarity. As we cling to those remnants & point at the 'other,' the remnants continue to disintegrate.

 

We are alone. Nobody did this to us. It happens. The model of the world, our world, is expiring. A model – this kind of model – is a collection of myths, of stories, we repeat to one another endlessly. Some of us agreed with the myths, some rebelled against the myths. All of us defined ourselves by them. And those stories, those myths, are losing their cohesiveness. They have aged, and are rotting. They will need to be replaced.

 

We do the replacing naturally. We moved from nomads to city-builders. We moved from tribal groups to elaborate empires. We moved slave- & property-owners to free-thinkers. We moved from empire to dark ages, from renaissance to industrialized workforces, from colonies to self-governing nations. The movement is never automatically from dark to light. We have had many dark periods in our long shared histories. Each transition between "world models" or continuums was disruptive by definition, and tumultuous at best. Cherished identities & roles disappeared, livelihoods vanished, new roles – and new rules – appeared, often times seemingly at random. Power, control, and authority shifted, splintered, and re-formed.

 

This is what lies ahead. And politics won't *fix* it. At the rate of disintegration, it won't even forestall it anymore.

 

There are immediate stop-gap measures that can be taken – get food to a town in Somalia where 3000 children are starving. Fight for rights of workers to have safe workplaces. Work to create easier access to the internet for distressed populations. And if addressing any of these short-term problems are what you feel called to do – great. But creating a new continuum – a new model of reality – is the overriding priority going forward. Otherwise that 3000 turns to 3,000,000, struggling workers turn to rioters, and distressed populations become managed by gunships. That is the future that beckons, if we fail to create a more compelling continuum. If you aren't working on that new continuum, you had better be supporting someone who is – and who is effective.

 

So stop looking to political leaders for solutions, and stop bickering with whomever you disagree with. Neither will help you face … or create … the future.

* * *

 

Our personal identities are wrapped up in the stories we persuade the world to tell about us — to "agree with," essentially. Lack of privacy … means we lose control of our narratives, our own mythos. Even today, people are struggling with sharing formerly privately-held political views … on the internet. They are often … finding themselves forced to defend or abandon … previously closely identified ideas and stands. Who they are … who they associate with … who they tolerate / admonish / admire … is now undergoing a rapid kind of axe-grinding.

We are forced … in the gaudy lights on the internet … to be more starkly defined, less nebulous. One scandal, one 'perceived' black mark … and you are discarded and scorned by one of the many zeitgeist mobs roaming the digistratus.

The richness, complexity, multilayeredness … of Jung's Self … is being flattened. We are — using the ongoing erosion of privacy — reducing ourselves to Ones or Zeroes.

Pretty much every historical figure admired today … was also a scoundrel in certain circles. An unrepentant mess.

We are trading our mess for plastic & vinyl, and are the worse for it.