MattT is a talented DJ and producer from New Zealand currently residing in Dubai. This is a new promo set he did last month, if you dig deep melodic tech house or just want something dark and tasty with a nice groove, this is for you.
The Diving Pool - Oct 07 2008
MattT and Ryan Salt (another talented DJ/producer from NZ) play a mash up set every couple of weeks under the Sandpit Sessions moniker. These nights are guaranteed to be always interesting, groovy, funky and a little bit mad with a mix of eclectic tech house and minimal techno, with a bit of prog house thrown in (and Jägermeister).
Some September Mix
Ill be posting more mixes as they are produced and if you want the cutting edge news, join the face book group: Sandpit Sessions, quote this blog name and they will let you in the door ;)
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Steganography (Embedding files)
So you have an .mp3 of you singing in the shower that you want to hide to make sure no one hears, ok .... whatever, here's how to hide a file inside another file so both still work. This is a very basic form of Steganography, there are some freeware progs that I will review at a later date that actually encrypt the file as well.
Open a command line at the folder with the files you want to merge.
We are going to use the CLI command Copy /b which copies the files in binary mode.
C:\Temp>copy /b firstfile.jpg + secondfile.mp3 output.jpg
Now you will have the file output.jpg that can be viewed happily as a picture that's actually firstfile.jpg, and when you change the file extension to .mp3 it can be played to hear secondfile.mp3.
If you want to merge more then one file just create a .zip or .rar containing the to be hidden files and merge that with the host file, it will be accessible when you change the file extension just like before.
Linux and Mac users can use the cat command to do the same thing :
$ cat file1 file2 >> newfile
If newfile already exists, file1 and file2 will be added to the end of it.
This technique has limited use as the host file size increases exponentially with the files added, so having a 2gb 640x480 jpg is a bit redundant, but if your playing secret squirrel it can be fun.
Open a command line at the folder with the files you want to merge.
We are going to use the CLI command Copy /b which copies the files in binary mode.
C:\Temp>copy /b firstfile.jpg + secondfile.mp3 output.jpg
Now you will have the file output.jpg that can be viewed happily as a picture that's actually firstfile.jpg, and when you change the file extension to .mp3 it can be played to hear secondfile.mp3.
If you want to merge more then one file just create a .zip or .rar containing the to be hidden files and merge that with the host file, it will be accessible when you change the file extension just like before.
Linux and Mac users can use the cat command to do the same thing :
$ cat file1 file2 >> newfile
If newfile already exists, file1 and file2 will be added to the end of it.
This technique has limited use as the host file size increases exponentially with the files added, so having a 2gb 640x480 jpg is a bit redundant, but if your playing secret squirrel it can be fun.
System Command Line tools
There are some very handy tools that come with XP and Vista that are worth remembering next time you are at your friends house and they mention that they have broken their PC again....
Command-line reference A-Z
Today's CLI trick is : FindStr Searches for patterns of text in files using regular expressions.
I have all my Nokia phones numbers etc backed up onto my laptop in the windows .vcf format. Problem is its not quite the same as the windows format, so when you open them with windows address book you don't see all the info and each contact is in an individual file. Makes searching for a phone number by number really annoying, enter Findstr.
Open a command line at the folder were the files are that you want to search in (you have the Open Command Window here powertoy installed for XP yes ? in Vista you just hold down the shift key when right clicking a folder or drive and you get a limited command prompt, for an elevated (admin) prompt, look here or just download this .reg file and run it)
Once you are in the folder just type : Findstr stuffimlookingfor *.*
This will search all files (*.*) in the folder for the text "stuffimlookingfor".
You could always just install Total Commander , an excellent explorer replacement (that does ftp as well) that also does regular expression searches within files.
If you are like me and cant always remember a command line tools name, just go to C:\WINDOWS\system32 and search for all .exe files, this brings up all the CL tools available, there will be some non CL .exe files there too, but it should be enough to jog your memory.
Linux and OsX users can use grep to do the same thing.
$ grep stuffimlookingfor *
Command-line reference A-Z
Today's CLI trick is : FindStr Searches for patterns of text in files using regular expressions.
I have all my Nokia phones numbers etc backed up onto my laptop in the windows .vcf format. Problem is its not quite the same as the windows format, so when you open them with windows address book you don't see all the info and each contact is in an individual file. Makes searching for a phone number by number really annoying, enter Findstr.
Open a command line at the folder were the files are that you want to search in (you have the Open Command Window here powertoy installed for XP yes ? in Vista you just hold down the shift key when right clicking a folder or drive and you get a limited command prompt, for an elevated (admin) prompt, look here or just download this .reg file and run it)
Once you are in the folder just type : Findstr stuffimlookingfor *.*
This will search all files (*.*) in the folder for the text "stuffimlookingfor".
You could always just install Total Commander , an excellent explorer replacement (that does ftp as well) that also does regular expression searches within files.
If you are like me and cant always remember a command line tools name, just go to C:\WINDOWS\system32 and search for all .exe files, this brings up all the CL tools available, there will be some non CL .exe files there too, but it should be enough to jog your memory.
Linux and OsX users can use grep to do the same thing.
$ grep stuffimlookingfor *
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
And so it begins..
The primary plan is to use this space for IT related awesomeness (orsomeness?), this is to help other people and provide me with a space to keep handy info for my own reference. There may be rants on certain subjects, but I'll try and keep them to a minimum. Also links to general funny/cool stuff, and yes I know theirs already a ton of blogs that do that.
I will also be linking to and discussing some cool scripting projects I have been working on.
_________________
MrCC : Monster right Click Converter
A gui front end for a large number of Lossy and Lossless audio formats, presently will convert or transcode over 108 different audio and video file types using the compiled binary CLI tools provided by the included projects.
Features include :
-Maintains ID2-3, APE1-2 (Monkey), Vorbis and FLAC tags as you convert from one format to another. Likewise cover art will be kept (except for APE2, at the moment I can read the data but am not able to write it. If anyone knows of a cli prog that will write the binary image data to an APE2 tag, please let me know.)
-Batch convert to same location, new location or to a portable device i.e Re sample your mp3's to a lower bit rate while removing the image tag to get more music on your MP3 player (Generic players like Creative Zen Stone etc Not ipods)
- Give detailed information on the audio files selected.
- Shell integration to the right click menu for all supported file types.
- Cut or up/down sample large wav files.
- Rip audio from video files into your chosen format.
- Output formats supported include : Mp3 Ogg Flac Mp4 M4a M4b Aac Wma Tta Wav Ape Wv
LTTools : Laptop Tools
Another GUI tool that resides in the system tray on your laptop that allows you to monitor all your network connections IP addresses and create profiles for one or all of them. Quick and easy IP changing, 2 clicks and your done.
Bring all windows to desktop, when you have been using an external monitor and the next time you are on the road and try to open a program that has remembered its last position, which is about 30cm to the right of your desktop on the monitor that isn't there (I hate that).
Find MAC address for IP.
Keep alive, when you are doing a presentation and dont want your laptop going into standby.
+ more features as I think of them. (Maybe a profile manager for services and startup apps etc)
GoBot
A simple script that will give you control over those annoying services and start-up programs that get installed and are always running in the background when they are not needed (I'm looking at you iTunes and vmware). Starts the required progs / services, runs the requested program and then shuts them down again on exit. Because nothing should get in the way of my gaming.
After I have finished these I will be open to any ideas you guys might have, so feel free to leave them in the comments.
_________________
I will also be linking to and discussing some cool scripting projects I have been working on.
_________________
MrCC : Monster right Click Converter
A gui front end for a large number of Lossy and Lossless audio formats, presently will convert or transcode over 108 different audio and video file types using the compiled binary CLI tools provided by the included projects.
Features include :
-Maintains ID2-3, APE1-2 (Monkey), Vorbis and FLAC tags as you convert from one format to another. Likewise cover art will be kept (except for APE2, at the moment I can read the data but am not able to write it. If anyone knows of a cli prog that will write the binary image data to an APE2 tag, please let me know.)
-Batch convert to same location, new location or to a portable device i.e Re sample your mp3's to a lower bit rate while removing the image tag to get more music on your MP3 player (Generic players like Creative Zen Stone etc Not ipods)
- Give detailed information on the audio files selected.
- Shell integration to the right click menu for all supported file types.
- Cut or up/down sample large wav files.
- Rip audio from video files into your chosen format.
- Output formats supported include : Mp3 Ogg Flac Mp4 M4a M4b Aac Wma Tta Wav Ape Wv
LTTools : Laptop Tools
Another GUI tool that resides in the system tray on your laptop that allows you to monitor all your network connections IP addresses and create profiles for one or all of them. Quick and easy IP changing, 2 clicks and your done.
Bring all windows to desktop, when you have been using an external monitor and the next time you are on the road and try to open a program that has remembered its last position, which is about 30cm to the right of your desktop on the monitor that isn't there (I hate that).
Find MAC address for IP.
Keep alive, when you are doing a presentation and dont want your laptop going into standby.
+ more features as I think of them. (Maybe a profile manager for services and startup apps etc)
GoBot
A simple script that will give you control over those annoying services and start-up programs that get installed and are always running in the background when they are not needed (I'm looking at you iTunes and vmware). Starts the required progs / services, runs the requested program and then shuts them down again on exit. Because nothing should get in the way of my gaming.
After I have finished these I will be open to any ideas you guys might have, so feel free to leave them in the comments.
_________________
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