Monday, November 26, 2007

How to create a def file for a dll

you can still create a def file using the output from the objdump program (from the MinGW distribution). Here's an example.

objdump -p mydll.dll > mydll.fil

Search for "[Ordinal/Name Pointer] Table" in mydll.fil and use the list of functions following it to create your def file.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Upload Video to Youtube

I am finally on the verge to integrate a youtube uploader tool to one of my side project. I just need to figure out how to log to gmail instead of youtube since there is two ways to authenticate with youtube.

About youtube :

When you upload a video to YouTube, it automatically converts it to a flash video file (.flv) with specific settings (see below, standard column). The contrast of the video is increased and video noise is suppressed. YouTube appears to respect the framerate of the uploaded file; Framerates will varie between 15 (minimum framerate to tell it is a video...), 24 frames (pal) and 30 frames per second (ntsc with no drop frame). It is hard to tell how long you have to wait for the video to be available but it is pretty fast !!. Once the video has been uploaded you can log to your account and from there you can check the status of your video. Usually you will see Uploaded (processing, please wait).


Video Profile

standard recommended possible
file extension : .flv (flash video)
total bitrate : ~320 kbits/sec 804.7 kbits/sec 2147.2 kbits/sec
audio codec : MPEG layer 3 (MP3)
audio format : Mono, 22.050 kHz Stereo, 44.100 kHz Stereo, 44.100 kHz
audio bitrate : ~67 kpbs/sec 128 kpbs/sec 128 kpbs/sec
video codec : Sorenson Spark (H.263)
video format : 320 x 240 px, 15-30 fps 320 x 240 px, 29.97 fps 640 x 480 px, 29.97 fps
video bitrate : ~250 kbps/sec 677.7 kbps/sec 2019.2 kbps/sec

You can save your own .flv files and upload them to YouTube. You can encode video with higher bitrates and resolution than YouTube compresses with. The only limitations I can tell are that the file must be under 100 MB and you must use the Sorenson Spark video codec and MP3 audio codec.

Monday, November 19, 2007

How to take advantage of Silverlight Marker to create hypervideo

Interesting article from Jesse Liberty also i worked on Hypervideo back in 1999.... Silverlight is finally well suited to turn HD video into interactive sequences.

http://silverlight.net/blogs/jesseliberty/archive/2007/10/24/hypervideo-2.aspx

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

if you have downloaded the standalone VC 8.0 redistributable packages, you will need to modify the command lines slightly. The following command lines can be used to install the original release of the standalone VC 8.0 redistributable packages:

For x86: vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~1.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn"" "
For x64: vcredist_x64.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~2.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn"" "
For ia64: vcredist_ia64.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~3.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn"" "
The following command lines can be used to install the Visual Studio 2005 SP1 release of the standalone VC 8.0 redistributable packages:

For x86: vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~3.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn"" "
For x64: vcredist_x64.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~2.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn"" "
For ia64: vcredist_ia64.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~1.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn"" "
If you would like to install the VC runtime packages in unattended mode (which will show a small progress bar but not require any user interaction), you can change the /qn switch above to /qb. If you would like the progress bar to not show a cancel button, then you can change the /qn switch above to /qb!

Some folks ask me what vcredist.msi..
Iy means that you want to extract the embedded msi from the self exe package and be able to run msiexec which is used to install the package. msiexec is the Microsoft Installer runtime.
MSI is the prefered format for microsoft installer. Installshield and Visual Studio 2005 and higher can generate MSI. Using the msiexec command. You can even log all the installer session to a file and you can verify and explore the content of the MSI using ORCA in order to look at the installer sequence, string table and in some cases embedded Visual Basic Script. Yes Visual Basic is not dead. Still used and convnient enough for scripting installer code :)

If you want to install the runtime from a Null Soft Installer NSI script with minimal UI and progress bar, here is what you want to do

;extract selft exe to temp
SetOutPath "$TEMP"
; uncompress
File "${RUNTIME_VCREDIST}"



;-------------------------------
; Test if Visual Studio Redistributables 2005+ SP1 installed
; Returns -1 if there is no VC redistributables intstalled
Function CheckVCRedist
Push $R0
ClearErrors
ReadRegDword $R0 HKLM "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{7299052b-02a4-4627-81f2-1818da5d550d}" "Version"

; if VS 2005+ redist SP1 not installed, install it
IfErrors 0 VSRedistInstalled
StrCpy $R0 "-1"

VSRedistInstalled:
Exch $R0
FunctionEnd


Section "Installer Sections" SecDummy
SetOverwrite ifnewer
Call CheckVCRedist

;IntCmp $0 5 is5 lessthan5 morethan5
IntCmp $R0 -1 noVCRuntime noVCRuntime VCRuntime
;force install
; IntCmp $R0 -1 noVCRuntime noVCRuntime noVCRuntime

noVCRuntime:


;extract VCRuntime to Temp
SetOutPath "$TEMP"
File "${RUNTIME_VCREDIST}"

;/qn for complete silent install
;/qb small progress dialog but does not require any user interaction
;StrCpy $VC_RUNTIME "$\"$TEMP\vcredist_x86.exe$\" /q:a /c:$\"VCREDI~3.EXE /q:a /c:$\"$\"msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qb!$\""
StrCpy $VC_RUNTIME "$\"$TEMP\vcredist_x86.exe$\" /q:a"

;MessageBox MB_ICONINFORMATION 'Need to install VCRuntime {$R0} {$VC_RUNTIME}'

ExecWait '$VC_RUNTIME' $0
;MessageBox MB_ICONINFORMATION 'Return Code {$0}'
;IntCmp $0 0 done

;MessageBox MB_ICONINFORMATION 'install complete'

Delete "$TEMP\vcredist_x86.exe"

Goto VCRuntime

VCRuntime:

SectionEnd


http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/02/07/update-regarding-silent-install-of-the-vc-8-0-runtime-vcredist-packages.aspx

Sunday, November 11, 2007