How to get an alarm sound with continuously increasing volume on your iPhone (or Android)

Task: the sound should start from completely unhearable and then the volume should slowly ramp up within some two minutes to full device volume. The melody chosen should be freely chosen.

Background: my wive’s Ringtone is either not loud enough to wake her reliable or pushes me out of my bed. Solutions found on the web do not work for me.

My solution:

Prepare an mp3 with slowly increasing volume

I used the Android App Audio Evolution Mobile (EUR 11), but I’m quite sure Audacity on a PC will work also. As sound file, I imported Franz Liszt, Gondola (Piano, classic, melodious) as a free MIDI from the Web. I prefer MIDI’s for sounds, as the synthetic sound is noise free and allows to exploit the full speaker volume without distortions.

In the “Master” track and in the “auto” mode, one can set the time development of the master volume; I start with -96 dB, ramping up to about -40 dB within 10 seconds, then to -20 dB within the next 10 sec, and to -6 dB within the next minute. There I stay for the remainder of the clip, which is 4 min long (the claim on the web that there is a 30 or 39 minute limit for alarm sounds in iOS is wrong. this seems to be a limit by the App “GarageBand”).

Finally, I “mix”the tracks to an .mp3 with 32 bit.

For Android, you are practically raady now, just select the .mp3 file in the settings of the clock app as alarm sound.

Convert to .m4r

I used the online tool https://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-m4r. It is important that “Normalize audio” is not checked, this destroys the increasing volume effect (something GarageBand gets wrong).

Install on iPhone

I did this with iMazing for Windows, with the free trial Version.

How to disable autoscaling for high DPI in Windows 8, if option dimmed out in properties

1. choose any compatibility settings, just to get an entry in the registry
2. open regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers, and change the REG_SZ for the program to “HIGHDPIAWARE”

If you want to know why Nokia will perish…

… just connect any Nokia device via USB to a PC: endless Installation of “drivers”, probably bloatware. If you do the same with an Android device, you can access the SD card contents after a few seconds. My laptop now is “installing” for some 15 minutes after I connected my wifes Nokia 3710 fold…

A SAMSUNG N150 for my wife

I fetch the netbook I had given to my mother and set it up for my wife.

First problem: sleep mode not available. I have to stop “SAMSUNG Fast boot”: See http://www.windows-7-forum.net/windows-7-allgemeines/19601-ruhezustand-win7-starter-aktivieren-geht.html, a typical case of bloat (crap) ware.

Samsung seems to be another of those stupid companies bloating their customers. Please consider: these are customers who have paied. The have paid because they do not want adware. If you bloat them, they will buy another harware next time. We want a clean Windows (or Android) if we buy your Hardware. If you could do better than Microsoft or Google, you would sell software, not Hardware.

If your marketing department tells you different, fire them. They sell only temselves, not your products. If you are the CEO of SAMSUNG and from the marketing department, plese tell me, I will sell my shares. This company is doomed.

After disabling Fast Boot I can configure the suspend to disk.

Set up a WebDAV in Apache

/etc/httpd/conf.d/steier.conf:

# Special entries for peter steier’s webdav

Alias /elekpr /wwwera/docs/share/elekpr/public
Alias /elekpr_betreuer /wwwera/docs/share/elekpr
Alias /vera_share /wwwera/docs/share
<Location /elekpr_betreuer>
Dav on
Options FollowSymLinks Includes MultiViews
AllowOverride AuthConfig Options Indexes
AddDefaultCharset utf-8
IndexOptions Charset=utf-8
Options +Indexes
AuthName “Zugriff nur mit UserID (betreuer260108) und Passwort!”
AuthType Digest
AuthDigestProvider file
AuthUserFile /wwwera/docs/share/elekpr/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require user betreuer260108
SSLRequireSSL
# ForceType text/plain
</Location>

<Location /elekpr>
Options FollowSymLinks Includes MultiViews
AllowOverride AuthConfig Options Indexes
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
AddDefaultCharset utf-8
IndexOptions Charset=utf-8
Options +Indexes
AuthName “Zugriff nur mit UserID (hoerer260108) und Passwort!”
AuthType Digest
AuthDigestProvider file
AuthUserFile /wwwera/docs/share/elekpr/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require valid-user
SSLRequireSSL
</Location>

# the following does not work since WebDAV is always wwwrun…
<Location /vera_share>
Dav on
Options FollowSymLinks Includes MultiViews
AllowOverride AuthConfig Options Indexes
AddDefaultCharset utf-8
IndexOptions Charset=utf-8
Options +Indexes
AuthName “Zugriff nur mit UserID csadmin und Passwort!”
AuthType Digest
AuthDigestProvider file
AuthUserFile /wwwera/docs/share/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require user csadmin
SSLRequireSSL
# ForceType text/plain
</Location>

htdigest -c /wwwera/docs/share/.htpasswd “Zugriff nur mit UserID csadmin und Passwort\!” csadmin

 

 

Windows indexer changes modification dates of .eml files

Since I have just reinstalled my Vista, I check whether my bugfixes are still in place; I copy here some info I did put on another blog:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistasp/thread/8dc21ddc-9c87-40f6-a43e-96325ea14f96#7e080428-644a-41f6-aee2-7ad458461349

————————————————

I have not used Vista, but encountered this problem with Windows 7 RC, and I have been unable to use W7 because it messed up my .EML archive.  I thought this was related to Windows Live Mail, as the problem did not exist when I uninstalled WLM.

However, while investigating this further, I discovered the following:

1. The problem with .EML date stamp exists out of the box with a fresh install of Windows 7, without installing any applications, and in particular without installing WLM.

2. The problem continues to exist when WLM was installed.

3. The problem stops when WLM is uninstalled.

Comparisons of the registries for these three situations revealed that in (1) and (2), a .eml entry exists under

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PropertySystem\PropertyHandlers

This .eml entry is gone once WLM is uninstalled.

After reinstalling WLM, this key entry reappears, and the date stamp problem starts again.  However, deleting this key entry and rebooting causes the date stamp problem to stop.  Adding back the registry key makes the problem start up again.

The PropertyHandlers key seems to be related to search, but I haven’t noticed any problem resulting from its deletion, admittedly with limited experience.

This workaround may have solved the problem in Windows 7 RC, at least so far.  Perhaps this also applies to Vista.

———————————————

Also, I may not be using the registry terminology accurately– e.g., what are considered “keys” and which are not “keys”.  I am referring to simply the .eml branch under

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PropertySystem\PropertyHandlers

in the Windows 7 registry.

R Sposto

——————————–

I still have this problem on Vista ultimate, newest updates. To make sure I understand the information in this thread:

1) the .eml files change to the present date when they are indexed by the search indexer; this is, a few seconds after creation. Thus, backup/restore/sync will not work properly, but indexing.

2) if you delete that mentioned registry key, then the indexing of .eml files no longer works, i.e. you cannot find them in a full-text search. However, backup works now.

3) it is unknown whether the other solution, proposed by alecamiga, to link .eml to thunderbird and write lock the files, does the same or works better.

I have some 10000 .eml from 20 years, and I need search indexing and automatic backup. Maybe I have to switch to linux.

————————————

Hello Peter

I am on Windows 7 Professional 32, and I simply delete the registry key, which solves the changing date stamp problem.  The .eml files still are indexed, with the CLSID_WLMCMimeFilter, and I can find them by name or by content.  I don’t remember, though, whether I had to go into indexing advanced options and reestablish this filter for .eml file. I don’t think so, but perhaps check if .eml appear in the files types being indexed.

RSposto

————————-

Thank you! I deleted the key, and the MIME filter for .eml indexing was still in place. Full text is still found in the e-mails, as far as i can say so far. Sorry for the late response, I lived for half a year without complete backup.

And, by the way, I have to develop a shell script to restore the modification date of my 10,000 e-mails. Thank you, microsoft, for this feature.

Peter Steier

—————–

Now the key is still there. When I try to delete it in regedit, there is an error message, and I cannot delete it. However, a few reboots later with switched of UAC I can delete all entries and leae only the empty “folder”.

Microsoft seems to consider backups and search indexes unnecessary. Probably all their customers are doddlers playing only computer games, but doing no productive work.

word press advises me to add the following words to increase my site traffic: technet microsoft, date stamp, software microsoft, registry key, and machine software. Actually, I need no traffic, as long as I can look up my own pages later.

Windows Vista search index notoriously loosed .pdf filter

22.3.2010 Yesterday evening the index was ready; however, it has not indexed the pdf files! I look in the web and see that there is some information about .pdf filters only indexing the file name…

23.3.2010 What I found out: apparently, SearchIndexer was only crawling the file names (called properties) with the “Standard Settings” I had reset. It has lost the filter for PDF, which is installed when Adobe Reader is installed. I reinstall AdobeReader 9.x, touch some .pdf Files, and search for some words in the context – the files appear immediately.

I see whether I can force an update of only the pdf files (I do not want to touch them all, to avaoid loosing the file data): maybe checking and unchecking the file type .pdf in the inexer options: no, Vista warns that the index has to be rebuilt for that also; I check the full-text search again and allow Vista to rebuild the index. I fear this will take two weeks again.

07:41 OpenedFileView: C:\Users\steier\Documents\papers_einsortiert\BNFL2002_Sellafield.pdf; I try whether this file is in the index: it is!

08:30 OpenedFileView: C:\Users\steier\Documents\Arbeit\mails\erledigt081002\E.M.Wild to P.Steier, Poster.eml: I try whether the content of the .ppt attached to this mail is found: yes, it is!

2011-10-03

Again Vista seems to have lost the Adobe .pdf filter, it is grayed out in the indexing options. Presently, it still finds some pdf’s, but progrssively less. I think if I open a pdf, it disappears from the next search! These companies are a complete bunch of idiots. Fast full text search is an absolute requirement for productive work – who has another opinion probably has some 25 files and is a doddler playing with the computer only.

I decide to reinstall Adobe Reader X and hope this installs the filter. The Windows installer gives a strange message that the installer is installed incorrectly? Actually, Reader 9.4.5 is still installed, and cannot be deinstalled, because of the same stupid message.

I will make a system restore to the oldest restore point.

Unfortunately, this does not work! Vista stores only the least recent restore points, and apparently the problem was older than one month (I did not recognize it immediately). And the installer is completely broken; neither installing nor deinstalling anything works.

I try to repait the registry, but it seems to be ok. And Vista does not find any bugs in with sfc /scannow. The msiserver service is not running an net start msiserver just says that the service could not be started.

I decid to do a repair installation. I have an OEM Vista, so no installation disk. I find somebody who share a link to an iso image, and I burn the DVD. Then I find out my Vista Ultimate Key with some public domain software. Then I do a repair install; before that I do backups from all data which I think is important.

The first install says the disk is too full. I have to delete some temporary stuff, since my disk is too full. Accidently, I remove my notes on this topic (were on the desktop instead of sorted in). So I write from memory, without links etc.

The second repair install says that some software is incompatible: Windows Poer Shell; web says:  on  O.S Vista the Powershell program is listed as (Windows Management Framework Core KB968930). Open installed Windows Updates and locate this listing – uninstall.

However, this seems to be stuck in the middle of the deinstallation. May need the msiserver?

This Windows stuff is really pure ***. I think I have to throw away this two-year old, EUR 3000 computer; after bad experience, I know that setting up a Computer yourself from scratch takes some 80 hours of work, and finally not all will be ok again (i.e. ssh tunnels through loopback devices, etc.).

… hours later …

Apparently, did not fail completely. Therefore I censored the last paragraph. Still runs, and is now doing some updates (approximately 90). I think this means that the Installer works again.

Unfortunately, the sound stopped working. I reinstall the drivers for sound from the disk which came with the computer, but no improvement. I do not want to reboot the computer presently, since the Windows update is still running.

I install some workaround from http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/downloadDetail.jsp?soid=1671893&pf=true. This requires a reboot also. I will note later what happens.

After a few reboots, and downloading drivers from Toshiba, sound works. I apply the bugfix for Search Indexer changing the time stamp of .eml files, rendering any backup strategy impossible.

… three days later …

I find out that sleep mode (hibernate) no lenger works. It is no longer available in the start menu, and in the power saving options. I lear that one has to type “powercfg -h on” on a command line prompt as administrator to enable this (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/re-enable-sleep-mode-in-windows-vista/). This is great fun, took only about 1 hour to solve. I have the feeling that patching one hole always opens another.

… 2011-11-20

After all, I have also reenabled screen rotation when I rotate the screen from laptop to tablet mode: I have to install something called ToshibaTabletPCExtension_v1001.exe, which I find ina subfolder of my “Installed Sofware Downloads” folder; unfortunately, while trying to find this, I have installed some “Toshiba value added …” junk on my computer. I hope it does not cause to much problems.

Temporarily map a folder into Dropbox

Without comment, so far:

C:\Users\steier\Documents\GooDocs\Privat\Dropbox>mklink /J E-PraktSS2011 “C:\Users\steier\Documents\GooDocs\Arbeit\Lehre\Praktikum\Elektronikpraktikum\SS2011”

… and DropBox syncs local  folder “C:\Users\steier\Documents\GooDocs\Arbeit\Lehre\Praktikum\Elektronikpraktikum\SS2011” to Dropbox folder “E-PraktSS2011”.

Oops… does not re-sync when files are changed on Vista!What I wrote to the blog where is saw this hint:

• Der Artikel ist Desinformation. Wie DropBox und symbolische Links under Windows funktionieren, kann’ snicht gehen: Dropbox erfährt eben nicht, wenn sich hinter einem symlink was ändert. Schade, dass Leute sowas schreiben und es nicht ausprobieren. Nur wenn man die synchronisierung pausiert und wieder fortsetzt, wird der Ordner neu nach Änderungen durchsucht.Der richtige Tip kommt von Lustikus: die Originaldaten in den Dropbox-Folder, und vom ursprünglichen Platz einen Symlink (wahrscheinlich besser eine Junktion?) einrichten.Im Web sind sich die Leute nicht einig, wie man Windows symlinks richtig löscht; ich kann die Junctions in den Papierkorb werfen, und die Daten sind auf der Dropbox immer noch da. Wenn ich in die Junction aber hineingehe (durch anklicken), bin ich eben wirklich im Dropbox Folder, und wenn ich dort was lösche, verschwindet es von der Dropbox!

What you have to do is move the original data into the dropbox folder, and then create the symlink from the previous position. This info is from

http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/SyncOtherFolders and http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=19704

However, if you move or rename the folder in the dropbox, it will no longer be found through the symlink. And there are other problems, e.g. AlwaySync will follow the Junction like a Directory, and copy the files twice to the backup, which smells like data loss…

On Android, the dropbox app does not autosync files; the third-party app dropsync seems to use the time stamp as only criterion for changes. Also this is bound to fail. Apparently, the cloud is still a construction area with a lot of danger for my data.

Windows Media Player 11 won’t open

The following solution from http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6644_102-2532473.html?tag=posts;msg2532473:

Windows Media Player 11 won’t open – Solution!

by e160877 – 7/5/07 6:27 PM

In Reply to: Windows Media Player 11 – Won’t Open at all… by st_loosh

I had the same problem and I believe I have solved the problem. Follow the instructions below:

1. Click Start, click Accessories, the right click on Command Prompt and choose “run as administrator”, then type regsvr32 jscript.dll, and then hit enter.

2. Type regsvr32 vbscript.dll then hit enter.

3. Now type exit and hit enter. Now try media player and it should work.

And again samba over ssh broken

This time, the log in putty only shows:

2011-08-02 16:53:22    Local port 10.0.0.137:139 forwarding to lehre4:139
2011-08-02 16:53:22    Local port 10.0.0.137:445 forwarding to lehre4:139
…
2011-08-02 16:55:47    Opening forwarded connection to lehre4:139
2011-08-02 16:55:47    Forwarded port closed

I will try to debug this; grmpf. Once in the meantime, I had the same problem; it disappeared when I removed some windows update with system restore. This time I cannot try that before even the oldest available restore point has the same problem. Unfortunately, I had not tried to use the samba for some time.

Oops – I myself have broken my script to grap the loopback adapters ports before vista can do it – I had moved all my docs for automatic cloud sync into a “GooDocs” folder; so the link in the scheduler was broken. I repair it.