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Recording Internet Radio Streams

I love to listen to Internet radio stations in general, and Pandora Internet Radio (see Links below), in particular, and had on a few occasions before recorded an hour of music as one giant mp3. It never even occurred to me to consider that there may be software that could record, automatically split the music into files, and automatically rename and tag each file. When reading through another website recently, I found reference to a program to do this for Pandora, and my quest was on! The software that was mentioned is no longer being developed, and the older version that I found no longer works, possibly due to changes in both Windows XP (from 98) and in Pandora itself.

After digging more, however, I found several other programs that do some or all of what I wanted. The number one recommended program that I saw mentioned by most forum users was a $50 Shareware program from Applian Technologies Inc, named "Replay Music", so I will cover it first. In spite of it's excellent features and user recommendations, however, I finally settled on two excellent freeware programs that do everything between them, primarily because I feel that $50 is too high. Unfortunately, neither one of my recommendations alone does it all. Pandora.jar does nearly everything I want for Pandora Radio, except scheduled recording, and StreamHijacker is perfect for scheduled recordings, but it does not (that I know of) record Pandora. See details below.

Limitations of the free "demo" version of Replay Music:

The free "demo" version is supposed to only record 25 songs, but I found the actual behavior is different than what I expected.

I set it to record Pandora Internet Radio and went to bed after it had recorded 12 songs. I expected that it would just stop recording after 25 songs, but it actually recorded until Pandora stopped (with no user intervention or "clicks", Pandora stops after 3 hours). The result was actually 50 songs recorded⁽¹⁾, BUT only the first 27 (NOT just 25) were converted to .mp3 files and successfully tagged (the tagging, by-the-way, was almost perfect - only a few album names were wrong, probably because the individual songs were available on more than one album). The remaining files were all named "Not Recognized-Track##.mp3.wav", and could probably be converted yourself, with "dBpowerAMP Music Converter" (see Links below) or any other freeware converter.

I decided to see what would happen if I copied the 25 converted songs to another folder then use Replay Music to delete them. As soon as I did that, it started converting the next batch of files⁽²⁾, but after each one, it would not continue until I first clicked "No" on two separate messages asking if I wanted to buy the full version.

I then used the freeware "MP3 Book Helper" (see Links below) to check the tags and to add the comment "Recorded from Pandora Internet Radio by Replay Recorder on 03-08-2008" to each file.

Replay Music Notes:

• (1) - The Replay Music interface actually listed 61 songs recorded, but the folder where the files were saved only contained 50 - the first 27 converted and tagged, and the remainder as unnamed, untagged, numbered .wav files.
• (2) - With constant nagging it converted and tagged 49 files total, and acted like it was converting another, but never seemed to complete, and there was nothing left in the actual folder to convert. In addition, I ended up with only 47 files, because the last 2 were duplicates of some of the earlier files - not the fault of Replay Music, but I am surprised at Pandora for this!
• - The free "demo" is capable of recording 25 songs, but it is not clearly identified on the website that this means ONCE! You cannot close the program, restart it and record another 25 songs, as I had hoped. Use it once, and your onetime demo is over! I suppose you could uninstall, clear out the remaining Registry entries, reinstall and get another 25 songs, but really! - just buy it, or pick another solution.
• - I think this was the fault of my settings, rather than of Replay Music, but the volume of the recorded .mp3 files seemed a bit low. If I use it again, I'll tweak the settings (Pandora, Replay Music, and Windows audio) and see if I can improve it. In spite of the volume level, I found the sound quality excellent, and I can boost the level of this batch with the freeware "MP3 Gain" (see Links below). After analysis, I found most of the files were around 85.5 dB, and I had MP3 Gain boost them by 3 dB to the recommended default 89. After the boost, the volume did sound more normal, but was still too low, compared with other music files in my collection.

Conclusions:

I have not yet tied this to record from other streams, such as Icecast, but I have seen enough to know that I love this program. After trying out StreamHijacker, StationRipper, and Pandora.jar, however, I cannot recommend paying $50 for this program. I would recommend that if you try the free version, that you stop after it has reached 25-30 songs (there is no setting to limit the number of recorded songs or length of time, or any timer settings to, for instance, record at a certain time of day). This is more than enough to burn an album of music, and if using Pandora, it stops after 3 hours anyway. If you record more than 25 or so songs, you will need to "babysit" the program to get it to convert and tag the remainder.

Players:

• ICY Radio Internet radio player - excellent, small, free - what more could you want?
• XMPlay (media & streaming media player) - excellent and much smaller alternative to WinAmp.
• XstreamRadio (see more info under Stream Rippers)

Stream Rippers:

Replay Music (see more notes on this program above)

This may be the best - easiest to use, best features, etc., but it costs $50 to register, which I feel is too high, and it has no scheduling functions. I would consider paying $30 for this, if it included a scheduler, but after testing some of the alternatives below, will pass on this.

StreamHijacker

StreamHijacker is a small Open Source stream ripper application. It supports ShoutCast and IceCast protocols. Features include Recent list; Showing ripped songs in a list; Settings; Showing the current song ( if MetaData exists ); Information panel; Show informations about current song and / or about the current stream; ShoutCast radio browser ( Download from www.shoutcast.com ); Playlist file downloading; Ripping to separated files ( File splitter ); Recent list is changeable; Song list creation ( TXT or HTML format ); Winamp emulation; Split to new folder; Destination folder for splits and ripped streams; Hiding to system tray icon; CUE file creator; Scheduled recording; and PLS and M3U playlist.

StreamHijacker operates silently - the stream does not "play" as you are recording, so you won't hear anything until you play back what it has recorded. It works great, however, and uses very little CPU. Also, there is nothing to install - just unzip the download, start the program, set a few options which are saved in an ini file in the program's directory, and it is ready to run. It should also be noted that this program directly records Internet streams, both audio and video, as opposed to Replay Music, which actually records whatever is playing through your computer's soundcard - whether an Internet stream, or a locally played file. Therefore, it may be difficult or impossible to record Pandora or Last.FM with StreamHijacker.

I like this, and it works great, but as I am really interested in ripping Pandora streams, I will keep looking.

StationRipper

StationRipper allows you to Record Internet Radio Stations and broadcasts, including Last.FM. Users on broadband connections regularly report 3,000-6,000 new songs can be downloaded every 24 hours with the registered version (and up to 600 streams at one time)! Other features include auto-download Album art; auto-generate iTunes and MediaMonkey playlists of songs recorded; keeps track of the songs you've already recorded, only keeping songs you don't already have; and MP3's automatically labeled with the Band & Song name. The free version can record up to 2 stations at a time, for a total of 25 songs without restarting the program. Upgrading to one of the two available registered versions is only $19.99.

Although it works well, I found the interface a bit cluttered and confusing, especially in that you can be listening to one station, while recording another. This can be either considered a feature or a distraction, depending upon your preferences. There is no provision that I could find to record from Pandora, and I was not able to test Last.FM, as I seem to have been booted from Last.FM. I have registered with them and utilized the service successfully in the past, but have probably not logged in in over a year, and had uninstalled their software, so apparently they no longer consider me a valid member.

XstreamRadio

This player contains more than 1,000 international preprogrammed radio stations, and an integrated MP3 recorder to easily record music or your favorite program from the station of your choice.

I did not test this, but don't think it includes the automatic splitting, naming and tagging of songs from ANY source feature of Replay Music, which really sets Replay Music apart from any other program I have seen. Still, however, it could be worth checking out.

Pandora.jar - free Java application to Record online music streaming from Pandora & Last.FM:

• http://stream-recorder.com/forum/capture-save-download-rip-record-free-online-t955.html?t=955 and
• http://forums.hak5.org/index.php?t=828 (see Pandora Timeshifting) and
• http://sourceforge.net/projects/pandoras-jar

This seems a bit complicated to setup for the average user, but there is an all-in-one portable Firefox version which may be just what you need. The link for that is http://forums.hak5.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=2243e17912cad6d68a49f0e17c222fcd&/topic,6014.0.html.

This may be it - the Holy Grail of streamrippers - unlimited ripping of the best streaming music available on the Internet (Pandora)!

This does not have the ability to schedule recordings, and is apparently only for Pandora, not for other streams, but the program is awesome! I am both keeping it and recommending it! For the two features I found lacking, I recommend StreamHijacker, which will record other streams and has scheduled recording capability.

Free Linux software for Capturing/Saving/Downloading/Ripping/Recording MP3 music stream from Last.fm

I did not test this, but it may be just what "Tux" folks are looking for.

Free online music streaming services:

• Pandora
• Last.FM
• Icecast.org
• Shoutcast
• StationPortal.com

Tools:

• dBpowerAMP Music Converter
• MP3 Book Helper
• MP3 Gain

Dell Laptop BIOS Password Removal

I recently purchased a used Dell laptop from PropertyRoom.com, an online auction site. I knew when I bid on it that the laptop was missing some parts, including a hard drive and power cord, and that it was password locked. At this point it was just a very inexpensive doorstop, but I wanted to see if I could get it working with little additional expense.

Perhaps you have encountered a similar situation, where you lost or forgot a password, or you acquired a used laptop which is password protected. This is what I learned and what worked for me.

Background:

Most Dell laptops can have three layers of password protection which can be enabled. Each layer can have a unique password, but usually they will be the same.

1. The first layer of protection is a BIOS password.
2. If/when you get past that, there may be "a password authentication system". "You cannot access the data on this computer without the correct password. Please type in the primary or administrator password and press <Enter>." This is what many refer to as the "administrative password".
3. Finally, there may be a "hard drive password". See HARD DISK LOCKS info below from PWCrack.com, who also sells a replacement security chip.

HARD DISK LOCKS
Some laptops provide a utility to lock a hard disk with a password. These passwords are not the same as BIOS passwords. Moving a locked hard disk to another machine will not unlock it, since the hard disk password is stored in the hard disk firmware and moves with the hard disk. Also, adding a new (unlocked) hard disk to a locked machine may cause the new hard disk to become locked. Also, note that hard disk lock passwords cannot be removed by reformatting the disk, fdisk or any other software procedure (since the disk will not allow and reads or writes to the disk, it cannot be reformatted.) Usually, the BIOS password and hard disk lock passwords are set the same by a user and we can recover the BIOS password directly from the laptop security chip (after it is removed from the system board.) However, it is possible that the BIOS password and hard disk lock passwords may be set different. In this case the BIOS password will not unlock the hard disk. You can test to determine if your hard disk is locked by attempting to access it in another laptop. Password Crackers, Inc. offers a service that can unlock most models of laptop hard disks. Detail are available on our hard disk page.

What worked for me:

After purchasing a power cord, I found, as the auction site had said, that the system was password protected, but I was able to bypass the passwords (yes, there were 2) fairly easily.

1. My Dell had a BIOS password, which I was able to get past by removing the battery pack, then with the power cord plugged in, press and hold the power button for 5 minutes. This reset the BIOS password to none.
2. I then encountered the administrator password! The "Latitude_MasterPW.exe" program (but not the original Latitude.exe mentioned below) was able to give me the correct administrator password, even though my laptop is not a Latitude, but an Inspiron. After this I was able to access and edit the BIOS setup, where I verified both the BIOS & Admin passwords were now set to none.
3. My laptop came with no hard drive, so had no HD password, and this is not set in the BIOS anyway.

Now I just need to dig in my spare parts box to find an old notebook hard drive, and I should be able to make this old laptop functional.

Below are some other ideas which may or may not work for you:
(WARNING!!! I cannot verify that these will work, nor that they will not damage your system or any files you may have saved. Use at your own risk!)

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Try the backdoor password Dell.

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Dell Inspiron BIOS Password Recovery

Each Dell Inspiron has a master password which will clear the BIOS password. You can get this number by calling Dell Technical Support at (800) 624-9896. Do a transfer of ownership on the support web site first and when the info has changed to your name, then you can call Dell and have them give you a master password. Dell Technical Support will request the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the bottom of your Inspiron. If you were not the original owner of the Inspiron, Dell will transfer registration of the used Inspiron from the original owner with only the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the tag on the laptop. To transfer the registration of a used Dell Inspiron, fill out the Transfer of Ownership form on Dell's web site.

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Dell Latitude BIOS Password Recovery (NOT for Inspiron models, but it may work)

Christophe Grenier has written a program that will calculate the master BIOS password for Dell Latitudes from the Service Tag number. That program is available at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~skynet/zips/latitude.exe.

If you cannot boot your Latitude to run this program, you can get the master password for your Dell by calling Dell Technical Support at (800) 624-9896. Dell Technical Support will request the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the bottom of your Latitude. If you were not the original owner of the Latitude, Dell will transfer registration of the used Latitude from the original owner with only the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the tag on the laptop. To transfer the registration of a used Dell Latitude, fill out the Transfer of Ownership form on Dell's web site.

Usage:

• From a command-prompt (DOS), enter:
• latitude 5-digit_service_code
• At bootup, on the password prompt screen, enter the generated password.
• If you hit <Enter> it will bypass (but probably not disable) both the BIOS and Administrator Passwords at once, which also enables the BIOS configuration, at least for that session, but...
• If you hold <Ctrl> and hit <Enter> TWICE it should disable (rather than bypass) the BIOS and Administrator Passwords, AND the HD password, if a HD password was enabled!

Note: "Latitude.exe" only works with the D-35B models, with 5-character service tags. If your service tag has more than 5 characters, you will have to use the "Latitude_MasterPW.exe" version. Latitude_MasterPW is a bit more user-friendly than the original, and works without having to use a Command Line or DOS window. The download is a zip file containing another zip file which has no extension, so you will need to rename it with the .zip extension. Inside that second zip are several files, including both "Latitude.exe" and "Latitude_MasterPW.exe". If your service tag number ends in D-35B, be sure to type in all the characters that are displayed on the "enter password" screen exactly as you see them, but without the # character. For example, "FAZNG73-D35B" or "FAZNG**-D35B", as the first screen for the BIOS password may show asterisks. If so, when you get past it, then you may get to the next screen, where the admin password prompt will show all the characters, and you will need to generate another password from that tag.

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Offline NT Password & Registry Editor freeware

• Download the iso and burn it to a CD using your favorite program.
• Insert the CD into the drive and boot your computer. You will then be brought to a screen in which you will be asked to download the drivers, select your partition, select your username, and change the password. THIS WILL ONLY ALLOW YOU TO CHANGE IT!

Note: The Windows administrative password has a 120 day freezing period. If you don't use it for that amount of time IT WILL LOCK YOU OUT.

This program will allow you to disable the password lock so make sure you select this option.

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CmosPwd - Password recovery freeware decrypts password stored in CMOS used to access BIOS SETUP. With CmosPwd, you can also backup, restore and erase/kill CMOS (probably won't work with most laptops, including Dell).

Works with the following BIOSes:

• ACER/IBM BIOS
• AMI BIOS
• AMI WinBIOS 2.5
• Award 4.5x/4.6x/6.0
• Compaq (1992)
• Compaq (New version)
• IBM (PS/2, Activa, Thinkpad)
• Packard Bell
• Phoenix 1.00.09.AC0 (1994), a486 1.03, 1.04, 1.10 A03, 4.05 rev 1.02.943, 4.06 rev 1.13.1107
• Phoenix 4 release 6 (User)
• Gateway Solo - Phoenix 4.0 release 6
• Toshiba
• Zenith AMI

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Try removing the CMOS battery for a day or so; let the charge dissipate completely. This used to work on older bioses! Since the CMOS stores all the settings, removing/replacing the battery will reset the BIOS password.

Laptop computers use far more stringent methods of securing themselves than old desktops used to.

Removing the CMOS battery will NOT remove the passwords on a typical laptop. The passwords are stored in a NVRAM area, usually in the same chip that the BIOS is stored in. Simply removing power to this chip will NOT erase it.

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All BIOS passwords can be removed easily:

1. Create a DOS system disk.
2. Copy "debug" (this is a DOS command found in the "windows\command" directory) onto the system disk you created.
3. Boot the machine with this disk.
4. At the DOS prompt type: debug then hit <Enter>, and you will see a blinking dash.
5. Type: o 70 2e then hit <Enter> (also seen: o 70 18).
6. Type: o 71 ff then hit <Enter>.
7. Type: q then hit <Enter>.
8. Remove the floppy and reboot! Power the system off and on by unplugging and replugging the system into the power outlet.

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Most Laptops if you pull the system battery out, unplug it and hold the power down for about 5 minutes, the boot security will be overridden and you can boot the system. Popping the CMOS battery will do the same in many laptops. How do you think the fix your laptop when you send it for repairs? The ones with added security just had an IC with a jumper in a hard to see location (normally well hidden by something) or a reset button that is often RED or YELLOW.

Go get a static wrist strap, use it and crack that laptop open after removing the system battery. Pop the CMOS battery and hold the power down. If that does not work then start looking for jumpers and follow what I posted yesterday:

• unplug your system.
• pop the CMOS battery and pull a jumper pin (any jumper pin).
• turn the system on with it unplugged and hold the power button in for about 1 min or more.
• put both the CMOS battery and the jumper pin back and reboot.
• if this did not work repeat with a different jumper pin.

If you just hit <Enter> long enough, some Dells will let you in.

The other thing you can do is get a bootable DOS disk with the newest BIOS version on it, flash the BIOS and poof -- no more password.

Info Sources:

• Google search for my model
• General password removal at Tech-FAQ (lots of info on other models, including desktops and laptops)
• Dell password removal at Tech-FAQ
• Dell password removal forum at TechSpot - 25 pages!
• Dell password removal forum at TechSpot - 47 pages!
• General laptop password removal (lots of info on other laptop models)
• Dell laptop password removal

Save Outlook Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format

Like many of you, I use Microsoft Outlook as my email program, and have a love/hate relationship with it. It has many wonderful features, but unfortunately some aggravations as well. Fortunately, there are ways to improve on many of the shortcomings.

One of my pet peeves was that I often get html-formatted emails with cute pictures and photos embedded within the message that I may want to save. By default, Outlook will not allow you to save these pictures in their default format. This can apply to other embedded file types as well.

If you save the email as an html file, it does not save the attachments, as it would if you saved a web page from your browser. If you right-click on a picture and select "Save picture as", the only choice is to save it as "untitled.bmp" (you can give it a different name, but not a different extension). If you save that bmp, you can always convert it to a gif or jpg with something like IrfanView. If the original graphic was an animated gif, however, then it will no longer be animated!

In the past, I have tried two workarounds but neither has been satisfactory. The first method is to forward the email to myself, but NOT allow Outlook to download it from the Internet. To do this, you need to set up Outlook to NOT automatically receive messages (I have mine set to automatically send new messages, when I hit the "Send" button, but to receive, I have to hit the "Send/Receive" button). Then, while the message is still on my ISP's server, I use my ISP's webmail feature to open the message in my browser, where I can save it correctly. This works well, but is awkward and time-consuming.

The second method is to move or copy the message to a special "Export" folder that I set up in Outlook, then use "Outlook Express" (not Outlook) to import messages from Outlook's "Export" folder. Once the message has been imported in Express, you can (usually) save the graphics in their default and correct format. This method is also awkward, and does not even work on every email message. I (and many other people) have often thought it very strange that Outlook Express can do this properly, but the bigger (and in most ways better) Outlook could not! Anyway, I finally found a solution that works pretty well, at http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/saveembeddedpictures.htm. The parent site, HowTo-Outlook.com, also has a lot of other good information and downloads for Outlook. The site's author, Robert Sparnaaij, has written a short Visual Basic macro to save those attachments (actually ALL the email's attachments) as their original file type: jpg, gif, avi, mid, etc. This sounds intimidating, but it is really easy to follow the instructions, and you just copy the few lines of code from the web page. The code has been tested with Outlook 2003 on Windows XP and Outlook 2007 on Windows Vista but should work on previous versions as well. I tested it with Outlook 2000, and it works great. To use your new macro, simply open a message that contains embedded pictures. You have to actually open the message, NOT just view it in a "Preview" pane. When you click on the newly created "Save Attachments" button, it will prompt you for a location to save the attachments (except blocked ones) with a date and time stamp, but after saving you can rename them to something more descriptive, like CajunFiddler.gif, if desired. If the original graphic was an animated gif, then it will still be animated!

NOTE: this macro does not save the actual message, just the attachments and embedded files, so if you want to save the message itself, you still need to do that as well.

This is so much better than other methods that I have used, but still not perfect. I wish there was a way to save the entire message as html, WITH the attachments in a folder like you can do from your browser (with the attachments in a "filename_files" folder, corresponding to "filename.htm"). To do that, either use the first method above, or manually create the folder, move the attachments into the folder, and edit all the img tags in the html file to point to the files in their new folder. This is really not hard, but it can be time-consuming, and there should be an easier way!

Well, it may be that there is a better way, from the HowTo-Outlook.com site, and I will cover that in another article.

Even MORE Lifehacker!

In case you couldn't already tell from my previous post "My Favorite Websites", I like Lifehacker! There are so many good sections and articles in addition to the main site, and there is always some great information to read - either from the editors, and often, from the comments by other readers. You can also create your own custom mix of articles through the use of tags, as shown in several of the example links below, and even type your own "tag" into the browser's address bar to create your own page to read.

Lifehacker Features

• Geek-to-Live by Gina Trapani
• Hack Attack by Adam Pash
• Feature articles

Tagged sections (downloads)

• Downloads
• Download of the Day: Featured Download
• Download of the Day
• Featured Windows Download
• Featured Windows Mobile Download

Tagged sections (other)

• "Windows" tagged
• "Firefox" tagged
• "Featured Firefox Extension" tagged
• "Top 10" tagged lists
• "Windows Tip" tagged
• "Windows XP" tagged
• "BitTorrent" tagged

My Favorite Websites

These are some of my favorite websites that I like to visit daily

• The Southwest Louisiana PC Users Group homepage
• Freeware Genius
• Daily Cup of Tech
• Lifehacker
• Geek-to-Live blog at Lifehacker by Gina Trapani
• Hack Attack blog at Lifehacker by Adam Pash
• Slacker online radio
• Giveaway of the Day
• Game Giveaway of the Day
• Freeware Wiki
• The Portable Freeware Collection
• PortableApps.com
• My Easy Home Page (an idea I got from IE7Pro)
• Even MORE Lifehacker pages!

Recommended Tools & Sites

Recommended Tools & Sites (all free or open-source):

The "Holy Trinity" of security software for Windows includes, at a minimum, an anti-virus program, an anti-spyware program, and a firewall. If your computer is on any type of network, you need a hardware firewall, which is usually built into a router, as well as an inbound-outbound software firewall. EVERYONE who accesses the Internet, however briefly, and even just to check email,needs a software firewall. Idealy, you should also have a patch-management tool or system to help you remain current with the latest security updates. This could be as simple as manually checking the Microsoft Updates website weekly.

Here are a few recommendations for these and other categories, including replacing Windows entirely with Linux.

SECURITY TOOLS

Anti-virus:

• AVG Free
• Avast!

Spyware/Adware removal:

• Lavasoft Ad-Aware (the freeware version is not memory-resident)
• Spybot Search & Destroy (the freeware version is not memory-resident)

Firewall:

• ZoneAlarm
• Comodo Personal Firewall
• Jetico Personal Firewall ver. 1.0 Freeware

Patch Management:

• Secunia Software Inspector (free web service)
• The Software Patch: www.softwarepatch.com (free web service)
• Windows Updates Downloader (WUD): http://wud.jcarle.com/
• Offline Update: www.heise.de/ct/projekte/offlineupdate/download_uk.shtml

OTHER TOOLS

Web Browser:

• Mozilla Firefox

Email:

• Mozilla Thunderbird

Instant Messaging:

• Pidgin: www.pidgin.im/
• Trillian

Office Suite:

• OpenOffice

Word Processor only:

• AbiWord

Text Editor:

• PSPad: www.pspad.com

Tweaking:

• PC Pitstop: www.pcpitstop.com (free web service)
• Black Viper: www.blackviper.com (free web advice)

OS:

• Ubuntu
• PCLinuxOS
• Freespire
• Puppy Linux

more to come...