Old time Hong Kong

Mum sent me some scans of old Hong Kong. Here is Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford on a Star Ferry in 1929

Flipshare will not install with Windows 7 and Windows Media Player 12

Here is a xmas gotcha

I got a Flip Ultra HD camera for Orla this Xmas and went to install the software on my main PC this morning. I kept getting this error telling me that Windows Media Player was not installed and the installation failed.

My PC is running windows 7 Ultra 64bit and it has windows Media Player 12 installed so I could not see what the issue was. Others have mentioned that Flipshare did not support 64bit Windows but this was not mentioned on the requirements page so I kept looking.

I downloaded the version upgrade from the Flip site, I found that version 5.9 was the current version for me being based in the  UK (V5.10 is available for downloading in the US) the link for 5.9 was here:

http://www.theflip.com/en-gb/App/fvsw/5.9/update/

This version failed with the same error error, complaining that Windows Media Player was not installed. But it is!!

Not giving up, I grabbed Process Explorer from the sysinternals tool set here

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

ran it and set up the filtering just to show anything with the word "flip" in the application name and other strings. I then ran the flip installer again through to the error popping up. I then looked back through the Process Explorer log and found that the installer was trying to open a reg key called

HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6}

Looking up 6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6 on Google, I found this related to Windows Media Player version 10 so I created the missing reg key ran the install again. This time it found the reg key and looked for an IsInstalled DWORD value, I added this, set it to one ran the install again and it worked.

Here is the contents of the key after I exported it from the registry

---------------------------------------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6}]
"IsInstalled"=dword:00000001

----------------------------------------------

copy the text above into notepad, save it as flip-fix.reg and import it into your registry.

Once you have installed Flipshare and rebooted the PC as part of the install process, you can remove this registry key and it all seems to work fine.

This is just what I did to get this application going, do this at your own risk!

101 Ways to leave a game show is tedious and drawn out!

What a tedious, slow and crap execution of a game show concept this has turned out to be.

First they all have to pick an answer to a question of which one is wrong and will lead to their exit. But they do it by this repeated, boring, "If you get this correct, you win the answer" round of questions when two or more pick the same answer.

Take a leaf out of Millionaire and get the contestants to pick an answer "fastest finger first", no messing around. The first to press the button gets that answer without all the pain and tedium (but loads of tension).

Loads and loads of build up just to pick the contestant that takes the dump, fall or slide that the viewer wants. Then to cap it off, the loser is told they have lost, giving them time to get into that health and safety arms crossed over the chest position before the lever is pulled. Screw that, line them all up and just pull the lever. You can build that up all you like as the sudden end to the loser that picked 'Phlegm' as a variety of cheese will be the pay off that will get people coming back.

Think of the Channel 4 show, the Million Dollar Drop, that had loads of build up. The sight of the trap door opening and dumping £100,000 down a hole had the viewer hooked.

For the final, fill the tank with Piranha, Toxic waste or Fire

I will never get that 60 minutes back, can't even ask for a 60 minute refund on my TV License.

BBC1 let's pray for a short season.