Trevin Chow

I previously wrote about applying ReplayGain to MP3 files with a combination of Foobar2000 and MP3Tag.  I’ve come up with a slightly easier way to reduce some of the manual steps.

I found out that both Foobar2000 and MP3Tag both supports some limited command line operations, and with a tiny bit of legwork, you can add a right-click (context menu) way of making this process easier.

With this approach, you can now right-click songs, select a context menu option and Foobar2000 will automatically apply ReplayGain at the track-level then MP3Tag will automatically open up and add the songs ready for you to apply the custom Action we previously created.

First, make sure you have Foobar2000 and MP3Tag installed.

Second, copy the following script and put it in a batch file and save it somewhere you can remember. I put mine in E:\Documents\ReplayGainScripts\ReplayGain.bat.  I’m on an x64 system, so notice the environment variables highlighted in red which will need to be changed to %PROGRAMFILES% if you are on x86 (32-bit).

Read the rest of this entry »

The latest Wordle from my most recent set of blog posts:

Over the past several months, the Microsoft Store team has been working hard at improving our stores.  2 notable areas we’re working on is getting ready for the big launch of Windows 7 as well as expanding our global footprint. 

As we all anticipate Windows 7’s launch on October 22, we have some great news to share in the meantime.

Today, we opened up 2 new additional international stores – Microsoft Store Italy and Microsoft Store Australia!

Both of these new stores are currently offering Microsoft software by download, or download + backup media.  We are continually looking to expand our catalog in each of our international stores, so be patient with us

The past year has seen us open up several international stores, and with these 2 new stores, we now have presence in 12 countries world-wide.

If you’re a customer of one of our new stores, drop us a comment here, or on Twitter and let us know what you think!

I frequently forget to change the date and time on my camera’s when I travel so the timestamps in all the photos I take are incorrect. Even worse is when I bring multiple cameras and only 1 of them, since this causes photos taken on the same date and time have EXIF data that is in conflict with each other depending on which camera I used.

Most photo editing applications don’t make it easy to edit the timestamp in the EXIF data of your photos. I have no idea why, but for some reason they felt fit to prevent us from doing it. (Adobe Lightroom allows you to edit the “capture time” but for most people, buying Lightroom just to edit EXIF info is a little overkill )

There are a lot of apps out there for Windows that will edit EXIF data, but many of them are overkill or way overpriced. Fortunately, a long time ago I stumbled upon a free app to do this called Exifer.

Exifer is a nearly free software (you only should send me a postcard if you’re using Exifer frequently) with which you can manage the metadata (EXIF/IPTC) of pictures taken by digital cameras. Because many image processing software destroys this metadata when saving such files, the idea was to create a backup of the metadata before editing it in any software, and then, after that to restore it back into the processed file. With Exifer you can do this very easily.

The last update to Exifer was in 2002, but it still does exactly what it needs to do (edit EXIF data) and it compatible as far back as Windows 98 and even runs perfectly on Windows 7. Although I don’t use Exifer too often, when I do, it’s a life saver

Windows 7 is now available on Microsoft Store for pre-order!  

As mentioned earlier today, we have both Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade and Windows 7 Professional Upgrade heavily discounted at $49 and $99 respectively.  This discounted pre-order is available in limited quantities and for a limited time. 

Other information

• When placing you’re pre-order on Microsoft Store, you’ll have 3 options for getting the product on October 22, 2009:

1. Download – the quickest and easiest way.  We even store your product key so you don’t have to keep those pesky software boxes in your closet or silly stickers taped to your monitors.
2. Download + Backup Disc – for those that want convenience of downloading, but also a physical disc to use later.
3. Ship the package product – we’ll ship you the fully packaged product on or about October 22, 2009.   Arrival time will vary depending on actual shipping time.

• All editions of Windows 7 available on Microsoft Store include both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.  If you choose to buy Windows 7 for download, you will get access to both downloads.
• Discounted pre-orders are available starting June 26, 2009 and will continue while supplies last, or until July 11, 2009 whichever comes first.