Most of us have probably seen videos on YouTube that we wish we could save to our computers. I’ve also seen streaming bondage videos on other sites and wished I could save them. Well, probably the owners of these sites don’t want you to do that, and I’m not advocating any questionable behavior (I would never do that!), but actually in most cases it can usually be done with a minimum of hassle. If you’re on YouTube, for example, usually all you need to do is make sure that the entire video buffers completely (make sure that little shaded red bar at the bottom extends all the way over to the right). Then if you’re using Windows Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > Browsing History > Settings > View Files. Clicking on “View Files” will open up a window showing you all those temporary files that get downloaded when you surf the web. Make sure the files are listed by “Last Accessed” (check out those tabs along the top of the page if you need to) and look for a recent file that is relatively large in size. YouTube videos often start with the word “videoplayback?” and then a bunch of letters and numbers. Just right click on the file and go to “copy.” Then using Windows Explorer go to a folder on your computer where you store your ever-growing collection of bondage videos and right click and “paste.” Then you’ll have to right click on the file and go to “rename” and change the file’s file name extension to .wmv and you should have it.

I probably shouldn’t be discussing how to do all this, although with a quick Google search you could find out the same thing on numerous sites. I just think it’s always a little ridiculous when a site is set up so that you can’t save pictures or videos. If it’s on the web there’s a way to save it. Now for a shameless plug, I have a very small Clips4Sale Streaming Video Site, and really I would recommend that if anyone joins it they should definitely go to the trouble of saving the videos that are there, as I’ve always felt that if you can view something, and especially if you’re paying to view it, you should be able to save it. Of course, a much more cost-effective option would be to just join the main site, where you can download all the videos and many more and all my still pictures too. But I know a lot of people do like Clips4Sale. I sometimes even buy things there myself from other producers whom I like a lot.

Fetlife has also recently set up their site so that you can no longer download the pictures that people upload onto their profiles. This shouldn’t stop anyone. If I absolutely have to have a picture, I just use Firefox and go to Tools > Page Info > Media and there you have a listing of all the elements on the page, with options to save any of them. I know there’s also a quick javascript fix to disable the “no right clicking save as function” but I haven’t figured it out yet. If anyone knows that solution, feel free to leave a comment. I’ve read a few descriptions online but they weren’t easy to follow.

So, again, I’m not encouraging anyone to do anything “wrong” but there are ways around these limitations if you choose to go there.

Well, I finally got around to that set with the red hoodie dress and red wig. It was a very strict and intense duct tape bondage and as the set progresses I also get blindfolded, which was a real turn on ;-) Here are a couple of “extra” shots below that didn’t make it in. I’ll be posting the full set on Friday for this week’s update.

More Computer Crap – I finally got the computer all back up and running over the weekend after that nasty computer virus. On the plus side, the computer’s probably running about as well as it ever does. It’s always so peppy after a clean install! I took a friend’s advice and made a cloned copy of the “C” drive onto an external hard drive, and I’m adding a larger “D” drive, so I’ll make a second cloned copy on the old drive just for extra insurance. If I get nailed again theoretically it should be fairly easy to copy the clone back to the “C” drive and be back up and running without the hassle of re-installing Windows and all those programs, some of which are so bloated.

I’m kind of freaked out now about going online though. I’ll probably start using Firefox more, as it’s “supposed” to be a bit safer than IE, though it’s debatable. Apparently more and more viruses are being written to target Firefox as it becomes more popular. It’s funny, though, are there kids out there who have the secret desire to grow up and be computer virus programmers? (“I want to mess up people’s computers and extort money from them! That’s what I want to do!”) I guess the answer’s yes.

While re-installing all my software I noticed too how many programs there are that, as a service, make a database of all the crap on your computer, thereby nicely slowing it down – a special feature, just for you! Nero is one of the biggest offenders, with Nero Scout. Why would I possibly want some CD burning software to index everything on my computer and run in the background doing it’s thing? Thankfully with a little work, you can shut down all these processes, but they’re all so unnecessary to begin with.

Okay, I’ll take a deep breath, and hopefully no more computer news for a while. I’ve obviously had this stuff on my mind way too much! Bondage would be much more preferable ;-)

Well, Happy New Year, everyone! I was determined to get back to L.A. and get right back to work…and then I caught a computer virus. Yikes, these things are nasty! (The blog and the website, of course, are perfectly fine, as they’re on a server somewhere out there). But my home computer got hit hard last night, with one of those bogus spyware viruses that cause all those scary pop up windows to take over your computer. I’m not normally in favor of capital punishment, but the people who make these viruses definitely make me re-think it (spammers too).

I used a good free program called MalwareBytes that was able to eliminate the worst of the virus and allow me to use the computer again, but there are still mystery files that show up every time I run a scan. I was using Bitdefender but it obviously didn’t catch this thing. I’m really not even sure how I got it. I was checking out a photographer’s work on the Deviant Art site, and there may have been something on there, but I can’t say for sure. Well, it looks like I’ll be re-installing Windows XP tonight or tomorrow. And I’ll probably go with a new antivirus software, probably Nod32, and will probably pay for the “pro” version of MalwareBytes. I hate to waste a day or two with this kind of stuff, but what’s one to do?

Be careful out there. It’s a scary world.

All right, a total geek post today. I admit my favorite browser is still Internet Explorer, even though I know how much grief Microsoft gets, and much of it warranted, though I’ve never been a big hater on them – I like having relatively inexpensive computers that work, uh, pretty well, uh, most of the time (how’s that for an endorsement ;-) And I sometimes use Firefox and even Opera but I always come back to IE, and of course always download the security patches for it and have the latest version, as its security issues are well known. Still I like it.

A couple neat tricks on IE: If you hit the F11 key it makes all the borders and stuff disappear on your browser so all you see is the webpage you’re on. Try it if you haven’t – it’s pretty neat, and is great if your looking at a full size image that’s just slightly too big for your browser window. Hit F11 and you can see it all, and hit it again to go back to normal. Another nice trick is using the Backspace key, which acts just like the “back” button up on top. Hit “Shift-Backspace” and it acts like the forward arrow to go forward to a page you’ve already visited. Sounds confusing but do some back and forth and then use the shortcuts and it’ll make sense.

There’s this bizarre spam email going around that when you open it simply says, “Your life is crap.” Nothing more, no links for Cialis or anything. I got one this morning and thought, “Hmm, that’s odd.” At first I wondered if maybe it was an anti-tranny email from someone wholly offended by my “lifestyle.” (I actually get emails like that occasionally, but quite often there’s talk of repenting and changing my wicked ways before I burn in hell – usually though they seem to prefer I just burn in hell.) Then I read this blog post from someone else and what he says makes sense, that the email is probably just intended to get a reply and verify that your email address is valid to add to the spam list. Quite clever, if nasty. It is kind of funny in an absurd sort of way though.

Wow, I feel like I just lost half a week here. I spend way too much time in front of the computer so I’m always a little concerned about having the thing die on me without good back-ups handy. Well, my main hard drive had been making these weird little clicking noises for a couple weeks so I figured I’d better install a new one before it died on me. I cloned the entire drive to an external hard drive just in case, and figured I could then put in a new C: drive, re-install windows and all my software and be right back in business. Ah, optimistic me. It turned out to be a royal pain, with much swapping back and forth of the new drive and the old drive, etc.

The worst part was that once I had Windows re-installed, and was preparing to re-install all the drivers, the monitor would only display at 640×480, and the areas on the screen where I needed to click weren’t even showing up anymore. If I could just click on that box two inches off to the lower right I’d be fine. I lost about a day on that one and finally figured out a work around.

Well, I finally got everything all working but I’ve been dealing with it off and on since last Friday. I’m not really complaining – well, just a little – since I didn’t lose anything and everything seems to be working fine. It’s always great having a fresh operating system without all the accumulated crud that slows things down. Now I just turn it on and it fires right up without the five-minute-long churning and searching that it used to do whenever I booted up. It never works exactly like it used to after installing a new system drive, which can be frustrating, but in a week or so I won’t remember. Now, I just have to back up this drive. Be prepared, as they say.

Okay, another geeky browser post:

I very reluctantly upgraded to Internet Explorer 7 last week in order to see firsthand this display problem I was having on the Ts in Trouble Video page, which only occurred in that particular browser. I fully intended to uninstall the upgrade and switch back to IE6 after I fixed my problem, but, golly, I have to admit I’m actually kind of liking IE7, in spite of myself.

I didn’t want to like it. I was fully prepared to hate it. Indeed, it’s a completely under-whelming upgrade, still very buggy, and adding features that Firefox has had all along since 2004. It’s nothing special at all, and yet I do like how it handles tabbed browsing, and, you know, I think I’m going to keep it. Maybe I’m just easily satisfied. Go figure.

Of course, I should just use Firefox exclusively, which I recommend all the time to anyone who’ll listen, but I don’t take my own advice often enough. I’m used to Internet Explorer, and a bit lazy, and I just keep using it anyway. I guess that’s my dirty little secret for tonight. I just can’t break the habit. And Internet Explorer works really well with Roboform, which I use ALL the time – and is like the greatest software ever invented, in my inexpert opinion – “Still logging in manually? Let the Robot do it!” (Okay, Roboform works in Firefox too, so who am I kidding?)

And now Microsoft’s already talking about IE8, and working on fixing all the bugs in IE7 and making it support CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Standards better. But we have to wait eighteen months till that one comes out.

I’ve moved the Trannies In Trouble site to a new larger server, which is a good thing, but it’s kind of made a mess of my email accounts. So anyone who’s been trying to write me is probably having their emails bounce back. I’ll be working on this today to resolve it, and if you need to, feel free to leave me a comment and I can write you from one of my other email addresses.

Update: Looks like everything’s back to normal…Whew!

If you’re running Windows XP at work and want to freak out your colleagues, hit Ctrl-Alt and an arrow key. The screen orientation flips accordingly. I just accidentally did that without even knowing it and found myself muttering, “what the hell…?” when my screen suddenly appeared upside down. I spend way too much time on the computer.

I get way too excited over dumb stuff like this, but I just found this really neat little program that will add a column that tells you the size of the contents of folders, something that the folks at Microsoft seem to have overlooked. I’ve sometimes found it frustrating when I’m in Windows Explorer, where the size of individual files is clearly listed, but for folders there’s nothing. You have to right click on each one and go to “Properties” to get the information. A bit of a pain.

But, hey, with this little thing you can add a new column, “folder size,” that instantly tells you the size of folders. And it’s free and appears to be free of adware or other crap. Whenever I’m trying to clean up my hard drive, I’m always right clicking on folders to find out how big they are. I love this thing!

http://foldersize.sourceforge.net/

Sorry for the “spammy” post, but I was just wondering if anyone out there has any Favorites Management Software they’d recommend for managing their favorites / bookmarks. The “Organize Favorites” option in Windows really sucks and my list has gotten so sloppy and out of control that I hardly even use it anymore. I’m just always going to Google. So if any super geeks out there know of any good software they like, feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment – preferably free software but I’d pay if it was useful. I use Roboform, for example, for managing my passwords, and it’s the best forty bucks I ever spent.

My phone and DSL service have been spotty the last few days, dropping in and out and having lots of static. So the phone guy came by this morning and found that squirrels had chewed through some lines up on the pole. He fixed it and we’re back up and running. Another mini-lesson that nature shall not be tamed.

I want to apologize to everyone whom I’ve been neglecting on email. Things have been so busy lately – shooting pictures, prepping for the bondage class, painting my apartment, and trying to have some sort of life away from work and the computer – that I’ve been really bad staying in touch. I try to answer as much as I can but with the amount of email that I get from the Trannies In Trouble site, there’s no way I can stay on top of it all. I realized I have little red check marks by fifty or so emails, so believe me, it’s not personal. I’m just swamped and need to clone myself.