Nearest train station site reorganised to show nearest first when reaching the site, then all if selected.

The Nearest Train Station web app is a series of pages to show the nearest train stations, tram stops and Vline train stations. However, when I first created this site the first map people saw was to show all train stations. Since the name of the site is Nearest Train Station, showing all train stations first didn't quite sit right.

With a bit of time available I restructured the site so the first page people now see is the five nearest train stations. If people wish to see all the train stations they can now select the all option in the menu, or the Train, Tram or Vline options in the menus. The nearest five train stations, tram stops, or Vline stations can be shown by selecting the nearest five once you've selected Train, Tram or Vline.

I hope this change makes it faster for people to find the nearest train station to their current location.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.NearestTrainStation.com.au
Nearest Train Station

Can't play 0xc00d36c4 The file isn't playable - Windows 10 Photos app

On opening a video created from a dashcam I received the message: "Can't play. This file isn't playable. That might be because the file type is unsupported, the file extension is incorrect, or the file is corrupt. 0xc00d36c4".

What was unusual is I'd already used over a hundred dashcam videos created in exactly the same way for my site Speed Camera Locations.

Whilst not ideal, I was able to get around the problem by opening the video using the VLC Media Player. I then created a new video from the VLC Media Player when I could then open and view in the Windows 10 Photos app. The next problem is even though I could view and edit the video, I wasn't able to save the edited video.

Since the end result I wanted was an edited video on YouTube that is trimmed at the start and end I decided to upload the saved video to YouTube and perform the editing on YouTube instead. It took a bit of time working out how to edit a video on YouTube but I got there and the problem was solved. The section of the video I wanted was now showing on YouTube.

I suspect there was a glitch in the video Windows 10 Photos couldn't handle, and whilst not ideal, using VLC Media Player and YouTube's editing features I was able to obtain the outcome desired.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

How to remove sound from video in Windows 10 using Photos app.

Recently I uploaded a video to YouTube and much to my surprise there was a copyright claim.

I investigated and found the video had music in the background. The video was made from a dashcam video and the car radio had been playing. Didn't even notice there was music in the background.

Deleted the video and edited the video to remove the sound. I didn't know how to do this so I checked the internet. There were many suggestions such as using other products, but I couldn't help feeling the Windows 10 Photos app should be able to do something I'd consider fairly basic.

I found a few options relating to sounds, but then I right clicked on the video and found a Volume option. On the video itself is a speaker, so I decided to click on the speaker. It turned out I could mute the sound which I did and saved the video. Excellent. The sound and thus the music was gone. Just what I wanted.

The video can be seen at https://youtu.be/ZYNhIRB4giU

I hope this tip helps others.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Computer not connecting to Android hotspot even though it was previously working.

Today was one of those weird days. All of a sudden my Windows 10 notebook computer wouldn't connection to my Android mobile phone which I use as a hotspot. Performed all the usual diagnostics on the computer but nothing seem to work.

I then tried to connected a spare Android mobile I had to the hotspot and had the same trouble. Reset the Android wireless settings but still no luck.

What I then decided to do was to change the hotspot's password and change it back again to the original password. Viola! Everything started to work as normal and the devices I had recognised the password and connected automatically.

At best guess I suspect the password for the hotspot for some unknown reason had become corrupt. So when all else fails, don't forget to try changing the password on the hotspot. Changing it back to the previous password means all the devices you have connecting won't need to be changed as well.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support

BMI Formula web app updated to display BMI ranges for given height.

The BMI Formula web app has always had the BMI ranges for a given height, but unfortunately that information was not displayed unless people entered a height and clicked submit. To me that meant people probably didn't know the information existed.

When I'm losing weight (I wish) I like to know what the weight ranges are for each BMI class. That way I have a goal to get into the next BMI class. It's always good to have a goal as it keeps you motivated.

I decided to display the incomplete BMI class table so people know the table will be completed once they fill in their details and click submit. Hopefully the information will be helpful to others.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.BMIformula.com.au

Microsoft Outlook uses American English in subject field when Australian English is the default setting.

Sometimes you see strange things when using computers. Ultimately it is simply someone has programmed something unexpected. Recently I noticed when I typed the word flavour, which was spelt correctly for Australian English, into the subject field of a new email in Outlook, the word flavour was marked as a spelling error.

I've not seen this before and I can't help feeling it's a recent change. The subject field is being checked using American English (which isn't correct) and the body of the email is being tested against Australian English, (which is correct).

I can only feel this is a recent change and a mistake by the programmer/s. I'm sure once they realise they'll patch the program and fix the issue.

NOTE: I did have US English installed with Australian English as the default. Removing US English made no difference.

At this time, the only way around this issue if you wish to make sure the subject of your emails is spelt correctly, would be to write the subject in the body of the message and then cut and paste the text into the subject field.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Google Blogger exposing users to scammers. Reason not to use apps like Blogpress to post articles and photos to blogs.

These blogs use Google's Blogger. At one stage I decide to use an app to post articles to the blogs. Everything worked well.

For a while I've noticed images from old posts to be missing. Not good I thought. Perhaps Google's killed off another service I'm not aware of. But today things became a little more sinister. For some reason I decided to click on the missing photo to see what site it used. Much to my surprise it went to a scam site. As you can appreciate the last thing I want is for people going to my blog to be exposed to scammers.

So what's happening.

Some years ago I used an iPhone 4. I installed an app called Blogpress from the Apple store. Apple are very good in blocking scammers. So no problem there. However fast forward a few years and you can see how an app that no longer exists can be used by scammers.

What I didn't know was at the Blogpress stored photos on their own site and then my post provided a link to the Blogpress site. Blogpress has now died and gone. The photo in my post has now gone but the link is still there. The domain has now been taken over by someone else for nefarious activities. Even a search in Google for Blogpress returns a link to this site now owned by someone else. The site simply presents Google ads.

Clicking on the link in Google search results opened the following among others.

Therein lies the problem. The domain the third-party app Blogpress used and the live links in my blogs has now moved into other hands and is being used for completely different reasons. No way to report the issue to Google (as there's no real way to contact them easily) and the site uses Google's AdSense service so Google is even helping scammers make money.

Google should provide the ability to report nefarious sites people find in the Google search results. That would mean at least we can easily let Google know.

Now if like me you've found yourself in this situation, you need to go through your blogs and delete any reference to Blogpress. If you have thousands of posts this could be tedious to find every one.

To make my life a little easier this is what I did.

Export the blog using Back up content

Open the blog using Notepad

Search for src='http://photo.blogpressapp

In my case there were 14 entries.

Now for each entry you can find text that you can search for in Blogger and then delete the image. Not ideal as it takes time, but at least you have an approach.

NOTE: Weirdly some of the posts in the backup could not be found in live posts. That means some of the posts are not up for some reason in Blogger. That's a concern.

As for your images, they've most likely long gone. That's a problem with having your images hosted by another organisation. All is good whilst it is working, but always keep in mind you don't know what the future hold for the hosting company. We've seen companies like Microsoft dump hundreds of millions of users (Windows XP) as part of their business direction. Twenty million for their blogging software. If things aren't working for a company they need to close direction. Many fail and close down.

Lesson learned. Even with the experience and knowledge I have in IT, I'd not seen this before. I continue to learn which makes IT interesting. For some time it has been my desire to write my own blog software so I can incorporate posts directly in my site. Perhaps this is the bump I need.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au