31st Jul2013

This video is currently unavailable – YouTube bug using Chrome

by Gyro

The last couple of weeks I noticed that more and more YouTube videos would not play in Chrome with a message saying "This video is currently unavailable".

There is a link to a help page, but none of the tips solved the issue for me. I checked the flash player version, cleared the browser cache, all with no change.

Testing in Firefox, all videos played perfectly fine. In fact, I have started using Firefox for YouTube, because I was too lazy to find out how to fix this problem in Chrome, after the help page didn't help…

Today, I found the solutions… more or less by accident, and the solution is VERY weird.

As of recently, this may not work. If it doesn't, please read the UPDATE at the bottom of this post…

  1. Go to: http://www.youtube.com/html5
  2. If you haven't already joined the HTML5 trial, you have to join it now! Also, try loading the video again… it probably won't, but to follow my steps 100%, you have to do it ;)
    join
  3. If you have already joined the HTML5 trial, simply Leave the HTML5 Trial.
    leave

Once you have (joined and) left the HTML5 trial all videos that used to say "This video is currently unavailable" should play fine.

Very strange bug… I stumbled upon the solution because someone recommended to leave the HTML5 trial. That was the only thing I haven't tried, as I didn't even know a HTML5 trial existed. So, after going through loads of tips and messing around with my chrome plugins and whatnot, I thought this may lead me to something. Of course, I had not joined the trial, so I joined the trial and checked one of the videos, it still showed me this annoying ""This video is currently unavailable"" message. So, I left the HTML 5 trial again, and tada -- now the videos play -- no more "This video is currently unavailable", however weird it is that this worked, I am happy it did ;)

Enjoy!

UPDATE:

This work around seems to have stopped working as of recently, some reported that using the HTML5 player now works, but it doesn't for me.

I found a new way to get these videos to play, which is also a weird work around. Simply change the URL to an embed link in the address bar.
 
For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_DQKQ-7J7E

change to:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/O_DQKQ-7J7E

And… it get’s even stranger at this point!
I have to click Play, wait for the spinning wheel to disappear, and then click on the video again (as if I want to pause it) to make it play.
 
And as a side note…at this time I recommend just using Firefox for YouTube. While changing the URL to an embed URL works for me, it destroys the user experience of YouTube.
 
It’s a bit sad, to say the least, that two Google products wont work together, especially since this problem is ongoing for so many months. All I can say is "Shame on you Google", and "Thanks Google, for making my post a top search result for your bug" :crazy:

230311

Category : Internet Surfing, Linux Software, Mac Software, Software, Windows Software
29 Comm
30th Jul2013

Cannot Change Screen Resolution for Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop

by Gyro

Today my Ubuntu decided to "forget" it got 2 monitors connected. Once I activated the 2nd monitor again, I could only choose a max screen resolution of 1024×768.

After some searching I found the solution on Ask Ubuntu :)

Open Terminal and type:
$ xrandr
it will show you the available screen resolutions for the connected monitors.

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2944 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-0 connected 1920×1080+1024+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 509mm x 286mm
1920×1080 60.0*+
1280×1024 60.0
1440×900 59.9
1280×800 59.8
1152×864 75.0
1024×768 70.1 60.0
800×600 60.3 56.2
640×480 66.7 60.0
720×400 70.1
VGA-0 connected 1024×768+0+312 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1024×768 60.0*
800×600 60.3 56.2
848×480 60.0
640×480 59.9

VGA-1 is the monitor that has a max screen resolution of 1024×769.

So, next command in terminal:
$ xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1920×1080

And check:
$ xrandr

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2944 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-0 connected 1920×1080+1024+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 509mm x 286mm
1920×1080 60.0*+
1280×1024 60.0
1440×900 59.9
1280×800 59.8
1152×864 75.0
1024×768 70.1 60.0
800×600 60.3 56.2
640×480 66.7 60.0
720×400 70.1
VGA-0 connected 1024×768+0+312 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1024×768 60.0*
800×600 60.3 56.2
848×480 60.0
640×480 59.9
1920×1080 60.0

Last step: Open Display settings and change the resolution for the monitor in question.

Done, enjoy ;)

Reference:

Screen resolution stuck at 1024×768

http://askubuntu.com/questions/37411/screen-resolution-stuck-at-1024×768

3938

Category : Linux OS, Operating Systems
Tags : ,
0 Comm
18th Jul2013

Setup Protocol Handlers in Chrome for webcal or mailto links

by Gyro

I searching a bit for this, studying the Google Calendar Settings, and the Chrome Settings intesively, thinking I must have missed something.

After a small search Odysee, I finally found the simple solution below!

This page gave me the idea to focus on protocol handling, instead of a plugin or extension:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/10/open-webcal-links-using-google-calendar.html

Found this on the Google Support:
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1382847?hl=en

Which brought me to the list of Protocol Handlers that are currently setup in Chrome, but that didn't help me much, as the list of protocol handlers was empty, and there is no button to create a new protocol handle anywhere.
Chrome Protocol Handlers, copy+paste this in your address bar: chrome://settings/handlers

I found this page with someone stating the problem: Unable to register protocol handlers in Chrome on Windows 8
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=116452

It turns our that this was a bug, so I suspect that this bug still exist for Chrome on Linux or Ubuntu 12.04 to be exact.

I found an easy way to add protocl handlers for any protocol using Chromium on Ubuntu, or any other Google Chrome or Chromium version.

You have to create the protocol handlers by manually typing a line in your address bar, providing the correct values.

Here are two examples:

Make Google Calendar the default application for webcal:// links

javascript:navigator.registerProtocolHandler("webcal","https://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=%s","Google Calendar")

Make Gmail the default email application for mailto:// links

javascript:navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","Gmail")

If you want to copy paste these lines, make sure the link still has javascript: at the front after you pasted in in your browser's address bar. It may start with "navigator.registerP…" in which case you have to write javascript: infront of it. I think it is browser dependent and some automatically remove it for security purposes.

After you entered one of those lines and pressed "Enter", you will see a bar at the top of the browser that asks you if you want to add the protocol hander (similar to the bar that asks if you want to save the login details for a website), just click "Use Gmail" or "Use Google Calendar". If you did something wrong, you can modify or delete the newly created Protocol Handler ,copy+paste this in your address bar: chrome://settings/handlers>.

Searches I did while looking for the solution where: chrome calendar protocol handler list, chrome empty protocol handler list, chrome webcal google calendar extension, chrome webcal calendar extension, chrome webcal extension, chrome webcal plugin, and chrome webcal url google calendar -- but in reversed order :)

10543

Category : Internet Surfing, Software
3 Comm