Ancient Backup Files - Part 2

So I spent the last several hours (mostly since my last post) looking at these ancient backup files again and I actually made some headway. I also found that my HEX skillz are very rusty :/

Here is what I have figured out so far

* Junk             16 bytes - no clue what this is and I don't think I care
* 
* Start of block       4 bytes     FF FF FF FF
* Header Descriptor    8 bytes
*      Header size     2 byte
*      Other Data      6 bytes
* Header               (Header Size Bytes)
*      Stuff           8 bytes
*          Something
*          Date / Time
*      File Size       4 bytes
*      File Name       12 bytes
*      String Separator 1 byte      00
*      Full Path of file (variable)
*      String Separator 1 byte      00
* Unknown Data     4 bytes
* File Size        4 bytes
* 
* File Data (variable)
* 
* File Trailer     4 bytes

I was able to pull the first file out properly, now to write the routine to cycle through the whole 'tape' and see if I can pull in all the files :)

Of course, I'm doing it in C#... suppose I could have done it in PHP but I guess I just figured it should be a windows app. Using BinaryReader to get the data and BinaryWriter to write it to disk.

Ancient Backup Files

A number of years ago, I used the dd command on Linux to extract data from some backup tapes I created using Norton Desktop back in 94(?). Unfortunately, dd didn't know the layout of the tapes so I really just have a few large files that contain the files that were actually backed up.

The tapes and hardware are long gone so there is no hope of hooking up and using old software to retrieve the files.

I've glanced at the files with a hex editor, and it definitely seems possible to write a program that would extract the files appropriately, however, every time I look at it, my brain hurts :)

One of these days I'll be able to create the proper routine to do it, just haven't looked hard enough.

Tiny parts really annoy me

I got my boys these light 'swords' that have a button on them and a set of 3 different colored LEDs.

Little boy likes to hit things with his and because they are so wonderfully made (not) some of the LEDs stopped working.

So of course, that is a major crisis.

I take it apart on my desk, extract the LEDs from the tube and 2 wires instantly drop off. Of course these are the teenyest tinyest wires in the world, and my fingers aren't exactly 'lady' fingers.

Long story short, it was a pain the in 'you know what' but I did get it working again and the boy is happy.

Web Color Scheme Designer

Found this site today... thought it was pretty cool so I thought I would share: http://colorschemedesigner.com/

Whoo hoo

So, I got this Star Wars themed Laser Tag set from a rummage sale awhile back. One of the guns, didn't make a sound regularly when fired. You could score hits, but no sound. Kind of annoying.

About a month ago, I took it apart but couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, so I left it apart on my desk.

Today, I decided to glance at it again. While looking at it, I noticed an old speaker I had saved from some other device stuck to a metal bar on my desk. I thought, what the heck, lets hook it up and see if the speaker is bad. So I hooked it up temporarily and sure enough, it made a nice sound when fired. Rip out the old speaker, put in the 'new' and presto! A working gun once again.

YAY!

DING DING DING!

So that website I posted got me to the right place, now I just need to 'understand' how it does what it does. Program is working... YAY! Learned a bunch of stuff about C#

So close I can taste it

SO I'm trying to export some data in C# to XML and my class has a couple of list classes in them and its really annoying. This page (http://www.codeproject.com/kb/xml/xml_generic_list.aspx) got me REALLY close. It outputs ONE record of five... not sure why yet.

Starting to really annoy me....