Molten Networks

As much as I hate to admit it, I called Nintendo support.

We had downloaded some virtual console games, but the jump button for player two had stopped working. I re-downloaded the game, swapped controllers, nothing worked.

Then I called support. It was a Sunday night, so I didn’t have high hopes. Within three minutes, I was on the phone with a great tech! In another couple of minutes, she had diagnosed the problem and we had it working.

Oh, the problem was I had the GameCube controllers plugged in! Removed those, and all is well.

I have a re-branded HTC Wizard PDA phone. All in all, it’s a nice device. There are some annoyances, such as “Internet Access” really means “web access”.

Then, I lost my power cord. No problem, I went to my local ATT (I call them the Death Star - look at the logo again) store and purchased a replacement. The phone would not charge. All sorts of disaster scenarios went through my head. A little research online, however, noted something interesting. The charger I purchased was a 5v, 750ma unit, but the charger that came with the phone was a 5v 1A unit.

Luckily, I found the charger that came with the phone, plugged it up, and it started to charge.

Two things irk me. First, since the phone uses a USB connector for power, HTC should have made the phone charge a fully discharged battery from the USB standard 5v/500ma power. Sure, it may take all night - no big deal. The bigger irk is the Death Star store selling a “replacement” charger that does not produce enough power to charge the phone.

Long story short - verify the power needs before going to a store. I made the assumption (yes, I know all about that word) that a replacement part from the same store from which I purchased the phone would work.

Here is the announcement.

First, thanks to zap2it for providing good guide data for a long time.

However, I’ve got to wonder.  Tribune is running the show at zap2it, so this move has the appearance of cutting off free access in favor of paid access.  The strange part - there isn’t an option for individuals to subscribe to this data!

Where does this leave MythTV?  Well, now we’ve got to go back to HTML scraping, for the most part.

For what it is worth, I have sent an email to Zap2It asking for them to reconsider.  I would urge anyone who uses, or is thinking about using, MythTV to send a nice email as well.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so I thought I would compose a couple.  There’s not much of a point to this post, just some random musings about the process.
We have realized that our house is too dang small.  Well, it could be said that we’ve just got too much stuff, but that would involve taking personal responsibility for throwing stuff out.  Nah, that won’t do.

So, we’re searching for a new place to call “home”.

Those of you with houses, do yourself a favor - don’t skimp on updating.   We are somewhat fortunate, we had done some updates in our present (soon to be old) house, but needed to do a couple more major items.  Installing 200+ square feet (approx. 19 m^2) of floor tile in a weekend isn’t my idea of fun.  Neither is painting, you know, the stuff that you keep putting off because you don’t want to do it.

I’m also coming to remember that the whole house thing is a compromise - space, appointments, fixtures, location, etc, etc, etc.  Then, throw in being a geek - one of my first thoughts upon entering a prospective dwelling is about running wire - speaker wire, network, power to different places.  I have realized that what I would like to see in the “infrastructure” part of a house and what a builder puts into houses are two very different things.  It looks like my Mrs. is right - I’m weird.

So, the long-term goals here, once we have a new address - build out the MythTV system, then start on a MAME cabinet, and acquire/refurbish a pinball machine.

Stay tuned, hopefully this ride will be short…

While the local CompUSA was still in business, I picked up a Hauppauge PVR-150 for the MythTV build.

When I took it out of the box, I had a bit of a surprise. The card should look like this.

Instead, it looked like:

What’s missing, you say? This:

Eeek! Since the store was closing, they were in a “no returns” mode, not that they were every very nice about returns. So, I emailed Hauppauge, and sent a couple of pics.

Hauppauge’s return team has got to be one of the best I’ve used. No problems, immediately got an RMA number, sent the card back, got a new one.

Kudos to Hauppauge for a great experience!

Greetings, all!

For those who don’t know, CompUSA is having a going-out-of-business sale. So, I have violated my earlier statement to never darken their doors again, but that is another story.

Inside the local soon-to-be-former CompUSA store, they have 30% off hardware, so it was worth a look. I grabbed a few items for the new system, namely, an Antec EA500 500W power supply, a CoolerMaster RC330 case, a Hauppauge PVR150-MCE kit, an 80 mm fan, and a 120mm fan.

So, all I’ve got left to procure is motherboard, CPU, RAM, and hard disks. In my newegg wishlist (mythtv server) is a DFI C51PV-m2/g motherboard, Athlon 64×2 3800 processor, 1 GB DDR2 667 RAM, and some HDs. Oh, and that big LCD HD-TV thing!

I keep hoping Hitachi will release the 1TB HDs, so the 500GBs will suffer a price drop! Likewise, I’m thinking about upping the processor some, mostly for future-proofing.

Back on the current progress, though, I’ve pulled the case out of the box, popped the power supply in, and attached the 120mm fan to the front of the case, and the 80mm to the side. There are two vents on the side, one with a processor stovepipe, the other was just screen. The 80mm fan fit well on that screen, and the included screws fit through the holes, too.

Be aware, if you’re looking for a case, this one is made from very thin material. One Newegg reviewer noted it was like an aluminum can, and I agree - this material is some of the thinnest I’ve ever seen in a case. The stovepipe is nice and adjustable, but I hope it will line up with the CPU. External drive bays are covered with mesh screens, just friction-fit, but it works well. All drive mountings have tool-less clip things, I’m hoping these will work, but I’m not sure about it. The clips and pins look like they will leave room for vibration, but I hope I’m wrong.

We also got an entertainment center! The local unfinished furniture store had one from www.eagle-ind.com, product #75555, paired with piers like #75656, with doors. Our old TV looks tiny on this unit!

More to come…

It’s here!

This was a game I played in college. No 3D surfaces, etc. Should run on anything since the 286!

You’re playing as Nevada Smith (Not the other guy with a similar name), raiding Tombs, dodging monsters and other bad things.

It’s fun. Grab and try.

First, some vital stats. This device is a cross between a die cutter and a printer. For those of you who don’t know, a die cutter is a thing that removes various shapes, characters, etc. from paper. Yes, this is a punch. It’s called a die cutter, it’s a scrapbooking thing.

This unit comes in a heavy cardboard box, complete with one, well, I’ll call it a font cartridge for lack of a better term, a sticky cutting board, cutter head, and power supply.

Once unpacked, you’ll need to remove the requisite bits of cardboard from everywhere. Installation of the cutter head is straightforward, however, the clamp needs to go around the larger-diameter portion of the unit, not the smaller portion.

Cricut unit, out of the box, front and back:

Pop in the cartridge, stick the keyboard template on the keyboard grid, and power it on. The power button also opens the doors of the unit.
You can see the cartridge in this pic:

The cutterhead and how it fits in the arm. Note the nut (points to the left) on the arm - just unscrew this a couple of turns, then it will swing to the right, releasing the arm.

You’ll need to cut some paper to fit the 6 inch x 12 inch cutting board, peel the protective film from the cutting board, then stick the paper down. Be aware, the sticky stuff on the board is seriously sticky. Looks like this keeps the paper from sliding around as it’s being sliced by the cutter head.

The three wheels, two on the left, one on the right control the size of the cutout you’re doing and the pressure the cutter exerts.  The wheel on top of the cutter head controls the blade depth.

Push the board and paper into the unit, then press the “load paper” button. It will drag the material in, and position itself for the first cut. (more about the second cut a little later)

Key in some text using the keyboard. Note that although {,},(,),[,and ] characters are listed, I couldn’t find a way to actually produce the right (close) characters. I’m guessing that since these are symmetrical, you’re just intended to print cut the open ones, then flip them over for the close.

The top, with the keyboard:

The included cartridge has some special features, like the signpost, and some pre-arranged words.

To use the special features, press the feature button then type some text for the feature. One cartridge has a signpost feature. Press the feature button for the signpost, then type a character. When cut, you will have a signpost with the character imposed.

Now that we have a signpost designed, let’s print cut it. Press the big, friendly “Cut” button. Cricut will then move the paper in, and cut out the design, much like a pen-based plotter once drew on the paper. When it’s done, press the “Eject paper” button and Cricut will spit out the paper and cutting board.

Getting the cut-out off of the cutting board isn’t easy. The adhesive is strong, and if you’re not careful, you may tear or otherwise maul your new creation. There is a toolkit for this, but it looks like being careful with an X-Acto type knife should do the trick.
Since I’m sure you’ll want to do something else, we’ll do a second cut. Put the paper back in, with the cut end into the machine first. Punch the “Load Last” button. This thing remembers where on the paper you were, so it will skip over the previously-cut section, bringing you to fresh, pristine paper, ready for the next cut.

Now, let’s see how sharp (pun intended) you are. Did you notice the USB-B port on the back panel photo? I did. I also just happened to have the correct USB cable. So, I plugged it in. Turns out, Windows XP says this unit is a “USB <-> Serial”. Word on the ‘net says that this is currently used for software maintenance, but that the manufacturer is considering adding PC support at a later date.

Pros:

• Doesn’t require a PC
• Easily portable
• Easy to use for non-techies
• Nice storage boxes for font cartridges and keyboard overlays

Cons:

• USB port is worthless.
• Cutting board will wear out, replacements are available
• keyboard overlay is so, 1980s?

Look for some more comments on the USB thing in my Soapbox.

Manufacturer’s website: http://www.cricut.com

Let it be known that I like Cisco products, and CallManager is no exception.

However, parts of the user interface need some improvement.

For example, when a phone is created in the system, it has a “Device ID”, which is, for all practical purposes, its MAC address. (Working phones also have a phone number, you know, the digits you mash to call someone.

So, when you look for a phone, what is the default search term? Device ID. Who remembers their MAC address? (Ok, I do, but I do LAA so I can find myself when troubleshooting. Yes, I’m odd.) Who remembers their phone number? Everyone. Wouldn’t it make sense for the default search term to be the phone number?

It’s minor, but annoying.

We’ve all got them.

Stuff that just drives us nuts.

Stuff that  any intelligent person would have done differently.

Stuff that proves the manufacturer/designer doesn’t use their own product.

So, I’ll be putting a few of mine up here.  It’s random, not in any order of chronology or severity.

Chime in if you want.  You know you’ve got ‘em…..