Useful Concept - DIY

Home Renovation no no's

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:28:00 -0400

Jen and I are no strangers to home renovation. We are, however, quite aware of our own limitations in knowledge and skill and are more than happy to call the experts when needed. I love these sorts of sites who show photos of home projects gone horribly wrong. Some of the photos you need to read the description to understand completely, but photos like this speak volumes.

Treo 600 Buzzing - Fixed!

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 11:22:00 -0400

I use (and love) a Treo 600 as my cell phone. It really is a great device and I have yet to see a better example of phone and pda integration. Not even the newer Treo's improve on it that much.

The downside to the Treo 600 (and maybe 650) is that many of them have a buzzing problem. It may not happen right away, but for many people the phone will start buzzing either constantly or intermittently. For me it started happening when my battery would be about half way down. The past few months it was almost always and irregardless of my battery health.

I tried to use Palm for my Treo support. It turns out that it wasn't in warranty any more. I then tried ebay and bought a used one. It had a problem even worse than mine! So either I pay for a new phone (they are very expensive) or just learn to deal with it and annoy my family/friends.

I tried to deal with it for a while but frankly it was getting so bad nobody would call me.

Then I found this fix for it. There are a number of sites with these instructions, and apparently it is a well known flaw of the Treo. The quick description is that the battery is causing interference with the phone. You take the phone apart, and wrap aluminum foil around the wires connecting the battery with the cell phone and presto, all better.

I can't guarantee this will work for you. And if you break your phone trying it... well suck it up and get a new one. It was worth the risk for me, and frankly it was quite easy to do.

A few notes before you try.

My phone required a little TINY star screw driver. I went to home depot to get one, but they didn't sell one small enough. I went to Radio Shack. The guy there said they didn't sell em any more, but I easily found a combo kit there that had all kinds of sizes and worked just fine.
The case doesn't come apart very easy at all. I had to muscle it open and was very nervous I would break it. There are little clips on the sides that hold it together, even after the screws are off.
Make sure you back up your phone first. You will loose everything on it.

Good luck! And if you haven't called me because of my annoying phone... give me a call.

RPM Challenge - Complete!

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 22:04:00 -0400

Just over a month ago I signed up for the RPM Challenge. The challenge is to write and record a complete album during the month of February. Today being the last day of February, I am finally finished!

I should note that I really did have a lot going on, and didn't start until yesterday. I should also note that the last time I played my saxophone for more than a minute or two was almost a year ago. My tenor doesn't seem right, and my alto literally started falling apart when I recorded the first track!

My plan was to record 35 minutes (at a minimum) of improv saxophone jazz, rock, or blues, etc. Turns out, my chops are crap. I couldn't play that long without having to stop. My lower lip is all cut up. ;-)

I think the longest song I could muster was just over five minutes. All still, I worked up 9 pieces. Some of which are not too bad in parts.

The recording quality is sub par to say the least. I bought a cheap mic, and connected it to the computer, then used Audacity to record the songs.

So here you are, dear internet reader. My songs are for you.

(this is dedicated to Jen, whom claims I gave her an ulcer by waiting until the last minute. so sorry baby)

Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Track 5
Track 6
Track 7
Track 8
Track 9

well planned death - poorly executed

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:49:00 -0400

Perhaps this belongs at www.uselessconcepts.com but I still feel like posting it here. Aparently Mr. Moore of Belmont, NH committed suicide long before Monday of this week. He was partially successful.

How can you be partially successful in suicide? Well, he crated a home made Guillotine, and rigged his home to explode on his death. The Guillotine didn't quite do the job, though it did kill him. His head was still attached, and he was able to move some 20 feet before dying. The home also didn't ignite into flames as he had rigged. From what is available in the press, it seems he forgot to turn the surge protector on, thus it couldn't start the complex system that would have burnt the house to a crisp.

While I don't endorse suicide at all, I give this guy some props for his creativity. It may have not happened exactly as planned, but what a plan.

house almost done

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 12:37:00 -0400

House renovations are almost done. It is sooooo close. Just need the kitchen, and some final work on plumbing and electric. oh, and a carpet. Here are the latest photos (plus some construction photos). Hope to be there by end of year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78243738@N00/sets/1484000/

stickey tape vs sony

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 16:46:00 -0400

For all those aware of the copy protection used by Sony in their music CD's -and the mounting criticism and issues related to it - there is now an easy solution to stop the CD's from infecting your PC. Just put a small piece of tape on the outer edge.

Yup, this is the battle we have been waiting for. No longer is it Common Sense vs White House Administration. That didn't get much real news play. This is even more dramatic, hearkening back to the days where homeland security recommended duct tape to secure our homes from terrorist attack.

It's tape vs Sony. I am sure this violates some sort of law, and that tape manufacturers will be putting warnings on their packaging informing people not to use it on CD's or else feel the wrath of DMCA, RIAA, FBI and any other bad ass acronym around.

Of course you could simply not buy the offending CD's. Sony is recalling them it seems, though one would expect something else coming out equally as nefarious in the near future.

I think this is a good time to point out that tape is handy in any number of situations. Lets all drink a toast to tape this Thanksgiving. Now more than ever, it is our friend.

Fixing an LCD

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 18:51:00 -0400

All too often we are forced to throw away perfectly good and expensive technology, simply because a small part of it is broken. The technology is often too complex or intimidating to justify trying to fix. And into the dump it goes. Here is a site that will step you (quite easily) through the process of fixing an LCD monitor. You can't fix all possible problems. However, if your backlight has died, and the monitor just went dim or black, this bould be a quick $20 fix.

DIY LCD Projector

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 18:30:00 -0400

I have been a bit obsessed lately about building my own LCD Projector. For those that don't know, you can build one pretty simply. Good plans can be found at LumenLab.

I have settled on a box design, and am now looking for the ideal LCD to strip. The preference would be for a 15" HDTV with just about every input type available. I am looking at this samsung 15", though I think it requires an add-on component to do HDTV properly.

Anyone know of any other LCD that as the inputs I need (component is ideal, DVI, HDMI, and a build in tv tuner)?

Related to this is that I want to hook this up to my Media Center. Now, the PC's I have now are 2004 Media Center PC's so HDTV isn't an option at all. And upgrading seems scetchy at best. So, time for another dedicated media machine.

The projector is going to be ceiling mount. I have already wired my walls in the new house for coaxial and cat 5. A media center extender can connect to my PC through cat 5, and then through composit to my projector. The hitch, the media center extender doesn't seem to support HDTV. This page seems to say say no.

Media Center 2005 PC - Useful Concept
the extender that does NOT support HDTV - not so useful.