Classic. My Zune was hosed this morning, stuck on the "boot screen". Won't respond to normal reset commands. Finally this eve, searched around a bit.

Turns out it's a clock issue. Will hopefully resolve itself tomorrow.

Official statement from MS

Happy New Year Zune!

Posted 10:04 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

I was cleaning out old Firefox bookmarks and came across this one.

A really long, long time ago, back at SAIC I think, I was a frequent contributor to the rec.sport.volleyball newsgroup. (Yes, this was well before the internet was popular, web sites with "forums" weren't around, so this was the way a group of people with similar interests communicated.)

Anyway here's the post (notice the funny email address @SAIC.COM):

ro...@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Robin Amano) writes:

:
: I have a question I though would never get answered, because I don't know
: anybody. So if possible, what does the US team do for strength training?
: Weights? Plyometrics? If so, what do you do? Squats? Depth jumping?
: Bounding? Sorry if you already answered this, but being that the topic
: on the net is vertical leap, maybe a lot of people would be interested.
: I always wondered what the best do. Take Care and Goodluck!!
:
I have seen this type of question quite a bit lately, in the newsgroup, and
in my email. So, here's the general answer to the USA team conditioning,
jump/weight training, etc.

Our season runs from mid-January to mid-November. All of our 'routines' are
based on this 'year' schedule.

Conditioning: For most of year, do cardiovascular work after practice (which
goes from 8-12pm M-F) 2 or 3 times a week. Start the year with 6 weeks or so
of distance running (2 miles) to build a good cardio base. Then start moving
into sprints. Start with 440s, then 220s, 100s, 50s, and even 20s. Stay with
each distance for a month or so. We do a 440 sprint for time at the start
of the year, then the rest of the year, the sprints are at 70/80/85% so we
have to come in at a certain time.

Weights: Lift 3 times a week after practice, on the days we don't run. Again
start the year building a base, high reps, lower weight...then work into lower
reps (down to 4x6 reps or 10,8,6,4,2reps) with increased weight. As for
which lifts: Flat bench, incline bench, shoulder press, lat pulldowns, upright
rows, seated rows, tricep/bicep work, shoulder work (light weight), leg
extensions, leg curls, calf raises. The big question that is always asked is
SQUATS. That is optional for us - a few guys do them. I don't because of bad
knees, and they do more harm than good. We get a lot of work for our legs in
the course of a 4 hour INTENSE practice.

Jump Training: Occasionally (maybe 4 or 5 times a year) we will do a month
or so of jump training after practice. This consists of jumping at the net,
with weight belts or ankle weights, and working on form with our arms/hands.
Other exercises include attaching surgical tubing between our ankles, and
moving side to side (increasing the distance between the feet - thus creating
tension in the bands) on the court. We test our verticals on a 'vertec'
probably about every 2 months.

Lastly: we are tested 3/4 times a year for body fat and VO2 MAX. Our body
fat must be uner 10% or we cannot practice (until you get it down). But the
goal is 8%. Mine is 7.4% VO2 Max is a test of volume of oxygen that your
lungs cycle for a given time, and is a measure of how in shape you are. The
test consists of riding a stationary bike for 5 mins as fast and as hard as you
can while a doctor monitors heart rate, blood pressure, etc. For anyone who
knows what the numbers mean, we must be above 50 to practice.

That's about all I can think of. Feel free to email or post with further
questions.

Good Luck.
-Dan
-------------------
Dan Hanan USA#12
d...@quebec.saic.com
-------------------

Posted 6:13 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Got the R4 chip for the kids DS systems. Here's a run-through of how to get it going.

Bought the R4 chip here.

Thanks to this site for the video walk through.

• 2 GB Micro SD card (like this one)
• Copy 4 items (2 files and 2 dirs) from R4 install disc \system v1.18\English-1.18 to root of the SD card
• Add new folder, called "Games"
• Copy .NDS game file into the Games folder

That's it. Put the R4 chip in the NDS, turn it on. The Pac-Man looking icon is the "directory" of the R4 chips. DOS looking directory listing, choose the game and go.

(If it asks to create a save file [SAV], make sure to hit YES)

Posted 9:53 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

The DVD drive in my Gateway FX7029E machine is there sometimes when I boot into Windows, and then randomly disappears. After it disappears, it doesnt show up in BIOS or then anytime in Windows. I have gotten it to reappear only after changing the SATA cables around.

Currently: SATA0 (HD), 1 (DVD), 2 (HD #2)

Called Costco, they brought Gateway on the line, and the guy quoted me MS KB article 929461 about disappearing drive letters in Vista. (not exactly my case, cuz I didn't upgrade from previous Windows version).

Anyway - deleted UpperFilters as described in the KB article (LowerFilters didn't exist).

Wala ! DVD Drive (F) is there again! Not holding my breath that it will stay there for long. Will keep an eye on it.

Thanks Costco / Gateway !

Posted 9:01 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Finally got around to updating firmware for my Olympus 850sw camera (the underwater, shock proof one). I was thinking this would take me to v1.1 which is advertised as giving unlimited recording length up to card capacity, but actually took me from existing 1.1 to 1.2

Firmware versions:

• 1.1 - removes limit on recording capacity (on my 2 GB chip, I get about 16 mins of recording capacity - does that sound about right?)
• XD M+ 2 GB chip
• 18:42 capacity according to this chart
  

• 1.2 - improved audio quality on recordings.
• no more no/low volume for first 5 seconds
  
• sounds like better quality
  
• haven't done a long recording, so not sure if audio cuts out occasionally like it did on Grandma's long recording
  

How to update firmware here. Use Olympus Master 2 software to check for, download the firmware, and apply the update to the camera.

Posted 11:20 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Instead of shopping on Verizon's network for ringtones, tonight I discovered myxer (here). Upload MP3, can splice out the section you want (they even offer "popular" splice sections), download it to your PC, and email it to your phone.

Actually I must have found myxer before [mentioned it when talking about my phone], but was skeptical I'd get ads, spam, etc. Just tried it tonight, so we'll see...

Posted 8:05 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Well my previous wireless router for home got fried, I think from a glitch in the lines via Time Warner Cable. A few weeks ago, the HD cable DVR went into a bad state saying no service, call TWC. Went so far as to schedule service call. Suspiciously, at the same time, our internet went down. After diagnosing with them on the call, the modem was ok (connectivity ok when connected directly to pc), but not the router (couldn't get an IP address on the public WAN side).

Anyway - buddy Joe at work gave me one of his old routers, Linksys RV042 (tech info here) - this thing has a ton of features: VPN from the outside, lots of blocking features from the inside (think - kids! ), etc.

When the router died, I had to go quickly buy a replacement, and couldnt find any that have the ability to port forward from one port on the outside, to a DIFFERENT port on the inside. This RV042 from Joe does that (although in a funny way - by adding to the UPnP table)

Anyway - tech info here

XBox 360 couldnt connect to xbox live. Complained about insufficient MTU. Found this article here - changed the MTU to 1365. Not sure if that's an optimal setting or not, but makes Xbox live happy. More info about MTU settings here

Posted 6:17 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Finally got all my old cell phone voice mail messages archived to the PC. These are messages mostly from the kids calling me to tell me they lost a tooth, they got the (baseball) game ball that day, asking for password for the laptop to play AoE, etc.

Since I hassled around with various connections, here's the golden setup for future reference:

(Starting from the PC side)

• Blue "line-out" connector in back of Gateway PC
• Splitter into red/white RCA jacks
• Red only side of a red/white RCA cable on one side to a 3.5 mm plug on the other
• 3.5 mm to 2.5 mm converter
• 2.5 mm female adapter to proprietary cell phone side plug (3 sided input converter thingy for my Samsung u740 phone)
  

Software:

• Make sure Windows Recording Devices lists the Line-In device (set play through this device in properties to make sure you hear the sound, play a song for example)
  
• Audacity, record from Line-In (Edit, Properties, set Recording Device), Recording channels = 2 (even though this is mono, the SECOND channel is the one that comes through, so you wont see it if you're recording one channel)
  
• Call voice mail, play messages
• Crop each message, save as MP3

Here's a screenshot of what the Audacity settings should look like:

And what the windows recording setup should look like:



Posted 8:17 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

I've never really had any trouble with gaming connectivity on the 360, but now that I'm hassling with a dead router and choosing a new one, you never know.

Here's a rundown on what ports are needed for XBox Live.

Set Up Port Forwarding on Your Xbox 360

Posted 8:05 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Latest list of favorite Firefox addons / extensions. (Just rebuilt work machine and always need to reference an existing machine for these - so here's my current list)

• FireGestures
  
• Extended Copy Menu
  
• Download Manager Tweak (no replacment, but FF 3 seems to have this)
  
• Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer (own server = ftp://www.servername.com/servername.com/www/firefox/bookmarks/username/foxmarks.json)
  
• IE View (the one that allows "always" for this URL)
• LastTab
• Live HTTP Headers
• ReloadEvery
• Save Session
• Tabbrowser preferences
• Unwrap Text - of course! By yours truly!
• QuickDrag (replaces old Super DragAndGo)
  

(bold are not available yet in FF 3)

Posted 10:14 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Here goes ... a possibly endless list of crap that I'm installing on the new Vista 64 machine. Info and links on where I got it, how'd it go, etc.

WiRNS
(update 08/14/11 - now using 3.0 after a machine repave. Notes here.)

download here - I'm trying 2.0 preview 04.09.2008

crashes at startup. forum post telling how to get a 64-bit version of SqlLite.
System.Data.SqlLite - here. Specifically 1.0.48 binaries zip download here.
renamed existing \wirns\sqlite.dll (sqllite.dll.original) and using the one from x64 dir

StartWirns.bat, which just runs "wirns.exe -server" Vista asks for permission, then it stops. Looks like reg access denied.
Run as administrator. Still crashes.

Run WirnsMon.exe, then system tray icon, Start/Restart.

During first run, prompts for IP address, etc. Running this as a service, so Vista shows it in another window station - just entered garbage, will have to edit manually.
Configuration, starts browser for garbage IP address I entered in the other window station.

Regedit - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WiRNS\configuration (wirnsip), set IP address hosting the Wirns config. Now I can get to web based config.

WirnsMonitor fails to start at Windows startup.

In Wirns config, there's a setting to "Load WirnsMon at Windows Startup". Normally, this ON is fine, but on Vista, it needs to run with Administrative privs (not sure why). Unchecked this setting, and put WirnsMon in startup folder with an advanced property setting to run as admin. (Still get standard Vista security prompt to allow/cancel)

Wirns machine doesnt have an ISN to download shows to.

http://www.planetreplay.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13813&highlight=download+isn

In Wirns configuration, enter a "secondary web port" number to be used by the WIRNS machine for replay functionality (primary port is for web based Wirns functionality). Delete the Wirns machine in the Replays list, and rescan for replays.

To have the WIRNS machine show up in the list of download targets: IVS config, check "Enable IVS Tracker" and "Update RDDNS with local ISN". (Actually it still doesn't show up in the dropdown list, but I just realized you dont have to use that list for downloading - downloads always go to the local WIRNS machine (I wonder what happens when you do that operation from a remote pc?). The dropdown list is built dynamically by SENDing shows to various ISNs, which also works on the local network, to a WIRNS pc)

Working with Schedules Direct

Subscribed ($5 for 2 months to start with) to Schedules Direct for guide data. This allows me to have a guide on the WiRNS pages, and set recordings from there.

Setup:
Configuration, Guide Data - enter user, pwd, zip code, lineup 1 and 2 offsets (0, 1000)
(this next part was not obvious)
Configuration, Replays - for each replay: Edit, choose Lineups for each offset in the dropdowns

Now when I update guide data, then go to the channel guide, it's populated!

Replays cant see Wirns in their replay guide

Configuration >> Wirns. Have to turn the UPNP setting ON. (requires Wirns restart)
(also make sure appropriate path checkboxes are checked in Configuration >> Wirns Paths)


TODO: error at startup: WiRNS is already running. (what's starting a second copy?)


Snoop
Crashes when attaching to a process.

Exception is when loading the injector dll - invalid format. The DLL is a 32-bit DLL and is not liking being loaded in 64-bit process space. TODO: figure out how to build a 64-bit version.

My app doesnt show up in Snoop's list of processes.

Original build target is Any CPU for the snoop.exe process. This makes it a 64-bit process and fails to load the 32-bit injector DLL. Added an x86 build target so that the injector DLL works, but now my (any CPU) app that I'm trying to snoop doesn't show up in the snoop list. Looks like it only shows processes of the same "bit-ness".

Added an x86 build target for my app, so that it's creating a 32-bit version to run, now all is well, I can snoop!

IIS 7

Enable Basic Authentication

Haven't had to use IIS 7 for work yet, and it's a bit different in terms of where to set the settings.

IIS Manager, Drill down through the site, to the application (make it an application if it's not), right side pane, "Authentication". Right click and set: Enable Basic Auth, Disable Anonymous. (have to use a user/pwd that are in the ACL list for the assets directory)

Turned on SSL

Pretty easy in IIS 7. Used ScottGu's blog info here

IIS manager, machine node, SSL certs, create self-signed cert.
Web site, bindings, add https / 443, and point to the cert.
To require SSL for a particular app: Web app, SSL settings, require SSL

ORB
Add channel 77 to guide, to be able to watch ReplayTV on home internal channel

From this post at orb forums, add a file called "channelmap.txt" to C:\ProgramData\OrbNetworks\OrbTV\data\fyi (on Vista 64 at least).

Format of file is:
ChannelName (to show up in the guide)
ChannelNumber

So mine looks like this:
ReplayTV
77

Restarted Orb, and it's all good, shows up on the list of channels, and can watch 77 from remote machine. WOOT !

Xbox 360 Media Extender

Setup extender with Media Center on Vista 64

From info here

Run Media Center on the PC
Start 360, go to media center, get setup key
Back to PC, enter key, install from there.
After setup, go into Settings and add folders where media is located (video, pics)

Offered NBC Olympics on the Go from Linovo. More info here.

Sharing Media from PC to Xbox 360

For some reason, I was thinking this was a feature of Media Center on the PC, but I cant see media from my 360. (I think on my old machine, I was running some lightweight sharing thingy, but oh well - it's much easier / aka "built-in" to Vista)

Control Panel, Network and Sharing Center
Media Sharing - turn it on
In the settings, you can establish what devices can see your media.

Where is the list of folders to monitor?

Built into the Windows Media Player library of course! Ugh.
Tools, Options, Library, Monitor folders...

(Even after the progress bar says it has combed all the folders, it seems to take a while for the media to be available to the 360)

Media available to the 360 under the pics and videos folders, not the Media Center (although you can get to them there if they're setup from within Media Center)

Remote Desktop

Lame, Lame, Lame!! Sounds like Remote Desktop is disabled in Home versions of Vista.

Found this blog post with a way to "turn it back on". Didn't work for me. Ran the SP1 version, but get error when re-starting terminal services (193 not a valid Win32 application).

Damn! Now Media Center Extender wont start back up, cuz Terminal Services is a dependency, and it's hosed.

The batch file was trying to help by saving off the original termsrv.dll to .bak, but since like a dummy I ran it twice, I no longer have that original version.

Heading towards system restore, and use logmein...

Command Prompt From Here

(update: now have a .REG file to do all this for you in Vista and Win7. See ...\Public\RegHacks)

XP Power Toy doesn't work on Vista. Old Command Prompt reg keys dont either

Found this post that pointed me in the right direction. Vista has the feature, but just need to delete or rename that "extended" value (Dont know what %V or %L do, but pushd seems to be the trick)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\directory\shell\cmd
delete "Extended" value

I like the Windows SDK prompt with yellow coloring to show you're set with the vars, so my complete command is:

cmd.exe /E:ON /V:ON /T:0E /K pushd "%V" && "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.1\Bin\SetEnv.Cmd"

Set this on both the following keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\directory\shell\cmd\command
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd\command

MISC IIS stuff
IIS 7 - disable anonymous auth, enable basic auth, disable windows auth (dont want to allow passthrough)
Change security on disk folder: remove admins, add own acct as admin, add webuser, add IIS_USR group with read access




Posted 9:29 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Finally bit the bullet and bought a new PC for home. My old machine has been upgraded a few times now, most recently to a P4 I got from my buddy Paul at work, but it's finally dragging so much that I can't take it.

Got a Gateway FX7029E from Costco of all places. Compared a bunch of choices from Dell and HP, and this one in a box at Costco came out the best.

Purchased: 4/30/2008 Costco $1499

S/N: CSX83 L10 00042

Specs (Gateway info) (list of many different parts here):

• Intel Core 2 Quad proc Q9300 (2.5 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 cache) (I think it's an Intel E210882 motherboard) Intel G33 here or here (dont know what's the difference). "Intel (Schroeder Town) G33 Motherboard"
  
• 4 GB RAM (PC5400 dual channel DDR2 SDRAM, 2 modules)
  
• 500 GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA HD w/ 16 MB cache
• 18x DVD +/- R/RW with LabelFlash
• NVidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB (factory overclocked dual DVI, VGA, TV out)
• Sigmatel IDT HD Audio
  
• 15-in-1 media card reader
  
• Windows Vista Home 64 SP1 w/ Media Center and remote

I'm a little leary of 64 bit Vista, but will give it a try. Found it interesting that a note came in the box along with an original Windows Vista 32 bit CD, saying "64 bit is not for everyone..." with complete instructions on blasting the machine back to a 32 bit OS.

A buddy at work is running 64 bit Vista with many of the same devices I have to use (Zune, iPod, digital camera, etc) and has had zero problems.

I'll be putting some more posts up with info as I try to build it out with all the home software I want...

Posted 7:18 PM    |    1 comments    |    Permalink   

Got a new cell phone over the weekend. The Samsung SCH-u740

I have been thinking about changing providers (from Verizon) for a while, in an effort to get a cheaper data plan, but then on the other hand have been thinking: I dont REALLY want to be always connected to email and such do I? For about the last 3 months, I've been using text messaging and free 411 info to get sports scores, etc. and that seems to suit me. The only downside is I hate typing text messages on the phone number pad.

This Samsung phone is about the best QWERTY keyboard I could find without going up to the full Smart Phones with Windows Mobile, etc. I'll still maybe someday have one of those for all the other things I can do with it (navigation, golf distancing, write and run my own C# software, etc) but for now, this is a good mix.

Anyway - some sites to keep track of...

• BitPim (here) - PC software to manipulate data on the phone
• Ringtone stuff (here) - create (?) and download free ringtones
• FAQ page (here)
• USB / Bluetooth drivers and software (here)
  

Posted 4:09 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink