48 stereo installation

To be installed in the Q45: Alpine CDE-9582 (with iPod support). To be basically just set in place: IC-2100H 2m (VHF) Amateur Transceiver.

Obstacle: Premium Sound. Start the tour..

47 Scoping it out

From a friend of ours.. a 300mhz Tek 2465, function generator, signal generator, and sweep generator (not pictured).

46 Quicktime Picture-In-Picture

Problem: needed to superimpose Talking Head on top of Screen Capture for a work training video. iMovie doesn’t do multi-video-track compositing
$olution: Final Cut Express or Something
Better solution: Use Quicktime Pro!
Continue reading Quicktime Picture-In-Picture…

45 MS6503 Humidity Temperature Meter

picked up a MS-6503 Humidity and Temperature Meter from Halted at the swap meet.

Got some basic readout from it. Specs below the snip..

Device should be able to take in commands from the host, but, one thing at a time.
Continue reading MS6503 Humidity Temperature Meter…

43 AppleTV hacks

our new AppleTV goes under the knife, err, torxdriver.. photos here

---

boot screen replaced with CATS

42 luna2

Well, it looks like luna1 (2002-2006?) is on its way out. HD failure today - during the sermon. Not good. It’s mirrored, but the system went down with it.

Looking at a amd64 dual core system, in an antec Take3 quiet 3U case as a replacement.

for backup, I’d like to use a cheap voice recorder. All of them seem to record to the proprietary WMA or DSS formats. looks like some older ones will record to MP3.. ikey+ seems promising, but isn’t out yet.. and the previous version had a lot of bad reviews from users.

i think i might see if i can find a cheap secondhand direct-to-MP3 recorder, or to WAV if possible.. and look at the ikey+ when it is out.

41 solid state cooler

With a recent office move, I’ll be a ways from the fridge. So, I bought a Peltier Junction at last weekend’s Swap Meet, which incidentally seems to be a good place for antiquarian book hunting, of all things.
Continue reading solid state cooler…

40 Nano-PSU

iTuner has done it again .. not content with an incredibly small 12V power supply, they now have a teeny tiny unit.. 120 watts..

39 modified wheel

Here you can see the modified PowerMate wheel.. purple rubber around the sides, and a patch of Velcro (hook side) on top for friction.

38 more success

Well, for the first time I left the person’s house leaving a known-to-work system. It consists of a powermate talking to their existing Windows PC, and a custom JavaScript local HTML page that goes through phrases on demand. He was able to use the phrases on the mac version several times this evening, so that was encouraging. (He had to go to sleep before the PC version was tested.) Also he spoke in a complete sentence yesterday, and the family’s theory is that the additional mental stimulation has been a factor.

Here’s some of what he wrote using the letter-chooser: KKKKKKKKQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQLLLIIIIIIIIYYYYYYYYYZZZZ… I see him working intently on it, going through the letters, etc.. it really seems like part of the brain dealing with forming letters in this way may not be working right. I say this because he can hear, understand, and write words on paper when prompted.

The PowerMate was ‘modified’ a bit. Sunday night it seemed to be a little slippery. So, I put two wide rubber bands around the knob, and the hook side of some industrial strength velcro on the top of the knob. sadly, this grip seemed to be a bit too efficient in my hands - the knob top came unglued. No matter, as this actually gave me the opportunity to fine-tune the friction surface inside. Will post pictures soon.