Bright Shiny Objects

Tools that make life better!

2008-07-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the Windows tools I use most often, download them and try them out. If you find them useful please donate to the authors site. Someday when I can afford a Mac again I will post those tools as well.

Launchy -- This is a must have! One keystroke and you can launch any application or document on your computer. I used to be very particular about how my "Start" menu looked. Under "All Programs" I had 5 folders, nothing else. I would constantly have to move items to keep it nice and clean. Not any more. My "Start" is a mess! But I don't use it, so it doesn't bother me.
Batch File Renamer -- This great little app allows you to rename a ton of files at the same time. We have three digital cameras with the same naming conventions. So I can copy all the photos(600+) off of one camera and append SD750 to the end of the filename in a just a few seconds.
Unlocker -- Ever tried to move, rename, or delete a file? And received an error that informed you that the file is in use by another program or user? Well that's where Unlocker comes in handy. Just right click and hit unlock. Very nice.
Ghost Doc -- This little add-in for Visual Studio is worth looking at. It will save you time documenting your code. And who doesn't like to have their code documented?

Magellan Claims GPSr Bricked

2008-07-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

I loved my eXplorist 210, especially with the European Firmware. It did very cool things. But it is now dead... or is it? Here is what happened I uploaded a map region from MapSend Topo and received an IO error. Rebooted the GPSr and it showed a screen with the message "CHECKING MEDIA STATE..." no matter what I did the unit would not respond. After letting it sit for some time (all night) it booted normally. The splash screen came up, then it did something I didn't expect. It displayed another error "UNIT CURRENTLY CONTAINS NO MAP! INITIATING MAP UPLOAD" it would not connect to the computer over USB. I could not get the unit to do anything. So I took the easy route, I called Magellan. The tech nicely informed me that the unit was bricked. That made me some what sad. I don't really believe that there is no way to fix it. In fact I think I just need to figure out how to communicate with it. It's ready to receive a map I just need to send it. I also found this site with all the service functions. I also found a pin out for the unit, so all I should have to do in connect the right pins, and send it a new map. We shall see...

Here's your sign!!!

2008-07-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

This morning I was clearing off the SD card in my camera and saw this photo. This overqualified individual pulled up to the gas pump, without noticing the bright orange cones. He then gets out of the vehicle, and steps around the cones. Hmm... don't orange cones mean something? He proceeds to swipe his card and make his gas type selection. I could tell he was getting irritated that it wasn't working correctly. It took him clear until putting the hose into his gas tank to realize that the hose wasn't even connected to the pump! Meanwhile the wife and I are laughing so hard we are almost to the point of tears. The dude's wife (I assume it was his wife) had noticed us laughing by now and her face was starting to turn red. Then she saw me raise the camera, she instantly turned bright red and hid her face. After this embarrassing display the dude got in his car to drive to another pump. The one he chose? Directly on the other side from where he had previously tried to gas up---notice the orange cone? It was the best entertainment while getting fuel ever!

Back to FX2 from FX3

2008-07-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

I use Fx (firefox) with a lot of extensions (or add-ons as they are called now.) I was glad to see Fx3 released and promptly installed it. Every thing worked except for Bookmark Sync and Sort and Tab Mix Plus. That's not too bad I thought. After about a week I had enough trying to find tabs by scrolling side to side, it just doesn't cut it. Also having new tabs look the same as ever other tab doesn't help (when I search for something I will open the first page in the search results that looks relevant in a new tab with out switching from the search results tab. Then open other relevant pages in other tabs while the first page loads. Tab Mix Plus will color the text on the new tabs red so I know the page is done loading and I haven yet looked at that tab.) The other extension that I found really simplified things was Bookmark Sync and Sort. If I find what I'm looking for (or stumbleupon) on my wife's computer I can just bookmark it. Then when I get back to my computer, the bookmark is there. I know there is Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer or even the Google toolbar. But I like knowing where my info is stored and who has access to it. When a multi row tabbar is available for Fx3 might rethink the bookmark thing. For now back to Fx2.

eXplorist 210 GPSr

2008-06-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

This is a nice little unit for not too much $$$ but it needed a little help. I found the European firmware with a USA base map. The European firmware give you all the features of the more expensive units. Some features I like about the hacked firmware:

Cool nav screens
Two WAAS signals
Mark Caches as found (the one I used the most)
Way point projection

One downside is the units CPU isn't incredibly fast so the unit seems sluggish. But completely worth it for the cache management.

RRR technical limitations of blogger dive me nuts!

2007-08-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, blogger is not bad, but try and put an HTML table in a post. Yeah, it just gets ugly, so I took a screenshot of my table and attempted to put that in a post. But it will only show a thumb nail in the post. There is probably a why around that, but I have already spent too much time messing with it. Back to work.

800-514-1537

2006-06-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

So you get a voice mail from a nice lady who wants you to have a fabulous vacation in Las Vegas, and all you have to do is call 800-514-1537. Oh and you’ll need the conformation code of XXX. What is the catch you ask your self, well I called to find out?

They want all your info and then they want to sit you through a 90 min presentation, about how to save on travel. To even qualify to see there great presentation you have to have a total income over 40k. Then to get in you have to have some ID and bring a major credit card or personal check. Why do you have to show them a major credit card or check? I smell something fishy; if they wanted two forms of ID I think they would just come out and ask. But asking to see your credit card or check sounds, well, bad.

I found by calling multiple times that depending on the zip code the name of the travel company changes.

Scam? Most likely.

Want to hear the conversation my buddy had with them? The sound sucks for the first few seconds, but gets better. If you got the time for a good laugh click here.

What to do next?

Call them up and give them you imaginary friends info. If your imaginary friend just happens to have the same phone number as the local police and the same address as the local news paper, maybe some one will catch on and realize this is not an acceptable form of advertising.

I Miss Just Doing Stuff

2006-05-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

There are several things I miss about living Southern Utah, family, friends, SCUBA diving, shooting, camping, and building things.

Here are a few photos of what I’m talking about…

This Tastes Funny

2006-05-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

Why Do People Buy Perishable Goods At Wal-Mart?

I absolutely refuse to buy refrigerated or frozen goods at Wal-Mart! People pull things from the freezer and refrigerated selves and put them in there shopping cart. Great that’s what the carts are there for. But when they get inline and decide they don’t want the now lukewarm items they simply slip them into the candy racks. The items now will sit there and warm up for hours. Then a CSM (Customer Service Manager – The helpful friendly Wal-Mart employees in the red vests) will take all the discarded items and send some other Wal-Mart employee to go restock the selves. Now that employee will take the room temp ice-cream, yogurt, milk, juice, etcetera and put back on the self behind all the other product so it has “Time To Cool” be for you pick it up and take it home.

I unfortunately this is not just rumor. Once upon a time I worked as a casher at Wal-Mart and saw it happen over and over. I only managed to work at that wonderful establishment for 75 days before I left a note on the human resources manager’s door that read “I Quit! Love Garrick.” Its not just the Wal-Mart I worked at it is almost every Wal-Mart.

Take a look..

Bright Shiny Objects

2006-05-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

Bright Shiny Objects

"The machine is stupid." - Andy Carver

HELLO!!!!

2006-04-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

I need to update this thing!!! I have been VERY busy with school and the family. School is good, some times it is very demanding and not fun.

The boy is getting very big!!! He just started walking! The mom hasn't had a chance to up date Daks blog but I have a feeling that she will have a chance to work on it soon.
Later

Now That's What I'm Talking About!!! UPS Rocks!!!

2005-11-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

OK So it is only from Cail but still beats USPS any day:

11/10/2005 01:15:02 OUT FOR DELIVERY UT SALT LAKE CITY

11/10/2005 00:42:00 UNLOAD SCAN UT SALT LAKE CITY

11/09/2005 21:24:00 ARRIVAL SCAN UT SALT LAKE CITY

11/09/2005 11:38:00 DEPARTURE SCAN NV LAS VEGAS

11/09/2005 08:56:00 ARRIVAL SCAN NV LAS VEGAS

11/09/2005 03:31:00 DEPARTURE SCAN CA ONTARIO

11/08/2005 23:43:00 ARRIVAL SCAN CA ONTARIO

11/08/2005 22:57:00 DEPARTURE SCAN CA BALDWIN PARK

11/08/2005 22:01:20 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

11/08/2005 20:19:05 ORIGIN SCAN CA BALDWIN PARK

UPS Ground Goes!!!

2005-11-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

This is my pumpkin! Yay. It glowed all night, but there were no trick or treaters (I don't think treaters is a word) to see it.
It was wired not to have the door bell ring on Halloween night.

My brother in law carved a pumpkin too. It is suppose to be "Leather Face".

Yes that’s my dremel, the pumpkin skin flew all over the table! It was cool.

Why ship USPS over UPS

2005-10-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

The USPS is great, for letters and DVDs. That's about it. My experience might be unique, but it seams every time someone ships me something it takes way to long. This last time my ebay item took +11 days to go from FL to UT. It would be so bad if they had a decent tracking system. UPS ground can move a small package from NJ to UT in about 3-4 days. With UPS you know where you package is every step of the way. Here is the tracking info from there site:

· ARRIVAL AT UNIT, October 25, 2005, 4:55 am, UT

· ENROUTE, October 20, 2005, 9:28 am, DENVER, CO 80217

· ENROUTE, October 16, 2005, 6:50 am, JACKSONVILLE, FL 32099

· ELECTRONIC SHIPPING INFO RECEIVED, October 14, 2005

On top of taking forever the USPS site only updates once a day around midnight. There is a place to enter your email and get updates, but it doesn't work. Why? Why ship USPS? Anyone?

The Boy Blog!

2005-10-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day! The mom learned to blog using Picasa2 from Google. So now when folks ask for pic of the boy they can just go to the blog. Nice. We don't have to remember email addresses and what photos we already sent. Plus then she can put some explanation by each photo.

2005-10-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

This is a photo I like!
It came from here.

Speaking of photos what is the best way to organize your photos?
I use iPhoto on the mac.
On the win box I like Picasa2 and Photo Album

Picasa2 just feels like it runs faster.
But Photo Album has a NICE calindar.

Start

2005-10-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

This is it! The beginning.