My wife’s computer has been running slow and hot, so I figure it needs a re-install at least. But, recently she has been complaining about the USB ports, with the mouse loosing connection sporadically. Great. Of course she also reminds me how I didn’t send it back to HP while it was under warranty and what a schmuck I am.

So, to prove what a schmuck I am, I completely disassembled it. With screwdriver in one hand, coffee in the other, and Lonewolf Online: Disassembly of the HP Pavilion ze5400ea Laptop on my screen - I pulled out hard drives, memory, wireless, screws, ribbon cables, rubber pieces, cat hair and lots of dust. I hit the hugeoidal heat sync cooler thing with some canned air, and I think I removed a whole cat - a cat filled with dust.

When I was finally holding the motherboard in my hands I saw that the USB ports were in deed loose from the motherboard, and would require some careful soldering - much beyond my expertise. So, put the project down, took the kids out for the day, and returned later to re-assemble.

Yeah. Re-assembly.

Remind me never to take apart a notebook computer again.

Re-assembly was not fun. Especially when I got it all back together and it wouldn’t turn on. Of course, after I put the battery in it worked better. I only had two screws leftover, and it booted up and everything that should be working appears to be working. The screen has flickered a few times, so I hope it is just a figment of my wife’s imagination - otherwise I hope I can just re-seat the video cable.

Now that all the gunk has been removed, it is running a lot cooler. The fans can actually do something. And, to fix the USB issues I bought my wife a PCMCIA-USB card. I also got a wireless mouse for $15, and a retractable wired notebook mouse for $10 - but I’ll probably return at least one - she wasn’t too keen on either.

I bought my 2004 Mazda 6 new back in 2004. I have the Bose audio system with 6 disc changer. Ever since I bought it, I’ve been trying to find a decent way to plug in an MP3 player.

I found the Mazda6Club forum, but back when the car came out everyone was wondering the same thing and nobody had an answer. I tried an FM transmitter, but it was horrible. I upgraded to an FM modulator, which seemed to work okay. It was similar to an FM transmitter, except it gets plugged into the car power and directly into the antenna of the radio. It didn’t have any static (at first), but was kind of muddy and dead sounding. I didn’t really use it much until recently, and now when I went to use it I’d get about 10 minutes of muddy sound, and then it would start getting static. I bought the modulator used, so I imagine it was just on the fritz.

So, I went back to the forums, and, lo and behold, there was a solution! The Sylfex AuxMod Basic plugs into the factory radio, and emulates the optional tape deck. I installed this yesterday and, shebang, awesome direct plugged in sound. They are also making an AuxMod advanced, which will emulate the optional MD player - this will have the added ability to send signals to a computer or ipod to pass on the radio/steering wheel controls do the remote player. Since all of Mazda’s audio gear now shares components, this device will work on most newer Mazda’s. Getting this device was a lot cheaper than the alternative (replacing the car for one that has an audio input).

Installation was very easy, especially with my 2 year old son helping. He sat in the driver’s seat and made sure that all the buttons and dials everywhere within reach could all be turned, switched, etc. Here are the guides I used:

• Mazda6Tech: How-To Remove the Center Console
• AuxMod Basic install guide (pdf)

My buddy Google Reader sent me these great links today:

• Jon’s Blog: The Four Best Ways to Sit at Your Computer
  I’ve been thinking about bringing a yoga ball to work to sit on, except all my friends will make fun of me even more. You guys suck chat.
• CNET News.com: Gates keeps close eye on kids’ computer time
  My wife and I limit how much TV and computer time our kids get. We try to keep the TV between 30 and 60 minutes a day. Computer is usually about an hour a week for our older, nothing for the younger. Truthfully, we only let them watch that much TV because we need to get stuff done dangit! And when the TV is on they are focused on it, and not pouring out the legos and mixing them with playdough.

I have a Deskjet 722C that my wife and I bought in 1998, and the thing just won’t die. The printer is so reliable that I bought a second one a year ago for $10. The second one is installed at my office, and my coworkers prefer printing to it rather than the laser.

At home for the last couple years, I’ve had it connected via parallel cable to my D-Link DI-704p router. I had used this as my primary broadband router, but when I switched from DSL to cable and got Vonage, I got the Linksys WRTP54G voip (Vonage) wireless router. I set a static IP address on the old D-Link, plugged it in lan to lan against the Linksys, and have been using it only as a print server only. All my windows machines (which are all wireless) have been printing to it fine.

When I first built the Ubuntu rig, I tried connecting, but could never get it to print. So, today I plugged the printer directly into Ubuntu and… still couldn’t print. To make a long story short, I had to manually edit the printer driver’s config file (/etc/pnm2ppa.conf) - so that it includes the version number.

Before:
version
#version 720 # 710, 712, 722 also acceptable
#version 820
#version 1000

After:
version 722
#version 720 # 710, 712, 722 also acceptable
#version 820
#version 1000

Once I got it printing over parallel, I connected the printer back to the D-Link. I then setup a network printer in Ubuntu, set it to the D-Link’s IP address and print queue (which is “lp”), and yay! Network printing!

So, here’s my network. Cable modem connects to the Linksys WRTP54G, which does all routing, DHCP, wireless, etc. The D-Link DI-704p plugs in for printing, and the SMC 2655W 802.11b wireless access point also plugs in for more wireless. The old SMC 802.11b is a much more reliable connection than the new Linksys 802.11g, so I continue to use it. My Ubuntu box is the only PC plugged directly into the Linksys router, my wife’s windows notebook and daughter’s win desktop (and my work notebook if I ever bring it home) are wireless to the SMC.

I pulled the plug on my Gallery installation on BushelAndAPeck (password required). It is awesome software, lots of functions, one could say it is a little bloated. This combined with running on a massive shared server meant unacceptable response times.

So, I switched to the much simpler Plogger. So far I have been very happy, gets the job done and is very quick. I also went ahead and switched the photo album on this site.