Coreplex - Rambling from Inside the Grid

Lenovo W510 Speaker Failures

2012-02-15T19:18:00.002-05:00

There obviously is a design problem with the Lenovo W510 laptops.

A few months after getting my W510, I opened my laptop one evening to check something after the machine had been suspended.. to find it immediately blue screen. Upon startup, computer complained about an illegal adaptor in the mini-PCI slot. I noticed I could not get wireless working. I looked a bit closer in the light to find a pea sized area of the left grille adjacent to the keyboard physically melted. It looked like someone took a lighter to it. Replaced the laptop with a new one.

Now, just 9 months later, the speakers are no longer working on the W510. Again, on the left speaker grille, there is a small pea sized area that looks like it's been heated up to the point of almost melting.

I just use the laptop under normal conditions, including always letting the laptop hibernate when the laptop is closed and not on the docking station. I do use it on a docking station freqently (the IBM docking station) so I wonder if it has cooling issues when closed.

So if your W510 freaks out.. you're not alone and check out the left speaker grille for deformations.

Harmony 650 Review

2012-01-06T19:24:00.003-05:00

I've had several Harmony remotes (880x2, 890, Harmony One, and now this) and while this remote loses all the checkbox fights against the higher-end Harmony remotes, I will tell you it's the best bargin of the bunch!

No it doesn't have a big touch screen like the One.. but is that worth $120+?? After owning this, I will tell you no! Unless you are the type that is constantly in your device view on the touchscreen, the smaller screen is more then plenty.

I was originally concerned about the fixed activity buttons at the top.. no worries.. activities are shown on the screen as well.. just like the bigger remotes.

The key availability is the same as the bigger remotes.. it has the color keys for BluRay players, and a good layout for DVRs, etc.

It runs on batteries vs rechargable. Well anyone who has owned logitec rechargables over the years will tell you over time the charging contacts get worse and worse and often are the death of your device. The early harmony remotes were REALLY bad with this. I've had this remote now for almost 4 months and I'm still on my first set of batteries with no end in sight. The AA battery design is going to be more reliable in the long haul and has plenty of battery life.

5 Device limit - unless you have a big home theatre you are trying to setup.. this will be MORE then plenty for most people.

Not all the buttons light up like the higher end remotes, but that is a reduction in features I haven't missed in real world use.

Undeniably, unless the 5 device limit is constraining you, this is THE harmony remote to get. It's far cheaper and looks like it will hold up without problems for the long haul. Even if it didn't, at 1/3rd the cost you can afford to buy a replacement if you had to!

This remote has all the same device compatibility as the other IR Harmony remotes so no worries there. It also uses identical software to the other remotes for programming, so no differences there either.

Really the difference between this and my 3x as expensive Harmony One is...
- AA vs recharging dock
- Smaller screen, no touchscreen
- Rubber buttons vs clicker buttons on the H-One
- 5 Devices vs 15 devices
- Design

After owning both - I can tell you undeniably without hesitation, unless you gotta have that 'sexy' remote on the table or are buying a remote for a huge system, buy the 650. At Amazon right now it's only $40! Most IR learning remotes are $20-$30.. this is only a $10 premium for the best type of remote out there.

The software does require someone not afraid of computers to use to setup the remote, but its pretty straight forward and has gotten much easier to use over the years. This should not be a factor for anyone unless you are the type that just wants it to work right out of the box. If so, pay your kid or your neighbor's kid $10 to set it up for you :)

Windows Update Error 80072F8F

2011-12-08T11:34:00.001-05:00

I recently installed Windows Server 2008 R2 64bit direct from an ISO and when I went to update with Windows update, it fails with Error Code 80072F8F . WTF? It's 'brand new out of the box'. Well, that's the tip off. Many web hits will tell you to check your date and time. But 99% of the time, that's synchronized anyway. But the root cause is actually the same... certificate failure. What you need to fix the problem is the root certificate list must be updated. Microsoft releases updates to this frequently via Windows Update, but you have a chicken and the egg syndrome. You must manually download the update and install it before Windows Update will run.

'But update root certificates doesn't apply to Win2008!' you say. True, when the system is working. Win2008 automatically updates these from Microsoft while XP required manual updates. But it appears the default certs in the ISO aren't good enough to even connect to Microsoft anymore, so they must be manually updated before the Automatic Processes can take over.

Goto http://technet.microsoft.com and search for 'root certificate update', find the latest (even ones from 2009 seemed to do the trick and download. It will be an .exe that when double clicked seems to do nothing.. but don't worry. Once you've ran the file, run Windows update again and all is good!

My first foray into touchups

2010-12-12T00:39:00.003-05:00

So I've gotten to the point with Flash Gordon the playfield is stripped, and trying to clean it up. But this game has got some typical wear and as I've gotten a few games under my belt now, I'm getting a bit more ambitious. This time I was trying to work on the PF in the cabinet, but that no longer was possible as I had to take the PF out of the cabinet because of the way the upper and lower PFs are connected, you can't take the sides off and still support the PF in the cabinet. Here's what the upper playfield looked like after cleaning a bit This is what it looked like before... Since this is up away from the player, I decided to try my hand at paint touchups for the first time. I'm not done here as I really need to lock the paint in with a clearcoat if I want it to last, but still debating that. It's a lot more permanent and a lot more involved. But here is a before touchups.. Here is an after I could not match the green well, but the red, yellow, and black went real well. The closeups in the gallery show how its not really that great.. but I'm not going for total restoration here, just decent looking. From the player's view, its pretty solid

Pinball activities

2010-12-12T00:35:00.003-05:00

Well there has been a lot happening on the pinball front. I've added several new games.. including my first two EMs which was quite a learning experience to tear down, cleanup, and build back up. After that I got a 80s solid state Flash Gordon out of some trailer sitting in a field. That is the current project, and this week I also picked up a High Speed 2: The Getaway at a steal price. ($700!) I've been posting photos of the games on my smugmug account if you want to follow along as I go... Pinball Gallery on Smugmug

A touching Father-Son Story about Buck Showalter

2010-07-30T09:04:00.001-04:00

Great Story - worth checking out about the O's new manager Baltimore Sun - In Showalter, O's have baseball lifer

All Phones drop signal.. and other ways to avoid the topic

2010-07-17T00:36:00.003-04:00

Steve Jobs favorite line... every phone drops signal when you hold it a certain way. Sure Mr Jobs, but is that spot right on 'every phone' right where it's natural to hold the phone like it is on your phone Mr Jobs? Funny you skip over that 'detail'.

Today's conference was a joke. Glad you are making steps to appease those who are financially affected - but shame on you for saying 'its not us' still again. Every boat has holes too Mr Jobs... but if you design a boat with a hole below the water line and the boat sinks.. you don't say 'well all boats have holes'. Where the 'hole' carries significance! Just like where your 'magic spot' that affects all phones has significance.

Apple needs to stop playing cute and just face the music. Today's conference was the closest we've ever seen (that I can recall) the company saying explictly 'we screwed up'. But instead they still blame everyone else (oh.. and physics too!) rather then face up to acknowledging they missed this.

Location has relevance Mr Jobs. Face up to it.

So now the question becomes is.. what is Sept 30th? Well that should be the end of Apple's fiscal year.. so it might just be accounting related - to cap this write off in this fiscal year.

I also like the defense about how its impossible for them to make enough bumpers... really so you can ramp up production on a high density consumer electronic... but you can't figure out how to outsource simple injection molding of a single piece device to ramp up production? Put it in a plastic bag, make one color, and make it by the millions. I'm sure you could find plenty of action in China willing to be your friend.

Apple's arrogance seems to shine through even when they are trying to concede..

Standing on the Event Horizon

2010-04-19T09:39:00.007-04:00

Today I stand on the Event Horizon of Video Conferencing as we've known it.

Today is the closing date for Cisco's acquisition of TANDBERG. The date of no turning back. From this date forward - we are now Cisco. Sure the technical integration points (a badge, paycheck, etc) will take another month or so, but today Cisco puts their money on the table. 3.5 BILLION worth. Does that number seem insignificant? How many of you have heard of TANDBERG before if you don't use our products? Have you heard of WebEx? Cisco paid more for TANDBERG then WebEx. This is Cisco's second largest acquisition since the DotCom boom behind only their buy-out of Scientific-Atlanta and 6th largest ever. It's the 3rd largest in the tech world of 2009 -

As I stand on the event horizon, you can not help but look back. Next month represents my 14th anniversary of starting in this industry and company. 14 years ago I was still at University of Maryland and struggling with things in my personal life. Through the co-op office at school I sent out a bunch of resumes for co-op opportunities to alternating semesters working and going to school. Only one company replied. I found myself in what (today's terms) was a small company. It was a company with multiple locations, and people spread all around US and Canada. Yet, it was small enough that everyone knew everyone. You knew everyone's families. Someone walked around every Friday collecting money to fund the beer for the night. We'd hang out on the loading dock.. and just shoot the shit. The biggest decision was if and who was heading to the bars afterwards.

My planned semester on, semester off plan didn't really quite go as planned, and I stayed on part time. Eventually too this got messy, and I left to go back to school full time with less distractions, with the plan to return after school. When I had started, the company had just gone through a touch realignment due to the partnership that originated the company between BT and MCI being sold to the Canadian interest in the deal. This lead to a huge disruption in things like production, project management, etc. But being the new little guy, it all fly right over my head. Then in 1997 while I was back at school, TANDBERG bought the company outright. This transition was quite severe for the Canadian interest... but my outfit in Virginia was all gain. Socially, the Norweigans were something like you've never seen before. Proper, polite, sometimes overly direct, but good lord they went insane when partying.

As I returned to the company in May of 1998, the company's size and products had changed, but the core was essentially the same, but energized by TANDBERG. It quickly became our own. We grew in size, but the core remained as focused as ever. It was a 'task driven' environment. There was no such thing as 'dead weight'. No one told you what to do each day - each person was expected to find what needed to be done and do it. If you couldn't or wouldn't.. you didn't last the first few months. Working 8-8 was common. Working weekends was common. But this was because you were pushing so hard to make YOUR WORK happen. YOUR work, not the company.. yours. There was a passion for the goal. You worked your tail off and everyone around you did. When I was hiring people, I'd walk around introducing people and say 'If you are still here after 6months, you'll never leave'. And that was the truth. The process vetted people and those that were truly passionate and capable excelled. It was the type of company I was only 2 people away from the CEO. But the CEO wasn't just some owner who held every title in the book.. the company was virtually flat, and everyone was empowered to drive results.

Then there was the period where they wanted to take the company to the next level. A new CEO came in. A CEO scared to death of the culture the company had. A CEO who brought all his cronies with him to make the company into his company. He put on the company on the fast track for growth. The old leadership stepped back and gave him the reigns. He took a company that was really a group of people doing something together and made it into a 'corporation'.

Our growth was fueled not by new ideas, but simply brute force.The opportunity we had was so under developed simply due to manpower. So they hired.. and hired and hired. The purse strings were opened and people fell from the sky. You no longer knew everyone. We had 'dead weight'. We had people that were just here for a job. The company was no longer held on the backs of a view... but held up by the constant bubbling action of activity underneath of it. People that knew they didn't need this started to leave. Many of the best simply picked up and walked away.

But with this new found checkbook, the company was open to expand it's products too. All too long we had laser focused on one area, and relied on others for the rest of the solution. The single biggest decision of this era was to expand beyond our comfort zone and acquire talent. At this point in time, acquisitions were about talent, not product/customers. We acquired two software groups (IP Technologies, and Delente) that built our management suite. We acquired Ridgeway, a team that built our Call Control platform. We walked away from the traditional MCUs on the market and started building our own. We acquired teams in Holland, and New Zealand. We had become a truly global company with teams all around the world; All contributing to a new portfolio that in large was dead-on, addressing key customer needs, and had great focus on what we hoped to deliver. This was lead in the R&D world by key individuals whom as a 'brain trust' drove this engine, and found high gear.

But brewing at the top was an alternative motive. All along, the CEO had been setting out to take this company to a 'real company', make it grow up, and groom it. Groom it... to be acquired. Grooming it and courting the likes of Cisco (his former employer)... to position the company at all costs to be the fit for Cisco. The running joke was 'Im wearing a Cisco Polo to see if it will get me a promotion'. The company was being ran at full bore with the motivation to be acquired and drive financials. The culture was in turmoil. Key people were fleeing. And yet the acquisition goal just could not reach the top of the mountain. When I asked the CEO during a leadership retreat if he was concerned about the turnover... he blew it off as normal. A recurring almost 30%? The hired psychologist said we had to take the initiative ourselves. A notion completely blasted by those of us who had been doing just that and found no support. The fascade was falling... and insides were ill. That was the last leadership retreat the company had.

But then the CEO was ousted... Budweiser was sent on his way... 'Thank you for flying Lufthansa!'. A refocusing of the company on it's successful core started a refocusing on the company's core values. But we were big now, it wasn't quite the same as before.. but there were bright new horizons in the industry. We continued to invest, including the biggest acquisition of TANDBERG's history.. the acquisition of Codian. While smaller physically then TANDBERG, Codian represented a much larger overlap of people, roles, and technologies in R&D then previous efforts. While the walls are down from that move, the people, roles, and philosophies still has some long term settling to happen. TANDBERG has still not lost stride in any of this, and continues to blow through the market.

And then there was October 2009. In Oslo, the hints started to fall in line. Subtle changes in behavior, things that stood out -- we knew it might just finally be happening. Out at the bar well into the morning the bets were placed... not everyone thought it could be true.. we had nothing directly saying it.. but the old guard could feel it in the air. The next morning, the mails came out, the party tent was out.. and low and behold John Chambers himself had come to Oslo to make the announcement along side the old TANDBERG guard.

In fitting irony... the old CEO who had worked so long and hard to try to get Cisco to buy us.. had just been hired in July to 'save' our #1 competitor. The company struggling to reclaim the previous crown they had.. they thought they hire the guy who made TANDBERG what it was right? Oh, but the joke is on them. Andrew Miller didn't make TANDBERG what it was - he was just the first outsider who was given the space to spend where no one previously would. Polycom doesn't have that challenge ahead of them trying to grow from a tight small company, to a big grown up corporation. They can't 'fix' things by just growing. So now, after years of failing to achieve his goal at TANDBERG... just 3 months after being hired to take down the competition that had knocked Polycom out... the Cisco deal is announced. Oh what I would give up to hear/see the conversations that happened that day with Andrew Miller.

But here we stand just 7 months later... a process delayed by investors pushing Cisco for more value in TANDBERG... Regulators deciding what conditions to put in play.. Cisco raising their offer (something I've heard has never been done before)... and uncertainties coming into focused realities. Here, on April 19, 2010 , we have closing day. So now we stand on the Event Horizon.. no longer looking back at where we came from, but looking forward to where we are going. Beyond the point of no return, we look now to accelerate our movement forward. To find new opportunities, new powerful assets behind us, and lives within a new company. A new day, as part of company that has now grown by 4100% around us.

At least now I'll never have to spell my company name anymore.. making sure they don't miss the D in TANDBERG or explain what we do. It's a new day as Cisco.. hang on for the ride.

Blizzard of 2010

2010-02-06T17:00:00.002-05:00

Well it's a doozy... and our third snow storm for the week. Check out some pix here http://flynnibus.smugmug.com/Home/Blizzard2010

Prototype #2 Progress

2009-12-12T00:23:00.003-05:00

Well Prototype #2 is almost done. Had to stop while I waited for the stain to dry. Prototype #2 will house my Lethal Weapon 3 translite. I like it more for the movie reference then the game reference :) Prototype #2 includes significant changes in

pocket groove joints instead of mitre corners
Due to the pocket joints, only the two vertical inside edges are rounded over
the rear panel is moved in 1/4 in more to give more room for the picture hanger hardware
the light switch is moved to the left side of the bottom panel to be in a darker part of the picture
much more glue in the joints to keep them snug :)
The top is free to be removed (no screws) because the inside 1x2 piece will act as the cross-beam holding the box shape together
uses 1 60 light string instead of two 30 light strings. This set has light modes w/memory unlike the other sets which were stead-on only. But I could not find it in warm white, only cool.
Pine instead of Oak (for costs and easier routing)
Only uses glue and finish nails
Top edge is completely removable without any tools (friction-held only)
LED light control is accessible through hole in rear backboard

The pocket groove experiment actually went very well - even considering I had to do a lot of free hand routing to cut the grooves smaller then 1/4 inch... because I had managed to cut the tongues slightly too narrow. Some shots of the groove and tongues Test fitting... So much tighter then the mitres... and it helps hold the frame together on it's own! A few of the switch hole. See the router errors on my grooves? Oh well, they'll be hidden anyways :) The simple lighting wire and socket used. Same setup used on both prototypes. Using a socket allows me to keep the integrated fuse holders on the LED strings. Staining under way... the soft pine required a pre-stain treatment but so far is looking decent (bad cell phone photo) View of the light board all secured But one should know.. anytime you make changes, new problems will arise..

I don't think I sanded around the glue enough and had some stain issues. But I think those are going away with the second coat of stain.
Tongues too narrow - fixed by free handing grooves so they could be custom fit, but slowed down to do custom cuts
New tight, box with 1x2 nailed at the top holds the shape perfect. But this means the light panel must fit in w/o any fudging of the sides of the box. The 1x2 is nailed in, there is no play, and because the backpanel was moved forward 1/4 inch, there isn't enough clearance for the stuff mounted to the back panel. The 1x2 will have to be reduced in size with my jigsaw to make room.
Don't forget to fill the holes caused by the finish nailer BEFORE you stain the frame dummy.

The good news is Prototype #2 is being built much faster. The first night I cut the plexi and backpanel to size. Second night I cut the 1x4s to size and started the routing. Third night II finished all the routing. Fourth night was gluing the frame pieces together. Fifth night was sanding, then staining. Sixth night was more stain, and assembling the light board. Once the staining is done.. all that is left is final assembly. So besides the gluing and staining waits.. Prototype #2 was built in basically 4 sessions. Hopefully this weekend Prototype #2 will get a chance to be finished!

Prototype #1 Retrospective

2009-12-11T22:20:00.000-05:00

Rough Estimates of material costs in Prototype #1

$22.00 - 1x4 10ft Oak Board
$ 6.00 - 1x1 6ft Pine Board (Good for 2 projects)
$48.00 - Plexiglass sheet (Good for 1.5 projects)
$ 5.00 - 1/4" 30x48 Plywood Panel
$ 5.00 - Hardware (screws)
$ 3.00 - Switch
$ 5.00 - Unwired Socket
$ 5.00 - 6' Lamp Cord w/plug
$10.00 - 2 x 30 cnt LED String
$ 3.00 - Wood Filler
$ 7.50 - Stain
$ 1.00 - Spray Paint
$ 3.00 - Picture Frame Wire (good for 2-3 projects)

Total - $123.50 Wayyyy too much money for a frame! Taking out a few dollars since the plexi is big enough for 3 cuts, and the other bits that will share to the next project..that drops the price to $101.50. But still way too much. Obviously the biggest savings is to find a better source for the plexi, way to use less plexi, and reduce some of the component costs. The costs that bothered me the most was on the simple electric socket and cord - those are too expensive and hoping a true electronics supply may be cheaper. The Red Oak was overkill and a cost sink, so prototype #2 will be pine to make it easier and cheaper. Even after all the practicing, it probably took 7-10 evening to get it done.

Lessons learned..

1. Oak is more trouble then its worth. Took many more router passes, and had lots of control issues with the router due to the oak.
2. Mitred corners just required too much precision to get really good
3. Don't stain after assembly. I had fit the top together to see how the overall thing fit, and it was so hard to get right, I didn't want to take it back apart to stain, so I taped off the plexi area - but some stain still got on the plexi :(
4. Brass screws SUCK. I had two snap in predrilled holes!!! Total disaster that required much destructive drilling to get the sheared screws out :(
5. Support your work - no matter how small the piece. Had at least one minor disaster cutting the plexi where the unsupported scrap side snapped the good piece :(
6. The LED strings worked really well.

So how does Prototype #2 look?

Prototype #2 tries to

- avoid the miter corners by moving to lap joints or alternative
- switch to pine for easier routing and cheaper costs

The actual design for Prototype #2 is 1x4 pine with pocket groove joints for the corners, and tries out a new 60 LED light string because it has different light control modes. More on prototype #2 soon..

Pinball Translite Light Box - The Beginning

2009-12-05T00:18:00.003-05:00

Pinball Light Project
Everyone has seen them.. those Pinball Backglasses or Translites framed up on the wall - displayed as art. Some even lit up as if they were still in the game. They look great, but aren't as easy to come by as it would seem.

I've always wanted to have some, and have been collecting some translites over the years (when affordable) to save up for when I would actually under take the task. Well this last month I finally got started. I decided I wanted to light up mine, and I'd start by building at least two prototypes to work out exactly what I wanted.

The first challenge is how to light them. Choices include traditional pinball lights/sockets, mini christmas lights, light ropes, florescent lights, battery powered lights, or new christmas LED lights. The problem is most solutions require AC power. As you can imagine, there isn't always a handy outlet where you want to hang a picture. LEDs due to their lower power look like a real potential with battery power. Rather then trying to build my own light kit, I looked to hack something existing.

I did find some LED light strings powered by AA batteries that claimed 120hrs of light. They did run for 4 days before I turned them off. They just weren't bright enough. Traditional lights used in pins is the most logical idea since you can even mimic the exact lighting used in the games, and with some simple breadboard you could even animate it. However these bulbs would require a transformer of sorts and they put off a good amount of heat.

The solution chosen was to use LED light strings, and then wire them up to some power cord with a switch. I found at Michaels 30 LED strings for $4. A quick test showed that 2 strings lit a translite pretty good, so Prototype #1 would use two of these strings.

The next question was what to build it from? Because the light is not diffused great from LEDs, I needed some space between the translite and lights to lit it evenly. This lead to basically shadowboxes or lightbox designs.

The basic design for prototype #1 is 1x4 premium grade wood arranged on its edge into a picture frame with mitered corners. Grooves would be cut and a 1/4 panel would make up the backpanel where the lights would be connected, and two 0.093 polycarbonate pieces would sandwich the translite in the other groove. The lights would be wired to a switch, and a power cord.

The problem was I had never really tried to build something with these types of tolerances (picture frames) so lots of practice was in order, as well as getting some new tools I didn't have yet.

After spending a few nights experimenting with my new router on scrap wood, and getting accustomed to my compound miter saw I felt up to the task.

Prototype #1 would be built around a William F-14 Translite and be made of Red Oak. It's basic description is

1x4 Red Oak sides arranged on edge into a picture frame with 45deg mitered corners
1/4 wood panel painted white to act as the backboard
Two 0.093 polycarbonate sheets to hold translite in a sandwich
1/4 inch groove cut around inside of frame at 1/2 inch from rear edge to hold the backboard
1/4 inch groove cut around inside of rame at ~3/4 inch from front edge to hold the translite
Mitre edges to be finish nailed and glued
60 LED lights to be stapled to backboard in distributed pattern
A lamp cord is wired into a push switch (which is mounted into bottom edge of frame) and then into a power receptical/socket inside the frame. The LED strings then plug into this socket leaving only the power cord exposed and a switch on the bottom edge of the frame

The big problem was, how to build this in a way that could be opened so it could be serviced or have the translite removed without destroying it all. I wanted to be able to remove one side of the frame and pull out the panels. I thought for awhile about a pull out panel like the pins themselves use, but passed due to conerns over getting the sides good enough to avoid light leakage and needing to support the translite better.

My solution was to incorporate a 1x2 board inside the frame which would serve as the top of the frame, the the exposed top would just be set on top of this. This also gave a nice strong board to mount to and keep the frame square. However, once I started putting the mitered frame together with all four pieces, I found getting the eges good required a tight fit, one that a top just lightly secured would not do.

So the 1x2 installed just inside of the top of the frame is actually screwed to both sides and serves as an adjustment to square up the frame and hold it secure. The top piece is then screwed from the top down in an effort to pull the top board down TIGHT against the other frame corners.

Results were mixed on Prototype #1's corners. This is mainly due to my mitre saw being just a tad off. Measuring and getting the saw perfect in less then 1/32 of an inch deviation is very hard.

Here is the top board. The two screws on the side are the ones holding the 1x2 internally and the one screw on top pulls the 1x4 board down into the frame.

You can see the corners didn't line up great.

I pushed on with the best I had. To mount the frame, eye hooks were installed along with picture wire to hang the frame with. Small 1/4 inch notches were cut in the top and bottom back edges to allow the power cord to exit easily. A small notch in the bottom of the backpanel allows the power cord to exit from the insdie of the frame to the rear.

Here is Prototype #1 in it's natural state

I was undecided on a finish, but thinking dark colors would help hide the mitre failures, I opt'd to stain the frame an ebony black. This does help hide the imperfections while still allowing the grain of the wood to show.

But because it was so hard to get my frame even decently assembled with the poor mitre joints, I opt'd to stain the wood while it was still assembled, including the translite installed. I used painters tape to get into the edge grooves and cover the plastic - but somehow I failed and some stain ended up along the top edge in some rather noticable ways :(

Check out the gallery by clicking on the image below for more images of prototype type #1 including some completed shots -
Up next... a cost break down of Prototype #1 and onto Prototype #2

First Attempt at a Playfield Teardown

2009-07-19T21:45:00.003-04:00

Well this week I finished my first complete playfield teardown. Well.. complete as in the top side only of the playfield... and complete as in leaving the stuff that would have been too much of a hassle :) My Indianapolis 500 game was bought 'as is' where it was in good shape, but would eventually need to be overhauled. 15 months later, I finally get motivated to do it :) I stripped the top of the playfield of all parts except

Steel posts which needed to be banged out of the playfield - It just wasn't worth it
Targets - they are small enough to clean around
Pop-Bumpers - hear its difficult so I just left them

It only took one evening (about 3-4hrs) to carefully strip the game, taking video notes as I went so I would be sure I could piece it back together again. Taking notes of things like order of things, stacking (was the washer above or below this piece??), and visual references since the service manual is normally more concerned with the electronics of the game, not the physical assembly. Once stripped down, I used my Novus polish (#3, then #2, then #1 to clean) to clean up the playfield. Some lines along the mylar I could not get clean, but its still looks pretty good. I did try using my orbital polisher, but that was a waste.. unless the playfield is completely bare, my polishing pads were just way too big. Elbow grease wins again. Some dirt on mylar edges just never seems to go away (see brown line on diagonal here) One stripped, all plastic parts were cleaned in dish soap and water by hand with a rag and toothbrush - including all the little star posts. I was going to use the dish washer, but kept chickening out. I prepped the ramps to go in the dishwasher, but one would not fit, and I let two others in the dishwasher for about 15 minutes before I chickened out and brought them out and finished by hand. I was only cleaning, and did not attempt to 'flame' them or anything to get the last signs of ball trails out. I actually regrained all the metal guides with emery paper. It was a little scary at first, considering how scratched they look, but as long as you get the marks all going the right way, and try to polish a bit with higher grit paper (or in my case, more worn emery paper) the results look pretty good. Certainly good enough as seen from inside the game. I also used metal polish to clean them up afterwards, and to wipe down the metal wireforms. Example of what the metal rails looked like And after... (different rail.. but same effect) After what it seemed like 5 times of finding 'yet another piece that needed to be cleaned' I finally approached assembly. During which, I realized the service manual had no map of screw posts or which screws went where! I had been good about keeping hardware with each piece, but the posts were not kept together. So off to the net to try to find more reference images as I didn't think I took video of every post. After a few 'best guess' attempts that resulted in just a 2-3 times of taking stuff BACK off I had already put on.. Great peeps on rec.games.pinball sent over some more reference images helping solidify my guesses. Of course at this time, I finally sit down and study more of my video I shot.. and alas.. I find I did take video of nearly all the posts I needed! Check your notes stupid!! So this little diversion meant re-assembly took 1.5 sessions instead of just one. In the end, I only have two pieces I think that are out of place, but I think it's because my game was that way to start, and they are easy to get at so I'll replace them later. At the end.. no extra pieces or screws left over! The re-assembly also means I got to put my Orbitz Plastic Protectors on, my Cliffy hole protector for the turbo VUK, new rubber kit (kept it factory black), two new flipper bats to go back to factory look, and new steel balls. Total time was over about 5 nights.. probably 25+ hrs total. I figure now that I know more what I'm doing.. total time would depend on how long it takes to clean the stuff. Disassembling and reassembly of a game of this complexity level would probably only take me 3hrs on each side (tear down, then build up) And after putting it all back together - it actually works! :) Tho I have since had two resets.. I don't think these are associated with the rebuild since I didn't mess with the electronics really at all and maybe the typical WPC resets are just making their way at home with my Indy500. I guess up next is looking at the driver board for bridge rectifiers! Some images are below. More random pix are in my smugmug gallery here

Automatically signing into your Xbox Live Account

2009-02-22T17:36:00.002-05:00

This seems like such a simple topic - but its complicated by dirty little details you probably didn't realize.
Question: When I start up my xbox 360 - My Xbox Live profile does not sign in automatically, how do I change this?
Answer: Everyone says just find it in your profile's settings. But in the NXE dashboard, you've searched and searched and searched and can't find it. Why? Here's the dirty little detail. Didn't you know.. not all your settings are IN the dashboard? The Guide button on your remote (the big X button) when pressed brings up a quick menu, that gives you quick access to various things on your xbox. But did you know.. there is configuration that is ONLY accessible via this menu? Yup.. and that's where auto sign-in is. When you hit the Guide button, goto the settings blade. Then click Profile. This menu looks identical to when you edit your gamer profile in the dashboard... except... now there is an auto sign-in option! Set it here and go home happy.
Maybe sometime soon Microsoft will fix this lapse of reason in their NXE experience. The identical pages are NOT identical in the guide vs dashboard. Poor UI Microsoft.. Poor UI.

Texas Special Lives!

2009-01-24T20:34:00.004-05:00

Well.. since my HO parts STILL haven't even shipped.. almost a week after I ordered them GRRR there isn't much to do with the train platform. So I moved to working on overhauling 2245 - The Texas Special

When first pulled out of storage.. it would marginally go backwards, but not forward and needed some TLC after it had a battery leak in it.

I took notes as I went, and stripped it down as far as possible.. leaving only the motor itself intact. The die cast stuff doesn't clean up well with only soap and water as I was using.. not sure how to get those looking pretty since they seem to be almost painted finishes which wears away. Where battery acid was, it had completely eaten away the metal making any cleanup purely a stabilizing move. With a metal brush, I removed all lose material and washed what was left behind. I even tried grinding in several places without much difference.

A look at the filth inside (and battery damage)

The first fun was finding the electro coupler on the front truck was busted up. It had a plastic flange where the wire from the pickup would attach. Well that whole section was snapped off. I rigged up a small washer to act as the tie point between the angel hair thin coil wire and the wire coming off the track pickup. It's not pretty, but it appears functional. I pulled the truck all a part, cleaning as best as possible and oiled the axles.

Up next was the rear truck which had the gears in it. This thing was filthy. Even once off the engine, I couldn't really turn the wheels by hand. So it got broken down, cleaned out, and re-greased.

50+ years of grime

I intended to pull the motor apart and clean.. but chickened out when disassembly did not look easy without desoldering all the hookups which I did not want to do. I also did not play with the reversing unit.. which seems pretty loud right now.

Once I rebuild the rear end.. a test was in order to try out if it actually all worked :)

Up next was to try to figure something out about the horn. The horn works by a vibrating coil powered by the track opening and closing a contact between the battery and the horn.

Stripped it all apart, cleaned it up, but still was a big unknown. First attempts went no where with testing it. Even the first runs on the track itself were unsuccessful. But after a second breakdown with more attention cleaning up the contact points where the different plates touch.. we had continuity tests that finally worked.

The body work got a washing and cleanup. And finally it was time for some test runs!

The one casualty of the whole thing was the thumb screw that held the battery door. It snapped, and I still need to figure out how to remove the remaining part of the screw. Right now the door remains partially open, and we used a quarter under the battery to ensure contact between the battery and door (which serves as the - terminal contact).

Here she is.. running slow and then full speed

Inventory Done, and we have rolling trains!

2009-01-11T21:41:00.003-05:00

Well, first stage of working with the trains is complete.. knowing what you got! A gallery of the O gauge pieces can be found here. I went through surveying what is there, and what appears salvagable. Looks like the most significant pieces are the Diesel locomotive and the Operating Water Tower. I hope to refurb those parts so the kids can play with them with their new set. We've already put the red top station and caboose on the Harry Potter set so they have more to play with.

This weekend we started opening the HO gauge sets, which were from my childhood (vs the O gauge which were assembled when my oldest Uncle was young). We made a first pass to look at what we had, and from the diligence of my father, most of the stuff is in steller condition. You can see a visual gallery of this stuff here.

Tonight I even setup a simple circle track so some of the gear could be tested. Most of the track is still in good to reasonable condition. Firing up the newest pieces which were trains I had bought myself when I was a teen.. they came right up! The steamer worked like a champ.. the blue Santa Fe Diesel went without a hiccup! The newer red Santa Fe Diesel took awhile before it worked out its cramps.. but after some assisted loops, it was going full steam on its own. The Chessle Diesel was dead, but I didn't persue repairs on it. I wonder if its been dead for awhile, as I don't remember playing with that one as a kid. The Spirit of 76 locomotive didn't fire up at first. But after spending some time on cleaning its wheels with an eraser.. he was flying around as usual! Unfortunately though, its last remaining coupler did not survive :( The plastic pin that holds the coupler in place was broken on the rear of the engine, and the front one broke off tonight as well. So its a speedy little engine that can't carry anyone :( But overall it was great to see most of the pieces fire up without any cleaning or tweaking at all. So with some TLC they should really improve.

I rigged up some wiring to make it easier to test some of the electric components, but the HO stuff is in good enough shape I think its probably better to just jump to trying to build a layout. I'll figure out gaps of what I have, and just order as needed. We'll build a track first, and then try to populate the buildings, etc and I'll clean them as I set each one up.

Now the question is.. stay legacy, or ponder one of these new control systems.. hrmmm.

A Train Story.. Day 1 and 2

2009-01-01T20:50:00.005-05:00

With the house settled, we finally have room for things we haven't in the past. That includes something I grew up with a kid, as well as my father.. a train garden. I'll try to log some history here on the blog as it progresses. These posts will be tagged with 'Trains' (see right panel on page)

My father had Lionel O Gauge trains as a kid that he and his family would put up every Christmas Eve. When I was a kid, we had HO gauge trains that we'd setup each season and each year a fun part of Christmas was gifts to expand the set. My father had younger brothers, and his trains stayed with his father when my father moved out of the house. At that time, they were living in Baltimore City, but since then moved to Reisterstown after my father left for College.

When my Grandmother died, and my Grandfather was looking to sell their house and move back into the city, the family pitched in and cleaned up and out the house they had been living in for the last approx 25 years. My father saved the trains which had been in storage in the basement and moved them into storage at his house. At that time, I got a peek at the trains, but it wasn't the time for them and they went back into their boxes.

Skip ahead to current time.. I had been telling my kids about the trains and they had started to show interest, asking all kinds of questions. They had seen some train gardens at various Christmas-time exhibits and were showing a real curiosity. So we discussed pulling out the old train sets and possibly setting them up in the new house. For Christmas, my father got them a starter Lionel set styled to Harry Potter. We set those up under the tree as soon as we got home. The thing about these trains tho is they are EXPENSIVE and pretty delicate. With my kids all 10 and under, I really worry about them breaking the details on the cars. So thinking my HO trains may be more tolerable to their play.. I pushed ahead with gathering up the trains from storage to complement their new Lionel set.

At Christmas, we pulled the train boxes from deep storage at my father's house and did a quick inspection of his O Gauge pieces. The trains actually started with my uncle who is 9 years older then my father. We don't know when their collection started, but conversation with my uncle at Christmas makes us think the collection started about 1950. Most of the trains are still in original Lionel boxes. With no space to take them Christmas day, we decided to come back another day just to take the trains themselves.

On New Years Eve, I drove down to my fathers to retrieve the boxes from storage. Included was the 8x4 platform we built when I was a kid to put the trains on. We had a smaller platform we'd put under the tree when I was very little, but as we got older, we built a 'proper' platform straight from the Atlas train guides. This had been in storage at my fathers house since (including a move!). We fit the platform in my minivan (ha.. can your SUV do that??) and loaded up the train boxes.
Today I managed to set the platform up as a starting point.. mainly to have a work surface. The O Gauge trains are 50 years old, and haven't been used since sometime around 1968-1970 or so...sitting in basement storage since then. I plan on trying to revitalize the Lionel pieces as much as possible to make them usable by my kids. The HO sets I had will serve as good fodder for their need to crash/bang more :)
Today as an easy starter step.. I started with my Tyco US-1 Trucking slot car sets. These are slot car sets themed to construction/highway things. I think these sets were from when I was probably 9-13 years old or so. They had action pieces, including a gravel hopper that dumped into the truck, an operating crane that loaded pipe sections into a dump truck, and a Firehouse that included a switching track and a fire truck with working lights and bell.

I pulled them out, setup a basic track, and tried them out. Initial signs were pretty gloom with the various cars just barely showing signs of life. But after some warm up and coaxing.. they were flying around the track. After a bit of tweaking and cleaning, we had all the action pieces working, and all cars flying. The kids loved playing with the action pieces. So Day 1 (yesterday)... we successfully loaded and hauled all the gear to my house. Day 2, we successfully got the platform up, and got the slot trucks out for a warm up exercise.
All the photos are at picasa.. the gallery is here
Some teaser shots..

From A train story

House Update

2009-01-01T20:46:00.003-05:00

Been awhile... but we've been busy trying to get the house fully moved in. We've since added the 'features' to each of the kid's rooms. A picket fence in one, a 10' wide mural in the second, and stick on effects in the third. Check them out in this album.

House Updates Gallery

Week 2 Progress Report

2008-11-09T20:51:00.003-05:00

Well its been just past 2 weeks since we settled on the house, and 5 days since we moved in. It's been non-stop churning to get the house where we wanted. As I write this, I wonder if I could get up out of the chair even if I wanted to my body hurts so much :) Check out the room by room progress and work notes in the photo album.

It's finally real

2008-11-05T11:37:00.003-05:00

Well, yesterday was crossing the threshold. Election Day was move-in day, and we had the movers call at 7:30am and say they were ready and waiting... except we were told they would be there at 8:30, not 7:30 :) So after the short gaff, we were on our way. 8hrs later, they left, and all our stuff was in the new house. It was a long day, but it's one behind us now. Now to unpack, finish the need items we had not gotten to yet, and expand into the new space.

Boy a lot of our stuff looks lost or out of place in a house like this :)

Chapter 2 Finally Complete - We have a house

2008-10-28T22:28:00.003-04:00

Well, after yet a few more speed bumps last week with money transfers.. we finally approached settlement day. Staci - armed with a power of attorney letter since I was still in Spain - went to settlement and attempted to put this bad boy to bed. After yet a few more hurdles because the seller refused to pay for ANYTHING (including getting the mess of their own title sorted) Staci got the paperwork finished. So as last friday - we finally own a home again!

It took more then 6 months... from start to finish.. but this chapter is finally behind us. Up next, rushing this week to do as much to get the house ready before we move. Movers are scheduled for next Tuesday. Friday carpet comes.. Monday the fridge was delivered.. so now the next never ending chapter starts.. improving the house!

Awesome Pumpkin

2008-10-21T13:26:00.002-04:00

amp_40D_081021_5467, originally uploaded by penner42.

Gamers will appreciate this pumpkin :)

The most insane settlement ever?

2008-10-21T13:01:00.004-04:00

Well, remember back on Oct 3 how I said we had a very good chance of a delay in settlement? Well here we are almost 3 weeks later and still no house.

I've refrained from posting the story until we had things a bit more under control, and honestly because things can change day to day. Insane.

Turns out the previous owners did some transactions that don't settle well with the lawyers in how they handled the deed of the house. This combined with some lesser issues like liens that had no been cleaned up.

Well, the deed stuff just needed a quick claim deed signed by the previous owners. Well, that is if you can find them.. and then IF they will sign.

Day 1 ended up worrying if they were even still in the country! Some paperwork we pulled made us aware that being in Pakistan was a possibility.

Staci went on detective mode and through the Internet and a few sly data connecting, we had a pretty solid belief they lived in the area still, and we had an address and phone number.

Adding to the 'in our favor', our title lawyer, actually handled the settlement for the previous owners! So they at least had a history. Our lawyer called, and then visited the house, and explained the situation, and left the paperwork with the wife. We go for a full week without any real progress of knowing the intent of the previous owners.

Adding to the problem, is we have to be out of our apartment at the end of the month, which we were not able to extend. Which means, if we didn't settle, we'd have to move yet again...

So Friday the 17th was Armageddon Day.. something had to happen if we were going to make this happen. We needed at least some sort of knowledge of what was happening to get our next two weeks in line.

It started with Staci finding a work number for the previous owner (husband) which we had not heard at all from, after the lawyer had called and left the info at home. Staci called and left a VM. Crossing in the Ether... our Real Estate Agent calls saying there had been progress at the title company. What progress? Well it's complicated!

Our title lawyer is talking with a friend, who is another real estate agent/broker. He happens to know the couple we are trying to track down, and agrees to go over and explain the paperwork and situation to the couple. We get word back that they will sign the paperwork, but they want compensation in return! And this is Friday, and we still don't have an answer of WHEN they would sign it. So a flurry of activity.. and we are back on track to move forward, but we don't have the actual paperwork yet.

Fast forward to Monday night, our lawyer agrees to visit the couple's home at 9:30pm!! as that is the only time they can do it, and at 10pm, our lawyer has the signed paperwork! Progress finally!!! We are scheduled for settlement this Friday the 24th.

Great right? Well it's still more complicated!

I leave on a business trip for Europe TODAY.. I'll be away still during settlement, so Staci needs to do settlement on her own. Then last night, our real estate agent who has been incredible through this whole thing in terms of handling the legwork and keeping us updated... finds out her father unexpectedly passed away. So of course she's fully engaged with her own important business, leaving Staci to carry on these last few days. I know she can do it, but this one has been a wild ride! With 3 days till she's scheduled to sign all the paperwork, lets hope nothing else comes up!

oh and still no word on if the bank (the seller) will pay for any of the house issues found in inspection, etc. ugh

nant tips and tricks - part #4 Nant Expressions and the rest

2008-10-15T21:03:00.003-04:00

After working through three good sized projects with nant - there are some things that should have been more clear, but weren't for me. So heres some experience, hoping it saves you time.

Expressions
I got off to the wrong foot thinking ${} was part of how you referenced a property itself. This made it confusing when trying to reference properties within an expression. Cluu Phone!!! ${ } is about an expression, not just a property. Evaluating ${propertyname} is just an expression that just looks up the name's value, nothing else.

So when looking at the following
logdir in the first line does not have ${} around it because its inside an existing expression (which contains a function which is referning the name logdir...). Seeing the name without quotes, it is automatically assuming the text is the name of a property. If you were trying to put a string in there instead of an existing property, the string would be in quotes ' '.
In the second line, the expression is only evaluating the value of the property named 'logdir' so its just ${logdir}.

You'd be amazed how many tasks you can write before you recognize this :) However, when you start getting into functions to manipulate things.. you will fall down quickly with errors if you don't reference names or strings properly. Here is an example of a property definition that uses multiple nested functions, property references and strings.
This disaster is actually.. getting the current directory, then getting the parent of that directory, twice (to move up two levels), then using directory combine to append the string 'trendData' to that result. Note, only the string trendData has any quotes or other extra material.

Avoiding extra warning messages when moving, deleting, creating files
Well this one is just simple best practice coding. Ask before you do it. Use the directory:: and file:: functions to check for the existance of things before you go and try to delete or create new ones. Example:
Here's another example that includes using strings properly inside a function
A simple check before you delete...
Rename a group of files
Filesets/include sets can be a bit confusing. I had a task where I needed to rename all the files in a directory with a prefix. Here's the example

nant tips and tricks - part #3 remote shutdown and remote execute

2008-10-15T20:38:00.002-04:00

More nant examples to hopefully save you the effort!

Nant reboot remote computer
psshutdown.exe is part of the PStools kit from sysinternals (now Microsoft). The static timer at the end was an addition because it takes some time for the reboot request to take the machine down, even with the force option. I put the sleep in this task so my next task can immediately start checking for the server to be up and wait for it.

Nant launch a process remotely using psexec
In my last post, I mentioned the possibility of using psexec to launch remote programs. Here's a simple task example that does just that by launching ping on the remote computer.

nant tips and tricks - part #2 Windows Shares and Visual Basic

2008-10-15T19:57:00.006-04:00

Here are some more nant examples I've used in my projects.

Nant Map a Windows Share
These simple tasks will map a Windows network share as a local drive letter using the NET USE command
The properties in the examples are pretty self-explainitory. The ones of interest were defined as follows in my scenario where I was mounting the c: of the remote machine defined in the property named 'server':

Nant reading the result code of an Installshield Install
When you run an installshield installer with silent mode, it outputs a text file. Sound practice says to read that file and ensure the installer did not fail. This reads the setup.log file from the path defined in deployLocalPath
UPDATE: The above is pretty hack - now that I recognized you can simply use a regex task.Here's a simplier example that does the same thing and loads the Result code into setupResultCode
Nant and visual basic scripts (vbs)
Sometimes doing this is easier with visual basic and if you don't have VisualStudio or can't code.. visual basic scripting is enough to access things like WMI so you can manipulate Windows machines. Visual Basic scripts are not intended to be console applications anymore.. so first problem is running them in a command line so output can be viewed and captured by nant. Solution.. run the script using cscript.exe. The following example calls the vbs script remoteprocUP.vbs and passes a few arguements to the vbs file
The second problem with visual basic scripts is getting some debugging or informational messages out to console so they can be seen or logged by nant. When using cscript.exe to launch the program, in the vbs file you can use WScript.StdOut.WriteLine(string) or WScript.Echo. Example:

The last challenge is handling error codes from visual basic apps. Again, when using cscript, you can simply use WScript.Quit 0 to return 0 (success) or WScript.Quit 1 to return 1 (failure). nant will see the failure code and automatically stop your script.

Here is a complete example. nant calls a target who's overall job is wait until a website is online. It calls a visual basic script using cscript and relies on error codes to know if things failed or not.

And here is the visual basic script

' Script must be called from cscript.exe because of Wscript objects that write to console
' use is 
'  cscript.exe checkserverHTTP.vbs <serveraddress> <path>

Dim ArgObj
Dim strServer

Set ArgObj = WScript.Arguments
strServer = ArgObj(0)
strURL = ArgObj(1)

If PingSite( strServer, strURL ) Then
    WScript.Echo "Server " & strServer & " is up"
 WScript.Quit 0
Else
    WScript.Echo "Server " & strServer & " is down"
 WScript.Quit 1
End If

Function PingSite( myWebsite, myURL )
'based off code from  http://www.robvanderwoude.com
 Dim intStatus, objHTTP, intCounter, intCounterMax
 
 IntCounter = 1
 intStatus = 0
 intCounterMax = 60
 intSleep = 10000

WScript.StdOut.WriteLine("Testing Server Address: " & "http://" & myWebsite & myURL)
 
 Do 
 Set objHTTP = CreateObject( "WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1" )
 objHTTP.SetTimeouts 10000, 10000, 10000, 10000
 objHTTP.Open "GET", "http://" & myWebsite & myURL, False
 objHTTP.SetRequestHeader "User-Agent", "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MyApp 1.0; Windows NT 5.1)"
 On Error Resume Next

objHTTP.Send
 intStatus = objHTTP.Status
 
 ' check if page is retrieved or you get a 401 unauthorized.  Shouldn't get a 401 unless the directory/page exists.. which should be good enough.  And
 ' avoids the problems of web root having no anon access on appliances
 If intStatus = 200 or intStatus = 401 Then
  PingSite = True
  Exit Do
 Else
  WScript.StdOut.WriteLine("failure attempt " & intCounter & " Waiting " & (intSleep / 1000) & " Seconds")
 End If

If intCounter <> intCounterMax Then
  Wscript.Sleep intSleep
 End If

Set objHTTP = Nothing
 intStatus = 0
 IntCounter = IntCounter + 1
 Loop until intCounter = IntCounterMax + 1
 
 If intCounter = intCounterMax Then
  PingSite = False
 End If
End Function

nant tips and tricks - part #1

2008-10-15T19:38:00.005-04:00

Here are some of the simple tasks and example syntax I've used to help clean up or perform certain tasks in nant

Setting a property up to have a default value or override it via environment variable.
Since nant doesn't have an else to go with if, here's a simple alternative
I used to do this by specifying the property on the command line when launching nant - but using environment variables was much cleaner when the list of variables got long because our TeamCity Build Agent can define environment variables on the fly

Deleting and recreating a directory without generating error messages
Here's a simple target that plays nice when deleting an existing directory so you can tell what happened in the logs without erroneous error messages. Note how the variable name in the directory:exists does not have the ${} because inside the expression already

Starting a process on a remote computer
This execute will launch notepad.exe on the remote computer by logging in with the supplied credentials and using WMI via wmic.exe

Psexec.exe from sysinternals (now Microsoft) is another alternative to launch programs remotely, but is known to have problems in some scripted setups. Both psexec.exe and wmic.exe worked for me in nant, but neither worked when the nant script was called by my TeamCity build agent (java) :(

JMeter Variables vs. Properties. vs. Parameters

2008-10-15T14:02:00.007-04:00

One of JMeter's most twisted areas to get accustomed to is the general concept of 'variables'.

There are four basic types of value holders most people would refer to as 'variables' in JMeter

- User Defined Variables (UDV)
- Properties
- User Parameters
- Sampler Response

Many things act on the Sampler Response, which is the data set returned from a sampler, but that one is a bit out side the notion of variables we are talking about here.

The main differences between UDV, Properties, and User Parameters are when the values are set, their scope, and when they can be updated.

UDVs are the most static of the bunch. UDVs are defined in a UDV Config Element. UDV elements are evaluated at the start of a test plan and not updated again during the run of the test. So putting a UDV in a loop controller is not going to re-evaluate the variable each pass of the loop. A UDVs value is also only relative to it own thread. So they can not be used to share the same result between threads, but they can be used as local data holder where each thread may have a different value. I use them for better readability in my scripts for initial setup values (test server IP, a username, etc) but they generally are of limited use beyond that due to the startup-only evaluation of the UDV elements.
UDVs are referenced by ${name}

Properties are the most general data holder in JMeter. There is also the distinction between system properties and user properties. I'll defer you to the JMeter documentation to look into system properties. I haven't had a need for them yet. Unlike UDV which are defined in a Configuration Element, properties are defined
- in a .properties file loaded at JMeter startup.
- by the __setProperty function
- by the command line option -Jpropertyname=value when starting JMeter

This exposure to taking input from outside of JMeter makes properties especially valuable. Properties also have a scope of the entire Test Plan, so you can share values between threads using Properties. Using __setProperty you can overwrite the existing value of a property as well to update some running value if needed.
I use properties to fill in test plan values, and use the default value argument to ensure if the property isn't defined, the test will still execute. Example, to fill in the UDV used for the server address in my test plan, I define the value to be:
${__P(p_tmsIP,10.1.2.183)}
If p_tmsIP is not defined in the .properties files or on the command line, 10.1.2.183 is used

When defining custom properties and I want to load them easily, I use the user.properties file. WARNING - this file is only read on JMeter startup! So if you are using the GUI and leave JMeter open, changing the file once JMeter is opened will not change the values JMeter uses.

User Parameters are a special type of user variable that have two cool features. First, they allow you to define a variable that has a different value per thread, and second, they allow you to define the variable's value to be updated either each time its referenced, or once each time the parent element is passed in the test plan. The first functionality allows you to define a variable and a list of values, each thread will take the next available value defined for the variable. You define multiple values by adding 'users' which adds a new column. I haven't had a need for this yet. The User Parameter is referenced just like a UDV: ${name}

The second notion of when the variable is evaluated is very valuable. If the 'Update Once Per Iteration' checkbox is left unchecked, the expression in the value definition of the variable will be re-evaluated each time the variable is used. So if you have a variable that needs to be evaluated each time its used.. say it includes a time function, that would be very helpful.
Where I have found use in User Parameters is to have the Update Once checkbox marked, this means the value expression will be updated only when the element is passed in the test plan, and the value remains the same until the next pass. This is very valuable in loops. It allows you to evaluate a variable at the start of the loop, maintain the value through, and get a new value on the next loop iteration.

An Example is below. I have a loop that runs a series of samplers that are related in they should use the same variable logid, but I need logid to be unique for each pass through the loop. Each time the loop runs, a new data set should be used. The test plan looks like this:

In this test, the variable logid is defined as $__time(HMS)} in the User Parameter element. This allows me to generate a pretty simple, unique Integer that is refreshed each time the loop is executed, but remain constant through the 3 samplers. This also allows this same block of code to be used by multiple threads and each executed loop will have a unique logid.
Mastering how to use the User Parameter Element has been key to building scripts with loops that are intended to run with multiple threads.

JMeter Properties Help, Tips, and Examples

2008-10-15T12:26:00.008-04:00

Unlike User Defined Variables in JMeter, that seem to be a hack, Properties seem to be well handled and robust in use.

The first benefit of properties is they can be defined outside of your test plan. This allows you to feed parameters into a test plan. Common methods you can use (but not an all inclusive list) to define properties are

- Define them in a user.properties file which is read in when JMeter starts
- pass them on the command line to JMeter using -Jpropertyname=value
- in your test plan using __setProperty function

Unlike User Defined Variables, there is no separate controller for setting or manipulating Properties, so initially you may pass them over. Don't! You just need to get used to evaluating, computing, and setting them 'in line' with the rest of the test. You can also cheat and put functions in places like comments of test elements. So if you want to say use __setProperty and nothing else,, you can create a simple Test Action Sampler and put the function in the comment field of the sampler.

Properties have the benefit over Variables in that
- their scope is the entire test, not just a local thread
- they can be redefined during the test if needed
- their values can be fed into the test externally
- the _property function allows the use of default values

An example in some of my tests is I need to populate some variables for my simulation externally so they can be flexible and controlled by an external script. How many threads to use, how many loops, etc. However, I do not want to be burdened with defining all these parameters every time the test is ran, only if I want to change them.

The best way to do this is use the __property function with it's default value parameter. __P is a shorthand property function. So the Loop Count Parameter of my Loop Controller is defined as

${__P(p_ptploopcount,1)}

If the property named p_ptploopcount is not defined, the test will loop once, and will not fail to execute because of a missing value in the Loop Controller. I don't have to worry about defining p_ptploopcount before using it either since I used the arguement that assigns a default value of 1 if it hasn't been defined. I can override the default value to be 10 on the command line by doing something like this

jmeter -t testplan.jmx -Jp_ptploopcount=10

This method allows for very flexible test plans that can be scaled up or down without modifying the test plan itself.

You can also pre-populate properties using a user.properties file. The gotcha to watch out for though is if you are using the jmeter GUI, the user.properties file is only loaded when jmeter is launched. So you can not change the values, and simply re-run the test without closing and reopening JMeter.

Make sure you remember to name your properties and variables accordingly so you don't forget how to reference them! Variables can be referenced simply by ${name} where properties must be referenced using the __P or __property function

I name all my properties with a p_ prefix to ensure I remember they are properties, and not user defined variables

Jmeter UDV User Defined Variable Tips and Help

2008-10-15T08:50:00.011-04:00

The first of many to come tips for others from what I've learned using JMeter.

JMeter has a convoluted way of dealing what most people would be familar with as 'variables'. JMeter has a controller called UDV - User Defined Variables where one can define a variable and assign it a value. But these seemed to have been tacked onto the product later, and their support is a bit messy.

The only real reference to variables in the documentation is here and it's pretty sparse. Here are some lessons learned

Lesson #1 - UDVs can not reference other variables in their own Controller. While you can create multiple variables in a single UDV controller, you can not reference a variable that is defined in that same controller. Example if you were to create two variables

tmsIP = 10.1.1.10
feedbackURL= ${tmsIP}/code.aspx

You can not define them both in the same UDV, you must create one UDV that defines tmsIP, and a second seperate UDV controller to define feedbackURL.

Lesson #2 - Beware the silent fail. If JMeter sees something it does not recognize, it just treats it like a string. So if you are trying to reference the variable 'Beta' using ${Beta} but fat finger it and type ${Betta} you will not get any errors from JMeter that the variable is unknown, etc. It will happliy pass the entire string ${Betta} along. This is the bane of your syntax world. The way to catch this is to use Debug samplers in your test plan along with View Results Tree. The Debug Sampler will show you the state of all the variables at that momment in the test, making it easier to see which do not appear right.

Lesson #3 - References to variable names (and functions too!) are all case sensative. When your variable does not get matched, it will be passed as the simple string and JMeter will not say a thing about it. be careful!

Lesson #4 - Variables are local only to it's own thread. Therefore they are unsuitable for sharing a common counter, etc between different threads in a thread group.

Lesson #5 - Where to manipulate values in an ongoing test. This is my biggest pet peeve of JMeter, there is no clear place to do simply data manipulation in its own step. For instance, for clarity purposes, you want a step that simply modifies an existing value. The answer is quite crude actually, you just put it anywhere! Including in comment fields! So if you want a step that does not generate any samples - you can create a test sampler, that does nothing for the actual test or result, but in the comment field you can put a function if you wanted. The net result of this is typically instead of organizing tests for readability where data manipulation may be seperate from actions using that data.. you end up putting most things 'inline' where the value is the result of a function using your variables or parameters and you do not save the result into its own variable.

Example, instead of defining another variable to hold the value, you may simply use a function like ${__jexl(${callDuration}*1000)} in the value field of a timer.

Lesson #6 - User Defined Variables are only processed at the start of a thread! This means any UDV elements can not be used to manipulate data as the test progresses. So you can't think of variables as you would in the traditional sense. Think of them as initial values that are local to the thread only. To get new values as the test progresses, you need to either use Properties, which can be modified as a test progresses, Parameters which can be redefined each time the element is hit, or use the result of functions to evaluate expressions that could contain your variables.

Lesson #7 - How to I manipulate/generate new values from variables in JMeter? Something simple like multiplying two values and storing the result? This is where the 'hands off' approach to data manipulation in JMeter is frustrating. Basically JMeter has almost no operator type functions... you need to dump all the work into JEXL, JavaScript, or BeanShell and reference it with the respective function. So if you don't know basic JEXL, JavaScript, or BeanShell, you gotta learn it to do basic stuff. Sucks. But basic operator stuff is pretty simple. Instead of assigning the result to a variable, typically it works best just to put the operation 'in line' where ever it is needed. So if my variable callDuration is in milliseconds and I need a seconds view of it, I could use ${__jexl(${callDuration}*1000)} which allows me to reference the JMeter variable callDuration and multiply it by 1000 and the expression's result will replace the function itself where ever it is located.

Nissan 370Z Revealed - Spy Shots at the Ring

2008-10-09T09:37:00.003-04:00

Looks like the 370Z - the update to my 350Z is finally making its final passes before coming offical. Looks like the car without much camo has been spotted at the 'Ring in Germany. Check out the autoblog post for the gallery http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/08/spy-shots-nissan-370z-caught-undisguised/

First real taste of foreclosure pain

2008-10-03T12:59:00.002-04:00

Well - you never quite know what you'll get when trying to buy a foreclosure, and this week we got our first real taste. Turns out there a name problem in the chain of title with the house currently. The defect is explained as minor, but we really need this cleared up before agreeing to buy the house to protect ourselves. There are several answers to a solution so far, but we are in a waiting pattern (suprise!) again to let the lawyers do their thing and get some answers from the title insurance company. So we have what may be a pretty good potential for a settlement delay now while they sort the title out.

How to show code examples in Blogger or HTML

2008-09-16T20:54:00.008-04:00

When you want to show code examples on a webpage - you'd be suprised how much you need to dig to find a good solution. You have the default ways of using <pre> and <code> . Neither of which generate very pretty code at all. Of course you can write your own stylesheets or borrow/steal from other pages, but here is a great canned solution you can reuse without any guilt. Its called SyntaxHighlighter from Google. It's javascript and a stylesheet that formats several languages all very purdy with only a single tag! Another blogger has already written up a guide on how to to use it, so rather then re-create the wheel - here's a link Note, there is a slight problem in his example in that the paths he uses aren't very consistent, and don't even match what he uses on his page. A working example is probably in order then.. and it gives a chance to demo the tool! Here is the example from Fahd's blog as he's actually using it Pretty slick eh? Look in the comments of Fahd's post and you'll find someone has even hosted the files for you already! Just link to those files in the html above and put in your html page and you're all set

How to make your blogger template wider

2008-09-16T12:39:00.006-04:00

If you want to made your blogger supplied template wider - here are some tips from what I learned. This assumes you are modifying a xml blogger template. My example is taking my site from 847 pixels wide to 1100 pixels. Numbers and images will vary based on your template.

The first problem is modifying your graphics to fit your new resolution. The my template used fixed width graphics. So first step is to download those images and resize them to your new width. If you goto your edit html option under Layout, you scroll down and find the background references. You only need modify the images that are used for backgrounds, not the icons, etc. The backgrounds may have variables in the names such as $startside in the template. In my template, there were for images to modify

You can find those in the template, and find the URL that the image is pulled from such as http://www.blogblog.com/tictac_blue/bottom_sil.gif Normally you would just put that URL in a browser, see the image and right click to save it. But Google prevents you from doing this by preventing loads of those images except from their site. You can't do a 'view background' for the same reason. So what to do?

Cacheviewer

Now you must modify the images to your new width. I did this by editing them in GIMP. One trick is to maintain the transparent spacing on the edge of the graphics. I just used the image sizes to my advantage to position stuff rather then counting pixels.

I first selected from the middle of the image all the way to the right edge, and did a copy. Then under the Image menu, expand the canvas size horizontally to your new width (1100px in my example) - be sure to uncheck the linked icon so you only change one dimension. Now, under Layer Menu, resize the current layer to canvas size. Then paste the clipboard into a new layer - move the new floating pasted layer all the way to the edge of the new sized image using the selection boundary as a guide, position and then anchor down the floating layer. Save the image. Repeat for each image.
Now you must upload the images to a website so your blog template can access them. http://www.photobucket.com is a site you can use that allows 'hotlinking' directly to photos. Create an account and upload the photos to the site. WARNING: Photobucket resizes your images when uploading, chose the resize to 1meg option so your image dimensions are not changed (like mine were! grr!)
Now the last step is to edit the HTML template contents of your blog using the Layout->Edit HTML option in your blog's page. The template is a big style sheet which you can edit to your heart's content. If all you want to do is make the posting area wider, you must make the areas containing it wider. Find the elements that control the width on your page.

I started by just looking for the styles that defined a width. In my example, I was expanding from 847px to 1100px - a difference of 253. I found the width element of #content_wrapper and #outter_wrapper and added 253 to each value. I then added 253 to #main as well but when I previewed things, the sidebar was jacked. For some reason, I could not expand #main by the same amount I did the others, I experimented with values until I found 740px worked well.

How to experiment? A tip from our friend Axel suggests the Firefox extension Firebug. Firebug adds an 'inspect element' option when you right click on a page.. and you get a wonderful interface that allows you to view all aspects of your current page. Including modifying it and seeing the results!

For blogger templates, the nesting can be quite complex. When you hover over an element in the panel at the bottom, the corresponding portion of the webpage is reflected. The one of interest in this scenario is the one controlling the post area - named #main

Click on the image for a larger view

By clicking on the blue main text, you can see the style sheet for the area highlighted. Just click and edit the value for width on the stylesheet on the right and you can see your changes in real-time! I had problems doing this on the preview page from blogger, so just open a new browser window with your blog page to experiment.

Experiment and find the right value for you. For me it was 740px. Then go back to the Edit Template and change the width value for #main. Save your changes and check it out! Use firebug to help debug what sections are controlled by what styles by clicking the inspect text and hovering the mouse around the page.

That's it! I hope you find this useful

Now coming at you .. American Sized

2008-09-16T12:35:00.002-04:00

For some reason the default blogspot templates are all incredibly narrow - built to fit on a SVGA screen. No one uses those resolutions anymore except on mobiles and it made large amounts of text too hard to read. So after much frustration - here is the new wider version of Coreplex. I have no idea why blogspot doesn't offer wider, fixed screen templates by default. They make it a pain to change! See a post soon on how to do it

Did I mention??

2008-09-11T20:53:00.004-04:00

We have a ratified contract?? As of Monday - we are there. Wednesday was Home Inspection. We knew there would be numerous little things, but the biggest issues was water intrusion on 3 of the windows which need some sealing... non-op sump pump, and radon mitigation fan... a broken window (outside pane)... and lots of smaller stuff. Being my second time in the house.. I actually got to take some photos this time. Take the tour

Referencing properties and environment variables with Teamcity

2008-09-11T08:10:00.004-04:00

Teamcity allows you to define system properties and environment variables in lots of places. However, I always forget exactly how to reference them in my Nant scripts. So, here's a cheater version for System.Properties and Environment Variables in Nant scripts: Here are some example variables from a Team City project. Below this list, I'll show how they are referenced

DotNetFramework1.1_Path is defined under Agents, System Properties as DotNetFramework1.1_Path
SVNHOME is defined under Agents, Environment Variables as SVNHOME. Note it is referenced as 'SVNHOME' in the get-variable function. The quotes being the key
tc-logdir is listed as env.tc-logdir under the Build Configuration, Environment Variables. Note when referenced in the script, the env. is dropped and is referenced in quotes
proptest is listed as proptest under the Build Configuration, System Properties

Here's a simple target that echo's these values and shows how they are referenced. What is nice about teamcity in this regard is, you don't have to pass any variables to your nant script on the command line. They are automatically available to your Nant runner. Happy Scripting!

When things go BOOM

2008-09-02T09:12:00.003-04:00

Everyone remembers the Challenger disaster... but what happens when a rocket explodes close to the ground? Check out this video

Rounding the 3rd corner..

2008-08-30T17:31:00.003-04:00

Well, we got the bank paperwork, its signed and back.. and guess what.. the house has been taken off the market so we get no more competition until we close! woohoo So now its a matter of waiting for the bank to sign the contract.. meaning wait for it to get to the top of the pile of the person who does these things.. and then we have a ratified contract! Then we have 7 days to get our inspection and appraisal in so if there is any reason why we need to bail - we have to do it then. After that... Oct 10 is the settlement date. So we haven't gotten to the final turn just yet.. but we're close! What a long strange trip its been...

How to feel out of shape

2008-08-30T15:58:00.004-04:00

For a team building event - we were going to have a bike ride to a cabin. Knowing a bit about Norway.. most of these cabins are up in the hills and wilderness, so this isn't a ride around town!

Turns out we were going to Kikustua which is a popular spot to ski to in the winter, and bike to in the summer. The cabin in is the area just north of Oslo called the Nordmarka forest. Quite a beautiful area, one even you are not even allowed to drive into without special permission.

We started our adventure at Bogstad Camp - A recreation area just on the edge of the city. Distance to Kikustua? About 20 kilometers! Or almost 12.5 miles!

I don't have any information showing the elevation change, but from the terrain view of Google maps, it looks like probably a total elevation change of about 200meters from the start point and finish points. But more significantly - there are some serious hills between them! Check out this view from Google Maps. The path followed is not exactly what we did, but pretty close.

Lets just say some of the hills - absolutely brutal. There are stretches for 3+km that are nothing but uphill.. and very steep for such a long distance. I tried to take pictures, but it was almost impossible. Why? Because these hills are evil! They go up and around the hill. So while you may be able to see a few hundred yards in front of you, and you think.. I'm almost there! Just as you get to the top, you see its not the top, just a curve in the road, and the hill just keeps on going! There was never a spot you could see anywhere near how far you had gone or were going.

Some said 'just keep your speed up'. Keep it up? The hill is 3kilometers in a single stretch of nothing but UP!

But when we finished all the climbing and were really on the home stretch. We stopped for a beer break. Check out the view

And the beer break..

Check out the view from the lodge overlooking the lake

Needless to say - I don't know how I finished the ride. On the way back, you really felt like 'how in the world did anyone get up this hill??' they were that long and tall. But I did survive both the ride out and back the next day. Some heavy walking was required to get up several of the hills - but I managed to start and finish on a bike without killing myself :)

But to put it in perspective.. on the way back. We had probably 4-5 serious hills in the first section, that was considered 'almost all downhill'. That's because you went 11 kilometers before you reached the flat valley area!! That's right, almost 25 minutes and 11 kilometers of almost all downhill riding. Riding at the top speed of the bike on a gravel road no less. Luckily the road was worn, so there are tracks that were not loose gravel.

There are some more photos from the trip including views along the way and once we got to the lodge on my flickr photostream

Rush the bank!

2008-08-23T14:49:00.004-04:00

Well, I was scheduled to travel to Oslo Monday afternoon. Sunday was busy, so I didn't get a chance to pack, so Monday would be a busy schedule of trying to get work done, and get ready for the trip.

We arise Monday AM to find an email from the Realtor - a previous listing is back on the market at an attractive price.

Turns out its a Fitzgerald model - my preferred model - that is bank owned and the last deal had fallen through, so it was back on the market. Given its very aggressive list price, 535k, we didn't expect it to last. So we immediately wrapped the family up and headed over to check it out.

Good lot, but still not a culdasac. Brick front, but no finished basement. So compared to the 'big house', its a bit smaller (due to no bump out), no finished basement, a bit beat up, but a better lot, better looking house, and a heck of a lot better price. The big house had potential roof/water issues - where this one just needs some TLC, carpet, etc. Check it out

That said.. we talked about it - and wrote a contract (above list) before even leaving the house. Now this one is a Bank owned - so yet again we have to deal with unpredictable times and commitments. Never mind I was to get on a plane in just a few hours for two weeks!

Well, we got our first bit of good news. The agent was able to forward our offer to the bank without waiting too long. Then on Thursday, we got the even better news that they basically accepted our terms, and we were expecting their addendums to the contract as possible as early as Friday! This means, in less then 5 day turnaround, we could have a ratified contract!

Well, we didn't get the paperwork on Friday, but we'll expect it Monday. If we get past that hurdle, the house should come off the market and we just need to get through inspection and the other contingencies. So, good news so far.. lets hope it keeps coming.

How much is it worth?

2008-08-23T14:12:00.004-04:00

Well, I'm still way behind in updates.. so here's the next segement of the story, but not the latest! You'll have to stay tuned for the next update.

So, after missing out on the Short Sale, we had to take a closer look at the financials because of rising interest rates and some optimistic reviews. So we regrouped to review where we felt comfortable paying a month and what would be the upper limit. The problem was.. under current conditions that meant affording a much lower 'top line' price then previously thought.

With this new realization in place (and I think finally some agreement at home) we settled back to watching for new activity.

Turns out one home we looked at previously had just lowered their price again. Originally listed at I think 609k, it was now 579k. We had seen it previously but had passed. Now it was cheaper, and the owners were out of the house given a cleaner look at the place, so we decided to check it out again.

This model had the main level floor plan I liked but had a weird bump out that was obstructed by a odd wall with a fireplace. They also had a pretty run down house as the neighbor. At the previous price, the house just didn't have anything to make it feel worth it, but the house did have many of the core elements we were looking for. You just had to get past some of the shortcomings. At the right price, it would be a good fit. Just previously at those price points, it wouldn't hold up to the competition.

And apparently the market agrees because from our intel, they hadn't gotten any serious bites at all. Looking at it again objectively, I came to the conclusion its a good house, and met most of the desires, it just was priced all wrong. We did some homework, and we came up with a price we thought reflected the house's market value and value to us. We believed we could buy it at a price that would leave us some cash to do the upgrades the house needed. The house was in solid condition, but really lacked most of the upgrades (kitchen appliances, countertops, flooring, etc) that usually catches peoples' eye as value adders.

That said, with the new budget in mind, we wrote up a offer we felt reflected our comfort level and the market comps supported.

We offered 530k - while 6% lower then their list price, it is also 30k higher then any like model of their home has sold in the community. Well, after getting the offer they apparently were not too thrilled - and waited 3 days to respond. The counter? 569k! Doo what? These people are obviously a bit hung on their price.

Well, we honestly wanted to make a deal happen - but on our terms. We are not desperate, we have a place to be, we have a budget, and they have a house they need to sell (which BTW, has been on the market for 80 days at this point)

There was a mentioned possibility of using seller concessions to get a higher list they wanted, but without higher costs. So we countered with 560k with 3% back.

Well that didn't wake them up either, and they delayed getting back to us.

Bad news for them - you snooze you lose. While they wait, new action happens on the market.

They finally countered at 560k with no consessions. No way - that house is still overpriced, so we walked. We are pretty confident this has been the only offer they have gotten. Maybe they'll take the blinders off and look around.

In the mean time, a new opportunity has come up...

The offer.. the switch.. and then some

2008-08-13T15:06:00.002-04:00

Well.. we popped our cherry. Since our last update, we did decide to place an offer on the 'space' house rather then the 'bragging rights' house. Bragging is under contract now.. a few days after we walked away. On 'space' we knew it was really just a stab in the dark. The house's history on the market was shady, and it was a short-sale on top of that. We put in an offer, the agent came back to ensure that was 'our best offer' and then the home owners were supposedly going to send everything to the bank on that Monday. I believe this was a Thursday.. Well, the writing was on the wall when we viewed the house and they were moving items INTO the house. We got a call a few days later they had taken the house off the market. Presumably to move back in (they had two houses in short sale and managed to sell their bigger one first). That closed our chapter.. but we were ready for disappointment so not a big set back. Bragging rights house was already under contract, and we had mentally moved past it already... so we were back to being idle. More to come soon!

Welcome Home!

2008-08-09T21:00:00.003-04:00

Well we wrapped up our long summer holiday this week (all possible due to the generosity of my parents). Friday was going to be the first day back to work, and as I went to get into my car.. I notice the door didn't open right. This drew my attention to the car a bit closer.. and then I see this

Welcome home!! Haven't even been in our temporary apartment for 3 weeks and I get this GREAT reminder how miserable apartment life can be vs owning your own property.

Ugh.. yet more BS to have to deal with

Do you dig those great maps from live.com or virtual earth?

2008-08-09T20:52:00.003-04:00

Microsoft has started a video series talking about all the technology behind Virtual Earth.. including the aerial view (3/4rd view) used on maps.live.com I've just started watching, but this should be really cool to understand how they get these wild images! First episode starts here http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Mark+Brown/Behind-The-Maps-UltraCam/ The second episode starts with them flying their 'ultracam'

Space or bragging rights?

2008-07-24T08:47:00.003-04:00

As the home hunt continues - you always have to struggle with compromises. There never seems to be a clear path and you can never refine the situation to reduce the complexities. Everything always seems to be a mess of cascading dependencies. The latest struggle is looking at two homes... Candidate #1 I call the Bragging House. It's got all the things you'd ever want to show to your friends when they ask 'what did you buy?'. It's got the beautiful yard.. it's got the landscaped hillside.. its got a good sized lot.. it doesn't have houses backed to it.. it's well maintained on the inside.. it has a full sized bar in the basement. Not a little wet bar.. a full on 8ftx5ft type thing. Then you go out back... A pool... hot tub... built in grille... pool deck, wood deck.. and still up the rise, a children's playset and area to play. Check it out So what's the problem? Jump like crazy! Well - the house isn't really quite what we were looking for. It's a bit small to stay in long term.. the basement isn't that large.. the upstairs rooms are ok, but not great. Basically the house itself structure wise (rooms, space, etc) is good, but not great. You don't have room to do new things.. anything you'd do you'd be ripping out something to do it. No media room.. no game room.. not even a true in-law suite. It's a house that has probably reached it's peak.. and apparently the homeowners think so as well as they've priced it pretty high. But on the pricing front there are comps to show it can be lower. There is ammo out there to counter their asking price. It's been over a week and its not under contract, so likely we aren't the only ones wondering about the price either. Candidate #2 is the diamond in the rough. Let's just get the ugly out in the open. It's a short-sale. It's been vacant with various stages of renters in and out for ages now. It appears sound, but needs new flooring throughout the middle and upper floors, paint, and the hardwoods look pretty disgusting dirt in groove wise. It has at least two significant water spot areas that need investigating on ceilings. The outside has been neglected... the deck needs refinishing... etc. However, it's a monster. It's one of the larger models you can get in the neighborhood.. it's over a 1,000 sqft bigger then #1 just on the upper levels. I think there is probably another 500-1,000 sqft extra in the basement (the numbers published don't seem to all add up). The kitchen is massive... it has a sunroom that was bigger then my entire old kitchen+dining room combined. It actually has a separate office, plus the 5 bedrooms. It has all the structural checkboxes that we were looking for, plus more. I don't know what I'd do with probably half the space to start with... but there is room to do more for many years to come. And it's listed at 550k. To put it in perspective.. that is almost 70k less then #1. It's probably 100k less then the nearest 'like' house and even further below what a great condition house of the like model. It's a 650k-750k house.. way out of my budget... for 550k. The unpolished stone... the diamond in the rough. However as things can't be easy.. there are the compromises. #2 is on a smaller lot, with 3 homes around you. There is trees and screening.. but they are there and you see them. Compare this to #1 which at least behind you is pretty much a private kingdom... except the fact on the otherside of the castle walls are a major road.. which on the otherside will be commercial development. #2 has a reasonable sized yard, but in a odd shape.. but plenty of room for the kids to play. The whole thing needs major TLC to look top shape though.. while #1 looks like it could be on a book cover. Neither property is on a culdasac which I would have preferred.. but #2 is at least in a dead-end area. Neither property properly backs to trees with nothing behind you. Neither property has the big open lot (tho few exist in our community). One property you are buying the outside... One property you are buying the house and minimizing the outside. One property you are buying a polished stone, the other a rock if you hold just right, you can see the shine. One you move into a confined space... the other would be like moving into a warehouse. Crazy.. nothing is simple. What would you do? Well yesterday we started to put our money where our mouth is.. and wrote an offer on one of these two. Which do you think it was?

I'm no longer homeless

2008-07-24T08:30:00.004-04:00

Well it's been awhile between updates - Chaos and simply not wanting to relive it :) Even though we had basically a month between when we settled on the sale of our house, nothing of interest came up during that time. So quickly we had to commit to the temporary housing situation. I don't even want to relive the back and forths those weeks lead to, but eventually we were aimed at moving into the apartments in the southern half of our community. They had a three bedroom apartment, with garage. So that would be good yeah? Well, there is no parking essentially, so our three cars would have to be pruned down and we'd have to use the garage for a car, not storage.. And we'd need another self-storage unit to store what didn't fit in the apartment. casualty #2,454 - The Z car had to be shipped off to my father's house for keeping till we found a permanent place. So no toy car for awhile... Then we had the fun with Van Metre. Being lied to no less then 3 times by Van Metre about apartments climaxing where less then three days before we were to move in, them saying they had no apartment for us - even though we had already signed paperwork saying otherwise! The woman did some calls and ended up getting us into another set of apartments in the neighborhood which originally would not give us a short term lease like we wanted, but now they would. Smaller place, no garage, but we are getting desperate. Upon closer look, parking is amble (but Z is already gone..), and they do have garage units for rental. Sweet! So unlike Van Metre, within 24hrs, we had paperwork, commits, and shortly after keys! One problem though... it's on the 4th floor with only steps! Oi! So move day came without much issue. Cramming of packing before the day got all but about 3 car loads of 'loose' items ready to go. The silverlining turned out that while we had planned to put thing in the garage as storage (for things we may need) and put stuff in self-storage for 'off-site', no access storage - as we unloaded, it appeared we may be able to fit all our stuff in the single car garage. So we went for it, and the movers made a mountain in the garage, successfully unloading the full truck into the garage at the apartment! No more need for a larger storage unit. And most importantly, meaning, no more need to move all our stuff we've had in storage out, and into the new bigger storage unit (so we wouldn't be paying for two). A stop at the storage office ended in success as well, where basically we were able to reverse the storage 'upgrade' we had already ordered without penalty.. woohoo! So now we are totally out of our old place.. the last day was spent cleaning and removing absolutely everything. Monday the new owner moved in, and we continued to unload boxes, etc at the new place. It's ok so far.. 2 bedrooms+loft which we are using as a 3rd bedroom and playarea. Maybe I'll get some photos up later if I can ever find a camera :) Now if I could only get my deposit back from Van Metre.. grrrr

Lego Wonders

2008-06-22T13:41:00.003-04:00

I played with Legos a ton when a kid - and still love them. I have even tried to get my kids into them with some marginal success. Legos fanatics come up with some crazy builds. There are cool kits that blend your favorites such as Star Wars and Lego.. but the kits are big bucks for the big cool toys. Then of course the issue is where do you put them?? :) Then we have the extreme editions.. Did you have this Lego set as a kid like I did? The famous yellow Lego castle.. before Lego cheaped out and made most of the kits out of large pre-fab pieces Check out this project where they did.. uhh.. a supersized version of the kit :) Photo Gallery and Story at Gizmodo I think one of the most insane ones is this Aircraft Carrier. It's over 17ft long and the attention to detail is absurd. Check out the gallery at brickshelf. here are just some teasers Then you have the huge Star Wars kits everyone wishes they could have.. The M Falcon - $500 The Star Destroyer (now only $199!) .. and now.. the Death Star! Check out these videos of the unboxing and sorting of what one of these kits like these mean. Insane - Part I - Part II But some of the blogs have been following some of the Lego Conventions and other things that come up when Lego makes the news. Here are some clips/links of some crazy stuff. How about the Kennedy Space Center? Must See Video Or if Football is more your thing.. how about a stadium with 30,000 lego figures (minifigs) in it?? Insane
What about Stand-Up Comedy plus Lego? You get these great stop-animation using Lego to depict this sketch from Eddie Izzard about the Death Start Cantina What about Music Videos plus Lego?
There's even a whole site dedicated to the genre of stop animated Lego films - check 'em out http://www.brickfilms.com/films.php

Final approach

2008-06-22T13:38:00.003-04:00

Well - all is well on the house selling front. We got through the home inspection with only two repairs needed. A spring on one of the garage doors, and a wet spot on one of the ceilings. The garage doors was just a part and I put it up.. the ceiling was a roofer call + some painting. Surveys have been done... Appraisals have been done. T-minus 4 days till closing! But that means we need some place to go! Still not much luck on the house shopping front. Found a great property - but over priced and just too expensive. We'll keep looking

Getting close....

2008-06-10T19:59:00.002-04:00

Sorry there wasn't much updates on the house. Week by week was pretty much the same over and over again. Getting lots of traffic, but the feedback was all the same 'didn't like the layout' - GRRR We had over 50 showings easily over the period, but not even a hint of an offer. Well finally after 48 days we called a pow-wow to plan our next move. Spending 3hrs reviewing the market - we had a battle plan ready. But we had 2 agents we needed to hear back from before executing, so we figured we would wait till the next day. Low and behold we find out later that night, that 2 of the 4 similar properties were off the market all of a sudden. One pulled out, and one was under contract. This is quite a bit of news - and turns out one of the agents is telling us their buyers are looking to write an offer... but with some significant terms. We tell them put it on paper and we'll take a look. The next day, major blow-up happens. Another agent says he needs to show again as her buyer is also interested... when it rains it pours! We end up showing 6 times that day if I recall. The day wraps up with two offers pending! The offers come in and we review and take our considerations. We end up picking the less complicated of the deals but want to counter back. The buyer accepts our counter of a higher price, settlement date, and rent back we wanted. So in less then 3 days we went from desert - to sweet Oasis. Tomorrow is the home inspection - which should be the last major hurdle. So hopefully by end of the week we should have a great view of the finish line for selling of this house! But - we are only rounding first base and have a ways to go yet till we get settled in a new place. So the adventure continues

If you build it - they will come - The Rebate Draw works

2008-05-29T21:03:00.003-04:00

Mail in rebates are the ultimate 'coupon'. Designed to attract buyers, but intentionally made difficult to ensure a low return rate, reducing the actual discount the vendor gives. It got so bad, they really started to lose their value as people were just fed up with them. Well thank god some vendors realized happy customers will be repeat customers. They made rebates easier

places like best buy/CC automatically printing the rebates for at the register
Staples and others offering electronic submission (some even without any paperwork)
The idea of self-service, electronic tracking for rebates

These ideas have become more and more mainstream, making rebates more reliable and most importantly, less burdensome. In my last computer build, I intentionally steered towards products that were offering great prices with rebates. In fact, in one computer build alone, I had 5 rebates, along with another from just a few weeks ahead. Mailing in 6 rebates? What's my return? How much trouble? 1 electronic staples rebate 3 corsair mail-in rebates 1 antec mail-in rebate 1 coolermaster mail-in rebate The staples one came back first. 4 of the other 5 came within 3 days of each other, and the last just came today. These were mailed out the week of Feb 13th. So took awhile to get them, but not a single one required a call, resubmission, or any hassle. Total rebate? $250 Total Pain? 5 stamps and some handwritten envelopes Keep it up boys - make the rebates attractive and you'll get the business you want

Week 3 - Where you beeee?

2008-05-18T13:34:00.003-04:00

Well not many updates on the moving situation. We've had a ton of traffic through the house (by my count approx 30ish) showings over the last three weeks but no solid bites yet. We had two open houses, one that was dampened by weather a bit, and the other did a bit better. We have traffic on weekends AND during the week - which is great, but means living in the house can be tough. You take 2 or more showings that aren't even back to back.. and before you know it you have to be out of your house from 10am until 3pm or later. That's rather annoying, but if it lands a prospect buyer then it's worth it. This Saturday I left on travel and it was the first weekend day we have not had a showing. Questions are already being raised internally about pricing, etc - but the feedback has not been around the price from the showings. That, and when you look at the housing going under contract during the same time period - its all higher priced product. The issue is, its all bigger homes too. Question is - do people want the size house we are selling? Only time will tell...

You know its thick when...

2008-05-18T13:22:00.003-04:00

For those that didn't know.. May has been the month of rain for us. Check out a neighbor's weather station totals for May http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KVAASHBU4&day=1&year=2008&month=5&graphspan=month Over 5 inches of rain - virtually of which almost all came within one week. That means grass that normally needs cut every 7-10 takes goes APE. Plus, didn't help that the rain came at the END of our normal 7-10 day window. So it needs cut, and then we get 5+ days of rain. Doesn't lead to the best looking yard for showing the house! I finally got a dry day (though it had rained just the evening before) and I try to tackle the grass last Sunday. My mower is a mulching mower so you shouldn't get the thick clumps of grass. But if you want a good cut when its tall or thick, you still use about half width passes to get a nice uniform cut with no 'mohawks' as I call them where you get a line of grass that escapes cutting for one reason or another. Well this day.. the grass is approx 5+" in the tallest spots. I can't get away with half passes.. I even have to drop down to 1/3 width passes with the mower. On top of that, I STILL get the mohawks on almost every pass. This means not only did I have to make 3x as many passes as I normally do - I had to cut the entire yard AGAIN after I finished it the first time to get ride of the mohawks and to further chop up any clippings. Now that's some thick grass!

Why Business Travel sucks

2008-05-18T11:55:00.003-04:00

Well - you have a bad day, what do you do? You 'go on the internets and complain' Today I was flying out of Dulles International to Europe - which I do frequently. Always leaving on a Saturday, which the last half dozen times or so hasn't been so bad. Living only about 15 miles from the airport, you don't expect to spend a ton of time getting through the airport, but I had being rushed, so I always plan conservative. Yesterday was an example why... Economy parking at Dulles requires taking a bus to the terminal, which can take any varying amout of time to show up. So I normally plan an extra 30mins if I have to park vs being dropped off. When I arrived at the lots, relativly quiet, but they looked aweful full. Usually within 5-10 lanes you can find something. But I kept driving, and driving, and driving with nothing open. I went through Green... nothing. I went through Gold... nothing. I went through Purple... nothing. And I don't mean 'nothing nice' I mean.. nothing AT ALL. I'm starting to be concerned I'll have to park in a more expensive lot just to find a spot! One area of the lot was closed off from what looked like paving/sealing work, but it should not have filled ALL the other lots. After almost 30mins of circling to find not a SINGLE SPOT open, I headed over to Blue, which is the front most lot. Lots of passes and finding nothing, eventually, I get to the farthest north corner of the lot, and not only is there one spot finally, but several - about 5 I can see. 5 parking spots - I'm amazed by seeing a whopping 5 parking spots. How nuts is that? I've never seen this place so crazy. So we wait for the bus, which takes about 10mins and then there is no room on the bus for luggage - its all full. That always makes for interesting bits, but that was minor. I get to the terminal to check-in. I'm premier with united so you get separate check-in so I don't worry about how long this will take. However this flight is a co-chair flight and some you check in at United, some the other carrier. I had not checked ahead and just went to the United check-in. It was eirely empty. Normally the united economy area is a mad-house, but it was quiet. I walk right up - to find I need to check in at Lufthansa. Ok, no biggie, I head over there. Oh - this is where everyone is at! It's a complete madhouse. Literally the line queues outside their check-in area, and through another airline's area, and back out into the walkway. I check with an agent to see if my status gets me into another line; he confers with another agent, and they say yes and put me in the business class line. Perfect - there are only 3 people in front of me. There are 4 agents working first class, business, and a bag drop off. I'll skip all the frustration and get right to the point. How long should it take to check-in customers, and at what point do you take them aside and deal with them so you don't hold up everyone? How many guests do you think they could check in in 15mins? 30mins?45mins? Try 2 couples in.. 45mins! Literally - zero exaggeration - 45mins in line and they served TWO couples. TWO. Given the first couple was already at the counter when I got there, that means in 45mins I moved forward 1 person. So what did Luftasana do about this? Nothing. We weren't allowed to cut into the other business class line - which had spurts of speed, but then there would be long periods where NONE of the lines for First or Business were moving. I watched people in the first class line wait over 30mins to get through about 5 people. It was surreal. You'd think, ok, once they get through this guy, it's gotta speeed up and you just need to be patient. They'd have one delay, the guy would go away, 10mins later come back, and you'd think you're set... and then boom he's back on the phone and everything stops again. You think its not worth trying to get to the end of another line of 10+ people as it can't possibly stay this slow... but oh.. it did. Finally one of the agents (this is after 40mins) starts taking some people from our line which knocked 1 of the 2 left out in front of me. Mr. Sloth finally managed to finish his second couple in 45mins and finally the second agent who let us cut his line finally took me at about 50mins. Checked me in right in.. and that ordeal was over. On most days I'm from home, to the gate in about an hour. So far today, it's been over 2:15 and I'm not even to security yet. Then security - ah.. well they've done pretty good with security at Dulles where it's quick to move through. They have a premium passenger line - which premier people are entitled to. But since the co-chair flight is operated by Luftansa, the ticket is theirs not United's. I get to the first check, and the airport checker tries to kick me out of the line because something isn't marked on my ticket. I explain I'm United Premier, this is a united flight. I even pull out my card, show her that and where it's on the ticket as a united flight! She's persistent about some code and I'm starting to get pissed - this is pretty freaking simple! Then finally she lets me go. Move through the rest of the process without issue, but then I gotta goto B-gates.. which after all this means you get to walk about another mile to your gate. Finally at the gate, before I can even sit down, they are starting to board. It's a good thing I left 2.5 hrs before my flight! They start boarding first class, and they have these queues setup and the lady tells some economy folks to line up in this queue and wait. So people start queueing, and I join in. Apparently today's lesson is - never follow me today. Because as one agent finished checking first, the lady who told everyone to queue up, proceeds to start boarding the queue right next to ours (which is also economy, just another line). But the agent in front of us insists that we wait, while his coworker literally right behind him checks dozens of people through! Finally the sloth figures out what is happening 20 inches away from his head and boards us as well after 3-4 minutes of pointless waiting. Lucky for me (is that possible today?) I wasn't one of the approx 10 people I saw in my cabin alone that had double-booked seats and had to be shuffled around. The flight was on a A330 which I had a window seat, which is nice so they don't ram you with the carts, but kind of makes you stuck depending on what the person next to you is doing. They had a different flight entertainment system which actually let you pause, FF, etc your movies and don't have to watch the films according to the fixed schedule. Awesome! To bad they didn't have a single film I wanted to watch. I passed the time listening to podcasts and playing a little on the DS. I slept for about 15mins out of the 8hr flight. Arriving in Frankfort, I had about 2hrs until my flight was scheduled to board. But you can't sleep really because there is no one there to ensure you wake up in time! So you smell, you just go into zombie mode waiting for your flight. Which today - is also delayed. Boarding time comes and goes. Finally about 45mins after our scheduled boarding time, we board. I am in the next to last row on the aisle.. or so I thought. Get there and someone is in my seat. Turns out its a family with two kids under 5 and they are spread all over the plane (they didn't figure this out before they sat down and spread out in the wrong seats???). So now I wait in the back until the plane fully boards and I switch seats with one of the father's tickets so they can all sit together. Window seat, no one next to me.. so not a bad trade off. Karma right? But these smaller A320 planes are pretty tight on the legroom. Combined with a guy in full recline in front of me.. ugh. Then I had to goto the bathroom, but this is a short hop, I'm not on the aisle, etc.. so you figure you can just wait. Well then coming in for the landing, tons of turbulence and it was probably only the second time ever I felt nauseous on a plane. Then it was on to get my luggage which came up fast - woohoo and the train ride to the city. Finally, almost 16.5hrs after leaving home.. I'm finally able to lie down and rest. And we do this by choice???

Status of Week 1

2008-05-03T15:08:00.003-04:00

Well, its been a week, what's happening? The first Saturday we were on the market lead to a few showings. The Open House was dampened a bit by a rainy day, but all total we probably had 6-7 showings for the first weekend. Since then we've had another 3-4, plus 2 today alone. I figure that puts us in the 12+ range for the first week. Not bad - but no serious takers yet. Sitting here writing this I've seen two two people stop their cars and grab a pamphlet from the front yard. Tomorrow is the second open house, and weather should be nicer this time then last, plus there has been more time to advertise... so here's hoping tomorrow gets real traffic. We've done a pretty good job of keeping the house 'near ready' all the time. Probably the only thing we need to do is dust, as we have a pretty regular routine now to keep the litter box clean, rooms picked up, etc. So pretty boring in that respect. Here's hoping tomorrow is a money day :)

Come Get Some!

2008-04-25T12:48:00.000-04:00

It's offical - the house is on the market and in MLS http://matrix.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=24624265563 Send all your rich friends that want to move to the link :)

Browse the web the easy way

2008-04-24T20:39:00.003-04:00

Ever wonder how those friends of yours always find those links to wild stories or other things.. and how they always seem to be on top of all the news? It's not through brute force surfing or through a vast email network of sources you don't - its simply using the simple tool of RSS. You've see those links on the pages, its built into your broswer, but it may still seem kind of funky to use. I used to put some of them on my Yahoo portal, but that isn't very effective for high volume sites. And I'm too lazy to actually click through dozens of bookmarks every day, its so much easier to just browse quickly and see if anything interests you. Well my friend 'Mr Linux' pointed me to a site that really brings the power of RSS to you in a SUPER simple format that I think any user can use. It's called bloglines and it's got me hooked. To see an example of what it does for you.. goto my public view of the feeds I watch. When its your own, it even shows you which are new, with different fonts, etc. Its simple and effective. I highly recommend trying it. The tip I leave you is to ignore the group stuff they try to start you with... I found it confusing to try to customize. It's better to grab the bookmark they provide for you and put it in your toolbar. Then when browsing a site you like, just click on the bookmark and it will automatically search the page for a feed and automatically add it to your bloglines page! It couldn't be easier! So then you just add the feeds from sites you normally may come across but don't visit every day. Then you'll have this easy browsing format. You'll be the news genius of your group of friends in no time!

Milestone #1 - We have cleared the tower

2008-04-24T20:00:00.003-04:00

Well - today was prime-time. We were set to have the house staged today and preparing should have been completed. Staci worked on cleaning and a housekeeper was coming today to give a house a final 'clean pass'. She came early and worked all day cranking through the place. I worked on some final touch-up paint.. two colors worth. Well, one intentional, the other forced when I started with the wrong color paint! Then just decided to use it while I had it out and touched up the color that makes up the lower stairs and middle level. Then I touched up going up the upper stairs and then put the paint away hopefully for good! There are still 2-3 small spaces that probably SHOULD be painted, but 'no mas' please! I then replaced a toilet seat and tried to replace some screws in a drawer unsuccessfully (why is it Home Depot always has the size smaller and larger then you need.. but not the one you need!!!). Then the relators came and started doing there thing. I just tried to stay out of the way - being complete worn out. End result? Place looks good, and we are cleared for launch. I think the listing goes out tomorrow or something. We even had one buyer come through tonight - our first. So now it's official I guess. Sunday is the first open house. Lets get ready to rummmble!

Rushing for deadlines

2008-04-23T22:40:00.003-04:00

Well, the thing about selling a house is.. you never know how long it will take yet you still have deadlines. The first deadline was to have the house ready for pictures and staging. That was meant to be Wednesday. Tuesday the carpet guys were to be here. That ended up being nearly an 11hr job while they ripped out ALL the carpet in the house and replaced. While that was happening, we were still churning trying to paint in areas the carpet guys were not. Some areas of the house still have the original flat paint - doesn't matter how well you kept it, it looks filthy after 9 years. So while the furniture was all moved, we were painting rooms in a rush. The entire master bedroom was painted while the carpet guys finished other rooms. It's so crazy, I've even forgotten what we have done! Moving furniture? Oh yeah, while the carpet guys would move stuff, some stuff you just want to do yourself and all small stuff you must move. So Monday night consisted of breaking down the entertainment center.. Saturday I broke down all the office gear and packed it away. Just think of everything that just sits in your house, on a table, on a shelf, whatever.. it all has to move. We slaved and made the carpet deadlines... but the very next day was to be the staging day. I continued to paint... including finishing areas we had patched and touched up. We were beat, so when Wednesday morning came, we had about half the rooms ready, but the others still had to be cleaned and emptied more.. so we got a reprieve for one day. So today I spent doing all the touch-up on doors, doorframes, and window sills. Cut the grass, cleaned one window that was up 2 stories I couldn't reach before.. and still had to run one of the kids to their horseback riding lesson. Oh, and of course undo all the moving that was done prior to carpet! That means rebuilding the office so we have internet and workstations.. and the entertainment center. Meanwhile Staci slaved and finished emptying other rooms and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. It's Wednesday night now, and we are real close. I've caved after cleaning up the garage, and still have one more color of touch up to do in the hallways, but that is going to have to wait. Staci is still cleaning the kitchen more and its almost 11pm. This is more back to back to back work then we've EVER done here or probably ever. All this, and the house isn't even on the market yet! Well - the sign post did come yesterday and there is a 'coming soon' sign out now.. so its getting real close!

The Saga Begins - A Move is on the way

2008-04-22T13:41:00.004-04:00

well this is late, but its because we've been so busy because of it! The wife has really been wanting to 'upgrade' and move from our current house to a single family home. We want to stay in our community and with the housing correction, homes are becoming affordable. So I've gone along and we've been going full steam to get the house ready. Staci had contacts that set us up with our realtor, Bonnie Selker. We started with a review where they basically point out what you need to do to get your house ready.. this means what things that you have been ignoring because you just don't want to do that you can no longer procrastinate about. Well, about a week ago we start in full bore. We got a storage unit.. and Staci has been purging and packing room by room. For awhile there it seemed all we were doing was pulling everything OUT of its tucked away spot and into a bigger pile.. but finally by this Saturday, she had turned the corner and all but maybe two rooms were pretty close. We even pulled out all the computers and all the other stuff out of the office. Laptops only from here on! I looked to get the outside projects knocked out. First up.. paver stones. Our pavers had been collapsing a bit due to a rodent digging under them. Well, picked up some filler and some sand.. and dug in. Ended up repairing about 3 sections.. Wasn't bad except.. the repeat runs to Home Depot for more sand... the sand bags breaking open unexpectedly when carrying them... and the overall challenge of getting the pavers to level out. The edging of the pavers is kind of sloped in due to the patio steps and in other areas just due to settlement. It sucked, but I got through it. Up next? Powerwash entranceway, deck, and then seal. Oi! Well I borrowed a friend's powerwasher.. which lasted about 30mins before the engine refused to run anymore. 2hrs of tinkering, and I cried uncle and went to the Depot to get a rental. 4hr window or 24hr window. I tried to get it done in 4hrs. I just made it. The powerwashing was brutal on my hands though.. the next day I could barely open my hands fully. Powerwashed the patio (which one of the kids said 'why is daddy painting the ground white?' it was that much difference!)... powerwashed the deck. Sealing would have to wait for it to dry some. Next up was the back of the house. Since the deck went up, the ground nearest to the house of course become a dirt/mud pit. So I cleared out a section intending to put stone or mulch down. With the help of the oldest, we cleared the ground of any remaining grass.. cut an edging and laid down fabric. Stone or mulch? Can't decide!! End up focusing on putting in some stepping stones so whatever we do end up with.. you can cross it. Pick up yet MORE sand and 6 stones to lay. Put down a bed of sand so the stones will be stable hopefully without having to try to dig them in.. and setup the stones. The rest of the bed will have to wait. All that and it was just the first weekend! Later we decided to go with mulch for the area I cleared.. and we ordered 3 cubic yards to be delievered to handle that and the rest of the beds. We borrowed a wheelbarrow and pitchfork and Staci got to work on spreading the mulch. In the meantime, the deck had dried, so I started on sealing the deck after work hours during the week. Ughhh.. after 3 nights, I had it knocked out. Looks great compared to what it was. Up next? The handyman to finish off some drywall repairs that I could never finish right. He came in and finished the mud and priming job over a day and the next. Stuff is just happening everywhere! That means paint and touch-up can't be too far behind. Meanwhile.. I've got to finish off the back of the house. This means scrubbing the siding and doorway to get the old dirt, cobwebs, and everything else we've ignored out of there. Bucket and brush is the answer. Looked a ton better. And then windows.... quote was $175 to do the windows - I figured cash was a premium so I skipped that saying I could do it. Ugggghhh... windows - not so bad. Cleaning the inside of windows sills that had years of dirt stored up.. and sliding glass door tracks that were caked in crud. HOURS and HOURS of slaving. Finally - we had a break as we had a pre-planned vacation for Sunday through Monday. So we'll stop there :)

A Craigslist Story Part 2

2008-04-22T13:16:00.002-04:00

Ok, so when I finally got home, I got to inspect the game closer. While away, almost all my parts had been delievered... the usual suspects.. - new pinballs - new legs - cliffy protector for the turbo hole - new rubber rings/posts - new manual - rebuild kit for the hi-voltage board assuming it was a problem due to the DMD problem I was torn if I wanted to attempt to strip it down and clean it - as it really needs it - before I even got started. But I ended up chosing just to try to get it 100% working before tearing it apart! First up.. setup! Got the new legs and cabinet protectors on. There was only minor decal issues under the legs - quite normal. Replaced a missing wing nut which holds the head to the main cabinet. Closer inspection inside the head showed nothing of major issue now that I had it home. Of course.. the DMD still didn't work.. Read up on DMD issues on Clay's site www.pinrepair.com and started checking voltages and fuses. Turns out... two fuses and magic.. DMD is back! It is driving the display high on the 62volt line.. so I'll probably have to rebuild the high voltage circuit once I get some time. But it works now! It reports some switch errors, including the flipper EOS switches on both sides.. hrmm.. not a good one to ignore. I track it down, after taking wayyy too long (I'm no pin tech) and find out its purely the wire broken off the switch at the upper flipper (they are all daisy chained). Fixed that with solder.. and no more errors! Lastly to turn to the high fail component on this game.. the LED standup targets. They were something attempted for this game and they are almost always broken and spare parts are very hard to find. Well, on closer inspection I find, 2 of the 3 have their opto interupter broken, and one the LEDs are not all lighting properly. The opto interupters are basically just a finger of plastic that break a light beam when the target is hit. This can be jerry-rigged to work once I find time for it by just attaching something to replace the part that broke off. The LED problem needs some diag - which I haven't done yet. But none of this really affects game play, so I'll get to them later. Summary? Well.. minor scratches on the translite. Only matters for the perfectionists. an 8 or better Minor scratches on the cabinet, but no real fading, that's the big thing. The scratches are minor and overall the cabinet is probably a 8+. Major components? All present and working. No wear on playfield or inserts. Hole wear on turbo within normal expectations. Drop wear on inlane from ramp will probably clean up once dirt is gone. LED Standups broken, but should be repairable. Needs a cleaning, but only to be 'home pure'... it would be clean by any arcade standard. 2 fuses, one broken wire.. and we have a perfect players game and probably a 8 or better on the 'collector scale'... and all for about HALF of what it could have been. Was quite a steal.. and made possible through great friends! My friend Brian who pointed me to it, and my friend Eric who on no notice made it possible to go get! Awesome. Check out photos of the game on my flickr set Some teasers

Another member added to the family - A Craigslist Story

2008-04-17T12:33:00.003-04:00

Wow - I'm so far behind. Time for some catching up! On March 29, I got an email from my friend Brian. Brian has a great collection of games, but he's really got the bug for finding and adding games to his great collection. He spotted on Craigslist that morning a Indy 500 game... local... for only $1000. Normally a solid sample of this game would demand $1800-$2200. Brian already has a Indy 500 and knows I love it because I go straight for it when I play at his house. I've always liked the game since it was first on location and I'd play it at the shopping plaza in Greenbelt in the arcade there. It's a great balance of the humor that was popular in pins at the time and toys in the game. However, probably more because of the time of its release near the end of pinball for Williams.. it wasn't a big seller only 2,249 units according to IPDB. Historically samples are plagued by bad cabinet fade and broken LED targets (a unique design for this game). So when a deal pops up for only $1000 and its local... this is big news. It's listed as only have a broken display. A few problems though

I have no real room for another pinball machine
The wife has her eyes on a house before more pinball machines
Its 11:30am and I'm getting on a plane in a few hours for international flight that I have yet to finish packing for
The wife is leaving soon with the van to goto a family function - so I have no suitable transport

So I tell him thanks, but I'm screwed and can't do anything about it. After mulling about it for a bit, the wife comes through and I mention it to her. She stuns me by saying 'at that price, go for it' and even offers suggestions on ways she could help get it some way. I go into action mode, and call the lister. Yes, the game is still available (!!). Realize classified ads for pins are notorious for vultures swooping in before you get there and offering more money to get the person to sell regardless of what they've told anyone prior. So - beating all competition to site is a huge factor. But I still don't have any way of getting the game.. I don't have the cash.. and I still need to pack and get to the airport on time! I call up a neighbor I know he has a truck... strike out - he's not around. I call neighbor #2 and his wife answers. He's in the shower, he'll call back. Now I rush and go throw my bag together... hoping I'm not missing anything. Buddy calls back... I give him the scoop, I need him and his truck to help go pick-up a game. He says 'when?' I say 'as soon as you can be ready'. He agrees!!! He needs to finish getting ready and he'll call back. I finish getting ready... but am getting nervous due to time. I head over to his house.. still not ready! So I rush to the bank, get some cash (thank god for banks in grocery stores now!! great Saturday hours), head back and he's ready. It's been awhile since I originally called the seller, so once on the road I call again to apologize for running late and want to be sure no vultures have shown up yet. We're still in the clear and on our way. It's about 25-30mins away. We get there, the seller is nice and shows us the machine. It's in the basement (but there is a walkout without steps), fires up but the DMD is out. I inspect the machine a bit, opening the backbox, looking under the playfield, etc... looking for any significant problems or hacks. Game looks great, no discernable fade, no significant wear, all major components seem in place. Playfield is a little dirty, but not significant. Play a ball or two, and things appear to be fine, but the DMD is out and the game is reporting errors, but without the DMD I can't see what they are. But since the major components are there, and with no significant problems.. at $1000 it's a steal! A few hundred dollars in parts and I'm still above water. So we agree - pay the cash - and we haul it out of there. I've been in a real rush the entire time basically just wanting to get out of there before any competition gets in the way. We manage to load it up without issue and get it back to the house. Now the issue is I can drop it off at the house.. but I still have to get to the airport and I'll be gone for a week! So we don't even set the game up, I prepare for the trip, and manage to have about 1hr before I have to really leave... which I use to ensure I'm not missing anything for the trip. While away, I did some online shopping to get the usual specects of parts I will need to get the machine up to snuff and ponder if I'll strip the playfield to clean it up. It has mylar in most of the wear places which have protected the game well - but it needs a cleaning to be a home game. Without knowing the true fault in the display, I also hunt and watch auctions while gone to try to find a cheap replacement or one to test with. No joy. I'll just have to figure it out when I get home. More to come in the next installment!

Finally Wrapped up Pin upgrades

2008-03-15T18:43:00.004-04:00

Well I finally got off my butt and finished up my pin repairs and upgrades today. Twilight Zone had been suffering from the channel that holds the top of the playfield glass being broken. Closer inspection upon removal showed that the wood blocks it screws into were actually splitting as well. So about a month ago, I ripped out the original blocks, and cut new ones from some scrap wood I had, installed the blocks and ordered a replacement channel. Well, installing those blocks was the biggest PITA! I screwed the blocks into the cabinet to keep them secure (along with glue). But the screws are put in from below and screw upwards. There is no way to get in to screw them, so you are basically holding your screwdriver upside down and trying to screw up rather then down. OMG - between the slotted heads and the cabinet wood that was acting like it was concrete.. by the time I screwed the blocks in I wanted nothing to do with the thing. In the mean time, I installed some new mods/upgrades as well. I've had the marbles in my Gumball machine for awhile, but the light mods for the Gumball machine have gotten more mature. I installed one from Pinbits, using their warm white LED as I still have an original incandecent lit clock in my TZ. The kit was great, required some minimal soldering (I suck) but looks great. The red light blinks when the gumball machine is lit. It turned out pretty good I also installed the Cliffy Protector for the slot machine hole. Mine has been fine, but I figured its a easy protective measure. Install was a bit harder then expected, in that you had to remove the ramp to get the components up to install the protector under. I thought it was going to just be a slide it in type deal.. no worries, just more then expected. On the protective front, I also installed a set of plastic protectors from Pinbits as well. These install under your plastics to prevent breaks from ball hits. They are visible on the game, but not distracting. Another investment protection move :) Here's a view of a slingshot with them installed If you've gotten this far and still are thinking... WTF is he talking about. Here's a photo of my two babies. Now just to find the switch problem that has been haunting my Lord of the Rings.. till next time!

How to Decode SSL or TLS in Wireshark

2008-02-15T14:29:00.006-05:00

If you need to decode traffic encoded by TLS/SSL that you have captured with Wireshark, you can do so as long as you have the private key that was used to encode the session.

So, assuming you are running wireshark on your laptop, and you sniff a HTTPS connection to your webserver, you must have the webserver's private key to decode the traffic. While that is obviously not easy if you don't own the server (and therefore its secure.. duh) when you do and are trying to debug or test SSL functions, decoding it is important.

Wireshark offers some basic help on their wiki - http://wiki.wireshark.org/SSL but its rather sparse. What it is good for is telling you where the preference is and its format. The sample download on the wiki page is out of date. If you follow the instructions, they say

Set RSA keys list to 127.0.0.1,443,http,/path/to/snakeoil2.key

The file in the sample zip is actually named rsasnakeoil2.key so either rename the file, or enter the right filename rsasnakeoil2.key when entering the RSA key list to follow the sample on the wiki.

Here's simple instructions on what you need to do to decode SSL/TLS:

First, ensure your version has SSL decoding compiled in. If you have a recent Windows Version, its in by default. You can check by looking for the configuration options in the Edit -> Preferences -> Named Protocol -> SSL screen. If it's not there, its not compiled in. If they are there, proceed.

1) start with the private key of the server in PEM format. If the key is in binary, DER format, you must first convert it. Using Openssl use

openssl -in private.key -inform DER -out private.pem -outform PEM

2) your key can not have a passphrase encrypting it, if it does, strip it. Using OpenSSL

openssl rsa -in private.pem -out private-nopass.pem

You will of course have at least one key per system you are talking to, and maybe even different keys per protocol. So you must tell wireshark which system and port this key relates to

3) Goto Edit -> Preferences in Wireshark. Then expand Protocols, and Click on SSL.

4) In the SSL Debug field, specify a file to log SSL decoding to. Highly Recommended Otherwise, you will be stuck wondering why stuff isn't working.

Windows Example: c:\ssl-out.txt

Unix/Linux Example: /path/to/ssl-out.txt

5) In the RSA keys list enter the associations you are going to use. format is

Multiple entries can be entered by seperating them with a semi-colon ;

Example: to decode HTTPS to your server 10.10.1.2 and your key is at c:\private-nopass.pem

10.10.1.2,443,http,c:\private-nopass.pem

Windows users can use backslashes and spaces without an issue. Unix/Linux use forward slash. You can not use ~ expansion.

6) Hit Ok to save your preferences.

Now when you look at an SSL session that matches the data you entered, everything will be shown in the packet list. You can right click on a data packet and select Follow SSL stream and see the conversation. If its blank or the SSL option is disabled, the decoding did not work and you should check your specified SSL debug output.

What you want to ensure you see is the key successfully loaded, such as this example

127.0.0.1,443,http,c:\test here\rsasnakeoil2.key
ssl_init found host entry 127.0.0.1,443,http,c:\test here\rsasnakeoil2.key
ssl_init addr 127.0.0.1 port 443 filename c:\test here\rsasnakeoil2.key
ssl_init private key file c:\test here\rsasnakeoil2.key successfully loaded

The last line verifies the key was loaded without error. If you don't see that, check your private key file format (remember, no passwords!) and its location. If you see the key loaded successfully, but your data still isn't being decoded, your RSA key entry probably does not match your data stream - IP address, port, protocol.

20 Reasons why iTunes sucks

2008-02-09T21:30:00.000-05:00

I'm tired of Apple fans refusing to acknowledge the short comings of iTunes. It's one of the worst music library products out there - yet the Cult of Steve faithful refuse to acknowledge Apple has failed to address the shortcomings of iTunes. Instead of aiming to be the best MP3 Player and Library Tool out there - Apple puts it's Product schemes first. This is the big difference between products built to fill a need, as most shareware/freeware is, and products built to sell another product. The general suckyness of iTunes can be summed up into Control. If are a simple user, and don't care about much.. iTunes will do ok for you generally. But not always.. we'll get to that as well. But if you are a user that actually wants some input into how your music is handled - watch out. iTunes is going to be your enemy. So lets list out some of the ways iTunes sucks 1. iTunes is geared towards monopoloizing your music. It's default model is to 'sort' your music into its file structure when you import music. This includes renaming the files and putting into a specific file structure. Not so bad - but do you get to decide those names or structures? NOPE! It's Steve's way only. Every mp3 renaming tool on the planet worth a damn lets you decide the naming system.. Not Steve tho! This normally would mean, well just don't let iTunes sort your files.. oh its not that simple! For many reasons to come Why is this important? Because even though the full info is in the ID tag of the mp3 file, you can't see that info in many file interfaces. So if you look at your files outside of iTunes - you have these stupid file names that don't make sense. There is NO reason to not let the user decide this part of the process. 2. Apple insists the only way to interface with your iPod is iTunes. Yes, there are 3rd party apps that work around Apple - yet Apple refuses to make it open. Why? Because they want control. Most 3rd party apps tend to conflict with iTunes as well when you try to sync back with iTunes. 3. iTunes is retarded when it comes to locating files. If a file moves or is renamed - iTunes can't find it. iTunes can tell you it can't find it... but it can't find it itself, nor can it be told to ID all files it can't find at once, nor can it be told to drop all songs it can't find from the library. So the result is.. you the user are required to one by one.. stumble upon any file problems and fix them. Good library tools automate the discovery of bad links.. and great ones will automatically find the file if it moved. Example.. lets say you added the year to the name of the album folder. In iTunes, that's suicide. In other tools, they either highlight this to you, or simply automatically find the missing files by looking at the ID tags. The Church of Steve would say 'well don't move your files' - of course if you've sold your soul to Steve, you've ignored item #1 so you'll ignore #3 4. Some things don't work unless you auto-sync your iPod. Example - you like using ratings on your songs? Don't bother changing them on your iPod if you didn't let iTunes sync that song for you. It will not populate back to your library. Like using Play Counts? Don't bother because they do not populate back to your library either unless you auto-sync your iPod. 5. Play Count doesn't count a play unless you listened to the ENTIRE song. Listening to your iPod and didn't want to sit through the crowd cheering at the end of that live song? Don't hit skip - or your listening to your song isn't counted. 6. Ratings are iTunes only. Forget that ratings are part of ID tags - and probably the best method for setting up smartplaylists (one of the really good features of iTunes), iTunes only puts ratings in it's library data. So what? That means if you ever delete a file from your library, you lose your ratings. Why would you delete a file? Remember what I said about moving a file? If you move files, your only option is to fix each file ONE by ONE by ONE. So its actually easier to delete the files and simply reimport them into iTunes. But by doing so.. you throw away all your play counts AND ratings. Ratings are standardized and if put into the files themselves, this wouldn't be a problem. But no.. the Church of Steve won't have it. 7. iTunes is a pig. Why do I need a 60meg download for a mp3 player? Oh that's because Apple uses iTunes as a trojan to push it's Quicktime player everywhere it goes. iTunes uses QT as its media engine. Instead of lessening the impact and overhead, Apple makes you download QT every time you get iTunes. Why do I care? see #8 8. Quicktime ignores preferences. Because Quicktime is installed with iTunes, its installed silently as part of the install. However, unless most good software, Quicktime ignores many preferences you already have set. Have QT turned off from the notification area? You did.. until you upgraded iTunes.. then its back. That goes for your desktop icons, and quick launch ones too.. every time QT throws itself back there. Stop clutteirng up my computer! 9. iTunes installs fattening services that shouldn't be mandatory. iTunes installs several RAM hog services to accomodate Apple Software Updates and iPod services. Forget if you want them or need them - you got them without being asked or choice. Thanks Steve. 10. iTunes bugging me about new versions. No I don't want the latest stupid bloated version that now has support for products I don't own! You tell iTunes to not ask you again... yet it still keeps bugging you! Yup, that's right.. your choice to not bug you doesn't apply to all future versions.. just that one version. So the next time Steve's army releases yet another version, you get bugged again. It's like a phone solicitor that doesn't follow the do not call list! 11. iTunes can't scale. iTunes seems rather snappy - until you load it up with a lot of music. Put a 100+gigs of music into it and it becomes a sloth. It can't even keep up with mouse clicks in Windows. It takes forever to open or close. It's a total pig. 12. iTunes lacks true library features. When dealing with large volumes of mp3 files.. you need bulk tools for renaming, tagging, etc. Sorry, Steve doesn't like files that he didn't give you through iTunes - so these features don't exist. Now, iTunes has gotten slightly better in the last few versions with the multiple edit, but its still abysmal compared to proper library tools. It's still slow to apply changes too. 13. iTunes does not offer corrective tagging. MusicMatch had the best feature, called 'super tagging' which basically looked at the tags you had, and suggested the proper tags and artwork. It was awesome. Too bad Yahoo killed it :( 14. iTunes is your worst enemy if you ever outgrow your hard drive. Want to move your music collection? Woah.. slow down there buddy! See every problem above.. 15. Multiple users can not share the same library. Have children that you want to listen to your music? NOPE! Because each user profile on a computer must use its own iTunes library.. and since the library can not adapt for file changes (like adds or removes) you can't even point your library at a shared file folder. Oh, and each user profile means another activation. So no, the Church of Steve does not approve of your children using your music. You must give them their own accounts and of course then you can't even share music within your own family. 16. Have multiple computers? iTunes says FU! While you can authorize multiple computers with the same iTMS account, they all have different libraries. So you can't plug your iPod into multiple computers and use it the same as your primary computer. Want to play music off your ipod? hohoho NO says Steve. If you are using auto-sych, which you must to get your library to update from your iPod remember, you can't play music off your ipod on another computer.. even if its authorized with the same iTMS account. 17. You still can't move files OFF an iPod with iTunes. DRM through annoyance. Thank you Steve - You suck. You don't let me play music on my other computer, you don't let me move the files. You make other people write software to get around your stupid ways of blocking what is important - what the customer wants. 18. iPod Photo - buhahah.. got a lifetime to wait while they sync? Pointless feature due to the overhead of actually using it. 19. Why can't I download music you knew I already bought? Because that would be a BENEFIT of digital purchases.. but noooo.. DRM freaks so all purchases are one-time only. Lose a hard drive? Good bye music! 20. The bloat bloat bloat. Ever heard of MODULARITY? Why must I care all the bloat and weight of every digital video or audio product Apple makes just so I can use the ONE product I own? I don't care about iPhones.. or AppleTV.. or the other BS. Get out of my iPod! Oh wait.. the Church does not want to give up their opportunity to shove their product awareness down my throught. What does iTunes do well? Smart Playlists - these are great.. as long as your library data is good. Too bad iTunes constantly fights you because its library data is too fragile. See #1, #3, #5, #6 podcast directory and integration - itunes removes RSS, various websites, etc and makes it ultra simple to find, subscribe, and d/l podcasts. Kudos. Tho I'm sure many podcasters would have nasty things to say about their side of getting their stuff ON iTMS... The .99 song - gotta give it to the Church, he sold the labels on the model of per song at 99 cents. The per-character searching and 3 panel filter - set new expectations on search and browsing music libraries. Very effective Conclusion Open up the iPod for real Steve. Stop force feeding it on us. Listen to your user's needs - not your latest product aspirations and give us a real media library tool. I feel the most sorry for actual Apple users. Who's really going to go through and try building a mp3 player on OSX when Apple gives theirs away for free and forces it on most of their products? Apple users are stuck with iTunes forever.

What does a $100 dollar case get you??? Heaven

2008-02-09T19:04:00.002-05:00

For those of you who build your own computers from components - the so called enthusiast segment of the PC market - the case is a common element, that most people simply try to buy the cheapest that fits their needs.

8 years ago or more, cases were vanilla, the main differences were really just if they actually rolled the edges of the metal so you wouldn't cut yourself.. if they were flimsy or not.. and really just size. They were dirt cheap, typically $30 or more would get you the upper echeleon of what you need.

Then the LED/window phase hit. Cases started getting gizmo'd out. Every type of connector would be on the outside of the case, LEDs on everything, and more exotic materials. The all-aluminum cases were probably the tipping point. Case makers started offering high-end aluminum cases in place of steel. These cases were expensive.. upwards of $150. I think the industry realized the price point didn't turn people off.. and the days of the $10-$30 cases seemed numbered. Adding to that the needs of the power supply were increasing, driving their prices up as well. So that $100-$150 case didn't even include a power supply!

The super tricked out case phase has seemed to subsided - but windows on cases are still pretty common - but more conservative designs are around again - but the old price points are not. There are really cheap cases available - but not typically with the feature sets you are after. A good enthusiast case can be $50-$100 easy.

So what do these high end cases really get you? Are they worth so much more then your bargin case? Well this week I finally upgraded my system and I really wanted a quality, QUIET system to replace my old one.

I was told by a friend the Antec P180 was a primo case. I hope so .. it costs $115 or more... but the current model is a ugly mirror finish. There is a newer model, the P182 which is a nicer gunmetal finish. Well, with a sale price, promo coupon and a mail in rebate going on.. the case could be had for actually had for $59 - quite reasonable. So I took the plunge.

So what does a $100 case really get you?

First off.. this case is INSANE. It's nothing like your old bargin case. Newegg has photos here but I really need to highlight some insane things. I bought this case because it's supposed to be quiet. How do they do it?

- Triple layer side panels - The panels are actually plastic and metal sandwiched together instead of just a sheet of metal like a traditional case.

- Isolation . Anywhere there is metal to metal that could vibrate there is actually felt or silicon pads to isolate. Look at this photo - see that grey strip above the Antec logo on the right side? And the other pad along the edge of the divider between the upper and lower sections of the case.

The power supply is to be mounted down at the bottom. See that? A CAGE that holds the power supply.. and that cage, all lined with silicon pads for total isolation.

See those hard drive cages? 2 of 'em! Not only cages, but nice rings to make them easy to pull out. But here's the little things that make the case... see those black plates below the rings? Clips to hold the ring so it doesn't vibrate!

Speaking of hard drive cages - this one has two of them. The lower one is intended to mount 3.5 drives vertically - check it out

But check out the HD mounts - silicon grommets! All 3.5" drives are actually mounted on silicon grommets to prevent vibration - and the case includes all the longer screws with wide heads to work with the grommets.

Check out the upper drive cage.

So not only a removable cage with slide out HD rails.. but full sleds.. and they too have the grommet mounts! Just awesome attention to detail

If that wasn't enough.. for the fine touches... don't forget the toolbox inside the case so you don't lose those screws

Let's not forget what makes this case stand out.. quiet cooling. I'll spare you the Antec brochure on separate chambers, air tunnels, etc.. but check out these monster fans. 2 x 120mm fans at the rear of the case. There is another 120mm fan behind the lower HD cage

The fans are tri-speed fans - not too uncommon in high end cases. The fans can be set to run at one of three speeds. At low speed, they are virtually SILENT. But again.. why is this case different? Not only tri-speed, but the controls for 2 of them are actually on the outside of the case so you can control them

Another sign of quality? Both sides of the case come off for the best access. But how do you take that even further? Cable management holes that allow you to run cables on the other side of the case so not everything is stuffed in one cramped area. How do you take that even FURTHER? You put cable ties all along the motherboard tray and include the reusable cable ties to make it all happen

Of course a case of this quality comes with a box full of bits including cable ties, screws, all the drive rails (for the 5.25" bays), extra grommets, etc.

So what does this case look like from the front? Well behind the magnetically latched door you have this clean look

Standard USB, firewire, and audio ports.. but the audio ports are pre-wired for HD or AC97 use.. Those grilles? Air filter doors. Do they pop-out? No, this is a high-end case so you have spring latches that you simply press and the door pops open to access the removable, washable, air filters.

Out of control isn't it? These cases just aren't $$ to be fancy - they really do have all the details to make it worth their price. However, remember still price doesn't mean quality. Check out this other Antec 900 case. It looks like a tin bucket compared to the photos you just saw

Later I'll post up some 'finished product' photos - but for those of you who think "I'll never spend that much for a case".. I hope this shows you why it can really be worth it. It's case heaven

I finally enter the 1990s

2008-01-27T20:20:00.001-05:00

Well, after years of head in the sand -I've finally decided to try to keep a web presence via a blog. I've never been a fan of posting everything and anything online, but what really has been powerful on the web since the emmergence of search engines with such powerful relevance hits like Google is the power to find someone who has experienced the same thing as you. A common joke is 'The best developer we have is Google'. Now when someone experiences an error - they don't open Microsoft's site, or their MSDN CDs - they type the error into Google. And more often then not - you find your answer. It's simply amazing how much work is done and time is saved by these search engines. And the key is, it's not the search engines making the answers, but users contributing their experiences online. Now the search engines make these experiences so easy to find. After years of mooching - I've decided its my turn to try to contribute to the collective as well. So this blog will hopefully be a home base for me to share experiences, neat things found around the web, and probably an occassional rant thrown in as well. Hopefully I'll figure out this UI so I can setup catagories so you can view or hide what you are interested in. Thanks for stopping by!