Way overdue posting - Welcoming Parker Scout

I didn't know if you noticed the new blog headline photo. In the lower left is our newest addition to the family, Parker Scout Nugen, grandchildren number Eight. She was born just three weeks ago (February 8) and I had the pleasure of holding her, feeding her, and just play with her the weekend after she arrived. So, without further ado, here are a few pictures of her.

Eric Baggett's first birthday!

I was able to go to home to texas this past weekend to attend Eric's first birthday party. Here are a few pictures from that event.

My next project - iPhone FM Modulator

Last year I bought an iPod/iPhone adaptor so that I can connect my iPhone to my car radio directly without using a cassette adaptor or FM Transmitter. Neither of the options mentioned charge your phone as you listen to it. The FM Transmitter idea is also bad in that it fades in and out, and more often then not, it is swamped by strng radio signals as you drive around.

The direct connection adaptor that I bought, a PA-NIS11 unit basically "add" an option to the CD button, making the radio think it is conected to a multiCD changer, thus make s your iPhone or iPod sounds like it is coming from a CD. Unfortunately, the unit I bought is only compatible with certain Nissan MaximaBose radios that DO NOT have the 6-CD changer built-in. Mine is, and thus not usable. I ended up installing that in Jan's car and it worked great there.

So I investigated of modifying the radio itself, so that it will switch input from CD to iPod/iPhone by modifying the circuit board and adding auxiliary input. I actually know how to do this, and even managed to get the schematic for my radio. Unofrtunately, all my electronic component parts are in Texas and it would take to much time sorting and finding what components I need to make this happen. lately I decided that I can use a generic FM modulator that mounts behind the radio, and switched out the car's antenna and inject the FM signal from the iPod/iPhone directly into the radio's antenna input. In theory, the signal should be so strong that no outside radio signal can interfere, and with the external antenna disconnected, the radio should only see the FM signal from the modulator. However, that does not provide the second thing that I want, that is being able to charge the iPod/iPhone as it is being used.

So, this week I've ordered a generic FM modulator ($20), an iPod/iPhone cable ($6) that on one end has a typical 30-pin connector and the other end has Audio RCA jacks, and a USB connector. I will first modify the FM modulator to add a 5 volt DC output using using an LM 7805 3-terminal regulator fromRadio Shack ($2) needed to charge the iPhone, and connect this output to a USB (female) connector ($3). So for under $50, I will soon have an interference free iPod/iPhone adaptor that will also charge my phone. Isn't that nifty?

I googled many places and have not been able to find something like the one I am about to do cheaply. I think there is a product called iSimple Gateway or iSimple Soundbyte, but they cost over $100.

Windows 7 Install, an update

My attempt to install Vista SP1 (a pre-requisite for "updating to Win 7") failed miserably. I wasted at least 10 hours trying that effort. Microsoft has no clue on how to design a good software. Here's my two pet peeves:

1. If you already have an OS installed, and want to leap frog from current OS to go to the latest OS, why do I have to jump through hoops to install a Service Pack for an older OS that I no longer need?

2. Win OS install is known as notoriously take a long time to install (several hours) and for the average people require your attendance to enter "clicks" every so often, and then just near the end it would say, "oops, there has been an error of some sort, and rolling back the changes. Why can't these programmers do all the checks AHEAD of time, and not go through the motion of copying fies, creating restore points, installing stuff and then discover that it cannot go forward and have to roll back hours later?

I called Microsoft SP1 install support line (just shows you that many people must have encountered problem installing if they had to create a special link in their website to support this functionality!!!!!!). Mahendra took over control of the laptop remotely, and proceeded to go through the steps I already have tried, and was unable to install SP1. He suggested that I insert the original Dell OS disk (well, it didn't come with one, the OS is pre-installed). He said that one of the system file is corrupted. You'd think that Microsoft would know which file is bad, and say so when it does it's file scan, but Mahendra could not tell me. Mind you that at the time, the Vista OS laptop was working fine with no indication of any problem. One thing he suggested was to do a full/clean install of Win 7 without re-formatting, using the "Custom" option. I didn't know this capability and thus have not tried it prior to this time.

So I backed up all the data, did the custom install, and 3 hours later I was able to re-start and it came up with Windows 7. I then had to re-install all the apllications software, restore all data files and so far it is working fine.

One thing I do like is that Win7 is faster than Vista, and it eliminated the annoying screen blankings during boot up or waking up from sleep. In the past, when I opened the laptop froma sleep, I'd get the last window to pop up quickly, then it woudl blank out for a minute or so, pops up again for a second, blank again, for few more seconds, and finally ready to use. Of, the windows Media Player is much improved and had a built in menu for bringing up live TV, if you have one of those USB TV tuner. Vista was a dog performance wise, like the previous Windows intermediate products (ME, CE, 98, etc.)

Stupid Windows 7 Install

During the Christmas break I bought Windows 7 upgrade for Jan's Dell Vostro 1400. This laptop came with Vista Home Basic, and I have never liked it, and prefer Windows XP. One of the annoying thing is that when you close the lid, open it sometimes later, the last desktop would pop up real fast, and then it goes blank dark for at least 30 seconds, before flashing back, goes blank again for a couple of seconds, then finally became usable again. As in XP though, you can't just continue surfing until the wireless cared re-establish iternet connection to the local network. With the MacBook, as soon as open the screen back up, within 5 seconds or so the system is ready to use. But I digress.

Today, I attempted to do a clean install without destroying the data. The instruction says to boot from the DVD and wait for the setup prompt. Well, guess what, it says I can't do it. To do that I need to boot back to the old Vista and start the setup from there and select upgrade.

I dutifully did that, the disk churned for a while, and for about 1 minutes it shows a windows that says copying files, and then it says "no can do". The laptop needs a newer BIOS version. Unfortunatey, somehow in the process, it got the wifi card confused and altough it was able to connect to my network, it cannot get access to the internet (Signal strength near 100%). I had to disable the card, re-enable it, and goes thru this cycle 4-5 times before it finally connected. I then downloaded and install the new BIOS firmware (version A09) which of course require a reboot.

I started the upgrade again, and after another 15 minutes, another error pops up saying that now I need to get Vista upgraded to SP1. What the heck? I don't care about SP1. I just want to get to Windows 7.

Having paid the money to go to Windows 7, I am now forced to go on, so as I type this, I am now waiting for the Vista SP1 to finish installing. The prompt says, it will take several reboots before it finishes.

I'd be curious what else it wants once I get past this hurdle. Elapsed time so far: 3 hours.