1n73r.net

MR2 update

I have had lots of changes with my MR2. First of all I went to a MR2usday meet last night with Beth at a sonic burger. There were about 15 cars that showed up. Here are some of the good MK1′s that I took pictures of.

I really thought it was interesting how many of the cars were T-Tops and also how many of the cars were either supercharged or Turbo. (made me jealous)

now on to my MR2

Here are all the parts I have received so far.

I have a new heater, breaks, rotors, clutch, and all the bushings. I would be putting it all on this weekend but it looks like it is supposed to rain. This may be something I will need to do next weekend. It is really sad because I have all the stuff just sitting by my desk. O well at least I know it will happen one day.

And since when does it rain in Southern California!!!

Quickie

I just wanted to update a post here mainly so I can stay in the habit of doing so.

I am still trying to find out how to install my Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro USB soundcard in linux (it doesn’t look promising).  I cannot get my FusionHDTV 5 Gold plus card working.  I think I am just going to wait for Knoppmyth to include MythTV .19 cause I think it will have newer video4linux drivers.  Until then my desktop will still be my PVR.

I have a bunch of stuff ordered for my mr2 and things are coming along nicely.  Breaks and bushings should be here real soon and my clutch will be here tomorrow.  I am going to see what I can do about the leaky ttops and lack of heater but those parts should also be on their way.  As soon as this stuff is all done and working I can focus on the AC and then the paint.  I am liking this car the more I drive it   the 30 mpg helps too.  I will try to take some update pictures of all my progress soon.
Other than these things I really need to/want to learn PHP so I can help Beth with her website and I can write some parsing tools to make my job easier.

Friday

I don’t have any cool downloads or crazy web finds.  Well maybe I have just two that I found.

Ok so there are just a couple of things I would like to post in here.  I am going to start my process of installing Mythtv (again).  It has been about a month so I think it is time to try once more. This time I will want to update notes or find some way to share my install process with anyone else that has a similar setup.  I acctually thought of a really cool way to keep notes for a mythtv installation.  It would be great if a user could go to a site and have a pull down of supported hardware.  You would have catagories such as Motherboard, processor, Linux distro, Video card, Sound card, Tuner card, etc.  The user could select each of the items that pertains to them and then it would give them an entire walkthrough to install mythtv on their computer.  This could also have options for plugins and it would tell them the drivers they will need, how to install etc.  I would love to work on something like that as soon as I get it working myself.

Other than that I will be working on my MR2 this weekend.  I need to get the car smog checked, registered, insured.  After all of that I hope to have enough time to change the fluids and feel good about driving it.  I need to do something about the smell but for now I bought a bottle of fabreez that I spray every time I drive it.  The car is already paying itself off.  I was able to fill up my tank on premium gas for only $20.  This is a big change to the usual $45 I was used to with the Infiniti.  I need to find out how long this will last me but I think it should last a good week or so.

Besides all of that there really isn’t to much happening.  We finally beat F.E.A.R. last night.  That chick is pretty scary when she crawls after you.  I can’t wait to see how it looks on the xbox 360 or how they end up doing the sequal.

That is all for now.

And yes I know I need to work on the other pages here (about, contact, links) I just haven’t had a ton of motivation now that Word Press works so well.

Another one bites the dust

I had this idea for lab computers about a year and a half ago. The first idea probably popped into my head about 2 years ago. Today like may of my other ideas I saw a company making it. The idea is simple. If you have a lab of say 50 machines why do you acctually have to have 50 machines? Make one machine control 4-5 monitors, keyboards, mice, and speakers. For the type of work you do in a lab you never need a whole computer to yourself. It is nice to see that someone is still doing things that I think are needed in the tech industry.

Click on the picture for a link to the full story.

This isn’t the first of my ideas I have seen in the news this week.

2 downloads for today

I found two downloads that are really kinda fun.

SDesk can imulate multiple desktops (sorta like virtual desktop but all in one desktop). It took a bit to set up but once it was going a simple shortcut key scrolls throgh 6 different “regions” of my desktop.  There are a couple things I don’t like about it but for now I’m trying it out.  One of the things I don’t like is how windows switch regions when they are in the process of doing something.  It makes it really annoying to have to keep dragging outlook back to the middle region.  Get SDesk HERE

The second peice of software is something I found a long time ago but then lost because I couldn’t remember where I saw it.  This time it is at HDBeat.  It is called  Powerstrip and it is used to set up custom resolutions for your tv.  I am going to give it a try sometime because my viewable area seems to be shrinking on my tv.

That is all for now.

Making xp home -> pro

This is more for me than anyone else (well I guess this whole site is). But this is a cool walkthrough to make a oem version of xp home be xp pro, sorta.

The site is here.

I am going to put all the steps here also in case the guy takes his site down.

all props go to mikedopp.
It does take a bit of doing but here are the steps in more accurate detail.
1> Copy all the xp home(OEM or Upgrade) files off the disc to a local drive.
(to get xp sp2 (download me here) slipstreamed into the oem folder I simply used a program called Nlite More about this program later.)

2> Next I opened the “I386″ folder looked for “winnt.sif” and edited it.
Here is how I run automated installs using this file.

[Data]
Autopartition = 0
MsDosInitiated = 0
UnattendedInstall = Yes
[Unattended]
UnattendMode = FullUnattended
UnattendSwitch = No
OemPreinstall = Yes
OemSkipEula = Yes
FileSystem = *
WaitForReboot = No
NoWaitAfterTextMode = 1
NoWaitAfterGUIMode = 1
TargetPath = Windows
ProgramFilesDir = “C:\Program Files”
CommonProgramFilesDir = “C:\Program Files\Common”
DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore
NonDriverSigningPolicy = Ignore
[Display] Xresolution = 1024
Yresolution = 768
BitsPerPel = 32
Vrefresh = 75
[GuiUnattended]
EncryptedAdminPassword = No
AdminPassword = “Whatever You Want”
TimeZone = 010
OEMSkipRegional = 1
OemSkipWelcome = 1

[Shell]
DefaultThemesOff = Yes
DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes

[LicenseFilePrintData]
AutoMode = PerServer
AutoUsers = 20

[Components]
iis_common = On
iis_inetmgr = On
iis_pwmgr = Off
iis_doc = Off
iis_www = On
Iis_www_vdir_printers = Off
Iis_www_vdir_scripts = Off

[UserData]
ProductKey = “*****-*****-*****-*****-*****” —THis will enable you to install without putting your product key in!
ComputerName = RENAME_ME
FullName = “Your FUllName”
OrgName = “Your OrgName”

[RegionalSettings]
Language = 0409

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents = Yes

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup = workgroup
Here is the file if you want to just edit it yourself. (open in notepad only) winnt.sif **EDIT**link was removed You can still make your own with these instructions**.

You can also use Nlite to automate this also.

4>Then I edited the “setupreg.hiv” This was the most tricky part. To do this you need to open up regedit and go to
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” Highlight it and click on file and load hive.
Load “i386\Setupreg.hiv”. regedit will ask for a name
name it “Homekey”.
Drill down throught this key untill you find “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Homekey\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd”
all you have to do is edit the binary key “default” and change all “01″ and “02″ to “00″.
Once you have done this you can save it and go back and highlight “Homekey” entry and go to file and “unload hive”
it should ask to where and save it to “i386\Setupreg.hiv”. It will ask you to overwrite the existing. Go ahead and do so.

If you do not feel comfortable with doing this yourself you can down load my Setupreg.hiv**EDIT**Link was removed. You can still make your own with these instructions**.

5>Now run Nlite to slipstream xp sp2 into the “I386″ folder
Nlite will also allow you to tweak your install and delete unnessasary language files as well as help files.
Nlite will ask you to create an ISO of your new install wherever you would like it to go.

****With Nlite you can also disable activation!!!*** VERY KEY feature….
Here is the WPA.DB_ that will kill activation. **EDIT**I cannot find this file anymore. It was removed from the original location but you can find instructions on how to do it HERE and HERE** (right click and choose “save as”)

A great thing about Nlite is it will also include the much needed boot img and files you need to do the oem install

Thats it.

You now have a fully usable windows xp pro lite.

a drawback that I have found!
The Usermanagement software found in pro is not included.(I am looking for a way to hack this).

Mythtv PVR project

MythTV .19 should be out in a couple of weeks. I am excited because it may mean updated kernal which may mean my capture card will work within mythtv. I am reading their new wiki right now and I like the stuff they are talking about adding.

I either need to learn how to build mythtv by myself or hope knoppmyth gets to work on the .19 build. Either way it looks like one of my projects may be getting some attention in a couple of weeks.

I am also selling my XBOX 360 faceplate on ebay right now so that will give me money for the video card, sound card, and possibly something else if it sells for enough.

xbox

I copied this from my old blog because I did not want to lose the stuff I wrote there.

I did work on my xbox but I need to buy a new power supply. I will be doing that hopefully in the next week or so.
“Well I brought home all of the stuff to put my xbox back together finally. I guess I will work on that on Saturday. Hopefully everything goes well.

I was able to play Halo 1 last night and had a blast. Man I miss that game. I also realized how much I suck at video games when I don’t play them for a while. O well, all in good fun. Every Wednesday night on XBC I am trying to start Halo 1 night. I probably will play from about 7-9 if I can.”

Project list

Projects:
since this will be a blog of projects I will start with a list of projects I would like to do.

Short term:
set up 510 with video card (low rise), sound card, and larger hard drive. Get Mythtv working on this box to use as video recorder. Cost could be anywhere from $60 – $200 depending on video card, sound card, and hard drive. Later I would also like to add another tuner but that can wait.
xbox – I guess this is kinda long term because I have been “working” on it for so long. I really would just like to put it back together. Because I do not need it as a dvd player anymore I would just like to have it so I can use it on my computer monitor. I do not think this would cost me anything cause I just need to put it back together. Maybe $60 for the vga converter but that is it.

Longer than short term:
imac – I would just like to get a remote and usb tv tuner for this computer so I can watch tv from bed in the mornings. I like to be by beth when she sleeps but usually she is sleeping during a football game. The choices I have to make boggle the mind! Cost I am not sure how much tv tuners that will run on mac cost but I would assume I could find one for about $50. The remote is $40 so I guess that puts this project at $90.
laptop picture frame – I have a Toshiba satellite sitting in my storage waiting to be gutted and made into a nice picture frame. I just need a weekend to do it (and maybe $40 for building material).

Programming projects:
Remote for XBC – not all that interested in the project anymore. I am still interested in learning python for the project though.
XBMC automatic updater – I would have to learn the development stuff for the xbox and get the XDK (not as hard as you might think). This could be set up with ftp but I just need to see how to make it work on a xbox
server – arn’t we all trying to make this? I wouldn’t mind doing it right and having it somewhere else than my house and not on someone elses hardware. Monthly fees just kill you either way.
QAM support for the FusionHDTV5 Gold Plus card – I would never be able to do this but I am still looking for someone that has.

Things to buy:
This is for things that are not related to projects but are things I am still looking to buy some how. More xbox mods and selling stuff can fund most of this.
Universal remote – Harmony 550 to be exact ($99)
MR2 – selling my car could fund this. ($1000 – $2000)

Camera ($100 – $300)
I know there is something else but I can’t think of it. O well I can just update this blog