NeutralAxis

Well it looked like Google or Firefox finally did something to completely break the Google Toolbar, but there’s another work around.  I’ve written previously here about how to get Google Toolbar working with Firefox 5 and up.  But in the last week or so, it became impossible to sign into the toolbar to have access to Google Bookmarks.  Here’s a fix for that. (continue reading…)

OK, as an experiment let’s see if Ticketmaster has anyone looking for people complaining about their service. (continue reading…)

Every so often through work I have to measure an existing building so it’s floor plan can be drawn in CAD. Normally I do that with a standard tape measure or measuring wheel.  I’ve tried ultrasonic devices, but they don’t work in lots of situations.  I recently ran across this Ryobi Tek4 Laser Measure device on a closeout sale and recently had a chance to try it out on a job.  I’m sold.  This thing work’s great. (continue reading…)

I’ve used ReplayTV DVRs for over a decade after getting into their beta testing program and having them send me free hardware with lifetime activation. Not a bad gig. I still love them, even though they don’t record HD, because of their local network streaming ability. Of course, ReplayTV has basically been out of business for several years now, yet they kept the server operational so users could still get program guide data. Unfortunately, as of July 31, the ReplayTV server is shutting down, which means no more program guide and the units become essentially useless. Enter WiRNS.
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I just returned home from a Florida vacation and unfortunately learned that my iPhone was officially dead after an incident where I accidentally left it in my swimsuit pocket and went in the resort pool.  It’s quite a sinking feeling when standing in 4′ of water and realize you’re phone’s still in your pocket.  I thought I did the right thing though to save it, but alas, no.  All those recommendations about rice.. forget it unless it was just a splash. (continue reading…)

As of today, July 2, 2010, Google hasn’t updated their toolbar for FireFox 5, so installing FF5 disables the toolbar.  Not too big a deal unless you count on the toolbar for easy access to Google Bookmarks and enjoy some of it’s other features.  There’s a super easy manual fix though once you find the right file.  [Update: The same procedure works for Firefox 6] [Update 2: Looks like Google broke the sign in ability.  See this post to fix it.] (continue reading…)

Turns out with a little online tool, it’s way easy to make one of those black/white QR codes that are popping up in print everywhere. (continue reading…)

Just a quickie review by iPhone while on the road. Lots of reviews I saw of the iTrip DualConnect mentioned that it didn’t work well with the iPhone 4. My experience is that it works as advertised with a bonus. (continue reading…)

The new Irritrol PC Control software (v 2.0.37 beta) has been running smoothly all week.  I’ve discovered a couple of minor bugs and one big disappointment in that it won’t run via Wine on Linux.

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Finally, Irritrol has put out an update to their out of date PC Control software for control of irrigation and lighting systems. I’ve just installed it today and like it much better, but it remains to be seen if it is less buggy than their previous software. After running it for a few weeks I’ll do a full review. The current beta version is 2.0.37. You can see my review of the original software here. Also, I plan to test it to see if the software will run on my always-on Linux server using Wine.