MissionDesign

Wii, Tiger Woods '09 and Netopia router

Tue, 19 May 2009 14:12:00 -0500

In attempt to play Tiger Woods '09 golf online today, I had to change some configurations on my router. It wasn't that difficult, but I'm sure the average user won't be playing online, unless they have a 'tech' friend to open ports on their router.

Hardware:

Wii
Netopia router(Type: 0x69, Model 3347.02)

Configuration steps:

Click on Configure in the upper Menu bar.
Click on Advanced.
Under the NAT heading in the Network Configuration box, click on the Pinhole selection.
Click on the Add button.
In the Pinhole Entry box, enter the parameters for your pinhole. For example, to add your Wii:
1. In the Pinhole Entries table, in the first line, type the name you would like associated with the pinhole. For this example you might call it Wii EA Sports for the EA server. PLEASE NOTE: Each pinhole you configure must have a unique name associated with it. If you should duplicate the pinhole name in a subsequent entry, it will overwrite the first entry.
2. Protocol Select is TCP by default. Different protocols can be selected from the drop-down menu when appropriate. Select UDP.
3. External Port Start is 100 for this example.
4. External Port End is also 3700 for this example.
5. Enter the Internal IP Address of your Wii. ex. 192.168.1.4
6. The Internal Port is 3678. From the nintendo website.
7. Click on Submit to save the changes.
Save and Restart router.

There's more info on the ninendo website regarding firewalls: www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na/onlineFirewall.jsp

Inauguration day 2009 - Join the NRA

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:11:00 -0500

*From a recent email I sent to everyone in my contacts*:

I'm not usually sending email blasts out to everyone in my contacts, but feel that with the upcoming political power shifts that we need to support an organization that fights for our 2nd amendment rights. If you're offended by this email, sorry...I'll only be sending this once.

My hope is to propagate this message across the internet to everyone you know, they know, etc..

My charge is to have all those people join/renew NRA membership on inauguration day, Jan 20th 2009. Not only will this help the NRA continue to fight for gun ownership rights, but will hopefully resonate this message across our great nation.

The link for NRA membership:
http://membership.nrahq.org/default.aspx?campaignid=nranews

Anyway, if you found this message, great! Please forward it to all your friends, family, etc...

Blackjack Dropped Calls

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:16:00 -0500

I had this problem on my Blackjack, and I was ready to return it! I went to my Cingular store, and the rep told me that the issue is with the stability of the 3G network, not the Blackjack per se.

The fix is to force the phone into GSM mode. There is a *# code you can use for this - it's the same one used to help with power savings.

Dial *#1546792*#
Hit 3
Then 5
Select GSM
Hit Done
Then end

As an alternative create a shortcut in \windows\start menu to \windows\adminsettings.exe. adminsettings.exe give the same menu as the number above.

You can also create a shortcut to bandsel.exe the same way, and select GSM850.

Prior to this trick, I was dropping over 50% of my calls. Since forcing GSM mode, I have not dropped a single call. As an added bonus, the battery life is much better. Even web surfing works fine in GSM Edge mode. The only time I would switch to 3G (WCDMA) is if I were tethered to a laptop.

My Blackjack 2 upgrade to Windows 6.1

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:57:00 -0500

OK, I did it. Not sure why...still not sure, anyway I did it. I followed the instructions on the Samsung website and resources from myblackjack2.com. Thought I'd put the steps here in case I need to do it again for some strange reason.

Steps

Step 1: Backed up my stuff on dashwire.com. Thanks Dashwire!
Step 2: Downloaded the Windows 6.1 updater from Samsung's website. Thanks Samsung!
Step 3: Removed my SIM card and microSD card(why? just in case) from my BJ2.
Step 4: Powered up BJ2 and ran the updater, followed all the prompts, clicked were needed.
Step 5: Rebooted BJ2
Step 6: Reinstalled everything

Issues

Had to modify registry to allow ICS:
- * Find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Providers
- * Under one of the GUIDs you'll find a Connections folder that will have an entry for each of your connections
- * Under each connection, find the ReadOnly key and set its value to 0 (zero).
- edit my AT&T ISP connection, changing the Access point to wap.cingular

Benefits of Windows Mobile 6.1

Really cool sliding home page
Voice Command, not bad...might prove useful
Threaded SMS, I guess...but I don't 'text' much.

That's it, not sure it was worth the time involved, but it's done.

Blackjack 2 Registry Hacks for Windows Mobile

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:16:00 -0500

This article will cover some of the changes we are able to make to our Windows mobile devices, through our devices registry.
Disable menu animations

To disable menu animations (sliding in/out) and speed up performance of the UI a bit:
HKLM\SYSTEM\GWE\Menu\AniType = 0 (DWORD decimal)
To change it back to the default:
HKLM\SYSTEM\GWE\Menu\AniType = 6 (DWORD decimal)

Disable window animations

To disable window animations (minimizing/maximizing) and speed up performance of the UI a bit:
HKLM\SYSTEM\GWE\Animate = 0 (DWORD decimal)
And to switch them back on:
HKLM\SYSTEM\GWE\Animate = 1 (DWORD decimal)

Increase font cache

To increase the font cache, speeding up font rendering at the cost of a bit of memory:
HKLM\SYSTEM\GDI\GLYPHCACHE\limit = 16384 (DWORD decimal)
To change it back to the default:
HKLM\SYSTEM\GDI\GLYPHCACHE\limit = 8192 (DWORD decimal)
You can set the value to pretty much anything you like

Enable FileSystem cache

To enable the FileSystem cache, speeding up overall performance at the risk of the cache not being written on a sudden reset:
HKLM\System\StorageManager\FATFS\EnableCache = 1 (DWORD decimal)
To disable again:
HKLM\System\StorageManager\FATFS\EnableCache = 0 (DWORD decimal)

Note that by default, the cache size is zero, and you will see no effect. See "Increase FileSystem cache" to incease the cache size

Increase FileSystem cache

To increase the file system cache:
HKLM\System\StorageManager\FATFS\CacheSize = 4096 (DWORD decimal)
To return the file system cache to zero:
HKLM\System\StorageManager\FATFS\CacheSize = 0 (DWORD decimal)
You can set the value to pretty much anything you like

Increase FileSystem filter cache

To enable the file system filter cache, speeding up overall performance with file mangement:
HKLM\System\StorageManager\Filters\fsreplxfilt\ReplStoreCacheSize = 4096 (DWORD decimal)
To return the file system filter cache to zero:
HKLM\System\StorageManager\Filters\fsreplxfilt\ReplStoreCacheSize = 0 (DWORD decimal)
You can set the value to pretty much anything you like

Change the thickness of scrollbars

To change the thickness of the scrollbars at the right/bottom of documents larger than the screen, adjust...
For the horizontal (bottom) scrollbar:
HKLM\System\GWE\cyHScr = 9 (DWORD decimal)
For the vertical (right) scrollbar:
HKLM\System\GWE\cxVScr = 9 (DWORD decimal)
The default thickness is 13. You can set the value to pretty much anything you like

Change the length of scrollbar arrow buttons

To go with changing the thickness of the scrollbars, you may wish to change the length of the scrollbar arrow buttons...
For the horizontal (bottom) scrollbar arrows:
HKLM\System\GWE\cyVScr = 9 (DWORD decimal)
For the vertical (right) scrollbar:
HKLM\System\GWE\cxHScr = 9 (DWORD decimal)
The default length is 13. You can set the value to pretty much anything you like

Enable ClearType in Landscape mode

To enable ClearType in Landscape mode:
HKLM\System\GDI\ClearTypeSettings\OffOnRotation = 0 (DWORD decimal)
To disable:
HKLM\System\GDI\ClearTypeSettings\OffOnRotation = 1 (DWORD decimal)

Bold = hacks I've used

Help ban H2O today!

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:16:00 -0500

Interestingly enough...this doesn't suprise me.

Econ river speed run

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:33:00 -0500

With all the rain we've had lately, it was decided to run the river..speed style. Not speed speed...just as fast as Jeremy and I can paddle a tandum yak. Jeremy made the call last week about a <2hr econ run(*What!!*), that obviously meant NO fishing :(

Well..almost no fishing. In a moment of brilliance, I decided to tie a top water soft bait to the back of the kayak with some 14lb line. It bobbed along behind for about a quarter of the trip when a branch snagged and popped the line. Can't blame me for trying.

Anyway, we managed a good pace, with no portages and clocked an impressive 1hr 55min econ river trip. The normal milage on the river is 8.2 miles from SR419 launch to the Snow Hill rd bridge. This trip, due to the flood stage of the river, and a few short cuts, was 7.43 miles.

Next time..maybe more fishing, less paddling. Beat that!

Click here for the map

Blackjack II Internet Sharing

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:03:00 -0500

My at&t wireless Blackjack II was not bundled with Internet Connection Sharing which is a part of the standard Windows Mobile 6 application set. For those of us on the go and traveling this is a must have program to connect our laptops to the Internet while sitting in the airport or other locations outside of the office. Why it was left off I am not sure. A few Googles later and I had found out there was already a hack to provide the application. To setup Internet Connection Sharing for the Blackjack II I followed these steps (paraphased from the Howard forums).

Step1: Make sure your device is app unlocked!!; run secpolicies.cab first if unsure or the certs won't take!! **run this cab and reboot; http://sems.org/content/download/secpolicies.cab. Use Activesync to move this file to your 'My Documents'. You have to use 'File Explorer' to install these cab's from the device.

Step2: REBOOT (means turn off/on) THE DEVICE!

Step3: Install the BJ.WM6.ICS.Enable cab file (it might ask you to reboot)

Step4: navigate to \My Documents and click on the certs.cab file

Step5: REBOOT

Step6: Changed settings/connections/gprs/AT&T IMS/Access Point from isp.cingular to wap.cingular. After looking at my data acees on my att bill all internet access(phone or tethered) is logged as to/from as wap.cingular.

Step7: go to Start / Applications and run 'Internet Sharing'. You phone will indicate that it's making a connection, once connected the display will show 'Connected'. At this point you can surf the web, email , etc. You may need to disable Activesync while Internet Sharing. Also, incoming calls will break your connection. I'm connected to my laptop with the USB cable and haven't tried using Bluetooth, which should work as well.

Downloads:
BJ.WM6.ICS.Enable cab file is temporarily hosted at:
http://www.mdots.net/misc/BJ.WM6.ICS.Enable.cab

http://sems.org/content/download/secpolicies.cab

References:
I found this example on the the following board:
http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1290859&page=2&pp=15

Also found on the at&t wireless support forums:
http://forums.wireless.att.com/cng/board/message?board.id=samsung&thread.id=45502&view=by_date_ascending&page=4

Disclaimer: Don't hack your phone if you don't know what you're doing. I provide these instructions UNSUPPORTED. So don't get upset if I don't reply to requests for help...all though I may ;)

Coldfusion and Geocoding with Google & Yahoo Map API's

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:52:00 -0500

Recently I needed to create a Google map driven solution that required geocoded addresses. After poking around the Google Maps API and looking at other solutions I decided that I'd batch geocode the address I needed and store the coordinates in the database with the address data. This would prevent numerous geocode call to the API and should make things run a bit faster. While looking for examples of Coldfusion and Google maps I really didn't find anything that met my needs so I started from scratch. Here's what I did:

First thing that you'll need is a Google maps key. Get one here.

{code}<cfset ghostKey = "yourKeyGoesHere">{/code}

Next make the http call to Google. You pass in three parameters: q='address to geocode' output='xml' key='hostkey'. So your request is formatted as:

{code} <cfset address2geocode = "4151 N. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach, Fl, 32931">
<cfhttp url="http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=#address2geocode#&output=xml&key=#ghostKey#" resolveurl="no" /> {/code}

I chose xml as output and was easy to work with. You can choose XML, KML or JSON. Look at the Google API for more info.

You can view the http results here: results.xml

Cool, two lines of code so far and we have a result. As you can see the XML is well formatted and easy to parse at this point. There are a view 'gotcha's' as well. First check to see if XML was returned.

{code} <cfif isXML(cfhttp.filecontent)> {/code}

If so, xmlParse it:

{code}<cfset geocodedXML = #xmlParse(cfhttp.filecontent)#>{/code}

Next you want to make sure you're getting a response code of 200, walk the XML to find Status.code:

{code}<cfset curResponse = #geocodedXML.kml.Response.Status.code.xmlText#>
<cfif curResponse is "200">{/code}

Great! we can proceed. If you look at the result.xml file you'll see an node for Accuracy. For my application I needed an accuracy of 8.

{code} <cfif geocodedXML.kml.Response.Placemark.AddressDetails.XmlAttributes.Accuracy eq 8> {/code}

Now I can grab the Longitude and Latitude to update the database:

{code} <cfset coords = #geocodedXML.kml.Response.Placemark.Point.coordinates.xmlText#>
<cfset accuracy = #geocodedXML.kml.Response.Placemark.AddressDetails.XmlAttributes.Accuracy#>
<cfset longitude = listFirst(coords)>
<cfset latitude = listGetAt(coords, 2)>
<cfquery datasource="dsn" name="updateCoords">
update myTable
set longitude = '#longitude#',
latitude = '#latitude#',
geocode_accuracy = #accuracy#
where pk = #pk#
</cfquery>
{/code}

Pretty straight forward. But, if you remember I had a cfif that wanted an accuracy of 8, if not try Yahoo. No problem...just as easy as Googles...pretty much, just different. You guess it! you'll need a Yahoo API key too.

{code}<cfelse>
<cfset yahooAppID = "yourYahooAPIKeyGoesHere">
<cfhttp url="http://local.yahooapis.com/MapsService/V1/geocode?appid=#yahooAppID#&street=#address#&city=#city#&state=#state#" resolveurl="no" />{/code}

Do the neccesary check for good reponse Yahoo's XML Result:

{code}<cfif isXML(cfhttp.filecontent)>
<cfset geocodedXML = #xmlParse(cfhttp.filecontent)#>{/code}

Yahoo deosn't have a 'Accruacy node, they have precision and the best 'precision' you can have is address level. Any way, walk the XML grab the coords and off you go.

{code}<cfset longitude = "#geocodedXML.ResultSet.Result.Longitude.XmlText#">
<cfset latitude = "#geocodedXML.ResultSet.Result.Latitude.XmlText#">{/code}

That's it. simple geocoding using Coldfusion and/or Yahoo! I don't blog much, but hope to get a post on how to create dynamic Google maps using Coldfusion.

Santos 'Epic' ride

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:29:00 -0500

Click here for the map

Econ Fishing

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:21:00 -0500

I worked as much as I could today...decided to go kayak fishing with Jr on the Econ river. We left around 1:30pm from the SR419 launch site in Oviedo. The river was at a nice level as we only had one portage on the day. It was an exciting day for alligator viewing. Lots of big 'ol gators sunning themselves on small white sandy beaches along the river.

First stop was a geocache named 'Snake Alley'. We found it pretty quickly and were back on the river within 10 minutes. There are about 20 other geocaches hidden along the river.

As for fishing we lost a couple of lures, one Senko 4" and a $1.00 Walmart spinner, snagged on submerged dead wood. I still had the drag set from breaking the line from one of those lures when I got a BIG hit, fish starting heading towards us and when it saw the kayak, it took off breaking the line, as the drag was set toooo tight. Was exciting...but no fish in the boat. Next we came up to the 'Honey' hole. I'm caught nice bass here almost every outing. First there's a gator that hangs out here and is starting to become less and less afraid when we approach. May need to make buzzard bait of him one day. Anyway...dropped a Senko right next to some nice structure and let it sink....BAM big fish on. This bass jumped about three times splashing Jr and me...was very exciting. Finally got him in the boat, ~6-8lbs. Photo by Jr.

Fell into the river

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:47:00 -0500

In August 2007 I was riding my mountain bike in the Little Big Econ state forest. Was enjoying some quick single track, the sugar sand was beaten down pretty good from some recent rains, so...quicker than normal. All is good...until. Came up to the part of the trail that runs along the river to the right of the bridge, coming from Jacobs trail. There is a section that splits, high road to the right, low narrow to the left, correct, I went left. The trail is about a foot across with a wall of dirt/sand on your right and a nice drop into the river on the left. Then the trail gets steep, about 12 foot climb (I know, not real steep, whatever)..anyway, I get to the top and the recent rains has eroded the top of the climb into a nice 2 foot wall. I hopped my front tire up, no problem. Then my momentum stops... I unclip my right foot and of course I start leaning to the left. I'm falling and there's nothing to grab on to. My left hand is clawing at the dirt but the bike and my weight are quickly succumbing to gravities affects. Next thing I know I'm in the river sitting on the back tire of the bike. About a 18 foot drop from the top. I hop up quickly, as I have seen BIG gators in these waters and start heading towards a spot I can climb out. Dragging my bike behind me I step into a hole and sink up to my chest in water...I start walking quicker now. Climbed out and started to laugh, what else could I do? My friend Mike circled back as heard the commotion. He confirmed that I didn't make any 'girlie' noise/screams...was all grunts and manly sounds *whew*. Finally get my composure and mount the bike to continue and the rear tire said, no go. I had a nice S curve in the wheel from landing on it. I released the rear brake and it spun free. So I rode out with no rear brake..not fun.

Days later I get the bike to the shop (Orange Cycle) and tell the story...laughs for everyone. All in all, New tire, new rear wheel, new rear cassette, new chain, new bottom bracket, new rear swing arm bearings, front shock cleaned and lubed. ~$300

Bruises lasted for at least a month.

Still riding the trail, thought about selling the bike for a few days, but got over it.

Many days later:

Officer Down Memorial Challenge - April 1 2007

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:05:00 -0500

I finished the race in fine shape...in fact I was the first to complete the 35(actually 35.9) mile ride. Well actually the first that was riding just the 35 mile leg. There were other riders ahead of me...they were heading across the state to Ceder Key (145 miles). Anyway...three cheers for me :) ***The Ceremony*** There were about 6 different color guards from various agencies present. They marched to the starting line and then Taps was played from a bugle. Next each of the officers name were read by the Lake county Sheriff's daughter. Next a bell was rung for each officer..it was very quite and solemn moment. Amazing Grace was played by the bag pipers and the race began. ***The Ride*** I left the starting line at 6:30am with the first bunch to leave and was trying to figure out which rider to hook up with...then I went over railroad tracks and clunk...my GPS fell off my bike. I was think...how much did that thing cost...so I turned around and picked it up;) I caught up with about 12 riders that were going all the way to Cedar Key, which was to other ride co-starting with ours. These guys/gals were fast, so I tuck in behind them and pedaled like crazy, we managed around 20-25 mph for the whole trip. Yes, I felt like I was going to throw up a few times, especially my turn at the front which last about 10 seconds. I meet a few of the riders and got the chance to tell them why I was riding, which was to honor the Callins and Michaels memory. I pointed out the Callins house on Lake Mills where Mike grew up, and spoke about Mike's character. I also heard some great stories about other fallen officers. Well after about a hour and half I reached the finish, there was an aid station set up with beverages and food...but no finish line. Guess what, I beat the finish line set-up. Now that's fast! ;) Afterwards I had to ride home...another 12 miles. So my mileage for the day was actually 48 miles. Whew
Me putting on my socks
That's me in the yellow

CFDoument and Eolas patent

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 17:26:00 -0500

I finally got brave enough to publish some functionality utilizing cfdoument tags. Guess what? IE 6 and it's freaking Eolas patent patch starts breaking my delivered pdfs. I was getting a dialog box promting my to 'open''save''canel' the *.cfm file that was generating the pdf. You could save the pdf...I mean .cfm file then change it to a .pdf, poof file opens as expected. The CFMX 7.0.2 updater fixes this issue. It's not documented well if this is actually what fixed my issue...anyway, it fixed it. My dev environment was 7.0.2 so I didn't notice issues until it was published to prod. I guess I just felt like ranting a bit. I still love CF! Microsoft....not so much.

SWFLoader Bug? We'll see.

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:49:00 -0500

I have 'reproduced' Jesse Warden's Flash Captivate player in Flex. The reasons for doing so are: 1. To start learning Flex 2.0 and 2. Our users had a problem finding the drop down list to select additional swfs. After I had everything just the way I wanted it, I started testing in different browsers, standard workstations, non-standard, etc and after clicking around on the swfs (which calls SWFLoader component) or switching from one 'Series' to another it would crash the browser. On MAC, WIN, IE, Firefox, Safari, whatever...crashed big time. I tried posting on Adobe forums, Flex coders...nobody wanted to touch it I guess. After about a week I submitted it on Flex coders as a possible bug. Well, that got a semi-timely response from Adobe. They asked for code (of course) and said the would be looking into this matter. If this is a bug, Man! what are the chances...My very first Flex app and it's not working cause of a bug. I really need to start smaller I guess. If it's not a bug, Man! I have a lot to learn about Flex and AS3. Either way I still think Flex rocks and hope to continue developing with it for years. UPDATE 12/05/2006 - I just installed the 9.0.28.0 version of Flash player and cannot break my application. Click on it all day long and no crash. Thanks Adobe...not sure what changed from 9.0.16.0, but thanks anyway.