Category Archives: Good Clean Geek Fun

Post Crazy

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Lunch Break update: Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few weeks. Over the past 2 months we (my wife and I) have either been on the road, or had house guests every weekend culminating in Amanda and I going to completely different states for weddings. Now I’m not complaining, far from it. I’ve had a great time seeing family and watching or being involved with two beautiful wedding ceremonies. As fall settles in, so should a more ‘regular’ routine. Amanda is back to (grad) school which means we have to be around a little more so she can do her homework. It also means I can get back to those projects I started 2mos ago and dropped like hot potatoes. For now, please enjoy a few photos I’ve taken.

Every year Mom brings us Japanese lanterns from her garden. We’ve had to walk down to the garden in the past to stop tourists from cutting some. For some reason, they think they can just walk on to the property and start cutting. . .

Ha! I’ll be sleeping on the couch for this one! Redneck Sexy. . . Be careful to remember to brush your teeth and finish your coffee before putting on your dress for a wedding. Then you won’t end up looking like this. ;-)

Friends Eric and Liz (next in the schedule for marriage [congrats!]) enjoy a peaceful moment before Dave and Julie’s ceremony

I’ve been playing around with lighting and such lately. In this long exposure, I painted the word hi with my LED key chain flashlight.

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What geeks do on their free time.

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A few people and I have decided that we need to be more creative in our day-to-day experiences. Hence we decided we should take the same video and audio clips and try to make videos on our own, and come back and share the outcome. This weekend I finished assignment 1. A bump inspired by Adult Swim, and the craptacular nature of the quality of the first 4 video clips. Sorry, but they were bad.

I got 3 out of the 4 videos in there in some way, and slowed the techno to sound nice and creepy.

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Parabolic Mic Pt. I

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Some people call me a space cowboy, some people call me. . . Well no one even calls me Maurice. But hey, what I have been called is, turbo nerd, and geek. Tonight, I elevate it to the next level. I’ve been really into this wildlife photography stuff, if you couldn’t guess. But one thing it’s been missing is the ability to capture a little more then still imagery.

So I started experimenting with with my little camcorder to see what I could get. Video wise it was o.k., as one would expect from a consumer grade miniDV cam. Audio, is where I was really lacking. So I started looking online for technique. What I found was this gentleman’s plans for a parabolic microphone. So of course, I had to give it a try!

With print outs of parts I needed I stopped in at the local Radio Shack on the way home from work, and picked up the electronics I needed to make two of these microphones. Since they are mono, I’ll need two for stereophonic recordings for the camera machine. I’ll only make one paraboloid which will give me very targeted audio. I may use the second when in the field for ambient sound.

It was a fairly simple electronics project requiring reading the previously mentioned gentleman’s wiring diagram. Total cost so far for the parts is $45, which leaves me with 2 condesnser microphones, and a few extra parts for future projects.

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So basically, I followed the wiring diagram above and made a few minor modifications. I housed the mic in a housing of opportunity, otherwise known as an empty pill bottle. I drilled a 3/8″ hole in the cap to hold the mic, and a smaller hole in the back to allow the mono wire through.

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I then cut a small groove down the side of the bottle to allow the 9-volt connector and switch to be outside the bottle. I twisted the wires together and ran a functional test prior to soldering to ensure that everything was working. Then a little electrical tape over the cooled solder to make sure I wouldn’t get any shorts, and I assembled the rig. Some more tape and we were done.

This is purely a functional test, once I get a paraboloid built, we’ll run a test to ensure that I like the results, and I’ll build the second mic a little better to mount on the ‘super ear.’

I’ll have audio samples published tomorrow night. Google video is being a real bugger right now and its time for me to stop futzing with this stuff for the night.

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XBMC (Xbox Media Center) and then some.

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This weekend, could very well be determined as a good geek weekend. A good college buddy came to visit and we started the fun with a trip to Redhook Brewery in Portsmouth where we had lunch and then took a tour of the brewing facility. When we returned safely from testing about two pints of beer, thanks to my wonderful wife and D.D. we continued the geeking by what is called, soft-modding my xbox.

There are many, many great sources out there that explain the process step-by-step in great detail, so I will not do that. Instead I will link to the instructions that Dave used successfully on his xbox, and brought to use on mine.

However, I will tell you the basic steps, and declare this has to be the true meaning of hacking. The process of softmodding is essentially making a small change to the eeprom in the xbox, backing up the original Microsoft dashboard, and installing a new version of the dashboard that will enable ftp access to the machine.

Because you need someway to get a special save game on to the xbox, you may need something to get the game from your pc to the xbox. Once the save game is on your xbox you can use it to exploit certain versions of Mech Assult (original, not platinum hits) by loading the save game. I found a version of the game at Game Stop this weekend for a whopping 2.99 so I picked it up.

By loading the save game, the Xbox reboots or crashes out (don’t know which is the case) to a version of linux, which like a wizard steps you through the process of softmodding the box. What’s great, is this mod can be turned on or off, and by starting up the xbox with a game in the drive, it appears as if it has never been installed at all.

Once the mod is installed, reboot and enjoy a new dashboard. However, just like anything out there there’s more to be done. Once ftp access is on, you can drop on the XBMC which can be used to read network shares to play videos, music and pictures. Download and install (by ftp) the new replacement for the dashboard and enjoy. IT takes a couple of hours for this process. The ftp was slow, I suspect I missed setting something up in the original ftp server that would speed things up. Its a clean tool and fun to use. Since it’s built on linux there are many scripts you can install to enhance the new OS with faster ftp and great customizations. My favorite, beyond the well built media center is the ability to add NES, SNES and N64 emulators if you wish.

EDIT: This was a completely software based hack. No need to open the case, and therefore less chance of bricking your Xbox. If you do, it’s not my fault.

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