<BR/><BR/><BR/>Hobbies and projects that I partake of in my spare time. http://www.electronicrealitysolutions.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=9 Sat, 18 May 2013 23:57:48 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/images/M_images/ers_rss.png http://www.electronicrealitysolutions.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=9 Electronic Reality Solutions main news feed. http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/478/ Having a plan for getting things done is always a good thing. Too bad my current car "to do" list is a mile long and growing by the day. Don't get me wrong I love tinkering with my vehicle, but the past few years have not been kind to my Volkswagen and it has a number of issues that need to be taken care of. They include: A new rim A replacement water temperature sensor (intermittent) A replacement ventilation grid for the front bumper cover Replace yet another ruptured CV joint boot Replace a damaged wheel speed sensor for the ABS system Find a fix for the rear driver side door lock (intermittent) Replace a faulty vacuum pump for the cruise control system Replace the antenna which dry rotted and broke off Major repairs but luckily nothing in the drive train. I've also started to experience a fault in the electrical system which the computer claims is due to a low voltage condition. I think the problem is just a result of my driving conditions and I'm not too worried. Of course it could always mean that a cable somewhere is loose or that maybe the fuel pump is going bad. Either way I'm sure this problem will rear it's ugly head sooner or later. Out of all these repairs only the CV joint and vacuum pump are truly labor intensive. The remainder simply requires me to find the parts either salvage, online or from a dealer. Still I'd estimate that I have about $300 worth of repairs ahead of me in parts alone. Ahh, the joys of being your own auto mechanic. Projects - From The Scratch Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:00:56 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/468/ I'm still not sure if it works right or if it's just the Wordpress websites queuing trackbacks for moderation. I swear it's worked before but since the component for Joomla offers NO result message for failed or successful trackbacks I took it upon myself to make a slight modification. The follow steps were taken on the Trackback component v0.1 by Matthias Mailaender which can be downloaded from Bounty Source (https://joomlatrackback.bountysource.com/). The first thing I did was to enclose the "ping" call in an IF statement so I could generate a basic success / failure message. I added the following at aprox line 57 in the admin.trackback.php file: //Send trackback if ($trackback->ping($pingurl, $permalink, $pingtitle, $excerpt )) { echo "Trackback sent successfully... to ".$pingurl; } else { echo "Error sending trackback.... to ".$pingurl; } I then went to add a more verbose return from the base trackback class in the form of an extra "echo" statement which I enclosed in a "blockquote" tag to preserve the native line breaks. It's not pretty but it will give you some basic info about why you succeeded or failed. I added the following at aprox line 138 in the trackback.class.php file: echo "&lt;blockquote&gt;".$response."&lt;/blockquote&gt;"; Like I said the result isn't pretty but it at least now provides feedback. You may also want to comment out the redirect line in admin.trackback.php at around line 65: // mosRedirect('index2.php?option=com_trackback', $msg); Good luck and happy trackbackin' Projects - Joomla Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:56:19 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/458/ I have a 2nd generation iPod that won't sync certain songs. The music in question has previously never had a problem. Furthermore it syncs just fine with my Nano. I strongly suspect that it's not a format issue. After a bit of research I found many posts on the web which were similar to my "Unable to access "iPod name".." problem. Several folks had spoken with Apple and the techs suggested that they bring it in and have the hard drive looked at. Nonsense I say, this pod works perfectly fine. Projects - Hacking the Pod Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:33:18 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/454/ So there I was, sitting alone in a row boat with two gigantic crab traps on board and an oar in each hand. At my feet was a container of cut bait and at the bow was the trusty marine radio. The tide was so high that only the tip of the marsh grass could be seen and from my vantage point I could see directly back to the dock that was nearly a mile away. The only sounds I heard aside from the call of swamp birds and the lapping of waves against the hull was the occasional splash of kayakers and the infrequent radio traffic of the nearby marina. I was by myself yet surrounded by more things and activity than had I been sitting at home on the couch. It was amazing. There is something refreshing about being by yourself, even if your in a situation that could be a little bit dangerous should something happen to you. I typically don't think about the risk though because I'm usually deep in my own thoughts. As I sat there with two oars carved into my hands I could only help wonder about things that I haven't thought about in years. That was until I reach my secluded fishing spot and my mind suddenly jogged back into crabbing mode. I returned to my favorite spot at high tide and found that the creek was barely recognizable. The top of the grasses were only visible for a few inches but I was still able to determine where the bank lay, though I could not decipher where the shallows were. This presented a problem since I had shortened the line on my buoys for whatever reason before I left. At best I could determine the tidal flow raised the water level about six feet back in the creek, which mean that if I dropped my pot into a hole deeper than three feet it would likely float away on the buoy until the water went down. I aimed for as close to the bank as I could and tossed my pots over side. During the row back I started thinking about all of the old school maritime tricks sailors used to deal with the tides and accompanying water levels. In particular I needed some way to test the water's depth. On occasion I'd use the oar but this only worked if the water was six or seven feet deep. I needed something longer that I could drop over the side. In the bygone era sailors would use a sounding line which measured the water depth. After the first two fathoms a line would be marked at set intervals with a knot and a piece of bunting or rope. The type of material would allow the leadsmen to determine the depth by looking at the visible mark in both day and night. The process can still be used today when navigating uncharted or very shallow waters in a small boat. When I returned home I set about making a sounding line from a piece of rope and scrounged around the house for various bits of fabric for the line marks. After testing my sounding line in the living room and taking a break to play with my daughter I decided that it was time to go check the crab pots. It was approximately six hour latter which meant that it was now low tide and I'd need to take my rubber boots just in case. Again I trekked down to the creek access and guided my noble water craft through the mud and into the water. The creek looked very different now. The marsh grass towered over my head even when I stood up in the boat. Many of the other crab pots in the vicinity were half exposed from the water and I could see a few large crabs slowly making their way down into the submerged sections of the traps as I rowed by. I had to be extremely judicious about where I chose to steer the boat as there were many sand bars with only a few inches of water covering them. The sand bars would not damage the boat but they could force me to step out of the boat and into the mud in order to extract myself. This was a messy proposition that I didn't want to repeat. When I arrived back at my fishing spot the first thing I noticed was that one of my crab buoys had migrated down river with the crab trap in tow. As I pulled the first pot out of the water the boat gently drifted toward the bank and firmly lodged the bow into the mud. The pot contained six blue crabs and I carefully shook them loose from the pot and into a bucket. I checked the bait box and decided to freshen it up with a fish head I'd recently acquired and then extracted myself from the creek bank. I headed upstream a bit further and instantly spied my other pink buoy floating near where I'd left it. I found an equally stable looking spot and sent my first pot back into the water. I then wrangled the second pot onboard and collected four more crabs. Once I'd... Projects - Crab Pot Mon, 10 Sep 2007 01:00:00 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/453/ My last adventure in crabbing was a fruitful one, so I decided that I should expand my gear with the addition of another pot. Saturday morning we headed down to the island hardware store to purchase another crab trap and accompanying pink buoy. I must not be the only crab fisher on the island because by the time we arrived there were only two pots left, both of which were black. As I was paying the clerk for my gear he remarked that I was "crab fishing the easy way". "You've got that right" I replied, failing to mention that my crab vessel is an unpowered rowboat. Truth be told, crab pot fishing is easy, even if you don't have a boat. Once you bait the trap all you need to is drop it in the water. Many folks tie the traps to their personal docks with a sturdy piece of rope and wait for the crab to congregate inside. As I've mentioned before I have a long history of catching crab. When I was a kid I used to sit with a piece of fish carcass on a string and scoop the little buggers up with a net. This is equivalent to sitting in a bass boat all day waiting for a fish to swim by. Sometimes you wonder if you'll even catch one crab, much less depend on having enough for a crab feast. Using a pot on the other hand is about as labor intensive as dumping bait into the pot and kicking it over side of the vessel. You can wait around for six or seven hours and then check it to see not IF you have any crab but HOW MANY. This is of course if you aren't trying to do it "old school" or as some would call it "the hard way". True old school would say that you build the pot yourself but this requires a huge spool of wire and several specialized tools. I assure you that someday I will try it, but for now I'm content to simply pay for my gear like a normal person. Old school would also dictate that you catch your bait instead of buying it from the store. For the most part I try to do this, unfortunately it requires sitting on the beach with a rod and reel in your hand. Not the most effective method if you are at the beach for only a few days. Despite this I've started to freeze a few fish whenever I catch them so hopefully at some point I won't have to pay for crab bait. I'm not sure what the old salts would think of using a rowboat for deploying crab pots but I can certainly tell you that it garners a lot of respect from the weekend crabbers at the dock. This past weekend in fact I was told by one mother that her kids had "crab trap envy" when they saw my stack of gear. I also receive quite a few comments on the boat which some of the seafaring visitors recognize as a historical reproduction. Still I'm not going to lie to you, rowing this boat is work. It's very stable and handles very well even in rough water but it's still a row boat and demands coordination and muscle power. The other, more frustrating, fact about this vessel is that it tends to drift badly while I'm working with the trap. Typically it will drift into the bank of the tidal creek and put me into the native grasses. It's a stable spot to work but I've often wondered what sort of creatures lay out in the tall grass. I would not be surprised if one day a small alligator jumps into my boat, honestly. So without an extra person to "jog" against the current while I work and with no anchor on the vessel I have to work as quickly and safely as I can without either dropping something important, letting a crab escape or going into the drink myself. It can be a bit hair raising but exciting none the less. Anyway those are the challenges and the reality of this hobby. Tune into part two (http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/Projects/CrabPot/Turn-of-the-tides.html) for the fishing story from this past weekend. Projects - Crab Pot Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:59:25 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/415/ Admittedly I've been slack on the Friday game thing but have no fear I'm back once again with a killer flash game. If your a fan of the Discovery Channel show Deadliest Catch then you'll immediately recognize the premise of this one. The objective is to catch as many crab as possible in a limited amount of time. To do this you'll need to buy a boat, outfit it and hire a crew. Sounds simple but you'll need just the right mix of equipment, men and knowhow if you want to be successful. Deadliest Catch Game (http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/game/game.html) So far I've been able to catch about $1.5 million in crab. Two things I've noticed: First speed is good and second amenities help keep the men rested and ready to fish. The rest is yours to figure out. Enjoy! Projects - Crab Pot Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/416/ It was a special Memorial Day weekend for the Bald Head crew this year. For some time I'd thought about trying my hand at crab fishing in the Bald Head creek using the trusty Whitehall Spirit rowboat and a Chesapeake Bay style crab trap. After securing my Recreational Commercial Gear License (http://www.ncfisheries.net/download/RCGLsummary.pdf) (RCGL) and a proper crab pot from my wife I set out this weekend to pay homage to one of my favorite shows, Deadliest Catch. Catching crab is nothing new for me. When I was younger I used to spend long fall hours sitting on the dock with a piece of leftover fish and a net trying to capture a few of nature's best undersea scavenger. I was lucky enough to catch a bucket full one year and equally lucky enough to have an adult around who knew how to clean the little buggers. In spite of a few of these instances it was somewhat of a hobby and I rarely netted (pardon the pun) enough to warrant a cookout. Over the years I lost the desire to sit around all day and so crabbing fell by the wayside. Projects - Crab Pot Mon, 28 May 2007 01:00:00 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/374/ Recently I've had some time to poke around the car files in GTR2 and was a little disturbed to find that the Corvette C5R that's modeled in the game is not fitted with a proper transmission or engine. For starters the so-called LS1 engine is in fact mislabeled. The performance stats that are available in the file are more indicative of a Chevy LS6 engine in racing configuration. This wasn't a huge problem though as the tech data seemed to match up fairly well. However when I began looking in the transmission (gear file) I found something rather alarming. The default for this car isn't even close to the actual Corvette (racing, street or otherwise). The file specifies that it's a Hewland DGB LS-200 Gearbox fitted to a Ferrari 550, which is rather ludicrous for a Vette. Sure the car drives fine in game, but the gear settings are nowhere near realistic. For starters the final drive was set to 2.92 in the Hewland, but a quick Google reveals that a Vette final drive is 3.42 regardless of whether you look at a C5.R, a C5 Z06 or even a new C6 model. Projects - GTR Sun, 11 Feb 2007 11:27:03 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/290/ Not ready for primetime As the final race in the ALMS nears, I've started to think ahead toward next year's field and more importantly the next version of my race sim, GTR2. Since it's been a tight year financially with the new house and new baby, I convinced my wife to purchase GTR2 as my sole Christmas presesnt this year. So far I've been extremely happy with GTR and I've logged MANY hours of gameplay, so the choice to buy GTR2 was practically made for me. That is not to say I haven't considered other titles. In fact last night I downloaded a demo of rFactor, which as I understand it is of a simliar vintage of gaming engine as GTR. I'd wanted to test it earlier in the year but no public demo was available at that time. I simply wasn't going to plop down $50 for something I'd never test driven. Projects - GTR Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:41:53 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/274/ Season 4 comes to a close and once again the MALCOLINES have blown away the field (http://www.ultimateracinggame.com/list.php?game=game1_). Congrats to everyone who's played and we hope that you enjoyed this round of URGO. There are a few minor changes in the works for next round including more money for new teams. I've also recommitted myself to continue upgrades for the game. As some of you know about a year ago I changed jobs and started working for a brand new startup company here in Charlotte. During that time several other life changing events have happened including the birth of my daughter in April. This hasn't given me a lot of time to work on URGO, but now as things seem to be calming down I'm starting to feel the need to work on the game again. I still have a list of major and minor updates to make to the game, and I want to try and get it all onto the site before next year. We'll see how it goes. Until then I'm going to reset us for another season and let everyone "have at" it one more time under the current architecture. Enjoy the game and don't forget to stop by the forums (http://www.ultimateracinggame.com/boards/) as I'll be actively checking them for the next few months. Race Control Projects - Ultimate Racing Game Online Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:05:11 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/269/ One thing we really enjoy here at ERS is racing, and the same holds doubly true for racing simulators. In early 2005 Simbin released GTR, the FIA-GT Racing game. Since then auto aficionados and sim drivers of all sorts have come to love the rich graphics and flexible modding system of GTR. However there are some difference of opinion, namely in favor of a competing sim called rFactor. It is not our intention to portray GTR as the best racing game that's ever been written. Instead our aim is to show you how to get more out of the game. GTR relies upon the ISI engine, which according to various Internet sources was originally designed for an F1 racing game. Thus many of the mods derived for GTR come from an F1 background. Over the past year or so we've collected various tidbits of knowledge about the configuration files of GTR. This all culminated last weekend when we were trying to set up a halfway authentic ALMS field for our running of the Petit Le Mans. Projects - GTR Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:29:00 +0100 http://electronicrealitysolutions.com/content/view/183/ Folks it's been a long time coming, but I've finally written up two articles for From The Scratch that have lingered for a while now. It's not surprising that both of them have to do with VW maintenance since that's what I've spent pretty much all of my free time on lately. You can check them out at the following locations: Replacing the Timing / Camshaft Belt (http://www.fromthescratch.com/In-the-Garage/General-Automotive/Timing-Belt-Replacement.html) Replacing the Mass Air Flow sensor (http://www.fromthescratch.com/In-the-Garage/Emissions-ODBII/Mass-Air-Flow-Sensor-Replacement-VW-New-Beetle.html) In the meantime we'll keep working on populating the site with cool content. Right now we have a few pending projects we're working on for the In the Kitchen section, so stay tuned. Projects - From The Scratch Mon, 27 Mar 2006 11:32:58 +0100