The scroll wheel on one of our mice was not working right. The mouse wheel is a disk with slots; light shines through the slots and that is how the computer knows when the mouse wheel turns. I took the mouse apart and there was all sort of dirt stuck in the little slots. Cleaned out, works fine now. Nice to see that not all electronics are only disposable and some things can still be fixed.
I use use my Blackberry to record audio in meetings and such. It records as m4a. I use Audacity to edit audio files.
Audacity doesn’t do M4A natively, and the error it gives just says that it can’t read the file.
Turns out they almost have it built in. I didn’t research the exact IP reason that forces them to do it, but the instructions how to finish setting up Audacity to be able to read your Blackberry sound recordings is here:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown
I have been working with Sandi Kirby on a table-top training kit for rowing umpires. We came up with a mat that represents a race course, and a set of boats, course markers and other kit that can be moved around the course to facilitate the discussion of various training scenarios.
We are releasing the design into the public domain so others can make their own. Your local sign shop should be able to print the mat, and a laser cutting service like Ponoko could cut the parts for you.
If you are going to make one of these, drop us a note in the comments, it would be neat to hear if someone finds this useful.
Winnipeg Transit’s Navigo generally won’t let you enter a destination unless you first enter a “from”. I wanted to be able to add a link to a web site that says “if you want to come here, you can take the bus, click here”, like this link which will open the Navigo page with Assentworks pre-populated as an address.
Asked 311/transit, and they explained:
The user needs to include the destination information in the link. The best way to do this is to plan a trip using the desired address as the destination, it can be any trip (random origin and time). From the results page, click ‘Modify Request’ in the sidebar. This takes you back to the trip planning page with pre-filled information. Copy the URL from this page, it will look something like:
Delete all the unwanted information from the URL (keep all parameters related to destination [destinationKey, destinationName, destinationType]). Then it will look like:
Use this URL to link to Navigo.
I bought a HackRF One SDR recently. The first thing I wanted to do is to try WSPR, which checks for other WSPR beacons to help monitor propagation paths.
I set this up using the free SDR software SDR# and another software virtual audio cable to connect the two.
That much was easy enough, but I have not had a single connection, running it for a bit over a week. WSPR frequenctly says it’s decoding, but nothing pans out. I am using the antenna that comes with the HackRF, which isn’t great but I hear others have had success with it.
I probably have something set up wrong still. I think I need to use CW mode in SDR# for WSPR but have not actually found confirmation for this anywhere. Since it’s not working it’s likely wrong :-)
I ride my bike to work on main roads year around, so I need to be visible. In the winter that means lights. If I attach them to the bike, I have to remember to take them off, and they are relatively low to the road and less visible. I had them on my helmet for a while, but that was heavy. So, I have them on my backpack.
This has worked well for some time, but I usually put on my backpack and then remember that I did not turn them on. Then I have to take the pack back off and switch them on. So, I added a remote switch to the EL driver where its
internal switch is attached. Because I wanted to still be able to disconnect the driver, I wanted a plug connection. All I had flying around was an old USB port and plenty of USB cables to salvage, so that’s what I did. Ya, I labelled it “NOT USB”.
I made the remote switch by wiring a scavenged
momentary switch right into the end of the wire and putting heat shrink tubing around it. The tubing waterproofs the setup and is flexible enough to trigger the switch.
Then I fed it around the backpack straps.
This amazing large scale collaborations has been going on for 15 years, so I am organizing a get-together of Winnipeg Wikipedians. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Tenbergen/Wikipedia_15 for more info!
I audited a few lectures of a course put on by the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy this fall. It was held in the Apotex Building on the Bannatyne Campus of the University of Manitoba. On the way to class I saw these dots on a glass wall.
They are Braille, and they read “faculty of pharmacy”. I can’t figure out where they are going with this. The writing isn’t really tactile, beyond the feeling of a vinyl sticker on glass. The writing is WAY bigger than normal braille, the letters are about 8″ tall. Being on a glass wall, it’s backwards from the direction you would enter from. They are about the same height of the ground that braille door signs would usually be, which makes me wonder if this is a tongue in cheek response by someone being forced to put a standardized sign on a glass wall that might look better without it. Or, was it just put there so no one runs into it?
Another possibility is that the pharmacists wanted a memorial of their previous status as a Faculty – they are now College of Pharmacy at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Does anyone know more about this?
I finished the HAM radio course.
My call sign is VA4THN. Any Monty Python fans out there?
Having a new HAM Radio license gets me a 1 year membership with WARC. I checked out their monthly meeting this Monday. I got to meet a few interesting people and we chatted about some of the digital modes in HAM.
And, I saw the drip stop on the coffee urn. A pop bottle cut just so you could get your cup of coffee in there without problem, but drips were caught. It made me smile. It’s the kind of thing I might have come up with, and the kind of thing a lot of people would find horrible and impractical.
What is the difference between people who would embrace that and others who would mock it? I wonder if it is related to the difference between people who back into parking spots and people who don’t.
