Where does this wire go?

I went to mini-box and bought some components I’m going to throw in to replace the dell optiplex sx260.

I ordered the following components. The total cost including shipping was just shy of $250.00

2GB DDR2 Memory
P4-12V to P4-12V Cable for M2-ATX
M2-ATX
Intel D945GCLF2D mini-ITX Atom 2×1.6Ghz
M350 Universal Mini-ITX enclosure

I’m curious to see how the dual atom does compared to the p4 2.8ghz of the dell.

A friend of mine is putting some extra juice into his Honda Insight hybrid. It allows him to recharge his hybrid battery with a pack that he can charge from his house outlets.

It is a really cool set up that he is documenting at insight central. Information on the product he is using can be found at www.enginer.us

I highly encourage anyone that likes playing with electronics to read about what he is doing.

I had a problem setting the variables to point to the jython path. I thought the jython path was the same as where jython.jar was. I was wrong it was the /usr/share/jython and not /usr/shar/java where jython.jar is.

speechlion is having problems understanding my commands. I’m going to see if I can train sphinx to understand me better.

This isn’t a problem with the touch screen, but with a mini keyboard that has a built in touchpad. When I moved the mouse left or right the cursor went up and down. Going up and down did nothing. Clicking the left mouse button moved the cursor right a few pixels.

What I had to do was to edit /etc/modules.d/blacklist.conf and blacklist usbmouse and uncomment usbhid

I’m not sure if it is going to make the touchscreen stop working though. I’ll have to wait a few days to try it out. I took my system out of my car while the mechanics have a look at my transmission.

One of my amps in my car literally went up in smoke. I’m not sure what caused it, it could just be overheating or something, but it was pouring out smoke. I’m not sure what I’m going to do to replace it. I don’t have that kind of money anymore.

I uploaded my udev rules that I use so that my gps receiver and Elmscan get created with their own devices 100% of the time. It creates /dev/gps0 and /dev/elm0.

Without this either device would be ttyUSB0 and the other ttyUSB1 during initilization.

The link to the file is 50-myrules.rules

It had a small crack in it which allowed watter to drip down the handle and follow the cord under the sink. It wasn’t a lot of water at once, and leaked so slowly that you couldn’t even see it. The watter ran down the hose and dropped off the hose where it bent and on to the cabinet floor under the sink. This caused the floor to sag with the weight of cleaning products and a constantly damp floor.

The fix was to get a new handle from homedepot which cost about $8.00.

Even after a year of living in our new home we are still finding stuff to fix. I guess it is like children. You never stop having to care for them.

Today I’m trying to figure out how to make one of my systems drain properly. It is filled with sand (and it is supposed to be.) I have a hose going out the bottom. I put a sponge covering the opening of the hose to act as a filter.. I’m not sure if this is going to work out or not yet.

Anyone have any ideas how to allow drainage from a bucket full of sand?

I was playing with the google maps api and created a traffic map. I will incorporate this into my car so I can see where the traffic is around me. I might try to see if I can find a way for it to alert me to upcoming traffic conditions even if I don’t have the traffic screen selected.

*WARNING* *WARNING* *WARNING* *WARNING* Before reading this post see the link at the bottom of this post and watch some videos of the dangers of Lithium Polymer batteries when warnings aren’t followed.*WARNING* *WARNING* *WARNING* *WARNING*

Okay. I’m a VERY STUPID. It says on the battery “Do not disassemble or mistreat battery.” Well, I’ve never mistreated the battery, in fact I’ve never forgot its birthday and never raised my voice to it once since I’ve owned it. All kidding aside though, I should have listened to the do not disassemble part. The battery apparently overheated and bulged out popping the cover off my wireless broadband card.

So, what do I stupidly do? I take the battery out and remove the protective wrapping. Maybe they should use titanium wrapping to prevent stupid people like myself from tampering with the battery and ignoring their clearly marked warnings. Next I took a small flat bladed screwdriver and poked a hole in the inner wrapper. Then POP a cloud of white powder erupted from from the small package and I got a lung full.

I’m hoping I’m not going to suffer any major damage. I don’t know the real complications of inhaling this stuff but I’m sure it isn’t something beneficial to my health.

Well, anyway. DON’T MESS WITH BATTERIES OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT SAYS DON’T OPEN. You never know what surprise you will get.

Edit: After watching some videos and reading more about li-polymer batteries I will be disposing of the battery as soon as possible.

Kids, do not try this at home. Here is what can happen. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=lipo+explosions&aq=f