Yes, we’re alive and well at ScarTech. In case you haven’t noticed, there hasn’t been a new post in well over a year. There’s no real excuse for it, but here’s a couple:
- No time left after killing Zombies in Left for Dead and Left for Dead 2.
- Kids like to spend time with their dad.
- My obsession with mobile devices had me otherwise occupied.
- All of the above (and more).
Well there you have it. You’ve got my attempt at explaining away the lack of posts, but thanks to a post by the Hansel-Man the fires have been re-lit. Heck, I’ve even downloaded and installed Visual C# 2010 Express. I might even write some cool new code for home and fun. Stay tuned…
Hello World,
Its Shawn here again with another how-to. This time we are going to walk-thru making a back-up copy of a Sony PSP game (UMD). As with the previous post (read here) on PSP’s this one rates about a 2 on a difficulty scale of 1 – 10. Basic requirements for this tutorial is a 3rd grade reading level (haha).
My new favorite macro in Visual Studio 2008 is control-D then control-K. Hit that key sequence and voila: all code on the page has been formatted. It’s especially helpful when copy-pasting. Just a tip from Tim to make your life easier! 
Hello All,
I am back with another “How-To” post. I know it has been a long time since my last post but I have been busy with school, work, and most importantly playing all the new PC games that have come out in the past month and a half. Its a great time to be alive!
Anyway, today we are going to install custom firmware on a PSP 2001 (the Slim). This will allow you to copy “back-up” copies of your games to your memory stick and play them from there, rather than lugging around all those UMDs.
On a difficulty scale of 1 thru 10, this project is about a 2. If you can read, then you can do this project.
Now that my Samsung Glyde is working like it should have all along since I upgraded the firmware to version BI29, I’ve been searching for some decent wallpapers. I’ve found a few decent images that look good on my phone. They’re shared below the fold.
Since I’m in the firmware upgrading mood, I went ahead and downloaded and installed the firmware update for my TV (Samsung HP-T5054). I’ve seen an issue with audio dropout when using my PlayStation 3 as a Blu-Ray player over HDMI. After googling the topic, it looks like I’m not the only person who’s seen this happen.
Upgrading the firmware on the TV was super easy. Download the firmware, unzip it onto a USB drive, plug the drive into the USB service port on the TV, and use the onscreen menu to perform the upgrade. I haven’t had any dropout since the upgrade, but that doesn’t mean the problem is solved since it’s intermittent. If I have further audio dropout problems, I’ll let post it here.
By the way, the HP-T5054 is an awesome TV.
I’ve owned a Samsung Glyde for a couple months now, and I’ve had one major complaint. The touchscreen was buggy as hell. Sometimes it worked like a champ. Sometimes it was a nightmare just trying to press a button. Forget taking a decent picture. Not that the camera isn’t any good. It’s that you had to press the button onscreen so many times before the phone actually registered the button press. By then, you’ve either missed the shot or the picture comes out blurry because the camera was moving. Navigating any of the Verizon online apps was useless. The phone almost never registered the button presses on the corners of the screen. More than once, I wanted to throw the phone across the room (I know I’m impatient, but this was getting ridiculous).
After searching the net for firmware updates to the Glyde, I found a couple of sites that mentioned that Verizon released a firmware update on Nov. 4. I stopped by my local Verizon store and asked the support tech if there was anything he could do for the touchscreen issues I was seeing on my phone. He told me he could update the firmware. It took about 15 minutes, and after using it for a couple hours the update seems to have about worked. Not only does the update seem to cure the touchscreen issues I had been having, but some nice changes to the phone came with the update.
- The annoying throbbing square that served as a shortcut has been changed to a small tab on the right side of the screen. The shortcut menu also slides in from the right. It’s a nice touch.
- You now have to drag a key onto a lock to unlock the screen instead of just pressing the unlock icon on the screen.
- The UI has been given a very nice update. No more boring black.
- Scrolling the contacts is now a breeze. A small button has been added to the left side of the contact list that can be dragged to quickly change letters in the alphabet. The current letter is displayed in the center of the screen sort of like it’s done on the iPod when you quickly scroll through a long playlist.
Before the update, I was running version .BF25 of the firmware. Now I’m running version .BI29. I wholeheartedly advise you go to your local Verizon store and get your Gylde’s firmware updated. It’s made a world of difference with my phone. You won’t be disappointed.
Hello World,
Do you ever have that not-so-fresh feeling? I am not talking about the feminine cleansing products but rather a stale and tiresome feeling towards your Desktop. Well, if you are like me then every now and then you need to re-think your desktop setup and go for something fresh.
I have been a Windows user for most of my computing life (albeit a short life). I was seriously getting bored with Windows and its all to familiar setup. I was not nearly spending as much time on the puter just surfing around and playing with different and new programs as I used to. I think the revelation (or shock) came to me when I actually heard something that my wife said!!! Can you believe it? That should be enough for anyone to start looking at what went wrong.
So in response to my slip in judgement I decided to rethink my desktop setup and use some free and easy to use programs to spice up my desktop life.
Here is a screenshot of my old desktop.
Here is a pic of my desktop after the transformation.
All I did was install the following programs and add a new wallpaper.
Yahoo! Widgets with the following widgets:
- Informer (my favorite widget of all time)
- This is the top toolbar that has the different icons
- NewsStand
- A nice RSS Reader
- Picture Frame
- Yahoo! Weather
Cool Background from themexp.org (the best place for wallpapers)
That’s it. A couple of free programs and presto-chango a new, fresh looking desktop. I am not going to say that you will see as dramatic a change as I did but with a little planning who knows what will become of your desktop tomorrow!
Now you can start ignoring your spouse again. Hip-hip-hooray!
Scardog
Hello all,
This small tutorial is designed to help those in need of installing Microsoft Windows XP on any PC that is capable of booting from a UFD (USB Flash Device). Hopefully, you will find this as easy and problem free as I have.
