According to some Toyota forums, cleaning Mass Air Flow (MAF) Sensor can fix low idling. At about 85,000 miles my Corolla’s idle speed decreased from 700 to about 500rpm and felt like it was going to stall sometimes after the AC compressor kicked off. Cleaning the MAF sensor seemed to have done do the trick and it was a simple procedure that took no more than five minutes. Read more…
I’ve been using Vim for making quick changes to files in Unix and Windows for years. As a result I am used to right-clicking files with any extension and editing it with Vim from the context menu (or is it contextual menu? I forget). Often times before making changes to a file, I’ll make a copy of it and add “.bak” to the original filename’s extension. This way I can quickly go back if a change in the new file screws things up. Since the original file extension has been changed to .bak however, it has temporarily become a hassle to open it back up for viewing (because no default text editor is associated with .bak or .tmp files). Therefore having an Edit with Vim right-click context menu option which I can execute on any file type is essential for me. Here’s how to configure one in Snow Leopard using Automator. Read more…
Windows 2003 Small Business Server (SBS) has wizards for configuring all sorts of settings during the initial server setup. Unfortunately changing those settings without the wizard later can be a hassle. This is the story of an SBS server which was originally setup as a gateway router with two network interfaces (WAN/LAN) only later to be re-configured to connect to the internet using just the LAN interface and a 3rd party router/firewall. After the change, the WAN interface was disabled and the DNS event log started filling up with Event ID’s 4004, 4015 and 4521 every three minutes. Read more…
Google’s Buzz is a great new social feature, but as all of my friends are giving it a whirl my Inbox has become swamped with useless notifications I wish would just buzz the heck off! After fiddling with filters for a minute here’s a temporary way to automatically archive Buzz to its label and keep it out of your Inbox. Read more…
Today like clockwork my notebook’s power cord fell into that void between my desk and the dresser as soon as I unplugged it. Swearing like a sea-captain and scratching my arm while surely looking like an idiot performing contortions to get that darned cable back I thought to myself: There must be a better way. After looking around the house for something slightly more elegant than duct tape to keep cables in place, I came across some shipping foam in the trash can.
When my ‘04 Corolla’s odometer hit 70,000 miles it was time to get new front brake pads, so I ventured over to brake masters and had them replaced. $50 dollars later I was back on the road driving to and fro various consulting gigs. A few thousand miles later though, I noticed some vibration when applying the brakes. When I went back to brake masters to have them re-checked, this is what I learned: Read more…
I rely on Gmail for all my email needs because it has great spam filters and an uncluttered functional interface. Last week I had some time to organize my Gmail and now finding, noticing and keeping track of email messages is even easier. I use labels as pseudo email folders, filters to automatically categorize messages, archiving control clutter and some Labs features to make my Gmail more useful than ever. Read more…
I know that the mac works differently (so everyone keeps telling me!) but I’m sorry, that’s not a valid solution to a host of real annoyances. It’s true that I’m a Windows user and that I’ve got Windows habits (think delete key), but listing folders sorted separately from files in a window just seems something I ought to be able to do. Not in OSX though…unless you do this: Read more…
My home theater has been built around a home-made DVR since 2003. It started off on a used Dell Optiplex GX150 and moved to a bigger case with more hard drives and a P4 in 2006. It worked great for nearly 3 years, but in December I earned some extra cash and upgraded my DVR to a lean mean HD recording machine. Now my HTPC is finally up to par with the LCD TV in my living room. Now it plays my favorite shows in 5.1 surround, free of commercials, and in all their high def glory. Here’s the step by step guide covering my upgrade: Read more…
Heard about WineBottler for the Mac? It’s open source software that lets you “bottle up” Windows applications and run them on your Intel Mac OS X. Since there aren’t any good or free usenet downloaders available for the Mac (boo), I tried bottling up Grabit from Shemes and it works! Here’s how: Read more…