Adventures in stupid technology
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Fun with CURL and DOM
When the California mega millions jackpot was more than 200 million dollars a in May, I bought a couple of tickets and crossed my fingers. I didn’t win…stupid quick picks, but I got to thinking: Maybe there could be a better way of choosing the numbers. Like choosing them based on previous winning numbers somehow.…
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Goulash and spätzle
One of my favorite treats is my moms goulash and spätzle. Her goulash is variation of the Hungarian meat stew that like so many delicious recipes used to be a way for poor people to utilize food scraps. Spätzle are essentially egg noodles made from scratch. This recipe is one of a few that can…
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Rip songs from a DVR recording
Last week Glee featured the song Dream On as a duet between Matthew Morrison and Neil Patrick Harris and my DVR recorded it in HD with 5.1 surround sound. My girlfriend liked the song, but iTunes wanted $1.29 for it. So I tried importing the MPEG 2 file my DVR generated for the show into…
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Resolve remote wonder II connection issues
The other day I got an email from someone who had trouble initially getting the ATI Remote Wonder II remote control to work with Windows. Reading it I remembered that I also had issues initially getting my remote to work. I had bought it used off of eBay and feared the worst after it wouldn’t…
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Set a recording device priority in SageTV
Got multiple tuners in your SageTV DVR? Well I do and I’ve always wondered how to configure SageTV so that HD tuners/capture devices are preferred over SD ones within the system. By assigning a tuner/capture device priority, I can be sure that SageTV will always try to record shows using an HD tuner first. More…
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Making perfect Hash Browns
I like to make a good American style breakfast at least one day of the week and for me, that’s always included a large serving of golden brown crispy hashbrown potatoes. The perfect start to a lazy Sunday reading the newspaper and lounging around the house. After years of dealing with with frozen hash browns…
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Prevent EVDO from draining your phone battery
Got a Motorola RAZR that lasts 12 hours or less on a full change? The problem could be spotty EVDO service in your area. When connected to Sprint or Verizon’s equivalent of 3G (aka EVDO), the RAZR will try to establish a network connection repeatedly in areas of spotty service thereby draining its battery very…
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Use Microsoft Office in a browser
Microsoft has finally released their online versions of Excel and PowerPoint Word and OneNote on SkyDrive. While the “cloud” versions of these programs don’t have all the features found the installable Office product, they offer enough power to be considered a reasonable alternative to Google’s suite of cloud applications called Apps. Now, if you don’t…
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Cleaning the MAF sensor on a Corolla
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 the trick and…