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>> Saved by my daughter

Thu, Jan 15th 9:39am 2009 >> Tech Toys

Amelia got a new laptop only a couple of months ago, and she was nice enough to let me take it over until after LCA. Popped the drive out of my HP 2133, put it in her laptop, booted, "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg", and we're back in business. Relief!

No wireless, but that can be solved with a USB dongle.

It seems I'm not the only person to have had an HP 2133 fry itself. Looks like it isn't the charging circuit after all, it's probably something more fundamental on the motherboard. The symptom is that after flicking the power toggle the power LED comes on and stays on, but the unit remains otherwise dark: no LCD, no drive spin-up, and the wireless indicator LED stays off. It seems to be heat-related failure from what I've read.

Time for a warranty claim. Major bleh.

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>> Multiple laptop deaths at the worst possible time

Wed, Jan 14th 6:43pm 2009 >> Tech Toys

I got an HP2133 a little while ago, which was lucky because about a week later my Mitac8060B (which I'd been using to prepare my talk for the MythTV miniconf) died. I ended up having to rewrite some code but got back on track. Then today my 2133 died!

Technically I don't think it's dead, it's just not charging and I didn't notice until the battery had gone flat. Now it's dead flat and won't start, and I don't know anyone else with a 2133 that I can borrow a charged battery from to extract stuff from it.

Damn. Just what I didn't need 2 days before heading to Hobart.

[Posted from my MythTV box out of desperation!]

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>> Interviewed by Sam about Geek My Ride

Fri, Jan 9th 3:14pm 2009 >> Tech Toys

Sam Varghese came out to visit me yesterday and did an interview about Geek My Ride and the talk Flame and I will be doing at LCA2009. The story has just gone up on ITWire as "LCA2009: geeking your ride". A good mention of SuperHouse in there too!

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>> New ignition firmware complete - I hope!

Mon, Jan 5th 10:03pm 2009 >> Tech Toys

Just finished writing the firmware for my custom ignition controller for the RX-8: running on an Arduino, of course. The controller does more than just run the ignition system, but if you want to find out more you'll need to come to LCA 2009 and attend Geek My Ride!

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>> Software controlled start of RX-8

Thu, Jan 1st 11:32pm 2009 >> Tech Toys

I finally got hold of a wiring diagram for my RX-8 (all 55 pages of it!) this morning, and it's been rather illuminating. It helped me figure out the ignition interlock system and RFID reader, so with a bit of jiggery-pokery, a modified wiring loom, and an Arduino I successfully started the car tonight totally under software control. Woot! My ignition system now has a USB interface ;-)

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