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Continue reading →: Amazon.com Air Mattress Randomness
We’re planning to have some friends stay for a night this week so we decided to order an inflatable bed. While combing through various reviews I came across this product photo: Bad. So very, very bad. And then I found a product review in which the first line caught my…
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Continue reading →: Building a Multiboot ISO USB Drive in Windows (YUMI)
Every now and then I’m asked to fix a computer for family or friends. Typically, the hardware is fine but the system will need to be cleaned of malware. I usually have a collection of various rescue discs at home or in my car. If it’s been a while since…
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Continue reading →: Triggering Music from mControl
The title of this post is more general than the actual task. Specifically, I implemented a new method to play a different song for each weekday the first time a motion sensor is triggered. A while back I played a song from iTunes whenever a specific event was detected in…
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Continue reading →: Migrating from Quicken 2006 for Mac to Quicken Essentials
The Short Version: I think it’s worth $25 if you can find it at half-price. It’s not very useful for much more than basic balancing of a checking account. To import from Quicken 2006 you must install the new version and import from Quicken 2006 prior to installing Lion (or…
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Continue reading →: Superdrive Failure After Upgrading From Snow Leopard To Lion
A few days ago my wife’s MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2010) suddenly couldn’t read CDs or DVDs. Inserting a disc results in the drive spinning up and down a few times and then ejecting the disc after a moment. We quickly realized this was the first time she had tried to…
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Continue reading →: Replacing X10 Motion Sensors (MS14A) with Insteon Motion Sensors (2420M)
The Short Version: The Insteon motion sensors cost nearly ten times more than the X10 motion sensors but they are very reliable (as long as you have the necessary APs to send the signals over a reasonable distance or through several walls). Ever since I started using home automation devices…
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Continue reading →: Using a PS3 Bluetooth Controller with a Mac
The Short Version: Download and install a program named PS3Controller. Enable Bluetooth. The pairing code for PS3 controllers is “0000”. I had to connect via USB first to make it work. Read the entire post for additional issues. Note that I’ve only gone through this process using OS X Lion.…
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Continue reading →: Disable Local Snapshots in Lion (Local Time Machine Backups)
One of the new features included with Lion is the addition of “local snapshots” to Time Machine. Every hour Time Machine creates backups directly on the system’s hard disk. It doesn’t matter if an external Time Machine drive is connected. The reasoning behind this feature seems to be that users…
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Continue reading →: Recent Updates
Though it’s not obvious, adding new posts isn’t the only way in which I update this blog. Several changes aren’t as visible since they don’t get pushed via RSS and Twitter feeds. I maintain a few pages that I update infrequently. In addition, I regularly revisit old posts and add…
Hello,
I’m Mike
Welcome to my blog, which I have maintained for several years, off and on, to share things that I’ve learned from numerous projects and various problem solving escapades. This is my way of giving something back to the online communities that have helped me learn more about a wide variety of topics.
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