How to “ethically hack” an installation software

I recently bought the Contour Design ShuttlePRO along with ShuttleExpress to use it with Adobe LightRoom. The device itself is a great product, but the driver installation program didn’t work on my computer.

Upon executing the driver installation program on my Win7 x64 system, I received an error message indicating “Insufficient free disk space”. I had over 2TB (2000+ GB) of free space on my drive, so it was obvious that the disk space was not an issue. I have seen this problem in the past on an outdated WISE install system, the installation program wasn’t calculating the free space properly on large drives. So, I assumed that the same thing was happening to this installation program. Continue reading “How to “ethically hack” an installation software” →

Wireless mouse + Microsoft Keyboars = Better Keyboard

Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard Upgrade

I am a big fan of Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboards. I’ve been using them since Microsoft first released it 15+ years ago. Even though I am currently using a Goldtouch ergonomic keyboard, I like to switch things up so I bought a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.

One feature I didn’t like about this keyboard was the zoom slider in the middle of the keyboard. I really do not get the point of it. I do not know who needs to zoom in and out of things so frequently that they would need a dedicated contraption for it. I would rather have a trackball or trackpoint kind of device in there instead.

Well, if you are a hacker and if you cannot find it, you just make it! Continue reading “Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard Upgrade” →

How to “POLAR Enable” your exercise bike.

I have a Schwinn 213 Recumbent Exercise Bike and it came with a hand-grip style heart rate monitor (HRM). Unfortunately HRM died couple of years ago just after the warranty is ended. I did not like the hand-grip HRM from the beginning as it was inaccurate and required me to hold the hand-grips all the time.

I’ve been playing with Polar heart rate (HR) receiver for a while and it is really easy to use. So, I decided to open up the recumbent bike’s console and replace the hand-grip HRM system with the Polar HRM system.

Let’s start with the Polar RMCM01 HR receiver unit. Continue reading “How to “POLAR Enable” your exercise bike.” →

Repairing Harmony 670 Remote

I absolutely hate waste. We are wasting a lot of resources in this country from bare necessities to entertainment items. This is even worse in the small electronics area. If a small electronics item gets broken most of us don’t even think of repairing it.  There is a better, newer version out there that we want anyway, and it doesn’t cost that much. So, we dump the broken one and got a brand new one. I struggle with that mentality as I know I can repair them most of the time. Do I have time to tackle every single broken electronics item in my house? Not all the time, and I previously had resource constraints as well. I used to have one table that I did my coding and electronics projects on. Our garage is not a useful place as it is detached and not finished inside so there is no room in there for me to setup my electronics lab. I was clearing out my desk every time I worked on an electronics project, pushing away the monitors, keyboard etc. The problem is that the next morning when I needed to code, my desk was covered with components, soldering iron etc. That meant, cleaning it again. I think you got the drift. Continue reading “Repairing Harmony 670 Remote” →