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We recently found ourselves in a fight with SURBL.org to get a client’s domain off of one of their blacklists. This is a little bit of information about SURBLs and some resources to help others who have been wrongfully blacklisted.
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March 11th, 2010  |  James  |  Link  |  1 Comment

ABOUT:

This is a circuit I designed to generate a PWM signal for an RC servo given an analog voltage or high frequency PWM.  It has no microcontroller and can be built with one quad op-amp and passive components.

The op-amp I used in my implementation is a NJU7034D-ND, available from digikey, but any rail-to-rail quad op-amp will do.

Since the input stage has a low pass filter built in this circuit will accept a high frequency (>~5kHz) PWM as an input in addition to analog voltages.

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March 2nd, 2010  |  James  |  Link  |  No Comments

We recently had a computer in the shop that had a Hard Disk password and a BIOS password set on it.

The Hard Disk password is stored not only on the logic controller, but also on the disk itself, and make the drive unusable without entering the password.

Under normal circumstances, people will password protect their windows logon, but their data is easily obtainable just by removing the hard drive and accessing it from another computer.  If you set the Hard Disk Password, this is not the case.
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March 2nd, 2010  |  Chris  |  Link  |  No Comments

A clean install is a reinstallation of your operating system “from scratch”.  Under most circumstances, this is a last resort when the operating system is so badly damaged, corrupted, or otherwise uncooperative, that other options won’t work.

Some other reasons to do a clean install are:

• When transferring a computer from one owner to another.  This is to delete any personal data and make the computer “new again”.  This is a great option for parents who want to “hand-me-down” their computers to kids.
• When buying a new computer.  It’s a stretch, but some new computers are so bogged down with crapware from the manufacturer that customers just want a clean copy of Windows without popups from HP and Dell appearing every 5 minutes.  (It’s usually simple enough to disable or remove these programs individually, but some people just feel better with a clean install)
• When moving a computer to another user in an office.  Many employees like to make the computer “their own” and add every toolbar known to man, icon and sound tweaks, weatherbug, ding!, and a hundred other background apps.  Sometimes it’s easier and faster to do a clean install then to manually remove lots of programs.

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March 1st, 2010  |  Chris  |  Link  |  No Comments

We often find ourselves the new owners of our customer’s old computers. Some cheerfully donate them for parts, some just don’t want to ever look at their old laptop again (this stems from the same bitterness that caused them to get a new one in the first place).

This post will show you how to put a nearly dead laptop to good use: Make it a digital sign! You will need the following:

• A dying, old, or otherwise neglected laptop.
• A spare LCD display.
• Display cable, power cables, network cables.

First, we gut the laptop.  The screen was failing, the case was cracked, and it’s lugging around a dead battery, CD drive, and other parts we won’t need anymore.  We carefully remove the motherboard and discard the pile of screws, connectors, and plastic that’s leftover.

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February 25th, 2010  |  Chris  |  Link  |  No Comments