You know it’s a bad day when your Internet Service Provider (ISP) calls your phone to tell you that your IP address is spewing forth spam.

It’s also not good when that event is preceded by a webpage redirecting to a crap website and your antivirus software giving up.

Luckily Windows has a malicious software removal tool. That can catch a few things after your antivirus bites the dust.

I was also previously unaware that there is a Network Monitor 3.3 to look at your network activity. Watch those ip requests fly by.

• @vedette sorry about the long ass turnaround on the reply, but yes, _THE_ Johnathan Taylor Thomas. http://jttarchive.net/ in reply to vedette #
• Learned a valuable lesson today: Health > money. Got offered to eat a cup full of red pepper flakes. Got 1 spoonful in b4 repercussions. #
• @commishcool that 20-1 Sox Vs Twins was brutal. I fucking hate the twins. in reply to commishcool #

Gentlemen:

• A friend of mine just spotted Jhonathan Taylor Thomas on the Brown Line Train. #

I just thought I would quickly mention Cheapass Games.

From their own mouth:

“We here at Cheapass Games are aware of two basic facts about games: they cost too much, and they are at some level all the same.

If you ignore the clever shapes they come in, the cheap little plastic pawns are an interchangeable part of most of the board games in your house. So are the dice, the money, the counters, the pencils, and just about every other random spare part. These generic bits and pieces can account for as much as 75% of a game’s production cost, and that cost gets handed to you.

If you had your choice, you’d probably invest a little bit of money in one good set of gaming paraphernalia instead of twenty crappy ones, and then just buy the new part of every “new” game. Yet most companies insist on selling you the whole package every time; it’s like bundling a can opener with a can of beans.

Cheapass Games come with the bare essentials: boards, cards, and rulebooks. If you need anything else, we’ll tell you. And it’s probably something you can scrounge from a game you already own, or buy at a hobby store for less than “they” are charging you for it. Heck, if you need to, you can even buy the parts from us.

And once you’ve assembled your collection of generic small parts, you can use them for every new Cheapass Game. We’ve standardized our designs so your gaming toolbox will last. If that sounds pretty good, page through our website and check out all the cool things Cheapass Games has to offer you.”

Facets, a Chicago video store with an amazing collection of obscure and out of the way videos, is now providing video by mail.

Essentially, they are servicing the long tail. I can’t wait to rent “Liquid Sky” which was not available at either Netflix or Blockbuster Video.

Rent videos by mail

I’ve been a member of Depart-ment for over two years, and even designed the flyer for their last show.

They are closing down shop. It’s the end of an era. You will still see me at pitchfork this year, but read the press release for more details.

From their press release:
“After six years and nearly twenty shows we are giving DEPART-ment
a big kiss goodbye.

DEPART-ment has been an interesting learning experience for
all of those involved from organizers to makers to buyers.
We envisioned, created, and ran an innovative model (together
for new economy) for an arts and crafts fair heralding in a
new era of makers across the US and further.  We are proud to
have been a part of the beginnings of new generations of indie
DIYers that include slews of other arts and crafts fairs,
organizations, magazines, and web presences such as DIY
Trunkshow, Renegade, Constructor, Handmade Detroit, MAKE,
Craft, Readymade, Etsy and so forth.

The short of it is that although DEPART-ment’s model was
innovative, it was also an incredible amount of work and time
particularly for the organizers.  For the most part we have
broken even but sometimes we have even lost money on shows.
All of our work was on a volunteer basis.  Still we stayed
committed to our original intent of creating an arts & crafts
fair that was low risk for new makers to be involved, that
didn’t necessarily require the same time commitment for the
maker to participate in, and was set up like an actual store
with departments.  As a result we have had well over 1000
makers involved and we have seen folks go from not being a
maker to having a successful business as a maker.

Since 2003, lots of things have changed in all of our lives.
We now live in Indiana, Ohio, Belize, Oak Park & Chicago.
We all have our own businesses, some of us are back in grad
school.  Though we all have been committed to the DEPART-ment
model, none of us really have the time, effort, or finances
currently to continue and hence we kiss DEPART-ment goodbye.

That said, we would like to thank everyone who has stepped up
to participate by helping us run shows, by participating as a
new maker, a seasoned maker, a shopper or otherwise has
supported a coming together for new economy.  We have met and
worked closely with literally hundreds of area, national and
some international makers.  We have drawn much inspiration and
friendship from it.  We wish you all well in your pursuit of
creating, making, re-purposing, and inventing your own goods,
businesses and lives as we continue to do so in our own lives.

This year the arts and crafts fair at Pitchfork Music Festival
(in the tennis courts by Chirp Record Fair) will be run by a
new entity, Coterie Chicago.  Coterie Chicago will be a bit
more in the traditional arts and crafts fair mode (not set up
like a store as DEPART-ment was).  See the website for more
information and to sign up for Coterie’s email list:
http://www.coteriechicago.com

Take care and may health and happiness follow…
from the organizers of DEPART-ment”

The goal: We have two televisions and one satellite TV tuner. Occasionally, I want to watch something on the primary TV that is not satellite TV. Think DVD, video games, or silence.

Some times, my special lady friend would like to watch satellite TV. I get tired of schlepping the video games to the other room. She gets tired of avoiding watching her shows when I just want to shoot some hookers.

Behold! The TV Remote controll Extender:

Read on to see how it’s done.Just to be clear, this is an entry level hack, done with ghetto-ass implementation. I wanted something quickly, and I didn’t have the right tools. Those who pursue a higher level of aestheticism will either refine my techniques, or buy some hardware that will do the equivalent (like an IR blaster, or another receiver). I realize that my techniques should be obvious to someone with a hint of common sense and basic electronics.

Supplies:

1. A remote that you don’t care about breaking. Before you start, verify that the remote works and your batteries work. This will save you time when you are troubleshooting your shoddy workmanship later.
2. A soldering iron. Solder.
3. Insulated wire.  I used paired 18 AWG. This is overkill.
4. Alcohol.
5. (optional) Some Music. I recommend either TV theme songs,  or something with some heavy metal vamping.
6. A camera, piece of paper, or a photographic memory to document taking apart your remote so that you can put it back together again.
7. Screwdrivers. Phillips, and flathead.

Theory:

Your electronic device (TV / satellite receiver) can listen to your remote control, through the magic of Infra Red Light Emitting Diodes (IRLED). Imagine a pulse of light that is invisible to the human eye. I have no idea the specifics of the encoding, but it’s a series of on/off patterns that presents a binary pattern. If I had to guess, it would be pulse width modulated, just like your CD players, only with an incredibly smaller data frame. PWM works by keeping your ons or offs steady for an amount of time proportional to the data you are trying to send. If it’s on for 10 ms, then maybe you mean 10. If it were on for 1 ms, maybe you mean one. Now that I think about it, it’s equally likely that they are using a steady data frame, and each time position is the bit value. What do I look like, wikipedia?

Also, since we’re on the subject, why don’t modern cell phones have an IRLED so you can control electronics? It would put the universal remote assholes out of a business, but I’ve never really cared for them either.

So, let’s say you’re watching TV. A sexy lady comes on and you can see a bit of her cleavage. You say to yourself, “I’m a heterosexual man, and like seeing the female form. It would be a crime for me not to see that again.” Now, the television and the remote, both do not have a button or command for “Jump back so I can rewatch the naughty bit again.” Maybe it should, but for the sake of this tutorial, it doesn’t. You have to speak remote-control-ese. You then press “jump back 5 seconds”. That is translated to a series of numbers, which are pulsed through the airwaves, received by the television, and you are able to reenact your manly desires through the miracles of modern technology.

But, I digress.

Procedure.

Start with a remote control:

Use your monkey brain to figure out how to take it apart. Remember, just because some asshole with no education was able to put it together, does not mean that you can take it apart without breaking it.

Once you have it apart, bask in the glory of evolution. Not only have we invented a way to capture a visual image of something that happened in the past, and not only have we captured a series of images so that you can watch them in sequence, but you can watch them on your fat lazy ass, and not have to get up to change to a different sequence of images. Aren’t we clever monkeys!

I’d like to point out a few things about this circuit. It is extremely simple.

1. There are pads for connecting a circuit for when the button is pressed.
2. There are two IRLEDs,and a driver circuit.
3. There is a power regulation circuit where the batteries are connected.
4. There is a tiny microprocessor that is sitting in the form factor of the older microprocessor that it replaced. They gooped shome shit on top of it (see bottom) in order to make sure you can’t tell what the micro processor is. Not that it would be hard to replace this remote via reverse engineering.
5. Oh yeah, a switch, to change modes.

Oh geeze, writing this procedure is getting old. Document how the IRLED is connected. If you accidentally connect it backwards, you could ruin your remote. Snip off the IRLED and leave a small amount of the metal leg so that you will be able to solder onto it later.

Cut your wire to length (I used 30 feet) and strip the ends. Solder one end to the legs where the LED used to go. I used pipe solder and a shitty 40 watt soldering iron. I’m sure you can find better and do a better job. There is a little plastic window where your LED can wave to the television. Make sure you snake your wire through the hole.

Solder the other end of the wire to an LED. I used an ohm meter to make sure I was connecting the cathode and anode to the correct legs.

Put it all back together. It will probably not fit anymore, because you did such a shitty job, so use some gaffer tape or glue to get it all back together.

I cannot stress this enough: Use strain relief. It should be impossible for the end user to separate the solder joints you made.

Viola: a remote control extender. Now go eat more cheesecake.

• Heading out to see Flight of the Conchords. Aparently it’s business time. Let the FotC references begin! #
• @m_kap Yay the Flight of the Conchords concert was awesome. Thx for offering to reconstruct me. In that sense, you complete me. <3. in reply to m_kap #
• Walking around the office today and found a giant Lego Statue of Liberty. Neet! http://twitpic.com/4cmcb #
• Holy shit: a fucking cylndrical tv! http://twitpic.com/4cq0m also found walking around the office. That’s sweet. #