[solved] Android Shortcut to Tethering Settings

If you are like me and tether your 3G android device to PC's several times a day, you will realise that it is a PITA to go through the menu to enable tethering each time you want to connect.

Trying to make a shortcut, was impossible, there was no link to the tethering settings page.

I found Quickteth on the market, it is a lightweight app, that requires no unsafe permissions to run!  (Lesson to learn you other android developers!)

Puts a simple shortcut on the desktop, press it and you are in your tethering settings page!

Check out Quickteth on the android market.


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Funny Interesting Site TradeLeaks.com

"We believe the best form of moderation is the individual's mind. That's why we leave the moderation up to you. You decide what you read, don't read, believe and don't believe."

All Coles employees can't differentiate the difference between the taste of Brut deodorant and a Banana.

It is true, all Coles employees can't differentiate the difference between the taste of Brut deodorant and a Banana.

If you ever want to return used Banana flavoured condoms just give em a bit of a spray and Coles will return them.


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CHOGM temporary security Cameras Hyatt Hotel

According to this article the Hyatt hotel is housing many CHOGM members.

There has been a lot of construction work going on there as well, including the installation of these wireless video cameras on street light poles.

Interesting, the cameras are powered by the street post supply, and have a wireless video link back to the Hyatt Center.  There is also temporary scaffolding erected on the roof to accommodate the receiving antennas.

Close inspection of the security cameras revels WA Police asset tags on them.

The locations of the cameras are:

• Plain Street / Adelaide Terrace - East Side of the intersection
• Construction site on Plain Street - Ex location of Plain Street Deli
• Corner of Plain / Terrace Road - South side of the intersection
• Terrace road - two locations on sidewalk

Total of six cameras

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AND AD 4326 Digital Weighing Indicator Repair PC2677G AD4326

Symptom: Not working or always switching on by itself.
Cause: Batteries or power connected wrong polarity

Fix:
Check / Replace tantalum cap C20 on display board, 22uF/25V
Check / Replace U1 on display board, LM330T 5V low dropout regulator
Check / Replace Q1 on load cell board 2SA1020

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Thunder Sky LiFePO4 Lithium ion Batery Swell and Fail Undervoltage

This is what happens when a Lithium Battery is over discharged and then charged back up.

It gets puffy and becomes worthless.

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Acer AL922 19 inch LCD Monitor Repair [BadCap]

Another case of the bad caps.  Would not switch on or just for a second.  The monitor is powered by a 12V 5A switchmode mains adapter.

Opening it was easy, remove the two screws under the rubber feet and pry the case open from the other side, where the adapter cord comes out.

The bad cap was the big mains one, puffy and leaking.

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Dell Mini Inspiron 1012 Synaptics Touchpad Click Skip Fix [solved]

Anyone who has brought one of these netbooks would know that the touchpad / trackpad is crap.  Too many times I have seen my mouse pointer skip from one side of the screen to another when the mouse pas had been clicked.
I almost wanted to get a screwdriver and pry the bastard out just to teach it a lesson! HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER

The dead zone where the touch pads clickers are so small, a mouse click will cause the mouse to move.

No amount of software code will fix this piece of shit hardware, the only way to fix it is to make the zone near the mouse clickers dead.

I used thick rubber feet to do mine.  I used 6 in total and put them in such a way that there is no force been placed on the touchpad when the lid is closed.  See how I placed the rubber feet on the screen lid, so it would not interfere with the wrist pad.
I tried using thick layers of tape, but it never worked.

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DIY Video Bauln, Mk1 FAIL

Trying to make a video balun to convert 75ohm unbalanced to 100 ohm UTP balanced is hard, when there is no design available and it is clouded is secrecy.

There is a patent for them out there, google patents has a copy, but from what I can see, there is no way it could work on composite video without DC restoration on the receiving side.
I decided to make a simple voltage balun, using ferrite rings from a old motherboard.

The result was a fail, the picture has poor colouring and the image was tearing.

My next design will be a current balun.
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Ethernet Throwing Star Tap using Krone Punch Down Connectors Cat 5

This passive Ethernet tap featured at greatscottgadgets is great.
Get a couple of USB Ethernet adapters for your laptop, set up a tun interface and you can see everything on both sides without any arp cache poisoning.

It is possible to make the device using some Krone punch down blocks and some cat5 cable.

Here is some pictures, I have not added the 220pf caps yet, they are to derate 1 Gig networks to 100 Meg.

The schematic below, shows what is going on.

Link to Ethernet wiring diagram from Pinoutsguide Here
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DIY Data Recovery from a WD2500 Caviar Hard Drive

I had a WD2500 Hard Drive that was not working, no spin up or anything.  It seemed that the board was not working, but there was no signs of failure.

Fortunately, I found another WD2500 board which was working.

A simple board swap did not work, the heads started chattering when plugged in.

To really fix it, it is necessary to remove a 8 pin rom chip on the "broken" board and solder it to a "good" donor board.  If you cannot do this, find someone who can or you will get nowhere.

Once this was done, the hard drive started without a problem, the data was dragged off ASAP.

Make sure you identify the rom chips plus the good and bad boards to make the process easier.
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Pictures inside a Kramer Pico Tools DVI CAT5 Video extender

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Pictures inside a Black BOX KVM Micro Extender CAT5 KVM

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