Red Bull Global Rallycross Phoenix (I)

When our boys at Red Bull block Red Bull from broadcasting...Red Bull. ;-) I like rallycross, and I usually end up watching the episodes on YouTube after the fact as I've given up on F1.  I tend to watch a LOT of Red Bull sponsored athletes in mountain biking, BMX, and skateboarding, so I get these things that pop up as suggestions.  This one came out and got blocked shortly afterward, so I guess they got it fixed.  And by fixed, I mean you can't find the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park event from Phoenix, AZ right now on their channel.  I thought I saw it before, but it might have been on Red Bull TV.

Galaxy Note 3 to a Note 4...and a Gear 2

Using the T-Mobile JUMP program we upgraded all three Note 3 phones to Note 4 devices. And since keeping up with regular watch batteries is becoming rather expensive and I miss my FitBit, I got a Gear 2. Will post more soon, hopefully some sample tracks I produce directly on the phone.

You can also see that the phone likes to taunt you. It quickly recognized I'm fat and lazy. Smart phone indeed...

New Day, New Nexus 7

So the Nexus 7 LTE arrived and I'm basically setup on it now. I have to wipe the old one, but I've run into more issues with my Samsung Note 2, to the point where it crashes and reboots more than once a week (twice today). It needs to be wiped, and I need to format and reload the last laptop we have in the house as well. Busy week for gear fiddling.

PowerShell script to list installed updates

I've built a script that will allow a user (no need to elevate unless using the execution policy bypass option) to get a list of the system's installed updates and outputs them to a spreadsheet (CSV), console, or be piped to some other function. Still working on listing the superseded updates, as they tend to be numerous and nested.

I will try to find a style sheet for displaying code similar to the Windows Server 2012+ PowerShell ISE, but for now...

#Get-AllInstalledUpdates.ps1 version 0.2.1
#Author: James Carter
#Used for determining currently installed updates that are NOT staged and are reported as enabled and used, including Windows OS and Application updates like service packs.

$ErrorActionPreference = "stop"

#Bypass whatever Execution Policy that might be in force for the duration of the process.
#Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process

#File browser function creation (used to generate GUI file browser so user can select CSV location)
function Invoke-FileBrowser
{
      param([string]$Title,[string]$Directory,[string]$DefaultFileName,[string]$Filter="All Files (*.*)|*.*")
      [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms") | Out-Null
      $FileBrowser = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.SaveFileDialog
      $FileBrowser.InitialDirectory = $Directory
      $FileBrowser.Filter = $Filter
      $FileBrowser.Title = $Title
      $FileBrowser.FileName = $DefaultFileName
      $Show = $FileBrowser.ShowDialog()
      If ($Show -eq "OK")
      {
            Return $FileBrowser.FileName
      }
      Else
      {
            Write-Error "Restore cancelled by user."
      }
}

#File browser invocation to select target file location (comment this out if you plan on using a fixed file name and location below)
$file = Invoke-FileBrowser -Title "Browse" -DefaultFileName "CurrentlyInstalledUpdates.csv" -Filter "All Files (*.csv)|*.csv"

#Begin object creation using Update Searcher to iterate through updates on the current host ("IsInstalled=1" to find what is installed, with a "0" to help find what's missing).
$searcher = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Searcher
$searcher.Online = $true
$searcher.ServerSelection = 1
$results = $searcher.Search('IsInstalled=1')

#Show results to console
#$results.Updates | Select-Object @{Name="KBArticleIDs"; Expression={$_.KBArticleIDs}}, @{Name="SecurityBulletinIDs"; Expression={$_.SecurityBulletinIDs}}, Title, MsrcSeverity, @{Name="SupercededUpdateIDs"; Expression={$_.SupercededUpdateIDs}}, @{Name="UpdateID"; Expression={$_.Identity.UpdateID}}

#Show count of updates installed to console
#$results.Updates.Count

#Output results to a fixed CSV file (comment this out if you plan on using the Invoke-FileBrowser method from above).
#$results.Updates | Select-Object @{Name="KBArticleIDs"; Expression={$_.KBArticleIDs}}, @{Name="SecurityBulletinIDs"; Expression={$_.SecurityBulletinIDs}}, Title, MsrcSeverity, @{Name="SupercededUpdateIDs"; Expression={$_.SupercededUpdateIDs}}, @{Name="UpdateID"; Expression={$_.Identity.UpdateID}} | Export-Csv d:\Storage\allinstalledupdates.csv

#Write results to CSV at user selected location
$results.Updates | Select-Object @{Name="KBArticleIDs"; Expression={$_.KBArticleIDs}}, @{Name="SecurityBulletinIDs"; Expression={$_.SecurityBulletinIDs}}, Title, MsrcSeverity, @{Name="SupercededUpdateIDs"; Expression={$_.SupercededUpdateIDs}}, @{Name="UpdateID"; Expression={$_.Identity.UpdateID}} | Export-Csv $file

Finally! JLAudio - Stealthbox® for my Nissan Juke!

I check every 6 months or so to see if it's been made, and it finally showed up on their site.  Interesting design, too.

Car Audio - Stealthbox® - Nissan - Juke

Snow?

Good thing we got back just in time for this. Sigh.

Google Music on a useful storage mount?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34661446 [Q] Google Music saved to external SD card solution?

S Pen getting even more love?

Samsung solidifies commitment to S Pen with 5% stake purchase in Wacom

I am starting to enjoy the stylus, but it's a bit of a transition for me. My friend Cory mentioned I'd like it, but it's been a long time since I've used a Palm IIIxe or a PPC. ;-)

And I'm back...

So I got that Galaxy Tab, got back into college, and then got a layoff notice. Boo... I got picked up by Microsoft, moved to Los Angeles, then Folsom, and then left the company and I'm back in Arizona. I'll fill in the blanks later. Our something. :-)a

My newest toy.

I got a Galaxy Tab from T-Mobile last week, and today my keyboard for it came in. Very trick.

The Galaxy Tab:

http://mobile-broadband.t-mobile.com/tablets/samsung-galaxy-tab?uid=Discover_1_9

The Keyboard:

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-ECR-K10AWEGSTA-Galaxy-Full-Keyboard/dp/B004DB3RZ2/ref=pd_cp_e_3

I tried using my Tab in place of the laptop sitting next to it (Dell XPS 1340), but I found that I still need the laptop for some stuff with school. I hope to address those issues in the future.

And we're thawed...

Around noon the wall warmed up enough for the water to start flowing freely. Running water is handy, strangely enough.

This could be a promising new toy...

Dreamplug is the low-powered, lilliputian PC for people with really boring dreams

I could see using this as a small server. Or just as a waste of money and time. :-)

Water Outage in the Neighborhood.

Single digit temps in the desert affected water delivery for us this morning, and later someone came around and opened some service taps. I wonder if these are backflow from the houses or actually from the water utility.

Blogger for Android, finally...

So I just found out today that Google has released an official app for Blogger, and now I'm using it on my new Samsung Galaxy Tab I got last week from T-Mobile. So let's see if this makes me actually blog more often...

Cleeki - The world one click away

Cleeki - The world one click away: "Cleeki can capture keywords anywhere on a screen with as simple as one click, search it on the Internet, and preview the results immediately."

Oh very sweet! I was getting used to the Accelerators in IE, but Cleeki will just use the directly and do the same thing in Firefox. Nice...

List of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows XP

List of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows XP:
Windows Logo (Display or hide the Start menu)
Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)
Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)
Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)
Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)
Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)
Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder)
CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers)
Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help)
Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard)
Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box)
Windows Logo+U (Open Utility Manager)"

And even more keyboard shortcuts. ;-)

Table of keyboard shortcuts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Table of keyboard shortcuts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Handy listing of keyboard shortcuts for Windows, Mac, and Linux (KDE and Gnome).

Free remixes from the Beastie Boys

http://www.doublecheckyourhead.com/

Nice...

An update on my new ride

So, it just got back from its detail at the dealer (the detail guy wasn't there the day I bought it) and here you go. The ride is fantastic, and overall I am quite impressed with the vehicle. I would not have picked a Kia as my next vehicle, but in comes this little badboy to save the day.

Annoyances: Thin, thin, thin doors. I am convinced that I left the windows down each time I start it and can easily hear the engine exhaust. However, it's pretty quiet on the road (haven't been on the highway yet) and you don't know how loud the horn is until you honk it with the remote; noise forward of the bulkhead is very quiet.

Cheap inner moon roof cover. When you close the doors, you can hear it kind of "bounce" within its track. But, if you keep that slid back you don't hear anything.

Bright white gauges. The numbers are very, very white. This is the first vehicle where I have to dim the gauges. That stated, I love the red everywhere else and it's all very easy to see.

Tire bounce. I love the look of the 18" wheels, but since this is the "+" it came with these 16" alloys that I kind of dig. Also, after driving a WRX that I used to autocross with 17" wheels, I wasn't looking forward to the harshness of such a low profile tire when going on occasional dirt roads. That stated, I hate the undamped oscillation I get when pulling in over the curb in the background. The suspension is fantastic, and I recognize this "slop" as being soft sidewalls. Once I change out the tires (or maybe go to 17" wheels and tires) I plan on selecting something to control this a bit better.

Hitch? I have no idea where a receiver would mount up under the vehicle, but I hope someone has this handled.

That's all stuff you can get over, especially with my favorite items:

Solid feel. Yes, even with thin doors the vehicle still has a nice, tight feel to it. I like it.

Tight handling. While I wouldn't take this out on my next autocross, I definitely appreciate the design and thought that went into road feel on this thing. It's the first car in a long, long time that I wanted to just go for a drive in.

Stereo. I used to work for Kenwood a long time ago, and was really big into aftermarket car stereos. Now, I just don't want to bother with it but at the same time I want it to have a lot of features and sound good. I highly recommend the audio upgrade package, as you get a ton of bang for the buck. I am still tuning it in, but the USB functionality alone is better than many headunits I've seen and used. It supports large drives (I'm using 8GB right now) and will resume from the same spot in the track when you change sources or start the vehicle. Also, the voice control for dialing out is phenomenal, and the stereo will sync with the phone at each start to make sure its contact list is up to date. I do wish there was an option to defeat the "synchronize completed" that she says a couple minutes after starting the vehicle. The interface is fantastic, as are the steering wheel controls.

Drivetrain. The engine is a touch harsh, but I am waiting to see if it smooths out over time. Compared to the 2008 Fit I have, this thing is fairly quick and doesn't need to shift all the time (I have the automatic; bad knees). In fact, the Fit has a 5 speed automatic which should be desirable, but with the low horsepower and rev-happy motor, it needs to drop to 4th or 3rd a lot on our highways around here. This feels like it might just unlock the torque converter occasionally and be done with it.Seats. They're pretty good, but I haven't driven more than half an hour continuously yet. I might go to Tucson this weekend and see what's up. :-)

Fun. Yep, I like to show this off. I didn't really care about showing off other cars I've had (even my WRX), but this one is a lot of fun. I'd get another one.

New car to replace the Subaru Impreza 2.5RS

Say hello to my little friend! More to come on this 2010 Kia Soul I picked up last Saturday.