Mp3s on a Verizon LG- VX8300

Verizon LG-VX8300 - card limit is 1GB



1. Format your microSD card using the phone's built-in utility--very important. (see Settings & Tools/Memory/Card Memory).

When formatting the card in the phone The utility asks for your lock code, which is by default, the last four digits of

your phone number.

3. Use the adapter (supplied with the microSD card) along with an SD card reader to transfer mp3s from you computer to the

card. (Protected content from iTunes and others won't play; you need plain vanilla mp3s.)



4. Enable mp3 on your phone via the Services Menu, and select (or press): End/Ok/0000000/11/.mp3 Enable

  Alternate instructions: From main screen press OK and then the number 0 seven times (youll see a series of question marks
 
  disappear). Then scroll all the way down and press #11 (Music Setting). Finally, choose Enable mp3.

5. Install your microSD in the phone and enjoy the music.

6. To get MP3s to play and to be able to use the keys on the front of the phone, including ringtones Press OK (Menu) and go

to Settings and Tools, press 5 (phone settings), press 2 (shortcut key), press 5 (play key), and choose my mp3s.

The Quest for the Mythical Sony 500mm Mirror Lens

I'm a fan and user of the Sony Alpha line of DSLR cameras and over the years I have wanted the SAL-500F80 , Sony's 500mm Super Telephoto lens. Unfortunately, Sony discontinued the lens and I felt that I should get it before its gone so my quest began! At first I looked at Sony's site and it was a no go. Next up, Amazon, right? Nope! After searching the nooks and crannys of the internet, I found it on of all places, Dell!!! And so, I ordered it! End of story, right? Wrong! I received an email within days of placing the order telling me the ship date was being pushed back. Hmmmmm! The reason I ordered it through Dell was that it was orderable! I know that's not a word, (spell check told me so) but, it was! I figured that Dell, Mighty Dell, one of the lords of the industry, would save me from my total inability to decision this process and order the damn lens when it was available! The Dell website showed it as available and so I ordered it. Or so I thought! In the Dell parlance, my order status has been "in production". In the meantime, I found the same lens on another site for $8 more with 2 listed as being in stock. The tension grew as I continued to check for emails for shipped dates and nothing occurred. Finally, when I clicked on the "order number" for "order status" and got error messages, that was it! I canceled the order and went through the other guy.

The moral of this story is that Dell, the huge computer company doesn't seem to be able to use computers as well as the other company's to inform me or anyone else that the item in question is not in stock! The company that makes computers can't use them properly! What a hoot! Sony knew they didn't have the lens. Amazon knew! The little company did know they had 2 and then 1!

And then again, NO!  The little company, Simply Electronics, seems to have had a hiccup them selves. It's March 30th and they sent me an email stating that
"Upon packing your order, we had discovered that our shipment of Sony SAL-500 500mm F8 Reflex Super Telephoto Lens was damaged, and therefore had to be returned.
Unfortunately, the replacements are not expected to arrive within any short period of time."
 Well! I'm screwed again! What galls me is the stupid excuses and the inaccurate databases showing they have an item they clearly do not have! I know the lens is discontinued. I'm not trying to pull some stunt on these guys!
I remember some years back(okay, a lot of years back) when I called and went from store to store searching for the missing original Transformers(the constructicons, they were green and there were 6 as I remember) for my son for Christmas and this is the same type for thing only updated but with no success because I'm striking out!

Chets Computer Problem

Look folks, I don't know anybody named Chet, I just needed a name and Chet came up, probably because I was thinking of a vampire cat in a Christopher Moore book, actually this one! Anyway, "Chets" computer was acting up and I decided to help. The complaints:

• We can't download Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 beta
• We can't download Microsoft service pack 3 for Windows XP
• We can't turn on Microsoft Security Essentials

Man, does that sound like Waaaah! or what? Or whatnot. So, hmmm. Okay, don't download and install a beta piece of software because its a "beta" piece of software! Beta means "not done"! Clue! For those not aware, it goes like this: Alpha, Beta and then RC (release candidate). Beta is a uncooked muffin! Duh! Anyhow, all those "we can't s" add up to, you guessed it, we got trouble. The reason we can't do anything is viruses shut down Internet Explorer and that's the pipeline to the Internet. We need to fix that and the way to fix it is with SneakerNet.

This is an old method, but it works. As I see it, Internet Explorer 9 beta is out, but Internet Explorer 8 is in because it's a stable release and not "beta". First though, is Microsoft service pack 3 for Windows XP, which precedes I.E.8 and is more of a "foundation" type of thing as it fixes holes in the operating system. That software can be found here ( or search for this "xp service pack 3 stand alone", using a different, healthy computer, I downloaded Service pack 3 and put it on a thumb drive and for good measure, downloaded I.E. 8 and put that on the derive as well. I then walked over to the other computer and put the thumb drive into the USB slot and accessed the programs I downloaded. In order, I did this:

1. Installed Microsoft Service Pack 3 for XP from the thumb drive
2. Installed Internet Explorer 8 from the same thumb drive
3. After Internet Explorer 8 was installed, Microsoft Security Essentials began to work normally, so I updated and scanned with that and found over 200 assorted nasties.

SneakerNet

I know it's 2011, but I think that SneakerNet is still relevant. For those that don't know what SneakerNet is, it's this: Ethernet without the cables, wireless Ethernet without the radio signal.  Let me explain. This technology is archaic, but still relevant, simply because it gets the job done. SneakerNet is the act of downloading something, meaning data, from one computer onto hand held media (thumb drives, flash based cards, cd's, dvd's, external hard drives and even, gasp, floppy disks) and walking to another computer and transferring that "something" to the second computer! Since many people, when walking, tend to wear "sneakers", geeks and nerds being, well, geeks and nerds, decided that "sneakers" was the network, the transferring agent, to get data from point "A" to point "B". Thus was born, SneakerNet!

Adding a gallery of pictures to a website using Expression Web 2 or 4

This doesn't seem complicated I'm sure to most web designers but I'm self taught and I didn't understand what I wanted. First of all, there is a ton of free software that will accomplish this task for you to choose from. That is, if you want something Flash based or possibly Java based. They are easy to use once you understand the procedure needed. I speak from experience here and will try to provide a list of them if that's what you're looking for. After trying many different programs, I realized that I did not understand what I wanted. Maybe I should spend more time talking to myself. What I wanted was a gallery (actually, galleries) of thumb nailed pictures that would upon clicking the thumb nail, would lead to a full size picture. The purpose would be to offer some pictures free of charge (public domain) for use in whatever anybody had in mind. My motive is not entirely utilitarian as I run ads on the site but I, as many do, wanted to give something back to the Internet community. The existing gallery generating packages that I looked at did as advertised, they created some slick looking galleries that you could embed on blogs and websites but didn't solve my problem.

My solution was to use a table, which like I said, seems simple enough but I didn't see it. It seems that most gallery software wants to display your pictures but prevent the copying or free use of them. My goal was the opposite. I used the table solution in a site designed with a "dynamic web template". I created a table with 10 rows and 2 columns. You can then choose to insert pictures from files into each cell by using the menu driven solution or actually just drag and drop. After either action, the result is a large picture that doesnt fit, but a right click and "auto thumbnail" fixes this in a jiffy. This is the most elegant solution that I have found for creating pages that provide what I was looking for and hopefully may help others.

Coby ILO flash based MP3 player skips

My friends told me his MP3 player skips and I found that hard to believe because it's flash based, meaning there's no CD-ROM to skip but I said I'd take a look. After thinking about it I realized what the problem might be. These things are like SD cards or CF cards and when sectors go bad the built in controller marks them as bad. That may cause a skip. I hooked it up to my computer and took all the songs off and then formatted the device. Afterwords, I copied most of the songs back but not all. The reason here is that as a photographer, I know its a bad thing to fill a memory card to capacity. Sometimes the card ends up unreadable. Proof in the pudding, it hasn't skipped once since that little bit of therapy. It was a Coby "iLo" like "I low price"! Cheap, but still working.
Search Amazon.com for coby

Installing and Using Dropbox

I should just call this post using dropbox because there's not much to installing it. For that matter, there's not much to using it either. You download a file, install said file and then you drop files into the "dropbox" that appears on your desktop. You can access the files in your dropbox from any computer connected to the internet or a smartphone. Simply put, this is a way to share or have access to your files from anywhere at anytime. When I say access, I mean you can add to your account, copy, delete whatever! Did I mention it's free?(up to 2 GB) It does require an email and a password. Dropbox! Pick it up!

Image Problems with Sony Alpha Cameras or Lexar CF cards: part 2

On Mikes suggestion (thanks Mike), I downloaded pictures to my desktop and noticed some bad pictures (4 out of 300 some). I tried to download the Compact Flash card to Marys computer, but it crashed! (vista, who knew?) Then, using the same card and reader, I downloaded to my Netbook and , no errors! So, my problem exists on my desktop for sure, but what that problem is, I don't know. I'll keep digging for the answer though!

How to diagnose an IP conflict

I haven't posted for awhile but here's a good one. I just had a situation where only one computer could access the internet and not only that, but if any other computer was turned on, both or all got a message about an IP conflict. I think the message was something like "another computer has the same IP" and there was a yellow triangle. Now, the computer that was first turned on could access the internet but the second could not. In trying to figure out the problem I attempted to access the router (type 192.168.1.0 in the address bar and hold the Ctrl button and press enter) and came up empty "the process timed out". I tried different combination's of the last two numbers and got into the modem instead. Then I got smart and hit Start>all programs>accessories>command prompt and typed in "ipconfig" and saw that the IP issued to my computer was close to the IP issued to modem. This was a clue because the network in your house only has a couple of reserved address ranges and this was out of range. I decided to have a look at the router and found the power light blinking while Mary informed me that there had been a power surge or loss earlier in the day. I unplugged the router and waited 1 minute and plugged it back in and the power light quit flashing.
After this, any computer turned on was able to access the internet and go about their business.

Explanation: the router quit working and the modem went default and issued the next IP address to the first computer that was turned on. The modem is not a router and can't handle multiple IP's. Once the router was working again it resumes its duties. The clue was the abnormal IP address at the computer level. When behind a router you should expect an address starting with "192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x or even though obscure 172.16.x.x .

Neo Socket

In honor of Earth Day coming up(April 22), I give you the Neo Socket! This device claims to save you money and save the environment by making your car run better. After perusing the company's website you'll see that its easy to use, just plug it into the cigarette lighter socket and start saving. Even if you don't buy the product, make sure you look the whole website over because of the interesting use of the English language. Here's a couple of examples:

"Too easy to use and start working instantly" and "Neo Socket is a break-through, patent-pending invension in fuel conservation."

 My spell check went off on the word "invension" above, but theirs didn't! Hmmmmm. While researching the term "Electrolysis Condenser" they use on their FAQ page, I found this page(which shows a launch date of October 4, 2006) and this one. I do like the updated design, it looks like an old fashioned Christmas light! One last point, I tried to find an auto dealer on the internet that listed a "cigarette lighter socket" as an accessory but couldn't find one. Hmmmm.

Compaq Presario F579WM Notebook

I recently fixed this laptop and it wasn't easy. It experienced spontaneous reboots, BSDs (blue screen of death)  and was generally possessed. The exorcism wasn't easy and took too much time. This was definitely one of the harder problems I've faced. Whats irritating is that it seemed to come down to a memory problem and I diagnosed this previously over the phone in January on a laptop from HP which owns Compaq! Memory issues are insidious because they are hard to track down and cause lockups and reboots which foul up the hard drive and make the problem worse. After removing the problem module and fixing the problems on the hard drive, I was able to run the restore program built in and recover the operating system (Vista) from the hidden partition designed for this event.

Wubi - Ubuntu Installer

I'm going to install Ubuntu on Box3(my third computer, expendable) using Wubi! Be right back.

1. Started Firefox at 6:40
   
2. Clicked on Wubi 
3. Clicked on download now
4. Started download at 6:52
5. Ended download at 7:32
   
6. Double click on wubi.exe (where ever you downloaded it to)
   
7. You get a box with options. Select a size on your hard drive for the install. I had 26 GB free space. Wubi suggested 14 GB. I gave it 8 GB.
8. Then enter a password and click install.
9. My firewall (Comodo) asked for permission to continue. I granted it, but Wubi aborted.
10. double clicked on wubi.exe again. 
11. And now wubi say's to uninstall click here. I uninstalled.
12. Windows Security popped up. I chose unblock.
13. Asked to reboot and I rebooted
14. After rebooting, you have 2 choices. I chose Ubuntu
15. At 7:38 I chose to let the computer sit. It's at a text screen that looks like DOS but isn't.
16. It was locked up. I did a hardware reset(turned off the switch at the back of the computer) and restarted.
    
17. Again I chose Ubuntu and it went further and I walked away. (sometimes the best thing)


18. This a hoot! it's installing!


19. The Ubuntu system restarted at the end of the installation.


20. I was able to boot into the Ubuntu system no problem.


21. After using Ubuntu, I rebooted and went right back to Windows XP
    

120 Hertz - It's the refresh rate, stupid!

I didn't know the answer to this today, hence the title to this post.

Walmart and other stores are advertising T.V.'s with a 1080p 120 Hz. LCD
something like this below:

• 55" Class LCD HDTV (54.64" diagonal viewing area)
• 1080p
  
• Full High Definition 1920 x 1080 Native Resolution
• 120Hz Smooth Motion technology

for a "normal" T.V., 60 Hz. (Hertz) is the refresh rate. Here, the higher number is better, but not necessary. On a computer monitor(CRT), 75 Hz. is more desirable if you notice "flickering". This usually occurs during action such as game play. If you have a decent LCD you probably don't notice this effect. If you have the money, go ahead, blow it! Just remember, the source of what you're watching matters to, so results may vary and often do.