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Old Log Entries

2/14/2009 - Launched WiiID, a web service that allows developers for the Wii Opera platform to uniquely identify the Wii their code is running on. This is intended to help facilitate saving user data and preferences from session to session. The ID is unique to each Wii, and does not change (unless purposely deleted by the Wii owner).

1/12/2009 - VB.NET source code released for the class required to access the accelerometer in the IBM Active Protection System. It is released under the GPLv2.

8/18/2008 - Laptop Theft Prevention 1.6 has been released. This update includes some configuration GUI tweaks, and compatibility checking.

8/11/2008 - Laptop Theft Prevention 1.5 has been released. This update includes support for many more of the IBM ThinkPads, a few bug fixes, and a more user-friendly configuration screen.

7/11/2008 - Added a page with information on the Estes Astrovision model rocket.

6/20/2008 - I've launched a new site for local news in the Quad Cities. QCANews.com is now up and running. It is essentially an RSS aggregator, pulling in feeds from WQAD, KWQC, WHBF, QC Times, and the Dispatch/Argus.

4/15/2008 - There is finally a finished version of WiiMusic.net up! It is fully compatible with the latest update to the Internet Channel. The interface has been completely rebuilt from scratch in flash. It also now sports a genre listing, so you can look at a smaller list of stations rather than the hundreds (which I plan to add in the not-so-distant future). If you have a particular station you would like to see listed, please drop me an e-mail, and I will add it for you. More features are planned, and will be added in the coming days.

1/28/2008 - Added features to Color Filter that enable the user to start or stop with shortcuts under programs, and fixed a bug with the uninstaller.

1/27/2008 - Color Filter 1.0 has been released. This program is intended to help those with Scoptopic Sensitivity Syndrome, also known as the Irlen Syndrome, to use a computer. It tints the computer screen by a color of your choice so that text is more readable.

12/05/2007 - Laptop Theft Prevention 1.0 has been released. This program utilizes the accelerometer chip in IBM ThinkPads to provide a theft deterrent when leaving your laptop unattended in public places. When you get up to grab some coffee or a book, just lock your laptop with Ctrl+Alt+End. If someone were to move your laptop, the alarm goes off with a customizable audible alert. It can also send a text message to your cell phone via an e-mail gateway. Free for non-commercial use.

11/22/2007 - Recently I had a great opportunity through work to help educate the general public a bit about wireless network security. We took one of the news trucks out wardriving, and when we came across a neighborhood that had a particularly high number of seemingly open APs, we went door to door to see if we could find the owner of one and help them secure it. Sure enough we found one, and put together a news story. You can read the story, my basic security for dummies page, or watch the video on the story page (to the top right of the story).

10/28/2007 - Added a PHP version of StrBetweenStrs().

10/23/2007 - Lately I've been playing around a bit with my friend's Nintendo Wii. It's a great little machine with a lot of potential. What peaked my curiousity was the inclusion of the Opera web browser and its Flash Lite plugin. To experiment with, I decided to put together a site designed just for the Wii for playing streaming MP3 internet radio stations. I've added a few of my favorite SHOUTcast stations to the site, and plan on adding many more stations and features in the coming weeks. In the mean time, you can check out the current version of the site by pointing your Wii to http://www.wiimusic.net. Of course you can also get to this on a PC, but due to Flash security restrictions, not all stations play, and it may look funny as things are sized to fit the Wii.

7/29/2007 - Released a VB function, StrBetweenStrs() which searches through a string to find text between two other strings. Useful for the easy parsing of XML.

7/22/2007 - Released the WinLIRC Client ActiveX Control. Free for use in non-commercial applications.

6/24/2007 - Launched the Fish Cam.

2/11/2007 - The site layout has changed. Much of the content has been reworked. Old articles have been removed, and ones worth keeping have been rewritten. If you are looking for the old site, see http://www5.musatcha.com/musatcha/.