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Weather (wind) outage

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The cable for my La Crosse WS-2316 anemometer failed catastrophically (it was severed) 5 days ago, and alas, I didn’t notice it until CWOP showed no valid weather data for the last 5 days. I guess they don’t accept anything if you don’t have wind data.

Anyway, after a trip to the roof, and some soldering, I replaced the former 4 strand, untwisted phone cable with same shielded cat5e, al la this.

So far, seems to work great. And I took some extra time to wrap the areas of the cable that make contact with anything else with electrical tape. Hopefully this will keep the same thing from happening again. If not, I’ll have to extend my conduit down. =/

The biggest issue was figuring out you have to tell the station to start looking for wind data again (press and hold the “Pressure” button for about 5 seconds, and it will resync with the outdoor piece).

I had been meaning to do this mod for some time, but I guess nature forced my hand. Anyway, weather data is flowing again.

iPhone/Aux audio adapter

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I play some online multiplayer computer games with a friend (Portal 2, Starcraft, Diablo, etc) while talking over the phone with him. It’s generally easier than Skype/Teamspeak/etc since the cell call is free (same carrier), and doesn’t slow down either machine. After a year or so of playing while wearing my iPhone earbuds/headset, then over-the-ear headphones over the top of them, I realized what I needed was a dual input headset (like this), and that I could probably make something like this with some clever adapter use.

After buying what I thought would work (a 4 pin splitter, a combiner, and a mic), and finding out it did not, I decided to MAKE what it would take.

My first design, which I guess I would consider “version 1” is shown below (note: it seems this is improper, and should have some resistance inserted (see link below)). The parts were pretty simple. I salvaged the two cables needed, but if you wanted to buy all the parts, here’s a list:

  • 1 x Project box
  • 2 x 3.5mm Stereo jacks (female)
  • 1 x 3 pin TRS jack (male)
  • 1 x 4 pin TRRS jack (male)
  • Some wire

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Repeated Wrong Number Calls

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I have a long standing (going on a couple months now) issue with someone in Portland calling my cell phone when she actually means to be calling her mom or something. Anyway, she’s probably done this a couple dozen times in the last 2 months, and a bit ago, I decided to actually do something about it, since ATT doesn’t seem to have any free way to keep this from happening.

Turns out, I’m not the first one to have this issue. And after finding this post, I was easily able to add the silent ringtone, and then add the number to a contact with that custom “ring”. And now, if this happens any more with another number, you can just assign them to that contact as well, and they’re gone! Sure, you can still “see” the incoming call, but you don’t actually have to hear/feel it (with iOS 5+, you can assign no vibration to certain contacts as well).

Luckily the person isn’t dumb enough to leave me a message. =/