BillBlevins.com :: Mostly about 2.4mR sailing

Velocitek SC-1 and Mac OS X Leopard

I managed to get the Velocitek SC-1 working on my MacBook Pro running OS X version 10.5.2 after a whole lot of effort!

Parallels 3.0 running Windows XP wouldn’t work. I tried for several hours.

I did get the Windows OS to see the units via the USB ports using Parallels and the Velocitek Control Panel software did see each of them too but the firmware update only ran to about 85% before throwing an error. Many attempts either didn’t start because of an error or it only made it to 5% before quitting. Most didn’t even attempt to start without the error message popping up.

Here’s what worked.

Today I installed VMWare Fusion for OS X and reinstalled Windows XP.

Everything went smoothly until I got to the point of doing the firmware updates. The control panel software started throwing errors and that was if it could even get started (again)!

I tried and tried everything I could think of and here is what worked:

• Turn off the Velocitek Control Panel software
• Unplug the SC-1 from the computer
• Remove the batteries
• Put the batteries back in
• Plug the SC-1 back up to the computer
• Start the control panel software
• Run the firmware update

I did this twice with two units. Only in this specific order would the firmware upgrade work but I finally got it.

I was determined to make VMWare play nice with the SC-1’s and now I’m wondering if I just didn’t give Parallels enough trial and error effort.

Anyway… tonight, I used it to map my trip home from work (max speed was 32 knots).

Again though, when plugging in the unit, I had to remove the batteries, then put them back in before plugging in to the computer and starting the control panel software to download the track.

I’ll post again after the first use on the boat, possibly Saturday afternoon. I can’t wait!

Tags: gps, sc-1, velocitek

Sailing with a waterproof video camera

On Saturday, Tracy and I took out our 2.4 Meters and I chased her boat around Canandaigua Lake trying to line up at least one interesting shot with a new Oregon Scientific ATC2K waterproof video camera strapped to the boom. After an hour of shooting video, I came up with three minutes that might be worth watching.

Tags: 2.4 Meter Class Associations, 2.4mR, video

The most boring YouTube video - ever

Don’t bother watching this video.

More gadgets!

I picked up an Oregon Scientific ATC2K waterproof video camera on Amazon.com and tested it on the way to work this morning.

Hopefully… I’ll post sailing video on Saturday if all goes well!!

Tags: 2.4mR, Gadgets

Tracy’s old iPhone

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One of the reasons we waited to get the iPhone is that Tracy runs with a rubber band connecting her old flip-phone and her iPod Shuffle (minus the cap and strap.

Friday night, we each picked up an 8 Gb iPhone. I came home and set mine up immediately. Tracy was afraid to run in a 10K here in Rochester on Saturday morning while carrying the new phone, so we waited to set up her new iPhone.

We connected her phone to iTunes on Saturday morning after the race. Sunday, 10:45 a.m. and we are still waiting for activation. We did get a order number in an email from AT&T. I guess AT&T never had this quantity of people swamp their set-up process before.

Mine is working fine. Calls are clear. The keyboard is getting easier to use with each attempt. The phone is very intuitive to use. The Safari web browser is amazing once you figure out that you can turn it sideways and double-tapping zooms the text.

More updates to follow, I’m sure!

(Oh, yeah, Tracy finished 12th in her age group in the Furry Scurry 10K - her first race!!)

Tags: iphone

8, 9 & 10 = 8 GB iPhone

Emily, Tracy and I went to the mall at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon and saw the very long line at the Apple store so we cut through the FYI store to the other side of the mall and found only 7 people in line at AT&T, all waiting for the new iPhone this afternoon. (We were numbers 8, 9 and 10).

At six on the dot, the doors opened. Ten minutes later we walked out with the last three available 8 Gb models at that store. The people behind us were not happy. The store got 10 of each type.

(They were planning to place orders for the rest of the people in line, they said.)

Anyway… now, after owning this thing for 3 hrs, I’ve got a new phone number, I’ve surfed the web and read the press release from my company tonight, SMS’d with a vendor, called Tracy (first) and then my Dad, answered a call from Howard, found Pizza in zip code 14450… and I can safely say this thing is amazing.

More to follow I’m sure.

Tags: apple, iphone

How do you manage 7000 songs?

My iTunes library has over 7000 songs. Sometimes, simply due to the quantity of music and the lack of effort I’ve put into organizing it, creating a set of music to simply enjoy is a real chore.

The other day, I found a little site called MyStrands.com that has a very neat feature if you sign in and download their application. The “Playlist Builder” takes a song suggestion from you, then it looks at the network of users who are members of their service and compares your library to each of those user’s libraries and sends back a suggested playlist. It hooks up to iTunes. If you don’t mind sharing your library with the site then you’ll love it. One day, I’ll figure out what they are trying to do with the social networking part, but for now, the play list feature is enough for me.

Tags: apple, coolapp, os x