My How To Install USB Drivers into Windows 8 Part 1

When installing a hardware device driver into Window 8.1 or the old 2012 Windows 8, some items require that a Setup.exe program should run before the device is plugged in. Generally those will work OK with Windows 8 as-is.

Another type of hardware device driver is a plug-and-pray device where it is necessary to plug the device in to a USB port, and then allow Windows 8 to install a driver automatically.

In order to install plug-and-pray device drivers for an external USB hardware device such as the T2-MK-USB or the G3-MK-CAN, it is necessary to temporarily change the Windows 8 "Install Unsigned Driver" settings. These changes will last until the next reboot, and then the regular PC settings will go back to normal.
How to do it? Find the pop up menu off the right edge of the screen, select Settings, and then find "Change PC Settings" way down at the bottom. Click on "Change PC Settings".

In the "Change PC Settings" pop-up window, select "General".

Scroll all the way down to the bottom to find Advanced Startup. This can be difficult because the pop up menu off the right edge of the screen will cover up the vertical scroll bar. Keep trying until you can scroll all the way down, then click on Restart Now.

Then, wait while the computer reboots.

Keep waiting.

Wait until the computer reboots, then select Troubleshoot.

Select Advanced Options.




Select Startup Settings.

Nothing to do here except to click "Restart".

Finally arriving at the key point in this procedure, press the "F7" key on the keyboard. Chances are that the F keys are located across the top of the keyboard. These F keys are seldom used.

(Finger is pointing towards F7 key on the QWERTY keyboard)

Wait until the computer boots up, then plug in the plug-and-pray device. At this point, the Windows 8 computer will accept the old hardware driver from Windows XP or Windows 7.
For further instructions, see
Windows 8.1 Part 2 of this procedure    or    Windows 8 Part 2 of this procedure.

fin

My Job

Folks have been asking me about my job. What do I do for a living? Some are trying to understand how I can possibly survive by doing what I do, while others wish that they could do it too. I would like to find someone who can do this job as well, or at least someone who could be trained. Then I could take a "real" vacation like a normal person.

My job involves answering the telephone, answering E-mails, web meetings, surfing the web… So far so good, you could do it. Most of the answers are in the FAQs which most people are too busy to read, or buried in the server someplace if you know where to look.

The most interesting part of the job is learning to read weird, alien logic diagrams from a Tel'tak, a flying saucer, or from a vehicle manufacturing company that has gone out of business. We try to assist the owners of these abandoned vehicles, because the alternative is to throw the vehicle away and then buy another vehicle.
Here is an example of a logic diagram that controls the wheelchair ramp (a.k.a.landing ramp) in a vehicle. I have a basic idea of how the landing ramp should function, based on experience with other vehicles that have a landing ramp.

In this example the old control system is being entirely removed. The next step is to redline the document by adding a cross reference between the input and output points of the old control system which exists, and the input and output points of the new control system which doesn't exist as of yet.

After redlining each page of the document, I build a software model of the same logic using familiar tools. The logic on the picture below is the same as the logic in the picture above.

Final testing of the logic takes place in a vehicle, where ever the vehicle resides. This testing step may require travel to exotic locations such as Pilsen, Mexico City, Lamar Colorado, or Roswell New Mexico. For some reason the hangars which house these vehicles are located far away from any large city, sometimes on an old military base that was converted into a factory.

fin

Happy New Year 2013

While wandering around in Hollywood recently, I happened to see a poster advertising some type of music show. This Mollyclicks poster is actually up on the wall in public view on the patio.

When you are looking for the building, the landmark item is a big sign on top of the building, for an unrelated insurance business. Although I have no pictures of the interior as of yet, here is a link to the

event page.Fin.

Oil On The Sidewalk

There are a lot of electrical items at the top of this electric power pole.

Beneath the power pole, there are puddles of oil on the sidewalk. Water from the recent rain is standing on top of the oil.

Here is another view showing oil all around the base of the power pole. The Oil splats in the foreground are in the direction of the prevailing wind compared with the power pole, and this oil might have fallen down from the power pole during windy weather.

The oil in the background is all around the power pole, and a bunch of the oil on the sidewalk has tracks through it. The electric transformer oil may contain toxic PCB's.

Up on the pole there is a 220 volt utility transformer and some high voltage, high frequency power filters mounted below. One of the high voltage, high frequency power filters is obviously leaking transformer oil, which falls down to form a (possibly toxic) puddle at the base of the pole including the nearby sidewalk.

It is a fact that the 220 volt utility transformer should be mounted lower than the high voltage filters. However, the main fact of this complaint is that one of the high voltage, high frequency power filters is obviously leaking transformer oil which is being picked up and tracked around the neighborhood on shoes, skate wheels, and bicycle wheels at the corner of Calora and Bonnie Cove.

fin

My Railroad Crossing Simulator

Coming to a school ground near you.

Learn how to cross train tracks safely.

RR Xing Sim_2012.jpg

Well, it's not really mine, but I helped!

Read More

Fin

My Old Hangout

My old hangout is being renovated.

My old hangout is being renovated while you are viewing this blog. 

Someday I will hang out here again. 

fin

My Surveillance Trailer

This surveillance trailer turned up in the neighborhood recently.

Two cameras, solar Powered, with Wi Fi.  Who knows where the information goes? At the very least, yours truly is in the picture of Google Earth.  Or Google Earthlink.

On an un-related note, here is what happens to your package when you give me the WRONG ZIP CODE !

fin