Thursday, February 26, 2009

Flux welder (FCAW) converted to MIG (GMAW)

I got a nice welder from my wife Sunniva this christmas that was flux core only. After reading a bit about welding I decided to check if it was possible to convert my welder to MIG with gas shielding (Argon or Argon/CO2). This is attractive since you could make much nicer welds, poisonous fumes are minimized and you should in theory be able to weld both stainless steel and aluminium.

After opening up the torch I found that it contained a gas valve that had a threaded hole. I bought a small bottle gas kit for a different welder, made threads on the straight part of the quick coupling and bought a longer nylon tube for the quick coupling with the same diameter. Now I am able to do both flux core and gas shielded welding.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Error with CDrom in xp (Code 32) finally fixed

As an action oriented man it is a little bit embarrassing to admit that I have had problems using my hp laptop cdrom drive for several years now. I have not done anything about it since I thought it was a hardware problem and data can nowadays allways be transferred in other ways (usb, wifi).

Yesterday I got surprised when I saw that I was able to boot from an ubuntu linux cd without problems. When I on top of that saw that no virtual cdrom drives (virtual clonedrive, magicdisc) were working either I was determined to fix what now was a windows problem.

I saw that all cdrom drives were registered as active in windows device manager, but all had an exclamation sign suggesting something was wrong. When looking in properties I got the following error:

(Norwegian)
En driver(tjeneste) for denne enheten er deaktivert. En alternativ driver kan gi samme funksjonalitet. (Kode 32)


(English)
A driver for this device was not required, and has been disabled (Code 32)The first suggestion was that I should include CTFMON.exe in the startup, but this did not change anything.


I finally found Microsoft's Q314060 showing me how to fix the problem:


Step 1: Start Registry Editor

Start Registry Editor.

Step 2: Delete the UpperFilters registry entry

  1. In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
  2. Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
  3. Expand Control, and then expand Class.
  4. Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
  5. In the details pane of Registry Editor, on the right side, click UpperFilters.

    Note You may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click UpperFilters only.
    • If you see the UpperFilters registry entry in the details pane of Registry Editor, go to step 6.
    • If you do not see the UpperFilters registry entry, you still might have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry. To do this, go to "Step 3: Delete the LowerFilters registry entry."
  6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
  7. Click Yes when you receive the following message:
    Are you sure you want to delete this value?
The UpperFilters registry entry is removed.

Step 3: Delete the LowerFilters registry entry

  1. In the details pane of Registry Editor, on the right side, click LowerFilters.

    Note You might see a LowerFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click LowerFilters only.

    If you do not see the LowerFilters registry entry, unfortunately this content is unable to help you any more. Go to the "Next Steps" section for information about how you can find more solutions or more help on the Microsoft Web site.
  2. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
  3. Click Yes when you receive the following message:
    Are you sure you want to delete this value?
    The LowerFilters registry entry is removed.
  4. Exit Registry Editor.

Step 4: Restart your computer


Thursday, February 19, 2009

Mini review of "The renaissance soul" by Margaret Lobenstine




I had this book on my wish list since I picked up the title when reading comments to the blog post "The Top 5 Reasons to Be a Jack of All Trades" from Tim Ferris' blog. I was happy when receiving this as a christmas gift and started reading it immediately. During my recent vacation to the Canaries I got the chance to finish the book. Here are my personal impressions of the book:

  • I was expecting to learn a practical time management system from the book. Time management is covered in 22 pages and is not very practical in my opinion. Margaret basicly says that you should put down up to four focal points, calculate how much time you have left for them and put them in your calendar. I don't like using the calendar when it's not necessary. I rather put up my most important tasks for a day and try to finish them. These are all prioritized according to my focal points. This makes you focused, but still flexible. I picked up this tip from "zen to done" from Zen habits.
  • The book is written more like a novel than a practical guide. It is full of stories of clients that Margaret succesfully helped out after coaching them.
  • The title is "The renaissance soul", but I didn't expect the author to use this phrase as much as she does. OK, so the test said that I am a renaissance soul - this does not make me some special, rare creature that should behave differently than any others. Most people need some kind of structural aid to be effective in their day to day work.
  • Even though I didn't like the book very much I found some metaphors quite good: A) When trying to find which focal points to pick then think of them as ice-cream that you can pick a four-flavor sampler from and change whenever you like. B) When faced with a situation involving change you are like a lobster breaking out of it's shell in order to grow: First the shell is a thin membrane without protection and you fear this before you leave your original cozy shell. You later realize that your new shell is bigger and harder and more protective than the old shell.