Freebies

Free desktop backgrounds
One of the things I like to do is make backgrounds for my computer’s desktop. Usually I keep them for myself, but I shouldn’t be so selfish so I won’t be. If you want to make your computer look pretty too then go ahead and take a few. Let me know if you like them.

August 17, 2006 at 7:00 am (1) Comment

iPods and cars

About a month ago I bought a new car (for me anyway) – a 1994 Audi 100cs. I love the car, but there’s just one problem. I want to set up my iPod to play on the stereo and I can’t. Actually I can, but not the way I would like to.

I’ve tried the tape player adaptor, but it just doesn’t sound that good. It takes out the low frequencies while boosting the low mids and cuts the highs. I wouldn’t mind that if I was listening to talking, but I use my iPod for music. I have a Bose sound system in my car and I would love to take advantage of it.

How about the radio transmitter? It’s a pain to work with. I don’t want to have to change channels as I’m driving because the channel I had been using has a ton of static on it. Not only that, but even when I do find a good channel there’s still that little bit of static that drives me nuts.

What I would like to do is hardwire the iPod to my stereo. Having a brother and a dad who are both electrical engineers helps, but doesn’t solve the solution. The problem is the car is too old and the wiring is all proprietary. There are a fair amount of companies that make kits for hardwiring, but none of them support older cars, especially older foreign cars.

The solution: When I get enough time I’m going to open up the cars stereo and try to find out which wires go where, with the help of my brother and/or dad of course. If I can figure that out I might just have to be a Garage Logician and come up with a not so standard solution. Any ideas?

August 2, 2006 at 8:22 pm (1) Comment