Hints Replacing a Gyprock/Plasteboard Ceiling

Removing the old ceiling is easy. Hammer or pry bar or whatever. It will generally be screwed or nailed as well as glued. Remove the nails or screws as you find them. Don't worry about getting dried glue off any wood work. Not worth the hassle.

Work out what size cornice is installed, or more importantly what you want to replace. When you buy the cornice, get a cutting jig. They are cheap and commonly made from plastic.

Once you have removed the plasterboard, you will need to measure up for installing the new board. Since the cornice is going to cover the edge of the plasterboard you should cut the board a bit small. If you leave it to go right to the edge you will run into issues.

If you can, buy or rent a stand to hold the plasterboard to the ceiling. Otherwise make sure you have at least two people. A third comes in rather handy.

Work out how you are going to secure the plasterboard to the wood. Commonly these days self tapping screws are used in association with builders adhesive. You can get a good idea as to how much adhesive is needed from looking at what was used before. Ideally install the adhesive to the top of the plasterboard, but you can install it direct to the woodwork. We found it was better to install it to the woodwork with a paint scraper.

If you can, install a series of screws in the wall just below the ceiling height along the long side. Leave the screws so they are sticking out. These can then be used to lean the plasterboard on during install.

With the plasterboard held in place, install enough screws into the plasterboard to hold it flat and also hold it in place until the glue dries. Eventually the screws will need to be removed for screwed in so that they are below the surface. Either ways the holes will need to be filled.

When placing two boards next to each other, make sure that they have a slight gap as this will make it more likely that both boards will line up. Apply about 4" of filler along the entire seam. Then get some 2" plasterboard paper and put it in a bucket of water. Then apply it to the seam over the filler. Then use a scraper to remove any air bubbles. Then apply filler over the entire length and allow to dry. Once dry, sand slightly and apply another layer of filler.

The cornices can be a pain. There are a few tricks. First, apply screws to the wall just below the height of the cornice. These will be used to rest the cornice on whilst securing it. Cut the cornice to length. I have found generally I need to cut it about 1/2" long. Not sure why. It is then the right length when I install it.

Apply adhesive to the back of the cornice, but only when you are sure it is going to fit. Apply more to the top rather than the side as any excess will most likely be hidden.

It is important to install cornice so that it is touching already installed pieces if possible. This will minimise the issues with installing a piece of cornice that needs to fit next to two previously installed pieces. But you will need to install one piece like this in most cases. In this case, measure and cut the cornice as before, but then cut it in half. The join will need to be fixed, but this should be easy. If you are concerned, have this join so it will normally be behind a door.

Do not use extra hard filler unless you want to have problems with sanding.

Buy a special plasterboard sander. They are worth the little that they cost.

Huawei, Optus and Maybe Telstra

The National Broadband Network tenders are all in. And Telstra is out. But someone has told that Huawei is linked to the Chinese Military. Strange Story. The opposition is really pushing the issue. But I am just wondering why. And where the story came from.

I am just guessing here, but could it be Telstra? The Huawei equipment is used by Telstra for their Next-G for some customers wanting broadband. But who would win if Optus drops out of the NBN? Would that be Telstra?

Engine Start on RV7

Here are some photos from the first engine start on the RV-7 I am building with a friend. For those that are interested, the blue fire extinguisher was last tested in 1981... Came with the hanger!














Full four second AVI file showing the engine running

Indoor Tracking and Bluetooth Tracking WebSite Update

I was in the process of updating the website for my indoor tracking business InLocality using Microsoft Expression Web. You can try this software out buy downloading an evaluation version, and then buying online for digital delivery if you want. I should explain that this is done via DigitalRiver for Microsoft.

First, the price in Australian Dollars is listed as $161. But then you find out that this is without GST. Then they want you to buy their three year download protection product. So that for the next three years you can download the software from them in case you need to reinstall it. You can buy a case for $12 I think too. Now, how dumb is this. I can download it for FREE from Microsoft. Free, I tell you! All I need to do is to protect the license key. Digital River does like to make their money... JCTech has good prices but didn't have the software in stock.

Anyway, there should be an update for InLocality's Bluetooth Tracking product soon.

Hacking HDCP

Let me here propose a solution to the DRM (Digital Rights Management) stuff within HDMI. The DRM scheme is called HDCP, or High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. By solution, I mean removing the HDCP signal from HDMI. Just to be plain here, I do not believe that I have ever touched a piece of equipment with HDCP, and I am not proposing any form of copyright infringement. I am just wanting to show how someone might attack such a system.

There has been talk in the past about the great ‘Analog Hole’. This is the problem caused by certain signals not being able to be encrypted because they are not digital. Well, the entire world is analog. Look at a CRO, and you will find that digital signals are really analog.

So, let’s have a think about extracting a signal. How would I do it – and in a way that is unable to be effectively shut down?
Step 1. Buy a HDCP compliant LCD or PLASMA screen. Rather simple isn’t it. There is a bonus here. I don’t want the screen itself. I just want the electronics and the cables. Smash the LCD or Plasma if you want. That is up to you. But pull the thing apart.
Step 2. Obtain the manual for the LCD or PLASMA panel you are wanting to use. This is an optional step.
Step 3. Find the fastest FPGA chip you can find. Attach it to the horizontal and vertical lines going into the actual screen.
Step 4. Digitize this information, and process it.
Step 5. Output it as HDMI without HDCP.

Step 3 is a simple item to explain, but not easy in practice. Each pixel on the screen is activated by a row and a column signal. So, what we need to do is to record the value of each pixel about 100 times a second and record this into memory. Then when they are recorded we can do step 5 which is really trivial…

Another solution is available here

VMware ESXi 3.5 on Dell PowerEdge 1750 and 2650 Update

A Quick update. I have installed VMWare ESXi 3 on four DELL servers, and I am having nothing but trouble free operation from them. I have installed it on a PowerEdge 1750 and three Dell PowerEdge 2650's, and they all work without any problems. The machines just run and run. I have not yet had a power outage with them, but I expect that they will come back on line without issue after an outage just like before.

I would encourage anyone with DELL PowerEdge 1750's and 2650's to install VMware ESXi. You might need to download the HDD driver image (Dell 1750) or update the Bios to the latest version, but apart from that things will be really easy.

It is to the point now where I almost never log into the admin console. There is simply no need to.

Whilst I am posting here, I would encourage people to head over to InLocality and check out their Indoor Tracking solutions. This is an organisation I have just set up to handle tracking people indoors. In order to build business, I will return a commission to anyone who refers a new client to me. All you need to do is ask.

Menus with Microsoft Expression Web 2

I have been puzzling over Web Site software for the past few weeks looking at what is best for my InLocality business Web Site. And what I came up with is this... As much as I dislike it, Expression Web is better than anything else I could find. It is better than any Web Site editor I could find, and was more reliable and more user friendly in getting things how I wanted them than any CMS I could find.

But menus has been a problem. I really don't understand DHTML or CSS. Although I sort of understand CSS, they are still black magic really. What I wanted was a menu that I could insert on certain pages. And only edit this in one place. And I could not find a solution. And then i started thinking. How did this get done in the past. Well... I am glad you asked. More information is available here.

First is Server Side Includes. SSI's. Then there are PHP includes and Javascript includes. But these are a pain. Then comes 'Frontpage Includes'. And these seem to be undocumented in the help system. Frontpage Includes allow you to include a HTML file at any point on another HTML file. And they effectively get compiled in when the site is published.

The problem is that there is no menu to deal with this. The good news is that it is there if you customize the User Interface in Expression Web. You just need to go to the CUSTOMIZE menu and find PAGE INCLUDE. Then drag it onto the INSERT menu. How simple is that!