Setting up an Earthmate GPS with Mapopolis

Here are some simple instructions on how to setup an Earthmate Bluetooth GPS, with Mapopolis 4.7, running on an XV6700 or (PPC-6700 if you have a Sprint phone).

These instructions assume that you have downloaded and installed Mapopolis 4.7 or later. If you haven't done that, then do that first.

Next, turn your GPS on. Make sure you hold the button for 2 seconds, otherwise it turns back off again. You'll know it is on when the blue light is flashing.

Next, pair the GPS with the phone using the Bluetooth Settings -> Devices -> New Partnership. When pairing, make sure that you select the "Serial Port" option on the Selected Services page.

After they are paired, you need to configure a COM port for the GPS. You didn't need to do this with Windows Mobile 2003, but with 2005, it seems to be a necessary step. Still in Bluetooth settings, select the COM Ports tab, then New Outgoing Port. It will ask you to select a device to create the COM port for, so select the "Eathermate Blue Logger GPS". On the next screen, select COM6, and check the Secure Connection. That part is done.

Next, you need to configure Mapopolis. In Mapopolis, go to Tools -> Settings -> GPS Communications. Set the port to COM6 and the Baud Rate to 4800. I also have "Retry Failed Connections Forever" checked, but I'm not sure that is important.

That should be it for setup. Make sure that you have a good lock (if you do, the green light on the GPS is lit), then within Mapopolis, go to Tools -> GPS, then hit the big Start button.

Shopping

I took my wife to the King of Prussia mall this weekend. What a great place. 40 Restaurants! Unbelievable. If you want the best Irish food around, get out on the perimeter of the mall and go to Kildare's. Awesome food. Awesome drinks.

One less Islamic extremist...

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is finally dead, praise be to Allah. In case you've been living in a cave, Zarqawi has been responsibile for lot of death and destruction in Iraq. Not just US soldiers, but innocent civilians as well. But I think even the guys living in the caves knew that.

Unfortunately, it is not the end. We will never get rid of Islamic extremists because they are only doing what they were trained to do. In the Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, Mr. Spencer lays out why the extremists cannot stop what they are doing: they are simply following the instructions given to them by Muhammed in the Koran. He does it by quoting the Koran. Quite frankly, I'm appalled by people who try to shut up these kind of messages and books with their accusations of "hate". The Koran needs to be heard! And criticized. Just like the Bible is in Western culture.

Windows Media Mobile and Storage Cards

I really hate annoying messages that occur with no explanation. But being the "hunter" that I am, I am duty bound to find the cause and destroy it with no emotion. Windows Media Mobile is no exception.

I was getting this warning, error, popup, whatever you want to call it, everytime I turned on my PocketPC: "A storage card was inserted. Do you want to search it for audio and video files?". I'm running Windows Mobile 2005, which has Windows Media Player Mobile v.10 installed. I have a 2Gb MiniSD card installed, but it does not have any media files on it, since I have no time for such fun stuff.

So here's what happened: my work voicemail gets automatically emailed to me from the phone system at the office. These emails have the voicemail attached in wav file, which I then open on my PocketPC and play so that I can get my office voicemail wherever I am. Since they are wav files, Windows Media is the program that starts up to play the file. The email program puts the file on the storage card because it has more space and that is where it cache's attachments. Windows Media automatically adds the file to the Now Playing list, which it attempts to update everytime the PocketPC device is turned on.

So the solution was simple. Go to "Now Playing" -> Menu -> "Clear Now Playing" and the close Windows Media Player. Problem solved. Simple like that. I'm still not sure that my solution is the best, or most permanent, but at least I'm not getting annoyed as much. We'll see what happens if I actually do start putting some music on that card.

Adding Powered Devices to your Car

So I got this new car mounting device for my car to hold my phone/PDA. It is a very clever device, and wanting something that is a little more permanent, I opted for the straight wired device. The problem is, I don't know the first thing about adding a new powered deivce to your fuse box. This thing only draws 1-2 amps, but I have no idea how to add it. I tried searching the web tonight, but didn't find much. In fact, everything I found had more to do with replacing your stereo. So where does one find such a thing?