Garmin nuvi 660 Bluetooth Fix

Kind of off the topic here, but I own a Garmin nuvi 660 GPS that I absolutely LOVE, but the bluetooth functionality just quits working all by itself every few months.

There’s an endless amount of horror stories online about this with various suggestions for a fix, but most people just end up living without the bluetooth or sending the unit back to Garmin each time the bluetooth fails until the warranty expires.

Through my own trial and error, I put together what’s needed to fix the problem yourself.

The bluetooth problem usually manifests itself as such that bluetooth becomes disabled on the nuvi, and enabling it causes the GPS to lock up or freeze.  Holding down the power button will reset it, but bluetooth is still disabled and re-enabling just causes it to freeze again.

I’ve put together a fix that contains steps to follow and a file you’ll need to replace on the nuvi 660 while it’s connected to your PC.

I hope this reaches other fellow Garmin owners that just want their bluetooth to work.  And Garmin, if you’re reading this, would you please consider providing a PERMANENT FIX TO THIS ISSUE!!??

Link to download fix:

Garmin_nuvi_660_Bluetooth_Fix.zip

July 1st, 2009, posted by Rich

Grats Tom!

Congratulations Tom on making the top 20 in the Name Your Dream Assignment contest!!!!!!!

http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/reflections/the-world-in-a-bubble/

For those that don’t know, the top 20 are judged by a panel and a finalist as well as two runner-ups will be selected.

Good luck in the next phase Tom!!

!!UPDATE!! - Apr 24th

Tom was selected as a runner-up and will be receiving a KICK-ASS laptop as a prize for this great honor.  Tom, I know it’s not #1, but congratulations!

-Rich

April 4th, 2009, posted by Rich

Classmates.com Can Suck My Firewall.

So. . . every couple months I get spammed for days straight from classmates.com because someone has looked at my page, signed the guestbook, or maybe even THOUGHT about looking at something for all I know.

Every couple months I attempt to CANCEL receiving email from them, since I could really care less about it.  I -might- care if you didn’t go there only to find out you can’t see anything without first paying them money.  I’m sure those of you that have been to the site know what I’m talking about.  The best part is, you can’t even cancel or change your email settings without first signing in and walking through 15 ads.

I don’t even KNOW what my damn password is.  I signed up 5+ years ago, and that’s the only time I was ever “logged in”.  So, since I don’t know my password, I can’t even login to unsubscribe.  Imagine a scenario where you have an email address, let’s say spongebob788@happydomain.com and you sign up at classmates.com with it.   2 years tick by and you no longer have that email address, but someone else signs up with happydomain.com, picks the address “spongebob788″, and now they’re getting your classmates.com spam, and they can’t cancel it!

Since I can’t unsubscribe, and they have NO other means to contact them other than through the website once you’ve signed in, I’m left with one choice.

-BLOCK THE BASTARDS-

That’s right, I run my own network and email infrastructure, so I looked up their CIDR range at ARIN, which happens to be:

65.243.133.0/24

Add that to your firewall, block port 25, and you’ll never receive crap from them ever again (unless they change providers, then you’d just have to add their new CIDR)

So, classmates.com - “SUCK MY FIREWALL”

March 13th, 2009, posted by Rich

Travel the world with me. Please Vote today!

I have entered a photo contest:

Name Your Dream Assignment

and there is a very good chance that I could get $50,000 to pursue my bubble project.  If you haven’t heard of my bubble project yet you can see my work so far at:

http://tomstorm.net/portfolio/Bubbles/

my ultimate goal is to travel worldwide and capture recognizable natural and man-made landmarks within this unorthodox and playful perspective.

I need your votes badly.   Please take the time, a moment out of your day, and vote.  This is  life changing if I win.

LET’S GET THIS OUT!  PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. Another added incentive is that when I win I will hold bubble blowing tryouts to see who will join me.  I need a partner in crime to take these shots and I am allowed to take another person with me on  my trip.

The contest ends on April 3rd.   I need to be in the top 20 to be considered as a finalist.    This can be done.  Be a part of it!     Please follow this link or the link above to place your vote.       love you all.

March 3rd, 2009, posted by Tom

Updates to photo site

Just went live with the new version of my photo site.  Check it out by clicking below:

http://rnhphoto.com

What’s changed?

1) Better navigation

2) Flash slideshow on the front page

3) Portfolio’s are all flash-based now and easily updateable

4) More pics in most of the portfolios

Keep an eye here as well since now that the site is more update-friendly I’ll be adding content regularly and expanding the features.

February 26th, 2009, posted by Rich

switcheroo

a quick note for those who keep tabs on RichandTom.com    I recently acquired one of the tomstorm websites.  apparently the other tom storm that was out there didn’t feel like keeping it anymore….and then…*scoop*, I found it just waiting for me.  <smile>

I have switched my websites around:

photography can be found at  www.tomstorm.net

music can be found at   www.thetomstorm.com

I will also be keeping an eye on tomstorm.com

if you happen across it and it isnt’ being used, CONTACT ME!   storm@thetomstorm.com

February 14th, 2009, posted by Tom

new music from tomstorm!

hi all.   since I have been back I have been making music (both in my head, on paper, and yes, finally using a microphone)  I have two new songs posted just now on my myspace page.  click here to listen to the newest additions “I owe this song to you”  and “another moment to breathe”.

I will be posting lyrics and histories soon.   take care all!

January 14th, 2009, posted by Tom

“60 Orphans”…or…”Planes,Trains, and Automobiles”…or…”Happy Birthday”

Somehow they all seem appropriate.  

 

I am nearing the end of this lifetime:  That is how these travels feel, like lifetimes.   I was reflecting on this while sleeping on the floor in Madrid’s Barajas airport next to my new British friend Oli while waiting for my flight to Frankfurt to come home.   I feel as if I have lived a lifetime and am now returning to my body and former life back in the states.  I guess it’s only appropriate that I fly back on my birthday. 

Am I new though? 

Have I changed?  

Will there be changes?

I guess only time will tell.  Just as with the old me, I have lots of desire and good intention…

 

I am writing you from Washington DC.  This city seems to be a popular overnight stopover for me.   I boarded my plane in Frankfurt only to wait with the rest of the passengers for at least an hour as 60 orphans from Latvia, Poland, and Russia were rounded up and shuffled to their seats.  Apparently the herd was hard to manage and they didn’t get to the gate at the proper time.  Instead of putting them up for the night in Germany, United and Lufthansa decided to hold the plane and…well…put them up in America…along with the rest of the passengers with missed connecting flights (people going to Atlanta, Georgia excluded) .

So here I am a the Lansdowne Resort in Dulles.  It’s much nicer than the Holiday Inn they put me up in when I came this way going to Europe a month ago.   I’m waiting for my shuttle at 10:00 am which gives me ample time to write you all!

My last blog from Italy indicated I was going to a food festival and then going north into Austria.  We can start there.

Bui Grasso (fat Ox)  festival.  I never at so much in my life.   We started at 8 and didnt’ stop eating and drinking till midnight.   Let me tell you:  Italians can eat.  OR, they really know how to make it look like they aren’t about to explode.  Me on the other hand…I was about to explode.  The hard part was that I wasn’t just eating all the fun good parts of an Ox (that’s probably relative).  I was eating new things as well such as:

tongue (wasn’t that bad)

cheek  (was it the fatty whiteness of it or the gummy sticky texture that didn’t settle?)

maybe it was that grizzly part that I dont’ think I got a propper translated name or location of the Ox for….

So on top on filling myself with wine, bread, cheese, dessert, anchovies with parsley, gnochi, chicken, ox tail (i’ve eaten that before thanks to some mexicans I know <wink> )  I was eating things I didn’t think were cooked anywhere in the world.

tell you the truth:  I would rather eat brains again than put another ounce of ox cheek in my mouth.

 

after this wonderul culinary event I retired for the night in a nice mountain chalet of sorts in northern Italy (where the festival was).  

When we returned to Genova I booked a train north to Austria and made my way to Innsbruck.

Innsbruck:

-Gluhwein (mulled wine)

-beer

-snowboarding on Glaciers in the Alps (have video of me faceplanting on the side of the mountain)

-daytrip and bubble picture mission to Neuschuanstein in Germany (the castle that Disney used as inspiration for Fantasy Castle in Disney World) 

Innsbruck.

 

After Innsbruck I moved onto a tiny country called Liechtenstein.   All of 150 sq/km.  now that’s tiny.  you could easily tour the whole country in a day if you wanted.    I visited the capitol Vaduz, took a picture of the prince’s castle, got a patch for my bag, and then made my way to Interlaken, Sweden. 

By this time in my journey the weather was really crap for sightseeing.  The ceiling was very low so all the mountains (if you could see them) were simply these enormous walls that ended in clouds.   It was hard to get a  sense of how nestled the country is among these giants.   I stayed two days in Interlaken.  The town is famous for all the crazy adrenaline-pumping action activities and sports you can come up with.  I just walked around and hiked a bit on a rise just outside of town.  This hamlet deserved more than the time I had left in my trip.   I ended up taking a night train to Barcelona the day after I arrived.

The Nighttrain. 

Uncomfortable.

But on the nighttrain I met Isis.  Isis lives in Spain and within…ohh…10 minutes of our conversation, she offered for me to come and stay with her and her family just below Barcelona. 

 

Now I didn’t really have a plan at that point.  Aside from getting to Madrid for my flight by monday (this was friday) I didn’t NEED to be anywhere in particular.   She seemed friendly enough so I ended up skipping Barcelona and taking a train 2 hours south to Sant Jaume D’Enveja.  This is a tiny town on the delta.  A place surrounded by rice paddies and protected wildlife refuges. What a great place.   Every road was boarded by flooded rice fields and if you walked far enough in any direction you hit rivers or seas.   I will have pictures to show once I get organzied back at home.  

Her family was very welcoming and kind.  I at local foods and her brother Eros taxi’ed me around the area in their Mitsubisi Pajero (like a land cruiser).   He drove like speedy Gonzalas (pun intended) and more than once saw my whole short life before my eyes.  

I am not sure what it is with my luck and accomodations, or perhaps it is the balance because some nights I sleep in bushes, but Isis’s parents house looked to be the nicest house on the delta.  Marble, huge bathrooms, and every other amenity you could imagine.  It was a mini mansion and very nice to stay in.  

I spent the weekend in the delta.  A place I didnt’ even know existed until that time.  On monday I boarded a train to Tarrogona and then to Madrid.   The train to Madrid was one of thems bullet trains.  265 km/hr.   it was fast!   I watched out the window as the countryside moved quickly past me until it was too dark to see.

Madrid

I arrived in madrid with the mission to get to the airport, realizing my flight was leaving the following day around 12, I had all night to roam around and see the city.   I found a suggestion for good tapas in my lonely planet guide and walked to “El Tigre”.

I can’t say I walked into “El Tigre”.  I squeezed  into “El Tigre”.  The place was packed.   I soon found myself wedged between the wall, and a throng of people.  The bar was 5 feet out of reach.   Imagine if you will.  I had a bookbag at my feel like an emperor penguin, my pack on my back, and my camera bag hanging on my chest.  I couldnt’ move. couldnt’ speak the language well enough, and couldnt’ figure out my next move. 

I just stood there taking in the energy and trying to figure out how I was going to get me some tapas. 

about an eternity into my analyzation of situation I heard english comming from some people in front of me. 

“you speak engish!” I said

“where are you from?”  I asked

“pennsylvania?” I repeated

this was sweet.  here I was in a strange tapas bar, not able to order (or move for that matter) and I found 4 fellow pennsylvanians right in front of me.  They ordered for me and we chatted a good bit before heading out.  They asked if I would like to join them and I ended up touring and bar hopping around Madrid till about 11 at night.  We had Titos (like a wine spritzer) and a local smooth vermouth, churros and hot chocolate (so thick you had to hold the mug above your head for it to finally pour into your mouth).  It was soo good. 

so good.

I eventually parted ways with Kat, Kat, Kaitlen, and Luke and made my way to the airport.  

Slept on the floor there next to a guy named Oli.   He is from Britain and was on his way home for the holidays.   We chatted it up and then hit the hay. 

plane to frankfurt

delay

plane to washington

delay

I pray there is no delay for vermont.  (please please please)

this trip is certainly not over.  not until I step foot back in 70 broadway.  who knows can happen between now and then?  I know the possibilities, the endless possibilities of a life of travel and transit.  

 

I ask myself.  Why?  The most persistent and simple of questions.  Why do I do this.  

because I need to breath. 

I need to inhale and find the walls, feel for the doors, and investigate the windows.  because we end up putting ourselves in a self made, self decorated room, and never go to the kitchen.  

 The world is a mansion. Yet how many times do we as people, as creatures of comfort and habit, confine ourselves and stop moving, stop breathing?

push, explore, discover, and challenge. 

get out there and breath.

 

 

 

-

December 17th, 2008, posted by Tom

Humans generating energy - BEST IDEA EVER!

http://dvice.com/archives/2008/12/revolving_door.php

Check out this article at DVICE.  Immediately I’m thinking of other ways we can harness energy from human movement.  Think of *ALL* those people at the gym on stairclimbers, friction weight machines, etc.  The friction on all those machines could be created by electricity generating systems.

Imagine a model where your gym membership was free because the gym’s could “sell” the electricy you generated while exercising to the grid.

December 11th, 2008, posted by Rich

Tom, is this the guy?

December 6th, 2008, posted by Rich