It's a pity we throw out a perfectly good ballast circuit each time a CFL globe blows. CFL bulbs should really be re-designed so that you can just replace the tube part. Alternatively a proper recycling program could make sure the circuits get re-used in new lights.

This post covers getting a EU850D 3G Mini PCIE card working with a HP Mini 210 running Windows 7 Starter and Virgin Mobile Broadband in Australia. These instructions will almost definitely void your warranty and may make your device(s) unusable, so use at your own risk!

Unlocking the HP Mini 210 allowing any PCIE card to work

1. Download the latest version of your BIOS firmware from the HP website.
2. Download and install HxD a freeware in memory HEX editor.
   
3. Download and install EZH20 Bios Editor.
4. Download and install 7-zip (allows unzipping of firmware update installer package).
5. Follow these instructions by GKK adapted from IceLord's hack for the HP Mini 311.
• Be careful when saving your new image. The first time I saved my image it made a copy in the installer image file folder rather than replacing the installer folder image.
  

Ordering and installing the Novatel Wireless EU850D Mini PCIE Card

1. Order a EU850D, I got mine from Mobilx in Hungary as suggested by jkkmobile, and it took 4 days to get to Australia at a cost of $135AUD.
• The integrated SIM slot is a key feature as the Australian does not have a SIM socket soldered in (just a blank space filled with foam).
• This card is Tri-band HSDPA/UMTS - 850/1900/2100 MHz and Quad-band EDGE/GPRS - 850/900/1800/1900 MHz so it should work in most places.
2. Once your card has arrived remove the access cover from your HP Mini by removing the battery and pressing the two orange 'buttons' whilst gently prying the cover up from the battery end.
3. Unscrew the screw from the empty mini PCIE slot.
4. Carefully install the EU850D and replace the screw to hold the card in position.
5. Remove the black/secondary antenna from the half height WiFi PCIE card.
6. Remove heat shrink holding the two wifi antennas together until the second antenna reaches the primary antenna connector on the EU850D.
7. Attach the secondary WiFi antenna to the primary antenna connector on the EU850D.
• The secondary WiFi antenna gave me 2-3x the reception of one of those cheap ebay 'U' 3G antennas.
8. Tidy the antenna cables so that they will not stop the cover from going back on and are not bent sharply or folded.
9. Insert your sim card in the EU850D (note that it goes in backwards compared to most mobile phones).
10. Replace the cover by slotting it in at the front and then gently pushing it back down towards the batter end.
11. Download the driver for the EU850D. I used the 'MobiLink Connection Manager & Driver Installer' driver for the XU870 from the Novatel website.
12. Unzip the download and run the installer.
13. Done, running the connection manager should show the card as detected.
    

Making it work with Virgin Mobile Broadband

1. Open the MobiLink connection manager.
2. Click the menu button in the top right corner of the manger and select 'Profile Manager' in the drop down list.
3. Click 'New' to create a new connection for Virgin Broadband.
4. Name the profile 'Virgin Mobile', use 'VirginBroadband' in the APN field and make sure 'IP' is selected for the  PDP setting.
   
5. Click Next and then finish when prompted for login details as you don't need to enter any.
6. In the Profile Manager window again select the newly created 'Virgin Mobile' profile and click 'Edit'.
7. In the 'Connection Info' section, change the authentication type to 'PAP' leaving the username and password fields blank.
8. Click OK, and then OK again to close the profile manager.
9. You should now be able to connect when you press 'connect' and also when you connect from the windows 7 connection manager.

Reasons your DNS-323 won't work with your Xbox 360:

• You need to update the firmware to the latest version (Xbox support was added in firmware version 1.06).
• You have upgraded your firmware and not reset to default settings causing UPnP to stay disabled even when you enable it in the web admin settings.
• You have 'Root' sharing enabled in UPnP.
• Your UPnP directory has filenames & paths longer than 81 characters.
• Your files have special characters in their names.

Following these steps should resolve all of these issues and get your DNS-323 NAS working with your Xbox 360:

Steps for DNS-323:

1. Upgrade to the latest firmware.
1. Download the latest firmware version from the dlink website.
2. Open the downloaded firmware zip and copy the file inside to your desktop.
3. Login to your DNS-323.
4. Select TOOLS from the menu then FIRMWARE.
5. Click Browse and select the firmware file copied to the desktop in part b.
6. Then Click Apply to upload the new firmware and install it. Be patient and follow the prompts as it is possible to break your DNS-323 if it is powered of or reset during this process.
2. Reset to default settings.
1. Select TOOLS from the menu then SYSTEM.
2. Click Save under CONFIGURATION SETTINGS to save a copy of your current DNS-323 settings as they will be wiped in the next step.
3. Click Restore under DEFAULTS. This will cause your DNS-323 to default settings. You might need to use the EasySearch utility to find it again.
4. Log back into your DNS-323.
5. Select TOOLS from the menu then SYSTEM.
6. Click Browse under CONFIGURATION SETTINGS and select the configuration file you saved in step b.
7. Click Load to restore your previous settings.
3. Reorganise your media to fit with the DNS-323 path length and character limitations.
1. Reduce the number of folders and simplify the names of your videos, music and images do not exceed 81 characters in length.
2. When renaming files they should not contain any special characters, to be safe stick with dashes, spaces, letters and numbers.
4. Enable UPnP on the DNS-323.
1. Select ADVANCED then UPnP AV SERVER.
2. Select enable.
3. Un-tick Root.
4. Click Browse and select the medial folder created in step 3.
5. Click Save Settings.
6. Click Refresh and wait for your media to be catalogued, you should only need to do this once as the DNS-323 will automatically catalogue newly added files.
5. Your Xbox should now be able to see folders and files on your DNS-323 when you go to the Video Library, Music Library and Photo Library in the My Xbox menu.

Steps for Xbox 360:

1. Install 'Optional iPod Support' (instructions copied from xbox site for convenience).
1. Go to the Xbox Live area of the Xbox Dashboard and select Xbox Live Marketplace, Game Downloads.
2. Select All Games, Alphabetical List of Games.
3. Select Optional iPod Support twice (once from Xbox Live Marketplace and again from the Xbox Guide screen), then Confirm Download.
4. Once your download is complete, select Done and return to the Xbox Dashboard (press BACK or B three times).
2. Note that not all video and audio formats are supported by Xbox 360.
1. The xbox site has a Video Playback FAQ which lists supported formats.
   
2. You can re-encode your videos to work with your Xbox 360 using a tool like Handbrake.

References

D-Link Forum - Bad Characters

D-Link Forum - Path & Filename Length Limitations

D-Link Forum - Codec Issues

Google Docs lets you really easily create web forms, which are great for surveys, site feedback and more (and importantly free). However responding to submitted forms can be a little more difficult as your data just ends up in a big spreadsheet.

Luckily you can use a spreadsheet formula to easily create a 'Reply' email link for each submitted form using these steps:

1. Create a google form. Make sure that you create a field on your form to collect an email address.
2. Open your forms spreadsheet and select the very top cell of an empty column to place the 'Reply' links in.
3. Insert =HYPERLINK("mailto:"&TRIM(B1),"Reply") into the cell (bold text only) replacing the text 'B1' with the top cell of the column that contains the email addresses from your form.
4. Click the letter at the top of the column to select all of that column's cells and press CTRL + D to fill the formula down to all the cells.
5. Go to the view menu and select 'List View' to make the links easily clickable.

Unfortunately you cannot automatically populate the subject and body of the email. Whilst google spreadsheet supports 'mailto:' urls it doesn't support the '?subject=' and '&body=' extensions.