Why won’t my Smartphone work on the Underground!?
Posted by Pete Wood on
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Like it or not, many of us are plugged into some form of Electronic Device, but on the Underground, you can’t connect to the virtual world as you are out of range of a cellular or WIFI network. This is 2011, surely there’s some latest technology available, or is being secretly worked on by some super smart RF Electronics Design Engineer, that can save me from the monotonous daily commute in places like the London Underground!?
There’s only so much Angry Birds I can play and as much as I like to listen to music, unless you want to carry around a set of noise cancellation headphones, you’re likely to go deaf sooner or later as you have to crank up the volume quite loud to hear it! Rather than stare into empty space or the armpit of the person next to me on the busy tube train, what I’d like to be able to do is check and respond to my e-mails, browse the web and instant message my friends or business colleagues, is this to much to ask in 2011 where we are at the cutting edge of electronic design?
So what’s the answer? Surely the technology is already available to enable us to use our mobile devices whilst in an area where regular wireless communications services can’t penetrate? Is installing WIFI networks or Picocell type technologies on the Underground (that's the subway for non Brits) the answer? If it is, why isn’t it deployed? Is it a commercial decision; or perhaps from a technical perspective, no one has found a reliable solution? One of the downsides of wireless communications is they don’t work very well in places like the Underground due to them being noisy environments surrounded by heaps of concrete and metal!
So what’s the answer to this problem? Or should we just accept it, and live with it the way it is? My view is that I’d like to be able to use my Smart phone on the Underground, however, If I’m honest, I’m only really for enabling data and not voice, so I can still get some peace whilst I’m plugged into the virtual world and not have to listen to everyone else shouting down their mobile phone.
What do think? Feel free to add your comments…
11 comments
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Posted by unknown source at
Glad you have it working Ken, I found it to be the most 'user friendly' way of doing things as it's a lot faster than having to navigate through the registry and 'soft restarting' explorer.exe etc. Took about 30 mins of research and some good old digging to find those two programs but they work a treat
Posted by zbb at
There is a way to do that in Win7. This was mentioned in a MS forum: Quote In Windows 7 with IE 9 or Windows 8 with IE10 Open your browser then go to Tools>>>Internet Options Then navigate to the Programs tab and click on the "Set Programs" button Then click on the "associate a file type or protocol with a program" blue link Unquote This forced dumbing down in Win7 by restricting the user made me go back to XP again on my machines.
Posted by ken arton at
Hello Again, I have just downloaded the two executables and followed your intructions. Took about 5 mins, and everything now behaves exactly as I wish. So simple, after hours spent trying to follow the advice from Microsoft Forum. Many thanks indeed, Ken.
Posted by homegirl at
@Ken Arton I had the same problem after upgrading to DSPCB 5.0. Took an hour to find out that it's easier to remove association by deleting extension from registry 1. run regedit 2. go to *HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts* 3. find the .pcb and delete it. 4. find the .sch and delete it 5. close regedit now either (a) log off and on again or (b) close explorer.exe from task manager and restart it Now double click a .pcb or .sch file and associate with DSPCB Worked first time. HomeGirl
Posted by ken arton at
Hello "Unknown Source", I have just read your three replies, after a long session trying without success to "fix corrupted user profile". It is now rather late, and I have had enough for today, so I will pursue your suggestions tomorrow. Many thanks for this -- I will let you know how I get on. Best regards. ken.
Posted by unknown source at
Can't find a way to edit my posts above but here are full instructions of what I did.... Run Unassoc.exe as admin Type .prj into the search box (to be safe) Click remove file association (User) Re-search for .prj Click delete file type Close the window. Run OpenWithAdd.exe as admin Click the three dots next to the search window and navigate to the DesignSpark V5.0 Folder Select Design Spark 5.0 from the window on the right Leave the Arguments window blank Enter what you wish the Program to be called (I entered DesignSpark V5.0) into the 'personalized name' box Click Register Close window. Navigate to a DesignSpark .prj file and double click (open with option should not be available yet as you have unassociated the file type in the first few steps). Select the option to manually select program Design Spark now appears as one of the Recommended Options Select it and ensure 'always open for this type of file' is ticked. JOB DONE
Posted by unknown source at
Found a way to upload them! [attachment=0:ztgtwynl]DS5Fix.zip[/attachment:ztgtwynl]
Posted by unknown source at
I can't find a way to upload files but I have two programs that fixes this for you (unfortunately only tested on Win 7 32bit) Google two programs, one is called Unassoc.exe as you will want to unassociated the .prj files (and the other formats which I can't remember off the top of my head) first. Then find 'OpenWithAdd.exe' and add Design Spark. As mentioned above I would attach the programs but I can't see an option to.... (both are made by some Indian fellow with a blog and forums so should be fairly easy to find) This option worked fine for me so hopefully it will everyone else :)
Posted by ken arton at
Hello, Many thanks for the prompt reply. I have tried your suggestion in regedit. In fact designspark.exe was already listed there, and on the MRUlist. Just to be sure, I added it again with a new letter, and added that to MRUlist, I also have tried setting designspark.exe as the default. The registry editor accepts all this, but it all makes no difference. I have of course re-booted just in case that is required. And finally I have completely removed and re-installed designspark v5.0. The problem remains. My experience with trying to get help from Microsoft forums is very poor, so I'm reluctant to go down that route. I guess I'll have to live with the inconvenience, or alternatively revert to v4.1. Anyway, many thanks for your help.
Posted by masterfx at
Hi, I'm not able to reproduce you problem on my Win7 installation. In my case designspark appears in the "open with list" after I added it manually. I think it is more a Windows problem than a designspark problem. Or maybe there are some conflicts with other DS installations or so. But you can try the following. 1. Open Regedit 2. Got to [i:2df4jlje]HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.sch\OpenWithList[/i:2df4jlje] 3. Right click on the right side => New => String Value 4. Name the new String as a character which is not already in the list. In my case "c" 5. Set the value to "designspark.exe" 6. Edit the String "MRUList" and add you new created String name to the value of "MRUList", in my case is was "ab" and now it is "abc" [attachment=0:2df4jlje]win7Openlist.png[/attachment:2df4jlje]
Posted by ken arton at
Hello, I have just moved to Design Spark v5.0. It all works fine when I launch the program, then use the Menu - File - Open to open an existing design. But I like to just click on the .sch or .pcb filename and have it open. Windows 7 naturally does not recognize the file type, and asks me to select a program. I normally have no problem with this, and indeed with v4.1 there was no difficulty. But now when I browse to either the executable, or the desktop shortcut, for v5.0, and select "open", it does not add it to the list of Other Programs, and so I can't nominate it as the program to run. I think there must be an issue with v5.0, as I would have expected it to inherit the "open" behaviour from v4.1. Can anyone offer advice? Many thanks.