Let Silverlight Die

I was telling my son +Galen Seaton about this idea for a blog post and he looked at me funny.  He said "Silverlight, I don't think I've ever heard of Silverlight."  Just to give you an idea, Galen is a bit of a computer geek who swaps back and forth between Linux and Windows on a computer he built for gaming.  This really made me laugh.

For the uneducated of what Silverlight is, if you take Adobe's Flashplayer, add in some special buffering capabilities, wrap a DRM controller around it, then fund it with a few billion dollars of marketing and exclusivity, you end up with Silverlight.  When Silverlight launched back in 2006, it was doomed.  Web sites such as MLB.com used Silverlight on launch day as a marketing attempt by Microsoft.  Within six months they moved back to the Flash streaming but still offered Silverlight up to those who had it installed.

Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet detailed the information where Silverlight 5 is the final chapter of this unfinished book.  This was dated back in 2011 with claims of Silverlight's demise going back as far as 2009.  Yet today we still fight with this dead media streaming software.

Over on the Linux side of the world, there is an api functional version available... albeit very dated called Moonlight.  This software uses the mono project to achieve functionality.  Mono is an open source .Net development platform by Miguel de Icaza.  The problem is, you couldn't use Moonlight for a lot of the web streaming services due to lack of DRM capabilities.  Before Moonlight could mature enough to be usable for such services like streaming Netflix, several work arounds had already been found.  The project became stagnant without full support from Microsoft and faded into history when Miguel created the company Xamarin.

What uses Silverlight

A lot of various web apps use Silverlight.  If you have a Netflix account, you have probably been asked to install Silverlight at one point.  Same deal with Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus (web).  The good news is these amazing media web streaming services have all been moving over to the industry standard HTML5.  There's one problem for those people still stuck on the now defunct Internet Explorer.  It seems IE doesn't fully support the entire toolchain of the industry standards (nothing new here).  So if you want to move away from Silverlight, you are going to have to move to a decent/better browser like Chrome, Firefox, or Opera.

There are other desktop applications which uses Silverlight unfortunately.  If you have TimeWarner cable and enjoy streaming TV Shows from the custom app they have, you will need Silverlight still.  I'm sure Comcast uses the same software.

But it's supported until 2021

A quick peek back at the official MSDN forums finds us this little tidbit: 

"If you're developing for Windows phone, then yes this is still your official development platform and your software lifecycle is so fast that the year 2021 is irrelevant.  If you are developing for anything else -- like a browser based interface -- Silverlight is as good as dead and all focus for interface development is now on HTML5. (ZDNet: Silverlight strategy direction)"

But wait, the Windows phone is still supported until 2021!  Not so fast, the latest in the rumormill from Android Headlines and TechRadar is Microsoft is going to ditch the Windows Phone platform entirely for Android devices.  This actually makes sense.  The contract Stephen Elop (former CEO of Nokia) signed is set to expire soon.  Nokia is already dabbling in the Android devices with their N1 tablet.  This is the natural progression similar to the death of many other services and platforms from Microsoft.  Silverlight can be considered officially dead.

So what's left?

There isn't much really.  Perhaps picking through the scraps at the very least.  My recommendation for you would be to remove Silverlight from your computer and see what apps are no longer functioning.  Whether those applications are online services or local applications you've installed.  What I've found from being a heavy Linux user for more than ten years; if you find an application with a dependency you can't use, there will be alternatives.

Wiring up the NC2 Miata for Android Auto

The Mazda Miata MX-5 isn't exactly new to the world, they released the 30 year anniversary edition just recently.  However, what I was wanting to change isn't exactly a simple plug and play.  Android Auto is something new from Google that I wanted to set up.  I also wanted to make sure all the existing features worked without problems like the steering wheel controls and the existing BOSE audio amplifier.  I've read up on multiple different locations but the documentation I found did not have everything I needed.  Instead, this was a piecemeal work to get everything working in a single shot.  Bear with me here as we are in for a bit of a technical ride.

Equipment

After reading a lot of different material about what headaches people have had, I made sure to get all the material I needed.

Head Unit: Pioneer AVIC-8100nex (Amazon was the cheapest I found)

Dash Kit: Metra 99-7519B (Amazon also available local in most areas)

Wire Harness: Metra 70-7903 (Amazon can be purchased locally, order two of these)

Line Level RCA: JL XD-CLRAIC2-SW (Amazon, but cheaper locally*)

Steering Controls: Metra Axxess ASWC-1 (Amazon best of the bunch by the reviews on several sites)

You may need some extra wire, soldering iron, solder, heat shrink (I used 3:1 with adhesive for a tighter bond), and electrical tape.  A side note on the JL RCA plugs, you can use any other brand you would like but be sure your grounds are solid to avoid alternator wine.

The main thing to make note of is the wire harness, you will need two of them.  Even if you are not going to be wiring up the steering wheel controls, there is a missing wire needed by the Pioneer AVIC units.  This is the speed pulse sensor wire which helps with the GPS positioning and speed warnings.  If the pins were not of a different size, you could have used one of the speaker leads but it just isn't possible.

Speed Harness

Pioneer Harness
Yellow: Constant 12V
Red: Switched 12V
Orange/White: Illumination
Black: Ground
Blue/White: Remote Switch (amp turn-on)
Light Green: Parking Break Switch (required)
Pink: Speed Pulse Sensor

The rest of them on this harness I was able to tie off and ignore.  The tips of the unused wire were bundled together and taped off to avoid possible electrical damage.

Metra Axxess ASWC-1 Harness (Steering Wheel Control)
Red: Switched 12V
Black: Ground
White/Green: Steering Switch

The remaining of these wires are completely unused.  However, keep them in case you ever decide to move to another vehicle.  For safety reasons, these remaining wires can be tied off and taped as well.

Metra 70-7903
This one is going to be the hard part of the wiring.  You will have to rob some of the pins from one harness to use on the other.  Using a very small jewellers screw driver you can remove the extra three wires you will need.  The colors used in the original harness are as follows:
Yellow: Constant 12V
Red: Switched 12V
Orange/White: Illumination
Black: Ground
Blue/White: Remote Switch (amp turn-on)
Gray: Right Front (+)
Gray/White: Right Front (--)
White: Left Front (+)
White/Black: Left Front (--)
Violet: Right Rear (+)
Violet/Black: Right Rear (--)
Green: Left Rear (+)
Green/Black: Left Rear (--)

As before, be sure to bundle the remaining unused wires and electrical tape as needed.  The speaker wires (Gray, White, Violet, and Green) are soldered to the Line Level RCA plugs.  This is done so the existing BOSE amplifier is not over powered by the high level line outputs.  Connecting this the wrong way will fry the OEM amplifier very quickly giving you a repair cost of roughly $900 for replacement parts.

Pinout chart of vehicle connector

This chart will help.  The missing pins you need are 1N, 1P, and 1I.  The wire for 1N goes to the Green/White wire of the ASWC-1 harness.  You will ground 1P by adding it to the existing ground at 1T.  The last of the missing pins (1I) will go to the pink wire of the Pioneer harness.

Here is a finished Metra 70-7903 harness

Getting it together

From here, getting the wire harness together is very simple.  Red to red, yellow to yellow and so on.  Pay close attention to the locations of the added pins and where they go.

The last bit is to bundle everything together as it will be a tight fit in the dash.  What I did was move the harness bundle off to the left side of the dash cavity.  The GPS antenna was positioned inside the dash as well.

In the middle of the test process

Last Note

One thing I did find out after putting everything back together, Android Auto will only work on the bottom USB port.  If you haven't set up Android Auto yet, you will need to make sure the parking break switch lead is properly grounded.

With everything installed, stay tuned for a real world review of Android Auto in action.  As always, feel free to ask any questions and I'll be happy to help.

Father's Day

As the father of three kids that I have raised I often look back asking myself if I've done well in raising them.  My father and I were not very close.  I thought of him as a weekend roof over my head more than anything else.  I had a lot of silent moments with him and was dragged to events I had no interest participating in or watching.  It wasn't always like that.  I have a few great memories with him.  One time he woke me up really early to fly out to Memphis, TN to tour Graceland.  I've never been a fan of Elvis, but this was so spontaneous it was actually fun.

Nethan is the oldest of the bunch and at the legal drinking age he strives to do the best he can on his own.  There is a bit of story behind Nate most people don't know about.  I met Nate around his fifth birthday and filled the role of father he never knew for himself.  I call him "son" and in return he refers to me proudly as "father".  There are many kids out there who don't know their biological father. . . but what it really boils down to, who is the person that is doing the hard work day in and day out?

Galen is my first born which drives me to worry a bit as a young driver of both four and two wheeled vehicles.  I have quite a bit of respect for the path he is going down, even though he is unsure of his direction in college.  I really can't argue too much as I was definitely the same growing up.

The youngest of the bunch is Zoe who has me wrapped around her little pinky.  She tends to be all over the place at times.  One moment she is all gung-ho over learning interior design, the next obssession might be musical instruments.  I remember when she out right refused to eat green beans but now willing to try new things.

I see myself in all of them, from my father to my kids.  I have learned a lot from each.  Hold on to those moments and cherish the times you have.  They may surprise you.

Landing in 3... 2...

A happy hello to this barren and vacant blog.  I'm building up some tidbits soon enough.  July 1st 2015 come back for more juicy bits of my weekly ramblings.  My plans are to share stories about computing, cooking, driving, music and more.  People have asked me to share a bit more, and so this will be all about things in my life.  Sometimes I'll post up some random bits of popular news or views about politics, but I'll keep the left/right sides under wraps the best I can.

Let me take you on a wild ride of what happens in my head.  I'm sure you will laugh, cry, and even find me weird at times.  It's okay to be weird though.  See everyone soon enough.