Intra-Uterine Parasite

Week 11

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Week 9

Google Calendar Sync on 3G

You can sync your Google Calendar back and forth with the 3G with three easy steps.

1. Follow my directions below to jailbreak your 3G
2. Download the "Google Apps" in Cydia and then reboot your 3G
3. Download Nemus Sync in Installer

*don't use Nueva Sync -- there is no point to use a third party server that proxies an actual sync. Nemus Sync flows much more smoothly

Jailbreaking with Firmware 2.1

A couple of things:

1. I think it is easier to use QuickPwn instead of WinPwn now to jailbreak the 3G on a PC. I used WinPwn the first time mainly because they came out with the ability to jailbreak on Firmware 2.02 first. Now, however, QuickPwn allows you to jailbreak with the latest firmware update (2.1). Plus, it is easier - you simply upgrade the firmware using iTunes, then run QuickPwn. It isn't necessary to build an IPSW file like in WinPwn.

2. To use QuickPwn to jailbreak an iPhone using firmware 2.1, follow these instructions
a. Use iTunes Version 8 to upgrade to firmware 2.1
b. Download Firmware 2.1 seperately
c. Download QuickPwn
d. Put QuickPwn and Firmware 2.1 in the same folder
e. Run QuickPwn and Follow the instructions

*quickpwn doesn't upgrade your firmware, it just jailbreaks it.

Links
1. iDevTeam blog post about 2.1

iPhone Mods - tips and tricks

I have been playing with my iPhone 3G a lot lately and having a lot of fun figuring some useful mods out. This reminds me of early computer days in terms of user-end changes and experimentation. Anyway, all of these ideas are stolen from other sites and just synthesized here in my logic - which is at the level of a retarded 3rd grader.

How to Sync Your iPhone on Multiple Computers (e.g. your desktop and laptop)

1. Download the free programUltraEdit

2. Find your itunes library

3. Locate the file "iTunes Music Library.xml"

3. Open the file with any text editor (e.g. notepad or UltraEdit)

4. Find the entry between the tags that follows "Library Persistent ID". The entry will be a long alpha-numeric entry.

5. Copy the entry down exactly on a piece of paper.

6. Close the file.

7. Make sure itunes is not running

8. On the other machine you want to sync with (e.g. laptop or work computer), open the file "iTunes Music Library.xml" in a text editor and, again, find the entry between the tags that follows "Library Persistent ID". The entry will again be a long alpha-numeric string of 16 characters.

9. Copy the entry down exactly on a piece of paper.

10. Now, replace that entry with the entry you copied in step 5 - don't change anything else. The new entry should also be 16 characters and match that on your first computer.

11. Use UltraEdit Hex Editor to open the file "Tunes Music Library.itl" (or "iTunes Music Library" on a Mac).
12. Select "find and replace" from the edit menu -- make sure Hex matching is selected, not ASCII
13. In "Find", enter the ID you wrote down in step 5. In "Replace", enter the ID you copied down in Step 9.
14. Choose "Replace All"
15. Save file and close it

How To Jailbreak Your Iphone

1. Download WINPWN 2.5

2. Download Firmware 2.0.2 IPSW

3. Plug in iPhone to USB

4. Power off iphone

5. Run WinPWN 2.5

6. Select the 2.0.2 Firware file when prompted

7. Follow steps to put iphone in DFU mode

8. WINPWN will shop up on iPhone with message to restore custom IPSW

9. Hold SHIFT button and push the restore button in iTunes

10. You will be prompted to select your IPSW

11. Select the ISPW you must built (it will be called something like “Custom_2.0.2” and will likely be in My Documents

How To Tether Your 3G (using your iPhone to get your laptop on the internet)

1. Jailbreak your Iphone

2. Download 3Proxy in Cydia

3. Download Terminal in Cydia

4. Create an “ad-hoc” network by right clicking on the two computers in the bottom right hand corner of XP or Vista

5. In the first box of the create ad-hoc dialog, type in anything you want for the network name. I named mine “3G Net”

6. In the second menu, select, “No Security/Open Access”

7. Create Network

8. You will temporarily lose your internet access as your laptop starts the ad-hoc network and leaves the wireless you were on

9. Now go to your Iphone

10. Go to Settings à Wi-Fi and your newly created Ad-Hoc Network should be listed there

11. Join that network

12. Now you need to write your new IP Address down for your Iphone by clicking on the blue dot to the right of the network name in settings

13. Write the IP Address down, you will need it in a moment

14. Now go to the “Terminal” program on the 3G

15. Type in “socks”

16. Nothing will seem to happen, but it does

17. Hit the home key

18. Go to Safari and then type in a URL (e.g. http://www.google.com)

19. Your Iphone won’t be able to get on the web through the Ad-hoc and will automatically switch to 3G but it will keep the ad-hoc network running in the background

20. Now go to your laptop and open up Firefox

21. Go to Tools à Options àNetwork à Settings

22. Click “manual proxy configuration”

23. On the last line that says SOCKS Host, type in the Iphone IP address you wrote down earlier

24. Type in 1080 for the port to the right

25. Click ok

26. In the URL of firefox, type in “about:config”

27. On the Filter line, type “socks”

28. Click on network.proxy.socks_remote_dns

29. This will change the value from “false” to “true”

30. In the URL box, type in a URL (e.g. http://www.google.com) and you should be good to GO!!!!

31. If you need more help, go to

a. http://cre.ations.net/blog/post/how-to-tether-your-iphone-3g-and-browse-the-web-using-your-3g-co

How to get NES ROMs on your Iphone

1. Download WinSCP on your home computer or laptop

a. It’s free at

i. http://winscp.net/download/winscp416setup.exe

2. On your iPhone, go to Cydia – you will need three programs

a. WifiToggle

b. OpenSSH

c. NES

3. Connect your 3G to a WiFi network

4. Get IP Address of the iPhone (Settings à Wifi à blue button on the right)

5. Disconnect the phone from the Wifi Network

6. Go back to WinSCP and type in the iPhone IP Address in the “Host Name” field

7. Type in “root” as the username and “alpine” as the password but DO NOT try to connect yet

8. Go to the iphone and hit “Toggle Wifi”

9. This will enable the WiFi and give a message that says “Enabling in 3 seconds” and then disappear when you join

10. Right when the message disappears, or just before, hit “Join/Connect” on WinSCP

11. The timing is important – otherwise the iPhone security features will load up and not allow you to connect

12. If you connect successfully a file explorer screen will come up with the iphone on the right side

13. Now you are ready for ROMs

14. ROMs can be placed in …..

a. You might need to create a directory called “NES”

15. To find ROMs, you need a torrent programs, like uTorrent

a. http://download.utorrent.com/1.8/utorrent.exe

16. Go to http://www.mininova.org and search for NES games

17. You can usually find all the ROMs as one zipped file

18. Download the file using uTorrent

19. Now you just drag and drop the files using WinSCP from your computer to the correct folder on the iPhone

How to Create Ringtones

1. First, you need to go to Control Panel à Appearance and Personalization à Folder Options à Show Hidden Files and Folders à and make sure that “hide extensions for known file types” is NOT selected

2. Go to itunes and select the song you want (if using itunes, you can’t do this with a song purchased through itunes).

3. Right click on the song and select “Get Info”

4. Put in the start and stop time of the ring tone you want to create in the dialog box (max = 40 seconds)

5. Select “OK”

6. Now, right click on the file and go to “Convert Selection to AAC” and click on this

7. Itunes will do some magic and the new file will appear

8. Right click on the file and select “display in Windows Explorer”

9. Find the file in Windows Explorer

10. Make sure that the file has the “m4a” extension – if not, see step 1

11. Select the file and right click on it and select “rename”

12. Rename the file from whatever.m4a to whatever.m44

13. You should get a message from windows telling you that this will be an unstable file. That’s good. If you don’t get the message, see step 1.

14. Go back to itunes and add the file into the library

15. Now sync or drag the file into ringtones

References and Software

1. How To Sync Your iPhone to multiple computers

2. UltraEdit

3. WinPWN 2.5

4.IPSW Files (Firmware)

5. iCafe

6. i dev team

7. Sleepers

Real Estate: Like a fun game for grown-ups

We have a house under contract here at 2540 West Maryland Avenue 33629 and closing is on July 2!





Buying a house so far has been a neat experience - especially because I was looking for location, price and equity more than granite counter tops, hardwood floors, and a jacuzzi style bath tub (can put all that in later).

Anyway, it looks like the hunt paid off and we were able to get a town home under contract two blocks west of Bayshore and just north of Bay to Bay. This is 2 miles from my work and about 2 miles for my wife as well. Plus we are less than a mile from shops and restaurants in Hyde Park.

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click on image for larger view of layout

click on image for larger view of layout

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We offered 28% less than their asking price and 20% less than any comparable house had sold for in the area. Originally, the property was listed at 240K. At that price, the home sat on the market for 80 days until the price was slashed to 199K. Then the home sat again for another 5 days until I came along.

At 199K, the house was at $148/sqft. In that area of 33629, especially compared to other very nearby townhomes, nothing really goes for less than $160/sqft. So, in reality, a house in relatively good shape (clean and well maintained, but out-dated) was already a good deal at 199K. Nonetheless, Money magazine (05/2008, 06/2008) predicts a continued decline in Tampa home prices. In addition, this house was offered by a seller who put no money/work into the home just before placing it on the market and had their mortgage 90% paid. In other words, they stood to walk with some money even if the price dipped. In addition, the sellers are in their late 70s and don't even live in-state at this time. The daughter is having to travel back and forth between Atlanta to deal with issues related to the house.

I took all of this into consideration when coming up with an offer of $126/sqft (170K).


We also asked seller to pay all closing costs (above the estimated fees and up to 6% of purchase price) and include a home warranty. The sellers had already offered to pay buyer's agent fees (it was on the face sheet) but we even increased that by $250 in the offer contract. In other words, I was trying to give the sellers things to negotiate before they went back to the price. My goal was to get the house at the offered price and walk into equity. I fully expected the seller to cut the amount of closing costs and cut the warranty. I also expected some movement on the price.

Let me say, I was pleasantly surprised when my agent called a few hours before the offer deadline to say that the sellers had essentially accepted EVERYTHING we asked for in the purchase offer. The only changes -- they found a cheaper warranty company and didn't want to increase my agents fees by $250 (no biggie though because there is plenty left in closing costs that can go to that). My agent definitely should get all the fees he can out of this because he has been great. We met last night at 10pm - as soon as he received the contract signed from the seller - to finalize the purchase offer. So, if you need a house you should definitely get in touch with Rob Wilson (rob@askrobaboutrealestate.com). Oh, and an aside, Rob used to run Ink19 - the music magazine from the 1990s that we lived by for planning Florida road trips to see bands play in the pre-internet era.

Let me give a plug to my lending company, Compass Bank. If you are looking for a Doctor's Loan Home Mortgage, this is the place to go. Specifically, get in touch with the mortgage broker Drew Daniels (drew.daniels@compassbank.com). I know there are few others out there (BOA, Suntrust, Tower) but Drew was able to still get 100% financing at a time when others were starting to have difficulty making that work. Plus, no PMI and I'm able to buy points to decrease the interest rate with the left over money at close. That parts kinda cool because I'm essentially getting a check from the seller to buy their house.

Well, no problems so far - now comes the inspection, appraisal and the joy of finding Home Owner's Insurance in Florida (a market where no one sells it any more thanks to the multi-Hurricane year in 2004).


One of the best things about the house is it's built in security and privacy. The garage and privacy fence are essentially all you can see/reach from the street and the garage can be used as the major entryway for residents.


After you come through the garage/fence, you enter the front patio. Notice the white door - what is not shown here (but is shown on the hand drawn figure above) is that this door goes into a small entryway that then has yet another door to enter the home itself.



This is the main living room after you walk in the front door - the front door is over in the left hand corner and this is taking from inside the room looking to the front.



The stairs are right in front of you when you walk in the door.


After you pass through the living room, there is a hallway with a bathroom on your left and a utility closet/pantry on your right.


Then you move into the dining room with the kitchen on your left


This is taken from the far part of the dining room, looking back towards the front of the house (kitchen on right and living room is down the hallway which has the bathroom and pantry).



One thing that is great about the place is it's size and the potential with that size. This room follows the dining room and is at the back of the house. It's large at 12X12 and was used as the TV Room/Family Room in the old home. We will likely use the front room as our main common area and forgo a formal living room (that never seems to get used anyway when people have one). This room will likely become a study or extra bedroom at some point.
There is a door on the left wall that goes to the outside back yard/patio.


There are 2 bedrooms upstairs, each is the same size. Each has a huge walk in closet. The windows have a view of the back patio in one bedroom and the front patio in the other. All of the blinds are nice wood blinds - no vinyl cheap mini blinds anywhere. Plus there are hurricane shutters (that's what the weird crank is on the left of the window).

They share this weird bathroom seen in the next picture:

The bathroom is really the only major house flaw. From one bedroom, there is an alcove (no door) that has a sink. Next to the sink is a door leading to the main part of the bathroom with toilet and bathtub/shower. Then there is another door that leads to another sink and toilet and is connected to the other bedroom. Yep, it's odd.


This patio is begging for a hot tub - don't you think? And the best part is the light maintenance that is required with the simple patio blocks and landscaping - no big yard but still a (fairly private) space outdoors.


This is taken from the corner of the backyard (where there is a little gate out to the ally) and looking at the back of the house.

USF COM c/o 2008 Video

I'm trying to use some of my off time this month and next to get back into wakeboarding and wakeskating a little bit. However, I've discovered some other cool sports that I didn't know about previously. Namely, wakesurfing and toe-in surfing using a jet ski to get past the break. More stuff to try....This documentary on wakesurfing is excellent and the huge waves on the toe-in surfing are incredible.

Wakesurfing

John McCain

Not going to vote for the Senator but still got a great opportunity get up close to McCain yesterday at Moffitt. I was a tool for the "young" face of health care along with about 10 of my med school colleagues as well as some other associated USF Health people (nursing students, a few attendings, etc). Still didn't figure out what's going on with the left face/neck area.....

I'm three rows behind McCain - the blue shirt floating in the background of the large woman with black hair on Sen. McCain's left side.

Video Here:
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/News/Politics/Detail;jsessionid=39A9020C22E62A3FFB2CC5E52280B57F?contentId=6420366&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.14.1&sflg=1

Real American!

The original photos in this video were taken circa 2001 (look the young Dr. Rockathon!). It has taken me about 7 years to get around to putting them together as a video. Fortunately, my procrastination paid off and there are some great new images that were integrated in with the originals. So, turn your volume UP and watch (the whole thing for some twists). Enjoy.

Match Day!

Yesterday was an exciting day as I matched into my top choice for residency training in emergency medicine at the University of South Florida/Tampa General Hospital. I know many of you are aware that this was an important goal that allows me to train in a great program with excellent faculty, opportunities and resources (and a brand new ED!). It also allows Christy and I to stay in Tampa. I’m looking forward to these next three years of residency training as a physician.



Below are some related links regarding match day.

USF Health profiled me on their main page (second story):
http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/now/?p=412


The Tampa Tribune also covered Match Day:
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/20/anxious-usf-medical-school-graduates-get-residency/?news-breaking
Photos from the Trib
http://snap.tbo.com/pages/gallery.php?gallery=324168

In addition, the St. Pete Times conducted an interview with me that should appear Saturday (assuming it doesn’t get bumped for real news).

http://picasaweb.google.com/alivinghominid/Matchday

My AHEC Talk

I'm giving the following talk as part of National AHEC Week (see below)

http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/now/?p=414

The Case for Single-Payer, Universal Health Care in the United States

Jason W. Wilson, MSIV

National AHEC Week 2008 (March 24th-28th)
USF AHEC luncheon Tuesday, March 25
Noon - 1:00pm / MDC 1097
Open Invitation to All USF Health

To mark the start of National AHEC week on Tuesday, March 25 USF’s Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program will host a luncheon & presentation entitled "The Case for a Single-Payer Universal Health Care in the United States". The thought provoking presentation will be delivered by medical student Jason Wilson, President of the Class of 2008.

"In order to resolve health disparities, we must focus on possible systematic and structural origins of outcome differences," states Wilson, a fourth year medical student. "A major area where we see large disparities between populations and individuals in this country is in access to health care services. Unfortunately, access is often limited due to lack of health insurance or inadequate coverage. Equal access won’t solve all of our health care problems, but certainly we can address many AHEC goals by working towards better policy and economic structure."

College of Medicine’s Class of 2008 President, Jason Wilson, and Cynthia Selleck, Program Director of USF AHEC and President of National AHEC Organization.

USF’s AHEC Program Director is also the President of the National AHEC Organization. Cynthia Selleck, DSN, ARNP, says AHECs plays an important role in the workforce development, training and education component of the nation’s health care safety net programs. "AHECs focus on improving the quality, geographic distribution and diversity of the primary care healthcare workforce and eliminating the disparities in our nation’s healthcare system." There are 54 AHEC programs throughout 47 states operating 208 centers in rural and medically underserved areas.

The March 24th luncheon on the campus of USF Health is open to all, with food provided by Gulfcoast North AHEC.

A Closer Look at USF AHEC and the national organization…

The University of South Florida AHEC was created in 1993 and has placed thousands of medical, nursing, public health and other health professions students in medically underserved and community-based sites to provide health care during clinical training rotations.

Congress established National AHEC Week in 2006 as an opportunity to recognize AHEC’s valuable contributions in the recruitment, retention, education and training of health professionals in medically underserved areas.

The College Cost Reduction and EMTALA

Linking Title IV of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act to EMTALA.

The benefits of the Public Sector loan forgiveness clause.

Recently, current medical students and residents received a scare after the passage of HR 2669 – The College Cost Reduction and Access Act. As many now know, the language in the bill would have ended the so-called 20/220 debt-to-income rule that allows most residents to receive economic deferment status of federal loan repayment during postgraduate training. It is possible to qualify for the 20/220 pathway if an individual’s debt burden is greater than 20% of income and if their debt to income ratio is less than 220% of the federal poverty level for a two person household. Any resident with $100,000 of federal loans (2/3s of all medical school graduates) would qualify for the deferment during all three or four years of post-graduate training.

Instead, the CCRAA would have implemented an income-sensitive repayment plan. There is an important difference between deferment and forbearance in regards to delaying repayment and many residents would have had to seek forbearance during their training. Deferment means that subsidized student loans will continue to be subsidized during the deferment period. When the CCRAA passed, 20/220 pathway to deferment looked to be out the window. Furthermore, the income-sensitive repayment plan proposed a cap on borrower’s repayments at 15% of their income with a minimum of $4,200 per year. This would result in approximately a payment of $350 per month beginning in 2009 and given residents and unwelcome choice between this large monthly bill or the accumulation of interest.

Here is the problem with that in comparison to the old plan: If you pay $350 per month during 3 years of residency ($12,600 over 36 months) you have essentially just taken a pay cut of about $4,000 per year and you will still owe the same on your loans as you would have under the old deferment model that paid the interest for you. Why? Assuming you have the maximum aggregate subsidized loan, you will only be touching the interest during that 36 month period – the interest that would have been paid by the government in the deferment model. Thus, residency salaries essentially decrease by $4K.

Fortunately, while the CCRAA did pass, the 20/220 rule was NOT eliminated thanks to hard work by the AAMC, AMA and AMSA. You can help ensure that the 20/220 stays intact by supporting S. 2303 and visiting www.ama-assn.org/go/cola for more information.

So, now that the fear of monetary loss has subsided, is there anything good about the CCRAA? Does it have any impact on EM or medicine more broadly? Well, indirectly the answer is “yes”, more directly, the answer is “maybe”. Let’s take a look at the CCRAA and explore some ways I think that the bill’s language might allow improvements in our own discipline by putting this law in the context of other federal legislature such as EMTALA (or at the very least brings in to question some areas of EMTALA that could be improved by further advocacy).

First of all, the CCRAA does some very important things that should be commended: the law increases the amount of a federal Pell grant by almost $1100 by 2012 and establishes a $4,000 a year grant for future teachers. For those of us in or near repayment, the new bill also decreases Stafford loan interest rates to 6.8% if disbursed between 2006 and 2008. Eventually, interest rates will be 3.4% for loans disbursed in 2012. The new law also increases grant funding through College Access Challenge Grants for underserved student populations. In addition, specific funds are disbursed to minority serving institutions.

While all of these aspects of the CCRAA are laudable, I would like to turn our focus to Title IV of the legislation. This part of the CCRA discusses loan forgiveness and outlines a program to increase public service employment among new graduates. More specifically, the portion of the bill allows for full Federal Direct Loan forgiveness after 120 months of income sensitive payments occurring simultaneously with 120 months of public service employment. Borrowers who have FFEL or other federal loans could consolidate/reconsolidate their loans under the Direct Loan program to qualify.

So, what qualifies as a “public service job”? Well, let’s look at the language of HR 2669. The CCRAA defines a public service job as follows:

A full-time job in emergency management, government, military service, public safety, law enforcement, public health, public education (including early childhood education), social work in a public child or family service agency, public interest law services (including prosecution or public defense or legal advocacy in low-income communities at a nonprofit organization), public child care, public service for individuals with disabilities, public service for the elderly, public library sciences, school-based library sciences and other school-based services, or at an organization that is described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of such Code; or Teaching as a full-time faculty member at a Tribal College or University as defined in section 316(b) and other faculty teaching in high-needs areas, as determined by the Secretary.

Is “EM physician” a public service job? I would argue that the answer to this question is “yes” for two reasons.

1. The language of the bill specifically states that those with a full-time job in emergency management are considered public service employees. Certainly, an EM Physicians manages patient services, an emergency department, as well as broader aspects of emergency care (including EMS and disaster planning). These are all components of the job duties found in emergency medicine physician positions.

2. Federal mandates to treat all comers defined by EMTALA specifically link emergency medicine services to public service. The ED is often the last resort for patient care in our current health care setting. There is a legal and ethical responsibility to treat every patient that enters our doors and this responsibility is taken up by EM physicians when other fields refuse. This treatment, however, does not come with any guarantees for reimbursement nor are we protected from litigation resulting from undesired outcomes. The services we provide to the community and the risks of increasing our legal exposure during difficult cases suggest that we provide a public-service as a full time job. Thus, EM physicians should be eligible to qualify for the loan forgiveness provision.

When the CCRAA was passed this year, no one envisioned the potential burden to current and future medical residents. This was an unintentional consequence and, once it was pointed out, was quickly resolved. Now, we are left we a CCRAA that will likely be modified to make the 20/220 pathway permanent. Therefore, we can turn our attention to positive aspects of the CCRAA. We have invested heavily into higher education in this country. The interest on our student loans will finance education in this country for the next generation. Thus, as heavily invested shareholders, we have a stake and claim to an associated piece of legislature that affects the economic and monetary rewards of that system. The recognition of EM physician as a public service job will lead to some relief from a heavy loan debt for many young members of this field.

The issue of funding in relationship to EMTALA can be taken a step further (and outside the context of the CCRAA). This debate reminds us that, while we are obligated to treat all-comers to the ED, there is no guarantee of monetary reimbursement associated with that responsibility. Whether we work through the language in the CCRAA or not, we must continue to advocate progress in the current structure of EMTALA. More specifically, until funding and exposure issues are resolved, we will continue to fail at resolving the problems laid out in the 2006 IOM report on emergency medicine. The on-call shortage is inherently linked to this issue and, in the current context of medico-legal liability, it is up to us to find creative approaches at raising awareness to the problems that exist within emergency medicine. If that means using a new law as a tool for advocacy, so be it.

gay marriage amendment isn't just about gay marriage

The Florida4Marriage group has 587,000 signatures out of the 600,000 required to force an amendment on the 2008 ballot banning gay marriage. Aside from the irony of the group's name (kind of like the "clean air act"), notice also the timing. Doing this in 2008 - a presidential election year - is simply a good bait and switch tactic.

The Republican presidential candidate will not be strong enough to bring swarms of voters to the polls, but an intense hatred of homosexuals should certainly do the trick. And hey, while there, why not go ahead and vote for Rudy/Romney/Fred

Tampa Tribune Story

Apple 3rd Generation (3G) Nano -- How to get TV Out setup

Bottom Line:

1. If you have a TV/DVR or Cable Box with composite video (3 RCA inputs - red, white, yellow), you need the Apple Composite Video Cable.

2. If you have TV(HDTV)/DVR or Cable Box with component video (5 RCA inputs red, blue, green + 2 audio inputs), you need the Apple Component Video Cable.

*The Apple Universal Dock is not required for this setup but does allow you to use a remote control.

Okay - here is how I figured this out after much tinkering and a few trips to my local apple store. This was written as I was doing things, so some aspects are resolved with the notes above.

First, let me note that the problem is mostly related to those who have composite, not component video. Meaning, if you only have composite video input (just the yellow RCA input jack with the red and white audio inputs) instead of component video, then things seem a little more difficult. Let me explain.

If you have a more fancy-schmancy receiver such as HDTV or some DVR boxes (but not mine from Brighthouse), then you will likely have the red,blue green inputs. If you have the component video input, along with stereo input (a red and white input jack), then all you need is the new apple component video cable . This can be plugged in directly to your ipod and your receiver and you should be good to go.

Now, if you only have composite video (the red, white, and yellow inputs), you will need another route. Okay, first of all you will need the apple composite video cable and you *might* need the apple universal dock as well. I will explain why I say *might* below.

Alright, here's the problem I ran into though. My local apple store didn't have the apple composite video cable - they only had the third party version made by monster (the itv link cable ). So, I bought that cable and went home, hooked it up to my ipod and to my yellow,red, white inputs on my DVR. Of course, I set the settings on the Ipod to TV out, selected a video and then hit play. What I got was an ugly picture of a 30 pin cable on my Ipod screen and the message that "TV Out is selected Please connect output cable". Grrrrr....

I then went back to the apple store and picked up the universal dock . I went back home, put my ipod on the dock and stuck the monster cable into the back and hit play again. Okay, now some progress. The video showed up on the TV screen and looked pretty good (like a DVD). BUT.....NO SOUND! I double checked the cables, everything was in the right place.

Frustrated, I took the Ipod off the dock, with the video still playing, and plugged the monster cable directly into the ipod -- booo-yah! Sound and video and no error message!!!

So, here's the really weird thing - I have to do this EACH time I play a video. If I try to play a video with the monster plug directly in the back of the ipod, i get the error message. If I play the video with the Ipod in the dock, NO SOUND. Instead, I have to start each video with the monster cable plugged into the dock and the apple on the dock. Then, after it's playing, I have to take the ipod off the dock and plug it in directly to the monster cable. Weird, but it works.

Now, my plan is to order the apple composite cable and see if it works better than the monster cable. Plus, I wonder if you can bypass the dock with the actual apple cable since I really don't know what the actual role of the dock is in the process since my technique is jury-rigged.

Okay, the final thing I will say is that the old way of doing this - with a 1/8" cable plugged into the line out of the ipod or the dock, no longer works at all. In other words, don't buy this apple ipod AV cable - it's useless with the new nano

Well, I hope this rant helps someone who is having the same problem - and if anyone knows a way for me to do this with less rigging, please do let me know. Thanks.

**Update -
My Apple Composite video cable arrived today via FedEx. I plugged it in directly to the Nano and to my input on the DVR. Everything worked great first try - none of the rigging described above with the itv link cable by monster (that's going back to the apple store today). Only small glitch is that the sounds is a bit low and requires the TV/stereo receiver to be turned way up - but everything else is fine.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300233