I recently bought a new computer. It has headset connectors in the front. A pink one for the microphone, and a green one for the headphones. Just like a laptop. Sweet... until you try to use it. Apparently this machine has a "Realtek HD Audio" system that is absolutely crazy.

While setting up the machine I didn't have speakers plugged in; rather I was just using a simple audio headset to listen to streaming audio, and take part in the periodic Skype call. My daughter has a little battery-powered stereo speaker that she uses to listen to her iPod with when she isn't in an earbud mood. I asked her to bring it to me. I pulled the headphone plug out and plugged the speaker into the front panel audio jack... and the music died.

No amount of tweaking the audio settings could get it back, although Winamp's little bar graph indicated that the music was still alive in there somewhere. A reboot was in order.

Unfortunately, after the reboot the sound was still somehow disabled; although all settings were right. It took a hard-reset (Power off, switch off the power supply and toggle the PC Power switch in order to discharge the mainboard's residual power.) in order to get the machine working again. Finally the machine came up and made sound. Unfortunately every time I unplugged something from the front panel audio jack, the same thing would happen again.

I called EVGA, the manufacturer of the mainboard in my system, and actually got an english speaking, American with no discernable accent and real technical knowledge! It sounded like he might have been in Denver, or Chicago, or Iowa!

I could tell he was actually listening, thinking, and troubleshooting with his actual brain ... not reading from a script and regurgitating canned, disjointed 'answers' in hopes that I would eventually get annoyed and hang up. Moreover, he answered the phone in less than five minutes! I was stunned.

He walked me through some debugging and determined that I had a bios that was two revisions out of date, so I downloaded the new bios. He also suggested I go to the Realtek site to get the latest reference drivers for the audio device. In less than ten minutes of dialing the phone, I had real answers from a real person with real technical knowledge! EVGA boards may be a little more than their competitor, but WOW! What service! I'll never buy an Asus or Abit or Chaintech, or DFI, or Biostar, or HP or Dell ... again! I am an EVGA customer for life!

I flashed the bios and installed the latest drivers, and tried again. This time, I got the dumbest piece of useless information I have ever gotten from a computer. When I unplugged the heaphones, a flash-popup came up and said, ...

Well, thanks Mr. Computer. Did it hurt?

I realize some computer users sport less than what should be the minimum amount of intelligence required to operate a toaster, but is the computer telling me everything I am doing, really useful?

   "you just pressed the 'y' key."
   "you just pressed the 'o' key."
   "you just pressed the 'u' key."
   "you just pressed the ' ' key."
   "you just pressed the 'j' key."
   "you just pressed the 'u' key."
   "you just pressed the 's' key."    "That was a lot of typing. It may be time for a break."

Just plain stupid. But the real gem was when I plugged the headphones back in and was greeted with this beauty of a dialog...

Yeah! That's right... "What device did you just plug in?" Well, Sherlock. I plugged it into the color-coded headphone jack in the front of the computer. Perhaps it was a, ... hmm, HEADPHONE!?!?

Apparently my sound device has the ability to re-task all of the jacks on the machine. Color coding means nothing. Um... how long did it take what team of idiots to come up with this TOTALLY USELESS PIECE OF $#!* TECHNOLOGY??, and why are my audio jacks still color-coded? But the most important question is... WHY IS THIS CRAZY SETTING THE DEFAULT?!?!?

Well, if you came here from a Google search that hit on some keywords in this article, and you have read this far thinking to yourself, "YES! This is the EXACT problem I am having!"; then here is how to make your ill-designed Realtek audio device work with some semblance of sanity.

I am using Vista 64-bit Ultimate, so the instructions may vary a little for you.

• Click the start button and select "Control Panel"
• On the left pane, select "Classic View"
• You should have an applet called "Realtek HD Audio Manager". Click it and you will get something that looks like this...

 
I just want to stomp the stuffing out of that stupid smiling crab in the bottom-left corner.

• In the top-right corner, click on "Device Advanced Settings". You should see this window. 

• Select "Separate all input jacks as independent input devices" and click [ok] to close the window.
  
• Then right click on the green, "Front Panel" jack and select "Connector Retasking".

• De-select the checkbox next to "Enable auto popup dialog, when device has been plugged in" and click [ok] to close the window.

Now, your Realtek device will behave like a productive member of society. When you plug a headphone into the front panel "headphone" jack, it will disable any speakers plugged into the rear panel and assume you know what you are doing. Later, when you unplug said headhones, it will re-enable the normal speakers. Who said Windows was easier than Linux?

Shame on you Realtek.

I use canned air to clean my keyboards, computer fans and other things around my office. Only recently the canned air makers have begun to include a "Bittering Agent" in canned air in order to prevent inhalant abuse. The problem is that it makes the canned air unusable.

After only a little use, my office smells horrible - pungent and tangy. You can't get the taste out of the back of your throat for quite some time. It has got to be horrible for your health. I am terribly disappointed that the compressed air manufacturers have ruined this product in order to prevent slack-jawed morons from frying their brains.

I remember a few years ago there was a lot of news and "awareness" campaigns about how babies were drowning in 5 gallon, plastic buckets. The kind that paint or pickles come in. Some people even went so far as to suggest that the government pass a law mandating all bucket makers put holes in the buckets so that they wouldn't hold water. Fortunately they were laughed out of the room.

Unfortunately the compressed air makers succombed to demands to make the air so putrid that nobody wants to be around it. It has totally lost its usefulness and I will now look for alternatives.

I think the kind of canned air that is used for hand-held air horns isn't "bittered". Maybe I can find a screw-on trigger that will allow me to use that for cleaning my stuff.

If anyone knows where I can find clean, canned air, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Today's rant is on the 'After-Greeting Message' that cell phone carriers insist on forcing all of your callers to listen to whenever they get your voice mail.

"Press One To Send A Numeric Page"

When is the last time ANYONE sent a numeric page. It has got to be sometime before the turn of the century. This is a totally useless feature that should be disabled by default.

"To Record A Message, Wait For The Tone"

Well DUH! Who doesn't know how to leave a freakin' VOICE MAIL ?!?!?!?!

"When You Are Finished Recording, Press Five For More Options"

AARRRGGHHH!!! I don't give a RIP about more options! I just want to leave a message and get on with my day!

This is a classic case of technology making our lives worse instead of better. Can you imagine if other mundane things constantly puked out unwanted tutorials?

Elevator: "The elevator door is about to open. To leave the elevator, please place one foot in front of the other while facing the door. Once you have exited the elevator door, continue on with your day. If you would like to go to a different floor, please use the numeric control pad and press the appropriate button."

IPod, before each song plays: "To play a song, use the patented click-wheel to select an artist and song, or simply select a song from the list. The click wheel is also used for adjusting the volume and changing settings."

Toilet, when you enter the stall: "This toilet accepts personal refuse and associated hygeine products only. To make a deposit, bend at the waist..."

Well, I think you get the idea.

Obviously these things are absurd. Why isn't the stupid voice mail after message any more absurd?

I called AT&T (my carrier) today and asked to have that whole message thing turned off. They said they couldn't turn it off, but they could disable the ability for me to receive numeric pages, which would decrease the size of that message by about 60%.

However, they were wrong! Disabling the ability for me to receive numeric pages TOTALLY ELIMINATED the post-message (after-message) IN ITS ENTIRETY!

My cell phone's voicemail system works like an old-school answering machine now!

"I'm not here, blah blah blah. [BEEP]"

Beautiful.

Hint: You can't do it yourself. You have to call AT&T and they will tell you it can't be done. Just ask to have the ability to receive numeric pages turned off and it should work.

I found another good post on the same topic...

http://www.thoughtsonthings.com/archives/2006/01/to_send_a_numer.php

My comment to his post looks remarkably like the last part of this entry.

I took a nerd test and apparently I am a Nerd King.

If you bother to take the test, then rest assured, you are a nerd.

I recently downloaded and installed the trial version of JetBrains ReSharper and I am so happy with it I can't see straight. This is by far the best developer plugin for Visual Studio that I have ever come across. I haven't paid for it yet ($149 for the C# edition, $50 more for the full version that covers VB as well), but I plan to.

I have a license for CodeRush, but I found the learning curve to be too extreme for me to live with it. I know it has a strong following and it seems like a powerful tool, I just didn't have a week to learn it. I also wasn't keen on disabling all of the things that annoy me about it, becuase I move from computer to computer often and don't want a laundry list of mods I have to make to the IDE before I can use it.

ReSharper just installs and works without completely changing the way I work. I have been using it for about two weeks and these are what I think are the most important features...

• Robust, Awesome intellisense inside ASP.net markup:
  You heard me! The script blocks inside AS*X pages is more than fully supported. Coding inside an as*x page is now just as nice as coding inside a .cs page. 
• Real time code analysis:
  As you type, ReSharper checks your code for errors and gives you immediate feedback in two places; Inside the text editor (squiggly line style) and in the Resharper gutter. No need to compile a huge project looking for compiler errors anymore. WHEE!
• Code completion on Steroids!
  I am leery of code completion without my explicit command, but I have gotten used to the way that ReSharper does it and I love it.
• Code Formatting:
  ReSharper gives you warnings (orange markers) for all redundant usages of "this." (they are everywhere if you are working on a team. People really seem to love "this."), unused uses clauses, redundant delegate assignments, etc... Heck! It even analyzes your xml files and tells you if they are well formed and if not, where any issues may be. Brilliant!

There are many more features listed in their feature list, but those are the ones that have most impressed me so far. Download it and give it a try. It'll make you a better, more efficient developer. GET IT!

FYI: After receiving the latest iPhone update (to revision 1.1.4), my phone wouldn't connect with my bluetooth headset anymore (a Plantronics Voyager 510). The phone's bluetooth settings showed it was still paired, but it refused to *hook up*.

I un-paired it and re-paired it and is solled the prolen.

I ordered a customized HP dv9700t laptop on January 27, 2008.

HP Pavilion dv9700t customizable Notebook PC Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit) Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) 17.0" WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1680 x 1050) 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS FREE Upgrade to HP Imprint Finish (Radiance) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone!! FREE Upgrade to Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and BluetoothTM!! 240GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (120GB x 2) HD-DVD ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer!! HP ExpressCard Digital/Analog TV Tuner High Capacity 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery System Recovery DVD with Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit)

GT**AV

1

$1,782.99

$1,682.99

Great price for such a beefy machine, eh?

The problem is that, even though I paid an extra $50.99 for expedited shipping, at the completion of the order I was informed that the build date will be February 22, 2008! Almost a FULL MONTH after placing the order; BEFORE IT EVEN SHIPS!!!

Well, I need it, but am waiting patiently. I figured that date was a huge safety net they created for themselves so that they could keep from getting backlogged, but it seems now that it will take the full TWENTY SIX DAYS to build the laptop.

I purchased an HP over a Dell because they have much better specs than Dell at a cheaper price. Plus, Dell doesn't even offer some of the features that HP does, like the full-size keyboard. But what Dell does do is offer a build time of roughly two weeks, compared to HP's almost FOUR!

I like HP laptops and am sure this one will serve me well, but am more than a little torqued off that it is taking so long to get it assembled.

Oh! and if you noticed that this too is a negative post, I have decided that I prefer griping about the bad things in technology, to singing the sunshine and lollipops song.

In preparation for the big game this Sunday, I was reviewing old Super Bowl ads from the past years. I came upon this montage of all of the Budweiser Frog and Lizard ads from 1995. Only the first one was shown on the Super Bowl. The rest of them came out over the course of the next year.

Enjoy...

Reading through my posts, I notice a decidedly negative streak of late. I am not normally a negative person, so I can't explain how this has happened. Maybe bad things have just happened to this good person.

I am going to strive to be positive from now on.

By the way, the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2400 W prints beautiful, full color pages. it doesn't do too bad with photos either, as long as you are using good photo paper; but if you want good, archival quality photo prints, you have to use dye sublimation.

Additionally, Netgear makes great products. Get some.

WebHostAutomation's "Helm" server control panel is buggy and quirky. If you have a hosting business and can afford a staff of developers, you might want to write your own. If you can only afford one guy and he is good at troubleshooting, then Helm is pretty cheap.

I won't say anything nice about Windows Mobile or spammers though; and you can't make me. Nyah!

If you have been reading below, you see that I tried to install a Netgear print server only to run in to sever problems with the installation. If I wasn't a professional computer guy, I'd have given up and returned the stupid thing to the store. That's why there are so many of these refurbished devices on the market. That should have been a clue.

Once I finally found a website where the user was kind enough to share his experience getting the stupid thing set up, I connected my Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2400W to it and discovered that the manufacturer had crippled the printer such that it just plain won't work with a print server device.

How can regular computer users ever be expected to accomplish something so mundane as to connect a simple network print server to a simple printer and share it with other users? These manufacturers have a LOOOONG way to go before the computer and its associated peripherals can be easily used by people who don't earn a living solving computer problems.

... or maybe they are all in collusion with the Geek Squad?

I bought a Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2400W from Sam's Club for about $250 because it was a pretty fast color laser with relatively inexpensive, individual cartridges for each color. It also has a very good print quality. However, since I have had it, I have decided that it isn't worth the many and unrealistic cons.

Cons:

• Windows only. (Drivers page)
  There are no Mac or Linux drivers available for this printer and there never will be. if you decide to get a Mac or maybe try Linux ... tough.
  
  
• Terribly network unfriendly.
  The driver for this printer WILL NOT properly deploy to networked machines. In order to connect to the printer over a network, you must download and install the driver, then manually connect to the printer. If you want to share the printer with your peers, then you should've spent more money, as Konica-Minolta has purposefully crippled basic networking functionality in their driver in order to force the printer into the "consumer" category. Nevermind the fact that most consumers like to share printers with each other.
  
  Come on KM! It isn't like we're sharing needles!
  
  
• Will NOT work with a standard print server device.
  I purchased a Netgear WGPS606 wireless print server, but the Magicolor immediately throws an error when connected to it. Konica-Minolta is unrepentant and unhelpful; actually just plain silent with regard to questions about the issue. Like the driver problem, their attitude seems to be, "tough noogies. If you want a printer to share, we want more of your money".

If you want a color laser printer, are planning to connect it directly to your PC and will never share it with anyone, then the Magicolor 2400W may be an ok choice. But for a modern home or small business network used by people who want to share their printer with others, the Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2400W will be quite a disappointment. Other printers are far friendlier and more capable. You may spend a little more for toner, but that is a small price to pay for an uncrippled device.

Shame on you Konica-Minolta and your slimy marketing department! Your engineers should also be ashamed of themselves for not defying your demands to cripple an otherwise finely crafted piece of hardware.

I just got a Netgear WGPS606 wireless print server / 4-port switch. Seems nice, but the box was supposed to come with a CD in it. It did not. Unfortunately Netgear expects you to use the wizard on the CD in order to configure the device and doesn't include any documentation on manually connecting to a printer on the device. They also don't provide a download for the missing wizard application in case you lose the disk, get a defective package like I did, or want to print from a Mac, Linux or other OS.

A lot of Googling led me to this fine resource ...

http://www.sapphyre.org/documents/netgear-wgps606.html

He does a great job explaining how to get the item up and running without the stupid wizard CD. Shame on you Netgear. Your total lack of concern for your users is shameful.

By the way, Greg Nesbitt was kind enough to not restrictively copyright the document, so I made a text file backup here, just in case his page goes away someday.

There's this German website called "Publicons.de" that allows you to build a little image-based signature thingie like the one below.

Unfortunately the entire site is in German and I don't understand German. But this little weird, cool thing gives me a tremendous idea!

"A buffer overrun has occurred in HelmInstaller.exe which has corrupted the program's internal state. Press Break to debug the program or Continue to terminate the program."

What exactly is an "illegal number"?

I just wanted to weigh in on the whole "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" controversy to say that

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 

is a hexadecimal number that is equal to 

13,256,278,887,989,457,651,018,865,901,401,704,640.

That is ...

Thirteen undecillion, Two hundred and fifty six decillion, two hundred and seventy eight nonillion, eight hundred and eighty seven octillion, nine hundred and eighty nine septillion, four hundred and fifty seven sextillion, six hundred and fifty one quintillion, eighteen quadrillion, eight hundred and sixty five trillion, nine hundred and one billion, four hundred and one million, seven hundred and four thousand, six hundred and forty.

and that's a lot. If it were in dollars, it'd be more than I have. 

More Information on 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 

I recently installed Winamp, because I like the little program and enjoy using their Shoutcast streaming services. Unfortunately Winamp hosed my file associations such that I could no longer launch streaming radio files (*.asx) from IE. Whenever I'd click one, it'd ask me if I wanted to save the file...

   "Do you want to save this file?"

I understand that some people get...

   "Save Target As"

Many sites give instructions to go to the File Types tab in Windows Media Player 11 to reassociate the asf and asx files with WMP, but mine doesn't have a file types tab. After some digging, and a few wrong emails from tech support people at clear-channel and other places; I have figured out how to fix the issue. Remember, this is in Windows Vista (Ultimate in my case), Windows Media Player 11 and IE7.

- Close all instances of Internet Explorer.

- Navigate to ... Start | Control Panel | Default Programs.

- Click on "Associate a file type or protocol with a program".

- Sort by Name and scroll down to .asf. It will likely say the default program is Windows Media Player, but it is lying. In my case WinAmp had hijacked the extension, but wasn't working.

Bad Winamp!

- Double click the .asf file extension, select "Windows Media Player" and click [OK].

- Do the same thing for .asx files

- Close all little windows and restart IE. Clicking on an asx or asf link should now launch Windows Media Player rather than asking you if you want to save the file.

Daylight Saving Time ends in the US on November 4, at 2:00 AM in your respective time-zone. Fire departments across the country recommend that you change the batteries in your smoke detectors at this time, because it provides a convenient, twice-yearly reminder to do that, and because properly operating smoke detectors save lives.

Some people refer to the summer time shift as "Daylight Saving(s) Time", which is incorrect. The word "Saving" is used an adjective. It describes what we are doing with "time"; namely that we are saving it. In other words, Daylight Saving Time is the kind of time that saves daylight.

Not that it actually "saves" daylight; rather it moves a little daylight from morning to evening, but nobody is proposing we call it a more appropriate name, like "Daylight Moving Time", or "Daylight Shifting Time" or "More Daylight Up In The Evening Time".

Nevertheless, many people feel that it sounds better to call it "Daylight Savings Time" so they arrogantly and purposefully call it that without regard to whether it is correct. Other people do it out of ignorance, the same way I hear people say "eckspecially", or "assumably". Arrrgh!

But I digress.

I have been using a Palm Treo 750 phone, based on Windows Mobile and I have to say... not one good thing about it. Nothing chaps my hide more than having my OS crash before I get a call. The phone rings but none of the buttons react to answer it. Not just that, the entire OS on the phone is pure junk.

I just bought an iPhone and am so blown away by the design and total integration of the OS, that I have to rethink all of my technology decisions. Apple has made all of the phone manufacturers sit up and take notice. Those who haven't had better.

Mobile IE is so bad that 'crap' is a compliment. To call the internet capability on a windows-based mobile device, 'crap' is to insult animals and insects that eat crap. The dung beetle is an intelligent, advanced, and respectable creature next to the MS product manager in charge of Windows Mobile. He is a total failure and must be fired immediately, if not charged with the violation of some law. IANAL but there has to be a statute somewhere that would apply.

Microsoft needs to totally throw away the entire mobile OS division, fire everyone, burn down the building and create a brand new division, staffed entirely with new people (preferably young people that all own iPhones and have never used or even seen a windows mobile device), funded with mad coin, and tasked with creating a totally new operating system for mobile devices. The new OS needs to be modular, scalable, and fast. It needs to not resemble, nor retain, a single feature from their current, abysmal offering.

I used to be mildly annoyed at the foibles of Windows Mobile, but since I have owned an iPhone (five hours now) I am officially offended. My mother once went to the home of a very wealthy woman in our town to visit. When she returned, I asked her what she thought of the woman's house and she said, "It makes me want to come home and throw rocks at all of my things". That's how I feel now about Windows Mobile, except it is no longer 'my' thing.

My Treo 750 goes up on EBay now. I hope I can craft an ad that will will bring more than fifty cents. The batteries alone have to be worth that as they are usable in a PalmOS-based device.

This morning I woke up my monitors and noticed that there was a skype message on my screen from a user named "Security Center". It was a Virus Propagation attempt. It read...

WINDOWS REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ATTENTION
=============================

ATTENTION ! Security Center has detected
malware on your computer !

Affected Software:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
Microsoft Windows 2000
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows Win98
Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Impact of Vulnerability: Remote Code Execution / Virus Infection /
Unexpected shutdowns

Recommendation: Users running vulnerable version should install a repair
utility immediately

Your system IS affected, download the patch from the address below !
Failure to do so may result in severe computer malfunction.

[ ... Link Removed ... ]

Of course Microsoft NEVER sends out notices like this vie Email, MSN Messenger and certainly not through a third party application like Skype. If you got this, then just close the window and *NEVER CLICK THE LINK!*

Be proactive in protecting yourself. If it looks fishy, then it probably is. If you are concerned that you may need an update from Microsoft, then bring up MS Internet Explorer, Click Tools -> Windows Update and run the updater. It'll tell you if you need any valid downloads from Microsoft.

Unfortunately Skype doesn't have any means by which we users can report violations like this. Paypal at least has an email address "spoof@Paypal.com" to report spoof emails, but apparantly Skype doesn't care about criminals using their service to spread this type of malware.

Here's a screenshot. I used the pasted text instead of the screenshot earlier in order to trigger the Googlebots.

Yeah Baby!

... Speedmaster too.

I picked up a new 2007 Triumph Bonneville America yesterday. When I bought it I had done my research and knew I wanted to replace the pipes, pull the AI and install the K&N Air filter system in order to get the most performance and economy as possible out of the fine 865cc Parallel Twin powerplant. So far I have driven it about 250 miles in stock condition over the past twenty-four hours and I now am familiar enough with the machine to know I want more performance and more noise. The dang thing sounds like a sewing machine.

While rolling into Deckers Colorado earlier today, I spied a two-year old (2005) Speedmaster that sounded beautiful. I talked a bit to the rider and discovered that he was running sceptre exhaust and the K&N air filter setup. He had indeed removed the AI and was happy to report that the mods had increased his horsepower by roughly eleven ponies. Giddy-up!

When I picked up the new TBA, I also picked up the AI removal kit. It didn't come with any instructions, but the mechanic at the shop said, "well, you take this 5#!t out and pull out any 5#!t connected to it, plugging the holes as you go."

I felt empowered.

I Googled and Googled, but didn't find any instructions on how to do it. After a little prayer, I decided to give it a shot myself. Turns out the mechanic's instructions were pretty good. When I did it, I had my ten-year-old daughter Sydney (self-portrait included) take pictures and I have written up an illustrated, step-by-step guide for pulling the AI out of your TBA/Speedmaster. I don't warranty these instructions and blah blah blah... Of course, you are on your own. If you break your new bike following my instructions, you're dumb.

Let's get started.

Here is the subject in question. A factory new, stock 2007 Triumph Bonneville America with about 270 miles on it.

Here are the contents of the AI removal kit I bought at the Triumph dealer in Denver.

First, we need to remove the seat(s). If you have the speedmaster seat then you must figure this out on your own. If you have the factory America setup with the pillion, here's how...

• Grab under the back of the pillion, slide the plastic trim out and flip it down. This opens up a hole through which you can insert a 8mm nut driver and easily unscrew the bolt holding the pillion down.
  
  
  
• Next, push the pillion forward about a half-inch and lift up, in order to disengage it from the bolt at the front.
  
  
  
• Next, remove the seat bolt from the rear of the seat. Lift and pull backward to remove.
  
  

Now we will remove the cluster and fuel tank.

• Remove the fuel tank by removing the bolt at the rear...
  
  
  
• Remove the fuel cap and three allen screws from the console...
  
  
  
• Disconnect the electrical connection to the console and set the console aside.
  
  
  
• Turn off the fuel petcock and with pliers, slide the fuel line clamp back and remove the fuel line. (I didn't take pictures of this.)
  
• Carefully lift the back of the fuel tank and slide it backward. reach up under the front of the fuel tank and pull the vent hose from the connection. Remove the tank from the frame and set it somewhere safe.
  
• Here is what the tankless, seatless bike will look like...
  
  

The instructions for removing the air injectors from the top of each cylinder is only photo-documented on the right hand side. Repeat each step on the left side as well.

• Locate the air injection tubes on the top of the cylinder next to the spark plug. Break the silver clamp with a pair of pliers and remove it.
  
  
  
• Slide back the hose clamps on the hose segment on top of the air tube and remove