Making the Intuos4 work with Windows 8 and Adobe Photoshop CS5

The pain of early Windows 8 adoption continued with the realization that my Wacom Intuos4 tablet no longer appeared to be functioning properly from within Adobe Photoshop CS5.  Specifically, the pressure sensitive features on the brush no longer seemed to have an effect, and there was this annoying little "radar blip" that would form every time the pen would touch the surface of the Intuos.

A little online digging revealed this is a known issue, and apparently has something to do with the new pen tablet functionality integrated into the Win8 OS.  While Wacom works on a proper driver patch, implementing the steps below (pulled from here and here) followed by a reboot seemed to do the trick.  Note that these involve a few registry hacks, so the usual disclaimers apply about bricking your box if you step on a landmine while in the registry...

• Create the following keys using regedit.exe

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\TabletPC]
"TurnOffPenFeedback"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\TabletPC]
"TurnOffPenFeedback"=dword:00000000

• Modify group policy (GPEdit.msc) to disable dynamic pen options

User Configurations\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\TabletPC
Cursors- Turn off pen feedback set to "Enable"
Hardware buttons - Prevent Press and Hold set to "Enable"

• Modify the Control Panel | Pen and Touch settings

Ensure that 'Press and Hold | Right Click' is checked/enabled. Set the speed
to the longest possible setting (all the way right) and the duration to shortest setting (all the way left). Do not the disable press and hold setting, as you will get lag dragging and scrolling.

• Modify the Control Panel | Wacom Tablet Properties settings

Ensure that under Options, the Side Switch Mode is set to Hover Click.

• Modify the following keys using regedit.exe

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Cursors]
Modify the key ContactVisualisation from 1 to 0
Modify the key GestureVisualisation from 1F (31) to 0

After applying the steps above, the tablet now appears to be behaving properly...

Building a new workbench

The old workbench in my shop has served me well over the years, but ultimately was not what I needed to meet the needs of my upcoming 2013 project list.  A quick trip to Home Depot and I had all the parts I needed for a replacement.

• 1 - 4x8 sheet of red oak plywood
• 5 - 2x4s

I used some 2 1/2 exterior decking screws leftover from a previous project to hold things together, as well as recycled some casters to make the base mobile.  A few hours later, everything was cut/prepped/assembled.

At the moment, the desktop surface is just sitting on the legs;  I'll need to make another quick run to depot to get a few small 90 degree brackets to permanently attach it.

Repairing a NERF Vigilon

Santa brought the kids some NERF disc launchers for Christmas, and it appears that we received one made by one of his less competent elves.  The outside appearance was fine, however the trigger wouldn't budge.  We went through the steps in the instructions to clear a jam (although nothing was in there to be jammed, it was a new toy), but it ultimately had no effect.

After going through the normal set of engineering diagnosis steps (tapping the gun against the palm of my hand, pounding it on the floor, cursing, etc.), I decided to disassemble it and see if a repair was possible.  Once the outer shell was removed, it was fairly apparent that something was blocking the trigger mechanism.

I have no idea what the underlying problem was, but suspect that the assembly was missing some springs that were meant to keep the tabs in a lowered position.  I had no confidence that I'd be able to reassemble the internal shooting assembly if I took that apart (odds are that some little plastic part would break), so I instead decided to remove the offending plastic cylinders with a hacksaw.

After the tabs were removed, the trigger moved normally.  I reassembled the NERF disc launcher and everything appears to be work properly now.