Best Resturants in Jacksonville

Jacksonville  has many great restaurants, will many still having good Southern charm and character.   (I’ll be adding descriptions and more details later)

If you ever find yourself in Jax and want to go to restaurants that are unique to Jacksonville, check out these:

Lunchtime:

Best Subs:  Angies  (Get the Peruvian Sub)
Best Sandwich: Chew
Best Taco Salad:  Cleo’s
Best Seafood: Chowder Ted’s
Best Hamburger:  Cruiser’s Grill
Best French Fu-Fu Food:  JJ’s French Bistro
Best Brunch:  Casa Marina

Dinnertime:

Best Southern Food:  Barbara Jean’s
Best Thai: Lemongrass
Best Asian:  Bento’s
Best Mediterranean:  Zaitoon (the Paella is amazing)
Best Mexican:  TacoLu
Best Italian: Benitos
Best German: German Schniztlehouse

In St. Augustine:

Caps
Conch House
Columbia

BBQ:   Jacksonville also has many BBQ chains around town, including the first Bono’s.  Bono’s has quick, cheap, tasty meals (that can be healthy if your careful).

Using a ATT Blackberry 8800 with a Dell D630 Laptop

It took a very long time to get my Blackberry to work with my Dell D630 laptop.       I originally had problems because my Dell D-630 was pre-installed with a Toshiba Blackberry Stack that never seem to work with the Blackberry.     It took a very long time but I only had success after I updated my bluetooth hardware ID in the Bluetooth INI file and then had Windows re-recognize it so that it had both the Windows and Toshiba profiles in Device Manager.   {See Dell D630 Win XP Bluetooth Issues (Switching to the Better Windows XP Bluetooth Stack )

Steps I used to use my AT&T Blackberry Data for my Laptop:

1. Turn the Blackberry Bluetooth On and make it Discoverable.    In MANAGE CONNECTIONS you’ll need to activate Bluetooth, and then go to Bluetooth Options.    From there click on the Menu/Blackberry button and choose Options.     You’ll want to change the DISCOVERABLE option in this menu to either 2 Minutes (if your fast) or Yes.
2. Go to your Bluetooth Devices and ADD a Device.    It should then search for devices and locate your Blackberry.    I had problems getting it to pair without a password, so I provided Windows Bluetooth Manager with the option to create a paring code and used something simple.  (like 0000).
3. You will need to accept this on your Blackberry, which is probably asking for the code, and you’ll want to type in what you just entered.      YAY!!   At this point the Blackberry should be Paired  with the Dell D630
4. Test to see if the Computer Notices the Blackberry as a Modem.     Go to the “Phone & Modem Options” area in the control panel, and you should see where a modem was recognized by Bluetooth.    Click on Properties -> Diagnostics -> Query Modem.    When you Query Modem, you will need to ACCEPT the connection on your blackberry – and you should see commands from the Modem/Blackberry.
5. Then setup the Modem and a Connection to work with the phone:

• Properties -> Advanced on the Modem
  1. AT+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”WAP.CINGULAR”
• Add A New Internet Connection
  1. If you use GSM/Cingular/AT&T/TMobile/SwissCom: Enter phone number *99#
  2. ….If you use Cingular Blue, AT&T or Nextel:
     ………Username: (blank)
     ………Password: (blank)
• Disable IP Header Compression:
  
  1. 1. Start Menu->Network Connections->”BlackBerry Modem”
     2. Click Properties Button
     3. Click Networking Tab
     4. Select “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)”
     5. Click Properties Button
     6. Click Advanced… Button
     7. Disable “Use IP header compression” checkbox
     8. Click all OK buttons to close all dialog.

YAY!!   Now the connection should be set.   When you attempt to use it the first time, you will have to accept the connection on the Blackberry.  It would probably be easier if you choose for the Blackberry to not ask you that question again.

Dell D630 Win XP Bluetooth Issues (Switching to the Better Windows XP Bluetooth Stack)

The Dell D-630 comes pre-installed with a Bluetooth Toshiba Stack driver.     This Bluetooth Stack never worked for me – including the ability to use my AT&T BlackBerry 8800 or my Logitech Headset.    I even read on some blogs (including Johny’s Journal: http://www.varromedia.net) that the Blackberry Software won’t work with the Toshiba stack, and requires the Windows XP Bluetooth software.    I tried multiple times with the latest versions of both the Dell/Toshiba software and the Blackbery software.

I tried uninstalling the Toshiba Bluetooth Stack hoping that it would re-recognize the hardware and use the Windows Bluetooth, but it didn’t work out that easy, so you have to do the following.  (Again, many thanks out there to Johnny’s Jornal and other blogs which found this).    The Blackberry, Dell, Microsoft, and Toshiba websites really did not provide any help for this at all.

1. Remove the “Bluetooth Stack for Windows by Toshiba”  software in Add/Remove programs.      Restart Your Computer.

..Here is where things get tricky and where I would have always been stuck..

2. Identify the correct hardware data for your Bluetooth Device.    This can be done by going into the DEVICE MANAGER {System}.  Since there will be no drivers for the bluetooth device, this hardware will probably have one of those problem yellow exclmation marks by it.  You’ll need to go into this devices Properties.     On the Details Tab you can choose HARDWARE IDs from the dropdown, and you will get the hardware ID that is needed.    In my case it was USB\Vid_413c&Pid_8140&Rev_4870.   People with D-630′s may have different IDs so its important that you check.   I also wasn’t able to copy this, so I carefully typed it into a Notepad.

3.  Update the Bluetooth INI File  (c:\windows\inf\bth.inf). You’ll want to make a backup of this file before changing it.   When you scroll down in this file, you will see a Device Section, and there will be a few lines for the Toshiba Bluetooth Device.      Mine was under a category section [Toshiba.NT.5.1].   In the first line under this area, you will see:   TOSHIBA Integrated Bluetooth= BthUsb,  XXXX.     XXXX SHOULD be the Device ID that you identified in the Device Manager.   It will probably look similar to your device ID but won’t match up exactly.   You need to replace this XXXX on the first line only with the correct hardware ID that you got in step #2 above.

YAY!!!  After this file is saved windows will now have the correct hardward ID for the bluetooth stack.

4. Now, we can update the Bluetooth software to use the Windows Driver. Go back to DEVICE MANAGER, Right-Click on the device and choose the option to UPDATE DRIVER.     You will want to install it from a specific location and put in  c:\windows\inf\ in the path.   From here, windows should identify and install BOTH the TOSHIBA Intergrated Bluetooth -AND- Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator.

Thats it!!  You will now have the better bluetooth stack on your machine!

Note:  This will cause your Bluetooth status light to remain on.