First Compressor and Nail Gun

I finally decided to join the millenials and upgrade for a hammer to a nail gun. This was after years of being in denial, thinking it was a luxury I didn't need, and generally believing most people were still getting by with hammers.

Some recent projects I've done just would have been so much easier with these modern wonders. I recently framed a music band practice room and updated all the mouldings in a bedroom. At least for the bedroom I borrowed a friend's Paslode gas powered finish nailer.

I bought this combination kit after walking by it many times in my local Home Depot:



It was tucked away on an end-cap display with a price reduced sticker. I got it for $99! I checked online and it originally was listed for $249, but I think sold for $199. Anyway, I figured even if the guns are junk at least the compressor looks pretty good and I didn't own one.

Impatient, I used it last night to secure some baseboards in the music room and put up two pieces of exterior siding. I managed to do both without shooting myself. So far so good.

Next I'm going to whip together a dog-house. Should be fun!

What's going on

Gas just crossed (north) of $4 / gallon here in Charlotte. My lifelong talent for good timing continues to amaze me. We bought a Chevy Suburban, the largest land yacht on the market, last summer when gas was a paltry $3/gallon. What great timing.

Well, we all make mistakes, eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNgaVtVaiJE

scary

iPOD Repair: Changing the hard drive and battery

My stepson's 30GB iPOD video bit the dust a couple of weeks ago. First the hard drive started making a clicking noise and then it failed to synch up with iTunes. I knew right away the hard drive was dying and none of the "reset" or "software reload" solutions had any effect on it.

So I decided to see if it was possible to fix it instead of trashing it. It initially seemed an intimidating prospect. After all their cases are smooth and sealed without a screw or hatch anywhere.

I'd read about the website rapidrepair.com so decided to check there first. They sell replacement parts as well as do the services themselves. They're probably the best recourse for someone a little to cautious to attempt it themselves. I've never been that sensible however.

After finding out the hard drive details (it's actually a Toshiba Model MK3008GAL) I searched the web for sources. Most of the places I found sell them for over $100. I bid on a few on ebay but kept losing out. Eventually I decided to buy one direct from an ebay retailer who specialized in new replacement parts. I got a battery and a set of case-cracking tools from another ebayer at the same time.

The parts arrived and last Saturday morning my stepson and I sat down to change them out.

The case opening tools are basically two plastic levers with sharp, flat, ends. You work them into the sides of the case and pry gently, them work them around the perimeter until the aluminum back separates from the plastic front. The iPOD then opens like a clamshell. You have to be very carefuly and go slowly because the hard drive will fall out and the ribbon cable connecting it to the motherboard is very delicate. There are two other cables connecting the slider switch and battery from the back to the motherboard.

I opened up the connector on the motherboard that holds the ribbon cable to the hard drive. Then the whole drive came free. We transferred the cable and blue styrofoam and plastic edge covers from the old to new drive. Next we inserted the cable back into the board connector and clicked the connector closed.

The battery replacement was a little easier since the new battery came with a connector cable. Basically we just unplugged the old, plugged in the new, and glued the new one to the case where the old one was.

Working gently, we made sure everything was in place and put the case back together. It snapped together securely and we were off to see if it worked.

We hooked it up to iTunes which prompted us to do a restore and software update. Both worked with no problems and my stepson was able to reload his library. After letting it charge for 4 hours or so he took it on an overnight trip. The next day he reported that it worked perfectly and the battery life was like a new one! Mission accomplished.

Next I'll try and buff out the scratches from his display. Apparently there is a product called "Applesauce" available for $20 from rapidrepair. However, those who know me know that I'll look for a cheaper solution!

Charlotte, NC: Criminals Welcome!

The owner of a billiards hall in an upscale Charlotte neighborhood was recently nearly murdered by a 20 year old career criminal. This scumbag has been charged with 50 crimes so far yet was still out on parole due to soft judges in a softer state criminal justice system. This is the same state that allowed criminals who were on probation to end two extremely promising lives in Durham recently (Eve Carson and Abdijit Mahato.)

Thankfully this pathetic governor is on his way out. Unfortunately his slew of crime coddling judges are still in office.

This state needs a governor with the guts to stand up for the law abiding citizens. Keeping career criminals on the streets is ridiculous! Criminals in this state obviously don't fear the punishments, and with good reason.

Let's make the punishments more severe and bring fear back to the criminals!

Write to your elected officials and let them know you are sick of such leniency!

"Can only access google sites"

Yesterday (or last night really) I was in the Las Vegas airport waiting for the redeye to leave and wanted to use my aircard to catch up on web-related stuff. However, after connecting with VZ Acess Manager, I could only load my google pages (either google main or news.) The news links were up-to-date but I could only see the google results. Trying to goto the source article didn't work; my browser timed out after several seconds of waiting (I have no patience for slow page loads.)

I was monitoring the throughput rate and it was zero for every page I tried except google. I thought it was a problem with Verizon's EVDO system and didn't have time to mess with it fully.

Actually a few hours earlier at CTIA some colleagues were using my computer to access webmail. IE seemed to work fine then. The terminal was too crowded to mess around with it then.

When I got to Atlanta (at 5:30 am) I tried it again and still no luck. So I ruled out the Verizon network. Just in case it was spyware/malware I did a restore to the prior day. I had time to determine that it still wasn't working. I tried running my registry cleaners (ccleaner and tune-up utilities) without any luck.

Finally I got home and after a short nap did some research on another internet pc. I searched for the phrase "can only access google" and found a lot of hits. However, there wasn't just one solution. Most of the solutions involved highly detailed malware troubleshooting which I just am not into.

I did a restore to an earlier date, about 3 days ago, and the problem was resolved. I'm not sure what caused it but it must be related to a webmail site or something.