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iPod with Sad iPod Icon fixed by Google and Digg!

January 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Last Saturday my iPod froze up. After applying the reset (Hold on, Hold off, press and hold Menu and Select at the same time), the screen displayed the Sad iPod Icon. Fearing my podcast and audio book listening days were not over but put on indefinite hiatus, I drove home and entered the URL the iPod displayed: http://www.apple.com/support/ipod.

The results there were less than encouraging: try and reconnect your iPod to the computer (sorry, problem didn’t occur while connecting to the computer), or send it in for repairs. Well, we’re talking an almost 4 year old iPod here, so any repairs would probably cost more than the iPod is worth (heck the shipping cost is probably more than it’s worth…!). So I decided to use Google to see if anyone had an alternative solution.

This leads me to a Digg article, that pointed to an article “How To Fix an Ipod with the Sad iPod Icon” on Spilling Coffee. The basic solution boils down to:

  1. Put something on your desk (a stack of paper works great) to prevent your desk from getting damaged (don’t worry about the iPod)
  2. Grab the iPod firmly, with the connector pointing down
  3. Slam it on the stack of papers on your desk

The idea is that the hard disk connector can come lose enough not to make connection anymore, but still be attached enough that a good bang will snap it back into place.

So with a heavy heart and closed eyes I banged my iPod on the desk and performed another reset. Lo and behold, the menu appeared! And faster than it had done on previous resets!! Thanks Tom Coffee!

Warning: banging your iPod on your desk may cause damage to desk, iPod, or anything else in the vicinity. It worked for me, but it may not work for you. Banging your iPod is a serious form of Apple fan-dom…

Filed Under: Macintosh, Music Tagged With: , , , , ,

I spilled milk on my keyboard – now what?

July 28, 2008 By 7 Comments

My wife posed this question to me about a week ago. She spilt some milk on her keyboard, and wondered what was the best way to handle it.

A little bit of Googling revealed the following steps:

  1. UNPLUG your keyboard. No ifs buts or whatevers.
  2. Try and get as much of the spilled beverage out of the keyboard.
  3. If it was water, let the keyboard sit and dry for at least a day, preferably a couple of days. You should be OK after that.
  4. If it was anything else (especially sticky liquids), try the dishwasher. Place it in the dishwasher (top rack if you feel brave and want to use the heated drying – I wouldn’t).
  5. Add soap. You don’t need any of the additives, to make glasses sparkle etc. and it may actually be harmful to your keyboard.
  6. Close the dishwasher and turn it on. Don’t use the heated dry cycle – it may melt your plastics.
  7. Remove the keyboard from the dishwasher once the cycle is completed.
  8. Shake out any left-over water.
  9. Let the keyboard dry for a week. You may want to remove the keys to allow the board to dry faster, but I think a week in a fairly dry environment should take care of it.
  10. Plug and pray.

I claim no responsibility for any keyboards harmed during this process, but if your keyboard is not working around step 3, you might as well try this.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Emergency Party Button

May 12, 2008 By 3 Comments

A nice weekend home automation project: the Emergency Party Button.

The Emergency Party Button turns an ordinary apartment into a full-blown disco, complete with laser, black lights and fog machine. The guts of the whole system is the X10 protocol, that is used to send a signal from the Big Red Button to a transceiver module, which in turn forwards it to computer. The computer then runs a script turning off lights, closing blinds, and turning on black lights, laser, strobe light, fog machine and music.

The whole project sets you back a little over $600, but you can probably get some of the items cheaper (the button, including hardware and X10 transmitter, cost the maker about $170). Unfortunately, the only thing I know about the maker is that his screen name is plasma2002.

Check out the video to see the end result:

(Via Lifehacker)
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Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: , , ,

Ars Technica’s guide to building a new computer

April 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Ars Technica is presenting their latest installment of the Ars System Guide, discussing three setups for a DIY computer.

I’m still planning on building one, but with the new financial burden new baby, I’d have to go with the budget box.

Ars Technica’s Budget Box consists of the following components:

  • Asus M2A-VM HDMI motherboard
  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Retail (Socket AM2) processor
  • 2GB DDR2-800 RAM
  • PNY GeForce 9600GT video card
  • Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA hard disk
  • Samsung SH-S203B DVD/CD reader/writer
  • In-Win C589T case
  • Logitech X-240 speakers
  • HP w2007 20″ LCD
  • Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
  • Logitech Keyboard

Sound and network are integrated on the motherboard. Total price as of March 23rd: $831.78.

I used to think the budget systems were under $500, but I guess that’s a different category (Poor Slob System?). Regardless, this system includes some components we may already have laying around. For example, most people have a monitor, keyboard and mouse they can use on their new system. Even the DVD/CD reader/writer may be usable. And how about a spare case?

If I try to re-use an old hard disk, and start out with the on-board video (ATI Radeon X1250 chipset), I’d only have to buy the motherboard, RAM and CPU. Which means the breakdown becomes as follows:

  • Motherboard: $77.50
  • CPU: $64.99
  • RAM: $52.99

Total price: $195.48. Now that’s respectable, and even allows me to add a hard disk and a DVD drive and still end up significantly under the $500. Time to start saving I guess!!

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Let your plants twitter with you

March 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

If you’re like me, you’ve tried keeping plants around, but they seem to die after a week or two. It took me a while to figure out that these green things need water. I always forget to water them, though, switching my attention to much more interesting things (i.e. geekier! :-) )

What if your plants could remind you to water them? And what if they did that by twittering you? They would get my attention, for sure.

Botanicalls has a Do-It-Yourself article on how to make a moisture sensor, hook this up to your computer, and install some software to translate the incoming “I am dry” signal to an actual Twitter message. You need to have some basic soldering skills, and not afraid to hook up something you created to a computer. The components can cost you up to $100, depending on what you have laying around USB and power wise.

It looks really interesting, but unfortunately the plants I have/had are a lot less than 100 dollars, so I’d rather buy a new plant.

Filed Under: Network Tagged With: , , ,
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