Gadget

I like to visit Kevin Kelly’s CoolTools site everyday, and this week there was a wonderful review for something called a PocketMod.

Apparently there is a way to fold a single sheet of paper into a mini-notebook, and you can do it by just using regular paper, but this PocketMod program allows you to customize your notebook by dragging-and-dropping lists, games, grids, calendars or whatever onto your pages. It’s nutty! (You can even include the directions for how to fold and cut, which I did.)

I may just have to say ‘goodbye’ to the little pieces of card stock I keep in my back pocket. This is awfully, awfully cool.

I hear you sighing. That’s right, I’m trying to help the world again.

Many weeks ago I spilled some pop while eating, and since I eat in front of the computer, some splashed on the keyboard. (The last time that happened we had an ancient computer and Lloyd just frowned at me, disconnected the keyboard, and told me to wash it off in the bathtub. I was aghast, but apparently it was fine once it dried. Either that or he just replaced it after I’d learned my lesson.)

Well, you can’t wash off a wireless keyboard. I’ve just lived with a sticky ‘2’ and ‘Q’ for a while now, and it hasn’t been such a problem. Tonight, though, I thought I’d try to clean it. (Warning: this is very, very boring.)

I first watched this video, which is good, but shows the guy removing them from the bottom, since his is an iMac laptop. I learned (by kinda breaking my ‘2’ key a little) that Mac wireless keys need to be removed from the top. Here are some photos:

First I tried a bamboo skewer, since that was the video showed. This is a re-enactment, though, since the first time I tried from the bottom, and I snapped apart an important little piece inside. It was fixable, though. (This is when Lloyd figured out that the key needed to be popped off from the top. He didn’t know what I was doing until I said, “Oops”, then he sighed heavily and came to my rescue.)

Instead, use a nail file. You can get under the key, lift it, then turn it until it pops off. Go slow.

Here’s what the underside of the key looks like. The bottom of the key is toward the left. The pieces on the right are what ‘pop’ when you twist the nail file, and the pieces on the left are hinged onto little pegs on the bottom of the mechanism under the key. It lifts right off.

Man, that is a weird close-up of my fingerprints.

I cleaned the pop residue off with alcohol on a cotton swab, and put it back on. (I was able to snap back together the part I broke. It’s like a little folding chair inside, and my ‘axle’ had popped apart.) Anyway, lift the top (my keyboard is upside-down) of the folding-chair thing so you can slip the bottom hinge on, then press down on the key.

Done and done.  They work much better, but I realized a bit ago THAT I ALSO NEED TO CLEAN UNDER THE CAPS LOCK KEY.

SORRY FOR THE BORING POST.

For me, the fun part of going to the surplus auctions is looking at all the weird things that are sitting around and trying to figure out what they’re supposed to be and what they’re used for. Most of these items don’t come with instruction manuals, so you have to look at all the parts and how they fit together and imagine what it could possibly do. It’s fun.

This contraption was there on Saturday, and I’ll just let you take a look at the photos and you see if you know what it is. I’ll post our incorrect guess, then our correct guess, then proof of the correctness. Good luck!

Ok, I changed my mind. The rules to Bossy Lauren’s Game now go: Make your guess in the comments, then come back and click here to see what it is. Or, do what you want – apparently I can’t control you, dang it.