August 8, 2005 on 2:00 pm | In Making | 4 Comments

I think his (female) secretary thought I was some kind of loony, and
there was a long (and muffled) discussion with the engineer before they
said he’d come and take a look, but apparently he is going to turn up
tomorrow to remove the “screen of potential doom” from the old mac.

It’ll probably take them 5 minutes and they’ll say I’m a big girl for not doing it myself, but I’d rather not risk death, ta.

Anyway – blogging about it has succeeded in giving me the kick up the arse needed to phone and book the engineer. Hoorah!

August 8, 2005 on 9:25 am | In Making | 1 Comment

Now it’s time to cram all that working electronics and software into the old box.

First we have to open the box – not that easy; we need a really long
Torx screwdriver. They’re a bit of a pain to find but after much
effort, the back came off. Sheild your children’s eyes, it’s a naked
mac!

Just one
problem: there’s a 9 inch monitor in the way. Even though it’s tiny,
that’s like a giant capacitor of doom and spikey hair electrocution
death. Eeep!

So we need to dicharge all that built-up electricity; fortunately I know a man who can do this:

It should make an almightly BANG when it dicharges… waiting for it… waiting…

Hey, what gives? No bang??

Ok, now I’m confused. We did what you’re supposed to do and it didn’t
make any noise or short out or anything! Grrr. At this point my
fearless assistant decides that he’s not so fearless any more. This
gives me the fear.

I’m not touching it, so it’s time to call in
the professionals… there may be a slight gap in the next update, as
I’ve caught up with the current progress! Still trying to find / get
around to sorting out someone to take the big electrocution death bits
out of the mac. Suggestions gratefully received! (apart from “get off
your arse and do it,” I’m aware of that one.)

�