Archive for June, 2007

LED Fan makes cool air and art

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

This is one of the cooler things I’ve seen come from ThinkGeek in a while. This LED Art Fan has 42 LEDs mounted on the fan blades and has 5 MB of memory to hold up to 128 individual frames.

ThinkGeek says, “The LED Art fan works with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and requires a serial port.” This may leave some in the dark, especially if you, like me, use a Vista laptop with no serial ports. At $349, the price heats things back up, but it’s still a pretty cool idea and definitely a conversation piece for your next party.

Would you buy one at $349? If not, what price would you buy at?


Iphone date announced

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007

Apple iPhone

Apple and AT&T ran a series of three new iPhone ads Sunday night, each ending with the Apple and AT&T logos and the caption “Coming June 29.”

The three ads, entitled, “How To,” “Never Been an iPod,” and “Calamari” started appearing on the East Coast around 7 p.m. on Sunday during CBS’s 60 Minutes. They can now be viewed on Apple’s Web site.

Each ad focuses on specific sets of iPhone features, such as Web browsing, sorting through pictures and iTunes albums, watching widescreen movies, and, yes, even taking and receiving calls.

During last week’s D Conference, Steve Jobs told The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg that the “late June” iPhone release date remained firm.

“Like the last day of June?” Mossberg asked.

“Yeah, probably,” Jobs replied. June 29 falls on a Friday.

Sony DSC-P41 Camera Repair 101

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007

OK… So this only works for MY problem and I really grabbed the answer from a forum, but here’s my detailed version:

The problem:
In Portland two Thursdays ago, I was taking photos of Reliquary’s set. I didn’t drop the camera, get it wet, or do anything else that would make me assume it would stop working, regardless, it stopped working properly. I could get into the pictures to view them, but in camera or video mode, it just showed a black screen with the message, “Turn the power off and on again”. I suspect the cause was my turning the camera off an on a lot because the problem is the lens cover sticking closed. I believe I wore out the lens cover motor.

The Solution:
(DISCLAIMER: Proceed at your own risk! If you do this and break your camera or anything else bad happens, don’t cry to me.)
1. Remove the batteries and memory card.
2. Remove the two screws in the battery compartment. (see image 1)
3. Remove the two screws on the bottom of the camera. (see image 2)
4. Set the screws aside and label them. (see image 3)
5. Open up the camera. (see image 4)
6. Pull the two pieces out of the front camera piece. Be careful for attached wires, but I got mine open without disconnecting anything.
7. Force the lens cover open by turning the larger black gear clockwise. This took some force on my part, so don’t be afraid to push hard, but be careful of all the exposed components (like the nearby lens). (see image 5).
8. Put it all back together in the reverse order from how you took it apart.

Sorry about the blurry images. With my camera not working, I had to use my camera phone.
Battery Compartment Screws

Bottom Screws

Label your screws

Open the camera

Move the gear