So As Not To Spend More Money Posted on 06/22/09 When I heard about the upcoming iPhone 3GS I was excited. My iPhone 3G had a cracked screen that was getting worse by the day and I'd convinced myself that $299 was actually reasonable in lieu of taking on the risky effort of repairing my own phone. Then AT&T dropped the bomb that current iPhone 3G customers would have to pay a hefty $200 surcharge, on top of the $299, and in addition to extending your contract for two years, to get the new phone. Suddenly the repair effort seemed like the way to go, if only to avoid being intentionally screwed by AT&T! I'd originally noticed just a crack, but started losing pixels about a week later. Because of the pixels, I assumed that both the glass digitizer and the LCD were destroyed. Here I'm running the free Flashlight app so you can see massive number of the dead pixels. I bought the replacement parts from a dealer on eBay for around $80 including priority shipping. In addition to the digitizer glass, the LCD, and the adhesive pieces, they included a set of written instructions with a link to a video on YouTube, as well as all the tools I'd need to do the job (the toolkit, the suction cup, and a paperclip). The first step was easy, and not scary at all. Pop out the SIM tray, and remove the two screws from the bottom. The simple stuff ended here. Next, the small suction cup is used to pull the home-button end of the screen assembly from the phone. I can't remove it yet though, because three minuscule ribbon cables are connection this assembly to the motherboard. I've already disconnected the cables in this photo, they're numbered 1, 2, and 3, almost as if Apple had expected people to do this. While number 1 and 2 just pop off their connectors, number three slips into the connector and has a small white locking tab. Obviously the hardest part is that until you've done it once, you're scared you'll break a connector or rip a cable. It all came apart nicely though, the aforementioned video helped. The next part is to remove six incredibly tiny screws holding the screen assembly together. Two dozen of these screws would fit on my thumb nail. Once the screws are out, you have to apply a little pressure to separate the LCD from the glass digitizer screen. This part didn't go well and my broken LCD broke a little more, but eventually they came apart. At this point I learned that my glass screen wasn't actually cracked at all. This is good because it meant I didn't have to pry the thin plastic carrier and home button assembly from the glass, saving me a step that could involve breaking something that isn't already broken. It also means I can sell my new digitizer glass and adhesive pieces on eBay. You can see the ugly cracks, now worse than before, in the LCD panel. Here's the back of the new LCD panel, with it's mirror finish after removing some protective film. The metal piece is the carrier and is simply stuck on with some exceptionally thin adhesive strips which you can barely see running down the edges of the LCD panel. These were already in place, and revealed when I removed the protective film. Once the LCD and carrier are stuck together, the six tiny screws mate it back up with the digitizer glass. Here you can see the three ribbon cables sticking off of the completed screen assembly. We've come to the absolute hardest part of this entire process, getting ribbon cable 3 reinserted in the appropriate connector. It took me a few tries and some stressful minutes trying to get it into place, worrying that I might scratch or damage it somehow in the process. Argh. Once done, cables 1 and 2 were a snap, literally. At that point I lowered the screen assembly down onto the body and lined up the two external screws that hold it in place before I thought to take any photos. After tightening those up and reinserting the SIM tray, it's time to boot the sucker up... waiting... stressing... It works! Again running the Flashlight app so you can see the screen. It works wonderfully. The only thing that seems to be different is that if I put pressure on the screen it seems to flex ever so slightly. It's probably impossible for me to get a factory seal on the gasket that surrounds the screen. And once the rubber case I use is on the phone I can't even feel the flex anymore. I love it when a plan comes together.   Permalink   Share Farming The Suburbs Posted on 05/10/09 Amy took Mother's Day off and we built a few new raised beds and planted everything we bought at Tatham's yesterday. We've got peppers (yellow, red, green, and jalapeno), tomatoes (roma, cherry, and beefsteak), an eggplant, broccoli, brussels sprouts, zucchini, string beans, yellow squash, zucchini, and a strawberry plant that made it through the winter and is already bearing fruit. We even have a few sunflowers in the brick bed next to the house!   Permalink   Share Mud Be Gone Posted on 05/09/09 Finally, we can unload the car without standing in the mud between the concrete driveway tracks. Not much more to say. It went pretty well, I'm happy with it. I still need to figure out something for the areas just outside of the concrete tracks, on the lower end of the slope. You can see that we drive over the gras turning in and out of the driveway. I'm thinking I may just pick up some random stone the next time I'm up at the PA house. At some point I'll pick up another 500 bricks and take it all the way back to the fence, and fill in the space between the driveway and the house as well. I found few people on Craigslist selling used bricks for about a dime each, so that's definitely a possibility, maybe in the Fall. I definitely need to put some kind of stabilized surface beneath the Westy before next winter, even if it's just gravel, since it just sinks into the grass right now.   Permalink   Share Free Brick Posted on 05/08/09 I dig all of this brick out from under our back porch, not a place I like spending time, as you can see. About a third of them needed to be cleaned of old mortar, which wasn't too bad. I'll be using all of the brick to finish up as much of the driveway project as I can. There's probably almost this many more under the porch, but they're currently laid down as a floor in the dirt. Before I'd be able to get them I'd need to get everything else out and then buy enough gravel to replace them under there. You can also see the collection of retaining wall block that the previous owner left behind. I've used a few to build a small raised planting bed in front of the house, and I have some ideas about what to do with the rest, but that's for another post. Also visible here behind the house is one of the barrels I'm planning to use as composters, and an old Rollfast tandem I picked up a few years ago.   Permalink   Share Shrubbage Posted on 05/03/09 Finally got those shrubs planted. Korean boxwoods of some kind. You'd think I'd be more specific, what with my fancy landscape architecture degree and all. Yeah, you'd think.   Permalink   Share Dark Roof, Light Roof Posted on 05/01/09 I'm glad I took this picture when the roof was only half cleaned, so you could see how dirty it was. This is what happens when the thing sits in the woods in Pennsylvania for a few years (at my old place). A nice white roof should keep the interior a degree or two cooler in the sun, right? Looks like I may have to clean out those cargo box drains pretty soon. Gotta get this thing all cleaned up for the Maine trip this summer.   Permalink   Share Brick, Block or Window Well? Posted on 04/19/09 Not sure what to do about this. You may not be able to tell from the photo, but I had to dig down three or four inches to expose the sill on this basement window. The board on the ground was installed as kind of a dam in front of the window, and the earth had been piled up against it. I'm trying to figure out what to do here. My first instinct is to pull out the window, call a mason, and have him (or her) simply brick it up. I have three other perfectly good windows in the basement, none of which are below grade. in fact, this particular window happens to be six feet from the side door, so egress definitely isn't an issue. I could remove the window and replace it with glass block, but it'll still be below grade, so that probably won't help me. The cheapest, easiest alternative is to dig down and install in a window well, but I've never liked them. Not sure what I'm going to do, but I need to decide soon. I want to dig up this area and plant tomatoes before it's too late.   Permalink   Share Formerly the Dining Room Posted on 03/29/09 Other than when we had guests, we rarely used our dining room. Bearing this in mind, we've converted it into a playroom for the baby. Just need ot pick up some baby gates and it's all done.   Permalink   Share Old Bricks, New Use Posted on 03/28/09 The center part of the driveway is grass, and mud (mostly mud), and we keep driving over it, making it worse. Walking over it, or unloading the car means dragging mud into the house on your shoes. Not pretty. Behind the house, under the porch, there are stacks of old building bricks which I'm going to use to fill in as much of this as possible. I know it's not the perfect paver, but it's free, so it works. I only had a few hours to work on it, and as you can see I didn't finish by quitting time. I used up the clean bricks that I had, as well as some of the easier to clean ones I could find. Once I find another free day I'll get back under the porch and pull out every single brick I can, and spend a few hours with a hammer and chisel cleaning off the old mortar (which is a strangely satisfying job actually). I know I have enough to pave up to the transition, but I'd love to go another five or six feet so there's brick under your feet when you're unloading the car. If I have enough, I'd also like to pave some kind of apron on the right side of the drive where we're driving over the grass. Oh, the stack of block next to the porch is actually not brick, or even paving block, they're the trapezoidal blocks used for retaining walls. I think I have about a hundred of those as well. Not sure what I'm going to do with them just yet.   Permalink   Share Foundation Bedding Posted on 03/18/09 Well, I dug the bed, now I just need to buy some shrubs, topsoil, and fertilizer, dig some holes, plant 'em, backfill, mulch, water, weed.... on the plus side, even without the shrubs it already looks a hell of a lot better than it did. Yes, I'll touch up the paint, although what I'd like to do is replace all the shingles.   Permalink   Share