First coffee outside the farmer’s market this year! Unbelievable start to spring in Halifax. I’m told that it is technically still winter until 2:30 this afternoon – but my bubble will not burst.
Archive for the ‘Try this at home’ Category
Next Page »DIY Birch Laptop Stand
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Working on my laptop was starting to treat my spine badly. Not just a physiotherapist’s concept of poor posture — rather — actual discomfort that I could notice myself. It didn’t take too long after reading The DIY Cheapskate Laptop Stand for me to adapt that nice bit of work into my own version made of solid wood. Birch to be precise – left over from a stair tread that I butchered for another purpose. Call me paranoid but there’s something about hardwood propping up my laptop that is more comforting that corrugated cardboard. I’m sure the engineers out there can prove there is nothing to fear, but better safe than sorry.
I don’t have any step-by-step instructions or pictures if you want to try this at home — but — you can get a complete set of plans for the cardboard version from the same article that inspired me. Here are a few photos of the finished laptop stand in solid birch.
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- Birch Laptop Stand Raises Screen Height 20cm
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- Birch Laptop Stand Holds a 15″ MacBook Pro, and up to 17″
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- Cross-bracing and solid birch provide the strength
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- Sanding made the surfaces even, for a stable laptop base
Wallpaper on the cieling
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Our house has had one of those fluorescent tube light fixtures that are normally used to illuminate factories. You know, a big rectangle with crystal-textured semi-transparent plastic that houses two long tube lights. Why the previous owners installed this monster in a small bedroom is beyond me – but that’s not what’s really weird.
This photo shows wallpaper – on the ceiling - and it’s a particularly interesting(?) pattern to boot. Also notable is that they scraped the wallpaper off the ceiling after they installed the fluorescent light fixture.
These little time capsules never cease to fill me with a sense of wonder about the previous owners.
Yikes! Melted power adapter crisis
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
Melted sheathing on MacBook Pro power adapter wire
I’ve never had anything like this happen with any power adapter for any device ever before. The problem was not the same as this well known issue with MacBook Pro power adapters. Not a pleasant discovery, since I tend to leave this thing plugged in until 100% charged (which can take hours — not always attended), and it sits on the wooden table you see in the background. (more…)
