valvelover

Yo Kanye Yo Kanye.. I'ma.. Im'a let you finish but.. that pole.. that pole deserved to hit you in the head.

Dave

Hey guys,

I suck at electronics.  I'm not going to even try to sound like I know what I'm talking about.  I had a look at my P500 a few days ago, and it looks like power goes to a PCB at the rear of the unit.  There's power cables going from this PCB to a small motor that looks like it drives the CD transport clamp and tray.  The top part of the PCB looks like it's had some sort of liquid rust run over it:

None of the caps that I could see look like they'd exploded or were forming domes.  The unit powers on, but won't spin a disc, skip tracks, or eject/load the tray.  

Also, there's a small motor (that seems powered by the PCB in the above image) that is attached to the support that holds the disc clamp in place - it was soldered onto this bridge, but has come off.  I don't have a piccie (didn't think to take a shot of it doh!).  I presume that this probably accounts for no power going to the clamp/spindle/tray, correct?  

My soldering skills are non existent.  Is there anyone in the Ipswich, Brisbane area who would be prepared to take a very quick look at the unit and perhaps solder the motor part back on for me?  Should be a few minute job at most.  I'm curious to see if that would fix the tray eject issue, and if perhaps the clamp now clamps the CDs, and if it even plays/skips tracks etc.  

Obviously there could be lots wrong with this very elderly unit and it probably needs a proper checkup - it hasn't worked in Ten or so years, and was last powered up around 8 years.  It was intermittently skipping tracks up to a point, and then stopped simply loading the TOC (it'd give a small whir like it was trying).  I thought it was laser, but perhaps it's just a dodgy motor solder to the clamp?  

Any help appreciated.  

Dave

Yeah, so Obama signed this abomination, hiding the signing behind the current Gay marriage debate in the Federal courts (why it's even being debated is beyond me, but I guess the US based Right wing Christian nuts have to interfere with politics, don't they!).  Anyway, back onto the Monsanto Protection Act - for some light reading and an outline of what the act does:

http://www.ibtimes.c...ovision-1156079

lovely isn't it!  And some people have the gall to wonder why i don't want to vote.  When governments do dirty deals like this, and allow corporations to run riot and BRIBE politicians, then something is clearly wrong with our governments.  And if you think this **** doesn't happen in Australia, you're wrong.  It does.  It just gets covered up so that we, the constituents, can't see it.  

Long live Julian Assange and may he keep the bastards honest.

Dave

iPhoto - you cannot add text to an image.  WTF?  Even MS paint offers this ability!  There are some hacks to do it, but they are not pretty nor simple.  What version is iPhoto at now?  FAIL!

iTunes - I want to copy a mp3 file from one album to another album.  Easy?  Nope.  Since I'm a UNIX guy at heart, I took to having a look at where the guts of iTunes were located, and let's just say that short of editing an xml file and probably a .sql lite dbase, it's UGLY.  Now, why did I want to do this (it is an unusual request I do admit) - well, I have multiple versions of a particular album.  I exported one of the songs to a 20 second m4a ring tone a year ago, and mistakenly left the edited 20 second version and not the full version in iTunes.  So, when I listen to that album, that particular song is only 20 seconds and it annoys the hell out of me.  Yes, I can listen to one of the other variant albums where the song is unedited.  But that's not the point, I wanted to copy the song from an unedited album and paste it into the album with the damaged version.  No go.  I'm sure there's some ugly hack to do it, but that is not the raison d'etre of Apple's software according to Apple, is it?  

Finder?  I wanted 2 finder windows open, one showing the content of one folder, and the other finder window showing the content of another folder.  Do you think that's possible?  No.  The finder window(s) automatically update to mirror the content open in the original finder window.  Stupid?  Yes.  Retarded?  Yes.  Only Apple could have such a retarded UI.  Even Windows 3.1 from 17 years ago can do this!  Even much older UNIXes using CDE (common desktop environment) can do this!!!

What's that?  You want to 'cut' a file (i.e. move it from one location to another)?  Forget it in OS X.  It's drop or drag and nothing else (unless you want to drop to the command line and use the 'mv' command).  Retarded?  Yes.  Every bloody other operating system file manager GUI in existence offers this feature and functionality, except for Apple.  

PS I'm not the only one with complaints on this sort of retarded UI functionality, Google it and you'll see millions of other people complaining about these sorts of issues in OX X and Apple applications.

edit: worse, Apple, in its infinite wisdom doesn't obviously listen to feedback, and has a "you'll do it our way" attitude.  

Dave

I've found this mesmerising - the voice is both delicate and powerful and her piano playing charming.  Wow.  So many talented people on YouTube, and it makes me sad that I can't sing or play a musical instrument at all :/

I hope you enjoyed this cover as much as I did.  

Dave