Gordon's Tech

Saturday, October 16, 2004

iBook rubber / plastic foot replacement

Apple - Discussions - Lost a rubber foot

Some f/u on the feet, and a bit of a sad (sniff) story.

Zachary sent me a foot (for free!). I tried to attach it, and it was obvious there's no way it was going to fit (read on!). I figured he'd sent me a foot for a 14' G3 iBook or a G4 iBook. I saved it to give away to someone else

So, regretfully, I searched around the web. I could see this site http://microdocusa.com/icebookparts.html had the same 'non-fitting' feet. So I looked further and found this site:

http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/customer/product.php?productid=362&cat=50&page=4

They offered the feet for $5 EACH plus $7 (minimal) shipping. (Versus $5 for a packet of 6). But since they were G3 12' iBook feet I ordered them. Ordered 3 in fact, since that made the postage more tolerable. One as a spare, one to give away.

They caame, and they were are exactly what Zachary had sent me. Rubberish on top, platic on the bottom. Obviously won't fit.

As I puzzled and stared at my iBook, a dim bulb went off deep in my cranium. I realized that what appeared to be a foot receptacle was, in fact, the plastic collar that remains when a foot is snapped off.

I unscrewed the receptacle and popped off the plastic remnant, then screwed the foot fitting back into the iBook. Now the foot snapped in with the greatest of ease.

Gordon Bell (of Microsoft) on Standards

A Time and Place for Standards

On the one hand Gordon Bell is a famous name in computing. On the other hand he works for a monopolistic empire built upon dirty tricks and proprietary data structures; a company famed for perverting standards. A company trusted by noone with any sense.

It's like a member of Ghengis Horde arguing for pacifism and regional autonomy.

Weird.

Friday, October 15, 2004

My PBFixit Coupon Code

PB FixIt Customer Survey

Your coupon code is: SURVEY111
Your code is good for 5% off any PowerBook FixIt order in the next 30 days.

I'm not going to use this code, so first one to try gets 5% off a PBFixit order.

Schneier on Internet Explorer

Schneier on Security: Schneier: Microsoft still has work to do

I think it's foolish to use Internet Explorer. It's filled with security holes, and it's too hard to configure it to have decent security. Basically, it seems to be written in the best interests of Microsoft and not in the best interests of the customer. I have used the Opera browser for years, and I am very happy with it. It's much better designed, and I never have to worry about Explorer-based attacks.

There's a simple explanation for hard-to-erase magstripes; they're the newer "high coercivity" type.

Old-style low coercivity magstripes are essentially the same material as is used for cheap ferrite cassette tape; they have a coercivity of only about 300 Oersteds. That means a 300 Gauss field is enough to wipe them. You can easily get that from a plain ferrite magnet, or an electromagnet you can make in ten minutes with some wire and a nail and a lantern battery.

Floppy disks score 720 Oersteds, higher coercivity tapes (DAT, 8mm video tape...) can score as much as 1400-odd Oersteds, and high coercivity magstripes are as tough as hard drive platters, in the few-thousand-Oersted range. Some high coercivity stripes apparently manage as much as 4000 Oersteds, though I think ISO Standard 7811 only specifies 3000. Magstripes are, of course, easier to wipe than a drive platter with the same coercivity, because you can lay a magnet right down on top of a magstripe; they don't have an aluminium casing around them like a hard drive.

My giant rare earth truncated pyramid fridge magnet has a real live 7000 Gauss field strength at its small end, which is way more than is needed to wipe any magstripe ever made. The part I grabbed is the big end, but that's quite likely to still manage better than 4000 Gauss.

Ok, maybe an immense magnet could do it. These are neat numbers to find. It turns out modern mag stripes are much harder to damage than the ones we had years ago.