Better Late Than Never (In Some Time Zones)

With 12 minutes left to go in the day in the PST time zone, I would like to wish everyone a belated Happy Pi Day!

Quick Thought O’ The Day (not updated daily)

Welcome, valued readers, to Ffejery’s Quick Thought O’ The Day.

Note that “Day” in this case refers to an arbitrary time interval in between the thoughts that prompted this post, and will likely prompt more in the future.  Without further ado, here it is:

“Everything is user-serviceable to a sufficiently skilled user”

I’ve had this saying for quite a while, and as Google turns up nothing on the first few pages, I will claim it as “Ffejery’s Rule”.  I came to state this because of the much-too-common “non-replaceable batteries”, and other such product annoyances.  The thing is, though, that they’re usually only annoyances.  In most cases, someone has found a way of replacing/fixing/modding whatever it is.  A variant of Ffejery’s Rule that I sometimes add is:

“Everything is user-serviceable to a user with sufficiently expensive equipment”

So yes, if you own a chip fab, an injection molder, a CNC machine, a pick-and-place machine, and a few interesting laser-based tools, you’re essentially set.

Just my 10 bits

-The Ffej

[insert quarter to activate brain]

That’s essentially where I’m at right now – in fact, it took about two minutes to think up that title.  I am currently crawling my way out of the figurative swamp that spontaneously comes into existence whenever one is sick for three weeks of school.  Add to the swamp mud some procrastination and a shovelful of distractibility, then stir, and let sit for a week and a half…  After a four hour lab tomorrow morning, I have more reading to do than I care to think about, unfortunately for me, as thinking about said reading will be all I will be doing for remainder of the day.  The reading is for the honours physics course I’m taking; in retrospect, doing the honours course was probably a bad move for me, but if hindsight is 20/20, then foresight could use some laser surgery and strong prescription glasses.

The lament being over with, here are a few other odds and ends:

I haven’t been blogging much, and if you’ve read this far, you won’t need to ask why.  I’m hoping to be back on top of things for next week, and so things should pick up after that.  For those that might care, I did get my new N810, and it’s working splendidly.  (Thanks again, Nokia)  As noted in the previous post, my camera fails – it’s a fairly basic point-and-shoot from several years ago.  When school clears up, I will borrow my friend’s camera and redo most or all of the teardown pictures.  I will also be getting a new laptop soon, and I will be sure to post pictures and info on that when it arrives.  Due to the situation in which I am receiving it, it’s essentially on loan to me for the next several years, and for the same reason, I’m not sure which model it will be.  All I was told was that it would be something from Dell’s Latitude line, and as I’m in Comp Eng., it would be “fully loaded”.

Well, that’s your 25 Cents worth of brain, so check back soon for the NEW, IMPROVED, (and annoyingly, higher-priced) brain-log from

-The Ffej

Everybody loves boardshots, right?

Today, a reasonably-long-awaited package came.  It contained a bluetooth-enabled bracelet, capable of vibrating and displaying callerID from a cell phone.  I wondered what other latent capabilities it might have.  We shall see… but for now, boardshots!
UPDATE: I’m going to see if I can borrow a better camera, and update this post with non-blurry pictures.  In the mean time, at least there’s something up.

size comparison

clasp open

wearing it

pop the case

hey – a PCB!

half a PCB – my camera fails at macro

the other half

the only markings on the battery

the LCD

the back of the LCD

close-up of the vibe motor and power jack

I bought this from DealExtreme for about $40 CAD, with free shipping.  [product page]  It supports the HSP and HFP bluetooth profiles, and, contrary to some other statements floating around the Interwebs, it does not present a problem with answering calls; when a call arrives, you can accept or reject it with the button on the bracelet, or simply pick up your handset.  Note, however, that unless you manage to find a phone with two bluetooth radios, you won’t be able to use this and a headset simultaneously.

More information will be added to this post later, so check back.  I’m investigating the various hardware components, and will update when I have some news