Tag Archives: experiments

Thoughts

Want to see the inside of a SanDisk Cruzer 1.0GB USB flash drive?

Yes, you read correctly. That is a Google-compliant post title. It may give away the entire post, but I can be sure it’ll get indexed properly now…

Now for the raison d’etre, or the why, as we say in these here parts. My friend Peter is the owner of the USB flash drive in question. Actually, he has two of them, and one stopped working. Ever curious, he wanted to see what was inside, so he took it apart. One of the fringe benefits of having a geeky friend and being a geek yourself (and I mean that in the nicest way, honest) is that you get to share such delightful experiences. So when Ligia and I visited them, Peter showed me the parts, and suggested I post the photos to my site. Well, he didn’t have to ask twice! He had me when he pulled out the broken drive! I mean, what self-respecting geek would say no when presented with the chance to:

  1. Have a look at mini circuit boards,
  2. Take macro photos with his new digital camera,
  3. Post said photos online,
  4. Write a blog entry about it

So, without further ado, here are the photos, starting with the external components and progressing to the internal ones.

SanDisk Cruzer flash drive

SanDisk Cruzer flash drive

SanDisk Cruzer flash drive

SanDisk Cruzer flash drive

SanDisk Cruzer flash drive

SanDisk Cruzer flash drive

SanDisk Cruzer flash drive

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Thoughts

Some big news at ComeAcross

I finally finished working on a new look for the site (version 1 wasn’t as flexible and easy to maintain as I wanted it to be) and also propagated that new look throughout the various ComeAcross sections. Yes, this means that whether you visit the main site (blog) or the podcast, or the current news section or the new mobile section, you’ll see the same look (which wasn’t the case with version 1, btw). The only section that still hasn’t got the new look is photos, but Gallery, the package I use to manage that, is definitely a monster when it comes to skins and customizations, so I don’t even want to touch that for now. In fact, I may even switch to a hosted photo service like Flickr. We’ll see…

Give the new and improved ComeAcross (version 2) a try, and surf through the different sections. Let me know how you like it, drop me a line. Working on it these past three days has been a very interesting experience, to say the least… I had this horrible bout of flu, and it was a bit hard to concentrate, since I wasn’t sure what to do first: pass out, vomit or just lie in bed and try to sleep (with “try” being the operative, though unsuccessful word.) I don’t know what kind of a virus this was, but it sure was a nasty one! When I have a cold or a flu, it lasts 1, 2 days tops. This time, it’s coming up on 3 1/2 days and I’m still not over it. Not fun, not fun… not fun. Add to that ridiculous muscle aches, bone aches, headaches and this ugly urge to keep moving my legs while in bed,and I’d hate to foist this monster on anyone, even my worst enemy.

So anyway, I managed to get a few hours’ worth of work done every day, although it was a nightmare. I hope you enjoy the end result, because this flu sure gave a new meaning to the creative birthing process… Trust me, this new look is no flu-ke! I for one don’t think the new look is flu-lish… Alright, okay, I’ll stop…

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Lists

Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment

The silly folks at EepyBird have put together a wonderful video (synchronized to music, nonetheless) illustrating the explosive combination of Diet Coke and Mentos, and imitating the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas. Beautiful, just beautiful!

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Thoughts

Inbox Zero: better practices for staying (near) zero

From 43 Folders:

“This post is part of the Inbox Zero series. You’ve doubtless already discovered your inbox won’t stay at zero — and it shouldn’t. As I said yesterday, this is a process, not some miraculous one-time event like a tonsillectomy or a Jandek concert. And you can’t just wave a magic wand every couple weeks and make it all go away. Why not use the august occasion of your newly empty inbox as the chance to start mending your ways going forward?”

I can tell you from personal experience it feels pretty darn good to have an empty Inbox, but it takes constant work. It IS worth the effort though! Here is the link.

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