Following are the photos of the process and some commentary.

Soldering the lead wires:

Looking at the small ribbon connecting to the controller board, I noticed that it only had four leads.  Since this is how many wires are in a USB cable, I made some assumptions about which leads were associated to which USB functions, namely that the left one that connected to ground, the right one to power, and the other two were the data cables.  Since there was no way that I could solder to the leads themselves since they were so small, I needed to find which test points (the gold spots on the board) connected to which lead.  I used a combination of tracing the circuit board and guessing to find the match, then used a digital multimeter to verify my guess.  Once found them all, it was time to solder.  Since I did not know for sure which of these leads connected to which USB function, I decided to solder lead wires instead of directly to the USB cable.  I prepped some multi-colored wire and fired up the soldering iron.  I was using an iron with a small tip, but even smaller would have been better.  I have seen reference to a “needle tip” which probably would have been just right.  I melted the solder onto the lead wire, then used the iron to melt that on to the board.  Several times I had to unsolder a wire because it was touching multiple test points.  Suffice it to say that it was a nerve racking ordeal.  Next, I twisted and taped the lead wires to the USB cable’s wires, having to guess which data wire went to which lead.  Luckily enough, I guessed correctly the first time, because when I plugged it in to my keyboard, it just work.  It shows up in System Profiler as “Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad” and I can use the default trackpad preference pane to set the gesture functionality I want.

Cutting and folding the case:

To get this to a usable state, I knew that I’d have to cut the case down to size.  My plan was to use tin snips and a sheet metal bender to form the metal in to a nice little case (photos 9 and 10, and redesign at 11), but I quickly ran into problems.  When cutting, the tin snips were curling the metal, so I had to cut at an angle so that the excess case got curled, and not the track pad itself.  After a few tests, I was able to get this down, and snipped out the trackpad with little damage.  I wish I could say the same for folding the edges.  The sheet metal bender was too large and I had no way to keep the rest of the trackpad from flexing when trying to bend it. I reverted to slowly bending bit by bit with pliers, but in the end, I bent the trackpad enough that the button only works when pushed firmly in the center.

Conclusion:

I’ve now been using my trackpad for several days now instead of a mouse, am still getting use to it, but I think it’s going to stick.  I wish that I could customize what the gestures do, but for now will have to be satisfied with having them at all.  If you are considering making one of these, my number one suggestion is that unless you know what you are doing, DO NOT FOLD.  Cut the case and use a Dremel or something to smooth the edges, and use something else, even metal from the excess case, to support it.  This is my only regret since the button is not wonky.  My second suggestion is get a small soldering iron tip, it will just make life that much easier.

The following pictures are instructions for how to add a cuff to pants to lengthen them.

For nearly two months now I’ve been enjoying the wonders of third party applications on my iPod Touch, and I’ve got a lot of them.

With so many apps, though, some times it’s hard to find the one I want. I started out by manually organize them, putting my favorites in the taskbar, then ordering the rest by usefulness. The problem I am running in to is that when one of those apps gets an update, it’s reordered to the first open spot in the main list, and thus all my hard work of sorting applications goes slowly down the drain.
What I want is a way to search for then launch an app, similar to using Spotlight or Google Desktop. The only way I’ll get this, though, is by action on Apple’s part. In the license agreement for the iPhone SDK, Apple specifically states, “An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise.” So even if someone wrote an app that could search through my applications it would have no way to launch them.
As I see it, the actions that Apple could take to rectify this situation are to either remove this restriction from the SDK agreement and let someone make this app,  or make the application themselves. Should either of these happen, here is a list of features that I would like to see:

• Searching – sort of obvious…
• Custom tagging – the apps already have a “genre” assigned to them, but those are not detailed enough for me.  For example, I want to type in “audio” and have AOL Radio, Last.fm, and Simplify Media as the results.
• Favorites/Recently used apps – I mainly use only about five or six apps, and I’d like a group that kept track of those for quick access.
• Customizable sort order for results – As this app is still hypothetical, I’m not sure if it would be better to get the results as alphabetical, recently used, or most used, so an option to choose between these would be best.

This application would increase the usefulness of the iPhone/iPod Touch for anyone who uses more that one page of applications.

If you have any additional suggestions, please add them in the comments.

Long ago, my father, Tod, purchased a piece of property in Arch Cape between 101 and the beach.  It’s was designated a wetland after he bought it, which makes building on it rather tricky, so he has just left it alone for the time being.  Several years after he purchased it, someone put a “4 SALE” sign in a tree on the property, which wouldn’t be much of a problem except that the tree is rather large, and the sign was bolted to it.  When Tod called about the sign, the guy who bragged about putting it up said he did it because the trees on his lot (adjacent to my father’s) were to small to be seen from the freeway, and when asked to take it down, just laughed.

Fast forward to about a month ago, Tod decided it time for the sign to come down.  He called the number again, but found it was disconnected, so taking the matter into his own hands, he with me in tow, set off to cut down the sign.

Following are a few pictures of him, nearly 70, climbing up the tree.  Look for his blue shirt and orange safety strap.

KJ (sung to Enrique Iglesias’ Hero)

Let me be your KJ

Would you sing,
If I asked you to sing?
Would you run,
Up to the stage?
Would you take,
The mic in your hands?
And would you sing a song, tonight?

Would you tremble,
If I called your name?
Would you laugh?
Oh please tell me this.
Or would you die,
If you forget the words?
Mumble through the verse, tonight.

I can be your KJ, baby.
I will let you sing your song.
I will sit back there forever.
I won’t take your mic away.

Please don’t swear,
On the microphone.
But you can act
However you like.
Is the night to short?
And the list too long?
I don’t care…
You’ll sing, tonight.

I can be your KJ, baby.
I will let you sing your song.
I will sit back there forever.
I won’t take your mic away.

Oh, I just wanna to hold your
I just wanna to hold your
song slip.
Is the night to short?
And the list too long?
I don’t care…
You’ll sing, tonight.

I can be your KJ, baby.
I will let you sing your song.
I will sit back there forever.
I won’t take your mic away.

I can be your KJ.
I will let you sing your song.
I will sit back there forever.
I won’t take your mic away.
I won’t take your mic away.

I can be your KJ.

Enjoy.

Come on, it’s got Mal and Dougie!

I recalled a few years back that I had a prescription discount card that paid for some of the costs, so I hopped online and googled around.  I very easily found sites for prescription plans, but they all seamed a bit shady.  Finally I came to an informational site, NeedyMeds.com, that didn’t seem to be directly selling anything, and very quickly found the Oregon Prescription Drug Program. Upon comparison of participating pharmacies and quoted prices for the allergy meds with some of the other prescription discount sites, the OPDP plan seems the best for me.  Once I get my card next week, the quoted total price for my allergy meds should be $100, not great, but thats $125 off the original price, which after a few months is the price of a Wii.

1. Paint and Architecture (moldings, mantel)
2. Installed Flooring (any floor surface that is wall to wall)
3. High Ticket Upholstery Items (sofa, love seat)
4. Accent Fabrics (area rugs and drapes)
5. Non-upholstered Furnishings (the work horses of the room, end tables, chairs, coffee tables)
6. Accessories (pictures, mirrors, candlesticks)
7. Plants and Lighting

The <!––less––> tag is the opposite of the <!––more––> tag. Where the <!––more––> tag hides all content that follows it when viewing the post on multi-post pages, the <!––less––> tag shows content preceding the tag when viewing the post on multi-post pages and hides that content (with the exception of a <p> if necessary) when viewing the whole post.  This gives a way of adding content for an excerpt in the Visual Editor without having to use the Excerpt box.  When used in conjunction with the <!––more––> tag, it gives greater flexiblity to create an dynamic excerpt without having to repeat content in the Excerpt box.

Note on “Requires at least”: The Visual Editor button works with TinyMCE version 3.x, which is in Wordpress 2.5.  So the main functionality may work in previous versions, but the <!––less––> tag will have to be manually entered in the Code Editor.

Installation

1. Copy ‘less’ folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. When editing a post, click the Less button in the Visual Editor, or insert <!––less––> in the code where you want it.

Q: When would I use this?

A: One example of a time to use this is if you have a gallery in your post.  You may not want the full gallery on multi-post pages, but one image for those pages would be nice.  Conversely, once viewing the whole post, that introduction image would now get in the way, and would be better off gone.

Plugin’s Wordpress Page | Download plugin