Florencia: Stage 2 Alpha

Successfully remounted the base and new screen, added camera, started inner casing, and added typewriter keys.







I also cut a hole in the back and added a lens from an old projector, so the back lights up green when I start her up (much like a Mac, but cooler).

I also was having way too much fun with the parts...

Business is Anything

So here in Portland, there's this neat little electronics graveyard/thrift store called Free Geek. I recommend checking it out because you never know WHAT you'll find. I was pricing out LCDs because Florencia's was dying (to the point where I couldn't fix it).

I'm looking at the scraptops, the laptops used for scrap parts, and this guy and I get to talking about projects, and he ran a shop across the river called Bolt. I had Florencia with me, so I showed him my work and what I needed. He said he'd sell me a new LCD if I stop by, so I did.

I go in, and he showed me this magical box of various LCDs. I only needed something that fit my FLAX cable, so screen size was no issue. Instead of doing repairs himself, he let me go back in the back of the shop and work on her myself, much like when I go to Autozone. This is the BEST customer service ever because most places would charge me for a screen and not let me work on it myself. Hell, I bet most people wouldn't work on Florencia because of what I did to the case. Not these guys. These guys are awesome.

So after I fit the new screen on her, it was time to pay. It was $25 for the screen and I got to keep the laptop I scrapped it from (which had a blu-ray player, so I swapped drives). Then he threw in a free Mac iBook4 which only needed a fan.

Sometimes, the best thing you sell is customer service, which may have NOTHING to do with you doing work. Letting me use their space to switch my screens was amazing. I even have my next project, Turret (my new Mac).

I recommend these guys ANY day of the week. Go check them out!

My Love Affair With Electronics

So I graduate from culinary school this Saturday with my degree in baking. Is it weird that 1 week before graduation I start to reconsider my career path?

I like making things. I have a webcomic (on hiatus at the moment until I'm employed), I love drawing, and baking, and sewing, and ceramics/polymer clay, and magic, and everything. Only recently did I find my love affair for disassembling electronics. I'm a little sadistic, so ripping up something with some type of energy force is satisfying, especially reconstructing it like if I were Dr. Frankenstein.

I've been sitting in my cave until about 4am while I wait to hear back from the temp agency about that last interview I had in a bakery. My roommate and I share a tiny 590 square foot studio, so all my computer work, art work, everything is done on my bed. Last night I fell asleep on top of some mix of cell phone, laptop, camera, and voltage reader parts; it was painful and awkward physically, but I loved waking up in my work.

Once I'm done with Florencia's case mod, I plan on working a bit on my other computers, resume teaching myself piano, baking a storm up, and making ALL the art things :D. With this blog, I can keep up on all of my various interests, and tie them together somehow.

Florencia: Stage 1 Alpha

A couple of years ago I got an ASUS BAL5-U46E. I got her at Best Buy for about $620. 8GB RAM, 750GB storage, good specs overall for the price. The last one they had was a shelf display, so I felt mine was special. I named her Florencia, and she is a classy lady.

Well about a year after buying her, the plastic under her hinges snapped (a common issue with this particular model, as I found) and I couldn't screw it back on. So she just progressively got worse, causing the LCD to get damaged. So I was like "you can pay to repair her (a good couple hundred bucks), you can watch her break more, OR you can fix her yourself." The cheapest, most fun option is to fix her myself.




I always thought of Florencia as a classy lady spy from the 1940's. My case mod is going to replicate something along those lines. So far, she's in a brown leather case with a set of number combination locks on the front. the base is mounted to another case which holds her charger and other lovely parts.