The Ownage

I got an iPhone dock as a Christmas gift (Thanks Jenny & Jeramiah!), and it was barely able to dock my iPhone 3GS with the case on, because the case adds to the thickness of the bottom of the phone and so the connector doesn’t go as far into the slot.

Anyhow, fast forward to now. I have upgraded from the 3GS to the iPhone4. Now I have 2 problems with the dock. The same case issue, plus, the iPhone4 is rectangular in shape, whereas the iPhone 3x and iPods hav a rounded back. My dock was designed for the rounded shape, so my new phone just wouldn’t fit at all.

Sure, I could go out and buy an iPhone4 specific dock, but then my current dock would be wasted, and that bugs me. Plus, the problem is really a simple one – make the phone fit so that the connector plugs into the bottom.  Solution:

My friend “Dremel” ! I figured all that I needed to do, was grind away the rounded shape of the dock area, so that it was just flat.

I would have to not only straighten out the back, but also grind down the sides and the front. I couldn’t find proper eye protection, so I strapped on a pair of clear swimming googles, and looking like an dork, I started grinding away.

I grinded until I had what looked like a fairly flat area, and also noticed that grinding down the sides and front had the result of making the connector protrude more, which essentially makes it longer, and thus should solve the problem of it not reaching all the way when there was a case on the phone.

I tested it out, and viola! It works! It still looks pretty rough, even though I quickly sprayed the ground down area with a little white paint, as it had exposed some dark-colored metal that is underneath the plastic.

Bear in mind this is like 10 minutes of work, and a first try just to see if it would even work, luckily it did. I can now go back and smooth out all the rough spots and repaint it, so that it looks more finished.

End result, I can now securely dock my iPhone4, even with it’s bumper case on.

I have always taken a lot of pictures with my phone, ever since I had a decent camera phone (various Sony models, best was the K850i). I recently upgraded from an iPhone 3GS to the iPhone4. It takes pretty decent pictures, even in low light, and can record at 720p video. Sadly missing though, is image stabilization, so videos come out pretty shaky, and although not as apparent with still photos, you can still blur a picture by not holding the camera still when taking a picture.

So, I started looking for either a small tripod that had a suitable mount for an iPhone4, or just a mount that would fit on a standard camera tripod, which I already have.

The biggest problem I had finding one is, I wanted one that would fit an iPhone4 that has a case on it (I use the Apple “bumper” case). Almost all of the iPhone mounts I found were designed to hold the “naked” phone, and could not be used with a case. The bumper case fits quite snugly, and it would be a pain to remove it every time I wanted to use the mount, not to mention degrading the fit of the case from repeatedly prying it off and putting it back on.

Then, wonder of wonders, I struck gold on eBay. I found a mini tripod that also came with a separate mount that would fit the iPhone4, even with a case! The mount says it is for an iPhone, but since it is spring loaded and padded, I don’t see why it could not be used with almost any phone.

The tripod itself is very small. If a tall tripod is what you want, this won’t do the trick. It is only designed to hold the phone securely still. You can mount the phone and swivel it to either portrait or landscape mode. The feet ends are rubberized so you won’t have to worry about using your car hood as a pedestal for it The quality is not great. It is made of plastic, but it is sturdy enough that I am certain you could drop it multiple times and not worry about it breaking. Since it is small and mostly plastic, you could easily carry it in your pocket.

The mount is spring loaded, with soft rubber on every surface of the “jaws”, including the long part that the front or back of your phone would be against. It has a standard female threaded (metal, not plastic) connector that will allow you to mount it on any tripod, not just the mini one.

Here’s the best part. The tripod and mount together, cost $3.99! That’s right, THREE DOLLARS AND NINETY-NINE CENTS! Even with $5 shipping, that’s still under $10 for a mount that can affix almost any phone to a standard camera tripod, plus a nifty mini tripod as well.

You can easily find these on eBay, for the same price. Just search for “mini iphone camera tripod” and you will find them. I see no reason that this could not be used with the droid and other phones of similar width.

Here are some more pictures:

I haven’t posted in awhile so thought I would jot off an update for anyone who cares. Let’s see, I just got back from a camping trip in the Apache National Forest. I went with Jenny and Jeramiah. We met up with Christine and Jenny’s mom April, and her husband Sam, plus their kids. There were also some friends of theirs camping in the same area. It was great fun, except I stupidly did not bring my CPAP machine. I thought I would be able to get by without it, boy was I wrong – big time! To sum it up, I got less than zero sleep over two days. The first night I tried to sleep to no avail, and by morning I had a headache from oxygen deprivation. I tried sleeping in the minivan, hoping that being in a reclined sitting position would help me breathe. Nope! I felt like I had been run over by a bus. It actually had a major physical reaction by the time I got home that manifested as PVC’s – an irregular heart rhythm. It really freaked me out because every 5 seconds or so my heart would literally stop and then sputter back to life – it’s a feeling I really can’t describe well, but it was pretty scary. As exhausted as I was, it took me almost 2 hours to fall asleep because my heart fluttering around was freaking me out. It was also frustrating because I knew that it was most probably from lack of sleep, so going to sleep was the fix, but it was also causing me to not be able to fall asleep! I finally did fall asleep, and after about 10 hours of good CPAP sleep I woke up feeling refreshed and with a normal heart rhythm. Lesson learned – I will NEVER travel without my CPAP again!

Today I was  approached by a DirectTV salesman at Frys Electronics. Usually I wave these guys right off, but he wasn’t wearing the typical vendor polo, nor any other identifying nametag. The conversation went something like this:

Him: “Hey there, have you heard about our special today?”

Me: “Hi. No”.

Him: “Well we have a special where you get one DTV receiver blah blah installation blah blah extra receivers blah blah blah blah blah”

Me: “Ah, sorry I’m not interested”

Him: “But we have blah channels now sports, HD, blah blah”

Me:”I don’t watch ‘live TV’”

Him:”Oh you just DVR stuff?”

Me:”Sort of, everything I watch is on my media center”

Him: “Oh, do you have satellite already, or cable? What DVR do you use because we have a DVR that blah blah blah”

Me: “I download all my shows from the internet”.

Him: *blink* “Internet? Umm uhh…well the quality for that is probably terrible, DTV has CD quality sound and some channels are HD!”

Me: “All the TV shows I download are 720p HD, with AC3 audio, plus there are NO COMMERCIALS”

Him: “Oh…wow…well…I guess you are all set then”

Me: Yep *wave*  :)

It was a bit amusing when I saw the lightbulb go off over his head as he realized that DTV had absolutely nothing to offer me that was better than my current “plan”.

By the way, I download most of my TV shows either from a select few Torrent sites, or usenet, specifically EasyNews EN is great because they have an awesome web-based tool that lets you search for the TV show you want, and you can even tag multiple episodes and download them all together in one zipfile. They also automatically assemble the file for you, even if the uploader missed a file or two, so there is no messing with “PAR” files and such.

Less than $10 a month for all my shows in HD and commercial free. Note that you can also search for and find almost anything else as well, from MP3′s to e-Books, but I use it only as a source for TV shows.

As you know, I’ve been battling some infections in my legs since February, when my left leg got so inflamed that I had to go to the ER, and spent 3 days in the hospital getting pumped full of broad spectrum IV antibiotics.

Since then I have had weekly doctor visits and taking prescribed oral antibiotics. Not only was the infection not going away, but I actually developed “Cellulitis” in my other leg as well, which was strange because my body has been flooded with antibiotics for over 2 months now.

My doctor finally conceded that, although the symptoms are there, it may not be cellulitis, so he sent me to see a vascular specialist at the Arizona Heart Institute.

When the doctor first saw me, he said “your legs look awful!”, both referring to the redness and swelling, as well as the distended veins I have in my upper calves.

I gave him the quick summary of my cellulitis diagnosis and treatment, and he immediately said. “You do not have cellulitis, you never did”!

He said he has seen this many times before and was fairly certain the problem was blood pooling in my legs, due to the valves in my veins being shot (from being overweight). He explained that when the valves in your veins do not work properly, blood has a hard time getting back up your legs, so blood collects in your lower legs, and sits in the vessels and valve areas.  After a time the fluid (plasma, lymph, etc) in your blood starts to leak through the walls of your veins into the surrounding tissue. Your body tries to clean up this mess just like attacking an infection, but is hampered by the poor circulation, so the tissue becomes inflamed, all the way up to the skin and in extreme cases the skin gets ulcers and other bad stuff. The medical term for it is “Venous Stasis/Reflux”.

This made a lot of sense, as it explained why the antibiotics were not effective, and how “cellulitis” could have mysteriously transferred to my other leg.  He brought me to another room where they performed a standing doppler ultrasound on my legs, which verified that blood was not moving upwards well in my leg veins.

So the treatment? Well there really isn’t much they can do. Once the valves in your veins are shot, they don’t repair themselves. He said the #1 thing I need to do is lose weight. He also said I should wear compression stockings, which help your superficial veins move blood upwards when you walk.

The doc said that even he wears compression stockings since he is on his feet all day, he raised his pant leg and showed me. His looked like patterned black socks that went to his knees. So he wrote me a presciption for the stockings and off I went.

I got the stockings, and boy were they expensive $66.00 each. On top of that, they were not the cool normal looking socks my doc had, they look exactly like panty hose! I was pissed. How am I going to wear shorts and go walking now, without looking like a freak? How can I wear sandals and flip flops now?  So I bought 2 pair of them, and they were not covered by insurance.

I’ve been wearing the “panty hose” (that’s what I call them haha), all week, and I must say, they DO make my legs feel much better, in a way that I cannot describe. I would have thought that pressure and squeezing of my legs would be uncomfortable, but it’s not.  I surfed around the internet and have ordered some more manly looking socks that provide the same pressure (20-30 mmHg) but look more like socks and come in colors like white, black, navy, etc. I was a bit miffed to discover that I could buy the EXACT same stockings that I paid $66 for, for like $30 online, but ah well.

So far my right leg is feeling better, I can touch it and press on it a bit without much pain. My left leg still hurts a bit but not near as much as it did. I have also been off the antibiotics for a week and my digestive system is slowly recovering.

So now I need to resume losing weight, which means exercising and watching what I eat, which I was in the process of doing anyway, so the “treatment” isn’t so bad.

I finally became annoyed enough at one of my laptops loose, floppy lids to do something about it. I figured out how to fix it, and decided to post how I did it so that others could use the info.

From what I have seen, loose laptop lids are usually caused by

• Loose hinge screws
• Displaced hinge pin
• Broken hinge

Usually its the displaced hinge pin. Over time the pin works its way out of the hinge. The farther it comes out, the looser the hinge gets. Even if this only happens on one side, it can make the lid not stay open on it’s own.

The first thing you should so is check for loose screws. On the underside of the laptop, near the rear edge, there are several recessed screws. Tighten them all and see if it helps. If your hinge pin is the problem, usually the lid is not only loose but it has a lot of “play”, where it moves really freely for a few cm before there is any resistance at all.

To get to the hinge, it depends on the model of laptop, but it’s usually fairly easy (except for Macbooks) as there is usually a bezel strip all the way across the top that covers the hinge and also has the power button and led area. Usually there is a little notch made for you to put a small screwdriver and with a little pressure it will pop up, and then you can just pull the entire strip off, which reveals the hinges. For dell “D” laptops this is also how you access the bluetooth module.

You should see right away if the hinge pin is the problem. The hinge pin may be sticking out like in this picture.

To fix this we want to “squeeze” the pin back into the hinge. The easiest way I found to do this is with a pair of “needle nose” pliers. Note that you should put some layers of tape and/or other cushioning on the corner, to protect the plastic against the rough teeth of the plier jaws. IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS THE PLIERS WILL REALLY SCRATCH UP THE PLASTIC AND YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY!

I at first put 4-5 pieces of electrical tape and then also added a little cushion with a piece of folded paper towel. Also while you are at it, make sure the screw(s) holding the hinge to the laptop chassis are tight. Sometimes these internal screws being loose is the only problem, and sometimes they are half the problem and aggravate the pin problem.

Here are some pictures showing how I applied squeezing pressure to the pin. Depending on your hinge, you may have better access from the rear.

While you are squeezing the pin, it may seem like it is not going back in. Try rocking the lid back and forth and you should feel and see it going back into place. Keep at it until the pin is no longer protruding. Do this for both hinges (assuming they are both loose). Your laptop lid should now be stiff again!

Here is the same hinge after I “put the squeeze” on it. Note that it is no longer protruding out of the hinge. After doing this to both hinges, my lid is now good as new.

Note that if the pins have been coming out for a long time, they may be bent and can be quite difficult to get them to go back in. If you are brave enough, you could remove the screws that hold the hinge to the bottom part of the laptop (be careful of the interconnect cables for the display), so that you have more room to squeeze it or try to straighten the pin.

Hopefully this post will help some other people who’s laptops have developed “erectile disfunction” Probably the hardest thing for most will be figuring out how to remove the plastic strip that covers the hinge. For Dell laptops at least, it’s easy. Good luck!

So my last blood test showed that my sodium had returned to normal, but that my chloride was still low, and my white count was still up from the infection. Today (Monday) when I went to the doctor, he was at a loss to explain why the infection is not getting under control.

He seems to have given up (didnt even script me more antibiotics) and wants me to go see a vascular doctor at Arizona Heart Institute. He (my doctor) seems to think that circulation issues could be what is making the infection take a long time to heal. Personally, I disagree since my leg ultrasound was normal, and I have strong pulse in both feet. I do have some distended veins in my upper calves, but I have had those for years and have never had any tingling in my legs or feet or anything else to suggest poor circulation.

So anyhow I have an appointment at 10:20 at AZ Heart on Monday (the 5th). My doctor did say that one thing that could help is pressure stockings…basically specially tight socks that compress your feet and legs to keep them from swelling. He said you have to be measured and fitted for them and they can do that at Az Heart.

I’m tired of this crap getting me down, so I’m now trying to have a positive attitude that it is going to get better soon. Hopefully that helps!

I got the results of last Mondays blood work, here is what was on the card they sent me:

Cholesterol Total: 242 (lower is better, optimal is <200)
HDL(good): 66 (higher is better, optimal is 40+)
LDL(bad) 154 (lower is better, optimal is <100)
Triglycerides: 130 (lower is better, optimal is <150)
Glucose: 78 (normal fasting levels are 70-90)

Notes: White count elevated. Need to continue antibiotics. Also slight electrolyte imbalance. Need a slight increase in dietary sodium intake and recheck in 2 weeks. Otherwise labs stable.
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So basically my cholesterol levels are good except my LDL is a bit high. I find it ironic that they say I need sodium since I have recently been trying to reduce sodium to lower my BP…I guess the diuretics are taking a lot out of me.

Monday I’m going to ask if there is a different antibiotic I can take, because the ones I am on (Bactrim and Keflex) just don’t seem to be that effective (of all things now my RIGHT leg seems to be developing the same infection!). Sadly it looks like I have more weekly doctor visits in my future.