Dell 700m dark LCD repair 28 December 2006, 04:21
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff , 58 commentsGet the Flash Player to see this player.
This is my first produced video. It is a technical “how-to video” on how to replace the LCD inverter module of a Dell Inspiron 700m laptop. After my screen backlight stopped working, I pinpointed the problem to the inverter module, which is not an easy to find item in USA. Therefore, I ordered it through Ebay from Hong Kong, ebay ID: (more…)
Trying out OpenDNS service 1 November 2006, 02:22
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff , add a comment2nd UPDATE: The problem was with internet service provider (charter). Started using OpenDNS again. So far so good, again 
11/16/2006
UPDATE: Experienced delays and a lot of unsuccessful loading attempts with correct urls. Stopping for the time being. I will give it a try again later. 22:13 10/31/2006
I decided to give the OpenDNS, a free -and claimed to be fast- DNS service a try. It has been 5 minutes or so and so far so good
What OpenDNS says: (more…)
Fix broken ipod by putting into a freezer! 26 September 2006, 22:18
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff , 6 commentsAfter I recovered my data from a failed external hard disk, I told my story to people around me, enjoying the surprize effect it had on them. It has been almost a few months now, and I almost totally forgot about the fun fix until my advisor, Dr. Smtih, told me even a funnier freezer story.
Her son’s ipod recently decided not to start at all. He tried everything but could not bring the thing back to life. Then she says she told him to put it in the freezer, because she knows that it fixed my external hard disk. He had nothing to loose so he puts it in a sealed bag, into the freezer, and forgot the ipod in there for 2 days.
The end? NOW THE IPOD WORKS!! Hah haa. I have heard and personally experienced the phenomenon of hard disks being repaired by putting into the freezer but an IPOD??
If you are experiencing similar problems with your pod, try the freezer. You have nothing to loose (DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK though!).
I stopped using ZoneAlarm 22 September 2006, 14:55
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff , add a commentThe last three updates of ZoneAlarm firewall software corrupted something on my cmoputer. It started to shut down in 10 minutes or so, and I was unable to update any drivers. To fix it, I had to reinstall service pack 2. I switched to using Comodo firewall and am very happy for now.
The problem seems to be with versioins 6.5.722.0, 6.5.731.0 and 6.5.737.0. I will check back with ZoneAlarm just to see if they recognize and fix the issue.
Others having similar issues:
How to convert a RadioShack soldering iron to a fine tip soldering iron 5 September 2006, 03:53
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff , 1 comment so farI needed to perform a repair procedure on a Dell Inspiron 5150 to fix the “Power cuttoff, shutdown, crash when laptop is moved or tilted…” problem, as described at http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/43678/
All I needed was a sodlering iron with an extremely fine tip to be able to resolder a 14 leg surface mount integrated circuit on the motherboard. (more…)
Stattraq plugin for Wordpress 29 August 2006, 21:23
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff , add a commentI started using the stattraq plugin to collect statistics about my blogs. There was a problem with character encodings in summary and search string result pages, though, since I post in Turkish in some blogs. If you are having similar issues, the following fix could also work for you.
I was able to fix the character encoding issues I had with Turkish characters like this:
Edit summary.php under the wp-stattraq/reporter directory. Find:
htmlentities(stripslashes($row->post_title)); and change it to
htmlentities(stripslashes($row->post_title), ENT_COMPAT, ‘UTF-8′);
Also, in the query_strings.php, find:
htmlentities($row->search_phrase) and change to
htmlentities($row->search_phrase, ENT_COMPAT, ‘UTF-8′)
Wordpress plugin: recent posts list with short titles 24 August 2006, 16:53
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff, WP-Plugins , 24 commentsUpdated: 06/18/2007 - Ver 1.06
For those who have experienced problems with WP 2.2, try this version 1.06..
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I have searched for a long time and was unasble to find a plugin that can display recent posts with short titles so that the list is read one post per line.
Then I realized this was a good opportunity to write my own (and first) Wordpress plugin.
What it does is that it lists the recent posts just like wp_get_archives() function but an additional parameter sets the limit of the post title length as characters. Only the first X characters of the post title is displayed. The full name can still be read if the mouse is pointed on the links.
Current Version 1.06: -strip_tags on shortened titles eliminates html tag errors, this version should also work with no problems in WP 2.2
—V1.06 Download oden_latest_posts.txt (rename to oden_latest_posts.php)
Version 1.05: Converted for WP 2.1.x to fix a bug which caused static pages to appear in the list. I am not sure if it will work with WP ver. 2.0.x! WP 2.0.x users, do not upgrade at this time if you do not have any problems.
Version 1.04: Added offset feature. Skip the first n posts when listing. Also, when you move along the pages, it automatically skips the posts on thatpage too.
—V1.04 Download oden_latest_posts.txt (rename to oden_latest_posts.php)
Installation:
- Put oden_latest_posts.php file under wp-contents/plugins folder
- Activate ODEN latest posts in admin panel plugin area
Usage:
oden_wp_get_archives(…, $title_limit=XX, $oden_offset=XX);
where XX is the number of characters you would like to limit the post titles in the recent posts list.
Example:
<?php if($paged || is_home()) _e(’Earlier Posts’); else _e(’Recent Posts’); ?>
<ul><?php oden_wp_get_archives(’type=postbypost&limit=20 &title_limit=34&oden_offset=10′); ?></ul>
Note: put no space before &title_limit. I had to put a space because it did not fit here!
Demo: In the side bar recent/earlier posts.
Hope someone else finds it useful too!
KMU-30A Review 1 August 2006, 07:22
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff, Review , 2 comments
I have been wanting to post my eperiences about the KMU-30A regular phone adapter for skype but I also had been kind of lazy. Today I received a comment asking about the KMU-30A’s performance from azn, so azn, this is for you.
First of all, I purchased this item for my family back home so that they could speak to me on a regular phone set when I call them, and also they can call me on Skype much easier with the speed dial set up. I have only spent a few hours setting it up and assigning speed dials etc. and have been away from it since then.
Having said that, lets move on to the review.
My hard drive failed - came back in the freezer! 16 June 2006, 11:24
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff , add a commentI use an old notebook hard drive in an external 2.5″ enclosure to carry my data everywhere. It failed last week, I didn’t mind because I keep regular backups (using xcopy with some parameters.) It turned out that my back up script was not perfect. I thought it was backing up fine but I found out the hard way that it was encountering an error and stopping to copy the files and the error message dissapears so quickly that I did not realize the problem.
Anyway, I had to retrieve the data from my failed hard disk and I do not have $1000 to give to the professionals. I was searching the web for an appropriate software and I came accross this discussion: “Freeze your hard drive to recover data: Myth or Reality?“
I tried the trick, and it worked! I put the hard disk along with the enclosure to the freezer and waited for 10 minutes. I then connected my laptop and downloaded everything off of it. It needed a few unplug-plug cycles but I was able to recover all the data..
Dell Inspiron 700m internal bluetooth mod completed 6 May 2006, 03:45
Posted by Orhan in : Geeky Techy Stuff , 19 commentsWell, not exactly as planned, but a successful internal bluetooth addition is completed for the Inspiron 700m laptop. Although the chipset allows three usb ports, since there were no traces on the motherboard, I could not figure out where the unused usb port had its terminals. So I decided to pull a parallel line to the upper usb port. The first few figures show how the laptop is dismantled and how the usb port terminals are accessed on the motherboard.
4 wires are needed to carry the usb to another location. I used a usb receptacle just to keep the standard usb jack on the bluetooth dongle. Also, I think it is good to have a flexible system, maybe I might need it for something else in the future.
I added a power on/off switch to the +5v lead. This way I was planning to make the usb port usable while not using the bluetooth dongle. Well, it didn’t work as expected too. It turns out that I need a 3-pole switch to cut the data lines too. Anyways, having a power switch is still good for saving the battery. I am planning to change to a 3-pole switch in the future.
I figured the best place for the on/off switch is the front panel, near the optical drive bay. I opened a “window” with the help of a friend and made the switch accessible.
The usb dongle sits in the area where 700m has the wifi mini-pci card and the phone modem. Insulating it from the shiny protective sheet under the plastic cover is necessary. I used a simple tape for that.
Everything works OK for the time being. I am down to 1 usb port as of now, but it really makes no difference since I will not need one for the bluetooth!
Let me know if you have any questions..