Campus MovieFest and Other Little Things
Mar 6th
February was a wild month. It was the perfect blend of excitement and exhaustion. Despite an onslaught of tests and quizzes, Kristen and I managed to celebrate our 4 year anniversary. We spent the weekend at Disney, strolled in the cold weather, and had a generally unbelievable time.The Disney trip was actually a last minute thing, but it seems like it was both more relaxing and more enjoyable than the original plan we had made six months prior.
The week after that was Campus MovieFest. More than 120 teams were given a handheld camcorder, a Mac Book, and an AT&T phone to make a 5 minute film in a week. Even with impending midterms and other minor inconveniences, me, Roland, and Kristen signed up and took on the task of film making. To be honest, that week was more fun than stressful. We were first time film makers and inexperienced Mac users, but I think our film couldn’t have come out any better. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Last week was the showing of the top 16 movies. We didn’t make the cut, but I wasn’t expecting to anyway. It was a great experience nonetheless. Our friends at Juice Box Boy Productions won best drama for their film. It was really well done and creativity like that always inspires me.
And with that, check out our film, “Doing Happy”
Bumper Repair With A Hair Dryer
Jan 13th
Last semester, somebody left a pretty hefty dent in my rear bumper while I was in class. When I took it to a body shop, they gave me an estimate of $600 to repair one dent! With the help of a friend, we were able to fix it with a hair dryer and a socket wrench.
In order to fix the dent, we first had to remove the bumper. To do this, we removed 4 plastic pop-rivets from underneath the bumper. They will most likely break when you take them out, so buy replacements at an auto supply store for any that do (you can get 2 for a dollar). Then, We had to remove the lining of the trunk to get access to the nuts and bolts holding
the bumper to the frame. We needed a 3/8″ 10MM socket to get to four of the harder to reach bolts at the rear wall of the trunk. There were also a few more bolts at each side of the trunk.
After the plastic rivets and bolts were removed, we were able to pop the bumper out. In order to push out the dent, we had to soften the plastic using a hair dryer on high heat. We did this for about 10 minutes, and I pushed it out by hand with a towel to protect against the hot plastic.
After that, we just put the bumper back on, replaced the pop-rivets, replaced the bolts, and reinserted the trunk lining. The result wasn’t exactly perfect, but it was much better than before.
Make A Free iPhone Ringtone Using Only iTunes
Jan 2nd
You don’t need to download other apps or pay 99 cents for iPhone ringtones anymore. Making a free ringtone is easy – and you can do it all in iTunes. This can be done with any song in your iTunes library that is DRM free.
Remember to keep the length of all ringtone clips under 30 seconds or iTunes will not transfer them over to your iPhone.
- Open iTunes and find the song you want to turn into a ringtone
- Right-click on the song and select “Get Info”
- Click on the “Options” tab
- Check the radio button for start time and enter the time in the song where you want your ringtone to start. Check the radio button for stop time and enter the time in the song where you want the ringtone to end. Make sure that the duration of the ringtone you selected is UNDER 30 seconds. When you are done click OK
- Right-click on the song again and select “Create AAC version”
- Locate the file you just created on your computer. You may be able to do this by right-clicking on the file and selecting any variant of “show file” or “show in windows explorer”
- Replace the .m4a extension with .m4r. Double click on the file to automatically add it to your ringtone collection in iTunes
Notes
- Delete the shortened file you created from your iTunes library
- Remeber to return the start and stop time settings on the original song back to default
Repairing A Broken iPhone – How To Fix A Cracked Screen
Dec 30th
If you saw my broken iPhone post a while ago, you may have realized that scotch tape isn’t exactly the best way to fix a cracked screen. Fortunately, with the help of a few YouTube tutorials, I was able to fix the screen using tools and replacement parts that I bought on eBay for about $18.
This is the most helpful tutorial I found:
Materials Used:
- Magnetic screwdriver
- Paper clip or sim card tool
- Suction cup
- Spudger
- Adhesive strips
- Replacement iPhone 3G OEM Glass Digitizer Screen
- Hairdryer or Heat Gun
Personal notes:
- When using the suction cup to separate the glass from the housing, you need to pull very firmly. However, do not pull too far open because the digitizer is still attached by three cables.
- When separating the frame from the LCD, be very careful when prying. Only pry from the sides and that one corner mentioned in the video.
- If you’re using a hairdryer, you need to heat the glass for NO LESS than 5 minutes. Use a rag or pot holder when peeling the glass off the frame because it gets very hot. Make sure not to warp the shape of the frame.
Before
After
Free Google Adsense Stickers!
Dec 15th
Google AdSense is a great way to monetize your website. According to John Chow, some sites earn up to six figures monthly from publishing Google ads.
While we can’t all make that kind of cash, the people over at the AdSense blog have given us common folk a chance to get a hand in the Google jar. That’s right – free Google AdSense stickers! Last year, the team printed out a large batch of stickers and apparently, they’ve still got a bunch to give out.
All you need to do is send a self-addressed envelope and the correct postage, and they’ll send a couple of stickers right back. You can find the rest of the details at the Google AdSense blog.