* Posts by Paul L Daniels

17 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Oct 2008

Samsung Galaxy S3 explodes, turns young woman into 'burnt pig'

Paul L Daniels

Flaming Apples

I do iPhone repair work here; had a client supply me with their own replacement back for an iP4S rather than letting me supply. When I fit it, and then removed it a little while later (testing) I could smell that tell-tale sweet smell that means "electrolyte is leaking", didn't think too much of it because a lot of new lithium batteries have it slightly. When I placed the rear panel back on again the phone shut down... and THEN I smelt the all too familar frying electronics magic-smoke-escaped scent, the battery was p*ssed and the phone was about to go up in smoke!

In the end, the phone was saved; the fault was that the customer-supplied rear panel was an ultra cheapy and the die-punch did not cleanly cut out one of the holes in the embedded metal shield, leaving a raised burr. That burn cut in to the battery, released the electrolyte and started a nice bit of trouble. Close call really, another minute and it'd likely have been a pile of ash on the pile of ash that would be my workshop.

'Australia's so big freight costs are high' claims don't add up

Paul L Daniels

Re: Where is the trusty ACCC?

Indeed. My previous business was doing fine with $4.20 prices of small packages from AU->US. Then, within 12 months things just went crazy and suddenly it's $13.70 just for rudimentary "we'll lose it" airmail. The other massive insult was when you use Express Courier International, was $47 about 24 months ago, now $56 (~20% rise), but worst is when you compare it to the cost of getting EMS freight in (same service) which costs less than half for the same package. It's almost like Auspost wants you to start using FedEx/UPS/DHL because they can't handle it.

( P.S. the 3~5 days quoted for ECI/EMS is a load of bollocks, more like 7~12 days ).

Paul L Daniels
Thumb Down

Re: Of course shipping electrons is way expensive too.....

I was going to get myself a technet subscription to give me ease access to all those ISOs that I frequently need because client machines aren't supplied with them... the US price was acceptable, but then the AU price just made my go look for some alternative sources for legally licenced goods :(

Review: HTC One

Paul L Daniels

Re: No microSD AGAIN

> no problem. Rinse thoroughly in changes of distilled or deionised water, shake, dry. Next?

Except it doesn't usually work out like that. Sure sometimes it works perpetually, sometimes it works for a few months, most times they die in a couple of weeks. Usually what we do here (phone repairs, electronics level) is strip the boards down, coarse scrub with isopropylene and a toothbrush, ultrasonic wash, rinse in distilled, dry in dehumidifier, examine with stereo-microscope, cross fingers and hope for the best. However quite often the damage is already done, tracks have been corroded away, small 01005 parts eaten, fuses blown, caps shorted, PMICs brain dead. Admittingly, it's the phones that you cannot remove the batteries from that are the biggest problem. Quick removal of the battery is frequently the difference between the phone living, or dying.

We have about a 20% success rate with non recurrence of issues. In the end, unless it's specifically demanded by the client, we just suggest they go get a warranty refurbished replacement. It's less trouble in the end.

NBN collapses* into chaos*

Paul L Daniels
Thumb Up

Re: Bye, bye copper!

Out here NBN will be $20 cheaper than my current ADSL2+ unlimited rural plan (12Mbps), so I can't wait.

Outback Communities Authority plans NBN extension

Paul L Daniels

Not the real problem they'll face...

The real problem for them is going to be getting telecommunications approval to actually run their own communications network. I'm willing to bet that as soon as they try to move ahead with creating their own superior service, Telstra, or another corp is going to tangle them up in red-tape and choke their great project until it drops dead, just like the competing services they're not providing already are.

Judge: Apple not liable for dropped, broken iPhone screens

Paul L Daniels

Re: The back is made of glass

The back is the easiest part to replace on the iphone 4/4s. $10 for the replacment, 2 star screws removed from the bottom of the phone, slide and lift off the broken glass-plastic laminate back, replace with new unbroken one, reinsert and tighten up screws. It takes 5 minutes and shouldn't cost much more than $40 USD or equivilant to have done. The front/LCD side though will take an hour or more and drive most people insane.

Paul L Daniels
Angel

Hell no, don't stop using glass!

I make a nice income from replacing all the shattered iphones and ipods. The biggest pains I have are trying to get the dents out of the metal parts so that the glass bits can fit in properly without excessive force.

Seriously though, iPhone 4/4S back glass is dead easy to replace (2 screws and slide off the back), the front/LCD otoh is a tormenting job involving about 10 different screw sizes spread across ~20 screws and random selections of tempermental clear adhesive sheets.

Sure, it's 30x harder/tougher than plastic, which means it won't look like a scratch-fest motorbike visor at the end of the first month, but yes, they break fairly quickly as a consequence (for now, until materials science gives us something even better ).

Hipsters hacking on PostgreSQL

Paul L Daniels

Re: Love It.

Another person also using it since 1998. I don't think PostgreSQL ever tried to be hip, cool or popular - it just wanted to "do the job" and do it well.

SQLite is another arrow in the quiver, but for the most part it's still PostgreSQL for me.

(Surely everyone remembers the never ending mySQL vs PostgreSQL cluster-fest-fights on Slashdot every second month?)

How to get a job in Australia

Paul L Daniels

Re: I've heard...

Yes, it's relatively boring. I much preferred my years in South Africa doing IT - back here in Australia it's just a tad... bland.

Now, with the dissing of my own homeland and exposing myself as horribly un-patriotic all out of the way; I have to say, if you want a job over here, just head for the mines, good pay and they keep you so busy you don't care that you're not out partying.

Microsoft corrects itself: 'We expect fewer people to use Windows 8'

Paul L Daniels

Microsoft should have "crashed and burned" so many times in the past - but people are just so resiliant to abuse that I doubt Microsoft will suffer from Win8. Oh sure there's screams and yells, there's sizable boycotts ... but after a few months of a couple of years, when Win9 comes out or is proposed, everyone will go right on back into the chamber-of-abuse and keep on taking it. All Microsoft needs to do is just keep the abuse level below that of what it takes to switch to Mint or Ubuntu.

Teens break up with Facebook

Paul L Daniels
Pirate

Re: Anecdotal

> Paul Daniels

You know, I've tried tweeting and FB messaging to him, never replies to me... I'm waiting for him to release his domain so I can take it back! For too long have I lived in his shadow.

NetBank unavailable to 'many customers'

Paul L Daniels

Damn, there goes my chance at an excuse

Today I squeezed blood out of rocks to get a CBA bpay payment through (else I'd likely be nadless tomorrow), and now I find I could have used this as my "excuse" for deferring the payment till tomorrow. Still, likely wouldn't have helped, they don't care about things like that. . . . "But Sir, it looks like you use Firefox 11 on Ubuntu..." :(

Wonder if it's a CSS/Javascript issue (I run the NetBank site fine without Java or Flash).

PayPal turns smartphones into checkout tills

Paul L Daniels

Breakages in 3...2....1

It's a brilliant idea - the data will go in via the 3rd (control) pin btw @ge.

What bothers me though is that the free-standing/swivelling aspect of the device combined with the offset slider and less-than-perfect handling could well result in quite a few pads suffering from weakened holes and cracks on the PCB.

I'll be interested in signing up for this, let me dump my $50+/mth "traditional" bank merchant system.

Beeb rescues old Who episodes

Paul L Daniels
Thumb Up

Good news... the episodes are coming back to us anyhow...

From space....

http://www.rimmell.com/bbc/news.htm

Digital shoppers ripped off @.com.au

Paul L Daniels
Coat

Gridlock

It's a bit of a gridlock/catch-22 situation, everyone is having to pay high prices for labour, housing, petrol, utilities, food etc so that means we all want higher wages which, lo behold, come from charging more a lot of the time. Of course it's an absurd situation that things are 2x the price compared to the US, I'd be expecting 25% but not much more.

The sad thing is, the more we pour money directly offshore the less there tends to be to grease the domestic economy engine.

:bleah: :(

( coat because I'm trying to find another $2 to buy some bloomen milk )

Relocated Oz croc menaces tourist beaches

Paul L Daniels
Pirate

Too close to home

You know, I read TheRegister to laugh at the crap happening to people in far away places, now I see this article and it's right in my backyard.

To be fair, we love our crocs here - they make excellent tourist-catchers, especially tourists who've watched far too many Steve 'Crikey' Irwin reruns - "Hunny, do you see the size of that... *CHOMP*"