David Machiavello

The morning after my wedding while checking out from the hotel room, my laptop took a tumble when after I left it on the edge of the bed then sat up too quickly. Despite my best man's heroic efforts to save my laptop as it fell, it hit the floor.
 
When I turned on the laptop later that afternoon my heart sank into the pit of my stomach when I saw the screen. The LCD didn't looked cracked, but there was severe distortion with the colors and the screen was sort of flickering. It looked like i knocked my laptop back to 8-bit!
 
On wednesday I decided to take apart my laptop to hunt down the problem (since I was out of warranty since Aug 21st,i might as well try to fix it myself). I disconnected the display cables and reseated everything and fired the laptop on, and it seemed like it did the trick, my laptop display worked great. I was so thankful I didn't have to drop $300+ for a new LCD.

This document really helped: Dell Studio 1535 Service Manual

Who says there aren't any practical uses for Algebra? This equation helped out tremendously cutting out the angles for the plywood that was laid over the right frame of the roof (the left side had a different equation). I may not know carpentry, but I still remember my math (even if i haven't used it in a while).

A few months ago my external hard drive carrying my iTunes Library failed and the only copy of my music was on my 80gb iPod Classic. I've looked for many different third party recovery apps, but most of them cost a fee, or the ones I found that were free didn't retain info like ratings, play count, album art, etc.

I did use Songbird 1.2 to recover the information from my iPod just so I had a copy of my files in case my iPod failed too. Now i'm a big fan of Songbird, and I think it has potential to become way better than iTunes, but for now, there are several features that I can't live without, like full audiobook support and with an 80gb ipod, just mounting the device took me the better part of an hour. This was pretty unacceptable, so I decided to switch back to iTunes.

Today I finally found the perfect solution, and it was SharePod. This is a totally free app with no spyware or anything (doesn't even have an installer, you just extract a zip file and run the stand-alone file). I was able to import into a clean install of iTunes from my iPod, my entire library. I can't be any happier at the moment. I never mind recommending a product to someone that I've used personally and works exactly as advertised. I just wish I had found this program sooner. Once my life settles back down in a few months, i'll be sure to give the author a donation for such a great product.

So if you're looking to recover your library (or want to copy your library to another machine) this is a great tool. Thanks SharePod!

(download)

This is the "Radio Edit" version of Lonestar's Amazed. This is going to be our First Dance song.

I know that I'm marrying the right woman for me, if she plays silly games like Jenga with unused Edamame shells.

(note: i'm fully aware that Jenga is about taking away blocks, not stacking, but i couldn't remember the stacking game)

Jennifer took a few pictures of us on the roof. Here we are looking to put the top support beam that will be used for the roof. I'm pretending to be working, i'm really just supervising, haha.

Although, seriously, it feels nice to work outside instead of the computer (it's a great break from the norm), I really enjoy my time working on this project.

Ok this is pretty interesting, i'm going to have to try and make these next party:

Orange Slice Jello Shots – Makes 18-24

• 3 medium oranges, halved and slices removed
• 6 ounces orange Jello
  
• 1 cup boiling water
  
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
  
• 1/2 cup vodka

1. Set orange halves tightly in a container just big enough to fit all six.
2. Whisk together Jello, water, juice and vodka until combined.
3. Pour into orange halves and carefully transfer the container to the fridge.  Let set at least four hours or overnight.
4. Slice into thirds or fourths and serve.
   

via Food & Fizz

What happens when you do a google search for "ascii art" ? this (notice the logo):

Try it yourself

This behavior is something I've kept since childhood (my parents can attest to this). Part of my wake up ritual, i'll sit "indian-style" and slump over, usually while hugging a pillow. Depending if i'm cold or not, i'll do this under the covers. It's weird, I know.
Tia took the pictures and jennifer pulled off the covers.
What childhood behaviors do you still have today?