mtadkins

Adding a touchscreen to my lil’ laptop. So far, so good. Managed to disassemble without cracking anything, which is better than usual.

[update] Well, I received a couple of questions, so here’s a bit more info on this admittedly awesome project:

A few months ago I picked up a second-hand (Ebay) netbook, a Lenovo Ideapad S10. I primarily use it as it was intended…mainly for surfing the web, email, etc. One nice bonus, however, is that it is a fantastic way to read comics – succeeding where my Sony E-Reader fails. Manga and some other mostly black & white comics looked “ok” on the e-reader (I have a PRS-500 model), but the Lenovo is about the same size & weight as a hardcover book and color comics look fantastic (I know, not a color shot, but you get the idea). Now, where you get the digital version of them and whether you should is a guilt-trip for another day.

Anyway, as you might imagine it’s a hassle to use windows & the touchpad when you’re holding your laptop sideways. There are some programs you can download to ‘rotate’ the touchpad input and minimize the mental gyrations needed, but what caught my eye was this “Add a touchscreen to your netbook” hack.

I ordered the kit from FidoHub & have dismantled & then re-assembled the netbook. I ran into a snag installing the controller for the touchscreen ( I need some longer wires) — , but installed the screen itself with no problem and hope to have it up and running in a couple of days. Stay tuned…

[FidoHub, I might add, are fantastic. I ordered it on a Saturday evening & had it in my hands by Tuesday. Whoooo! Then, when I realized with despair that I had somehow ordered the kit for the MSI Wind instead of my Lenovo one — don’t ask, I don’t know how — Jeff from FidoHub quickly responded to my email & offered to swap out the controller board & cables, which are now en route. Boom. All of that…from Thailand…while a typhoon was smashing them. THAT is customer service.]

Never seen any of the “TED Talks” videos? Here’s a chance to feel like you’re seeing the future: http://bit.ly/bUYdJ #fb

Hee-hawing at Uncomfortable Plot Summaries http://bit.ly/2RWHeb Guess which is “Critique of Catholicism upstaged by polar bear fight.”? #fb

"Conservatives delude themselves that the Bush tax cuts worked and that the best medicine for America’s economic woes is more tax cuts; at a minimum, any tax increase would be economic poison. They forget that Ronald Reagan worked hard to pass one of the largest tax increases in American history in September 1982, the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, even though the nation was still in a recession that didn’t end until November of that year. Indeed, one could easily argue that the enactment of that legislation was a critical prerequisite to recovery because it led to a decline in interest rates. The same could be said of Clinton’s 1993 tax increase, which many conservatives predicted would cause a recession but led to one of the biggest economic booms in history."

From The GOP’s Misplaced Rage by Bruce Bartlett

Ack. I already wised up about bottled water, but really?: Fiji Water http://bit.ly/11xZio