*nix EMACS! Anybody home?! Ok someone must use it. I mean, Richard Stallman high guru of open source wrote it, and presumably uses it. But one dark and stormy night I was trying to hack an executable to remove the annoying GPL message Borland insists on sticking in everything — you see how this ties into Stallman? — and I realized that users have got to be scarce on the ground. Or at least in the Linux KDE GUI environment. ... One of the handy commands one can use in the EMACS “hexl-mode” is “C-M-d” which should “insert a byte with a code typed in decimal” — but which instead immediately minimized all my KDE windows. I think there was a whooshing noise maybe. ... Of course you immediately understood “C-M” means control+alt; ... of course. You do see the “M” on your Alt key, don’t you? No? ... Oh you pathetic idiot; you’re probably not using a circa 1956 Concurrent Conundrum time-sharing terminal. ... I mean, what kind of drooling fool are you anyways!? ... So as I googled the web trying to reassure myself “C-M” did mean control+alt, I came across http:// www.csd.uwo.ca/ staff/ magi/ personal/ nak/ emacs.html: Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift? “There weren’t very many students, even in the nerd squad, who were willing to go through the pain of learning how to use a drum card, but I did. Having made that sacrifice, I have never been tempted to go through the latter-day equivalent of this rite of passage (i.e. I don’t use EMACS).” - Mike O’Brien <obrien@antares.aero.org> and then the thoughtful fellow offered some simple procedures for “using EMACS” which appeared to involve deleting it.... ... But getting back to our story, you understand Borland’s considerate attitude towards their GPL message means that it is very difficult to write non-GUI applications with the free Kylix, because very few console tools can deal successfully with a line of pointless noise prefacing conceivably useful information. And while in the end I discovered that I could use “C-M-o” to enter an octal value, and it didn’t minimize all the windows, or start up the octohorn, or anything (I’m too scared to try the hex entry “C-M-x”) — Borland was too smart for me. It just obliterated the first letter of the message, replacing it with a \0, which doesn’t really help much. ... But at least now I know how to enter an octal number in EMACS. That must come in handy someday. ... — Tuesday, April 5, 2005 12:55 pm

Cadsoft Eagle: The Better Schematic-Capture/PCB Software? Well they’re certainly not the worst! ... Run by kindly Germans over at www.cadsoft.de, they have a free free capacity-limited version which at the very least will introduce those among us ignorant of the magic of schematic-capture to the rudiments of the art. ... Which included me until I did their “TUTORIAL-ENG.PDF”. ... Basically, if you work through it as they advise, you will get a pretty good grasp of what they’re up-to — with a few bumps which I will attempt to obfuscate here, along with general suggestions & ignorance.... So I’m not trying to explain the program; I’m trying to explain some things that stumped me while doing the TUTORIAL-ENG.PDF. (Note that this ancient text refers to the 4.1 version of the software, not the new advanced 5.6. The former is probably still available on their web site.) (And note that they’ve been bought around Friday, September 25, 2009; let us hope for the best — but of course whine of the worst....) What It Is Cadsoft’s “Eagle” consists of three Windows programs: A start-up file browser, which runs the other two programs. Schematic-capture, where one draws schematics. The PCB (“Printed Circuit Board”) program where you fiddle with the board created from the schematic you’ve drawn. The basic strategy is you add to a schematic specific components including physical configuration as well as interconnections. Complaints on the web suggest it would be nice, on the other hand, to start using a particular CPU, say 40-pin, and then later change to 52-pin PLCC or whatever. But it doesn’t work that way; apparently you have to decide when you place the component on the schematic what kind it is. Which probably fits in with the program’s two-way schematic/PCB feature: used normally, after you create the PCB with a schematic the two are forced to correspond as you make changes, which seems like a wonderful idea to me.... Command Line There’s a place to type commands at the top of the schematic and PCB program, and it’s best to get over it and assume that you will have to type things in there sometimes; it’s the way it works. ... For instance ... How Do You Undrop? (Answer: “use *”) When you want to place a component in your schematic, you click the “add” icon and a wonderful immense collection of parts in “libraries” appears, from which you may choose your part. You can remove some branches of this vast collection by clicking the “drop” button. But there was no “undrop” button! .... Instead, you can type “use all” (+ enter of course) in the command-line thing. ... Detailed extensive research suggests the “USE *” adds all the libraries in the eagle library path(s) (like the projects path, but mutilate the “library” entry or something). ... At least in version 4.6 or so; this used to say “USE ALL” was the magic mumbo-jumbo, and I must’ve gotten that from somewhere.... Stopping Add: Esc After you click the add icon and select something to add, you add it by clicking anywhere on the schematic. Then, the program will happily keep adding stuff as long as you keep clicking, which is handy, sometimes. Clicking the STOP icon will stop it I think; or I found just pressing ESC (or maybe ESC, ESC) would. A “Net” is how Cadsoft refers to normal connections between components, for which you click the NET icon, and then draw them with the mouse. The concept here is a schematic consists of components and nets. If you’ve wire-wrapped any — which was my preferred mode of circuit-realization before Cadsoft — you know about wire-wrapping two pins, getting another wire, wire-wrapping another two pins, and eventually stopping with that connection and starting an entirely new series of wire-wrap wires. That is, you hardly want to connect every component in the circuit to every other component! ... This “NET” thing is the equivalent of a short series of wire-wrap wires connecting a few components. Each component and NET in Eagle has a name; any NET that has the same name as another NET will be electrically connected together when Eagle concocts the PCB. You can find-out their names — and change them — by typing “name” (followed by Enter) in the command thing, and then clicking a net. Why Isn’t the Net Name Right? Probably because you clicked a component instead of the wire aka NET you had in mind. Magnify some more ( in the top toolbar) and try again. How Come Things Didn’t Get Connected? I didn’t really have this problem (?!), but the tutorial and web chit-chat suggests it has been a challenge now and then. ... I did as advised — (1.) turning on the “pins” layer, so the schematic is strewn with green bubbles wherever a connection is possible, and (2.) making sure the default grid is .1’’ so my drawn Nets had to be in the right places — and I think I missed a single connection. ... In, of course, a very small practice schematic.... Shift Click Delete I deleted things by clicking the Delete icon and then clicking the offender, but I found sometimes I had to press shift while clicking to delete some things, I have no idea why. The Form You start the schematic usually I gather by adding a “form” like LETTER_P (“letter”, “portrait”, I guess), which has a cute little official-schematic block there in the corner for info. It comes with some info which you don’t modify, like the file name and the date/time — Eagle modifies that stuff for you. The Alternate Grid: Alt + Click is used to place unimportant things like text — by pressing Alt while you’re doing the placing. The regular (default .1’’) grid defaults to the correct values to make things work, and should be used to place components, NETs etc. Can’t Change Label Position?: “Smash”! After you place a component, particularly if it’s sideways or upside-down (right-click during placement or something?) the label for the thing may look odd. If you’re tidy, find the “smash” icon, click it, and then click the component, whereupon the label will sort-of detach itself and you can fiddle with it. ... But you’ve got to find the little crosshairs of the label to move/rotate/etc it; and it’s invisible! ... I manigified the thing enormously so the label practically filled the screen and then I could see it; after a while I assume you sort-of get used to where it’s likely to be.... Move a Group of Things: CONTROL + Right-click There’s a regular dotted rectangle icon over there like a paint program, but after you’ve selected a bunch of things, you have to use the right-click + control — after clicking the “move” icon of course — to move the stuff. ... For years this text omitted the control part; how could I be so stupid!?!?!??! Printing: Use the Black! When your colored text show-up as black rectangles on your LaserJet, check the “Black” check box in the printer dialog. How Can I Delete a Label? If you type “Label” (+ enter) in the command thingey, and then click a NET, it gets a nice label of the name. If you do that 10 times, you get ten labels. But sometimes I couldn’t delete them! I think the trick was to make sure to click the little “+” sign associated with the label — actually every component and thing in the schematic has such a “handle” — and then I could delete it. As with many problems, zooming-in helped a lot. How Should I Do the “Entering a Schematic” Exercise on Page 35 of Tutorial-eng.PDF? Cadsoft provides the schematic pre-drawn as DEMO1.SCH somewhere in the default installation of the product, but that is really no fun at all. ... I recommend printing-out DEMO1.SCH and the parts list in the PDF, and making an entirely new schematic of your own, recreating the thing by hand. ... Which is of course extremely tedious and annoying — but that’s what we’re here for, isn’t it? This may also be a good idea since for some reason I couldn’t get Eagle to autoroute a board for the supplied DEMO1.SCH with the (freebie) program.... How Come the 5 Volt Regulator Isn’t Connected? After I got through with this and was so proud, I confirmed a dark suspicion and found the 5-volt regulator in my exercise schematic was not connected to the circuit! I could tell by typing “name” (+ enter) in the command thing, and clicking on the Vdd connection to the CPU versus the power-supply — the latter still being named something like N$1, while the CPU connection showed a decent “+5V”. Also when I had Eagle concoct the board, tracing the pattern showed the same flaw. Actually, the supplied DEMO1, DEMO2, and DEMO3 schematics seemed to have the same difficulty, and also the DEMO2 and DEMO3 boards, I think. ... So these clever Germans aren’t that clever!... Which brings me to an associate who did tremendously clever things over the years, apparently with this very software, but I had noticed how the boards I got for debug/test would sometimes leave bits of the power-supply unconnected. ... The 5 volt supply “parts” — the thing you “add” to various spots on the schematic to designate the 5 volt supply — magically connect themselves, and I suspect in some previous version, the 5 volt supply part itself would do that also ... but definitely didn’t here.... Anyway, I was able to name the net connected to the 5 volt regulator to “+5V” which made it OK, or I suppose I could’ve just connected it to the 5 volt supply “part” — although who knows.... ... Then I developed paranoid suspicions that my esteemed associate was somehow responsible for the startling (to me) BUS.SCH demonstration file, which of course shows a bus — but of a 12-valve head! ... They’re talking about my life’s work there; how they’d know!?... A Helpful Hint: How to Have Another Project Directory In the main “control panel” eagle window, “Options / Directories / Projects”: you can use a semicolon “;” to separate two or more paths where your projects might go, and then they’ll all show-up in the Eagle control panel window. ... So I can get the supposedly valuable stuff I’m toiling-away at backed-up without backing-up the default project directory in the eagle program project directory structure. And without abandoning the default project directory — with the examples. ... I found this out by installing version 5 of the program, which uses the semicolon so you can have examples and your own private projects area (which you MUST do with Vista) (but the semicolon worked in my version 4). ... Helplessly, Eagle semicolons the helpful Microsoft default “c:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Application Data\eagle” (or something) which, of course, you will have to add to your backup explicitly, unless you just happily backup your “Documents and Settings” directory and all thirty-thousand gigabytes of meaningless graphics cute stunts and garbagey dreck that your typical windows program and of course Windows itself and all the c--pware your helpful OEM installs will stick there. (General-purpose Windows hint: NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER use “Documents and Settings” or ANY Windows-supplied directory, if you can help it. Just make your own; I make a “c:\gregor” directory and numerous others, wherever I want them — but I try to keep them secret from Windows.) ... I had just been railing to the LOL about how I hate software, and giving as an example this very problem with the nevertheless-admirable EagleCad, that I had to do wacko tricks to get my work backed-up, and speculating bitterly that I’d find-out in 17 years “oh you just do <--->” which of course I would never have guessed. ... But then I found it out the next day, by downloading the next version which was forced to accommodate the execrable Vista and incidentally reveal the semicolon trick. ... The software could’ve done the right thing, which would be to have a “tool tip” on the directories thingey there, suggesting the Power of the Semicolon. But Eagle’s only been making this program for 10 years or so, so they haven’t gotten that far. ... So I just spent 10 minutes finding the version 5 eagle directory in “Documents and Settings”. That Chen (?) guy at Micrsoft TechNet Magazine (?) once explained that “Program Files” is called that to prevent hapless MSDOS users — i.e. when Windows was newish — from wandering in there trying to start their programs which, of course, they couldn’t find anywhere else because Windows is so EZ and helpful. ... Do you suppose “Documents and Settings” is the same idea? ... Prevent them from finding their documents? ... And it works.... ... More Eagle Thoughts: The Good, The Ugly ... The Dance of Time has done a few steps, and here I am again trying to figure-out Eagle. ... I realized while doing so I truly hated the thing — perhaps because learning new software is infantalizing; you’re in kindergarten, nothing works. ... Now Eagle is undoubtedly one of the better of the schematic/PCB programs; but that’s like saying Excel is one of the better spreadsheets (and incidentally I also despise spreadsheet software). ... A pilgrim on the web cited Eagle’s ability to run for hours without crashing as an exciting advanced characteristic, which is apparently otherwise unheard-of in the world of schematic/PCB software.... But I would like to grow accustomed to programs that are intuitive; that do what I expect. ... Eagle is not one of those. ... On the other hand, Eagle does not cost $8000 — a typical number someone on the web mentioned for “competitive” products; the actual companies won’t say. ... Except Eagle, which has prices on its website and even in advertisements; and Eagle’s copy-protection is still a relatively benign license # scheme. ... Although they are drifting toward the dark side, and require personal petition to discover upgrade prices.... Al Williams’ Build Your Own Printed Circuit Board ©2004 Somewhere above I claim I didn’t have problems connecting things, but I must’ve been so much older then. ... I was just doing an example with 9 connections, and managed to miss two of them! ... This is not the way I want my easy-to-use software to work. ... The example, incidentally, came from the obsolete book Build Your Own Printed Circuit Board by Al Williams, still available for $25 or so at Amazon. It’s mostly about Eagle version 4.1; a CD — remember those! — comes with the book — but it’s still one of the best books of this kind I can remember reading. ... Williams puffs the product, as they all do; but it’s still a really useful guide for a fairly CAD-ignorant (but hardware-knowledgeable) person to the wonders and majesty of schematic capture and PCB routing the Eagle way — easily worth the money. ... Of course it’s the wrong version, and even then there are exciting deviations from even 4.6 operation — but that just makes it more interesting, eh? ... The plan I followed was to use the 4.6 eagle I had (the final version 4 revision) to work with the book, but you could install the one on his CD which might work-out better; remember, all the versions can be used in the limited-but-useful free mode! ... Then I can move on to the current version 5 and learn everything all over again — which is typical, anyway. ... It’s probably the best eagle book out there; a small selection, to be sure.... ... But still, Eagle will not become my buddy; unlike, say, my cuddly Pascal IDE Delphi, for instance. ... I guess one of the secrets of my illustrious do-nothing career has been avoiding ugly software. ... But perhaps I will yet beat Eagle into submission and learn to love the pain.... — the ancient programmer Wednesday, October 14, 2009 10:54 am

Hey Kids: Let’s Play With Quotes!! That’d be in Windows XP. ... Try this testquotes.bat in your system: echo echo I am nop.bat %%1 > "c:\Program Files\nop.bat" call "c:\Program Files\nop.bat" call "c:\Program Files\nop.bat" "arg w/ spaces" %comspec% /C "c:\Program Files\nop.bat" "arg w/ spaces" That fourth line doesn’t work in XP; it tries to execute “Program” — and this behavior is actually documented (“cmd /?”)! ... Of course testquotes.bat works as expected in Windows 98 second edition.... But guess what children? It doesn’t work in the XP CreateProcess system call either! Is that cool or what? ... That is CreateProcess("c:\\windows\\system32\\cmd.exe", "c:\\windows\\system32\\cmd.exe /c \"c:\\Program Files\\nop.bat\" \"arg w/ spaces\"", blah blah etc) reports no error — but doesn’t execute the batch file! ... Microsoft says of CreateProcess (at least it did Friday, October 6, 2006 5:58 pm) “to run a batch file, you must start the command interpreter; set lpApplicationName to cmd.exe and set lpCommandLine to the name of the batch file” — which is so wrong I really suspect their hearts weren’t in it (you still have to use “/C” in the arguments to actually make it work).1 But I’m cynically inclined to suspect the Microsofties knew the cmd thing was broken. ... I say that because despite their advice, you can actually — in both Windows 98 and XP — execute the batch file correctly like CreateProcess(NULL, "\"c:\\Program Files\\nop.bat\" \"arg w/ spaces\"", blah blah) i.e., by just setting the lpApplicationName to NULL and not using cmd.exe. ... This is a pretty unusual “accident” so I’m assuming it was intentional — although they probably never got it to work right either, so they don’t admit it. ... Obviously, the simple fix is just to always NULL the first argument — until that reveals some other phase-of-moon contretemps.... Of course it’ll work correctly in Vista.... — the sadly disappointed programmer Friday, October 6, 2006 6:25 pm 1. I was rereading this, and momentarily thought that perhaps they meant CreateProcess(“cmd.exe”,“\”\\program files\\nop.bat\“ \”args with spaces\“”, etc ...) — which is what they actually say — but that’s no good either....

The iMini: Owen Whines First I relented on Microsoft, no doubt the cause of endless rejoicing at that dark principality; and now I’ve turned to Apple — and the darkness truly gathers! ... Actually, after the initial shock and awe, well, it’s not so bad. ... I’ve seen worse, as the poor fellow reiterates in Slaughterhouse 5. ... Really for several days I thought it was an imac — apparently a much more expensive all-in-one unit including screen / keyboard / mouse; it was disappointing when I realized my error. ... I mean, why couldn’t they call it an “iMini”?! ... I want an “i” something! ... Maybe I’ll just call it that, between ourselves, and ignore their heartless discrimination.... ... It certainly boots faster than Windows! ... As the beautiful illustration should convey, the laboratories generally make-do with lower-rent stuff than the estimable iMini, which is a totally unprovoked 2006 xmas gift of the dangerous but irrationally-generous LOL. ... As shown, the single antique CRT served one-at-a-time the mini, the broken laptop, and even today the dos/win 3.1 machine.... ... So this user did not perceive the storied Mac interface as friendly. ... At least during setup, I found it extremely annoying — in part, no doubt, because Apple is the last bastion of the screw-the-customer business strategy. ... For example, the separate power supply — which I have cleverly hidden under the thing, using part of the packing material — has weird connectors all-round, i.e. even the AC side, so you can’t use a standard three-pronged AC plug like everything else but instead if you have to replace it pay Apple the $200 or whatever it wants for the part. ... Surely this is one of the last of the breed; the only other like that at OwenLabs is probably an antique Windows 95 Compaq laptop! (... The weary years pass ... ) ... But ... It’s still better than Vista! So after a few seasons idly whacking the imini and macintoshery in general — even writing a beautiful Xcode program along our merry way — Microsoft pulled-ahead dramatically, snatching defeat from market stagnation, and Vista definitely sux worse than the Mac. ... Even the LAN-killing Leopard update! — the ever-enthusiastic programmer Wednesday, December 3, 2008 4:10 pm Then again ... RIP Tiny Imini!?!? Monday, September 14, 2009 6:32 pm. I tried upgrading to the fabulous super-speedy $30 Snow Leopard aka OS X 10.6 — and my 3-year-old mini was too cheap! ... It’s only got 500 meg! Snow leopard demands a gig at least! ... And the mini is officially un-user-upgradeable! ... I’ve seen the pictures in the gushy puffy mac magazines — not one of whom hinted-at this minor snow leopard restriction — and you have to use a knife to get in there and I won’t I won’t I refuse! ... So my pitiful little mini, so happy so gay, has reached the end of its tiny lifespan so fast; indeed, I did hardly know her. ... It’s really quite Microsoftian! ... Out motto: obsolescence while you wait! ... But then of course I gave-in.... How I Upgraded My Imini Memory With a Few Putty Knives and Good Ol’ Common Sense!!! It’s so EZ! ... Actually I’m not going to tell anyone how to do this. I’m going to egotistically display my know-it-all notes, emphasizing how incredibly easy it is and how smart I am, and expect you to go to one of the many macintosh web sites that have done all the hard work. ... My notes are based on “www.applefritter.com/Mac_Mini_Take_Apart_Guide” to whose beautiful pictures I will occasionally refer. ... There are numerous locations on the web with this kind of information, some of it more-or-less correct, and I went to several to puzzle-out what was going on. ... If you like videos, they’re there also in abundance. ... Google for “mini memory upgrade” or something, and Vaya Con Dios! Memories; Sharpen Your Putty Knives! I bought my imini upgrade 2 gigabyte memory modules from otherworld computing because they have a cute name. Also good prices? ... And a handy guide to which mini: click “View About This Mac” and they’ll show what your “about” should say for the various glorious flavors. ... In my wanderings, some site wanted to sell me pre-sharpened putty knives, so that I could turn the mini over and pry off the plastic lid, which you do with a thin thing which’ll fit between the case and the plastic thing, and a regular putty knife is too thick. ... But the common putty knife, bought or sharpened with sandpaper or something, is the recommended implement all through minidom! ... So I went down to the garage and set up my genuine manly grinding wheel thingey and had at it! ... The first effort wasn’t ground-enough when I finally got around to abusing the mini, so back I went and ground some more and there were very few major injuries! ... I must say I never dreamed computing could be so much fun! 3:22 pm. I got the first part of the lid off — actually what with grinding and previous attempts, add at least half an hour here. ... Anyway I got it off, more-or-less as per the fritter site instructions. ... Note that the second picture at fritter shows the plastic hook things you’re trying to blindly maneuver with your silly sharpened putty knives. ... And I didn’t break one off! 3:24 pm. After you’ve gotten the left side off, getting the right side is harder because of course it’s squashed or something. I cheated and used an exacto blade to wedge in, but that was probably a bad idea and left a mark. ... On the other hand, I doubt anybody really completes this mission without leaving marks.... THE AIRPORT ANTENNA is the non-rectangular plastic antenna near the connector end (upper right in the third fritter picture) obstructing access to one of the four phillips screws. It is held in place by two plastic thingeys; you push them together with your fingers underneath the gadget, and it pops up — at least mine did; it had a spring! ... DON’T LOSE THE SPRING! ... So I marked the LITTLE CABLE fritter told me to remove with metallic ink (i.e. on the card, plastic, wire, on one side, in case it tries to go back the wrong way). I used a forceps (a spring-loaded tweezer thing everybody has around the house) to get it off; it’s a 2-wire pin header. ... I had to pull with the wires; the little plastic top comes off, leaving most of the header square plastic structure. Then I got my super screwdrivers from my vast downstairs collection to remove the actual PHILLIPS SCREWS. The screw under the rectangular antenna — i.e. the other antenna you didn’t pop-up — is “exposed”: you can see it while you screw. Test your screwdriver with this screw to see if the screwdriver works: you want the biggest phillips that’ll fit, but not too big; also long-enough to fit in the other ridiculous holes these things always hide in. The only screw that’ll come-out easy is the exposed one; the rest will fall on the floor and never be seen again when you lift the stupid thing up in the air. ... So I did it over a towel of course and so carefully. ... The screws are different lengths — the true mark of fine manufacturing! ... I didn’t notice which came from which, so I’m going to have to guess on the way back in. ... So the modus operandi is to make sure the screws all fall out; the last one I had to screw the thing out upside down to coax it on to the towel.... To get to the precious memory, you’re supposed to TURN THE PLASTIC STRUCTURE OVER that you just unscrewed — it contains the hard and CD drives — while preserving the remaining wiring, which is all between the plastic monolith and the connector side of the mini. ... I think; see fritter or somebody. ... I had to pull it back from the connector side of the outer plastic case a little bit while I pulled-up; it’s somehow engaged with the case plastic junk. ... Watch out for the airport antenna, which is dangling in the air! ... Actually you should MAKE A POINT OF NOTICING HOW THE AIRPORT ANTENNA WIRE snakes out; I had trouble putting it back. It had a rubber tube around the base which at first caught on something. It is, of course, just long enough to reach its intended position. REMOVING THE MEMORIES: you push aside two little metal clips on the top memory, and it springs-up about 15 degrees, and I could pull it out with not insignificant force. There’s another set of clips for the bottom set. Then of course I put the two new modules in, bottom first. ... And they clicked back in; the top one just slides in horizontally, and seemed to take a little more force than the bottom; angle or something.... PUTTING IT ALL BACK TOGETHER: THE MAGIC SCREWS. ... The long screw probably goes in the hole next to the memory — NO NO it’s probably the one next to the usb ports and the headphone; because that’s the one it’s impossible to screw in. ... I typically use an old gypsy heatsink clip to pick up screws; you need a tiny tweezers or something. But there’s probably no way to put them into the holes properly. I put some of them in by sticking the screw on the screwdriver, holding it upright, and turning the unit upside down and gently stuffing it over the upright screw+screwdriver. ... That worked once or twice, until the final USB/headphone screw. Which fell into the works; when that happens to your screw, you have to do what I did: remove the other screws and stupid plastic thing all over again, get the screw, put the plastic thing back, and start with the USB/headphone screw. ... Which it is not possible to screw in. ... This is such a joke; across the fruited plain, all these mini macintosh types who got the “computer for the rest of them” are supposed to figure this out! ... I assume Apple has special jigs, tools; I don’t.... But I have ... fun-tak! Which, as per the illustration, has changed to “BlueStik”; I suppose to get folks like us serious men machinist types to buy the stuff, instead of 8-year-olds. ... So I fun-takked it in; a little on the screw, squash in the phillips screwdriver head, in it goes without falling off, and it worked! ... And most of the funtak comes out! ... I mean, it’s better than the screw falling in and rolling around! ... So I used that technique for the remaining screws; no more upside down iminis forever! ... Yeah it worked pretty good. Of course there’s a little funtak left in the screw head — but that may come in handy, at the next upgrade! Put the antenna back — REMEMBER THE SPRING! (I didn’t, once) — and the little wire — again, I used my forceps. 4:41 pm. So I plugged it in — without putting the plastic lid back on. And it came up! But apparently, forgetting its brains; it didn’t know what time it was, and it couldn’t remember the wireless password. ... When I unclicked “set date & time automatically” in “clock preferences”, it then immediately remembered the right time — i.e. from the clock chip no doubt. I suppose when the memory size changes, or someone wrecks the machine by rolling screws around the inside, it clears its flash and forgets its druthers or who knows. ... But “about this mac” says it’s got 2 gig! Hoo la! Now to put the plastic thing back, and Bob’s Ur Uncle! There’s a LITTLE METAL THING sticking down from the lid (?) which is supposed to fit into a mating slot in the machine when you PUT ON THE LID; I managed to squash it first try. So look before you leap. ... He sagely advises; as I got it on wrong again, and the connection side wasn’t fitting right. ... I think it’s little metal springy things designed to retain ground circuit or something and they’re squashing instead of springing. Let’s see! ... Although I will say, every time I take the thing off with the The Magic Putty Knives, it comes off much easier. ... So I pushed it down while checking the little metal thingeys at the connector end, which seemed to work. ... It looks almost right now; but not perfect. Then again, I didn’t take a picture before disassembly.... 5:07 pm. It’s done. Seems to work, got 2 gig, looks good enough for government work.... Inspiring Conclusion: DON’T You’d be a fool to do this if you really care about the mini working afterwards; take it somewhere and pay somebody to do it; somebody with appropriate insurance etc. ... My imini did work of course — I was installing the superhumanly exquisite snow leopard while I was typing this — but I didn’t care if the plastic hook things broke off, the case got damaged, the thing burst into flames. ... I was prepared to put it back together with plastic screws or postal tape. Or not at all.... With my incredibly long experience in electronics, I’ve learned that attitude is everything: if you care, then the thing wants to break so much more! ... For instance, I would never try the laptop memory upgrades all these whizzos on the web are always advocating — “First, remove the keyboard”. ... Yeah sure and then throw the laptop away; which I or someone near to me doesn’t want to do.... — the compassionate caring techy Thursday, October 1, 2009 2:30 pm