Applefritter - Laptop Mods

Glowing Wallstreet

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:02:47 -0700

When I first got my Wallstreet 250 two years ago, one of the first things I wanted to do was to adapt it to have a glowing logo. About a year and a half passed before I actually had any idea of how to mod the logo. Thanks to digital's directions on the forum page, I've just modded my logo to know, and I thought it would be worth sharing with the Wallstreet owners. The tools: 1. T-8 screwdriver 2. Hard plastic spatula 3. Various small flathead screwdrivers 4. Container for screws 5. Exacto knife 6. Small sanding block with 220 grit (and finer for a more frosted effect) sandpaper The process: [center] I started off with my normal 1998 PowerBook G3 Wallstreet 250. Not a single mod, unless you consider the missing latch a mod. [center] At this point, I removed the plastic covers from the bottom screws and the rubber stoppers from the upper screws. After taking the screws themselves out (upper ones are silver; lower ones are black), I taped them to a sketch of the computer, but they are easy enough to tell apart. Also, before closing the screen, I put the foam pad that was shipped in my iBook over the keyboard to protect it and the screen. [center] Considering I got somewhat lost when it came to taking off the cover, I'll explain how to properly remove it. You must first start by removing the cover over the power and volume buttons. It is very difficult to get the hinge potion of the back cover off without this off. Then, in the back portion of the sides, gently pry the outer cover upward, therefore unclipping it there. At that point, lightly bowing the sides of the bezel out with a spatula will unclip two more clips per each side. From there, there will be 3 clips visible between the hinges. Pushing on each (both sides first, then the center one) will release the back of the screen. From there, you only have to gently lift the rear part of the cover to unlatch the clips at the latch end of the display. [center] With the foil backing visible, I lightly scored it with a exacto knife after determining where the logo was by holding the cover in place and guessing where the center of the logo met the foil. You must score it VERY LIGHTLY, gradually making it thinner where you want to cut. [center] After I scored the backing, I discovered a bulge where a circuit board is. I lightly pressed at the edge of that board on one of my scored lines, cutting a small hole. At that point I simply had to pull up the square I had cut out (along with the paper beneath the foil). I made the peeling easier by cutting along the scores again with the exacto knife, but the shiny surface beneath the foil and paper is the LCD itself, so you must avoid touching it at all costs. [center] After having finished cutting out the hole in the backing, I carefully opened the display-being conscious of the display cables- and turned on the computer to make sure the screen hadn't been harmed. Seeing the LCD was fine, I took a sneek peak at the glow from the it in pitch black. This picture isn't very good, but the glow is a rather eerie purple that fades to the metal surface when brought back in light. Afterwards, I shut down the computer, closed it, and covered the back of the LCD. [center] Moving on the the back cover itself, I tried my original idea of soaking a rag in rubbing alcohol and leaving it on top of the painted plastics of the logo. The paint held up against the alcohol, so I decided to tape off the plastics around the logo, and simply sand off the paint in circular motions. Once the paint was gone, I kept sanding with the same motion to give the logo a frosted appearance. I used 220 grit paper, but I think that the results might have been better if I were able to use a finer paper afterwards. [center] This is the cover against daylight after the paint had been removed. It's very translucent and appears white, but light transfers through it very well as the picture shows. [center] Putting the cover back onto the display was probably as hard as taking it off depending on where you start. I began with trying to line up the clips around the latch. With the cover lined up, I snapped the sides back in place followed by the clips between the hinges. The latch edge is much harder however. The cover must be pressed down into the bezel plastics and back toward the hinges at the same time to force the plastics back into the clips. After that, the only thing to do is open the display, put the screws back in their proper locations, and put the covers back on. In the end, my logo looked just like it did before I started, which is just what I wanted. [center] In pitch black, however, the normal looking logo actually glows a dim purple. It's not noticeable in the picture, but it's very cool in person. So after 3 hours sitting on the floor with my PowerBook, trying to force the plastics to do what I wanted, I finally have the glowing logo I desired. There are probably ways of getting it brighter that I haven't though of, but I like the purple as it is. I hope this page was of use to any Wallstreet (or maybe other PB G3) owners, and I'd very much like to see anyone else's results after having tried this. Note that I am not responsible for you damaging your PowerBook in any way. The LCD is fragile, and must be treated accordingly. Breaking any clips around the rear cover of bezel will not cause any harm. The screws and remaining clips will hold the display together just fine.

3.5" hard drive on laptop/Mac Mini internal IDE

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 10:45:06 -0800

[thumb:10851 left hspace=5 vspace=5]Want a cheap way to add storage and speed to a stationary laptop that might not have Firewire or USB 2.0? Disappointed that your Mac mini uses a puny little laptop hard drive? If you've got a desktop hard drive that you'd like to connect to either of these, it's possible with a little work. I did this with a stripped-down graphite iBook that I've been using as a server, and had all kinds of trouble finding information until I realized that the process would be very similar for a Mac mini and started searching for that. There are two different obstacles to connecting a 3.5" desktop hard drive to a computer designed for a 2.5" laptop hard drive. Getting data across is the relatively easy, but meeting the higher power requirements of the larger drive can be a bit more difficult. [thumb:10853 right hspace=5 vspace=5]Data is simple because the first 40 pins of the 44-pin, 2mm pitch connectors used for 2.5" drives have the same pinout as the 40-pin, 2.54mm pitch connectors used for 3.5" drives. All you need is an adapter that changes the pitch of these pins. Such adapters are quite common, as they are used to attach 2.5" drives to the 40-pin connectors in desktop PCs. These adapters are available with both male and female 40-pin connectors. If you get an adapter with a male 40-pin connector, you will need a standard IDE ribbon cable, which has the potential to connect multiple drives (assuming the IDE controller can handle this, I haven't tried it). If you get one with a female 40-pin connector, it will connect directly to the 3.5" drive. [thumb:10854 left hspace=5 vspace=5]They will generally have a female 44-pin connector to connect directly to the 2.5" drive, but the Mac mini needs a male one. The only one that I've seen with a male 44-pin connector is Adam Eberbach's adapter specifically designed for the Mac mini. See [url=http://www.macmod.com/content/view/273/2/]his article[/url] for more information. This adapter is a custom PCB that converts a male 40-pin connector to a male 44-pin connector, which is necessary to connect to the Mac mini's female 44-pin connector. Printing custom PCBs isn't cheap, but since the adapter was so small he was able to make a bunch of them and sell the extras for $23. Personally, I would have just used a 44-pin gender changer and a standard adapter.[thumb:10855 right hspace=5 vspace=5] The problem with this is that a standard 44-pin gender changer will reverse the even- and odd-numbered pins (pin 1 becomes pin 2 and vice versa, etc.). Adam gave up on them at that point, but a proper gender changer can be constructed with two of these and a short length of 44-pin IDE ribbon cable for about $13 according to Froogle, less if you're a keen eBay buyer. Of course, if you're working with a laptop that has a male 44-pin connector on the board, you can use the female connector on the adapter and not worry about any of this. Powering the drive is a bit trickier. These adapters commonly have a molex connector wired to the last 4 pins of the 44-pin side to power a 2.5" drive from the power supply in a PC, but you're converting in the other direction. A 2.5" drive has two +5 VDC pins (one for logic, one for the motor) and two ground pins, but 3.5" drives use 12-volt motors. [thumb:10857 left hspace=5 vspace=5]Theoretically, you could use the 5 volts intended for the laptop drive for logic and steal 12 volts from elsewhere in your laptop/Mac mini to power the motor, but I wouldn't recommend it. Instead, you can use a separate power supply with a molex connector. This can be a standard PC power supply (which will usually need a jumper on the motherboard connector to work, search for information about using your specific power supply as a secondary one for instructions) or you can use a single-device power supply from an external drive as I did. I pulled one out of an old SCSI CD-ROM drive, but you can also use one from a hard drive enclosure. In fact, keeping the drive inside an enclosure might be a good idea. [thumb:10858 right hspace=5 vspace=5]However you power your drive, you should make sure that it shares a ground connection with the logic board. I'm not sure I entirely understand the purpose of this, but all of the guides for using parallel power supplies say that Very Bad Things (tm) can happen if you don't, so I didn't want to tempt fate. I connected my drive's power through a short extension that had extra wires for powering a CPU fan, and connected the ground wire to the adapter's ground pins. Now your drive is powered and able to talk to the logic board. All that's left to do is figure out where you want to put your new 3.5" drive, as it probably won't fit where the 2.5" one was. This is an exercise for the reader, because your specific hardware will determine your options. In my case, I cut off a small piece of my clamshell iBook's case to allow it to sit in the space where the optical drive is supposed to go and put the power supply in the battery compartment, since both of these components were non-working and had already been removed. [image:10852 width=600]

PB1400c Digital Picture Frame

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 01:48:38 -0700

[center][b]PB1400 Digital Picture Frame (Rev2)[/b][/center] I began my work on my picture-frame a couple of weeks ago with the the acquiring of a PB5300C. This was my 1st Apple pre G3 laptop, so didn't know what to expect. (I own a iBook G4 and Pismo on the moment and before I had different iBooks from Blueberry onward) So as usual with all my computers I opened up the 5300 and looked how it was made. By freak accident I destroyed it by bending the Adapter connector (it was already flaky) Well I tried to repair it but no go, 5300 destroyed. But maybe that was a good thing because the screen was small. So I set my eyes on a PB1400. My research (reading the service manuals of the PB5300/190, 1400c/cs and 3400) showed the 1400 series what ideal for it's small logic-board and nice screen. So I put an ad out for a 1400c/cs. While waiting for a reaction I looked at different sites on the internet about the PB1400. It stated that the CS had a nice screen even though it was Dual-scan Passive Matrix. Well because I'm spoiled from the beginning with all those beautiful Apple laptops with active matrix TFT's, seeing a site saying that the CS had a nice screen gave me hope that the CS someone offered me was OK for my project. So I payed the $70 for the 1400CS and waited for it to arrive at my home. Two days later I received a big package with the PB1400CS in a nice bag. I booted it and looked at the screen and was a little disappointed. I ones saw a dual scan passive matrix on a PC laptop of a friend. And the screen of this CS reminded me of that. It was not as bright as my old BluebeiBookBook and you could see the refresh. But because I didn't have any better this would do. So I disassembled it, installed a MacOS 8.6 system with JPEGview and tested the software. The next day I bought some wood and a picture frame with glass to make a case out of it. I'll explain how I made the frame later on. Anyway the Rev1 was hanging on my wall for a couple of weeks, but I wasn't satisfied with the result. Mainly the screen wasn't what i expected so I looked for another PB1400 but now a C type. A couple of days later I bought a 1400C with a beautiful bright screen. This screen did remind me of a iBook. So with that PB1400, the story of the Rev2 picture frame starts. Lets begin: [center][image:4954][/center] As you can see here, the 1400c is getting a full install of MacOS 8.6. This one came with two CD-ROM drives so I could install it from my CD's. I installed it on the internal HD, then I slimmed down the system folder to the bare extensions, etc. My system folder is about 40Mb now so I transferred it to my CF card. I tested if it run and all did go well. Then I put JPEGview 3.1 on the CF card, a folder with pictures and put an alias in the startup-items folder. I set the preferences of JPEGview to show random pictures from the folder with a duration of 30 minutes. I Booted from the CF card and watched JPEGview start up and showed my pictures. So all the software was set to go. Now the hardware. [center][image:4955][/center] Here the 1400c is getting disassembled, i only need the screen and the Logic-board but i kept all the other parts. I was planning to exchange the old logic and screen from Rev1 with this so i had a working 1400 and an nice picture-frame. [center][image:4956][/center] Here you see the part that is important, the logic board. As you can see the pins for the battery are still there but I needed to get those because the Rev1 logic missed them. (I clipped those because i was afraid for problems in the picture-frame) Well now you're thinking 'why all the fuzz for this logic-board?' Well because the Logic-board of Rev1 had a broken/destroyed reset button. I tried to de-solder it and wire it to the to of the picture-frame but in the end i destroyed it. So that's why I'm switching logics as well. [center][image:4950][/center] So here you see the logic-board and the CPU card sitting on my table, ready for operation. I need to de-solder the pins for the battery and re-solder them to the old logic-board in the next picture. [center][image:4941][/center] Here you can see the old (bottom) and the new logic board (top) ready for the pin transfer. So with a lot of patience and a little luck I managed to de-solder the pins and re-solder them onto the old logic-board. I installed the old logic in the 1400 case, put the CPU card on it, hooked up the Dual-scan screen and tested if it worked on the battery. All worked so I could almost reassemble the 1400 with the Dual-scan screen. [center][image:4942][/center] Before reassembling the PB1400 and the picture frame I tested both the logic boards and the screens side by side. So here you can see the difference between the Passive Matrix Dual-scan (left) and the Active Matrix (Right) Both are displaying the same picture and both are full brightness and same contrast. In real life the difference is more clear. But as you can see the active matrix is brighter and better looking than the Passive. The resolution of both is 800x600 with thousands of color, but the colors of the Active Matrix are better and crisper than the Passive. Don't know if my passive is just bad or not but the screen of the 1400c is 100 times nicer and good for this project. [center][image:4949][/center] Well everything was working. The new screen looked great, but it was a big mess on the table. So before continuing with Rev2 of my picture frame I decided to reassemble the PB1400 first. So after 20 minutes it was reassembled and working properly, table was clean and i was ready to work at the picture frame. Well here I already mounted the screen on the inlay for the frame. I used the thick carton they used for the back of the frame. Originally your picture would be put between this and the glass. Anyway i centered the screen, draw lines where the screen would come and used an Xacto knife to cut out that part. It all fit very well. This was already done in Rev1 but the mounting procedure is the same. I put some double-sided tape (Nitto they use it here in the Graphic industry, nice stuff very strong) all along the sides of the screen. The screen has an aluminum frame around it with all the electronics and mounting holes, so that's where the tape goes. I centered the screen and pushed it firmly but gently against the carton. To secure it all so it won't move I used the magical Duct tape as you can see. Now it's not going anywhere. So on the picture above you can see the logic board all ready to get mounted. CF card is in the adapter with one 48MB and beneath that the 256MB. I later removed the 48MB. It was planned in rev1 to use the 48MB for system startup and the 256 only for the pictures. But while making Rev2 I decided that I wanted a wireless card in it. So i put all the stuff on the 256MB card so i have one slot open. [center][image:4958][/center] Ok, here is the case. This is the Rev2 case. I made some adjustments to the hinge system and locking mechanism. I made the case out of four pieces of 4.5 cm wide wood with a thickness of 0.5 cm. The black part is from the frame I bought. The back is 0.5 mm, I think MDF (don't know if it's called that elsewhere, but it called that here in Netherlands) I used the Dremel tool to make holes for the screws on the corners and used wood glue for extra support. So its really strong. I first assembled it without the glue and drilled an extra hole for the adapter cable, then disassembled it and reassembled it with glue. I Also drilled holes in the bottom and top for convection. [center][image:4947][/center] This is the Case opened, in Rev1 it was also like this but the hinges weren't good and I only used two screws in each hinge, so it moved about and wasn't hanging flat and aligned with the sides of the case. I therefore used two locks on both sides of the case so it was at-least not moving. Rev2 gave me the chance to correct this. I used four screws in each hinges and replaced the two locks with one lock on the frame. Because the hinges didn't move anymore and the frame was perfectly aligned and centered with the case, the one lock was sufficient. I also used screws on each corner as spacers. (you can see 1 screw in the lower-right corner in this picture) The spacers are there so the frame with the screen is flat against the case. This also lets the locking mechanism work. [center][image:4946][/center] Well this is the famous locking mechanism. Originally it's used for hanging frames and paintings. But this one is lucky. Anyway because I used the spacers there is a little space between the frame and the case. And because the spacers are on the edges, you can press the middle of the frame with the lock against the case. So then you can flip the triangle thing and open the case. Simple but efficient. Oh by the way the 2 black holes are convection holes. I used the Dremeltool and i guess it's not made for making holes. Because it really burns the hole. [center][image:4953][/center] Ok now its mounting time. I mounted the glass and screen in the frame. Here I'm trying to get the perfect mounting position of the Logic-board. The position on this picture is how it was mounted in Rev1, but in Rev1 the two cables that run to the screen where just hanging loose. You couldn't open the case the whole way like here. I wanted the inverter (the thing with the 4 buttons under the screen) to be mounted next to the screen like it is in the picture. But then I could connect the other cable. I tried different positions, also with the PCMCIA cage flush against the left part of the case. I could always take the whole case out if I wanted to changes the pictures. But i decided not to do that. Instead i flipped the logic 180 degrees and mounted it to the left side. I mounted the logic board using little screws and the mounting holes in the logic-board. [center][image:4952][/center] So here you can see it mounted the good way. The CF cards are now fully accessible without taking out the whole cage. Just press the button and it will be ejected. (when its powered off) The inverter is in the good position and even if connected with the logic the case still can open like on the picture. The only problem was the other cable, but when the case is half open (or half closed) its still easy to connect that cable to the screen. Then I had only one problem to solve: The reset switch. Its called reset switch but it acts like an one and off switch which is perfect for my use. It was already late at night and i didn't have anything long enough on the spot to use as a push device. I thought of using some Technic lego but could find the box. So i decided to use some quetips. I clipped off the cotton buds of both ends. I used tape to put it together. I made a hole in the right spot and used some wire fasteners for the wall to keep it in place. On the part that is outside the case i put a little screw and inside i used tape so it would fall out the hole. Well not pretty but it works. I also mounted the speakers so i know when its starting up in the morning. [center][image:4951][/center] Here a close-up view of the whole thing while it's running. The case can open half ways when it's running because of the data cable to the screen. The 48MB CF card was there just for testing and is replaced with the 256MB CF card. All works perfectly. [center][image:4968][/center] [center][image:4969][/center] And here is the final result on the wall. I took these pictures with my camera on a tripod, so I could make a picture without the flash. So as you can see it turned out very nice. The 2 round things in the bottom and the right side are from the hooks that i removed. I'm planning to buy some silver of black paper inlay at the Photo store so it looks more professional. But anyway the Rev2 is how I thought my picture-frame would look like so it's OK for now. [b]Some problems i encountered.[/b] Well not much, mostly my own, like the reset button. Only problem that I didn't like is that for some reason the auto sleep doesn't work. I guess it just doesn't work with the PB1400. Auto wake up does work. But anyway using the reset button does the job. [b]Some more info.[/b] The PB1400 Picture frame runs from one Compact-flash card of 256MB, with MacOS 8.6. Things I still want to do are: Add an wireless Card. Already did the research and just need to find the right card. 802.11b card based on Lucent chipset. Configure ARD so i can upload the pictures using my Pismo, wireless. Make a better silver of black inlay so i don't see the 2 spots where the hooks where. Lastly, I still need to paint the case black and then it's all done. Update (23-oct-2004) Well i got my lucent wavelan silver card this week. Installed the orinocco drivers and card works. Only problem i have with the card is that it's SSSOOOOO slow. The transferspeed is almost 5kb/s! Well it's a 11MBits card and my iBook and router are 54Mbits. I tried it in the wireless network and as a own network for the pictureframe, but stil a slow connection. Don't know what it is, but i don't care. It's easier to shutdown, get the CF card, plug it in the USB reader connected to my iBook and wait a couple of minutes instead of hours Wireless. Still not painted, but getting to it. This project is inspired by the PB3400 Hack also on Applefritter, The Duo digital frame and some others. Hope you enjoyed this hack and may it inspire you to make you own. Oh and the PB1400CS works and is now used by my sister for the pre X games she plays.

The Eve iBook Mod

Sun, 27 Jun 2004 19:34:35 -0700

[center][image:3444][/center] This is my Eve iBook mod. Awhile ago I wanted to do something different with my iBook, having grown bored with the plain snow-white surface. Now that it's way past its warranty, I figured this would be the perfect time. After checking out Applefritter, I was inspired by some rather creative mods that mostly involved removing the white inner paint and replacing it with an image. I came up with the idea for Eve because I wanted to create a mod that acknowledged the Apple logo, rather than just ignoring it. I also wanted something more feminine. Rather than experimenting with my own case, I bought a used one on eBay. It was unfortunately pretty scratched up, but fine for a first attempt. [center][image:3477] [image:3478][/center] The first step was to remove the inner plastic elements and padding. You can see them somewhat in these images. On the top shell, there is a piece glued to the plastic on the inside that lets the shell snap to the frame. Removing this was fairly easy. The foam padding in the edges of the bottom part was a pain though, I suggest tackling it only if you have a good solvent and long finger nails. The second step was to strip off the paint. It's only a thin layer, but tough to remove. I found that 91% rubbing alcohol works quite well by pouring some, letting it sit, wiping away, and then repeating. An old toothbrush also works for the tough spots (of which there are quite a few). [center][image:3479][/center] The top shell was relatively easy, but the bottom is a pain with all of the nooks and crannies. The battery lock took a lot of prying, but once it came up it was easy to separate the two pieces, then just snap them back together after repainting. The Apple logo also came up with some prying. It's just a solid piece of frosted plastic that makes up both the apple and the leaf. [center][image:3480][/center] Once the case was clear, It was time to place my image. The image of Eve and the snake I drew in Illustrator and painted in Photoshop, then printed on Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy. I cut it out with an exacto knife, and to make sure that the edges wouldn't show the white of the paper, I carefully darkened them with a permanent marker (I had to be careful though, because permanent ink will bleed through and cause dark spots in the image). Next was the toughest part, by far. I had to figure out how to attach my image to the case so that it was facing out from inside, and adhere it well enough so that paint would not sneak under any gaps. I also couldn't tape it down, because the paint had to reach to the exact edge of the image. I thought about using a clear spray glue, but I didn't try it for fear that it wouldn't be clear enough, or would foul up my image, or that it would erode the photo paper. The next time I do this though, I think it's worth experimenting with. The first thing I tried was a glue stick, just barely along the edges of the graphic. This worked for awhile, but as soon as it fully dried the image just flaked off. Since I wasn't able to paint it right away, this didn't help much. I had to touch it up with clear Elmer's glue just before I was ready to paint. The glue stick also left a white residue on the black edges (barely noticeable, but still there). If you use this technique, I suggest waiting until the glue is dry, and then painting immediately before the graphic has a chance to peel off. You should also do it keeping in mind you might end up with a white residue. As my image extended all the way to the bottom edge of the case, it also had to curl in a sharp curve, one that the glue was definitely not strong enough to hold down. Paint snuck in under this gap during the repainting, but later I was able to remove it with more alcohol and a cue tip. After the image was in place, I cut out the shape of the apple from the front, again with an exacto knife. This was fairly easy, but I had to be careful not to cut too much or there would be gaps for the light to shine through. I then made sure to tape the edges and front of the case with masking tape, in case any paint got around the sides. Then it was ready for painting. [center][image:3481][/center] As for the background, I wanted more than just a plain color or graphic, so I thought I'd look into color-changing paint like the kind they use on cars. At first airbrushing seemed like the obvious choice, but while there are plenty of color-changing airbrush colors, airbrushing itself is expensive if you're just starting. I then looked into using brush-on paint, in pearlescent and interference colors. Interference colors, if spread thinly, will cause an effect much like a color change when layered over another color. However, when I did some testing on the cover of an old battery, I found the streaking from the paintbrush much too obvious, and I wanted something very smooth. [center][image:3449][/center] The interference colors are to the right and left. The paint I ended up using is in the middle. Finally I found a 3-step spray paint by Dupli-Color called "Mirage" at Kmart. They have it in many colors, I chose purple/green. You're supposed to spray your surface with the matte opaque black first, to give the color change a good base. It apparently only works over black. Then you're supposed to put on 3-6 coats of the color-changing paint, and finish it with a clear top coat to enhance the effect. [center][image:3482][/center] Unfortunately, I was working from the inside-out so to speak, because I wanted the paint to be visible through the case from the inside. After some testing, I realized it was possible to use the clear top coat on the shell first, then the color-changing paint for the next coat, and finally the black last to act as the "base" for the color. Unfortunately when you do it this way, the 2nd step appears clear rather than color-changing, because it isn't sitting on a black background yet. I would suggest working on top of a dark surface so you can begin to tell how effective your color is, and how many more coats you may want to add. The directions say that the more coats you use of the color-changing paint, the more dramatic the color shift will be. They recommend 3-6, I must have put on 10 at least, and I'm pretty pleased with the end result. The only thing I noticed was that there was some cracking in the final coat of black opaque, which shows through slightly on the front. This may be because I put on too many coats, or didn't let it dry enough before recoating it, or it was too hot out and dried to quickly. However it happened, I learned that caution and patience are definitely necessary when working with this kind of material. [center][image:3483][/center] The finished painted case. After the painting step was finished, I used black electrical tape to hold down the edges of the graphic and against the sharp curve, which filled in any gaps and ended up being much more secure. However, if you ever do a mod anything like this, here's what I suggest you do and what I intend to do the next time: Print two copies of the graphic you intend to use, a rough one and a final one. Cut out the rough, creating the shape that you want to have "stenciled" within the spray paint. (Make sure that the final version has a thicker border than the rough, and will overlap the final paint job so that you don't have to align it exactly.) Adhere the rough version (temporarily) to the case, perhaps with a glue stick or with spray glue (I have a feeling rubber cement would work well, because it peels easily off plastic). Make sure your edges are clean of glue spots etc., and paint your case. When the paint is dry, carefully remove your rough graphic. Replace it with the final graphic, make sure it is aligned correctly, and then adhere it to the case. If you don't want to use something like glue, tape seems to work well. I was afraid that it might pull up the paint, but the Mirage actually seemed sturdy, perhaps because of all the layers. I was also afraid that the heat from the computer might make the paint or tape peel, but I've only noticed a large amount of heat emanating from the bottom of the chassis, none from the top. So I assume this is safe. One thing I noticed: scratches. On a white surface they're barely noticeable, but because the Mirage colors are so dark (especially indoors and away from any direct source of light, they appear almost black), the scratches appear much more noticeable. I'd like to have a brand new case to work with the next time I do this, I would suggest it for anyone else as well. After painting, I concentrated on changing the color of the Apple logo. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to change the color, but wasn't sure what to expect when I removed the top part of the case for the first time. I found that the only thing between the case and the light source is a thin piece of plastic-like paper. [center][image:3484][/center] I decided to just replace this paper with one of my own design. However when I tried regular printer paper, the pulp would show up as blemishes because the paper was not evenly translucent. I went to Kinko's, and found a paper that was as smooth as I could get. I think it was opaque white, or something to that effect. They sell it by the sheet, so I could get enough to experiment with without spending an arm and a leg. I was told that it wouldn't work on an ink jet printer, only on laser jets, but I found it worked fine on my photo printer. I decided on a psychedelic-looking graphic, again created in Photoshop, something that would look cool when lit up. Then it was just a matter of adhering it to the back of the Eve image, again with tape. [center][image:3451] [image:3450][/center] Here is a close up of the apple, and when lit. I put the case back on, and voila! One iBook mod. The color-change appears best in any direct light, especially sunlight. From straight on it appears a blue-ish green, from a slight angle a purple, and from an extreme angle anywhere from gold to blue. Here it is taken from different angles, so you can see the color change in action: [center][image:3445] [image:3446] [image:3447][/center]

PiMPBook

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 07:12:38 -0700

Ever since the introduction of the new case design with the G4 models, iBook owners have lamented Apple's decision to switch back to an opaque plastic case (as opposed to the translucent-painted case in previous models, which allowed for numerous case mods such as the TronBook, featured on this site.) The new case, as stated above, is an opaque white polycarbonate plastic. The real trick here is finding a paint that settles in and binds properly - what's more, you need to find a test surface to practice on. Where am I going to find a test surface that perfectly mimics the iBook case, one that I won't mind defacing? Well, it hit me - the AC adapter for my 20gig iPod is made of the same material, and in fact, is almost identical to the iBook's AC adapter (just a bit smaller.) So, I bought a can of Krylon Flourescent Pink (what other color could a pimp-book be!), making sure I picked a paint that will bind to plastics. Out of curiosity, I contacted the folks at Krylon, and they said the paint was untested on polycarbonate surfaces.. so, with that in mind, I broke new ground. [image:3431] I also tested some spray-on chrome, and my "secret weapon" - Krylon Clear Acrylic finish (this bad boy was my best friend in my Spiderbook hack.) It might be a bit hard to tell from the picture, but the finished pink looked quite nice, and was extremely smooth to the touch, mimicking the bare iBook surface nicely. The chrome dulled a bit with the finish, but still sparkled in the light. The case was then masked and painted. I put on one coat, allowed it to dry, and then added a second. Once the second coat dried, I applied my "ink", and then finished it off with two coats of the Krylon finish. [image:3430] Voila. What's more, the paint glows an eerie flourescent orange under black light. Wicked. As a side note, although there are many finishes out there, I can't stress how well the Krylon worked - I'd strongly push for it if you're thinking of doing this yourself. I might chrome the sides at another point.. if I do, I'll post an update. Measure twice, cut once, and have fun.

1400 to Brain 'Book - the Whole Sordid Tale.

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 15:28:36 -0700

No one may remember this place--unless you are from the Boston area--but there was a place called Learningsmith--General Store For A Curious Mind. I worked there for a while, but then they folded and I have a chance now to pay homage to this great place. Sad? Maybe. Geeky? Yes, yes it is. I had great experiences at this place, and have done my best to stay in touch with the people that I met there. What better way to pay my respects than through my first modest mod. I started this with a Powerbook 1400cs, with 48 MB RAM, 775 MB HD, built-in ethernet, running System 7.6.1--changing soon to 8.6, along with a new 2 GB HD, but that is beside the point. Be forewarned, this is not yet done, and even when it is, it will not be a big extravagant hack, but I will be proud of it. [image:3344] Start at the starting point--plain old 1400 [image:3343] Bookcover and other covers have to come off for painting. [image:3347] The bookcover goes white with some Krylon Infusion--good stuff!! I the attached the brushed metal Learningsmith logo that I stole from the store (oops!) with an overlap so that it would cover the Apple logo--no offense Apple! [image:3348] Now the 'Book goes a little purple--hidden homage to Prince, perhaps...or, not. It took a LOT of tape and saran wrap to paint this sucker without taking it apart. Time consuming, I agree, but based on previous experiences, a logical choice. And it turned out very nicely. [image:3349] The Brain 'Book: phase I is complete! Not too shabby! Well, again I know that it is not the most extravagant mod, but I am happy with the results so far. Other than the upgrades that I intend to make to the hardware/OS mentioned at the beginning, I also plan to paint the top case/palm rest, as well as add more to the outside--a ring of green around the logo. The colors being used are all the colors of the Learningsmith, may it rest in peace! Add a wireless card and it is a pretty respectable websurfer to boot!

Darth Maul PowerBook

Fri, 11 Jun 2004 17:04:43 -0700

[center][image:3210][/center] Basically what I have done is replace the metal inserts on the top and bottom of the machine's outer plastics. I obtained some unpainted panels from a friend of mine in PowerBooks, which already had adhesive on them. Since the original panels has started to come loose at the edges, I started there. Using a heat gun, I applied heat to the metal panel and gently peeled it up using a pair of pliers. It took about an hour for each panel. I discovered that it was easiest if I left the machine fully assembled with 2 batteries in it for weight. Once the old yucky black panels were removed I cleaned the plastic with alcohol and applied the replacement panels. No, I cannot get more replacement panels for you. [center][image:3211][/center] I then removed the rear display housing leaving the front housing and display still attached to the machine. Utilizing an Exacto knife I carved away the black plastic inside the cover right above and below the white Apple logo insert. When I was satisfied with the size, I mounted a T-1 sized red LED on either side with the lenses pointed towards the center of the Apple logo. Do not use an accelerator if you use cyanoacryllate to attach the LED's. The accelerator will dissolve the white coating on the Apple logo. For power I tapped the 5V line going to the microphone apmlifier board. Make sure you wire this circuit in parallel, not in series with the microphone power line or you will reduce the dynamic range of the microphone. The LED's I purchased were rated at 20mAh maximum current. From the 5V line I went through a series of resistors to limit the current, the each LED in series, ending at the ground wire on the microphone amplifier. I calculated the resistor values using Ohm's law (V=ir). In this case 5V(minus 1.2V drop per LED) = .02A(r) solving alegraically, r=130 ohms. There is no such thing as a 130 ohm resistor so I wired 2 47 ohm resistors in parallel, then in series with a 100 ohm resistor arriving at the value of 123.5 ohms. Considering the 5% tolerance on these resistors, it's close enough for government work. Doing the math again with that value I see that I will be allowing 21.05 mAh of current through the circuit. Running the LED's 5% over thier rated spec is nothing to be concerned with; it simply means that I have to dissipate an additional 2.7 milliwatts of heat. An LED can easily tolerate that. In fact it would take a pretty darn precise instrument to even measure the change. Finally before reassembly, I glued all the components down and covered the contacts with capton tape. I will probably pour epoxy over them later. When later finally came I decided to remove the original LED's and install a pair of high intensity red LED's that are each 3 times brighter. It now shows up even in daylight. Also I changed the circuit so that each LED has it's own 100 Ohm resistor. I'm not adding anymore pictures as the camera flash still obliterates it. [center][image:3212][/center] The LEDs are bright enough to be seen indoors, and seen very well in dim light. However, the camera flash is too bright to photograph it well. Here is one without a flash: [center][image:3213][/center] I must emphasize STRONGLY that this project should not be attempted unless you are comfortable with wiring basic electronic circuits, are very very patient, and you are brave/stupid enough to risk destroying several thousand dollars of machinery for a cool red light. [center][image:3214][/center]

PureTi

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 13:17:43 -0700

[center][thumb:3036][/center] This hack was submitted to AF 1.0 some time ago. Unfortunately I have not been able to contact the creator of this hack since and therefore i have very little information about it. Here is a brief description the creator gave when submitting this hack: [quote=Kevin Nicklaus Poor]What I did was remove all of the paint on the Titanium parts of the PB and brushed then sealed the case so that is now just pure Ti without paint and it looks great.[/quote] Some more photos: [center][thumb:3034] [thumb:3035] [thumb:3033] [thumb:3037] [thumb:3038][/center] [i]If you are the author of this hack or have any information about it, please [email=tom@tomlevens.co.uk]email me[/email] so i can add some more details to this page![/i]

PowerBook 3400 Pictureframe

Sat, 26 Mar 2005 13:50:37 -0800

[center][thumb:2359][/center] After seeing projects like the [url=http://www.applefritter.com/hacks/duodigitalframe/]Duo Digital Frame[/url] and others online, I thought I'd try my hand at it. Instead of hunting down a Duo or Powerbook 100 for a 4x6'' frame, I decided to go for an 8x10'' size (or 800x600 resolution) to display my travel photos. I have, or had, a PowerBook 3400c that had been surplussed from work due to a dead CD ROM drive, the replacement cost of which is about the same as buying another used 3400. The trackpad button also had some issues, but otherwise, the 3400 was in pretty good repair - no spots on the screen, for one thing. And so it began, as most of these project do, with disassembly. As with every Mac model, Apple provides assembly and repair instructions for the 3400 [url=ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Misc/Service/servicemanuals/powerbook_3400c.g3.pdf]here[/url]. Don't lose that Torx #6. Once the 'book was apart - completely apart - I set aside all the parts I didn't need, everything but the motherboard, power supply, RAM, hard drive and LCD. If anybody needs a 3400 keyboard, trackpad, bezel, case, speakers... call me :) [center][thumb:2360][/center] [i]update: In a recent overhaul of the 3400 frame, I put the speakers back in, so I can now, potentially, have the tiny little speakers sound off alarms or something. I don't have any real use for putting them in, but I thought I'd find something eventually.[/i] With all that taken out, I needed to be sure the PowerBook still worked for what I wanted to do with it. So i hooked everything that was left back together (on the coffee table in my living room) and fired it up. With thoughts to making the frame wireless, I popped in a WaveLAN Silver PC card and configured it so I could control the 3400 from my iBook via AirPort with Timbuktu, load new photos onto it, etc. It's a lot easier this way than trying to hook up a keyboard and mouse to the ADB port which, at this point in the build, I couldn't be sure was going to be accessible. [i]update: if you look at the [url=http://www.applefritter.com/node/2356]detail[/url] you can see where the ADB port is, next to the AC power in the upper right. it's accessible when the lid is opened, and comes in handy for soft reboots and making occasional tweaks.[/i] [center][thumb:2357][/center] At this point, I also wrote an AppleScript to manage the tasks of 1) randomizing the photos to be displayed, 2) copying the photos to a RAM disk, as I could never get the contents of the RAM disk to be saved between boots, and 3) kicking off the slideshow. At first, I had intended to use JPEGView set to display the photos at random, fade between, etc. But I noticed one problem with JPEGView: the cursor! So I poked around amongst my old utilities and dug up KPT QuickShow, which does slideshows with configurable fades and delays, but doesn't do random, hence that step in the AppleScript. The JPEGs and slideshow software are on a RAM disk, so the hard drive can spin down and the frame can run almost silent. [center][thumb:2356][/center] [i]update: Instead of a RAM disk, I've updated the script to copy images to a 16 meg PCMCIA flash memory card that acts as a little hard drive, just big enough to hold about 25 photos. The advantage of this, in addition to being flash and thus maintaining its contents between reboots, and the continued silent operation of the pictureframe, is that the limited RAM of the powerbook can be used for the system and slideshow program. cutting into the RAM for the RAM disk posed too many problems (a memory leak somewhere, the setting reverting every time power was cut out). It also comes in handy to shuttle files to and from the machine, now that the waveLAN card is being put to use elsewhere, in one of my Newton MessagePad 2100s.[/i] [i]update again: I've posted my applescript in [url=http://www.applefritter.com/blog/3795]my blog[/url]. share and enjoy.[/i] Then came the woodwork. Quarter-inch poplar (probably my favorite material to work with) was cut, sanded, stained, burnished, and attached with hot glue and some scrap quarter-round for strructure. (Remember, measure twice; cut once.) I lay the screen into the frame and attached it with double-sided tape, then built the rest on top of that with a combination of double-sided tape and white masking tape. [center][thumb:2363][/center] I left the top panel of the frame free so the necessary ports on the motherboard could still be accessed. You can see the AC power plug, the ADB port, and PCMCIA slots. The wireless card is removed during normal operation so I can use it elsewhere, but its a simple matter to pop it in and update the scripts or upload photos. On the far right in this shot, you can see where the hard drive is mounted. [center][thumb:2361] [thumb:2362] [thumb:2358][/center] I took some pains to get the little details on the outside of the frame to look right, despite the mess that's on the inside. For one, I needed a way to power up the 3400 without a keyboard and without taking half the frame off. So I drilled a small hole in the frame opposite the reset button on the motherboard and inserted a... um.. well, it's a chopstick from some carryout Chinese food. I didn't have any dowel on hand, and the chopstick tapers perfectly to hit the button on the motherboard. I also cut a notch in the frame to thread the power cable through, so the frame can sit flush to the wall it's hanging on. The final result is a nice addition to my living room, and leaves a lot of room for improvement. For one, I'd like to keep the wireless card in place, and put together an applescript to grab images off my network, rather than having to pre-load them onto the hard drive myself. There's also the possibility of using it to display things like the weather map or scrolling headlines, but showing off my vacation photos is enough for now. Maybe I'll use the PowerBook 190 I've got in the closet for the other stuff, once I find a power supply for it.

Mighty Kat!

Fri, 11 Jun 2004 15:19:00 -0700

[center][image:3200][/center] My most current project is customizing one of my home grown PowerBooks. This machine is based on the PowerBook 2400/240, which was only sold in Japan. The Japanese are rather fanatical about customizing thier machines. They have available to them a plethora of vinyl sheeting that can be applied with a heat gun. Unfortunately, it's hard to make the vinyl conform to oddly shaped pieces, so they tend only to do the big parts. I have decided to paint mine. I have selected as my pigment Pactra "True Blue Pearl" metallic part #RC293. The pictures really don't do this color justice. My digital camera's compression just eats up the sparklies. Pactra is nice because it's thin enough to fill in the embossments around the ports and because it has an agressive polycarbonate solvent that makes it polymerize as part of the plastic, therefore making it very tough. It takes about 3 days to cure completely and I should warn you that it's profoundly stanky. I do mean stanky. Use it outside on a warm day. The downsides are that because it's thin I have to sand all the texture off the plastic, and pactra does not cure with a high gloss finish. After I'm satisfied with coverage and it's cured fully, I plan on shooting it with some acryllic clear coat that I can later wax to a new car shine. [center][image:3201][/center] Sanding every surface is a long, boring, tedious, and very thereputic process. I enjoy sitting out on my balcony on a mild bay area summer day sanding and painting. Given the amount of overtime I've been working, projects like these keep me from climbing the nearest clocktower and shooting my co-workers. Yes I know you guys are reading this and you all know what kind of a nut I am. My roomate thinks I'm completely off my rocker. Some day I shall endeavor to buy a rocking chair and fall off of it periodically. Sorry the picture of the bottom is a bit out of focus. [center][image:3202][/center] I now have 2 coats of Pactra on every piece and I must admit it's turning out quite nice. The color is opacifying properly, and it's even picking up a shine. I'm all out of Pactra now so I won't be able to do any more until the hobby store re-opens after the holiday, which means next weekend at the earliest. I wish they sold the stuff in cans bigger than 3 ounces. I had to apply some liquid mask to the IR window to protect it from overspray as well. I still plan on doing at least 3 coats of Pactra and then 2 coats of clear acryllic. Hopefully this project be done in the next few weeks. I have a spare mouse button and I'm considering painting it and the PCMCIA eject buttons a crimson red. I'll probably paint the mouse button first, see how it looks, and then decide. I've also been debating whether or not I should buy a blue translucent keyboard from MacImports or not. It looks cool but it's kinda expensive for a computer I will hardly use. [i]Update 9/19/99[/i] All of the parts are fully painted and several are now clearcoated. The clear coat takes several hours to dry so this is going to take some time. After that I need only to wax it up and I'm good to go. I also found a T1 sized blue LED that I'll replace my sleep light with. No new pictures yet. It doesn't look that different from above. [i]Update 9/26/99[/i] Almost everything is clearcoated at least partially. This stuff takes so long to dry that progress is very slow. Look how shiny that is! [center][image:3203][/center] [i]Update 12/8/99[/i] Not much progress has been made. The rainy season is upon us and it always either too cold or wet (or both) to paint. The laquer takes so long to dry that dust gets in it. Still, I'm watchful for a sunny weekend... Also I have gotten an EVIL idea. The 20th Anniversary iMac. Not till new year at least though.

The iNoteBook

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 18:56:45 -0700

[center][image:1586][/center]

The iNoteBook started out as a non-working iBook 500 with no display, hard disk, memory, or battery, and the DVD drive bay was on the fritz. In other words, a perfect candidate for a hack! I was able to get the machine to boot with some new memory and a little work on the DVD drive, so I began to think about what kind of machine I wanted to make.

[center] [image:1587] [/center]

I have seen all the great hacks on Applefritter and was interested in trying my own modest hack/mod. This was my first attempt so I tried to keep things relatively simple.

All of my lectures are on a flash memory key and I haul my PowerBook or iBook to every class to run the slides. What I wanted was a stripped down machine onto which I could easily load my lectures and carry to class. Each classroom has an overhead projector which is sufficient to start up the machine and launch the lecture. I have some old Duos and 5300s that could have worked, but a broken-down G3 with USB ports was too good an opportunity to pass up, so I decided to make the iNoteBook.

I began with an MO/floppy disk case (I'm in Japan so MOs are plentiful) and I used wire cutters to cut out the clips that hold the disks in the folder:

[center] [image:1588] [/center]

[center][image:1589] [/center]

Without the palm rest and bottom case, the iBook skeleton fit easily inside the prepared notebook, and a few extra cuts with the wirecutters produced a good fit. I really got lucky here; I knew the notebook was about the right size, but it turned out to be near-perfect.

[center][image:1590] [/center]

Cutting holes for the ports (power, fan, and the Ethernet/USB/display set shown here) was relatively straightforward. The plastic is hard but not brittle, and a box cutter made short work of the cuts. In this photo, I show the port cut-outs next to an iBook. The iNoteBook is a little thinner and a little larger than a regular iBook.

[center][image:1591] [/center]

After that, there was nothing left but to hook up an external keyboard and display and fire it up.

[center][image:1596]

[image:1592][/center]

I didn't have to secure the machine in the case as the stubs left over from cutting out the floppy disk clips hold the machine firmly with no movement. The speakers fit into their original holes and while they are not screwed down, they don't move around or rattle. The photo is a little blurry, but you can see the start-up button in the upper-left corner of the iNoteBook. When you push on the plastic cover, there is just enough give to activate the button and start the machine.

The translucent blue of the original MO case gave the machine a retro iMac look which is pretty cool, but I wanted to try for a real notebook look, so I put together mock front and back composition book covers using Photoshop,

[center] [image:1593] [/center]

printed them out on reasonably good paper, and taped them onto the MO case:

[center][image:1595] [/center]

I'm pretty happy with the final product. It is light (no display or battery), and since the covers are taped (rather than glued) onto the case, I can easily go back to the translucent case, or put on different covers. I am also looking for a hard cover book of the right dimensions to use as a new cover. If I ever find one, I'll be sure to post pictures here. In the end, it was a pretty easy project. I'm already looking forward to my next project. Questions and comments welcome. DS :macos:

Silverback Spiderbook

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 18:51:20 -0700

This is a rather simple hack/mod that combines aspects of previous Pismo mods and adds a little personal touch. The starting machine was a standard Pismo: 400mhz G3, 128mb RAM, 6 gig HD, CD/DVD: [center][thumb:1486][/center] The final product is the Silverback Spiderbook: 400mhz G3, 512mb RAM, 60 gig HD, DVD/CD-R: [center][thumb:1487][/center] The hardware upgrades are pretty standard and are covered at www.xlr8yourmac.com ; the HD replacement is a bit of a pain with those small torx screws, and the new burner, which is not natively supported by Apple, took a bit of work to get fitted properly in the drive caddy and supported by iTunes. However, since these are all covered at the aforementioned site, I won’t get into them. NOW, for the real modding.. The glowing Apple logo has been masked with translucent yellow craft paper for the dull, yellow effect. This is covered already in the Red Delicious hack. [center][thumb:1485][/center] The top of the Powerbook was unscrewed, removed, masked, and spray-painted silver as covered in the Powerbook Sapphire hack. Here’s my own twist, the spider inlays.. After the spray paint (Testor’s 1246 Metallic Silver Spray Enamel) had appropriately dried, I went to a local hobby store and purchased the spider decals – you’ll want to buy the pricier, high quality racing decals. Otherwise, the final product may look cracked, brittle, or otherwise crappy. Apply the decals to the painted surface as per the instructions – be sure to do this SLOWLY and carefully so that the designs transfer fully and cleanly. Now, here’s the key to making those designs protected, permanent, and seemingly “painted on�? – once the decals FULLY dried, I went out and purchased a can of Krylon Clear Acrylic Finish. NOTE: Be sure you are buying a clear and non-yellowing finish; otherwise, your colors will be tainted. I then applied a light coat over the entire top (still masked), allowed it to dry for about one hour, applied a second coat, and allowed that to dry for approximately 2-3 hours. Once the finish had dried, voila! The mask was removed, the top was re-installed, and this bad boy was ready to go. One last note – if you apply the finish too heavily, or allow it to pool around the edges, you’ll probably end up with yellow discolorations, even when using a clear acrylic finish. Make sure that your coats are even, light, and thorough. All in all, the entire process is composed of a few simple hacks that can give your Pismo a real snazzy look. [center][thumb:1484][/center]

The Black Stripe

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 18:43:24 -0700

by Ben McCorkle Okay, so I'll be the first to admit that this isn't the most ambitious case mod, but I wanted to make a simple yet bold artistic statement that didn't totally disrupt the strong Snow White design language of my Powerbook 170 (sounds better than outright confessing to being a slacker, doesn't it?). [center][image:1096][/center] I wanted to do something that established a family lineage to my newer latop--a G3 Powerbook Wall Street --so I opted for an off-center stripe of semi-gloss black spraypaint to echo the color and texture of the G3. No real tricks here. I masked off the area I wanted to paint with--of all things--masking tape, giving the book a few light coats rather than one heavy one--this is the cardinal rule of spraypainting, by the way, as it minimizes runs. Of course, you should exercise patience and let the paint dry in between applications. Afterwards, I removed the masking tape and noticed there was slight bleeding in spots (tip: use quality tape or suffer the consequences). I cleaned up the edges rather nicely with some Goo Gone , an all-purpose gunk remover and, as its label touts, perhaps the most effective combination of scientific technology and citrus power thus far offered to mankind. I gave the same treatment to the Powerbook's AC power adapter. [center][image:1097][/center] [center][image:1098][/center] For the piece de resistance, I slapped a white Apple logo sticker on the inside next to the trackball. After a week or so of staring at it, though, I began to get a little restless. The stripe didn't seem "finished" to me...the black and grey contrast was a little weak, so I talked myself into giving it a pinstripe job. Armed with a Testor brand paint pen I picked up at a local hobby store, I carefully made a racing-style pinstripe design around the black paint--a narrow stripe on one side, a wider one on the other. Still not entirely satisfied, I did a Google Image search for a good flame design, made a template, and traced it onto the front edge of the black stripe. I hope the irony's not lost on anyone. [center][image:1099] [image:1100][/center] The PB 170 is now a sleek and sophisticated member of my Apple fleet, and one that I actually use a good deal of the time--for page layout and wordprocessing mainly, but what do you expect from a machine that's close to 15 years old?

the pirate book

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 18:34:43 -0700

by Andrew [center][image:1092][/center] In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th), I decided to repaint my iBook. Ok, that's not really the reason, but it works. Obviously, this hack is heavily influenced by a couple of the other hacks on this page, namely, the doodlebook and the zebrabook. Sorry I don't have a detailed guide, but it's so similar to other hacks that a guide shouldn't be necessary. The design was fairly easy. I found a couple nice pirate graphics on the internet and printed them out. I layered some masking tape on the area where the design would go, then taped the picture on top of the tape. Using an Xacto knife, I simply trimmed away all the black, leaving the white skeleton outline. A few coats of spraypaint, and the first part was done. Next, remove the remaining masking tape, and spray with white. Then just put it all back together. Obviously, this did not turn out as clean as I would have liked. For anyone who wants to try something similar, I suggest making absolutely sure that you soak the iBook pieces and remove all the white paint. I used the 'put some alcohol on and rub' method, and there's still some white hanging around. Also make sure that your masking job is very good, and let the paint dry completely (24+ hrs) between coats. I think the reason a lot of my lines aren't very clean is that the black paint was not completely dry, and when I sprayed on the white, the black bubbled up. Another mistake that you can see is where the glue holding the plastic snap ring inside the top of the display is pulling the paint off. [i]Make sure the glue is dry before you reassemble![/i] I think i'm going to strip this one and start over. [center][image:1091][/center] [center][image:1089][/center] [center][image:1090][/center] [center][image:1088][/center]

TiDrag

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 18:38:52 -0700

by Wojciech Pawelczyk [center][image:1083][/center] My friend Mr. Jusiega from Poland painted my TiBook 667dvi for me using aerograph painting technics and typical car colors. Of course, he also have some technical secrets :) [center][image:1085][/center] [center][image:1084][/center]