Ariel Millennium Thornton @arielmt@computerfairi.es

I need to find a way to put a fairy-wand star & bow on the end of my repair kit's socketed screwdriver handle.

I can now add a 21st Century WinCE-powered machine (that does make me wince) to the list of computers my fix-it computer fairy wand has magically restored.

If you asked me when I was a kid what repairing computers would entail, scrubbing cases with Lava knock-off in order to install replacement keyboards would never have come to mind.

I'm cleaning the other, amazingly-hacked ZX-81 I got on eBay.

My bank can give me instructions to upgrade my credit card machine in a phone call or via text message. They can't send instructions to me in email, & they don't have a Web page with instructions.

What century is it?

What I mean by the volume set at "Marty McFly": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-njcAia6nY

It works! I should probably remove the RF modulator cover & see if that can be cleaned up, but it works.

The test keypresses were: P {Shift-P} 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Q W E R T Y U I O P A S D F G H J K L {Space} {period} M N B V C X Z {Enter (now New Line)}

I also had a kaleidoscope program in a .wav file ready for testing. Android won't let you keep the headphone jack volume at "Marty McFly," but the Sinclair can't hear anything softer.

Don't forget to do laundry and dishes. Stack the socks and fold the plates.

Softing Microfuck is going back to the bad old days and then some. If you try to install Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or just about any other Web browser on Windows 10 insider, Windows itself will behave like malware, blocking it & tricking you into staying with Microsoft Edge. Given their history, especially using malware to push Windows 10 unwanted to Windows 7 & 8.1 computers in '15-'16, this probably /will/ go out to you next month.
https://www.ghacks.net/2018/09/12/microsoft-intercepting-firefox-chrome-installation-on-windows-10/

BTW, both are Matsushita EME-278TY drives, which Toshiba used in the T4500, T4600, T4700, & T4800 series of laptops.

I gave the belt another 10 minutes in a bath of boiling water, and it's just not going to shrink any more. It's done.

I got the other floppy drive, and the belt actually broke at the motor spindle. I guess I did too much "come on please just work" last time I used it. I taped it back together, but only so I can size possible replacements; there's no way it'll ever work again in any belt-driven system, let alone an older floppy drive.

That looks about as good as I can get it.

A nearly clean surface & a toothbrush rendered filthy from scrubbing it. That's looking nice. :3 The surface where I'm scrubbing hard is getting scuffed up, but that's actually a good thing; the new keyboard's adhesive should grab better.

You can see my progress in the left corner. I got about 3x as much off in a few minutes with pumice soap than I did in several hours with Magic Eraser.

Back to cleaning the Timex Sinclair 1000 case so I can install the new keyboard: I gave up on Magic Eraser. I'm making much more progress with some Fast Orange and a cheap toothbrush.