How to Replace the LCD Screen on an Acer Aspire One

The other day I opened my pride-and-joy to discover, horror of horrors, a Matrix-like green splotch of dead pixels, precipitated by a large crack in the LCD. Apparently my almost total disregard for the well-being of my electronic devices is not without its consequences.

Although the patches of dead pixels are relatively small, when the screen itself is only 8.9″, that’s a significant chunk of screen real-estate! Now, the good thing about netbooks is that they are relatively cheap, but not quite cheap enough to treat like disposable appliances! So I began to search for a replacement screen, and to my great pleasure found a company selling super-cheap authentic replacement screens based in Vancouver: ScreenCountry.com, where I was able to buy a screen, complete with shipping, for about $90. And it arrived within 36 hours of me ordering!

Now everywhere I read said that replacing LCD screens is a simple process, but for the life of me I couldn’t find any guides for the Acer Aspire One. But being an enterprising sort of chap I thought I’d dive in anyways, and hopefully pass on my wisdom to others who might find themselves in a similar predicament. The process is really simple and doesn’t require any technical skill beyond a steady hand. Here, then, without further ado are the steps needed to replace the LCD on you Acer Aspire One:

Disclaimer: This is an easy process, but by providing these instructions I accept no liability for damage to your netbook which might result from your attempts to follow these instructions.

Google Fail 2: The Pharangulation

On a related note, can anyone tell me why AdBlock Plus has stopped working for me in Firefox 3 for Windows Vista?

In Which Inappropriate Jokes Are Made Regarding Electromagnetism

Item the First:

Item the Second:

Item the Third:

Item the Fourth:

Conclusion:

Exeunt.

Lifehack: Reading Rule

Despite my great ambitions, I have managed only a fraction of the reading I had hoped to achieve this summer. In fact I’ve really only read about 1.5 books since the school term ended. This is an embarrasing state of affairs, and is in spite of the recent addition to my room of a giant comfy chair perfect for reading.

The fact is that I have not been making enough time for reading, something I want to change. In order to facilitate this I am trying out a new rule for myself:

On any given evening, I will undertake no other leisure activities (TV, computer games, music etc.) unless I have read for at least 30 minutes.

I think I will extend it to say that if it is before 9pm I must read for at least an hour. I just read for a solid three-quarters of an hour, so the rule is a success thus-far!

Aggregation Blog

I’ve created a new element to my website; a blog which aggregates all my writing from the two blogs I write for (here and the Terry blog). I’ll also write personal news etc. there. All the posts syndicated to the site link back to their original source, so comments etc will still be on the original blogs. The other great benefit is that I can have one destination and RSS feed for all my writing.

To do the aggregation I’m using a great WordPress plugin called FeedWordPress, which syndicated posts from RSS feeds into a WordPress blog. This plugin was suggested to me by Andre Malan. The theme is based on “Pretty-Parchment” by Lloyd Armbrust, with my own modifications.

Google Fail

I was amused to see this ad pop up in Gmail for Microsoft’s newly-released search engine, Bing. Is this an oversight by Google, or the ultimate show of contempt for the supposed “Google Killer”?

UBC Website Pwnt

Visit the UBC Website right now and this is what you see:

Hacked? Hosting Fail? Alternate Reality Game? I’m confused…

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Update: I think this must be a local DNS problem. Through comments and Twitter I’ve determined that http://www.ubc.ca is resolving to omegasupreme.ca only for people within Vancouver. It is not affecting access on campus.

Dear Facebook:

Why?

Light Summer Reading

Exams are over! Subsequently, I finally have time to get to some of the books which have been collecting on my desk over the past few months. Here’s the list I mean to undertake in short order:

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

More after the break…

A Letter to the PM: Regarding Minister Goodyear

In response to the shocking revelation of comments by Canada’s Minister of State for Science and Technology on evolution.

(see here for some great response from the research community)

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To the office of the Prime Minister of Canada:

As a student in scientific field, I wish to express the deep concern I felt reading about Minister Goodyear’s comments on a central fact of scientific knowledge – evolution. I was disappointed to learn that the man in charge of scientific development in this country is so deeply ignorant of his domain. The fact is that evolution is a central pillar of many avenues of scientific research today – from biomedical advances which increase our ability of understand and fight diseases, to even seemingly unrelated fields such as my own – artificial intelligence – where concepts of evolution have been adapted into successful computational techniques. Far from being a controversial issue, as some dishonest partisans imply, there is no controversy amongst scientists; Evolution is a fact, and an important one.

Moreover, it is confusing that the Minister would frame the question as a matter of belief in the first place – evolution is the result of overwhelming evidence and consistent data from a wide array of research avenues. To frame the issue as one of personal belief or even as a matter of religious freedom is to miss the point entirely, and suggests a frightening lack of understanding on the Minister’s part.

To have the Minister of Science be so ignorant of a central fact of scientific knowledge is absurd – as absurd as if the Finance Minister did not “believe” in supply-and-demand, or if the Minister of Defense did not “believe” in the existence of Iraq. How can Canada hope to remain relevant and competitive as a location for research if those in charge are so incompetent? As a student looking towards graduate school, such revelations about our country’s leadership make me seriously question whether I wish to continue my studies in Canada, or go elsewhere.

I sincerely hope that further clarifications will be made on the Minister’s stance on this issue and that, if it his found that he is as ignorant as his previous comments suggest, a more suitable replacement will be found.

Beyond the comments on evolution, I am further concerned that the minister hinted at an approach the research focusing on commercial applications. Such a focus on research that will sell will harm the research community in Canada; pure research is important and valuable, and it should not be the domain of the government to decide which avenues are likely to be the most profitable.

Sincerely,
Nicholas FitzGerald