Custom Icons on my iPhone Springboard

These were a pain to install using iphoneinterface,

but I think the end result was worth the effort.

The icon set is paperCONS by fred777.

iPhone Custom Ringtones

After spending the day hacking my iPhone, I finally got custom ringtones! Actually, the process was fairly straightforward. All you have to do is follow these simple 12 steps. It's even easier if you have an Intel Mac now that there's a program called iFuntastic that does most of the work for you (unfortunately, I don't have one).

The most time consuming step was actually finding some ringtones. I never realized how difficult it is to find free ringtones. I ended up just making most of them myself. I took some mp3 files, cut them down to about 10 seconds in Audacity, then converted them to m4a with iTunes.

Finally, you may have noticed something missing from the picture above. That's right, I also got rid of the AT&T carrier logo from the iPhone top bar (instructions here). I think it looks much better now that I'm not constantly being reminded of which carrier I'm stuck with.

Reverse Product Placement

Disaster Ready

Now that I have my very own disaster survival kit, I'm ready for any disaster that may be foolish enough to face me.

One of these emergency rations provides enough sustenance for one person to last three days. It's hard to believe...but they taste great! - according to the quote on the back. Shelf life: 5 years.

This 52 piece first aid kit comes with everything you see here. Medical emergency sold separately.

Isn't a solar-powered flashlight kind of useless? At least this one can also be charged via hand-crank. It's also a radio and cell phone charger - but doesn't come with an iPhone adapter (charges most popular cell phones indeed).

Simpsonized

Apparently, this is what I look like as a Simpsons character.

TV

The TV I bought last week - 32", 720p, $668 at Walmart.

I think I need a bigger one...

iPhone to the Rescue

Yesterday at 7:30pm, I was driving to Redmond Town Center with my friend David to watch the new Harry Potter movie. I had just pulled into the parking garage and was looking for a spot when I noticed a car stopped in the middle of the driveway. A young man ran over to my car and urgently asked me to get help. Not knowing what else to do, I stopped my car, got out, and called 911 on my iPhone.

David and I ran over to their car and found an older woman who looked very sick. We could see that she can just thrown up and was now sitting, propped up by the car. I relayed the information to the 911 dispatcher and asked her to send an ambulance. There was some confusion with the address since we didn't know which one of the many parking garages in Redmond Town Center we were in, but David ran outside and quickly returned with that information. About three other people stopped to help. David waited near the entrance of the garage to flag down the ambulance. I stayed on the phone until the ambulance arrived, which took about five minutes.

We ended up being a little late to the movie (missing how Harry stops the dementors), but it was well worth being able to help someone who needed it.

Hyundai Sonata Stereo Removal

The stereo system in my Hyundai Sonata doesn't have an audio in port, which is quite absurd. You'd think car manufacturers would add such a simple and convenient feture. Well, I disassembled my stereo in order to determine how easy it would be to add this functionality myself.

After some searching I found some Sonata stereo removal instructions (pdf) which really helped. The hardest part was step 3 - getting the trim panel removed. I didn't want to damage it, so I tried prying it off slowly with no luck. It really requires quite a bit of force to get off.

There are white clips on the panels that I removed, which I discovered come off really easily. I had four of the clips fall off inside the car when I removed the panels. They fell behind the panels, so I could not easily retrieve them. Now there's probably going to be a rattling when I drive, and the panels will not be as fixed. This is going to bother me greatly.

There's two blocks of wires and one antenna cable going into the stereo head unit. I disassembled the unit a bit but didn't find anything useful. I put everything back together and besides the fallen clips that I mentioned above, everything is back to normal.

Update: So I finally did it!
This is what it looks like with my iPhone or my Droid.

Tree Trimming

March - Tree looks nice.

June - Tree looks like it has cancer.

July - After trimming, tree looks leprous.

Rubik's Cube

Ever since I played with the Rubik's Cube that I found in my hotel room two weeks ago, I've been itching to get one for myself.

However, they're harder to find than I thought. Walmart has them in their online store, but the last few times I went to a physical Walmart they were out of stock. I also tried Alderwood Mall with no luck.

Well, today I went to Walmart for something completely different and what do you know - they had six Rubik's Cubes on display, so I grabbed one.

Kind of funny how I had more trouble getting a Rubik's Cube than my iPhone.

Google Furniture

My Google beanbag arrived today.

iPhone 3rd Party Headphone Problem

The headphone port on the iPhone is recessed, so most 3rd party headphones will not go in all the way. This was the problem with my Shure E4G earbuds. I could have bought a $10 adapter just to use the headphones that I like, but instead I did a bit of modding and managed to get them to fit.


As you can see, all I did was scrape off some of the insulation surrounding the jack using an exacto knife. The headphones that came with the iPhone are on top for comparison.