My dryer stopped working. So I pulled it out, took out every screw, peered inside, and found the little spade connector that had come loose. Fixed!

Success? Not a chance. The dryer vent was all mangled when I pulled it out, so I went and bought luxuriously rugged flex-conduit and fixed it in place with ring clamps and everything. Nice.

Success? Not a chance. The very act of removing the washer’s feeder hoses was enough to disturb what must have been a delicate equilibrium, and so they were leaking everywhere. I got some teflon tape and reinstalled the taps.

Success? Not a chance. I overtightened the taps and cracked the cheap old CPVC fitting. At this point I called the plumber.

I’ve never been so happy to do laundry.

Yesterday I opened my SABA Freudenstadt 15M vintage radio because the right channel didn’t work. My modest artillery of troubleshooting techniques failed me, so I punted and just wired all of the speakers to the left channel. It’s mono now, but at least all of the speakers make sound!

But the real reason for this post is to show off my photos of the radio guts.

My iPhone broke. For the last two weeks, the home button has only worked with excessive force. Yesterday it stopped working completely. I took it to the sickningly perky genius at the Apple Store in Pacific Centre, and she told me she could fix it in twenty minutes. For $300. I gave her a look that said I’ve been hacking on Apple products since before the Gil Amelio dark ages. Respect me. I actually just said Erm, thanks. I’ll try and fix it myself.

So here are some photos of my iPhone coming apart on my kitchen table. This was a bit scary because my last experience opening an iPhone resulted in lots of itty-bitty electro-rubble all over the place, so first I gained confidence by looking at this.

After two tries, I was able to bend a couple little metal contacts so that they did more contacting with one another. It works now!

But I got fingerprints on the inside of the glass.

Located here.

I just got back from visiting my sister in freezing cold Saskatoon. Her basement suite doesn’t have a thermostat, so choosing the temperature of the entire house is left to the weirdos living upstairs. Since they weren’t even home this weekend, the place was too cold.

So naturally we hotwired the furnace because, being in the basement, we had access to it.

If you’re ever in a similar situation…

1. Pop off the main panel and peer inside. You’ll see the little pilot light burning away and some simple wiring.
2. If it’s a simple old furnace, there will be two little wires going up into the house (to the thermostat). If it’s a fancy new one with a digital thermostat or something, all bets are probably off.
3. Since a mechanical thermostat is basically just a switch, all you need to do is short it out to close the circuit. When the circuit is closed, the electric gas valve gets power and opens, and the burners fire up.
4. When the house is warm enough, you un-short out the wires leading to the thermostat, and everything is back to normal. Ta da!

Here’s a diagram:

AND REMEMBER: This is probably dangerous so try it at your very own risk. I take no responsibility for your future burnt down house. Don’t trust anything you read on the internets.