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2013/12/11

Log 2013121101

I attempted to purchase a replacement Samsung Galaxy S D-700 smartphone from SPlusDirect.com on 08 DEC.  The company sent a message on the 9th stating that they had found a part that was damaged during shipping and were quick to give me a refund.  They were very nice in their e-mail.

Today, I purchased a refurbished unit of the same make and model from ParagonR3 via Amazon.com. ParagonR3 is an electronics recycle.  And a copy of the order confirmation was made. I chose standard shipping, which stated that I should expect it in 3 - 7 business days.  The order is coming from Massachusetts.  Having ordered things for my computer repair business from around the country many times, I predict that the unit will arrive on the 16th.

Some people are going to look at this and wonder why would I use such an "antiquated" smartphone?  The biggest reason is that my unit, which hit the market in 2009, is still the latest model on Sprint's network with a pull out qwerty keyboard.  I've become a bit of a typist with it.  Another thing is that this replacement only cost me $70.  My insurance deductible would have been $100, and I'd have to pay about $400 out of pocket to purchase a new model smartphone... I don't have the money to do that and I need something now because it fits in my pocket, contains my task list, notes and day planner which are integral to my life.  And without such a device, I would have to carry a bag with a paper day planner everywhere I go.

So why aren't there any newer smartphones with a pull out keyboard?  The best answer that I got was that keyboard consumes a lot of power.  And I can confirm that when I went to from the Palm Pre to the Galaxy S.  In terms of power, in this case, I compare it to fuel, that switch was like going from the Honda Accord to the Cadillac Fleetwood.

On trips, I'm very power contentious.  Most of the time, I carry it in the "airplane mode" that shuts off the wi-fi, bluetooth, internet, voice and text message hardware while leaving the rest of computer on.  If I'm using my Bluetooth headset, well that just means that I have to do something similar, but I'll have to shut down as much hardware as I can manually because airplane mode will uniformally shut the Bluetooth as well :-(.

During on-board music playback when non-essential services have been shut off, my D-700 can run for about 8 hours if I play more albums and let the screen go black.  But on my bicycle, I have a smartphone mount.  And its here that I use my unit for GPS turn-by-turn navigation, odometer, and Pandora internet radio when available.  That means that for the entire time those services are running, my screen must also remain on for hours.  And that means that every piece of hardware on the smartphone is being used to its maximum potential simultaneously.  At this rate, I'll be lucky to get 2 hours of battery life out of the D-700.  So, I have 2 extra spares, and the batteries are usually marked A, B & C.  A & B are usually newer batteries and have longer life.  Battery C is usually the oldest. It's also the weakest because of how many times it's previously been exposed to a recharge.

When the third battery gets down to about 20% charge, that's about the point where I usually power the smartphone off to save it for something else.  Emergency calls can be made on 10%.  The extra ten are for other contingencies, like making a call or text to someone else, or having to use Google Maps to plot some other course if I need to leave my current route early.

2013/12/08

Log 2013120801

My back is healing slowly, but making progress nonetheless.  I might be ready to go to the gym on 13 DEC?  Yesterday, I noticed that I had some numbness on the right side of my right quad.  Today, I had it up the right side of my right hand, but to a lesser extent.  I could have a pinched nerve and for all I know, it all could be related.  So far, in the last month, I've had 800mg of Tylenol about 4 times and nothing's been severe enough to call the 24 hour nurse about.  Healing a back is always slow.

This past week, I had a buddy assisted hamstring stretch while sitting.  And then I had someone walk on my back and both helped.

2013/12/04

Log 2013120401

As you can see, these logs are also used as maintenance records.  Normally, it takes a website 3 - 9 months to be cataloged by something like Google to come up in a search result.  Because this log is on Blogger, and it's a part of Google, my log entries tend to get indexed by their search engine much faster.  So, I'm careful to mention my car's year, make, model, edition and mileage.  Also, my blog entries can be searched from my user interface.  I can use that to determine if I performed a certain repair before?  If there's any "tricks" to making the repair easier?  Or, I might be able to determine if there's pattern of some kind?  Or, I can use it to estimate when a part that I worked on before will go bad (such as the brakes, which were fully replaced recently noted as per the log)?  In this case, when down trail for extended periods of time, it would be advantageous to anticipate its replacement.

The #'s 22 & 69 and spare 10amp fuses on my 2008 Chevy HHR LS were replaced at 130,073 miles on the odometer in Cleveland Heights of Cuyahoga County.  The #69 is a 10amp fuse for the air conditioner.  There's nothing wrong with that system at the moment.  It's just that I ended up needing it because I was out of spare 10amp fuses and it was expendable this time of year.

The #22 slot is for the rear parking lights.  I transferred #69's fuse into the #22 slot while the trailer was hitched and it blew that as soon as I it a load (power).  There is no doubt anymore that the trailer's wiring has a short that is causing a power surge greater than 10amp to try and get through the fuse box.

This isn't the first time that the trailer has had a short that blew the #22 fuse.  At one time, I believe that it blew one of the rear taillight bulb filaments.  Because I have one package of 2 bulbs with one of the missing, and then another full pack in addition.  I think that I used that one bulb because one of my turn signal filaments was burnt out. 

The trailer's electrical seems to work on a series circuit. 

The brake lights and turn signals have been unaffected.  Since the parking lamps only come on with the headlights and hi-beams (but not the daytime running lights), they're irrelevant during the day. So, I've been using it to haul items to the dump and transport plywood.

Well, the trailer will need a couple hours for me to wire it correctly.  And I'd rather do that at my storage unit under daylight where the drive is paved and is easier on the caster wheels to sit on and roll into storage.  Because I think that the problem with the trailer's wiring was that the unit was folded into it's storage mode where the back part of the deck is unbolted and folded onto the front.  Then unit is tilted up from its main to the caster wheels and rolled into storage vertically.  When the trailer was assembled, it was never wired while the unit was in storage mode.  The wiring came after and I never bothered to check it in that configuration.

Well, when I folded the trailer into storage mode last month, the wiring was a bit tight.  And it's very possible that I may have stretched and broken the insulation shielding somewhere along the frame.  Regardless, the wiring needs to be re-routed through custom drilled holes anyways and get clamped to the frame in a way that accommodates its storage mode.