When Kallie and I had our back windshield broken by some kids while she was at work, she drove it home and I started doing some research on getting it replaced.  In my online search, I found a lot of car windshield replacement services that boasted 24/7 hours.  What I learned though, is that just means SOME of them have an answering service and NONE of them can come out to repair your windshield until the next business day, at the earliest.

Why is that???  I would see a windshield as critical as a battery or a flat tire.  You simply can’t drive it safely without it.  With a flat tire or a dead battery, at least it can just sit there and not increase in damage, but if it’s raining, you’re interior is going to get ruined!  Also, people can get into your car and steal it or anything you have inside! 

When I called these places, they were saying that i’d have to wait 3 days for an appointment, or that I’d have to pay $600 for someone to come to me the next day.  There was not a simple place that offered a solution to get it done that day, and it was only 5pm.  There’s got to be a demand for that, even if it’s not a standalone business, but an add on to services like AAA offers for battery and tire repairs.  The solution is simple.  There are windshields in a warehouse somewhere, and I need one.   I mean, if I knew they would give me one, I would risk the danger and just drive it to the warehouse to get replaced. 

It’s just silly.  No way anyone can fix a windshield by themselves, and yet there’s no business that wants my business, even at a premium.

Here’s a picture of what Deirdre’s white iphone 3G used to look like:

I won’t get into the discussions, but long story short, she gave me her phone, knowing full well that I was just going to fix it and sell it.

So, her screen was cracked, but the LCD was still completely operational.  I knew I could just buy the glass panel for ~20 bucks, but I found a nice kit at ifixit.com that came with everything I would need.  I highly recommend them!  They operate out of San Luis Obispo, Ca, which I visited in December, so I couldn’t help but envision some beach bum college kids running this operation out of their dorm room or something.

Anyway, the guides make this easy!  I had the phone all disassembled and put back together in under 30 minutes.  After a little charge, she was up and operational.  The home button was a bit wonky, you had to press firmly or just right to get it to work, but Deirdre said that is the way it was before she gave it to me.  I wish I knew, or I would have tried to fix that too, but since I already used the doublesided tape to get it all back together, I figured I may as well leave it alone, since there was no guarantee i could fix it.

So, with the phone looking back to normal, it’s time to jailbreak and unlock!  since it’s rocking 3.1.3 OS, a quick visit to Jailbreakme.com on the phone uses an exploit to jailbreak it in a snap.  no tethering or restoring ipsw files or anything!  Once cydia is on the phone, open it to record the SHSH for future jailbreaks, download ultrasn0w for the unlock, and BAM, you’ve got yourself a phone ready for any sim card you want.

It was really that easy.  take a few pictures for ebay, and away she’ll go!  This counts for #18 on my 30×30 list too!

There’s a bunch of lists out there, and I’m sure you’ve heard how geeks are great lovers, but I think I have a few things to add to the list.  Geeks are great.

10.  Getting to know a geek is easy – just google their name…or sometimes, their alias…or aliases.  You can find pictures, blogs, forums, newspaper articles, anything they’ve done or been involved in.  Throw in some myspace and facebook stalking, and you’ve got a good sense of what they’re all about and their friends.  You can make a pretty good judgement of how interested you should be based on these alone, and you didn’t even have to meet them in an awkward place!

9.  It works both ways – rest assured, they’re going to do the same google stalker on you too.  Geeks want to know what they’re getting themselves into while satisfying their stalker tendencies.  Geeks are thirsty for knowledge, and this time it’s about you!  You should be flattered at how much they want to learn about you and be able to have a conversation with you right off the bat instead of just having small talk.

8.  They leave an audit trail – If your geek shows up with a tan one day…you know something is up.  They’re life is well documented, email use, text messages, new facebook friends and wall posts, twitter updates, blog posts, etc.  They great thing is, even if you can’t get an idea of what’s going on in their lives from all these things, if they stop activity…you know they’re distracted by something…

7.  They’re easy to please – All you have to do is smile at them and they’re in love.  If that fails, just buy them a new gadget like an iphone or some GPS thing-a-majig.

6..  They’re devoted – Geeks like reliability.  Once they spend all their time in building a new computer, they don’t want to see that hard drive crash.  They’re the same with their relationships.

5.  They’re connected – So you want to take a trip to London, but don’t have the money for a hotel?  Don’t worry, your geek probably plays World of Warcraft with someone from London, and you can crash at their place.

4.  They’re only 1 click away – Email, text, call, IM, facebook, and probably lots of other ways should make for an easy way to get in contact with your geek.  Alternatively, you can find out which one they check least often, and send a message there, then you can say, "oh, i facebooked messaged you that, didn’t you get it?" and you’re home safe.

3.  Full of potential (too) – Let’s face it, you’re geek spends a lot of time on his or her computer.  This doesn’t (necessarily) mean they’re an introvert or misanthrope though.  Chances are, they’re just waiting for someone else to come along and see if they want to do something.  They’ll probably be full of ideas of things to do that they read about on wikipedia or digg, and you can do them together!

2.  Mr Fix it – Yeah, they can fix your computer.  Yeah, they can figure out why your wireless router isn’t working.  Yeah, they can hook up your new HDTV for  you.  They can also do some awesome research on webMD or How stuff works or any other resource out there to do what you need done.  Like I said, they’re thirsty for knowledge because they believe human knowledge belongs to the world.

1.  Dropped connection – If you decide it’s time to end the relationship, just tell them that you’re going to South Africa to live in a hut and you won’t have any internet.  They’ve read stories about those places, and they don’t want to go there, or be with anyone who could live there.