Laptop dismantling

Last year my laptop died due to a motherboard fault that would have cost more to fix than the cost of a new laptop. It sat around taking up space until the other day when I decided to pull it apart. The difficult process of disassembling the laptop yielded an array of interesting hardware, some of which I might find a use for, and most of which will probably sit in a shoebox in my room taking up space for years to come.

I was hoping I might be able to convert the screen into a monitor for whatever purposes might require one, but some Googling revealed that to be virtually impossible. I did however find out that it's pretty easy to reuse the touchpad just by soldering a PS/2 cable to the right place on the touchpad circuit board. Touchpads are mostly made by the same company, Synaptics, who are pretty open about their hardware interfacing. I found an old crappy mouse, removed the cord and soldered it up, and to my surprise it works perfectly (with the correct drivers, at least).



In other news: What is the deal with this? A diagonal stalagmite in my ice cubes.

And if someone tells you about this great recipe - don't do it, it's a trap. It sucks.

EDIT: Actually maybe that's because the flour I used expired in 2006.