Samantha Ling

So late Friday night, of rather really early Saturday morning. l made myself a better stylus using the body of the pogo stylus. I saw that Crabfu had used an old drafting pencil. I couldn’t find my old ones, so I set out to find some. Unfortunately, Joann’s craft store didn’t have any in their art section and neither did Office Max. I could go down to the art store, but it would cost me ten dollars in tolls and gas to get one. You can find a decent one online for $10-15.

But what I did find at the craft store was this copper wire in the jewelry section. They have several different kinds of wire so make sure to buy the copper one and not the aluminum one. You could totally buy the sterling silver wire if you wanted a very expensive ghetto stylus. The craft wire comes in varying colors and gauges. Get the thicker wire or it will be too flimsy. Also, buy the copper one. I don’t want you to go home with something that’s non-conductive.

Instead of conductive foam, l used a scotch Brite sponge.

You only need like a centimeter of the sponge. I tried a couple of different things because I tried to make the stylus look more like a pen and tried to hide the copper wire. It didn’t work out. The great thing about the sponge is that you can still use it to scrub stuff. You have plenty of stuff left.

For the pen body, I use an old Pilot Bp-s. I’m not going to rehash the instructions. This is my final result.

Don’t as me why it sticks out so far. I was trying to do something with the pen that didn’t work. I just kept the length. The one thing that I’m having issues with is keeping the craft wire in contact with the Sponge. It keeps wanting to come out the top. Taping it didn’t help much. I think it’s just part of having an open ended pen.

The great thing is that the sponge is not falling apart. I wrote this whole thing in writepad using the ghetto stylus. And even if the sponge did fall apart, I can just cut up more of the sponge.

Overall, I would choose this over my pogo.

Copper wire : $2.50
Sponge : $1
Pen body : $0 or if you don’t have an old pen lying around, the pilot pen is $2. But you’ve got to have an old pen lying around. Any old pen will do.

Total : $3:50-5

pogo stylus: $12 and already falling apart.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

Did I tell you that it’s ipad week? I’ve had it for about two weeks and I’m totally enjoying it. I’ve used it for all sorts of things besides checking email and surfing the web. I’ve used it to write lots of stuff and playing games. I’ll talk about writing stuff in another post.

This one is about the Griffin ipad stand. It’s made out of metal and is about 1.2 pounds. I had bought it to take on the plane with me so I could watch movies. But I’ve ended up using it quite a bit around the house. In conjunction with the mini bluetooth keyboard, I can type pretty easily in any sitting or lying position. I just prop it up on the couch beside me or the side table or my big belly.

Here’s a size comparison between the keyboard and the iphone. They are about the same size, but the keyboard is much lighter and much thinner. I can pretty much touch type with this thing and I can type just as fast as using the three finger method on the onscreen keyboard, I have to say that I really didn’t like this keyboard when I first got it, but I don’t see how I could do without. It still clacks like a mother though and the bluetooth sucks down the battery life.

So back to the stand. I didn’t get the ipad dock because you can only orientate it in portrait mode. The stand can hold it either way and I wanted it in landscape for movie watching. There’s a gap at the bottom where you can plug in the power cord and have it orientated in portrait.

When folded down, it gives you a tilt.

I like this stand except for the weight. I wasn’t thinking about that when I bought it. Between it and the ipad, that’s about 3.5 pounds that you’re already toting around. The case and stand combinations are about half a pound lighter. I didn’t choose to get the case and stand combination is that the reviews say that the build quality wasn’t so great in those. But it’s not like I’ll be hiking through the Appalachians. That half pound going between flights in Texas won’t be that big of a deal. The layover is only about an hour. And I think that I might be carrying that much in discarded receipts in my purse everyday.

Overall, I like this stand and would recommend it. I’ll let you know how well it goes on the flight to DC.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal