Clean your dirty yellow Macbook!

Since I am in the process of refreshing my old white Macbook to factory-like conditions, I have decided to attempt to clean the dirty hand rest. As many of you might already know, the white Macbook’s hand rest yellows and collects dirt over time, and there have been many suggestions out their on how to keep the hand rest clean, so I decided to try it out myself. To be fair, my hand rest is not as dirty as it was once. About 6 months after I bought it, the hand rest was so yellow that I sent it to Apple to have them repair it. They said it was a defect in the hand rest, that it shouldn’t yellow, and they replaced it. It has since been over 2 1/2 years and as you can see in the video, the hand rest is not too bad. However, I really want it to look perfect so I went out and bought the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser because I heard that was the best way to clean the white Macbook.
Now, I would just like to clarify before you watch this video, if you are going to try this at home, it is better to start slow and clean a small area first. This will only work on the hand rest, so don’t try this on the screen or on the track pad or on the glossy casing of your Macbook. I ended up cleaning my hand rest, my keyboard and the frame of my screen (basically any place where that same white matte material is used). When it comes to cleaning the keys, make sure to be very gentle, because I have heard how strong these Erasers are and they could take your lettering off if you are scrubbing to harshly.

DIY Laptop Lap Desk.

When it comes to using my Macbook, I am definitely someone who works AFD, ‘away from desk.’ I follow the theory that a laptop was made to be taken elsewhere and therefor should not be subject to the confines of a desk 24 hours a day. I especially like to use my laptop in bed so that I can surf the net while watching tv, surrounded by pillows and blankets! That is why is it imperative that I use a lap desk. If you are a notebook computer user, you are well aware that sitting your computer down on a pillow or on a comforter can cause the air vents to clog with dust and particles as a pillow doesn’t necessarily get the best ventilation, so having a small lap desk to keep your computer on while working is a necessity. Although you could go out and spend $20-$100 dollars on various styles of lap desks, I prefer to make my own, and so I am going to share with you my tips on how to make a DIY Laptop Lap Desk. Making your own lap desk is easy, but best of all, it is customizable and the directions can be tailored to your specific crafting level.
To make your own DIY Laptop Lap Desk, you will need the following (all of which can be found at a local craft store):
1 Unfinished wooden tray table
1 Piece of sandpaper
1+ bottles of Acrylic crafting paint
2 Pieces of Scrapbook paper (Optional)
1 Jar of Mod Podge (Optional)
1 Can of Acrylic spray sealant
A few foam brushes
Optional Items
Depending on your crafting skill level, you may choose to paint your tray one solid color, multiple colors, or paper mache the desk portion of the tray using scrapbook paper and mod podge. You should think about how you would like your tray to look and what you think you are capable of doing before you begin so that you select the proper paint colors and materials. Using the paper mache tools can be simple, even for a first timer, as long as you take your time and follow the directions properly. This option can also help you to create an even more unique tray table through the use of pretty patterned papers.

Process
Step 1: Prepare your workspace
Before you begin, make sure you have a good amount of space on a table or desk to work on. Remember you will be using paint and glue for this project so you may want to put down newspaper or a disposable table cloth to keep your area clean.
Step 2: Prepare the tray
The first thing you need to do is use the sandpaper to clean up the wooden tray. You want to make the wood as smooth as possible and remove any bumps or splintering sections so that you can apply your paint evenly. This will also prevent you from hurting yourself on a wooden splinter as you work or worse, as you use the desk in the future. After you are done sandpapering the tray, make sure you remove any wooden dust particles from the tray AND your work space- you don’t want the paint on your tray to pick up wood dust as you work.
Step 3: Prepare your materials
If you choose to use just paint for your project, make sure you have a protected surface off to the side to put your paint on. This surface can be as simple as a piece of cardboard or as advanced as a painters palette, but you will need something to dip your foam brush into that is NOT directly into the bottle of paint.
If you choose to paint AND paper mache, this is the point where you should size out your paper to fit the interior of your tray. Take your time, mark, and slowly cut your paper to fit the flat desk portion of your tray before you begin. Remember, the rule of thumb is to measure twice and cut once!
Step 4: Paint
Depending on your level of skill, you may choose to paint the sides of your tray different colors, or simply paint it one solid color. Take your time and make sure to work off of a palette of some sort, and most of all make sure you are using one foam brush per color and cleaning the brushes off in between layers of paint. You will most likely need only 2 layers of paint, but you can apply more or less layers depending on the color you are using and the color result you are looking for. It is best to let the paint dry a little between layers so that you can get an accurate idea of the outcome color of each layer.
If you choose to work with the Mod Podge and scrapbook paper to paper mache the desk portion of your tray, you will want to avoid applying paint to the desk area. If you do get some paint on the desk, don’t worry, it will not hurt your project, and it is common to get paint on the edges of the desk as you paint the interior sides of the tray.
Step 5: Applying the Paper Mache
If you have chosen to work with the paper mache supplies to create a unique desk area, you should wait until the paint has dried on the tray before you begin. Once it is dry you will use another clean foam brush to apply the mod podge to the desk area. To do this, you may dip your foam brush directly inside the bottle of mod podge, but be careful as the mod podge is a glue and you may get run off as you take your brush out of the jar. Slowly and carefully apply an even layer of glue to the wood. You don’t want to apply to little of the glue that your paper won’t solidly stick to it, but you also do not want to apply so much glue that the layer will soak through your paper. Use your best judgement and apply a nice even layer.
Step 6: Apply the paper
After you have applied a nice even layer of glue to the desk, you must quickly put down your paper. I suggest starting from one edge of the tray and working to the next, laying the paper down and smoothing it to the surface of the desk. It is important to note, the paper may appear to have bubbles underneath it or what appears to be “veins” but if you have applied an even layer and have slowly applied the paper and smoothed it down as you went, you will be fine. Depending on the thickness of your chosen paper, as it gets wet during the application it will crinkle the way wet paper does, however, if you have made sure to smooth it down it will dry flat.
Step 7: Apply glue to the top of the paper
Once the paper has been applied to the desk of the tray, you must also add a layer of glue to the top of the paper. Much like you applied it to the desk, you will apply another even layer on top of the paper to seal it. Again, when you do this the paper may appear to crinkle more and more “air bubbles” or “veins” may appear on the paper, but these will disappear as the tray dries as long as you have applied an even layer of glue and made sure to carefully smooth down the paper in step 6.
Step 8: Let it dry
It is best to let the tray dry overnight before you move onto the final part of the project. This way you will give the glue plenty of time to harden and you will see that most, if not all, of the bubbles have dried flat.
Step 9: Apply the spray sealant
After you have given your project time to dry overnight, you may now apply the spray sealant. Make sure you take your project outside to do this, as the fumes of the spray can be harmful indoors and you need proper ventilation. Following the directions on the spray can, apply an even coat to the tray. If your tray has legs make sure to keep those open and have your tray standing so that the whole tray is being sealed. Let the first layer dry for about 10-15 minutes, and if you choose, apply a second coat.
Step 10: Let it dry
After you have applied the spray sealant to the tray, leave it in a nice, well ventilated spot to dry overnight (like in your garage or out on a deck. The spray sealant may say it dries in just a few minutes or hours, but it is best to let the tray dry overnight again before use so that you have aired it out properly and let it set.

Digital vs. Analog.

Although I am someone who wholeheartedly embraces tech in almost every aspect of life, there are still some areas where I have not fully replaced my analog methods for digital ones. For instance, although I love my ipod touch, I still manage to use a Moleskine notebook to record my to do’s, my ideas, and my contacts. I absolutely love this form of analog data storage because wherever I am, I know I can record information quickly and without worrying about whether my battery will run out mid sentence. Now, don’t get me wrong, my ipod touch is AMAZING! I love playing games, surfing the web, and checking my email when I am away from my laptop, but call me old fashioned- I enjoy the action of writing more so than the tapping of my fingertip upon a screen. The tactile sensation is like none other!

In actuality the use of a Moleskine notebook has been a practice I have only recently acquired. My freshman year of high school I used a Handspring pda and once I graduated had gone through 2 more Palm pdas. In college, however, I began to rely less on my digital devices for recording homework and test days and began taking these notes directly into a notebook. Gradually, I decided to simplify my note-taking by buying a small notebook to store everything in. Since then, my Moleskine has been my major organizational method as I regard it more as a tool for productivity then my ipod touch, whose many distractions actually keep me from getting work done!

Together though, my Moleskine and my ipod touch make for a great pair, a balance of analog and digital, productivity and amusement that I simply could not live without!

LaCie Little Disk, a review.

Last week my LaCie Little Disk, aka current tech obsession arrived and I have been gleefully playing with it ever since. I actually just finished making a video review I am posting to YouTube, but I realized there were some things I wanted to talk about in a written review that I didn’t cover in the video, so here are my thoughts on my new hard drive.

First of all, I absolutely love the design. I think it is nothing short of sexy! It is very sleek and light, and I love the glossy finish. I also love the fact that the USB cord is housed inside the case. This makes for an all-in-one type deal that I just really like because it means I don’t have to carry around a cord for it.

Second, I am pleased with the performance. In my research of the LaCie Little Disk, I found mixed reviews from people who loved or hated LaCie drives. One major complaint I found was that people didn’t like not knowing the actual brand of the drive inside the case. If you didn’t know, LaCie is not a drive manufacturer, they just design the casings and use third party drives for their products. Now, apparently LaCie uses many brands of drives and there is no way of knowing which drive is in your product, therefor making use of the drive risky since you don’t know if the drive is reliable- this was a complaint I found in my research of LaCie drives.

Well, I figured out which brand drive was in my Little Disk rather easily. I used Disk Utility and once my drive was mounted, was able to see the brand and model of the hard drive. In my case, it was a Samsung HM500JI. The reviews for the Samsung drive were fairly decent, most people had no problems with their drives and it is actually considered a good deal because they are fairly priced and reliable. In tests, the Samsung drive did fairly well, with no major complaints, but no outstanding performance either. So, as far as I can tell, the drive seems reliable, but not exceptionally powerful, which is okay by me.

The final thing I would like to mention about this drive, however, is the fact that it is extremely quiet! This was actually cited as one of the positive aspects of this drive- it is designed to be silent and it is. When I use it, it makes only the occasional dull noise and has absolutely no hum at all, unlike my Western Digital hard drive that makes a pretty obvious humming noise while it is in use.

Overall, I am happy with my purchase. I found the drive online for under $100 and it is 500GB of storage, so I can’t complain! Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions about this product and I would be happy to chat about it. If anyone out there has a LaCie hard drive experience they would like to share, please let me know because this will be my first time with a LaCie- I have been a WD girl until now, so I would love to hear about your experiences with their drives!

Macworld’s 13" Macbook Pro Review.

I am very excited today because Macworld published their review of the 13″ Macbook Pro! Obviously, I am interested in seeing the results of the benchmarks and the overall feeling around the new model. Much to my pleasure, it seems as though I made an excellent choice going with the 2.53 gHz processor and 4 GB of Ram. As you can see from the chart, this model did the best in speed tests. I am also pleased at my Macbook’s preformance in comparison to the 15″ Macbook Pro model, where it exceeded the preformance of the 15″ with the *same processor.

*Those results can be found with the complete results of the benchmarks, also on Macworld.com.

Erase and Restore.

This past weekend I finally took the plunge and restored my white macbook back to its original factory settings. In order to commemorate this event, I decided to take a video. It was really nerve wracking because I wasn’t sure if I was going to mess up and I was worried about deleting all the data on my hard drive, although the day before I had backed up the entire hard drive onto one of my externals. It was weird making the switch completely over to my new macbook pro, but it was necessary. I can’t work on two computers at once and as much as I love my white macbook, it was time to move on and enjoy my new pro. I am not getting rid of my white macbook, I restored it to new and then downloaded some programs onto it so that I can use it as a backup if need be, but it is “put away” for now.

Erase and Restore from Miss Trenchcoat on Vimeo.

LaCie Little Disk, a tech obsession.

In researching my last post about mobile tech accessories for ladies, I came across the LaCie Little Disk, an external hard drive like none other I have seen. The smooth glossy finish of the monolithic drive, the innovative design incorporating the USB cable into the box itself, the nice protective cap, and 500 GB of storage for just $129.99 is just too much to pass up! Of course, this enticed a bit of a tech obsession within me, and now I find myself at the brink of another tech related breakdown. I really like external hard drives. I don’t know why, but I think on some level they are a comforting thing. For one, they are a backup for all the important files and information on your computer’s hard drive, so there is an obvious source of comfort- knowing that if your computer fails you have a duplicate of the hard drive on a backup. Second, I think it is also comforting to know that if you happen to fill up the hard drive on your computer, you can use an external hard drive to store even more! More. Isn’t that the theme of tech culture, to have the newest, the fastest, the best tech possible in order to keep your life running as smoothly as possible? I am not sure which reason precisely is to blame for my current tech obsession, most likely it is a combination of both, but alas, it seems as though I have found my next tech purchase. So, why don’t we take a nice long look at the LaCie Little Disk together, shall we?

{Images via LaCie.com}