I spent maybe way too much time today on a project that will actually be unveiled in September, so let's talk instead about me having to replace all my shit!

So in the interests of full disclosure, I've had my setup for roughly ten years now. I know! I've really been interested in making this iMac, this keyboard and mouse, and this optical drive work for me for as humanly long as possible, and it more than went through its paces. I was wondering if it'd last to the ten year mark and I'm pretty optimistic it will. That said, stuff is starting to go on me.

Before I'd even left, I was having problems with my mouse. I have a weird setup with my keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is a Wyse board, I forget the exact model number, and I'm too lazy to look it up right now, and it comes with a mouse. That you plug into the side. With PS/2. (Hotswappable PS/2!) I quite like it, it's heavy and sturdy and everyone comments on how loud it is, I love it. I'll probably get another one when it comes time to upgrade the eMachines Box and upgrade my main PC to a buckling springs board finally.

Well, come a month ago, the scroll wheel on the mouse was starting to become loose and sporadic. Sometimes, I would scroll and it would miss my scroll entirely. When I got back from Wales, the scroll had stopped working entirely. It was seriously just a wheel spinning in a slot. (Having gotten a new one, I think this is down to the "stops" that track the wheel having completely worn down from, again, probably ten years of constant use.) I had to get used to either clicking the wheel, using the on-screen scroll bars, or keyboard-shortcutting my way through paint.NET and FireAlpaca. It wasn't fun.

New mouse arrived today, and you bet I walked out in the pouring rain to get it. It's hilarious how worn down the old one was. I'd forgotten they had a textured outside because I just wore the texture on mine off. Anyway, all's good now. I can draw in comfort again.

While I was waiting for my mouse to arrive, though, something else broke! Since I'm using one of those cucky newer iMacs without an optical drive, I've been relying on a USB slot-loading SuperDrive for, say it with me now, almost a decade. It worked, and y'know, it even worked nicely, even though it was always concerningly rickety. Well, come me trying to rip my big stack of new CDs (check the blog post I just wrote on it, gamers), and the very last one, Who's Next, got stuck in the drive.

I don't know if the CD was too thick to get out or if the return mechanism in the drive had failed, but seriously, I tried a dozen times to eject it to no avail. Of course, looking up "cd won't eject", all you get are software solutions, when the drive would eject, it just wouldn't make it back out of the slot. Sooooo, I had to disassemble it. This took a week.

1. I first had to order a spudger from iFixit, jam it down between the plastic bottom and the aluminum casing, and separate out eight clips. You basically have to manhandle and slightly damage the aluminum in order to get the spudger in there, but I managed.
2. I then sat down with my Torx screwdrivers in hand to discover there's only one Torx screw in the entire device. The rest are tiny little Philips heads, which none of our screwdrivers would take out.
3. Ordered another screwdriver from iFixit. (The good thing about ordering these tools is that you'll probably eventually need them again, and I've definitely encountered screws that small before.)
4. Got all the screws out, except for one, which came pre-stripped from the factory! I was irritated, but I said "fuck it" and carried on trying to disassemble the drive. (dcb has also found pre-stripped screws in Apple products before. Seems to be another one of their anti-repair methods.)
5. Peeling out the drive itself from the enclosure (it's just a Hitachi drive, amusingly enough), I was finally able to take a few more screws out and retrieve my Who CD. It thankfully didn't seem to damage the CD at all.
6. I also somehow managed to reassemble the drive without losing a single screw. Apple's final "fuck you" to DIY repairers on the way out: the tolerances for the screw holes were so ridiculously tight, you basically needed to bend and warp any metal pieces inside to get them all to sit correctly. Still, I did it. And this drive will never be used again.

Here's a picture of what I was staring at yesterday, starring my ragged-ass desk that also needs replacing. (You bet I'm gonna be treating myself when I find another job.)