So i was talking to my boyfriend one day and he mentions that he as this cute little computer in his closet that he wants to try and rebuild. its an i-opener. i'm sure you all have heard about them. if not, checkout this site, or the home of the original i-opener hack, www.linux-hacker.net. essentially, its a relatively low-cost, low performance computer sold by Netpliance (who went out of business because of the number of people hacking these boxes) that ran their own custom OS and was only good for browsing the internet. after replacing the BIOS chip and adding new hardware, like harddrives and such, the $99 model of capitalism has become its own nemesis, an affordable machine for those who can stomach the hardware hack that is necessary to make it functional. there was one setback in our situation. the model of i-opener we have is one with an uninviting glob of epoxy covering the BIOS chip, making it almost impossible to remove and flash or replace. my boyfriend, mike, was so discouraged when he saw the epoxy that he gave the i-opener to me and told me i could have it if i could free the BIOS chip. after failing trying to physically chip the epoxy off with a screwdriver and using acetone to try to break it up, i actually researched epoxy. i found why neither of those approaches had worked: epoxy, when it hardens, is essentially a single molecule, making it one of the toughest glues in existance, which acetone wont even scratch. i did find a substance that would though: Methyl Ethyl Ketone. so i stopped by the nearest Lowes and picked up a gallon jug of MEK (which i promptly returned after using what little of the substance was needed to complete the job). it didn't completely dissolve the epoxy, it still took a lot of chipping and elbow grease to remove it, but eventually the chip was free and the box was mine. currently that is as far as we have gotten. we ordered a BIOS chip from BadFlash, and we plan on installing a mini-distro of linux called JailBait on the included SanDisk until we can install a small laptop harddrive. as of today, the i-opener would not boot, possibly because of a loose connection between the BIOS chip and its socket. we plan on working on the little box more next week. more updates to come.

yeah see? girls can be nerds too. i sure as hell am one, but probably not as big a nerd as alot of other people on this site. dont give up on me guys... i'll catch up one day! well i have no idea how the hell this journal is supposed to work, but /. called people who dont post in their journals losers, and i'm already a nerd... i dont wanna be a loser too! :-)