Replacing a screen of a smart phone

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Loyal readers will recall that recently I did a large number of test welds to measure welding currents generated by my new inexpensive stick welder (blog article).  I had been using my smart phone to log real-time current measurements via Bluetooth from a clamp-on DC ammeter (blog article).  Part way through the large number of test welds, I was astonished to see that my smart phone had powered itself down.  I tapped the power button and coaxed the phone back to life and completed my current logging activities, and eventually figured out why the phone had so mysteriously and abruptly powered itself off.  A tiny bit of hot steel from one of my test welds had flown several feet and had landed on the glass screen of the phone, and had melted a small crater in the glass.  You can see the crater, which is less than one-fourth of a millimeter in diameter, in the photomicrograph above.  After about a day, cracks had traveled from this crater across the full expanse of the glass.  I realized I would need to learn how to replace the screen.  This blog article describes it.  Continue reading “Replacing a screen of a smart phone”

USPTO corrupts credit card expiration dates in FM

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Hello folks.  Here is a warning that I saw today in a USPTO system when I was paying a government fee in Financial Manager:

Credit/Debit Card Expiration Dates
Due to a recent system upgrade, some card expiration dates may have been converted to an incorrect month for cards stored within Financial Manager.  …

Try to guess, dear reader, what the next few words were.  For example, maybe the next few words explained that the USPTO was working to restore the expiration dates to their correct values, but that this might take a day or two, and they apologize for the inconvenience.  Continue reading “USPTO corrupts credit card expiration dates in FM”

Status of DOCX initiative as of right now redux

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The USPTO blinked yet again yesterday on DOCX.  The bad things that the USPTO was planning to do starting April 3, 2023 have now been postponed to June 30, 2023, according to USPTO speakers during a DOCX propaganda webinar yesterday.  At above right is a screen grab by alert listserv member Michael Dryja of a presentation slide during the webinar.  Continue reading “Status of DOCX initiative as of right now redux”