Nick

If you are reading this "about me", you made it to my user profile.

• IT/general tinkering
• Photography
• Gaming

• Sunlake High School (Dual enrollment)
  • Graduation: 2014
• Marchman Technical Center
  • Graduation: 2014

• CompTIA A+ CE 2021 (Expires: March 22, 2025)
• PC Pro Certification (Lifetime)
• Marchman Technical School (Certificate of Completion)

This one started after the kids at the time lost interest in Beyblades. For years prior, I was known for fixing and modifying Beyblade launchers — mainly manual as these were flimsy compared to the others (but usually what we had at the time because of our parents). The neighbors' parents tolerated these modifications I did due to the repairs that were also made as needed :-). As you can tell, I am a seasoned warranty voider.
At the time, there were no instructions for these launchers so nobody knew how since they were so cheap to replace (or under warranty), so I had to find out how to open them without a manual (which was easy because we didn't send them back, nor did our parents).

I started on the older Pentium III Dell beige boxes and worked up to nicer hand-me-downs. Despite having a rough start, I eventually "made it" despite my lacking formal "public education" consisting of BSing busywork/useless material, cheating, sleeping, tricking substitute teachers to leave class early who didn't know better, conning people to let me skip remedial classes early, and getting out of nonsense I was dumped in because they didn't want to try. The farthest I went in middle school was bypassing Websense, and cheating in summer school with disposable email addresses while watching YouTube when nobody was looking -- mainly because I am friends with the IT guy from when I was in middle school and knew even if he knew it was me it was easier to look the other way.

One of my more infamous stunts in high school is dealing with the web filter (my high school used iBoss which wasn't so abysmally bad a list of proxies would do the job) openly. I never got in trouble and eventually made a deal with admin to look the other way in exchange for keeping the methods private while leaving me to find new ways and still leaving me alone. The sacrifice for that deal? A spare burner smartphone got MAC blocked on the school network. This phone was eventually recycled due to the 3G sunset thanks to AT&T using "HSPA+ 3.5G (fake 4G)". I also did the S-OFF mod we all did, unlocked the bootloader, and force SIM unlocked to open the phone to custom ROMs due to arbitrary AT&T restrictions requiring an SD card to use the camera. I also jailbroke my iPhone 4 as well at one point (I still have this, but the battery expanded).

At some point, I took a laptop to school where I did the same thing with a swapped wireless card with the stock label so I could hide from IT and make their life hard. The original was "registered", not the alternative MAC. I also printed from my laptop grabbing the IP addresses from the school computers as a time saver. The library people knew but looked the other way as I was in and out :-). Eventually, due to tricks like mine, the internet MAC registration requirement was dropped because nobody did it (including me) since it did nothing and nobody bothered... But was replaced with a shared DISTRICT-WIDE PASSWORD. The password stuck, but we all knew it. This is in addition to our Halo CE LAN parties in tech school.
Students: 1 School: 0. To this day, I regret nothing.

However, this came at a cost... I dug myself into a hole that almost cost me graduation. I spent more time in school cheating, bypassing the tardy table with status, being late to class and so many sick notes it was insane. However, that was saved by a 3-point lead over the minimum score needed on a retake test. After graduation, I got my A+ cert and went straight to work because I gained the experience gained prior and had credentials early through dual enrollment and my shenanigans. This decision led to graduating with zero debt and a strong head start. While I had to pay for the A+ cert, my school paid for the PC Pro cert.

PLEASE READ: While I am critical of the US public education system’s “education value” for what you get involuntarily spending 8 hours on material with near zero post graduation value for ~15-18 years, use of "punishments" like remedial classes and summer school on a regular basis, all too common special ed threats and using the parent as a weapon to borderline harasss their own kids for their grades for their benefit and "shaming the parents", all while being left behind when you can't learn like everyone else (because NCLB was a failed law which did NOTHING)

While I am of the strong opinion that the "public education" you are forced to waste 18 years of your life on is a waste of time with no real world value (or at best, minimal) I DO NOT SUPPORT THE IDEA OF DROPPING OUT. Pass your classes with the minimum, vomit the BS "lessons" onto the test (and then forget all of it), graduate and get out.

The biggest claim to fame was finding a way to successfully recover data on the LG G4s like my early (bad) AT&T 509K, which has known bootloop issues). I had photos of a cat (white, with no deafness issues) who passed at ~15-16 cat years. At that point, I cared more about recovering the last photos I had to go off of to the point I was willing to pay off the phone indirectly just to destroy it if needed. At that time, I was calmly comfortable saying goodbye to the phone, even if it was repairable. The reason is this phone died with the final uncompressed originals, with encryption.

At the time I had the LG G4, the EIP financing model was new in the US because of the first Sprint/T-Mobile merger attempt (failed due to DOJ intervention and the courts) so they brought the financing model to the US and the big 3 (at the time) followed. The time it worked out, the model was established and Sprint was borderline dead in the US.

In the US, we don't miss Sprint. I also don't miss the "permanently locked" GSM phones which were locked out from other carriers in the US despite lying about how it couldn't be done (which also hurt their parts reusability when you got one for parts, the dominently CDMA network requiring unique parts due to the special radios that had to be used, and in turn, different heatsinking), and then waiting until the CTIA agreement to admit it on new models in 2015 and forcing people into your phones or a small list from those who paid the certification fees while charging postpaid rates and not allowing prepaid like every other carrier -- prepaid always required these custom "Sprint only" phones.

Note about white cats: they are prone to inherited (congenital) deafness and are often fully deaf. When they have heterochromia, partial deafness is common.

A common way people manage these cats when they are deaf is to flicker the lights, tap on the surface or blow on the cat from a distance. Other care is otherwise "normal" when the cats are deaf, relative to a non-deaf cat.

Camera model unknown, fixed focus point and shoot film camera from the 90's or disposable based on the film grain and fuzzy point and shoot look?
EXIF data not present/known, as I scanned this from a lab print on my Epson scanner (V39). Sadly, I don't have the negatives as this from ~2005-2006 when the drug stores sent it off and destroyed your negatives and the CD cost extra. All you got were prints, now you get prints and scans but if the scans are bad you're screwed.

I asked on Answers and got no help, so I looked into how and found the phones could be reflowed, but the procedure needed to be refined a bit. After narrowing it down, I got those photos back :-) (and mirrored my contacts, which I also didn't backup). The phone no longer turns on, but that's not the point of what I wanted to do; the phone meant nothing to me. Due to the financing debate, I (begrudgingly) had to leave the offer to send it back open despite my desire to keep it as a "trophy", against my dad's wishes. However, this reluctant compromise came with a warning: I will not touch that phone after the recovery operation I had to do once before. This ultimately got me a matched IMEI# "trophy".

Fixing a Sigma A-Mount 28-70 1:3.5 that came with a rough Maxxum 7000 (with severe LCD bleed plus battery cover corrosion, which I got to show more severe battery corrosion for a guide). Since I wanted to save the camera since I own it and could not return it as it arrived as shown, I repaired the lens and put a known good LCD from a parts camera. I have not film tested the lens, but it focuses perfectly after the repair without any more distance ring roughness. LCD bleed is very common on the 5000/7000/9000. Minor bleed is common, but this was way more than "common".

This lens isn't particularly valuable to the point I may have had a professional do it as I am still learning lenses, but I still wanted to try. While it is not 100% repaired as I cannot get all the parts I need to do a full repair, it is 80-90% better and far more usable.

Along with digital, I also occasionally shoot on film cameras — although, not as often as digital. Part of this is a lot of labs today destroy the negatives and send back scans, so the only way to be sure you get them is to do it yourself.

• Film: Minolta (Maxxum 7000, Maxxum 450si*, Maxxum 500si, not pictured but very similar to the 450si). I can use the Minolta lenses on my Sony camera with a Sony LA-EA2 adapter and use all but the "xi" lenses. I can also use the AF as normal. I also have an M42 "A mount" adapter, as well.
• Mirrorless: Sony, for Minolta lens compatibility. I also have an M42 E-mount adapter.
• Canon: EOS 1 for film, T3i for digital - EF lenses work on both, as well as M42 lenses with an adapter. Although the Canons can be finicky with a chipped M42 adapter for burst shooting from the film era this can be fixed with an external meter and manually adjusting the aperture on the lenses, and non-chipped adapters.

*The major differences between the 450si and 500si on US models are:

• Case color (grey) and mount (Metal, not plastic**)
  **Note: Dynax 500si has the plastic mount, but the 500si Super is metal
• Film ISO override**
  **Not found on the Dynax 500si, only 500si Super
• No date coder (hard limited to 2019, the battery gets pulled once people discover this to avoid problems, heh). Doesn't hurt these cameras, even the Minolta 9 QD-9 back with the same issue.

If I had to pick, 500si every time for ISO override options. However, the 450si is fine with DX coded film if you remove the coin cell battery and disregard the panoramic filter (wastes half the frame being a fake panorama camera).

That said, the later bodies like the Maxxum 5 and 7 do not have this issue as it is in the firmware and not limited by the quartz crystal. The last known sour spot is the Minolta QD-9 data back. We pull the battery here too if the Minolta 9 came with it, and do not buy them for anything but door replacements for damaged film doors.

I do not have as many Minolta SR lenses as I do for my Maxxum (A-mount, no SSM lenses). Since I own more A-mount lenses, I use my Maxxum bodies more often.

My failed attempt at a custom 2CR5>CR123 adapter to mitigate poor 2CR5 availability/cost issues. This did not work out due to the modifications needed exceeding what could be done with the existing battery frame, vs. a 3D printed one. I have found it is easier to bulk buy them on Amazon for ~$38 (8 pack, $4.65/battery). The issue of availability is compounded by the fact most places no longer sell these, outside of camera shops with lots of film sales. For cameras like the Maxxum 7000, I have all 3 covers on hand, or know the part number. I do not need to mitigate these with a 3D printer.

The reason this did not work is HOW I intended to do it; I need to fill it in with hard plastic and leave room for a spacer to put nickel strips on there, which requires 3D printing anyway. The effort involved to make the adapter was more than making one from scratch.

Due to poor availability if I am taking a 2CR5 camera to a shoot, I need to stock up 1-2 weeks ahead of time in many cases! However, I will still get them from camera stores or Best Buy if I have to but try to get them prior for the best price (RadioShack as well before they went under).

Where did my film interest come from? ~13 years ago, I found a Canon AutoBoy (SureShot in the US, AutoBoy in Japan) 76 in a pile of garbage when I was trash picking for old computers to learn from, as I did not have the means to source out something I'd like for a while.

I took this camera home with me (as well as a few "BER" Casio digital cameras which are long gone). While my AutoBoy was made for the Japanese market (the main outliers being the Japanese print and LCD), I admittedly did expect this back then based on those two indicators -- but only confirmed it a few years ago. The camera is not particularly valuable (and I am missing the shutter remote), but I later realized what I had and did not know at the time. While it is not the best AF 35mm camera, having one today in a market where they are becoming somewhat desirable again is a big deal. This also uses a hard-to-find 2CR5 like my Maxxum 450si and 500si.