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DIY: Fix your iPod
Play ... play ... dammit, iPod ... PLAY!
A broken iPod can ruin a trip to the gym, a trek to class, or even just a lazy day by the pool. The next time your iPod doesn't play, resist the urge to chuck it across the room and take these easy steps to fix the problem.
Push a couple of buttons
In 80 to 85 percent of cases, a simple reset will fix a frozen iPod, says Daniel Wulfkuhle, sales associate in the tech shop at the KU Bookstore. Resetting an iPod does not erase your songs or data, so don't worry about lost tunes. To reset your iPod, Wulfkuhle says, just hold down the correct two buttons for five seconds.
Graphic by Becka Cremer
Wulfkhuhe has worked in the tech shop for two and a half years and says most people don't know fixing their iPods can be so easy."A lot of them kind of hit their foreheads with the palm of their hands like,'That's so easy. I'm so stupid'!" Wulfkhuhe says.
If a reset doesn't fix your iPod, plug it into your computer and click the restore button in iTunes. This will erase all of the data from your iPod, but iTunes will load it back on when the restore is finished, Wulfkuhle says.
For an iPod Nano or iPod Classic: Menu and Select. For iPod Touch or iPhone: Top power button and Home.
Trek to Kansas City or call Apple
On the fritz! Don't toss your seemingly defective iPod just yet. Some quick fixes can having it working in no time.
The Apple Store in Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, is your best bet if the reset and restore don't work. Sign up for an appointment with the Genius Bar at http:// concierge.apple.com/store/R097. If you don't have time to drive to Kansas City, try calling 1-800-MYAPPLE for professional support.
Buy yourself some Apple Care
Wulfukhle suggests buying Apple Care, Apple's extended warranty, if you're concerned your iPod might break again. iPods come with a one-year warranty, he says, but for between $40 and $60, depending on the type of iPod you have, you can extend the warranty another year. KU Bookstores sell Apple Care for all iPods except for the iPhone. iPhone extended warranties are available online at www.apple.com or at the Apple store in Kansas City, Missouri.
— Becka Cremer
DIY Start a fire [do it yourself]
Fire was discovered by cavemen, but modern man has largely forgotten how to create it.
Briese Anderson, Lawrence junior, is a fire expert: He's an Eagle Scout and works summers at a wilderness survival camp.
To make a fire without matches or flint and steel, Anderson suggests a bow drill.
The basic fire structure has three parts: tinder, kindling and fuel. Tinder is the fibrous materials, kindling is smalls sticks and fuel is large branches. Place each of the parts in the order mentioned.
First, you need to find string for the bow. If you have shoelaces, then use them; if not, then find a fibrous plant such as milkweed and make a rope out of it.Tie the string loosely to a bowshaped stick.
Next you find a thumb-thick branch that's six inches long, sharpen both ends and twist it into the bow. This will make the spindle, which will create the friction that will start the fire.
Find a small piece of wood that will fit in your hand and carve a notch into it. This will go atop the spindle. Also, find a long, wide piece of wood half an inch thick and carve a notch into it as well. This piece is called the "fireboard," which is where the fire will start.
Place the small piece of wood on the top of the spindle, and put the spindle into the notch on the fireboard. Place your left foot on the fireboard, with your right knee kneeling. Start the bowing action slowly and increase as smoke starts to build. The spindle will create dust that will ignite, so you should have some fibrous materials, or kindling, with the consistency of hair ready to light. When lit, blow into the kindling to get a large flame.
Illustration by Adam Schoof
Man make fire:You can make a fire almost like the cavemen did with string, wood, twigs and branches.
Once you have a flame,you take it to your prebuilt fire structure.
The best type of fire structure is the "teepee" because it sheds water and burns fast, Anderson says. For this structure, you lean wrist-thick pieces of wood together in a cone shape. The structure will eventually collapse, Anderson says, and you will have a nice bed of coals to cook on.
— Adam Schoof
in the life of... An urban wildlife management specialist
If there's a squirrel in your kitchen or bats in your attic, just call Todd R. Olson. Olson owns Critter Control, 3514 Clinton Parkway, and spends his days catching animals that have moved into people's homes and repairing the damage they've caused.
"The animals are just doing what they do: surviving, reproducing," Olson says. But when, for example, a raccoon reproduces in a chimney, it's Olson's job to evict the family. So he traps the female raccoon, dons protective gloves and reaches into the chimney for her offspring.
The job is physically challenging and risky. A baby raccoon has the strength to break a man's finger. Olson says, and sometimes getting
to the animal can be difficult.
As an urban wildlife management specialist (that's the official title of a critter controller), Olson climbs on roofs, crawls through attics, lifts heavy ladders, and sometimes repels down buildings to get where the animals are. Once there, he still has to deal with the actual animals.
His worst job, Olson says, was removing a dead snake from the attic of a Lawrence fourplex. The tenants say a huge stain on the ceiling was from a snake. When Olson climbed into the attic, he found a boa constrictor, as big around as a coffee can, staring at him.
And, sometimes, they smell.
"Even though it smelled like it was dead,it
looked alive," he says. "I thought,' I am going to die today.'"
After removing more than 70 pounds of snake flesh from that attic, Olson had to throw out the gear he used because he could never get the smell out.
"The worst smelling thing in the world is a dead snake," Olson says. "I'm pretty sure of that now."
— Becka Cremer
Photo by Becka Cremer
Animals on the loose: Todd Olson, owner of Critter Control, deals with an array of animals, including boa constrictors and raccoons.
April 2,2009
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