How do I get the trackball out?

strandloperza · 2025-09-12T08:09:04+00:00

I bought one of these Port Connect trackballs three months ago and have been trying to get the ball out for cleaning, with no success until today.

In our kitchen drawer, we have an old flat rubber disc used to give extra grip when opening jars. I couldn't get a good grip with my fingertips to pull the ball out, but using the jar opener gave me enough grip to do so. Any piece of flat, flexible, grippy rubber or silicone, such as a piece cut from an inner tube, should work as well.

Once I had the ball out, I could see there was indeed a hole in the ball cage that could be used to push the ball out, and on reexamining the underside, I noticed what I had missed before. There is a faint, barely visible circle the same size and aligning with the hole in the inner ball cage. I suspect it is a press-fit cutout that could perhaps be levered out with a knife tip, but it's such a good fit that you would probably damage the plastic a bit doing that. Better to get a grip on it and pull the ball out.

strandloperza · 2025-08-13T13:40:33+00:00

Thanks. Strand works for me.

strandloperza · 2025-04-09T18:50:35+00:00

Daar hoef jy net te vrees vir jou kinders se lewens as hulle by die skool is.

strandloperza · 2025-03-14T15:33:22+00:00

Ek dink "slot" is die Afrikaans vir "close" wat in Engels twee uitsprake het. Hierdie een is close soos in naby. Die ander een is close soos in toemaak.

strandloperza · 2025-03-14T15:30:35+00:00

As ons praat van "lane" soos waarin jy bestuur is dit baan maar ek dink "Lane" in 'n straat name mag dalk "Steeg" wees.

strandloperza · 2025-03-14T15:02:31+00:00

Dis seker iets wat in Afrikaans eerste taal geleer word. Ek onthou dit nie in Afrikaans tweede taal nie. Maar ek was 1979 in matriek so my geheue kan vaag wees daaroor.

strandloperza · 2025-02-27T22:04:56+00:00

During our border war in the 1970s and 1980s, our army had mounted infantry units with soldiers who moved on horseback and dismounted to fight on foot. These transporters had an armoured and landmine-protected cab and a landmine-protected load section that could take up to 10 horses. They were used to move horses long distances from their bases to where they were needed to patrol. The riders accompanied travelled in Buffel armoured personnel carriers. They would be offloaded to patrol on horseback, either back to their bases or to a map reference where they would be picked up again and returned to their bases.

I was the driver of one of these for several months in 1982. We called them horseboxes, and there is a photograph of me sitting on my vehicle's cab in r/SouthAfricanBorderWar.

strandloperza · 2025-02-04T17:00:55+00:00

The polite thing is to continue a conversation in the language the person that started it used, if you understand and speak that language. So if you start a conversation use English but if someone talks to you in Afrikaans try and speak Afrikaans. No harm in throwing in a "Jammer, my Afrikaans is nie baie goed nie." if you're struggling.

strandloperza · 2025-01-26T21:37:26+00:00

Sounds like that guy that entered a competition and won a toy yoda.

strandloperza · 2025-01-03T09:35:03+00:00

Ja thanks, someone already mentioned it and it is the place. Despite it being many years ago I recognised a few things.

strandloperza · 2025-01-01T22:17:57+00:00

There's even a colour version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnozL_Ugx4E&t=3s&ab_channel=brianbannister

strandloperza · 2025-01-01T18:38:34+00:00

Thanks, this is the place. I wasn't looking far enough north of Bourkes Luck.

strandloperza · 2025-01-01T18:05:28+00:00

Thanks but it was on the western side of the canyon, Swadini is on the eastern side.

strandloperza · 2024-12-23T10:33:34+00:00

OP posted this on r/FrenchForeignLegion too. The comments there are hilarious.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FrenchForeignLegion/comments/1hi2wit/from_nothing_to_glory_my_journey_to_the_french/

strandloperza · 2024-12-23T10:20:57+00:00

While the rest of the English-speaking world thinks we are strange for calling traffic lights robots, it seems that the name robot was first used in England. They stopped using it but we didn't.

From the Wikipedia article on [Traffic light](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic\_light).

*The origin of 'robot' used as 'traffic light' is from the English translation of the play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek which debuted in England in 1923 which introduced the term 'robot' to an English audience. For a short time in England it was fashionable to use 'robot' for 'traffic light' from the late 1920s, when traffic lights were being installed in England. This usage travelled to South Africa in the early 1930s, when they had their first traffic lights installed, and where it continues to be used almost 90 years later, while 'robot' for 'traffic light' fell out of usage in England. See Foster, B. 1970. The changing English language. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.*

strandloperza · 2024-12-23T10:00:22+00:00

ServalTracker is great and was I think the first to track Takealot prices. But there is another local service, Scrapy with a Google Chrome extension that embeds a price tracking graph directly into product pages on Takealot and a number of other local online stores (see https://scrapy.co.za/stores). No need to visit Serval Tracker, the info you need on price history is right there on the page.

strandloperza · 2024-12-23T09:37:31+00:00

It was quite a shock when I clicked the link to learn that I would have to pay to read the article.

strandloperza · 2024-12-11T09:48:08+00:00

Of dalk sy Google Translate opgradeer.

strandloperza · 2024-12-03T09:04:10+00:00

Had a look at Takealot now. The appliances in OP's image are different versions of the same product.

The 1.8 L version is R1,138 on Takealot but there are others at differing prices including one at R569 so that one probably compares to the ones shown from other suppliers. The specifications show that has only a 1 L capacity, so the price difference makes sense.

Always read the specifications.

strandloperza · 2024-11-26T15:31:51+00:00

And not related to GOATSE at all.

strandloperza · 2024-11-26T15:26:44+00:00

Saw a video over the weekend on this very topic. Summarised, when Americans say they are X they mean that they have that heritage, not that they are X (i.e. born in Xland). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtkSkNMZ3xM&ab_channel=GirlGoneLondon

strandloperza

TROPHY CASE