When I picture electronics dying – I usually visualize them sizzling, frying, or emitting a little poof of smoke. That didn’t happen when my cellphone (a Motorola KRZR K1) died – it just blanked out. And won’t turn on.
The bad news: That cellphone was the lifeline for my project. I upload all my photos and videos using that connection. I’m typing this blog post on a backup – which is really only reliable and fast enough for text like this blog post.
The good news: The phone it’s still under warranty. So there should be no cost for repairs… I hope.
The bad news: I don’t know if there is a Motorola repair center in Bangladesh or how long it will take to get this repaired. Until the cellphone is fixed – I probably won’t be able to upload any new videos or photos 
I suppose the silver lining in all this is that its just my cellphone that died. If my computer or camera broke – that would be game over.
[Update: After taking apart the cellphone a few times, I tracked the problem to a faulty charger and charge connector. That was easy enough to fix by myself. Yay! Although, this scare has really reminded me how easy it is to derail a project like this. If something major breaks down, there really isn't much more I can do but buy a ticket back home and end the project.]
Next time you have a problem, take the phone to the corner phone repair shop. They will fix anything that has been built on this planet.
My Toshiba laptop broke and the Toshiba srvice center here in USA declared it beyond repair and replaced it a new laptop. Someone asked me to bring the old one to Dhaka. I did and gave it to our newspaper delivery boy, who runs a small neighborhood electronc, phone repair shop. He returned same evening with the laptop, running perfectly. He also opened up all the disk spaces, fixed some software glitches, downloaded some new software he thought I may need. The bill was 150 Tk, ( $2.50). I heared they are better in fixing all kind of cell phone troubles.
Hey Rumi, that’s a really good idea. In fact this is quite a coincidence.
I too have a broken Toshiba laptop and – since it’s out of warranty – I’ve been trying to repair it myself. I’ve managed to repair the DVD-ROM drive and the harddrive – so it boots and runs. But the screen has these lines through it and the battery is dead.
My father suggested we donate it to someone in Bangladesh who doesn’t have a computer. I argued fiercely against that idea – because I thought giving them something defective would just burden them because they wouldn’t have an easy way to repair it.
Had I know, I would have brought it with me and happily spent the money necessary to get it into working order and then donate it to someone here.