A Crooked Pick To The Lock?

Disclaimer: We aren’t saying this is going to work; we writing this precisely because
we don’t know if it will, and we won’t get a chance to try it for a few more days. In fact, if we
had to bet on it, we’d say it wouldn’t, but if it does, this will be far easier than anything suggested so far.
While we doubt anything bad could come from trying this (if it doesn’t work, just carefully wipe away the pencil marks), there is the possibility that doing this poorly or doing
it at all might leave you with just an 11X multiplier or worse, and if it does, that’s solely your responsibility.

More than a few people have suggested a flank manuever around the trenches rather than a frontal assault into them.

As in this:

One rather big problem with this approach is that you have to do all this in about this much space:

Forget about using a conductive pen or defogger repair kits. Neither come with dispensers that lay out sufficiently narrow tracks to do this. You end up putting the fluid on a needle or toothpick. It’s enough of a problem just laying five straight lines down that don’t connect with each other, never mind two 90-degree turns while
somehow avoiding the multiplier-shorting Pits of Death (or at least an 11X multiplier). If you can do this with conductive ink/defogger fluid, you can probably inject genes into cells bare-handed and naked-eyed, too. 🙂

However, this does seem to be doable with a very sharp pencil and a very steady hand. Draw lines like that shown above, and don’t go near those pits!

We’d try it ourselves, but we won’t have another XP until probably Thursday, and thought some brave soul might want to try this before then.

We have some doubts this will work even if done right; these are rather long traces. However, at the least, it’s a good idea to find out if the simplest, cheapest approach works or not. If it doesn’t, we have the earlier method to fall back on.

If you try this, and it doesn’t work, just wipe the pencil marks away, again, doing any wiping away from the pits.

If you’re game and give this a shot, certainly send me a note, and, even better, any pictures you take of the endeavor, success or failure. In all likelihood, we’ll make at least the first attempts into an article(s).

Email Ed