I’ve been rabidly anti-Windows lately, and with reason. But this time, I will gripe on my Macbook, Sayuri. I had gotten her from my aunt just this March. Its price on Apple was at $1099. Its specs are: 60GB hard drive, 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, and 512MB RAM, combo drive. Today, Apple’s $1099 has an 80GB hard drive, 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, and still a combo drive. Whoa, look at the difference.
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Some Good Old Darwin Lovin’
That doesn’t look like a black Macbook to me 😛
This past week I went back to school, so to speak, as I ripped my laptop apart and gave it its busiest week yet. Below, we assume that the reader knows that (1) yes, Apple has moved out of PPC and into the x86 platform; (2) it is possible to run Windows on Apple hardware, and that it is likewise true that the Mac OS can be made to run on off-the-shelf, non-Apple hardware; and (3) OS X is based off Darwin, whose native boot loader supports BIOS, unlike Apple’s EFI setup which even Windows Vista cannot touch. I’ll set aside arguments on the legalities of the existence of the OSx86 project, and whether getting your hands on a modified OS X install media for the purpose of learning constitutes fair use under the DMCA. The steps outlined below describes what worked for a dual-boot between Windows Vista (Business, but any Vista flavor will work) and OSx86 (Tiger).
It is always best to start with a blank disk, but any free, unpartitioned space of 6 GB or greater available should work. Whether this is a fresh Windows install or an existing one, the assumption is that the Windows partition (towards the beginning of the drive) is set as active.
Boot from the OSx86 10.4.8 install disc and launch Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Here you can lock down the Windows partition so that the contents remain intact while you create and format a Journaled HFS partition. Do not forget to specify a label (which will be the mount point, and is always good practice to have). Exit and return to the main screen.
Launch the Terminal from the Utilities menu. Here we have a single-user Unix prompt. Enter:
# diskutil list
(a result of disk0s2
where it says Apple
or HFS+
indicates the Mac partition is in the first disk indicated by 0
, in the second partition)
# fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
(the rdisk0
part here should match with disk0s2
above such that disk1s2
translates to fdisk -e /dev/disk1
. Here we enter partitioning mode for the first disk)
# f 2
(the 2
part here should again matchdisk0s2 in our example. We “flag” the partition as active and make the disk boot from this partition on the next startup)
# write
(enter y
to confirm changes to the disk)
# exit
(-out of fdisk)
# exit
(-out of the terminal session)
Proceed with the installation, careful with which kernel extension (kext) to install for the specific hardware in use. at the end of this process, you’ll end up with the Darwin boot loader defaulting to booting from the install disc. We’ll fix this in the next steps.
Boot from the install disc in GUI mode all the way to where you can launch the Terminal from the Utilities menu. In the next steps, we assume disk0s1
is the Vista partition and disk0s2
is the Mac partition.
Fixing the Startup Disk: there must be a way to set the Startup Disk via the terminal, but the one way that worked in this experiment is to use Utilities > Startup Disk and selecting “Mac OS 10.4.x” on mount_point. after this, the Mac OS should load up from the disk just fine.
Reboot from the OSx86 install disc again, but this time select F8 at the prompt and enter -s (for single-user mode):
# fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
# flag 1
(again, 1
being the Vista install partition)
# quit
Restart the computer and Vista will present instructions on repairing winload.exe
. Basically it only involves booting from the original Vista install media (OEM recovery DVDs with more than just the Vista image will not work) and selecting “Repair my computer”. Should take less than two minutes. This fixes Vista’s boot loader. Go ahead and test it.
Reboot into single-user/command-line mode from the OSx86 install disc yet again:
# fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
# flag 2
(2
being the OSx86 install partition)
# quit
This makes the disk boot off the second partition where the Darwin boot loader is. If you don’t see the boot menu, you will have to catch the precise second between the end of the POST sequence and the grey screen with the Apple logo and a throbber below it, or you may want to do a sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
and include <key>Timeout</key>
and <string>8</string>
within the dict
element. The Darwin boot loader defaults to the OS installed in the active partition and because I found no information about making it do otherwise (e.g., to the Windows partition), I’ll have to live with catching the Darwin menu and selecting the Windows partition for as long as I intend to live with this dual-boot setup.
If you really intend to get into OSx86 (and more *nix-savvy than I am, which is not at all difficult a condition), there are more intricate ways to dual-boot. InsanelyMac has a very rabid following, it comes to me as a surprise why Apple has not done anything about taking legal action yet.
The $100 Un-PC
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has gained much publicity in the recent couple of years because of the ever-elusive quest for that cheap, functional personal computer that can be used by people in the developing world (that’s politically correct for “poor”). And it’s not your usual hand-me-down last-year’s model computers, either. The project’s aim is to develop low-cost, durable computers that will serve the intended purpose.
The result is a plan for the $100 laptop, which will feature a durable body, touch-screen and wind-up recharging. The laptop will also run on flash memory (no hard drives), and can network wirelessly via WiFi or through other similar laptops in range.
The project’s developments have been fruitful, so far, and some countries have received the first batches of the laptop. The OLPC initiative is still not able to produce at the intended $100 per laptop, though. Right now, it’s something in the range of $150 per laptop.
However, something else holds the honor of being able to bring a $100 computer to the consumer market. And that’s the NetTV and NetPC from a copmany in India called Novatium.
If Rajesh Jain is successful, the NetTV, which hooks up to any television, could be the first in a family of devices that connect the next billion people to the Internet. Jain, 39, is cofounder and chairman of Novatium, the Chennai-based company that makes NetTV and NetPC, a similar product that uses a normal computer monitor. Both are based on cheap cell-phone chips and come without the hard-disk drive, extensive memory and prepackaged software thatadd hundreds of dollars to the cost of regular PCs. Instead, they are little more than a keyboard, a screen and a couple of USB ports—and use a central network server to run software applications and store data. Novatium already sells the NetPC for only $100—just within reach of India’s growing middle class—and Jain believes he can soon drive the price down to $70.
The NetTV and NetPC are reminiscent of “thin clients” that are popular in the realm of network computing. This means no applications actually reside locally on the computer, but instead they are on the network server. This negates the need for a hard drive and a large memory. The only system that needs to run on the local machine would be the user interface and the connection to the network.
Novatium and the OLPC initiative both share the vision of bringing cheap computing to the masses. They differ, though, in two big ways. OLPC focuses on local applications, since its intended users are those in very rural areas (with likely no stable Internet connection). NetTV and NetPC, meanwhile are meant for those middle class urban dwellers who cannot afford more expensive computers. They would likely be able to have access to Cable or wireless broadband.
OLPC intends its laptops to be large-scale projects sponsored by beneficiary countries. Novatium, meanwhile, aims to have a viable business model by actually earning money from subscriptions.
Novatium has partnered with Internet service providers, so that its clients can actually use their system as they go online. Subscription fee is a cheap $10 per month. Why do I say it’s cheap? It’s because users no longer have to buy software separately. To put things in perspective, the Windows XP operating system usually costs about $100 for the Home edition and about $300 for the professional one. Office, meanwhile, would cost about $200 to $400, depending on the variant. Not everyone in Novatium’s target market can afford that easily.
Especially with today’s popularity of web-based office applications (like Google Docs and Spreadsheets), this could potentially help topple the dominance of those in the desktop-based productivity application industry, or at least prove to be serious competition to MS Office!
So let’s hear it for the developers of the developers of the $100 un-PC!
Acer Showcases New Designs
Don’t you just love that Acer Ferrari laptop? While I personally prefer a smaller-sized laptop (14-inches or less), I think these larger, fancier ones (among the likes of the MacBook Pro) are the weapon of choice for users who are into high-end processing and gaming. The Acer Ferrari fits into this category. And you know what, I would say it’s one of the Acer devices that started to target the high-end market; most other offerings in the past had been for the budget-conscious.
I personally have steered clear of the Acer brand before because of this image. The first laptop I owned (back in the 1990’s) was actually an Acer and after just a few years of service the hinges got so brittle that the lid broke off. Acer has had this image in my mind for the longest time, and I can probably speak for other consumers. But now the company is moving away from being the “budget” choice towards being the “cool” choice.
Business Week has a handful of photos of new Acer hardware designed in conjunction with Ferrari.
Acer is pushing hard to shed its image as a second-tier player in the global personal computer industry. The Taiwanese company ranks No. 4 worldwide and predicts it will soon pass Lenovo, its rival from mainland China. While Acer relies largely on low prices and close relations with distributors to rack up market-share gains, the company also is emphasizing its design skills by collaborating with Ferrari. [A] partnership between Acer and the Italian automaker … has led to a series of laptops and monitors that combine innovative new materials with the Ferrari logo and racing colors.
And it seems the Acer Ferrari has gained acclaim in the industry as it was reportedly the laptop that Microsoft sent out to bloggers as sort of a “bribe” for writing about Vista! And apparently, Acer is also stepping up with enhancing its image not only in the laptops market, but also in LCD monitors, smartphones and even flat-screen TVs!
By the way, I’m glad to be back writing for Gadzooki! I remember this was among the first blogs I managed back in early 2006 when it was still tech.erati and back when I was pro-blogging for BlogMedia.
The $100 Laptop
The BBC has reported on the One Laptop Per Child project as finally coming to a close – as in the fabled working laptop, able to produce documents, surf the net and show pictures is finally available. At least it will be next year. Customers will need to purchase two laptops when they are initially on sale however, as one is sent to to the developing world for each sale.
The machine itself has been developed as low cost, durable and as simple to use as possible. A number of countries have already signed up – proving that there is very much a demand for the technology in the global marketplace. Impressively, for the price it features wireless and video conferencing in the small yet durable package.
The next step is to develop some sort of supply chain and organisation, which will be performed by a philanthropic company or group. Interestingly, the speech by Mr Bletsas (chief connectivity officer for the project) at the CES highlighted a lack of ambition in the industry as he stated “they should look to connect the next five and a half billion [people]”.
Looking at this technology, it is not only important but vital that growing nations (particularly those termed ‘third world’) are brought into line with the other developing nations at least in terms of opportunities and access to technology. The longer we continue to race ahead with fancy TV sets and DVD recorders the further they fall behind. This includes of course entertainment technology but much more importantly, genuinely world changing technology such as access to the web.
Global economics has many challenges it must face, not least in the form of how we as humans interact with each other. The world is becoming a much smaller place. Let’s all be a little bit more philanthropic and help the world join in the technology revolution, to make it a better place for us all. One world, one global set of people and one laptop per child.
Sony Vaio. Now In Color!
Ask me what my favorite laptop brands are and I’ll tell you hands-down that it’s either Apple or Thinkpad. I absolutely love the way they design their notebook computers to be simple, functional and usable. Oh, and they look cool, too. And what’s even more important, they come in the two colors (and gradients in-between) I consider to be best for laptop computers: black, white, and matte metallic grey!
Okay, forget the candy-colored iBook G3’s of the late 1990’s. The more modern G3 and the G4 iBooks came in shiny white. PowerBooks came in black (from the Wallstreet to the Pismo), white (the Titanium editions), and then metallic grey (the newer Aluminum editions). The same goes with the MacBook (black and white) and the MacBook Pro (metallic grey).
And let’s not get started with the Thinkpad. IBM’s flagship brand (since sold off to Chinese computer maker Lenovo) comes in any color as long as it’s black. Sure, it’s not cutesy candy-colored but it’s business sexy.
Black comes off as serious, while white looks clean. Grey is a good in-between. Just don’t make it too glossy or it would look like cheaply painted plastic.
The Fastest iMacs Ever!
At one point in my life, I’d been a Mac lover. In fact, these days I still find myself longing to use one of my older Macs rather than my latest Windoze (or Linux) powered PCs. There’s this aura of “cool” over using a Mac instead of a PC. I mean, if you have two equally handsome guys at the cafe each working on laptops, and one’s using a high-end Dell and the other a MacBook Pro, whom would you find more interesting?
(Of course, the answer here is neither. Being a guy, I’d be more interested in the Mac. What were you thinking?)
When Steve Jobs confirmed the then-prevalent rumor that Apple was switching to Intel processors, it seemed like the whole world was turning upside-down. Macintosh computers, after all, ran on the RISC-based (reduced instruction set chip) PowerPC which was touted to be more powerful than the usual Intel chips regardless of the clock speed. Intel, after all, was using CISC (complex instruction set chip) and the information architecture was vastly different. Apple proudly marketed the PowerPC as being able to process information more efficiently, hence raw speed was not needed. This was the era of the “Megahertz Myth,” where faster was not necessarily better. Or so Apple claimed.
But that all changed, as we know, when the MacBook Pro came out a bit after Jobs’ announcement at the Worldwide developers conference 2005. The Apple ad said “Five times faster than the PowerBook G4.” Mac afficionadoes everywhere must have screamed expletives upon seeing this ad. How can Apple market their latest Intel-based notebook–I repeat, Intel-based–to be faster than the G4, when all these years they’ve been saying the G4 beats the heck out of Intel chips?
Such is the world of marketing. Some were wondering, was Apple lying to us all along?
In a way, perhaps. I guess that’s what marketing can be.
Just recently, even the Core Duo generation of Apple computers has already been surpassed, with the introduction of the workstation-class Mac Pro (four cores!) and the iMac upgrade. Not only did Apple upgrade its entire iMac line to Intel Core 2 Duo, but it ups the ante, with the introduction of the 24-inch iMac.
Here are some insights and reviews of the new Core 2 Duo iMac line.
Macworld finds the processor upgrade worth it, particularly because of performance gains of at least 10%. What’s more important is that the use of Core 2 Duo means the iMac family is getting closer to the capabilities or the Mac Pro.
More significant, the 2.16GHz system narrowed the performance gap between iMac and Mac Pro product lines. With twice the number of processor cores, all running faster than the iMac, the Mac Pro had a definite advantage in this match up. But because not all applications and tasks take full advantage of the Mac multiprocessing capabilities, most results showed the Mac Pro between 20 and 30 percent faster than the 2.16GHz iMac. I expect that test results of the new 24-inch model—with its faster graphics and the optional 2.33GHz processor upgrade—could close this performance gap even further.
Engadget discusses the rumor that the 24-inch iMac’s graphics card is upgradeable. This is supposed to be an advantage, since most Macs are known to be disposable computers–this means they’re not as upgradeable as PCs, since the parts are usually either proprietary or specialized. Still, there’s no knowing what the future holds in terms of compatibility with third-party peripherals. Hey, many old macs work with third-party parts.
[T]he news that the 24-inch iMac’s graphics card is potentially upgradable is causing such a stir. Apparently Apple decided to opt for a Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM for short) as the connection method for the 24-inch iMac’s graphics card. This standard was originally designed by NVIDIA for use in high-end gaming laptops — indeed, the MXM’s official page exclusively mentions “upgradeable notebook graphics”. Unfortunately for the aforementioned mid-range Mac dreamers, this is far from a viable upgradeable graphics card solution. For a start, Apple has said that users won’t have access to the graphics card and even if hackers succeed in gaining access to the slot, there are currently no stand-alone MXM compatible graphics cards on the market: that makes this the modern day equivalent of the infamous mezzanine slot from the original, supposedly expansion slot-free CRT iMacs. So, if you’re a budget-minded Mac user comfortable with tinkering around in your machine, you better get back to praying for that Cube resurrection.
What to do with the latest, fastest iMacs? Be wowed by the large screen and be overwhelmed by the speed!
Top 10 Gadgets I Actually Use
I know. I know. This is a gadget site. We’re supposed to be all about the wanting, the salivating, the dreaming…
But I thought it would be fun to step out of fantasy land for a second and consider the top 10 gadgets that I actually use on a daily and/or weekly basis. Maybe this will give you a glimpse into the inner depths of my life…or maybe not.
1. My Old School Nokia Cell Phone
What can I say. I’ve got a RAZR, but that’s mostly for fun. When it comes to the daily grind, I still find myself preferring the simple, big-buttoned, hard to lose, big bodied Nokia from three years ago to the sleek, thin pretty flip-phones of today. Maybe that makes me uncool. But in this post, I’m all about telling it as it is. 4 hours a day with this baby.
2. My 2 Year Old Gateway Laptop
Sure, I can’t play Pirates or Empire Earth 2 on it, but I spend at least six hours a day on this sucker. Type, type, typing away. It does plays Empire Earth 1 though! And it does some mean web browsing, email checking and word processing. Hey, I use it and that’s all that matters in this post.
3. My Old School Nintendo DS
Well, it isn’t really old-old. But it isn’t the new Lite either. Big and bulky, I play Mario Kart or Advanced Wars every night as a bedtime story.
4. The five year old AC in my window
This summer has been hot, and a day doesn’t go by without churning on the ol’ window AC. Hey, my wife wanted “and old house with character” and that’s what we got: a house with lots of demands. Ever wonder why the men always say they want the newer homes on all those home shopping shows on HGTV (look, my wife makes me watch it!)
5. The Good Ol’ Coffee Pot
Eight cups a day for three years and still chugging. Simple yet effective. I just wish they’d make it fool proof for those times when I forget to slide the pot under the filter and the coffee runs all over the counter.
6. The Hyundai Tucson
Sure, I’d love the electric Tesla or a hybrid or a Ford Mustang, but for $17,000 I just bought a brand new Hyundai Tucson that’s actually fun to drive and has plenty of room for hauling. I just wish I could find some places on the East Coast to do some mild off-roading. Every time I get in this sucker I want to drive up on the curbs.
7. The Trusty Toaster Over
Hey, I’m no cook. But I also don’t like my stuff soggy. So instead of the microwave, I usually throw my food into the Toaster Oven to get a quick but golden brown meal. (I like my marshmallows burnt!)
8. My Dell Axim x50
He’s getting old, but when I’m on the road, my Dell Axim gives me the flexibility I need to track down free WiFi…and that’s all that matters, right? It’s like a treasure hunt, and once I’ve found free WiFi, my heart skips a couple beats before I fetch the laptop and hunker down for an internet feast.
9. My 8th grade Texas Instruments TI-81
Want to figure out how old I am? Figure out which year the TI-81 first came out, then figure that I was in 8th grade at the time. You know what. This calculator has balls of endurance. It graphs, it charts, it makes entering calculations a breeze (you can screw up and edit your numbers without having to type everything else in again). Hey, I’m still using it almost everyday, 15 years later with the original batteries (kudos to Duracell too).
10. My $35 DVD player that we bought on a whim for our bedroom
Now that my wife and I do Blockbuster through the mail, we have a steady stream of DVDs flying to our house each week. The DVD player which was sort of bought for “emergency” cases of boredom, has turned into a nightly event. Ali G, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and all the movies you can shake your fist at (though many of them turn out to be duds, like last nights movie…which I hated…Flightplan).
Tough Love (Laptop Love, That Is)
If you’ve watched any spy thriller movies and action-oriented television shows lately, you would notice the thick, rubber-padded, ruggedized laptops that either the baddies or the good guys tote with them to take care of their high tech needs. Take Mission Impossible, for instance. I distinctly remember scenes in MI2 and M:I:III where I spotted ruggedized laptops. I suppose they survived explosions–or at least the data inside them on hard discs did.
Of course, there are plenty of applications for tough laptops in real life, and yes, they do include scenarios depicted on film. So spies, policemen, firemen and even sailors do get to use rugged laptops in the course of doing their jobs.
Rugged laptops were specifically designed to withstand an inordinate amount of stress. From the dusty heat of the summer desert to the crashing waves of a stormy sea, these extreme machines offer high-performance usability every time. Water resistant, dust/sand resistant and shockproof, rugged laptops are utilized by the military under virtually all environmental conditions. Their ability to maintain peak performance at temperatures of -10 degrees Fahrenheit to +140 degrees Fahrenheit, in addition to their durability when dropped or struck, makes these devices all but invincible. – laptopical
How To Save Your Laptop From A Glass Full Of Water
Ok. As you may know by now, the East Coast of the United States had a heat wave last week. It was oppressing. I had trouble keeping my house cool. Couldn’t get it below 82 degrees.
It wasn’t just hot. It was humid. The combination was stifling. It brought total productivity in my neck of the woods to a literal crawl.
Because of the heat, I was keeping a steady supply of water beside me to stay hydrated. My family gives its water the Brita filter treatment and then we drink out of cups (rather than, say, plastic bottles).
It is not unusual for me to drink and eat throughout the day in front of the computer while I get my work done. I’ve always thought it was ridiculous to have rules about not having drink and food around the puter. That’s part of the fun of being a techie (you know our late night friends Jolt Cola and Joe Coffee). I even look forward to a browse of the DrudgeReport, Digg and CNN while sipping my morning coffee.
But the difference between this last week and all the weeks before is that I ALWAYS had a full glass of water by my side. So instead of 2 hours of risk each day, I had 12 hours of risk each day. And you know what…