The mac/pc ads were cute & funny. This 8-minute long navel-gazing circlejerk just makes me want to punch these dudes in the junk. If the iPad “exceeds your ability to understand”, that doesn’t make the device “magical” — it makes you an idiot. Is this the Apple target market now? Okay, maybe I’m the idiot for even asking that question.
Archive for the ‘technology’ Category
An Apple ad that will make you want to vomit
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010“Dances with 3D-blue-cat-people-in-space” finally put in check
Monday, March 8th, 2010Suck it, Avatar.
Successful replacement of my Macbook Pro’s keyboard – some tips
Monday, March 1st, 2010Last week, my wife left her (red, non-diet) soda next to my Macbook Pro on our kitchen counter, and the inevitable happened: my 2-year-old son tossed something up on the counter and knocked the soda over right into the keyboard of my laptop. (This is the third laptop-spill incident that my wife has been involved in — the previous 2 were on her Dell, which I’d fixed and replaced. Here’s hoping she actually listens to me about not putting liquids next to laptops this time). Fortunately, the laptop was still functional, though the keys were sticky and the “f” key in particular was completely nonfunctional. I tried taking the key apart, cleaning underneath with rubbing alcohol, and replacing the key, but it didn’t work. (As a side-note to all of you out there learning this the hard way, one thing you should do if this happens to you is to unplug it, remove the battery, turn it upside down with the display opened at a 90-degree angle after toweling it off, and let it dry out. My wife toweled it off, but didn’t do any of the other stuff, risking electrical damage. Thankfully that didn’t happen).
I ordered a replacement keyboard from applecomponents.com. Despite the amateurish web design, the service was solid, and I received my keyboard (in new, not used, condition) in a well-packed box in just 3 days from the west coast. I have a Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro (the late-2006 “Merom” edition, not the later “Santa Rosa” edition). The guys at ifixit.com have a nice, detailed guide for replacing such a keyboard. I’ve used their guides before for replacing my hard drive. I like that they have large, clear pictures for each step, and that they effectively highlight where the screws are.
Now, this is not for the faint of heart. Obviously I’ve done this a few times (including with my old G4 powerbook, which was easier to muck with). If you endeavor upon such a thing, you’ll want to make sure you have separate containers for the screws from each step, so that when you put it back together, you’re not wondering which parts go where. (I used baby-food cups). I will say that though ifixit’s guide got me most of the way there, there were a few minor issues with their instructions.
Specifically, step 9 is troublingly sparse on detail about how exactly to get the upper case free from the front of the case (near the optical drive). They mention “rocking it back and forth”. This is totally, completely insufficient. There are 3 or 4 HARD LOCKING SNAPS in place in this portion of the case. After lifting up the back portion of the case (which is screwed tight, after you’ve removed the screws) as described in the ifixit guide, you really, really have to pry this sucker open. The first time I did it, it took a long time. I thought it should come apart rather naturally given the instructions, but you have to apply quite a bit more force than is indicated in the guide. I honestly thought I was going to break it until it snapped apart, and everything was fine.
The other issue I have is ifixit’s pithy “follow these instructions in reverse order” reassembly instructions. Seriously, that’s all they give you. Sure, that’s sufficient to get the cables reconnected & screws back in place, but it tells you NOTHING about how to properly mount and install the keyboard. I had to assemble/unassemble/reassemble 3 more times before I got the keyboard sitting just right (not bowing). Also, the first time I screwed the keyboard back in place, I had forgotten to thread the backlight connector down through the tiny hole where it attaches. Regarding the proper mounting, one issue is that there are tabs on the back/top of either side of the keyboard that must be pushed fairly far into place to prevent upward “bowing” of the keyboard (ie, keys sticking up at an angle). It’s entirely possible to get the tabs into the proper slot, but for the keyboard to still bow up after reassembly — you’ll need to take it apart & then push the tabs further into place (mine had a bit of a “click” when they got all the way in — but I did have to force it). The other issue is that the “tabs” (which are really sharp pointed needles of metal rather than what one might think of as a “tab”) at the top of the keyboard have to be carefully aligned and pulled into place to get the keyboard taught and satisfactorily installed. (Unless you like bleeding, you’ll need needlenose pliers. This is not listed as a “required material” in the guide. Sure, I have them, but it’s a small nit about the guide itself).
One last thing you might want to consider when doing this is a can of compressed air for cleaning out the insides while you’re in there. Mine was fairly clean, but it doesn’t hurt to blow out the dust, since excessive dust buildup can lead to static discharges and shorts. Anyway, my keyboard is literally as good as new now. Hopefully the extra tips here will help out someone else in a similar situation.
Update on hackintosh build
Monday, March 1st, 2010So, 3 business days after ordering my parts on newegg.com for my new computer, Newegg has begun shipping some of them. (Note that their “policy” is 2 business days. They didn’t even begin the credit-card verification process until after 2 days had passed. (I know, because I called both them and American Express). Anyway, they shipped everything except the case from New Jersey, so I’ll have a collection of useless parts sometime this week via UPS “3-day select”. The case (an Antec Sonata Elite) is yet to ship, so I’m probably screwed on that front. If it ships today from California, it’ll be a 50-50 crap shoot whether it arrives this week at all. (Can you tell I’ve been through this song and dance before?)
I just hope everything works, but newegg, your service sucks so far.
Avatar in Depth
Thursday, December 17th, 2009Blue cat people — in SPACE! — with some vaguely technological angle, and a sprinkle of superficial political allegory regarding colonialism — presented in THREE DEEEEEEEEEE!
Still. Do. Not. Care.
People who claim that James Cameron can do no wrong since, after all, he made freaking TERMINATOR TWO! (word, that was awesome) sound just like everyone before George Lucas shat out Jar Jar Binks. And who never saw Howard the Duck. And who don’t realize who wrote “Rambo: First Blood Part Two” (hint, it’s James Cameron).
Avatar
Monday, December 14th, 2009Blue cat-people — in SPACE!
*yawn*
Anecdotes from Comcast’s mostly-digital transition
Thursday, November 19th, 2009Comcast is switching most of its markets to “mostly” digital signaling. That is, they’re switching many of the channels that they used to carry via analog (including ESPN, Comedy Central, A&E, and the like — what they dub “expanded basic”) to digital. This means that if you used to watch these channels with your old (NTSC-tuning) TV or VCR, you need to get a converter box. Comcast is ostensibly doing this because converting to digital frees up a lot of spectrum on their broadcast medium to send more bandwidth-intensive media (read: HDTV and higher-speed networking). However, they’re also insisting that they “must” encrypt heretofore unencrypted channels because their “contract” requires them to. This makes no sense. If their contract requires them to encrypt or scramble channels that they’ve never encrypted or scrambled before, haven’t they been breaking the contract? This smells made-up to me. Their contradictory explanations are available in their FAQ.
So why do I care? Well, I’d rather not have to get a digital box if I don’t have to. Decoding digital cable and unencrypting digital cable are two separate things, and with this move, Comcast is (yet again) attempting to conflate them. (Tivos & Cable-company cable boxes do both). Many HDTVs, including the small Samsung one that I just wall-mounted in my kitchen, include so-called “unencrypted digital cable” (clear-QAM) tuners. In cases like that, where is a person supposed to even put a box? (I’d probably have to build a shelf above the TV). Clear-QAM tuners are especially useful for watching broadcast HD channels via cable (as in my area, where antenna reception is terrible), since FCC regulations require cable companies to send anything that they receive via antenna in unencrypted form over cable. But expanded-basic is technically exempt from such regulations. Technically, Comcast probably can do what they’re doing. (They’ve advertised quite recently that they “don’t charge extra” for additional TVs and even boasted about not needing additional hardware during the digital-over-the-air transition. This move could be interpreted as invalidating those claims). But why require the box? According to their FAQ, they do require a box for expanded basic, even for TVs that have clear-QAM tuners. They go on to outline an inelegant kludge to watch expanded basic and broadcast-HD using a splitter and switch. But they also say that each house qualifies for up to three free expanded-basic converter boxes if you pay for expanded-basic coverage. (This is probably to cover their asses with regard to previous sales claims that there weren’t additional fees to watch those channels). So, it actually costs them money to ship out a box to me that I don’t want and don’t need, and which doesn’t actually seem required by their content contracts (or else it would’ve already been scrambled). WTF is going on?
Well, in the Cambridge (Boston) area, Comcast switched to digital this week. I reprogrammed the TV in my office’s gym, which features a clear-QAM tuner, just out of curiosity. Lo and behold, expanded basic is in fact being broadcast in the clear — no box is actually required. Granted, this is not a supported way to watch the channels & it could disappear at any time, but I’ll ride this out for as long as I can.
I think that this could be temporary. First, to keep costs down, Comcast’s “free” expanded-basic converter boxes perhaps don’t do encryption, or if they do, it’s integrated. However, the FCC requires separable security (cablecards) in hardware that the cable companies deploy so as to force standardization of the security technology, which does raise the price slightly. Though Comcast can (and has, in some markets) apply for a waiver for low-cost boxes like this, they probably hedged their bets & went with the lowest-cost, safest solution: a clear-qam decoder. However, this probably is a temporary situation. It could also be that the encryption is disabled in the boxes that Comcast is distributing (they usually are remotely addressable) pending the outcome of application for FCC waivers in most markets. (I’m not sure what the status of that is here in the Boston area). If such waivers come through and if the boxes being distributed actually do have integrated encryption capabilities, Comcast could simply switch it on, thus killing the clear-QAM expanded basic in one fell swoop. From their FAQ, that does appear their long term plan. If/when that happens, and if Verizon FIOS doesn’t come to my area first, I’ll just get another Tivo. (The Comcast SD-only expanded-basic boxes are inelegant kludge — if I have to install a box for my other TVs, it’s going to be a good box that can do stuff like play video and audio from my computers, and stream Netflix). It’ll be a cold day in hell when I pay Comcast for the “benefit” of their crappy hardware. I don’t mind paying for something when I get a valuable product or service in return, but I surely do mind paying more for the same thing for no discernable reason.
droid does?
Monday, November 2nd, 2009Verizon has been pitching their upcoming new consumer smartphone (the Droid) pretty aggressively (bonus points for using hipster douche background music in the spot). I’m currently out of contract on my verizon phone and am looking to upgrade, but verizon’s offerings are notoriously lacking. I have no interest in either a Windows mobile device nor a blackberry. I want something whose interface and usability is on par with my iPod touch, but AT&T is a non-starter for me (bad reception near my house on the South Shore) so I won’t be getting an iPhone.
Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll have to keep waiting. After carefully following the reviews for Verizon’s new Android phones (including the Motorola Droid and the HTC Eris), there are some fatal flaws (for me) in the lineup. The Droid has one of the ugliest, unusually shaped qwerty keyboards I’ve ever seen, and it’s got that curious directional pad off to the side. Well, it turns out that there’s a good reason the Droid has that screwball d-pad: the Droid doesn’t do multitouch input (pinch to precisely zoom out, expand to zoom in, etc). Apparently both the phone and the Android 2.0 software claim to support it, but it’s not enabled on the Droid. So either the support is bad/buggy/incomplete for the Droid’s higher resolution display, or Motorola fears Apple’s patent wrath (in a way that Palm doesn’t because of either cross-licensing or Mutually Assured Destruction from Palm’s own smartphone patent portfolio). With regard to the Eris, this is the hardware for the HTC Hero, which was universally received as underpowered. It also doesn’t run Android 2.0, which I’d want for integrated Exchange support.
Anyway, it looks like I’ll be waiting for another Android 2.0 device, the Palm Pre on Verizon, or a Verizon iPhone. Weak.