Giggle

The Story of Stuff

I've traditionally been content to take the "ignorance is bliss" approach to the footprint I leave on the environment with my consumption and disposal of goods, but since I've started watching birds and interacting a bit more with my natural environment, I'm beginning to see the importance of the natural resources and the environment around me, with all its wildlife and beauty.

This isn't your typical "go green" propaganda video. It paints a very clear picture of how we got to where we're at, and the core of why we need to change. It's worth 20 minutes of your time. I promise.

The Story of Stuff

Early spring?

Woodie the Groundhog says an early spring is coming for Chicago :)

Punxsutawney Phil, the nation's official groundhog, though, says 6 more weeks of winter.

I'm going with my hometown boy on this one!

Burning iso's on a Mac

File under "tips for Windows switchers" -

How to burn a .iso disk image file to CD or DVD on a Mac:

1. Insert a blank disk.
2. Start Disk Utility.
3. Choose File - Open Disk Image and select the ISO to be burned. This will mount your disk image.
   
4. Highlight your ISO file in the list of volumes.
   
5. Click the Burn button.

The best part: No additional software needed. I love how Mac's just work, right out of the box.

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tips

I fancy myself a Googling pro - but even I hadn't heard of a couple of these!

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tips

I love me some Lifehacker :)

Yummy Kool Aid

70%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

REM's got something going on

REM's got a web site up for their upcoming new album: Ninety Nights

The Joy Was Short Lived

The joy was short lived. I'm still struggling with Vista crashes related to the ATI video drivers on this iMac. Sigh. I hate Windows.

Fixing yet another problem in Vista on the iMac

I know I said I wasn't wasting any more of my precious time fixing crap in Vista... but about once a day, Vista blue screens on me while playing my game, requiring a complete reboot. It's annoying.

Googling led me to the problem and the solution.

Note: This applies to the 2.4GHz 20" iMac with the 256MB video card, and Vista 32-bit.

Vista incorrectly detects the installed video card as the ATI Radeon Mobility HD 2600 XT. It should be the ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro.

Fixing the problem involves downloading the correct driver from ATI's web site and manually forcing Vista to use it (despite it's freak-out warnings that it can't verify it's the correct driver for your hardware). Relax, Vista. It's the correct driver.

Problem solved. No more crashes.

I found full instructions in an Apple support forum discussion on the topic. Be sure to get the latest ATI drivers. (The one I used wasn't the same as the one mentioned in that conversation - the current version as of this writing is 7.12. The process described, however, worked perfectly substituting the latest drivers).

Another reason why Vista sucks vs Leopard

I've come across another reason why I'm the happiest clam alive to be using Macs with Leopard instead of PC's with Vista (or any other Windows operating system).

A few weeks ago, I upgraded my 20" iMac to 4GB of RAM (see my "taste the kool-aid" joy).

My iMac dual-boots Vista so that I can play some games that are not compatible with OS X (the only thing left in my life that requires me to touch a Windows box).

Today, I just happened to notice when I booted into Windows to play my game that Vista is only seeing 3GB of my 4GB of RAM. Wha???? I know that OS X Leopard is seeing all of my RAM and splashing around blissfully in it. What's up with Vista?

Googling revealed much discussion - and confusion - on the topic. Like everything else, it seems that Microsoft's claims of Vista's RAM capabilities come with small print disclaimers attached.

Microsoft's official claim is that 32-bit versions of Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate support 4GB of RAM. I've got the 32-bit version of Vista Business. Why does my System panel say: Memory (RAM): 3054 MB

3054? What kind of number IS that, even? My Computer shows it abbreviated as 2.98 GB. I know there's some integrated video memory going on here, but come on! The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT video card in this iMac is 256MB. Where's the rest of my 4th gig of RAM?

Shared video RAM aside, where has the rest gone? I found a snippet on the topic at Vista Clues:

...a high performance x86-based computer may allocate 512 MB to more than 1 GB for the PCI memory address range before any RAM (physical user memory) addresses are allocated.

I found all sorts of things about a 3GB switch in Windows to allow applications to access more than the default 2GB of RAM, yada yada yada.

As I read through tweaking guides, I stopped and thought to myself, What am I doing? I don't want to have to fiddle with my machines to get them to work properly with the hardware installed in them! THAT'S WHY I SWITCHED TO MAC!!!

A big ol' Up Yours to Windows. I'm not going to try and figure out how to get you to see my full 4GB of RAM. I'm not wasting my time with you. You only exist in my life for entertainment purposes anyway, and I'll live with the 3GB of RAM that your dumb OS is able to see. My time is too valuable to spend trying to make you work the way you SHOULD work out of the box!

The Best 12 Days of Christmas I've Ever Seen!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Giggity Goo!

Feel the power.... Taste the Kool Aid....

Writer's Strike

If you haven't heard much about the Hollywood writer's strike, this movie will help.

It is definitely worth the watch (even though I already sided with the writers before watching it). Its value is two-fold: it makes their point, and in a damn amusing way (a fine display of their talents).

Leopard: My First 3 Sentences

Time Machine is friggin fantastic.

Spaces is the best thing since sliced bread.

I love the dorky reflective dock.

Faster Internet on Leopard?

Check out my internet speeds since switching to Leopard. Under Tiger (and Windows Vista), I was pulling about 15000 kbps down on a good day and pushing around 1000 kbps up. I haven't changed my internet provider (Comcast). Haven't changed any internet settings in the OS - all is set as the defaults that were installed. Tested at www.speakeasy.net/speedtest, Chicago server.

Problems Using PC-Formatted Drive with Leopard & Time Machine

Whew! I was pretty excited tonight when Leopard was in my mailbox. Finally! (It was supposed to be here yesterday, grumble grumble grumble). I'll save my Leopard thoughts for later - just wanted to document my first Leopard problem (which, SURPRISE, was indirectly caused by my old Windows PC).

I have a 750GB Western Digital MyBook. It's pretty sweet. I was using it as my backup drive for my Windows PC, and it was formatted FAT32. When I trashed my PC and got an iMac a couple weeks ago, I checked WD's web site and sure enough, they had a Mac version of their backup software. Sweet!

Then came Leopard and Time Machine... automatic backups that can be accessed in a completely granular fashion. Imagine! Buh-bye, WD Backup. Hello, Time Machine!

I plugged in my WD MyBook after installing Leopard, and like promised, Leopard asked if I wanted to use that drive to backup with Time Machine. Absolutely! Time Machine said it needed to be reformatted to the Mac format. Sure, no problem.

Except that the format failed.

Disk erase failed with the error: File system formatter failed.

Yikes!

I tried using Disk Utility to no avail. It would format fine as FAT32, but not as any Mac format.

Already-too-long-story-short:

Gizmodo saved me!

Thankfully, the fix is easy.

• Go to the Partition tab. Create two partitions. Under Options, select GUID Partition Table (what you would use to make a Mac OS boot disk) and click OK then Apply.

• Once your partitions are in place, do it again, reverting back to just one partition, but still keeping the GUID Partition Table option. Click OK and Apply again, and at this point you should be cool.

• To be safe, you can then go to Erase and set formatting for Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then format it once and for all. But when you get there, you will probably see that your volume is already formatted in the right way.

Gizmodo reports that some users were able to get this solution working only creating one partition, and that the key seems to be using the GUID Partition Table option.

Whatever the case, these steps worked for me, and Time Machine is now happily chugging way with its first full backup of my new iMac - now dressed in Leopard skin :)

Boy I Missed Diggnation

All summer, since I wasn't working on a daily basis (ahh the joys of summers off), I fell way behind on my podcasts. Additionally, my AppleTV has taken a shit on me (the Apple love affair has proven inapplicable for bleeding-edge products, as I've had problems with both the bleeding edge fresh-off-the-assembly-line MacBook Pro as well, though got it fixed free and fast via AppleCare). One of these days, I've got to take that AppleTV in. It's giving me the 2-color blinky light on the front, which apparently means, it's dead.

Anyway, now that I'm up and running on the iMac, I'm currently listening to the latest diggnation. Damn, I missed these boys!

I've had a seemingly lifelong crush on Kevin Rose, and Alex Albrecht is the funniest human being evar.

Better to just lick the toilet again

Paul Phillips wins for the best verbalization of Windows users' justifications of using Vista instead of OS X:

I cannot believe people put up with this for the privilege of using vista. It's as if the bouncer at the worst club in town made you lick the inside of a toilet to get inside, and yet people continued to line up because it's such a big building, and they already know where the bar is located. Who wants to figure out a whole new club layout? Better to just lick the toilet again.

ROFLMAO!

In other news, I'm bummed that I preordered my $9.95 Leopard upgrade for my new iMac online, because it won't arrive till Tuesday. I'm fairly certain if I'd have just waited I could have gone and picked it up at the Apple Store this weekend. Now, I have to wait until Tuesday for it to arrive via USPS. I'm hoping I can get the upgrade quickly through work for my (work-owned) Macbook Pro.

I got to play with Leopard this past week at the Educause conference in Seattle. It's sexy. A friend of mine made an interesting observation last night as he was bitching about how he hated Vista on his new laptop and was tempted to go back to XP: "Vista is just a pretty new face with no new features. Half of my software doesn't work properly with it, so what's the point?" I compared his observations on Vista to the newly released Leopard, which not only looks fantastic, but is packed with lots of new functionality and features. Can't wait to get my hands on Spaces, and Time Machine looks excellent.

Seeing Leopard, I can't believe how far behind Microsoft is. Vista is, at best, comparable to OS X Tiger (if that). If only we could get a Mac into every person's hands without a) telling them it's a Mac and b) showing them the price tag. I think the world would fall in love. And hell, if you really need Windows, use Bootcamp. It worked wonderfully for me, even through beta.

I Switched

My PC died this weekend. I can't say for certain what exactly is shot, but the beast has managed to fry a brand new CPU and now a brand new (and rather expensive) video card.

It is now being dismembered. Remaining good parts (excluding the mainboard and power supply, one of which I'm sure is the culprit here) will be sold on eBay when I get back from Vegas and Seattle next week.

I am now the proud new owner of a 20" 2.4GHz iMac.

Go, me!

I'm 110% happy with my decision to switch. The process of migrating over from Vista to OS X has been painless thus far. This machine is gorgeous, fast, and silent. I bet it even consumes less power.

I heart Apple :)

Does anybody know how to contact Google or Gmail to report abuse?

Like the subject says.

Does anybody have an email address or web link to report abuse to Gmail (Google)?

Their help documents on the subject are an endless circle of FAQ's that never appear to lead to the "form" that they want you to fill out. I can't find the form. Nor can I find an abuse related email address to write to.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!