Power Adaptor Replacement

As mentioned in my last post, my power brick was giving me problems. It continued to do so during my trip. I would have to fiddle with the wires near the MagSafe and would get lucky and see power. It does not seem consistent in giving me the problem in a particular angle. Actually at times it would just turn off by just sitting there. So I did even want to move my laptop whenever possible, but smacking it seems to be ok still. : )

Anyhow, I got back to Singapore yesterday and went to the AppleCare@Orchard last night. They took about 10 minutes and gave me a new power adaptor. I was lucky they had a new one in stock... may be this is a common problem?

KisMac (a.k.a. Kismet in Windows) allows WEP hacking in under ten minutes

KisMac (the Mac OS X version of Kismet) apparently allows you to do this. They have a decent video of it too. Watch the video and see how it's done.

Kinda scary... but then I guess this is why I am on WPA rather than WEP! Will have to download and test in home or office.... report later.

read more | digg story

MacBook Pro - Power problems

I am coming across two problems relating to the power on my MacBook Pro:

1) The power converter/brick is not charging the computer. I noticed this just before I was about to go a trip and was very concerned that I will not have power when I go to Vietnam. I don't think I can find an AppleCare there. After fiddling around with it, I found out that it is a loose wire somewhere next to the MagSafe connector. If I move it around a little it, then I may get a power to charge the computer. So I just have to watch it to make sure I am charging.

2) On this same trip in the last couple of days, I have gotten electric shocks from the edge of the laptop. When I rest my wrist on the pad to type, I will get a shock at certain angles. This also happens at the left corner and only on my wrist (rather than my finger). I can certainly duplicate this so it is not a sporadic occurence.

In any case, when I get back to Singapore in a few days, I will take it to AppleCare and have them take a look. I will update....

SmackBook Pro Revisited (Part 2)

It took a bit of time to get this second part out. I wanted to do something different - with my MacBook Pro of course. So I have made a video and put it on YouTube! Click to see the amateur YouTuber in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YJffKyjiT4
(Sorry, Blogger does allow me to embed the youtube flash here.)

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Also note that my "first virtual desktop" has Parallels running WinXP on the second monitor.

Anyhow, I like iMovie. It's pretty easy product to use. Hmmm.. will have to blog about this another. Or maybe start a video Podcast.... NOT! I still have to earn a living...

Parallels WinXP Virtualization on MacBook Pro OS X

Today or was it yesterday... on 15th June US time, Parallels (www.parallels.com) has finally released their Parallels Desktop for Mac (universal binary for Intel Macs). You can see their press release here. I have been using their Beta version and their Release Candidate 1 for the last month or so and have been more or less satisfied with the product.

They have been sending me emails asking me to buy the product - Pre-Release - for USD 39.99. Luckily, I took them up on their offer around 5pm 15th June SINGAPORE time. A few hours later - which was when the US workday started on the 15th of June - the offer was gone. The price is now USD 49.99. Instinct or sixth sense or whatever, I save ten bucks. Damn I am good!

Essentially, Parallels Desktop creates a virtual hardware environment within your Mac and hence allows you to install and run almost any operating system on it. Unlike Boot Camp which I covered in April postings, Parallels is an emulator and allows you run Mac OSX (Host OS) and the Guest OS (in my case WinXP) at the same time. The Guest OS is just another application window.

Installation of Parallels was easy. When I got to the stage to decide the specs for my virtual machine, I had to think a bit. In the end, I gave it 1GB RAM and 15GB HDD memory. The installation of a Guest OS was quite easy. It took about 20 minutes to install WinXP and register it. Then another few hours to transfer data and install software that I want to put on it.

Why do I need to have a WinXP on my Mac, you say? Well firstly, I have gigabytes of Outlook data that I can't seem to import into Entourage. I have had sucess with some of the data but not all. So now, I am using Entourage for my new emails and using WinXP Outlook to access my archived emails. Secondly, I use MSN Messenger extensively, and Mac MSN Messenger is crap compared to MSN Messenger for Windows plus Messenger Plus Plugin (which allows me to encrypt my logs among other things.). I also have some software that I have purchased for Windows which I do not want to buy again (MS Money, Visio, etc.). Beyond that I find that there are more rippers and players on PCs than Macs. Also there is more support for mobile integration with my Sony Ericsson P910i.

When I am at the office, I connect up to a second monitor and use parallels on that fullscreen. It looks and performs like any other PC. Parallels integrates the sound, USB ports, and CD /DVD drive. There were some minor problems with the USB ports when it was in Beta and RC1, but this seems ok now. You can select to have turn the USB or DVD drive off so that you can use with Mac OSX - you can't put in a DVD or USB peripheral and access it from both OSes. Parallels lets you easily turn the items on and off. See below:




There is also a feature where you can set certain folders in OS X (the Host OS) that can be shared and accessed by Windows (the Guest OS). However this did not work for me in the Beta and RC1 versions. I kept on getting errors which sometimes resulted in the "blue screen of death" - something I thought I would not see again having switch to Mac.

The final release seems to have solved this shared folders problem, and I can access these folders from Windows without any problems. This will probably mean that I will use this Parallels even more now.

Overall, this is quite a useful product for me. I much prefer having simultaneous access of both OSes over Boot Camp. The main limitations is that it is still an emulator and can slow down your computer. It can not take full advantage of the Apple hardware so you can't really play games on it and do other graphic and CPU intensive applications.

But for a long time Windows and heavy computer user like me, I need this kind of bridge to ween me off of Windows for good!

UPDATE (20/06/06): Good instructions available at technoslice.blogspot.com!

SmackBook Pro Revisited (Part 1)

If you have read my earlier post and have gone to the blog where this SmackBook is essentially being developed, you will - more likely than not - be lost, like me. There are codes posted on there for Bash Shells and other command lines. What I was searching for was actually a single install file that would avoid all opening up of Terminal windows and typing in Perl scripts. On the 26th of May, "nivfreak" as he is nicknamed posted one such package. I downloaded it and installed it and have been very happy with the results.

Before going further, the SmackBook version that I am currently using is listed here in the blog. It provides the link to
http://ritalin.simplylinux.org/SmackBook-0_2a.zip, but I am giving the blog link because you should really read the blog. It's relatively simple installation after that. I am not saying that the other installs do not work or anything; I am happy with this install and have not tried the others.

Next, you will need to know what Desktop Manager is, otherwise there is no point in installing Smackbook. Desktop Manager allows you to have multiple virtual "desktops", and you can switch between them using hotkeys or menu bar clicks. See here for more info. AMS tracker is a program that reads the MacBook Pro's data from the motion sensor. And the SmackBook application is used to make sense of AMS Tracker's info and trigger the Desktop Manager to switch desktops accordingly. So you smack (actually tap) and the virtual desktop changes. That's all there is to this application, but it is cool....

OK so here is my setup. I use 3 "desktops" on my Desktop Manager: the Main Desktop, the Email Desktop, and the Web Browsing Desktop. When at work, I plug in my MBP to my external CRT monitor so that each virtual desktop actually has 2 screens (the MBP LCD screen and the CRT monitor). More on this in another post.....

Notebook Cool Pad for MacBook Pro

I was in Hong Kong recently for a short business trip. I manage to get sometime to roam around one of the infamous computer malls in Hong Kong - The Golden Computer Shopping Arcade in Sham Shui Po. Wiki info here and more here. My favourite computer malls in HK are still Mongkok Computer Centre and Wanchai Computer Centre. Golden Computer is just too confusing of a building - I think it is actually two building: Golden Computer Centre and Golden Computer Arcade.

Anyhow, I was roaming around for a few things - but particularly looking for a cooling pad for my Heatsinking MacBook Pro. They can be grouped as follows:

1) Grey plasticky ones with fans. Some are fullsize so that you would place your whole laptop on it. Others are halfsized or extendable so you can either place the back half of your laptop on or extend it out to full size. Powered with USB, but some have additional USB ports. Prices were between HKD 40 to 100 (USD 5 to 12.50)

2) Steel ones with fans. These are steel plates have been moulded in to a elongated Z shaped. When the Z is laid down, the laptop fits in the groove quite well. The industrial black steel designs were interesting. Powered with USB, but some have addtional USB ports. These were around HKD 80 (USD 10)

3) Acrylic transparent with fans AND LIGHTS. It's a clear acrylic base sitting on acrylic legs that are different heights to give the tilt for the laptop. The fans are also made from clear acrylic except for the motor. There is a blue neon LED lights coming from fan casing. USB Powered but no additional ports. Prices were HKD 120 upward (USD 15 +)

It was a hard decision between 2 and 3, but the blue LED lights won out. I had to walk around a lot and negotiated to get it for HKD 120. I saw them for HKD 150 to 180.


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More Details (also see website):
Feature
• Easy go, No power adapter necessary; conveniently powered through USB port
• Great ergonomic shape for easy type
• True plug and play for USB derice like mouse, keyboard, Card Reader,...etc.
• Support low noise

Specification
• Material: Acrylic
• Two Fan Size: 6 x 6 x 1 (cm)
• Fan Speed: 3200 rpm

Made in China. Model Number: PAN-P2UFA/B
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I have used it for a couple of weeks with no problems. If you put the MBP flat on the table without anything, there is less than 1/8th of an inch of space. There is very little space for air to flow. With this cooling pad, there is about 1/4th inch of space. The fans also pushes the air and forces air out. You can feel the warm air flow out on the side. I use it at my office with no problems at all and my CPU temperature is running in the low 60 degrees C.