Month: March 2008

Vicki called me this morning to say she’d just signed for the laptop. Which surprised me, because as of this morning the FedEx site was still saying “Expected delivery 11 March before 11am”. I managed to contain myself and work until 4pm instead of heading for home immediately.

I tried installing the RAM first, but that caused it to go “BEEP BEEP BEEP pause BEEP BEEP BEEP pause…” I figured either I’d seated it wrong or it wasn’t as compatible as the Kingston RAM chooser said. So I put back the factory RAM and started it up. I used the “suck all your data and apps off the other machine” target mode thingy, and it was up and running in an hour or so. Then I installed the new RAM and this time it worked. Then I started a Time Machine backup.

I tried a few apps to make sure they worked (iPhoto is a newer version than the one I had before, and it looks pretty good. Photoshop still works. MacStumbler exits immediately. iTunes works, and this time I remembered to de-authorize my old computer before I wiped it.) Then I wiped my old computer and reinstalled Leopard on it.

While various things were going on, I actually watched an episode of Torchwood without it turning into a slide show or skipping bits . In the past, I’ve always had to stop everything, including Time Machine, or it would be terrible.

After the Time Machine backup finished in a mere 3 hours (instead of the 8 that a similar full backup took on my old computer), I closed the lid and installed the iTopper skin. It looks awesome and I’m going to have to take some pictures and write a full review. It wasn’t easy to install – I think I did something wrong with the soapy water mister and things stuck hard without me being able to slide things around, and it was really hard to get the top sheet off. I also think I didn’t get all the bubbles out in the end because of that, but it’s so light coloured that I can’t even see them so much as feel them.

Anyway, it’s a thing of beauty, and a joy for at least another 3 or 4 years.

My laptop is in Indianapolis. That’s close enough that I can feel it calling to me.

In other news, my iTopper skins arrived today. They look awesome, and I can’t wait to post pictures of them on the laptop.

My new laptop has shipped. It’s still in Shanghai, but it’s shipped. Woo hoo.

My previous laptop was named “TiBook” because it was a Powerbook Titanium. My current one is named “AlBook” because it’s an aluminum Powerbook. So what should I name my MacBookPro?

I just got my new work machine today, after 6 years of using the old IBM Intellistation. The Intellistation is dog slow, and noisy, and the new machine is fast and quiet. I really can’t complain, though, about how long I went without an upgrade because 3 years ago when I was offered an upgrade I said it was fast enough for me so I didn’t need one.

The most salient feature of the new one, besides the fact that Eclipse can rebuild the workspace in less time than it takes me to type this sentence, is that it came with a 21″ flat panel display. The screen doesn’t have as much screen real-estate as the old 24″ CRT I was using, but it did include dual display capability. So just for the hell of it, I attached the CRT to it as well, and now I’ve got a wrap-around screen.

The new LCD is much brighter and sharper than the CRT, so I may end up dumping the CRT after a while, but for now here it is. I feel like I could get a suntan off all this light hitting me from all directions.

The only problem is that the new display uses DVI connections and the new computer uses USB for keyboard and mouse, so the PS2 KVM that I only managed to snag a few weeks ago is now useless to me. If I want to use the SafeType keyboard and external mouse with the laptop, I have to physically unplug it from the work computer and plug it into the laptop. And I don’t have anyway to remote the display onto one or both of the ones connected to my Linux box, short of installing VNC.

In other news, my new MacBook Pro has just been received by FedEx in Shanghai.