Author Archive for William

MacBook Issues

Published
by
William
on 18 November, 2008
in Blog
. 4 Comments

Up until last week, I had been running Windows XP in a virtual machine, using VMware Fusion, on my iMac, and then, when I got it, my MacBook. However, on Friday, the virtual machine just suddenly gave me a BSOD (OS X itself remained fine though).

Before I go on, some people have asked me why I run a Windows virtual machine on my MacBook. The reason I do it is because I still can’t find OS X alternates for mIRC and Microsoft Visio that I like, and other programs I use, such as mkv2vob, are Windows only. Plus, I keep it running because several people I know are *only* on Steam and/or Xfire for IM. Crazy, I know, I use WLM, YIM, AIM, GTalk, Jabber, MobileMe, and Facebook for IM, and yet a small handful of people still only want to use Steam and Xfire for IM. Oh well.

Anyway, I wasn’t doing anything amazing just then, just mIRC and Steam. That was it. So, I rebooted the virtual machine itself, and that worked fine. Until about 60 minutes later, when OS X itself decided to kernel panic (which looks something like this). And it kept doing it over and over again, even with VMware completely closed. So, I decided to try a reinstall of OS X, and started backing up all my stuff off the HDD. However, by the time I was almost done, I’d had several crashes, and by Saturday night my MacBook refused, outright, to boot up.

If I pressed the power button, it would turn itself on, but the screen didn’t turn on at all. I tried all the suggestions on the Apple support site, including clearing the NVRAM or whatever it was called, I tried booting up in “safe mode”, tried booting to the Apple Hardware Test (this requires the OS X install DVD, which my MacBook decided to eat and not give back, too)…nothing worked! So, I decided to go to the Apple Store where I had got it, at the Bullring in Birmimgham (this was on Sunday). The guy who helped was very friendly, however all the Apple Geniuses were booked for that day, so he said I’d have to come back another day, or, if I wanted, he could swap the machine on the spot for a new one. I chose to do that, but, I took it back home first, plugged the HDD into my old iMac, and got all the remaining files off the HDD first. Took it back on Monday, and they swapped it out for a brand new MacBook, all in about 10 minutes. Easy. :)

Brought it home, and installed all my apps again, copied all my music to the HDD, and this time, I’m not running Windows XP in a virtual machine. I’ve decided to just use Linkinus for IRC, and if I do need Visio, Steam, Xfire, or mkv2vob, I’ll use my old Vaio laptop for those.

So far, so good. Except for one thing. On the now dead MacBook, I had one issue with the keyboard, and one issue only - the F keys at the top were all slanted slightly to the left. Other people have had the same issue too. There’s a discussion on the Apple support forum too, somewhere, about the same issue. However, I can live with that. What I can’t live with, however, is that on this new MacBook, both the N and M keys keep coming loose. And the O key squeaks against the aluminum.

Now, in no way do I type roughly, I think my typing could be considered “moderate”. I don’t type “super lightly”, but I don’t hit the keys hard either. However, after just 4 hours or so with this replacement, the O key sqeaks (the top of it is rubbing against the aluminum unibody), and the N and M keys, if I type quickly, keep coming loose. This is extremely annoying, as I type fast, all the time. While typing this blog post alone, the keys have popped up about 20-30 times! The easiest way to explain this is that if I type something, and my finger hits either key and slides even slightly to the left, the key pops up! Here’s a pic of them both popped up:

The only way I can seem to get around this is to type slowly (which is annoying), or to not use the N or M keys at all (which is just stupid). It’s easy to fix, all I have to do is push them down again. But doing that over and over and over again is EXTREMELY annoying. And, because Apple class the keyboard as part of the whole unibody, if I get it fixed they’ll probably insist on giving me another replacement. Great. This is also annoying because every time I go to the Apple store, it costs £8.30 in train fares to go from Stafford to Birmingham New Street.

Hopefully though, they can somehow replace the individual key itself (because I think the two clips on the bottom-right of they keys has broken or something). Regardless, I’m going to forward a link to this post to the boffins there, and, HOPEFULLY, they can post me the two keys so I can maybe try and replace them myself. Please, Apple? :(

I also don’t seem to be having much luck recently. First my PS3 dies last month, and now this. What next? :(

Swap!

Published
by
William
on 10 November, 2008
in Blog
. 2 Comments

Last month, I swapped my iMac for one of Apple’s new aluminium MacBooks. I’m pretty happy with it overall.

This month, I’m swapping my Dell 2407WFP-HC monitor for a Sony Bravia LCD TV - the KDL32V4000. Reason being, I originally purchased the Dell as my main monitor back when I had a PC, and I used it for that, but on both my iMac and MacBook I wasn’t actually using it for all that much other then IRC and the few movies I used to watch while I browsed the web. So, since I’m getting Sky HD installed next month, I thought “what the hell”, put it on eBay (for £260), and I’m swapping it for the TV. Considering I was going to use it all the time with Sky anyway, and 1080p is kindof wasted for Sky, I think it’s worth it. Only issue is, I need to reshuffle my room around a bit to fit it in somewhere. :P

Sometime this month I’m also going to put my Thecus NAS on eBay - unless anyone wants it now (for £220). Reason? I’m running out of space on it (it only has 1.56TB of space), and if I sell it, I can get two 1TB Western Digital MyBooks, which also have the advantages of 1) being quiet (the fan in the Thecus is noisy, to my ears anyway), 2) more HDD space, and 3) it’s USB, so I can bypass OS X’s network file sharing, which, honestly, is horrific compared to Windows. Plus, with USB HDDs, I can swap / add to them more easily. :)

Do Not Buy These Games

Published
by
William
on 31 October, 2008
in Blog
. 0 Comments

Do not buy Saints Row 2 or Midnight Club LA. I have purchased both of them in the past week, Saints Row 2 today, and I’ve had MCLA on pre-order since February, and, well, they both suck.

Firstly, Midnight Club LA. I got this on the assumption that, being a Rockstar title, it would be extremely good and similar to GTAIV. It’s not. The handling sucks, you can do a turn at 90 miles an hour without crashing. The rest of the game is…weird. I kindof like it but I also hate it. It doesn’t come NEAR the superb GTAIV, that’s for sure.

Finally, Saints Row 2. I purchased this today, after seeing Zero Puncuation’s review of it. Well, he said it was somewhat better then GTAIV. It’s not. It SUCKS. I played it for an hour and I already hate it. The graphics are meh, the handling of cars is stupidly bad, the game is crap, the controls suck…actually, the controls feel like they were developed by a drunk five year old dosed up on crack while hanging upside down off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Give both titles a miss. After having them both for under a week, I’m tempted to trade them in for LittleBigPlanet next week, maybe that will actually be a worthwhile title…

Almost a week with the new MacBook

Published
by
William
on 30 October, 2008
in Blog
. 4 Comments

MacBook

On Saturday the 25th of October, I took a train ride down to Birmingham New Street to pick up the new Late 2008 Aluminum MacBook, from the Apple Store in the Bullring. As always, upon going into the Apple store I was greeted by one of Apple’s staff, and asked if I needed any assistance, so I said yes, and asked for the new MacBook. 10 minutes later, I walked out the store with a rather heavy box containing the MacBook, and a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adaptor (which was £20 - ouch!).

Itching to open it, I arrived home, took it out the box, took a few photos, and turned it on. Instantly, I was greeted by the Apple setup wizard on the lovely bright display. I must say, after using this for a week, I’m very happy with it. It’s a much better display then any other laptop I’ve had, however, it does still fail to display blacks as vividly as the iMac did, or my Dell 2407WFP-HC does. In fact, overall, it seems a little off on several colours, but it’s not that bad - I’ve gotten used to it so far. If you’re seriously into graphic design, get the Pro. But if you just use it as a general day-to-day machine, it’s fine.

The design of the notebook itself is fantastic. The curvy edges when it’s closed make it feel thinner then it is, and the whole notebook feels very strong - much stronger then the old Vaio laptop that I’ve had (but not used for the past two years+). Whereas the Vaio felt like the screen was going to snap at any moment, the MacBook feels nice and strong. The overall design is nice too, I like having all the ports on the one side (and it’s the left, too - I hate it when the ports are on the right side, where I usually put a mouse and mousepad). However, I do have one complaint so far. When I’m typing, if I put my wrists on the edge of the laptop, the edge is actually pretty sharp - you don’t notice it if you have a jumper on or anything but if you’re just wearing a T-Shirt or something, and your wrists / arm are rubbing against the edge, I can imagine it would get irrating after a while. However, it hasn’t annoyed me that much yet.

In terms of the software, well, it’s OS X. Same as using my iMac. No real difference there, apart from the speed. Dropping down from my iMac’s 2.8GHz to the MacBook’s 2.4GHz isn’t that noticable - Photoshop and H264 HD video playback seems slightly slower, but not that much - both are still perfectly usable. Again, I think Photoshop would be much better with 4GB of RAM, versus 2GB. However, that’s another topic for another day. :P

Another thing that I love about the hardware itself, which is a very small feature, but it’s great nonetheless - if you plug the iPhone earphones into the audio out jack, you can use them for audio, but, and here’s the good part - you can use the microphone, too! I’ve been using it for the past week with Skype (calling my dad, in the Netherlands), and it’s pretty much perfect to replace my large and bulky headphones - the audio quality, according to him, is very good. As for the built in speakers, they’re very very good for a laptop, some of the best I’ve heard, but, of course, I’ll stick to using my speakers for music. They sound a hell of a lot better. ;)

I’ve not yet installed XP on here to play any games yet, but I plan on doing so in the next week or so.

Now - the bad points. So far, I have a few issues.

Firstly, the trackpad is great, it’s huge, it feels good to use, however, it’s loud if you click. Seriously, if you’re in a quite place, like a library, and you click, I’m guessing everyone would look up and stare at you. The trackpad is just loud.

Secondly, and this seems to have been reported by other people - the function keys seem to all be slightly tilted to one side - the left is lower, and the right is raised.

Finally - and this one annoys me a lot - well, take a read for yourself: Apple Support - Discussions (I know it says MBP and the Cinema Display, but it’s happening to me too, on my 2407WFP-HC).

Other then those few issues, I think it’s been well worth switching from the iMac, and I’m very happy with my purchase. I just hope Apple can fix the issue I’ve been having with the external monitor issue, and soon, because it’s annoying.

I think that covers everything. :D

Windows Live Spam IMs?

Published
by
William
on 27 October, 2008
in Blog
. 3 Comments

Has anyone else, recently, been getting a TON of IMs from various random addresses in the past week or two? It’s really annoying me, basically, it’s an address such as “ziopxmngeotcrwno@live.com” and the message usually has something like this:

Hey William
I would like to chat with you but I this is my friends msn.
You you can send me a msn chat request here sillyval1984@live.com
Hope we can chat

However, the messages are always:

  1. From different addresses - I’ve so far had about 50 different accounts, all from @live.com or @hotmail.com.
  2. Very similar messages - the only thing that changes is the address (like you can see above), and some of them have URLs instead.
  3. The one above is an example - there are several others I’ve been getting such as “this is my work account, can you add my personal account and we can chat?”

I have no idea how to stop them, either, which is bloody annoying.

Any ideas?

It’s…beautiful!

Published
by
William
on 26 October, 2008
in Blog
. 1 Comment

MacBook

…and it’s mine! 2.4GHz model. More pics here, review (well, a post about it) soon too. ;)

Eagle Eye

Published
by
William
on 21 October, 2008
in Blog
. 0 Comments

I went down to Birmingham today to the IMAX, to see Eagle Eye. I must say, I went to see it not expecting much, however I was greatly surprised - overall, it’s a fantastic movie and the huge IMAX screen really brings it to life - the initial chase scene is pretty amazing, and you really need to be awake when you watch it to notice everything. :D

The plot is pretty simple, however there are plenty of bits nicked from other films. If you’ve seen War Games, xXx 2: State of the Union, or Die Hard 4, some parts of the film will be familar. ;)

Overall, it’s definitly worth a watch, so if you can, see it at the cinema!

(Trailer)

PS3 Lives Again!

Published
by
William
on 20 October, 2008
in Blog
. 0 Comments

Well, not mine. I just got off the phone with a nice woman on the PS3 customer support line, and she asked me a few questions about who I was (name, phone numbers, email and postal address), and a few questions about the PS3 (has it been bumped, is it in a well ventilated area, what were you doing before it broke, what does it do when you turn it on now), and after about 10 minutes on the phone (of which about 4 of that was holding), they’re sending me a new (albeit refurbished model) PlayStation 3 this Thursday.

Same model, so it’ll be the 60GB one that I already have. The courier is bringing the new one on Thursday, and I have to swap mine with the new one, and it’s all done. Easy! :)

Sadly, though, I have to 1) redownload all the game demos, games, videos, and so on, that I had on the old PS3, and 2) I’ve lost several video clips that I only had a copy of on the PS3, and 3) no game saves or anything. I’m annoyed at this because I now have to replay GTAIV from scratch, plus Burnout Paradise, plus Colin McRae - I had a pretty built up portfolio on all three titles, which is quite annoying, especially considering how hard the games are at some points of the story. Needless to say, I’m going to find dad’s old 100GB Maxtor USB HDD, which isn’t being used, and backup the whole PS3 monthly.

Still, at least I’ll have a working PS3 again. :D

Also, off topic but I’m going to start tagging my posts from now on. 1) It’s better for searching, 2) It’ll make the fancy tag cloud in my sidebar work. I might tag all the other posts someday too, if I’m bored, but don’t count on it. And, of course, if you’re not already following me on Twitter, or, as of yesterday, Tumblr, please do. :)

One More Reason To Vote For Obama

Published
by
William
on 16 October, 2008
in Blog
. 7 Comments

Source: Western Standard.

PS3 Died :(

Published
by
William
on 10 October, 2008
in Blog
. 6 Comments

My PS3 has died. If I try turning it on, the power light goes green, then quickly changes to yellow, then quickly changes to red, and blinks.

I was playing GTAIV today for about 4 hours or so, then I quit that, put Folding at Home on, and left the lounge…I just went downstairs about half an hour ago and noticed it had died. Great.

According to the flame-war-based PS3 forums, it should work if you power cycle it a few times, otherwise most people say call Sony. Sony’s FAQ suggests that it needs a service: http://tinyurl.com/ps3-b0rked

Anyway, since I’m going to London tomorrow,I’m going to leave it, and try again on Wednesday when I get back - if it still doesn’t work, I’ll see if Game can replace it (it’s only just within the year’s warranty - I purchased it on the 30th of October last year), and if not, I’ll give Sony a call. I just hope I can get my game saves back (I had loads of stuff on the HDD, including a lot of trailers), and my GTAIV disc is also stuck inside it. Argh!