Reality Bytes

I never knew the day would come when I would feel the irrepresible urge to cause harm to my powerbook. I experienced Murphy’s law first hand - “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”

Scenario: I have a project due in 1 hour. I’m workin furiously on my laptop in the computer labs. All of a sudden, the system hangs!! Yes..I said it…a Mac hangs!! I was too shocked to react. And to add insult to injury, a cocky Windows fan in the lab starts ranting about Macs being overhyped.

Well..I shut down the powerbook (had to unplug the battery). Tried turning it on…but the powerbook refuses to boot. My project is due in half an hour…and the freakin laptop is dead! I literally wanted to throw the laptop out of the window. Whats worse, the only copy of the project is in the laptop. The hard disk keeps making this grinding noise. I knew that it was dying slowly but surely. I hook up my laptop to a PowerMac G5 with a firewire cable and run a scandisk on the powerbook (through target mode) . The Powermac finds a lot of errors on the disk, but it cant correct them! I lose all hope. Out of desperation, I try booting the powerbook again…and it boots..as if there was’nt any problem! So everything goes well and the project is submitted on time. Phew.

I knew for sure that the hard disk is dying. I did not have any apple care. So I decided to replace the hard disk myself. Brave huh? So I opened the powerbook and replaced the hard drive with a spanking new 80GB drive.

Moral of the story: backup backup backup….no matter what system you have.

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Apple released the 17″ Macbook Pro today.It is priced at $2,799. The 17″ MacBook Pro measures 15.4″ x 10.4″ x 1″ and weighs in at 6.8 pounds. This beast comes with a 2.16 Ghz Core Duo processor, 1 GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM, 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 and a new 8x dual-layer SuperDrive. However, the funny thing is that a similarly configured Macbook Pro 15″ costs $100 more than the 17″ model. Very curious pricing I should say.

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I managed to get hold of a Powermac G5 today. If I could describe this piece of art in one word, it would be…elegance. The smooth simplistic design is something which PC makers should strive for. This baby has no tangled wires, and every single component just slides into place. However, there was one minor aggravation…it sounds like an aircraft engine when the CPU is loaded! Although..I have to admit..it looks cool to see the dual fans at the front kick-in.

Wonder what Apple’s Plans are for the Powermac Intel? If they do get an Intel into the PowerMac, it will be interesting to see how the internal design looks compared to the other PC vendors. The only PC vendor who comes close in internal case design is Alienware IMHO.

(Read the article)

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Today, Apple has released software allowing users to boot Windows on the latest Macs. It’s released as a beta called “Boot Camp”. This allows the user to create a new partition with XP on it. However, it’s a trial version that works for a limited time. It will be included in the next Mac OS X Version 10.5 (Leopard), later this year. This is going to start a debate as to whether its a good marketing move by Apple.

I came across this disclaimer from Apple. I like the dig Apple has taken at Microsoft

Word to the Wise

Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it’ll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes.

The Software can be downloaded here

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Well..it finally happened. Two hackers (blanka and narf) have managed to install Windows XP on an Intel-Mac, thus bagging the $13,000 bounty. This is a slap in the face for many technologists according to whom XP or Vista will never be installed on a Mac due to the new EFI. The solution can be found here. The main issue right now are the drivers for the graphics card. Once that is sorted…theres no stopping us from playing Half-Life 2 on a Mac
Wonder whats happening at Apple right now…Are heads rolling? Or do they even care? Or is Steve having nightmares of Macs loaded with viruses?

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