Further into the Mac side

I've installed Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 on it's own 20Gb partition now. I've also gone and done the following:

Installed VirtualBox for virtual machines

Show all files in Finder
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2006/07/showallfinder/index.php

Enable trackpad tap-to-click on login screen (not actually activated but activated on my login)
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070224105049800

Installed:
CyberDuck FTP client http://cyberduck.ch
Burn OS X http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net
Handbrake http://handbrake.m0k.org

NTFS support (not finished yet)
MacFUSE http://www.soft32.com/download_197021.html
Fink and NTFS-3G http://www.hackszine.com/blog/archive/2007/06/howto_readwrite_to_ntfs_drives.html?CMP=OTC-7G2N43923558
XCode http://developer.apple.com

Not sure where to go from here... I think I'll just play around and get used to Mac OS X a bit more. I'm still liking it so far though. Much easier than Linux :) Much more stable than Windows. Much less annoying than Vista.

I've tried Front Row. Sort of like Media Centre for Mac OS X. It's very similar to using an iPod which is pretty easy. I'll have to do some more playing ;)

Turned to the Mac side

Aaand...

Status Date Time Depot Electronically Lodged 29/08/2007 11:35:49 Sydney Mas. PRI Collected-Cust Premises (CIT) 29/08/2007 15:44:15 Sydney Mas. PRI Received in Depot 29/08/2007 18:50:42 Sydney Mas. PRI Paperwork Printed at Depot 30/08/2007 00:14:03 Brisbane PRI Late Linehaul Frt Delayed 30/08/2007 07:16:14 Brisbane PRI Received in Depot 30/08/2007 07:16:17 Brisbane PRI On Board For Delivery-Full 30/08/2007 11:16:34 Brisbane PRI Delivered in Full 30/08/2007 13:33:44 Brisbane PRI

That's right! It's here! For those of you who don't know, this one has been dubbed Simba. All my computers are named after cats. All my portables are named after fictional cats. I'm planning on buying a MacBook Pro next year. For now, the MacBook is Simba. The MacBook Pro then logically will be Mufassa. Funtimes! After only a few hours of using Mac OS X, I've got to say, I'm a big fan. Not a 100% convert as yet but not far off I'd say. I'm really really liking it :)

So, here's what I've done with my Mac so far...

Locked down security
http://itinfo.mit.edu/article.php?id=6938


Started learning keyboard shortcuts (I live off the keyboard in Windows)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459

Enabled the root user
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh1549.html

Installed media players: Windows Media components for Mac, DivX for Mac, VLC for Mac

Visited MacTopia to install Windows Live Messenger for Mac and Remote Desktop Connection for Mac
www.microsoft.com/mac

Started playing with QuickSilver (according to this guide)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EBvFUhTqKK4

Enabled fast user switching for quick locking
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2006/01/lockscreen/index.php

Stopped .DS_Store being created all over my network (or anyone elses)
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2005070300463515

Enabled 'cut'... sort of... Hopefully Apple fix this one in Leopard?
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060626085238931

Learnt how to take screenshots:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/02/28/screenshot.html

More to come sometime! For now I think I'll head off and install BootCamp to see how Windows runs on the new cub ;)

The end of Autopatcher

Autopatcher is no more! NOOO!!! Saved me many Mbs of downloads before... whyyy???
http://www.autopatcher.com/134
Seriously, who on earth thought this up?? Autopatcher is such and bandwidth saver! It's a great tool too but it's no more! GRRR!!!

One more reason I'm happy I'm changing to Mac OS X...

Turning to the Mac side progress

It's been shipped!! w00t! Status according to the consignment tracking history:

Status	Date	Time	Depot
Electronically Lodged	29/08/2007	11:35:49	Sydney Mas. PRI
Collected-Cust Premises (CIT)	29/08/2007	15:44:15	Sydney Mas. PRI
Received in Depot	29/08/2007	18:50:42	Sydney Mas. PRI

It's on it's way! Apple says it should be due, well... you read it for yourself:

Shipped on: 29/08/2007 via TNT EXPRESS AUSTRALIA

Product

MB 13/2.0/2X512/80/COMBO:WHITE-AUS Delivers by: 30/08/2007

Can't wait! Well, can wait, but it's not pleasant. I'll post a review and some experiences when I get going with it all :)

Turning to the Mac side - part 2

Well, I decided I've had enough of screwing around trying to find a superseded MacBook and decided to buy a bottom-of-the-range new one with educational discount. At least I know it'll be the latest (for now) and it's completely brand new... Now, the dilemma with this was trying to actually find one that I could buy. See, Apple only allow certain resellers to sell products with the edumacationaliseded discount so I looked up a list of them in Brisbane on the Apple website and did some ringing around this morning. Turns out after about half a dozen stores, there was no Apple educational reseller with one in stock. A few told me that they had the mid-range model in stock but for another few hundred dollars, I wasn't keen. I'm already stretching it as is to buy the bottom-of-the-range one. I was also told there's a shipment of ... I think it was somewhere over 1000 coming into the country tomorrow. Tomorrow just wasn't good enough though, I wanted it TODAY! There is a reason for that, I'm not just stuck-up :P I had some spare time today and was already going to TAFE which happens to be at Southbank which then happens to be near the city. The city is where most of the Apple educational resellers seem to be based. Makes sense now eh? Well, maybe not completely... I won't have any spare time again AND be near the city until Thursday. Thursday might not seem that far away but most resellers were telling me it won't be available until Friday or possibly Monday... Anyway, I decided I'd just order online from the Apple store. This way it gets delivered to my door and I don't have to worry about when I have spare time and can make it to the city. According to my order, it's supposed to arrive sometime in the next few days :) It's already been prepared for shipping :D I'm loving it :D!!!

Turning to the Mac side

Well, trying to but it ain't easy!! First up I tried to buy a superseded MacBook from NextByte's clearance items. I rang, placed the order and thought it was all good but a few minutes later, I get a call back saying that particular item is in pieces in a workshop because there's a problem with it so it can't be sold... BUMMER! Specs and price for that one are as follows:

$1049: Intel Core Duo 1.83Ghz/512Mb RAM/60Gb HDD/DVD CD-RW combo drive/White/12 month warranty

So after a bit of a hunt around, I've found another superseded on on eBay. Specs and price for that one are as follows:

$1299: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83Ghz/512Mb RAM/60Gb HDD/DVD CD-RW combo drive/White/12 month warranty (+3% surcharge for credit card)

Seems a little pricey but it might be in my stretchable budget...
After a bit more of a hunt around, I've found yet another one! This time from Mac1's firesale listed just this morning. There were 2 available so I rang up to enquire about it but they're already sold too! They were only listed THIS MORNING!! :( Details for that one:

$1199: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83Ghz/512Mb RAM/60Gb HDD/DVD CD-RW combo drive/White/3 month warranty (refurbished)

The last one would be the ideal one but I don't know if I want to fork out quite that much for it...

$1699: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz/1Gb RAM/80Gb HDD/DVD super drive/White/12 month warranty

Of course there's always the NEW path:

$1449: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz/1Gb RAM/80Gb HDD/DVD CD-RW combo drive/White/12 month warranty (educational discount)

I'll keep looking... Anyone else know where to source a cheap macbook?? TELL ME ASAP IF YA DO! Ta.

To all you cheapskates out there...

... have a read of this: http://www.esquire.com/features/money/ESQ0205NEGO_114_1. It's about a guy who haggled over every transaction for 3 months. I read about it from the front page of OCAU. Those of you who are stingy enough to want to save a few bucks might find it interesting as well as those who are into business, etc... the list of possible interest goes on. Just read it already :P

Can't find your keys?

Maybe you left them in my car! I just found a Häfele key in my glove box. A quick Google search tells me that this company make furniture (http://www.hafele.com.au) so I guess it's to something like a filing cabinet, desk or cupboard. Anyway, if you can't open some piece of furniture and you've been in my car, give me a yell and see if it's yours! Oh, it also has a round green tag with "030" on it. If it doesn't belong to anyone, maybe someone's trying to get me started on some sort of bizarre game.... but as if I have the intelligence to pickup and play along with that :P

Busted!

71Km/h in a 60Km/h zone. Bummer. -$100. -1 demerit point. At this point in time, I'd like to reference a quote that I read over my mate's shoulder at TAFE :P

Every K over is a thriller

Not completely accurate but it came to mind so now I'm sharing with ... well, blogspot.

Edit: Also, my wheel alignment is done so I can steer properly again :)

Cruising to the coast, consuming, coming back

Today's been great fun! It's the Ekka holiday for Brisbane so I went down to the Gold Coast with Shane, Matt, Jen, Fiona, Yumi, Georgia, errr... sorry to everyone else, I forget your names! My memory's terrible... Pretty sure they were all from Citipointe or at least linked to Citipointe in some way. Anyway, we piled into a few cars and like I said, cruised down to the Gold Coast. We pretty much split up into different groups over different periods of time during the day. The highlights though:

There are next to no fish and chip shops around Surfer's Paradise, Cavall Ave. However... there are plenty at Burleigh :P Every third shop or something like that was a fish and chip shop. By the time we were there, we weren't looking for them anymore...

Driving with Matt was a great experience too. Anger/stress/etc leads to fast driving :D High revs, wheel spins, screeching, it's all good :) It's all stuff I'd never do in my car so it's great to have had the experience anyway :P I didn't drive my own car as I'm not keen to drive long-ish distance before getting my wheel alignment done tomorrow.

There were a lot of photos taken too. They'll probably go up on Facebook... one day... when I sort out all my photos...

Volleyball with strangers on the beach was great fun too :) Most of that will have to be seen in the photos that I just mentioned though. Point is that it happened!

Traffic on the way back was horrible. Took ages to get back to the highway to get out then there was a lot of traffic on the highway on the way back after passing the theme parks (I think?). Those of you who live in the area probably know the area I'm talking about.

That's all that comes to mind for now but there you have it. Hope it's enjoyable... or at the very least, informative :P.

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Sleep - or lack thereof

My quick summary before probably didn't explain much and I don't think I've ever explained on here so here goes. I can't seem to get to sleep easily. This has been going on for a few weeks now. It takes about an hour-ish for me to finally get to sleep once I'm settled and ready to sleep. Once I get to sleep, I can't seem to sleep for more than 7 hours straight anyway. Now, most of you are probably thinking 7 hours isn't all that bad but if I sleep a night with only 5 hours, it means I can't catch up at any point. It also means that if I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, then it'll take me another hour to get back to sleep and by then it's time to get up. There's been a few 5-6hr nights (have to get up in the morning and go do stuff. Usually TAFE, work or church.) and it's starting to get to me... Last week I went to see a doctor about it and he reckons it's just sleep deprivation. No kidding(!)!!! He told me to go to stop working and go to bed earlier which is fair enough I guess but it still doesn't solve the problem of taking an hour to get to sleep when it used to take me no more than about 15 mins and only being able to sleep 7 hours instead of up to 9 or 10 sometimes if catchup was needed. Grrr... this is why I'm tired, and probably somewhat sore. Just pushing myself to keep getting up and doing stuff that needs to be done... Anyway... back to it [/rant]

Car related stuff

I've discovered that playing with the EQ settings on my iPod still applies when I plug it into my car. This doesn't go well with Bass Booster... At least not with my current sound settings already in there. Anywho...

My car is also in need of a wheel alignment now :-(. My bro (hey if you're reading :P) is starting to learn to drive now. Unfortunately this involved hitting a kerb so now my steering is out a bit... It veers left when the steering is straight. Hopefully I can get this fixed on Wed or Thurs when I have 2 days off from TAFE. 1 for the Ekka public holiday and the other one is a planning day for the TAFE instructors.

Edit: forgot to mention, that little incident also knocked off and smashed one of my hub caps so I'm down to 2...

Citipointe Live - Love Prevails concert

It absolutely ROCKED!!! From a multimedia/tech point of view, there were a few issues... but it's all over and all ended up going well in the end. It's been a long day and then some (7am - 12:30am) before finally getting home. Also been a bit of an expensive day... I've spent about $50 today on transport and foods... Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!!! Anyone and everyone in the area should've been there! That reminds me, I've really gotta start getting up to date with upcoming events. I know they're coming but don't remember to tell people. I guess my main focus is what time I have to be there, what I need to bring to use or possibly use, etc. In trying to sort it all out, I forget that they're actually events to invite people to. The concert tonight was broadcasted live by webast so even those who couldn't make it might've been able to see part of it anyway.

I'm off to try and get some sleeps now. I'll leave you with the words to one of the shorter songs from tonight. Hopefully it'll go on the new album (Love Prevails or You Reign -- I'm not sure which anymore... it used to be Love Prevails but the last advert material I saw was calling it You Reign...) which, while I remember about telling ppls about stuff, gets released on Sunday, 30th September. Not too far to go! I'll be buying the 5 for $100 deal and giving away 4 just like I did with the last one (Anthem of our Heart). If money permits, I'll probably buy 10 and giveaway 9. Anyway, if you want dibs on one, let me know. If I was already intending to give you one, I'll let you know when you let me know :P. So without further off-on-a-tangent thoughts:

I will rise and stand
I will lift my hands
Holding high the cross that saves the lost
I will lift Your name
I will not be ashamed
I will give my life
To the cause of Jesus Christ

Citipointe Live - Rise up and Stand

It probably doesn't sound so great as just words, typed out but it sounded awesome to say the very least. That's just a little factor though, I think it makes a great ... I don't know what the term is, but sort of like a mission statement for life.

Seto:// (away)

Weeelll... I'm back online! But online for me is usually 'away'. I don't know what time the internet started working again but it was working this morning so it's all very very good!

Anyway... next on the agneda... There's a webcast tonight of the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition party talking to the religious leaders of Australia. That includes the senior pastor from my church (Citipointe) so I'll go have a looksee at that tonight.

Tomorrow: LOVE PREVAILS! Citipointe Live's concert at the Princess Theatre. There'll be recording for the DVD to go with the new album. So... I'll be going there straight after TAFE tomorrow and should be there for the rest of the day and night :-). It'll be great!! I dunno if there's tickets left but if you can make it, you should come! No excuses!

Seto:// (offline)!?!?

That's right, I'm offline... Well, MSN/WLM me is offline... I'm currently online at work. Why? Well, the following AoE2 taunt sums it up nicely:

Sir, blame it on your ISP!

The website of TPG (my ISP) has a better explanation:

QLD ADSL 1 Customers
Wednesday 8 August 2007, 2:15 PM
Some customers may experience connection difficulties and slow browsing due to a third party carrier fault. TPG apologises for any inconvenience caused.
Outage Started: Wednesday 8 August 2007, 8:15 AM AEST
Outage Window: It is estimated to last 1 day
Outage Window: It is estimated to last 6 hours
Outage Window: It is estimated to last 3 hours

Just in case it wasn't blindingly obvious already, the strikeouts are the changes that I've noticed during the day while waiting for the problem to be flagged as fixed. Anyway, because of this, there probably won't be a random quote sent out for today as they come from my remote desktop gateway at home... that and I don't watch videos at work usually so I can't get one :P Aside from that, I'll probably also be unable to finish my assignment for TAFE that's due tomorrow...

Hopefully I'll be back online soon... Seriously though, how many of you noticed I was gone and thought to check here anyway?? Let me know :P

quick summary

I've been out most of the weekend. Not enough sleep x_x... sooo tired... and sore... *zzz* </quick summary>