Give me a break

Frivolous lawsuits are way out of control in this country. Here's a good example in yesterday's news:

     nano owners sue Apple

So, let me get this straight -- if I buy an Apple iPod nano, and I scratch the screen, then I'm entitled to a full refund of what I paid for the nano, plus punitive and statutory damages, plus my lawyer's fees, and a share of the profits for all iPod nano's sold?

Gee, that sounds like about the best investment strategy ever created! Pay $199 and get millions in return!

What is this country coming to? Doesn't anyone have common sense anymore? :-(

Seriously, though, if there's a defect in manufacturing of the iPod nano, Apple should fix it. And, for the sake of the internet, they should probably work a deal with disgruntled owners to trade their scratched nanos in. But, come-on people -- is this really causing you major trauma?

My Christmas wishlist

Ok, I know the meaning of Christmas (and it ain't all about gettin' gifts). But, honestly...it's a short list this year...only one thing...well, four things...on it! (Well, I guess a dual-core machine needs dual 30-inch Cinema Displays, too. I mean, you have to accessorize, right?)

Everybody sing:

"All I want for Christmas is a new G5, a new G5, yes, a new G5!"

I can't imagine having this kind of power in a desktop workstation:

• Two dual-core 2.5GHz PowerPC G5 chips
• 1MB cache per core (4MB total cache!)
• 1.25GHz frontside bus per processor
• Up to 16GB DDR2 (PC2-4200) SDRAM
• Optional nVidia GeForce 7800 GT with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM
• Up to 1 Terabyte of Serial ATA hard disk space
• 16x SuperDrive with double-layer support
• PCI Express
• Optical digital audio in/out
• Dual 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet ports
• Optional Airport Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

...all in a super-slick Aluminum case, and it even includes the new Mighty Mouse. What more could a programmer possibly want? This is the Binford 5000 of all computers! :-)

Now, can they just fit that into a PowerBook?

This means war!

So, I discussed my rationale earlier about trying to run off the squirrels that were destroying my bird feeders. Now, I've run out of patience. They've pushed me to the limit, and I'm about to go postal on them! The pistol ain't cutting it, and they're beginning to mock my poor shooting abilities. It's time to go find the shotgun....

Heaven on earth...

OK, so a certain someone put the thought of my favorite place on earth in my mind this week. Now, I can't seem to get it off my mind; so, I might as well blog about it, right?



Hawai`i, and Maui and Kaua`i specifically, have got to be the closest thing to heaven on earth. Well, the climate, the beautiful flowers and trees, and the peoples' hearts, at least. Politics, hedonism, and history aside, it simply is heaven on earth for me. I can't think of a better place to travel on this round globe of ours. There is so much to see, in such a small area of land in the middle of the Pacific. Maui has mountains, the tallest of which is over 10,000 feet; it even gets snow in the winter. Kaua`i has Mount Wai`ale`ale, the wettest place on earth, that averages over 485 inches (over 39 feet!) of rain each year. Not to mention, each island has unbeatable beaches, SCUBA diving and snorkeling.



The best thing about the Hawai`ian Islands is that I can enjoy all my hobbies in one place: SCUBA diving the reefs and craters with my lovely wife, taking pictures, and beach-combing/people-watching. The Hawai`ian Islands provide some of the most amazing places and flowers to capture on film (or CompactFlash, or whatever). It's inspirational, and I have captured most of my favorite pictures of all time here with my camera.



My hope is to return here soon. It's been almost 5 years since I've seen Hawai`ian soil, and well, that's just too long away from paradise....

Them Crazy Varmints!

Well, I finally got fed up with the squirrels chewing up my birdfeeders, and I decided to fight back. Can't catch the little boogers (they're too darned fast), so I decided a BB gun was the answer, to deter them from my feeders. Trust me, I have no desire to kill squirrels, but I DO want to tan their backsides as a reminder and to keep them away from my feeders.

Anyways, I found the coolest air pistol I've ever used (at Wal-Mart of all places!). Meet the Crosman PPK/S. It's a knock-off of the famous Walther PPK used by the British Secret Service and 007 himself; and, it has a real slide-bolt action, just like the original. Each time you shoot, the bolt slides backwards to re-cock the gun. It holds a 15-shot removable magazine, to keep them squirrel-poppers coming!

So far, I'm not that good of a shot, apparently. But, the squirrels are afraid of me.... :-)

The case of the iMac G3 and the missing Firewire

Well, a few months ago, I convinced my wife to get a Mac. For her, it was a space issue on her desk (she liked the iMac's all-in-one design); for me, I needed to get her over to the "dark side" for my own peace of mind (and less problems than her PC).

A local vendor (which had never sold Macs before) actually had some older iMac G3 CRTs in stock for around US$100. Couldn't beat that, so we took the plunge. It would be a nice addition to my awesome PowerBook G4 that (I dare say) I could not live without.

Thus begins this story.... Two days ago, I wanted to upgrade the hard drive in this iMac. So, I started trying to backup the current hard drive, only to find out that the Firewire ports were no longer working. After a few minutes on Google and Apple's support site, I found what I was looking for. Apparently, this can happen if the power goes out suddenly and knocks the iMac's PMU (Power Management Unit) for a loop. I thought to myself: the power had gone out several times a couple weeks ago. But, luckily, there was an easy fix:

• Restart the iMac, while holding down Option-Apple-O-F to enter Open Firmware.
• Release the keys when instructed to do so.
• At the prompt, type:
  
  reset-NVRAM [hit return key]
  
  set-defaults [hit return key]
  
  reset-all [hit return key]
  
  Note: these are all case-sensitive.
• This will restart the iMac, and you may have to reset your clock.
• If the above steps don't work, try shutting down the iMac and then pull the power plug for about 15 minutes. Plug it back in, and power the iMac up.
• Everything should be working now!
  

As an aside, this "Indigo" iMac is an amazingly-designed machine. The Harman/Kardon-designed sound system is designed to use the entire case to enhance the sound, and everything inside is placed perfectly (and easy to service). Another note: the iMac G3 has a video port on the back-bottom, under a perforated cover. Never knew that was there, but I'd assume you can do video mirroring (and possibly spanning) using this port. Nice to know it's there, in case the CRT fails at any point.

Learn something new everyday....

Microsoft strikes again

Well, it was time to break out the ole' PC yesterday. Hadn't updated Windows (well, even booted up Windows) in a couple of months, so it was time for an update, or two, or 27??? Sheesh....

But Microsoft had different plans for me. They apparently think that my LEGAL because I have to re-install it every 6 months. Now, I can't get updates for Windows XP, because it won't "validate" me as using a "Genuine" copy of Windows.

Hackers strike back... So I found this little jewel of a tip on the internet and thought I'd pass it on here. It's an easy way to bypass the validation on Windows Update and get your much-needed Windows XP updates.

Bypass Windows validation tool

Thanks for the tip! It saved me hours of frustration!