Turn Your 27″ iMac Into An Awesome Monitor
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal on 05. Jan, 2010 | View Comments
The Mini DisplayPort connector on the 27″ iMac is bi-directional, so you can connect another device to its gorgeous monitor! I was eager to try this out, and sure enough my 2009 Mac Mini had no trouble taking over the iMac’s display using a $30 Belkin cable. But actually using the iMac in this configuration has not been pleasant.
Not Good: My MacBook Pro’s nVidia 8600M Video Failed
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal on 05. Dec, 2009 | View Comments
The nVidia 8600M GT graphics chip in my late-2007 (Merom/Santa Rosa) MacBook Pro has failed. Apple has promised to repair affected machines for three years regardless of warranty status, but that doesn’t make it any easier to live with. Let’s hope everything goes smoothly and my trusty notebook is back in action quickly! I’ll be updating this post with the status of my nVidia repair adventure.
No 64-Bit Snow Leopard Kernel For You!
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Computer history on 30. Aug, 2009 | View Comments
There is clearly a ton of interest in Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard: My Snow Leopard features hardware compatibility chart had over 20,000 visitors in just three days! But one chart element is generating an inordinate amount of interest: Whether or not Snow Leopard can boot in 64-bit mode.
Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”: In Our Hands August 28!
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal on 24. Aug, 2009 | View Comments
Apple’s bizarre online store reboot this morning revealed that the next point-update for Mac OS X will be in the hands of the faithful this Friday, August 28! Many speculated on the purported September availability of the operating system upgrade, but today’s information clears the air.
Although Apple’s web site clearly states that Snow Leopard “Delivers [...]
A Concrete Reason Macs Beat PCs: Intel VT
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Computer history, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage on 07. Aug, 2009 | View Comments
There is a lot of FUD flowing between Apple Macintosh true believers and the rest of the PC world. This is especially true now that Macs use Intel CPUs, NVIDIA chipsets and graphics, and so much more commodity PC parts. Lots have argued that a Mac is just an expensive PC with a flashy case [...]
Don’t Be Jealous Of The New MacBook Pros!
Posted by Stephen in Apple on 16. Jun, 2009 | View Comments
Apple’s recently introduced mid-2009 MacBook Pros sure do look nice! I am definitely tempted to trade up my late-2007 model, leveraging the excellent resale value that Mac hardware commands. But two of Apple’s trick features for 2009 are already present on my old workhorse: An integrated SD card slot and up to 7 hours of [...]
Back From the Pile: Interesting Content From the Week of May 9, 2009
Posted by Stephen in Everything on 11. May, 2009 | View Comments
It was an interesting week, with a cloud computing summit in Washington DC, the release of Windows Storage Server 2008, and discussions of best practices and non-compete agreements.
Apple
MacBook Users: Turn off This Bluetooth Default Setting Now – Now I know what turned on my MacBook Pro in the bag: My BlueTooth mouse!
Enterprise Computing
Windows Storage Server-Based [...]
The New Mac Mini is Finally Here!
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Terabyte home on 03. Mar, 2009 | View Comments
I’ve been waiting on a Mac Mini to replace my sluggish and crash-prone Firefly/NSLU2 home music and file server, and Apple finally delivered the goods today, after leaving us in the lurch at Macworld 2009! I’ve placed my order for a base-model Mac Mini, and look forward to using Apple’s iPhone Remote with the Airport [...]
Clean Up Your Mac! Essential OS X Tidiness Tools and Techniques
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal, Terabyte home on 19. Jan, 2009 | View Comments
Do you really know what is taking up all of your disk space? Unless you have a good tool, the answer is probably not. You might think that your “Documents” folder takes up most of the room, since you use it all the time and it has so many files in it. But even the bloated files produced by Microsoft Office pale in comparison to multimedia photo, music, and video files. And it is usually the folders that you don’t actively manage that are the worst space-wasters!
I’ll Have Two Platters of Sheer Storage Madness, Please!
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Enterprise storage, Terabyte home on 06. Jan, 2009 | View Comments
The inexorable march of areal density continues with this week’s release of two breakthrough two-platter hard disk drives:
First up is Seagate, with their next-generation 3.5″ “7200.12″ drive family. Boasting 500 GB per platter, the drives are initially offered in 500 GB, 750 GB, and 1 TB versions, but we expect a 1.5 TB three-platter and [...]
