A nice article about the iPod from the NY Times Magazine: The Guts of a New Machine
Category: hardware
handhelds
A little press release related to my company’s handheld computing program turned up on the Extended Systems site a while ago.
Burn, Baby, Burn
I’ve got my 52x CD writer working at 48x now, which is much better than the 16x it was originally doing. I think the trick was to not let Nero try to figure out the max speed, but just let it go. And just for yuks, I typed “burn baby burn” into Google, and found this year-old article from Time. The song remains the same.
CPU
Here’s a little hint, if your CPU is running too hot: Open the box and blow all the dust out. I did that last night, and it knocked about 5-10 C off the temperature.
Canon LiDE 30
Picked up a new scanner today — a Canon LiDE 30. Had a heck of a time figuring out how to clear up enough desk space for it. I had to turn my mouse pad sideways so it would fit, but I still seem to have enough room to use the mouse comfortably.
printing
Hey! I got my iBook to print to my desktop printer, attached to my Win XP machine! Okay, maybe that doesn’t sound impressive, but it’s something I’ve wanted to be able to do since I had the PowerBook 1400, and I’ve never been able to do it until now. Relevant links:
Gimp-Print — for PC printer drivers
Mac OS X Hints — search for “SMB”, “printing”, or something similar.
Essentially, you need to enable SMB printing, install relevant printer drivers, then add your printer, using the arcane syntax “smb://user:pass@workgroup/server/sharename”.
new iBook
The iBook showed up this week, too. It’s great. OS X is much better than OS 9. It looks great, too. DVD playback is nice. The sound quality is good, if you use good headphones. Lots of stuff to explore… I haven’t really even looked at the underlying BSD stuff yet.
some links
new iBook
I broke down and ordered a new iBook tonight, from PowerMax. 800 MHz, 12.1″ screen, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB HD. And, surprisingly enough, they’re giving me $475 for the old iBook. I didn’t quite talk myself into getting the 20 GB iPod though.
bugs and dust balls
Bugs and Dust Balls: A ‘Clean’ Installation
Mildly amusing article at the New York Times, describing a typical person’s experience performing some simple upgrades on her PC. I got a big laugh comparing her experience with my own recent upgrades. I replaced almost every part in my PC, and I think I had less trouble than she did, and she was just trying to upgrade to Windows XP and add some RAM. (Also, I didn’t have to make a single tech support call. She must have made twenty.) I guess there’s some advantage to being a total geek after all. Also interesting to see the way she uses jargon. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use the phrase “debugging the hard drive” before.