37'.news ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

December 27, 2006

Troubleshooting Mac OS X Display Resolutions

iMac G5 1.83 GHz
20 inch display
GeForce FX 5200 64MB VRAM

Mac OS X 10.4.8 with all the lates updates as of 12.26.2006

For some reasons the Displays System Preferences only allowed two different resolutions: 640×480 and 1680×1050.

None of the following steps able to fix the problems:

Deleting display preferences (com.apple.preference.displays.0011247aabd0.plist etc)
Replace Display.prefPane (/System/Library/PreferencePanes/Displays.prefPane)
Resetting NVRAM
Zapping PRAM
Use AppleJack to repair permissions, etc.

The solutions is much simpler than the steps above. Install Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo Updater again.

December 27, 2006

Defective MacBook Pro MagSafe Connector

The MacBook Pro was no longer charging because one of the pin in the MagSafe connector was somehow pushed in.

Click the picture for larger image (1440×900 – 176KB)

December 26, 2006

Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Small Businesses (Part 0)

A lot of small businesses still running Windows 2000 and older Office suites (XP and 2000). Some of them just recently switched to Windows XP since computer vendors no longer had the option to have Windows 2000 pre-installed.

Windows Vista and Office 2007 will be officially released in the end of January 2007. Generally business users would wait for a while before upgrading to Windows Vista and Office 2007.

There are still compatibility issues between versions of Microsoft Office. Some users are still using Office 2000 because number of Macros and Visual Basic Scripts do not work well across different versions of office.

…….to be continued in Part 1

December 23, 2006

Warner Music Group to Acquire Roadrunner Music Group

Earlier this week Warner Music Group announced that they are going to acquire Roadrunner Music Group.
http://www.wmg.com/news/article/?id=8a0af8120f88d9f4010f956206405504

12/18/2006

Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 73.5 percent of Roadrunner Music Group B.V., which includes Roadrunner Records, one of the leading hard rock and heavy metal labels, for $73.5 million in purchase price and other considerations.

….

The company has enjoyed strong momentum over the past several years. This year alone, Roadrunner has increased its SoundScan market share in the Hard Music genre (which includes both Hard Rock and Heavy Metal) by more than two percentage points. The label’s multi-Platinum, Grammy-nominated artist, Nickelback, is responsible for the No. 1 Hard Music album for 2005 and year-to-date 2006 in the U.S.

In addition to Nickelback, Roadrunner’s roster includes multi-Platinum Grammy winner Slipknot, Grammy-nominated Stone Sour, Killswitch Engage, Theory of a Deadman, Megadeth, Black Label Society and Trivium, among others.

For more information about Roadrunner, visit: www.roadrunnerrecords.com

Roadrunner Records was the home of many influential Metal bands back in the 80’s and early 90’s. Sadly, for the past few years Nickleback was one of their best sellers. Nickleback sold lots of records, but WHY?

I took a little bit of interest in this acquisition since the band I’m sorta working with just recently signed with Roadrunner Records.

December 22, 2006

iPod shuffle Reset Utility 1.0.1

About iPod shuffle Reset Utility 1.0.1

The iPod shuffle Reset Utility restores First Generation iPod shuffle. The restore process completely erases all music and data on iPod shuffle and reinstalls software version 1.1.5.

Note:
iPod shuffle Reset Utility is only for First Generation 512MB and 1GB iPod shuffle. Any other iPod, including Second Generation iPod shuffle is not supported. If you are not sure which iPod you have, see Apple Support document 61688: Identifying different iPod models

iPod shuffle Reset Utility 1.0.1 for Mac – download (2.1MB)
iPod shuffle Reset Utility 1.0.1 for Windows – download (1.5MB)

Use the iPod shuffle Reset Utility to fix the following issues:

With the iPod shuffle switched on, pressing the Play button will cause amber and green LEDs to flash for a few seconds, and the unit will not play any music, nor can you sync music to it from iTunes.
On a Windows PC, iPod shuffle will appear in My Computer as a “Removable Disk,” however the iPod shuffle volume will not mount correctly. The unit is listed in Device Manager under “Disk Drives” as “Apple iPod USB Device.”
On a Mac, the unit will only be recognized in Apple System Profiler under Hardware -> USB and will not appear or mount in the Finder.
When attempting to restore, the unit may not be recognized at all. However, if it is recognized, the restore may fail with an error dialog “Firmware update failure. Disk write error” or another error. It may take 3 restore attempts before the error appears. Note: iPod shuffle may take several minutes to be recognized.

December 21, 2006