Year 2007 Expires on December 31st at Midnight

Despite all efforts to hack the flow of time, the “year 2007” expires on December 31st at midnight. Teams of hackers are still working on cracking the encryptions to prevent “year 2007” from expiring. Unfortunately, their efforts so far bear no fruits.

If you are affected by the expirations, please do not panic. Upon the expiration of “year 2007”, “year 2008” will automatically activate and resume any tasks carried over from “year 2007”. If for some reasons, you found out that other people in different part of the world were already upgraded to “year 2008”, please do not panic. That’s because you’re living in a different time zone that is a little bit behind the time. As a matter of fact, numbers of part of the world have already had “year 2008” activated at the time of this writing.

Q: Would I need a new serial number to upgrade from “year 2007” to year 2008″?
A: No. You don’t need any serial numbers at all.

Q: Is “year 2008” backward compatible with “year 2007”?
A: Generally yes. But remember to date anything with “2008” instead of “2007”. Let alone using “2009”.

Q: Where do I sign up for year 2009 beta testing?
A: Unfortunately such beta program has not been announced yet.

Q: I love “year 2007”, and I refuse to upgrade to “year 2008”. What can I do to stay with year 2007?
A: In a way it is a mandatory upgrade. You can pretend that it’s still
year 2007, but it’s going to be hard to interact with everyone else. There is one other extreme solution, but I won’t get into that; let alone recommending or condoning it.

Q: Will year 2008 performs better than year 2007.
A: Results may vary. It also depends on what happened in
year 2007.

Q: Will my love life be better after upgrading to year 2008?
A: Can’t answer that one. You’re on your own, buddy!

Q: What kind of warranty does year 2008 come with?
A:
Year 2008 comes with a limited lifetime warranty; the lifetime of “year 2008”. It’s guaranteed to run until December 31st, 2008. It also comes with guaranteed upgrade to year 2009.

Q: Can I get full refund if I don’t like year 2008?
A: You’ll get full refund of the amount you paid for purchasing the
year 2008. Basically you’ll get refund in the amount of nothing.

Q: I think I like year 2008. But can it run Linux?
A: You dirty unbathed Linux Hippie!

Q: Should I buy an iPhone along with year 2008?
A: Should you? Buy it if you want it. I’d suggest to wait until Steve Jobs is done with his annual Keynote at MacWorld San Francisco. If you’re recently given a T-Mobile Dash after you dropped and broke your Treo, just wait and listen to me!

Year 2008 is expected to be the time of many events, which some of them are carried over from year 2007. In the world of technology, many events are scheduled to take place in year 2008. Confirmed events to take place shortly after year 2008 activates are CES and MacWorld San Francisco.

According to many rumors, speculations, analysis, and pure imaginations; the followings are expected to be announced at MacWorld San Francisco 2008:

  • iPhone announcements. Second Generation iPhone with 3G network support?
  • New Mac announcements. New MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and Mac mini?
  • Updates to Apple TV with more features.
  • iTunes movie rental.
  • More DRM-free music on iTunes Store.
  • New Apple software. What could it be?
  • iPhone software updates.
  • More news on iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK).
  • Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard update. (10.5.3)
  • A new device from Apple. OK, this one can be classified “made-up”. Take that, Apple!

to be continued.

Carlos Alazraqui, AVCHD, Panasonic HDC-SD5, Macs, and iMovie ’08.

I finally finished the first project involving Carlos Alazraqui, AVCHD, Panasonic HDC-SD5, Macs, and iMovie ’08. I learned a lot from this project, from using the Panasonic HDC-SDC camera, importing AVCHD movie clips, using iMovie ’08 even further, and the hardware requirements for this project.

First, I’d like to thank Hollywood Improv for giving the permissions to film Carlos Alazraqui’s stand-up sets.

I do realize that my personal MacBook Pro Core Duo is a little bit underpowered in handling AVCHD movie clips. For certain, it took a long time to import the AVCHD clips, and it took even longer to export the HD clips.

I do learn a lot of tricks in using iMovie ’08. I originally was going to use Final Cut Pro to edit the clips. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to install Final Cut Pro on my MacBook Pro, after I clean installed Mac OS X Leopard on it. In addition to that, I have yet to acquire Final Cut Express 4 which now supports AVCHD format.

I will post my review on Panasonic HDC-SD5, my experience with iMovie ’08, and what I learn about AVCHD format.

As a preview, please take a look at the following screen capture taken using Panasonic HDC-SD5.

Carlos Alazraqui, Hollywood Improv, 2007.11.17 - 3

Mac OS X Leopard: Apple Remote Pairing

An Apple A Day Gallery – 2007.11.10
Mac OS X Leopard: Apple Remote Pairing

Apple Remote Pairing custom icon
Apple Remote comes with every Intel-based iMacs, MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. To prevent other Apple Remotes controlling the your Mac, you can:

  • Disable remote control infrared receiver. Open System Preferences > Security. Check the “Disable remote control infrared receiver. OR,
  • Pair an Apple Remote to the computer.

To pair an Apple Remote with your Mac:

  • Press and hold the “Menu” and “Next” buttons for a few seconds until the Apple Remote icon flashes on the screen.
  • After doing so, the your Mac can only be controlled using the paired Apple Remote.

To unpair the Apple Remote:

  • Open System Preferences > Security.
  • Click on the “Unpair” button.

System Preferences Security Apple Remote Pairing

AirPort Issues in Mac OS X Leopard

AirPort Utility icon small

Numbers of users reported that they were having problems with AirPort in Mac OS X Leopard. So far I have not personally encountered any problems with AirPort.

I installed Leopard on the following machines:

  • 1.25 GHz PowerBook G4 (Aluminum PBG4 1st generation) – Clean Install
  • 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4 (DDR) – Clean Install
  • 1.67 GHz PoWerBook G4 (DDR2) – Archive and Install
  • MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.0 GHz (1st generation) – Clean Install
  • iMac Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz (Aluminum) – Upgrade

None of the machine above has any AirPort issues. I included the installation method to see if there’s any correlations with the said AirPort issues.

I’d certainly recommend Clean Installations of Leopard instead of upgrading. I found some weird issues with the Archive and Install method on the 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4 (DDR).

Mac OS X Leopard: Boot Camp

An Apple A Day Gallery – 2007.11.05
Mac OS X Leopard: Boot Camp

Boot Camp Assistant icon
Boot Camp enables installation of Windows Operating System on any Intel-based Mac computer, using a Microsoft Windows install disc. Windows is installed on its own partition. After installation, the Mac can run either Windows or Mac OS X.

The Boot Camp Assistant application helps create the Windows partition and restart the Mac using Windows installation disc. Follow the instructions to install Windows and install software drivers that enable Windows to work with the Mac hardware.

Boot Camp Assistant

Apple provides driver supports the followings:

  • Windows XP Home Edition or Professional
  • Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate

Windows drivers for Intel-based Mac computer are included in Mac OS X Leopard Install disc.

To install any other Operating Systems such as Linux, create the “Windows Partition” then boot the Mac using the Linux install disc.

Additional informations on Boot Camp (http://37prime.com/bootcamp.html)

Boot Camp is not the only way to run other Operating Systems on a Mac. Parallels and VMware Fusion provide the ways to install different Operating Systems within Mac OS X. It is recommended to have a minimum of 2GB of RAM on a Mac to run the virtual machine.

Get Parallels @ Amazon.com
Get VMware Fusion @ Amazon.com

Mac OS X Leopard: Front Row

An Apple A Day Gallery – 2007.11.03
Mac OS X Leopard: Front Row
Front Row Icon
Front Row is now available on any Macs. Front Row can be activated by using Apple Remote, launching the Front Row.app, or by using the default keystroke Command-Esc.

Previously Front Row only available on Macs with Apple Remote and IR receiver support. Kudos to Andrew Escobar for providing Front Row Enabler; to install Front Row for Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.x) on older Macs without Apple Remote and IR receiver support.

Front Row