Apple Store Genius Bar: Dead MacBook Battery Part 1

I was testing some RAM modules on various computers. One of the computer was a White 13″ MacBook 1.83 GHz. It was a painles procedure to install the ram on the MacBook. I had the MacBook connected to the MagSafe power adapter. I then noticed that Mac OS X said that there’s no battery installed. I checked the battery indicator and none of the lights were on. Such a surprised since it was working just fine the day before. I then swapped the MacBook baterry with a different one from another MacBook. It is apparent that something wrong with the battery circuitry. Paraphrasing Dr. McCoy: “It’s dead, Jim!”

Here I am at an Apple Store, waiting for my Genius Bar appointment. This should be a no brainer, unless they’re giving me some runarounds. I’ll find out in a few minutes.

UPDATE:
Surprise, they didn’t have any replacement batteries.

Day of Wrong Moves

January 19th, 2006

A Friday. So many things went wrong.

  1. I lost my tiny flashlight. It’s a tiny one, no wonder I lost it.
  2. I was going to replace cooling systems on a video card. Got the kit, but it’s missing tons of parts.
  3. A power supply with busted fan.
  4. Smokes came out of the same power supply.
  5. Power supply was replaced only to find out the onboard USB controller was shorted out and busted. It could no longer supply power to USB devices.
  6. Wasting a few hours trying to install Windows XP on busted machine; see 3, 4, and 5.
  7. Found out the battery of a 13″ MacBook no longer holding charges. Now I have to go to Apple Store and get it exchanged.

That’s a lot for one day.

Asides from that, I purchased:

  1. Fujitsu MH2120-BH-R 2.5″ 120GB SATA 5400 RPM Hard Drive
  2. Corsair DDR2 1GB PC5300 (667MHz) SO-DIMM (VS1GSDS667D2)

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is available in Mac OS X Universal Binary

Finally, Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is available in Mac OS X Universal Binary.
One of the best and FREE game out there. Did I say FREE?

The PowerPC version was a resource hog. I’m downloading it right now and will test it later today.

UPDATE:
I’m having trouble connecting to most servers.

From Timothee Besset:

“I hope ETPro and other major ET mods out there can update and support the new Mac client soonish.
Meanwhile you may have a bit of trouble finding servers that will accept this new client
(the best approach may be to use qstat [3] and filter for servers running etmain/,
I haven’t found a good third party server browser for OSX at this point)”

I used to play a lot at Hamsters House Of Fun server.
http://www.ham-clan.com/

Get Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory for Mac OS X Universal Binary here:
http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/finger.pl?id=476&time=20070115181957

http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=14582
http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/wolfenstein_game_ready_for_mactels/

SlingPlayer for Mac OS X Public Beta2 1.0.1.145 is Available

Previously, I downloaded SlingPlayer for Mac OS X Public Beta2 1.0.1.144 on January 1st 2007 and had a few trouble using it. It required SlingBox firmware upgrade but whenever I launched Slingbox Setup Assistant it always said that it was expired. After a little bit of fiddling around, the SlingPlayer worked without upgrading Slingbox firmware. The Slingbox Setup Assistant still unusable because it’s still expired.

Today I downloaded SlingPlayer for Mac OS X Public Beta2 and the version turned out to be 1.0.1.145. I have yet tried upgrading the Slingbox firmware.

This time I ran the SlingPlayer Uninstaller before installing the latest SlingPlayer. I then launched Slingbox Setup Assistant and it didn’t come up with expiration message. So far, so good. The next thing I need to do next is to upgrade the Slingbox firmware from within the local network.

http://www.slingmedia.com/
http://us.slingmedia.com/object/KB-005161.html
SlingBox Pro @ Amazon
SlingBox AV @ Amazon
SlingBox Tuner @ Amazon

Post CES and MacWorld Blues

Now that CES and MacWorld are over, it’s time to look back.

CES is still a much larger event and yet it was eclipsed by Steve Jobs’ MacWorld Keynote. Once again, Apple stole CES’ thunder. I am still processing and formulating the information overloads from CES and MacWorld.

Let’s see.

MacWorld

  • Apple iPhone, AppleTV, and the new Airport Extreme base station. No real news about Mac OS X, Macs, and other softwares from Apple.
  • ModBook – A tablet Mac.
  • No GPS support on Mac OS X from Garmin
  • …to becontinued

CES

  • XBox 360 HD video and larger hard drive.
  • Something about Windows Vista and its variants.
  • Sling Media’s SlingCatcher.
  • Tons of other products, to be added later.

This will take a while for me to write something interesting regarding CES and MacWorld.

Parallels Desktop for Mac build 3120 RC1 is Released

Parallels Desktop for Mac build 3120 RC1 is available for download
http://forums.parallels.com/thread7585.html

Additional details and download information is available on this page:
http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/beta_testing/

I will update this post after I actually use it.

Related News:
VMwareFusion Beta is Available for download.
http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/fusion/
Related Product:
Parallels Desktop for Mac

Parallels Desktop for Mac @Amazon.com