Silvermac

Apple computers are boring. No ? Well, I think they are. You turn one on and you do what you wanted to do, it’s always the same, it just works. Just plain boring.

On the other hand, if you had a PC laptop running Windows your life is very colourfull and exciting. You turn it on and there is something new every day. A new virus, a new trojan, a funny error message … no end.

You spend days and days in support forums, you update anything and everything day in and day out, you tweak the registry and know it better than the inside of your left ear. And things just keep coming. And let’s not forget all that beautiful software you need to install, update and tweak daily just to keep your PC running.

But one of the most important things is an almost accidental impact of Windows on your professional career. You will install Windows so many times over the life of your PC that you will become very experienced, and you can even put it in your resume “Installation of Windows 9x, ME, 2k, XP on a weekly basis…”

Even when your girlfriend, after being stood up six times this month, gives you a boot, you will live your life knowing that she has made the sacrifice for the advancement of technology.

Now, if you ask people who had a Mac computer for several years, how many times have they installed OS X, most of them are the real dummies, they’ve never done it. They’re just unemployable in IT sector, they’re mentally rusty. They are barely aware what an error message is, they don’t know how to handle the crisis, they’re just dumb.

So if you want to join the team of those boring anti-geeks, who don’t know how to reboot four times a day, then go ahead and buy a Mac. But remember, you’ve been warned!

I noticed something rather weird with my MacBook Pro, if I touch the computer after charging the battery it feels like it’s vibrating. It’s actually not vibrating but that’s the best word to describe the feeling when I touch the computer, especially above the F-keys and around the palm rest area. It’s some kind of static charge that I have no tools to measure but it’s quite noticeable. The only way to discharge it is to slide my hands a few times left-right along the computer surface and the thing is soon gone.

I wasn’t sure where it comes from so I asked in a few internet forums and someone suggested not to use the short power-plug adapter but the long cable instead. So I tried and it worked indeed. But why, I wondered. Some people mentioned possible continue reading…

Earlier this evening I inserted a blank DVD into my MacBook Pro wanting to burn some files. However, OS X never recognised the disc, nothing on the desktop, nothing in the Finder, not even in the Disk Utility. I pressed the Eject button, pressed and held F12 for a few seconds, but the disk was stuck.

I had a DVD stuck once before, even though recognised by the system, and I got it out after tilting the computer 45 degrees forward. But this time, whatever I did there was no eject mechanism sound at all, just a very quiet sound of the disk spinning up and slowing down every few seconds.

So I decided to use good old trick of holding down the mouse button while booting the computer up. Rebooted, held the trackpad button down – but nothing. Even more interesting is that the computer wouldn’t start up at all.

The only thing I hear, following the Apple sound, is the disk spinning, possibly trying to read the boot sector and then slowing down. And this gets repeated forever. The screen stays grey, no Apple logo, nothing.

OK, another try, held down Cmd-Option-P-R, then held down D and finally held down even C while booting, but exactly same result – disk spins up and slows down few times, grey screen and a high blood pressure.

I thought, the computer is trying to boot from the optical drive but is unable to read the disc hence going into the endless loop. So I used a little trick, I inserted a small piece of thin battery pack cardboard just above the disc and twisted it (the cardboard) a little so the disk can’t spin when starting up. I turned the computer on and held down the trackpad button.

I could hear the sound of the optical drive inside, not the spinning sound but rather sound of something moving ever so slightly. I heard it only two times and the third sound was a well known one – the offending DVD came out.

The computer then happily booted the OS X. I looked up the disc very carefully and there were no faults with it at all, no bends, no scratches or cracks, just a perfect DVD.

Get 5 GB of free cloud storage with a a bonus 500 MB if you register via SilverMac, so you can safely back-up, share and synchronise your documents, photos, videos, music…

Oh, there is one more thing …  Since 2006 this page was visited about 336.000 times (as of Dec 2011) and counting. Say 10% of visitors had a problem with their DVD drive. That’s 33.600 computers. Each of those would have paid at least $100 to Apple service centres to get their DVD out, and in some cases much more to replace the DVD / Super drive. This means Silvermac has saved you about $3.36 million, or maybe even much more.

However, the total for all donations to Silvermac  is $140. That’s in five years. So once your disk pops out show your appreciation and make your donation here.  A cup of coffee would be just fine. You can use either your PayPal account or your credit card and it’s much easier that getting that DVD out.

Microsoft is launching a subscription service aimed at providing better protection for the Windows operating system, which has been vulnerable to Internet attacks, MSN reports.

Windows Live OneCare will protect up to three computers for US$49.95 a year.

I just can’t understand how people can put up with this anymore. First, Microsoft releases a product that is so flawed that it would never make a shelf in any other industry. Then they write EULA that gives you no right for any damages and puts no responsibility on the software maker. Then finally, they publicly announce that their software is insecure and that there is a paid service to protect it. But guess who do you pay to? The very software maker who sold you the dodgy operating system. So why not put it in in the first place?

We all know that America is a crazy place, we also know that their laws are absolutely ridiculous. The place where everyone sues everyone else for all possible and imposible reasons and that sometimes it gets really entertaining to watch how they make fools of themselves and ruin each other lives. But it will be the most entertaining to watch someone suing the hell out of Microsoft for “selling me a car with faulty door locks and charging me annual fee to keep my doors closed while I’m driving”. I just can’t wait the show to begin.