J.C. Hutchins is not completely new to the print game, his book Personal Effects: Dark Art has made the rounds in my house and I have passed along the link to order to several friends. J.C. is always looking at ways to do things in ways that no one would have ever thought of before.
His 7′th Son series has entertained many over the last few years and with the book release there is going to be an updated version of the podcast. So go buy the book and support this sci-fi genius, and then add the podcast version to your favorite podcatcher. It’s a great way to pass the time on the way to work.

J.C. is promoting this book through various social media avenues, and has been courteous enough to answer a few questions for me.

> 1. For those of us that have listened to the original podcasts what amount of change should we expect from the print edition? Will it be like an extended director’s edition where most of the key elements are the same with the addition of a few scenes, or more like an updated version with changes throughout?

Longtime fans of 7th Son will notice some key differences, all of which I believe improve the story:
- Since the main characters in the book share variations on the name “John Michael Smith,” one character — named “Jonathan” in the original version of the novel — has received a name change to avoid reader confusion.
- New chapters and set-pieces have been written; most of these changes are in the first act, and mostly feature the villains.
- John Smith, the book’s main protagonist, was not put in mortal peril at the end of the novel, in the original book. In the “print edition” his life is now in danger during the book’s action-packed climax. He has been “swapped” with another character in the book, who now remains back within the safety of the 7th Son facility.

> 2. What is the time frame you are looking at to release the rest of the series?

The sequels have not yet been picked up by St. Martin’s Press. Descent must become a success in order for my publisher to invest in printing the sequels. There’s a lot riding on this book launch … particularly the rest of the series in print. It’s mission-critical that the fans come out to support the book.

> 3. Personal Effects had a lot of extras such as photos, working phone numbers, web sites, etc. Will 7′th Son: Descent have any of these elements?

Nope.

> 4. What was your inspiration for the 7′th Son series?

I’ve always enjoyed superhero “team” books — like the Justice League of America — and action-packed high-tech thrillers, such as Jurassic Park. This was a great way for me to dig into those genres, while still telling a very well-grounded story that “felt” real. There are no superheroes or dinosaurs in my book, but there is a lot of technology and thrills. Human cloning is a fascinating subject, from a scientific, ethical and spiritual perspective. That was fun to explore.

> 5. Do you have any new stories in the works?

Always. I’ll soon work on a podcast fiction project called “The 33,” and begin writing new novels next year, as well. Nearly all of them are high-tech thrillers like 7th Son: Descent.

> 6. What television shows to do you draw influence from?

I’m afraid I don’t watch much television. I’m too busy!

> 7. Do you plan on having a book signing tour, and if so will you make a stop in San Antonio?

At present, there’s no formal book tour planned to promote 7th Son, due to personal budget constraints. If I can make it happen, my fans will be the first to know.

> 8. Is there anything else we should know about the book?

If folks want to learn more about the plot of 7th Son, and its “podcast to print” success story, they should visit my site, JCHutchins.net.

If you love a good book, you will want to make sure that this is a hit. Please support this release by going out to http://JCHutchins.net/order and picking up on a few copies, the make GREAT gifts and the holidays are right around the corner!

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So I plugged it in and powered it up. The first thing I noticed was that HP Logo is gone and has been replaced with a Compaq Logo. Not a big deal, but the service guys could have at least fixed the “No Serial Number Found” error message. What ever, it’s an easy fix…

Now, did I get a wiped machine, or did they leave my OS alone? Look, that Apple Logo! So I won’t need to reload OS X, but the bad part is that the system has been down for so long that my Office 2008 trial ran out. So now I have to either buy it or look for another app.

I downloaded the trial for iWork so I am going to try that and then check out NeoOffice as a free alternative. I’ll let you know what I end up with.

So, anyone have any great, must have MAC Apps that I should try? Also I am looking for a way to set a bookmark in an audi file on my iPhone.

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So, I was working on a post detailing how I had wiped Windows 7 off the drive and installed OS X 10.5.7 from an iAtkos DVD. First off, it was working great! Sound worked out of the box and so did the wired network, which I seldom use. I was really happy with the way it was working. I downloaded Office for MAC Trial Version and gave that a shot, it was pretty cool. I installed a few other programs that were nice to work with. I set the system up so I could use Remote Desktop and Cisco VPN software so that I could work remotely on my mini. Then one day I hit the power switch and nothing happened.

I did not hear the machine try to POST, the BIOS options never came up, there was no HP logo, nothing…. The power light, wi/fi light, and the track pad light came on. If I plugged the power cord in, then the charging light came on. But that was it. No fans, no system beeps, no indication that anything was going on.

So I went online and did the HP Chat Support thing. The guy had me do some things like unplug the system, remove the battery, and hold the power for 30 seconds. Then plug it in without a battery and try to power on. He also wanted me to hit F10 during boot up, even though I explain that if it doesn’t post, the BIOS won’t load, and if the BIOS doesn’t load then you can not enter BIOS options. he didn’t get it, so I just did what he asked. Ultimately he determined that something was wrong and said he would ship me a return mailer box and a pre-paid FedEx label. I should have it in 3 -5 business days.

Well, a week went by without anything showing up. So I again went to HP Chat. I gave the guy my Activity ID from the previous session and he said he could see what I had tried before and yet he had me do most of the stuff again. Whatever, I asked where my box was. Apparently the first guy never ordered one for me. So after confirming my address and phone number, another box was ordered. Again, this would be a 3 – 5 day delivery time frame. I waited yet another week and still nothing.

I was on the MyHPMini.com web site and I see that someone was talking about how best to get through to tech support for the mini and they even listed a phone number. So the next day I used my lunch break to call them. It took a little while and they guy had me repeat some of the same steps the previous two guys did, but ultimately he did get a box shipped to me. I received a confirmation email from FedEx within a few minutes so I felt confident I would have my box soon.

I wish I would have taken pictures of this little box. It looked like a coffin for my netbook. So I played amazing grace on my iPhone, said a few words and packed the system up. There was a bag for the unit, and a smaller box for the power supply and battery. I filled out the form with the description of the problem and a phone number. It was nice of HP to include a long strip of packing tape to seal the box, I don’t think I have any at home. I took it to work with me the next day and left it in the mail room for FedEx pickup. I tracked it online and it got there yesterday, and I received a confirmation of receipt from HP this morning.

So, I should have it repaired or replaced within a few days. I’m sure I will have to reinstall OS X on it, but hopefully I won’t have to worry this any more.

Anyone ever deal with tech support and have a story to share? Tell it in the comments.

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Image used with permission from David Cortes. Download this image as a wallpaper or buy a T-Shirt version at shinyblacksheep.com.

First of all, the legal stuff. The Apple Computer EULA States:

2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
A. Single Use. This License allows you to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.

The big debate is what constitutes and “Apple Labeled Computer.” I have a few Apple stickers from my old iPod shuffle, so I slapped one of those on the bottom to make things legal

Now, I can not advocate piracy, so I went online and found an auction for OSX, and I won! So, I own a nice, legal copy.

To install the OS, I could not use the Retail version. For now, that portion of the project is not mature enough. But what I did was use the iDeneb ISO to install from. I did not want to wipe out my Windows 7 partition, because I wasn’t sure how well this would work and I really like Windows 7 BETA. So, following these directions, I was able to install to a 16GB SDHC Card.

Once done, I did installed a tool to tweak the video resolution called ScaleResolution. I found it here: http://myhpmini.com/forum/essential-mac-os-netbook-utilities-t1017.html

Now, the system does not have sound, and I lived with that for a little while until I found this post: http://myhpmini.com/forum/audio-fix-voodoohda-t999.html

Now I have sound working on my system as well. The only thing not working is the ethernet port and the internal mic. Both of which I can live without for now.

So, here is my desktop…

I find that running from the SD card is a little sluggish, but I think that when I have to remove Windows 7, I will reinstall the MAC OS on the primary drive.

With the price of netbooks dropping and people wanting to run something other Windows, this is a good way create your own budget MAC OSX Netbook. I’ve seen this done on both desktops and laptops and with the number of forums out there dedicated to this type of project, I’m sure that you can make a MAC capable machine with the specs you want.

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I have been testing Camtasia Studio on my netbook and made a little video showing some of the cool things that Windows 7 is offering.  

So I was watching the video, and it had no sound.  It was a little dull.  So I sent a twitter out to MC Lars asking if I could use one of his tunes as background music.  Well, I was happy when I recieved a reply letting me know it was fine with him.  He told me which track to use, Download This Song (featuring Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup) which he has availble to download for free from his site. So now when you watch this video, you will hear somethng a lot better than fan noice.

I hope that the video was enlightening.  I am very happy with Windows 7 and will probably upgrade when the retail version comes out.  I know I am telling my customers to hold off on purchasing a new computer unless they get a free Windows 7 upgrade.

Tell me, what did you think?

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What started out as a novelty experiment turned in to a love for this unique web browser. It was way ahead of the curve with the built in features and the page rendering was quick compared to Internet Explorer and Netscape. I also like how with a simple mouse click I could change rendering engines. If the page didn’t look right in Opera, a quick click and it reloaded using the IE or Netscape engine. Another great thing was that I could install it on my Linux machine and have almost the exact same web experience. I couldn’t say the same for other browsers at the time.

Opera has come a long way since that early version 6.01. I use Opera 10 Alpha on my desktop and Netbook now. They sych my favorites, Quick Start Page settings, and a number of other things I select. This is nice and makes sure I am never without something I bookmarked on the other machine. But when I have a slow internet connection, like from an AirCard, or (GASP!) dial-up, I still had to deal with slow page loads. That’s where Opera Turbo really shines. Watch this little video for a demonstration of page loads in Opera with and without Turbo.

Now, even though I live in the middle of nowhere, the broadband fairies have finally decided to run DSL close enough to our house that I was finally able to hop back on the fast lane. I won’t need Turbo as much when I am at home as I will when I am on the road using an EVDO connection. I plan on trying this out in a few real world scenarios and letting everyone know what I think. I encourage you to give it a shot as well.

Opera Turbo can be downloaded from here: labs.opera.com

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What is the deal with this drive-by SPAM?  Luckily DISQUS is catching the comments and asking me to approve them, otherwise there would be links to a lot for questionable sites all over my comments.  The funny thing is that the the post "The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets" is getting the most SPAM.  That’s not even on my front page anymore, so what’s the deal?  I’m working on a video that I will be posting here.  It’s all about Windows 7.  Ok, it just showcases a few cool little features.  The BETA is closed now, so if you didn’t sign up, you will have to wait for the offical release.  Stay tuned, there’s more to come!

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Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

Who here has had to provide technical support for a friend or family member?  Watch the video and read more below…  

Isn’t it a pain when you try to explain a series of steps to them, and they don’t follow you?

What’s worse is when they tell you that all they are doing is…  but you know there is no way that the computer would behave that badly if this was the case!  Now, lets’s introduce The Problem Steps Recorder that Microsoft has budled in to Windows 7.

So, assuming you’ve upgraded dearl ‘ole dad to Windows 7, put a shortcut on the desktop to this nifty tool.  Next time they are having problems, have them fire this up and record what’s going on.  When you’ve reproduced the error, simply stop recoding.

Now you get a cool little ZIP file that contains the data.  It has screen captures and will help you figure out what is going on.  Best of all, you can tell them to run this and email it to you, and you can review it at 3AM if you want!

So, if you are using Windows 7, give it a try!  I’m sure we can come up with some great ideas on how to use this great FREE TOOL from Microsoft.  Now, how do we get Microsoft to release a version for older Windows versions?

Update:  For those of you that want to see what a PSR file  looks like, I have one available for download here. 

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I installed VLC player to check out the playback issues I documents in my last post. I turns out that the file was to blame, as the player showed the same results at the same file locations.

For my next video, I have an .avi of Indiana Joes and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls. When I ripped this from the DVD, I choose some profile that made is more square, not letter boxed. That was fine, and it looked great, but it wouldn’t scale up to full screen. I was able to test this in more players though.

First I used VLC Player, it was smooth and pretty clear. That’s when I fist realized that I couldn’t get the image to go full screen. I thought maybe it was an issue with VLC, but JetAudio did the same thing. I was able to get this file to play in Windows Media Player 12. It worked fine, but the image was a little grainy.

Last, I used Windows Media Center. I have to say that this was the most resource intensive application, and was a little sluggish to get started. I saw my CPU and memory meter max out but once it started the image was crystal clear. I was sold! My replacement memory stick came in the other day, so I decided to see if that made a difference, and of course it helped. It was still a little sluggish getting started, I’m assuming that has to do with the Atom processor, but once it loaded the responsiveness of the controls was a lot better with 2GB of memory as opposed to just 1GB.

I think I will be using Windows Media center a lot more often. One thing I liked was that Media Center had an option to resume the video clip even after restarting the device. That helps a lot when you are watching a longer movie and have to split it between two or more sittings. I don’t think this laptop has an IR port, but a Media Center remote would be nice with this. My wife’s laptop (XP Media Center Edition) has a small PCMCIA card sized remote that stores in the side of the unit. Granted, that thing weighs five times as much as my mini and even she has started asking to use the mini as opposed to he 17″ Wide Screen laptop when surfing from the sofa.

Media experiments are over, now I want to shoot a few videos of some of Windows 7’s best features. Is there anything special you want to see? I have a few ideas, but will take suggestions as well.

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I watched the movie looking for little issues with playback, and found only the slightest hicups. Now what I need to do is see if they are in the same place on VLC playerso I know if it the laptop or the file.

Now, to be fair, I had several apps running (BlogDesk, HappyFish, Opera 10, Ghost, Media Player, several desktop gadgets, etc.) I was using Ghost to extract a few files form my XP Image that is stored on an external USB Hard Drive (100GB, 7200RPM). I am back down to 1GB of ram for reasons I will talk about later, and I still had a great experiance.

More testing starts tomorrow!

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What I hope to gain from this is an understanding of the way Windows Media Player and Media Center act in the latest offering from Microsoft. I will also be testing a few of my favorite third party media players. I have already installed VLC Player and JetAudio. While I know that there will be no Windows 7 changes here, I am looking to find an incomaptabilites, quirks in operation, etc.

What is you favorite way to enjoy media on your computer, and why? If there is a Windows version, I will gladly test it for operation under Windows 7.

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I ran across a link to some great Windows 7 Themes today.  I really like the Earth Space and Homer and a Doughnut themes.

Windows 7 Themes

These themes for Windows 7 are free for personal use. Don’t bother on trying them with Vista or XP because they just wont work. All the wallpapers used in the themes are credit to their respective authors, but the work done in putting up these themes together is all mine. I’m all open to requests for themes of particular types.

 

Check them out!

http://www.ithinkdiff.com/official-windows-7-themes-from-microsoft-available-now/

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I changed the buttons along the bottom from pages to catagories.  This will help group the articles together.

I added some "Quick Launch" buttons with links to my main Ed "The Computer Wizard" site, my Twitter page, and my CafePress page.  Feel free to check them out!  There were other changes that aren’t visible, such as updates to my Wordpress to twitter plugin, Subscription Plugin, and SEO Optimization pack.  If you are using an iPhone, you are probably viewing this page through my WPtouch iPhone Theme plugin. 

More to come, so be sure to check back often or subscribe.  Comments and suggestions are always welcome!

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Now, I am not going to blow away a perfectly customized install and then have to start over if the BETA doesn’t work so well with my hardware, so being the cautious geek that I am, I did a back up of my current drive. Please forgive these pictures, I took them with my phone, and they are not the best quality to say the very least.
For easier viewing, all the pics below can be enlarged by clicking on them.

First of all, you have to understand that my HP Mini, like all other NetBooks on the market right now, comes without any sort of built in optical drive. Now, there are USB models to be had all over the internet, but what fun is that? Time for the "Computer Wizard" to work a little magic! I first downloaded the Win7 ISO from Microsoft and saved it to an 8GB USB drive. I took it home and used my desktop computer to burn the DVD. Now comes the fun part. I grabbed a spare DVD burner off the parts shelf and a USB to IDE/SATA cable and set up shop.

First I had to make sure that I had a good backup of my hard drive. So I took the shrink wrap off a brand new 16GB SDHC Card and dropped that in the card reader. Windows XP recognized it and it was already formatted, so nothing else needed there. I then hooked up the DVD drive and verified that it was working with my Mini. It was so the next step was to take a BartPE disk and drop that in my DVD drive.

I did a quick reboot and selected the USB NEC-DVDROM at boot up. Now, I have a copy of Ghost on this custom boot CD so I took an image of the internal SSD and saved it on the SD Card. That took a while, but there were no issues. I didn’t take a bunch of screen shots of the install process because they are all over the web anyway.

The Windows 7 install was very straight forward and was actually quicker than I thought it would be. It took right at an hour to install, and I thought it got stuck at one point. I attribute that to the speed of the SSD. It’s not the fastest drive out there, but it is tiny which I’m sure is why HP chose it. I just let it run for a while longer and the progress bar jumped from 45% to about 80% in almost no time.

When I logged in for the first time, I immediately notice the speed boost. This is a pretty low power machine, so I was expecting some sluggishness, but surprisingly there was very little. Now I browsed around my new OS and everything was updated and looked nice. I like how the new taskbar works. I did have to get my Quick Launch back, I need that! It was a quick and easy fix that is documented in tons of blogs already.

I’m not going to review each and every feature like so many others have done, as I agree with them for the most part; evenin BETA this is the best OS yet. Instead I’m going to focus on the HP Mini and a few apps.

Performance:

Knowing that I have an Atom Processor and only 1GB of RAM installed, I was wondering what king of Usability Rating I was going to get,and if any of the effects would be disabled. Well, I ran the Windows Experience Index and got a rating that was pretty low. Now what shocked me is that everything seems to work.

Now the inner geek in me just wouldn’t let that 2.0 score go, so I had to try to increase this score somehow! So I grabbed a 2GB stick or RAM and installed it. Then I allocated 4GB of ReadyBoost to the SD card.

Well my memory rating wet up a tiny little bit, but the hard drive is my bottleneck for now. Maybe when I get some cash I’ll spring for a faster drive.

Windows found all of my hardware, for the most part. It installed a generic mouse driver so I had to download and install a touch pad driver. No big deal. Now when I was working on the machine, there was a random pop sound. Turns out I needed an updated audio driver. That was a quick and easy fix.

I haven’t loaded this thing down as much as I did the last build, but I did install BlogDesk, Windows Live, Broadcaster Studio Pro, FlashGet, FireFox, Opera 10, Google Chrome, Launchy, etc… The only app I could not get to work so far is Broadcaster Studio Pro. I even got an email from 12Seconds asking why I haven’t posted anything in a while! Turn out the the guy who emailed me has an HP Mini, so I helped him with an know issue with the Microphone under WinXP. He seemed interested in the Hackintosh Project, but since my ISO is only at 10.3% I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I need to install DreamWeaver on here, but haven’t had a chance. It took 45 minutes in WinXP, so I am curious if it will go any quicker in Windows 7.

EDIT: I installed Dreamweaver last night and it took 50 minutes.  It’s very responsive though.

I’m going to do some more testing and will let you know how things are going in a few day, in the mean time feel free to post a comment or two. Anyone know of an alternative to Broadcaster Studio Pro?

Happy Computing!

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http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx

Well, it looks like my setup is done running, I’m off to play with my new version of Windows!

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I have a nice laptop running Windows XP Media Center.  I bet Windows 7 would look great there!  Nah, it’s a big ‘ole 17" widescreen job that’s to much of a pain to lug around.

I could test in a VM, but there is always the video issue with VMWare.

I think I’ll use my NetBook.  Why not, the Hackintosh project is on hold until I get the memory issue resolved.  (Those jerks won’t even reply to me anymore).  So, tonight I will start the process of backing up and preparing my Netbook for the Windows 7 experience.  I will give periodic updates on my impressions and if anyone wants me to test something specific, just let me know.  You can also follow me on twitter for random notes about this and other projects: www.twitter.com/EdNetman

Step one; I’ll grab an image of my hard drive.  Pictures of the setup to follow soon, so keep and eye out!  Go ahead, subscribe to the feed.

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It looks like just the right memory module, and at a really good price, right? So I placed the order and even paid for shipping because it didn’t qualify for the free shipping. No big deal, I used the rest of the gist card to pick up some CDs, a Nerf Herder EP that I didn’t have and an electronic copy of the MC Lars Christmas EP. I got home from work two days ago and the package was there. Woo hoo! It was well after midnight so I just set the box next to my backpack / Laptop Bag and went to be. I opened the package yesterday and discovered that I received two @GB SODIMMS, just like I DIDN’T want.

I figure it must be a mistake, so I shot a quick email off to customer service:
————————-

Hello from Amazon.com.

Here’s a copy of the e-mail you sent to Krex. Seller responses will be sent to you directly via e-mail.

Order ID: 105-2689160-2137065
* 1 of 4GB 800MHZ DDR2 Sodimm

************************

Subject: Product details inquiry from Amazon customer Ed@EdTheComputerWizard.com

Important Notice: The following order payment methods are not covered for reimbursement by the Amazon.com A-to-z Guarantee: wire transfer, money orders, check, cash, or credit card transactions that occur off Amazon.com. Only orders using Amazon Payments are supported. This is the payment system used when you use 1-Click or the Shopping Cart to place orders through the Amazon.com Web site.

————– Begin message ———————

Hello, I purchased the item listed: "4GB 800MHZ DDR2 Sodimm" but received 2X2GB sticks.
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001320W3Y)
Since I only have one slot on my laptop, I looked VERY carefully at the descriptions of my potential purchases to make sure that they did not say "Kit of 2X2GB". I think maybe I received the wrong item, can we arrange to have the single SODIMM sent to me and I will gladly send back the kit of 2?

Thanks!
Ed Gonzalez
210-###-####

————————————

So there it is, unedited, except for the phone number. I received a response the same day:

————————————

Dear Customer,

The item that you ordered is a Kit. Following link is the description by
kingston.
http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KVR800D2S6K2_4G.pdf

There is a huge price difference between Kit and single module. Please
click on the link below check the prices for single module.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B001DEYYCW/ref=dp_olp_2?
ie=UTF8&qid=1231366307&sr=1-1

If you like to return the item for refund. Please email us back so we can
issue an RMA number for refund.

Regards,
Krex Computers

——————–

The link they sent me doesn’t even work! I know that there is a diferance, and I thought I was pretty clear in explaining this. Just because their product description was lacking, should I be hit with return shipping fees, productivity time lost, and most importantly no memory for my new toy? What is the deal with that email, I gave them my name, they couldn’t have the courtesy to use it? Seriously?

I wrote them back reading them the riot act about respect for your customers, and product mis-representation, and showed them a proper example of what their ad should have looked like:

That was yesterday afternoon, but so far they have yet to reply. So, was I expecting to much? should I shut up and settle for what I got? Do you think I should RMA he item and look somewhere else? Or, do you belive as I do, that they owe me what I ordered?

Update: Since writing the above, I did receive an email and the link started working. I was getting an error about the product not being available. now I see an item listed with prices starting in the $390 range! They issued me an RMA but I still have to cover shipping. I feel cheated… Deceived… Exasperated… And they STILL won’t use my name! Proof that they are using a form letter to reply to me.

Maybe I should just keep the 2GB memory modules and put the other one in my wife’s laptop.

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I was at a WiFi hot spot earlier today, and I of course was trying to get iATKOS 5i 10.5.5 to move pas the 6% mark (it’s at 6.5% now).  I have a few new themes for WordPress that I wanted to upload.  For some reason, my FTP client kept getting disconnected.  I wonder if they had some kind of FTP restriction there.  So, keep an eye out for a new look soon!

I have more info on the Hackintosh written.  I just need to finalize a few things and upload from BlogDesk.

Thanks for reading!

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2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
A. Single Use. This License allows you to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.”

I have a few white apple stickers, so I think I have that covered. Now this netbook is an HP, so as opposed to using the WinOSX.iso, I kicked off a download of iATKOS 5i 10.5.5 DVD for Intel.iso This has drivers that work on HP built in, so there will be less tweaking required after install.

My hard drive is a 16gb Solid State drive, and it’s already pretty full. I think I am going to pick up an SD card to use as the OS X Partition. A quick look around Froogle.com and I see 16gb cards ranging from $28 and up. The cheapest 32gb card was $75,so I think I’ll be ordering the 16gb version for this project.

We don’t have broadband internet available where I live, so the current download time is fluctuating between three and four weeks. I’ll try to go to a few wireless hotspots before or after work to speed things along. In the mean time I’ll keep researching the install guides and tutorials for tips and driver fixes.

This post was written with BlogDesk on an HP Mini 1000.

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I have just updated the WordPress version from 2.6.2 to 2.7.  I made backups, but it looks like all I have to do is disable and reactivate Featurific.  I also have to change some permissions to make that work again.  All in all, pretty painless.

The Admin page is well laid out, and I really like the feel of this version.

I received a NetBook for Christmas, it was at the top of my list this year.  I was leaning toward the MSI Wind for it’s easy hackintosh dual boot ability.  In the end my wife selected the HP Mini 1000 for me.

I like the Solid State Hard Drive, it boots incredibly fast.  It only came with 1gig of memory, but that is a restriction Microsoft puts on OEMs that are selling Windows XP on NetBooks.  I checked the hardware with SIW (System Information for Windows) and it looks like the motherboard will recognize up to 4gb of RAM.  A quick look around the Internet and I can a 2GB module for about $25, or a 4GB module for about $35.  I think I’m going to spring for the 4GB stick.

I spent a lot of time filling up the hard drive, but I did manage to install DreamWeaver, BlogDesk, RocketDock, Opera 10 Alpha, HappyFish, Trillian, Think Free Mobile, PowerArchiver, SlickRun, VLC Player, Paint .net,, and a several other apps.  So, I should be twittering and posting to this blog from this handy little device.

I’m having a lot of fun with the HP Mini so far, and I hope to make this my mobile replacement.  It’s right at 2 pounds, so I don’t even notice it in my backpack.  I think I will want to get a good wireless mouse, though.  I don’t really like track-pads, but this isn’t bad.  I thought the side button placement would bug me, but it is realwebcamy to get used to.

There is a built in webcam, so I can make vids for my 12 seconds account.

Any NetBook tips or tricks that you want to share?  How about some slimmed down apps, that are easy on screen real estate and system resources?  Let me know in the comments.

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