My father, on my recommendation of course, finally ordered himself a Mac Book Pro. After months of building and rebuilding the system in his shopping cart he finally clicked through to the finish when I gave him the high sign. He’s got a new Santa Rosa chipset MBP with the 17″ glossy high res screen and all the bells and whistles.

While he waited for his new machine to arrive he ran out and grabbed all sorts of accessories. One of which was this sweet bit of mousieness, the Logitech VX. He already had is new camera and he was ready to jump into the Apple world and Aperture.

So the MBP finally arrives we get everything setup… Firefox, adium, skype, etc etc etc. And then… Kernel Panic. Within the first 24 hours the system grays out on him and prompts him to reboot.

Now, my father isn’t the most patient. So needless to say he’s upset. But he reboots and keeps using it. Then it happens 2 more times over the next couple hours. ACK! Gives a call to Support and they tell him to just send it in.

(Time to shorten this up a bit)

So he packages up his new $3.5k machine and sends it back. He gets a new one. Sets it up and BAM! Kernel Panics again.

Drives it to the apple store… many miles away… to take it back and get his money… pissed now… They of course tell him they can’t take back an online order. But the manager offers him $200 to package it back up and send it back for another one. To keep the order alive. He’s pissed… says no.

After much hemming and hawing he comes around… sends the machine back with the thought that.. hell.. how could it happen 3 times?!

Gets the new machine… sets it up and…. (say it with me) Kernel Panic!!

At this point he’s achieved that kind of Zen.. that calm quiet that happens just before said zen master makes someones head explode with shear rage. Of course I’m scampering thing.. Jesus.. how is this possible? Gotta fix this.

This is awfully long perhaps I should just get to the point…. The mouse… it was the logitech drivers. For what ever reason… the drivers give OS X fits. Just google it and see.

So we removed the drivers - he went so far as restoring it to make sure they were completely gone - and he’s been running perfectly ever since. Still using the mouse. But without the drivers from Logitech. Phew…

In a way.. I’m glad this happened. Considering I’d been thinking about the same mouse. But anywho… if your Mac is freaking out and you have a logitech mouse, try removing the drivers and see if that takes care of the problem.

I’m not sure how deep the install goes. Not sure if the reimage/restore is needed or not.

Well, the MacBook is back. I guess now I get to keep working with it and see if any more problems come up. This screen is so bright I just can’t get over how clear it is.

My father-in-law bought an iMac today and he loves it. I guess everyone is switching.

Took the MacBook in on Monday and they didn’t even bother playing with it. They pulled up the paper work and scheduled it to go to the “depot” to get the motherboard and heatsinks swapped out.

I’ve heard on line that it’s believed that a wire running next to or over the heatsinks will actually have the insulation melt off of it during extrememly hot times. Then at any point later on the exposed wire can short the whole thing out and cause the shutdown. I suppose that makes sense as I had run it pretty hot for extended times but my shutdowns seemed to occuring randomly and not at times of high use.

Anywho. The guy said 5-7 days and the paperwork said 7-10. *shrug* I just want my MacBook back.

Also, I updated the firmware on my Nano today and noticed that it stutters now while listening to podcasts. Woop. Maybe I should let it finish figuring out the gapless play. Or maybe I should reset the thing. Likely when I get my MacBook back I’ll reset it and format it for Mac.

Less than a month after taking delivery I’ve had three random shutdowns on the MacBook. One earlier in the week and two this morning. Doesn’t help that I’m sick and was just looking forward to cuddling up with the MacBook betweens run to the bathroom. Oh well.. that’s why we 1st Gen buyers make sure we get Apple Care.

So, there are all kinds of rumors about MacBooks and MacBook Pros being revamped with the new Merom chipset - I won’t even begin to get into the details about what the hell a Merom is.

My question is. Since I got my MacBook around the 21st of this month. And they’re rumoured to announce in Paris at the 16th - though that doesn’t make sense to me because they’re not doing a Key Note there - are they gonig to offer to upgrade folks who just recently bought MacBooks and MacBook Pros?

I LOVE.. let me say again LOVE LOVE LOVE (with silly hearts and flowers and bumblee bees) LOVE my new MacBook. But I wouldn’t say no to an increase in speed, decrease in heat, and a fresh start.

Anyone have any ideas?

Well, I was on vacation for 3 weeks and then playing catch up for another week. Finally I return.

The first week we had to take the little one to the doctor for his yearly check up. When I stepped out of the elevator I glanced at the placard that listed the businesses on the floor before returning to ushering the kids into the lobby. My brain siezed on the word “Penny”. Hrmm I did a double take and sure enough, Penny Arcade.

Turns out that Penny Arcade is in the same building at my kid’s pediatrician. I resisted the urge to be a Fan boy and simply snapped a picture of the plaque outside the door. The receptionist at the clinic said that they met the guys in the hallway all the time and they were really nice. Funny.

Then we spent two nights at the Westin - without kids - for our anniversary. We just parked the car and spent the whole weekend either walking around downtown seattle or lit up and laying in bed watching bad television. That’s an incredible time, especially when you have kids.

Lots happened but it’s late and I can’t fully remember it all.

Last Sunday Stacia gave me my anniversary present. I went online and we ordered my new MacBook!

I got the black, of course. But I passed on the 2Gig of preconfigured ram for $500 bucks! I’m getting a rebate for the iPod we picked out for Stacia and that should cover the 2Gigs of Patriot ram I want to put in here. I’m so amazed at how well this system runs. The commercials are right, “It just works”. I’ve installed a number of apps already from iAlertU to Parallels and of course Firefox and Adium.

With the default 512mb of RAM Parallels is almost worthless. I setup a win2k system and patched it up the other night. But I really can’t run anything. Soon though. I’m just so impressed with this thing. Though Vito says that after so long with the crapy systems I’ve had that anything would look like magic in comparison. That might be true. But this little laptop is amazing.

I got the DVI adapter and hooked it up to my 2005FPW. Firstly. The screen on the MacBook blows the 2005FPW away. So bright and so crisp. I was able to adjust the layout of my monitors so I went to the other screen not just by move to the mouse to the right edge but rather to the top. Not really all that impressive I guess. But there’s so much more about this laptop and OS that makes me say with certainty that I’m not buying a “PC” again. It’s Macs from here on out.

Stacia loved her iBook and she really loves my MacBook. I keep finding more fun and cool stuff this thing can do. I’ve already got the Terminal on the dock and can zip around through bash just like I was at home on linux. I grabbed up Stacia’s old BlueTooth mouse that she dropped because it used up the batteries a lot and failed to associate again after the mouse or the iBook went to sleep. So far it reassociates flawlessly after I click one of the mouse buttons. (And since we quit WoW the batteries seem to be lasting a bit longer =) )

It quickly and easily picks up my AP and it’s smoking fast. Reconnecting the instant I wake it up.

But yes, enough with the gush fest. I love this thing!!

Also, I might be getting my company to send me to the Mono Dev Conference in Boston on October 23rd & 24th, I find out this week.

Oh well.. until next time.

Many folks like to insist that microsoft never really updates the kernel. They just reskin their OS. Well, I say that’s not true. Every release they raise that bar on annoying little things I have to deal with.

I remote to work on Wednesday’s and normally tuesday night I just lock the desktop and leave up what ever I’m working on. Then RDP in from home the next day via VPN. When I was running XP, no problem. My desktop would pop up as I left it. Then I reimaged the machine after the last ship cycle and for some strange reason I put Win2k3 on the machine. I noticed that now when I RDPd in I got a completely new desktop. Not as helpful, for me, as you might think.

If you want to RDP to a Win2k3 box and get the console, use this command line:

mstsc -v:servername /F -console

Got this, strangely enough, off of the Microsoft site here.

IT went ahead and reapplied that update for me over night. So iTunes is down again. I guess each time I want to use iTunes I’ll need to remove that update. Anyone know of a nice C# job at a place that uses Mono and Linux?

So, after diving down a few links from Digg today I came across this site - www.appledefects.com. It scared the piss out of me. More specifically the section on MacBooks.

There are plenty of people who are nothing but pleased with their MacBooks. And videos like the one showing off what I intend to do with my MacBook swing me to the other side of the pendulum and make me ecstatic at the thought.

I know that Stacia’s iBook runs pretty hot when plugged in but she doesn’t seem to have to be too concerned with it since it runs great. She has some discoloration on the palm rest. *shrug* I guess it’s good I’m getting the black one. The things that conern me at the expanding batteries and the burning adapters. I’ve heard videos of the “Mooo”. But I hear the firmware update for the MacBook Pro fixed the on/off issues. And honestly, after using some of the old beasts I have and using the MacBooks at the store I can’t believe how quieter and cooler they are. I’ve got an old Toshiba that burns my leg, weighs five tons, and sounds like a jet engine.

I guess… I just don’t want my new MacBook to explode or catch fire. =)

I’m still gonna get one. I’m just gonna return the thing at the first sign of trouble.

Anyone else out there with a Mac Book care to comment on their experience?

Here’s a cool site I dugg the other day on game programming.

Amit’s Game Programming Information

I started my copy of Tetris on Sunday after reading some of this page and listening to the interview with Ryan Gordon from Icculus and SDL on FLOSS Weekly last week.

Everyone says write Tetris. Which makes sense. And is proving to be pretty fun. I’ve only had time to write code while on the Ferry to visit family. I’m holding off looking at any other code so I can see after the fact how terribly hacky my version is. As per usual I have grander ideas for the tool that you can use to create custom blocks than I do for the game itself. I’m such a tools guy.

Other news:

If I can sell off our ‘74 VW Bus. I’ll be able to pick up a nice new MacBook. Gonna get the 2Gigs of Ram off NewEgg and a copy of Parallels. =) I’ll be set. Then I have to move my office out into the Garage where the Bus used to be. Anyone in Washington looking to have a nice VW Bus?

Digg’s new Version 3 upgrade busticated my “Rev Digss” tab. They have an RSS feed for it now. I’ll figure out what I’m going to do with that later. For now you can view my diggs here http://www.digg.com/users/RevFry/dugg. Maybe I should just update the tab to point there.

Having problems attaching to running processes with VStudio 2k5. It’s just my spazzing I’m sure. I’ve got several files to register and usually I just generate an install with my NaNT script, install it, and run to test things out. Well, when I was using VStudio 2k3 for the project it was just find to attach to the already running MMC and things worked fine. Now I get all sorts of complaints about no debug information and what have you even though I follow the same steps. Oh well.

My boss gave me a copy of Vista to install and try out. I don’t have a machine with a DVD drive though. =) Maybe later.

Uhh can’t think of much else. Later.