The Installer Commandments

John C. Welch aka Bynkii delivers the 11 Commandments of the Installer

"VII.  Thou shalt never, ever, ever lie or mislead the suer about your installer and what it's installing.

Adobe Reader? Looking at you pal. Making your installer look like a platform standard installer, but then having that not really be what it is? That's just bullshit, and means that not only did you fail to use a native installer, but you also lied to your users about it. That is unforgivable."

Brilliant!!

[RANT] Who wants a dimmed screen?

I've been having an issue with our Macs at work that I have been unable to find a suitable 'fix' for.

I have posted on Apple's discussion forums here to no avail, no response in a month and even linked to two unanswered  yet archived threads about the same issue.

 So what the heck is going on.

Sequence of events: (Jan 2008 - to present)

1. New Aluminium iMacs arrive with drop-in Leopard upgrade DVDs.
   
2. Put current image on them running OS X v10.4 - Tiger. No issues with screens on these or the older Intel iMacs (White)
3. End of year (2008) - start creating new image for 2009 with OS X v10.5 Leopard.
4. Machines start booting with screen at minimum brightness
5. Search the intarwebs high and low for a 'fix' to this issue. Find plenty of similar stories but no solutions.
6. Classes about to start - still no solution other than Automator workflow to maximise brightness on login. 
7. So decide to post on blog about it.
   

So that's about it in a nutshell. I currently have some half-arsed solution to quite a major issue (especially in a graphic design and photography school).

I simply cannot believe that this has not been brought to Apple's attention by those far more knowledgeable and connected than me.

Anybody reading this and can point me in the right direction for a solution, please feel free to comment.

It lives!!

Yep I'm still alive.

Man, it has been a long time!!


Had a lovely holiday in Ruby Bay.


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Might visit here a bit more often this year. You never know!!

What's wrong with Apple Inc?

I gotta say I'm a little bit annoyed with Apple.

At home I use an iBook 14" G3 800Mhz circa 2002. This is the model that had the faulty logic boards that caused a worldwide free replacement programme. I'm pretty sure this particular one has had at least one replacement logic board, if not more. - My one I used when teaching went through 6 logic boards.

Anyway this 5 year old iBook, used to be used by my wife, until the screen started showing logic board problems, whereby I switched her to a desktop iMac and put this aside until I could take a proper look at it. So a couple of months down the track, I dig it out and boot it up - and no sign of a problem and my daughter and I have been using it steadily for the past 12 months (solely me the past 6 months).

Well yesterday I receive a text from my wife to say that my youngest daughter accidently knocked my iBook off the desk and now the screen is all funny and please don't be too mad at her when you get home. I'm already thinking - 'this is what I have insurance for!!!" So, no worries, I get home ring the insurance company, go through a few explanations and they say they'll send out the claim form. I'm thinking woohoo, new MacBook here I come.

Well tonight, in the process of getting some data off my broken ibook - I was booted into Target mode, connected to my G4 PowerMac via firewire - all of a sudden I notice the screen on the iBook looks normal (well at least normal for Target Mode). So I quickly unmount the iBook from the G4 and reboot into normal mode and wallah! here I am again using my iBook! Not a sign of a problem.

So my gripe is, why can't Apple make stuff that stays broke???
I can now see my new MacBook drifting away unless I can prove that this thing really is broke. And no, as much as I despise insurance companies, I don't have the urge to "fix" my iBook so it stays broke!!

What can I say?

Once again.......it's been a while.

Thought I'd just mention that I've linked to this blog from another great site I visit frequently - Nutterz, which is the reason I am posting again. Check it out - you won't be disappointed.

Been busy busy busy. I went on an Mac OS X Server (Tiger) course a couple of weeks back. Talk about filling your brain up with stuff. Very informative and well presented. We basically covered the course in 3 days which meant we had a day to play with Leopard Server and Client. Needless to say I can't wait to get my own copy of Leopard, so that I can further my education.

That's all for now. It's late on a Sunday night and I should be in bed.

I have a couple of ideas for some posts, which I'm looking at filling out soonish, I just need the time to sit down and get out, as I think they may be rather lengthy.

Cheers & blessings

Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking......into the future....

OK so I'm slack, I know!

10 weeks and counting!

So much has happened in the last 10 weeks, I'm not going to go over everything. Needless to say, the 10 weeks is equal to one school term. So the kids are back on holiday now. Of course the first day today it rained! Well I was at work so it didn't affect me too much except that by the time I got home they were a little stir crazy.

A brief overview of what has been happening is as follows:
• I started my new job at CPIT - it's awesome. I absolutely love it.
• We've shifted house and are now back in the city and very happy with that.
• The sale of our house has gone through and so we are now mortgage free - but back renting.
• All but Rie and to a lesser extent Jim got hit by a rather severe flu bug during the term. The 2 other girls were off school for over a week and Ang and I took it in turns to get sick. It caused the postponement of my birthday by a week.
• Oh yeah I turned 41 back in August.

In the world of Apple, we've had new iMacs released - new 24" screens. Also a new line of iPods including an iPod nano that does video and a new iPod touch based on the iPhone.

So that is pretty much the gist of the term.

Hopefully I'll get some regularity of posts happening from now until Christmas at least.

So until the next one, take care and God Bless

A New Beginning

It's the end of the holidays and 2 weeks since my last post. I finished that one with 'What a difference a week makes', well things keep on changing.

The best news of all is that we have finally sold our house. We switched to a local agent, they had one Open Home last Sunday and we had signed an unconditional contract by about 6pm. What that actually means is that the first contract we signed which was conditional on the buyers selling their own house now has its clause come into effect. This gives them 7 working days to go unconditional themselves. So come Thursday we're expecting to find out whether or not we have sold our house to the first buyers which would mean settlement date is the 3rd August or the second buyers which would mean settlement date is the 7th September. Either way IT'S SOLD!!!

Now we just have to find a place to rent inside the school zone that our daughter is wanting to go to next year.

So that's been the major news of the holidays, other than that it has been a case of finishing off school stuff, clearing out my classroom, giving back my PowerBook and iPod (sniff sniff!), trying to find a place to rent, checking with the bank and lawyers that all documentation has been filed, and spending time with the kids.

To that end we went on our 'Mystery Drive' on Friday. Thankfully the weather turned it on for us and it was a beautiful day. We headed inland to Darfield before making our way through the Rakaia Gorge and onto Methven where we enjoyed lunch in the van consisting of hot chippies, muffins and mandarins. The kids enjoyed being so close to the snow-covered mountains and there was even snow lying on the side of road left over from the previous week's dumping. All in all it was a great way to finish off the holidays.

And tomorrow I start my new job. Who knows what exciting adventures that will bring? I gotta say I can't wait to start, I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve. Bring it on!