Further Assimilations

A little timeline here (without many dates, cause I can't remember them):

2005: Apple announces it will be moving the Macintosh over to Intel-based motherboards. Geeks all over the place ask if they can run Windows on them too: Apple says it won't intentionally block the ability, but won't support it either.
Later 2005: We discover that Intel Macs don't use a BIOS to start up their operating system, but something called EFI. Since all versions of Windows use a BIOS, this is a terrible incompatibility, making Windows on a Mac seem unlikely.
2006: Apple releases Intel Macs.
March 2006: Hackers are able to cajole, trick, and otherwise force Windows XP to boot without a BIOS. It doesn't run great, but it runs. Other excited hackers start working on the "runs great" part.
April 2006: Apple, seeing that it's about to run out of time on its little 10.5 surprise, says, "oh okay, we were gonna wait 'til later, but look. Here's Boot Camp. Go ahead and install Windows. It's beta software, so don't expect much." It runs great.

One machine that runs OS X, XP, Linux, BSD, and/or a half-dozen other OSes on command? I'm suddenly a little more interested in a shiny-new Intel Mac...

Been away for a while, again. December was a rough month for me; one of the high points was the sinus infection that kept me feverish, nauseated, and flat on my back for all of Christmas weekend. On the other hand, raininva trumped her Valentine's Day gift to me with an even more geeky present: a 30GB iPod video. Dang, but that thing is small. It's full of anime and British SF right now, but even with video-on-the-go I never have time to watch anything right now.

Back in April, I barely resisted a rant about SF fans and reviewers. However, this review of the "Starship Troopers" novel pushed the rant to the surface again.

( Rant follows... )

Okay, I really have to replace the fan in this power supply. Anyone out there have something from their computer graveyard that would help?

I need Apple part #661-2303 (power supply for a G4 AGP Sawtooth Power Mac). Sometimes the part # 614-0108 can also be seen on said power supply.

Of course, all I really need from it is the internal fan. If someone has a dead supply with a working fan, or already has the fan lying loose and still functional, that would be just fine too :)

Damn.

Turns out all the web rumors were true. All Macintoshes will be Intel-based by the end of 2007. This is from Steve Jobs' own lips at WWDC.

Just checked the calendar... it's not April 1st.

My job's just gotten more interesting.

It's quite trying to have to find 15-year-old install floppies so one can access archived stuff in an obsolete format. (And find a floppy drive while I'm at it.)

I should just thank Eris that the old software even runs. I need one of those Federation tricorders that can access 1000-year-old alien logs in 20-30 seconds of thinking.

Yesterday started good. I didn't feel well when I got up in the morning, but I never feel well if I get up before 10am, so I didn't think twice about it. In the first half of my work day, I completed the resurrection of a dead Titanium PowerBook with a broken hinge and sheared display wires, which was nice bit of ego-boost.

By lunchtime, I realized that my throat was super sore, and I was pretty dehydrated. I took a break and went to the tiny pharmacy a couple doors down, and came back to work. My nose had started running too, so I grabbed some tissues.

By mid-afternoon, there was no doubt that I was sick. I was coughing, blowing my nose, had a nice headache and serious nausea. Throw in some light-headedness and chills, and you know I was really enjoying myself by that time. I had to reassemble an iBook in that condition, too, which as I've mentioned has 50 screws in about 10 different sizes. Literally. I figure it was sinus brought on mostly by over-exerting myself over the weekend and the crappy weather on Saturday.

Finally, work was over, but there was an event I had to attend yesterday evening, to insure I'd be properly prepared for something else happening Saturday. I'd have blown it off, but that would have screwed up the next month's worth of planning. Only problem? No one had sent me directions yet.

I drove to two places where this group had met before, but they weren't at either place. In desperation, I did my first bit of intentional wardriving: cruising slowly around the residential neighborhood seeing if my iPaq would pick up an open wireless access point. I actually found one, and confirmed that no one had sent me e-mail, so I gave up and headed home.

The good side of that was that I really shouldn't have been around all those other people when I was sick, and I was able to head to bed early. On top of that, I got home in time to catch a phone call from raininva before I dropped off, and we talked for a good long time, which cheered me up a lot. On the other hand, my upcoming plans are trashed.

I'm still not well, but I'm better than I was yesterday. I can function, and my throat and stomach are mostly okay. If my nose and head would follow suit, I'd be fine. I might even go down to see Tom at the pub tonight.

*snort*

Here's a website that brings back some old Mac gaming memories.

http://mac.the-underdogs.org/

Warning: you might need an emulator to run some of thse titles. Even a newer Mac may need to emulate an older one.

Two interesting tidbits of geek stuff crossed my desk this morning; first, there's finally a really nice, configurable, Matrix code screensaver for Mac OS X. Too bad all my machines migrated to SETI@home some time ago. Second, it looks like the new AIM for Windows beta has early video chat support, and may soon be compatible with Apple's iChat AV. That would be wonderful news, seeing as the video chat support in Yahoo! Messenger for OS X is... weak.

I'm now the navigator for kittykatya's pirate crew, yarrgh! I wonder if Tom Monaghan still has the letters of marque issued to the SS MacKeigh by the court of Riversmeet (I think)?

Christmas was very good, and in my case, spread over all of December. I got to see a lot of people who are important to me, and yes, I got a lot of neat stuff - to deny that I enjoy people giving me gifts would be hypocrisy of a high order. I know some people who feel that it's better to spend the whole year being good to their fellow humans, rather than to concentrate it on a single season; I can't argue with the sentiment, but I feel that we always need times of special celebration.

Still don't know for sure what I'm doing New Year's - we have several plans, but they all depend on things out of our control. I had hoped to finally meet subbes face-to-face this week, but I just don't know right now.

Happy belated birthday to meiran. My calendar said your birthday was on the 27th... on the other hand, it also said you were born in 2080, so it obviously needed a bit of correcting.

Thanks to vond, jdunson, corin_wolfkin, and the Carilion crowd for showing up at Rain's party, and thanks to yubbie for the cake on Saturday :)

It was a heck of a weekend - I got a little personal time in after work Thursday, but Thursday evening I drove some stuff over to Rain's gaming venue, and finished the evening with dinner at the Tanglewood Macado's... Friday I went from work, to bill-paying, to home to pack for Rain's party, to Anne-Marie's for the actual party *puff-puff, whew*.

Saturday, over to VTSFFC click-base day, where I discovered (by running demos) that the Shadowrun Duels system is fast-paced and fun, and does lend itself to use in actual RPG situations. OTOH, Benny and jdunson both found out a click-base truism: though two sides may be even in points, the side with more figures has a noticeable advantage.

Saturday night was dinner at the Blacksburg Macado's, where we plotted to make everyone at nius' high school reunion jumpy and confused, and we discussed the details of wirelessly networking sex toys.

Sunday, I had a little personal time, but it got divided between a long-distance phone call, laundry and dishes, and installing MacOS 6 on my G4. (Really - and I had a good reason.) After that, dinner with rattrap, corin_wolfkin, and Rockbender. Back home, to a couple hours of private time with the lovely raininva, and finally to bed.

And after all that - I couldn't sleep last night!

Yes, I too would like to have a 3-GHz Mac on my desktop for $899. However, despite the fact that OS X is quite capable of running on an Intel chip, here's a nicely thought-out editorial on why that won't happen soon.

And for those on my friends list who still need a PlayStation 2, Deals On The Web has a Sony refurbed PS2 with a subwoofer tossed in for $129. That's only $30 bucks more than a PS1 if I remember correctly.