tech woes
Is it just me or do technology/computer problems usually happen in batches? Currently plaguing my productivity:
The trusty laser printer won't work. It refuses to show up on the home network. It's an 8-year-old HP LaserJet 2100M, with a brand new cartridge (which cost nearly $150, arghhhh), attached to a mini D-Link print server. It worked just fine 3 weeks ago... (Update: I went out and bought a parallel-to-USB cable for a whopping $56 at London Drugs. I was surprised they sold one, and the store clerk was also amused that someone actually needed this dinosaur cable. Well, the good news is that I plugged it into the USB port of the Time Capsule, and it worked perfectly. Bad news is that this is way too expensive of a solution for this aging setup. I'll need to keep looking for either a cheaper cable or...)
More annoying: I finally decided on a color laser printer model to buy: Brother HL-4070CDW with built-in wireless & duplex printing or the lower model 4040 without built-in wireless, both at fantastic sale prices at Office Depot and Best Buy. But it's out of stock at Office Depot and it's out of reach at Best Buy -- there's something wrong with the website and it won't let me buy it. It's probably out of stock, too. Now I really, really want it!
The iPhone won't sync with iTunes. Upgrade and restore won't work, and it won't complete a backup. Trying a bunch of options as suggested by this thread. And no, I'm not rushing out to buy the new iPhone. (Update: while I was writing this blog, the said iPhone successfully updated to the latest 4.0.1 when connected to a different computer. It still won't back up to my MacBook Pro, though.)
The Dell HackBook (Hackintosh) won't boot. I was trying to fix the sleep problem (where the lid will shut but the computer will stay on, run hot, and eventually run out of battery while sitting in my bag) before I left for Europe, but something went wrong. I don't even know where to begin. I might have to just reinstall the whole darn thing all over again.
To top it off? I took the Prius in for regular maintenance, and they found a nail embedded in the tire.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Tags: Tech, troubleshootingGoogle Chrome and 1Password
I've been running Google Chrome as my browser of choice lately, and in my unprofessional estimation, Chrome is about 3 times as fast as Safari and at least 200 times faster than Firefox. It's awesome. One downside is the lack of Chrome support (so far) for 1Password, probably one of the most essential Mac utilities ever. Ever.
After looking around, I followed these setup instructions: installed the developer version of Chrome and installed the alpha version of 1Password extension. So far? Wonderful.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: browser, TechMy hackintosh chronicles
It didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. It was more time consuming and frankly, scarier than I thought. I wouldn't be surprised if people just fry up a perfectly good netbook trying this. If you don't like following detailed instructions, forget about it.
- The easy part -- I bought a Dell Mini 10v from Amazon. I didn't get it refurbished from Dell Outlet because... I wanted a red one with a 6-cell battery.
- I don't really use a USB flash drive, and I didn't have one big enough for this purpose (8gb required). I luckily found a 16gb on sale for around $40 at Best Buy. I know, I know, I probably could have gotten a better deal elsewhere, but I didn't feel like looking around for too long. (I also ended up using an older 4gb flash drive for task #5 below.)
- I followed these detailed instructions (also here) to prepare the USB drive for installation. But as soon as I plugged it into the Dell and began the actual installation process, I was greeted with an error message: what I thought was a full version of Snow Leopard was in fact only an upgrade DVD. That sucked. I thought I bought a full version for J's Macbook Pro a few months ago. Had I known, I would have bought one when I bought the netbook a few days ago... SIGH.
- Anyway, after pouting and sulking for two days, I got my hands on a disk image of Snow Leopard, with my fingers crossed that this one wasn't an upgrade version. But when I tried to prepare the flash drive again in Disk Utility, I was greeted with another error message:
Restore Failure
Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned/scanned for restore - Luckily, I found this thread which fixed the problem. (What would I do without Google?)
- I was back on track, and hopeful. I downloaded NetbookBootMaker on an old 4gb flash drive, and was all ready to start installing again. But then I realized that the Dell 10v's BIOS version needs to be LOWER than A06 -- and I found out mine was A06. Another big, frustrated SIGH. A couple of commenters on the Dell mini forum said A06 worked just fine, but eh... I don't know.
- So then I had to go find out how to downgrade my BIOS to A04. Geez. They make it sound easy, but for a long-time Mac user like myself, this was reeeeeeeally not that easy. And I have to say, I really hate Windows, so I really hope this works. A netbook running Windows is useless to me. By the way, the guy who wrote the downgrade instructions wasn't kidding. The beeping is REALLY loud and annoying. I'd strongly suggest that you don't do it while your partner is in the same room trying to carry on a Skype conversation with a friend in South Africa. Shockingly, in spite of my bumbling fumbling ways, it worked and my BIOS showed up listed as A04!
- Now I boot from that other flash drive with OS X Install DVD, and so far so good. The Apple shows up on screen. And the pinwheel spinning, spinning, and spinning. Then finally -- voila! As I write this, the installation has finally begun...
- At last, my hackintosh is born! It took a few headaches and quite a bit of patience and finger-crossing, but what I have now is a tiny, pretty (!) and lightweight Mac netbook with a working webcam, and close to 8 hours of battery time (cuz I splurged on the 6-cell battery). It's perfect for quick trips to the library and conference travel, etc.
- By the way, I already found myself the perfect bag.

Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: geek, TechDisable Javascript in Adobe Acrobat (including Reader)
Highly recommended:
DISABLE JavaScript in Adobe (both Reader and Acrobat). This can be done simply by going to Preferences in Adobe Reader (or Acrobat or both) and
and UNCLICKING the "Enable Acrobat JavaScript" box.

Why? Because it makes you vulnerable to malicious and virus-infected PDFs. See here for more information. (Looks legit to me.)
Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: geek, TechMac Must-have: Schubert|it PDF Browser Plugin
Download Schubert|it PDF Browser Plugin for a much, MUCH better PDF experience. And it's free for non-commercial use.

Best part for me? Not only is it much faster than Adobe Acrobat plugin, but this plugin allows you to view PDF files right in your browser without having to save a copy of every single PDF file you come across in your downloads folder.
In other words, you can view PDF files in the browser, and if you don't save it, it stays in the plugin's cache, which gets cleared when the browser restarts. No clutter, no clean-up.
Of course, if you do want to save a copy of it or print it, or view the file in Preview or open it in Acrobat, that's just a click away.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: geek, mac, TechWordPress Blog on iPhone
I installed this on my blog the other day, and it looks pretty good! I just wish _SOME_ design elements would show up, like the header image, but all in all, the format optimization is impressive.
iWPhone WordPress Plugin and Theme
The iWPhone WordPress Plugin and Theme automatically reformats your blog’s content for optimized viewing on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. It detects the iPhone/iPod touch’s User Agent and serves up the content with the special theme only to iPhone and iPod touch visitors, all other browsers will view your WordPress blog with your current theme.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: blog, design, geek, iphone, Tech, wordpressSome updates
After few crazy weeks of applications, colds and flus, presentations, conferences, and departmental exit talk (woo hoo!), I'm finally starting to settle back into a work routine. Which, of course, begins with procrastinating and updating this blog.
In all seriousness: heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who turned out for the presentations -- you know who you are. I sometimes get all fluttery and nervous at these public speaking things, and it makes such a huge difference to see friendly, supportive faces in the audience.
I can't wait to hibernate for the winter. After all the noise and rental insanity in the fall then the headache of moving (again!), I'm praying for peace and quiet for at least... SIX months! That's not too much to ask, right?
By the way, the Worst Landlord Ever Award (out of 35 years of renting between me and JC) goes to Debbie Lai and Ngai Lai of Richmond, BC. We hate you, and every idiot-spawn of your stupid family, and wish you the very worst new year EVER.
On a more positive note, it's been a thankfully dry winter so far in Vancouver, so I've been able to enjoy running to the Seawall and Stanley Park, and even discovering some trails to explore with Puca who couldn't be happier about the nearby neighborhood dog park. George, on the other hand, seems to be missing the sterile-clean Yaletown pavements, but he's doing better.
And the two of them are getting along freakishly fabulously. We put them at a doggie daycare place during the move, comforted by their assurance that small dogs (i.e. George) are kept in an entirely separate room from the big dogs. And you know, George often gets suicidal-aggressive towards big dogs, so we thought this was fantastic.
Well, when I went to pick them up, George looked up at me with dogs 10 times bigger than him standing right by him. Rotties, Great Danes, Labs all around him!
As it turns out, George's been there all day! The doggie daycare staff told me that George was so stressed out when I left him there, that they tried (cautiously) putting him near Puca in the Big Dog Pen. And lo and behold, the two of them, George and Puca, the step-sibling pups, stuck to each other all day long, and all was good. Such sweetness -- the two of them have really bonded during the stress of the move.

If I haven't said it already: I love living in the West End!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: dogs, leaky condo, Personal, Tech, vancouver, West Endmapping visitors
I received an email notice the other day that my ClustrMaps -- a free service that logs visitors to my website and where they're coming from -- has been archived and reset. This is all there's left of the past 12 months:

I kind of wish I took a closer look before they archived it, but oh well. That's a lot of red dots and clusters, eh? Who are all these "people" coming to otherwise.net?!?
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: map, TechUpgraded to WordPress 2.6.1
Site upgraded to WordPress 2.6.1. Took less than 5 minutes.
And installed the Maintenance Mode plug-in.
Nifty.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: site, Tech, wordpress











