So I have this MacMini as a mediacenter PC, which is working and I don’t really have any problems with it, except that once in a while I want to be able to surf the web, or write an email without having to get out of the sofa.
For years I’ve used US keyboards, and don’t really like to use something else, so I went to my local apple shop to order a Apple Wireless Keyboard, with US layout. After 6 weeks (yes, it took 6 weeks for them to provide me with this information) I was told that this would not be possible, and there was no way that they could sell one of these to me. They suggested that I should contact Apple Netherlands, but they doubted that anything would come out of it.
After a bit of research I did find out that it was possible to get one, if I would buy a 27″ iMac, which I found would be slightly too expensive just to get a keyboard…..
But, I had read on some forums that some people sometimes send an email to Steve Jobs to complain about things in regards to Apple, and sometimes they get a positive response. So I sat down wrote an email pointing out that having to buy an 27″ iMac would be expensive, especially as I only wanted the keyboard.
Today I got a phone call from Apple telling me that I now can order a US Wireless keyboard from Apple, even if I am in Europe!! Way to go, and it shows that sometimes contacting the right people gives you a positive result.
btw. if you live in The Netherlands you can order it from here
There have been quite a buzz about the Netbook syndrome, there is Asus, MSI, Acer, Dell, and possible other brands which have come up with a notebook which is build around the Intel ATOM processor and ~1GB ram, and eiter a SSD or a harddriver. The screen is ~9 – 10″ with a resolution of 1024×600′ish.
Now I’ve been looking at these things for a while, and ones in a while I’ll have another look, and everytime I decide against them as they a way to underpowered for what I need them for (well that is not correct), as I normally use a MacBook Pro (unibody) which even for what I use it for sometimes is underpowered.
Also I do not want a Linux nor a Windows netbook, I want one which officially runs Apple OSX!!!
But now, the rumors have started again for an Apple Netbook, this latest incarnation is a “Netbook”, but it’s also a tablet….
So you’re asking yourself; what is he on about this time. Well if you don’t have either a Apple Cinema Display (ACD monitor) or an Apple iMac you will never understand….
Steve Jobs in his wisdom, have decided that you do not need a button to switch off the monitor… it is enough to switch off the computer.
Lucky enough after some searching (gotta love Google) I found the magic key combination: Control-Shift-Eject (The key that ejects discs) will switch off the display on Macbook (Pro), iMac’s, and the ACD attached to either your Mac Pro, or Macbook (Pro).
Now, if someone could explain to someone at Apple, that a on/off button on a display is a very very nice thing to have…
After almost 3 years, I have ordered a new Notebook, my Macbook Pro (CD 2GHz) is not happy running Lightroom2, PhotoShop, Groupwise8, Groupwise Messenger, Adium, Thunderbird 3, and Firefox at the same time…. and it does not help if I switch Lightroom2 and PhotoShop with VMware Fusion…..
In about 4 weeks (I hope) I should be the proud owner of a Macbook Pro Late 2008 (C2D 2.8GHz) which should be able to keep me entertained for another 3 years…..
There are a few things I really do not like, some of them does not have to do with computers, and some of them does.
As a notebook use, with a frequent use of a external monitor, I’ve gotten around to live with the mess of cables on my desk, but on I cannot live with the scratch, boom noise when I plugin my external speakers (5 year old 2.1 system, which is working just fine – just ask the neighbors).
This means that I’ve been hunting high and low for some speakers which would work via either fiber (bloody expensive), or USB (also not cheap – until now – that is I’ve missed out on some things).
I was in the local MacShop yesterday to order a new Macbook Pro (more about that later), and asked if they knew of any USB speakers which where 1) ok’ish 2) working with OSX. And they pointed me in the direction of Logitech Z-5, but after some research I figured out that they do not come with a power supply (damn). They also mentioned Logitech Z-10 which officially are only supported with Microsoft Windows – dooh…
Well it turns out that the only thing which officially does not work with OSX is the info display on the right speaker (no you know – it’s the right one, and no it’s not mentioned in the documentation).
After a bit of research, I found a tool (LogitechLCDTool) which can show some information on the display, and the next step was to figure out how to switch from lineout to USB Audio…. AppleScript here we come.
If found this blog entry, which have a script which works, but as I do not need to switch back to lineout (disconnecting the speakers is enough), I modified the script to:
– snip –
tell application “/Applications/LogitechLCDTool.app” to activate
tell application “System Preferences”
activate
set current pane to pane “com.apple.preference.sound”
end tell
tell application “System Events”
tell application process “System Preferences”
tell tab group 1 of window “Sound”
click radio button “Output”
set selected of row 2 of table 1 of scroll area 1 to true
set deviceselected to “Z-10 USB Speaker”
end tell
end tell
end tell
tell application “System Preferences” to quit
– snip —
As you can see I also launch ‘LogitechLCDTool’ – less clicking around….
Just a small thing, due to some issues with OSX 10.5.x and iTunes 8.x you should have a look here and here
But back to the speakers them self, well as everyone says; they are good, the bad thing is the touch panel which is kind of crap… do a google and find a review or two….
Most if not all of the photos in the posts are gone.. No I did not loose them, well kind of – on purpose…
After 5 years I felt that I needed some new hardware for my server, and one of the things I decided was to move all my photos to smugmug, where they for a very small amount (current $ € exchange rate is on my side) host my photos (have a look).
Therefor all links to photos are in the posts, but the photos does no longer exist (still kind of).
But, I’m now a happy man, current OS (CentOS 5.2), some new hardware, and I don’t have to care about my server for another 5 years.
