Today was probably the most disastrous day of Mac ownership for me. I had previous smashed the casing on my old PowerBook when the dog tripped over the cord, but this really took the biscuit. I was at work when I leaned over the desk to grab my headphones. Somehow, I managed to bring a fresh cup of tea with them and soaked my MacBook Pro.
Worse in this situation was that it wasn’t the “posh” tea I’m so fond of but the office garbage. As such it was full of milk and more importantly, sugar. It is fried. No ifs, no buts, fried.
While I wait for my new MacBook Air (and indeed insurance claim), I will be using the dreaded loaner from work. I know I should be thankful I have anything at all for the next couple of weeks, but damn this thing is a dog. It’s an original MacBook Pro 15”. 1.83GHz Core Duo (not Core 2 Duo, so just 32-bit) with 1GB RAM and an 80GB hard drive. I realise many people are on far worse machines but bare in mind it’s the loaner. The hard drive has paid its dues, the screen is hanging off, the fans are crying their final cries and as I found out earlier the battery is simply dead weight.
I am so glad I still have my iPhone, but there are some things I simply require a computer for (such as much of the software we use at work). While setting this machine up today I realised how dependant I am on two services:
On attempting to download Dropbox app earlier the website happened to go down for maintenance for maybe 4 or 5 minutes. It was very distressing. I didn’t have the app and I couldn’t download my data. Thankfully it came online shortly thereafter but I was hit with another barrier: agilewebsolutions website was also down. So now I had my passwords, but I had no way of getting to them.
Thankfully I found an old copy of the software which was new enough to open the keychain (even without the update I couldn’t have downloaded) right from Apple.com. Lucky. Just download [Chrome] and I’m good to go - the rest I can now access with my passwords, serials and the work software server (for safe keeping).
So remember folks - this storing online can come in handy, but only if you have access to the services. Thanks to both companies who saved my bacon today though.
My favourite podcast
I have been a fan of podcasting about as long as I’ve been a fan of Macs. I guess I first started regularly listening to podcasts about 6 years ago when Adam Christianson started the MacCast.
Many other podcasts have come and gone since then1, but there is one I have grown with since the very first episode and one which I can’t imagine not hearing every week; The Mac Geek Gab.
Hosted by TMO’s Dave Hamilton and John F. Braun, MGG is a wonderful show, chock full of useful tips, tricks and other geekery. Topics are well explained and ranges from the fairly simple to stump the geek challenges.
The real heart of the show is the user feedback. Users write and call in to ask and answer questions, build on previous discussions and even correct previous slights. It’s not something that can be summed up in words, but if you are at all geeky and a fan of the Mac then the 300th show has just been recorded and so you have plenty of back catalogue to learn from.
Check it out and don’t get caught!2
I was complaining earlier that Airprint in iOS4.2 doesn’t currently support more than a few HP printers. Since we use Xerox at work and I use Brother at home I was not looking good.
Since then, [@PorthosJon][@pj] has pointed out a workaround called [Airprint Hacktivator][aph]. Essentially it’s a 262KB download which you unzip, run, turn on and then head to your System Preferences. Remove and re-add any printer you want to print to from your iOS device and be sure to tick the *Share this printer on the network* box.
That’s it. From now on you can print from your iPhone (or whatever). Emails, webpages, all sorts. Get printing!
*Be mindful of printing lots of course - wouldn’t want to kill too many trees just because printing is cool again).*
[@pj]: http://twitter.com/porthosjon
[aph]: http://netputing.com/airprinthacktivator/
Just a quick note for anyone not able to find any details about why they still can’t print from their IOS4.2 devices. It seems that a few much awaited features had to be (hopefully) temporarily crippled to make sure IOS4.2 was released sharpish. Gruber has some more on that.
Anyway, the following is a list of currently supported printers from Apple:
Works with AirPrint-enabled printers.
AirPrint works seamlessly with a new generation of wireless printers from HP.
AirPrint-enabled printers
- HP Envy e-All-in-One series (D410a)
- HP Photosmart Plus e-AiO (B210a)
- HP Photosmart Premium e-AiO (C310a)
- HP Photosmart Premium Fax e-AiO (C410a)
- HP Photosmart e-AiO (D110)
- HP Photosmart eStation (C510)
- HP LaserJet Pro M1536dnf Multifunction Printer
- HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fn Color Multifunction Printer
- HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw Color Multifunction Printer
- HP LaserJet Pro CP1525n Color Printer
- HP LaserJet Pro CP1525nw Color Printer
A couple of images
Being that it hasn’t yet been long enough for my readers, I thought I’d hold off another proper blog post for a couple more days. In the mean time, here are a few links that caught my eye over the past days (don’t worry, none of them are TSA related).
