The Next Generation Karate Kid
Not quite Daniel Larusso and Mr. Miyagi but the next generation remake of Karate Kid.
Holiday Gift Guide: Kin Wah Gift Certificates
Christmas is right around the corner, and if you’re still looking for an awesome gift, look no further than Kin Wah. Their gift certificates are a perfect gift for great, affordable food. Just look at this minute chicken cake noodle. What a yummy gift!
You can even pick up gift cards on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! No expiration dates for these gift certificates too.
Making Smores
The making of smores in pictures.
Graham crackers
Add (dark) chocolate
Toast the marshmallows
Assemble
Smores!
Enjoy
Laying Hands on a Convert
Now that you have a converted heretic, it’s time to lay your hands on your Hackintosh Netbook. The first thing you notice is the Netbook’s small size. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10v is 10 inches wide, 7 inches deep, about 1 inch tall, and weighs 2.5 pounds. Compared to a 15-in MacBook Pro, the Mini looks like this.
About half the size
Just as thick
Compare the size
The Screen
The wide-aspect ratio screen is clear, crisp, and easy to see. The tech specs for the 10-in screen specify a resolution of 1024×600, but in OS X, the display operates at 1280×600. At first, the screen had a purplish hue but after selecting “Inspiron 910 Display” in the Display preference, the colors looked more natural.
With the external VGA port, I was able to mirror and extend my desktop to a second, external monitor. This worked with a Dell 1708FP monitor running at 1280×1024, 60 Hz but couldn’t sync up on a Dell 2408WFP cranking at 1920×1200 (either mirror or extended desktop mode).
A potential limitation of the screen resolution is the minimum needed by Apple’s iLife apps. Apps like iMovie and iWeb want a big screen. While these apps still work, I wouldn’t want to run them exclusively on a Netbook screen unless absolutely necessary.
The Keyboard
Even though the Netbook itself is tiny, the keyboard is only a little cramped. You do have to get used to the slightly smaller keys, but really it’s not bad at all. The keyboard is a little “clicky” sounding but types and feels okay. The keyboard layout differs from a Mac with extra keys like a forward delete button. I’m still figuring out the Control, Windows, and Alt key equivalents, trusting in muscle memory. Whatever keystroke machinations I use on the Mac (including Expose functions), work on the Hackintosh-ed Windows keyboard.
The Trackpad
This is probably the worst interface element of the Dell. The trackpad works, but I would say it’s far from usable. There is a hack to tame the trackpad and make it more “Mac-like,” but it’s still too uncontrollable for me. I disabled “tap to click” since my finger swipes were interpreted as clicks. Apps in the Doc started firing up, and I kept inadvertently moving icons on the desktop. If at all possible, I’d rather use an external mouse.
Everything Else
All the other hardware components of the Dell Mini 10v are compatible with Mac OS X. Audio sounds good, WiFi and BlueTooth provide wireless connectivity, the webcam works, and so does the integrated SD memory card reader. I didn’t try out the Ethernet RF-45 jack, instead relying on WiFi connectivity.
And yes, Time Machine backups to an external USB drive work great too.
Holiday Gift Guide: Amazon Gift Cards
Still haven’t found a gift for someone? A gift card from Amazon.com is just the thing (if you know what Amazon is of course)! You can print out your own gift card or send one electronically.
And Amazon is so filled with goodies, everyone can find something they like.
Active Imgination or Hijinks at Office Max?
Have you visited the Office Max Waikele location recently? Maybe it’s just my active imagination at work, or is there some kind of hijinks going on at this location?
I got a bad vibe when I was there the other week. Most of the employees are local looking, but the management guys are not. They’re definitely not from Hawaii and really stick out. Maybe this is just part of Office Max’s management training program, moving managers to various locations. But these “outsider” managers seemed especially suspicious keen of things going on.
What kind of things were going on? Probably nothing and just coincidental but… employees at a register talking amongst each other then as customers came up to check out, the register “mysteriously” rebooted. Then there’s the same employees handing other employees Office Max gift cards. And then there’s my “new” membership to Office Max Perks which mysteriously has a purchase registered on it. While I won’t dispute a $12 credit on this account, why does a supposedly new account have transactions already on it.
From a recent purchase and membership to Office Max Perks, I’m supposed to get a $50 credit. Now I wonder about that.
Anyone else get bad vibes from Office Max Waikele?
Starbucks Gold Is Now Starbucks Rewards
The Starbucks Gold program is phasing out in 2009 and being replaced by a revised My Starbucks Rewards membership program. Current Starbucks Gold members should be getting their replacement, custom gold-level My Starbucks Reward card in the mail.
Did you get yours?
Watch Disney’s Prep & Landing
Disney’s latest animated television special, Prep & Landing, is awesomely funny. Maybe the kids won’t get all the jokes and Christmas references, but still it’s a fun show. See how an elite group of elves prepare households for Santa’s visit using advanced technology and pure goodwill.
Watch the video on Hulu!
Does This Mean I’m Naughty or Nice?
Just got a check from Linkshare, the affiliate account for iTunes. Nice!
But does the amount for $1.24 mean I’ve been naughty?
All kidding aside, thanks to all who have supported this site with purchases through one of my affiliates like Amazon, Google, and iTunes.
Christmas Funnies
It’s time to relive those funny Christmas moments from yesteryear. These home videos always make me laugh.
And the ever classic, Christmas Gift Prank.
Enjoy!
Holiday Gift Guide: A Vote for Mark Dacascos
In the season of giving, how about lending a quick vote for Mark Dacascos in the Mr. Twitter December contest? Mark’s Twitter fan club, TeamMarkD, has done a great job supporting the Dancing with the Stars contestant and Hawaii-born actor.
Currently in the 15th spot, Mark could use your support to move up the rankings. Or would you rather have Hawaii represented in this contest by Duane “Dog” Chapman and his crew?
Vote now! And you can voting every 20 minutes.
Converting a Heretic
With your Dell Inspiron Mini 10v
I started with Gizmodo’s article, How To: Hackintosh a Dell Mini 10v Into the Ultimate Snow Leopard Netbook but also took hints from MyDellMini.com. As described in my previous notes post, here are some of my experiences:
- Downgraded the BIOS from A06 to A04. Some articles say this is necessary, some recommend keeping the latest A06. If you do downgrade, be ready for lots of loud beeping as the firmware updater runs.
- Be sure to have a flash drive for the BIOS updater and another drive for the Mac OS X install files. You might be able to create a single drive that does both, but the Mac OS X installation files need lots of space (~16 GB). Since I don’t have a big flash drive, I used an old 20 GB external USB hard drive for the OS X install files.
- Use Netbook BootMaker to modify the Mac OS X install files (after copying the the files from a Snow Leopard install DVD). Use Netbook Installer after Mac OS X is installed.
- I had to use Netbook BootMaker 0.8.2 to prep the Mac OS X install files. I had initially used the latest 0.8.3RC4 version which didn’t work, causing kernel panic errors at the start of Mac OS X installation. Note: Netbook BootMaker and Installer 0.8.3RC5 have just been released, but I haven’t check them out yet.
- While I don’t recall installing the trackpad fix as described in the Gizmodo article, I think I let Netbook Installer 0.8.3RC4 handle the trackpad fix.
I have a few more notes here, but in general, everything in the Gizmodo howto worked and after several hours, you should see something like this.
Congratulations! The scariest part is done, and you’ve now got a Hackintosh!