..or “the rubber” that protects your MacBook topcase from cracking. I am not sure if the title and the first phrase sound as good as in Polish, but both small protectors are made of rubber - condoms and the small rubber beads that protect my MacBook topcase from cracking. I have mentioned just “one blog post ago” that I have discovered the small crack on the topcase “…in a place where the inset of the screen frame touches the top case”. The topcases of the MacBooks White (and Black) are made of too weak plastic, moreover, it is not placed entirely on the plastic chassis of the MacBook and the inset of the screen frame pushing the topcase, just a bit off the place where it touches the chassis in relatively the weakest point of it. As I mentioned before, I intend to send my MacBook for the repeair that is guaranteed. However, for the forthcoming months I have to work on it, so the alternative solution is needed, and this is those small rubber beads sticked to the screen frame, that protect the incests of touching the topcase, keeping it in some distance. The whole idea is described (in Polish) in the article published on the site of the biggest Polish Mac/Apple user web magazine: http://www.myapple.pl/artykuly/81201-pekajace-macbooki.html
Here are the photos:
the crack:
and the solution:
As you know I got two Macs - an iMac 20′ C2D and a MacBook white. I have been quite happy with both of them and I find the Mac OS X very user-friendly, no need to mention the stability, safety and so on. Both machines look great but there is a scratch on that picture.
About 3 weeks ago I was busy burning the dvds with the film from the wedding of my wife’s cousin. I had to burn about 10 copies using the internal iMac Super Drive. After the end of the burning process of the 7th disc, it stuck inside the drive. My iMac went crazy trying to eject it. I tried all methods of force eject (during the reboot, and using terminal) but without any success. I would have stand the disc stuck in the drive if it had been mounted permanently, but my computer tried to eject it every time I turned it on. I had to use a piece of cardboard to push the disc inside to stop the ejecting madness and to force the iMac to mount it. I have even tried to use the tweezers both the ones for the stamps and the hand made ones, made of the piece of aluminium from the old 3,5′ floppy disc… without success.
All of my machines are under warranty, so I called the premium Apple reseller in Poland - SAD (orchard in Polish), where I found out that the new corporate is in charge of all Apple equipment warranties - iSource. Nevertheless, before I call them I found out that replacement of the Super Drive in iMac is a process of about 1 or 2 hours. So I asked the man in charge of warranties in iSource, how long it takes. He replied - 2 weeks, he suggested me to contact via e-mail the man in charge of repairs. I asked once again - is it possible to replace Super Drive in couple of hours if I bring my iMac to Warsaw? His answer was - of course - no. The repair (or replacement) will take 2 weeks. I started to think. What if my iMac had been my only one computer and I had no external hard drive? I wouldn’t be able to back up my files (roughly 150 GBs). No one at iSource could assure me that my files won’t be viewed. I have no porn or abusive material on the HD, but I have some personal documents that are private in sens of viewing by the people I don’t know. Computer is a private files storage and they couldn’t guarantee that it would remain not viewed. The only way was to stay with my iMac for 2 weeks at the iSource workshop. This situation forces the customer to spend additional money for the external hard drive device, so the warranty of free of charge repair is not really true in such case. I was also wondering, why such a simply procedure had to take 2 weeks? I cought a rumour that there is only one person in charge of repairs of Macs at the iSource (premium resseler). I am not sure of that, but from the other hand - Macs are a marginal or a drop in the ocean of PCs that is a computer market in Poland. I don’t know if there is so many Macs that brake and the guy has so much work to do. I said to myself that I was not going to left my machine with my files without my supervision and decided to ask someone to help me with getting the DVD disc out of the drive. Finally we made it, but I am not going to use internal Super Drive any more. I decided to buy an external DVD DL USB powered drive and it suits me fine.
I have almost forgotten about that story described above, when I have discovered the crack of the top case of my MacBook in a place where the inset of the screen frame touches the top case. This time I am going to send it for replacement (of a top case). It seems that both of my expensive Macs are far from perfect from the mechanical point of view.
I am going to be very busy and out of the office (my place) for the next month and first weeks of January (trip to Ireland) so I will wait till the mid January. Also, I am going to by new alu MacBook during my visit in Ireland. They are much cheaper than in Poland.
According to the service IDG.pl and PandaLabs (laboratories of Panda Software) recently over 30 millions of computer users have fallen a victims to the fake anti-virus software. The fake anti-virus software can exist either as a independent application or the java applets activated by the users after getting the fake popup virus alert on the website that warns them that viruses or trojans were detected and immediate installation of anti-virus software is required. The biggest hoax is the fake anit-virus software offered for sale.
Luckily most of the viruses are not targeting Mac, though according to IDG.pl and Sunbelt Software there is one fake anti-virus software for Mac called MacGuard.
More about rogue Mac Guard on Sunbelt Software
Recently introduced MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops by Apple aroused the discussion about the controversional (or not) change of the look of the Apple products. Polish Mac users discuss it loudly. Many of them criticise the new black - silver design that reminds the last edition of iMacs. Many of them can not accept the look that, as they say, reminds them a typical PC laptops. Another controversion is the glossy screen, that is often criticised in comparation to the mat one. The new MacBooks lack the FireWire 400 port. People are wonder if the Apple is going to abandon this port? What about the FW external devices like hard discs, cameras, recording equipment? For many, the MacBook is well enought, they don’t need the Pro version. In case of new Macs, you are forced by Apple to use a MacBook Pro.
Personally, I can not judge new MacBooks until I see and touch them. They don’t look as bad as many people claims (according to the photos). The only thing that is controversial for me is the lack of FW port.
According to newspapper “Polska - The Times” Polish hospitals are organic bomb. Many hospitals in Poland do not have a sewage treatment plant. They flush hospital sewage straight into the public sewerage network. Biological and organic hospital wastes are full of HIV, hepatitis, mycobacteria tuberculosis, coliform and any other mutations of viruses resistant to antibiotics. According to WHO, there are reported cases of hepatitis infection straight from the sewerage network.
In 1997 the legislation was introduced, under which each hospital had to treat its sewage before flushing it to the public sewerage network, but due to the general poverty of the hospitals in Poland the legislation was limited to the hospitals with infectious diseases ward. So far no one has executed that legislation.
More in Polish
Thanks to the kleeper I have just found out the new excellent service ISSUU.com. He called it YouTube for PDF files and I completely agree with his opinion. The attractive form of viewing PDF files provided by ISSUU makes them attractive at last. They can be viewed straigh from the web via the webbrowser equiped with Flash Player also they can be placed inside the blog posts almost like the youtube videos. Due to the lack of my own PDF files available for free publishing I used the PDF doc created from my photoblog www.kozerawski.com. It is not perfect yet and there is no code for wordpress but the HTML and it changes the size of the embed flash file, so you have to fix it manually. Anywa effect is great.
Just take a look, play with the embed file and then clik on it to see the full size options:
Recently Microsoft has released a couple of new TV adverts, at least two of them are straight reply to the Apple’s adverts “Get a Mac” - funny conversations of two men representing two machines - Mac and PC.
The new Microsoft adverts show the man who is similar to the Mr PC from Apple adverts, and then we have a range of short scenes with ordinary people who are admitting that they are PC too. I have to admit, nice idea, and for sure… that is true.. most of people in the world are PC, not Macs at all. However, being in majority is not equal to being better or even the best. Meanwhile the new MS adverts appeared to be easy to reply, and the reply was made long before Microsoft released its adverts. The only thing that left to do was to join together MS advert and Apple advert, and you will get the clear answer and résumé of the Microsoft advertising efforts.
Just take a look:
After a few days of shipment the new Apple toy - iPhone 3G 16 GB finally arrived, though I found the white one instead of the black one that I ordered. Surely Orange has run out of the black ones 16 GB versions and decided to send me the white one. I am a bit disappointed. I don’t like the white one’s look, though I wont replace it since I appreciate and the power of the device more than its look. Actually I am just about to order one of the amazing Gelaskins and I will surely forget about the white back of my iPhone.
The new iPhone 3G is amazing, though there is not so many changes to the old version, but the faster download is the most important. GPS is OK, though it is not very handy for driving. It is ragher good tool when you are lost somewhere or you need to find the fastest and the shortest way (but you will have to keep the eye on the map to stay on track). Aside of the other amazing functionality there is at least two that are pretty handy. Both of them are available on the dark side of the force… on Cydia.
I am about to sign up to Apple iTunes Store, though.. I am waiting for my new credit card. Apple doesn’t accept Polish debit or virtual visa cards, so I have no possibility to sign up for legal apps. Worth to mention is the fact that Apple iTunes Store in Poland is limited to the iPhone apps (even not all of them are availlable). Music is not available for us. At the moment I am actually cut off of Apple Store, but not all handy apps are available over there. There are at least two apps that are available only for jailbroken iPhones, and the one is very important to me.
Aside of LAN at home I am also a 3G mobile internet user. I have actuall two services. One is provided by PLUS GSM together with USB 3G modem (HUAWEI E220) and the other is an additional 3G Internet service to my paymonthly contract with Orange. The Orange internet service suits my iPhone perfectly while the USB modem is for my MacBook. This weekend I found a problem. I am off for the country while my wife is going to stay at her family house. She wants to take with her a laptop and internet - obviously my USB modem with PLUS GMS service. I was about of spending the weekend with the internet limited to iPhone. Luckily I have found a great app - iPhone Modem, that changes my iPhone to a 3G, WIFI modem. The whole system bases on Mac OS X app that sets up an ad hoc wireless connection with Iphone and the iPhone app that works as a modem. Though it doesn’t work with Firefox (at least it needs some additional adjustment) it works fine with Safari.
The other apps are Cycorder that turns iPhone into a video camera (with reasonable quality) and MXTube that allows to save on the device and play offline videos from YouTube.
and the old one iPhone 2G? My wife is lost, she is mad about Mahjong 
Pixelmator
Recently I have discovered another photo/picture modification program for Mac OS X - Pixelmator. Apart of its modern dark theme it looks very similar to the Adobe Photoshop, with almost the same tool and layer pannels. Equiped with basic and important features (layers, curves, filters) could be a potential chip (59$) replacement for Adobe Photoshop, however it is not. The application is very slow, the pointer or moved elements hang sometimes (however, according to the Pixelmator team this is to be solved in next release). There is also lack of the “save for web” feture (or I haven’t found it) with preview of the quality of the picture.
According to Gazeta Wyborcza and Gazeta.pl, civil servants of the town hall in Lublin have found themselves under the control of their employer when the GPS devices were installed in their cars. Since last spring the costs of the petrol fell down but the number of the overtime hours taken by the employees decreased as well. It is possible that the civil servants used to deal with their businesses during the work. The GPS devices are also to control the speed of the cars. The city hall office is going to equip its employers with GPS mobile phones that are able to send the position signal and can be used to trace them.
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