The "Über" Ranger Blog Show

Why yes, yes it is… #Hackintosh.  What an iPad really should be. ;^)

This past week has seen me take further steps into the Apple World (well on my way to becoming a true Apple Fanboi), something that started for me about six month ago really when I bought my first Apple product ever an iPod Touch 32. Indeed, right out of the box.. their stuff just plain works, and well too. But I digress a bit.. where was I just a week ago?

Well, last Saturday I decided to back up my Gateway Vista laptop with a product called Acronis True Image Home 2010 only to find that during the test restore of said image, my laptop ’shit’ itself (a highly technical term for overheat) which left me with no working laptop and a pooched hdisk (no MBR or SATA drivers). Nope would not boot, even from the said recovery disks I was asked to make when I bought the thing. Being an OEM product, of course Gateway had their recovery image tucked away in a hidden partition on the disc and provided no tangible Vista install discs with the laptop on resale. Now, to their credit I was on a chat line with Acronis tech support and they assured me that if I could get that sucker to boot again, their backup image would indeed restore fully.

SO, the next logical step was to talk with Gateway Tech support whom in so many words told me that seeing as my laptop had just come off warranty… and as a single one-time best effort… here is what you do (then promptly told me how to restore said image from hidden partitions). Uhm, I explained to them yet AGAIN that I had no partitions left and no working boot/recovery discs. They said well then.. you’re shit out of luck there, and didn’t even offer to send me a Vista Install CD. WTF!? My laptop was “bricked”. Nice!

The next day, thanks to a coworker (whom is all knowing in Geekery) got it working again. He found and cleared out all the hidden dust bunnies that lived inside my CPU fan that caused the overheat. He then recommended to me a new 500 GB hdisk to upgrade from the 250 GB, and an upgrade copy of Windows 7. No, I really didn’t want to go to Windows 7… I swore I never would go there… but now it seemed logical to get me going again. $200 later and two hours I had the new hdisk installed and “upgraded” to Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Sweet! Let the good times roll again! Nope!

Went to enter the Windows 7 CD-KEY provided.. and it came up as invalid. Huh!? Okay, so that same evening (last Monday) I called Microsoft to figure out how to activate it. Long story short, after going through about five different phone numbers from voice machines and hours on hold queues I found a real person whom told me flat out that the key would not work unless I installed it over a pre-existing Vista installation. He said I would have to go out and buy the full cut of Windows 7. I explained to him that I was looking directly on the bottom of my laptop at the holographic sticker they put there, that it was a genuine copy, and I bought an upgrade. Nope, no dice. So, I kindly told him.. “FUCK YOU, I’M BUYING A MAC!” (yes in those exact words). Damn.. it felt good too!

Left to my own devices now, I reached for the Acronis imaging software and sure enough within another 2 hours I had restored the backup and had Vista running on my laptop. Great! So, let’s jam in Windows 7 “upgrade” back on their. I reach for the 64-bit cd as both were provided in the upgrade. Won’t install!? WTF! Yeah, because my Windows Vista was a 32-bit, that only apparently entitled me to the 32-bit version of Windows 7. Whatever, pop in the the 32-bit disc and after another 2 hours Windows 7 is installed.. AGAIN. This time the CD-KEY works now. Great.. back up the image of Win7 now… hoping never to go back again to Vista.. or forward with Microsoft. I went shopping for Macs this week.. and was a just finger pull away from my Visa and buying a Macbook Pro for $1799. But the price was so hard to swallow.

I have decided for now to order from Dell.Ca on-line an Inspiron Mini 10V with the full intention of slamming Snow Leopard on it to build a $360 Hackintosh, that works well by all accounts (and yes I have seen in it working in  person). It is quite impressive and even runs the iPhone SDK. Which brings me to this. I have decided also this week to get into iPhone development. I have already joined the Apple Developer program as have a few other friends.

To clinch the deal, I went out and bought an iPhone 32GS and a three year contract with Telus… also hard to swallow but it’s done. My Dell Mini 10V should arrive in about two weeks, although, I could have just walked into Best Buy here and bought it (you can to). If the Dell Mini 10V and Hackintosh don’t cut it.. my next move into the Apple World may well be to go buy a Mac Mini for $649 and be done with it… stay tuned. We have a few projects in mind for the Apple AppStore already, but more later on!

Freedom 45.. here I come!

Must… go…. buy… a Mac soon! Resistance… is.. FUTILE! I will be assimilated!

Giiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

What I got on screen when trying to install Vista SP2… before it died… and my Gateway M-Series laptop went into endless reboot mode… dumping all non-essential system drivers… like video… ethernet… keyboard… mouse.

M$hit… better luck with SP3.. and yeah I can bide my time until I get that Mac. No way in hell I will buy Windows 7 now!

No, I am not the only one complaining about this isssue… see Microsoft Technet forum post here.

I am really getting sick of Windoze! This one took me two hours to sort out tonight! Why in the h-e-double hockey sticks (HELL) did my Network File & Print Sharing mysteriously stop working tonight. Seems some registry value up and vanished like a fart in the wind off my box — thus disabling net shares.

P.S. – Me being the ‘administrator’ of said PC — means I had to fix it myself.

Solving this problem requires a Registry edit:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Navigate to the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
   \LanmanServer\Parameters
4. In the right pane, double-click the IRPStackSize value.

Important: If the IRPStackSize value does not already exist, you will need to create it:
- In the Parameters folder of the registry, right-click the right pane.
- Point to New, and then click DWord Value.
- Type IRPStackSize.

Important: Type "IRPStackSize" exactly as it is displayed because the value name is case-sensitive.

5. Change the Base to decimal.
6. In the Value Data box, type a value that is larger than the value that is listed.
   If you created the IRPStackSize value using the procedure described in step 4, the default value is 15. It is recommended that you increase the value by 3. Therefore, if the previous value was 11, type 14, and then click OK.
7. Close the Registry Editor.

Restart the computer.

Oh, was it perhaps because I installed ‘Ubuntu’ on my box tonight Billy Boy… and Mac OS X (bootleg trial edition).

Nay nay to Windows 7 I say! Yah, one more step closer to a Mac… or Linux solution.

After doing battle for 24 hours straight… I now haz Ubuntu Linux, Win XP, and Mac OS X (Tiger) running simultaneously on my Intel Dual Core PC machine.

Whew.. only the first day of my vacation too. What shall I do next? I know, I will cut the lawn.. tomorrow… Gnite!

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz…..

PS – I guess, somewhere in the blitz of Torrenting, and crashing my machine repeatedly, I must have also updated my Wordpress Blog at somepoint during the night as well. I don’t rightly recall, it’s kinda been a blur. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the minty fresh look… and.. maybe I will get BSD installed next. It looks kinda HOT!

Well, I was just off line for the past 24 hours busy disinfecting viruses and spy wares off my PC again. What that basically means, of course, is do a FORMAT C: /S and run SETUP.EXE from the Winders XP SP2 disc again and you’ll be minty fresh again in just two to three hours time. Of course, after re-adding all your applications and data as well, and getting ready to do it all again in another six months time (keeping those install and driver CD’s nearby.)

Yah I know!! I was very tempted to just say Fark-It and go buy a new whiz bang 2.6 Gagigahertz PC Athlon Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, 450 MB Hdisk, fancy video card to run a desktop Areospace GUI with Vista whatever flavah pre-loaded fer just $1,100 last night. But then sanity prevailed at the final moment – thankfully!

Yeah, I thought, would I really be any further ahead? Yah know, I’ve been a Mac Basher for quite a few years, but then when all of my Mac buddies pat me on the back and say, “There, there now!” each time I go through this it starts to make a guy wonder. Really wonder! Just like them new Apple Vs PC commercials which are also winning my favor these days.

To that end, I am determined to install Ubunto Linux distribution on my PC tonight after doing one more FORMAT C: /S (well, okay, not really, but I will install it along side my existing O/S) to see which survives longer. If I can live in Linux-land and get used to it (this new distribution is pretty easy to install and use) as I understand it, I will only be a step closer to MacWorld which also has nifty WinIntel support in a vmware environment for the apps that just you can’t run anyplace else.

So, my goal is to get World Of Warcraft up and running on Linux. If I can do that I may just put off Bill this time and send my money instead to Steve Jobs, or, build a killer Linux box.

My previous rants:

:: http://ranger-bob.net/?p=125
:: http://ranger-bob.net/?cat=14
:: http://ranger-bob.net/?p=540#comments (Ubunto)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

“April showers, bring May flowers.
Takes away the dust, and makes it rust!”

Yes, it’s raining outside right now, and as Scratch emailed me this morning — “Hell has also just frozen over!”

:: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Hey Jude
(As Recorded by Tiny Tim & Brave Combo)
(Lennon-McCartney)
(And Bastardized by Ranger Bob)

Hey, Steve, don’t make it mp3
Take all those old songs and sell ‘em
Remember to open up your wallet
Then you can start to download it.

Hey, Steve, be so afraid
We are still around to go out and sue you
The minute you let us under your iPod skin
Then you can begin to make our wallets fatter.

And any time you feel the pain, hey, Steve, refrain
Don’t carry France upon your shoulders
Well all know that its a fool who buys it
By making his downloads a whole lot slower.

Hey, Steve! Don’t let us down
You have founded her, now go out and loose her
Remember, to let us into your wallet
Then you can start to make us feel better.

So let it out and let it in, hey, Steve, begin
You’re waiting for someone to partner with
And don’t you know that it’s just you, hey, Steve,
You’ll do, the movement you need is on your lawyers.

Hey, Steve, don’t make it small
You took our logo and made it better
Remember to let us into your wallet
Then you can start to make us feel better.

:: Related Links (Apple Vs Apple).

@ 8:58 PM

%#!$’ing Game(r)s Today!

Now, where did I put my 1541 drive cable. Ahh.. there it is. Don’t need no stinking 2.83 GHZ… Whazoo Voody Doddie Video Card to play Jumpman. WTF? They made a C=65? Damnation!

Related Links:

:: http://www.loadingreadyrun.com/

Gametards (What we’re up against these days.. 16 year olds!):

:: Halo Geek
:: Half-Life Geek
:: Halo Montage
:: Punk Ass Drivers (Probably don’t have a learners permit in real life!)
:: BF2 Demo *Start as a n00b* (That’s me.. a n00b!)
:: BF2 Planewhore (I met a few of these! I wanna be a planewhore!)
:: Goddamn Frogs

Don’t make me upgrade yet! Aww dammit… that’s just wrong!

:: Plane Pimp!

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