Mmm.. forbidden fruit!
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!
