Too damn tall, Florida edition

Too damn tall, Florida edition,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

More Apple woes ... Asus, anyone?

I wanted to copy some files from an external HD onto my MBP. However, the drive appears to be corrupted, and won't mount under 10.4. However, it will mount under 10.5. So, I use my PB12 (with 10.5) to mount the drive, and get ready to copy the files off of it. However, soon realize that I don't have enough free space on any other drives to accommodate the files I'm trying to copy. Decide to use my MBP as another external drive for the PB12, to copy the files directly from one to the other. But, somehow the MBP drive becomes corrupted during the copy. Leopard? Not sure.
Can no longer boot the MBP, although not completely despondent yet because I have a backup via JungleDisk (set to do hourly backups - sweet). Poke around a bit and manage to mount it on the PB12 and run Disk Utility against it. No dice. Then reboot it and get into command line, running fdsk against it. No dice. Reboot again and it actually boots. Everything works, have access to my files, happy briefly. However, Disk Utility still reports failures, and ... oh wait ... my Desktop and Dock settings aren't saved between logins. Something's corrupted in there. And my Preferences folder alternatively shows 12 files and 50+ files, depending on when I open it.
So I decide to use my MBP install disks to rebuild it, but don't have space on an external drive to back everything up. (Would use JungleDisk, but it'd be too slow to download.) So I take the MBP, boot it into target disk mode, and then attach it to Rachel's laptop as an external HD. Copy all of the files onto her machine, but there isn't enough space. So pull some of the files onto my iPod, freeing up a bit of space, and then pull the rest of the files over. Then format my MBP HD, and try to do the install. But the MBP disks are for Ilana's MBP, not mine.
Remembering this from a previous incident, I decide to do what worked last time: keep my MBP in target mode, and use Ilana's laptop to do the install (onto my MBP as an external HD, rather than onto her internal HD). However, this time, it says that it can't install onto that external HD.
Deep breath.
Currently working on Plan C, which is to mount my MBP as an external drive to Ilana's MBP, and then doing a restore of her HD onto my HD. Assuming this works, will reboot my machine once the copy is complete, and then delete her profile and add one for me. After that? Figure out how to relicense Adobe Creative Suite without de-licensing it first (which I couldn't do, once my machine decided to stop booting), as well as iTunes (within which I recently did the once-a-year-relicense-all-my-machines).
Wish me luck. Meanwhile, all my bets are on the Asus EEE PC (which I'm currently using).

Second choice

Second choice,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

So when Magic Kingdom is full, they redirect people to other places
within the complex. Wonder if the people working at Epcot feel like
second-choice employees.

Next time she packs, I'm renting a U-Haul

Next time she packs, I'm renting a U-Haul,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Vacation baggage woes

When technology fails

When technology fails,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Man, oh man. Connected the MBP 10.4 in target disk mode to my PB12
10.5. The PB12 proceeded to corrupt the MBP HD, to where Disk Utility
and fdsk can't even hope to figure out what happened. Lucky me, I back
up hourly (really) via JungleDisk. Phew.

Happy 16th anniversary to us!

Happy 16th anniversary to us!,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Yay!

So many Mac problems this week

Man, Apple-land is not my friend right now.

Had to replace the battery in my MacBook Pro 15" because it wouldn't charge, and would randomly shut down. Microsoft Word just disappeared right in the middle of working on a document. No crash report, nothing. Couldn't connect to the WiFi at the airport, while someone with Windows XP next to me hopped right on. iDisk is reporting that it's almost full, but it isn't. Apple Mail suddenly forgot all of its UI settings, so I had to re-configure all my columns again. PowerBook 12 at home running 10.5 stopped responding to keyboard. Wife's MacBook Pro has Safari crash about 7 times a day. Can't access my iDisk from PowerBook 12, get a some error number. Parallels had problems with the network. Closed the lid on the MBP and set it on the seat next to me on the plane. Picked it up and it had turned itself off. Lost work. PowerPoint wouldn't present properly earlier this week, crashed every time I put it into presentation mode. iDisk sync gave spurious error messages to Ilana. HP printer installer appears every time I boot, can't get rid of it (and it's not in my startup items).

"It just works"?

Bullsh-t.

J.W. Marriott in Grand Rapids, MI gets it

Sometimes a company hits the target dead-on - like the J.W. Marriott in Grand Rapids, MI. Wow. Just a short list of the things that they do right:
- Fantastic restaurant
- Big, gigantic flat-screen TV in the room
- Ability to plug your PC, S-Video, or DVI source into the TV; I watched TV on iTunes all last night
- Free low-bandwidth WiFi, low-cost upgrade to higher-bandwidth WiFi
- Big, spacious, modern rooms
- Four power plugs at desk height
- Two more power plugs at table top height beside the bed for your cellphone charger or whatever
- Starbucks in the lobby ... mmm
- Great soaps (did I just say that?)
- Twistable-neck reading lights next to the bed

That said, I'm also still swooning over the Hotel Monaco in Chicago where they gave me a "tall person" bed ... I swear, it's the longest bed I've seen in my life ... at least 7' long, maybe even 7'6". Crazy goodness.

Impressions of Chicago

Impressions of Chicago,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Late night, on the way to downtown

Too damn tall

Too damn tall,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Doorway at school, cotter pin holding door closer elbow together