A week or so ago I had performed some maintenance on the Mac using Onyx which required me to reboot the machine. Fine, no biggie. So when I go to reboot a little while later, nothing happens. Nothing. No chime. No hardrive activity (aside from in turning on with the power)… nothing. After several attempts to start it and get it going, it was obvious it just wasn’t going to work. So, I closed the lid and went to bed (a bit annoyed and frusterated).

<p>When I got up the next morning and pushed the button, _&#8220;Hhhmmmmmmm&#8221;. I got the chime. It booted up like usual and everything was working fine. I chalked it up as somethat Onyx had done and left it at that. Until&#8230;</p>


<p>Today when I got off work, I was using the &#8216;puter while conducting some (eh hem) &#8220;business.&#8221; When the time came in which I needed 2 hands, I closed the lid and <em>&#8220;SNAP!&#8221;</em> The left hinge broke. Crap. Oh well, as long as I can close the lid, it will still work. Still, I was concerned about the hinge so I turned the Mac off and went out to the garage to get some small screwdrivers so I could investigate, &#8220;<em>maybe it could be fixed</em>&#8221; I thought. Turns out, no. It&#8217;s completely busted. In fact, whilst futzing with it, a small piece fell off. Sigh. Oh well, lets put it back together.</p>


<p>I put the screws back in and tried to force the screen to <em>somewhat</em> go back the way it should be. I hit the power button and guess what? That&#8217;s right. <span class="caps">NOTHING</span>! I did the three finger salute about a dozen times and turned it completely off about the same number of times, but still, nothing. Now I&#8217;m thinking, &#8220;<em>Great. Just what I needed; to spend money on a new &#8216;puter</em>.&#8221;</p>


<p>I let is set for a while then tried several more times. This time, I was getting the chime, but it still wasn&#8217;t actually booting. Every so often, it would start to chime, then short out and/or the chime would get really loud and distored. That can&#8217;t be good. Eventually, the damn thing booted (obviously, since I&#8217;m writing this post).</p>


<p>Even though it appears to working fine, I&#8217;m still concerned that my Mac is limping along like a senior citizen with a walker. So, ever since the first time it acted up, I started thinking about a replacement and I&#8217;m really torn at this point. I work all day on a Wintel desktop (not by choice) and I feel more productive on a desktop. At the same time, I can&#8217;t really afford a new G5 desktop (since I&#8217;d have to buy a monitor as well). I could get a new iMac, but even then, it&#8217;s going to run me closer to $2k. I just can&#8217;t spend that much.</p>


<p>So, that only leaves me with one other option. Get a Wintel machine. Not the ideal replacement, but cheap. I see Dell&#8217;s with reasonable specs for around $800 with a 17&#8221; <span class="caps">LCD</span> monitor. So, certainly, for less than $1k, I can pick up a relatively nice desktop and <span class="caps">LCD</span> monitor.</p>


<p>I hate to <b><span class="caps">NOT</span></b> buy an Apple, but I just can&#8217;t justify it anymore. Most of the work I&#8217;m doing these days is web development. The days of design went bye-bye when I started at <a href="http://www.autobytel.com">Autobytel</a> so Photoshop work is minimal. Besides that, with the new browsers and <span class="caps">CSS</span>, I find myself using less images in my layouts. And, lets face it, a text editor is a text editor. I can use just about any text editor to get my work done. I&#8217;ve tried just about all of them (<a href="http://www.vim.org">Vim</a> , <a href="http://www.barebones.com">BBEdit</a>, <a href="http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/">SubEthaEdit</a>, <a href="http://smultron.sourceforge.net/">Smultron</a>, <a href="http://www.jedit.org/">jEdit</a>, <a href="http://www.html-kit.com"><span class="caps">HTML</span>-Kit</a>, <a href="http://www.zend.com"><span class="caps">ZDE</span></a>, <a href="http://www.macromedia.com">Coldfusion Studio</a> and a handful others).... what to do. How about a pros  and cons list&#8230; ok.</p>


<p><b><span class="caps">CONS</span></b> (Buying an x86 machine)</p>


<p>+    All my drives are formatted as <span class="caps">HFS</span>+ so I&#8217;d have to figure that one out

+ All my photos are in iPhoto and the directory structure is not favorable + If I don’t use Windows (e.g. Linux) I can’t use iTunes + It’s not a Mac + I’d have a barcode stamped on my forehead that would distinguish me from the rest of the windows zombies.

<p><b><span class="caps">PROS</span></b></p>


<p>+    I don&#8217;t <em>have</em> to run Windows

+ Apple is soon to release Mac OS X for x86 since they’re going to start using Intel chips + Someone has already got OS X (Tiger) running on x86 + I don’t have to run Windows + Hardware is cheap

<p>I don&#8217;t know what to do. It wouldn&#8217;t be too terribly hard to get all my data over to a new filesystem (especially with Linux since they actually have <span class="caps">HFS</span> support, at least, they used to). At this point, the toughest part would be convincing my wife that I need another computer  </p>

I guess I could get a Mac mini…

Who is this guy? And what’s his problem with Fuji?

This looks “neat.” I think I want the Cotton Candy Pink color. Ssssuper!

Sony Announces Walkman Bean

I find this both disturbing and funny at the same time. It’s quite obvious why it’s disturbing. I mean, honestly, who sells Apple iBooks for $50?! The funny part is that the school district only had something like 1000 laptops for sale yet, over 5500 people showed up. You’d think after seeing the first, oh say 1500 people, one would turn around and leave… apparently not :\

<p>What&#8217;s even more fascinating is that if a county school district was selling 4 year old Windows laptops for $50, you&#8217;d find a 100 <a href="http://www.fotosearch.com/bigcomp.asp?path=SPS/SPS134/1098R-5139B.jpg">Asian guys</a> (half of which own computer shops) standing patiently in single file line.</p>

Va. Laptop Sale Turns Into a Stampede

A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far as to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.

<p>Point!</p>

I had already updated the header on the template to use my photos, but I’ve added a couple more tonight. I know I have at least one more photo I want (but probably shouldn’t) use sitting on the camera, but alas, I’m lazy (or busy, I can’t decide). Nonetheless, the images are mine own.

SCMZZZZZZZ.jpg” alt=”Buena Vista Social Club” style=”float:left;margin:5px;” />While I was attending CSU Chico, one of the classes I took was Global Studies in World Music. It was part of the “Theme” studies every student must take to graduate. I was an excellent class (aside from the teacher who was a little on the weird side). It was in this class that I was introduced to the Buena Vista Social Club. While my music tastes have evolved over the years, I probably would not have even thought about Cuban music as something I would like. Now, I’m by no means an expert on Latin music, but this is one of my favorite albums of all times. It’s very pleasant to listen to and generally a great musical experience. I highly recommend seeing the movie and buying the soundtrack.

This is just… I don’t know. Are we running out of ideas for sports? I mean, I thought poker tournaments where a little on the odd side, but (http://www.ifoce.com/)?

<p>&#8220;Daddy, when I grow up, I want a job eating as much as I can in 10 minutes.&#8221;</p>


<p>&#8220;Son, you&#8217;re an American. It&#8217;s in your blood.&#8221;</p>

Disney is really batting 1000 these days. I wonder how much their liability insurance costs per month?

Girl, 12, Collapses at Disney Park, Dies – Yahoo! News

ORLANDO – A 12-year-old girl collapsed at a Disney World water park Thursday and later died, authorities said.

The girl was in the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon at about 6 p.m. when lifeguards noticed her lying on a ledge, out of the water, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.

Speaking of large things… this is one big catfish. Funny, the story says these guys are from the U.K. I didn’t realize the U.K. had white trash (a.k.a. British angler). Interesting.

Good Lord she’s tall.

Good luck to Becky Hammon (front), Margo Dydek has got at least a two, two and a half foot advantage… Becky looks like a friggin midget… sorry, “small person.”

Photo courtesy of Associated Press (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)