This is the desktop of one of my respected friends. I wont disclose whose desktop this is, but take a look at the massive density of those icons. It’s not just one layer of files, there are multiple! And yeah, my buddy knows the notion of folders. As you can see, there are even a few on the desktop! Can you beat *that*?
UPDATE: This notebook died in a tragic accident. It fell almost 3 storys from a coffee bar at LAX. It still worked after the accident but it succumbed to its injuries a few days later. May it rest in peace!
Remember 1992 when most likely you were using DOS and Windows 3.11? Turns out I was using the wrong OS back then. I just found this presentation of NextStep R3 which was released in 1992. It’s really mind blowing how advanced that OS already was. Many of the concepts shown are still used in modern OSes like Mac OS X or new versions of Windows. Well, of course Mac OS X evolved from NextStep but it’s really remarkable to see how many features only came to life when Mac OS X was introduced 10 years later. It looks like it really took 10 years for the world (or Apple?) to recorgnize the potential of NextStep! Just to name a few things shown in 1992 which can be found in current versions of Mac OS X and are now really popular: the dock, services, mail, the finder
UPDATE: I really thought something major was going on. I mean, why would Apple need to shut down all their online stores? Well, it looks like they did it to introduce a few new colors for their iPod Shuffle. How lame… I really hoped for new displays.
BTW, does anyone know why Apple shuts down their store each and every time they update some products? It really makes no sense to me…
I have just added the ETH cafeterias to the list. Please note, that not all cafeterias can be parsed correctly. I try to get the right data but can’t guarantee that. If you know of other cafeterias around the ETH or UZH please send me links to pages with their daily menus. I will try to include them to the list.
Today I’ve been experimenting with Apple’s new DashCode tool and have created a small (and probably very buggy) widget. The widget queries a web service I have wrote to get each day’s menu of my university’s cafeteria. Anyway, it works and it might be a simple but nice gadget for people studying and working at the Department of Informatics. So I decided to share the result. You can download the widget here. Improvements, remarks or any other kind of feedback is very welcome.
Even though I used almost any version of Windows, starting with 3.0, I’ve been a Mac user for the last 4 years since 2002. I enjoy Mac OS X very much I’m still using Windows from time to time. When doing web development for instance, I often have to check compatibility with IE6 and now 7. And since Windows Vista came out a few days ago I decided to get a copy and see myself what the fuzz is all about. Since my new Mac sports an Intel CPU I decided to keep using my Mac and install this new beast of an OS on my MacBook Pro 17” I got this spring.
I was lucky enough to get a copy of Vista from my University which holds a MSDNAA license. The license I got is for Windows Vista Business edition. This is the version without Media Center. Instead it comes with “improved networking functionality”, whatever this means… probably it just means you can logon to a Windows domain. Very improved functionality indeed!
Anyway, I’m going to document the installation process on a MacBook Pro. Maybe someone else will find this manual useful when trying to install Vista on a MacBook.
First of all, there is a big warning at this point: DON’T PROCEED WITHOUT BACKING UP YOUR CURRENT MAC OS X INSTALLATION. Installing Vista can result in a complete loss of all your data on your machine!
Ok, you have backed up everything, right? Let’s continue:
Get the BootCamp Beta from Apples site. You should check that you really have the current version of this nice tool. Install it, and start it.
Burn a recent copy of the drivers disk. Even if you already have a driver’s disk, check that it was burned with the latest version of bootcamp. Many drivers have been updated in the latest release.
Now continue with partitioning your hard-drive. Make sure your hard-drive needs no repair. You can check this with the Disk Utility application which comes with Mac OS X. Partitioning will fail if your hard-disk is not healthy! When partitioning also make sure to keep enough space for your Mac OS X installation. Mac OS X becomes very slow if there is not enough space left on the hard-disk. Also make sure to have enough space for your new Vista installation. The OS and a few applications will require at least 15-20 GB space on your disk. Vista recommends 10 GB for a minimal installation.
Start the Windows installation from BootCamp. BootCamp will ask to insert a Windows XP servicepack 2 cd. Just ignore this message and insert a Windows Vista CD instead. BootCamp will not complain and restart your computer.
Things will get interesting now! First of all, say bye-bye to high-resolution! Windows Vista first starts in some kind of pseudo text-mode and will then switch to something like a 800×600 pixel resolution. If this is all to technical for you, don’t worry, it simply means, the installation looks ugly!
Anyway, Windows Vista will now ask you for some regional settings and then will proceed to the license key entry. Just enter it. By the way, the key includes dashes (-). The dash key did not work on my MacBook Pro with a Swiss German keyboard. Still this was no problem since the dashes will be entered manually if you just continue to type in the license key.
The next step is very important and also very dangerous. After selecting the “custom installation” Vista will ask you for your hard-disk partition you want to install it to. Look carefully and identify the partition which you created for Vista. You can recognize it by looking at the sizes of the partitions. On a standard Mac OS X installation with one partition you should see four partitions on this screen. The last one is usually the new partition for Windows. I say “usually” because it is imperative that you double-check this. If you select the wrong partition you WILL destroy your Mac OS X installation.
The next thing you will notice when continuing is Vista installing itself. Vista will show a screen where it iterates through the following steps:
Copying Windows files
Expanding files
Installing features
Installing updates
Windows will reboot at this point.
There will be a message while booting to hit any key to boot from cd/dvd. DON’T! Windows will continue installing by itself. If you hit any key you will simply restart the Windows installation from the cd.
After rebooting you will still see the same screen. This time the Windows Vista installation will be “Completing Installation”.
The step took quite a while on my MacBook Pro with 2GB of ram. UPDATE: This installation step crashed (what better way to welcome a new Windows user ). After waiting 30m I decided to reboot my machine and see what happens. I figured that Windows will have some kind of way to resume the installation. In fact I was presented with the Windows Recovery screen which suggested to “start windows normally”. After reloading the installation error was discovered and I was suggested to restart the installation. One click later my machine is rebooting once more.
This time you will have to push any key, when asked to boot from the cd/dvd. We will go back to step 5 and hope that the installation will not freeze again. If it doesn’t then you’ve made it to step 10. Welcome to the real Windows .
After the screen going dark and showing only the mouse cursor the installation will restart again. Again don’t boot from cd/dvd and wait for the user setup screen to show up. Enter your name and a password if you would like to secure your machine with it.
Next, choose a name for your computer and select a desktop background.
Now select your kind of protection level. Keep in mind, since this is Windows your are better off using the “recommended settings” .
Select your time settings on the next screen. For some kind of reason the clock was one hour late.
Windows Vista installation will now thank you .
The installation will now start checking your computer’s performance. Again, who knows what is really going on at this stage of the installation :).
The login screen will now come up. Windows seems to be installed. Login and take a first look of your new OS. But we’re not done yet! The real work just starts now!
Installing drivers! Without these drivers you will not be able to use the bluetooth or wireless lan adapter. In order to do this you will need to eject the Vista install cd and insert the bootcamp driver disc. But since you are running Windows without any drivers now, you will not be able to eject the cd by pushing F12. You will need to go to the Windows Explorer (Start->Computer), select the CD/DVD drive and push select.
After inserting the bootcamp cd you will be asked if you would like to run autorun.exe. There will be a Windows security message asking you, if you want to let the unidentified program access your computer. Deny this, since we will need to extract the drivers from the installer manually.
First, copy the “Install Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP.exe” File to some directory of your Windows installation. I made a directory named c:\Users\myusername\Drivers and copied the file there.
Open a shell and go to your directory. Type cd \DirName . Now type “Install Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP.exe” /A /v . This will extract the drivers from the installation package. At the warning just allow the execution. Select your language and continue. When prompted select the directory again. The files will be extracted to that directory. Windows will prompt you for reinstalling. Don’t allow this. The files were successfully extracted. Windows just didn’t get it…
You can use the Windows Explorer now to continue. Go to the directory where the files were extracted and select program files -> Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP 1.1.2 -> Apple Keyboard and run setup.exe. Click through the installation and the keyboard should work as expected (Eject key, function keys) after restarting Windows.
For all drivers I was able to install, this is as far as we can go. Still missing now is Bluetooth, iSight and the trackpad. Right-clicking is not possible without additional applications. If anyone knows how to install more drivers, please let me know in the comments. I’m sure others will profit from your knowledge too!
By the way, I got a 4.8 “Windows Experience Index”. Oh, and if you want to go back to good old Mac OS X, then just reboot and hold the “Alt/Option” key while booting. It will give you the OS selection screen where you can select your Mac OS X partition to boot from. Enjoy!
I just rescued a friend’s Nokia E61 which was not booting anymore. There was no way to flash the phone with the Nokia Updater since it wouldn’t boot and the Nokia Updater needs a working E61. A Nokia Repair center also told us they couldn’t do anything for us and that they would have to send the unit in to Nokia for repair.
Well, I happened to stumble across a site on the net which would describe how to reset a Nokia 6600 which is running an old version of the series 60 OS. It was using both *#7370# (hard reset) and *#7380# (soft reset) for resetting a working unit but further more it also showed, that you could format the unit by pushing the “green phone key”, 3 and * together while powering on the unit. Since the E61 powers up immediately when you insert the battery you will have to push those three keys before you insert the battery. As soon the battery is inserted to Nokia logo will show up for a while. You must hold the buttons until the pin code entry comes up. While you hold the keys the unit will reformat its flash memory and revert to a factory default state.
By doing this I was able to recover an apparently broken unit without having to send it in to Nokia for repair. I thought I’d share this as it might come in handy for someone else. Let me know if this worked for you too!
BTW: I think this works with other models like the E50, E60, E70, N-Series and others too.
I just found out that the Nokia Software Updater (v 1.0.88en) now recognizes the E61. Almost a week ago this was not the case yet. Is Nokia possibly going to roll out the 2.0618.06.05 firmware via NSU? This really would be awsome! BTW: FW 2.0618.06.05 is still not available at Nokia Service Centers.
Nokia has released a new blackberry client for the old firmware 1.610.04.04 of the Nokia E61 smartphone. This release (v 6.28.1) was released for the new, yet unavailable firmware version 2.618.06.05. Nokia seems to have finally realized that this firmware is not yet available and seems to have back-ported the new blackberry client to the older firmware. I can confirm that the installation of the new blackberry client works on the old firmware. After upgrading you will have to restart your phone and re-setup your account in the messaging section of the phone. Don’t forget to request the registration from the blackberry menu. It will take a while until the phone is registered with the network.
As for the changes in the new release, things like opening urls from an email into the browser now work. I don’t know yet what else has been changed. It would be nice if Nokia provided some kind of changelog, as it is common practice in the industry.
