Wireless Costless
Well, it was a good news/bad news kinda deal…
Good news: I figured out both what was wrong with the iMac’s wireless connectivity, and how to deal with it such that I didn’t have to drill holes or take the iMac in for repairs.
Bad news: It wasn’t cost-free.
In short, the Airport (wireless) card in the iMac is dead. I tried pretty much everything I could find to try at Apple’s support site, and I couldn’t get it jolted back into working. Unfortunately, beyond RAM upgrades, the iMac isn’t really something that I want to try and crack open in order to make sure that something just didn’t come unseated. And I really didn’t want to take the time/money/risk of taking it into the Apple Store (in Chicago) in order for them to check it out. I didn’t get the AppleCare with it, and it’s been about 15 months since I got it, so it’s out of warranty.
Since the wired NIC works without a problem (heck, I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to when then Airport card died, as I haven’t even tried to use it for months…), I set out to figure out a way to see if I could leverage my existing wireless network. This, then, is where I met with some success. Apple has made it quite easy to link two (or more) Airport base stations together into an extended-range single wireless network. So, all I had to do was go out & plunk down some coin for a new Airport Extreme.
Eh, after deciding to take the plunge & get the full MacBook Pro monty, what’s another $180 in order to see my grand vision come to fruition, right? In for a penny, in for a pound!
So, I was able to set up the new, better-featured, Airport Extreme as the main base station, and I relegated the older one to be the relay station and, more importantly, the iMac’s link into the wireless network.
Everything is now working as it should — the family is getting adjusted to using the iMac, and I’ve got my MBP setup going, including having the 19″ ViewSonic LCD monitor from the now dismantled virus/malware magnet, er, Windows box running as a second display alongside the MBP. It’s pretty cool to have a 1280×1024 display to complement & expand the workspace provided by the MBP’s 1440×900 display.
All’s well that ends well, I guess…
-ghp
ETA: 6/12
Soon to arrive at Schloß TB:
A brand spanking new 15″ MacBook Pro!
Side benefit #1: It’s coming with a free 4gb iPod Nano (silver, natch…)
Side benefit #2: Schloß TB will now officially be an all-Mac shop, as the orneriness & age of the last Windows box prompted this upgrade.
I’m giddy with excitement…
-ghp
And After A 15 Year Hiatus…
22 years after I first wanted one (but settled for a IIc instead)…
18 years after I first got one (an SE)…
15 years after I went over to the PC/Intel/DOS/Windows side…
I’m finally going back.
Back to the Mac!
Yup, a nice, shiny, new 17″ 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo iMac is making its way to my grubby little hands.
And I can hardly wait!
I’ve gotten to the point that I’m tired, more or less, of building my own computers, as well as dealing with the vagaries of Windows. I respectfully tolerate Windows, and the world of XP (and Vista if/when it ever arrives) is certainly better than than either the DOS/Win or Mac worlds were back 15 years ago. But I’m tired of dealing with the constant state of care, feeding, and vigilance that Windows imposes on a responsible computer user.
Building/assembling my own systems just doesn’t hold the hobbyist allure that it once did — I’m at a point where I’d rather spend my time using the computer (surfing, blogging, writing, etc…) as a tool than as an end in & of itself (tinkering, tweaking, etc…). I want my main system to be one that is rock solid, easily updatable & maintainable, powerful, and cool — both in hardware and software. And Apple is currently the only provider of such an integrated solution. OS X 10.4.5 is the best marriage of UNIX & GUI out there, and the new Intel-based Macs are incredibly advanced, powerful, and cool.
Apple’s OS X 10.4.5 (Tiger) is, quite simply, the best operating system currently out there. Linux is a rapidly developing up & comer, but it requires too much time & effort, and I’ve found that I get overwhelmingly consumed by it when I try to run it. I’ll dabble with it in the future. And I don’t really hold out that much hope for Windows, as I’m not sure that Windows can be salvaged without a total scrap-and-rebuild effort — the kind of thing that Microsoft has never been willing to do, but that Apple has done 4 times (Apple II to Mac, Mac 68k to Mac PPC, Mac OS “Classic” to OS X, and PPC to Intel). Sometimes, the installed base simply must be told that they’ve got to change to move ahead, backwards compatibility be damned…
I’ll never suffer the radical platform-bigots/zealots gladly, because I’ve long believed & said that there are pluses/minuses & valid uses for all the major platforms. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Mac, and I’m really fired up about being able to drink the kool-aid again! 
Anyway, as long as I’ve got kids who like to play Disney’s ToonTown Online, I’ll have to keep a decent Windows box around! 
-ghp
20 Years of Tetris
It doesn’t seem possible — Tetris has turned 20.
It hardly seems possible, but it was almost 17 years ago that the relationship between me & my (soon to be) wife was solidified over some marathon sessions of alternating games of Tetris on my Mac SE (1MB RAM & 20MB HD). Good times. 
The game that ate away the most time back then, however, was a card game called Klondike. This hugely addictive game (I swear that sometimes I almost got into a trance playing it, and couldn’t stop even if I’d have wanted to…) was, IIRC, the first shareware app that I ever registered! And the registration has served me well, as I was able to contact the author a year or two ago to ensure that my “lifetime upgrades” license was still in effect. Thus, the game that I first started playing on a Mac running System 5.1 is still running on my Mac G4 that’s running OS X 10.4.3! Very cool…
-ghp
(and, yes, I know I’m slack for not posting more — but given my readership/hit-counter numbers, I’m not sure that anyone’s even noticing… 
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