I'm getting ready for my teaching trip to Peru. This is my third time, so I pretty much know what's going to be happening.
There are three students this year. Their names are Katie, Crystal, and Aaron.
Here are their blogs:
Katie
Crystal
Aaron
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Where angels fear to tread
Well I took the plunge, tore apart my PowerBook G4. I had instructions from PBFixit.com. Excellent instructions. Showed pictures with little colored circles showing what screw to remove. Every time I took a little screw out I taped it to the paper.
No problem getting the hard drive out--basically remove the keyboard and top cover, and there you are. But the optical drive was a different matter. In fact, I couldn't do it. When I got to the step where I was supposed to remove two spring-loaded screws to release the heat sink, I couldn't get one of them out. It was sort of a hollow thing that screws onto a threaded post underneath. One of them came out fine, but the second would only loosen. It would not come off. So I was stuck. Ah well it all went back together ok and I'm up and running with a new 100 GB hard drive.
I put my old one into a little "FireXpress" hard drive case "slim storage by CompuCable". Such a nice little aluminum case. I put the new 8x dual layer DVD burner into an external "Digistor" case. Both are so nice and compact.
Oh yeah when I first got the hard drive and case, I put the new one in the external case, and then used Disk Utility to "restore" my old hard drive onto the new hard drive. Then I tested that it would boot ok, which it did. Then I swapped the hard drives. Slick as a whistle.
These small external media cases are so cool.
Oh yeah I forgot to say I also bought some audio stuff--an iMic by Griffin. Nice piece of hardware, provides improved quality of output over the built-in headphone jack (at least it seems that way to my untrained ears), and also provides low level and line level microphone inputs. That will be nice because I'm still working on digitizing my LP and cassettes.
Bought a nice little microphone on eBay. It's basically just a gold-plated 1/4 inch plug with a microphone mounted in the end and a wind-screen. I think combined with the iMic it will provide high quality audio input to the computer.
No problem getting the hard drive out--basically remove the keyboard and top cover, and there you are. But the optical drive was a different matter. In fact, I couldn't do it. When I got to the step where I was supposed to remove two spring-loaded screws to release the heat sink, I couldn't get one of them out. It was sort of a hollow thing that screws onto a threaded post underneath. One of them came out fine, but the second would only loosen. It would not come off. So I was stuck. Ah well it all went back together ok and I'm up and running with a new 100 GB hard drive.
I put my old one into a little "FireXpress" hard drive case "slim storage by CompuCable". Such a nice little aluminum case. I put the new 8x dual layer DVD burner into an external "Digistor" case. Both are so nice and compact.
Oh yeah when I first got the hard drive and case, I put the new one in the external case, and then used Disk Utility to "restore" my old hard drive onto the new hard drive. Then I tested that it would boot ok, which it did. Then I swapped the hard drives. Slick as a whistle.
These small external media cases are so cool.
Oh yeah I forgot to say I also bought some audio stuff--an iMic by Griffin. Nice piece of hardware, provides improved quality of output over the built-in headphone jack (at least it seems that way to my untrained ears), and also provides low level and line level microphone inputs. That will be nice because I'm still working on digitizing my LP and cassettes.
Bought a nice little microphone on eBay. It's basically just a gold-plated 1/4 inch plug with a microphone mounted in the end and a wind-screen. I think combined with the iMic it will provide high quality audio input to the computer.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Stuff I did today 7/8/05
- Ordered my hard drive
- Tried to order DVD writer, online process didn't work, will have to call
- Ate breakfast, made a cup of coffee
- Showered & dressed
- Went to work
- Watched the Ken Ham video for next week's ABF class.
- Went online and printed the instructions for changing my hard drive and DVD.
- Printed and tallied distance ed course evaluation feedback.
- Made spreadsheet for distance ed course feedback, graphed data, printed out, dropped copies off for the boss.
- Called mwave.com and straightened out the order that didn't process--it got stuck on the "verified by visa" step, probably something Firefox didn't like.
- Fired up Adobe GoLive and fixed a couple of typos on my online course evaluation page.
- Ate a piece of blueberry coffee cake. Heh.
- Set up a link in the Finder to connect from my laptop to my Windows desktop machine.
- Went online and ordered a hard drive enclosure for the drive I will pull from my PowerBook. Should I order an enclosure for the DVD writer I pull? Hmmm. $50 from mp3car.com, looks nice.
- Transferred a font from my Windows machine to my PowerBook, and installed it with Font Book.
- Modified several pages on the school web site to have updated brochures.
- Gave some instructions to a new client on my server how to set up his email.
- Listened to Calvary Quartet all morning.
- Talked with Jim about the school website and fixed up a page for him
- Went home for lunch with my wife
- Added some info to a page on the school website
- Checked out stampauctionnetwork.com for any interesting 1909 commems--hm there's a nice 367 FDC mailed 2/12/09 at 8 am, and also a 370 plate/imprint block, nice.
- Started up an iTunes podcast, an interview with a fellow from Google. He worked on Google Earth and mentioned the URL.
- Downloaded Google Earth from earth.google.com and played with it for a while. It crashed once but I zoomed in on my area, and my sister's house was in one of the higher resolution scans. Kewl.
- Listened to a couple of podcasts "Tips from the Top Floor" (digital photography)
- Ordered the Slimline DVD enclosure w/FireWire/USB interface. Should be cool.
- Worked for a good share of the afternoon without interruption on some academic achievement statistics, recalculating some percentiles and graphing them out.
- Made a cup of coffee
- Read an http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/08/london.muslims/index.html?section=cnn_topstories article about the Arab world reaction to the London bombing.
- Handled a mis-directed phone call.
- Almost time to go home. Maybe I'll read a bit on my PDA while I enjoy my coffee. I'm reading "The Clue of the Twisted Candle" by Edgar Wallace.
Upgrade season
Well, we're in upgrade season. I've ordered a new 100 GB drive for my PowerBook G4 from eBay, got a good deal for $175 for a brand new Seagate.
Now I'm working on ordering a new DVD burner, 8X dual layer for the PowerBook, too.
Will also pick up an external hard drive enclosure to hold the old hard drive from the PowerBook. Might as well use that 60 GB. Not sure if I'll get an enclosure for the old DVD burner, I just might and then sell it.
Installation. That's another matter, fortunately there are some good instructions online.
I like ecto.
Now I'm working on ordering a new DVD burner, 8X dual layer for the PowerBook, too.
Will also pick up an external hard drive enclosure to hold the old hard drive from the PowerBook. Might as well use that 60 GB. Not sure if I'll get an enclosure for the old DVD burner, I just might and then sell it.
Installation. That's another matter, fortunately there are some good instructions online.
I like ecto.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Trying out "ecto"
I just downloaded a Mac blogger client called "ecto." Setup was pretty easy, I just pointed it to my account and it made the connection without any problem. I'm typing this with the "rich text" option--looks like I have options for alignment, tabs, bullets, numbering, italics, underline, bold, strikethrough, colors, and background color.
Looks like a nice little gizmo. Here's a nice capability--it interfaces with iPhoto, iTunes, and Amazon.com. Hm but I selected iPhoto and then a photo and then clicked "import" but it didn't... After looking at the help, I don't think my blogger account is the right kind to allow it.
Well sometime I will set up a directory on my server and show you some of my fractal screenshots that I use as wallpaper on my iBook desktop.
--Steve
Looks like a nice little gizmo. Here's a nice capability--it interfaces with iPhoto, iTunes, and Amazon.com. Hm but I selected iPhoto and then a photo and then clicked "import" but it didn't... After looking at the help, I don't think my blogger account is the right kind to allow it.
Well sometime I will set up a directory on my server and show you some of my fractal screenshots that I use as wallpaper on my iBook desktop.
--Steve
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