Identify A 2G Mac Without Starting It Or Using The Serial Number
The Pristine Design Of the Mac Interface
A few days ago, I posted The Immaculate Perception Of The Mac - A Blessing and A Curse, pointing out that the pristine design and the congruent image associated with iPods and Macs can indeed be both a blessing and a curse, concluding that sometimes pristine is actually just prissy.
Nonetheless, I am compelled to admit that the Mac’s keyboard and touchpad are pretty slick.
And only yesterday, I discovered a built-in functional feature of the keyboard that, as far as I can determine, appears to be undocumented; consequently, I’m sharing it here.
The Keyboard That Makes You Say “Gee” - Twice
Check it out yourself.1
Footnotes
- There is, no doubt, a reasonably funny, semi-smutty joke (i.e., mainstream filler for this blog) to be made about fingering an extra G-spot, but, well, it’s just too easy. ~back~
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Mesomorph Plays The Right Card, Trumps Satellite Access
Mesomorph1 And Verizon Team Up To Attempt Rescue Of Internet Access
Readers may recall that I have, on rare occasions, expressed mild to moderate perturbation over our satellite-mediated Internet access.2 As problems have worsened, I have searched for a better performing alternative but here in the hinterlands we are too far removed from the telephone switching station for DSL and too far past cable’s end to tap into that pathway.
It turns out I was looking for access in all the wrong places. Mesomorph, pictured above, was more resourceful. After multiple efforts, he surmounted my misinformed resistance, persuading me to audition Verizon Broadband, a service marketed primarily to businesses whose employees need broadband access in a variety of locations.3
A Brief Semi-Technical Digression
The idea behind this system is that Verizon (along with a few other services) uses EV-DO4 technology for wireless data transmission via radio signals to provide broadband Internet access. This is not the same sort of Wi-Fi connection you use while sucking down your Starbucks fix or hijack from your neighbor’s wireless network that he never bothered to secure. Verizon EV-DO is available in lots of places, especially cities, but not everywhere. In situations in which EV-DO service isn’t available, Verizon provides Internet access through the regular cellular network, albeit at reduced speeds (still about twice as fast as dial-up). Because Verizon is our mobile phone network, we were able to check in advance that we could receive the EV-DO signal in our home.
The set-up was easy and quick: We installed the Verizon EV-DO Broadband management software program5 from the provided CD, inserted the PC card6 (displayed in the above photo by my son in model mode), booted up, clicked “connect,” and faster than you can say “Evolution-Data Optimized Broadband Access” we were online.
The Verizon Broadband Screen Test Thus Far7
While it is too soon in this experiment to declare Mission Accomplished, I can accurately summarize our experience after 2-3 weeks as So far, so wonderful.
We’ve been able to access Verizon Broadband reliably throughout the house at speeds fast enough to comfortably surf the Net, view graphics, watch videos, etc. I was also able to spend 30 minutes working on the computer yesterday in a medical center parking lot while my elder son saw his doctor. On our Thanksgiving trip from northern Illinois to southwest Missouri, we were routinely able to hook up to the Net while mobile until we entered the deep recesses of the Ozarks near my mother’s home.
This isn’t a solution for everyone. Service is not ubiquitous; we have the good luck to receive a strong signal in our home, but reports of weak or nonexistent connections still populate the wireless forums. The service costs more than the typical cable or DSL Internet access providers but about the same as my satellite set-up. There are also maximum download limits unlike the all you can eat contracts most cable and DSL providers offer. The limits are more generous, however, than those of my satellite provider.
And I’m waiting to make sure that the first month’s billing from Verizon is what I expect it to be before I say good-bye to the satellite in the sky.
Nonetheless we are well-satisfied thus far and I confess to cautious optimism, a condition rarely associated with me - and young master Mesomorph, of all people, is responsible. Go figure.
Thanks, son.
Footnotes
- The Mesomorph is also known as my 18 year old son ~back~
- Just for grins, I went to the Heck of a Guy blog’s WhereTheHeck site search, entered “satellite access,” and came up with three or four online rants about my problems with the satellite service, including one that grouped them in an “Axis of Evil” that precluded publishing posts for a time. Also included in the conspiracy was the selfsame Mesomorph. While my son has lately evidenced tentative signs of repentance and reformation, however, no such signals have been forthcoming from the satellite folks. ~back~
- The other major role in this crusade for access into the Holy Land of the Internet has been played by the magnificent Stubby, Mesomorph’s long-time boon companion and, not so incidentally in this case, the Manager of a local Verizon store, who spent much time and effort explaining the technology and the service options. ~back~
- EV-DO is an acronym for Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only, which is also abbreviated as EVDO and EV ~back~
- The software program can also be used to manage other (non-Verizon) wireless connections. ~back~
- The PC card we are trying out works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Mac OS X. ~back~
- I have neither the expertise in general nor sufficient experience with EV-DO in particular to offer a comprehensive analysis; a recent review of Verizon Broadband, including specific speed and connectivity tests in different areas of Chicago, that is substantive, readable by those without a technical background, and congruent with my observations thus far can be found at Broadband on the go: the ups and downs of Verizon’s EV-DO network ~back~
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Powering Up InFlight
A Visit To The Heck of a Guy Hardware Store
More than nine months have passed since the Heck of a Guy blog last showcased a non-virtual, three-dimensional, hold it in your hand & show it off to your buddy hunk-o-hardware sort of tool.1
That drought has been broken by a nifty item (pictured below) that I ran across this morning. It has the right combination of geekish appeal, easily understood utility, and enough obscurity (at least for now) that a user has a reasonable chance of impressing innocent strangers unaware that such a thing exists.
This gizmo is the Inflight USB Power Unit , a gadget that plugs into the armrest headphone jacks found in most commercial airplane seats to power iPods, cell phones, and similar devices through their USB connections.
Those headphone jacks won’t yield enough juice to run a laptop, but on long flights smaller utensils can recharge fully on the trickle of electricity.2
The charge unit itself goes for $35, and the same retailer also sells iPod and mini B connectors. Again, these items can be found at Inflight USB Power Unit ,
The Downside
Of course, when these Inflight USB Power Units and their competitors are easily available, you may find yourself seated next to someone plugging in one of those less mainstream (i.e., more socially toxic) USB toys.
From top left, proceeding clockwise: Plasma Ball, Oil Fragrance Heater, Missle Launcher,
I Love You Light, Pole Dancer, Best Friend, Fruity Fragrances Dispersers
Credit Due Department: I was alerted to the Inflight USB Power Unit by Lockergnome Windows Fanatics
Footnotes
- The most recent such tool was a nifty label printer featured in the November 20, 2006 post, The Fine Print(er) ~back~
- For the worriers, the FAQs report that “The Inflight Power cable is FCC certified and does not emit radio noise. You can use it anytime.” ~back~
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- No related posts
A Lifetime In Mad Dog Years
First The Government Returns Unneeded Tax Money,1 Now This
The Merchandise
Pictured above is your basic Mad Dog Conqueror FX 5200 PLus AGP Video Card with 128 MB of memory.2 I had purchased an earlier version of this card two or three years ago at a heavily discounted price to drop into an similarly cheap, no-frills, computer in order to run two monitors. This video card was an adequate piece of equipment for my purposes but the only thing special at this point was the low price.
It worked fine for a couple of years and then, as sometimes happens, crashed. When the troubleshooting tricks I knew didn’t restore the picture, I emailed tech support for advice.
This is where the special stuff comes in.
Mad Dog Makes Good
The return email contained a brief list of technical suggestions and unsolicited instructions for exchanging the defective card for a replacement should the recommendations from tech support prove unsuccessful,
Only then did I recall that the original card carried a lifetime guarantee. That fact had not struck me as important at the time because I had purchased products with lifetime guarantees before, and, in every case, had somehow outlived the lifetime guarantee. In each of those situations, it turned out that “lifetime” did not mean my lifetime but the lifetime, say, of a charged pion3 or perhaps a fruit fly in less than robust health.
In fact, based on my experiences, the foolproof formula for calculating the actual length of a lifetime guarantee is
Nevertheless, with nothing to lose beyond the cost of postage to mail the defective card to the company, I returned the merchandise. My skepticism was only heightened when a careful reading of the surprisingly clear instructions failed to disclose such typical requirements as enclosing the original receipts or packaging.
A week or so later, in a much hoped for anticlimax, I received a functional, updated version of the original video card. My only out of pocket cost was the postage fee for mailing the original card to Mad Dog.
And that was that.
The only sad part is that I am so amazed that a company did exactly what they promised without hesitation or hassle that I feel compelled to memorialize this phenomenon in a post.
Footnotes
- See My Rural Fire Protection District Just-a Wrote Me A Letter ~back~
- For the resolutely non-techie sorts, a video card produces the images that appear on the console screen of the computer. The console plugs into a socket (such as the blue socket at the lower left of the top graphic) on the video card and the other side of the video card (the gold-colored tabs at the upper right of the graphic) connects to the mother board ~back~
- Pions are subatomic particles with an average lifetime of less than 90 nanoseconds ~back~
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Stuff That Meets The “Aha, Of Course” Criterion
Design is a tricky notion. The concept is so malleable and ambiguous that many of us quickly retreat to the ultimate fallback position, slotting good design into that pithy but pusillanimous template, “I can’t define _______, but I know it when I see it.”
For my part, the criterion that signals good design is that Aha, Of Course Moment that occurs when I grasp how something provides a solution that is elegantly and obviously better than whatever was previously available. Occasionally, I discover no-brainers, a tool, a household item, a methodology, or whatever that not only triggers one of these Aha, Of Course Moments but also involves minimal fiscal, systemic, or physical risk (exotic autos & mountain climbing gear, for example, would not ordinarily qualify as low risk); in these cases, I sometimes, on a day like today, feel moved to spread the word.
This posting spotlights one such no-brainer and a related reading recommendation.
The Book Recommendation
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman, originally published as The Psychology of Everyday Things in 1988, is less a how-to manual than an inspirational volume that can open the reader’s eyes to the pervasive effect of design on day-to-day activities. The standard example mentioned in almost every review is the author’s observation that there are so many doors that require a sign indicating “push” or “pull” (and sometimes “use other door”) although a basic criterion of a well-designed object is that it is self-explanatory. The down side of the book, in fact, is that it makes one aware of the ubiquity of design that ranges from poor to perverse, primarily because the creators did not understand the process by which the devices work. The result, all too often, is technology that forces users to function for the benefit of the device rather than the device functioning for the benefit of the user. Norman’s style is breezy and anecdotal, making this an easy but enlightening read.
The Aha, Of Course Recommendation
And what better place to read The Design of Everyday Things than on a chilly evening cozied up in a warm blanket – except it’s impossible to drape the blanket exactly right so that both essential conditions, keeping ones hands are free to manipulate the book and keeping the blanket wrapped around ones arms and neck to keep warm, are maintained. If that’s your problem, then this is your solution: blankets with sleeves.
Of course, the sleeves not only provide easy access to books but also to the popcorn bowl, gaming controller, TV remote, laptop computer, etc.
One of these blankets is a permanent accountrement to my favorite couch and has proven useful enough that I’m planning on buying a second for the bedroom. I’ve also purchased one as a gift, which is how I discovered that these also make dandy robes of the Harry Potter/Sorcerer’s Apprentice variety.
There are at least three manufacturers now producing these delights in a variety of colors, fabrics, sizes, and prices.
Ahem, On The Other Hand
While I think this is a great product, I would suggest that these companies spend a buck on decent marketing. Perhaps, for example, the Freedom Blanket folks could find a pose that doesn’t make their model look like an invalid.
And, the name, “Slanket,” at least for me, has a semi-lurid ring to it. I can imagine, for example, an exotic dancer named Suzie Slanket. I can also imagine that this guy is watching Suzie perform on his gizmo.
Credit Due Department: I first saw the Slanket at BoingBoing and found the Book Blanket and Freedom Blanket at Smart Stuff.
