This post is a little long, but I think you will still want to chug through, especially if your machine is having issues with heat and battery life.

I bought my MacBook Pro 17″ in June of this year. Straight out of the box, I loved the thing. Fast, at least compared to my Powerbook 1ghz. But there were other things I noticed about the machine that really did not thrill me. I of course, noted that it ran hot, so hot in fact that it was not comfortable to sit on my lap for any real length of time. I heard others mentioning this on the intarwebs, so I did not really think anything more about it. I also noticed that the battery life was short. Very short. I was lucky to milk 1.75 to 2 hours out of it. But, at the time I was not in a business situation that demanded long unplugged sessions so I just let it slide.
Fast forward to November, about 5 months of use. I have some leads on some work that may require Microsoft Project, so I download and install Parallels Desktop for Mac, with the intention of running both OS X and XP. Very common, nothing out of the ordinary.
However, my install of Parallels coincided with a problem I started having with my Apple Cinema HD 23″ external display. I stress that Parallels had NOTHING to do with my problem. Over a period of a couple of days, my external display would delay on waking up after sleeping. At first it was just a 20-30 second delay, then started stretching to 5 minutes, then finally it would stubbornly refuse to wake at all. My laptop display was fine, and according to the behavior of OS X, the MacBook Pro had detected the external display and was acting accordingly. The mouse would travel to the edge of the screen on the side I had my external display, and would disappear as it should when going to the next screen. Of course my other screen was black, so, not so good.
So on to the Apple support site I go, like a good Apple owner, trying to find out how to resolve this issue. After much fruitless searching, I give in, and call AppleCare. After all, I do own a laptop with expensive repair options don’t I? Also a 23″ display, very expensive to fix if you are not covered. AppleCare reps are their usual friendly selves and help me come to the conclusion the display has gone bad and schedules a pick-up. God do I hate doing that. You see, I have gone that route before with a laptop with a perfect LCD, but when it returned, I had a stuck “bright” pixel dead center in the screen. All my whining, debating, pitching fits to the Apple Reps did nothing. I was stuck with the display because it was within the tolerances for Apple. Not my tolerances, but Apple’s. Sure, they don’t have to look at the thing day in and day out. Back to the 23″ display though, the rep scheduled the pick-up but just before ending the call, she suggested as an aside, to unplug the display from everything, the video, the USB, the Firewire, and of course, the power plug. She said there was a tiny chance the karma gods would smile on me and somehow the display may reset itself.
Meanwhile, I got restless. The 17″ display on the laptop is good, but it does not compare with working across both a 17″ and a 23″ display. So, I thought, without real good reason, maybe my OS and preferences and PRAM and PMU and what ever other mystical concoctions were just so muddled in combination that my poor old display didn’t have a chance. Why not go ahead and backup my data and wipe the entire thing clean? Why not? It would be a good exercise of my firewire drive and Apple’s Backup software. And, after all, had I not got Backup through .Mac for just this kind of convenience and safety net? Well, I had some time on my hands, and went for it. Backup my personal data. Install OS X with the option to wipe out the entire drive and start fresh. Done in little over an hour. Complete with backup. Man do I like the external drive.
Here is where this long drawn out post ties into the title. After the wipe of Apple’s factory OS X Tiger load, my machine is performing better than it ever has. In the heat department, there is no comparison. It now runs so much cooler I can use it on my lap for as long as I care to. It is merely warm, not even getting uncomfortable. Now my battery gets between 3 and 4 hours of use, far longer than I was ever able to run prior to the wipe. I had even followed Apple’s battery re-calibration instructions to the tee before the wipe. Twice. And no improvement. Now it may be just wishful thinking or the power of self-delusion, but my machine even seems to run faster. This is very subjective and I did no measurements to back that statement up, but it does feel snappier and more responsive.
Could it be that a lot of the initial impressions from the MacBook Pro owners about heat were from default settings in the factory OS load? I don’t know, but it sure seems plausible. Yes, I have considered the effects that later revisions to the OS could have had. There were certainly adjustments that Apple made in the intervening time to address some of the issues. Even after I wiped, I did not run the machine for any length of time (just minutes) before I applied all the updates bringing it to current software levels. But, I was running the same software levels BEFORE the wipe as well.
…back to the display story
Finishing the story about the display, prior to unplugging the display from the wall power, I tested it on another Mac, my trusty old Dual G4 mirror-drive door. Same thing, no response. Then I did as the rep suggested, as I really did not want to lose the display and be stuck with god knows how many dead pixels. I did not hold out much hope.
Hours passed. All the reload of the OS and restoring up to current software levels, bringing over my personal data from the Firewire drive. Generally everything back to normal sans the external display. Total time the display sat unplugged was about 4 hours. Now for the test, my last real hope of keeping the display. I plug everything back in, and to my amazement, it worked! Not only was the display working, but the sleep issue was solved, and wakes up within about a second from hitting a key or moving the mouse. Not bad for a few hours of rest.

Duh, cliche and all, but time gets away from me now more than I would like to admit.

Looking at this site, I cannot believe it has been this long since an update. Well, I will try and be a little more disciplined in the future.

I finally, did it. I have been reading up on kayaks for quite some time in preparation for my return to Florida.

After many articles and comparing features to my intended usage, the Heritage Redfish 14 comes in as #1.

I bought two, one for my son and one for myself. I will add another one as soon as my wife acclimates to the idea of kayaking instead of powerboating. It really makes a lot of sense when you know where I fish.

I moved back to the coastal area of East Central Florida (Melbourne). The area is dominated by the Indian River Lagoon, a saltwater estuary of national significance.

Now I can resume our favorite activity, fishing shallow water for Snapper, Grouper, Redfish and Trout (in that order). Pompano is a welcome addition.

Don't you just hate the junk mail offering pre-approved credit cards? I know I do. Talk about a personal risk. I shred all mine to little tiny bits in an industrial shredder. Even though I do this, I still don't like getting them in the first place.

Want to reduce the volume? Along with other anoyances? The Federal Trade Commission has a web page for information. You can call a number and an easy to use automated system opts you out of the four major credit reporting bureaus where a lot of the companies verify your credit prior to sending you the little nasties. Just go here, and you can do that along with lot of other things to reduce the daily bother. The web site says it lasts for two years, but on the phone you are offered a 5-year and a permanent option. If you just want the number:

Taken from the "Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and Email: Where to Go To “Just Say No”" web site:

The credit bureaus offer a toll-free number that enables you to “opt-out” of having pre-approved credit offers sent to you for two years. Call 1-888-5-OPTOUT (567-8688) for more information. When you call, you’ll be asked for personal information, including your home telephone number, your name and your Social Security number. The information you provide is confidential and will be used only to process your request to opt out of receiving pre-screened offers of credit.

From the image above, I am certain the reader can understand my close brush with killers. All in a seemingly safe neighborhood, with covenents no less. Some killers have no respect for the law…

In all seriousness, I was in my yard, trimming the hedges when I noticed a swarm of yellow-jackets hovering over my clippings. Luckily, they did not seem to be irritated at me. After carefully removing the clippings, I discovered their nest. Kind of neat.

This link is about the record of one woman's grandfather's photos series in WWII representing his experience in the Asian theater. As I watched the link with the Flickr slideshow option, I happened to be listening to a set of comfortable songs from my iTunes collection. It kind of brought a new sense of how we view or influence the world around us. As the camera captured scenes from 1945-1947, I am sure the photographer was not aware of the influence western societies would exert on their cultures.
I got a sense of our approach to the rest of the world, at least from my perspective. I felt as an encroacher, even though I obviously have no influence due to the separation of time. Spooky. Now put time as a lens between this photo series and our current experiences. Influence stands out very starkly, not entirely to benefit, from a world perspective or from even an Americo(is that making sense? I know it is a word I probably just made up…) view. What does that say? I am not sure.

In the past, I have spoken and thought very poorly about corporations in general.

After reading this article about a man saved by his co-workers from a tumor growing at the base of brain, I am very pleasantly proven wrong about this company at least. At the end of the story is the main thing that makes me happy to see. The workers donated to pay for a scan that saved his life, but then the manager is kind enough to repay them through the payroll even though the manager clearly did not have to.

As I said earlier, I purchased a MacBookPro 17" to upgrade my options for OS X and (shudder) Windows XP. Like it or not (not), there is a need for the flexibility offered by this machine. I hate it, but it is true. Corporate borgs, where I may be employed in the near future, have a tendency to require adherence to the other OS. I know, but it is what it is.

Now the new journey begins with the new machine. Been with it a total of 7 hours, and I love it. No real big earth shattering differences so far, but I also have not installed XP yet. Real soon now.

Things I do like so far:
Magnetic Power cord.
Apple 23" Cinema HD display.
Super convenient migration utility.

On the migration from my older Powerbook, it was really dead simple, turn on the new MacBook Pro, asked whether I needed to migrate, I said yes, followed the instructions, and in about 1.5 hours, I was using my new machine, with all my old applications, and all my settings intact. It could not have been easier. Apple, you certainly kept the user in mind when you did this. More companies should pay attention to the details as you do.

More on the migration and the new MacBook Pro as it happens…..

You know what? I have been watching all these things (Top Ten Signs of the Impending Police State)  happen one by one, and never really thought about it from the perspective presented here. Is it really a conspiracy driven by a team(not that the site said so)? I don't know, but it sure is easy to be gradually drawn into giving away our freedoms and privacy once we are threatened by the unknown. Bush and team are really exploiting our fears. How in the hell can this be happening here? I remember as a young adult, reading accounts from the Soviet Union in amazement and realizing people would tolerate such actions by their leaders. I thought at the time, never could happen here, we would not tolerate it. Yeah, right, so much for that.

I just found this sight, and I don't know much about it yet, but I continue to read. Maybe too left? Is there such a thing? Time will tell……

I read this and found many things on the list were very applicable to me. I DO tend to take on too much and expect that I can get it all done. Not very realistic and this is a good reminder for it:

Editing your life