IBNeko's Journal-Nyo~!

Apparently my MacBook Pro has a LG GSA-S10N running firmware AP09.

And there's no region free firmware patch for it yet.

Damnit.

I've got... 4 region changes left, according to DVD Info X.

Going to explore my other options first though*. And grrr, rpc1.org site is offline / down / otherwise unavailable.

*
-class computer lab has a few external DVD drives, 'cause we needed to install linux, and the distro came as a DVD, and the blade servers we got to play with only had CD drives.
-homebuilt desktop computer. Don't know if it's region free right now. :\ Disadvantage of that is that I'll need to find good DVD ripping software for windows. Anyone have any suggestions?

W00t, lab external usb DVD drive appears to work.

===
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en-us&q=site%3Arpc1.org+GSA-S10N&btnG=Search
From what I'm reading, there's some sort of RPC2 Auto Reset patch. And maybe there's a RPC1 patch, but I'm not sure about that.

Ok, I'm now pretty certain that my recent problems (entire screen freezes - mouse no longer reacts, random memory access errors to 0x000000, and kernel panics), have been due to my 1GB RAM chip flaking out.

Sometime at the start of the week, I ran memtest - first with the chip in - that caused a kernel panic halfway through. Then I removed the chip, ran memtest and got through three full tests. Put chip back in... memtest ran successfully.

But this morning, I've had two system freezes, one kernel panic, and half the time, the system wouldn't boot. Arrgh.

I've taken out the 1 GB and the system hasn't died. So that's good. But that leaves me with a measly 256 MB, which is nowhere close to enough.

I could sell the iBook on eBay for about $300-400. A MacBook Pro is $1800+$239 AppleCare. If I can do the shopfreepay deal, I might be able to get a MacBook, which would give me something else to sell for at least $1000. Revision D for the MacBook Pro line was released earlier this month, and... I'd expect most of the problems that plagued the first and second revisions have been taken care of.

That being said, I need to figure out what I can do with this 1 GB stick of RAM. I think it was a Kingston brand, although it says kti...? And I would have sworn I read that there was a lifetime warrantee. Now if that's true, and I can get this one replaced, I could sell it on eBay for $80-100...

Overall cost, if everything goes the way I expect... I should have to pay around $500? Not too bad for an system upgrade... And hopefully less stress from hardware-related problems.

La~ order of how to do things
1. Wince and cry as I spend the $2000. (Hmm, use a 0% balance transfer to pay it off for the time being? Sounds good to me. Stupid Citibank card offers keep coming - might as well use one, ne? 3% balance transfer fee though.... = $60)
2. Transfer data, securewipe iBook. List on eBay. Hope prices go up.
3. Start MacBook deals on shopfreepay.
4. Sell stick of RAM, if replaced? Hope for $100...

[append 1PM]
Oooooh, they've got that iPod rebate thing going. I could buy an iPod and either
a) keep it, paying $50 for a 30GB black'n'shiny iPod.
b) Selling the iPod or iPod nano on eBay... for... only $100? XP Damn, not worth it.

Total, after tax ($114.35!? Frigging hell...) comes to $2,401.35 - $199 iPod rebate = $2,202.35

Alternatively, without the iPod, it's $2,139.90. Tax was $101.90. Blah.

Hm, or if I get it from MacConnection, I could use their $150 rebate. +Free shipping +"No tax - online store" = Grand total of $1,844 + $240 AppleCare purchased separately. Total=$2,084.00. I save $55.

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Selling the iBook G4 on eBay:
By itself - going price seems to be $300-475. Let's say $400.
I could also sell it in parts, but that seems to be much less...

If I get the MacBook, I should be able to get $800-1400. Let's say $1000.

$684... A little bit over a week's worth of work... XP

Pros: I'll be running Intel so I can try out some of the linux hacking tools I've wanted to try. The MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo was found to be a very reliable machine: http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks2.html. 3% requiring repair? 3 more years of not-having-to-worry-about a warrantee running out. 2 GB of ram. The ability to run other Windows programs as necessary, without using a desktop.
Cons: Money. Urrrgh.

...yeah, Pros wins. XP

They replaced my battery. On top of everything else.

=^^= now I feel bad about complaining about things taking so long.

http://www.applefritter.com/node/10193

Hah! So it's really not just me. I'm absurdly tempted to just take it apart and try some of the suggestions (tightening screws, finding the GPU and adding a shim of some sort..). 'cause if that fixes the problem...... Meh. I don't have a week to wait on Apple to repair the machine.

Most interesting was the post by "iantm",

As a service technician who oversees a 2000 unit deployment of 1ghz 12" iBook G4's, the video chipset failing is an unusual failure path (1 every two months). Another factor in logic board failure that I've come across has been heavy use. Units that see a lot of heavy use in settings other than on a desk have a higher failure path than units who only see desk use (while still being transported from place to place.

The primary point of failure I've observed with the iBook G4 logic boards has been where the unit fails POST, won't chime, spins the fan at full speed, and provides no backlight or video. Once at this point, nothing resolves the issue. Resetting the PMU doesn't resolve the matter, the suggestions with the video chip also don't help, which leads me to believe that the point of failure is somewhere else.

Which is almost exactly like my problem, with the exception that I do get backlight, but no video and the fans spin at full speed.

And the iBook does get put through heavy use.

Actually, I do have the Apple Service Manuals... so technically, I do have the instructions to take the damn thing apart, and they shouldn't be able to tell the difference.......... maybe? o.O

It arrived today. Free after a combined set of rebates between trendnet (dropping it to $8) and my credit card (dropping it down to -$2). That is, assuming I get the rebates from trendnet.

At first glance, the router looks rather cheap and.. plastic-y. Hell, it feels rather cheap and plastic-y. The rubber bottom legs are on a small, unevenly cut piece of adhesive backing thing. Clearly hand-cut. :-\

The legs don't fit nicely in the holes, but hey, why does it matter? No one's going to see them anyways, and if they fall off, well, they fall off.

One detachable antenna. I'll probably replace this with my external antenna expander thing once I get back on campus.

And one ugly, FAT transformer plug - outputs +5.0V/2.5A

http://admin:admin@192.168.1.1/ and I'm in~

Hmm, cgi files, and... restarting seems to be crappy. Like some other D-Link router I've run into in the past, this one provides an Admin account as well as an User account. God knows why?

Time seems to support only until 2012. That's pretty sad.... and you've got the option of setting your own daylight savings... settings. Hmm.

Sweet, it's got no-ip.com Dynamic DNS support. That rocks. =^^=v

(note to self: channel assignments: http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,6683522~root=wlan~mode=flat)

Mmm, what should I name the wireless... nightwing?

Hmm, it's got most of the normal features... even has MAC address allow-all-but next to the deny-all-but~ Hmm, it's got protocol (port) filtering from LAN-to-WAN. Pretty good.

Now to test the wireless stability. I've read reviews of the wireless being crappy, as well as IP grabbing being lousy. Eh, on second thought, I'll test them later. Maybe bed first. Or food.

Only 'cause my iBook doesn't have audio in, so I can't plug in a nicer microphone to record lectures and other stuff with..

Behringer UCA202 USB Interface:
http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--BEHUCA202
RCA in/out, optical out, monitors/headphone out, volume control for monitors.
for $35 shipped.

vs.

Griffin iMic2 USB Audio Interface:
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202151596&SearchEngine=PriceGrabber&SearchTerm=202151596&Type=PE&Category=Comp&Gad=0&dcaid=15890
in/out 3.5mm stereo mic/line, toggle switch for mic/line setting.
for $31 shipped

--
problem with the Behringer one, is that I'd have to carry an extra RCA->3.5mm adaptor, if I'm going to be carrying that around. But optical out would be awesome. And volume control for the monitor out? I guess.. it'd be more useful for at home, tape->CD conversion things...

Question:
What do you do when your computer has a bad disk block? Disk Utility.app returns the lovely:

Invalid sibling link

and promptly dies. Single user mode + fsck tells me that there's an I/O error on the disk, and then dies.

TechTool Pro tells me that I have a bad block.

Is the only way to fix this to back up stuff, format the disk with 0's, and assume that the system will write that bad block out of the safe-to-write-to-locations?

My 'w' key is acting up... Unlike the other keys, just the lightest press causes a response; think hair-width press. So resting my finger lightly on the key causes it to react. Also, the more annoying problem is that now when I close windows, I occasionally close more than one.

Once I get back to the apartment, I'm going to have to pop it out and take a look. I think. I hope that'll fix it... And not just break it or make it worse.

--
Someone cosplayed Damekko Doubutsu: http://www.fansview.com/2005/animecentral/ac14c.html

--
Saw the person I stop talking with last year. -.-;; I still couldn't bring myself to apologize, and see if I can set things right. I'm too scared too, I think. At least, that's the feeling I can identify. Still, it doesn't do to keeping thinking about how she's doing every so often; I'd did care about her as a friend, I think, and probably still so. XP Maybe... someday, something will swing into place, and we'll speak again. Maybe she'll forgive me for being so stupid and immature about the whole thing.