12″ to 13″?
Grrr. There are times i just want to smack hawk. I’ll explain.
At Anime Central, i dropped my bookbag with my 12″ powerbook in it. It looked fine when i checked it, till i got home and found out that the power plug is either dislodged or broken – i can’t plug it in. So, once the battery died, it was dead. Which was about 1 minute since the battery is pretty well shot (remember, i bought this a few months before going to AX Tokyo so i’ve had it for over 2 years now). Repair is of course possible, but i have to go out to Novi to do it and i just don’t have time right now. Am i irritated at Apple yet? Hmm… not yet.
Then Sarah’s computer starts acting up again. Sometimes it just will not reboot – you can hear it, but the screen stays blank. Usually this doesn’t last long, but the other night it was really looking like it wasn’t coming back. Eventually it did, but i was beginning to worry. The idea of having both mac powerbooks down was not an amusing one. Slightly irritated.
Yesterday, i launched Itunes and for some reason it had trouble loading the playlist.xml file. Yes, for some reason, the file got borked. All of my music is now a mess. And i have a lot of it. I’m going to have to go in and manually reload everything. The original playlist is not recoverable. Irritated at Apple? Yes, much so.
So, when i go to bitch at Hawk, ready to lay into my ‘i hate apple’ rant, what does he do? He points me to the new 13″ macbook. Goddamnit. With all the stuff i’ve had problems with this week, you’d think this would be the LAST thing that i’d want.
Fucking hell. I want that black one. To replace my broken, beat up 12″.
Hawk, i hate you.
- pirotunes: Massive Attack – Teardrop [(from the album Mezzanine)] -
Posted by fredrin on May 17th, 2006 :: Filed under Daily Blogging
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May 17th, 2006
>_< It’s just a blast when someone shows you something like that and you really really want it…I did that to a good friend of mine a while back, only it was alienware.. ^^;
Thank you very much for the awesome comic today! ^__^ I burst out laughing half way threw it only to have to silence my self due to being in school.
May 17th, 2006
I think “quality” issues are endemic to the computer industry at the moment…. in the race for the bottom (customer wants everything *FREE*!!!!) those of us who just want our stuff to WORK get screwed. I’m actually bailing out of the network and computer support profession. I’m ****ing tired of cradling poorly designed crap software and hardware, I’m sick of Microsoft and sick of the people addicted to it who won’t learn how to use it, I’m sick of Intel, I’m sick of Apple with both their guns pointed at their own feet all the time… argh. But enough about me…
The Chibi Vampire name is indeed crap but Karin is high quality enough to get past it…. I just have to wrap my copy in a brown book cover because “the title is so embarrassing”
The book jacket issue turns out to be a Class One Error … my guess is they outsourced it to some neophyte group, pains of growing too fast and lost focus on quality control. (I do have to say I find much of Tokyopop’s new lineup completely unattractive as well but I applaud them for trying to find titles that don’t have the expensive licensing fees that the JP market seems hung up on.)
I don’t know if you got to see the whole anime … it has a somewhat bumpy but overall okay ending (aka they didn’t completely shoot themselves in the foot like many anime series do). So I’m kind of anxious to see how the source material compares now.
Still reading Mahoraba (volume 11 came out last month) – stellar. Picked up REC and I’m reading the translation efforts on the Suzumiya Haruhi novels — also good stuff.
On latest comic: nice portrayal of Largo and Erika misinterpreting and double-skewering each other … same channel but different phase angle (heh).
Artwork seems background intense (as if you got too excited about drawing a real street from your expeditions) and distracts a bit from your two actors. I wonder if Erika will ever determine the true reason for Largo’s spew-take
The endgames flashback did seem somewhat of a brake on the previous story pace but I’m not sure how you could have shortened it. I suppose it could have been told in chibi form above Largo & Erika’s heads as they sat on the bench… but then we’d lose the full immersion effect of the Endgames world. Carry on — just having a book club meeting with myself. My son’s girlfriend, him, and I discuss your story – I’ll just report the summations if interesting.
May 17th, 2006
You know… you should get it. *pushes* It’ll be a great deal. It’s about time you replaced your old clunker (I’m gonna keep my for another 2 years… I believe by then the MacBook Pros will be cheaper and faster… so I won’t have to lose my 17″ fun
. I might, if I’m crazy enough, get both. One for video and powerful stuff, one for fun. Maybe). You’ll also love the matte finish. Oh, and if your little puny HDD dies or decides to run out of space (those things tend to do that), you can replace it yourself… yeah. Anyways, you’d like whatever you get. I believe all of your macs are over 2 years old. It’s about time… it’s about time…
May 18th, 2006
Hey! I wanted to comment on the lated rant on the MT front page, where you were discussing Ulysses.
It looks like a really good program, but I’m wondering if it’s worth $188 (I plugged 100 pounds into a currency converter.) It’s got great features, but the price tag is a little scary. Have you ever tried Bartas Technologies’ CopyWrite? This is what I use for my stories and it is fantastic. It’s got some of the same frills as Ulysses, but I don’t think there is a full-screen mode. A license for it is only $30 and it’s really helped me to organize my stories out.
And speakings of Macbooks, I am currently lusting over the white ones. I think I’m going to go on a ramen noodle diet until I can afford one.
May 18th, 2006
Sounds like you had a LOT of trouble. I probably be stressed times 10 if that happened to me. I understand your situation there. If I walked in to complain about something like that and got point to the latest edition, I’d have a debate with myself about it right there.
Also, tiny bit of encouragement (If you want any that is) Your artwork is sound even when you say you’re at your worst. Don’t lose hope… because you seem to eventually work it out. I just hope when I try with my manga, I do not crash and burn. I love Megatokyo please continue for a long long time. =^^=
May 18th, 2006
Have you tried Diskwarrior?
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
It does have some success at fixing files/programs that won’t work. Probably too late for you, but it might help with Sarahs computer.
May 18th, 2006
Again. You can have one of my friend’s and family discounts if you seriously want the Black 13 inch MacBook.
Thought of replacing the 12″ PowerBook with the White One for Hiromi gifting her a white nano to go with it. While I get a black iPod and the Black MacBook … though the 15 inch MacBook Pro still beckons me with a “I can do more siren call” …
May 18th, 2006
Artwork too “background intense”? Humbug, I say! One reason I adore Megatokyo is Fred’s meticulous backgrounds.
May 18th, 2006
ha ha ha!
still chugging away despite many faults that life can throw at you?
I seriously thought erika was gonna rip largo a new one soon! but he always says things before he thinks. ha ha ha. kinda reminds me of DOM sometimes.
“Paper cuts are the worst wound in existence!”
-paper master Deju
May 18th, 2006
Re your latest Megatokyo post:
Damn, you’ll be at Book Expo America?? My aunt offered me a free ticket to make network connections since she’s a book publisher and I built her new website (http://www.tigertalesbooks.com/index.php), but I sadly won’t be able to make it. Kinda short on cash so can’t run off to DC on a whim, even to see you. :’(
One of these days I’ll make it to Otakon…
May 19th, 2006
heh! I love Fred’s backgrounds (especially when I can connect them to real places). But I also don’t think the background should overwhelm the actors — its a fine line usually salvageable with closeups at key moments.
There’s a reason storyboarding got so popular for sketching movies out and the same techniques apply in reverse to comics. Have fun at the book expo, fred.
May 19th, 2006
Nice tears. I’ve never seen that before…
May 19th, 2006
Vexx,
In general, my own feeling on backgrounds is that they’re very important, and I tend to like them more than less.
Specifically with respect to page 858 (which I think you were commenting directly on — might be wrong), only three of the eight panels have any background, and those three don’t seem atypical for Megatokyo (meaning, I don’t think they’re any more background intense than what we usually find in Megatokyo). So, I guess I’m just not sure what you mean with your comments there.
Elliot
May 20th, 2006
Computers fail at life sometimes, don’t they? >__< I hope you get everything fixed!
May 20th, 2006
Fred-rin, I know EXACTLY how you feel! I saw that link @ Applegeeks and nearly had a heartattack when I saw the black one. I’ve been waiting for a good time to purchase a 12″ laptop from Apple – this was like before the MacBookPro was released, but I wanted a small one to fit with my MT flappydoozy bag ^^; So, you can probably imagine how impatient I was becoming, hoping there would be a smaller version of the MacBook. And there it is! In fscking black! Hontou ni kirei deshou ne?
You should go for it. I have the money but I’m extremely stingy with spending money on myself. Don’t forget to blog about it if you get it! ^^
May 20th, 2006
I’m sorry for your loss, but always remember:
Hate the man, not his representative.
So long and thanks for all the fish!
May 20th, 2006
sometimes the ‘hear the computer, but have a blank screen’ problem is actually a power problem. sometimes, and for random reasons, the current passing throgh your house outlet, or whatever, isnt strong enough to get your harddisk and bootup stuff started.
too bad about your laptop though… *pssst* get the new one!
May 24th, 2006
Yay, another Massive Attack fan!
June 4th, 2006
While I doubt that you are seriously considering an imediate purchase of a macbook, I feel it’s worth warning you that you may want to hold off for a while on purchases of any new macs if you’re planning on using them in your work flow.
Absolutely 0 of the adobe products are currently universal. In short this means they need to be emulated on the new machines and means they will be obnoxiously slow.
Adobe has no plans to update the current versions and instead says that universal will be availible in CS3 only and CS3 isn’t slated for at least another 6 months.
June 6th, 2006
There is no Kooh without Windows o/
~Chun
June 9th, 2006
damn….you people having trouble with your macs….my 10 year old one still works like a breeze…
June 9th, 2006
re: Tmoney’s comment:
I’m running a first revision MacBook Pro 15″, and I’ve gotta say, don’t underestimate Rosetta. The slowdown to Photoshop is negligible to non-existent, and that’s running files where the smallest is 20mb. 90% of your daily tasks, you won’t even notice a slowdown, especially since it’s still a processor upgrade (it’s “slower” compared to an equivalent machine, not if you’re upgrading).
June 9th, 2006
Regarding purchasing the MacBook, I think you should go the extra step and purchase the MacBook Pro.
The standard MacBook doesn’t actually have a video card–it has an intel *chip* that doesn’t have any memory of its own–it shares the RAM with the rest of the computer.
If you run graphics-intensive applications (I can only assume that the tools you use for Megatokyo are that, but please correct me if I’m wrong) you would be much better off with an actual video card. Not to mention that these being Apple laptops, they’ll be quite difficult to upgrade after purchase.
I’m a proud owner of a 1.5 year old 14″ iBook G4 (1.2GHz) and a 3.5 year old 15″ iMac G4 (the iLamp kind, 800MHz), so don’t think I’m bashing Macs–I wouldn’t use anything else, really–but Apple laptops have proven to be very difficult and expensive to upgrade, and you should have something that will be able to support what you’re planning to do with it without needing to upgrade right away.
June 9th, 2006
I think some shock or trama (Michigan potholes?) in the trip to Anime Central this year killed the harddrive in my iBook. It was an original 20gig drive, which I’ve never come close to filling (think I’ve only had 12gig of stuff there), including all the software I was using (pretty much Adobe CS and the Eclipse IDE). So, while that’s not nearly as bad as a shot power connector (in that I can replace the drive myself), it still renders me without a laptop for several weeks while I wait for the newly ordered drive (tigerdirect, 60gig, 81$, 5400rpm) to arrive in the mail.
At least the 233mhz G3 is still working..
June 9th, 2006
Miharu: I do believe the you are thinking of photoshop and such as “graphics intensive apps”. Actually, they’re more CPU intensive and barely touch the GPU. The only things you do that are GPU intensive is 3D animation or video games.
From Barefeats:
Macbook holds it’s own at CPU intensive apps ( http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd4.html ) but gets crushed at GPU intensive apps ( http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd3.html )
To the MegaTokyo dude:
Yeah, the black one looks cooler. Hell, my 6-year-old black PowerBook turns more heads at MacWorld than anything else I’ve seen, just because it’s different. But are you really going to pay the $150 MacBook GothTax?
June 10th, 2006
i’ve got a black macbook, and it is teh sex. you gotta get one, it’s awesome
doesn’t have some of the cool things like the backlit keyboard my old powerbook had, but the screen is incredible, works really well in sunshine (not perfect, of course, but better’n anything else ive seen)
June 10th, 2006
dont get a new mac, get a cheep IBM or Fujitsu or some othersuch brand and install Kubuntu Dapper, its teh sex. Very pretty and easy to use linux, yay Fredix!
Illitrate: long time no see, send me an email bro
June 11th, 2006
hmmm….yea i know how ya feel and that sucks….mac’s are normally good until the shit on you….lol…^ ^
mmm… don’t be to mad at hawk tho because deep down inside we all know he has serious mac fetish… lol
=^ ^= kool comic by the way….
i am going to have to side with Illitrate take the cheaper way out but have a back up of you music and stuff….
anyway send an email.
me. out
June 11th, 2006
hmmm….yea i know how ya feel and that sucks….mac’s are normally good until the shit on you….lol…^ ^
mmm… don’t be to mad at hawk tho because deep down inside we all know he has serious mac fetish… lol
=^ ^= kool comic by the way….
i am going to have to side with Illitrate take the cheaper way out but have a back up of you music and stuff….
anyway send an email.
me. out