Vanvalkinburgh.org

Or about $70 after 2 day delivery. Bought it from mwave.com, thanks to uncle for telling me about it. Going to put it in my Icy Dock enclosure, pretty sure it supports 1 TB drives. Also bought a IDE and SATA to USB adapter from amazon.com. So I will be able to transfer data from current drive in enclosure to the new drive.

SAMSUNG 1TB HD103UI SATA 5400RPM 32MB (Bare drive) $60

Sabrent USB-DSC5 Serial ATA or IDE 2.5-/3.5-Inch to USB 2.0 Cable Converter Adapter with Power Supply $20

Update
Was cancelled because of a price error, got coupon, pretty sure coupon is tied to my account, so you can’t use it.

Thank you for placing an order with mwave.com. It is with our deepest apologies that we notify you of a pricing error that occurred on our web site over this past weekend. The price for the Samsung hard drive that is included in your recent order, was unfortunately advertised in error due to a vendor miscommunication.

Unfortunately all orders placed for this item, are regretfully being canceled, as our vendor is unable to fulfill the stock or price for this item. The item has been removed from our site, and any payments that have been processed by our automated payment services are being returned immediately. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. It truly was an honest mistake, and mwave is deeply concerned about the situation.

All customers who placed an order for this item, will receive a $20 OFF coupon for any future purchase with mwave, as a token of our appreciation of your understanding. The following coupon code will be activated for your account on file with us by the end of the day.

Tried ordering a different drive, applied coupon, drive said it had free shipping, google checkout had no free shipping option, so didn’t place order. Perhaps you can only get one discount, in that case, guess I won’t get a hard drive.

Update
Bought the drive using debit card and their checkout system. Bought the HITACHI 1TB 0A38016 SATA300 7200RPM 16MB hdt721010sla360(Bare drive) for $74.64 after coupon, and shipping is free.

The refund I got from system76.com still doesn’t show up, because it takes 3 to 5 business days, system76.com said 3 business days, and that I could contact bank to get it to show up, so I emailed bank, they said 3 to 5 business days. Think I have to call em to get it to show up, guess they can’t do that by email, to damn lazy, and don’t want to call anybody, so I’ll probably be waiting till next week for it to show up. I’m pretty sure they gave me a refund, the bank is just slow as hell.

Update 01/23/09
Guess I don’t have to wait the full 5 days, money shows up in bank now.

Apple just updated the $999 MacBook which now has nvidia graphics. All changes below, copied from macrumors.com.

- Processor moved to 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo with 1066 MHz frontside bus from 2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo with 866 MHz bus
- Standard RAM increased to 2 GB (two 1 GB sticks) from 1 GB (two 512 MB sticks)
- Graphics switched to NVIDIA 9400M with 256 MB of shared memory from Intel GMA X3100 with 144 MB of shared memory
- Bluetooth version updated to 2.1 from 2.0.
- 320 GB, 5400-rpm hard drive option added

Was looking at the configure page, they want $150 for 4 GB of ram, probably get it cheaper somewhere else. They also want $20 for Mini-DVI to DVI adapter.

Still rather have a new mini, if they ever update it.

Oh yeah still waiting for refund to show up in bank account. Got an email from system76 saying it can take 3 days for it to show up, bank limitation or something.

I emailed them saying, if they cannot ship it tomorrow, I want my money back. As then I will be buying a macbook next month, I don’t think it takes apple 8 business days to manufacture it and then ship it, hell I doubt apple needs to manufacture it, they probably have some sitting in box’s ready to ship.

Just emailed em again, changed mind, rather have money back ASAP. So that next month I can buy a MacBook, which will be better for many reasons. I have waited to long, for them to ship it, no point in waiting any longer. Either they give me my money back, or I’ll go a different route to get money back.

I rather not have to return it to em, rather just cancel the damn thing before they ship it. So I can get all money back, and buy something better.

Edit:
Actually changed mind again, once I get money back, I will be saving it, not buying anything for some time. Mac Mini still works, and does what I need. If apple releases a new mini, that doesn’t use atom processor, then I might buy one, but if it uses shitty atom processor I won’t.

Update 01/20/09
Got full refund, not sure how long it takes to show up in bank account though.

Looks like my uncle decided not to pay the bill, since he never updated it, and I stopped updating it for him. The theme it had might be released for free, I made it, so I can do whatever I want with it. Probably won’t use it on this site, most of the theme has been edited to get rid of ads, and so it works without certain plugins. I need to edit the comments file though, as the latest version of wordpress has paged comments. Don’t know when or if I’ll do that though. Screen shot below.

I got CrossOver Games a while ago for free, they were giving it away for free, can’t remember why. Finally messed around with it some more, serious sam the first encounter works, and so does half life 2. Half live 2 isn’t very playable in parallels on my mac mini, but it is more playable in CrossOver Games. I have it set to run in window at 800×600 and all settings on low. Could run better, will try it on linux laptop if I ever get it.

Serious Sam doesn’t look right using opengl, so you have to go in game settings, and change it to direct 3d, running that in a window at 1024×768. Can’t run it at max resolution in direct 3d mode, just get a blank screen. Can run at max resolution using opengl, but the game doesn’t look right. So I just run it in a window. Could probably run at a higher resolution then 1024×768 if I wanted too. Just not full screen, don’t want to use resolution less then monitors native resolution in full screen.

The simple answer is to run ssam_lnx.dynamic, which is in ssamtfe/Bin. Found that on a russian forum, used google translate…

Full instructions below.

First install 32 bit libraries and linux32.
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs linux32

Now go download serious sam the first encounter installer from here.

Now make the installer executable.
chmod 755 Desktop/serious.sam.tfe_1.05beta3-english-2.run

Insert disk and run the installer, you can double click it and select run, or enter below in terminal.
Desktop/serious.sam.tfe_1.05beta3-english-2.run

After you install it open the ssam_lnx.dynamic in ssamtfe/Bin, which can be found in your home folder.

For the heck of it I tried running serious sam in ubuntu in parallels, well I guess parallels doesn’t support opengl very good in linux, only in windows. Figured if it worked, then it would work better, but I guess I was wrong. I might be able to play serious sam the first encounter on aspire one, but to lazy to try. Still waiting for laptop from system76.com, hasn’t been 8 business days yet.

Screenshot below of serious sam in ubuntu using parallels…

As most mac users know who have tried the Spore Creature Creator demo, it doesn’t work with a mac mini or any mac with intel GMA 950 video, unless you are running windows. I guess they can support that video card in windows, but not in OS X, not sure why, I guess because they rely on some cider shit for the “port”. Parallels was recently updated to include support for Directx 9, and shaders model 2 support. It runs kind of slow, might run faster if I give the vm more ram.

Oh yeah and if vmware fusion supports Directx 9 and shaders model 2, I guess it might work, but last time I tried that, it said my video card wasn’t supported to enable 3D support. That is why I don’t like or use vmware fusion, parallels can support my crappy video card, but vmware fusion can’t.

Damn I hate tax, would of been cheaper if there was no tax. Got the laptop instead of desktop, cause the HDMI made it to tempting to resist, guess the video card isn’t as good as new macbook’s, but still decent, and not intel. Video is better then the $999 macbook, but the $999 macbook has a little faster processor. Has ubuntu on it too. Best deal I could find, don’t like dell’s crappy selection. Hmm now what to do with netbook… Maybe put it on ebay, low on cash now. Good thing I have no bills, otherwise I’d have to file for bankruptcy. Oh yeah I got the default configuration, didn’t change anything.

Now it’ll take longer for my money to get piled up, darn. Hmm I could always make it a hackintoush maybe, not sure how well OS X would work on it, or I should say, I don’t know what hardware would work in it, which is the reason I probably won’t do that. Linux has more free software anyways then OS X.

Pangolin Performance on system76.com

Update
It is in the “manufacturing process”, and they will ship it within 8 business days. Read on their forum, that it only took em two days to ship somebody else’s system out. Shouldn’t take to long, didn’t change anything.

“10:34AM Well that’s it folks — no Steve, no iPhone nano, no new Mini, no new iMac, no shockers, no surprises. We’re off to the floor… but hey, Tony Bennett is incredibly smooth. And that’s something, right?”

From engadget.com.

Apple should stop selling the mini, if they aren’t going to update it. It is being more and more outdated everyday, and the fuckers still haven’t updated it. Looks like I’ll have to go back to linux, either build own linux computer, or buy one. To bad apple, you won’t be getting my money from your computers anymore.

Didn’t need to wake up early today, this was the worst Apple keynote ever.

At least I’ll get more for my money building my own computer.

Somebody should email Steve Jobs and say “Thanks for the shitty keynote, you dying asshole.”. Wait, that makes me an asshole, for calling a dying fellow an asshole. Maybe make that dying rich asshole, instead. Nothing like being an asshole before you die. I’m doing pretty good on being an asshole before I do, considering I always am an asshole, and I could die any day.

Rumors are that next week at Macworld Expo 2009 Apple will announce a new mac mini, various rumors about the specs, such as NVIDIA chips, and dual displays supported, also possibly dual drives. Depending on the specs of the new mini, assuming they release a new one, I may or may not buy it. If the integrated video is NVIDIA, then I’ll probably buy it, and if the dual displays is true, it’ll be even more tempting to buy. Though if Apple doesn’t release a new mini or the specs suck, I’ll buy a linux desktop, or build one myself. I’ll probably wait until next month to buy anything though.

Oh yeah and the reason I’m not going to buy an iMac is because I already have keyboard, mouse, and a new monitor I got for xmas. The only other mac that you bring your own stuff is the Mac Pro, and I’m not spending that much on a computer.