Update for iPhoto '11 (and Java too)

There have been reports that iPhoto '11 has gobbled up a number of users' photo collections around the world. And so Apple has released a new update to address that issue:

I personally don't care. I'm not affected by the bug with my almost non-existent "iPhoto collection" - I only use the app when I wanna upload images to my facebook account. These are images that I don't need to retain the original high-def versions of. I'm not a photographer.

Yep, it's because being me, I'd like to be always up to date :D

Download the latest iPhoto '11 9.0.1 Update from Apple's site. Or just run "Software Update".

And while you're at it, be sure to install Java for Mac OS X Update 3 too.

Some Things Don't Make Sense

I forgot to mention that, in fact, I did order a keyboard protector for my Mini MacBook Pro a few months back.

Actually I forgot about the whole thing until yesterday when my dad told me I owed him Php 40. It turned out that he received a parcel from the local post office some time during the week. I paused a bit to chew on that bit of info he had just thrown at me - not because I thought he was trying to pull off an extortion trick on me but because I simply was not expecting any delivery.

But there it was, that familiar little yellow, bubble-wrap padded envelope, sitting on our computer desk at home. It was a silicone skin for the Mini 311 keyboard!

Yeah, I remember ordering that stuff for only Php 145 - free delivery too. But I don't remember exactly what my motivations were to get one.

I'm not gonna lie and justify my purchase; I bought it because it was cheap. I remember paying Php 300 for a silicone keyboard protecter fro my EeePC 701 from a local seller I met at the forums. And perhaps I was suffering from an attack of OCD that time I was surfing ebay and I thought bring the "clinical clean" to my netbook grooming habits? Maybe.

But one thing's for sure - it's not exactly ergonomic to install a keyboard protector on the HP Mini 311. Or maybe it's just this specific cheapo keyboard protector - I thought I was getting one of those ultra thin stuff but the keyboard skin I received wasn't one. Right now, I'm typing this post with the skin on.

I did notice that dust would begin accumulating on the top side which although satisifies my OCD requirements - get that, Dust, you can't get in  between my keyboard keys!!! harharhar - they feel weird under my fingertips, dust bits, that is.

For the meantime, I'm keeping the skin on - I do drink a lot of coffee when I'm working, this skin might just ensure against probable (not just possible, I am clumsy as that) spills.

Wow, I think I'm liking the feel of typing on this thing! Setting aside all the typo errors I'm now more probe to making, I'm getting the hang of this mushy feel :D

This does not make any sense at all...

Do you use a keyboard protector / skin on your Mini 311?

Glad I Got a Wireless N Card After All

Before I got my Atheros 9280 card a.k.a Atheros AR5BHB92, I was struggling between it and a cheaper (then) b/g broadcom card. I thought it was just caprice - my constant appetite for everything top of the line - wireless N was fastest and so I just gotta have it even though I didn't have the equivalent wireless N router at home.

But I got it still and from the time I clicked on "check out" and fed my PayPal account to an ebay seller based in Hong Kong up until now, I thought I'd never have real use of that N part of the "b/g/n" indication on card's label.

I thought wrong. Because I thought coffeeshops here in the Philippines cannot afford a wireless N router.

I thought wrong. Of course they can afford that. It's me who can't. Harharhar.

And so that was why those MacBook Air 11" unboxing videos on youtube were loading so fast!

Oh and here's an interesting observation:

Before HF7/HF7c or AGPM (in layman's term "power management for that Ion chip under OS X"), once the Mini 311's fan kicks in - and it's bound to kick in because I'm practically burdening its Atom N280 chip (non-overclocked) to play me the part of a main computer - there's no stopping it but to shut the 311 down, let it cool down a bit before starting it again.

But a while ago, I was just streaming youtube vids (yep, MBA 11" unboxing vids) and the fan was whirring away like mad. It was normal occurrence for me - not that my netbook's going bonkers but we all know the fan is anything but discreet. And so I let it whir away as my eyes remained glued on that battery icon, gauging that battery life. And then I got bored of youtube and just closed the window. Poof went the video and so did the fan! No, not a "poof" as in something combusts ending with a poofing sound complete with smoke like when you eliminate an icon from your Dock.

No. What I meant was that the fan suddenly became quiet. It wasn't whirring like a paranoid. It hushed down.

Could it be that since the GPU, i.e. the Ion chip no longer was being stressed out with streaming that 720p vid and the system got wind of it and thus calmed down the fan?? Or is that just wishful thinking?

MacBook Air Spoof - Part 2

Here's the next part of that features page:

MacBook Air Spoof - Part 1

Or because I haven't got better things to do.

Disclaimer: I still adore the HP Mini 311 as a Mini MacBook Pro, just merely stating the facts :D No offense to the "Mini MacBook 311" fanboys and fangirls out there. This is meant just for us to have some fun.

*Sorry, my dear MSI Wind U100.

I'll try to spoof the rest of the MacBook Air features page :D

On HF7 and Trackpads. Again

It seems that I'm not the only one who's missing sidescrolling - and I mean the readily available variant - on the HP Mini 311. Although getting the Alps Glidepoint recognized as a real trackpad is still the ultimate goal for HPM311DP (HP Mini 311 Darwin Project), we are still at the crude stages - yes, the Alps Glidepoint is or can be seen as a trackpad under Snow Leopard but that's about it and in fact, as it turns out through the various feedbacks both at My MacBook Mini and InsanelyMac HPM311DP threads, this so-called progress turns out to be more of a step backward as of the moment.

That is, we'd have to resort to coerce people to acquire some strange haduken technique to just use sidescrolling on their machines. In the several weeks I've played with the "new" ApplePS2Trackpad + Trackpad.prefPane, I'd say it's not even real sidescrolling we're getting with this farflung method. It's just locking the cursor to the scrollbar and even if you choose any part of the vertical spread that makes up your Mini 311's trackpad surface to slide your finger up and down will do the trick. Once locked, that vertical strip is no longer relevant. Or better yet, since the advent of the "new" ApplePS2Trackpad + Trackpad.prefPane, it ceased to be relevant.

So I think you will agree that, for now and until a better solution is found, we'd be better off letting the Alps trackpad of the Mini 311 to continue with its identity crisis.

Here's an installer based off on Retail Pack 1.0, the HPM311DP's current stable release:

HF7c

• It reverts to the old Alps Glidepoint as PS2Mouse which enables sidescrolling - real sidescrolling.
• Same GPU Power Management capabilities - supposedly can help improve battery life.
• Temperature monitoring - new FakeSMC.kext now installed in /S/L/E
• Audio - update from VoodooHDA 2.6.2 to VoodooHDA 2.7.1
• Matching newly revamped DSDT
• HF7c is basically the previous released HF7 BUT this time, we revert to the old
  "Alps as PS2 Mouse" paradigm.

A note on how to install HF7c:

• Please go to : /Users/<your username>/Library/PreferencePanes/ to delete any existing VoodooHDA.prefPane BEFORE running the HF7c installer or you'd have audio issues upon reboot - It's a sloppy measure, but for the life of me, I did all the scripting haduken that I'm capable of and I still have this little bug. Please excuse me.
• I have 3 GB RAM and I have problems with HF7(c) so I use PC EFI 10.6. - Installer available here. PC EFI should be run AFTER running HF7c installer.

Your comments/feedbacks are much appreciated. I'm thinking of taking HF7c as the official HF7 release.

Also, MowgliBook has put up a new Beta Retail Pack 1.1a and if you want to try it, I've made an installer for you:

HF7b

• New Chameleon RC5 with modules. - Although this installer does not include the Chameleon.prefPane (look for it inside Retail Pack 1.1a) because this installer is for EFI boot method and thus the prefPane is irrelevant. The Cham prefPane can access settings only when the Extra folder is in the "/" root directory - remember that in EFI boot method, the Extra folder is in, well, the hidden EFI partition, where the prefPane designed as it is, cannot reach it.
• Same features as introduced in HF7 and HF7c - DSDT.aml is different though as I've observed.

Note on installation of HF7b:

• Please go to : /Users/<your username>/Library/PreferencePanes/ to delete any existing VoodooHDA.prefPane BEFORE running the HF7b installer or you won't get audio working.

Issues I noticed with Chameleon RC5/HF7b:

• Once I've put the 311 to sleep, wake it up again, and then restart it, the machine just won't properly execute restart - it hangs. I've 3 GB RAM though, so maybe that's where the problem is...

Sleep/resume works well with RC5/HF7b even on 3 GB RAM.

HF7 for the HP Mini 311

As I've discussed before, there've been some progress with the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project. Since my hellish week has long been over and hopefully it'll never come back to haunt me again - I should check CRS online for my MA classes final grades and the DALF results won't be here till January 2011. So I'm back to living in bliss (bliss of ignorance).

And because I've got time, I've created an installer for you guys to try out:

HPM311DP_HF7 (link fixed)

Features (based on Retail Pack 1.0 by MowgliBook)

• DSDT - closer to MacBookPro5,1; added GPU states (for graphics power management below)
• Trackpad - Alps trackpad is no longer seen as a PS2 mouse; Disadvantage: side-scrolling is no longer readily available - see "poor man's sidescroll" in a previous post for a workaround to sidescroll.
• Audio - VoodooHDA 2.7.1
• SMC - new FakeSMC.kext with temperature monitoring feature.
• Graphics power management - LegacyAGPM kext included
• Other cosmetic changes

If you have 3GB RAM and are experiencing sleep issues (i.e. blank screen on wake) AFTER installing HF7, please run this PC EFI 10.6 installer:

PC EFI 10.6

So far, it's been stable on my HP Mini 311. It's up for you to try this beta release.

uTorrent says 90.1% for iLife '11.

Object Of My Affection: 11" MacBook Air

If anyone would look at my netbook history (or maybe just gadget history in general) to deduce from thence the kind of partner in life I'd make I'd probably be pronounced terrible; an adulteress of a wife even. Somehow, with the exception perhaps of the MSI Wind, no netbook has lasted me more than a year. Not that I adore the MSI Wind, but it's no longer the mobile computer that I take with my person wherever I go - you all know it's long been made to renounce its true nature as a netbook to assume nettop-hood.

Though the people in the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project team are as incredibly brilliant as they come, a netbook can only be hacked so much and yet it never is and never will be quite same as the real thing. In my opinion, no other 11" netbook has reached the heights that the HP/Compaq Mini 311 has in terms of OSx86 hackability (if ever such a word existed) but a lot still remains wanting.

Or more accurately, I am still wanting.

Lion King

It's Wednesday here in the beautiful archipelago of the Philippines - and in case you're wondering, no, I didn't get hired into the Department of Tourism, nah-uh, nope. Because, and this is entirely irrelevant to this blog, I'd rather not be an employee of the government of the Philippines and be underpaid and consequently risk being gulped up by the corrupt system that's always been there since before I was born.

At any rate, my being here in East Asia or Southeast Asia to be exact is relevant; for as it is, I wake up earlier than Steve Jobs and so my waiting agony for Wednesday to come and for Stevie J. to deliver his keynote is prolonged.

It's good that after a long, long, long time spent making love with everything iOS - iPad, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th gen - it's gonna be "Back To The Mac" at last!

from cultofmac.com

And is that Simba, the Lion King, I see peeking out inconspicuously from behind that swiveling Apple logo?

Needless to say, I'm excited for this Apple event. Although I'm still in the denial stage - I can't seem to enunciate "Mac OS Ten Lion" just yet, hard as I try to use self-inflicted coercion.

Oh man! Ceiling Cat was really good...it sounds friendlier and really feels like home - or even your bedroom (we used to have cats at home and they somehow found a way to hang out in that space between my bedroom's plywood ceiling and our roof.)

Just kidding! :)

Lynx could've sounded better though...

And of course the one thing that we all are wondering about: Will the king of the jungle make friends with our Mini 311's?

Rainbow After the Rain

Last week was just so busy: I took my DALF C1 and C2 exams last Thursday and Friday respectively. And yesterday, I had to print our class project for my MA class (Français 240 - Traduction des oeuvres littéraires) which was actually due last Friday, same day as my DALF C2 exam, but since we couldn't find last week a decent printing service that could churn out our Journal Littéraire into something remotely resembling a real newspaper, the printing could happen only yesterday. And in case you're wondering - the translation is from French to Filipino (or Tagalog which is my native tongue) of Guillaume Apollinaire's Bestiaire or Cortège d'Orphée.

I sure did miss the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project Team but although I was practically tormented while going through the Compréhension écrite et orale + Production écrite et orale of the DALF exams (I was nervous and my heart palpitating inside my ribcage the director at Alliance Française Manille, a French, took pity and even told me, with sincerity felt through his expression and timber of his voice, before starting the exam: "bon courage" to which I replied "Merci, monsieur; j'en ai tellement besoin), I'd say the time away from the hackintosh world was worth it. Come Friday night, I was greeted with a delightful surprise.

Yes, new progress!

Well, we all know that the 311's battery life just sucks, to say the least, under OS X. And now we know why - Ion is always running at full throttle thereby causing precious battery juice to evaporate without much legitimate warrant. However, that's just one reason projected which appears valid and there are possibly a ton more out there that we haven't discovered yet.

Enter: Legacy AGPM

Retail Pack 1.0d is no longer available for download. I'll have to defer the how-to after getting further updates from the great guys aboard the HPM311DP ship or until I can get to my own copy of 1.0d which is in my HP Mini 311 which is at home where I cannot reach it.

For the meantime, I encourage you check out the latest from the project thread at InsanelyMac.

DALF C1 & C2

LeMaurien19 va se présenter aux examens DALF le 14 et 15 octobre. Elle est en train de se préparer et est actuellement incapable de se consacrer aux activités d'hackintosh (tant pis - pour elle)

La production orale l'effraye surtout.

Il faut qu'elle trouve quelqu'un qui peut causer volontiers avec elle. Au secours!

Progress

I'm so happy to announce that the HP Mini 311's ALPS GlidePoint trackpad has finally come out of its disillusion; it no longer thinks itself a PS2 mouse but a truet trackpad.

Meklort's ApplePS2Trackpad.kext along with the correct Trackpad.prefPane did the job.
*The link to the ApplePS2Trackpad.kext contains another Trackpad.prefPane, but don't use that prefPane, use instead the one linked at correct Trackpad.prefPane.

Update to the new ApplePS2Trackpad and Trackpad.prefPane:
1. Use Alter EFI 1.4 > Edit Extra to mount the EFI partition
2. Paste ApplePS2Trackpad.kext in /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions.
3. Launch Mkext Tool. Highlight all kexts in /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions and drag them to the Mkext Tool Pack window.
4. Point Mkext Tool to create the mkext in /Volumes/EFI/Extra. Click on Create button. Replace the old mkext and then exit Mkext Tool.
5. Go back to Alter EFI 1.4 and click on Finish to unmount EFI.
6. Go to /Users/<your username>/Library/Caches and delete the ff. files:

• com.apple.preferencepanes.cache
• com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache

7. Copy the new Trackpad.prefPane to /System/Library/PreferencePanes. Authenticate to replace the existing prefPane.
8. Restart the machine.

*If you prefer to use a "super mkext" then:
1. Use Alter EFI 1.4 > Edit Kexts
2. Paste ApplePS2Trackpad into /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions
3. Back to Alter EFI 1.4, click on "Rebuild Mkext" button and wait for the mkext to be rebuilt. Rebuilding the mkext like this will take quite a long time
4. Click on "Finish" to unmount EFI.
5. Proceed with installing the new Trackpad.prefPane (step 6 - 8 above).

No more über sensitive trackpad to drive you nuts when typing texts.

However, despite this, the ALPS GlidePoint is far from being perfect; in fact, you'll find that sidescrolling is disabled BUT there's a workaround. A fellow forumer calls it the "poor man's sidescrolling", so in effect, there's still sidescrolling - it just has to be consciously enabled each and everytime you wish to use it.

How To Enable "Poor Man's Sidescrolling"
1. After restarting the Mini 311, go to System Preferences > Trackpad.
2. Enable Dragging > Drag and lock

How To Use Poor Man's Sidescrolling:
1. Point the cursor first to a scrollbar in the GUI (Finder window, Safari window, etc.)
2. Making sure that the cursor rests on the scrollbar, tap twice on the vertical strip marked on the trackpad. This will activate the strip.
3. Slide your finger up and down the marked vertical strip.

You'll see that sidescrolling is working.

*Sometimes tapping twice on the vertical strip takes some getting used to. Use the "Double Click" settings to control how fast you need the do two taps one after the other to produce a double click/tap.

Convoluted, all this you may say? Yes. But the main point here, at least for me, is that the trackpad is less freakishly sensitive to the point that it hampers productivity with jumping cursors while typing texts for example.